"Is there usually this much snow in March?" Sam asks in surprise. The amount of snow had increased at a rate that could only be described as startling for the last hundred miles or so.

"Minnesota weather is hard to predict, and March is the most fickle month that I've ever seen. It could be forty or it could be sixty. It could even be both of those in a single day."

"I think I might have under packed," Sam says with a laugh.

Jack's face goes grave at the words, and Sam shoots him a confused look.

"I just realize there is a bunch of Sara's clothes still up here. I don't know why she didn't ask me for them."

"She probably forgot about them just like you did."

"Maybe," Jack says. "There are some clothes for the kids here to, but I think they've probably outgrown them. We'll keep some of them for the baby. It's always nice to have a wide size variety of swimsuits and snowsuits at the cabin when there are kids concerned."

It's far from the first time that Sam has considered how much more he knows about children than her. She considers this face with gravity and guilt. She knows that she is going to be relying on his knowledge. She needs to have a back-up plan right now. Not only that, but their preparations for the baby have made it quite clear he wants to be very involved in taking care of the baby. Yet it's not his, and she feels bad making him half to deal with it.

"You okay?" he asks. More and more often as the baby's due date approaches he sees her lost in thought rubbing her stomach. This would of course be behavior for an expectant mother, but it's the face that she wears as she does it that has Jack concerned. It's pure worry without even the slightest trace of delight.

"Fine," she smiles.

"Sam, can you just share with me what's wrong?" he asks.

"I don't think I can do it."

"I told you that we don't have to do it all. Cassie is at Janet's now, and Janet would be more than happy to keep her there. We haven't asked your mom to come stay with us. You don't have to do it all."

"I'm not sure I can even do one simple thing."

Jack is confused by that comment, "You do thousands of things a day. Sam, you do understand that no one else in the galaxy could actually do your job as well as you do."

She fidgets under the praise which has the effect of adding another burden onto her already heavy load.

"Ah," he says understanding tardily, "When you say that you are not sure that you can do it all, what you mean to say is you are not sure that you can take care of your baby. That's what you are worried about isn't it? Sam you are going to be an amazing mother."

"You don't know that."

"I've seen you with my kids Sam, you're a natural."

"They arent't babies."

"Okay, but you didn't have a whole lot to do with kids their ages before you got to know them either, right? You'll get used to babies in the same way that you got used to my kids."

There is a long silence in the car. Jack's heart is beginning to break. He knows the words that he has to say next, but everything in him doesn't want to say him. He hopes with everything that is in him that he is wrong. He stamps down his own anger. Anger at himself, anger at her. He feels like this question should have been asked a long time ago. Now he's been loving this baby inside her for so long it will kill him to let go.

Still, Sam matters too. If the only way to prove it to her is by asking the question then he is going to do it.

Even if means she might say yes.

"Sam, I know that early in the pregnancy you debated having an abortion. Did you ever consider adoption?"

"No, at the time, I would have had to get Jonas to sign off on it. I was afraid of what he'd do to the baby if he knew it existed."

"That's not true anymore," Jack points out.

"I know," she observes.

"Look, I'm not saying this because I don't think you can handle it. I absolutely know that you can handle it. I'm definitely not saying this because I don't want the baby in my life. Giving up that kid now would just about kill me, Sam. I'm saying this because you seem really stressed and unhappy. You're taking on way too much, and you don't have to."

Then Sam really considers it for the first time, "It's my baby," she says firmly.

"Thank God!" Jack explains slamming his hand against his steering wheel in relieved joy.

"It's funny. Here I was worrying about whether or not I was going to do a good enough job, but as soon as you suggest someone else raising my baby all of my control freak impulses kick in."

"Oh yeah?" Jack asks.

"For sure. I was just thinking about all the parents I knew. You know friends, parents of my friends from when I was a kid, my own parents for goodness sake."

"None of them perfect?" Jack asked in mock disbelief.

"I'm not going to be either, but I guess this kid is just going to have to take me as I come."

"He is wise to do so, because you come pretty amazing," Jack says putting a hand over her stomach gently.

"You know, when I first found out that I was going to have a baby Teal'c told me a myth from his planet about how parents choose the parents that are going to make them into the best possible version of themselves. It's kind of a pretty myth."

"It is," Jack says.

"I guess I can trust this little mite, and attempt to be worthy of his esteem," she says.

"And I'll be there to help you, every step of the way," Jack assures her.

"I want to give Cassie a choice. I mean, not a fake choice like this little guy has," she says putting a hand over her stomach, "But a real, here are the facts choice. I want to tell her what our family is like, have her live with us for a little more time, introduce her to your kids. Then I want her to decide if she wants to take us as we are, or go and live with someone else."

"Okay," Jack says, "If you're sure. I don't want you to end up stressing yourself out too much."

"I think I just need to relax, and stop expecting myself to be the perfect parent with all of the answers."

"That would help," he sooths touching her knee.

Sam's attention is drawn to the snow falling outside of the car. The beauty makes the car lapse into a reverend silence. Sam's mind wonders to the fact that very soon, she and Jack are going to be all alone at his cabin, in the beautiful snow, enjoying what is perhaps their very last (and first) chance to have sex before the baby (and goodness only knows how long after).

"I'm really glad that you talked me into taking some time off for this," she says sighing against him.

"So am I," he agrees.