As Jack promised he took care of Lucky. When Sam leaves for her day at the mountain Jack would leave the house with her and take the dog for his first walk of the day.

Jack loved to be a househusband, he knew he wasn't fit for off world travel anymore, but that doesn't mean he was in bad shape. In fact he was fitter than any other man his age. Despite the fact that he complained about his bad knees Sam was aware that his time with Kanan had helped with his knees and he only complained out of habit.

At least four times a week he ran the jogging track around the area with Lucky.

He loved to take care of the house, while cleaning and gardening he could relax. You wouldn't recognize the constantly fiddling General he had been at the SGC, because here he was home and finally had the life he dreamt about for a long long time.

Doesn't mean he doesn't get restless and fidgety anymore.

At the end of the day when his wife gets home they would walk the dog together. Mostly they would walk around the park nearby, holding hands and talk about their day.

Lately he noticed Sam got a little cranky from time to time. We'll, hello mood swings, a part of pregnancy he wasn't really fond of. He knew it was perfectly normal, but even back when Sara was pregnant he never knew how to react. Obviously it didn't matter because it was always the wrong reaction.

He could imagine your hormones messing with your body couldn't be easy, he doesn't blame Sam, he just wasn't prepared for her to go from perfectly happy to crying and then to shouting at him.

This evening wasn't any different, she came home in a bad mood. With just a quick kiss she greeted him before going to shower. She was frustrated because she hadn't been able to solve a problem with a technology she was working on. Nothing that can't wait until she found the solution, but before the pregnancy she would have stayed at the mountain until she had it all worked out. She wasn't really mad but didn't know what to do with her feelings other than to take it out on Jack.

When she came back down she knew they wouldn't have to go out anymore because Jack had already walked the dog. She was home way later than normal. He was ok with that, never once thought to get Carter out of her lab more early just because she was growing a baby.

"What?" came Sam's question, more rude than anticipated.

"I haven't said a word, Sam."

"And yet you were staring at me."

"Am I not allowed to look at my wife?"

"Not like this." she argued.

"Like what?" he asked, confused.

"With this accusatory look."

"I wasn't accusing anything!" he also got louder. "I was just wondering what had held you up today. If there was an incident at the SGC or if you were just tinkering with the experiments."

"So I'm not allowed to do my job anymore?"

"Of course you are, that's not what I was saying. Jeez, Sam!"

"Then what?"

"Nothing! I wasn't implying anything, I haven't said anything, I wasn't going to judge you because I know when you are working on something you can get carried away because you have such a passion for what you are doing and that's what I love about you."

"A few months back I would have stayed to solve the problem and now I'm ordered off the mountain to get enough rest when nothing else I wanted was to work until I would have found the solution."

"Who ordered you to go home? It surely wasn't me! But I'm not saying that I don't look forward to having you back in my arms at night. Safe at home."

"No, it wasn't you who gave the order. That was Reynolds. He's careful not to let me work more than the hours I'm allowed while pregnant unless earth is in immediate danger. And that IS your fault!"

"Now it's only my fault you're pregnant?" he shouted, not believing what he was hearing. Did his wife just say she would rather not be pregnant? "So you're saying you don't want this? That this baby is a mistake? I've got news for you, Sam. It's too late to decide that now!"

He turned around, grabbing for his keys in the bowl on the dresser at the entrance and reaching for his hoodie hanging at the wardrobe.

Lucky standing next to him, wagging his tail. Jack bent down to pet the dog.

"We've already done our rounds today, Lucky. You can stay home."

"Where are you going, Jack?" Sam's voice trembled.

"I need some air!" was his harsh answer. He did not turn back to her, he didn't want her to see his tears that were about to run over his cheeks. He knew he wasn't being rational, so wasn't Sam. He knew she hadn't meant to say it like that and that she meant she would have loved to work on whatever it was through the night, but she would never not want to have this baby just because of work. He knew.

But while she was run over with emotions because of her hormones doesn't mean he was immune of emotions himself.

With a loud bang the door fell into the frame.

"Jack!" Sam shouted at the closed door, suddenly not sure what had happened.

She hadn't meant to fight with Jack. It just happened. She wasn't even sure what it was about. Silly, stupid stuff.

As if she would choose work over her baby, never. It dawned on her what she accused him of. Never would she think of her baby as a mistake. Quite the opposite, it was a miracle. Their little miracle.

She just was frustrated that she had to step down a bit. She wasn't used to anything else than her work, it was not as if she had had much of a life before. It took some time getting used to it, but she also loved it.

She loved coming home to her husband, having dinner together, walking the dog, laughing, cuddling. All that stuff she never thought she would have. She sat down on the couch which she was standing in front of. She felt the tears welling up and streaming down her face. What had she done? She sure can't blame everything on her condition but prayed that Jack knew she loved him and their baby and that she never would want it any other way.

Lucky was at her side in an instant, his blue eyes fixed on hers.

"Hey buddy, mom was being stupid to dad. He'll come back soon. At least I hope so."

In one swift jump he took his place next to her, trying to comfort her. Sam's hands found his fur, stroking him behind the ears. He crawled closer so he could rest his head on her baby bump. He slid his head over her belly as if he wanted to pet it and make contact with the baby. At that precise moment, the baby kicked against the abdominal wall, as if wanting to establish contact with the dog outside.

Lucky delicately placed his paw where the kick had come from and gently nudged back. Once again, the baby responded with another kick. Sam couldn't hold back the tears. How much she wished she could have shared this moment with Jack and had to admit that their argument was senseless. She hoped he would come back soon so they could talk about everything.

Jack walked through the streets of the neighborhood, needing to clear his head. He knew this argument was unnecessary. They both didn't mean the things that had been said. But he needed the fresh air so that he could go home to his wife, throw his arms around her, forgive her and be forgiven. He walked for over an hour straight until he reached his home again. Carefully not to disturb Sam if she was asleep already he opened the door. It was strange that Lucky wasn't here to greet him. As silent as Jack was, the dog would always know when he was home and came racing to say hello.

Jack put away his shoes and jacket and made his way to the living room. He found Sam sound asleep on the couch with her feet propped up on the table. Lucky next to her with his head still on the belly.

Jack felt his wife must be exhausted, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sneak up on her. As air force officers they both had a light sleep. But he was black ops trained not to make a noise and she was busy growing a human, that would lead to a deep sleep once she closed her eyes. He sat down next to her feet on the table and watched Lucky snuggling with her.

Lost in thoughts he still recognized the little bulge on her stomach where a baby's foot lay and smiled. Seeing Lucky nudging the spot with his paw and the response from the inside made him gasp in awe.

Sam smiled at the sound of her husband, she was aware he was there watching her but didn't dare to move.

"They've been doing this since you left." She opened her eyes and looked at him. Smiling brightly she patted the vacant spot next to her and he took the invitation to sit down, resting his hand next to hers and Luckys over the baby's foot.

"I'm sorry Sam!" his voice was raw with emotions "And I shouldn't have left like I did."

"No Jack, nothing to be sorry about. I wasn't very nice myself when I got home. And I don't even know why. Yes, I would have loved to stay and tinker with the prop, but I was so looking forward to spending the evening with you. I'm sorry."

"If I can't apologize, you can't either. Let's just forget about it and enjoy the rest of the evening."

"Okay. And for the record I love you and our baby, Jack!"

"And I do love you!"

The kiss they shared to make it up to them quickly turned passionate. And boy did they make it up.

The next morning Jack was able to come to the SGC with Sam. He had a meeting with Reynolds later the day to discuss the new cadets. But their first way was down to the infirmary. They had an appointment with Caroline for Sam's next ultrasound.

"Morning Sam, hello General!"

"Retired, please call me Jack, Caroline."

"I'll try, Sir. So want to see if we can find out if it's a boy or a girl?"

"You can do this?" Of course Jack knew that it was possible, he didn't even know why he asked, but when Sara was pregnant with Charlie the ultrasound wasn't nearly as good as it is now. So they hadn't known the gender until he was born.

"You want to find out, right?" the Doctor asked, just to be sure not to spill a secret.

Jack shared a look with Sam.

"Jack, do you want to know? I mean, I'm dying to know, but when you want it to be a surprise we sure can wait till it's born."

"No! No, I think I want to know. I just wasn't prepared for it."

Sam, sensing Jack's turmoil, turned to the Doctor. "Caroline, could we please have a moment?"

"Sure you can. I have to check on my patients anyway, I can do it now and when I'm back we'll have a look at that baby of yours."

"Sorry Sam!" He said, knowing she had sent Caroline away because of him.

"Nothing to be sorry for. I just assumed we want to know if we're having a boy or a girl, because that's what you do these days, right? That doesn't mean we have to, if you're not ready that's ok..."

"It's not about being ready, I just hadn't considered it. With Charlie we didn't know beforehand, just because the ultrasound technology wasn't as good as it is nowadays. I just.."

"Jack, are you afraid it could be a boy?"

"A little?!"

"Do you want it to be a girl?"

"I don't know what I want it to be. I know having a boy will bring up memories, but so will a girl. I just want it to be healthy, that's all that matters to me."

"So we'll wait?"

"No, let's find out. I know you're curious and to be honest it will be nice to refer to the baby as him or her and not as 'it' anymore."

Caroline chose this moment to reappear with the ultrasound machine in tow. She looked at Jack as he spoke and a smile formed on her lips.

"We're ready to know."

"Then let's have a look and hope the little one is ready to show us. Sam, please clear your stomach. Just shove up your shirt a bit and lower your pants."

Jack took a seat next to Sam's head so that they both had a clear view. As soon as the screen sprung to life they heard the booming noise of their baby's heartbeat. Not able to say something, overwhelmed with emotions they stared at the screen and followed Caroline's explanations.

"Look here, that tiny nose. How cute is that." She told them. "That's the right hand, with all five fingers. Here's the left one, also 5 fingers. Two ears, ten toes... Here's the left leg." She pointed at the screen. "And last but not least that's her right leg."

She watched them both staring at the images on the ultrasound machine, not aware of the words spoken by the Doctor. She loved to see the moment on the face of her friends as it dawned them what she'd just said.

Jack was the first one to speak. "Her leg?"

Sam turned to look at him and then at Caroline to wait for her confirmation.

"Yes Daddy, that's your daughter!"

Sam's hand flew automatically to her mouth, as if that could stop her tears from floating.

Jack was in some kind of shock, it took a while for him to move, but when he found the strength to turn his eyes away from his girl to his wife he kissed her for a long time.

Caroline couldn't stop smiling either. "So I take that's good news?"

"As long as it's healthy it doesn't matter, but I will love to chase a mini Sam around the house." He looked lost in thoughts when he turned to Sam again. "I am allowed to teach her ice hockey and baseball, am I? I promise I'll drive her to ballet lessons too if she wants to be a ballerina."

"Yes you can teach her anything you want. I'm sure she likes to go fishing and camping as well." Sam giggled.

"Good!"

"Sam, you can get dressed again. I have to be at a meeting with the General in a few minutes, but I'll leave the screen on while you get dressed. Just shut it down when you leave the room, will ya? Here are some pictures of your girl to take with you. "

"Thanks Doc."

When she was dressed they sat next to each other on the bed. He nudged her with his shoulder.

"A girl, hm?"

"A girl!"

"That's great Sam! We're going to have a little girl." He has to say it out loud to be able to believe it, looking down at the photos.

"I love you, Jack."

"I love you too. Come on, let's go. Maybe we can share the news with the guys before I have my meeting with Reynolds."

"I'd love that. Let's go."