Third week of December:

"Jack, you can't buy them all this stuff. Sam's feelings will be hurt. She can't afford much for the boys this year." Daniel told him.

Jack sighed. Daniel was right. "What if I got them practical stuff like jeans and socks and new tennis shoes?"

"Better. And one toy Jack. I mean it. It was bad enough she didn't have any money to buy you a birthday gift after everything you've done for her this year."

"That shouldn't have bothered her. What the kids did was great. I don't need a bunch of stuff."

"I know that and you know that but Sam's had to deal with a selfish jerk for nine years who bought her things instead of giving her and the kids love. Now she can't even afford to do much more than keep the roof over their heads."

"I wonder if I should sell my place and pay off some of her loan." Jack mused out loud.

"First, that's a terrible idea and she'd never accept the money. Second, where did you plan on sleeping?"

"I could pay the mortgage company directly Danny, and your couch looks very comfortable."

"I'm sure my wife would have a few things to say about that."

"Yah and most of them not appropriate for polite company either."

Daniel laughed. "She does have some very creative ways of expressing herself."

"Ew."

"Hurry up and decide which thing they would like the best." Daniel suggested. "I'm starving."

"All right, all right. We should stop by Carter's place anyway. She won't admit it but she still feels a little crappy. I don't know how the boys and I avoided coming down with it too."

"Flu shots would be my guess."

"Yah, I guess hers might not work very well with naquadah soup for blood." Jack mused as he dug through the toys. He kept a fairly large Lego set for Georgie and was debating between art supplies and a Nerf gun for Jake.

"If you get the Nerf gun you have to get two of them." Daniel reminded him.

Jack's face lit up and he went back to the correct aisle and chose three more, drawing down with each to test it. Daniel shook his head. "What? These are for me and Carter." He said in an injured tone.

"Do you still have the ring you bought her?"

Jack gave him a flat unfriendly look.

"It was just a question." He said putting up his hands in surrender.

"Can it, Space Monkey. We can go right back to not being friends if you keep that up."

"Have you asked her how she feels about you?"

"No. And I'm not going to. And you're not going to either." Jack told him in a tone of finality.

"Ok. But she smiles again on base. She hasn't done that in a long time."

"That's nice." Jack said absently as he put rejected toys back.

"Sometimes she hums."

Jack stopped, turned and looked at Daniel with a very guarded expression. "Daniel."

"Jack."

"Drop it."

Daniel shrugged.


"Lucy! I'm home!" Jack shouted up the stairs to Sam who had taken to working on her reports in bed. Jack was grabbing anything she ordered him to and bringing it to the house for her to work on. Hank had drawn the line at her taking home exotic items but anything up to that point was fair game and Jack understood her work more than he let on most of the time.

He heard a soft cough coming from her bedroom and bounded up the stairs. He skidded to a stop at her bedroom door. She'd showered but was in a thick flannel nightgown that should have been a turn off but wasn't. "Did you get some work done?" He asked her companionably.

"Some. Could you make me some more tea please?" Her eyes were soft. He'd shown up looking rumpled and sweet and her defenses were clearly down.

He smiled. "Coming right up. Would madam like honey in her tea?" He asked in a cheesy butler voice.

Sam giggled which made her cough and then swear which made him grin more. "Madam would." She finally told him.

Jack performed an impressive opera bow and left the room.

Sam sighed. "Oh boy." She muttered of her racing heart that was currently doing happy little gymnastics.

Jack went to the kitchen to heat up water when Daniel came in with Sam's mail.

"Uh, Jack…" He asked in that drawn out tone that was a sure fire prequel to getting his ass shot off.

"What now?" Jack asked.

"I thought you said Sam's been getting caught up on the back mortgage payments?"

"She is. They let her take a hardship exemption as long as she makes a payment and a half every month which she's been able to do. I made sure she was getting the hours and hazard pay."

"Then what's this?" Daniel asked, holding up a large envelope that said 'notice of foreclosure' in large red letters on the front.

Not giving a shit about her privacy under the circumstances Jack took his pocketknife to the top of the envelope and pulled out the contents. It wasn't from her lender. Jack was currently familiar with all her bills having helped her make a budget. Not that she'd needed him, he was pretty sure she'd just wanted the moral support and a fresh set of eyes. He read over the paperwork and looked sick. That bastard.

"Jack?"

But Jack sat with a thump in the kitchen chair and raked his fingers into his silver hair.

"Jack?" Daniel tried again.

"He took out a second mortgage at some point, must have forged her signature. There's no way I can come up with this much money quickly enough." Jack said in the kind of hollowed out voice one had when emotionally gutted. Jack's eyes went blank as he sat holding the paperwork.

Sam chose that moment to come downstairs. "Did I hear Daniel with you?" She asked cheerfully from the hall but when she came around the corner her smile faltered. Jack sat looking shell shocked and Daniel had that helpless look he got on his face when he didn't know what to say.

"Daniel?" She said softly.

Daniel turned to her, looked back at Jack. Tugging the papers from Jack's hands, he slowly handed them to her. His eyes were full of pain.

Sam looked down at the contents of her hands. After a few moments, her free hand came up and covered her mouth and a choked cry of horror escaped her lips.

In an instant Jack was up and his arms were around her as she sagged against him. "What am I going to do?" She said so softly Daniel almost didn't hear her. "Jack. What am I going to do? We have nowhere to go. We'll have to sell everything and hope I can find an apartment or... Oh god what about Hutch? He's too big. No one will take him." Sam clutched Jack's shirt under his jacket in a vice like grip as she shook with silent tears of frustration.

Jack and Daniel made eye contact over Sam's head. Jack's mouth was a thin tight line as he gave Daniel a sharp nod.

Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing as he walked out of the room, giving Sam and Jack some privacy.

"What's Daniel doing?" She finally asked Jack once she got a hold of herself.

"Calling in the Calvary." He told her and stroked her hair gently until she looked up at him. "You ok now?" his dark eyes were warm with concern.

She nodded. "No, I mean, not really. I'm losing my house Jack, my home. The only home my boys have ever known and for what? Why is he doing this to us?" Her voice cracked a little at the end and Jack tightened his arms and buried his face in her hair.

"I don't know, sweetheart. I wish I had an answer for you."

Sam sighed and hugged him tightly. "If he thinks I'd go running to him if I had nowhere to go he'd better think again. I'd rather live in a box." She said vehemently.

It was on the tip of Jack's tongue to tell her no child of his was going to live in a box when he had a perfectly good house sitting there they could use. An idea started to form in Jack's head and he nodded slightly to himself. It might take some convincing on his part and he'd have to play things very safe himself but there was no reason for Sam to live in some crummy apartment paying sky high rent. For now though he'd reassure her on one point. "Hutch will be fine at my house. We'll just have to rework our schedules so the kids can spend their afternoon with him."

She looked up at him again with a small measure of relief. He was such a good man. She didn't deserve him after all she'd done, but she'd do her best to make it up to him somehow. "Thank you." She told him very softly.

He wiped a tear off her cheek. "I'm mostly helping me, Sam. I miss having a dog."

Sam laughed a little and he smiled at her. "The house is going to get pretty crowded in a few minutes. Did the kids leave any snacks?"

"I have no idea. I lost all control of that situation this week and I was too tired to care." She admitted.

"I'll call Teal'c." Jack said and kissed her forehead as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "T, bring enough snacks for about, oh, say ten people or so." Jack told him. Sam looked at him oddly. "He eats enough for three people." He reminded Sam who nodded in understanding. "Doesn't matter. Comfort food." He told the other man and clicked off his phone.

"Jack, why are you and Daniel having everyone come here? What do you expect to do? I can't afford to pay all that and I'd never let you guys pay it for me. I'd never be able to earn enough to do so." She told him.

"No." He admitted. "But we might be able to work together to arrange a short sale and pay for a storage unit for you for a while so you don't lose all your things and don't come out of this with a lifetime of debt."

"Jack." She said to him, her voice soft, breathless. What she might have said though was lost in the clamor of two little boys greeting Daniel then Jack and Sam who were still in each other's arms.

"Have you been kissing?" Jake demanded and Sam blushed an intriguing shade of pink Jack hadn't been expecting of her. Perhaps, Jack thought, Daniel was on to something.

"Don't ask them that. It's rude!" Georgie said with an eyeroll which made Jack laugh. "Mom, are you ok? You look like you've been crying. You do too, Jack." He told them.

Sam gave him a reassuring smile. "Everything is all right. We just got some bad news that's all." She told him.

Georgie clearly thought that was bullshit but chose to accept her answer for now.

Vala came in and smiled at the boys. "Just the gentlemen I want to see. Leave your shoes on, boys, we're going for a drive." She told them and steered Georgie and Jake back out to the garage.

Sam looked at Jack who shrugged.

"I'll be back in a tick. I'm taking the boys to a friend's house so the adults can talk." She told them and disappeared out the door.

"A tick?" Jack asked.

"Something like a bit." She told him.

"Ah."