Sam and Pete stood together in the room just off the sanctuary, just minutes before the wedding ceremony was supposed to be taking place.
It was the first time they had seen each other since before Sam had left for her mission which had taken her on the unexpected detour to another reality. It had taken some quick maneuvering by her father to get her out of the mountain and to the church this quickly. Once there Pete’s mother had taken over getting her ready for ‘The Big Day’ despite Sam repeatedly saying that she wanted to speak with Pete. Pete’s mom had babbled on about tradition and bad luck, but Jacob Carter had put his foot down (thank goodness) and had gotten Pete in despite the objections of Mrs. Shanahan.
Sam had never been so thankful for being a Daddy’s girl before in her life.
“Are you ready?” Pete asked as he walked in the room, giving her what Sam knew was intended to be a dazzling smile, one that should have made her weak in the knees.
But it didn’t make her feel like that. It should have, but it didn’t.
She remembered the words of another Samantha Carter (really O’Neill), a woman who had also waited for her Jack.
“The best things in life aren’t easy. You have to work for them. Especially when it involves Jack O’Neill because he’ll always do what he thinks is best for you, no matter how much it hurts him.”
“No, I’m not,” Sam said, looking past her soon to be ex-fiancé to her father. He didn’t seem surprised at her words. He nodded his balding head, and quickly disappeared from the room, giving her privacy for what she was about to do. She slowly slipped his ring from her finger. “I can’t marry you Pete.”
Pete looked at her wide eyed, surprise evident in his face. “You can’t marry me or you won’t marry me?” he questioned, though his voice clearly indicated that he already suspected her answer.
“I can’t ever marry you Pete,” she admitted, holding out his ring in an effort to return it.
Pete accepted the ring, his hands holding it in front of him, allowing him time to study it before he said anything else. “I think I always knew Sam. I mean, I thought that when you took the ring we would eventually get married.” He chuckled. “You’d think after the first couple of cancelled weddings I would have figured out that there was something else holding you back besides your job. The job was jut the excuse you needed, we both needed,” he corrected, “To keep us from making a mistake.”
“I’m sorry Pete,” Sam said sincerely. Because she was sorry that she was hurting him by doing this, for having led him along for so long.
“I know you are. I guess I should be happy that you figured this out now rather then after we got married, huh?” He smiled grimly.
“Yeah.”
Pete leaned up and kissed her on the cheek. “You might want to disappear for a few days until all of my family gets out of town,” he suggested.
Sam grimaced. “I know where I’m going already. You’re more than welcome to the-”
“I don’t need them,” Pete cut her off. “They were a gift from your father. I’m sure you can hold on to them and trade them in for a different flight… maybe use them with O’Neill.”
“Pete-”
“I know. Just… be happy Samantha. He’ll take good care of you, of that I have no doubt.” He chuckled again. “You know, he was willing to let you marry another guy. That speaks volumes for how much he cares about you.”
Sam couldn’t stop herself from smiling slightly, if only to keep a few tears from her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Pete nodded. “It was nothing.”
Jacob Carter somehow managed to usher his daughter out of the church without running into any members of the Shanahan family.
“I’ll be in D.C. if anyone needs me Dad,” she said before she let her father help her into the waiting limo.
The limo that was supposed to take her and Pete to the reception and then the airport along the way to their honeymoon in Hawaii.
“Actually, I heard that Minnesota was nicer this time of year,” Jacob told his daughter, waiting to see what her reaction would be.
She looked at him in surprise.
“You’re old man is smarter than you give him credit for Sammie. Well that and I’ve got a 2,000 year old Tok’ra in my head,” Jacob admitted with a smile tugging at his lips. His head bowed, and Selmak took over.
“What Jacob does not tell you is that he spoke with Jack O’Neill not two hours ago. He called to convey his apologies to Jacob for being unable to attend your nuptials.”
“Can he ever forgive me?” Sam asked worried that she might have done something unforgivable.
“Love can make a man forgive many things,” Selmak counseled.
“But not every thing,” Sam reminded them.
“O’Neill will forgive you… or I will show him some of the torture techniques I have collected over my lifetime,” Selmak informed her.
Sam smiled slightly. “Thank you for everything,” she said as she hugged her father and Tok’ra ‘godmother’.
It was her father’s voice that responded. “I love you Samantha.”
It was dark when Sam started venturing into the back woods of Minnesota. She had never been more thankful for her military training as she was at that moment. It helped her recognize landmarks and find her way through the backwoods, gravel roads that made up the area closest to Jack’s cabin. She finally reached his driveway, and immediately turned off the engine, noticing that there were still lights on inside which meant Jack was still awake.
He met her at the front door, lights coming on as he looked to see who was there. Sam knew he didn’t get many visitors out here, let alone at night.
The shock on his face was evident.
“What are you doing here?” Jack asked, more like demanded, obviously surprised to see her here.
That was a good question. One that Sam really didn’t have the answer to. She knew why she was here, in an abstract kind of way. She loved him, not Pete. She wasn’t going to marry Pete. In fact if she couldn’t marry Jack, she was pretty confident she would never get married.
Sensing that she wasn’t in a frame of mind to talk right now, Jack gestured her in.
“Why weren’t you there?” She finally asked.
“I think you know the answer to that one,” Jack responded coldly.
“No, I don’t,” Sam insisted. “Because I thought you were okay with things. That you didn’t feel like that any more.”
“Oh I still felt like that Carter. Those feelings don’t just go away.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sam demanded. “Because you had more then enough opportunities-”
“Why did I have to be the one to make the first move?” Jack cut her off. “You have a mouth, don’t you?”
Sam gaped at him. In all the years she had known him, Jack had never spoken to her like that, well except for that time he had been undercover, but that hadn’t been Jack that had been black-ops Colonel O’Neill.
“Matter of fact, what makes you think I still having feelings for you? You’re getting married Colonel. I have no claims to you, other than as an ex-CO.”
She stood up, barely keeping her tears from spilling out. “I’m sorry for bothering for you, sir.” She spat out the last word, making it sound like an insult, which is exactly what she intended it to be. “I’ll get out of your life.” She started for the door.
She managed to make it all the way to her SUV before a hand closer around her arm.
The hand spun her around, and Jack’s lips descended on Sam’s lips before she even knew what was happening.
They separated with an audible pop, and just as quickly as Jack had been there beside her, he was gone, leaving Sam alone with a swirling storm of emotions. Her mind made up, she stalked back into Jack’s cabin, slamming the front door as she did so, making several on the windows rattle.
“What was that?” she demanded, coming to stand in front of him, strategically placing herself between Jack and the TV, so that he had to notice her.
“I thought it was only fair that you actually remember kissing me,” Jack stated plainly.
“When have I kissed you and not remembered it?”
“Time loop.”
Without even thinking about it, Sam reached out and slapped him.
Hard.
Instinctively, Jack’s hand went up to where Sam’s hand had to of left a mark. “I won’t apologize for kissing you.”
Sam huffed. “I would hope not. It was a great kiss.”
Jack looked at her with wide eyes. “You’re not mad that I kissed you?” he asked in a confused tone.
“Nope. Furious that you didn’t do it a year or two ago.”
“Oh.” Jack’s eyes lit up and his face took on a boyish grin that had been missing for so long, probably about the length of time Sam had been dating Pete. Tentatively, he stood up and took one step towards Sam until they were standing nose to nose. He used his fingers to brush her hair out of her face. Her hair was actually longer now. She had been letting it grow for the first scheduled wedding and hadn’t bothered to get it cut, so it was actually almost touching her shoulders now.
He leaned forward and kissed her, tentatively at first but the kiss grew deeper as Sam wrapped her arms around Jack’s neck, deepening the kiss.
Their lips separated, but Jack leaned his forehead against Sam’s, not wanting to lose contact with her- as long as that contact didn’t involve her hitting him!
“Okay?”
Sam’s head dropped to nuzzle against Jack’s neck. She took a deep breath. “I will be. My head is just spinning right now,” she admitted.
Jack’s chuckle reverberated across his chest. He quieted before he spoke again, spending the time tracing patterns on her back. “You aren’t going to hit me again, are you?”
Sam chuckled into Jack’s chest. “Only if you don’t kiss me again,” she said as she pulled back so she could look at Jack as she spoke.
Jack smiled, leaned forward to kiss her, and then stopped short, looking at her suspiciously. “Just kiss you?” He asked curiously, obviously running an eye over her whole body.
Sam punched him playfully. “You men are all the same,” she complained.
Jack’s face turned crimson. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he objected.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Uh-hu.”
“Really, I didn’t,” Jack protested. “Not that I wouldn’t mind that… you know, if you wanted to do that.” His blush returned.
Sam shook her head in silent laughter. “Shut up and kiss me you stupid man,” she ordered.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “And then?”
Sam gave him a heated look that more than matched the one Jack had given her moments ago. “And then we’ll see,” she promised.
Jack smirked and leaned in to kiss her.
Only lack of air pulled them apart.
“Was that good enough for you?” Jack asked, slightly breathless.
Sam blanked out her expression. “I’m pretty sure I’ll need more data to make a decision,” she finally said.
“How much more?”
Sam looked at him seriously, weighing her choice of words carefully. “A lifetime’s worth,” she finally said, holding her breath and waiting on pins and needles for Jack’s response.
The corners of his mouth turned upward. “I think I can do that.”
“You think?” Sam asked, eyebrows raised, and a slight smile tugging at her face.
Jack looked hurt by her accusation. “I do think once in a while,” he claimed.
Sam giggled.
“No giggling,” Jack reminded her, which only set off another set of giggles. Of course, Jack didn’t try and stop her as his fingers tickled her sides, setting off real laughter until Sam pleaded with him to stop.
When her laughter finally died down, Sam leaned in to Jack, just enjoying the physical contact she had with him. She couldn’t remember the last time he had held her like this and a tragic event hadn’t occurred. She guessed that today could possibly count as a tragic event since she had just canceled her wedding, but it didn’t seem to be that tragic to her.
“Let’s get you to bed,’’ Jack finally suggested, showing her the way to the guest bedroom she had used the last time she had been here. The room hadn’t changed a bit. He disappeared long enough for Sam to have some privacy in order to get ready for bed. Then he returned to tuck her in.
“I can’t remember the last time someone tucked me in,” Sam admitted honestly.
“The last time you were in the infirmary,” Jack suggested.
“That doesn’t count. Maybe when Janet was there...,” she trailed off.
Even now, over two years later, there were moments like this when Sam longed for nothing more then to have her best friend there again. Her recent venture to that alternate reality and getting to see, and talk with Janet again had only brought those feelings to a forefront.
Jack settled on the bed, sensing this could turn into a long, tear-shedding conversation- on both of their parts.
“How was it, seeing her again?” he asked, unsure if he really wanted to ask a question like that, but at the same time he knew that it was one of those things Sam needed to talk about.
Give Sam a shoot-em, kill-em, get shot up mission any time. He knew that Carter was used to those kinds of missions, now at least. Maybe not when they had first met, but she was now for sure.
It was the ones that had emotional ties that got her now.
Sam bit her lip, deep in thought. “It was… good,” she finally decided. “I kind of… got to say good-bye.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Silence took over.
“Martouf was there too,” Sam finally blurted out, like it was some great secret she had been keeping from Jack all along.
“I know. I read the report,” Jack said, a little bit gruffer then he intended.
Sam flinched at the harshness of his tone.
Jack reached out and touched her arm. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he apologized. “It’s just that Martouf always had this connection with you that I couldn’t have, or really even understand.”
“Martouf will always have a special place in my heart that belongs only to him,” Sam said as she reached out and grabbed Jack’s wrist to prevent him from moving. “But that’s the same part of me that belongs to Jolinar. Samantha Carter never saw Martouf as anything more then a friend. Jolinar was the one who loved him,” she insisted. “Samantha Carter has always known who she loved.”
“Who?” Jack asked, swallowing the lump in his throat, hoping that he knew the answer but at the same time knowing that he shouldn’t get his hopes up.
“It’s this older guy. Kind of powerful, but a good man. Childish at times,” Sam said, a smile tugging at her lips. “But it works for him.”
“Good looking?” Jack asked, totally serious.
“Ruggedly handsome,” Sam confirmed.
“Does he have a good sense of humor?”
“He could always make me laugh,” Sam admitted.
“Must be a funny guy.”
“He shouldn’t give up his day job,” Sam corrected with a slight smile.
“Oh?” Jack’s eyebrows rose as he questioned exactly what Sam was thinking.
“Not everyone finds him as funny as I do,” Sam explained.
“Ah.”
“It’s probably a good thing. He’s already so good looking that if he was funny too, he’d have more women falling at his feet then he already does. It would make it kind of hard for him to notice a girl like me.”
“Carter, any man that doesn’t notice you has to be blind, deaf, and spent his entire life living on another planet that doesn’t have a Stargate.”
Sam blushed at his compliment. “Then you noticed me… Jack?”
Jack O’Neill smiled at her tenative use of his name. “How could I not, I am a guy after all. And last time I checked, I wasn’t blind, deaf, or living on a planet that doesn’t have a Stargate.”
Sam giggled, unable to help herself.
They managed to settle into a comfortable banter from there, ending with a friendly kiss to the cheek as Jack officially ‘tucked her in’ for the night, shutting off the light and closing the door as he left the room.
The next morning began with the two of them on the dock, lines dangling in the water.
“I’ve been thinking about getting a dog,” Jack confessed suddenly, but in a tone that made it sound like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Oh?” Sam asked, wondering where this conversation could possibly be going, and why he was telling her this now. Briefly, her mind flashed to a similar conversation with her most recent ex-fiancé that had contributing feeling of doubt that she wasn’t making the right decision with marrying Pete.
“Yeah. Do you have any preference, or can I pick whatever dog I want?” Jack questioned.
Sam stared at him blankly.
“I was thinking about getting something that would play well with kids or even get along well with a cat,” Jack continued, oblivious to Sam’s obvious lack or response. “What do you think?” he asked, finally turning to look at Sam.
Sam opened and closed her mouth a few times before she was actually capable of producing words, and even then it didn’t make much sense. “What?”
Jack pulled off his sunglasses and looked straight into Sam’s eyes. “I want you to help me pick out a dog,” he simplified. It really wasn’t what he had said, but it was what he had meant.
“Why?” Sam questioned.
With a fishing pole in one hand, Jack’s gesturing was rather limited, but he still waved his arms about as he stated, “Because, I want you to.”
“But why?” Sam pressed.
“Because Carter, Sam,” he quickly corrected himself. “I fully intend to not screw up any shot I have of having a relationship with you by picking out the one dog you can’t stand.”
Jack’s logic was so… out there, yet so caring- in a Jackesq manner of course, that Sam wasn’t sure if she should dissolve into a blubbering mess or laugh, so she ended up laughing so hard she cried, or maybe it was she cried so hard that she laughed, but the end result was the same. Jack took the fishing pole of her hand and set it on the dock. He then maneuvered her into his arms, crushing Sam to his body.
Sam eventually quieted and calmed. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jack assured her.
“Nothing?” Sam questioned, thinking of all the things that she had done in the past that could have potentially hurt him.
“Absolutely nothing,” Jack reinforced his assurances, and meant it in every possible way. He loved Samantha Carter, and had been willing to let her go because of how much he loved her. Because he hadn’t fought to keep her, Jack could not allow himself to hold a grudge against her for trying to find happiness elsewhere. He had even had his own brief go at finding happiness with someone else, and that brief relationship had shown him that he was destined to be with Sam or no one at all except the yet to be determined dog. He wouldn’t settle for anyone less because he wouldn’t be happy with anyone else.
Sam continued to look at him with a shocked, slightly disbelieving look on her face. But most of all she was totally clueless. Before this instant, she could not remember the last time she hadn’t been sure exactly what he was thinking. “I just don’t understand Jack.”
Jack flung his arms up in the air again. “I’m doing baby steps here Sam and hoping that you won’t go running in the other direction because I’m moving too fast. You know a dog today, marriage and kids tomorrow kind of thing?”
“Oh.”
“Forget it.” Jack turned away, facing out towards the water trying to hide his hurt expression. He knew it was too soon. Not even a week ago she was going to marry that cop and now-
“NO!”
Jack spun around so fast at Sam’s yell that he never realized two things.
One, that Sam had taken two steps forward and kind of towards the side of the dock, putting her right on the edge of it.
And two, she was really, really close to him now.
Close enough that his motion sent her teetering on the edge of the dock, arms waving like in some animated cartoon show (not the Simpsons though, things like that were below the quality of his favorite show). Jack reached out to steady her, but not quick enough as Sam went crashing into the pond with no fish.
She came up sputtering pretty quickly. The water really wasn’t that deep; there was barely enough to wade in, or in Sam’s case, just deep enough to ensure that she was pretty much soaked, but she was never in any danger of drowning. She was actually sitting on the bottom of the pond, looking up at Jack.
“Uh, sorry?’ Jack tried.
“I’m fine,” Sam stated.
“Are you okay?” Jack asked, trying to sound concerned, despite knowing that he had already stuck his foot in his mouth by apologizing before asking if she was okay. He couldn’t help that he thought she looked kind of cute sitting there in his pond, soaking wet.
“I’m fine,” Sam spat out while running a hand through her now wet, long, blonde hair. She hated actually getting in dirty water. Pools and beaches were fine as long as you could see the bottom, but ponds were just dirty and disgusting and you never knew what was in them. Well at least Sam knew there weren’t going to be any fish around trying to bite her in this particular pond, since there weren’t any fish in it!
“Let me help you,” Jack offered, sticking out his hand to help her out of the pond.
He should have known better. After all, he couldn’t count the number of times his grandfather and cousins had pulled the exact same thing on him, but this was beautiful, blonde Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Samantha Carter.
Revenge was supposed to be below her.
Sam grabbed his outstretched hand and gave it one hard yank. Jack went tumbling into the water, getting wetter than Sam if that was possible. He came up looking at her in shock.
Sam calmly hoisted herself out of the water and onto the dock. “I get the first shower. Then you can take me out to dinner, as in going on a proper date,” she decided. “And then we’ll discuss the dog.”
Jack kind of looked at her with his head cocked to the side, just like if he was a dog, and then he smiled. His grin quickly faded when he remembered that there really was only enough hot water in the tank here for two short showers or one rather lengthy one. And Samantha Carter always took long showers when she got the chance. Still, dinner and a dog with Sam didn’t sound all that bad. Even if he was going to have to wear three sweaters to recover from the freezing cold shower.
Sam’s agreement to getting a dog was actually rather surprisingly easy to obtain, once Jack promised that he wouldn’t name the dog after anyone or anything that they knew. She didn’t even have a real preference for what kind of dog, just that it had to weigh less than her when it was full grown.
So two days later he made a trip to the local animal shelter and came home with man’s best friend, a playful little mutt with the real original name of Spot, because of the single white patch located on his nose compared to his otherwise black body. He also brought home a woman’s best friend- a small lump of gray fur that Jack had already dubbed Thor.
After all, his promise had only been about not naming the dog after anyone that they knew. Thereby, he was still playing within the rules.
“The lady at the shelter told me they were a package deal,” Jack explained, trying to sound nonchalant because what guy wants to admit to his wannabe girlfriend that he got her a cat to go with his dog?
Sam game him a look that clearly said she didn’t believe his story but the grin on her face when she played with the kitten was totally worth it.
Fishing was discarded for hiking and general play time with the new animals, though Jack thought it was much more fun to play with Spot than Thor, who wasn’t really able to do much more than claw and crawl all over people, when he wasn’t sleeping in their laps that is.
They were both happy and relaxed, and enjoying the opportunity that they had to strategically plan ways to kiss the other person by surprise. All in all, the vacation was going really well.
Until the day Jacob showed up and caught Jack kissing Sam.
“What are you doing with my daughter?” Jacob demanded, counting on Selmak’s help in keeping a straight face. He had been the one that had sent Sam up here after all, so he couldn’t get too mad at her for kissing the man Jacob really hoped she actually ended up marrying one day.
But it was fun to tease Jack in the meantime.
Jack had never moved so fast in his entire life. One second he had been locking lips with Sam and the next there was enough space between them that you could have driven a train through.
“Nothing,” Jack quickly replied.
Sam kind of smiled at Jack’s reaction and instant denial before turning to look at her dad. “What are you doing here dad?” she asked.
“Can’t a man visit his daughter without getting the third degree?” Jacob questioned, really turning on the charm now that he had his daughter to answer to.
Sam gave him ‘the look’ which clearly meant that he had better come up with something better than that. Fortunately Jacob was saved from answering by the required introductions of Spot and Thor.
“Jack got me a cat,” Sam blurted out as Spot tried jumping up on Jacob to garner attention.
“A cat?” Jacob asked, looking briefly at Jack while he offered some attention to Spot. Personally, he had been hoping for something along the lines of a ring, but Sam seemed pretty happy to be getting a cat, so there wasn’t too much Jacob could pick on. Still it was a cat though, not exactly a manly item to admit ownership of.
“A kitten really. He came with the dog,” Jack explained.
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to admit that you were trying to be sweet,” Sam pestered him.
“Well… maybe,” Jack admitted, blushing slightly at having been found out in front of his future father-in-law.
Jacob chuckled. “I left some groceries in the car. Why don’t you take care of those Jack while I have a conversation with my daughter?” Jacob suggested.
Jack didn’t have to be told twice, any opportunity that he could take advantage of to avoid the forthcoming ‘you hurt my daughter and I’ll kill you’ speech, was one that he was going to take.
“You shouldn’t be so hard on him Dad,” Sam told her father. “After everything I put him through, he’s been so nice to me.”
“What exactly did you put him through?” Jacob asked.
“I broke his heart,” Sam confessed in a whisper like it was the biggest secret she had ever kept, which considering what she does for a living is kind of funny. The fact that there were aliens out there, and that she visits them on an almost weekly basis is less of a secret to her than the realization that Jack cares about her, possibly, more like… probably… even loves her.
Jacob watched as his daughter worked through something in her head. Ever since he realized she was smarter than him, probably even since he realized that she was going to be smarter than him, it had amazed him how her mind worked, how she could just look at something and break it apart into little pieces and then put it all back together. Which was exactly what she was doing now, breaking apart the relationship between her and Jack O’Neill and putting it back together in her head, figuring out how she ended up here, and where their relationship was going to go in the future.
“I… I loved him though. I loved him and I was going to marry someone else,” Sam spoke aloud in sudden realization as to what she had done to Jack, Pete, and even herself. She had known this before today, but knowing and admitting it were two different things.
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you say something!” Sam demanded, turning the anger and self-recrimination that should have been directed at herself towards her father.
“I was going to,” Jacob calmly responded. “Before I walked you down the aisle to marry that man, I was going to make damn sure that you loved him more than you loved Jack, even if you didn’t realize it at the time. You figured it out first though.”
“Yeah,” Sam responds, not quite sure what else she should or could say to that. They sit in silence for a while, enjoying the opportunity to look out across a small body of water on their home planet, where nothing is trying to shoot them, and nothing is going to suddenly escape the water and try to eat them. “Do you think you could skip the usual ‘hurt my daughter and I’ll kill you talk’ this time?”
Jacob looked at his daughter like she had just disabled his new, shiny ship. “But I’ve gotten so good at it,” he protested. “And Selmak really enjoys it. Fourth time’s the charm, the Tok’ra say.”
“Four times?” Sam questioned.
Jacob’s face quickly showed that he had just let slip something that he hadn’t meant to.
“Just own up Dad, or I’ll ask Selmak and she’ll tell me,” Sam ordered her father.
Jacob grinned internally. “Make someone a Colonel and they get awful bossy, huh Jack?” he asked, speaking to the younger man who was approaching them once more.
Jack shrugged. “I personally think it’s a female thing. They’re born bossy.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed as her father and her future… Jack shared a laugh. “Dad,” she repeated, not permitting her father to forget why he was in deep water in the first place.
“Jonas, Pete, Jack, and Martouf,” Jacob finally listed.
Jack looked back and forth between the two Carters, trying to figure out how his name had gotten thrown in with the other three. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I didn’t do it on purpose,” Jack finally blurted out, which only caused Jacob to laugh.
“Why don’t you go get dinner started Sam, and I’ll have that little talk with Jack,” Jacob suggested, gesturing for Jack to take a seat, which he did with only a little trepidation.
“Sam can’t cook,” Jack protested at Sam bounced to her feet, happy to go off and start dinner.
Sam gave her father a grin and a wink.
“Oh she can cook quite well Jack, she just doesn’t like to cook,” Jacob explained.
“You would feel the same way if you had cooked all the time from when you were fourteen until you went to the Academy,” Sam shot back to her father, who only nodded in acceptance.
Jack looked to be still in shock when he walked through the door to the smell of something wonderful. Sam was standing in his kitchen, stirring something on the stove like she had been there all along and doing this all of her life.
Sam had somehow found an apron, something that Jack hadn’t even realized that he had, and was not only cooking something on the stove, but also appeared to have made a salad and baked some bread in the time it had taken Jacob to have ‘The Talk’ with him.
“Told ya she was good,” Jacob said quite proudly as he swept past Jack to the plates, silverware, and cups that Sam had already gotten out for setting the table.
Jack tried to sneak a peek at what it was that Sam was cooking, but she just swatted at his hand with a spatula.
“Stay out,” she ordered, and then her face turned bright red as she realized just who she had spoken to and how it had to of sounded.
Jack’s raised eyebrows and blush was broken by a low chuckle from Jacob.
“She’s got your number Jack,” Jacob said as to pairs of eyes turned and flashed at him simultaneously.
They actually manage to eat in a rather jovial fashion considering how awkward it could possibly be. There was a father and a daughter, a girl and her almost, kind of sorta boyfriend, and an overprotective father and a man that had captured his daughter’s heart. But the common bond that the two men shared, the fact that they both loved the same woman, albeit it a slightly different way, was probably the one of the main things that allowed them to get along so well together.
Or it could have been as Sam and Selmak silently believed, that the two men were more alike than either of them wanted to admit. A life spent in the Air Force, both rising to the rank of Major General, and both have a past that has more dark elements to it than either of them want to ever admit.
It was a weird kind of fun for Sam to sit and watch her dad and… Jack, it was still hard to think that she could call him by his first name after so many years of making herself call him ‘Sir’ or ‘Colonel’ then ‘General’. As strange as it was, it was also a relief, like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, or maybe that weight had left about the same time as Pete had. It didn’t really matter to Sam, things were looking up for the first time in a long time.
“And after that we’ll get married and have a dozen kids,” Jack said, trying really hard to keep a straight face as he looked at Sam who had drifted off into never land sometime during the meal.
Jacob leaned back in his chair and listened to the voice in his head try and convince him to take her bet on Sam’s response.
Sam blinked a couple of times; not having really heard anything but the last sentence, but it was enough for her to know how to respond.
“One,” she corrected, meeting Jack’s gaze, “Maybe two kids. But I don’t see anything wrong with the idea of marriage, once we figure out where we’ll be living,” she cautioned to Jack’s now gaping mouth.
The voice in Jacob’s head was now laughing hysterically, and Jacob regretted ever taking her up on the ‘If I’m right, you have to attend the next Tok’ra Council meeting’ bet that she had somehow talked him into in the five seconds between Jack’s monologue and Sam’s response. At least he won the bet with George though, provided that Jack had a ring around here somewhere, which Jacob guessed could always be resolved by a trip to a jewelry store before the couple returned to Colorado Springs.
Jack’s quick recovery had to be credited to his years of training, years spent at the SGC, and the months, or maybe years, since then that he’d spent leading Homeworld Security where he constantly thought something like “No one could possibly do something that will surprise me now” and yet someone did, whether it was aliens with flashing eyes, aliens who literally suck the life out of you, aliens that gain their power from having people worship them, or his newest opponent, self-centered politicians who can’t think, let alone see the value of keeping the SGC up and running.
“Two is a nice compromise,” Jack agreed. “How does Friday work for our wedding? Will you still be around Dad? We can live in my house in Colorado Springs afterwards,” he suggested.
Jacob hurriedly nodded that he would be and, hopefully, what Sam would take to be his agreement to this whole arrangement. Jack hadn’t spoken to him about any of this when they had talked, not even an hour before. No, all Jack had droned on about then was how much he loved Sam, how he had always loved her, and how he had no intent of ever hurting her etc. etc. Jacob had, of course, responded with the required ‘Hurt my daughter and I’ll hurt you’ spiel, of course it had been much longer than that, and much more descriptive, but not nearly as long or descriptive it could have been if he had used all the ideas that Selmak had given him.
Sam looks at her dad in shock. She had merely said yes because she was sure her father would be flying off the handle telling her not to do this. It was one of those things that she had enjoyed doing the most growing up, finding things that her father might just believe she might do, even though she knew she never would, and put a bug in his ear that she was thinking about it. The reaction on her father’s part was usually all the attention she got for a month, and sometimes she did it just to get her father’s attention.
God, she hoped that her daughter wasn’t anything like her, though looking at Jack; she had a feeling that he had probably done some things that had driven his parents crazy too. Raising one or two Carter-O’Neills would not be an easy task at all, just because of the makeup of their genes. For the first time in a long time, Sam permitted herself to picture Grace, the little girl who she had hallucinated on the Prometheus. That little girl was always one that Sam had associated with her and Jack, never Pete. Pete had always talked about having boys, sons, never daughters. Sam had a feeling that Jack would love to have either, but would probably prefer a daughter first, a child that wouldn’t remind him as much of Charlie.
Somehow she knew this was all moving way too fast, and that at some point all of this would come back to haunt her.
Two months later Colonel Samantha Carter (O’Neill) left her home galaxy to become the next commander in the Pegasus Galaxy. She kissed her husband goodbye in the privacy of their house in Colorado Springs and wore his ring on her dog tags. She hugged her father and former teammates at the base of the gate and then stepped into the wormhole that took her to her new command. She understood why Jack couldn’t be there to see her off; it would be too hard to keep to their agreement about being professional at work, personal at home. Jack had promised to come see her the next time he got leave or the President needed someone to make a report on the condition of Atlantis, and Sam was actually looking forward to it. Their time together on Earth was far too short and too little. They might have been married, but technically their relationship as Sam and Jack was still in its infancy. There was still so much that they didn’t know about each other, that they were still discovering, that it was almost like they were dating rather than in the first few months of their marriage.
Which was why when a routine physical revealed that she was pregnant, the day before Jack was scheduled to arrive with an IOA contingent and SG-1, Sam wondered if it was too late to… do something else, be somewhere else. Truthfully she didn’t know what ‘else’ was, but she knew right now she didn’t want to be pregnant, and she wasn’t even sure she really felt married.
Everything was starting to feel like one big mistake.
It was a sleepless night for Sam, one where she contemplated all the possible reactions her news could bring, from Jack to the IOA to her teammates and friends even to the people she commanded now. The worst part was that she knew she would lose her first solo command the second her ‘condition’ became public, even within the normal chain of command for the Air Force. Had she been stationed on Earth, working in a lab, or in charge of Area 51, for instance, she wouldn’t be losing her command, instead she would faced with a few more restrictions on what she could work with, but she would still have the title, and that was all that really mattered when someone decided if a person got a promotion, isn’t it?
All of this blew around in her head like a hurricane the whole night, leaving her with more questions than answers. Yet, when the morning came, she managed to put on her Atlantis uniform and assemble with most of the military contingent and await the arrival of whatever ship has made the cross-galactic trip this week.
It made her proud to see so many of her people gathered in the Atlantis gateroom. The sun was shinning, and on any other day Sam would have been elated to see the amount of excitement in her people as she did today. Normally it took the possibility of a new ZPM to get the scientists out of their labs, but today most had emerged without any word from her. She briefly remembered her own experience with arriving on Atlantis by ship and she could kind of remember feeling like a zoo animal with all the people watching her. For the may people on Atlantis, this was the one time each month where they saw someone new, as despite popular belief, stepping through the gate as part of an SG team, in either galaxy, was the exception, not the norm. And very few of the natives in the Pegasus galaxy were ever brought back to Atlantis nowadays with the new security protocols, hence the desire by the scientists to see someone new for the first time in almost a month.
The blinding light of the transport room filled the room briefly, give Sam her cue to say the requisite “Welcome to Atlantis,” before she even saw who was standing in front of her.
There were, of course, the various IOA representatives, all in their pressed suits and shiny shoes, not looking like they had just spent three weeks travelling between galaxies. There was also SG-1, Cam, Teal, Daniel, and Vala all smiling back at her quite happily.
The surprise came in who else were there, Bra’tac and Jonas Quinn, and who wasn’t- Jack.
Sam quickly delegated the people, namely the IOA representatives, that she didn’t want to spend time with off to Sheppard, who in turn delegated getting them settled off to Lorne, who would probably find some unsuspecting Airman or Marine to actually send… or rather escort them to their rooms.
With the majority of the new zoo animals gone for the moment, the onlookers quickly departed to return to their own tasks, leaving Sam with the opportunity to personally greet each of her remaining guests.
There were bone crushing hugs all around and lots of smiles, especially from Jonas Quinn who seemed to have not changed a bit in his absence from SG-1, grinning at the new place. “First time in the Pegasus galaxy?” Sam couldn’t stop herself from asking in a very Jack like manner.
“Yep,” Jonas said quite proudly, not showing a bit of the nervousness and apprehension that would occasionally pop up while he had served on SG-1 and was in unfamiliar territory.
It was Teal’c who finally filled in the gap for her on her MIA husband. “O’Neill is currently in command of the Odyssey. Colonel Caldwell was suffering from a lack of dihydrogen monoxide.”
“He got dehydrated?” Sam quickly managed to figure out, looking at Cam for confirmation, not quite believing the words of her alien friend. Military officers knew better than to forget to drink liquids, especially in places like the Odyssey where there was almost an unlimited supply of pretty much anything that the crew could dream up and get approved to make using the newly installed Asgard technology.
“Having the flu might have had something to do with it,” Daniel explained. “But yes, Colonel Caldwell is currently a resident of the infirmary with an IV in his arm because he got dehydrated.”
“I heard he blew chunks on the bridge!” Cam exclaimed, almost excited at the mere thought.
“Chunks of what?” Vala asked, not understanding the Earth phrase.
Jonas, in his over eager action that would never grow old, came up with an explanation that made it so they could all actually eat lunch later without looking at that day’s Meatloaf Special in disgust.
Sam personally walked SG-1, Jonas, and Bra’tac to their quarters, which happened to be as close to her own quarters as Lorne could get them. Sam made a note to herself that she needed to thank the man for his consideration.
Maybe by giving him a mission that didn’t involve McKay for a change.
She left her friends at their doors and went to the dock where the Odyssey had landed and was now offloading supplies, mostly because it was expected of her, but also because she wanted to see her husband. She wasn’t surprised to see Colonel Sheppard of Major Lorne there, also conducting the requisite ‘supervision’, which mostly meant standing there and watching as someone else did all the work, and offering the occasional pointed finger or spoken direction.
“I trust that you got the new people settled,” Sam finally said as she approached from behind the two men. Neither jumped, but they did quickly spin around at the sound of her voice, obviously surprised.
“Of course Colonel,” Lorne was quick to assure his superior. “I even informed them that they were invited to attend the festivities this evening.”
John gave an audible groan. “Remind me again why we’re having a party?” he asked.
“Because it serves as a nice way to remind the IOA that we aren’t just soldiers and scientists living in another galaxy, but that we are also real people who need to do other things-”
“Like eat cake!” Jack suggested as he approached.
“In our free time.” Sam finished.
“General O’Neill.”
“General.”
“Sir.”
Jack smiled and casually waved off their coming to attention, his eyes totally focused on his wife. Sam returned his easygoing grin with one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. An uncomfortable silence filled the air around the four officers.
“Well, if there’s going to be cake,” Sheppard decided, “I guess I could make the effort to go.”
Jack clapped the younger officer on the shoulder. “Good man. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do some catching up with my… Colonel Carter,” Jack barely managed to stop himself from saying wife.
It was surprisingly easy for Sam to escort Jack to her quarters without running into very many people, and she made sure that they slipped inside without anyone seeing the two of them enter together. The last thing she needed right now was more rumors than there already were floating around about her and General O’Neill while the IOA were here. Not that any of that would matter here soon when she finally got around to telling Jack that she was pregnant.
The door to her quarters had barely closed when Jack gathered her in his arms. “I. Missed. You. So. Much.” He said in between kisses.
“Me too,” Sam forced herself to say because she had missed him, and she knew Jack wanted and needed to know that she had. And it wasn’t like she didn’t want him here, it was just bad timing she kept trying to tell herself, bad timing that she got pregnant at the same time that she had finally gotten her first solo command, the best of her career.
“Stop thinking,” Jack mumbled as he continued to hold her against his chest and press kisses to her body.
They were fashionable late to the party that evening, for which the dress code had been set as “Nothing more fashionable than khakis- dresses and ties not permitted”. Vala was actually at the door arguing with some poor Marine about how her skirt was not breaking the dress code. After eavesdropping for a few minutes, Sam took pity on the poor man and drug Vala in with her.
The atmosphere of the room screamed ‘high school dance’ with the streamers hanging from the ceiling and balloons scattered around the floor or floating towards the ceiling as well. There was even music coming from a hastily set up sound system on an even more hastily constructed stage in the corner.
But considering many of the people in this room were scientists and had probably not attended a single high school dance in their lives, they were probably finding this to be just as socially awkward as they would have in high school. The buffet line was towards the back of the room and no one had yet braved the dance floor as almost everyone appeared to be eating or drinking some of the punch. Sam really hoped that everyone had taken her memo about not having alcoholic beverages tonight to heart, and that no one would attempt to spike the punch, though with this bunch, she never knew quite what to expect.
The IOA representatives were all at one table in one corner of the room, and seemed to be way more interested in watching the other people in the room than they were in each other or interacting with those people. Sam gave a casual head nod to her friends and headed over to personally greet the IOA representatives. Jack made the introductions for her, which considering many of the representatives were different from her last meeting was probably a good thing. These people seemed to be so different from the representatives that Sam remembered, not so uptight, as they actually cracked a smile at Jack’s bad jokes.
“Has General O’Neill informed you of the changes we have proposed for Atlantis?” the British representative asked, looking at his counterparts to see which one of them was going to say something about him letting the cat out of the bag.
“No,” Sam said slowly, turning to look at Jack.
Jack smiled and shrugged. “I figured we would cover them later. You are here for at least a month,” he reminded the representatives.
A woman, the representative from France looked at him sharply. “I thought for sure that the news would be considered worthwhile enough to pass along now rather then later. If I knew that my family could come live with me somewhere as wonderful as this,” she gestured to the view out the window. “I would want them on the next ship out.”
Sam’s expression quickly turned to an inquisitive one.
Jack sighed and began in his best ‘I’m bored and would rather be discussing something else right now voice. “The President in conjunction with the IOA and other world leaders have decided that it’s time for Atlantis to become more than just the scientific expedition it was originally supposed to be. Any person who commits to a stay of at least three years is permitted to bring their family with them beginning with the next set of arrivals in six months. Troops already stationed here along with any civilian member of the expedition will also be permitted to petition for the family being permitted to join them, with those who have been here the longest receiving preference. All applications will be evaluated on a case by case basis,” he recited as if from memory.
The IOA representatives looked at her eagerly, as if waiting for her to give her approval. Sam stumbled to find the right words. “I’m sure that my subordinates will be excited to find this out. It will bring a lot of changes to Atlantis.” Changes that she wouldn’t be there to see, she left out. Even if families were coming to Atlantis, there was no way that she would be able to keep Jack from his son or daughter. Nope, she was still headed back to Earth.
“There are of course many more details that need to be discussed and worked out,” the Russian representative cautioned. “But even I am wondering what it would be like to live with my family in a place such as this!”
Sam and Jack managed to excuse themselves from the IOA representatives.
“You wanna make the announcement?” Sam asked.
Jack looked at her strangely. “They’re your people.”
“But you’re still ‘The Man’,” Sam reminded him with a slight smile.
Jack puffed out his chest at that reminder. “You’re right. Shall we?” he asked, offering his hand to Sam.
Sam gave him her best smile and accepted his hand. Sam spoke quietly to the Airman who was currently DJing the event and arranged for the music to pause briefly after this song. She then tapped into her headset and arranged for her and Jack’s announcement to be broadcast all over the city simultaneously.
When some sort of Spanish song ended, Sam and Jack stepped onto the stage, tapping their headsets so their words could be broadcast throughout the city.
“Good evening,” Sam began in a formal tone. “I hope you are all having a good time.”
She got some applause and a few cheers from various Atlantis personnel.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the wonderful job that you have been doing. There are no finer people in this galaxy to work with.” The gathered personnel now looked at her curiously, as if trying to figure out where she was going with all of this. “So thank you, and without further ado, I believe General O’Neill has an announcement of his own.”
“Thanks Carter,” Jack said with a smile all for her. “As some of you know, I am a man of few words,” he began.
“We know!” Daniel called out over the crowd, making everyone laugh and relieving some of the tension in the room.
Jack just gave Daniel a sharp stare, reminiscent of their many years together on SG-1, which just like ‘back then’ had no effect on the wayward archeologist.
“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Jack began again. “I am a man of few words, but tonight I too need to pass along some words of praise. You are all doing wonderful work here, something which I have known for a very long time, but others are just starting to figure out. With the recent change of Presidents in office, the new man in charge has decided to make some changes of his own in recognition of your service here. One of the hardest things about serving on Atlantis, and getting good people to serve on Atlantis, nothing against those of you here,” he quickly added, “Is that many good officers and scientists don’t want to leave their families behind for an extended length of time to do so. That is all about to change. Beginning with the new arrivals in approximately six months, Atlantis will become home to officers, scientists, and their families.”
Sam could have heard a pin drop in the control room for how quiet everyone was now.
And the control room was on the other side of the city.
“Those of you who are currently here and will be for at least two more years will also have the opportunity to bring your family to Atlantis, with those people who have been part of the expedition the longest receiving the first chance. There are many details that need to be worked out yet, so be on the lookout for,” Jack almost balked at saying this next word, “Memos from me pertaining to what you need to do.”
A scatter of chuckles could be heard from around the room from those who knew or had heard of Jack’s great distaste from memos.
“In the meantime,” Jack continued. “Enjoy yourselves this evening and keep up the good work!” There was a short smattering of applause as Jack and Sam quickly tapped their headsets to end their broadcasting and signaled the Airman to once again start ‘blasting tunes’ as he would probably refer to it.
The two of them did a quick circuit of the room, before getting some food and sitting down with the rest of SG-1 who had already finished eating. They danced to several songs, thereby putting in their obligatory appearance before disappearing. If there was one thing Sam and Jack had learned from the promotions, it was that their people couldn’t blow off nearly as much steam with them around.
Instead, they spent their time in Sam’s quarters, enjoying the view from Sam’s balcony and just talking. It was actually the best night, and the best date, that Sam had ever been on. She woke in the morning, alone, but feeling refreshed and ready to start the day.
What she hadn’t expected to find sitting in her living room was her father.
“Dad!” Sam exclaimed. “When did you get here?” she asked as she threw her arms around her father.
“Early this morning,” Jacob said as he returned his daughter’s hug. “Judging by your surprise, Jack didn’t tell you I was coming?” he asked.
“No.”
As if Jacob could sense there was something going on that Sam wasn’t telling him about, he asked his next question carefully. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s complicated,” Sam finally said.
“Okay.”
“I love being here in Atlantis. It’s a great command, great people, great just about everything,” Sam began, smiling at the fact she was once again in a place that she couldn’t imagine leaving.
“But,” Jacob prodded.
“I miss home.”
“You miss home or you miss the people at home?” Jacob guessed.
“The people,” Sam responded without hesitation. There were no doubts that Atlantis was more beautiful than Earth, and had pretty much everything that she could hope for in a posting- summer all year round, no snow, and surrounded by water.
“Anyone in particular,” Jacob hedged with a slight smile.
“Jack,” Sam simply replied. “Did you…” she trailed off.
“Ever miss your mom and you guys when I was off on missions for the Air Force?” Jacob finished for her, with a little prompting from Selmak, and received a nod from Sam indicating that that was exactly what she had been about to ask. “All the time. Being away from your family is hard. But there are changes coming which will make things a little bit easier. Jack told me that the IOA and the President are about to permit entire families to live on Atlantis.”
“That just complicates things more!” Sam protested. “Jack will be on Earth and I’ll be here with the baby! I don’t think either of us would really like that option. I’m pregnant Dad and I don’t know what to do,” Sam confessed and then proceeded to break down in tears.
If there is one constant in all good fathers, regardless of what universe that happen to be from, it is that they hate to see their daughters cry. So Jacob Carter gathered his only daughter into his arms and held her as she cried. Sam’s news that she was pregnant came as a shock to Jacob. It was a good shock, but a shock nonetheless. He had fully expected that his daughter and new son-in-law would make him a grandfather again, if not several times over, but that was before he had found out about Sam’s new assignment to Atlantis. Even he knew, from personal experience, how hard it was to add to a family when the husband and wife never saw each other. That was why he only had two children instead of the dozen that he and his wife had originally talked about. Still, one grandchild would have been better than none at all.
Of course that didn’t explain why Sam was so upset at the idea of being pregnant. From the way she and Jack had talked over dinner three months ago, he had thought that she would have been ecstatic to find out that she already was.
“Maybe she is just scared,” Selmak suggested.
Jacob thought about pushing that idea away until Selmak brought a memory to the front of his mind of his wife doing pretty much the exact same thing when she had found out she was pregnant with Mark. Jacob had been about to deploy, and Sam’s mom had pretty much freaked out about him leaving- with no reasoning whatsoever. Then she had blurted out the words “I’m pregnant” and broken down in tears. It hadn’t been pretty but, getting through that day and the almost nine months that had followed, albeit from different continents, had made their relationship stronger. He could still remember the feeling of holding his son and daughter for their first time. There was nothing quite like it.
“I don’t know what to do Dad,” Sam finally said once she had managed to clear most of the tears from her eyes by soaking Jacob’s shirt.
“What am I supposed to say?” Jacob asked his friend in his head.
“Reassure her,” Selmak responded. “Tell her that you love her and everything will be all right.”
“I love you Samantha. Everything is going to be all right,” Jacob told her, tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. “Aren’t you happy about this?” he questioned.
Sam looked at him with a bewildered expression on her face. “Yes. No. I don’t know. What am I supposed to feel?” She asked her father.
Jacob gave a small smile. “I don’t know, I’ve never been pregnant,” he said in all seriousness, which brought a smile to Sam’s face. “Seriously Sam, isn’t this what you wanted?”
“I guess. It’s just at a bad time. I’ve got my own command. Jack is one small step away from another star or two. We live in two different galaxies and we both love our jobs. I can’t ask him to retire and move to Atlantis, and yet I can’t expect to keep his child from him. It wouldn’t be fair either way. But how is it fair that I’m going to have to be the one to give up my job?” Sam questioned, laying all of her fears and concerns out in the open.
Jacob had to fight to control his own emotions. Suddenly he understood Sam’s irrational fear. It wasn’t just that she was having a child, but that she didn’t know what the future would hold for that child. It used to be that parents worried about what city, state, or country their child would grow up in, but now Sam had to worry about balancing the worry of what planet her child would grow up on with the concern of what would happen to the career that she had just worked so hard for. Even Selmak had no words of wisdom this time.
“You have to talk to Jack about this, work it out together,” Jacob advised. “What does he think about you being a father again?” he further questioned.
Guilt filled Sam’s face. “I haven’t told Jack yet,” she admitted.
It took every bit of restraint on his part and Selmak’s to not say something that he would probably regret. He took a deep breath. “You need to talk to him. You’ll be surprised at how much easier things will seem after you’ve talked it through with him.”
Sam just nodded, obviously not quite believing him.
Despite her doubt, Jacob gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. “And just in case I haven’t said it yet, congratulation Samantha. There is nothing quite like holding your child for the first time. It is an experience you’ll never forget.”
Sam started tear up once more at her father’s words just as the door to her quarters slid open.
“Hey Dad!” Jack said as he stepped into the room, taking in the sight of Sam with red eyes with a worried glance.
Jacob gave Sam one last kiss on the top of her head, clapped Jack on the shoulder as he passed, and then left the couple alone.
Jack dropped the tray of various breakfast foods that he had gotten from the mess hall on the coffee table, or at least the Atlantis equivalent of a coffee table. “What’s wrong Sam?” Jack asked, but his heart was already sinking at what he was sure was going to be her response. Jacob had been shooting daggers at him from the moment that their eyes had met, not anywhere close to the customary happiness that had been there of late. Sam was going to ask for a divorce, he just knew it.
Which was why what she said next was such a shock to him.
“I’m pregnant,” Sam confessed like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to anyone, anywhere.
And since Sam didn’t sound the least bit excited to be telling him this, Jack proceeded to stick his foot in his mouth by jumping to the only conclusion that he could come to.
“Is it mine?”
Sam didn’t even think as she took a hand and slapped him across the face.
Hard.
While Jack’s hand went up to his cheek where there was probably a nice red mark, Sam was moving away from Jack, internally cursing her father for believing him when he had said that telling Jack would make things easier.
“I can’t believe you would insinuate that it isn’t yours!” Sam exclaimed. “What kind of woman do you think I am?”
Jack forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. “Well, you don’t exactly sound like a wife who is all excited about telling her husband that they’re about to be parents.” And once more his mouth got in front of his brain as he could resist adding a dig. “And it wasn’t that long ago that you were with Pete.”
Sam’s face suddenly fell, and Jack felt his heart break. Sam’s hand went to her mouth and her legs took her to the bathroom. It was obvious to Jack that she had never considered this possibility before, and there mere idea had made her sick to her stomach.
The fact that he had suggested it didn’t make Jack feel much better, but he still followed her to the bathroom, knowing that whatever kind of punishment Sam decided to dish out, he would willing take. He stood in the doorway and waited for Sam to notice him.
It didn’t take long.
“Go away,” she mumbled as she continued to lean over the toilet, but there was no doubting the anger still present in her voice.
“No,” Jack said, finally finding his voice again.
“Leave me alone!”
“Not gonna happen,” Jack stated calmly, refusing to show how upset he was feeling right now. Sam had already gotten the brunt of his shock and thoughtlessness once; he wasn’t going to let his emotions win again. “What’s wrong Sam?” he pressed.
Sam took her time in answer, choosing to get a drink of water first to wash the bad taste out of her mouth. “Besides the obvious,” she began, looking pointedly at her husband. “There’s the fact that we live in two different galaxies,” Sam stated plainly.
“Not for long,” Jack quickly assured her.
“Oh, so I’m just going to give up my position, my command, and move back to Earth?” Sam quickly turned on Jack.
Jack blinked a couple of times as he took in Sam’s words, but the pieces were all starting to fall into place. But before things went any farther, he needed for Sam to answer one question.
“Do you even want to be pregnant Sam?”
Sam looked at him aghast that he would even ask that question. Her hand instinctively went to where their baby now grew. Since the conversation with her father, Sam had realized that while the timing was horrendous, there was no way she would give up this baby for anything.
The look on Sam's face made his heart sink again, making him wish that he could take back his words, but it was too late, what done was done. He hated when he had a day where he continuously stuck his foot in his mouth, and it seemed like today was one of those days.
“More than anything,” Sam admitted. “I know that I’m going to have to give up command of Atlantis, and who knows what else, but I think,” she took a deep breath; “I think it will be worth it. I know it will be worth it,” she reaffirmed.
Jack took a step forward and opened his arms, extending an invitation of comfort and asking for forgiveness at the same time.
Sam didn’t have to be asked twice as she flung herself into Jack’s arms, wrapping herself in the comfort that his arms had to offer. For some unknown reason, she once again burst into tears.
Jack relaxed as he held his wife, knowing that everything wasn’t ‘okay’ but it was at least fixable. He was probably going to have to do some serious sucking up the next few days in order to gain forgiveness, but it was all worth it.
Jack O’Neill was going to be a dad again. He broke out into a slow grin as that realization sunk in, and he was pretty sure that a few tears escaped his own eyes.
Eventually Sam’s tears subsided, and she pulled away, using her hands and the sleeves of her shirt to try and wipe away the evidence of her tears.
Jack let her pull away, knowing that this was important to Sam, that she didn’t want to look weak to him. As much as Jack wanted Sam to know that she didn’t always have to be strong, he knew that this wasn’t the time to discuss that. Tears gone, Jack tried braving a conversation again, in a typical Jack O’Neill manner.
“So…”
Sam looked at him expectedly to continue.
“We really need to get better at this talking thing,” Jack unexpectedly blurted out. “It would really cut down on the number of misunderstandings that we seem to experience.”
Sam just stared at him for a couple of seconds and then giggled. It wasn't a full hearted laugh, but Jack would take it.
“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Jack protested with some mock hurt on his face, but this only caused Sam to giggle more.
When the giggles subsided, Sam’s face turned serious. “The fact that I’m pregnant, that’s a good thing, right?” she asked, looking at Jack for reassurance.
Jack openly smiled. “It is a great thing. Wonderful, fantastic even. You were right about the timing being a little off, but when has anything ever went perfectly for us?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow in the process. “It won’t change a thing though. I’ll be there every step of the way.”
Sam offered a small smile of her own; starting to feel reassured that the timing might stink, but-
“How are you going to be there every step of the way?” Sam questioned, putting her hands on her hips and looking quite intimidating, even as she stood there in an Ancient bathroom.
Jack ducked his head and blushed a little. “Promise me you won’t get mad?” Jack asked hopefully looking at Sam with, what he hoped, was an expression of pure innocence.
Sam just stared him down. There was no escape for him now, Sam had Jack pinned into the bathroom with no escape route in sight.
Jack took a deep breath and started to explain. “The President has offered me a new position as the Head of Civilian Security. The position entails mostly reviewing files and deciding if a person has the necessary qualities for keeping the secrecy required for the Stargate program.”
“Isn’t here someone already doing that?” Sam questioned.
“For the SGC yes, but not for Atlantis,” Jack explained. “And with all the new civilians that will be coming here, the President thought it was important to have someone in charge of making those decisions, and then having that person around to make sure that the civilians are taken care of the next time Atlantis comes under attack.”
Sam’s face brightened as the realization sunk in. “You’re coming here?” she asked.
Jack smiled and nodded. “I’m not leaving,” Jack stated. “I already took care of everything I needed to on Earth.”
“Awful confident that I was going to agree, weren’t you?” Sam insinuated.
Jack smirked. “I figure if I couldn’t convince you of the advantages to having me around by the time the Odyssey was ready to leave, I would just mistakenly ‘miss the ship’ so to speak.”
“Because no one would ever notice if a General went missing?”
Jack hesitated. “One other thing, to take that position, it meant I had to retire…”
“You what!”
Jack cringed. There was no getting out of this now; he had committed himself to a full explanation now. “I retired,” he repeated. “For good this time.”
“And you didn’t think this was something you should discuss with you wife first?” Sam demanded.
Jack couldn’t help smiling. Their marriage was still so new, and so private, that anytime anyone referred to Sam as his wife, he knew he got this goofy grin on his face.
“Wipe that grin off your face Jonathan O’Neill!” Sam ordered. “I’m still really, really mad at you.”
Jack tried really hard to hide his grin, but darn it, Sam was just so… cute when she got like this, not that he would ever tell her that. Oh no, Jack had no intention of signing his own death certificate, which was what would happen if Sam ever found out that he thought it was ‘cute’ when she got mad.
Sam continued to stare at Jack, waiting for him to respond. She even started tapping her foot, showing off her impatience at being forced to wait for Jack’s response.
Then there was silence.
Finally Jack spoke. “Look Sam, I’m not sorry that I retired, not in the least little bit. My job was challenging, but it was as boring as all get out! I hated it almost as much as I hated being away from you.” He held up his hand to stop here from saying anything in response. “I know that we could have,” and here Jack did the famous air quotes, “talked, but we both know how good we are at that! No Sam, I wanted to retire because I wanted to be with you more than a couple of days every few months. And now that we’re having a baby, which let me tell you makes me really, really, really happy, I’m really glad that I did it. I want to be around to see the little tyke grow up; see all of his firsts, for the midnight feedings, and everything. Oh, and did I mention that I love you? Because I really, really do. And then if that doesn’t get me out of the doghouse, it was all Daniel’s idea.” With his spiel complete, Jack added his best ‘I’m innocent’ expression to his face, and hoped that Sam really did think that he was innocent.
Or she might just kick his ass.
Sam looked at Jack. There was no way she could possibly stay mad at Jack when he was like this- but if he ever found that out, it would take all the fun out of egging him on. “You’ll be here the whole time?” she double checked.
“Yes.”
“Even on the mornings when I can’t keep breakfast down?”
“Sure.”
“When I want something strange to eat at 3 AM?”
“I’ll go out and get it,” Jack assured her.
“And when our little girl gets us up for a bottle at 4 AM?”
“I’ll make sure our son doesn’t go hungry,” he confirmed, “Or wake up half of Atlantis,” Jack added as an afterthought.
“How about when I think I’m fat and ugly?”
“I’ll be there,” Jack responded. By this time he really wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying, just agreeing, which was what she wanted him to do anyways.
“And you’ll be there when I’m in labor and cursing the fact I ever let you near me?”
“Yep.”
“And when I decide that I never want to have sex again?”
“Yeah.”
“Even when I want you to dance around Atlantis in a pink tutu?”
“Uh-hu.”
“Good.”
Jack’s eyes whipped up to meet Sam’s and Sam could hold it any longer. She broke into gut wrenching laughter. Jack looked at her for a second and then began replaying her words in his mind.
“You little-”
“Nope, you agreed,” Sam reminded him waving a finger at her husband as she carefully backed out of the bathroom and away from her advancing husband.
“No way. I wasn’t really listening,” Jack confessed.
“Too bad. I want breakfast now. I’m thinking pancakes and sausage, maybe some apple juice,” Sam decided, turning away from her husband. “I’ll have to ask John about who around here might have a pink tutu I can borrow or if I’ll have to requisite one from Earth.”
Jack stared after his wife and wisely snapped his mouth shut. He had already put his foot in his mouth more times today then it was really wise to do, and all he had to do was dance around Atlantis wearing a pink tutu, he was probably getting off lightly. Besides, he could always order someone to join him.
And as if Sam could read his mind, she appeared dressed in her Atlantis uniform with one other piece of advice.
“Don’t even think about ordering some Airman or Marine to do anything for you, you’re retired now,” she reminded him with a knowing smile.
“D’oh.”
The next six months were some of the busiest and most difficult months that Sam or Jack had ever faced. They each had their individual jobs to do. Even at eight months pregnant, Sam insisted on being involved in as much of the day to day running of Atlantis as was humanly possible. At first, it was hard for Jack to understand his wife’s decision to continue working, even with decreased hours, but after several long talks with none other than Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard about how he had dealt with Teyla’s similar situation, Jack had accepted Sam’s decision. He would never totally agree with it, but he could at least understand it.
But unlike Sheppard with Teyla’s pregnancy, Jack would not allow Sam to go off-world. It just wasn’t safe, for Sam or for Jack’s state of mind. When she had initially asked, and Jack had protested, Sam had given up way too quickly, making Jack think that she had planned to concede defeat all along in return for Jack also giving up something else, thought he couldn’t recall what that was right now.
In truth, the past six months had been filled with compromises between the two of them. Sam often silently wondered if they had jumped into marriage too quickly, and then Jack would do something so sweet and completely unexpected, yet it would also be exactly what Sam had wanted or needed for him to do.
Like finding a way to make her uncompleted paperwork disappear during lunch and reappear completed the next morning, thought Sam suspected that Jack had only issued an ‘order’ to get the paperwork done, because he hated doing the stuff too.
Or how he always knew exactly when to show up to her office with a bowl of blue Jell-O.
But mostly it was when Jack found a way to reassure her, putting all her fears about not being a good mother or good wife to rest with just a few choice words or even a simple touch.
Sam actually went into labor in the early hours of the morning. Rather then waking Jack, she laid there, enjoying the opportunity to watch him sleep. She had a feeling that they were both about to begin a long stretch of sleepless night.
There was no reason to rush to the infirmary. Sam had already decided to have a natural birth, in other words, no drugs to stem the pain because she was concerned about the drugs reacting badly with the naquadah in her system. She really wished at times like these she had asked one of the other Samantha Carters if there was anything to worry about, or if there were any mistakes she should make sure to avoid. She was especially curious to if any of the other Sams had come up with some way of telling everyone that she (they?) were pregnant without putting the base in an uproar.
//Flashback//
Right before Daniel, Vala, Teal’c, Cam, and Jonas had left; Jack and Sam had privately told them their good news. They had purposely waited until the night before, exactly twenty-four hours before, their friends were scheduled to depart so that there was only a small window during which any one of them, particularly Vala, could spill the beans.
Vala made it the whole twenty-four hours before she spilled the beans on an open channel to all of Atlantis and the Odyessy, leaving a whole slew of Air Force, Marine, and civilian personnel all looking at Sam and Jack to either confirm or deny what Vala had just said. Considering Sam and Jack had only recently let the department heads of Atlantis in on the fact they were married, there were quite a few confused faces in the crowd.
Luckily Sheppard had stepped in and saved the day.
“You know,” he said, loud enough so that the whole gateroom could hear him. “I’ve always thought that John would be a good name for a boy.”
Sam blinked a couple of times and then smiled. “You already have one baby named after you John, don’t you think a second would be pushing your luck?”
John smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “It was just a suggestion, Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill.”
The gasp of surprise from the crowd was audible.
Jack and Sam had a silent conversation with their eyes, before Jack reached out and took Sam’s hand. He gave it a squeeze as he looked out at the people in the room. “I guess this is the point at which I admit that Sam and I are married and are pregnant with our first child.”
“Oh so now we’re pregnant?” Sam questioned, looking at her husband. “And just when were you planning on carrying this child? Or maybe you were going to give birth to her?”
Major Evan Lorne stopped Jack from answering with a hand to the shoulder. “Just so you know sir, there is no right answer to that question,” he advised. “Or so my sister tells me. Congratulations to both of you on the wedding and the baby.”
Slowly other people began to converge on the two of them, offering their own set of congratulations. It took almost a week, as some of the teams that had been off-world would return and hear the news and then feel it was necessary to offer their own congratulations, but life in the Pegasus galaxy finally returned to normal- for all of two weeks when the Odyssey returned and a new round of congratulations began, not to mention the amount of baby paraphernalia that showed up. Someone at the SGC must have coordinated getting the stuff because not a single thing was duplicated in the whole shipment, and Colonel Steven Caldwell informed Sam and Jack that there would be at least two more deliveries of equal size to be made yet.
All Sam could think when she saw all the clothes, was that her daughter wasn’t going to ever have to wear the same thing twice over the first year of her life.
That was the other bone of contention between Sam and Jack- the gender of the baby. While Doctor Jennifer Keller could easily do a scan and tell them the gender of the baby, Sam had insisted that she wanted to be surprised. Jack had automatically assumed that the child was a boy whereas Sam had decided that her first (and only as she constantly told Jack) child was a girl.
Neither of them really had any proof either way, but calling the baby a girl seemed to always get a rise out of Jack, which was something that Sam enjoyed doing. The closer the big day got, the more often Jacob Carter seemed to find excuses to stop by Atlantis, and the more worried Sam got that she was going to be the worst mother ever, and considering Samantha Carter had never been the worst at anything in her life, she really didn’t want this to be the one time that she was.
//End Flashback//
The first hints of sunlight streamed through the windows as Jack opened his eyes to look right into the face of his wife.
“Good morning beautiful,” Jack said.
“Are you ready to be a dad?” Sam asked her husband.
Jack looked at her curiously. “Whenever my son decides to make an appearance, I’ll be ready,” he assured his wife.
Sam reached out and took Jack’s hand and placed it on her stomach. A few seconds later a contraction hit. “I think our daughter has your impatience,” she informed him.
“But you’re not due for another week!” Jack protested.
“Like I said, she obviously has your impatience!” Sam responded.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Jack asked as he threw off the covers and started pulling on clothes.
Sam chuckled as she watched Jack pull on two different colored socks. “I was comfortable where I was, and it’s not like I need to go to the infirmary so they can give me drugs,” she pointed out.
“Still, you should be somewhere where a doctor can keep an eye on you!”
Sam just smiled at her husband.
“Besides, your dad will kill me if I don’t give him enough time to get here before the baby’s born!” Jack protested.
“He’s not going to kill you,” Sam assured Jack. “Maybe maim you a little bit,” she joked, “But he knows I’d kill him if he kills you! And,” she added somewhat tentatively, “No more grandkids if you’re dead!”
Jack stopped trying to put his left shoe on his right foot, which had been quite amusing for Sam to watch, and whipped around to look at Sam, a bewildered expression on his face. “Are you, are you saying that you want a second child?” Jack asked picking his words carefully.
“I’m saying that I’m open to discussions,” Sam admitted slowly as she felt the twinge of another contraction.
Jack lowered himself to the bed, slowly. “Wow. That’s… I mean, I know we kind of sort of talked about two kids, but you know… after the way we got to the first one, I never thought you’d actually agree to a second.”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t want our daughter to be an only child.”
“Son,” Jack corrected. “Who still doesn’t have a name!”
“We thought we had more time,” Sam claimed, “To pick a name for our daught-”
Jack leapt forward to her side, reaching for her hand. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.
“I’m just having a baby Jack,” Sam reminded him with a small smile.
“Let’s get you to the infirmary,” Jack said offering her a hand.
Sam giggled. “Maybe you should put some pants on first,” she suggested. “And do try to put the right shoe on your right foot.”
Jack looked down and realized that he didn’t have any pants on, just boxers, and that he had been trying to put his left shoe on his right foot.
It took several hours for things to actually start getting interesting in the delivery room.
And by interesting, Jack actually meant loud, and rather abusive. Though the threats Jack received were much more creative than what he expected, but, quite surprisingly, none of them involved leaving Jack unable to bear more children. He might be in quite a bit of pain and extremely tired from getting up every night with their son or daughter (he was finally willing to concede that they just might be having a daughter instead of a son), but he would be able to have more kids.
The waiting room was starting to get crowded with people who had travelled quite a distance to be there for the birth of the first Carter-O’Neill child when the cry of a newborn was heard.
The gathered people exchanged smiles and a few minutes later Jack burst through the door, a slightly dazed expression on his face.
“Jack?” Jacob asked, slightly concerned. He had expected that Jack would be over the moon, not stunned and unable to speak.
“It’s a girl,” Jack said, looking straight at Jacob. “What am I supposed to do with a girl?”
Jacob chuckled and clapped his son-in-law on the shoulder. “You love and protect them, just like you would a son. The rest will work itself out.”
Jack nodded appropriately before he was engulfed by other people wanting to offer their congratulations. A nurse eventually came out and told Jack that he could go back in again, advising the rest of the crowd to wait a few minutes before going in.
When the first group of people filed in, they found Jack perched on the corner of Sam’s bed, obviously trying very hard not to snatch the baby out of Sam’s arms.
And Jacob noticed that while Sam looked absolutely exhausted, her whole body seemed to radiate happiness. There was no doubt in his or Selmac’s mind that she was now excited by the prospect of being a mother.
While Teal’c and Daniel appeared happy to simply offer Sam a kiss on the cheek and a quick peek at the baby, Jacob had other demands, once Jack gained possession of the baby that was.
“Give,” Jacob ordered not more than thirty seconds after Jack had gained full holding privileges.
“Dad!” Sam reprimanded.
Jack smiled sweetly down at his daughter. “Don’t worry Carter, Grandpa Jake just wants his turn to hold you.”
“See- that’s why we can’t name the baby Carter,” Sam quickly pointed out. “I wouldn’t know if you were talking to me or her half the time.”
Jack got this deer in the headlights look, which only meant he knew he was about to lose the argument, and Jacob took the opportunity to sweep in and grab his newest granddaughter.
“Please,” Jack begged, turning on the puppy dog eyes and pouting face that probably had kept him out of trouble quite often when he was a small boy.
Unfortunately they didn’t work very well on Sam.
“No.”
“Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?” Jack begged.
“On top of what do you wish to place a small piece of fruit O’Neill?” Teal’c asked, slightly confused.
Sam laughed. “It’s just a saying Teal’c,” she explained. “It means that Jack really, really want to let him have his way.”
“Please?” Jack asked one more time.
Unexpectedly, Sam looked at her dad, who was actually busy studying ‘baby O’Neill’, and for some reason, she had a moment of weakness.
“Okay, Carter as a middle name,” Sam finally relented.
Jack gave a small whoop of glee, not particularly suited for a retired two star General. “Thanks Sam,” he whispered as he gave her a kiss on the lips which left her breathless.
“She still needs a first name,” Sam reminded her husband and everyone else in the room.
“Emma,” Daniel suggested, searching his brain for a possible name that would suit this little girl. “It means universal, and since she is the first Earth child born in another universe…”
“Emma Carter O’Neill,” Jack stated, as if trying it out for size.
“I love it,” Sam decided, giving her approval for the name.
A half an hour later almost a hundred people had come through the room, offering their congratulations to Sam and Jack and fawning over Emma Carter O’Neill, the first of hopefully many Tau’ri babies to be born on Atlantis.
One year later marked the first birthday for Emma Carter O’Neill, and in typical Jack O’Neill fashion, he threw quite the party for his little girl. It was actually more like a carnival, complete with simple games like pin the tail on the donkey and ring toss, face painting, and even a few clowns, which were actually some Airmen and Marines who had ‘volunteered’ rather than face a much worse punishment for disturbing the peace at 3 am in the civilian family section of Atlantis.
And considering everyone was invited, including some of the poor men’s buddies, Jack felt that the punishment was justified- and probably one of the better ones that he had dreamed up.
Of course Emma had no idea that all of this was for her; she was just barely able to totter around. In fact, she had little interest in eating the cake of ice cream that Jack made sure she had access to, but that didn’t stop Jack from finishing it off for her.
Sam was content to sit back and watch the events from a chair, already six months pregnant with a second child. This pregnancy had not been nearly as big of shock as Sam’s first, but it had been received with even more excitement by the prospective parents. Jack was convinced that this child was a boy, and just because she refused to agree with him, Sam had to take the opposing side and claim that this child was a girl too. Honestly, she knew Jack really didn’t care, and neither did she. As long as the baby was healthy, they were just happy to be blessed with another child.
Sam watched with a smile on her face as Teal’c lifted Emma and put her on his shoulders. The past year had been filled with changes on Atlantis. Teal’c now called a planet on the outskirts of the Pegasus galaxy home, along many of the Free Jaffa. It was just one of the many outposts that now littered their home galaxy, though Teal’c’s home planet was the only one in the Pegasus galaxy. Even the Tok’ra had seen fit to establish some permanent ties with Atlantis in the form of a permanent liaison to the city.
Yes, Jacob Carter and Selmak had the perfect opportunity to watch Emma O’Neill grow up, along with Mark Carter’s three children.
It had been quite the shock when the Odyssey had brought the second ‘load’ of civilian personnel and the other half of the Carter family had been among those to walk off the ship. Hugs and apologies had quickly been exchanged between siblings before the fawning over Emma had begun.
There was no doubt that she was a favorite among the staff, thought she had quite the competition from many of the other newly arrived and born children, not to mention Teyla’s son Torren. Sam was actually pleased that Atlantis was now a true home, a city where one could hardly step into the hallway without running into a child. Jack was doing a great job getting the community side of Atlantis organized, everything from assigning quarters to organizing activities to getting the school up and running. There was even talk of starting a college or university program which would be an offshoot of the Air Force Academy.
Of course, all of this didn’t stop the Wraith from trying to takeover the Pegasus galaxy. Good men and women risked their lives everyday to make the galaxy of their new home safer.
Overall though, the O’Neills were happy, healthy, and three months later they were done having children when a second girl arrived, Alexandria Amelia O’Neill.
Sam loved her two daughters, and they had Jack wrapped around their finger from the moment they were born. He was the doting Dad, but their girls were far from being spoiled. Jack and Sam both held them to strict standards of behavior, for which the punishment for not upholding them was a loss of privileges like having cake or Jell-O, watching the Simpsons with their father, or perhaps the most terrifying- losing their reading privilege. Jack almost hadn’t believed Jacob when he said that banning reading had been the most difficult punishment for Sam to receive, at least until she had found taking things apart to be her new favorite pastime, and then Jacob and his wife had just had to hide her tools.
Dubious, Jack had tried it once when the girls had slipped out of the daycare center, and the girls had been clinging to his legs, crying for him to not take their books away, or their nightly story. Jack had ended up relenting and letting them off the hook after a day, primarily because he couldn’t stand the fact that they kept bothering him!
Jacob had just laughed and told him that he had usually felt the same way with Sam!
Still they were happy with Em and Alex, two beautiful, smart little girls who Sam knew would likely be running circles around their dad mentally by the time were ten, and wrecking havoc around Atlantis when the city decided they were old enough to deal with the Ancient gene they had inherited from Jack.
Yes, the O’Neills were happy, their family of four complete.
At least until Sam went to Jack’s office one day, closed the door and asked him, “Are you ready to have a son?”
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]