"How's everything at Casa de Fletcher?"
Jack looked at his wife as he dropped the keys in their place just inside the door. "About how you expect. The boys miss their mom. Greg's a little out of sorts."
Sam sat up from where she rested on the couch as Jack produced a paper bag with their weekly take-out meal. "Cassandra needs to go home, doesn't she?"
He didn't answer right away. Just bobbed his head once as he contemplated what he'd seen at the Fletcher house. What he'd seen in his own house, how depressed Cassie seemed without her kids. "Not just because they need her. She needs them, too."
"I know." Sam reached for the plates as Jack started grabbing the order containers.
Jack looked at her plates and frowned. "I was kind of thinking we could enjoy the no dishes part of takeout Thursday for once."
Sam chuckled to herself as she put the plates back on one of the shelves to the right of the sink. "I always do the dishes on Takeout Thursday."
Jack caught her around the waist and pulled her close, taking the opportunity to kiss her temple and feel her close. "Yeah, but I think you might have overdone it when you put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I don't want you to wear yourself out..."
He could see the argument brewing in her blue eyes before he added what he hoped would be the end of her resistance. "And I definitely don't want to do more than take out the garbage tonight."
She snickered as she leaned in for a kiss. "Okay, fine, we'll be lazy for once."
Jack turned back to taking out the containers of enchiladas and making sure that everyone got the condiments they'd asked for. His thoughts turned back to the young woman who had stayed at their home for almost an entire week, trying to grapple with new layers of the losses she'd experienced so early in her life.
It was only a few seconds before he clutched the edge of the counter and sighed. "Sam?"
"Yes?"
"Did Cassie ask if you had considered adopting her?"
Sam tensed but she nodded. "You?"
Jack didn't answer, just tried to make sense of the idea that had been floating around his mind for the last several days. "I can't stop thinking about it."
"Regrets are like that." Sam wrapped one arm around his waist and leaned her cheek on his shoulder.
"Maybe..."
She swallowed as she looked up at him. "I thought you were Mr. Don't Dwell when it came to regrets."
"That's always been advice I dished out better than applying to myself." Jack gave a humorless laugh. "But I bring it up now because I wonder if there isn't something we can do about that one."
Sam looked up in interest. "What?"
Jack squeezed her a little closer, not entirely sure how she'd respond to his thought. "We could adopt her now."
The supportive look in Sam's eyes gave way to stupor. "Adopt her... Now?"
He nodded. "I looked it up last night. All we need is her permission."
Sam pulled away, and having known her as long as he had, he knew it wasn't because she didn't appreciate the idea. It was just her first response when she had something to think through. "But what would that change from the way things are now?"
"For one, she'd legally be family. So, if one or the other of us was in the hospital, she wouldn't have to fight for the right to see us."
Sam swallowed.
"For another, she'd have the official security of having parents again."
Sam's breath hitched. "Parents..."
Jack nodded, not sure himself how he felt about the idea but glad that it was out in the open. "Yeah. I mean, in some ways nothing would really change, but in others..."
"Everything would change," Sam whispered.
"Exactly."
Cassie walked into the house, having taken Aqua out for some exercise. Jack shifted, hoping not to give her a reason to wonder why there was such a heavy atmosphere in the air. "Chicken enchiladas for you."
Cassie managed a half-smile as she took the dinner Jack offered with panache. "Thanks."
Jack passed Sam's cheese enchilada plate over as both Sam and Cassie sat at the breakfast bar stools.
There was a long stretch of silence before Cassie set down her fork. "I need to confess something."
Sam and Jack looked at one another and then at her. "Okay?"
She clasped her hands in her lap before she steeled herself with a breath. "I think I need to go home—actually, I think it's time to get back to the way my life is supposed to look. With the kids. With Greg."
There were tears shining in her eyes as she looked up at them. "I can't thank you for the way you opened your home up to me and helped take care of my family when I needed some time to process. But I need to get back. It's the right thing to do."
Sam caught Cassie's hand in hers and squeezed. "We kind of got that impression."
"But you don't have to thank us for letting you come to visit, Cass. We've said it before. You're family."
Sam caught Jack's eye, nonverbally asking him the question they'd just discussed as Cassie came in. Jack took a long breath before he nodded.
"Actually, you got us thinking about that word family when you asked us if we considered adopting you." Sam's voice was quiet, hesitant.
Cassie's green eyes widened, and Jack could almost see the apology forming on her lips. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I totally understand timing and parenthood. It's one of the reasons there's such a big age difference between our kids."
Jack shifted and leaned his weight on one leg. "Actually, Cass, your question kind of cleared some things up for us."
The woman frowned. "How so?"
Sam looked down at the hands in her lap. "A little more than thirteen years ago, I learned that I was pregnant."
Cassie's eyes widened.
Sam didn't wait for a response before she continued her train of thought. "It was only a couple of weeks before I had a miscarriage, and obviously, we didn't get another chance after that."
Cassie squeezed Sam's hand without words.
"When I got back from the Hammond this time around, I couldn't stop thinking about that baby we'd lost. Wondered what it would have been like to homeschool him. Wondered if she would have blond or brown hair. Imagined that she would have been a blend of smart and smart aleck."
Jack couldn't help but smile at the idea as Sam's eyes shone with affection toward him.
Sam took a beat, apparently battling her emotions. "I spent six months grappling with a regret I could do nothing about. Longer if you count all the years before this where it came back and haunted me without warning."
Sam straightened as she looked at Cassie. "But Jack had an idea that he ran by me just a few minutes ago, and as strange as it sounds, I think it's the real reason I have been so focused on this lost opportunity."
Cassie frowned as she looked at Jack. "What?"
"Before we explain this idea we had, I want you to know for sure that nothing will change if you don't like this idea. We will still be there for you and your kids. We'll be Samma and Jackpa and whatever else you need us to be, okay?"
Cassie swallowed as she turned a questioning glance to Sam. "Okay, guys, you're scaring me."
Jack brought out his cell phone and quickly navigated to the site he'd bookmarked just a few hours earlier. Then, he set it in front of Cassie. "We'd like to adopt you."
The worry in Cassie's face melted away, replaced by utter shock. "What?"
Sam pointed to the site. "Apparently, you can adopt someone over the age of eighteen as long as they give their consent. Frankly, if I'd known this fifteen years ago, we could have had this chat before you ever met Greg. Not that I have too many regrets about that. I wouldn't have wanted it to look like I was taking away from the impact Janet and your birth mother had on your life."
Cassie's eyes scanned the information on the site. Then, looked up at them. "You want to adopt me?"
Jack was uncharacteristically serious as he answered. "Only if you want us to."
Tears glistened in Sam's eyes. "It's one of the regrets we can still do something about, and maybe it will help you feel a little less lost."
Cassie sat back, apparently trying to absorb the information.
Sam touched her knee. "Obviously, we don't have to decide anything tonight—"
"I'll do it."
Jack stood up straighter. "You will?"
Cassie still looked a little shell shocked before she nodded. "Are you kidding? The boys alone will be over the moon that you'll be their legal grandparents. Greg was trying to tell me we should move to DC in order for me to find some sense of peace while I waited to take him home. But this—"
She got choked up as she pulled Sam into a tight embrace. "Well, I've been saying for years that anyone would be lucky to have you two as their parents."
For the first time in almost thirty years, Jack felt a weight lifted from his shoulders. Like Charlie was smiling at the step forward.
Jack cleared his throat, more emotional in the moment than he'd expected. "Then, I'll get started on the paperwork. Hopefully, we can get everything finalized by Christmas, and we can celebrate with a real Fraiser-Fletcher-Carter-O'Neill party."
Cassie wiped at her eyes as she pulled away from Sam. Then, she looked dazed, like she'd just realized something. "Hold on, does this mean I have to call you Mom and Dad?"
Sam chuckled at the idea. "Honestly, you can call us whatever you want."
Then, Jack picked up his enchiladas as relief flooded over him. "Just don't call us late for dinner."