Chapter Text
And So it Begins
Two things decided her. Well, three but one was part of another. She had been horrified when she’d gotten out of the puddle jumper in front of herself, only to see herself shatter and disintegrate in entropic cascade. But why the original her and not the her now? Had returning meant the previous self was no longer the valid timeline?
Sam sighed. May as well get this over with. If she didn’t tell him now, he’d either find out because he wanted to attend the debriefing or by reading her report later and she really couldn’t do that to him. He was already going to be devastated.
“Jack...” she said tentatively. He was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. There were still a lot of details for him to hammer out with Hank and the Tok’ra.
“Wacha need Carter?” He said with a small smile for her until he saw her expression. “What’s wrong Sam?”
Sam sighed and sat on their bed.
“Carter…” He sat down next to her and took her hand in his. “Talk to me.”
“Oh Jack.” She sobbed and buried her face against his chest.
Jack wrapped his arms around her not knowing what was wrong. “I’ve got you.” He murmured into her hair and hugged her tightly.
After she’d calmed down some Jack kissed her gently. “All right. What was that all about?”
“Jack… I was pregnant.”
“Was as in… no longer…?” He said sadly. They had been trying before she left for Atlantis and had tried again but apparently she’d miscarried. His heart broke for her. He knew how much she’d wanted to give him another child.
Sam nodded miserably and it all came spilling out. His death, yelling for her to go through the gate without him… Cameron almost picking her up and dragging her through the Stargate to an alternative timeline, one where the Stargate never made it to the States, one where Sam had joined the space program, and died there, one where the alternate Jack who still had his son but who had slowly become bitter and cold anyway. How the depression and heartache had led to a miscarriage at the beginning of her second trimester. Holding the tiny body of the child they had made before burying her in a shoe box in the flower bed with the unfinished baby blanket she’d started for her. All of it.
He held her the whole time and when she’d finally told him all of it, he tilted her chin up. “Sam. It’s not the end of the world. I know this hurts. I’m glad you told me. You shouldn’t have to carry this by yourself.” He kissed her gently. “When you’re ready, if you still want to, we’ll try again, all right?”
She nodded sadly.
“Come on, let’s go see Hank and get this debriefing over with. We still have a snake to get rid of.”
“All right.” Sam said, sighing. Not sure if she could make the trip again, it had after all, proven fatal the last time.
“So when you came back you… the other you… succumbed to catastrophic entropic cascade?” Hank asked her.
“She knew what was happening to her.” Sam said sadly.
“Why the original Sam and not you though?” Hank asked bewildered.
“Because she is the original Sam.” Jack said.
“Huh?” Hank asked him.
“When she returned, she, quantumly speaking, was the original, so the Sam that was already here no longer had primary claim on this reality.” Jack looked at Sam for confirmation.
Sam nodded, then her eyes widened and she was stumbling to the wastepaper bucket where she promptly vomited.
“Sam!” Jack said alarmed and went to her. “Infirmary.” He ordered her.
Carolyn was holding the papers for Sam’s bloodwork. “Well… I’m reading this and I know what you told me but Sam… You’re pregnant.”
“But…” she started feeling a mixture of relief, confusion and complete joy. Alone in the alternative timeline she had gasped when the second pink line appeared confirming she was pregnant. How was she ever going to explain to her child that their biological father wasn’t in fact their father? The alternative Air Force had pounced on her when they saw she had checked into an ObGYN. Sam hadn’t mentioned anything of a personal life in their grilling interviews, who was the father? Was he alive in this reality? Did she intend on telling him, involving him, contacting him? She never breathed a word to them, none of them could be trusted with her husband's child.
“Okay, what’s going on here?” Jack asked.
“By the numbers, I’d say about four weeks along.”
“But that’s how far along I was before I…” Sam trailed off trying to figure out what happened. Her miscarriage had slipped her further into depression, had it not been for the alternative Jack, she was pretty sure she never would have survived the year of hell, never mind got back to her correct timeline.
“What if when one of you goes poof, it’s because you combine back into one person?” Jack said thoughtfully.
Sam looked at Jack. “I think you’re right.”
“I am?”
Sam nodded.
“Good thing we sent that other Sam home the first time. That could have gotten awkward.”
“Wasn’t she…”
“Yup.”
“Dad would have killed you.”
“Yup.”
Sam started to giggle. “Congratulations Jack.”
“For what?”
“You’re going to be a dad.”
Jack sat down with a woof. “I am.” He said, looking blown away.
As steep as the hills on the roller coaster of his day had gone, Jack was in for another blow to his reality.
“Carolyn… I had an ultrasound before my miscarriage. I saw the sonogram myself. There was only one baby.” Sam insisted. She’d planned to name her Janet and had felt like she’d doomed her daughter with that name. The other Jack had given his condolences about her loss but she was certain he’d been secretly relieved just as her Jack had been about Laira not getting pregnant.
“Well, it looks like quantum mechanics doesn’t care Sam.”
Jack was sitting in the corner scrubbing his face with his hand. Trying to wrap his brain about this latest turn. “Two of them.” He said. He’d have two little Sams. Suddenly he broke out in a huge grin. “I better start looking for a bigger house.”
Sam and Carolyn just looked at him rather comically. Carolyn holding the ultrasound wand in her hand while Sam lay on the examination table.
Carolyn looked at Sam. “Is this how he always is?”
“Well, usually his planning involves blowing things up but yes.”
Carolyn shrugged and laughed. “Let’s get you some baby pictures, Sam, then you guys can go home. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”
Sam put her hand on her still flat stomach. “One of many.”
“Two of them.” Jack murmured seemingly to himself. “Two mini Sams.”