Sam awoke to the warm feeling of sunlight on her face, forcing her eyes to open under the brightness. She never awoke to the sun on her face and the closest she ever got to it was when it was the sun from another planet. Her bedroom was on the wrong side of the house to get the morning sun streaming through the windows. This added to the momentary confusion that she had as her eyes focused through their early morning blurriness. Opposite her were balcony doors which could mean only one thing - she was in Jack's bed. She sat up, knowing that she was the only person in the bed. She tried to steady her breath and calm herself because she knew that she should not start jumping to conclusions. Jack could very easily be downstairs with Daniella. She held the bed sheets to her body as her eyes searched the room for the clothes she had been wearing yesterday, a bad and nauseating feeling spreading through her body. Unsure of whether it was from her actions of the night before or because of the lack of Jack in his own bed, Sam desperately wanted to get dressed and out of the room. After finding her discarded clothing which thankfully removed the smell of Jack in the room from her nose, Sam got dressed and made her way to the stairs. As she passed the door to her daughter's bedroom, Sam saw her toddler standing in her cot playing with her favourite teddy. The blond girl giggled when she saw her mom.
"Momma," she started calling, repeating the word over and over until Sam got to her.
"Hey, sweetie," Sam greeted as she picked up her daughter. "Where's Daddy?"
Daniella smiled and kissed Sam's cheek as she started a chorus of 'Dada' until they reached the kitchen. Upon entering, Sam saw Sasha standing at one of the kitchen counters. She could not help the slight sinking feeling of it not being Jack standing there. Sasha smiled at the two girls and poured a second cup of coffee.
"Thanks," Sam said, taking the cup from Sasha and putting it on the counter near to her. On autopilot, Sam began sorting out a drink for Daniella. "Have you seen Jack this morning?" she asked, placing Daniella into her highchair. She had a strong feeling that she would need the caffeine hit to help her recover from the previous night. Sam hoped that her question had sounded normal and calm despite the fact that inside, she was anything but calm. Millions of questions were already flooding Sam’s mind – did Sasha know Sam had not slept in her own bed? Was Sasha aware of the fragile relationship enforced on them by her employers? What affect did any of their actions have on Daniella? In fact, was she even aware of her parents’ emotional states? Sam had not thought about any of these consequences when she acted too impulsively the night before. Ignoring all of the warning signs, Sam had walked into a situation where she now had no idea how things were going to play out. For all she knew, Jack had walked away in regret and that posed a hundred and one questions about their living and work situation. Everyone was going to notice the changes caused by her impulsive actions.
Sasha shook her head. "I only got in about ten minutes ago."
Trying to ignore all of the bad feelings and thoughts running through her mind, Sam focused on Sasha. As she started feeding Daniella her breakfast, Sam raised an eyebrow at the younger lady. "And where did you stay last night?"
"At Andy's," Sasha replied slightly smugly. Despite her inner turmoil, Sam could not help but smile at her friend. Sam often wondered what kind of relationship Sasha and Andy could possibly have given Sasha's long hours. It pleased her that Sasha did seem to be maintaining her relationship, because it was far more than most at Stargate Command could manage. Whilst Sasha was technically an employee, she had also become a friend to Sam which was a great benefit when it came to bringing up Daniella.
"Seeing him again tonight?" Sam asked. When either Sam or Jack were home, Sasha's time was her own, but for stability she did tend to spend some of her day with Daniella. Before Sasha could answer, there was a knock on the front door and Sam went to answer it. She opened the door and saw a very familiar face on her doorstep. "Dad," she greeted.
"You know there are better ways of finding out that your daughter is living with her C.O than how I just found out." Jacob Carter said as he hugged his daughter and then walked into the house without actually requesting entrance. "Where is my lovely grand-daughter then?" he asked and Sam pointed him towards the kitchen realising that not only had he not known about Jack beforehand, he had also not been in their shared home. Sam followed him slowly through her own house and Jacob was soon spooning a smiley Daniella her breakfast.
Sam smiled weakly at him as she introduced Sasha who said hello but quickly left the room to give them their privacy. Whilst Sam had seen her father over the past year since learning the truth and moving in with Jack, the time had never been right to tell Jacob. It had killed her to lie to his face, but that was the curse of only seeing him when someone was in trouble. "Would you like a drink, dad?" she asked as she moved towards her own cup of coffee which she had still not taken a sip of.
"No, I'm fine, thanks." Jacob answered as he smiled and continued feeding his grand-daughter. Sam felt bad that he had missed out on the majority of his grand-child's life, just as he had missed out on Mark's children's formative years too, but there was no way that she could have told him even a few weeks ago when he had come to try and fix the younger clone Jack’s unstable DNA problem. ‘Please help Jack, dad, this teenager is Daniella’s father.’ "So, what's been going on, Sammy? How long have you been living here and since when is your C.O. the father? And why did I find out when George kindly sorted me a driver who then told me that you’ve moved in with O’Neill."
He normally referred to him as Jack, Sam registered the change in her father’s vocabulary. "I've been here about a year and I've only known that Jack was the father for a little longer than that. We moved in together to provide a better family unit than we could have done apart, given our working hours."
"I thought that guy, Brad, was the father."
"I was wrong," Sam whispered. Despite the fact that she was a grown woman with her own child, she suddenly felt like a child again. She assumed it was normal to feel like that in the presence of your own parents, but what she actually hated more was when she felt like it whilst working. There was nothing more embarrassing than trying to solve a technological problem in front of your military peers when your father was around. It was especially humiliating when her father was not only her military peer, but also internally partnered with a great alien intelligence. The feeling then was that of a much greater inadequacy than when he questioned her parenting skills or treated her like a child.
Jacob looked at her with a mixture of confusion and maybe slight shame which caused Sam to look down at her coffee intently. She hoped that he did not question her further on that subject. "So you broke regulations?"
Sam prepared herself for the lie, which was technically not a lie that they had told everyone, while also grateful that he was not following up with questions regarding her one night stand. "No, Dad, I did not. Jack had retired."
"George doesn't believe that," he said as if it were a matter of fact whilst also maintaining a happy smiley look on his face for Daniella's benefit. Sam knew that his tone could be a lot sterner if he wanted it to be and she was selfishly glad that her daughter was present.
"Well, it's the truth and we've been living together now for the past year and General Hammond hasn't had anything to complain about."
"And you're both happy living together?"
"What do you mean by that?" Sam demanded, trying to keep her own tone in check. All thoughts of the previous night and Jack's disappearing act had left her mind.
"Are you sleeping with him?"
"Excuse me?" Sam hissed. She was not sure that her father had ever enquired about her sex life in such a way.
"What am I supposed to think, Sam?" he asked as he wiped Daniella's mouth and then picked her up. "You're living with your C.O. and you have a child with him. You claim that you didn’t break any regulations which must mean that you didn't even have a relationship with him and you thought that someone else was the father. Then I come home and find that you're living with him, but aren't breaking any regulations. I'm not daft and I wasn't born yesterday."
"No, you weren't born yesterday, but you also weren't here yesterday. I am not breaking any regulations and as my father you should take my word for it."
"I'm not sure that I know you any more, Sam. So much has happened in the past few years that I never would have expected. How many times have I seen you in the past year and you lied to me? On the Alpha Site, with Jack and the Jaffa, did he know then?"
“Yes. And I asked him to not say anything as it was hardly the right place.”
“But you’ve lied to my face, too.”
"Maybe you should have been around then, Dad, rather than just whenever we need your help or you need our Alpha Site. Don’t you think I would have told you the first time that you came to visit after I found out the truth?"
"There should be no reason that you need to have 'found out the truth', Sammy. The question of who the father of your child is should never be in doubt."
At that very moment Jack chose to walk through the back door and into the kitchen where he was presented with the two Carters arguing but trying not to shout.
"General," he greeted as the look on his face indicated that he wondered what the hell he had just stepped into.
"There's my son-in-law now," Jacob greeted sarcastically.
"Dad," Sam warned and turned to Jack. "Where have you been?" Whether the anger in her voice was because of his disappearing act or because of what her father was saying Sam was not sure.
"Avoiding World War three, obviously."
"Don't play the smart aleck in here, Jack," Jacob snapped. "I want to know what's going on between you and my daughter."
Sam panicked for a moment worrying that Jack would take her father's comment to be linked to last night. She stared into her coffee, hoping that Jack would follow their usual lie.
"She's the mother of my child and my team-mate. Nothing else."
"So you're spouting the same lie as her. You either broke regulations for a relationship or you have so little thought for her, so little respect, that on the one night after you retired and before you left to live with another woman, you slept with her and got her pregnant. How is that other woman and your child? You're just leaving them littered everywhere, aren't you?"
Sam almost spat out the mouthful of coffee that she was trying to drink as she looked up at her father and almost-lover. They both looked angry as hell and Sam was unsure as to who would come out on top if a fist-fight were to break out. She desperately wanted her father to stop his line of questioning and accept the truth they were pedalling. Nobody else had questioned the fact that she must have had a one night stand with Jack and then been abandoned. Everyone else they knew was a mutual friend, but Jacob was Sam's father and would always look out for her, would always be purely on only her side. Along with Janet who still found it difficult to be around Jack.
In the silent stare-off between the two men, Daniella started crying and Jack instantly moved towards her and took the toddler from Jacob. Jacob did not fight this, realising that shouting at Daniella's father would only upset her further than his harsh tone already had. Jack said nothing as he then left the room with Daniella in his arms. Sam felt her father's eyes return to her.
"I'm sorry," he apologised. "I've only just found out about all of this and then... I didn't mean to shout at you or him and especially not in front of Daniella."
"I know," Sam nodded.
"Just as long as nothing is going to endanger SG-1. You don't understand why I've been so busy undercover unable to visit for fun and only work, but something's building. SG-1 is important."
Sam looked at him in confusion and concern. "Where have you been, Dad?" she asked.
"You know Daniel's friend, Sarah?" he asked. Sam nodded and she knew full well that he meant the Goa'uld within her, Osiris, but that he could not say as much given the fact that Sasha was in the house. "She's working with someone who's only been back around a short while." He paused, hoping that she was keeping up and she knew that he could only mean Anubis who had been building his power for the past couple of years. It was because of Anubis that Abydos was no more and they were still trying to locate the Lost City. For the most part they had managed to keep out of his way, but Anubis was still building his armies even stronger and making his way to something.
"Any idea what their goal is?" she asked.
"All my intel points to one thing," he paused. "Sarah's home." Earth - Osiris and Anubis were heading for Earth and SG-1 would be vitally needed. Sam instantly began mentally preparing herself for the battle that could be to come.
SG – SG – SG
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