"Jacob, Good to see you," Jack says giving him a handshake and a slap on the back. Jacob wonders if the time he heard Jack call him 'dad' to Sam was an isolated incident or if that is what Jack always references him as behind his back. If he knew it might give a little insight to the 'not a relationship' his daughter had with the man.
"Where is that little Granddaughter of mine?" Jacob asks.
Jack grins ear to ear, "She's at work," he says in a completely nonchalant tone.
"What?" Jacob asks.
"I said 'she's at work'," Jack repeats a touch louder as if he really believed the 'what' referenced a failure to hear.
"She's a baby!" Jacob objects.
"Hey now, she's almost two. You factor in the double growth, and it's like she's four," Jack protests. The protest is actually more of a warning. He'd called his daughter 'baby girl' the other night and had to endure a mixture of Sam's hand to hand training and Teal'c's martial art intertwined with a few moves only a few black ops operatives knew. You wouldn't think a four year old could hurt a grown man, but you'd be wrong.
"Most four year olds don't work," Jacob says.
"Relax; we're not slave driving the poor thing. But preschool was pretty much a disaster, we tried three. We had to limit the topics of acceptable conversation until the kid could barely talk. We asked her to be someone she is not, and play with people who only possessed the tiniest fraction of her brain. So I gave her a job six hours a week instead. When she turns four we'll increase her hours to eight a week. At five, she'll get thirty-five, same as a school day until she's sixteen when we'll hire her full time. Assuming of course she hasn't wised up and decided to become a circus clown or something."
"A circus clown?" Jacob asks dubiously.
"What higher hopes can a father have for his daughter?" Jack replies.
"Does the littlest Dr. Carter have an office?" Jacob asks.
"It's the same as the older Dr. Carter today," Jack replies. "You have any business or is this a purely social call?" Jack asks.
"Just visiting family this time," Jacob says with a grin.
"Ah, just the way I like it. The world at peace for just one moment…" he grins.
"You should come to dinner, with us tonight, Jack," Jacob says.
"I wouldn't want to intrude," Jack says.
"I said I wanted to spend time with my family," Jacob insists with a smile.
"Matchmaker," Selmak accuses inside of Jacob's head. "I'm not denying it," Jacob replies in the same way.
Katie lights up when she sees her grandfather at the door. She turns to her mother, "Request permission to take a break?"
Sam grins, "For the thousandth time Katie, you cannot be in the Air Force until you're eighteen, and why don't you take the day off?"
"Thank you ma'am," Katie replied quickly flinging herself into Jacob's arms. Katie freezes. She pulls away every part of her body, except one of her arms, which is sitting on the base of his neck. "Grandpa what's wrong?"
"Nothing," he says.
"Selmak's sick," she says.
"Dad?" Sam asks.
"How did you know that?" he asks setting Katie on a lab bench so he can look at her.
"He was thinking about it. Did I mess up the reading mind rules again?" she asks.
"She can read minds?" Jacob exclaims, "A little warning would be nice!"
Jack shoots him an apologetic look, before he starts talking to his daughter, "No, I'm thinking this might fit under the 'to save someone's life' part of the rule," Jack says, "Jacob?"
Jacob closed his eyes, "I wasn't going to worry you."
"Is Selmak going to be ok?" Sam asks.
"She's dying," Jacob says.
"Oh God Dad, I only lived with Jolinar for a short amount of time, but I think I can begin to imagine what you are going through," she says.
"I need the healing device," Katie exclaims, "Wait…I can't use the healing device I don't have any naquada in my blood. Mom can use it though."
"I appreciate it, Katie, but the Tok'ra haven't been able to heal me," Jacob says.
"No…but Jolinar, she used it differently…" Katie begins. She stops when she realizes that all the adults in the room are staring at her.
"Jolinar?" Jack asks carefully.
Katie nods.
"How much Jolinar do you have in there?" Sam asks worriedly. She didn't think she had much of Jolinar. And what she did have was mostly fragments of torture and being tortured, killing and being killed. She had nothing left of Jolinar that she would want her daughter to have inherited.
"Mostly schematics I think," she frowns, "I don't always know what came from who. I especially have trouble figuring out what things came from Jolinar and what came from the Ancients."
"Ancients?" Sam says looking at Jack.
"That's from Daddy Daniel's ascended time," Katie says, "I don't have it all….he never kept it all. There are just a few things."
"Schematics sound useful," Jack says brightly.
"Much better than Jolinar's memories," Sam mutters.
"I didn't get any memories from any of you," Katie says.
"I know we thought that, but Pete said you remembered him when you found him when you were lost," Sam explains.
"She got lost?" Jacob asks.
"She was fine, in a museum, everyonewas ok," Jack says quickly.
"Well I do sometimes know facts about people you knew. I remember Pete from my own memories," she says.
"There is no way you can remember Pete. You have not seen him since you were tiny. No one can remember that young," she says.
"Right, also no two year old can fix Stephen Hawking's equations," Katie says.
Jack looks to Sam for confirmation of that bold statement.
"Little Miss Katie, I am still not convinced you 'fixed' them, and you're getting off subject. You remember Pete from your own memories?" Katie nods, "Then you also remember…" Sam covers her mouth, and pulls her daughter into a hug. Jack gives Jacob a look, and they both file out of the room.
"There was a night when you were really small, and Mommy was really tired…" Sam begins.
"And I had to scream to wake you up," Katie says nodding.
Sam's lip quivers, "And afterword you went to go see Daddy Jack."
Katie nods her head, "And I was kinda scared until Daddy Jack said you didn't mean it, and only said you were going to leave me forever, because you were so tired."
Sam pulls her close, "I am so sorry, Katie, so sorry. I never meant it. You have to know I would never, ever, ever leave you. Ok?" she asks pulling away, "I was tired and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I said things I didn't mean."
"It would have been my fault if you left," Katie said soberly, "Daddy Jack said so, he asked me what I was doing to you, but I couldn't talk yet."
"Honey, he didn't mean that it was your fault. Babies cry. You did nothing wrong. You were just asking for food. I should have asked your daddies to come over and help, and I never would have been that tired, and you never would have been in danger. Not your fault," she says lifting her daughter's chin to reinforce the concept.
"You only slept for a tiny bit, and I didn't almost fall," she tells her mother.
"I'm sorry, sweetie, you could have been hurt, and it would have been my fault," she says.
Katie shakes her head, "I'm done talking about it," she says.
Sam grins, "You get your reluctance to talk about emotional matters from your father."
"Which one?" Katie asks, and Sam realizes that she's going to have to start being more careful about the way she thinks about Jack.
"Sam," Jacob says after the rest of his visitors have left the infirmary later that night.
"I'm sorry I couldn't heal you," Sam says, "I don't know that much about the hand device. Maybe we should get some Tok'ra here.
"It's not your fault. Jolinar was not the only Tok'ra who knew that method. It's been tried on me before. I just had to let the little girl try," he says with a smile. "Sam, it is possible that I'm going to die with Selmak," he says.
"No, Dad, please," Sam says. Her eyes pleading at someone to continue living has saved people's lives before. Jacob's life, Jack's life, a soldier in the field on her very first mission that lost way more blood than people survive, but who lived none the less.
"Honey, I was going to try to hang on. A final show-down with the Gou'ald is coming. I wanted to help. If I let her go now, I've got a pretty good chance of living, but Selmak won't be able to help with the battle," Jacob says.
"You have to do it now, Dad," Sam says.
"I know, Selmak's been screaming it for weeks. I'm going to let her go now, but I still might die, so I wanted to say something really important to you before I let…Selmak die for me. Sam, don't let the rules stand in your way."
"I don't know what you mean," Sam says. Jacob gives a look of annoyance and disbelief that Sam hasn't seen since the last time she tried to tell her father a cover story.
"All I have ever wanted is for you to be happy. I haven't always gone about it the right way, but that is all I've ever wanted. You can still have everything," he says.
"I do," she says.
He shakes his head.
"I really do," she insists taking one of his hands and crying upon it.
"Sammy, there is a good chance I'm going to be ok. If I'm not there is a disk in my bag that I liberated from the Tok'ra," he smiles at her grimace, "It shows where all the Gou'ald ships in the galaxy are. A few replicators have started taking out Gou'alds at the edge of the galaxy. It's something we should watch, something that is probably going to blow up in our faces before too long," Jacob says. "I love you," he whispers. Then he closes his eyes.
It's been hours, and Sam hasn't emerged from the observation room overlooking her father's isolation room. Jack sends Katie home with Teal'c for the night, and goes in to see her.
"You ok?" Jack asks coming to sit by Sam.
"There is a good chance he is going to be fine. And if he isn't… I thought I was going to lose him four years ago. Since then we've been closer than we've ever been before in my life," Sam says.
"Com'ere," he says, and pulls her into one of those comforting hugs. He thinks how unfair this is. If she were to lose her best friend and her father all in the same year, it would be too much. Too unfair. The hug is slightly different than all of his other com'ere hugs. Not from his end, where it is still comfort and support. But her thumb is slowly running across his hand. Her hand is almost in a way holding his, although it almost looks like she is touching her own shoulder.
"Thank you, Sir," she says.
He turns to her confused, "what for?"
"For being here for me," she says.
He smiles, that, at least, he could do, "always," he says.
Sam wakes up, to find herself wrapped all around her commanding officer in the observation room. She turns quickly to what she can see through the window. She sees her Dad's eyes open. She stands up, nearly causing Jack to fall to the floor.
"I'm sorry," she mutters.
"Dad's up," he says with a smile.
"I know," she says her smile lighting up.
"I see you did understand that talk, even though you pretended not to," Jacob says.
Sam's cheeks turn a little bit red. "Nothing happened, Dad."
"Huh, I always thought you were a genius, and he only pretended to be stupid," Jacob says.
"I'm glad you're ok, Dad," she says swiftly changing the subject, "so what are the replicators up to?" she asks.
"Good segue kid," he smiles, "We can stop talking about your personal life now."
"Are you ok, Dad?" she asks.
"I am," Jacob says, "I really am.
"Hey kid," Jack says.
"I accidently read your mind," Katie responds. She couldn't very well help it considering all the worry that was in her father's face.
"Just as well, but everything is going to be ok, your mom has figured out how to make a new disruptor technology to fight the replicators," Jack says.
"Grandpa is ok?" she asks.
"Yeah," Jack grins, "He's just fine. In fact, he and your mother are off trying to save the world right now. They are looking for an ancient weapon on Dakara. Daddy Teal'c is with them."
"Where is Daddy Daniel?" Katie asks.
"I'm sure he's fine," Jack says, but his words were not the kind of thing that was going to fool anyone.
"I don't want to go home, Daddy Jack," she says, "Let's eat here and sleep in your quarters, and then you can get back to work sooner."
"You are too wise for your age," he says mussing her hair.
Katie was caught somewhere between worry and boredom. The base had been evacuated, but it wasn't like that was something that had never happened before. None of the day care providers were worried, and the other kids certainly were not. But she knew there was something real going on. Something real enough that Daddy Jack didn't know where Daddy Daniel was.
But even worry gets worn thin after a while, and it had already been hours.
"Lieutenant," she says quietly to the lady who ran the place. Someone everyone else called Brit, "I don't like Aristotle," she says holding up the book forlornly.
"Not surprising, little one," the woman replies.
"What can I do, now?" Katie asks.
"You've got a lot of pretty amazing things in that brain of yours, why don't you put some of it down on paper?" she says handing the little girl a sheet of paper, and a crayon. Katie grins widely, and becomes so absorbed in the task that she stops worrying.