What on Earth!

Well I feel as if I have not posted for years. This story has been a long time in the making, but that does mean it is complete so I will be posting regularly. For those who have not watched Sam in Atlantis, this is set just at the time she came back to earth. HOWEVER it is totally AU! Any more will give the game away. I really hope you enjoy it, feedback would be great.

Colonel Samantha Carter made quite a picture standing at the top of the ramp with the gate blinking out behind her. She'd informed the base the day before via Sheppard that she'd be arriving as scheduled, but everything was very, very different now that the reality of being on Earth had hit her. She looked around the familiar room, her eyes landing on all the features she remembered and the faces of the people she'd left behind almost a year ago. There was an unnatural silence in the normally bustling room.

Many people had obviously come to welcome her back. Richard Woolsey, from the IOA, was at the bottom of the ramp babbling about being her replacement as Commander of Atlantis. She simply shrugged; the entire topic was irrelevant now anyway. She looked up at the control room, unsurprised that all eyes were on her. She tried to smile weakly but failed. The grip of her left hand faltered and her holdall slipped to the floor. The grip of her right hand, however, stayed firm. She bent to pick up the bag when an SF moved from the bottom of the ramp.

"I'll get that, Ma'am."

"Thank you," Sam replied quietly. She slowly followed behind the SF, ignoring Woolsey who was now ordering the control room to dial Atlantis back. Good riddance was all that Sam could think before focussing on her own issues.

Sam noticed that slowly the room began to go back to the way it should be with people milling about but everyone stopped what they were doing as she passed, trying to sneak a peek at what the Colonel was holding. Sam slowly made her way through the blast doors and around to the control room. The talking that had started in the room abruptly stopped as she walked up the stairs. Sam shifted nervously from foot to foot, unsure of what to do next.

Sergeant Harriman was the first to speak. "Ma'am, General Landry said to meet him in the briefing room." He coughed self-consciously and desperately tried not to stare.

"Thanks, Walter. Sam tried looking him in the eye but her gaze skittered away. "Could you take my gear to my quarters?" She had no idea what to say to him.

"No problem, Colonel," Walter replied with warmth.

Sam took a deep breath, steeled herself, and walked up the spiral staircase. She hadn't really expected a major party when she got home as she knew her team was often off-world. But when she'd looked up earlier and seen the faces of her teammates she'd been happy. And, on reaching the top of the stairs, she wasn't surprised by the shocked looks that faced her.

"Hi, guys," Sam mumbled. This was a very different homecoming from what she'd expected even a few short weeks ago.

"Hi, Sam."

"Colonel Carter."

"Samantha!"

"Welcome home, Colonel Carter."

Daniel, Teal'c, Vala and Landry had all spoken at the same time with varying degrees of shock evident in their greetings. Cam had merely stared at her and waved weakly. But none of them took her attention more than the man she hadn't expected to see, the one who looked so imposing in his dress blues with two stars on the shoulders.

Major General Jack O'Neill was doing a very good job of remaining upright. He couldn't take his eyes off her. He'd decided on the spur of the moment to accompany Richard Woolsey to the SGC to officially oversee the change over for Atlantis but to also see his ex-2iC come girlfriend for the first time in nearly a year.

Jack had just made the flight, having moped in his office for over an hour before making the decision and calling his driver to make the dash to Andrews. It was a damn good job he was a high-ranking General and Captains who flew planes had to listen to him. He'd glared at Woolsey on entering the plane, defying him to say anything as to why Jack was making the unexpected trip from DC to the SGC. He'd fidgeted the entire time, having an internal argument about whether he'd made the right decision. He debated whether Sam would kill him for being there. Sure, they were in a relationship but it was one which, on her instructions, would never ever be in the same room as their ranks. Now, with one decision, he'd blown that order to hell; he'd used his rank to get to his girl even though he'd known she'd hate the entire plan. Having come to that realisation the rest of the flight had been an horrific experience with his stomach tying itself into knots while he tried to put on a complete mask of indifference for Richard Woolsey.

Now Jack was standing here facing her and, at some point between the plane and the SGC briefing room, the world had taken a complete seismic shift. Everything that he thought he knew, all that he'd based the last year of his life on and the hopes and dreams of his future, were sent spiralling because there in front of him stood a slightly dishevelled but positively glowing Carter and, in her right arm, held protectively, was a tiny baby.

Vala, who couldn't contain her curiosity any longer, stood and slowly walked towards her friend with the very unexpected surprise in her arms. Vala looked at the little face peeking out from an SG black top and her heart clenched in remembrance of her own little girl who had grown up so quickly.

"Is it a…" Vala couldn't finish the question, her throat constricted with emotion.

"She's a girl," Sam whispered back, understanding her friend's emotions more than anyone in the room could understand.

Vala reached into the black cocoon and stroked the little face she found there. Tiny hands immediately sprang out, clenched in a fist, as the tiny face screwed up and then settled down again. By the time Vala pulled her hand away Daniel and Cam had come over to see her.

"Sam, she's tiny," Daniel, ever the master of stating the obvious, observed.

Sam shrugged, still debating whether to make eye contact with the one man she hadn't expected to see, at least not yet.

"Is she… yours…?" Cam asked the question everyone else had been thinking but hadn't dared to ask, earning himself a slug on the arm from Vala.

Sam's voice escaped her when, just at the moment of answering the question, she caught Jack's eye. She nodded.

The force of that nod was like a tidal wave to Jack. He could do math like any other. Although those in the room did seem to be a little behind on this, he hadn't seen her for 11 months. This had to be another man's child and that was more than Jack's stomach could take. He turned and left the room.

Sam closed her eyes. The pressure she felt at that moment caused her knees to buckle and it was only Teal'c's quick reaction as he put his arm around her waist and escorted her to a chair that saved her from falling.

AN: So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, more to come very soon. Would love to know what you think but as always will not hold back the story for more reviews.