Janet just stared at the piece of paper in front of her as her life fell down around her. She had double-checked the results, but it still said the same. She was pregnant.
“Damn,” she yelled in the privacy of her office. “Damn, damn, damn!”
At first when she realised that she was late, she thought that it was just the worry and the anxiety of Sam and Colonel O’Neill being missing, perhaps dead. Two days ago, Daniel and Teal’c had returned through the gate without their team-mates, although both agreed that there was no chance that the Colonel and Sam could not have entered the gate. They had sent a MALP through to the planet, but all it did was confirm that the two officers had indeed entered the gate, for they were no longer on the planet.
Daniel had been searching ever since she had released him from the infirmary, even though he was obviously struggling with the physics of the gate. That had reminded Janet of how Sam had struggled with the Egyptian mythology, when the entire male population of the base had been under the control of Hathor, a Goa’uld who had been discovered in a Mayan temple in Mexico.
And now, while he was coping with the loss of his two best friends, and still struggling with the abduction of his wife, she was going to have to tell him that he was going to be a father.
At first she had wondered how they could have been so stupid; after all, she was a doctor, and knew perfectly well that sex led to babies. But she had conceded that being drunk enough to actually have sex in the first place probably meant that contraception was most likely not in their train of thoughts. And as for the next morning, she had been more concerned about the pain from her injured arm, and her desire for pain meds as opposed to the morning after pill.
Sitting in her office, she knew that she had to tell Daniel, but she had no idea how. After the initial awkward conversation the morning after, they had never approached the subject again and she wasn’t so sure how to bring it up now. Sighing, she realised that it would probably be best to just tell him soon; get it over and done with. She briefly contemplated about not telling him until it was too late for her to get an abortion, but realised that he knew how much she loved children and hoped that he would stand by her decision to raise the child. As a doctor, and as a human being, she didn’t believe in abortion, and knew that she would never be able to give this baby away for adoption. Daniel would be able to have access to his son or daughter any time he wanted, but she wasn’t going to force him to pay for the child.
She found him in the briefing room, examining the star chart on the wall there. He looked terrible, she realised, and made a brief mental note to ensure that he ate something and got some sleep soon.
“Uh, Daniel, can I talk to you for a minute please?” she asked, almost hesitantly.
“I’m a big boy, I can look after myself,” he told her, not even turning around from the chart. “I’ll get some sleep later.”
“That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about,” Janet told him in a small voice, wishing that he didn’t always automatically see her as the doctor. It had been a couple of weeks ago since they sat on a park bench together, vowing to become better friends, but Daniel was still more used to seeing “Doctor Fraiser” than simply “Janet Fraiser.” Only Sam was beginning to see her as Janet first and doctor second, although she was fairly confident that after the news she was about to give Daniel, she would no longer just be his doctor.
He turned round to look at her in surprise, and Janet took in his haggard features, wishing that there was something more she could do to help him. If Sam and Colonel O’Neill were never found, she realised that it would take more of a toll on Daniel than if their bodies were found and brought back for burial. Never knowing if they had died when they were first recorded missing, or even if they lived stranded on another planet for years after, realising they could never come home, knowing that their GDO codes would have been locked out in case they had been captured, and released their codes under torture.
“What is it?” Daniel asked, taking off his glasses and polishing them as Janet looked nervously at the ground and then back up at him. “Janet, you know you can tell me anything.”
“Daniel, I’m pregnant,” she blurted out, not knowing how to soften the blow, or even if softening a blow like that was possible.
He just looked at her, shock playing across his face. “Pregnant?” he repeated. Janet nodded, looking at him nervously. Daniel ran his hand over the lower half of his face. “And I’m the father?”
Anger flashed briefly over Janet’s face as he questioned the paternity. “Of course,” she replied indignity. “I don’t sleep around you know.”
Daniel was horrified that she thought that he thought such a thing. “I didn’t mean that,” he assured her quickly. “I just wasn’t sure if you were seeing anyone else.”
Janet shook her head sadly, as she lowered herself into the chair at the top of the briefing table. “You’re the only person I’ve had sex with in almost a year,” she confessed. “I hate to disappoint you Daniel but you’re going to be a father.”
“Marry me.”
It was now Janet’s turn to be surprised. “What?”
“Marry me,” Daniel repeated. “I don’t believe in having children outside of marriage. Cassandra is different of course, because she’s adopted and it was special circumstances, but this is a baby that we’ve created together. Marry me Janet Fraiser.”
Janet shook her head slowly. “No Daniel, I can’t do that,” she replied. “You’re still married to Sha’re, and it wouldn’t be fair on anyone involved – you, me, her, Cassie and this baby would all be affected by it. So, no Daniel I won’t marry you. I’m not going to prevent you seeing the baby or anything – you’ll have full rights as it’s father, but I’d rather let this child grow up in two separate households than one which only exists because its parents made a mistake one night.”
Daniel sighed. “You’re right,” he told her, joining her at the table. “But we’ve got to figure out what to do with this baby once it comes. I mean, wow!”
Janet stood up and patted him on the arm. “We’ve got another few months to work things like that out Daniel,” she reminded him. “You just concentrate on keeping yourself alive until the baby is born, okay?”
And with that, she left the room, leaving Daniel sitting there still, trying to absorb the information that he was going to be a father.