"I'm going to buy you whatever you need. Where exactly are we going first? What do you need? " Jon asks when they are in her father's car.
"Clothes."
"We're going to go to the maternity store?"
"Well yeah, I guess afterward. As you pointed out, a few of my shirts are a bit too short."
"Ok, where are we going first?" he says befuddled.
"I need clothing… bigger clothing," she says.
"Bigger clothing that you can't get at the maternity store?" she asks.
"Exactly," she says hiding her cheeks with her hands.
"Are we talking socks?" he asks.
"Bras, you idiot!" she blurts, hiding her face.
He laughs, "Yeah, I forgot about that part of pregnancy."
"I haven't, jeez, I've been having this problem for over a month, but I didn't know what it was happening."
"If you needed a new bra for over a month, why didn't you just go buy a bra?"
"I'm sixteen, and I don't have a job. I have to ask my dad for money."
"So?"
"Can you imagine yourself asking Jacob Carter for money for a bra?"
"Well, not exactly, I think he'd look at me pretty strangely if I asked him for a bra."
She glares at him.
"But, if I was his daughter, then yeah, I'd ask him for anything, because I'd know he loved me," Jon says seriously.
"Maybe some other Jacob loved some other Sam," she mutters quietly.
"No, your father loves you," Jon says firmly. "But let's get back to the whole idea of you not feeling comfortable asking him for anything. Your mom's been dead for over a year. What have you been doing?"
"It's not like I can't ask him for a pair of pants or something."
"Ok, but… what about… stuff for your period?" he asks.
She's surprised by his complete lack of squeamishness about the topic, "Well, I haven't had to worry about that lately."
"No, but…" he says.
"I just used my lunch money."
"Jeez, Carter, you gave up food for tampons?" he exclaims.
She flushes red, "Why do you call me that?"
"It's what he called her," Jon admits.
"Did she call him Jon?" Sam asks him.
"No, he went by Jack, but she called him 'Colonel' or 'sir'. Mostly 'sir', but like it was a name," Jon says.
"And how would you feel if I called you 'sir'?" she asks.
"Ok, I get it, what do you want to be called, Sam, Samantha, or Sammy?" he asks.
"Sam usually, Sammy on special occasions," she says.
"You got it, Sam," he says.
-0-0-0-
The whole time Jon sits outside of the bra store his cheeks are a bright flaming red. He remembers the look of relief on Sam's face when he handed her some money, and announced that she wasn't going to go inside with her.
She finally comes out with a bag which displays the stores name a bit too boldly, and cheeks that are actually a brighter shade of red than his.
"You know, underwear isn't anything to be ashamed of," he tells her.
"You're one to talk," he says.
"Well, the other sex's underwear is a little different," he says, "I have no problem talking about my own underwear."
"Please don't," she pleads, "And don't say 'sex' either."
"Ok, gender," he amends. "Are you ready to endure the maternity store?"
"I'd really rather not," she whines.
"Well, if the rest of your clothes don't fit you any better than those pajamas, I'm not exactly sure that you have a choice."
"Fine," she sighs.
He goes in with her this time, but he doesn't go back to sit in the chair by the fitting rooms. She sort of wants his opinions on what she should buy. Especially on how much she should buy. After all, she is spending his money. With the bras it was easy, she needed a certain number, and that's how many she bought. It was way under the amount of cash he handed her before she went into the store, so she figured she was good.
But he was here, and didn't hand her cash so she didn't know her limit. And if she was going to have to wear these clothes for the next four months, she would actually need quite a few things. But, if she could only wear them for the next four months… she didn't want to get to many things, because it just seemed like a waste.
She tried on a sun dress. It's exactly the sort of thing that she loves to wear, but it's not exactly practical. After all, it's February. So it will only be warm enough to wear it for a tiny bit of her pregnancy. She ought to get something really practical. Something that she is going to be able to use for her whole pregnancy.
She goes out to ask his opinion.
He's carrying a little basket, and inside of it are already a pregnancy book and a parenting book. He standing before a display of teddy bears, and seems to be examining each one for softness. None seem to be holding up.
"Jon," she says softly.
He turns to her and smiles, "That is beautiful, and very you."
"I think you mean her," Sam says.
He tilts his head, "Nope, you go for the earth tones more when you grow up. You still have that delightfully colorful thing going on that only a teenager can pull off."
She smacks him in the arm. Then she grows serious, "I didn't know we were getting stuff for the baby," she says, looking at the shelf before them.
"Well, we might not. And if we do, it's only going to be one thing. I mean, it's too early to get the rest of the stuff, and we haven't even decided where we are going to live. I just thought we might get one thing, you know, to make it seem real."
She nods her head.
"Ok, so go try on some more stuff. You've got a nice dress, but you're going to need at least a couple of pairs of pants, and a bunch of shirts, but you like skirts way more than pants," he remembers.
"Are you sure you want to buy me that much stuff?" she asks.
"I think we've already established that I want a layer of clothes between my baby and the world at all times," he teases.
"Right, I'll go try on some more stuff."
-0-0-0-
Sam was starving by the time that they got out of the maternity shop, but after seeing the amount of money Jon had just dropped on her she wasn't about to mention it. He walks by the pretzel stand and says, "One pretzel with peanut butter dipping sauce please."
"Are you kidding!" she exclaims, "You like that too?"
He laughs, "No, I'm not bizarre like you. But I knew that you did like it, and that pregnant women get hungry fast. Especially when their brothers cause them to lose their breakfast."
"Thanks," she mutters, a bit sadly. He looks at her for a long minute before he is able to figure out where the sadness is coming from.
They sit down on a bench, "So it's really unfair that I know all kinds of things about you, and you don't know almost anything about me. So, go ahead, ask me anything."
"Anything?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. He nods. "Ok, how old are you?"
"Three months."
She laughs, "Fine, how old is he?"
"Well, this year he's thirty-two years old. But where I came from, he'd just toppled fifty."
"How old was his son?" she asks, with her eyes going soft.
"Nine years six months, and eighteen days old," he replies.
"What happened to his wife?"
"She left him," he says.
"Jerk," Sam mutters.
"No, he… I… deserved it. I was depressed. I was thinking about killing myself," he admits.
She looks at him with panic in his eyes.
"Which would have been unbelievably selfish. I mean, she'd just had her son die in her arms. Did I really want to add a dead husband to the mix? It's not like it could have helped Charlie anyway."
"You don't still want to…" she asks, unable to finish the sentence.
He puts an arm around her, "No, not for years."
Just then a girl walks up, "Hi, Samantha!"
"Hey Liz!" Sam says, wiping her mouth and standing.
"Oh my gosh! You, like, never come to the mall. Who's this?" she asks, ogling Jon in a way that is so obvious that it makes his skin crawl.
"This is my boyfriend, Jonathan O'Neill," she says.
"Boyfriend? Oh my gosh, since when?" Liz squeals.
"Eight months now," Jon says.
"What!" the girl exclaims, "How come I've never seen him around at school or anything?"
"He's already graduated," Sam says with enough pride that makes Jon glad he had that as part of his cover story.
"Oh my gosh, an older man. No wonder you've been keeping him a secret. You didn't want to give any of the rest of us a chance to steal him from you," Liz says with a wink.
"Yeah, well it was nice meeting you," Jon says, trying to steer Sam away from a girl who is really giving him the creeps.
Liz's eyes fall on the packages, and grow huge. Then they look at Sam's stomach.
Everyone stands there for a long moment, trying to figure out if they should say something or not.
"Bye," Sam finally croaks out. They are a long way away before Sam manages, "Do you think she knows?"
"Damn," Jon says, "I just thought of a really good lie. You were shopping for you aunt's baby shower!"
"Well, that would have been useful a few minutes ago."
"I know, we could turn back and tell her now. But after that deer in the headlights look, our cover is pretty much blown."
"Everyone is going to know by Monday morning!" Sam whines.
"Well, it's not like you could keep it a secret forever. After all, you were going to start WEARING the clothes, right?"
"Yeah, but none of them REALLY look like pregnancy clothes. Luckily I dress a bit like an older woman already. So they would have just figured that I was wearing clothes for adults, and had gained a little wait. I could have put off the big reveal for another month."
"Ok, and what would putting it off have really accomplished?" he asked her.
She sighs, "You're right. I might as well deal with this now, and get it over with."
-0-0-0-
"Wow, Sammy," Jacob says when she returns home, "I didn't know you were actually going to buy stuff." He should have known. Sammy hadn't gone to the mall just to hang out with her friends since before her mother died. She actually hadn't done anything with her friends since before her mother died. "I would have given you some money. You need money?"
"I took care of it, sir, it's all things she had to buy because of me."
"Call me Jacob, son," Jacob says, "And you're sure you can afford this?"
"Yeah, I have some savings, and get my first paycheck next Friday."
"So what did you buy?" he asks, looking at the bags.
"Some clothes," Sam says blushing.
Jacob grabs one of the bags. The one that Sam had hidden in the middle. He draws out one of her new bras. It's black and has lace on it.
"Are you kidding me?" Jacob bellows, shaking it before Jon's eyes.
Jon closes his eyes, and color flames up his cheeks. He honestly can't believe that Jacob Carter is shaking a teenage Carter's bra in front of his eyes. It's not that he's never seen Carter's bras before. After all, SG-1 shares a locker room, and every time Carter opened up the locker you could see anything that was inside.
But those bras were boring. Boring on purpose. The sorts of things that wouldn't distract a male teammate.
"The day after you promise not to touch my daughter, you go out to buy her lingerie? Are you kidding me?" Jacob says.
"Daddy, I…" Sam begins.
"Samantha go to your room," Jacob bellow.
She starts to protest again, but stops when Jon starts talking.
"Sir, she went up a bra size a while ago. She asked me to take her to the store, because she was too embarrassed to ask you for some money."
"What?" Jacob says.
"Yeah, I found out today that she's been too embarrassed to ask you for money for any 'girl' thing since her mother died."
"Sammy?" Jacob says, looking at his daughter with hurt in his eyes, "Is this true?"
She looks down, and gives her head a gentle nod.
He goes over to his wallet and grabs out a handful of bills, "Here, Sammy, and if that runs out, you let me know. Honey, you should never be ashamed to ask me for anything you need. And don't you dare be ashamed of being a girl."
He pulls her into a hug.
"He sat on the bench outside of the shop," Sam says.
"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions," he says to both of them.