Over the next few weeks Colonel Kalawsky and Captain O'Neill debriefed on everything they knew about the Goa'uld in their reality. Word came down quickly from Washington that the travelers would be allowed to remain. Birth certificates and new identities were being arranged for all of them. It was expected that the men would be given commissions and assignments at the SGC along with their new identities. In the meantime, all four were confined to base. Just what those identities were was the problem however.
"I don't care how much more difficult it is. He's my son, and damn it, his new identity is going to be as my son!"
"Colonel..."
"I don't want to hear it, sir! We can make up a perfectly acceptable story to explain it. He's not that old that I couldn't have fathered him just after high school. His mother gave him my middle name. I find out and adopt him. Simple."
"And what are you going to tell Sara and her father?" asked Hammond. "Can you keep it from her?"
Jack paused at this. "They already knows we do strange things up here..."
"They're not cleared, Jack."
"Sir, I think it would be good for Charlie to see her. I think it would be good for Sara too."
"Colonel, you sure know how to make my life more difficult."
"We all have our little talents, sir."
"Alright, make up an old girlfriend and we'll arrange Charlie's 'adoption'. As for him meeting Sara and his grandfather, and them learning the truth. That will have to be authorized from higher up."
"Sir.."
"I'll do what I can, Jack."
"That's all I can ask, sir." Jack saluted sharply then waited for General Hammond to return it before exiting the office. He whistled quietly to himself as he ambled happily through the corridors beneath Cheyenne Mountain towards the guest quarters. "He agreed Charlie!" crowed Jack as he entered the quarters assigned to his son and grandchildren.
Charlie smiled. "Well I'm glad I won't have to learn to answer to Norman," he joked.
"Charlie there's something else I asked the General."
"What?"
"I asked him to let me tell your mother and grandfather....to let you see them."
"Dad..."
"Charlie, I think you need this, son. It wasn't your fault."
"I just don't know if I can face her."
"Just think about it. She'll be proud of the man you've become."
"Gam'pa?" asked J.J.
"What's up, J.J.?"
"Can we go see Gamma Sam?"
"Well she's working right now, Sport. What do you want to see Grandma Sam for?"
J.J. just shrugged. Jack wasn't sure what to do. He sensed the little boy wanted his mother, but failing that one of his grandmas would do. "Let's go find Grandma Sam," Jack decided lifting the little boy onto his shoulders much to the toddler's giggling delight. "You coming, Charlie?"
"Nah...I've got a debriefing scheduled with the geeks down in the tech section. They want me to explain some of the things on the MALP we brought through. I was going to take J.J. and Sammy down to Janet while I was in the meeting. You can drop J.J. off down there when you need to," Charlie told his father as he bent to pick his daughter up from the portable crib.
"Ok, J.J. It's just you and me for now then," Jack said as he carried the boy out on his shoulders. As they walked through corridors of the SGC, Jack and J.J. were stopped many times by various personnel. In the weeks since their arrival, J.J. and Sammy had become the darlings of the base. Charlie never lacked for babysitters when he needed to be away from his children even if all four of their grandparents were busy. A fact which Jack was grateful for as SG-1's next mission was scheduled for the next morning. One part of him was glad to be going on the mission. It would be a welcome distraction to the problems involved with settling his unexpected family into their new life. There were still so many things to decide and arrange. Not to mention so many emotions to be dealt with. "Hey, Grandma Sam," Jack greeted his 2IC as he ducked down to enter the door with J.J. still on his shoulders. "Look who I brought to see you."
"Gamma!!" JJ shouted happily as he held his arms out to her.
Sam smiled. It was strange to think how quickly she'd gotten used to being 'Grandma.' "Hey, baby" she said as she pulled the little boy into her arms. J.J. quickly settled his head on her shoulder and began sucking his thumb. Sam raised an eyebrow at her commander.
Jack leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I think he's missing his M. O. M. Just wants to be held for a while."
Sam nodded as she swayed gently in a soothing motion as the palm of her hand moved in circles on J.J.'s back. "He's probably ready for an N. A. P.," she whispered back.
Jack nodded as he sat down on a stool at the counter. "So what are you working on, Sam?" he asked remembering to use her first name in front of J.J. Dr. McKenzie had been brought in at the insistence of the brass to 'help the children adjust' to their new situation. Their odd little family's one session with McKenzie had left J.J. so distraught it had taken hours for his grandparents, father, and uncles (Chuck and Teal'c) to calm him. McKenzie had told the toddler that his grandparents weren't really his grandparents and that soon he wouldn't see them any more. Jack rubbed his knuckles as he remembered the satisfying crunch McKenzie's nose had made when Jack's fist had connected with it. Daniel hadn't done too badly giving McKenzie that shiner either, he conceded. After he'd regained consciousness, Hammond had a little chat with McKenzie about why he thought J.J. would never see his grandparents again. Then he'd called the President making sure that J.J.'s distraught screams for his grandparents not to go away filled the background. The plans to remove Charlie and his children had immediately been scrapped, and Hammond had been given the authority to deal with the situation as he felt best.
After that disastrous encounter they had laid down the law to their commanding officer. McKenzie was not going near J.J. again. Period. Ever. Sam had laid down a few rules of her own to Jack and General Hammond. In J.J.'s presence they were not to call her Carter she had told them. They would call her Sam. To J.J. she was Colonel Sam O'Neill, and since they couldn't call her that they would use her first name or use her title only. The look in her eyes had brooked no disagreement. At the time she'd been holding the limp toddler in her arms where he'd finally cried himself into an exhausted slumber. Even then his tiny hands had clutched her as if afraid she'd disappear. It was a side of Carter they'd seen before with Cassie. The word had quickly spread throughout the base. Do not mess with Grandma Sam about her grandbabies.
Sam spoke quietly of the project she was working on for a few minutes as she stood rocking J.J. in her arms. Jack soon offered to be her arms while she held J.J., so she continued to sway gently with the toddler as she instructed her commanding officer in various tasks. The sound of their voices and the rocking motion of Sam's body quickly put J.J. to sleep, and she gently laid him on the cot she kept at the back of her lab. It had originally been added when Sam had been working non-stop to rescue Jack from Edora, but the cot had been so useful that it had stayed. In the last few weeks, J.J. could often be found taking his afternoon nap in his grandma's lab. One corner had also been turned into a play area for the little boy. Charlie had told them that J.J. was used to entertaining himself in the lab as either his father or grandma worked. Jack had trouble wrapping his mind around the concept of children at the SGC, but he had to admit that in some ways it made sense.
Charlie and his siblings had been part of the SGC since day one. Having the children here meant one less security threat from the NID and others. A problem Kawalsky had related in hushed tones one evening as they'd sat at an isolated table in the mess. Failing to gain alien technology any other way, the NID had kidnapped the children of several SGC personnel in an attempt to blackmail their parents into revealing SGC secrets. The kidnapped children had included Charlie and his siblings. Charlie had been fifteen at the time and had been roughed up quite a bit for protecting his siblings and the other children. He'd managed to keep all the children together though until the rescue team could find them. A fact that probably saved at least some of their lives. When an NID operation went bad people tended to disappear. A kidnapped child would most definitely not have been returned alive to identify his or her kidnappers. After the kidnappings, a child care facility had been built within the security of Cheyenne Mountain, and if anyone thought it strange that NORAD had their own 24/7 child care center it was passed off as yet another government oddity.
"The general's agreed to let me 'adopt' Charlie," Jack said quietly as he looked over to make sure J.J. was still sleeping soundly. "I asked him to let Sara and Charlie meet."
"What did he say?" Sam asked at the same time she tried to work through all that statement could imply.
"He's going to take it to the PTB," Jack replied.
Sam hesitated a moment before letting herself ask, "Why do you want them to meet?"
"I think Charlie needs it," Jack told her as he toyed idly with a pen he'd picked up from her desk. "I know he still blames himself for her death, and I think Sara blames herself for his." Jack raked a hand through his hair. "God this alternate timeline shit gives me a headache."
"What about you and Sara?" Sam asked as casually as she could manage.
Jack's head shot up to look at Sam, but she refused to raise her head from the keyboard in front of her.
"Sara's my past," Jack said firmly. "I would like it, for Charlie and the kids' sake, if we could be friends again. I still consider her part of my family." Jack grabbed her hands to force her to look up at him. "I don't consider her my future," he said as he looked into Sam's eyes willing her to understand.
"We need to talk about that future sometime soon," she replied. "But right now we need to take J.J. down to Janet or we'll be late for the briefing." Sam gathered their briefing papers as Jack gently lifted J.J. onto his shoulder. They walked side by side down the corridor discussing their next mission in hushed tones hoping to get J.J. to the infirmary without waking him. They were so focused on their discussion they didn't even notice the way people smiled or whispered as they passed by.
