The puzzle was coming along nicely in the hands of two blue-eyed Carters. David would come and go for a few minutes at a time, picking up a piece and trying (unsuccessfully, generally) to shove it into any available spot. The behavior earned patient smiles from Sam and irritated glares from his sister – he didn't notice either, but would quickly bore and leave.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was Sam, who would pick an opening, stare at it for a long moment, then slowly survey all the loose pieces until she found the one she was looking for. Sydney fell somewhere between, though closer to Sam's side of things.

Jack found watching them – specifically, Sam – as fascinating as they found the puzzle.

"Gotcha," she muttered under her breath, grabbing a piece and snapping it neatly into place. It had no determining marks that Jack could make out, but it was clearly exactly what she'd been looking for. He shook his head a little.

"What?" she asked. "The one prong was higher than the other, and kind of, y'know, tilted."

"Ohhh." Like that explained everything.

The response was a little over the top, and it earned him an exasperated smile as she pushed away from the table. "I'm gonna go get some coffee. Want some?"

"Sure."

She didn't miss, as she walked away, how he pulled his chair a little closer to the table, picked up a piece, and tried to put it in the wrong spot.

Her sister-in-law was already in the kitchen, her back to the door with the phone cradled to her ear. Oddly, the lights were still off. "Ellie Carter," she said as Sam walked in. "Date of birth: May twelfth, 'sixty-eight. I know it usually takes a couple of days to make an appointment, but I was hoping if you get this message first thing Monday morning I might luck out with a cancellation or something. Please give me a call." Quickly reciting their phone number, she disconnected the call and set the phone back on the counter.

Sam watched her a moment, the way she tapped her fingers anxiously beside the phone, the nervous tension in her shoulders. It was a completely different woman than she was used to seeing. "Ellie?" she called softly.

Jumping like she'd just been shocked, she spun, eyes wide. "Sam."

"Just me." Slowly, the Colonel crossed the tile floor. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, everything's fine," she insisted, nodding completely unnecessarily. And as she did, she couldn't seem to help the way her eyes started to twinkle and the corners of her lips turned up. Finally giving in, she whispered conspiratorially, "Actually, everything might be great."

Intrigued, Sam stepped a little closer. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." The woman looked like she might actually leap out of her skin. "Can you keep a secret?"

Colonel Carter – Queen of Classified – just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, right," Ellie gushed. "See, I guess I just hadn't been thinking about it because there was so much to do – groceries and planning and cooking. And then I thought it just had to be the stress, but the longer it goes, the more I think it isn't."

"Ellie..."

"I think I'm pregnant," she breathed.

Sam could only stare at her for a moment, shell-shocked, before a matching grin spread across her own face. "Oh, my God. Ellie!" she exclaimed, keeping her voice just as low. "That's amazing."

Just barely containing a squeal, the other woman wrapped her arms tightly around Sam's shoulders and hugged her tightly. "I don't want to tell Mark until I'm sure," she explained. "He'd get all excited and then if I'm wrong..."

"Right." Ellie was clearly already over the moon, and Sam fervently hoped her sister-in-law wouldn't end up disappointed, herself.

"Am I interrupting a girls' moment?"

Both women swung toward the deep voice, terrified that it might be Mark... and found Jack standing in the doorway instead. "Oh, right. Coffee," Sam said quickly, peeling away to head toward the cabinets.

Behind her, Jack and Ellie must have been involved in something of a stare-off, and Sam hoped she'd get that doctor's appointment soon, because it was mere seconds before Ellie bubbled over again. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Even better than I can," Sam reassured her over her shoulder.

"I think we're having another baby," she told him.

The silence that followed was half a second longer than it should have been. "Wow. That's... that great," he said, and while Ellie may have been too excited to miss the hollowness there, Sam wasn't. She swung around, coffee mugs in hand, just in time to catch his expression before Ellie pulled him into a hug, as well.

And he didn't look happy.