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After Hammond and the rest of SG-1 had left the infirmary, Sam turned to her friend and regarded her critically.
"Are you okay Janet?" she asked, noticing how pale the other woman looked, and the dark circles under her eyes told of a number of sleepless nights.
Janet sighed, as she leant back against the nearest bed. "In a word, no," she replied, crossing her arms protectively across her stomach.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" Sam asked. "It's not Cassandra, is it?"
"Oh no, Cassie's fine," Janet assured her. "Struggling a bit with adjusting to the school and everything, but she's okay."
"What is it then?"
Janet just sighed again, and her gaze turned to her stomach. The slight swelling was not yet visible under her uniform, and so far, only Daniel, Cassie, General Hammond and Doctor Warner knew about her pregnancy. However, at five months along, she knew that it would not be much longer before people began to realise, as her stomach expanded further.
"I'm pregnant, Sam," she told her friend simply, one hand resting protectively on her stomach. "Five months along."
Sam's eyes widened. "Oh my God, Janet! And you didn't tell me?"
"Well, you were in hospital for almost half of that time, just after I found out," Janet replied, smiling slightly.
"Five months," Sam marvelled. "That means you must have got pregnant just after the incident with Hathor."
Janet looked embarrassed, even though Sam had yet to make the connection between the father and the date of conception. However, she knew that her friend was smart enough to figure it out soon enough.
"You didn't tell me you were seeing anyone," Sam remarked coyly, wanting to know about the man in her friend's life.
"I'm not."
Sam looked at her, working it all out. "Janet, please don't tell me Daniel's the father."
Janet shook her head sadly. "I can't do that, Sam. Daniel's the father. That night he drove me home, I invited him in for a drink to try and get him to talk about what happened with Hathor. One drink turned into another, and another until we ended up in bed together and you can guess what happened next. And now I'm expecting Daniel's baby."
Sam looked around for somewhere to sit, as the news sank in. "Does he know?"
Janet looked at her friend in horror. "Of course he knows," she replied indignantly. "I told him as soon as I found out."
"And he supports you in your decision to keep it," Sam confirmed, watching Janet nod.
"He asked me to marry him, because he doesn't believe in having children outside marriage," she informed her friend. "I refused because I want to marry for love, and he's still married to Sha're. I didn't want to get myself into another loveless marriage, and there may be a chance that the baby won't even survive."
Sam looked at her in horror. "What do you mean?"
"I've miscarried two babies," she told her sadly. "I don't even know if I can carry a child to full term. I could lose this baby any day."
Sam reached her arm out and pulled Janet close. "You'll be fine, Jan," she tried to reassure her friend, even though she knew that Janet knew more about the problems she faced than Sam ever would. "You're already half way there, so you're just going to have to make sure that you take it easy for the next few months."
Janet smiled weakly, and wiped away the tears that were beginning to form. "Yeah, just keep Daniel safe for me, won't you?"
"Promise," Sam assured her friend, although inside she wavered as she thought of the news that Daniel had brought back with him through the quantum mirror. If the Goa'uld were coming, then it was going to take a miracle to keep Daniel safe, along with everyone else.
Janet's lips trembled as she buried her head in Sam's shoulder and allowed her tears to fall freely. Here, with only the company of the woman she was closest to, she allowed herself to show weakness. At home, she had to be strong for Cassandra; at work, she had to be strong for everyone else.
"Oh Sam, I want this baby," she sobbed. "But I don't know if I can do it. I'm scared that I won't be able to cope with losing another child. I know I have Cassie now, and I love her, but she's not mine, and I want is something that's a part of me. I'm scared that I won't be able to do it by myself, because even though Daniel's going to want to be a part of this baby's life, there's the chance he's gonna get killed, or find Sha're and return to Abydos with her. I keep wondering how we could have been so stupid in the first place, but even if I could go back and change it, I'm not sure that I would. God, Sam, it's a baby. I'm going to be a mom to a tiny little baby."
Sam wrapped her arms around her friend, and tried to hush her, knowing that hysteria wasn't going to be good for the baby, especially with Janet's bad track record with her pregnancies.
"Could SG-1 please report to General Hammond's office." An impersonal voice announcing that Sam had to go made Janet lift her head, and smile tearfully up at the taller woman.
"You better go," she told her.
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Sam queried, knowing that she had to go, but not wanting to leave the petite CMO alone in this state.
"Fine," Janet assured her, wiping her red eyes. Sam didn't look too sure, but she couldn't ignore a summon from the General and so headed out of the infirmary.
She planned to return back to check on her friend after seeing what Hammond had wanted, but with the information that Senator Kinsey was to pay the SGC a visit, she was forced to return home to pick up her dress blues. Calling in on the infirmary when she returned to the mountain, she was glad to be told that Janet had gone home, and made a mental note to call her later. She also wanted to talk to Daniel soon, about what he thought of becoming a father, and ensuring that he was giving Janet the support she needed during the upcoming months.
Yet all thoughts of the doctor's pregnancy flew out of her head when Kinsey declared that he was shutting down the Stargate Programme, not believing that it was worth the expenditure. Not even Daniel's announcement that the Goa'uld were coming in ships was enough to sway his mind; instead for a few seconds Sam believed that Daniel was going to see his child grow up from the inside of a mental institute.
When the Senator had left the room, Sam just sat in the briefing room still, her mind racing. Teal'c wasn't even allowed to go home, and the closure of the gate also meant that Daniel would be unable to keep his promise to the Abydonians and return after one year. There was no hope for Sha're and Skaara now, and Sam wondered what was going to happen to her team and those she worked with now the project was closing down.
There was surely not much that Teal'c could do, as he was a security risk, and it was also likely that wherever Janet went, she'd be monitored because of the alien pre-teen she had adopted. The Colonel... Jack, would most likely retire again, Daniel would have to try and claw his way back into the academic world again, while she would go wherever the Air Force sent her. Colorado Springs was just beginning to feel like home, and she wondered about taking up a teaching position at the Academy. Maybe with her at the Academy, and with Colonel O'Neill retiring, they could explore the sexual undercurrent that had been there ever since their first meeting when she had offered to arm wrestle with him. She acknowledged that she had feelings for him, despite him being her CO. And based on the glances that she had caught him sending her way, and how uncomfortable he was when he was caught, he surely felt something towards her.
Daniel had left the room only seconds after the Senator, raging inside. He knew what he had seen, and if the Project was kept open then they had a chance at least of saving the Earth. Sha're was going to be lost for him forever, and now he would have to try and concentrate on keeping him, Janet and Cassie safe. When the Goa'uld came, they would attack the major cities from orbit, so they would have to find somewhere remote to live until something happened.... Daniel knew that he was deluding himself, and wished that they were able to dial up the gate one last time. Surely being a refugee and being alive was better than dying, or living under Goa'uld control? Even if he couldn't go through himself, Daniel just wanted to know that Janet and their unborn child were safe. There were a number of friendly planets they could dial up; perhaps even returning to Abydos after the year had elapsed.
Sitting in his lab, he looked around at all the artefacts that various SG teams had brought back, thinking what a cultural waste shutting down the gate was. Kinsey had ignored the idea that the SGC was to also explore the cultural and scientific value of each mission, for there they had achieved so much, including taking part in ceremonies that other anthropologists could only dream of. Sam's response when she had been properly attired in a Mongol tribe still brought a smile to Daniel's face at her indignation at the fact that she had to be dressed up, whereas the men had been fine in their BDUs. It was a taboo subject in her presence, as was their trip to P3X-595, and the time when she had been infected with the Touched virus. They were all, however, some of Jack O'Neill's favourite subjects, and Daniel had his own personal theories as to the pair of them, especially after his recent trip to the alternate universe where their counterparts had been engaged.
A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked up to see the rest of SG-1 file in. Jack began to speak in low, urgent undertones as soon as Teal'c shut the door behind them, and Daniel listened carefully. Although gating to the co-ordinates he had been given by Doctor Carter seemed suicidal, he realised that he preferred to take his chances trying to prevent the Goa'uld attack before they reached Earth. His child deserved a chance to be born and see the world, and Daniel was going to do his best to ensure that happened.
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