United We Stand - Part III
Chapter 5:
Sam walked into the house with her arms full of two grocery sacks and a small fake fir tree.
"Sam!" Daniel cried, hurrying over. "Let me get that."
"No, I got it," she murmured. "Just...close the door..."
He did so as she unceremoniously dumped the objects onto the kitchen table. "Thanks." She breathed as she started organizing the groceries she'd gotten so that she could put them away in the refrigerator.
"No problem. What's the tree for?"
"Well, I thought that Colonel O'Neill might want a little...Christmas decoration around. I don't have the time or the energy to pull out a huge Christmas tree and all of the trimmings, but...a little something might help him feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit."
"Ah."
"What?" She asked as she began moving the perishable food to the fridge. "You don't agree?"
"Uh, no...it's not that, I just..."
"I'm not trying to take the place of your Christmas festivities, Daniel." She promised. "As long as it's okay with Colonel O'Neill, you and Teal'c can come and do whatever you had planned..."
"You're not going to join us?"
"I'm not sure." She said, soberly. "It's...it's been quite a year, and frankly, I could probably use a little...alone time."
He nodded, slowly.
"But who knows?" She said, cheering up slightly as she finished putting away the food. "I may have a mood swing and change my mind."
He smiled, appreciatively.
"I'm going to ask the Colonel where he wants this." She said, picking up the small tree.
She walked down the corridor, hearing Jack's voice somewhat agitatedly.
"No. I'm fine." He paused for a moment, and Sam stopped where she was in the hallway, wondering whether to stay or go. "You don't need to come. I have people here who can help me."
Who did he know that would want or need to know about his paralysis? She asked herself, surprised.
"Just...promise you won't come down. Call everyday, write letters, email...but don't come down."
And why was he trying to hide from them?
She looked down at her belly with sudden understanding. She inhaled slowly as she returned to the kitchen. She set the tree back on the table with a small huff.
"Didn't like the tree?"
"What?" She asked, confused. "Oh...no. No. That wasn't it."
"What'd he do?"
"He's hiding me from someone. Probably Sara."
"Sara? He still talks to her?" He asked, surprised. "You'd think he'd mention something like that."
She raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? This is Colonel Jack O'Neill we're talking about..."
She inhaled as she reached for her car keys which she'd left on the table. "I need to go. Let me know if you need my help with anything."
He sighed as she walked out the door. "Sure. No problem..."
-
Chapter 6:
Sam leaned over the schematics for the "F-303", a large-scale space ship which would, hopefully, one day be capable of interstellar travel. That was, of course, assuming that she ever figured out how to create, from scratch or retroactively, a working hyperdrive.
She was years away from that now.
She looked over at the small desk calendar in an effort to give her mind a fresh thing to focus on. December 23rd. Her father was with Mark for the holiday; Janet had Cassie to keep her company when she wasn't at work; General Hammond had his two granddaughters, Tessa and Kayla; Daniel and Teal'c were with Colonel O'Neill right now...
She inhaled. And she was alone. In her science lab.
A soft kick from her unborn child reminded her that she wouldn't be so alone for much longer, and she tried to muster a small smile, but it fell almost as soon as it reached her lips.The phone on the wall rang, and she turned in her chair to reach for it. "Carter," she murmured in greeting.
"Sam, it's me, Daniel. They need me for a briefing and possible mission with SG-13. It's kind of urgent. Can you come and stay with Jack?"
She bit her lip. It had been three days since his conversation with Sara...or whomever else he was trying to hide her from. "I'm not sure..."
"Please, Sam...this is REALLY important."
She sighed. "All right. I'll be there in fifteen."
"Great!"
She hung up as she closed her eyes and shook her head. "What have I done?" She asked herself as she reached for her keys again.
-
She pulled into the driveway as Daniel hurried out of the house. "He's in his chair. Can you get him back into bed if I need to leave?"
She nodded. "We've managed a few times now. Go."
"Thanks." He said, hurrying into his driver's seat as she stood on the lawn for a moment.
She looked back at the open door and sighed softly. "Let's go, kiddo..."
She walked into the house, and Jack looked over from where he sat at the kitchen table, playing his GameBoy. "Hey."
"Hey." She said, closing the door behind her as she pulled her coat off and put it on the coat rack.
"What doohickey did Daniel pull you away from to babysit me?" He asked, absently.
"Sir..." She reprimanded, gently.
He sighed and dropped the handheld game console on the table. "What? You may not want to hear it, but that's exactly what you guys are doing. Babysitting me. Making sure I don't run into a problem that I can't handle on my own."
She clenched her teeth as she stood her ground.
"Someday you're all going to have to go back to your lives in the real world, and I'm going to have to do these things for myself anyway."
She looked at him evenly. "Are you finished?"
He looked up at her almost like a petulant child. "No. But I'll stop for now."
"First of all, sir," she began. "We're your friends. We want to support you through the transition."
He opened his mouth to speak.
"It's my turn, Colonel." She interrupted. "You gave me the floor."
He was silent.
"And secondly, we fully expect that one day you'll live your life independently again."
His eyes widened. "Really?"
She nodded. "But you were in the accident only two weeks ago. I don't care who you are, you can't make that big a leap that completely that quickly."
He opened his mouth to respond before he closed his mouth, recognizing the truth of her words. He sighed, dejectedly. "Sorry, Carter. Guess I was just...feeling sorry for myself..."
"I noticed." She said, wryly.
"Thanks for pulling me out of it."
"No problem, sir."
He looked over at her, then down to her stomach, and back up at her. "Uh...how you been? Haven't seen you for a few days."
"I've been fine." She said, unwilling to discuss everything about her last few days with him. "Just busy. The Pentagon wants me to work on some schematics for a ship."
"A ship?" He asked, surprised.
She nodded. "One capable of interstellar travel."
His eyes widened. "Seriously?"
She raised an eyebrow. "You think I'd make it up?"
"Well, no, but..."
"It's okay, sir." She said, sitting down beside him somewhat wearily. "I find it hard to believe sometimes, too."
They were silent for a moment as she exhaled slowly and ran her fingers over her belly. Finally, she looked over at him. "So...I take it that your medical discharge papers came today?"
He looked over, somewhat surprised. "What makes you say..."
"You rarely feel sorry for yourself, sir." She interrupted.
He sighed as he finally answered her question. "Yeah."
"Sorry to hear it, sir."
"Well, I guess all those years of the guys ribbing me that I'd do anything to get out of a day's work is right..."
She looked at him as her brow furrowed incredulously. "Are you serious, sir? You love your job."
"I don't HAVE a job anymore, Carter." He said, leaning in to look at her. "I have a pension. I have veteran's benefits."
"Sir..."
"It's true." He said, interrupting her. "And nothing you can do or say can change that."
She inhaled sharply, studying him for a moment before she exhaled softly. "I...I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"If you hadn't been trying to give me space between me and my dad..."
"Hey." He interrupted, wheeling closer to her. He reached her as she looked down at her hands which were clasped around her belly. He leaned forward as much as he could and gently turned her head so that she had to face him. "It's not your fault."
She turned teary eyes to him. "Yes, it is, sir. It's my fault you're in that wheelchair. If I had just gone home with my dad, you wouldn't have been on that road at that time..."
"Stop that." He chided, seriously. "If it was anyone's fault, it was that jerk drunk driver."
Her eyes were wide and vulnerable. "I don't know what I would have done..."
A knock on the door interrupted her thought, and she sighed. "I'll get it." She murmured, standing as she wiped at her eyes.
He wheeled softly behind her as she walked the few steps from the kitchen table to the front door.
She looked in the peephole before pulling away somewhat surprised.
"What?" He asked, looking up at her. "Who is it?"
"I don't know." She said, looking over. "It's a woman. And she's got a big suitcase with her..."
His eyebrows shot up in surprise as she reached for the doorknob. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "No, wait! That's my..."
The damage was done as Sam finished opening the door to reveal a five-foot tall woman with short, spiked white hair. She wore a heavy white coat on top of a maroon sweatsuit. By her side was a brown and black colored German shepherd who sat beside her large roll-aboard suitcase.
"...Mom." Jack finished with a barely audible groan.
The woman pushed her sunglasses up onto her head as she openly gawked at Sam.
Suddenly, she wished that the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
Finally, she looked back at Jack. "You have some explaining to do, Jonathan."
"Major Carter, can you take the dog for a walk while I talk to my mom?" He asked after a moment.
"Yes, sir." She said, reaching for the dog's leash.
Jack's mother pulled the leash back, protectively. "Not until I get a straight answer from you, Jonathan Jacob O'Neill."
Sam turned a questioning eye to her commanding officer. His middle name was the same as her father's first name?
He inhaled in irritation. "I am forty-eight years old, Ma. I do NOT need to explain everything to you." He turned back to Sam. "Take the dog, Carter."
She reached once more for the leash, and the older woman threw her a glare. "Don't you dare."
"I'm under orders, ma'am." She tried to reason.
"And I'm your commanding officer's mother. You can disregard his orders on my authority." She turned back to Jack. "Now. Who is this woman?"
Jack sighed as he looked back up at Sam. "Major Samantha Carter, this is my mother, Margaret O'Neill. Ma, this is my second-in-command, Major Samantha Carter."
Sam looked over at the seventy-year-old woman, managing a nervous smile as she extended her hand in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
She received nothing but a curt nod from the woman, who turned back to her son. "General Hammond informed me of your accident - nice man, by the way." She glared at Sam. "Has very nice manners."
Sam flushed at the pointed remark.
"I told you not to come out here, Ma."
"I bought the ticket the moment I heard you were in an accident. I couldn't every well stay home and lose my $300."
"I don't need your help, Ma. I have a team which has helped out a lot."
"Who? This...girl?"
Sam winced at the thought of being referred to as a girl. She was almost thirty-five and pregnant. Not a Catholic school girl anymore.
"Honestly, Jonathan, you can do so much better..."
"Than my second-in-command?" He pressed. "There are regulat..."
"Oh, she's pretty, but...what you need right now is family. Not someone like her."
"Someone like her..." Jack drawled, slowly.
Sam wished she'd been able to take the dog and leave.
"You mean, someone who's patched me up more times than a field medic? Someone who installed working ramps in my house so that I could come home and not spend the next few weeks in a hospital or in someone else's house?" He asked, steadily. "She spends every moment she's not on base here taking care of me when she could be at home, restoring her motorcycle."
Sam grimaced. The motorcycle probably wouldn't win any points with his mother...
"She is a Major in the Air Force with a PhD in Astrophysics. She has more important things to do than baby-sit me. Like looking after herself for the next few months until she has her baby. But, instead, she leaves her temporary desk job exactly at five o'clock to take care of me." He looked his mother in the eyes with a steely gaze. "And if it wasn't for Samantha Carter, I would have been dead a long time ago. She's pulled my ass out of the fire more times than you could even imagine, and done things you couldn't even begin to understand for this country, and even for the world."
Sam swallowed. "Maybe I should...go..." She finally murmured in the heart of the awkward silence.
"Stay." Margaret murmured, only looking at her for a moment before she returned her gaze back to her son. "You obviously mean a great deal to my son."
Sam tensed.
"Besides, I don't know the routine. It will take me a few days to get the hang of things."
Sam nodded slowly. "Yes, ma'am."
"My friends call me "Meg"." She corrected.
Sam swallowed. "Friends, ma'am?"
"If he's telling the truth..." She said, her eyes flickering over to where Jack sat in his wheelchair. "Then I owe you his life. That's enough to make anyone my friend."
She managed a sober smile. "Thank you...Meg..."
"Now. What plans have you made for Christmas?" She asked, looking back over at her son.
-
"Carter," Jack murmured as she helped him get into bed that evening.
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry about my mother. She makes these...snap judgments..."
"It's okay." She said with a small smile as she got him settled. "She only does it because she loves you."
"Yeah, well...it's annoying as hell."
She laughed softly as she pulled the covers over his legs carefully. "You're very much like her."
"What? Me?"
She nodded in amusement. "Yeah."
"Okay...maybe a...little..." He admitted.
She gently pushed the wheelchair into position in case he needed to get himself into it during the night. Then, she looked over at him. "I guess...I'm headed home, sir."
She turned to leave, feeling his hand grasp around her wrist as he gently pulled her back. She turned back to face him. "Sir?"
"Sit and talk to me for a while?" He asked, softly.
She looked into his brown eyes and sensed a vulnerability that she'd never truly seen in them. Her heart leapt into her throat as she nodded.
He painstakingly scooted himself further toward the center of the bed to make a place for her before he patted the bed beside himself.
She wordlessly sat beside him.
"Sam..."
She turned to look at him. "Yeah?"
"Maybe it sounds crazy, but...I remember fighting for my life...after the crash..."
She didn't respond, only studied him with understanding eyes as she listened carefully.
"I wanted to see this baby...our baby...grow up." He swallowed, thickly. "Like...like I should have been able to watch Charlie grow up."
Sam closed her eyes as she thought of the child he'd lost only a handful of years before. She opened them again as she felt a tender hand touch her belly. She looked down to see Jack's hand, and she followed his arm to his face, questioningly.
"You might be confused because of Martouf and our...complicated relationship, and I might be confused because of Charlie and this paralysis, but the truth of it is that we're having a kid together. And regardless of whatever else comes our way...I want you to know I'm going to be there for our kid."
She swallowed as she offered him a small smile. "I know you will. I've always known you would be. It's part of your nature. You can't just wish that away."
"Sam?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. Why don't you stay here tonight?"
She already had a drawer with a change of clothes, underwear, cosmetics and pajamas here in case she had to hurry from the base to take care of him. She could stay...
"What about your mom? Isn't she in the guest room?"
"My mother likes you."
She raised an eyebrow. "I know I said I understood, but I don't think she likes me very much."
He chuckled. "When my mother says that her friends call her "Meg", what she means is that the people she likes can call her "Meg". To the rest of the world, she's "Margaret" or "Mrs. O'Neill"."
"I could have sworn she hated me."
He shook his head. "No, she's just that abrasive."
Sam smiled. "Truth be told, I wasn't sure you liked me for a while..."
"Yeah. I recall saying something to the effect of adoring you already?"
She grinned as she nodded. "Yep. Before you pushed me through the Gate."
His smile faded slowly as he thought about what he'd lost.
"I'd be happy to stay," Sam said, standing. "And the couch will be.."
"There's space here, Carter." He interrupted, shaking his depression from his thoughts as he patted the empty half of the bed beside him. "If you want it."
She took the opportunity to study him for a moment before she nodded. "Sure."
Sam walked into the house with her arms full of two grocery sacks and a small fake fir tree.
"Sam!" Daniel cried, hurrying over. "Let me get that."
"No, I got it," she murmured. "Just...close the door..."
He did so as she unceremoniously dumped the objects onto the kitchen table. "Thanks." She breathed as she started organizing the groceries she'd gotten so that she could put them away in the refrigerator.
"No problem. What's the tree for?"
"Well, I thought that Colonel O'Neill might want a little...Christmas decoration around. I don't have the time or the energy to pull out a huge Christmas tree and all of the trimmings, but...a little something might help him feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit."
"Ah."
"What?" She asked as she began moving the perishable food to the fridge. "You don't agree?"
"Uh, no...it's not that, I just..."
"I'm not trying to take the place of your Christmas festivities, Daniel." She promised. "As long as it's okay with Colonel O'Neill, you and Teal'c can come and do whatever you had planned..."
"You're not going to join us?"
"I'm not sure." She said, soberly. "It's...it's been quite a year, and frankly, I could probably use a little...alone time."
He nodded, slowly.
"But who knows?" She said, cheering up slightly as she finished putting away the food. "I may have a mood swing and change my mind."
He smiled, appreciatively.
"I'm going to ask the Colonel where he wants this." She said, picking up the small tree.
She walked down the corridor, hearing Jack's voice somewhat agitatedly.
"No. I'm fine." He paused for a moment, and Sam stopped where she was in the hallway, wondering whether to stay or go. "You don't need to come. I have people here who can help me."
Who did he know that would want or need to know about his paralysis? She asked herself, surprised.
"Just...promise you won't come down. Call everyday, write letters, email...but don't come down."
And why was he trying to hide from them?
She looked down at her belly with sudden understanding. She inhaled slowly as she returned to the kitchen. She set the tree back on the table with a small huff.
"Didn't like the tree?"
"What?" She asked, confused. "Oh...no. No. That wasn't it."
"What'd he do?"
"He's hiding me from someone. Probably Sara."
"Sara? He still talks to her?" He asked, surprised. "You'd think he'd mention something like that."
She raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? This is Colonel Jack O'Neill we're talking about..."
She inhaled as she reached for her car keys which she'd left on the table. "I need to go. Let me know if you need my help with anything."
He sighed as she walked out the door. "Sure. No problem..."
-
Chapter 6:
Sam leaned over the schematics for the "F-303", a large-scale space ship which would, hopefully, one day be capable of interstellar travel. That was, of course, assuming that she ever figured out how to create, from scratch or retroactively, a working hyperdrive.
She was years away from that now.
She looked over at the small desk calendar in an effort to give her mind a fresh thing to focus on. December 23rd. Her father was with Mark for the holiday; Janet had Cassie to keep her company when she wasn't at work; General Hammond had his two granddaughters, Tessa and Kayla; Daniel and Teal'c were with Colonel O'Neill right now...
She inhaled. And she was alone. In her science lab.
A soft kick from her unborn child reminded her that she wouldn't be so alone for much longer, and she tried to muster a small smile, but it fell almost as soon as it reached her lips.The phone on the wall rang, and she turned in her chair to reach for it. "Carter," she murmured in greeting.
"Sam, it's me, Daniel. They need me for a briefing and possible mission with SG-13. It's kind of urgent. Can you come and stay with Jack?"
She bit her lip. It had been three days since his conversation with Sara...or whomever else he was trying to hide her from. "I'm not sure..."
"Please, Sam...this is REALLY important."
She sighed. "All right. I'll be there in fifteen."
"Great!"
She hung up as she closed her eyes and shook her head. "What have I done?" She asked herself as she reached for her keys again.
-
She pulled into the driveway as Daniel hurried out of the house. "He's in his chair. Can you get him back into bed if I need to leave?"
She nodded. "We've managed a few times now. Go."
"Thanks." He said, hurrying into his driver's seat as she stood on the lawn for a moment.
She looked back at the open door and sighed softly. "Let's go, kiddo..."
She walked into the house, and Jack looked over from where he sat at the kitchen table, playing his GameBoy. "Hey."
"Hey." She said, closing the door behind her as she pulled her coat off and put it on the coat rack.
"What doohickey did Daniel pull you away from to babysit me?" He asked, absently.
"Sir..." She reprimanded, gently.
He sighed and dropped the handheld game console on the table. "What? You may not want to hear it, but that's exactly what you guys are doing. Babysitting me. Making sure I don't run into a problem that I can't handle on my own."
She clenched her teeth as she stood her ground.
"Someday you're all going to have to go back to your lives in the real world, and I'm going to have to do these things for myself anyway."
She looked at him evenly. "Are you finished?"
He looked up at her almost like a petulant child. "No. But I'll stop for now."
"First of all, sir," she began. "We're your friends. We want to support you through the transition."
He opened his mouth to speak.
"It's my turn, Colonel." She interrupted. "You gave me the floor."
He was silent.
"And secondly, we fully expect that one day you'll live your life independently again."
His eyes widened. "Really?"
She nodded. "But you were in the accident only two weeks ago. I don't care who you are, you can't make that big a leap that completely that quickly."
He opened his mouth to respond before he closed his mouth, recognizing the truth of her words. He sighed, dejectedly. "Sorry, Carter. Guess I was just...feeling sorry for myself..."
"I noticed." She said, wryly.
"Thanks for pulling me out of it."
"No problem, sir."
He looked over at her, then down to her stomach, and back up at her. "Uh...how you been? Haven't seen you for a few days."
"I've been fine." She said, unwilling to discuss everything about her last few days with him. "Just busy. The Pentagon wants me to work on some schematics for a ship."
"A ship?" He asked, surprised.
She nodded. "One capable of interstellar travel."
His eyes widened. "Seriously?"
She raised an eyebrow. "You think I'd make it up?"
"Well, no, but..."
"It's okay, sir." She said, sitting down beside him somewhat wearily. "I find it hard to believe sometimes, too."
They were silent for a moment as she exhaled slowly and ran her fingers over her belly. Finally, she looked over at him. "So...I take it that your medical discharge papers came today?"
He looked over, somewhat surprised. "What makes you say..."
"You rarely feel sorry for yourself, sir." She interrupted.
He sighed as he finally answered her question. "Yeah."
"Sorry to hear it, sir."
"Well, I guess all those years of the guys ribbing me that I'd do anything to get out of a day's work is right..."
She looked at him as her brow furrowed incredulously. "Are you serious, sir? You love your job."
"I don't HAVE a job anymore, Carter." He said, leaning in to look at her. "I have a pension. I have veteran's benefits."
"Sir..."
"It's true." He said, interrupting her. "And nothing you can do or say can change that."
She inhaled sharply, studying him for a moment before she exhaled softly. "I...I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"If you hadn't been trying to give me space between me and my dad..."
"Hey." He interrupted, wheeling closer to her. He reached her as she looked down at her hands which were clasped around her belly. He leaned forward as much as he could and gently turned her head so that she had to face him. "It's not your fault."
She turned teary eyes to him. "Yes, it is, sir. It's my fault you're in that wheelchair. If I had just gone home with my dad, you wouldn't have been on that road at that time..."
"Stop that." He chided, seriously. "If it was anyone's fault, it was that jerk drunk driver."
Her eyes were wide and vulnerable. "I don't know what I would have done..."
A knock on the door interrupted her thought, and she sighed. "I'll get it." She murmured, standing as she wiped at her eyes.
He wheeled softly behind her as she walked the few steps from the kitchen table to the front door.
She looked in the peephole before pulling away somewhat surprised.
"What?" He asked, looking up at her. "Who is it?"
"I don't know." She said, looking over. "It's a woman. And she's got a big suitcase with her..."
His eyebrows shot up in surprise as she reached for the doorknob. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "No, wait! That's my..."
The damage was done as Sam finished opening the door to reveal a five-foot tall woman with short, spiked white hair. She wore a heavy white coat on top of a maroon sweatsuit. By her side was a brown and black colored German shepherd who sat beside her large roll-aboard suitcase.
"...Mom." Jack finished with a barely audible groan.
The woman pushed her sunglasses up onto her head as she openly gawked at Sam.
Suddenly, she wished that the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
Finally, she looked back at Jack. "You have some explaining to do, Jonathan."
"Major Carter, can you take the dog for a walk while I talk to my mom?" He asked after a moment.
"Yes, sir." She said, reaching for the dog's leash.
Jack's mother pulled the leash back, protectively. "Not until I get a straight answer from you, Jonathan Jacob O'Neill."
Sam turned a questioning eye to her commanding officer. His middle name was the same as her father's first name?
He inhaled in irritation. "I am forty-eight years old, Ma. I do NOT need to explain everything to you." He turned back to Sam. "Take the dog, Carter."
She reached once more for the leash, and the older woman threw her a glare. "Don't you dare."
"I'm under orders, ma'am." She tried to reason.
"And I'm your commanding officer's mother. You can disregard his orders on my authority." She turned back to Jack. "Now. Who is this woman?"
Jack sighed as he looked back up at Sam. "Major Samantha Carter, this is my mother, Margaret O'Neill. Ma, this is my second-in-command, Major Samantha Carter."
Sam looked over at the seventy-year-old woman, managing a nervous smile as she extended her hand in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
She received nothing but a curt nod from the woman, who turned back to her son. "General Hammond informed me of your accident - nice man, by the way." She glared at Sam. "Has very nice manners."
Sam flushed at the pointed remark.
"I told you not to come out here, Ma."
"I bought the ticket the moment I heard you were in an accident. I couldn't every well stay home and lose my $300."
"I don't need your help, Ma. I have a team which has helped out a lot."
"Who? This...girl?"
Sam winced at the thought of being referred to as a girl. She was almost thirty-five and pregnant. Not a Catholic school girl anymore.
"Honestly, Jonathan, you can do so much better..."
"Than my second-in-command?" He pressed. "There are regulat..."
"Oh, she's pretty, but...what you need right now is family. Not someone like her."
"Someone like her..." Jack drawled, slowly.
Sam wished she'd been able to take the dog and leave.
"You mean, someone who's patched me up more times than a field medic? Someone who installed working ramps in my house so that I could come home and not spend the next few weeks in a hospital or in someone else's house?" He asked, steadily. "She spends every moment she's not on base here taking care of me when she could be at home, restoring her motorcycle."
Sam grimaced. The motorcycle probably wouldn't win any points with his mother...
"She is a Major in the Air Force with a PhD in Astrophysics. She has more important things to do than baby-sit me. Like looking after herself for the next few months until she has her baby. But, instead, she leaves her temporary desk job exactly at five o'clock to take care of me." He looked his mother in the eyes with a steely gaze. "And if it wasn't for Samantha Carter, I would have been dead a long time ago. She's pulled my ass out of the fire more times than you could even imagine, and done things you couldn't even begin to understand for this country, and even for the world."
Sam swallowed. "Maybe I should...go..." She finally murmured in the heart of the awkward silence.
"Stay." Margaret murmured, only looking at her for a moment before she returned her gaze back to her son. "You obviously mean a great deal to my son."
Sam tensed.
"Besides, I don't know the routine. It will take me a few days to get the hang of things."
Sam nodded slowly. "Yes, ma'am."
"My friends call me "Meg"." She corrected.
Sam swallowed. "Friends, ma'am?"
"If he's telling the truth..." She said, her eyes flickering over to where Jack sat in his wheelchair. "Then I owe you his life. That's enough to make anyone my friend."
She managed a sober smile. "Thank you...Meg..."
"Now. What plans have you made for Christmas?" She asked, looking back over at her son.
-
"Carter," Jack murmured as she helped him get into bed that evening.
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry about my mother. She makes these...snap judgments..."
"It's okay." She said with a small smile as she got him settled. "She only does it because she loves you."
"Yeah, well...it's annoying as hell."
She laughed softly as she pulled the covers over his legs carefully. "You're very much like her."
"What? Me?"
She nodded in amusement. "Yeah."
"Okay...maybe a...little..." He admitted.
She gently pushed the wheelchair into position in case he needed to get himself into it during the night. Then, she looked over at him. "I guess...I'm headed home, sir."
She turned to leave, feeling his hand grasp around her wrist as he gently pulled her back. She turned back to face him. "Sir?"
"Sit and talk to me for a while?" He asked, softly.
She looked into his brown eyes and sensed a vulnerability that she'd never truly seen in them. Her heart leapt into her throat as she nodded.
He painstakingly scooted himself further toward the center of the bed to make a place for her before he patted the bed beside himself.
She wordlessly sat beside him.
"Sam..."
She turned to look at him. "Yeah?"
"Maybe it sounds crazy, but...I remember fighting for my life...after the crash..."
She didn't respond, only studied him with understanding eyes as she listened carefully.
"I wanted to see this baby...our baby...grow up." He swallowed, thickly. "Like...like I should have been able to watch Charlie grow up."
Sam closed her eyes as she thought of the child he'd lost only a handful of years before. She opened them again as she felt a tender hand touch her belly. She looked down to see Jack's hand, and she followed his arm to his face, questioningly.
"You might be confused because of Martouf and our...complicated relationship, and I might be confused because of Charlie and this paralysis, but the truth of it is that we're having a kid together. And regardless of whatever else comes our way...I want you to know I'm going to be there for our kid."
She swallowed as she offered him a small smile. "I know you will. I've always known you would be. It's part of your nature. You can't just wish that away."
"Sam?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. Why don't you stay here tonight?"
She already had a drawer with a change of clothes, underwear, cosmetics and pajamas here in case she had to hurry from the base to take care of him. She could stay...
"What about your mom? Isn't she in the guest room?"
"My mother likes you."
She raised an eyebrow. "I know I said I understood, but I don't think she likes me very much."
He chuckled. "When my mother says that her friends call her "Meg", what she means is that the people she likes can call her "Meg". To the rest of the world, she's "Margaret" or "Mrs. O'Neill"."
"I could have sworn she hated me."
He shook his head. "No, she's just that abrasive."
Sam smiled. "Truth be told, I wasn't sure you liked me for a while..."
"Yeah. I recall saying something to the effect of adoring you already?"
She grinned as she nodded. "Yep. Before you pushed me through the Gate."
His smile faded slowly as he thought about what he'd lost.
"I'd be happy to stay," Sam said, standing. "And the couch will be.."
"There's space here, Carter." He interrupted, shaking his depression from his thoughts as he patted the empty half of the bed beside him. "If you want it."
She took the opportunity to study him for a moment before she nodded. "Sure."