When they pulled up they saw quite a few cars already parked out front. "Looks like we're the last ones to get here," Charlie said as he climbed out of the car and waited for her to come around to him.
"Yeah," she whispered.
The fear was back in her eyes causing a pang in Charlie's chest. He grabbed her smaller hand in his. "It's going to be okay, Cassie" he told her. "Our family may be a little weird, but its strong."
"A little weird?" Cassie snorted in reply.
"I'll give you that one," Charlie agreed. "We're very weird, but we're still a family. You're not alone, Cassie. You'll never be alone."
"Okay," she said with a sigh. "I'm ready to go meet my 'niece' and 'nephew'."
Charlie smiled as he draped a friendly arm across her shoulders and led her towards the backyard. They could hear music and voices filled with laughter as they approached the gate. Charlie pushed it open and announced their presence with a shouted "Hello!"
All three women abandoned the conversations they'd been having to descend on Charlie and Cassie with hugs and long measuring looks. The men stood back and watched, but their looks were just as measuring. They'd let the women handle the touchy feely stuff unless they felt they were needed, but from what they saw Charlie and Cassie had both come through, if not unscathed, then at least whole. It was obvious that Charlie had finally allowed himself to grieve properly for his wife and for the life he'd left behind. Cassie seemed to be taking this all well, but then this wasn't the first time her world had been turned upside down. She had practice dealing with such life altering upheavals.
Sam approached her carrying J.J. in his arms. "J.J." she said cautiously. "This is your aunt Cassie."
Cassie smiled and held her arms out to the toddler. "Hi J.J. Will you come to me?" she asked.
J.J. thought about it for a moment before shifting towards Cassie from his place in Sam's arms. Moments later, he'd made the move into Cassie's embrace and had one arm loosely wrapped around her. "Momma's name's Cassie," he informed her in a sad little voice. "Momma's in Heaven now."
Cassie took a deep breath and felt rather than heard the same reaction from the adults around her. "Yes, she is J.J., but your daddy's here," Cassie told the toddler in an unsteady voice. Charlie placed a supportive hand at the small of her back. J.J. thought about her answer for a moment before putting his head down on her shoulder obviously deciding that 'Aunt' Cassie had his seal of approval. Cassie placed a light kiss on his forehead and wrapped her arms more tightly around him causing tears to pool in more than a few eyes.
Jack automatically pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Sam. Daniel too pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, handing his to Janet. Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow as Sara had her choice of handkerchiefs from the two generals, her father, and Chuck 'Guarnere'. With a small smile she took the one handed to her by 'Guarnere' who met Mike's gaze steadily. The two men exchanged a speaking look before Chuck received a nod of acknowledgement from Mike along with a warning look. He wasn't the only one giving Chuck a warning look though. Jack's menacing glare was interrupted by the elbow Sam drove into his ribs and the whispered warning "She's a grown woman, Jack. She can take care of herself."
Jack's glare then turned towards his 2IC/soon-to-be lover. Sam raised an eyebrow in challenge making Jack scowl and grumble something about girls always sticking together.
Sam pushed him towards the grill. "Go. Build fire. Burn meat. Do manly things," she grunted to him causing the others to laugh breaking the tension. Mike slapped his former son-in-law on the back and followed him over to the grill while Daniel offered to get Charlie and Cassie something to drink from the cooler. General Hammond excused himself to return home to his wife now that the biggest hurdle of the evening was over.
The evening passed uneventfully as Jack and his helpers cooked the steaks while everyone sat around talking. Mike and Sara got to know the rest of Jack's new family. They were often quiet watching the interaction of the SGC personnel. The easy friendship there was among them. Samantha Sara spent the evening being passed from adult to adult, and J.J. went from lap to lap as he chattered happily about this or that. When it got dark, J.J. asked to go look at the stars with his Pappa Jack. So Jack climbed the ladder up to his roof and brought his telescope down so he and J.J. could look at the stars together. Sam soon joined the toddler and his grandfather on the lawn.
"Do you think they'll ever get together, Charlie?" Cassie asked from where the two of them sat on the lawn watching.
"General Hammond figured out a way around the fraternization rules. As of this morning she's not in his chain of command," Charlie told her with a smirk.
"Rreeealllyyy..." Cassie drawled. "That's interesting. You're staying at your dad's right?"
"Yeah," Charlie replied cautiously. He recognized that look in Cassie's eye. It had usually preceded some wild matchmaking scheme she'd cooked up to bring Daniel and her mother together when they were kids. "Cassie....." he warned. "What are you thinking?"
"Lock your dad out of the house tonight," she ordered him.
"Cassie!" he reprimanded her. "No."
"He'd be forced to go stay at Sam's house," she argued.
"He'd crash at Daniel's," Charlie retorted. "Or go back to base. I'm not getting involved in any more of your matchmaking attempts, Cass."
"What matchmaking attempts?" she asked. Cassie pondered that for a moment before something he'd said earlier clicked in her mind. "Wait a minute, did you say Daniel walked me down the aisle?" she demanded.
"Uuhh..." Charlie hesitated knowing he'd made a big tactical mistake. He winced inwardly. 'I'll have to apologize to Daniel and Janet later,' he told himself before throwing them to their fate. "Daniel married your mom in my reality. You've got a couple brothers and sisters there."
Cassie still had that matchmaking look in her eyes, but at least her target had changed.
"Don't expect me to help you, Cass!" he told her. "They'll figure it out on their own."
"When?" she demanded.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But don't try to force them, Cassie."
"I want a father!" she told him.
"Borrow mine," he ordered her. "Don't go playing matchmaker with your mom and Daniel."
"Why not?"
"Daniel's not ready yet," Charlie told her. "He'll get to it. Or she will. Watch them tonight," he ordered her remembering the handkerchief from earlier. "There's a fire burning there, but if you try to feed it too quickly it will burn out," he warned her.
"And we don't want that," Cassie responded skeptically.
"No, you want a slow burn. A fire that will last a long time," he explained. "Look at Dad and M...Sam. They've been slowly burning for each other for more than four years."
"Charlie, I know I'm only sixteen, but..." she started to say then dropped her head into her hands in embarrassment.
"No, Cassie" he told her bluntly then his expression and voice softened. "I won't do that to you. I won't steal your youth because I want to bring my wife back from the dead. You deserve better than that, Cassie."
"What if it's what I want?" she challenged.
"How can it be what you want, Cass? You've known me for less than a day!" he argued. "It's not what you want. It's what you think you should want. Happily ever after and love at first sight are a myth, Cassie. It takes a lot more to make a good marriage, and even then things can happen to destroy it," his told her as his attention turned to where his mother and Chuck sat talking quietly.
"Okay, Charlie" she assured him as she shifted away from him. "No schoolgirl fantasies."
"Don't be like that, Cass" he chastised her. "You're only sixteen, sweetheart. I'm too old for you now."
"I won't stay sixteen forever, Charlie" she warned him.
"Then come talk to me when you're not sixteen anymore," he offered.
"The day I graduate the academy, I want a date," Cassie bargained.
Charlie turned his head to look at the militant expression on her face. "Okay," he finally agreed. "When you graduate the academy, you have a date. If you still want it."
Cassie knew he thought she'd grow out of it, but something inside her told her that Charlie was her future. She could wait.
