AU: When an exploration mission goes way off the left field, Jack and Sam are left to patch up their lives. Will that door stay open?

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters are the property of MGM/Amazon. No copyright infringement intended. I am once again taking my favourite two Gaters for a walk in an Alternate Universe. Takes place after 5.05 Red Sky with some canon episodes skipped (overlooked) and others referenced.

Rating: Mature. Contains sexual content. Skip between the OoOoOoOo if you are not interested in this part.

Chapter 43: Inevitability

Saturday late morning – Sam's house – Jack O'Neill

The bright morning sun streaming through the partially opened curtains brought me out of my slumber. The warm body I was wrapped around moved languidly, her honey blonde hair shining like gold filigree. Memories of last night came flooding back making me smile, my chest expanding with the amount of love I felt for this woman.

Love I had nearly abandoned.

Our fight had been short lived, and we had spent the rest of the evening making up for all the time we had lost. My mission completely forgotten. I wouldn't let anyone take her from me, but I didn't want to think about that, not now. Not ever. She was and always would be safe with me.

"Beautiful." Shadow Jack murmured, though I swear I felt my lips move when he said that.

"Yeah, she is." I responded, running my hand down her shoulder and over the curve of her hip taking the crisp white sheet with it. She was stunning.

"Want to give her a nice wake up?" He asked. My body clearly agreed with him because it responded almost immediately to the idea, mind you it didn't help when she giggled and pressed her arse into my groin.

"You know Jack, if you're going to talk to yourself, you probably should learn to do it silently." She said with a stretch and another giggle when my hand reached her still flat stomach. "It's a bit weird listening to both of you talk out of one mouth."

"Yeah, well, I've tried shutting him up, but he is worse than Daniel." I replied before a deep rolling laugh left my throat. "Oh, shut up!" I cursed at my alter-ego, this time silently.

"Samantha says she is tired, he had her enough last night." She replied as she rolled over to look at me, giving me a perfect view of her amazing breasts. They were fuller than normal. "I kinda agree." She added. I smiled and ran my hand around the imagined curve of her belly. I could not wait to see her grow. "Mmm, that feels nice. If you keep going, I might be persuaded."

"Is that right?" I replied with a grin, swirling my hand again causing her eyes to close and a sound of pleasure to pass her lips. I felt the other Jack perk up in my mind, but I pushed him back with a silent 'not this time buddy'. No. This time, he was along for the ride, pun totally intended. Dropping my lips to her collarbone, I trailed kisses along to her chest and down stopping to pay attention to her breasts - that I knew would be very sensitive - my hand still caressing circles on her stomach.

"Oh my God, Jack." She moaned. This was technically only our second time together, because all the other times, our counterparts had been in charge or had taken us over, having their brand of possessive, demanding sex. Not that either of us were complaining, but this time, we just wanted to be us. Like when we were in our tent before things went awry. Before I pushed her away with reasons that were nothing more than excuses for me not to have what I desperately wanted… needed to survive.

"Like that?" I asked, as I trailed my fingers lower to find her more than ready. 'C'mon man, get with the program!' Jack groused in my head, trying to push me to take her. Ignoring him, I continued to trail my lips down Sam's body, stopping to pay attention to every little scar on the way. There were enough of them for this to last all day.

"Yes, oh God, yes." She breathed then cried out a little when I reached my final destination. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Wait! Sensitive." She cried out, her thighs trying to close, clamping around my head. I stopped what I was doing and smiled at her. She smiled back, looking flushed. "Wow, do you have any idea how hot you are, Sir?" She commented with a raise of her eyebrow. The way she said my honorific had Jack pushing for me to get on with it. He tried to take over with a muttered 'she's asking for me', but I visualized my hand holding him back with a stern warning that this time, I was the Sir she wanted.

I smiled, feeling a little explosion of glee that this very special, amazing, smart, and unique woman thought I was hot. Crawling back up the length of her very fine body, I responded, "I'm nothing special, Sam. You however are just…" I breathed out, "What did I do to have someone like you fall for someone like me?"

She leaned up on her elbows. "Jack. You are amazing, as a commander, as a friend and as a lover." She ran her hand down my face and held my chin so I could not turn away from her. "I love you. I have for a long time. I know you think you aren't worthy because of the things you have done…" She started, but I looked away and tried to pull back from her. She would not let me go. "…Jack, look at me." I did as she asked, "We all have little pieces of our past that haunt us. Neither of us are perfect. I lost my mother, you lost Charlie. You survived Iraq, I survived Jonas and Turghan." My eyes widened at her words. She said that like she knew about the types of torture I endured in Iraq. All of them, including the one that I never spoke of, never admitted to experiencing, not to Sara, not to the psych's and - most of the time - not to myself. That meant that he'd... I swallowed. It hadn't been in her report. I didn't know, never knew that I'd been too late to stop him. Why did her change of clothes never alert me?

"Sam...?"

She shook her head and gave me a sad smile filled with understanding as her hand travelled from my chin up the side of my face. Her silent message telling me not to dwell on things that we could not change. She looked at me with love, a kind of love I thought I would never see again. "It's those little pieces when put together that made you the man that I love."

"I killed my son and cheated on my wife. I did things to those women that a man should never do, Sam." I gave words to the memories that Shadow Jack had buried. The things that haunted my sleep and created nightmares I couldn't remember once awake.

"You did not kill Charlie. Do you hear me? It was an accident. A terrible tragic, accident. As for those women, they were responsible for killing at least four convoys of American soldiers. Four. Do you remember how many soldiers were in those conveys, Sir?" She recited from my mission reports, the ones she learned about when the entity had her in its grasp. I nodded. I remembered.

The last convoy killed before I finished my operation consisted of seven vehicles carrying between 20 and 30 troops each. Captain Kishorn had provided key information such as deployment time, heading and destination to the enemy. Almost 180 soldiers had never made it to the other end. It was a total loss encounter. Almost 180 letters of condolence. Funerals with grieving families and folded flags. The haunting sounds of Taps playing all over the country. Over three and a half thousand guns fired in a final salute. For nothing. That was when I had turned rough with her, pushed her, taken her before she was ready. Hurt her. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to suppress the sounds of her screams as I pinned her down on the dirty floor of a darkened aircraft hangar. Shadow Jack picked up my distress and helped me lock it away. 'She deserved it, Jack. We did our duty. Followed our orders.' He consoled.

"Still doesn't excuse the lengths…"

"Jack. You were under orders to reveal their deception, to get them to trust you. You did what you had to do." She said as she ran her hand up the side of my face and into my hair. I closed my eyes to enjoy the feel of her fingers on my scalp. The touch of her lips on mine was sublime.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

She shifted slightly and arched her hips. I could feel myself pressing at her entrance. "Make love to me, Jack." She asked as she slipped her tongue past my lips, arching her hips again making me slip a little further in. I had no hope of stifling the groan.

Opening my eyes, I looked down on her as I moved forwards. Her eyes closed with a heavy sigh as I entered her before opening again to hold my gaze, her fingers curling into my hair. I was speechless. She was so beautiful, so remarkable and she was mine. We moved together slowly for as long as we could. Eventually, we needed more.

"Jack… I want… I want to watch you." She asked, her pink tongue lancing out to lick her lower lip, her hand moving from my hair to apply pressure to my shoulder before grabbing at a pillow. Following her direction, lifted myself up and leant on one forearm then helped her place the pillow behind her raised shoulders for extra support. Once she was comfortable, I leaned sideways as far as I could holding her hip and started moving again. "Oh God… yessss…" She huffed; her eyes glued to our joining bodies. I could not help but look.

"Je-sus… that's so hot." I muttered, watching my hips move faster as if they were on autopilot. It wasn't the first time I had watched the act, but the fact that it was her made it so much more, so much… God, I couldn't think. All I could do was watch my hard cock move in and out of her willing body while her warm breath washed over my face, her sighs and moans filling my ears. When the fingers of her right hand appeared to provide additional stimulation without impeding the view, I nearly went over the edge. The noises in my ear had changed to crying moans and huffed sighs to small desperate screams. Before I knew it, I was hammering into her hard and fast just so I could hear her pleasure increase. Her fingers were flying across her pink flesh frantically.

"Oh God! Oh God!" She cried, the first legible words I had heard since she asked to watch. The little ah-ah-ah sounds breathed into my ear going straight to my arousal, fuelling my fervour. "Don't stop!" She begged desperately on an exhale, her request making me drive in deeper. I wanted to give her everything – my life, my love, my whole being – I needed her more than I had ever needed anything. The sound of her going over the edge with a moaning scream signalled my brain to stop fighting my release, but it was Sam bringing my lips to hers while she shuddered that finished me, my release exploding outwards in all directions, creating sounds of pure ecstasy that ripped forth from my lungs for the first time since my teenage years.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"My God, Sam… I love you… Love you so much." I confessed into her mouth while my hips rocked hard into hers giving her everything I had before sagging my weight on her to regain my equilibrium. I wasn't sure, but I think I may have passed out momentarily. Yet another thing that hadn't happened since my teenage years. Blinking the stars out of my eyes, I looked at my lover to find a massive smile beaming across her face.

"I love you too, Jack." She replied as she peppered little kisses across my mouth and cheeks. "But, as much as I am loving you being here, my breasts are really sensitive. I need you to move."

"Oh, right. Sorry." I replied quickly as I levered myself off and flopped onto the bed beside her, my hand instantly going to her stomach. I didn't recall being this hands-on with Sara, but there was just something about the baby that Sam had growing inside her. As if I was drawn to it. Her. Sam said it was a girl.

"What are you thinking?" Sam asked, her eyes closed, face still a glow, breathing erratic but slowing down.

"How do you know our baby is a girl?" I asked, swishing my hand in a big circle before splaying it open like a starfish. My hand was getting warm from the constant touch, probably because Sam was warm.

"She told me." Sam replied, "I don't know how, but I feel her in my head." Just as she said the last part, I swore I saw her stomach glow faintly. I shook my head and blinked, nope it was definitely glowing and now so was my hand.

"Told you? Sam, how could she tell y- whoa!" I snatched my hand away when I felt something strange in my mind and looked at Sam to find her smiling.

"Did you just feel her, or see her as well?" Sam asked. I looked from her face to my hand and then her stomach. "Go on, put your hand back. Don't be scared."

Tentatively, I reached out and splayed my hand across her stomach again. I felt the warmth and saw the glow almost immediately. "Hi Daddy!" a voice in my mind said, a little girl's voice. Pulling my hand away quickly again, I looked at Sam. She tilted her head, then reached for my hand. Placing it back where I had it, she held it in place this time. The warmth and glow resumed. A light and fluffy giggle echoed through my mind. Slowly a face formed. Another giggle, then two brown eyes and a head of dark blonde curly hair followed by a huge smile. Sam's smile. "Hello!" The image said. Here I was lying on a bed, seeing an image of my daughter. My daughter who was barely conceived. I felt tears swimming in my eyes.

"Hi." I responded, then remembered she wasn't really here. Repeating the greeting in my mind, she smiled again. Wow. She was beautiful. I could see equal parts of us both in her and I wondered if this was what she would really look like when she was… I guessed the image was that of a four-year-old. Slowly she faded, and I looked at Sam to find her in tears. Tears of happiness.

"Hi Daddy." Sam repeated then smiled before leaning up and kissing me full on my mouth. I melted into her feeling everything from elation and happiness to shock and awe. When we parted, I swallowed and smiled.

"I'm gonna be a Daddy. Again. Sam, I'm… wow… thank you. Oh God, you don't know what this means to me. I love you." I rattled out, butterfly kissing the love of my life over and over while my heart thumped erratically to the beat of a highland tattoo. Scooting down the bed, I placed a kiss on Sam's stomach, then rested my cheek against my baby while her mother's fingers caressed my hair. "I love you little bean. I love you and your mum. You're a dream come true, my angel."

I didn't want this to end. I didn't want to tell Sam what Hammond expected would happen, what he expected me to do. There was no way I would stand back and let someone take my family. If they wanted her, they had to come through me and they'd better make sure I was dead because if they took my girls and left me even remotely alive, I would hunt them down and tear them limb from limb. She must have felt me tense my muscles.

"Jack. What's wrong?" She asked tentatively, her fingers stopping in my hair. Closing my eyes, I willed my thoughts to clear and my muscles to relax.

"Nothing." I replied.

"Jack." She admonished. Damn, I should have known I could not lie to her. She knew me almost better than I knew myself. A tug on my hair had me turning my face to look up at hers. Blue eyes asking the silent question. 'What is going on?'

"Hammond thinks they are going to try to take you. He says we need to know who is behind all this." I whispered, then kissed her belly. "I'm not supposed to stop them. I… dammit! I can't. I won't let them take you." I almost sobbed. I couldn't leave here and watch from a place of safety while unscrupulous people abducted the woman a loved. The mother of my little girl.

"Jack." She responded, sitting up and scooting backwards on the bed. Reaching her arms out, she urged me to join her, so I crawled up and sat next to her, my arms going around her waist, hands settling on our baby. "He's right. You know he is right." I shook my head. So many things could go wrong at this early stage of pregnancy. Sam had already been through enough. I could not bear the thought of someone doping her up with something so dangerous that it risked our daughter's life.

"Please, Sam. Don't ask me to do this."

"Colonel." She used her Major voice. I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't want to be Colonel O'Neill right now. I wanted to be Jack. Just Jack. "Sir, that nurse violated me. She doped me up, took my blood, she threatened our baby. Someone was pulling her strings. Don't you want to find out who?"

"Sure, I do. I just don't want to lose you in the process." I confided. "I meant what I said Sam. I would rather die than live without…" I faltered and entwined our fingers together to hold on, taking the time to collect my thoughts. "After the entity, after I killed you. I wasn't the same. There was an emptiness, a void that had once been filled with your smiles, your laughter, your insubordination." She giggled at my last words; God I loved that sound. "I stayed by your bed the whole time. Janet tried to get me to act on your living will, but I just couldn't. I didn't want to make it permanent. Turning that machine off would have…" Her hand on my face stopped that thought from being spoken out loud.

"I know. I felt the same during the X301 test. The thought that I would lose you to the cold darkness... even once we found you-" She stopped and took in a breath. I had read the report, multiple times, but hearing it somehow made it more real. "God, you were so cold, Jack. It was like Antarctica all over again, the only difference being that I knew I loved you." She confessed, eyes swimming with emotion.

"Shhh." I soothed her in between kisses. "You found me, Sam. You found me and brought me home. Just like always." She smiled, her eyes speaking the truth of our situation even if I didn't want to acknowledge it. Regardless, she pushed on with voicing her thoughts.

"Sir, Jack. We have intel on our side. We know that the samples were going to Seattle. There is a fair chance that that is where they are holed up. Daniel and Teal'c are already enroute to check the place out. Maybe they won't try anything." She explained. While that was true, my sixth sense was tingling. The show by Kinsey yesterday, the missing vials, Carter's medical information. It was all adding up to an equation that I did not like. A low rumble in her stomach pulled me out of my meandering thoughts in time to see a full display of her pearly whites in a huge grin. I smiled back and shook my head.

"C'mon, let's get some lunch." I said, rising to my feet and pulling her with me. Picking up a black shirt, I went to put it on, but discovered it was too small when it wouldn't stretch over my chest. Tugging it off again, I flung it at her. "That's yours." She giggled as she donned her underwear, then skirt and finally the shirt. Unfortunately, all I had were my BDU's. Our footwear was still in her kitchen.

As we walked out of her room through the living area and into the kitchen, she burst out laughing. "What?" I asked, a little startled.

"It just occurred to me that I am barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen." She laughed with tears in her eyes. "God, my dad would have a field day with that." I could not help but laugh back as we retrieved our shoes and put them on.

Grabbing two bananas, I chucked one at her. "Get that into ya! I'll make some toast and coffee." Smiling, she peeled and ate it with all the gusto of a hungry pregnant woman. Reaching into her opened fridge, I heard something. A distant yet familiar sound had us looking at each other. Was that? No. It couldn't be.

'Tel'tak' she mouthed while giving me a measured look, her finger pointing towards the ceiling. The only person we knew who had one was Jacob and it would not be him. He always came via the Gate. The next sound filled me with dread. I knew it only too well, lunging toward her moments before they crashed through her ceiling bathing the whole room in a bright white light.