February 1991
"I got orders," she says, handing them to him.
"You're going back to California," he says softly after reading them.
She nods her head, "You don't have orders yet?"
He shakes his head.
"So, three days then," she whispers.
"I've never seen anyone so sad to be leaving a war zone before," he says.
She doesn't say a word, she just falls into his arms, crying.
"Angel, listen to me. This war is over. They've been shipping people out quickly. Pretty soon, they're going to ship me out. And then, when we're stateside we're going to call each other, and fly out to see each other. And then, before too long, we're going to get married, and they're going to station us at the same base, and we're going to have two children and a dog, and a white picket fence, and what was it, a yellow kitchen, right?"
She pulls away, her forehead wrinkled. Suddenly, he worries that his speech was too fast for her. They've only been dating for three months. Granted, it was a fast three months. He's been sleeping in her tent almost every night since the first time. Apart from the last few days, when she had a flu.
"Not a dog," she says.
"No?" he asks, bemused.
"I'm a cat person."
"Huh, and I thought it was love," he says.
She smacks him playfully.
"Maybe we'll get both," he offers.
"Yes, and they can match," she says cheerfully.
"What do you mean by 'match'?" he asks.
"You know, they're the same color. Like a calico cat with an orange colored dog. Or a black lab, and a black cat."
"Yep, matching pets," he offers with a smile.
"You just make sure to keep safe," she says.
"Yes, ma'am," he says following her into her tent.
"I don't think that's a good idea. I'm still sick," she protests.
"We've got three days left, Angel. I don't really care what I catch, I am going to spend every second of that time with you that I can.
Three Days Later
"My name is…" Sam begins, but Jack cuts her off by clasping a hand over her mouth.
"Jack! It was cute at first, but we're in love with one another. We're serious, it's time that you grow up and let me tell you what my name is."
"I will. The first time we see each other state side, I want you to hold up a sign that proclaims your name to me. I just don't want you to tell me right now."
"How are you going to find me?" she protest.
"Phone number. Give me your phone number, and you can have mine. You know my name, in case something goes wrong and you need to look me up," he says.
She takes a paper off her desk, and rips it in half. She hands him a pen, and the two of them write the numbers on the paper before they exchange it.
Sam glances at her watch, "Two more hours."
"I don't like the idea of you flying, you're still sick," Jack protests.
"It's just the flu, Jack."
"You threw up just this morning, and it has been kind of a long flu," he says, doing some math in his head – six days she's been sick, "Are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm fine."
"But maybe you should go to the doctor just in case," he prompts.
"I'll go to one as soon as I'm stateside, but I'm sure it's nothing. I'm going to miss you, Jack," she says hugging him tight.
One Week Later
Sam can't believe what the doctor is telling her. "Pregnant, are you sure?"
"Quite sure, ma'am, you're at about five weeks right now. I'm going to have to alert your commanding officer, and put you on restricted duty," the doctor says.
"Of course, I just don't know how this happened. I was on the pill," Sam says.
The doctor looks at her chart. "You were on antibiotics about a month ago, correct?"
"Yeah, I got a little shrapnel from a distant explosion. No big deal, until it got infected."
"Antibiotics counteract the effect of fertility medicine," the doctor says.
Sam nods her head, and stands up from the table trying not to look too stunned.
When Sam was a little kid her mother used to comfort people whose husbands were deployed in a war zone. She remembers that the ones who used to take it the hardest were the ones that were pregnant.
She puts a hand on her stomach, and suddenly her terror ebbs. This is Jack's baby. She and Jack were in love. The last time she saw him, he was talking about getting married and having two children, and getting matching pets.
This isn't the way that they'd wanted this to happen, it is all occurring in the wrong order, but there is a certain degree of rightness to it as well, and everything is going to be ok as soon as soon as Jack calls. He is still overseas, so she can't call him just yet.
God, she wants to hear his voice. Why hasn't he called her yet? He has her number, and access to phones. Maybe he's on a mission. Or maybe he's hurt, and laying in the infirmary and no one can contact her. It's not like she's his next of kin. If he gets hurt, even killed, there is a chance that no-one would ever tell her.
She closes her eyes. She's worried, worried about nothing. And that's not good for the baby. She has to take care of her baby right now.
-0-0-0-
"Hey!" Jack says enthusiastically on the phone.
But it's not the voice he'd been longing to hear in the three days since he'd left her. It's a male voice, "Ah…hi."
"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong number. I don't suppose Lieutenant Carter is there?"
"She's not in right now, can I take a message?"
Jack's heart clenches. There is a man, a man in Angels' house. Maybe this is the ex, and he doesn't want her back with him. But who else would she find in three days? It was seven in the morning, her time. Who would be in her apartment at seven o'clock unless he slept there?
"Ah, no message," he stammers. He wants to steal her from this man, but he knows that he's not going to. She made this choice, and if she wants to be with someone besides him, that's… predictable, really. It was pretty much par for the course.
"Who are you?" the voice on the other end of the phone asks.
"No one, just some guy she served with," Jack says before he hangs up.
The Next Day
"Jack, what the hell, if you don't get up soon you are going to be AWOL," Charlie says as he approaches Jack's cot.
Jack doesn't respond. Charlie walks around and sees that Jack's eyes are wet with tears, and that he's curled up in the fetal position. "What happened man?"
"Carter," Jack moans.
"She just went stateside, call her if you miss her so bad," Charlie says laughing.
"No, she went stateside, and moved in with a guy," Jack says.
"No way, man! I saw the way that she fawned over you! You guys were inseparable, it's only been a couple days since then. No way she moved on that fast."
"I think it was her ex," Jack says.
"No, Jack, there is no way. You must have misunderstood something," Charlie said.
"I can't… live without her," Jack mutters.
"Jack?" Charlie says with concern.
"Find me a dangerous mission. A really dumbass, dangerous mission. Until then… I don't see any reason to get up."
"You wanna die, Jack?" Charlie asks, making eye contact with his friend. Jack doesn't respond. Charlie's stomach drops out from inside him.
-0-0-0-
"Sammy, are you ok in there?" Mark asks as he hears the sound of someone getting sick in the bathroom.
Sam leans against the wall of the bathroom for a second. She knows it's time she tells her brother. "I'll be out in a second, and then I'll explain."
Mark is sitting on the couch looking terrified when she walks into the living room. Sam sits down on the other end of the couch, and folds her legs up under her. "This is something they did to you in the Gulf, isn't it?"
"No, this is definitely not something you can blame the military for. I'm pregnant," she says.
"This is why you got sent back?" Mark asks.
"No, although they would have if I'd known. But I didn't know until I got stateside," she says.
"And Jack, does he know?"
"I haven't had a chance to talk to him since," she whispers.
"What do you mean? He knew you well enough to make a baby with you, but somehow he can't bother to call in you in the week you've been back?" Mark says angrily.
"Sometimes in a war zone you don't always get a chance to make a phone call," she defends someone that she isn't so sure deserves defending.
"You managed to call me every week," Mark points out.
"I know, but I wasn't black ops."
"You're dating another one in black ops?" Mark says.
She nods. "He's going to call."
"Why don't you call him? I'm sure that he would want to know that he is going to be a father as soon as possible."
"I have his number stateside. It isn't working right now, but that's probably just because he isn't stateside," Sam says.
"You know, Sammy, I'm here for you, whatever you need," Mark says softly, giving her a little smile.
"Thanks, but I am probably going to get stationed somewhere else. This baby has me on medical light duty. And with my current job, I don't really have a whole lot of things that I can do on light duty. I'm being reassigned, but I don't know where."
"They can't do that! You need your family right now!" Mark says.
"I'm going to be fine, and I'll still have family. A long distance brother is going to be a big help," she says with a sad smile.
"Are you going to tell Dad?" Mark asks.
"I suppose I am going to have to do that before too long. But… I'm probably going to put that off as long as I can."
"I can understand that," Mark says with sympathy.
-0-0-0-
Charlie holds the number that Jack gave him in his hand. He wants to kill her. That slimy girl that's got his best friend on suicide watch. He dials the number, and indeed a male voice answers the phone.
"Is Samantha Carter there?" Charlie asks, because he did actually learn the girl's name.
"Sorry, she's moved," the male voice says.
"What? Where?" Charlie asks.
"I'm sorry, who is this?"
"I'm just someone that she served with," Charlie says.
"Well, there seems to be a lot of that going around."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I just mean there have been several people calling Sammy, saying they were just people who served with her," Mark says his voice contains a trace of insinuation that he didn't mean to put there.
"Oh," Charlie says, because he can't think of anything else to say. So it had been a show. So there were others. They must have been before Jack, because they sure as heck didn't have time for another one while she was with him.
"Well, Sammy's been stationed elsewhere," Mark proclaims.
"Right, sorry to bother you," Charlie says. Jack was right. Sam wasn't who he thought they were.
Charlie has to make sure that Jack never finds out the truth. He might not survive the truth.
One Week Later
"Jack, how are you feeling?" Charlie asks tentatively as he enters the hospital room. He isn't quite sure what you're supposed to say to someone being treated for mental health issues, particularly one that you tattled on.
"What the hell, Charlie?" Jack says with his arms crossed.
"Jack, the way you were talking…" Charlie says softly, beginning to wonder if he wasn't wrong.
"Charlie, you've got to get me out of here… tell them you were wrong."
"Was I?" Charlie asks meeting his friend's eyes.
Jack looks away.
"Jack, there will be a life after Carter."
Jack focuses on him again, and Charlie can see that he doesn't believe it.