Grace
by Aria
Chapter Twenty-One
Rating: Same as the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own them; if I did then I would be a hell of a lot richer. No one's paying me to write this, so I'm not making any profit from writing it. I'm just killing time.
Spoilers: In the line of duty, Divide and Conquer, Beneath the Surface, Point of No Return, Tangent, Serpent's Venom, Grace, The Other Guys, Heroes.
Synopsis: Grace arrives through the Stargate, and it's not just Sam that can see her. Set a couple of months after Heroes, and Lost City.
Just in case you still haven't noticed - even chapters tell one reality, odds another.
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"It's like she thinks I'm her mother, and she doesn't see any difference between us." Sam whispered to Janet, leaning against the sink counter.
Janet wrinkled her nose in confusion then lowered the volume slightly more as another shopper walked by. "Well, she didn't see you die, like she did Jack and that - you being her true mother - is what she wants, so of course, that's how she'll treat you."
The Springs Mall wasn't the closest one to the military base, but in Janet's opinion it was the best. It was the place she'd done most of her shopping in her own reality, and so whilst she wasn't quite holding out hope of finding her favourite date dress from three years ago, she was going to visit the same shops with the goal of finding something similar.
After she'd died in this reality, Cassandra had inherited her home and belongings. Cassie had not been home much since then, but one of the things she'd had to do, as she explained over the phone, was take her clothes to good will shops. Sam elaborated that Cassie had been found wearing them and crying on Janet's bed, and so she and Daniel had helped her decide which ones to keep or not.
This morning Sam had taken Grace and Janet from the military base in Daniel's car, and used her own key to open Janet's house. They'd removed dust covers and made coffee, and Janet had looked through her wardrobe for some non BDU clothes to wear. Cassandra had kept Janet's nicest clothing, things she would one day be able to wear - despite her half foot taller frame - and be able to proudly state that they were once her mothers. Janet had eventually found a pretty summer dress, but simple things like jeans, jumpers and underwear needed to be replenished. Grace and Sam had made Janet's bed for her, and they'd left with the intention of finding the little princess something other than a white sundress to wear as well.
Grace emerged from the bathroom stall with a whoosh of a flush behind her, and moved towards her two mother figures. She looked first at Sam, who smiled awkwardly, and then to Janet, who lifted her from behind to peer over the sink and supported her there until she washed her hands.
"Well done, Gracie," Janet said, looking at Sam to remind her to congratulate her daughter on a successful solo trip to the bathroom.
Sam razzled the little one's hair and smiled at her in the mirror, and when Janet released her led the way to the hand dryers.
Janet was amazed at the degree of awkwardness her friend exhibited with her daughter. She'd been fine with Cassandra when they'd first found her, and it couldn't just be about Grace's age as she'd seen her - albeit in her reality - with Mark's young children.
She was sure this was some sort of awkwardness as an extension from that she'd seen around General O'Neill earlier.
She was also sure she hadn't heard Sam mention anything futher about this Pete character that she was engaged to, and that Sam wasn't wearing an engagement ring, despite being off base. She intended to pry when they were next away from little ears.
They meandered into the Early Learning Centre almost immediately on exit from the bathrooms. Janet didn't like the conversation that Sam was going to have to have with Grace next time they went shopping together - why she couldn't have as many toys as on this trip.
"So, when's Cassie getting in?" Sam asked, as a little blonde blur assembled a stack of toys in front of her mother. A sticky dartboard appeared first.
"She's got a paper that she's almost finished, she says its due next Friday, but her tutor is looking at it over the weekend, so unless he suggests major changes she thinks she'll come back midweek." Janet explained. She remembered the breathy anticipation she'd had when she finally spoke with her daughter over the phone two days earlier.
Sam nodded approval at Grace as she tugged an art easel towards her. She stopped and ran off in another direction. Sam collected the dart board and they moved over to the easel to wait for the next, hopefully also semieducational toy.
"What are you going to do together?" Sam asked.
"Walks, movies, talk about how our worlds are different...probably a bit of crying." Janet paused. "I've lost all of this, all of you. I know she's not much different, but she's not really my Cassie. My Cassie is dead too, I just didn't have to see it, like you guys did." Janet's eyes watered, and she dabbed at the corners with her finger tips, hoping to daub any moisture before it affected her makeup.
"You okay?" Samantha asked after a suitable pause.
Janet nodded, turning away from an excited approaching blonde bundle. Sam reached out a hand to squeeze her arm when two books were pushed into her stomach and so she grappled to catch them instead.
A few more moments allowed Janet to collect herself and then leaned against a counter top of 'boys toys' as Grace returned again. "General O'Neill says you're going to come up to the cabin next week."
"Probably the weekend after." Janet added, "with Teal'C and Daniel."
Grace returned with a clear plastic box containing a green plastic wand and was gone again in a flash, Janet noticed Sam's confused look. "It goes with the books." She said, collecting it off the top of the pile in her friend's arms to point out the frog symbols on both. "To help her learn to read. The wand tells her what the word sounds like."
"Oh," Sam's confusion settled. Grace was no longer selecting items she knew, of this Sam was sure, Grace was stood looking up at the walls of toys with a hand on her hip.
"So, are you really going to call him 'General' O'Neill?" Janet pried.
Sam smiled and shook her head at her friend's interference. "In front of Grace we've agreed it's Jack and Sam."
Janet didn't say anything, but presumably out of guilt or nervousness Samantha continued. "We're going to spend two weeks in the cabin getting to know her, and then explain to her about how different this world is and arrange...shared custody...if that's what she wants. I just feel so awkward around her. She'll probably want to live with General O'Neill."
"Sam," began Janet softly.
Sam wouldn't meet her eyes. "It's not like that, Janet, he's on Earth all the time, he has a bigger house. He knows how to raise a child."
"She loves you. She knows you're not exactly her mother, but she doesn't care. You two aren't that different you know? You're both so damned stubborn."