"Do you have everything you need for the weekend?" Jennifer said over the phone late Thursday night.
"Yup," Cameron said, zipping his duffel bag. "Glad we canceled on getting together tonight. Between both of us packing and a few others on missions, I don't think there were many left to go."
He heard her bump into something and mutter to herself. "Ouch."
"You okay?" Cameron asked, concerned.
"Just my normal, clumsy self over here," she replied, her voice muffled.
Cameron grinned. "So," he said. "Nervous about tomorrow?"
"Not at all," Jennifer replied immediately. "Surprisingly, meeting everyone later on isn't making me nervous. The walking down the aisle thing, however, is another story."
He laughed. "Jen, it's not as if you're the one getting married."
"I realize that," she said, laughing at herself. "It's the part about not falling on my face or something else embarrassing happening during the ceremony. Luckily, there will only be about 50 people there to witness it."
He moved the duffel bag next to the front door, along with a gift bag. Although Jennifer warned him not to worry about a gift, he found something last minute this evening to give to the newly wedded couple on Saturday.
"Are you sure I shouldn't just wear a suit?" he asked, setting his dress uniform over the arm of the chair. Sitting, he adjusted his shoulder to hold the phone while he zipped the uniform into the garment bag.
"No, bring it," she said, laughing. "Besides, I've never seen you in it."
"It's no big deal," he said, wondering what else she was doing a few doors down in her own condo. He kept hearing cabinets slamming and zippers opening then closing. "O'Neill's dress blues are much more impressive."
"Well, when you make General one day, you can brag about that. Until then, you'll have to settle for a mere Lieutenant Colonel…you poor thing."
He grinned. "Hey, now. Remember I'm doing you a favor. If it wasn't for me, you'd be stuck with the awkward blind date for the event."
"Seriously, don't remind me," Jennifer said, exasperated. "My dad was never interested in my life in that regards until recently."
Leaning back into the chair and relaxing, he found himself not wanting to end the conversation. He was looking forward to the weekend, especially spending the majority of it with her. "You can't blame him. I think every parent wants to see their kid happy and paired up with someone."
"Well, he's been a little too interested lately," she said, sighing. "I'm sure it's tied into the whole making sure I'm okay once he's gone. But can't he realize that someone can be happy without being in love?"
"Was he?" Cameron said, wondering if he was prying too much into her past. "After your mom passed away, do you think he regrets not finding someone sooner?"
She didn't say anything for a few moments. "I guess I never thought of it that way. I mean, him and my mom had a great marriage from all accounts that I've heard him and others talk about. I'm sure he did miss it, but probably never dated because he was too busy being a single father and supporting us."
Cameron heard her sigh. "Sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up right now."
"No, it's not that. I'm just tired. I just laid down for the first time since I've been home. I don't think I have the energy to change."
"Well, don't forget to set your alarm. We're due on base to leave for Wisconsin at 0700. We're still planning on driving together?"
"Yeah, makes sense," she said, then laughed. "And then I'll have help loading, unloading, and carting in all my stuff."
He chuckled. "Three days. We'll be gone three days, Jen."
"Hey, don't forget that you offered to come with me. And girls need more things to get ready. It's a fact."
"And here I thought you were not that type of woman," he muttered and then laughed.
Hanging up with her a few minutes later, Cameron forced himself to trudge upstairs and get some sleep himself.
Jennifer and Cameron stood together on the ship, quickly chatting with a few SGC personal who were assigned in orbit. Within minutes, they were transported back down to Earth a few miles away from her father's home.
The ship always beamed her to a foreclosed home in a rural area, away from prying neighbors. There, she kept a used car and drove it the rest of the way to her father's house.
"Jen, don't tell me you've been driving this clunker since you started visiting here," Cameron warily eyed the vehicle in front of him. There, sitting in the garage, was a beat up old Chevy. And it looked like it was on its last leg.
"Hey, don't talk about my car that way. She has feelings, you know," Jennifer grinned, opening the trunk so that Cameron could toss in their luggage. "This car got me through high school and undergrad school."
"And your dad kept it all this time?" Cameron asked.
"Yup," she said, cheerfully getting into the driver's seat and opening the garage door.
"And has he been curious as to how you get home every month?" Cameron asked, wondering how she pulled off the trip each weekend without raising any suspicion.
She shrugged. "They haven't asked many questions. I told them the Air Force offered to transport me here and then I pick up my car near the local landing strip."
"That's not too far from the truth."
"Exactly," she replied, turning down a road. "The house is just down the street from here."
Cameron took in the local scenery. It wasn't much different from where he grew up, although it was clear across several states. But the rural sights were a welcome to him after months of only traveling from the base to his condo.
"There's something about small towns," he remarked. "How'd you like growing up here?"
Jennifer thought for a moment. "For the most part, it was great. But sometimes you wish for a little more privacy."
"I hear that," he agreed. "But nothing beats room to stretch without running into your neighbors."
They pulled up in the driveway of her childhood home. Jennifer honked the horn twice as Cameron got outside to open her trunk for their luggage. Her father came to the screen door, followed by her soon to be step-mother.
"You gals need help out there?" her father called from the door.
Cameron, overhearing, cocked his head in confusion. He then shut the trunk and grabbed both their duffel bags along with the two garment bags and an extra bag Jennifer had packed.
"Jen," he said in a lowered voice as she emerged from the car with their gift bags and her purse, "I think your dad may have thought that you were bringing a-"
"No, he knows," she interrupted, slamming the door. She'd been inside the car and hadn't heard her father. "I talked with him about it in your office. I told him I was bringing you."
"Ah..." he began, then just shut up.
This would be interesting, he thought. And he'd let her handle it.
"Well, that's not exactly who I was expecting," he father said, laughing at his assumption as he walked onto the wrap around porch. "My apologies, young man."
Cameron nodded and gave a smile at her father. Joseph Keller sure didn't look like he was dying. The man looked in his prime; only the tell-tale signs of a slightly pale complexion and slowness in his walking gave away the battle his body had began to fight.
"Dad, this is Cameron Mitchell. My friend Cameron. Cam, this is my dad."
Cameron dropped the luggage onto the porch and walked over to the slightly shorter man to shake his hand. "Sir, it's an honor to meet you. Jen's told me a lot about you."
Obviously, she hadn't said much about him, judging from her father's surprise.
"Dad, Cameron's a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, stationed on base with me," Jennifer explained. "He's the one who helped create the position that's allowing me to temporarily work in Colorado. And let me know about the condo. And helped move me in. And-"
"I think he gets the picture," Cameron dryly cut her off.
"Well, then," her father, still laughing about his earlier assumption, gave Cameron the once over. "Margaret, come over here and meet Jennifer's young man."
Jennifer just groaned at her father's word choice. She quickly hugged Margaret and expressed her happiness over the occasion for the weekend.
Cameron, who never felt self-conscious, suddenly wondered what the heck her father was thinking right now. Cam was casually dressed in jeans, boots, and a fairly new button up casual shirt. But then her father grinned, making Cameron think he passed some kind of inspection.
"It's certainly nice to have you here for the weekend, Colonel," Margaret said. "My son and his wife are coming in tonight, as well as a few of Jennifer and Dan's family."
"Call me Cameron, ma'am," he said,
"Dad, you sure we're okay staying with you?" Jennifer asked, leaning against the white washed column standing in the corner of the patio. "We could get a couple of rooms at the hotel in town."
"Nonsense," her father waved her off. "Margaret's family is staying with her and our family is at the hotel. No way they're staying here and driving me crazy right before my wedding."
Jennifer laughed, giving Cam the impression that her family meant a lot to her but too much could be overwhelming.
"I went ahead and set up the guest room for your friend," Margaret said, helping Jennifer with the items she had brought onto the patio. "Now come on, you two. I made a nice brunch for us all. I'm sure your father would like to get to know Cameron a little better."
Jennifer sent her father a look. Cameron, slightly amused, followed the three into the house.
"I'm so sorry," Jennifer said when they were finally alone. Both of them had been assigned the duty of decorating the small church where the ceremony would take place. Since her father and Margaret wanted minimal fuss, they only had a few pew bows to hang, along with several strands of lights to run along the greenery.
"For what?" Cameron said, eyeing the pew bow as if it was going to attack him. "How the heck do you hang this thing?"
She leaned over him and showed where the tulle loop was in order to drape it over the corner of the pews. "Like this. And you know full well what I'm talking about. My dad is just thrilled that I brought a man home."
Cameron snorted. "Sorry, that just sounded funny. Especially since I'm the said 'man.'"
"It's not funny," she sighed. "I don't want to give him false hope."
Cameron sat next to her and nudged her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. He'll see we're just friends over the next few days and realize that's all we really are."
Jennifer shrugged. "I guess."
They both finished their tasks and shortly after heard voices in the vestibule. Minutes later, they were both introduced to dozens of family members from the bride and grooms side and then set out with the crowd downstairs for the rehearsal dinner.
Later that night, Jennifer kept tossing. It was only 10 p.m., but her father and both herself and Cam had all decided to try and turn in early to get a good night's rest.
First, she was too hot. The house never regulated the upstairs temperature very well. She left on her long knit sleep pants and exchanged the heavier sleep shirt with a pale pink tank top. Pulling the comforter to the edge of the bed, she covered up with only the sheet. Minutes later, she was still wide awake.
Giving up, she reached for her cell phone and looked up Cameron's number.
Are you awake? She texted.
Texting was something new for her. She'd had a cell phone before leaving Earth, but never got into texting. Since everyone else used it at the SGC, she soon let Cameron drag her into a store and was talked into buying an updated cell phone and service plan for her two years on Earth.
Yup. He responded. Can't sleep either?
She sighed. Absolutely not. Big day tomorrow and all.
She waited as he typed a response. Idly, she glanced over at the small bookshelf that stood next to her bed and wondered if her father ever discovered the mystery of why Jennifer never rearranged her furniture in all the years she'd lived in her childhood room.
Don't be nervous. He typed. Man, it's quiet up here.
Quickly deciding that sleep wouldn't come anytime soon, Jennifer kicked the covers off and gently as possible moved the near empty bookshelf several feet from the bed. Shortly after, she heard a noise from her phone, indicating she'd received a text from him.
What's going on in there?
She sat on her bed and swung her legs back onto the bed, stretching out on her stomach while typing. Want to know a secret? My dad doesn't even know about it.
Does it involve moving furniture?
Yes, she typed back. See the Navajo painting next to your bed? On your right, if you're laying on your back.
She waited until she heard a slight shuffling sound and then saw the painting being taken down. Peering inside, Cameron looked through the space and stared back at her. From his position on the bed in the guest room, he could see straight across at an angle into her bedroom.
"Do I even want to know how you got a hole in the wall to your room?" he asked.
Jennifer tried to cover her momentary distraction. His hair was sticking up slightly, indicating he too had been trying to toss about in an effort to go to sleep early. But seeing him in gym shorts and a plain white men's t-shirt made her mouth go dry. She knew he kept in shape by running and weight training, but his uniforms and street clothes covered up much of the defined muscles underneath. Averting her eyes for a second, she set her phone down on the nightstand.
"My mom caught my cousin and I staying up and talking late all of the time," she explained, once recovered. "She made us promise to stay in our own rooms when Juliet visited as soon as it was bed time. Well, being the honest person that I am... we decided to cheat a bit and make a tiny hole into the wall between our rooms so that we could talk without mom knowing we were still up."
"Tiny?" he asked, swinging his own legs back into the bed and laying on his stomach but still able to see her, "That's no tiny hole."
"Well," she said, "my mom heard us widening it a bit one day while my dad was working. She gave up and decided to help us and got a little carried away with the project. Then we found things to cover the hole in case my dad discovered it."
He proceeded to ask more questions about her cousin's visit to the farm, about her mother, and general things about her childhood. They lay there, each propped up by pillows in their respective beds, and ended up talking to nearly 1 a.m.
When her eyes started to droop, Cameron stood up. "I think it's time for you to get some sleep. Night, Jen."
Mumbling, she quietly said good night as he covered the hole with the painting. Any worries or nerves about the next day left as she smiled before falling asleep.
Thanks for the read and review. Next chapter up tomorrow.
