The Naming Game

Week 32

"Jack, I'm serious," Sam insisted. The phone was cradled between her shoulder and her ear while she awkwardly bent over to rifle through a drawer in her lab. "We need to think of a girl's name that we can both agree on."

"You've spent the last eight months swearing we weren't having a girl… Jackson, don't you dare eat that!" Jack hollered suddenly.

Sam flinched at his volume and almost dropped the phone. "Dare I ask?"

"It was a worm."

"Ew."

"Agreed."

"We need to be prepared," Sam pointed out, picking up the thread of the previous conversation. "Do you still like 'Catherine'?"

Cam suddenly appeared at her side, and Sam straightened up, relieved. She mouthed what she was looking for and stepped back, letting him dig through the drawer to find it for her.

"I told you a few months ago, I like 'Carter Catherine'," Jack reminded.

"We are not..."

"Calling our daughter 'Carter'," Jack finished for her. "I know. You've said it many, many times."

"Then why do you keep bringing it up?" Sam asked.

Cam brandished the correct tool with a flourish and she flashed him a grateful smile.

"Because you're a genius and sooner or later you'll realize this is the one time in your life that you're wrong," Jack explained.

Then he bellowed, "Jake, don't do that to your brother!"

This time Cam joined Sam in wincing as her husband's holler carried over the phone line, loud and clear.

"What's he doing?"

"Squishing mud into Jackson's ear," Jack informed her matter of factly. "Surprisingly, Jackson's letting him… You'd better hope I'm right; I don't think I can take another little boy running around this place."

"Maybe if you weren't such a bad influence…"

"You love me."

"That I do," Sam replied, smiling. "I gotta go. Cam's here to drag me off to lunch. Tell the boys I said 'hi'."

"Same," Jack said. "Vala too. I love you."

"I love you too."