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"Where's Daniel?" Sam demanded, as Jack pushed past her alone. Jack didn't reply as he moved towards the transport rings. "Sir!"
"He's not coming," Jack replied shortly, not wanting her to see how much it was affecting him. Daniel wasn't supposed to be out here. He was a civilian anthropologist and shouldn't have been involved in the battle to save the world. He wasn't the one who was supposed to die.
"No!" Sam cried out, even as Jack grabbed onto her as the rings engulfed them. Having already lost one member of his team, there was no way he was going to lose another - especially not Carter. They rematerialised on the second ship, and she turned to face him. "Why?" she demanded, feeling her blue eyes brim with tears. She had broken her promise to Janet to keep him safe, and if their counter-attack worked, there was an unborn baby below them who would never know their father, nor the noble sacrifice he had made to save the world.
"He was injured," Jack explained. "He was going to hold off the Jaffa so that we could get to this ship."
Sam bit her lip, willing herself not to cry. He didn't know; how could her? It was obvious that neither Janet nor Daniel wanted the news of their night together to become common knowledge, and Sam was surprised that the rumour mill around the SGC hadn't yet picked up on the news. "Damn it," she whispered, when all she wanted to do was scream. However, alerting the Jaffa on this ship to their presence would not help them at all.
"What?" Jack demanded, as they moved out through the bowels of the giant Goa'uld mothership. Sam seemed to be taking the loss of Daniel very hard, and with a stab of jealously to his gut, wondered if they had been more than just friends. Although he knew that as long as Sam was under his command, he couldn't act on his growing attraction to her, he still didn't want to see her with another man; especially not Daniel.
"Janet's pregnant," she told him quietly, not wanting to tell her CO this, but knowing that she had to explain the reason why she was taking Daniel's death so badly.
"Yeah, I know," Jack replied, and Sam looked up at him in surprise as they headed down the corridors encountering no resistance so far. "I am the base second-in-command remember. But what does Janet have to do with anything?"
A couple of Jaffa and the subsequent disposal of them prevented Sam from answering immediately, and also allowed her time to compose herself before she informed him "She's pregnant with Daniel's child."
"They got drunk and slept together one night," Sam explained as they followed Bra'tac and Teal'c. "I promised her that I'd keep Daniel safe." She blinked the tears away, trying to remain detached. They still had to take out this ship too, because if the Goa'uld succeeded in attacking Earth, then Daniel's death would have been in vain. She may have failed in her promise to keep Daniel safe, but she would not fail his unborn child too.
Jack glanced at her, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. He knew that Daniel had been unable to hold his alcohol, as did Daniel, and was surprised that both the doctors let it go that far. He did not want to think about the conversation that he would have to have with Janet if they managed to make it back to Earth alive. It was also obvious to him that Sam was also hurting with the loss of her close friend, and he wished that he were able to offer the physical comfort he longed to give.
"Yeah." The word was softly spoken, but with his close proximity, he was able to hear her clearly. Daniel Jackson would be sorely missed, that much was certain. However, they had other things to deal with before they had a chance to mourn their lost friend.
And as much as he hated to admit it, Daniel soon became the last thing on his mind as the remaining members of SG-1 and Master Bra'tac fought for their own survival. Despite the elderly Jaffa being resigned to face his death, Jack wasn't prepared to die just yet, which was a testament to just how far he had come in two years. Daniel had helped him a lot with that, as had Sam in her own way in this last year. And now with Daniel's death, again, he was considering retirement - again. But unlike the false memories that had been implanted in his team's head earlier that year, there was surely no way that the young anthropologist would be able to survive the explosions from the C-4 if he hadn't been killed already by the Jaffa troops on the other ship. As the timer on the planted explosives counted down to the final second, and the death glider which he shared with Bra'tac was launched, Jack couldn't but help but be overwhelmed with the guilt of Daniel's death, even with their own impeding demise.
"Incoming wormhole," Sergeant Davis reported as Hammond rushed into the control room, with Lieutenant Colonel Samuels close on his heels. "It's SG-1's signal sir."
"Well open the iris and call a medical team to the gate room," Hammond ordered, preferring to be safe rather than sorry where his premier team were concerned. Beside him, Samuels just gaped at the fact that SG-1 was returning, for he had long given them up for dead.
However, only a solitary figure stumbled out of the gate, looking in much better condition than he normally did after returning from a mission. Doctor Daniel Jackson was the only one of the four who had managed to return, which, considering as he was the member most likely to be killed, or almost killed off-world was a great surprise to everyone in the control room. But Hammond wasn't ready to give up hope on the other three members just yet, as they had an uncanny knack of getting themselves out of a variety of situations.
The large blast doors at the side of the gate room opened, and Doctor Janet Fraiser all but ran through with a team of medical staff behind her. Even from up in the control room, the General could see the relieved smile that spread across the doctor's face as she took in the sight of SG-1's anthropologist. He hadn't realised that Janet and Daniel were that close, despite the amount of time that Daniel seemed to spend in the infirmary. Doctor Fraiser hadn't said anything about the paternity of the child she was carrying when she had informed him that she was expecting, and Hammond hadn't inquired, believing it to be someone from outside of her work.
However, her enthusiastic greeting of Doctor Jackson, which also involved the academic embracing the pregnant woman carefully made him wonder for a couple of seconds, before dismissing it out of hand. Daniel was only a part of this project to look for his missing wife; he wouldn't be fooling around with another woman, and anyway, Janet knew that he was married and he believed that it was highly unlikely that she would carry on an affair with a married man. Hammond just watched as Janet led Daniel away from the Stargate, and ignoring Samuels, started to head back to his office.
"Sir!" Davis exclaimed, a huge smile on his face as he turned to face the General. "We're receiving reports from all over the country about a huge fireball in the night sky." Hammond grinned, as the control room exploded with cheers and he patted Davis on the shoulder before changing his destination and heading towards the infirmary. SG-1 had saved the day; he only hoped that it wasn't at the cost of their own lives.
"God, Daniel, I really wish you didn't do things like that," Janet scolded him, as she finished drawing a sample of his blood. "Or you could have least told me first? How do you think I felt coming into work, and being told that you'd disobeyed orders and had gated to some obscure planet first thing that morning?"
"I'm sorry, Janet," Daniel said, putting pressure on the small puncture hole in his arm. "You have to understand that we couldn't tell anyone."
"I'm carrying your baby, Daniel," Janet reminded him. "I deserved a note or something, instead of hearing it from one of my nurses." She turned away, and bit her lip, as she wiped away the tears that had been accumulating in her eyes.
"I know. Next time..."
"There damn well better not be a next time, Doctor Jackson," Janet snapped, turning round to face him, her face pale. Although she had committed herself to raising this baby alone, she wanted Daniel to have a chance to get to know his son or daughter, and truth be told, she was scared, and wanted to know that he'd be nearby in case she ever needed him.
"Are you crying?" Daniel inquired, and Janet turned away again, muttering something about hormones. She was thankful that no one had seen her when she had first heard the news, for she had locked herself in her office to give her some time to get over the initial shock. She knew that she wouldn't have acted like she had been if she wasn't pregnant, but the fact was that she was, and she had to deal with it.
"Come here," he told her, and pulled her into his arms. "Don't worry. I'm here now, and I'm going to be here for you and the baby. I promise." He rubbed her back reassuringly, letting her release all her anger and fear as she cried silently on his shoulder. Daniel was the only one who had returned, and she was still worried as to the fate that had befallen the rest of SG-1. Only time would tell, as she was perfectly content to spend that time wrapped up in Doctor Jackson's strong arms, which seemed to be shielding her and their unborn child from any outside interference. She knew it wouldn't last, but that didn't matter. Now, and then, in the middle of the infirmary was all that mattered to her.
"Have you told Janet yet?" Sam demanded of Jack as the three remaining members of SG-1, plus Master Bra'tac headed towards the gate room, where General Hammond had requested they meet him after being cleared by the infirmary.
"No, I figured I'd rather tell her when she's not aiming needles at my ass," Jack replied, bitter at the fact that they'd been forced to endure physicals both at NASA and when they returned to the SGC. Both had involved too many needles for his liking, although he admitted he certainly preferred good ol' Doc Fraiser to the nameless Medusa look-a-like at Kennedy.
Sam smiled sadly. Being back at the SGC made Daniel's loss more apparent, and although she knew that she would be able to continue there without him, she just hoped that the General would let them have some time off to come to terms with their friend's death. Considering they had just saved the world, asking for time off was not unreasonable.
The guard stationed outside the blast doors swiped his pass to open them for the three team members, and Jack nodded in response as he and Sam led the two Jaffa through to the large room. They were greeted by thunderous applause, and looking round, Jack saw what looked like the entire base lining the walls, clapping.
With a large smile across his face, Hammond walked towards them, first addressing the elderly Jaffa. "Master Bra'tac, words can not express our gratitude."
"You are Hammond, of Texas?" Bra'tac inquired.
"I am."
"Your warriors serve you well," Bra'tac informed him, and Hammond smiled first at him, then at his team members.
"I know they will be sorry to see you return home so soon," he said.
"I must return, before word of our rebellion reaches Chulak. My place is there," Bra'tac informed them, nodding at Sam before grasping Jack firmly by the arms. No matter how harshly he may treat the human, he respected the officer greatly. Moving to Teal'c, words were not required, before one of the SGC officers escorted him out of the gate room, informing him that they just wanted to ask him a few questions.
Hammond watched him go, before turning back to face the three remaining heroes. "SG-1, there's someone who'd like to see you," he announced, stepping aside. Jack was confused, as the only people in the SGC who would had been waiting to see them would have been Hammond and Janet, and they had seen both of them. His confusion was cleared as the Airmen in front of him parted, and a very familiar figure moved out from behind them.
"Daniel," Jack could hear the smile and the relief in Sam's voice as the young anthropologist moved towards them. She embraced him, before Jack, despite being supposed to uphold military detachment hugged the younger man.
"Space Monkey!" he exclaimed in joy, before pushing him back and regarding him carefully. "I've got just one thing to ask you."
"Oh, I dragged myself to Klorel's sarcophagus, then used the gate on his ship to dial first to the Beta site using Earth's point of origin," Daniel explained, anticipating the question.
"That wasn't it," the colonel informed him, not having given the scientist's seemingly miraculous return from the dead a second thought.
"Oh," Daniel looked confused, as he couldn't think what else Jack wanted to know. "What did you want to ask then?"
"You knocked up the 'Doc?"
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