After doing some shopping to give Sam a breather, Daniel put bags of groceries into the back of his car while Cam secured Jake's car seat into the back seat. Once the Colonel had finished, he helped Daniel, remarking as they both kept glancing into the car nervously,

"Paranoid, huh?"

Daniel murmured with a frown, "Hard not to be." He helped Cam lift a particularly heavy bag in before closing and locking the boot. As he and Cam got into the car, Cam asked,

"Hey, uh, when's Mark due?"

Daniel replied as he looked back at his sleeping son – who both he and Sam had taken an inordinate amount of time and pleasure in dressing up earlier that day in his little pastel blue outfit complete with matching beanie – and smiled. He then craned his neck to look for moving cars as he pulled out of the parking space in front of the store, "This evening, I think. Why?"

"Uh, no reason... just curious. You've met him before right?"

"Once... years ago... way before me and Sam became an 'us'. Actually, we were planning on going to San Diego this Christmas." He shrugged as he drove out of the car park. "It could still happen."

Cam smirked as he fiddled with the radio before Daniel raised his eyebrows at him as he placed his hand over his briefly, silently reminding him that once Jake was woken up, it would be difficult to actually process thought. "On condition that he doesn't beat your brains out?"

"Right..." Daniel suddenly smirked as he said, feigning innocence, "So... what's up with you and Vala?" Daniel glanced at the Colonel in time to see him cover up something in his usually upbeat countenance that could have been described as somewhat sinister.

"Um... nothing... So, hey, who's Mark bringing with him?"

Daniel noticed that Cam had taken to now looking straight out of the side window as he nervously fiddled with his hands. Daniel smiled. Cam didn't act like this usually, not even in hostile situations off world. He then smirked. He'd finally made the man speechless, the man who usually had something to say in every situation, from lab mishaps at the SGC to run-ins with off-world drug dealers and representatives of a pernicious religious crusade.

"Your silence and reluctance is just delaying the inevitable." Suddenly surprised, Daniel asked, "You guys are an item, aren't you?" He smiled giddily as he spoke at what seemed to be the speed of light. "Oh, that is so great. Really. Great. I'd never have seen it... oh, Sam's going to be so happy to know that she was right. On second thoughts, I think I see some smugness at the end of the tunnel." Daniel once again smirked on seeing Cam stare at him, flabbergasted, and Daniel continued with a shrug, "Please, you guys are as subtle as a flying brick."

"Much experience with flying bricks?"

"Uh... don't change the subject. So when did this happen?"

Cam, still looking out of the window, sighed, and said quietly, "Jackson... we didn't want anyone finding out... it's still in the experimental stage. If Landry finds out, we're as good as off the team... and I don't want it to be 'game over' at level 2... that's just lame."

Daniel, serious, said, glancing at his friend, "Hey. Mitchell. He'll be fine with it. He's fine with me and Sam."

Cam rolled his eyes and finally looked at Daniel as the Archaeologist focussed on the road. "Yeah. Jackson... please don't tell me you're so blind not to see the difference between..." Cam made a noise of frustration. "I've run out of metaphors!" He sighed. "Look... you guys are like..." he waved his hands about briefly. "... like..."

Daniel piped up helpfully with a small smirk, "Like A New Hope to your Episode I?"

Cam glared at him. "Crude but half-way there." He sighed again. "Look, you guys are trusted... the real deal. You've had a rough ride, been through hell and back, and you're legends. Episode 1 is what happens when a trusted formula is messed with."

Daniel frowned. "Come on, enough with the self-deprecation, Mitchell... before I get Sam to hit you."

"Why can't you hit me?"

"It's more fun to watch Sam do it."

Cam crowed triumphantly as Daniel stopped outside of his house and began to reverse into the driveway, "Oh, when I tell Sam what you said..."

Daniel raised an eyebrow at him right before Jake took the opportunity to not only wake up, but announce his state of wakefulness to the neighbourhood. Cam chuckled, remarking,

"Speaking of Sam..."

Daniel shook his head in disbelief before saying over his shoulder as he finished parking, "Ssh, Jakey, we're almost home. Uncle Mitchell's going to get stabbed in the eye in a minute."

Cam added, glancing at Daniel testily, "And your Pop's going to get a taste of Kung-Pow chicken in a minute."

"Chicken is right."

"Bite me."

"Hm. I think Sam and Vala are cooking chicken... so yes, I will."

"Well then, you're insane... because Vala anywhere near a kitchen is a disaster..."

Daniel grinned. "Ah yes, and when I tell your secret girlfriend... your... everything is going to be sore for a month." Chuckling, he got out as Cam glared at where he'd been seated, before remarking to a whimpering Jake behind him as Daniel opened the back door,

"I'd say not to grow up like your Dad, but apparently chicks dig it, so carry on."

Daniel blushed as he busied himself with freeing Jake from the constraints of his car seat, and he whispered to the baby as he lifted him out of the car while Cam, having already got out, opened the boot as the front door of the house opened, "Come on, Jakey, Daddy's here. No more enduring Uncle Mitchell's poor attempts at humour."

Cam retorted as Sam stepped out of the house, followed by a fair-haired man, "Like that'll happen any time soon."

Daniel kissed Jake on the nose as the baby calmed down, and he, with his free hand, began to empty the boot as Cam began to carry bags into the house. Daniel noticed his fiancée and looked up at her as she asked,

"Any trouble?"

Daniel kissed her, replying as he carefully handed Jake over, "He slept most of the time."

Cam remarked from behind her as he returned from the house, "Don't forget all those women's numbers you got too, Jackson."

Daniel, embarrassed on remembering some of the female attention he had received whilst shopping with Jake secured into the shopping trolley, muttered, "Shut up, Mitchell," before carrying bags into the house as Sam asked, more curious than envious as she followed him,

"What women?"

Daniel shook his head, not wanting to talk about the experience as Cam laughed, continuing, "The boy got some flirts."

Daniel finally noticed the fair-haired man who had been hovering around Sam, and Sam smiled, saying excitedly as she remembered her brother's presence, "Mark, this is Daniel... Daniel, you remember Mark..."

Daniel smiled, shaking the hand of Sam's brother as he replied pleasantly, "Of course I do. Nice to see you again."

Mark replied with a nod that spooked the Archaeologist somewhat as he saw a little of Jacob in the man, "Likewise, Daniel. You've changed a lot."

Daniel shrugged non-committally as Sam beamed from ear-to-ear on noticing that the tips of her boyfriend's ears had turned red, and then she said to Mark as Daniel locked the boot once the bags had been carried into the house and Cam had followed said bags, "And this little man, Mark Carter, is your first nephew. Jacob Mitchell Thor Carter-Jackson."

As Mark gazed at her with a soft smile, looking overcome as well as happy, Sam, meeting his gaze with a now more sombre smile, handed her son over to her brother before leading him into the house as she slipped an arm around Daniel's waist.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"They know." As they put the shopping away, Cam leaned against a worktop next to Vala in the kitchen to whisper so the others wouldn't hear them. Vala simply smirked in reply, remarking,

"I know."

Surprised, he asked, not leaning as close to her as he had been previously, "You do? How?"

"Well, Samantha asked, and I answered. She's surprisingly astute."

He shook his head in disbelief at the last part of her remark before saying, looking anxious, "I thought we'd agreed."

She rolled her eyes as she closed a cupboard. "Oh come on, Cameron... who is she going to tell? It's not as if she's going to..." she made speech marks in the air with her fingers."...tattle. It'll just be one more thing for her and Daniel to talk about after sex." They kissed, and she whispered mischievously with a smile as she touched his lips, noticing to her satisfaction that he was now having trouble concentrating, "Have you encountered Samantha's brother?"

They both glanced at the doorway of the kitchen on hearing Carters and a Jackson enter the house, and they exchanged a glance right before Daniel made an appearance, the Archaeologist pausing for a moment on seeing his team-mates to smirk before going about making coffee. "So... you two..."

Cam glared at the Archaeologist. "Vala knows that you know."

Daniel turned to smile at the Colonel cheekily before his smile sobered somewhat when he looked at Vala. "It's good. Conjures up all the hope and light at the end of the tunnel imagery that Teal'c's been evoking recently."

Vala smiled at him, pleased and glad of his approval, and Cam asked in a hushed voice, "How's he taking being an uncle?"

Daniel shrugged as the kettle finished boiling. "Pretty well, actually. Sam's just explaining to him about the flight tests over Antarctica... and he's laughing at her, saying that she got so focussed on the planes and calculations, that she didn't notice that she was pregnant until she heard Jake screaming on the floor." He shook his head slightly as he poured water into some mugs containing coffee granules. "Weird sense of humour, those Carters."

Vala remarked as Cam began to load a tray with milk, sugar and biscuits, "Well, at least he believes it."

Cam glared at her briefly, silently reminding her to keep her voice down, and Daniel said quietly as he placed the mugs on the tray, the Archaeologist looking thoughtful, "He shouldn't have to." He looked up at Cam and Vala as he lifted the tray. "Come and meet my future brother-in-law." He smiled, amused as he left the kitchen. "It's weird saying it."

Cam retorted, glancing at Vala, "It's weird hearing it."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Later, with Mark in a spare room and Jake asleep in his own room, Daniel lie in bed, his hands behind his head, watching Sam undress while she talked, the Colonel excited. "Didn't I tell you that I was right? Cam and Vala. I could see it coming... and I bet I was right about them being together... you know..." She glanced back at the closed door of their bedroom meaningfully and he nodded in acknowledgement. "... then."

He hummed in agreement and smirked for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "Well... you should have seen Mitchell fidgeting when I'd cornered him."

She chuckled as she joined him in bed and then shrieked, caught by surprise when he grabbed her. She whispered breathlessly as she hit his arms yet looking gleeful, "Daniel... Mark's only across the landing."

Daniel whispered, his face alight with mischief as he began to take her t-shirt off, "Well, another excuse not to scream, my wonderful Astrophysicist." He grinned, knowing that she didn't actually care about who could end up involuntarily listening in as her hands roved under his boxers, and she whispered weakly as he nuzzled her bare shoulder,

"That's harder than performing a Fourier Transform."

"Pfft, even I know how to do that."

She laughed, remarking as she looked up at him challengingly, "Ok, big guy, what is it?"

He replied, feigning innocence, "It involves a shape-shifting Frenchman." She laughed as he smiled, and he kissed her before saying as he stroked her cheek, "Well, you could explain it like you did Gaussian functions the other night." He grinned, looking hopeful. "That was rather enlightening."

She frowned at him in disbelief, and then asked, "Ok... so what is a Gaussian curve?"

He replied, amused, and still lying over her as his fingers danced down her collarbone, "Well... you see, Colonel, in radio astronomy, if an extraterrestrial radio source is transmitting a radio signal over 0.59 hertz when a radio telescope passes over that part of the sky, the received telemetry resembles a bell-shaped curve. The curve depicts the power distribution of the signal due to the movement of the telescope, showing an increase and then a decrease in the signal strength. Earth-based interference would show a steady and continuous power distribution due to... mmph!" Caught out initially when she had suddenly kissed him, he got over his surprise as he smiled into the kiss, one of her arms hooked around his neck.

She gazed up at him, looking even happier than she had to begin with, and she remarked, "You know what watching you explaining things does to me." She kissed his nose. "I'd have thought you would have better things to concentrate on than listening to my rambles."

He kissed her again, this time quicker. "Well... I like hearing you talk."

"The feeling's mutual."

He raised his eyebrows. "You like listening to you talk?"

She laughed. "No, silly." She sighed happily. "Let's give Jake a brother or a sister."

He smiled slightly, amused and then he lowered his lips to her ear so no-one else could catch his words. "I think it's going to be a good idea to wait a little while longer, otherwise you'll turn heads for the wrong reasons." He kissed her ear tenderly. "I would like nothing more than to have a bigger family, my amazing fiancée... but it'll be too suspicious so soon."

She ran her fingers through his hair as she looked worried, and he continued, "A few months won't make much of a difference. We'll be ok."

She smiled as she touched his lips, and he continued kissing her. "We'll have fun trying, I know it."