Ch. Summary: Someone's in the dog house.

"So what did you and your daddy get up to today?" Valerie asked her five year old daughter Carrie, who was sitting at the table busy coloring in her new coloring book.

Ever since two way contact had been made between Earth and Atlantis about six months ago a rotation schedule had been worked out so that every other month when supplies came from earth a small group of people from Atlantis would be sent back to earth for a little R&R as well as to answer any questions the people studying the information from Atlantis might've had. This time Carson, Valerie and Carrie had been a part of that group.

"I learned that ice cream comes from cows." Carrie stated not missing a beat with her coloring.

"Oh really and just where did you learn that?"

"From Daddy."

"From Daddy? When?"

"When you had to go back to the SGC for a little bit. The two of us went out to lunch."

"And you didn't think to wait for me?" At hearing this Carrie finally stopped her coloring and looked over at her mom.

"Daddy said you weren't allowed it was a just us afternoon." The little girl answered as if it was the most obvious reason in the world. "Besides Daddy says you have to watch your diet cause your getting fat and it's not good for you."

"Daddy said that?" Valerie couldn't believe what her daughter just told her. 'Someone's sleeping on the couch tonight' She thought.

"Mommy you're not gonna tell Daddy are you?" Carrie got a worried look on her face.

Valerie almost laughed at the childish look on Carrie's face. "Is there a reason I shouldn't tell Daddy?"

"Because Daddy said if you know what I just told you, he'd be in the dog house and you wouldn't let him sleep in his bed. And if he can't sleep in his bed, he's gonna sleep in mine. So where am I gonna sleep, Mommy?" She asked worriedly.

"Don't worry I promise Daddy won't be sleeping in your bed." Valerie reassured Carrie as she picked her up and headed towards her daughter's room. "And speaking of bed I think it's time for you to go to bed."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Finished getting tucked in, Carrie spoke up again, "Mommy were's Daddy going to sleep?"

"That depends on the answers he gives me. Now go to sleep." Valerie kissed her daughter on the forehead and was about to turn the lights off when a thought came to her. "Carrie next time your Daddy tells you something like this, promise to tell me? I promise I won't tell your Dad."

"Promise." With that Valerie turned off the lights and left the room headed for her own.

"And just where have you been?" Valerie, putting her book on the nightstand, asked when Carson walked into the bedroom.

"One of the scientist at the SGC had a question about one of the new medicines we brought back that I had to go deal with." Carson replied as he disappeared into the bathroom for a moment. "You wouldn't believe this guy, I mean I thought Rodney was bad when it came to rambling, but this guy just kept going on and on about how brave as well as crazy he thought we all were for willingly leaving earth to go to another galaxy."

"Well I certainly know that you're probably the bravest man out of everyone." Valerie got off the bed and went to lean in the bathroom doorway.

"How do you figure that?" Carson was getting a bit weary. He couldn't quite identify the look on his wife's face, but he did know it most likely wasn't good.

"Because I have it on good authority that you actually had the never to tell our daughter that I was fat." Valerie paused a moment glaring at her husband. "Let me make it perfectly clear to you Carson Beckett, I am not fat nor have I ever been fat. Just because I have your child growing inside me does not make me fat. Got it Mister?"

"I...I...I." Carson stuttered a second trying to think of the right thing to calm his angry wife. "I never said you were fat. Carrie must have misunderstood me, she is only five after all." That of course didn't seem to calm Valerie down at all. "I said that you were getting bigger, there's a difference."

"Oh please do enlighten me."

"Well you see if I'd said fat, that would have meant over weight, which you're not." Carson hurriedly assured his wife. "But by saying bigger I meant that you had her little brother or sister growing in you." Carson put on an innocently charming smile when he was finished with his explanation.

"Don't even try using your charm on me buddy." Valerie ordered as she walked back over to the bed. "You can forget about sleeping in bed, it's the couch for you." With that she threw one of the pillows off the bed at Carson. "And don't you even think about waking Carrie up."

"Please don't be mad. I was just trying to think about your health, I'm a doctor it's what I do. I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Really? How exactly?"

"Well what if the food had, had something in it that would have been bad for you and/or the baby. Remember it's been a while since we've had earth food, we've gotten so accustomed to food from the Pegasus Galaxy that there's no telling how we'd react to eating earth food again."

"So you were trying to play hero and make sure the food was safe?" Valerie running a hand along the slight bulge of her stomach turned back towards Carson. "You know you can be a real pain in the ass at times." A small grin broke out on Valerie's face.

"Aye an adorably cute and lovable pain in the ass who you married willingly." Carson allowed a tiny smirk to form when he saw his wife's anger replaced with humor. "So does this mean I can sleep in bed now?"

"Not a chance. But you can tell me what the whole 'ice cream comes from cows' thing was all about."

"Not a chance. A man's gotta have some secrets." Carson quickly captured Valerie's lips in a loving kiss then hurriedly ducked out the door before she could think to throw the other pillow at him.