"Jackson residence," I say, answering the phone with name on the ad I'd answered.
A pause on the other end of the line, "Actually it's the O'Neill residence, Jack's place," Daniel's voice says. There is regret in his voice. They are still at a sort of awkward new couple stage. I'm not sure why they had kids this soon. It's not like a gay couple has kids by accident, right?
"Hello, Daniel, how are you doing?" I say cheerfully.
"Good. Sorry to call. Jack said I was insane. We're going to be here all night, and I've never spent a whole night away from my kids before."
Oh, he is sweet.
"Are they okay?" he presses.
"They're doing great, Daniel."
"Okay," he pauses, and I know he wants to say more.
"Tell them Daddy misses and loves them," he says.
"I'll make sure they know," I assure him.
I hang up the phone, and look at the two babies on the floor. "How come your Daddy Jack doesn't fuss on you as much as Daddy Daniel?" I ask them. I've suspected the answer for a while. Obviously, only one of them could provide genetic material. Obviously Daniel was the bio father. Still, what kind of a jerk cares about that?
There is something else to these babies, something that I haven't figured out yet. These babies were a surprise. They came early in the relationship, Jack and Daniel weren't used to living together yet.
"Are you two leftovers of some relationship Daddy had before he meet Jack?" I ask. Jack had loved a woman before, that was clear from the happy family pictures on the wall. So if Daniel was with a woman less than a year ago, that might be why Jack was so cold to the babies. In fact, Jack was pretty warm and loving if you consider that.
He'd come around. A decade from now, these two would be a happy couple glad to have had these oopsy babies.
"We'll get him through this. You're already turning the man into puddin' with your sweet faces," I assure them.
The gurgle in response.
Jack's heart isn't the only one their faces are melting. I know I shouldn't fall in love with my charges. It's the number one rule in the nanny handbook. One that every good nanny has been breaking since the stone age. They'll break my hearts when I leave them, but they deserve to have people break their hearts over them.
-0-
"Please stop screaming, babies," I plead. I took them into my bed, what more do they want? Right, two bodies with them.
Well, if that's what they want, let's fake it. I go into Jack's room, feeling awkward all the time, and take a pillow. I go into Daniel's bedroom to get one too. Daniel's room breaks my heart. There is a twin bed on the floor, no frame, and there are two unpacked duffle bags next to it. That is all.
He was a foster kid, too, and he doesn't feel like he belongs in Jack's house. Jesus, he belongs in Jack's bed, and I don't get why he's not there.
I grab a pillow, before heading back to my own room. I lay both of them against the wall. I lay the babies up against the pillows, and then snuggle in next to them, making sure that their mouths are clear for breathing.
The screaming stops.
"That's right loves. You're only a month old. You haven't learned to use those big brains you inherited yet, and I can still outsmart you. Sleep well, little ones."
-0-
It's late the next day by the time they come home. Jack just grabs a beer and heads out to the backyard. I here strange sounds on the side of the house.
"He's going up to the roof," Daniel explains.
"With alcohol? Is that wise?" I ask.
"One beer isn't going to get Jack drunk," Daniel laughs. Then he adds, "Just don't think poorly of him for being so anti-social. We lost his friend today."
"I'm so sorry. How did that happen?" I ask.
Daniel takes a deep breath. I get the feeling he knew this man too, "Kowalski got a disease while we were on a mission. They did this risky surgery to try to save him, and it didn't work."
"What disease?" I ask.
"It's classified. A lot of what we do is classified," Daniel explains.
I reach into the fridge and grab a beer. I can tell that Daniel is about to scold me for it, but I hand it to him, and say, "I don't think you should make Jack drink alone. The babies are asleep, I've got them."
He takes the bottle out of my hand, and puts it back in the fridge. "One beer is probably too much for me to be on a roof with. Jack says I'm a cheap date*," Daniel says and he walks out of the door. I hear him climbing up on the roof.
I hear a baby crying, and guess that it's Kush. I'm still working on being able to tell them apart by sound alone. "Your Daddies need a little private time, big boy," I tell him when I enter the room, and find out that my guess was correct. "Don't you be jealous. I'm here for you."
-0-
I knock on Jack's bedroom door awkwardly, even though it is open. "I forgot to return your pillow."
He raises his eyebrow, "You went into my room, and stole my pillow while I was gone?"
"For the babies. Daniel's, too. It was the only way I could get them to stop fussing. That 2am thing they have."
"So you broke them of the habit of two bodies in bed?" he asks, looking impressed, "Well, that's more than Daniel and I could do. And it took my scent to do it?"
I nod.
"Well, how about that. The little munchkins like me."
That's right, Jack. I'll make you bond with the twins whether you choose to or not.
-0-
The babies fussed in the middle of the night, and Daniel comes in to get them. I offer to help, but he waves me off. After diaper changes and food, he takes them out to the living room, and sits down in the rocking chair with them. He sings to the babies in some other language. He's a linguist, so I shouldn't be surprise. It's a pretty song, and as he sings it he starts to cry.
I lay in my bed, and pretend I can't hear. Pretend I don't know. It's none of my business.
"I will find your mother. I will bring her back to you," he swears to the children.
She is missing? He wants to give them back to her? That is why they have no clothes but those they are big enough to wear. That is why Daniel doesn't know how long he is going to need a nanny for. That is why Jack is afraid to bond with the babies.
He has already lost a child, and he is not going to put himself out their emotionally when he is sure he is going to lose them.
Daniel is the one I don't understand. He loves those kids so much. Why would he be willing to give them up?
-0-
Jack cooks again in the morning. Bacon and eggs this time. The smell wakes me before the babies do, I rush out the kitchen to prepare the bottles before they wake up.
"I was sorry to hear about your friend," I tell him.
"Yes, Kowalski was a good man," he says glumly. "We'll be having our team over tonight, Daniel and I. We've got a bit of healing to do."
"I'll keep the babies out of your hair," I tell him.
"Oh please," he laughs, "They're going to want to see them. There are two of them, on our team. Samantha and… Teal'c." He pauses, clearly wanting to say more, but having trouble locating the words, "A team like the one we're on, we're going to become family. You have to when you rely on each other. We're at the beginning, so we're not family yet. Still, you raising his babies means you're family, and they're going to be family, so… you're invited to socialize with us if you want."
"Thank you," she says.
"Oh, don't thank me. You make me feel like we're in the 1800s or something. You're not a servant, Steph."
"No, I'm just someone that is paid to raise someone else's kids," I say.
"Cheeky, I like it," he says.
-0-
I open the door to reveal a tall black man in dressed in clothes, every bit of which declares the words 'Chicago Cubs'. The woman next to him is in a pretty sundress and sandals. She pulls her glasses up smooshing her short blonde hair. "Are you Daniel's nanny?" she asks.
I nod. "Stephanie," I say, putting out a hand to each.
"Sam," the blonde says.
"Teal'c," the man replies.
"Come on in, Jack's on the patio," I invite.
"Ah… and where are Daniel's babies?" Sam asks with a smile.
"On the patio," I respond.
We all walk out there to see puffs of smoke rising from the grill. Daniel has the babes propped up in a lawn chair in some position between laying and sitting, with so many pillows and blankets they couldn't fall if they wanted.
Kush is doing that wheezing thing he does when he's cried himself silly.
"Now see here, it just won't do, son," Daniel says, running his fingers softly across his head.
"See here?" Sam says laughing.
"They both do that. Talk to the babies like they are downright elderly," Jack says.
"I believe you are intending to render the meat inedible," Teal'c says, staring with dismay at the grill.
"I tried to help him," Daniel says with a shrug.
"Can I hold one of those?" Sam says.
"Yeah, they're still working on holding up their heads so careful with the necks," Daniel warns protectively. Funny, he never gave me any advice, so he trusts me.
"I know, I remember from my niece and nephew," Sam says.
"You're an auntie?" Jack says, not turning from the grill. He is clearly impressed.
"Sir, you really are burning the meat," Sam objects.
"Are you criticizing a superior officer?" Jack says.
"No, Sir," Sam says, much abashed.
He turns to her with a wicked grin, "I'm kidding. Order a pizza."
"Yes, Sir," she says with the same sort of grin. A cosmic shift has occurred. The 'no, sir' was said with respect, the 'yes, sir' was cheeky. He'd just told her, without saying it, that she didn't have to be a good soldier.
He was forming a family around himself. I didn't know you could do that, just whiz through the world collecting strays and make a family out of them.
Daniel stands to order the pizza, and Sam picks up Kush. Mattie flops over when the support of her brother is gone.
"Tau'ri children appear to lack basic motor skills."
"They are little," I scold, scooping the girl up.
"He didn't mean offense, Steph," Jack defends, trying to mend some fences.
"What does Tau'ri mean?" I ask.
Sam goes stiff. It's a secret, classified.
"Teal'c comes from a rather remote tribe in Africa. Tau'ri is their word for American - or more generally, the sort of culture they used to call 'Western'. What's the proper way of talking about that now?" he asks, clearly aiming it at Sam.
She's still shaken by the lie, and maybe a little bit at how good Jack is at lying. I'm shaken by the second part, "First world, I think, Sir," she says.
"Umm… I guess what I speak of is a bit more like first and second world all wrapped together. They'll have to invent a word for that, and until then I suppose I'll have to borrow Teal'c's 'Tau'ri'."
Jack is really good liar. I'll never be able to trust him again.
"Pizza's on its way," Daniel says, entering the room and taking his daughter from me.
"Teal'c made fun of her motor skills while you were gone," I tattle.
"I merely observed the difference between Tau'ri children and… my tribe," he says, with a glance at Jack. Ah, so Teal'c is a bad liar. That is something to file away. If I ever need information, I can go to him.
"Well, I'll have you know my children are perfect," Daniel says with a decided nod.
"Hear, hear," Jack says, chucking one of the hamburgers he's still fussing over off the patio and into the grass.
Sam works hard on smothering a giggle.
Jack flings another one, right onto her lap.
"Sir," she scolds, swiping it away. That 'sir' sounded downright insubordinate. "You almost hit the baby."
"My aim's pretty good," he says.
"I bet mine's better," Sam retorts, challenging.
Jack laughs, "That it is, Captain, I've read your file. Impressive." He flings another charred hamburger into the yard.
Yes, these people will do quite well for a family.
*Jack called him that in the series. You can't blame me for playing with it. ;)