Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even a home and certainly not that Yamaha FZS 600 I've been drooling over for months. If I had come up with something as fantastic as Stargate you'd know about it, and I would own these things, but someone else got there first :)
Cheers to all reviewers - Ben & Jerry's Phish Food to all of you!! Yum yum. This is the last chapter.. kind of.. there's an epilogue too.
The next day Jacob sat down at the table, which had been nicely laid out for breakfast, and sipped his coffee. After a moment's thought, he indicated that his daughter and her glass of milk should join him. She'd been hovering around the edge of the room, her eyes wavering from side to side as if she didn't want to meet his gaze – a lot like an Airman waiting for a disciplinary hearing.
"So Sammie, what did you and Mark do while I was at your school last night?" he asked, innocently.
Her eyes wide, the girl replied that Mark hadn't moved an inch from his desk because he and Dave had bought some parts for the computer and had been trying to 'program' it, whatever that meant, and Mrs Martinez had insisted that she help her bake a cake rather than reading the National Geographic. The look on Sammie's face showed just how keen she'd been on that idea.
"The cake's in the pantry Daddy, so we can have it later if you want," she finished, smiling brightly.
'Maybe she's remembered how much I like Mrs Martinez's cakes..' Jacob mused. 'Sweetening the old man up eh?'
"Sounds good sweetheart, sounds good," he replied, "but right now we should be getting on."
Jacob drank the last of his coffee and stood up, thumping the mug down on the table with a slight grin, then pretended to glare at his daughter.
"You're not properly dressed you know," he commented, drawing another wide-eyed look of shock from a confused Sammie.
"What –?"
"Come on now, if you want to help me fix that motorcycle up you'll be needing some old clothes – don't you think?"
Samantha blinked. "Motorcycle? You want me to help you? Not Mark?"
"Come on, you know your brother wasn't at all interested when I asked him that one time. He didn't last 5 minutes. But I need a pair of hands and you're my only alternative." His stern expression was transformed by a small wink and a smile. "That and I hear that you study Physics, so you might even be able to explain a few things to an old fly-boy like me."
"You – you mean you're not mad at me?"
The grin faded a little. "I didn't say I wasn't mad at you, little miss, because I was quite offended by your secrecy. Please, don't pull the wool over my eyes like that again – I'm not that much of an ogre am I?"
A slight shake of the head and downcast eyes suggested that maybe he was, at least some of the time, so he took a deep breath and continued.
"Ok, so I am no replacement for your mother – I know that, and though I will keep trying as best I can, I know that we will always honour her memory because she can never ever be replaced. Therefore, I promise to support you in all your future endeavours – within reason! – and that I shall not stay mad if you put those theories of yours into practice and help me get this motorcycle running again. Understood?"
Her expression went from sad to confused, and finally to that of a child reprieved. "Um, yessir! Sir, yes, sir!"
The girl jumped up with a level of energy that her father truly envied, ran up the stairs with all the formality of an elephant, then rolled back down only a few seconds later in some dirty old pants and a grubby t-shirt. She even had an old hanky tied round her neck, just like her old man.
And with that Jacob's mind was made up. Whatever Sammie wanted to do with her life was her decision. He would try to give her guidance if and when she needed it, and would attempt to restrain any old fashioned ideas until he'd examined them as thoroughly as he had this one. There would probably hurdles – big and small – but they would come to then in time, jumping or bulldozing their way through. Physics might even turn out to be a short-term fad, but it was still early days. He might throw in a few self-defence classes though, in case of disrespectful men folk. Whatever happened though, he couldn't afford to lose Samantha or Mark like he had Kathryn – one loss was already too much, and he couldn't bear the thought of this bright child being stifled by tradition all her life.
His daughter was bright, and she was going to go far – maybe even into one of those air-conditioned labs at the Air Force, designing new planes. Maybe even flying them. Or wherever she felt like.
Jacob had to have a last chuckle at that thought. "This could be interesting.."
End note: Yes, I have turned Jacob into a touchy feely dad rather than a "do as you're told!" sort of dad. They seem to be on too good terms in the series to do otherwise, but I figured he might have been a little more traditional once upon a time. Might try a sequel sometime.. Sam in college maybe?? We'll see :)