"Pete?" Sam yelled as she came through the door. Looking around, she shrugged off her coat and placed it on a hanger. She did a quick check of the house, before going upstairs, dragging her bag with her. Pete was snoring in the bed, fast asleep and Sam smiled as she put down her bag. Grabbing her robe, she went into the bathroom to take a quick shower and to brush her teeth. When she came out, he was still snoring; obviously, he hadn't woken up by her entrance. She quickly hooked her phone to the charger on her nightstand, before slipping into the bed.
Pete's alarm woke her after a few hours and she yawned as she stretched her limbs. "Turn it off," she groaned.
"Hey babe," Pete greeted her and planted a kiss on her lips. "I didn't hear you come in?"
"I was quiet and you were snoring," she chuckled. "I bet you couldn't even hear me over that noise."
"Funny," he replied as he got up. "Aren't you getting up?"
"I just got in a few hours ago, I'm tired. Besides, I don't have to report in until 1300 hours," she yawned again and motioned with her hands for him to leave so she could go back to sleep.
He took her hint and went into the bathroom, but she could still hear him rummaging about. How hard was it to take a nice quiet shower, brush your teeth, perhaps shave and go to the kitchen, she thought sleepily. Rolling over, she adjusted the alarm and as she rolled back her eye fell on her cell phone. Now completely charged, she grabbed it and turned it on. She didn't know what she'd been thinking, she angrily told herself as she noticed there were no new messages – text or voicemail. He could at least have the decency to call her to inform her dinner was off, couldn't he? Why had he 'stormed out of his office' in the first place? The airman had told her it was a few hours before she came, so he could've easily contacted her by now. Damn him! Placing the phone back on the nightstand, she ducked under the covers. Was he avoiding her? No, there must be a good reason for him to just leave like that, right? Letting out a frustrated sigh, she rolled on her back and angrily kicked up the sheets with her legs, trying to get it out of her system. "Aargh!" She groaned as she kicked off the covers completely and now she had to pick them up from the floor…
Jack was fidgeting in the backseat, wondering how much longer it would take the cabdriver to get there. Looking out the window, he couldn't take in the scenery as his mind kept going back to Ilse's call. He had been sitting in his office, doing some mighty fine paperwork when – out of the blue – she'd called and told him that Lily had collapsed on stage and was brought to the hospital as she was still unconscious. Not wasting any time he stormed out of his office, grabbing his coat and briefcase on the way to the door and told his assistant to clear his schedule. He'd taken a cab, while calling to the airport to schedule the first possible flight and ran into his house to grab his passport and overnight bag – his emergency bag with a set of clothes – before telling the driver to get him to the airport ASAP.
That had been over ten hours ago and he still didn't know how she was doing. He turned his phone to 'flight mode' when boarding the plane, but apparently his battery was dead now and he didn't take his charger with him. "How much longer?" He impatiently asked the driver.
"We'll be there under ten minutes, Sir."
Nodding, Jack sighed and tried to relax a bit. Ten more minutes until he could see her, and hear that everything was fine… then again, if it hadn't been serious, Ilse wouldn't have called him. Well, she would, but she would've told him everything was going to be fine and that he really didn't have to jump on the next available plane. Unfortunately, she hadn't told him that. In fact, she'd almost encouraged him to come, which wasn't a good sign at all.
Looking up again, Jack noticed the driver averting his glance. Well, at least the man wasn't trying to make conversation, Jack grimly thought. The driver in DC had tried talking to him and had gotten Jack's General glare for it in return. The cabdrivers here were always politer and knew when to shut up. Not to mention that their cars looked a lot better than those ugly, sometimes dirty yellow ones. Most of the drivers actually spoke English, which couldn't always be said about the cabbies back home.
"Here we are," the driver mentioned as he pulled up to the entrance. He quickly got out of the car and opened the door for his passenger.
"Thank you," Jack murmured, giving him a hand full of cash.
"Sir, this is too much."
Jack turned towards the man, surprised at his comment. "Huh?"
The driver gave him back a few bills, shrugging. "The meter wasn't that high."
Jack frowned at him and shrugged. "Suit yourself," he replied, before stalking off to the reception.
"Goedemorgen, waar kan ik u mee helpen?" The tired looking receptionist asked.
Jack glanced at the clock on the wall behind her, noting it was indeed turning into morning already. He gave her a weak smile, "I'm looking for Lily O'Neill? She was brought in here over ten hours ago," he answered her question.
"Um… let me see," she cautiously answered with an accent. "Is that with an apostrophe between the 'o' and the 'n'? And one or two l's?"
"Yes and two."
Her fingers were flying across the keys and she smiled up at him. "Found her. She's in the, eh…" Looking around, she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the room and ward number. "You go to the second floor, third corridor on your left and follow the red route to this ward," she pointed at the paper. "There you can ask a nurse to take you to her room if one is present, if not you can look for yourself, this is the number. As you probably already know, visiting hours are long over, but I assume you just got here?"
"Yeah, straight from the plane," Jack winked at her.
"I thought so," she smiled again, slightly blushing. "I don't think they'll mind."
Jack thanked her before taking off in the direction she had pointed.
"Hey," Lily croaked with a sleepy voice as she noticed Jack's lean form in the chair by her side.
His head snapped up at the sound of her voice, and he grinned at her. "Good morning, sleepyhead."
"Ilse?" She asked in a soft tone.
"Asleep in that bed," Jack replied indicating the bed behind him with his head.
"How long have you been here?"
"A few hours."
"And you're sitting in a chair?"
Shrugging, Jack sat up. "I've had a lot of practice."
"I would've thought you'd say you were getting too old for that kind of thing," she teased.
"I resent that," Jack retorted with mock hurt in his voice.
Smiling, she reached over to the remote and changed the angle of the bed to sit up more. "I'm not saying you're getting old, I'm merely saying you always say that."
"I do not," he indignantly replied.
"Please, you always say that," Ilse mentioned from behind him, with a hoarse voice. "And no, I don't think you're old."
"Well, I can see you're getting better by the minute," Jack sarcastically said to Lily, who blushed in response. "How dare you two, ganging up on an old man!"
"Old man?" The doctor responded from the doorway.
"See Jack, the only one who thinks you're old, is you," Ilse said in a placating tone, as if explaining to a five year old. She sat on the side of Lily's bed and hugged her sister. "Goedemorgen."
"So, doctor, how is she doing?" Jack tried changing the subject.
The doctor walked up to the bed, chart in hand and was reading the notes made by the nightshift. "Considering, you're doing better than I expected," she started.
"But?"
"You're not doing great," she took a moment, before resuming. "I want to keep you here for observation."
"Ooh, really?" Lily whined.
"Is it that bad?" Jack asked, concerned.
"You did collapse on stage," the doctor pointed out to Lily. "That wasn't from heat or dehydration… your body is tired, carrying twins is usually a lot more straining than just one child. Not to mention the cancer that's working its way through your systems."
Lily nodded her understanding, knowing she'd been exhausted lately. The pain was getting worse and she took regular naps to keep up her energy. She was taking few pain medications and many supplements for the babies, since she was still losing weight and couldn't always keep her stomach contents, which was probably because of the cancer. "So, how long are we talking here?"
"I'm not sure yet, but it could be a while. I'll confer with your oncologist, I want some new scans to see if the cancer is spreading and I want to hook you up to a baby monitor. I'll be back in an hour, after making my rounds, then I'll do another ultrasound and I'll hook you up, okay?"
"Bedankt!" Lily thanked the doctor as she left the room.
The door was about to close behind the woman as it swung open again and a nurse came in with a trolley.
"Ontbijt," she smiled, announcing breakfast.
Ilse got up from the bed and pulled Jack up with her. "We'll go to the, eh… cafeteria, to get our own breakfast and that way I can call Mom to let her know and check on Milou."
"Fine, see you later," Lily muttered, grabbing her plate.
"Well, it doesn't look too good, does–"
"Ack!" Ilse said, putting her hand in front of her. "I don't want to talk about that right now," she continued, putting her phone away. She had just informed her mother, who was already an emotional wreck and asked her to bring by Milou during visiting hours.
"Okay," Jack drawled out. "What do you want to talk about? How's your mother?"
"An emotional wreck, but she'll live."
"That's, eh… harsh," Jack replied.
Shrugging, Ilse took a sip of her tea. "She's acting like she's the one carrying twins and has cancer." Moving her cup around, she looked up at Jack. "How did it go with Carter?"
"Huh?"
"You were supposed to call and meet her while she was in DC?" She asked, stunned that he appeared to have forgotten.
"Wha–" Jack uttered, before scrunching up his face. "Crap! I totally forgot."
"You forgot? You didn't call her?"
"We were supposed to have dinner last night," Jack moaned. "You called as I was doing some paperwork and I guess it was a few hours before dinner…" his voice trailed off.
"And…?"
"I panicked, got up, told my assistant to clear my schedule and left," he explained.
"But of course you called her on your way to the airport?" Ilse tried, but seeing the look he was giving her, she knew he hadn't. "Wow, you really screwed up here. Go call her, before she thinks you blew her off."
Jack gave her an incredulous look, thinking Carter probably already assumed that. "My phone died."
"Use mine?"
"I don't know her number by heart," Jack replied.
Shocked, Ilse looked at him. "You don't?"
"Well, I used to," he bashfully admitted, "But she moved and has a new number and I don't know her cell phone number…" He just had it on speed dial; memorizing would probably be frowned upon, seeing as it was her personal phone.
"Call the base?"
"All right," he sighed, taking the phone she was shoving in his hands. "I'll do it in a few hours; it's too early right now."
"How was your breakfast?" Lily asked, as the two of them walked back into her room.
"Peachy," Jack smiled at his little sister.
Ilse went back to her previous spot on the bed next to Lily. "I called Mom and she's bringing by Milou during visiting hours."
"Great, I can't wait to see her," Lily beamed, thinking about her little girl.
"Has the doctor been by already?" Ilse inquired, looking around for any evidence.
"No, she can be here any minute," Lily responded just as the door opened to reveal the doctor. "Talking about timing," she muttered.
"Hello everyone, this is one of my interns, she'll be doing the ultra sound."
They all greeted the young girl, who was about Lily's age and smiled nervously at them. The intern started her explanation about the ultra sound as she was setting everything up, at first a bit hesitant in English but it got better the longer she was talking. "Do you already know the sex?"
Lily's eyes grew wide as saucers and she became almost radiant. "No, can you tell me?"
Looking at the doctor for approval, the girl nodded and applied the gel on Lily's round belly. Searching until the two babies were on the monitor, the intern quietly talked to the doctor, who nodded.
"It looks like the babies are still in distress," the doctor explained. "This is why you're staying right here until they aren't."
"Okay," Lily agreed, knowing that it was dangerous for the babies, as the doctor had explained to her last night after her first check up.
"It looks like you're going to have one of both," the intern smiled at the proud mother.
"A boy and a girl?" Jack enthusiastically replied. "That's great."
"Wow, this is so cool," Ilse mentioned as she leaned in further towards the monitor, studying the two babies.
The doctor froze the image, so that Ilse and Jack could continue to look at it while she hooked up Lily to the baby monitor. She explained what the machine would do and how it worked and before she left, she told Ilse that her oncologist would be there in half an hour.
While waiting for him to drop by, Lily joined her half-siblings in their gazing at her babies.
"Do you have names yet?" Ilse casually asked.
Smiling bashfully, Lily had a hard time looking at her sister. "Maybe a few…"
"And you want Ilse to check them out, don't you?" Jack smirked, as he poked Ilse.
"Yeah, would you mind?"
"Of course not, besides, after what you put me through with Milou it won't even take me that much time. I remember most of the names I've read," she placed the back of her hand against her forehead in a mocking gesture.
The three of them continued to talk about baby names until the oncologist arrived, ready to examine Lily before taking her up for a few scans.
"We'll wait outside," Ilse said as she pushed Jack out of the room.
"Bye," Jack yelled over his shoulder, before Ilse slammed the door shut.
"So…"
Quirking his eyebrows, he just looked at her. "What?"
"Are you going to call her?"
"Ah, crap," Jack replied, rubbing his hand at the back of neck. He wasn't looking forward to the conversation, that's for sure. "Fine."
"Carter," Sam absentmindedly answered the phone in her lab, while watching her newest experiment.
"Hey Carter, it's–"
"Sir!" She actually jumped a bit, hearing his low voice, not expecting him to call.
"Yeah… I, eh… I wanted to apologize, Carter."
"It's okay, Sir," her tone belying her statement.
"No, it's not. We were supposed to have dinner–"
"Something more important came up," Sam interrupted him, trying to keep her tone casual, not letting the hurt shine through.
"Well, eh… yeah, there was an emergency and–"
"I see," swallowing hard, she didn't want to acknowledge the little stab she felt as he admitted something else had been more important. "Did it turn out okay, Sir?" Always the good little soldier, Sam sneeringly thought.
"I- I hope so," he lowered his voice.
"Good for you, Sir."
"Carter–"
"You don't have to explain, Sir. Last night said it all."
"Please Carter, just let me expl–"
"Look, Sir. I get it, something earth shattering came up and you never even thought about calling me or leaving a message–"
"It's not like that, Carter, my phone–"
"It's fine, Sir," she replied through gritted teeth. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to get back to work."
"Just wait a minute," Jack started as he heard the beeping tone in his ear. She hung up on him!"Crap!" he exclaimed, banging his head against the wall in frustration. She thought she wasn't important to him and he had heard the hurt in her voice, which was why he wanted to explain it all to her. Everything, he would tell her everything if she would just listen!
"Didn't go so well, I take it?" Ilse asked, coming up behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder in a soothing gesture.
"You could say that," Jack groaned, giving the wall a last kick, before turning to her. "She wouldn't let me explain and hung up on me."
"Oh, wow," she replied, taken aback. "You must've really hurt her…"
"Yeah," he sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. "I really screwed up. I don't think she wants to talk anymore."
"How come?"
"She may have something about last night saying it all…"
"Oh," was all Ilse could say, not knowing how she could comfort him without telling lies. "Do you want a minute? I can just wait in Lily's room; they already took her away for the scans…"
Looking up, Jack nodded. "I'll be there in a few," he said, letting out an exasperated sigh.
