Gifts of Love by Cleo the Muse
Rating: All Ages
Genre: Het (Jack/Sara), Family, Smarm
Warnings: None
Episodes: None
Synopsis: Just another snippet from the "All I Want" LD-verse. Sara is awakened in the middle of the night.
Status: Completed as of 05/10/08
Gifts of Love
Something nudged her out of sleep, and she lay for a long moment trying to figure out what. Was someone breaking into the house? Were there raccoons on the deck again? Had the cat knocked something over while chasing a shadow across the floor? Rolling over, Sara O'Neill glanced at her husband's recumbent form, surprised that he hadn't awakened when she had. Maybe, as she'd joked, all his Special Ops honed senses really were getting soft with age.
The bed bumped, and this time Sara spotted a tousled head silhouetted against the bedroom window. "Danny?" she whispered, sitting up. "What's the matter, sweetheart; did you have a nightmare?"
Her little boy shook his head, but crawled onto the bed and made his way toward her lap. "I didn't wanna wait, Momma."
"Wait for what?"
Instead of answering, Danny handed over a piece of paper, rolled into a tube and tied with a string. Sara reached for the lamp so she could see it better, but hesitated and glanced at her sleeping husband. A glint of amused eyes showed he was not asleep, so she flicked on the light.
Once her vision had adjusted, she unrolled the paper and discovered that one end had been cut in the shape of a small human hand. There was lettering inside the scroll, and as she revealed more of the scrawled words, she read them aloud. "'Everyone is given one mother, but only special women become moms. I'm glad you're my mom. Happy Mother's Day. Love, Danny.'"
Dropping the paper, she pulled her kid into a tight squeeze. "Oh, Danny, that's so sweet of you."
"It's a hug," Danny explained, wriggling into the space between his adoptive parents. He finished opening the paper so Sara could see that another small hand capped the opposite end of the roll. "We made 'em at school, and it's the same length as my arms and we even traced my hands at each end! Even when I'm gone to school, you can always open this up and get a hug from me!" he finished proudly.
"I'd rather have the real thing," Sara grinned, hugging him again and pressing a kiss into his hair. "Thank you so much, Danny."
"I'm not finished yet!" he protested, squirming free yet again. He dove for another roll of paper laid at the foot of the bed, and presented it with a flourish.
Sharing a grin with Jack, Sara untied the string on this roll, and began to open it as well. "'Everyone is given one mother, but only special women become moms,'" she read again, wondering why Daniel had made two. "'I'm glad you're both. Happy Mother's Day. Love...'" Her voice broke. "'Love, Charlie.'"
Danny was staring at his hands. "I didn't know what size to make his arms or hands, so I just made 'em the same size as mine. I hope that's okay."
"Oh, sweetheart," she breathed, tears filling her eyes. "That's more than perfect."
It had been too painful for her to celebrate Mother's Day after Charlie died, but with Danny at her side and looking so earnestly hopeful his gift had been well-received, Sara felt her heart swell with love. "You know, Danny," she murmured thickly, "I think this might be the best Mother's Day ever."
Author's Notes:
Happy Mother's Day to mothers and moms everywhere!