I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Christmas was in full swing at the O'Neill house. Everyone was enjoying themselves or so it appeared.
The whole SG-1 family was there, old and new. Teal'c and his family had appeared surprising everyone on Christmas Eve. Rya'c, Corrine, and their new daughter Drey were experiencing their first human Christmas. They were revelling in it.
Daniel and Vala, together but bickering, were fighting over the last of the turkey while Cam and Carolyn had just announced their engagement, much to the shock and excitement of all present. The only one missing was Cassie who was spending her first Christmas with her new husband and his family.
However one person was not enjoying herself. She was sulking on the stairs, unable to contain her fear, distress and pure annoyance.
Daniel came to sit beside her, pulling her on to his lap. "Gracie why are you looking so sad?" The 7 year old could hold back no longer. Turning in her beloved uncles arms she began to sob quietly "Everything is all wrong" she sobbed.
"Why baby it's Christmas, all your family is here, it's snowing and you got some amazing presents from Santa"
As soon as Daniel stopped speaking Grace was clinging to him harder and almost wailing.
The scene began to draw a crowd.
"Grace, sweetheart what's wrong?" Sam asked her distressed daughter
"I don't want to speak to Mommy, where's Daddy Danny?" Grace whispered into Daniel's ear
"Daddys right behind you sweetie" Daniel said and nudged her chin. Her blonde hair had fallen across her face, she turned slowly, saw her Daddy and began to smile until she saw him holding her Mommy's hand.
She quickly spun around "Don't want to talk to them Uncle Danny want to stay and talk to you" Little Grace was clear about her future plans.
"Hey guys, me and Grace are going to have some quality Uncle/Niece time. How about you give us some space?" His eyes told his best friends that he would get to the bottom of this quickly.
Leaving Grace with Daniel a worried Sam and Jack moved back to the busy living room. They were soon accosted by two little boys. One aged 5 climbed off Landry and marched towards Sam and the other, a chubby 3 year old, waddled from Vala to Jack.
"Mommy" 5 year old Jake called "Why Grace upset?" Jake always got upset when anyone in his family showed signs of distress.
"I don't know baby" Sam answered picking him up "but Uncle Daniel loves mysteries and is bound to find out what's wrong."
Little Dan settled on Jack's shoulder looking very sleepy. Jack leaned over to Jake. "So sport you going to show me your new toys?"
Jake's face lit up and wriggled to get down from Sam's hold.
"Come see Daddy. Santa gave me lots of cool stuff" he ran through people's legs and was then ensconced under the tree showing off his toys.
Sam looked over, delighted at her son's giggles and running commentary. She looked around and took in where the baby monitor was. She went over and listened to it, she could clearly hear her little girl breathing deeply.
Leah had been a wonderful, if unexpected, surprise. Sam had been well over 3 months pregnant before she discovered it and even then it had been Teal'c who had pointed it out, how embarrassing. Due to that he had been given the job of naming the new O'Neill. He had taken his mission seriously and searched through many books trying to find the perfect name. Finally he had gone back to what he knew best, he arrived at her lab a few weeks before the baby was due and announced his choice. If it was a boy he should be named Luke and if a girl, Leah. Sam didn't need to ask where the inspiration came from.
Sam turned back to the room and saw Daniel and Grace approach. Her daughter looked a little happier.
"Sam, Grace needs something explained, where's Jack?"
Jack appeared with his two boys in tow. "Here I'll take Dan, you need to hear this." Daniel said. Jack was sure his best friend was smirking but was unsure why.
Both Jack and Sam sat on the sofa. Grace sat on Jack's knee still not happy at her Mom.
"Ok Grace" Daniel said, in his typical negotiating voice "tell your Mom and Dad your story"
Looking to see if she had the attention of everyone, which she did, she began.
"Well I was very excited about Christmas last night. Santa was going to come and I tried to get to sleep, I thought about how good it would be to have everyone here and show them all my pressies. Then I remembered. I forgot to write a letter to Santa from Leah" stopping and turning to her Daddy, she pleaded "I didn't mean to forget her, but I was in the middle of them after school on Friday but then the Simpsons started and I just forgot. I sorry Daddy"
Jack could never resist her huge blue eyes "It's ok sweetie, tell the rest of your story"
"I thought if I could see Santa and tell him about Leah he might leave one of my toys for her. So I tiptoed downstairs. I know you said if Santa saw me he wouldn't leave me presents but I thought he might not mind since I had a good reason"
"Yes baby" Jack replied to his daughter, already worried about where this was headed.
"Well I got to the bottom of the stairs and I could see the tree lights and Santa. He was bending over the presents. I wanted to try to talk to him"
Grace began to curl more and more into Jack desperate just to talk to her Daddy. He smiled down at her and then locked eyes with Sam. Grace had always been a Daddy's girl but this could be disastrous for her relationship with Sam.
Grace continued "I only wanted to talk and I tried to call him but I was scared. Then…….then Mommy came in from the kitchen and she kissed him Daddy. Like she kisses you"
There was an audible gasp from the room, Rya'c and Karyn were confused at the new development but the others were wearing knowing smirks and Daniel could barely control his giggles.
"I sorry Daddy" Grace said seriously and almost in tears "Mommy was kissing Santa, I didn't mean to see but she was, I not lying" Grace added in earnest. She buried her head into her Daddy's shirt wanting to disappear.
Jack stared at her blonde head, desperate to find a solution and coming up with nothing. A glance at Sam's distressed face revealed she had no way to tell Grace the truth, without revealing the whole truth. Fortunately Uncle Daniel had a cunning plan.
"Gracie you remember what I was saying outside"
"Yes" came the mumbled reply
"Ok, lets ask Mommy and Daddy about it ok. Now Jack, I know you told me about a small job you had been asked to do. I think it's time we told Grace about it"
Jack nodded furiously, unable to formulate a response to the obviously leading question.
"Gracie, your Daddy is a very important man and so is Santa, but Santa is also a very busy man. Sometimes when he sees a house that has a fantastic Daddy he asks him to do a job to help him. Now you would agree that your Daddy is fantastic yes?"
Grace lifted her head slightly, looked up at Jack and enthusiastically nodded.
"Well Santa asked your Daddy to sort your presents once he delivered them so that your Daddy could make sure all four of you would get what you wanted"
Grace pulled back from Jack staring into his eyes to see if what her Uncle said was true. Daniel could see she needed more convincing.
"Gracie what does your Daddy wear to work?"
"His blue dress" she responded quickly, a loud guffaw was heard from different places in the room
"It's dress blues sweetie, but that's ok" Jack soothed her as she went red
"Now Daddy couldn't wear that uniform to help Santa, could he?" Grace shook her head.
"So Santa gave him a uniform" Grace's face brightened as understanding passed across her face. She leaned across Jack to Sam. "You were kissing Daddy?" She enquired with awe.
"Yes honey. I would only be kissing Daddy" Sam confirmed
Grace reached over and hugged Sam, who hugged her tightly back "I so pleased Mommy. I didn't want to hate you" Grace began to whimper
Just at that point, recognising the tension was over Jake looked up at Cam and in a loud voice questioned "Cake?"
The entire family began to laugh. Jack picked up his eldest son and took him to the dinning room. "A good idea Jake, cake can solve all our problems"
The baby monitor sprung to life. Leah was crying. Unusually Sam didn't move, relishing the contact with her eldest daughter.
"Leah sad Mommy, maybe she wants cake too?" Sam giggled at her daughter. "Will we go see?" Sam asked. Hopping off her lap Grace nodded, took her Mommy's hand and pulled her out of the room.
Christmas was back to normal.