The remote control was there as well but the pickings at 6:15 AM, even with cable, were limited. She was afraid too that the TV would wake up Daniel. She could hear faint snores coming from the room next to hers. Daniel had parked himself there the very first night she was home from the hospital and refused to be dislodged. She smiled at the snores. Didn't seem like something that would be a plus but she had found them very endearing. They reassured her that he was there but he was okay. She wasn't totally wrecking his life.
She had always been good at going back to sleep if awakened in the night but she had discovered that Daniel had a horrible time with it. If they did get married as she hoped and prayed they would, he wouldn't be part of the solution for feedings in the middle of the night. She had already silently promised that to herself. He insisted that he set his alarm to make sure that she got up at 3:00 AM for the pill that fell in the middle of the night. It would take him hours to go back to sleep. Some days he just waited for Teal'c or Sara or Jack to show up for the 7:00 pill before he tried to go back to sleep. During the day he was off duty because one or more of Teal'c, Jack, Sara, Janet, or, on the weekends, Cassie, were there. Sometimes he couldn't stop himself from going into work for awhile even though he was officially using vacation time.
She looked over at the table in the corner of the bedroom. They had moved the dresser out and put a table there so that everyone could come up to the bedroom and she could be part of meals and other socializing unless she needed to sleep. There were a couple of decks of cards, a Risk game, and Jaffa dice resting there at the moment.
Sam checked the schedule lying on top of the journals. Teal'c had the first watch today. That would be fun. He had taught her myriad Jaffa games of chance with their 6-sided dice and had been fleecing her out of all sorts of imaginary types of lingua franca. He held chits for visits with the twins beyond counting, including trips to the zoo, and others that ensured his right to show them every Star Trek and Star Wars DVD available. He also told the most marvelous stories, his delivery deadpan and only the glint in his eye and, perhaps, a faint smile turning up one corner of his mouth, giving the away the fact that he knew he was being very funny.
Jack would show up to keep her company right after lunch, after spending the morning at Cheyenne Mountain. He would want to have various practical discussions. He had been over every inch of the house and had a whole list of home improvement projects that were required before the house would be a fit place for his son or Daniel's. To hear him tell it, it was amazing that termites, water damage in the basement, and a leaking roof hadn't brought the whole thing down around her ears already. He was redoing the space that would be the nursery and would immediately go to work on it when the next person arrived. From what she could hear, and Sara confirmed, he had dragged Daniel into the complete overhaul going on of two adjoining rooms, starting with knocking down the wall between them. Although she was told that the quality of the work they were doing was good, the rate of progress was rather slow. She could hear a lot of conversation and joking around that probably were getting in the way.
On today's schedule, Sara would be there around 4:00. Sara was doing all the legwork to round up the baby paraphernalia that Sam had only just started to acquire. Sam wasn't able to participate in a baby shower but the gifts arrived with Jack daily. People showed up at his office on the base with all sorts of things. Some were beautifully wrapped; some were in something close to the Dilbert technique of using a towel but they were all terrific. The hand knitted, crocheted, or quilted items touched her the most and there were tears shed more than once. When Sara arrived, they would go over the latest booty, look at what Sara had just purchased, and work on the list of what was left. This was fun but Sam found that she got even more pleasure helping Sara start to plan her wedding to Jack.
Janet was noted at dinner time today. After a few days of carry out alternating with various frozen entrees, Janet had insisted that they would all get sick on this diet and the babies would be born already addicted to mediocre fast-food and chain restaurant fare. She saw to it that someone actually cooked a decent meal every night. Dinners were always a lot of fun. Daniel was there of course but several of the others would usually be on hand.
It wasn't on the schedule but late this afternoon, Fr. Bill was coming by. She grimaced at the reaction that was going to get from Daniel. It was clear that he wasn't comfortable with her developing an interest in church since their return from captivity. He didn't really have a clue. To him, she looked like a devout Catholic but when she thought about her aunts attending daily Mass and embroidering altar clothes, she knew she was still exploring what her involvement with the church would be. The priest had been at the hospital while she was there and dropped in to talk to her since she had indicated she was Catholic at admission. He was an open, friendly man who had become a priest after 10 years as a physics professor at Cal Tech and they had clicked right away.
She heard Daniel's alarm go off. The idiot hadn't listened to her when she told him that Teal'c would be there to make sure she got the pill at 7:00. There was stumbling toward the bathroom, a thud, and some swearing, at least she assumed it was swearing, but it was in some exotic sounding language so who knew? The shower started immediately and then Daniel started singing. She didn't think he was consciously aware that he did it because he was always so considerate about not disturbing her. He had a very pleasant voice but a very interesting repertoire which included simple songs in Arabic, which she assumed were children's songs from his childhood on his parents' digs, folk songs from Abydos, and, for reasons completely unclear to her, the classic "One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater." This morning the shower only lasted long enough for a rendition of the Purple People Eater song. Then he went downstairs, his steps still dragging, and shortly thereafter the smell of coffee wafted up. Ten minutes later and five minutes before the pill was due, she heard the front door open. They all had keys and no one bothered with the doorbell anymore. Teal'c and Daniel greeted each other and then both men came bounding energetically up the stairs. Oh the power of coffee!
Later that day, she was reading one of the baby books, yellow highlighter in hand, when she heard Sara come in and call up a hello. Jack immediately rushed down the stairs to greet her. There was no conversation so she surmised the nature of the greeting. Daniel poked his head in her door then and said, "Sara just got here but Jack wants to talk with her about something first a bit first."
Sam gave him a "don't kid a kidder look" and said, "Right."
"They are a lot of fun to watch. It's like they're 18 again only I suspect Jack's a lot more considerate this time around. He does actually want to talk to her because he wants to move the wedding date up again. He's that eager," Daniel laughed and then they made eye contact and it died away, both of them having the same thought. Being told that they couldn't do anything sexual, no matter whether there had been anything sexual going on or not up to that point, made both of them think about it way too much.
Daniel came into the room and sat on the edge of the bed and looked solemnly at Sam. "So anyway," he asked, "is there anything you need?" The question was asked with reference to some trivial request, to something Sara would have supplied, but suddenly it took on a whole lot more significance.
She looked at him mutely,
her heart in her eyes. She reached up and rubbed at a spec of paint on
his forehead. He captured her hand, turned his face into it, and kissed
her palm. Then he curled her fingers in and held her fist cradled
between both of his hands. "It's a mess with Janet," he said in a low
voice.
"I know," she said, her voice breaking. "She's been wonderful to me. I don't want to hurt her."
"Before the bed rest, she was resentful of the time I spent with you although she didn't say anything. But now, she's totally supportive of what I'm trying to do for you and, well, trusting," Daniel said, slowly. "Sam, no matter what, all three of us can't come out of this with what we want. No matter what I do, I'm going to feel like a jerk. Be a jerk I guess. It would help me if I really understood what you're feeling because on some levels it all feels like some kind of a trick to me."
"Because I turned you down when you asked me to marry you right after I told you and Jack about the babies?"
"Yeah. And, honestly, before that, you never gave me the slightest hint you felt anything but sisterly toward me," Daniel responded, a trace of bitterness still clinging to the words.
"You were not exactly giving out loverish vibes either, Daniel," Sam said, slightly defensively.
"I didn't dare," Daniel said, the bitterness growing now, "but Jack still saw my feelings underneath."
"Okay then. Let me explain how things changed. I have this house," Sam stated by way of explanation to a now very bewildered man. "I built it in my cell. Well, I built two actually. One was an A-frame in the middle of nowhere Minnesota for the life I imagined I might have with Jack and the other was a rambling old Victorian where you and I lived with our 6 kids. There were two sets of twins I gave birth to, and two orphans we brought back through the gate."
Daniel had stopped looking confused but his face wasn't giving away what he was feeling. "But if you were thinking about me that way before we got rescued, why did you turn me down?"
"It was all wonderful in our house. There was all this love, and laughter, and sharing on every level. You were so good with the kids and so supportive of me but I couldn't take it past the bedroom door. I had you in the friend box and it just didn't seem right. The night you proposed, well after you left, Jack and I talked. He told you about it of course," she said dryly. Daniel nodded. "I started thinking about what he had suggested. The only thing that made us not a perfect couple was the physical dimension. I began visiting the house and trying to imagine what it would be like if we were the total package." She looked at him hungrily. "I think I had always had a reaction to you but I had buried it because it was too confusing. You're so different from my dad, from the type man I thought I wanted. Once I opened the door though…." She reached up and ran her thumb across his full, kissable lower lip. "I realized that we already had the full package. I love you Daniel and I'm in love with you."
He leaned over and kissed her so gently, so obviously making it as nonsexual as possible. "The doctors won't let me touch you. Even if it weren't for that, I have to resolve things with Janet before I can work on us."