Ch 4: Opening the Floodgates

Jack woke up to the phone ringing. Rolling over and rubbing his eyes, he picked it up and said hoarsely, "O'Neill."

"Um, Colonel, can you hear me?" Carter asked loudly over the phone.

"Yeah, where are you, Carter?"

"I'm at home, sir. I was hoping that offer of help is still good... a pipe burst in the night and my basement is flooding, every plumber in town is closed for the holidays and I can't get the water to stop..."

"I'll be right there," he said quickly, hanging up the phone.

Ten minutes later, he let himself into Carter's house without even knocking. He followed the sounds of gushing water down to the basement, where Carter was up to her knees in water, completely soaked in her pajamas.

A huge pipe was gushing water from the ceiling. He quickly shrugged out of his leather jacket and tossed it back up the stairs, hurrying down.

"Sir, thanks for coming, I have no idea where to turn off the water..." It didn't take someone who knew her as well as he did to tell she was freaking out.

"It's probably back here," he guessed, wading through the water over to a corner by the water heater. He turned off the freezing water, and the leaky pipe slowed to a trickle and died down.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, hurrying over to see what he had done.

"Okay, now we need to get all this out of here. Don't suppose you've got a pump?"

"Um, no sir." She glanced at the clock nervously. "They're going to start arriving just after noon," she said worriedly.

"Hey, calm down," Jack instructed, alarmed. She usually didn't get this worked up unless they were in a Goa'uld jail cell. "We'll take care of it, Carter. No big deal. Do you have a couple of buckets? And a shop vac?"

"Yes..."

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. You go make a big pot of coffee, because it's freezing down here and we need to keep somewhat warm. We're going to get rid of all this water, then work on fixing that pipe so you'll have water while your family's here. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, go."

"Yes, sir." She waded over to the stairs and hurried up. While she made the coffee, he started getting rid of the water.

It was a very, very slow process, and no matter what he tried, he wasn't able to convince Carter everything was going to be okay.

Until he slipped while working and landed flat on his back in the water. Now as soaked as she was, he sat there laughing, until she couldn't help but join in. Offering him a hand up, he took advantage of her sudden giggling fit to pull her down with him. She was already wet, he figured it wouldn't make much difference. Slapping his arm, she moved to get up, but he decided to take full advantage of the situation and use it to get her to relax.

Which he did by dumping a bucket of water on her head.

She wiped water out of her eyes and spluttered, "This means war, sir!"

Which is why her brother Mark, his wife Karen, their two daughters, and her youngest brother Chris all were forced to let themselves into the house when nobody answered their repeated knocking. Seeing the basement door open and hearing noise coming from down there, Chris hurried down the stairs and stopped in surprise.

The two feet of water were surprising, but even more surprising than that was the fact that his sister was wrestling around in the water with a gray-haired man, and they both appeared to be having the time of their lives.

"Mark!" he called over his shoulder. "I found her!"

At the yelling, both Sam and Jack froze and looked up at the stairs in surprise.

"Um, Chris. Hi!" Sam said in surprise, suddenly realizing how the situation must look. "Um, this is my CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill..."

"Okay, Sam. And you've put in an indoor pool?" Chris asked with a big grin Jack instantly recognized.

"No... a pipe burst and we were... taking care of it."

"I see," he said solemnly.

Jack stood up and hauled Carter to her feet as well, as several more people arrived on the stairs behind Chris.

"Um, hey guys," Sam offered, wading over to the stairs. Jack followed uncertainly. "As you can see, there's been a bit of an emergency this morning. This is my CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Colonel, that's my brother Chris, my twin brother Mark, his wife Karen, and that's Julia and Piper."

They all exchanged greetings and handshakes. The two little girls tried to hug Carter, but their mom stopped them. "You can hug her when she's dry," she told them.

"Looks like you could use a hand, sis," Chris said, taking off his coat and draping it over Julia's head.

"That's okay, Chris..." Sam started.

Jack clapped the boy on the back and said, "Excellent. Grab a bucket. Carter, go get dry."

"But..." He had his strictest Colonel face on, so she sighed and mumbled, "Yes, sir." She followed her brother's family up the stairs.

Jack turned to the boy, who was really more of a young man now that Jack took a better look at him, taller than Carter, with short hair even lighter than hers. Jack thought he looked like a walking endorsement for the surfer lifestyle. Noticing that Chris was scrutinizing him just as closely, he said, "So, you're the 'baby,' huh?"

"Nice to know how the rest of them still see me," Chris said, grabbing one of the buckets. "And you're the CO?"

"Yup."

"Didn't realize this was part of the job description," Chris commented suggestively as they got to work.

"Uh..."

"Relax, I'm not trying to give you a hard time. That would be Mark's job anyway."

"And what's your job?"

"Resident goofball and heavy lifter," he said with another big smile. Jack took in the unruly hair and blue eyes and smiled back at the kid. He reminded Jack of Carter right after she had joined the program, before she had gotten control of the big grin he missed seeing so often.

"So, you're at Stanford?"

"Yeah."

"What's your major?"

"English."

"English? I wouldn't have guessed that."

"Yeah, well if you only know Sam, you wouldn't. She's the only science geek in the family. Nigel and Jamie used to tell her she was adopted."

Jack laughed. He had taken an instant liking to Carter's younger sibling. "So, know how to fix a busted pipe?"

Carter kept checking on them, making sure they didn't need anything. Finally, Jack told her they'd come up when they were done and unless she heard screaming, to stay out of the basement until then.

"You just killed her excuse for getting away from the rest of the clan," Chris informed him as the basement door slammed after her.

Wincing at the sound of the door, Jack asked, "What?"

"She and I are alike in one way. We're nothing like the rest of the family. And as we're the only ones without kids, we both sometimes... like to escape the madness."

"So the rest of your family's here already?"

"That would be my guess," Chris said with a shrug. "Hey, looks like we're done."

"Yeah. Let's get started on the pipe."

Two hours later, they had the basement mostly dry and the pipe fixed. They left a couple of big fans blowing to dry out the rest and made their soggy way back upstairs. Jack's knee was protesting loudly to the cold and the wet, and he entered a kitchen full of people cooking.

"Chris!" A woman that had to be Carter's sister exclaimed happily, setting down the spoon and bowl in her hand and hurrying over to them. She looked almost exactly like her sister, just older, and with long dark auburn hair instead of blonde. She threw her arms around her little brother, who was actually much bigger than she was, despite the fact that he was soaking wet, and kissed him on the cheek.

He kissed her back said, "Hi, Emily. Oh, this is..."

"You must be Jack," she said warmly, turning to him with a smile. "Sorry... do you mind if I call you Jack? I'm Sam's sister."

"Nice to meet you," Jack said, shaking the hand she offered him. "And no, I don't mind."

"Good. You guys are freezing," she stated suddenly.

"We're okay," Chris assured her, heading over to the rest of the women in the room and greeting them all, but Emily was still demanding Jack's attention.

"Do you have something dry to change into? I'm sure between all the people here we can find you something..."

"I've got a bag in my truck," he assured her.

"All right, I'll send my husband out to get it."

"I'll get it," Jack said quickly.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said briskly. "You're soaking wet and it's snowing like mad outside."

"It is?" he asked in surprise.

"Yup. It's coming down hard."

Three children suddenly ran through the kitchen, two of them in pursuit of the first. Emily snagged the third one that went by and said, "Go tell Uncle John to come into the kitchen."

"But we're..."

"Matty," she said firmly.

"All right," the boy grumbled, running back through the door he had used to enter.

"Jack, come over here a minute," Chris called. Jack headed over to the counter, followed by Emily.

"Sorry," Emily apologized. "We didn't even finish introducing you. This is Anne, she's Matty's mom."

"Nice to meet you," the small redhead said.

"And Caroline, who as you can see is carrying the next addition to the family." Jack shook the pretty brunette's hand. She was very, very pregnant.

She smiled warmly and said, "So you're the savior of the day."

"I don't know about that," Jack said uncomfortably.

"Nonsense, Sam told us about the busted pipe. We're very grateful, Jack," Emily said sincerely. "You saved our Christmas."

Not used to such undiluted praise, he didn't quite know what to say. Luckily, Chris kept him from having to say anything by saying loudly, "Hey, I helped!"

"Yes, we're grateful to you too, Chris," Emily said, smiling at her youngest brother fondly. "Now, take off your shoes and socks, go grab a towel from the laundry room, go upstairs and change, and try not to drip on the floor anymore."

"Yes, ma'am," he muttered, going off to do exactly as she instructed.

An extremely handsome man came into the kitchen. "Matthew said you were looking for me?" he asked Emily. Jack was surprised at the perfect British accent.

"Yes. Jack, this is my husband John. John, Sam's friend Jack." The two men shook hands. "As you can see, he was helping with the pipes."

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't give you a hand there, but I would have only made things worse."

"Not much of a handy man," Emily said in a loud stage-whisper. Everyone laughed.

"No problem," Jack assured him.

"Honey, you can help Jack now. Can you go grab his bag from his truck so he can get dry? It's that big green one in the driveway that Mark parked behind."

"Sure, no problem," he said, squeezing his wife's shoulder and smiling at Jack before hurrying out the kitchen.

Chris walked by rubbing his hair dry with a towel, barefoot. He tossed a towel at Jack as he passed. "Thanks," Jack called after him.

Suddenly, the kitchen door was thrown open again and an endless stream of children of various sizes poured in, led by the little redheaded boy who ran through earlier. "See, told you," he said, stopping and pointing at Jack. "New guy."

"Matty!" his mother objected. "Where are your manners?"

"Sorry," Matty mumbled apologetically.

Chuckling, Jack said, "That's okay," and tried to survey the lot of them. He only got as far as determining there were eleven of them, and two of them were identical girls.

"We met him already when we first got here," a little voice piped up. Jack identified the two little girls he had already met, trying to remember which one was older. Julia, he remembered.

"Right," Emily said briskly. "So you know Julia and Piper. Those are Mark's. Let's see... this one's Sydney, this is Rory, and the identical twins are Grace and Kailey. The one on the right is Kailey. Those four are mine. Say hi, guys."

He took the time during the chorus of greetings to try and put their faces and names to memory. Rory was the easiest, as he was the only one in the group wearing a Batman costume. "Then you met Matty, briefly. Then there's Conor, and the little one is Liliana. Those are Nigel and Anne's." They said hi and Jack smiled at them and at Anne. "Then we have the other twins, Kieran and Gwen."

"They're mine," Caroline chimed in.

"Nice to meet you all," Jack said, surveying them all. They appeared to range in age from about eight all the way down to toddler.

John joined them in the kitchen again and said, "Ah, here's your bag, Jack." He handed it to him over the heads of the kids.

"Thanks, John."

"Guys, what are you all doing in the kitchen? You need to give them room to cook or we're never going to eat," John said, picking up one of the twins. Grace? Jack wasn't entirely sure. The other one got jealous and demanded to be picked up as well. "Come on, let's all go... find something else to do." He herded the kids out of the kitchen.

Several comments such as "Let's play dodgeball!" "I want candy!" and "Uncle John, Sydney said a bad word earlier," were audible as the large group left the room.

Emily watched Jack watch them and said, "You get used to the craziness of having that many kids around. Why don't you go get dry and warm, Jack. I suggest you use Sam's room, it's the only one not overrun at the moment."

"Okay. Thanks."

He made his way through the crowded house to Carter's bedroom, which was thankfully empty. He allowed himself a few seconds on the thought that he was about to strip in Carter's bedroom, then a loud crash from upstairs followed by an adult calling, "What was that?" reminded him of the strange circumstances and he quickly peeled off his freezing wet clothes.

He was just pulling on his pants when there was a soft knock on the door. "Hang on a second," he said, doing up the fly quickly.

"It's me," Carter called.

"Oh, come in," he called, rifling through his bag for an undershirt. He found one and stood up, surprised to see that she was looking at him. Not just looking at him, but looking at him. Congratulating himself on all the crunches silently, he smiled and said, "Great family, Carter."

"Glad you think so, sir," she said, looking uncomfortable about something. "Um, Emily told me you were in here."

He pulled the undershirt over his head, admittedly a bit slower than necessary, and then grabbed the black sweater he had tossed on her bed and said, "What's with the look?"

"First, I can't thank you enough for helping me, sir. You really saved the day."

"All in a day's work," he said modestly, sitting down on the edge of her bed to pull on his socks. His shoes were wet and would have to wait to dry.

"Umm, the thing is, sir... there's a lot of snow coming down."

"So I hear."

"Well... if you look out the window..."

He did. He swore under his breath and said, "Wow, impressive."

"And it's still coming down. I checked the weather channel, sir... it doesn't look good. I'm really, really sorry about this, sir, but... it looks like you're stuck here."

----------------------------

A/N: More to follow, of course. Thanks for the reviews to everyone who has taken the time.