"I don't like this."
She turned to the other agent. "We lost two agents here yesterday. How else do you suggest we investigate their deaths?"
"Look, if we tell them about the deaths, we have to admit the surveillance." The first agent, a burly black man, said with a sigh. "We know it was Hamilton. How could it not be?"
"I don't know where you got your criminal justice degree, Larson, but where I come from, it's still innocence until proven guilty."
"Which is why we were tailing a U.S. Senator."
"That's an order," she barked in frustration.
"Agent Barrett?" Someone asked, poking their head into the office.
"Yes?" She asked, looking up.
"Phone call on line 3."
She picked up the phone and put it to her ear. "Barrett."
"You know that blond you keep working with? The ex-general in Colorado?" A smoky voice that was completely unidentifiable. "We'll leave her alone in exchange for whatever tapes you have from the Senator's office. If you don't, we can't make any promises, and who's to say you won't be blamed? Can't afford to have another black mark on your record after the whole goa'uld fiasco."
"Who is this?" She demanded instantly as the line went dead.
"Dammit." She cursed, angrily. "Tell me we had that taped or traced or something!"
The agents in the office looked up, almost apologetic. "Sam's in trouble." He groaned, reaching for his coat.
The dream changed, and suddenly, Grace could see a dark, hooded figure at a pay phone in a dark alley.
"How was that?" The smoky voice asked, looking at her.
"Perfect."
"All right," the beggar said, reaching out a hand. "Now, I gave you what you wanted..."
"That's right," she said, looking at one of the men who had accompanied her, a tall, lean man with blond hair and blue eyes. "Give him what he deserves."
The second man nodded before pulling out a silenced pistol and shooting the beggar twice in the chest. He was dead before he hit the pavement. "Having fun yet, Barrett?" She asked, thinking of the sandy-haired NID agent.
Sam. Ex-general in Colorado who worked with Agent Barrett.
Grace sat up in bed, her eyes swiftly scanning the room for intruders. "They're going to kill my mom," she whispered, trembling.
Grace approached her door, surprised to see light from the kitchen shining underneath her door. She pressed her ear to the door, hoping to hear what was going on.
"Maybe you're right," her mother sighed, softly. "Maybe the only way we can really keep them safe is to just...pull them out of school. I could do math and science, Daniel could do social studies and history, you could coach them in English, and they could take art and music lessons and each could join some sort of sports team."
"I just don't see how they can really learn to use their gifts in an environment other than our home. Especially Jacob."
"Grace's visions seem to be tapering off," Sam said, hopefully.
"You think so?" Jack asked, skeptically.
"Look, I know that she would tell us if she was having a vision. Am I still worried about the fact that she had a nightmare about one of the kids in her class being killed? Of course I am. Am I still concerned that if she doesn't start getting some therapy, she'll kill herself by not sleeping? You better believe it. But am I relieved that she's not having those terrible visions anymore? More than I can even say."
"What if she's still having the visions, Sam? What if she walked through her bedroom door and told us something like that dream she shared with us when you were expecting Jacob, hm? What if she were to tell us that your life was in danger? Would you do something stupid like you did then, and walk into the trap?"
She could make out that her mother's voice was responding, but the specifics of her mother's words were lost in the quietness of her tone.
Grace sighed. She remembered it clearly. She'd asked what the Titans were, she'd drawn a Celtic symbol, and her mother had rushed out the door only to collapse in exhaustion after using her unborn son's telepathy to save Teal'c's life. She'd been put on bedrest instantly, and remained there for almost three months.
Grace pulled away from the door. Her warning had not saved her mother, but endangered her unborn baby brother's life on that occasion as well. Her warning to her biological parents only served to fuel the argument that had caused the split-second distraction from the roads which led to their fatal accident.
Could the answer have been there all along? She wondered quietly to herself. If she just kept the prophecies to herself, could she avoid the very fate which lay in wait to claim her family and friends. Better yet, she thought to herself suddenly, with a few energy drinks and cups of coffee, she could avoid the visions forever, slipping only into a dreamless sleep when her body could take no more of her wakefulness.
She walked over to the desk, careful not to make a sound that would alert her parents to her plan. She quickly set an alarm on her cell phone. Tomorrow morning, she'd "awaken", having made coffee for her parents in an effort to apologize for her behavior the night before. What they didn't need to know was that she was merely covering the smell of the coffee that she'd brewed for herself before they'd awoken.
She pulled a notebook off of the nightstand, and quickly hopped back into bed where she used the moonlight to illuminate her musings.
The alarm clock startled Sam out of her dreams as Jack's arms snaked around her waist. "Morning time," she said with a small smile.
"Aw," he groaned. "I was just getting comfortable."
She patted his hands with her own, and she allowed herself the chance to lay there and savor having his arms around her for a moment.
Suddenly, she smelled a familiar, but unexpected scent.
"Jack?" She asked, turning to look as far over her shoulder as she could.
"Hm?"
"Do you smell coffee?" She asked, confused.
"Coffee?" He asked, suddenly awake.
"Yeah."
"Come to think of it," he said after a moment. "Yes. Yes, I do smell coffee."
"And scrambled eggs?"
"Them too."
Sam slipped out of her husband's embrace and out of bed. "Who do you suppose could be making us breakfast?" She asked, turning to face him as she pulled on a terrycloth robe to ward off the chill of the early-morning house.
"Maybe it's Grace."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I know, I know." He chuckled softly.
"I'm going to go see."
"More power to you," he winked. "I'm going to get more sleep. Unlike you, I'm ACTUALLY retired."
She threw him a mockingly annoyed look before shaking her head with a chuckle as she walked out of the room.
"Morning," Grace greeted, brightly, her attention diverted from the frying pan for only a moment as she looked up at her mother.
"Good morning to you too," Sam said, confused. "What are you doing awake?"
"Oh, I just wanted to get some work done on that science project before school. Makayla thought it would be nice to have your help, so I wanted to apologize before I asked you to help." She pulled a pan of scrambled eggs from the burner before she reached for the coffee pot. "I was just about to make some french toast and some bacon. You want some coffee?"
"If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing," Sam murmured to herself. "I'm going to need it." She looked back at her daughter, now pouring her a steaming cup of the bitter liquid, as she sat down on one of the bar stools that sat at the island counter. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Fine." She said with a smile as she handed her mother the mug. "Like I said..."
"You wanted to work on your science project before school." Sam said, nodding. "And you really do want my help, so you made breakfast to apologize for last night."
"Exactly." Grace said with a grin.
"What's going on out here?" Jack asked, walking out of the bedroom a few moments later when he smelled lean, turkey bacon sizzling on the stove top.
"Morning, Dad." Grace said, cheerfully.
"Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?" He teased with a dead-pan expression.
She chuckled. "Want some coffee? Maybe some eggs?"
"Hm...eggs..."
Sam looked over with a small chuckle from where she sat, drinking her own cup of coffee.
"I'll take that as a "yes"," Grace said, quickly serving up a plate of the scrambled eggs.
"Grace, why don't you let me help you with the French toast, okay?"
"I've got it." Grace said, shaking her head.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, almost skeptically.
"Yes. Go get dressed, like you always do, and then you can wake Jacob up. Like you always do."
"Not yet," she said, shaking her head. "What did you want to do for your science project?"
"We were thinking of making a mobile with the planets and the moons and the sun."
Sam thought about the idea for a moment. "Sounds do-able." She admitted. "And creative."
"We were thinking we could give it to Charlie and Cassie for the baby's room when we're finished."
"Well, you know how we feel about letting things go to waste," Jack joked as he stood from his plate of eggs to serve himself a cup of coffee. "And we have the Stargate in our basement to prove it."
Sam couldn't help but chuckle. He knew as well as she did that she'd turned Orlin's homemade Stargate over to Area 51 when she'd moved to Nevada in the interest of not having to move the device frequently. Several eyebrows had been raised at its sudden "recovery", but she didn't apologize. She'd taken the time to study it as well as she could, and while she was still making the credit card payments on the nearly five figure project, she felt entirely justified in doing so.
"Mommy?" Jacob asked, sleepily, from where he had emerged from his room, rubbing at his eyes.
Sam turned around. "Yes, sweetheart?"
"Do I smell bacon?"
Sam chuckled once more. Definitely his father's son, she mused to herself. "Yep. Hop on up here, and I'll fix you a plate."
She gently tousled his hair before she kissed the top of his head affectionately. "I sure love you, little man."
"I love you too, Mom."
Sam walked over to where her daughter was rushing around the kitchen, and kissed the top of her daughter's head. "I love you too, angel."
"I love you too, Mom."
Sam smiled as Jack looked up at her." Hey! Where's my kiss?"
She grinned as she walked over. "I love you, Jack O'Neill," she murmured as she kissed him.
"I love you too, Mrs. O'Neill."
Grace sat in her room, the effects of her "all-nighter" beginning to catch up with her as the numbers of her math assignment all began to blur together. She rubbed her forehead as if to ward off the oncoming headache that had come from drinking a whole pot of coffee and two energy drinks over the course of the day.
Her eyes flickered over to where the third drink sat in her backpack. The caffeine would undoubtedly end her headache before it really began, but she could already feel her eyes closing of their own accord, so she knew that the drink would come in handy in a few hours when her parents expected her to be in bed.
There was a knock at the door, and Grace groaned, grumpily. "I'll be there in a minute, Mom."
"It's not your mom," a distinctly male voice called through the door.
"Charlie!" She squealed, jumping off the bed at the sound of her older brother's voice. She ran to the door and threw it open, excitedly.
"Hello to you too," he laughed as he hugged her.
"When did you get here?"
"Just now," Cassandra said, joining her husband in the doorway. "I had a shift that ended about a half-hour ago."
"Speaking of," Charlie said, turning to his wife. "You should be sitting down."
"I'm fine," she said, her tone somewhat edgy.
"But Cassandra..."
"Don't "but Cassandra" me, Charlie." She snapped somewhat coldly. "You do this every time I get home from a long shift."
"Something wrong?" Sam asked, approaching the doorway.
Cassandra heaved a heavy sigh as she shot her husband a look. "No. I was just going to go and "sit down"."
Cassandra turned to leave, and Sam patted Charlie's back, supportively. "Dinner's ready, you guys."
Charlie nodded, quietly.
Sam watched him go, wondering for a moment how she could help the young couple. Then, she turned to her daughter. "Come on, angel. Time to eat."
Grace sighed softly before she nodded. "Okay."
"Something wrong?" Sam asked, perceptively.
"Charlie seems different with the baby coming." She said after a moment.
Sam wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "It's a big change," she agreed. "But I'll bet Charlie and Cassandra are even more nervous about it than you are."
Grace bit her lip as if she wasn't entirely sure.
"Being a parent is hard work," Sam said, softly. "I know your dad and I sometimes make it look easy, but it can be intimidating. And those last few months of a pregnancy..." Sam inhaled at the memory of her own pregnancy. "Well, they're hard. For everyone. I'll bet you remember what I was like those last few weeks before Jacob was born, hm?"
Grace shrugged.
Sam kissed the top of her daughter's head again. "I love you, angel. Trust me, everything's going to be all right."
Grace looked up at her mother with an unreadable expression on her face before she hugged her tightly. "I love you, Mom."
"You comin'?" Jack asked, turning to his wife.
Sam blinked away tears as Grace finally pulled away. "Yeah," she said with emotion in her voice. "We're coming."
To her surprise, Grace was wiping away tears of her own as she passed her father on her way to the dining room.
"What just happened?" Jack asked, confused.
"I'm not sure," Sam said, wiping at her own eyes. "One minute, she was worried about Charlie, and the next minute, she was hugging me and telling me that she loves me."
"Hm..." Jack said, looking back toward the dining room. "Well, no one ever said that teenagers weren't fickle."
Sam chuckled softly as she wrapped a hand around her husband's waist. "Come on, Jack, let's get to the dinner table before the teenager and the pregnant woman eat all our food, hm?"
Jack laughed before kissing her temple.
