CHAPTER SIX
AH—THE JOYS OF PARENTHOOD
“Colonel, Sir, are you sure they are still on this planet? We haven’t seen any indication of any sort of trail anywhere.” The young lieutenant removed his field helmet from his head and wiped the sweat from his brow with the inside of his elbow. They had been searching all morning and afternoon. The sun would be going down soon and still no progress had been made in locating them. The two units of marines began to gather around to await further instructions.
“Yes, I am sure they are still on this planet. Exactly where, I don’t know, but they are here someplace and we are going to find them. I realize it will be dark soon, so we’ll break for camp and start again at dawn. Everybody hear that?”
“Yes sir.” They replied in unison and followed Colonel O’Neill back to the DHD to make camp.
* * * * * * * *
“Colonel O’Neill, may I speak frankly with you?” Teal’C stood next to Jack who sat next to a campfire drinking a cup of coffee.
“Yeah, sure, I know what you are going to say, but go ahead anyway and say it.”
“ It stands to reason the longer we go without finding them, the greater the chance they are no longer on this planet.” The light from the flames of the campfire danced on the Jaffa symbol on Teal’C’s forehead.
“I know, but I just have this gut feeling they are still here, and close by, but for some reason, we just can’t find them. But we will find them. Tomorrow. We will find them tomorrow.” Jack didn’t look as confident as his words sounded, but he didn’t care. His friends were out there somewhere, god only knows what’s happening to them, but they are out there and he will find them.
* * * * * * * *
“Push Daniel, we are almost there. Come on just one more push.” Sam couldn’t believe it when she got the call. Daniel was in labor and needed her. He was a week and a half early. When she arrived at his room, there hadn’t been time to move him to a labor room. It was happening to quickly. His external pouch had separated again and this time the baby wouldn’t wait.
They told her to help Daniel push, as he was quickly tiring. He needed her strength if he was to make it through this.
“I can’t, I don’t have the strength.” The exhaustion was showing in his voice.
“Yes, you can and you will. You are not going to let our baby die, do you hear me, now push, damn it push.”
“Alright, you don’t have to be a bitch about it.” And he did push and then collapsed. He smiled as the doctor told them they have a son, with good strong lungs. Then slept the sleep of one bone weary, with exhaustion.
Sometime later somewhere in the back of his mind, he swore he heard what he thought was a baby whimpering. But it couldn’t be, his wasn’t born yet. Could it be his roommates’ baby maybe? Yea, that’s it. It had to be. But wait a minute it’s getting louder as if it’s right next to him.
“Daniel, you have a visitor that wants to say hello. You want to open your eyes and see who it is?”
That sounded like Sam’s voice. But I’m still dreaming he thought; maybe, maybe not. Maybe I better open my eyes and find out. He slowly opened his eyes and found that he was lying on his right side. Next to him was a bundle of baby blankets and inside was the most adorable but smallest baby that he ever remembered seeing. The baby turned to him and smiled. Daniel looked up at Sam and asked whose baby it was. He was shocked when she replied, “It’s our baby that you gave birth to a couple of hours ago. Don’t you remember?”
“Our baby?” he questioned and felt his abdomen, which now was considerably flatter.
“I thought I dreamt the whole thing. My god I really did it. I made it through delivery. Man am I ever glad that’s over with!” Almost as an after thought he asked her “Our baby, what is it, boy or girl? ”
“Our baby is a he, William George Jack Teal’C Fraiser Jackson. Just like we wanted. To honor our friends, now he’s a little small, but Doctor Israel assures me that he’s alright.”
* * * * * * * *
“Your Highness, I have important news for you concerning Daniel.” Dr. Israel, tried to conceal the frightened tone from her voice. Fright, because she was unsure as to how the Queen would take the startling news.
“Yes doctor, what’s going on? Are there any problems?” Queen Le’Ana was frightened now all her plans would have to be put on hold, after all her hard work to get this far.
“ I regret to inform you that we were unsuccessful in stopping Daniel’s early labor.”
“Did Daniel or the child die?” Queen Le’Ana was frightened. Frightened that her plans were all in vain. This did not settle well with her at all.
“No my Queen. Daniel gave birth early this morning to his son. Both are doing well despite the early arrival. They will need to be kept here for at least two weeks to regain their strength and to insure there are no further complications. But, I feel all will be well with them.” Doctor Israel reassured her.
“Tell me doctor, when is the earliest he can impregnate him again?” Queen Le’Ana was pacing back and forth impatiently plotting and re-plotting her strategies.
“Your highness, you can’t seriously be considering jeopardizing his life like this so soon? It was a miracle he survived this time. We don’t know about the next.”
The doctor was appalled at what the Queen was suggesting. “It will take several months just for his pouch to heal and strengthen sufficiently to even carry another child. If we rush it he could hemorrhage to death. Not to mention lose the child in the process.”
“Nonsense, doctor, I have the greatest confidence in your capabilities. Please keep me posted on their progress.” She continued her pacing and to no one in particular she added, “So, even though the child was early, it still was strong enough to survive. Good, good, they do have stronger breeding males. We will just have to go ahead with our plans to acquire a few of them. Before long our stock will be well supplied again. And we will have the strongest territory on this planet once again.”
* * * * * * * *
“Well its good to see the two of you getting more acquainted.” Sam was leaning against the door jam of Daniel’s room watching him hold their baby. A smile was spread across her face as she watched the two of them bonding.
A nurse entered the room to check on their progress. Little William began to cry. Daniel did his best to calm him but he only persisted.
“I do believe your William is letting you know he’s hungry.” The nurse said to Daniel.
“Oh, OKAY, where’s the bottle?” Daniel asked her.
“We don’t allow bottle feeding unless breastfeeding proves unsuccessful. It’s better for the child.” The young nurse set the small tray down on the nightstand on Daniel’s right.
“Well Sam, here you go, let’s try it.” Daniel handed little William to her after she had moved closer to the bed.
“Daniel, I don’t have any milk. I would know if I suddenly had any milk, but I know positively that I definitely don’t have any milk.”
“What do you mean you don’t have any milk? You’re his mother and all mothers have milk for their kids.”
“Excuse me,” the nurse tried to interject.
“Like I said I should know if I have any milk and I can positively tell you that I don’t have any milk.” Sam didn’t know how to explain it any more plainly to Daniel.
The both stopped arguing when the nurse put up her hands and said, “Hold it everyone, I can solve this with a simple explanation.” The nurse then proceeded to open Daniel’s pajama top and shaved the excess hair off from around his nipples. She then took little William and placed him at his breast.
Daniel could only say, “No, no, no, no. You can’t be serious. This is a big joke right. Really where is the baby’s bottle?”
Sam was laughing her head off. It was the funniest sight she had every seen.
Little William just nursed contently, while holding one tiny hand over his father’s heart.
“This is the most adorable picture I have ever seen.”
“Just shut up Sam. How much more indignity can a guy endure? Cause I can tell you, that I am just about at my limit.”
“I think you have at least one more coming, because I think I can smell a desperate need of a diaper change from our little man.”
Daniel could only roll his eyes toward the ceiling as a smile came from little William and he closed his little eyes in a contented slumber.
“I think I’ll just leave the two of you alone to practice your diaper changing. I’ll be back later.” Sam handed Daniel a fresh diaper and giggled as she left the room.
* * * * * * * *
True to her word, Sam returned later that evening. She watched as Daniel tried to get William to burp, to no avail. He just wanted to yawn and stretch.
“Maybe he doesn’t need to burp, yet.”
“What do you know? The nurses said he should burp after every feeding. But all he does is yawn, stretch and occasionally pass gas and falls asleep.” Daniel looked frustrated just like Sam’s sister-in-law did after each of her children were born.
“I know because, I occasionally babysat for my brother. Not all babies need burping after every feeding. Don’t stress about it. Above all know that I will be with you every step of the way to help with our son. Taking care of an infant is very taxing. Remember, it’s the first for you, first for me, but together we can do it.”
“I love you Sam.” With his free arm, he hugged her. William let out a little squeal to let them know he was being squeezed in-between them.
“I love you too. I especially can’t wait to get you home again and make mad passionate love to you again.”
“As long as you don’t get me pregnant again anytime soon. I just couldn’t handle it.”
Daniel raised William up to his shoulder to try to burp him again. True to baby nature form, William let out a burp throwing up all over Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel then turned to Sam and handed over William to her and quietly replied. “I think I’ll go shower now.” Sam laughed so hard she nearly dropped their son.
* * * * * * * *
Later that night, Daniel lay in bed unable to sleep. The nurses had taken William to the nursery for the night.
“This is ridiculous, I should be sound asleep, getting my rest before they bring William to me in the morning, but I can’t sleep.” Daniel muttered to himself. Finally he climbed out of bed and walked over to the window and peered out. His room was on the sixth floor and out of the corner of his eye he spotted a door opening on the first floor. A cart with some type of bundles in it was exiting out to the courtyard. The peddler then pushed the cart over to the wall and pushed on one of the stone about a foot above his head.
“What the hell” Daniel whispered to himself as he watched the secret door open in the wall. The peddler then proceeded to exit out and push his cart into the forest.
“I don’t believe it, just how many people know about this secret passage?”
With that thought, Daniel grabbed his robe and walked out of his room and down the hallway. He was determined to figure out just which doorway let out to the courtyard and to the secret passage. He had to know just what was in that cart going into the forest in the middle of the night.
He made it down to the fourth floor when a nurse and one of Le’Ana guards stop him.
“What are you doing down here? You don’t belong on this floor. Don’t you belong on the maternity floor? I don’t think your doctor would want you out of bed like this, especially this late at night.” The guard had come out of nowhere blocking his path.
“I got lost looking for the nursery. I just wanted to check on my baby before I went to sleep. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.” Daniel hoped she believed his cover story; otherwise he didn’t want to think of the consequences.
“You will come with me back to the maternity floor now. I’ll just make sure you don’t get lost anymore.” The guard must have never learned to smile, because Daniel thought that she must enjoy being a hard-ass.
“Damn, I’ll not let this stop me. I’m going to figure this out no matter how long it takes.” Daniel thought as they walked back down the same corridor he had just been down.
* * * * * * * *
Sam enjoyed her visits to the hospital to see Daniel and William. There were always something funny happening between the two of them. On this visit she was surprised to see Daniel gathering his and the baby’s things. “What’s going on, planning an escape?”
“Sam, I’m glad you’re here. The doctor just left and said we can go home. We still have to take it easy for a while, but we get to go home. Isn’t that wonderful!”
“Yes it is. You get back into bed and I’ll find the doctor and get any final instructions and when I get back, I’ll do the packing. Stay put, don’t even think about moving from that bed.”
Daniel reluctantly did as he was told. He picked up the baby and held him in front of him and looked straight into his little face and said, “Well William if I didn’t know any better I would think that mommy is having a pms day. Unfortunately you are going to learn all about that as you grow up. Yes you will my little Willie boy. Don’t say daddy never warned you, either.” William just stared up at his dad and calmly passed gas.
“That’s my boy, regular as a clock.”
Sam returned a few minutes later with Doctor Israel. “I’ve received all the last minute instruction, so while you change your clothes, I’ll pack for you and we can be on our way.”
“Just remember what I said. Be sure to take it easy for a couple more days. Put your feet up when you are sitting down and if any sudden pain or unusual bleeding occurs get here as soon as possible. Now you’re free to go.” Dr. Israel smiled as she turned to leave the room and left them to their packing.
* * * * * * * *
William lay peacefully sleeping in his new crib. Sam slowly closed the bedroom door and turned to Daniel; she placed her hands on her hips and cleared her throat. “Aren’t you supposed to have your feet up like the doctor told you to do?”
“Alright already, I was just getting comfortable.” He raised his feet onto the ottoman in front of his chair. “Boy it sure is good to be home again.” “Home, but not truly our home or have you forgotten?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten, I just mean—.
“I know what you mean Daniel. It just gets to me that after all this time; I should have been able to get us out of here and back to our real home. Sleeping in our own beds, eating our own food. Wearing our own clothes. I’m sorry. It’s your first night back home and here I am depressing everyone.”
“Well I just might be able to cheer you up. I think I found us a way out of here.”
At this news Sam’s curiosity was highly peaked. Daniel continued, “When I was stuck in that hospital room for the last three weeks, I was totally bored out of my skull. No, the first week doesn’t really count because that was before William was born—.”
“Daniel, just get on with it please before you drive me crazy!”
“Well anyway, as I said I would get bored being stuck in bed all the time. I noticed at night there were fewer nurses and doctors running around. I would take little walks up and down the corridors, doing a little secret reconnaissance. A few times that I was caught, I told them I got lost looking for the nursery to check on my baby. I think they bought it. I did get lucky on the second to the last walk. I found a doorway that leads to the outside of the city. The mortician uses it to takes the bodies out of the city.
Don’t you see it’s a sign; we finally can get out of here! We’ll just pack what we can carry. And the three of us will just sneak out the door and out to the woods and out to the trail and back to the startgate before we’re noticed.”
“There’s one little problem with your plan Daniel, we still don’t know where the trail is. There is a mountain region that looks familiar, but I haven’t been as fortunate as you to be able to explore it. And just when do you expect us to be able to sneak down these corridors without being seen?” Sam asked as she quirked an eyebrow at Daniel.
“That would present a problem. Wouldn’t it. Give me a little time and I’ll have it figured out.”
* * * * * * * *
“Doctor, I understand that you have released Daniel from the hospital yesterday, is that true?” Queen Le’Ana glanced at her view screen, looking for any signs of deception from the doctor.
“Yes your Highness it is. I was going to inform you about it earlier this morning. It’s just I have been busy with deliveries and check-ups and the time just flew by.”
“I see. Well then, when do you plan on helping him be impregnated?”
“I want to talk to you about that. I still believe it’s too early. I don’t want to put any undo stress on his pouch. It could tear it apart.”
“Nonsense doctor wasn’t just a little over a year ago that one of your patients had a difficult pregnancy like Daniel’s and then turned around and became pregnant again only a month after giving birth, with the second pregnancy being completely normal. Is that not so doctor?”
“Yes it is, but every case is different. Daniel had more uncontrollable hemorrhaging than the other case.”
“Doctor you will do as I order, or you will be severely punished. I want it done no later than tomorrow night. The next time I hear from you, you had better be telling me it is accomplished.”
“Yes your highness. I completely understand, as long as you understand, that I will not be held responsible should anything happen to him.”
“ Don’t you threaten me doctor. Don’t you dare threaten me!” She was so enraged that the veins on her temples were threatening to burst.
The next evening, the doctor paid an unscheduled visit to Sam and Daniel. She gave Daniel a hypospray. She claimed his last test showed he was just slightly anemic; therefore she was giving the hypospray as a precautionary measure. Then she called the Queen to report her activities.
The doctor incensed at what the Queen was plotting decided that she would devise a plan of her own. She would inform the Eastern Territory of the Queen’s plot. She needed a way to contact the Eastern Queen, but how. If she used the telecommunicator, her transmission would be discovered and she would be put to death.
Then it came to her; she would send her concubine out into the area occasionally known to have been infiltrated by one or two Eastern Warriors. He could make contact and if caught by one of our own guards, he could say he got lost looking for a rare plant needed for a special medicine she was in dire need of.
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