The dishes were finally done from dinner, Kelly Carter noted to herself with satisfaction. She had been cleaning the kitchen for over an hour now, ever since Jack O'Neill's two nieces had decided tonight was a good night to make omelets for dinner along with homemade cookies for dessert. They were learning to cook, thanks to Kelly, but she realized they had a lot to learn in the clean-up department. Every ingredient they'd used was strewn about on the counter in varying amounts. The kitchen looked like they'd had a food fight.

Wiping her hands on a towel and once again surveying her handiwork, Kelly headed for the den to sit down and relax for a few precious minutes before taking on four year old Maddie's bath time.

Serving as an au pair to General O'Neill's newly adopted children was quickly becoming an all-consuming undertaking. Oh, the General paid her well, and gave her generous bonuses on top of her salary, so grateful was he to have her running his household. He worked long hours and consequently was away more than he was home, so not only did Kelly take up the slack for all the things he could not do himself, but she was also an emotional buffer for the three kids.

The kids.

General O'Neill's two nieces and his nephew had been living with their Uncle Jack for almost four months now and their lives were beginning to return to normal. Or as close to normal as possible, given their tragic circumstances- having lost both parents in an accident- and their legal guardian being Jack O'Neill.

Nick, the oldest at 17, was smart, quiet and a bit too interested in girls. Kelly felt like a detective on the trail of one of the FBI's ten most wanted whenever she tried to check up on him. He'd be good in covert ops, she allowed; it must run in the family.

The middle child, a thirteen year old girl named Mindy, was also quiet, but she was much more predictable and reliable than her charming older brother. Mindy stuck to her self-imposed schedule like clockwork: come home, eat a banana with peanut butter and a glass of milk, watch a half-hour of TV, do homework, help with dinner, and so on. None of which was punctuated with words unless Kelly asked her direct questions. Even then, the young girl's answers rarely ventured beyond one or two words. Mindy adored her Uncle Jack, however. He was the only one who could get her to open up about anything.

The brightest source of energy in the house was without a doubt the effervescent Madeleine. At almost five years old, she was a live wire, a bundle of nonstop, babbling, laughing activity. She too, loved and doted on her Uncle Jack, but Maddie loved everyone with the same abandon. Kelly often thought that if she ever had kids of her own, she'd want them to be like Maddie.

Kelly cracked open her textbook and tried to read the assigned chapters, but found herself yawning uncontrollably within minutes. It had been a long day. Looking around at the quiet house, she decided to go to bed and get up early to finish the assignment before tomorrow's class. She sighed as she walked back to her bedroom.

At first glance, this had seemed like a dream job when her Aunt Sam had told her about it. She had a place to live, her food was paid for, she had a steady income, and the three kids were all in school for the majority of the day. Kelly had imagined herself leisurely taking notes in class during the day and then writing brilliant essays at night after the kids were asleep. But the real world, as often happens, hadn't measured up to her dream world.

The front door opened quietly, but not so quietly that Kelly didn't hear it. Pulling her robe around her, she peeked out into the hall and looked into the foyer.

"General, sir! You're home!" O'Neill had slipped in and was already heading for the sofa after draping his coat over a chair.

"Yeah, come on in here for a minute and tell me how things have been going, Kelly." Jack's voice was low so as not to wake anyone. He gestured toward the other end of the sofa. Kelly felt better already. Maybe General O'Neill could help her figure out her messed up life.

"So, how's everybody?"

"Great, sir. No problems to speak of. Report cards came out this past week, they're all doing great."

"Hey, that's good. Boy, I used to hate report card day when I was a kid."

"Oh, I loved report card day!"

Jack gave her a wry look. "Why am I not surprised?" Jack teased. "So what about you, Kelly? How's school going?"

The girl tossed her long hair and shifted uneasily in her seat. "Well, I've been meaning to talk with you about that. I could use some advice, actually."

"Really? What's going on?"

"I dropped my Latin class today. And last week I dropped Chemistry. So that leaves me with 9 credits. But I'm still having trouble in my other subjects."

Kelly looked pretty miserable for a Carter.

"Really? You, Kelly? What's wrong?" Jack sat up, surprised at what he was hearing. She had his attention now.

"Well, like, I thought it would be easy to juggle school and my job, but I'm not getting much time to work on my schoolwork. My responsibilities here have been a lot more intense than I had imagined they'd be back when I took this job."

"Kelly? Please don't tell me you're quitting on me. You're fantastic. I need you. If you need more time to work on your schoolwork, I'll just make sure you get it."

"I don't want to quit, General O'Neill. I've gotten attached to the kids... and all." She looked shyly at him, then continued. "But I'll lose my scholarship if I can't keep up my grades and a full-time credit load."

"Well, what can I do to help?"

I guess you'd have to be home more often, sir. But I know how hard you work."

"No problem. I'm the General, I think I can arrange my schedule so I'm home more. I think."

Jack was deep in thought already. He didn't go off-world hardly at all any more, but he'd gotten into the habit, since his promotion to General, of staying on base as much as possible when teams were off-world, particularly SG1. He just felt better knowing that, if one of his soldiers got into trouble out there, he could react more quickly if he was on base. But the fact that the kids needed him at home had been creating more and more tension between him and them. His closeness with his nephew and nieces had suffered more than he cared to admit over the last few hectic months.

Something had to change.

"General O'Neill?" Kelly said, breaking his silent reverie.

"Hmm?"

"Could Aunt Sam help out more, like she used to? I could ask her for you, if you want. She really likes the kids, you know."

Jack glanced over at her then studied the rug in front of him as he sat contemplating her request. When he'd first assumed custody of his late sister's children, he'd been beside himself. Sam had stepped in and smoothed the waters for weeks while Jack had recovered his equilibrium. She'd been great with the kids, but she'd been an unfailing support for him, too, at a time when he didn't really understand how much he needed her. But then things had gotten complicated...

...two months earlier...

"You look exhausted, Sam," Jack said with concern in his voice. The two of them had collapsed on the couch together after a long evening taking care of Maddie. The little girl had contracted a virus and between a high fever, nausea and a sore throat she'd been inconsolable until finally slipping into a Motrin-induced sleep a half hour ago. Seemed, to Jack, like someone was always sick in his house.

"I am," Sam confessed wearily. She laid her head back on the pillows to prove it and swung her feet up right next to Jack's lap. Her eyes slid closed.

"Maybe you should just sleep here." Jack surprised Sam by reaching out for her foot. Before she even realized what he was doing, he'd pulled her foot into his lap and was massaging it. He slipped off her sock and laughed when he saw her toes.

"Carter?"

"Maddie made me do it," she explained with a small grin. Her toes were sparkly blue with tiny decals of dolphins centered on each nail. "You should see hers. Hey, my other foot hurts too."

Sam boldly slipped her other sock-covered foot into his lap. Jack and Sam both relaxed as Jack continued to rub both feet now, enjoying the intimate moment so far from work, duty, and decorum.

"I could get used to this," Sam mused dreamily, her eyes half-closed.

"This?" Jack asked, holding up a foot for a second, then continuing the kneading.

"Well, this is great, but I meant this," she swung her hand around the room. "It's been a long time since I've been in a family like this. I guess I've missed that more than I knew. It makes my house feel so empty when I go home."

"Yeah, it's different. If you'd asked me a year ago what I'd be doing with the rest of my life, this is the last thing I would have expected."

"Do you like it?"

Jack put her feet down and they both sat up in response to the deepening conversation.

"I'm not sure. I love these kids. But I'm not their Dad, and I'm pretty rusty at this parenting stuff."

Sam was thinking, Jack could tell from the little pucker between her eyebrows and the way she was pursing her lips.

"What?" He asked, knowing there was something interesting going on in that mind of hers.

"I...could help you."

"You already are, Sam, more than you know." Jack looked at her quizzically, sensing there was more.

"No, I mean, yes, I've helped, because I'm your friend, and because the kids are wonderful and all, and because Kelly's here, but I mean...like, really help you. Be here for them. And you."

Not sure herself what she was offering, Sam blushed and fell silent.

"You mean, like move in with me?" He released her feet then, as if he had just realized what he was doing. The way Jack repeated what she had said, it sounded to Sam like he was disgusted and outraged at the mere thought of it. That was what she'd meant, but when he put it so bluntly, she heard the inappropriateness of her offer through his tone.

Sam realized with a sickening jolt that she had misread him and grossly overstepped her professional boundaries. The casual closeness they'd enjoyed these past few weeks had nurtured her well-hidden fantasy that they were a couple. Heartsick and embarrassed, she stood and walked hurriedly across the room to retrieve her coat.

"Sam, wait." Jack jumped to intervene between her and the door.

"That came out wrong," he pleaded. "Come on, Sam, we're too tired to have a serious conversation and now I've upset you. Let's just forget it, and you come lay down and get some rest, okay?"

"I'm wrong to have said that. I'm sorry, sir. I never should have made that offer, I don't know what I was thinking. Good night."

She somehow managed to evade him and slipped out the door into the night. The tears had started on the way home as it became more and more clear to her that she had ruined whatever tenuous connection she and the General had outside of the mountain.

Jack had tried several times since then to clear the air with Sam, but the walls were up and they were as thick as a fortress.

"Kelly, it's complicated between me and your aunt right now. She's trying to maintain a professional posture with me and if we spent time together outside of work, doing what would look like keeping house together, well...worst-case scenario, we could both lose our jobs."

"Being together at home would make it harder for you guys at work." Kelly sounded sad.

She got it.

"Yeah," Jack whispered, thinking about that awful night when he'd hurt Sam and wishing there was a way he could undo what he'd said to her.

"Why can't you and Aunt Sam be together? You know, you two seem like you're on the same wavelength or something. When I first met you, when Aunt Sam introduced us, I assumed the two of you were going out. I was kinda surprised to find out you weren't. You'd be great together, General O'Neill. Don't you want to go out with her?"

Jack didn't bat an eye at the young woman's forthrightness; he'd become used to her Carteresque directness over the months she'd been in his employ. He didn't have to answer for Kelly to discern his feelings in the matter. His thoughts were displayed openly on his face.

"Kelly, I'll be home earlier as often as I can swing it from now on. I'll take care of the kids and their activities in the evenings and stuff, and you get cracking on your studies. Got it?"

"Thanks a bunch, General. One more thing, though. If you don't mind me butting in a bit longer."

"Well, I get the feeling that nothing's going to stop you anyway," Jack remarked, smiling resignedly to let her know it was okay.

"I'm not the only one to notice that things between you two have been like, really messed up, lately. You and Aunt Sam need to work things out between you. You need to have a talk and figure out how to be friends again. Like you used to be. I miss that. We all do."

Jack reached over and patted Kelly's knee fondly. "I miss that, too. You're right, as always. You're too smart for me, Kelly. But hey, thanks. Now go hit the books."

Jack sat in the mostly dark den for a long time after Kelly had disappeared into her room to study, not sure what to do and feeling overwhelmed by all that life had handed him recently. Jack flopped bonelessly on the couch and hit the TV remote, looking for something, anything, he could zone out on. He was so tired of the relentless parade of responsibilities, both at work and at home. So tired that he was sorely tempted to run off to his cabin and never come back.

Maybe a beer would help. Or two.

He got haltingly to his feet and went to the fridge. Grabbing a beer and twisting the top off, he went out to the deck and sampled the cool night breeze as he took a long pull from the brown glass beer bottle in his hand. Somewhere deep inside him, a tightly wound spring let loose with a satisfying twang. If only this fragile feeling of peace could stay with him for longer than a few hours. If only it was this easy to solve the rest of his troubles.

But, truth was, he had no idea how he was going to solve any of it.

TBC

Author's notes: Wow, this is the first thing I've written in months :) I've had a serious case of writer's block!