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Casey cursed the day that she had suggested that they put a coffeemaker in his office. She really needed to make a phone call, and there was no excuse to get him out of the office so she could do it. She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed a sigh. Adjoining bathroom took that little excuse away, so it wasn’t going to be easy for her to get out, either. Damn! Why couldn’t he just go over to the Center like he did most days? She shifted in her chair. Sighed again. Maybe…

He glanced over at her. Something was wrong. She was plainly irritated about something. He frowned, tried to recall if he had said or done anything that would have upset her. Nope. Couldn’t think of a thing. Not that that meant anything.

"Daniel, I’m going to go see what Sam is up to," she said, jumping to her feet.

Uh oh. Going to talk to the girlfriend. Yep, he’d pissed her off, all right. Now he just had to figure out what it was he had done. "Sure, babe. Uh…is there anything wrong?"

She started, looked at him. "No, nothing is wrong," she replied. Surely he doesn't suspect!

He pushed his chair away from the worktable, stood to his feet and pulled her close for a hug. "Are you sure? Did I…do something?"

She looked up at him, saw the frown on his face. You did something, all right, she thought, barely containing her giggle. You knocked me up again! "I’m sure, Sweetheart. There is nothing wrong."

Okay, now he was confused. There most certainly was something wrong, he'd been married long enough to pick up on that! But the look in her eyes…she looked like she was trying to keep from laughing! What the hell was going on?

"Sweetheart, I need to talk to Sam…it’s about…Christmas," she said, finally allowing herself to giggle before she exploded.

Christmas! That holiday was only ten days away. Okay, yeah, that made sense! He grinned. "Okay, go talk to Sam. Share all your giggly little secrets."

She slid her hands into the back pockets of his Dockers and squeezed. "Any secrets you want to share with me? Christmas ones, I mean."

He grinned, leaned down to whisper in her ear, almost laughing out loud at the look of excitement that filled her eyes. "No."

She squeezed again. "Cruel, Doctor Jackson. Very cruel."

He gave into to the laughter. "Babe, how many years have we been married?"

"Seven and a half.  Almost fifty-one, if we count our 'memories'."

"Have I ever told you what you were getting for Christmas?"

"Nope. But hope springs eternal!"

"Not gonna happen. Go talk to Sam."

She leaned up to kiss him, losing herself in the sensations that he gave her for a few short minutes. "I…uh…think I’d better go talk to Sam," she whispered. The Fire was burning in her, moving up and down her spine, creating a familiar ache between her thighs.

"I think you better, too," he whispered in reply. It would take him awhile to regain control over the Fire that was raging through him.

"Love you," she smiled.

"Love you, too, Angel."

She pulled away from him, but not before kissing him once more, then hurried out the door.

He grinned as he watched her leave. She was as turned on, was burning as hot as he was. Which meant she’d be taking him to paradise when they got home. His grin widened, then he settled back down at his worktable and tried to force his mind back to the translation he had been working on.

A  A  A  A  A  A

She walked into Sam’s lab, just in time to see the tall blonde coming out of the restroom, looking pale. "Sam, are you okay?"

"Must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me," the colonel said, shaking her head. "Although for the life of me I can’t think of what it might be."

"I need to use your phone, may I?"

Sam looked at her. "Phone in Daniel’s office not working?"

"Don’t want him to know about this just yet," Casey said, smiling brightly. She picked up the phone and dialed. "Tessa? Hi, it’s me. How soon can you meet Sam and me in Doctor Montigue’s office? …No, the one over at the city hospital. That’s where he is today…Okay, we’ll see you there in five." She dialed again. "Hi, this is Casey Jackson. I need to see Doctor Montigue today, I can be there in five minutes or so…Great, thanks. I appreciate it." She put the phone down, looked up at her best friend.

"Casey?"

"Have you figured it out yet?"

"Figured what out?"

"When was your last period, Sam?" Casey was hugging herself, almost bouncing with excitement.

The blonde woman thought for a moment, then a wide smile spread over her face. "Oh, wow!"

"Yep. I kinda figured it out when Lya looked at us that way the other day at that reception. Well, that and the fact that I’ve been losing breakfast every morning. Man, is it hard to keep that hidden from Daniel! Mom knows, she keeps him busy when I give her my ‘I-gotta-throw-up’ signal. Let’s go. Then I have this great idea on how to tell the guys!" The two women practically ran down the corridor to the elevator.

A  A  A  A  A  A

Tessa was standing in the waiting room, having arrived literally seconds before her two friends. When the nurse called Casey’s name, she took hold of their arms and led them back to see the doctor.

Dr. Montigue was surprised when he opened the door and found Tessa MacLeod and Samantha Carter O’Neill sitting in the room with Casey Jackson. "Ladies, it’s nice to see you all. What can I do for you?"

Casey exchanged grins with Sam. "We need blood tests. Pregnancy type. I think we’re all pregnant," she replied

Tessa gasped. "Casey? How do you know this?"

The slender blonde turned to her friend. "Remember the look Lya gave us at the ceremony? Same day that I started getting morning sickness. Sam is getting sick. Tell me you haven’t."

"Well, yesterday I did throw up, but I was sure it was just something I ate," Tessa said slowly, her eyes widening. Could it be? After all this time, all of the disappointment, was her dream finally to become reality?

Casey giggled. All three of them had had the same thought about their unexpected sickness. "No, girlfriend, it’s called morning sickness, and I remember it well."

Dr. Montigue was smiling. "Well, let’s get the blood drawn. I can have results in about twenty minutes if you’re willing to wait."

"We’ll wait!" Sam declared.

Twenty minutes later the squeals of excitement could be heard all the way into the waiting room.

"Okay, Case, you said that you had the perfect way to tell the guys. How?" Sam demanded as they left the building.

"At the base Christmas party this afternoon. I figure there is no way I can keep this from Daniel, he’s going to catch me heaving any day now, it’s just luck that he hasn’t so far. What we’re going to do is have three chairs lined up side by side. I’m going to talk to Kyle and Becca. Have them get the guys there. Then, we get to whisper it in their ear at the same time. Then we stand…or sit…back and watch the fun begin!"

Tessa laughed. "I want a copy of the tape!"

Casey giggled. "Me, too." She hugged herself with excitement. "Oh, gods, I want this one to be a boy! I want to give Daniel a son!"

Sam and Tessa exchanged smiling looks. "And if it’s another girl?" Sam asked.

"I’ll be thrilled," Casey admitted. "Okay, Tess, we’ll see you in a couple of hours."

Tessa nodded, starry-eyed from the news. "I’ll be there!"

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