The rescuees from the latter half of the twentieth century were in shock, but they had no problem believing that they had not only awakened in the twenty-first century, they had awakened with the assistance of aliens. People prior to that were having a harder time with the time shift. Only a few wanted their families traced.
FEMA came in and took over, for which Jack had been grateful; his job was over, the bad guys were gone. He was exhausted and didn’t care to think about his role in this particular exercise. The public was sitting back, waiting to see what Jack was going to do next, having solved the Bermuda Triangle issue. Big Foot? Loch Ness? Enki patted cheeks and twinkled at Sam, and Ninurta gave out cheerful rough hugs before they hitched a ride with Thor.
A man who looked about Jack’s age looked him over from one of the make-shift cots that had been set up in the warehouse.
“Excuse me,” the man asked politely. Jack squatted down next to the cot. “I don’t recognize your uniform; may I ask its nature?” It took Jack a moment before he realized that the man was one of the really old ones.
“I’m Jack O’Neill,” he said. “My uniform is of the United States Air Force. I’m a General.” He tapped his stars.
“Air Force?” the man repeated, looking over the various strange insignia. His salute seemed more automatic than any real sense of recognition. Jack shook his hand.
“Yes, sir,” Jack nodded. “It came out of the Army Signal Corps in 1907 with the use of balloons. Lots of history happened, and in 1947 the Air Force was officially born.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” the man said with a confused frown. “What do you do with the air?”
“In the early 1900’s, two brothers invented a machine that flies in the air,” Jack told him. He considered a smart-ass answer, then realized that the man was honestly confused. “It’s called an airplane. As it developed, it came to be used not only for transporting people and objects, but some of the designs had guns put on them and they were used in battle.”
The man was astounded. Jack thought for a moment as he looked around. “Be right back,” he told the man. He went to a far wall and took down a photograph, bringing it back to the man. “This is the USS Montgomery,” he said, pointing to the ship. “See those things with wings on her deck? Those are fighter planes. They’re Navy fighters, because this is a Naval base, but a plane is a plane.”
“And they fly in the air?” the man asked, taking the photo from him for a closer look.
“Yes, sir, they certainly do,” Jack nodded. He sat with the man, Charles Brooks, for a while and talked with him about the history of the US military. Seems Mr Brooks was a veteran from 1864. Jack made sure Mr Brooks had his chart notated appropriately.
Jack was fascinated by some of the stories the man had to tell, once Jack got him over his shock. Mr Brooks still couldn’t get himself to allow a female doctor to examine him, though, much to Dr. Lam’s impatient huff.
Daniel was having a quiet war with social services over the children. Social services had no imagination and was insisting on placing the children into immediate foster care. Daniel was throwing a fit and insisting that the children were in enough shock; there was no way they could be placed in the incompetent hands of social services. In a fit of pique, Daniel had himself beamed up to Prometheus and from there, who knew where. Jack didn’t know what he was up to, but when Daniel got into that mood, he knew enough to stand back. He hoped social services picked up on that hint.
Jack finally rounded up his main people and left support staff to fix the mess. He was sorry but he had a birthday to attend.
Back home Katie was claiming tummy illness so Jack let her stay home from school. At lunch, he brought her up a mug of soup and sat it on her bedside table. He sat on the edge of her bed and straightened her covers. Getting back to something so normal took away the stress from the past week.
“You’re stomach is upset because you are upset,” he told her. She did look nauseous, but he knew otherwise. “Your mother isn’t here.”
Katie started to cry and she turned over. Jack turned her toward him and took her into his arms, holding her against his shoulder. He stroked her hair and let her cry. He knew the kids had bouts of mommy-withdrawals, but there wasn’t much he could do about it except let them work it out. Katie and Matthew had the worst of it; Jack wasn’t sure if Davy completely understood what had happened or if it was more a case of seeing the best in the worst of situations.
Davy had what Jack once heard of as a Pollyanna attitude; but was it part of Davy’s mental outlook or was it part of his growing ‘otherness’ that a lot of other kids were acquiring? Once Jack sat back and thought about it, he felt that Jerrie may be right in the way Davy was changing. Katie, though, missed her mother in a way only a daughter could miss her mother. Katie was becoming a young woman and she needed her mother. He wished Sam was around more. Jack considered calling his mother.
“Honey, if you don’t want a party, we don’t have to have one,” he told Katie when she began to calm down.
“Could we just have a quiet dinner?” she asked huskily.
“Yes we can,” he assured her. “How about a birthday breakfast, and then I take you out for a dinner date? Just the two of us. Would you like that?”
Yes, Katie would like that.
So, in the morning, the family gathered for breakfast and to give out their gifts. Michael put a delicate necklace around her neck. He opened the little cameo that was attached and showed her that it was hollow. She looked and saw a small picture of her mother’s face pasted inside. Katie threw her arms around her grandfather and hugged him tight. Jack was impressed; no one had to coach his brother on that one.
Daniel made waffles for breakfast and smothered them with whipped cream and berries. A candle was put on Katie’s and everyone sang to her.
“Can’t we have cake for breakfast?” Davy asked plaintively. He didn’t know why everyone laughed, but he smiled in response.
Jack let Katie stay home from school again, and she spent the day with Maggie. Jack’s next headache came from Reynolds.
“They’re gone,” he reported.
“Who’s gone?” Jack asked.
“The kids,” Reynolds said. “From the Triangle. All those kids disappeared overnight.”
Jack looked at the phone. “Just the kids?” he asked. “None of the adults?”
“Just the kids,” Kevin said. “No one claims to have seen or heard a thing, and guards were on the doors 24/7. The dogs aren’t getting a scent, either.”
Jack talked with Maynard and Hayes and wondered how to put out an Amber Alert on children who weren’t supposed to exist. He was stumped. Not even Major Davis had a suggestion.
“Daniel, did you do something I’m not supposed to know about?” Jack called Daniel and asked him.
“No, I didn’t,” Daniel said. Jack heard the sincerity and left it alone.
A few of the rescuees, those from recent times, were reunited with family after a long and arduous debriefing. The older people were given an option; be reeducated to modern society or go the Alpha site and work their own piece of land. A few who were farmers were daring enough to head out to the site with the promise of free land to call their own. The Alpha site had oceans, too, so sailors also went. The SGC sent along building materials and supplies for ships and houses. The rest would be up to the colonists.
Several enterprising social workers and anthropologists went with them to help them adjust. Mr Brooks went along, extremely uncomfortable with what he had been learning about modern society.
“It may be easier to adjust to an entire unoccupied planet, than to the modern language, music, tv, pollution, noise, and everything,” Daniel commented.
“Yes, there are times I’d like to find an unoccupied planet,” Jack said. “Are you sure you didn’t do anything with those kids?”
“I swear,” Daniel said, holding up a hand. “I went and had a hissy in Hayes’ face and then I came back to the base. That’s it. If it’s any consolation, I got him to agree to foster the kids out to SGC personnel and others with security clearance who are in the know. I don’t know what happened to them, although evidence points to a beam-out.”
Jack had to agree, but damned if he knew who beamed the kids out. Markham certainly didn’t…. Jack was getting a sneaking suspicion; it smelled faintly of leather, but he wasn’t ready to acknowledge it.
He dressed up and took Katie to a quiet, adult-oriented restaurant. Candles flickered on tables, soft music was played by a pianist in a far corner, and the napkins were cloth, not paper. Katie looked around with interest.
“Did you ever take real dates here?” she asked him after they were seated.
“A couple of times,” he said with a nod. “And you are a real date.”
“No I’m not,” she protested. “You know what I mean. This is a fancy restaurant where men take women out for dates, not where dads and uncles take their daughters and nieces.”
He looked at her with her pretty dress and her hair pinned up, make-up nicely done by Cassie. He was glad the girls were making friends; Katie needed a friend, and Cassie had one more person she could talk to without having to be careful of what she said.
“What I know is that you are turning into a very lovely young woman,” he told her. “I had always thought that if I had a daughter of my own, I’d be proud to take her on dates. Daughters and nieces deserve dates. Even after I walk you down an aisle and hand you over to another man, I still want dates with my favorite little girl.”
Katie flushed and sniffled. “Can you do that?” she asked after a moment, gesturing to the dance floor.
“Yes I can,” he nodded. He stood up, buttoned his jacket, and held out a hand to her. He led her to the floor and patiently taught her how to dance to something other than that ear-splitting stuff she was always listening to. The pianist smiled at them and played something easy.
Their first course was waiting for them when they got back to the table. Jack allowed her to take one sip of his wine.
“Grape juice with a kick,” she said, her eyes watering slightly from the alcohol. She looked around and then leaned in. “Women are staring at you,” she whispered.
“My face has been all over the news and internet,” he said. She cocked her head and considered him.
“No,” she shook her head. “You’ve always been just Uncle Jack, but…. You’re handsome. I hadn’t noticed before. I have a cute Uncle Dad.”
It was Jack’s turn to flush.
“My dad never did things like this with me,” she said, picking at her salad. “I tried so hard to make him happy, and he always told me what I did wrong. I sent him a couple of emails. He never answered. I didn’t get a Christmas card from him or a birthday card. I don’t need a present, but a card would have been nice. Even a phone call.”
A tear ran down her face and she hastily wiped it away, not looking at the other diners. Jack took her hand from across the table.
“Baby, no one will ever be able to do anything right for him,” he told her softly. “It’s part of his illness. I know you want him to love you, it’s normal and natural to want the love and approval of your father, but he isn't able to love anyone except himself. I couldn’t love you more if you were my real daughter. I always wanted a daughter; your mother woke up that hunger in me when she was born. I even changed my Will, declaring you and your bothers and sister my children, so as far as I’m concerned, you are my daughter. That’s how much I love you.”
“And as for cards,” he said, patting her. He reached into his pocket and handed her an envelope. She opened it and looked inside the card. Her eyes opened wide and she screeched. Diners looked at them, a few smiling indulgently, others frowning with high-brow disapproval.
“That is the band you wanted to see, right?” he asked. Her excitement told him it was. “You may take three friends and I expect you home after the end of the concert. You will have an SF escort; four teenagers are not driving to Denver and back. It’s an hour drive, you get an extra hour for playtime. No ditching the guard.”
She jumped up and hugged him. “I couldn’t love you more if you were my real dad,” she told him.
On the way home, she had a question.
“I heard you the other night,” she confessed. It was dark, but Jack could feel the heat from her face. “You were yelling pretty loud. You sounded like you were in pain. Were you?”
“Knew I should have paid the extra for the sound-proofing,” he commented, feeling his own face burning. “No, I wasn’t in pain. Daniel is an excellent lover, honey, he knows how to hit all the right spots. He had me extremely turned on, that’s all.”
“Alright.…… It doesn’t hurt? What you guys do?”
He reached over and took her hand. “No, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Okay. Do you watch x-rated stuff?”
Jack laughed and shook his head. “No, honey. I used to, but not anymore. I’d say about ninety-nine percent of that stuff is so ridiculous, it’s funny. Real life is much more interesting.”
“Okay. When I… I mean, last year…. it was alright, but I didn’t understand what the fuss was about,” she said after a minute.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“My first time… first couple of times…. it was nice, but I didn’t get it.”
Jack wasn’t getting it, either, so he tried reading her. He nodded, enlightened.
“The sex was pleasant, just nothing to write home about?” he asked. She nodded, looking out the window. “The first time is almost never good. First of all, at your age, your body isn’t really ready for it. The hormones are there, the will is there, but all the connections haven’t been made yet. And then there’s the lack of training. People don’t become adults with a built in knowledge of how to make love, they have to learn.
“You know Daniel is the first guy I was ever with, right? So, I was honest with him. We talked about it and he was gentle and easy with me. He taught me what to do. It’s okay to say ‘teach me.’
“That’s why I keep asking you to wait. When you’re older, you’ll probably find a partner who is more experienced or one who isn’t afraid to admit his own inexperience, and you can take it slow and easy and learn with each other. Sex is fun, baby, you don’t need to be afraid of it or hesitant to jump in, not if it’s what you want. Listen to your body; if you’re body isn’t comfortable, don’t do it.”
She nodded and leaned against his shoulder.
“You know, most of my friends say they can’t talk to their parents about sex,” she said. Jack slid an arm around her shoulder. “They say they’d die before asking their parents anything, and their parents insist that they wait until they’re married. I’m glad you guys are so cool. It’s a little embarrassing, but at least we can talk.”
“Any time, baby.”
“How come you know all this stuff?” she asked.
Jack chuckled. “Years of listening to Daniel. He goes off on any subject at the drop of a hat.”
“Cassie said her first time was with Jonathan and it was really nice even though she was scared,” Katie mentioned. “How come he knows more than she does, and he’s younger than her?”
“He spent a lot of time without a parent, so he learned a lot of things early,” Jack said carefully. “He was on the streets for a few years until he found me. I got him set up in an apartment because he didn’t want to live with me, so he lived as an adult before he was an adult. Cassie was a little shy about letting people get close to her, so she waited until she was an adult before she had sex. She knew Jonathan because she’s part of our family. She got to know him through us, and they became friends.”
Katie frowned in thought. “How come you didn’t make him live with you?” she asked. “He was fifteen when he found you, right?”
“Yes,” Jack nodded. “I wasn’t ready for a kid in my life, so part of that was my fault. Also, I didn’t want to scare him away by pressuring him into something he wasn’t ready for. He didn’t have a normal childhood, he wasn’t raised in a house with parents. It would have been like bringing a wild cougar cub into the house and expecting it to become a house cat.” Remember what you’re telling her because you’ll have to clue in your partners, Jonathan, and Cassie…..
“Do you love him?” she asked.
Jack watched the street and car lights go by, hoping she wasn't able to see the wrinkle of his indecision on his face.
“That’s a hard one,” he finally said. “I’ve only known him for a couple of years, and I really didn’t spend much time with him. I like him, I’ll say that. And I think that his recent choices in his life have been courageous choices, ones I don’t think I would have made for myself. I can respect him for that. I think I see him as more of a friend, than a son. Maybe I can grow to love him, in time.
"And since he doesn’t look to me to be his father, I don’t think I’m hurting him. He knows he can come to me, if he needs anything, and he has come to me a couple of times. It’s okay if you love him, I know you like spending time with him; he’s your cousin, you’re allowed to love him, and you’ve gotten to know him, probably better than I do.” Jack knew his clone had spent time getting to know the kids as a peer, rather than an uncle, and Jonathan probably knew things about the kids that Jack didn’t. He did know that if Jonathan had discovered anything important, he would have told Jack. He hoped his clone knew enough to tell him.
She made noncommittal noises and he knew she didn’t quite understand. By the time they got home and ready for bed, she was asleep, and happy, as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The next day Jack took down a globe from Daniel’s library, closed his eyes, spun the globe, and stopped it with a finger. He opened his eyes and looked.
“How does Iceland sound?” he asked Sam.
“I’ve never been to Reykjavik,” she said.
They flew the long way into the Naval Air station at Keflavik, Iceland and then took a Jeep to Reykjavik where they rented a cabin, and sent the bill to General Maynard (who rolled his eyes and sighed when he saw it).
The station would have been more than honored to host them, but Jack wanted a cabin for him and his wife and much needed alone time. The station commander understood. They found a restaurant with fresh lobsters, and then settled in for the night.
“How do you feel about anniversaries?” Sam asked, trying not to wake up. Jack cranked open an eye.
“Did I miss something?”
“No,” she shook her head. “Our wedding anniversary is next month. We also have the day we met, the day we told each other how we felt, our first date, our first together with Daniel, our hand-fasting…. which one should we celebrate?”
Jack thought about it. “That is a little confusing, isn’t it?” he acknowledged. “I wasn’t aware women kept track of all those ‘firsts.’
“How about our wedding anniversary and our hand-fasting anniversary?” she suggested, ignoring his commentary. “Just private dinner dates, not parties. With all the birthdays, we have plenty of parties.”
“That sounds doable,” Jack said. “We’ll check with Daniel, but I think he’ll agree.”
Snow was falling outside, making a soft shushing-tinkling sound on the roof as they fell back to sleep.
“My insert needs to be changed in a couple of months,” she told him later as she slid back into bed. It took him a moment. Both his eyes opened.
“And what would you like to do about it?” he asked carefully.
She sighed into his chest. “I would have considered a baby, but we have a full house,” she said.
“Yes, we do, but don’t let that stop you, if that’s what you want,” he said.
She was silent for a few minutes. “If I do decide to have a baby, I think I’d like both you and Daniel to try. Let those little swimmers decide who gets the egg.”
“Sounds fair to me,” he said.
“Cassie said the same thing,” Sam commented.
“Said what?”
Sam tilted her head back and looked at him. “This is private, but apparently Harper is infertile. Childhood illness. Trip to Africa with his family left him with some infection. She’s depressed; first Jonathan gets himself clipped because he doesn't want to subject the world to cloning errors in the genetics, and then her new fiancé is infertile. She was talking with me and was considering asking you and Daniel for donations when she’s ready for motherhood.”
“Cassandra?” Jack squeaked as he quickly sat up. “Cassandra Frasier??”
“Yes, Cassandra Frasier,” Sam confirmed, amused at his shock. “She doesn’t want to sleep with you, she just wants your DNA. I think it’s a good idea, Jack; she knows you and Daniel already, knows your history, and she knows she’ll be able to count on you if there’s a problem with the child.”
Jack was speechless. He fell back to the bed, blinking rapidly at the ceiling.
“It’ll be a while before she’s going to want this,” Sam assured him, amused at his shock. “They aren’t even married, yet. She said she’ll consider a baby in about three years. They’re talking about an Autumn wedding.”
“First my clone gets neutered, then he turns down a pretty girl and goes for orgies with Conan the Barbarian and his brothers, Huey, Dewy, and Louie, and then a little alien girl that I helped raise wants me and my male partner to inseminate her with a baby who will call a third man Daddy. God, I wish I still smoked.”
They eventually went out and found breakfast and then walked around the town, holding hands, and meeting the friendly natives. Jack didn’t shave and a beard soon covered his cheeks, helping to keep his familiar face from the public’s view. He was pretty sure Sam was overlooked because she resembled all the blond Scandinavians around them.
Much to Jack’s surprise, Sam didn’t know how to ski. They found a lodge, rented skis, and hit the bunny slopes. He was a lousy teacher, unable to put to words the mechanics of the process, so after Sam yelled at Jack for the hundredth time, an instructor took pity on them and took over. Once more she fell in the snow, laughing as she looked up at him and tossing a handful of snow at him. Her cheeks were red from the cold and her eyes were sparkling. Jack fell in love again. He hiked her up into his arms and kissed her.
“What’s that for?” she asked, smiling at him.
“Just because,” he said with a shrug.
They went out to dinner, having made reservations under Mr and Mrs O’Neill, and found themselves in a quiet dining room overlooking a fiord.
“Does it bother you that I didn’t change my name?” Sam asked after dinner, over dessert. Jack looked up from his pear with raspberry mousse and shook his head.
“It would have at one time, but not now,” he confessed.
“Why?” she asked. “I mean, why doesn’t it bother you now?”
“I appreciate you for who you are,” he said. “Whether or not you change your name doesn’t change who you are, but you earned all your credentials under Carter, not O’Neill. I married you, I didn’t buy you, so your name is your decision.”
“Why did Sara change her name?” she asked.
Jack thought for a moment. “Probably because it was expected; she’s a good Protestant girl, and we were both a little on the conservative side. She’s engaged, so she’ll probably change it again.”
Sam smiled. “How did your Catholic family take to a Protestant wife?” she asked.
“Not well,” he admitted. “At first. After they got to know her, they accepted her. She and my parents got along fine. She had only her father, and he and I became friends. Mike, her father, not my brother, was almost a father to me, a big brother.”
“Do you still see him?” she asked.
“Around town, once in a while,” he said. “I think divorcing a family is harder than divorcing a spouse.”
“Jack, I don’t mind if you remain friends with him,” she said gently.
“Honey, I can’t do that,” he said. “It would be too painful for both of us. Him and me. It’s better to have made the clean break.” He picked up her hand and brought her knuckles to his mouth. “You are too generous,” he told her. “I’d feel better if you got jealous a little more often.”
Something flickered across her face. “I’ll see what I can do to accommodate you,” she told him. “Why don’t you hire what’s her face from the CIA? I can make your life hell over her.” He poked at her nose with a spoonful of raspberry mousse.
“You and Carrie on opposite coasts is a good thing,” he said. While they were a team at the SGC, and unable to do anything about their attraction, he had begun seeing a CIA agent for mutual satisfaction with no ties. “If for no other reason than for her continued well-being. I’ll leave the status quo.”
Sam smiled softly at him. “Did you love her?”
Jack carefully licked his spoon. “I wasn’t IN love with her,” he finally said. “We started as a convenience, we liked each other. I think I could have lived with her. She knew I was in love with someone else, though, someone I couldn’t have. She’s the one who told me not to let opportunities slip through my fingers, and if I had to go into the private sector to do it, then I should do it.”
“Maybe I should send her a thank you card,” Sam suggested.
“She’s still chasing down NID and Trust, so just be nice,” he suggested back at her. She stuck her tongue out at him. Jack’s eyes darkened.
“I have plans for that tongue, so don’t dry it out, hanging out there,” he said.
“Promise?”
When they got back to their lodge, Jack pressed Sam against the door and plastered his mouth to hers, groaning at how beautiful she was.
“You…. really think I’m… beautiful?” she asked. Jack picked his head up.
“Sam, didn’t you know that?” he asked. “You are the sexiest, most beautiful woman I have ever met. Next to you, I feel like something Daniel dug up on one of those digs of his. What’s wrong?!” he grew alarmed as she began to cry. She buried her face in his shoulder, crying. Jack didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what made her cry. What the hell did he say?? Damn, he wished they came with care instructions….
“Sam, talk to me, honey,” he begged. “Did I say something wrong? Tell me.”
He held her while she cried. He tried reaching, but didn’t understand the onslaught of emotions that hit him. When she was reduced to hiccups and sniffles, she slid further onto the hard wood floor.
“I know… I’m fairly attractive…. men have made that clear,” she whispered huskily. “But I never felt beautiful before. I never felt… sexy. You’re sexy. Daniel’s sexy. I’m not sexy. My shoulders are too wide, I put on weight just looking at candy, I’m too tall, it took me so long to stop falling over my own feet…..”
Jack picked up her face, unable to believe what he was hearing. He had never heard her express uncertainty about herself before. He undressed both of them and took her into his arms as they sat on the floor, leaning against the couch.
“Now. I don’t know who sold you that bullshit, but get a refund,” he told her. “Maybe I spent a little too much time admiring your brain, but don’t for one minute think that I don’t find you physically beautiful. You are perfect, beautiful, and the sexiest woman I have ever met. If you want to go off-world for a romp, we can do that. I’d like to go back to that waterfall and make love under it. I always wondered what you would have done, if I had come out of hiding and seduced you in the water. Honey, I don’t have these fantasies about just anyone, so in case it has escaped your attention, you are my fantasy.”
Sam turned and buried her face in his chest. He pressed his mouth to the top of her head and stroked her back.
“Want to tell me where this is coming from?” he quietly asked.
“Sometimes…. I get a little jealous… of Daniel.”
Shocked, Jack paused. “What? Why?”
She sniffled and rubbed her face. “Because. He’s with you every day. You’ve become so close to him. When you were gone, he and I spent a lot of time together, and I can understand why you’re close to him; he’s an even better partner than he was when he was just a friend. I had his complete attention and it was incredible. He’s so understanding; he makes a great girlfriend. I just… I can’t compete.”
“Oh, my God, Sam,” Jack groaned. He held her tight. “No, honey, don’t think like that, please, there’s no competition. Honey, come home every day. You’ll see. I don’t want you to compete, there’s nothing to compete against. I spend time with him because we’re guys, that’s all, you’ve always been welcome to hang with us. He doesn’t irritate me any less, I’ve just gotten used to him. Baby, you need to tell me… Do you want to change our agreement? You are first, honey, always.”
“No,” she said quickly lifting her head to look at him. She shook her head. “No, Jack, I don’t want to change the agreement. I love him, I love being with him. I just…. the two of you are so beautiful together… I…..”
“Sam, wait,” he said. He threaded his fingers through her hair. “I think you’re feeling insecure and honestly, I don't understand why.
“Listen, how about this? Why don’t we divide Area 51? Leave Nevada for building ships, and bring the toy factory to Colorado. We have a large underground room that’s only being used for storage; it used to be a pool and gymnasium. I can have it cleared out and you can take it for your space. I can talk with Vidrine, you’ll still be under his command, and you’ll just be borrowing HomeSec space. With all those toys of Anubis’ that Teal’c is rounding up, you’re going to need space.
“Would that help you feel more part of things? You’ll be home every day, the kids can visit with you when they visit with me, and sometimes I bring Olivia in, instead of leaving her home; you can bring her in, too. We can have lunch together every day… Does that sound good?”
She nodded jerkily against his shoulder. He kissed her head again.
“And you need to talk with Daniel about your feelings,” he said. He sent out a tentative reach…. she was feeling better. Calmer.
“Now tell me what I can do to help you feel sexy,” he said. She smiled and hid her face.
“Just keep loving me,” she said. “My mother was beautiful. Tall, thin, pretty. I got her height and Dad’s structure.”
“Hey, don’t knock your old man, he was do-able in his own right. Damned pretty eyes, sexy smile….”
Sam turned red and punched him on the arm. He smiled and leaned over pressed his mouth to her shoulder.
“I love you,” he told her. She snuggled against him and was quiet for a while. He tightened his arms. “Honey, I don’t see a distance between us. I think it has escaped your notice that you’re the one I go to when I need an emotional adjustment. I need you just as much as I need him. He fixes one half, you fix the other. The two of you make me a complete person. I will try harder to be part of you.”
She shook her head and sniffled. “No,” she said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I really don’t feel all that left out. This insecurity is a recent thing. I’m usually fine, and then all of a sudden I’m feeling emotional. I know I’m not pregnant, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
Jack put his hands on her lower belly. “When was your last physical?” he asked. “Full physical.”
She thought about it. “It’s been a while,” she admitted. “I’ll stop in and see Dr. Lam.”
It was an hour later that she turned onto her side, crying. Jack quickly sat up.
“What’s wrong?” he insisted, trying to see over her shaking shoulders. He got an incredible wave from her, a deep sense of depression which almost over-powered him. He knew that kind of depression, it had almost gotten him many years before.
“H…. hold me,” he heard her beg. He pressed up against her back put his arms around her, holding her tight. He needed to get to the phone, but he didn’t dare let her go as his mind raced back and forth, trying to figure out what was wrong.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, pressing his mouth to her ear.
“I… don’t know,” she got out between breaths.
“Honey, let me call the doctor,” he said, worried.
“No, just hold me,” she cried, grabbing his arms tighter.
“I’m here, baby,” he said. He pressed his body closer to hers and cocooned her in his arms. She cried for almost two hours as he sensed her fighting the incredible depression.
Damned if he knew what brought it on; nothing in their earlier conversations hinted that this was below the surface, not even her confession of being jealous of Daniel or her own physical insecurities. When the crying began to subside, and Jack felt her depression release, he breathed a sigh of relief. She turned and he held her tightly to his chest, her sobs lessening. About a half hour later, she suddenly cried out in real physical pain, bending herself into a fetal position. Jack released her and reached for his cell phone.
“This is O’Neill, put me through to the infirmary NOW!” he yelled into it when the line was answered. Warner was on duty and Jack quickly updated him.
Almost ten minutes later, Jack and Sam were beamed out, up, and put down in the infirmary by the Argos which had been on patrol in their own solar system with a group of NASA xeno-geologists. Jack jumped up from the floor, his bare feet cold against the concrete. He lifted Sam in his arms and set her on a bed. The medical personnel crowded him out and took over as he hovered anxiously a few feet away. Someone brought him a blanket and wrapped it around him. He had forgotten that he had been wearing nothing except his pajama bottoms. No wonder he was chilled. …. He was in the Mountain. He grabbed a phone and called home.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel was hurrying through the door just as an SF brought Jack a set of BDU’s to change into.
“She’ll be alright,” Warner came over and told them, slinging a stethoscope around his neck. “Her hormones are off the chart. She had a cyst burst on an ovary. I put her on an IV and gave her pain meds; she’ll sleep for a while.”
“I don’t understand,” Jack said, sitting on a bed to pull on socks and boots.
“The hormones were sent skyrocketing by the growing cyst on an ovary,” Warner told them both. “Ovaries handle a lot of the necessary hormones for women. The depression you described could very well have been caused by the hormonal increase. Same reason women become emotional during their cycles, also during and after pregnancy. The cyst came to a head and burst, which caused all the pain. There’s nothing to do except wait and let her body heal itself. Women get cysts all the time; try to relax, General. Dr. Jackson. She can go home in the morning.”
Landry came in, having been notified that Jack and Sam had an emergency beam-out and were in the infirmary. Jack and Daniel were sitting close by Sam’s bed.
“How is she?” Landry asked. Jack calmly updated him. Both men knew him well enough to hear the stress in his voice. “I know this is probably a useless suggestion, but why don’t you two go to your quarters and get some rest?”
“In a while,” Jack said. Landry nodded and left them. Jack leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Sam’s still hand.
“It was so sudden,” he whispered, sitting back. Daniel slid a hand onto Jack’s thigh. “She was a little upset. She’s been feeling left out. I told her I’d talk to Vidrine about relocating her section at the Yard. Let her have my warehouse for her toys and experiments. She could be home with us everyday. The kids could visit her at work. She and I could have lunch together everyday. Next thing I know she’s crying and thinking about her gun. Then she’s in pain. There was nothing I could do.”
“The doctor will fix this, Jack,” Daniel told him. “And I’d like her home everyday, too.”
Dr. Lam came in a few hours later when the next shift started. She was irritated that no one called her when Sam was brought in, and glared at her father as though it were his fault. She went into a huddle with Warner and they argued under their breaths.
“What’s going on?” Jack finally asked. They avoided looking at him. “Now, Doctors. Spill it.”
“Dr. Lam feels that there is a problem with the inserts, I disagree,” Warner finally said.
“What’s the problem?” Jack asked, folding his arms across his chest and waiting. Lam put her clip board down and huffed.
“A few other women have had problems with cysts after a few years of wearing the insert,” she said.
“And I’m telling you that cysts are normal,” Warner insisted.
“Any documentation?” Jack asked.
“Yes.”
“No.”
The doctors glared at each other.
“When you grow ovaries, you can tell me what’s normal,” Lam informed Warner.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed. “Would you come down to SGC, please?” he asked when the line was answered. “No, I just want the good doctors to take a look at your ovaries. No, Cass, I’m not drunk, just please, come down? Thank you.”
“Cassandra Fraiser has been on this insert since she was sixteen,” Jack told the doctors. “That’s six years, now, almost seven. As far as I’m aware, she hasn’t had any problems.”
“An ultrasound will show any cysts,” Lam said. “She would have had a physical when the first insert was changed out; I’ll look at her chart.”
When Cassandra came in, she saw Sam lying in the bed and immediately went to her.
“She’s fine,” Daniel told her. He updated her on happenings.
While Cass was having her ovaries invaded by ultrasound, Mrs. Arthur brought breakfast in for them. She pet Daniel’s head and patted Jack’s shoulders. Whatever they were doing to Cassandra, the men were shut out of the room. Jack didn’t know the exact details, but all the women in his life tended to snarl about their annuals.
“Why can’t we watch?” he asked. “All they’re doing is squirting lube on her stomach and using that roller thing. I watched when Sara and Megan were pregnant. Not a big deal.”
“More to it than that, for this kind of exam,” Mrs. A said. “Annuals are about the cervix and looking for cancers and stuff in the mucus lining. For this kind of exam, they need a closer look at the ovaries and uterus so they have to use a dildo thing to look deeper inside.”
“What?!” Both Jack and Daniel looked at her, the D-word had passed her lips. She wrinkled her nose.
“Something only a man could have invented,” she commented. She went back toward Daniel’s offices to see which of her lambs were absent and which needed TLC.
“I have no idea,” Daniel said when Jack looked at him.
It didn’t take long, and Dr. Lam ushered the men back in when she was done.
“She has a few small cysts, but nothing we need to be concerned about,” Lam told them. She seemed almost disappointed that Cassie wasn’t going to prove her point for her. “Women do get them all the time, and we usually don’t notice them. I will monitor her for a few months and see if there are any changes.”
The men nodded, relieved. “I’d like you to send a copy of all the trial documentation to Dr. Gabriel Thorn at WHO,” Jack told her. “I’ll let him know to expect it. I want an outside opinion from fresh eyes. He has clearance.”
“Did you really use a dildo on her?” Daniel asked, leaning in.
Sam was feeling better later in the morning. The pain meds in the IV had been a blessing.
“The majority of the pain should be gone,” Lam said. “You can go home, if you’d like. I’ll give you a prescription for pain meds. Colonel, I need to tell you that other women have had these types of cysts. Dr. Warner feels that they are normal to a woman’s body, I feel there have been too many instances of women with the insert having exploding cysts; too many for my comfort. General O’Neill had me send all the information to Dr. Thorn at the World Health Organization for a second opinion. You’re due for a change-out in a couple of months, I can take it out now, if you’d like, and you can either replace it or not.”
“How many women?” Sam asked.
“Twenty-three out of one fifty,” Lam said.
“Take it out,” Sam . “Guys, we’re now on contraceptives. Carolyn, how long until my periods restart?”
“Probably one to two months,” Lam shrugged. “It’s been different with each woman. Some have gone four months.
“We’ve been trying to get the rules changed so that women can be off-world during their periods. I talked with several women of the Tok’ra and the Jaffa, and they all seem to think we’re being completely ridiculous with this rule. I think it’s ridiculous, too. The men seem to think aliens will be able to sniff blood and attack, to say nothing of what alien animals will do. Do women who live in tribes on this planet go out of their way to avoid animals when they’re on their periods? Please.”
A simple general anesthetic, twenty minutes and some surgical glue, and Sam was free of the insert. Dr. Lam bagged it for study. Sam was released into the care of her men. She fell asleep in the car on their way home. The pain meds were still stock-piled in her body and kept her on a slightly higher plane of existence.
The kids were in school, so Sam was able to walk carefully to the bedroom. Jack offered to carry her but she insisted, walking hunched over, holding one arm across her lower abdomen and Jack’s strong arm under the other hand.
“I walked like that after my appendix was taken out,” Daniel commented in sympathy as he turned down the covers and searched for her pajamas.
“Sam, can I bring you anything?” Jerrie asked worriedly.
“No, thank you,” Sam said. “Yes. A glass of water.” Jerrie nodded and went to the kitchen. Jack and Daniel were allowed to help her undress and get into bed.
“Did you bring our stuff home?” she asked, her face white from the effort of walking and undressing.
“I sent Paul to fetch it and take care of our bills,” Jack told her. She held out a hand and he took it, sitting on the side of the bed.
“I’m sorry our vacation ended this way,” she said.
“This isn’t your fault,” he told her, kissing her cheek. “There will be other vacations. Besides; we had only a day left, so we didn’t miss much of it.”
She was fading fast, now that she was in her own bed, so the guys left her to sleep. Daniel took the baby monitor from the nursery, touched the cheek of the sleeping baby, and set it next to Sam, keeping the receiver with him.
“Love you,” he whispered, kissing her cheek.
Jack fell back onto the couch, rubbed his face and scratched his head. Jerrie handed them beers. Jack thanked her and then shooed her away.
“Yes, sir,” she said with an understanding smile.
“Danny, when Sam was raving from those hormones, she said a few things,” Jack told him. “I don’t know how much of it was real and how much wasn’t, but she said them. We need to start including her in our lives.”
Daniel sat, frowning. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either, actually, but she seems to be feeling a little left out and I think it’s because she isn’t here everyday,” Jack said. “I’m working on that part. She’s a little jealous of our relationship. She’s been insecure about it. I told her it’s just guy stuff, but she needs more inclusion. I don’t know how else to make her feel included. She’s my wife, dammit, how can she be feeling excluded?”
Daniel sat back and half turned to face him. “Does she want me to leave?”
“No,” Jack said emphatically. “She most definitely loves you and wants you here. I asked her that, too. I felt around inside her, and she does love you. Okay, it may have been the hormones talking, but I don’t think they would have been saying that if the seed wasn’t already planted.”
“Well, she sees herself as one of the guys,” Daniel said. “We do tend to talk about things when she isn’t around. I don’t think we intended to exclude her, but I guess she sees it that way.”
“But it’s guy stuff,” Jack said, spreading his arms toward the ceiling. “Doesn’t she talk girl stuff with the girls? So what’s the difference?”
“The difference is that she isn’t here everyday and she doesn’t know what’s going on unless someone tells her,” Daniel said.
Jack frowned. “That’s what I told her.”
“So we wait until she’s feeling better and we talk with her about it,” Daniel said. He picked up Jack’s hand. “And yes, a lot of what she said may have been the hormones talking, so let’s try not to worry. Yet. I’ll try not to worry.”
Sam slept straight through until the next morning. The kids took peeks in at her, making an effort to be quiet during the evening. Jack talked with Vidrine and got permission to move Sam’s sector back to Colorado. Her base CO, Colonel Taylor, would be sorry to see her and the team leave, but he understood. It would be more convenient to have the toys closer to the people who would be using them, anyway, and the hanger bay she had been using would be one more place for ships to be built.
She could get up and about the next day, but she was still a little sore and slow to walk. By the third day, she was feeling back to normal except for a little odd ache here and there. Olivia was a frequent visitor, keeping her company, and Sam was happy to have her.
“She’s trying to crawl,” Sam informed Jack when he came in to check on her. Olivia was making serious attempts to stay on her hands and knees for more than a second at a time. Her little body would wiggle and then fall back to the bed.
“We need to start baby-proofing the house,” Jack commented, sitting on the side of the bed. “She’ll be all over the place in a very short time. Get plugs for the unused outlets, tape down cords, lock lower cabinets, put poisons up to higher cabinets, just in case, and get guards for furniture corners. And a gate for the stairs.”
He paused for a moment, looking at her. “Honey, we need to talk about what you were saying,” he gently told her.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to talk about it, I didn’t mean any of it.”
“Maybe not as seriously as it was said, but I think the seeds were there,” he told her. “Baby, talk with Danny. We need to clear the air on this one.”
Sam wiped a tear away and reluctantly nodded. Jack took Olivia out to Jerrie and called Daniel in.
“Do we need to go downstairs?” Daniel asked after taking one look at Sam’s face.
“I think we do,” she whispered.
They locked themselves in Daniel’s den. Sam took her clothes off and sat on the floor. Daniel sat behind her. While they could, and did, talk outside this strange 'ritual', there was something about it that acted as a truth serum; there didn't seem to be a way to lie or to withhold anything from each other. There was a sacred space aspect to it, and they all respected the space.
[Daniel] “What's been upsetting you?”
[Sam] “Not being here. Having to hear about everything second-hand.”
[Daniel] “Yes, well, Jack is fixing that. Your people are packing up everything and bringing it all here.”
[Sam] “I know; I spoke with General Vidrine this morning.”
[Daniel] “Since you will be home every day, what would you like to see happening here?”
[Sam] “I’m not asking to be the center of attention; I just want to be involved. I want life to happen and I want to be a part of it.”
[Daniel] “We wake up, make breakfast, get the kids ready for school, sometimes we take the baby to work, sometimes we have lunch together, Jerrie picks up the kids from school, sometimes one of us picks them up from various after school activities, we feed kids dinner, we help with homework, get them into baths and then bed. We check in on their day and we listen before passing out kisses for the night.”
[Sam] “That’s what we did when I was home while Jack was away.”
[Daniel] “Yes, it is. Nothing extraordinary happens, usually, when you are away. You know what happens because you’ve already been part of it. Shall I tell you what I think is really itching at you deep inside? You are doing your very best not to become your father.”
[Sam] “No, I...”
[Daniel] “Wasn't that your complaint about him? That he missed out on your life?”
Sam shook her head, clenching her hands on his knees, fighting the argument within. She then turned and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. “I loved him! I was just getting to know him and he left me again! I want to be their mother, not a parent they hardly know! Olivia knows Jerrie better than she knows me!”
Jack moved to them at Daniel’s nod. He put his arms around them and held Sam between them.
“We’ll change that, baby, I promise.”
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