A/N: Wow, I cannot tell you how touched I was by your responses to the last chapter, really. As far as the questions about names for the twins goes, I'll keep my lips sealed on that one, because Evie's mentioned working some of our conversations about names and the like into future chapters of her story 'Small Favours,' which apparently everyone in the universe is reading and loving! Thank you all for your congratulations, and thank you for your loyalty to this series. I'm truly touched.
I usually don't post a story until it is 'finished,' which means that it's written somewhere, but that means it's in pieces on three computers, notebooks, or sometimes just in my head. What I'm trying to say is that I thought this was 'finished,' but decided it could still be sad without ending on a sad note, so I've decided to add a funny chapter at the end, which means slightly reworking a few other chapters as well. Still, updates will probably be about every other day or so, and it looks like... six or seven decent-sized chapters.
This one is a bit of a tight-rope trick, trying to balance humour and sentiment, and have Jack and Sam be a bit mushy but still themselves... so please let me know if I begin to teeter too far in one direction or the other, keeping in mind that years 7, 8, and an epilogue of sorts are already basically mapped out.
Ch 2: Jogging and Remembering
Sam decided a good, long run would help clear her head. It always did. Which was why her muscles were already furious with her. She had been running at least twice as much as usual in the last week. Combined with the lack of sleep, she wasn't feeling so hot, but she started pulling on some running clothes anyway, pointedly ignoring the little voice in her head (which sounded a lot like one Dr. Janet Fraiser) telling her she couldn't keep this up much longer.
It was early winter, so she pulled a knit hat down low over her ears and applied a lot of Chap Stick. She did up the zip of her hoodie and double-knotted her trainers. Quarks seemed to be giving her an awfully accusatory look. "Oh hush," Sam muttered to him, hurrying out the door.
She jogged her familiar route to the jogging park, although since it was winter there weren't many people out and about. She passed two men younger than herself being half-dragged by three large Alsatians, and a friendly-looking older gentleman who smiled as she passed him. Rather than holding the end of a leash, he was carrying a minuscule white dog which bore more than a passing resemblance to a cotton ball.
Once she got to the park, she switched over to automatic, taking comfort in running the familiar paths while her thoughts wandered aimlessly, centred around Daniel, of course, but following no discernable pattern. She ran until she couldn't think anymore, and some primitive part of her brain shut her body down automatically when it realized she wasn't going to do it herself. She realized she was home, without any memory of even leaving the park.
Unzipping her jacket and taking off her hat, Sam went into the kitchen and drank a bottle of water methodically, mainly to get the annoying Janet-sounding voice that was chanting 'hydrate, hydrate' in the back of her head to shut up and leave her alone, then went through her house to the bathroom for a long, hot shower.
When she got out of the shower, her phone was ringing. Wrapping a towel around herself to catch some of the dripping water, she hurried for the phone. Maybe there was a nice base emergency they needed help with.
"Carter," she said into the phone.
"Why do you answer the phone like that at home?" her brother asked, laughing on the other end of the line.
"Mark?" Sam asked, surprised.
"'Course it's Mark, how many brothers do you have?"
Now… two. You and Teal'c, she thought to herself, taking the phone back into the bathroom so she'd stop getting the carpet wet.
"Sorry," she said absently into the phone, picking up the necklace Daniel had given her last year. The one that was meant to be from brother to sister.
"That's okay, I figured I'd be getting your machine anyway, I was going to have the kids sing to you."
"That's sweet," Sam said, and meant it.
"Happy birthday, S'mantha."
She cringed. She hated the way Mark said her full name; he never said it properly. He always said it really fast, skipping the first syllable. He called her Sam most of the time like everybody else so it didn't really matter, but still. It was equivalent to scraping nails on a blackboard in her opinion.
"Thanks, Mark."
"Well, the kids want to talk to you, so I better hand the phone over before they attack."
Sam smiled and waited patiently for her niece and nephew. They sang 'Happy Birthday' to her and then both started fighting over who got to talk to her first. Sam waited, holding the phone out away from her ear as Mark tried to sort out his kids. She took the opportunity to put Daniel's necklace on.
"Auntie? Auntie, are you there?"
"Sorry, sweetie, go ahead," she said, wedging the phone between her shoulder and ear and picking up her hair brush.
An hour later, she had been caught up on the lives of her niece and nephew. She spoke to Mark again briefly and said goodbye.
Sam went into her living room to get dressed but then decided she really needn't bother, so she threw on her fluffy blue robe and pulled on some warm socks. She went over to the closet, pulled out her photo album, and Daniel's as well, which had found its way to her house when they had been clearing things out of his lab for Jonas, and settled down with them. The pictures helped guide her thoughts somewhat, so that she could remember happy things about Daniel as well.
Loud, persistent, suspiciously youthful sounding knocking on her front door made her look up from the book in her lap sometime later. Wiping her eyes as she went to her front door, she wondered how long she had been sitting there. She hurt everywhere, from all the running and lack of sleep. She had a headache from crying now, too. And her nose was stuffy.
"Cassie, what are you doing here?" she demanded as she opened the door and saw her goddaughter standing there with a huge shopping bag.
"Just wanted to say 'Happy Birthday' and make sure you're okay. I called Mom, she said it was okay to come over. So did Jack…" Cassie said uncertainly.
"Of course it's okay, come in, I just… shouldn't you be in school?" Sam asked, stepping aside to let Cassie in, shutting the door behind her.
"Sam, it's four o'clock. God, you look terrible," Cassie said honestly, going into the living room and setting her shopping bag on the coffee table. She noticed the open photo album and said quietly, "Good, you've got them out."
She turned back to Sam and said, "Why are you in your robe in the middle of the afternoon?"
"I was… taking a shower after a run and Mark called, then I guess I got a little side-tracked…"
"I brought you some stuff."
"You didn't have to do that."
"It's your birthday - you have to get presents," Cassie said with a shrug. She slid the bag over to Sam and said, "There's other stuff in there too."
Sam pulled out a bunch of bath products from their favourite store, Lush. "We both thought you might need a good long soak. And shower or no, based on the way you look now…"
"Thanks," Sam said sarcastically, pulling out several envelopes of pictures. "What's…"
"They're mostly from last year's birthday party. I thought you might want to add those to both your books."
"Thanks, Cassie," Sam said quietly. "I really appreciate it."
"Good. I'll help you if you want."
"Sure, sounds good."
"Go get dressed first though."
"Cassie…"
"You'll feel a little bit better if you do, Sam. Even if it's just washing your face and putting on some sweats. Trust me."
"Who put you in charge?" Sam grumbled, allowing Cassie to herd her in the direction of her bedroom.
"Mom did. She wants me to report on your condition. So go get dressed and for God's sakes brush your hair. Then I won't have to lie to her. I'm going to go get a snack."
Sam rolled her eyes and muttered, "Bossy," as she went into her bedroom to get dressed.
Putting on her most comfortable, oldest pair of jeans was a small step up from sweatpants, but an important one in her mind. She pulled on a big, soft cream sweater and splashed cold water on her face, then went to inspect the damage Cassie was doing to her kitchen.
"What's with the balloon, Sam?" Cassie asked, pulling a bag of popcorn out of the microwave. "Hey, you look better."
"Thanks. Morgan brought the balloon over this morning," she explained.
"How does Morgan know when your birthday is?" Cassie asked with a frown.
"Colonel O'Neill sent him over with breakfast and the balloon."
"Awwwwwwwwww," Cassie said in a mushy sort of voice, followed closely by making a gagging noise and sticking her tongue out.
"Oh be quiet," Sam told her. "Or I won't show you the very funny note that came with it."
"I'll be quiet," Cassie promised immediately.
"That's better," Sam said, pulling the note out of a drawer and handing it to her.
Cassie read it and exclaimed, "Aw, you wanted to play hooky? You should have called…"
"I almost did. Blame the Colonel's very timely note."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll blame Jack. We could have been shopping all day, you know what the sales are like right now…"
"I wouldn't have been much fun today, Cass."
"I'm enough fun for both of us," Cassie said with an unconcerned shrug. "What's with this thing about the balloon though? It sounds familiar."
"I googled it. It's from Winnie-the-Pooh."
Cassie spent about five minutes laughing at that one. Sam waited patiently and handed her a soda when she was finished. "Thanks," Cassie said, gasping for breath. "So… let's go get started with all those pictures. I haven't even looked at them all - Teal'c gave Mom a bunch in addition to the ones from my camera."
An hour and a half later, Cassie said, "I'm going to go on home now, Sam. I'm finished with your book, I hope you like it."
"Thanks, Cassie. I want to finish Daniel's first, then I'll look at mine," Sam said absently, intent on what she was doing.
"Of course," Cassie said, gathering up her things and hugging Sam from her spot on the couch. "Say hi to Jack for me," Cassie added.
"Colonel O'Neill?" Sam asked distractedly, sorting through a small stack of pictures. "He's not coming over…"
"Right," Cassie said lightly. "Sam… for what it's worth, I'm sure wherever Daniel is today, he's thinking about you too."
"Thanks, Cassie," Sam said sincerely, hugging her once more.
Cassie nodded and showed herself out of the house.