Both fathers were allowed to stay in the room since neither Sam nor the obstetrician objected, but the first night, Daniel took Jack aside and said, "Do you think, I could have about 15 minutes alone with her?"
Jack said, "Ah, the formal proposal."
"And," Daniel said, "the first real kiss."
Jack was amazed. "And I thought we didn't have any secrets," he teased.
"Well think about it, Jack," Daniel said. "When was I supposed to have kissed her?"
Jack just shook his head. "I'll meander down to the cafeteria. It's been days since I've had the opportunity to eat any really bad food."
Daniel asked. "I'll need to run down to the gift shop first. I noticed they had flowers. Then if you'll distract Sam a moment?" The babies both decided to cooperate with Daniel's plan and quieted down. A short time later, Jack moved aside and suddenly Daniel was revealed to Sam holding a bouquet of flowers.
"I'll be back in a bit," Jack said, not that anyone was listening to him, and ushered himself out.
Daniel presented the flowers to Sam and then pulled two candles and matches out of the coach's bag and positioned them on the nightstand. He lit them and turned off the overhead light. Next he produced a bottle of wine and two glasses. Sam was watching him with a bemused but pleased expression. He put one knee on the bed and, quasi-kneeling, said, "Sam, will you marry me?"
Sam was too overwhelmed to speak at first but then she realized that he was starting to look a little nervous. He had, after all, been turned down once. She quickly found her voice and said, "Oh, yes!"
Daniel pulled something out of a pocket, took her hand, and slid it on. "I hope you like it. It's like the one my mother had."
Sam moved her hand toward the flickering candle and saw a sapphire in an antique looking setting surrounded by small rubies. "Oh, Daniel," she said, tears shimmering in her eyes.
"Do you like it?" he asked anxiously. "I know, any more, women are usually involved in picking out their own rings."
"Daniel, it couldn't be more perfect," she said sincerely. Her voice got huskier and lower and she invited, "Come here." She pulled him down on top of her and they had roughly fifty first real kisses.
Daniel kept trying to break free, very aware that there were limits on how far they should be going immediately after birth, but she was like a greedy woman faced with a box of chocolates. Just one more; then I'll stop. One arm was wound around his neck and she was making a lot of trouble with the other hand. Finally Daniel captured her hands and pinned them above her head. He looked down at her swollen mouth and could feel her soft body under him. She squirmed a calculated squirm and he groaned. Summoning up every ounce of self-control, he looked deep into her eyes and said, "You're mine now whether we've made that a physical fact or not, right?"
She said, very softly, "All yours, forever."
Everyone was euphoric for about 24 hours and then the problems began. At first, no one knew which baby was Jack's and which was Daniel's. This created a problem getting them out of the hospital at the end of three days because a birth certificate was required and Sam didn't want to name them until she knew. Because both fathers had the same blood type, the blood tests couldn't be used. The hospital administration seemed to think that Sam had this problem because she was a promiscuous bimbo and didn't seem disposed to be of any assistance. Sam stayed one more day than really necessary and, thank God, they had the DNA results after 4 days. Sam had already been quite sure she knew which baby was which and she was proved right.
John "Jackie" O'Neill Carter and Daniel "Danny" Jackson Carter came home to a triumphal welcome from the "Operation C-Section" team but things went downhill rapidly. Sam wanted to nurse, a challenging, but achievable, goal with twins. She was in continual contact, or so it seemed, with the lactation consultant who had advised her to nurse them at the same time, with the babies in a football hold on each side. Otherwise, she advised, Sam would be nursing constantly. However, the babies didn't want to eat at the same time all the time and ignored little talks about getting with the program.
Sam and Daniel had been going to plan their wedding after she came home from the hospital but nobody had the energy to plan anything between feeding, changing diapers, changing clothes – theirs and the babies – due to diaper overflow and spit up, washing clothes, going to the store to buy diapers, and try to figure out why little people wouldn't stop crying.
Jack and Sara had fallen in love with both babies immediately, only slightly more besotted with Jack's child than Daniel's. They ended up moving into the house temporarily to get more time with the children and be able to provide more help to Daniel and Sam.
Sara was in the kitchen, cleaning up after a simple meal she had fixed for the four of them. Jack stood in the doorway, just watching her, savoring this moment when she was unaware of him. Sara was so graceful and so full of spirit, even here in the kitchen when she thought herself alone. She hummed a little, chuckled at the antics of a cat she glimpsed out the window, and chided a spoon that was stuck uncooperatively in the silverware basket of the dishwasher. The whole time, she never stopped moving, getting the job done.
Her running shoes, mid-thigh khaki skirt, and polo shirt, coupled with her short no-nonsense haircut, her simple jewelery, and minimal make up said soccer mom. Jack knew there was a whole other woman there, under her skin. She made him anything but a disciplined soldier and he turned her into something wild and unconventional.
Suddenly he really wanted to bring that other woman out. He walked on cat feet up behind her but she heard him at the last moment. It was obvious in the softening of her posture and the way she carefully set what she was holding down and waited for him to reach out to her. He put his arms around her and pulled her against his hard, muscled body. She turned in his grasp and slipped her hands up under his shirt while giving him a deep kiss. He looked at her face, older than when he had first fallen in love with her, but, to him, more beautiful. "Sara, don't ever let me get stupid again," he said softly.
Sara laughed and said, "It's a promise," and began to provide some memorable motivation.
Given how much they loved each other, it made no sense at all that Jack and Sara's wedding plans seemed to be careening out of control. They were having trouble agreeing on even the smallest details and Jack was frankly baffled as to why there were suddenly so many issues.
One evening, Jack and Daniel sat bleary eyed in front of the television, turned down so low as to be barely audible. They had all become paranoid about even the slightest sound because there was a chance at any time, day or night, it might wake somebody very small but very loud. Both men were too exhausted to sleep, a curious condition that was new to Daniel, but part of the suppressed memories coming back to Jack of Charlie's babyhood. "You getting much done at work?" Jack asked. Both were out of vacation time except for the few days they were hoarding for their weddings and had been forced to return to the Mountain.
Daniel snorted. "Of course," he said, keeping his voice low.
Jack said, "What have I told you about trying to be sarcastic? That's my job."
Daniel just sighed. "If I can't pull it together soon, I doubt I'll have a job."
Jack retorted, "I'm sure they can find previously Ascended archeologists with a working knowledge of Ancient script and Jaffa growing on trees."
Daniel laughed, "And you do have that pesky alien gene thing going for you."
Jack said, "You know, I've been wondering."
Daniel said, "Would you really want Jackie to have the gene?"
Jack looked at him surprised. "It never occurred to me that I might not want him to."
"I wouldn't want the NID to know he did, if he did," Daniel said. They both contemplated that for a moment.
"This wedding thing is making me crazy," Jack said, launching into the new topic without preamble.
"You and me both. I remember hearing jokes about bridezilla but I would never have thought Sam would go so nuts," Daniel responded, glumly picking the label off his beer bottle in tiny pieces.
"That's supposed to be a sign of sexual frustration you know," Jack observed, jerking his head toward the pile of little pieces of label on the coffee table.
That got him a really dirty look. "Tell me about it. She did just have a baby you know."
"Ouch. I was just joking and forgot your life was kind of a joke," Jack said. Daniel tried to hurl a throw pillow at him but it was too soft and squishy and didn't really make enough of a statement.
"Look. The thing is they're tag teaming us, Sara and Sam. I think they sit up there and just egg each other on," Daniel observed. "Here's a thought. Maybe we should have a double wedding."
"This would make the decision making process simpler, how?" Jack said.
Daniel explained, "It would be more complex in one sense but they would now have to agree with each other instead each of them encouraging the other to demand God knows what." His voice got high and coy, "Danny, I think it would be just darling if we had the twins go down the aisle in a little pony drawn carriage in front of me."
Jack was thunderstruck. "She didn't propose that. Please tell me she didn't."
"Not actually, but there have been some real triumphs of sentimentality and mawkishness going on. He added, "From an Air Force officer for God's sake."
Jack was beginning to like the idea. "They haven't been suggesting things that were the least bit similar, have they?"
Daniel took the thought further. "No. I think a double wedding makes them focus on dealing with each other and I expect the compromise will eliminate most of the more bizarre ideas."
The two men shook on it and went upstairs to inform their fiancés and the babies.