"Mom, Gracie's throwing up again! It's green! Last time, it was red! She's okay, right?" Eleven year old Aria O'Neill shouted.
Samantha Carter O'Neill hurried into the bathroom where the four year old was hunched over the toilet, whimpering softly.
"Ari, go take care of Hunter, don't let him fall down the stairs. Take him to the playroom and keep him there until I come get you two." She ordered, giving her eldest daughter a gentle shove between the shoulder blades to get her started.
"The things I do for this family. I should get paid more. Really." Aria grumbled under her breath as she trudged up the stairs to her little brother. Without stopping, she took his extended hand and guided him into the playroom that, when the right code was entered on the keypad next to the door, turned the large room and connected bathroom into a combination panic room/nuclear fallout shelter. All three children knew the code. They also knew that unless Mommy or Daddy opened the door, they weren't allowed to leave. The small pantry was stocked with child friendly foods and drinks, water, medicines, and sundry other items the O'Neill children might need for a prolonged stay.
Sadly, it was used at least once a week as the family was attacked by rogue groups of humans.
Earth had been taken over years before the children were born. The Stargate had been reopened, against Jack O'Neill's wishes, allowing the Goa'uld free reign over Earth when the planet came under the scrutiny of Apophis. The military wasn't equipped to handle the onslaught, and within a matter of months the planet was brought under Goa'uld dominion. Sam and Jack, coming back from an offworld mission, they found the base under attack and had attempted to retake their home, only to fail miserably. They fled under Hammond's orders taking a handful of survivors with them as they found places to stay that wouldn't arouse the attentions of the Jaffa.
Once Aria was born, Sam had refused to move around, wanting to give her daughter a life of stability. Jack had added rooms to his cabin in Minnesota, a second floor and a secret entrance through the basement. With the arrival of Hunter, Sam was convinced they had done the right thing in setting down roots. Then Grace came, and things were perfect.
But the Jaffa were never far off. The children knew where to run if something bad happened to their parents.
Jack found her in the basement that night, staring into the Quantum Mirror, stolen from the base.
"They wouldn't be scared anymore." She told him quietly.
"Not until it's needed. Remember? We told Ari what to look for, she knows the drill. She'll get the kids to safety. But only if it's needed. Until then, they have the panic room." He slipped an arm around her waist and squeezed gently, ever mindful of the baby bump she sported.
"At least not until Baby Ryan makes his debut." Sam agreed after a moment.
"Sam. We'll be fine. The Jaffa never come up this far north, it's too cold for them." Jack gently turned her to face him, aware of how worried she was.
"Siler saw a group of them yesterday. A hundred miles from us. They're getting closer every day." She told him then.
"I'll remind the kids of the boundary line. Warn them of the patrols. Sam, remember, we wanted them to have as normal a childhood as possible, and we can't do that if we jump everytime we get scared. We'll teach them nothing but fear. So, tonight, let's fire up the fireplace and cook some popcorn, drink something warm, and have a conversation night. The baby's due any day, we want to spend as much time with the older ones as we can. Normal life. That's what we agreed on when we found out about Ari." Jack gently guided her back up the stairs into the living room where the children were sprawled around the carpet, reading or working quietly on homework.
"Mom, you okay? Baby Ryan okay?" Aria asked.
"Yeah sweetheart. We're fine. Mommy just needed to do a bit of stuff downstairs before this, that's all. Make sure things were sorted, that sort of thing." Sam smiled at her eldest daughter, wondering if the little girl would be able to handle the strain of raising her siblings in a post apocalyptic world.
"Grace, what're you and Hunter working on?" Jack seated himself on the couch and let the two clamber up beside him, their workbooks in hand.
"Calculus." Grace sighed heavily.
"Coloring." Hunter placed half of the coloring book in Jack's lap, sharing the markers. "Homework done?" Jack asked, tweaking the boy's nose.
"Yep. Finished it before dinner. It was really easy." Hunter replied with a grin.
"Did I ever tell you that you take after your mom?" Jack teased.
"All the time." The giggle was infectious, Grace laughed at his response as well, her little nose crinkling.
"You can finish your homework tomorrow, if you want Grace. You're not having school on Saturday." Sam added. The four year old sat up and raised an eyebrow.
"I've got three more, then I'm done. I want to finish, so I can go fishing with Daddy." She replied hopefully. Before they could answer, a soft creak on the porch outside the door startled them all into silence. Jack snapped out the lamp, drowning the room in inky blackness. He heard the children scrabble for their night vision gear, Aria rounding up the younger two silently and herding them for the panic room upstairs. Drawing a gun from a hidden place, he felt Sam at his elbow with her own weapon drawn. Another creak from the porch outside, a soft thump as whoever was out there dropped off the end and began to circle the house. Waving her to the back door, Jack waited until she was in place before opening the front door and slipping outside. Creeping across the yard, he caught sight of the trespasser standing up to full height to look into the back window. Moving closer, Jack realized the man was young, at least twenty or so, and filthy. Thin beyond the point of health, almost emaciated as bones stuck out from under his skin. The boy rounded the corner of the house, froze, and backed up a step, Sam's weapon pointed at his forehead. Jack slid into place behind him, bringing his weapon to bear on the stranger's head as well.
"Mom, Dad, don't shoot. It's me, Charlie."