Jacob Carter quietly approached his daughters lab and watched her silently from the doorway as she half heartedly worked on some gadget at her desk. There was a frown on her face and Jacob doubted it was the gadget which was causing the worry.

"Hey Kiddo"

"Dad"

Sam smiled as he entered and set down the gadget. Jacob leaned on her desk looking at her.

"You ok?" he asked with concern

"Fine" replied Sam, with a slight shrug of her shoulders at the question.

"You talk to Jack?" continued Jacob, hoping she didn't notice him leaning with a little more heaviness than usually required.

Jacob didn't miss the look which flashed over her face at his reference to the meeting she had had with Jack O'Neill. He had been the one to advise her too talking with Jack again about the situation surrounding Daniel. O'Neill was stubborn as a mule, and he knew usually Sam would let the subject lie, after her last try at talking about it with him. Jacob remembered finding in her lab, similar to this time around after that conersation, only the piece of equipment she had been working on then, seemed to be taking a beating rather than a fix.

"He's still insitent" replied Sam, pushing herself away from the desk and glancing toward him "What else do you expect. I told you how he felt about it"

Jacob held his hands up in mock surrender and shook his head.

"I was actually thinking perhaps you needed to talk to someone about it, and seeing as Teal'c isn't around, Jack seemed to be the next best thing"

---

It was true, Jacob knew, that had Teal'c been around, Sam would have felt some companionship in the loss she was trying to put at the back of her mind. Unlike O'Neill, Sam needed answers, it was natural for her to find those answers or acknoweldge the possibilities. It was her very nature, her essence, the person she was. Although in one way she didn't want to accept that Daniel may be gone thiis time, part of her needed proof that he was either alive or dead. Daniel's dissaperance gave her neither and with her CO refusing to be brought around to talking on the matter she was stuck between a rock and a hard place as to the situation and the only person she had around to talk about it was himself.

This reason alone, had held Jacob back from telling Sam what she needed to know concerning himself and Selmac. It was starting to take its toll, but she didn't need this heaped upon her. Jacob recognised the need she had for someone to talk with about Daniel, his loss, and the burden she had set upon herself that in some way this was all her fault and she could have prevented it. Jacob had tolled over, talked with her, reassured her, that she couldn't be blamed for any part of the situation, but Sam Carter was also stubborn when it came to her feelings and thoughts on a matter.

Jacob wasn't blind to the situation between his daughter and Jack O'Neill. It was certainly something he'd held his tongue about, although he and Selmac had had plenty of conversations concerning the relationship. He couldn't help but notice the barrier between the two, which had been growing, where once they had gotten over it and worked around it, now it seemed a strain on whatever relationship they had left. And it had all started up when Pete Shanahan had come onto the scene. When Sam spoke of him, her face lit up and some of her worries seemed to be pushed aside, if only for a few minutes. The current demeanour of O'Neill and his refusal to talk on the subject of Daniel was starting to push Jacob to his limits. He understood the rules, he was airforce after all, but the fact that Jack had pushed Sam away even further because of her trying to find happiness elsewhere didn't do anything to put Jacob at rest. As a father he felt a duty towards his daughter and had he been in better frame of mind and health, he may have marched right up to O'Neill's office and had a few choice words to say. But he held his tongue, stood his ground and tried to be there for Sam as much as possible in the short time he had left with her.

---

Sam didn't reply, but stood and gathered a few folders from her desk.

"Look Dad, I've got some stuff I need to do. Petes arriving in an hour, you still up to meeting him"

"Of course honey" replied Jacob, going with the change of subject, mainly because an hour would give him a chance to rest more and build on his confidence at telling Sam the truth about what was going on with him.

They exited her office together and walked along the hall. Sam mumbled a quick 'see you later' and headed off in one direction and Jacob stood and watched until she turned into another corridor and dissappeared. He set his mind towards the impending meeting of Pete Shanahan and wondered what the man set to marry his daughter would be like.