While Jack recovered, Sam helped Cassie make some decisions. She was a senior and only had a few more months of school anyway.
"Sell it." Cassie said firmly.
"Are you sure? Your mom had enough savings to put it in trust for you if…" Sam started to say but Cassie shook her head emphatically.
"Aunt Sam, this is all her stuff not mine."
Sam nodded sadly. "All right. I'll call the liquidation company to get this stuff to an estate sale. What do you want to do with photos and her personal things?"
Cassie sat down on the arm of the couch. She shrugged. "I guess send her family ones back to her cousins. They weren't anyone to me. I was always closer with you guys anyway. I'll keep the rest. How's dad?"
Sam sighed. "Still in ICU… The… the doctors are keeping him under a couple more days. The armor saved him but it was a hard blast." Sam's face twisted into a grim frown. She'd almost said Janet out of habit but… Janet was gone. Cassie was looking at her, clearly reading what Sam was fighting not to say.
Cassie loved her mom, missed her… but mom had adopted her because Sam couldn't. Cassie knew that. Now… oddly enough, she was Sam's responsibility now anyway.
"You can share my room." Grace finally piped up. She'd been looking at old photos while mom talked to Cassie.
"Great. Share a room with a pipsqueak." Cassie taunted her.
Sam started to say something when Cassie winked at her the same way Janet would have when caught teasing Daniel.
"So that's settled I guess?" Sam asked the girls.
"Sure. It will be great." Cassie looked at Grace who nodded agreement. Cassie knew Grace had offered for moral support about Pete.
"All right. Listen Marge will be here in a couple hours. Why don't you look through your mom's stuff, see if there's anything you do want and put it in your room for now. I'll have the guys bring over some boxes for you. We'll put your stuff in the Colonel's garage until you go to school."
Cassie and Grace exchanged a look. Sam never called Jack 'the Colonel' to them. He was always Uncle Jack.
"I'll help her, mom." Grace said.
"All right, I need to get back to the base and handle some things." Sam said distractedly. The girls waved her off and waited for her to leave.
"The Colonel? What the hell is that shit?" Grace snarled.
"Seriously. How much more obvious that she's eating her feelings can she be?" Cassie agreed, ignoring Grace's language. It seemed currently justified.
"And she goes running back to be with him anyway so what is the point of this jerk she's dating anyway? Cass, if I ever act this stupid as an adult, remind me of this conversation, would you?" Grace said to Cassie and started flipping through Janet's music collection. "Some of this stuff is pretty good. There's a lot of country though."
Cassie shrugged. "Take what you want. I'm keeping the movies and stuff."
Grace started giggling.
"What?"
"Your mom has the soundtrack for Wormhole X-treme! in here."
"Seriously?" Cassie laughed. "Dad gave her that as a gag gift one Christmas when you were really little. I guess he knows the producer."
"Wasn't his name Marty something? Dad has a photo of himself reading a script on set."
"Hey, I know that photo! It's one of Aunt Sam's favorites… or was." Cassie sighed softy. "There's a lot of photos of your parents together in mom's stuff."
Grace's face fell as her expression looked sick.
"Aw crap." Cassie said and enveloped the younger girl in a Jack worthy hug. "I'm sorry."
Grace shook her head. "That's why I told mom we could share a room. I don't want to be there by myself. Mom doesn't see him for what he is and she thinks I'm just being an angsty pre-teen."
"Well you won't ever top my early teen years for angst so let's make the best of it."
"I'm sorry about your mom, Cass."
"Yah, me too, pipsqueak. Me too." Cassie sighed. "Come on, this crap isn't going to sort itself. Let's get the DVDs and CDs into my room and then start going through the photos. Mom had some empty albums so I'm going to make a few up for you of your folks together so even if your mom is a moron when it comes to guys, you have proof that she and dad really did love each other."
Grace nodded slowly. "Okay."
Sam had waited several hours after they took him off the vent. She knew how it would look if she loitered in his room like she used to so when she walked in, he was up and getting dressed, moving slow and clearly still in pain. "Sir? I heard you were up and around." She told him.
Jack grunted in pain as he moved. "Yeah. Still a little tender, but they said I could go home."
"We're lucky that staff blast hit you where it did. The new vest insert works well." She answered, relieved that the previously fatal staff blast had only laid him up for a week, painful though it was. He'd had some internal bleeding from the compression to his gut but otherwise pulled through.
"Didn't help Fraiser much." Jack huffed painfully. He hadn't found out until they had woken him up earlier in the day and gotten a status report.
"No." Sam said miserably.
Jack cut his eyes to her. She'd lost her best friend and unlike Daniel, Janet wouldn't be back. "How's Cassie?" He asked her gently.
Sam swallowed hard. "She's a strong kid. She survives, you know." Because other than seeming to be angry about it and the crying she'd done on Auntie Marge, Cassie seemed to be taking this well all things considered.
Jack sighed sadly. "Yup." That kid couldn't catch a break. He pulled on his BDU shirt with a wince. "You speaking at the memorial?" He asks her gently.
Sam nods with tears in her eyes, overcome by her conflicted emotions. She'd stayed away to protect herself but... "Sir, I just wanted to say…when you were lying there, I…I'm really glad you're okay." She finally chokes out. Unable to hold it in anymore, she starts to cry.
"C'mere" He said to her gruffly and draws her into a hug. He holds her in a gentle embrace while she clings to him and sobs out her grief at the loss of Janet, at giving him up. All of it. And Jack just holds her, his face in her shoulder wishing he could give her more and knowing he can't. Not with her dating someone else.
The girls stand with Daniel in the control room while Sam gives Janet's eulogy on the Stargate ramp. Grace was strictly ordered by both Jack and Sam not to ask questions about anything she saw, scientific or not. She'd huffed a sigh but obeyed after a sharp look from her dad to keep her curiosity to herself and her yap shut.
Both girls had tears running down their cheeks as Sam read off all the officers and SGC staff who Janet had saved, starting with Sam's team.
Jack and part of the camera crew disappear during the wake being held in the cafeteria. No one from SG-1 eats while they wait for Jack to come back. When he does, he and Sam exchange a look, Jack makes a motion with his shoulder and SG-1 and the girls file out silently without saying goodbye to anyone.
Everyone noticed their departure but respects their need to grieve in their own way. Hammond gives them a nod as they leave the room.
They sit silently at Jack's house. Jack and Sam still in their class As though both have taken their jackets off and Jack has loosened his tie. Sam was sitting on the couch with Daniel who also had his tie loose and had his arm around her shoulders. No one called Pete or Marge. This was their time together to grieve.
Teal'c reappeared. "I have ordered food. Chinese." He announced.
"Chinese, Teal'c?" Jack asks him.
"Did not Janet Fraiser favor Mu Shu Pork?"
Jack smiles a little. "Ah."
That's when the stories start… first with Cassie. "Remember when you guys took us to Disneyland?"
"And you barfed everywhere?" Grace reminded her.
"Shut up!" Cassie squeals.
By the time the food arrived, their stories have ranged from bittersweet to everyone laughing happily.
At the end of the night the girls were in Sam's car as Sam said goodnight to Jack.
"Thank you sir." She said softly.
Jack sighs. "Sam… I'm still your friend. You don't have to call me sir at home."
Sam nods miserably. "Jack… I…"
But Jack just shakes his head. "It's all right, Sam. Take the girls home. Call me if you need anything." He put his hand on her cheek and draws her forward. She looks up at him hopefully but also uncertainly. But Jack only kisses her forehead. "Night Carter." He says softly.
"Goodnight… Jack." She replies and he nods.
After she leaves though, Jack's shoulders sag and shake with the sobs he's been repressing all day. Another friend gone. A love lost. A child who's lost another family and the one she'd had as a backup… broken. Getting a hold of himself, he heads for the living room and pulls out the bottle of scotch Janet bought him years ago. He carries it and a glass up to his observation deck. The first glass he pours out over the rail in her honor. The second he throws back in a single swallow. It was followed by several more until he's staring blearily up at the stars above him. Tears slide unnoticed down his cheeks.