CHAPTER TWO

Sitting back in his seat, the General turned to the three men that remained in the room.

"I think I can safely say, that that was a strange morning meeting. Colonel O'Neill, due to these unforeseen circumstances, you and the rest of SG1 are on stand down till further notice, I recommend that you spend the next few days getting to know Megan, Caitlin and your grandson. How are you taking this DR Jackson?"

"I'm coming to terms with it I guess, they really are adorable children. Caitlin looks strikingly like Cassie, doesn't she?"

"She is Cassandra Fraiser's sister, is she not? Daniel Jackson." Teal'c spoke for the first time since the beginning of the meeting.

"Ah, yes I guess she is, in a roundabout way." Daniel replied.

"All I can say is wow, I didn't expect this when I came to work this morning." Jack exclaimed. Everyone else silently agreed with him.

"Well I guess that you are all dismissed," the General stated as he got up and moved towards his office, adding

"Colonel O'Neill, Ill inform you as soon as I hear back from the president as to whether they are welcome to stay, but I don't see a problem."

With that they three remaining men, stood and exited the briefing room. Teal'c going towards his quarters, and the other two men heading towards Jack's office, down the hall.

When Sam opened the door to the VIP room, Megan realized that for the first time in a long time she would be able to sleep on a proper bed today. Thinking of that she smiled to herself.

"Thank you very much for bringing us here, Major."

"No problem, please call me Sam."

"That goes for me too, call me Janet."

"Thank you all again, Caitlin honey are you hungry"

"Yes Aunt Megan, I'm starving."

Megan was looking around the quarters to see if there was a fridge or something for Caitlin to eat.

Janet interrupted her on her quest to find food.

"I'll take her to the mess, if you like? And I can also bring something back for you and the baby if you want? I don't know what we have in the way of baby food though."

"I would love something to eat, but you don't have to worry about baby food, he practically eats everything we do, just mushier. He has a very large appetite."

"Ill see what I can find, come on Caitlin. We'll be back soon." With that Janet and Caitlin left Megan and Sam alone with the boy.

"Do you want a hand with him?" asked Sam.

"You wouldn't believe how much." Megan replied.

Sharing a small chuckle with each other, Megan made herself comfortable in one of the overstuffed armchairs with Johnny still in her arms. Sam sat on the edge of the bed. In amongst making faces at the baby, Sam continued the conversation with Megan.

"I admire how you managed to survive all this time, by yourselves."

"It was hard at times but these two made it worth while, every time I felt like giving up I just cuddled one of them and the reason that we were out there made sense again. My husband wouldn't have wanted me to give up and I hope he can rest knowing that we are safe."

"Megan, I'm sorry to hear that your husband died."

"Don't be it's not your fault. He died saving his family and I think that is the way that he would have chosen to go. He was an extremely decent man. I loved him very much, and I miss him so much sometimes. Especially when I see him in Johnny. They seem to have the same mannerisms so it can be difficult at times. It is comforting and upsetting all at the same time."

"I guess it is hard to see our Daniel here?" Sam asked.

"I think ill get used to it, for the moment Ill have to deal with it. As much as he looks like him, your Daniel is not my husband. So ill just have to keep reminding myself." Megan continued as she arranged herself, trying to get comfortable.

"It was strange seeing you all, you and I were best mates, sorry I mean myself and my Sam were."

"Stop apologizing, you are bound to slip up occasionally. I think the Colonel liked it when you called him dad. I think secretly he has missed having his own blood around. After Charlie and all."

"Charlie died in this reality as well?" Megan questioned.

"Was it with dad's gun as well?" she continued to ask.

"Yes, it happened about five years ago. Before Jack became involved with the stargate project." Sam continued to coo to the baby beside her.

"My dad took it pretty hard, he almost killed himself, the only reason he didn't was because I busted him and gave him an earful. I was pissed off, and I told him so. I knew that when Charlie died he didn't cope well, but I told him off cause he was acting like I wasn't worth sticking around for. Soon after that he and Sara divorced and he started to get back to normal. It was all after I joined the air force, I joined straight out of high school. So I wasn't around that much, but I got transferred to the SG project and that is how I got to know all of you."

"I bet your dad wasn't happy about you coming here"

"Not really, he didn't want me in danger and all, but he learnt to deal with it, when he realized that I was as good of a soldier as he was, if not better. There were a few close calls, but nothing serious. You guys got into more trouble than I did with my team, SG9."

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you and Daniel get together?" Before Megan could answer Janet and Caitlin came back in the room, with two trays laden high with food, for all of them.

"I got enough for everyone so we can all have a picnic if you don't mind Megan?"

"No not at all, can somebody feed Johnny for me, I'm finding it difficult at the moment, this little one never seems to sleep." She said pointing towards her stomach.

After she sat down with some food and tried to get comfortable again she started the conversation up again.

"Sorry Sam, what did you ask?"

"I was just curious how you and Daniel became involved. But you don't have to tell if you don't want to talk about it." Sam said while trying to balance Johnny on her lap to try to feed him with some mashed potato.

"No I don't mind but before anything else, you might want to put a cloth or something over your shirt if you are going to do that." But before Megan finished Johnny had made a stain on Sam's blue uniform shirt. Quickly wiping it off, she looked unfazed about it.

"Let me see, Daniel and I knew each other through dad, of course. I had been out to dinner with all of you plenty of times, and had cooked when you came over to our place for a BBQ more times than I can count. I lived with dad in his house before, Daniel and I got married. Why pay rent when he was never hardly home anyway. Daniel and I were good mates before we hooked up together, we were always innocently flirting and stuff like that. At one stage we were all invited to a big ball hosted by some senator's wife, and we all decided to go together. The three of us girls got ready at my place." Megan said as she nodded at the two other women in the room.

"Dad was sick of all the women in his house so he went over to Daniel's to get ready and to help explain the reason of wearing a tux to Teal'c." The women all shared a small laugh at this.

"I can tell you that we all looked fantastic and when the boys came to pick us up, their jaws collectively dropped to the ground. We left Cassie and Caitlin with their baby-sitter for the night, and headed off. You two were secretly trying to set me and Daniel up, so I found out later. So you made sure we went in the same car and sat next to each other at the function. Dad asked Sam to dance, and Janet was already out on the dance floor with Teal'c, who I have to add, isn't a bad dancer either."

"Daniel and I had had a few to drink, mind you we weren't drunk but on our way to being so. We started talking and then went out on the verandah to get some fresh air. I remember this part as if it was only yesterday. We were leaning on the banister looking up at the stars. Our shoulders were touching, and in a moment of weakness I lent my head on his shoulder. He turned to face me, and put a finger to my chin to make me look at him. He asked me what I was thinking?

So I told him that I was thinking how handsome he looked that night. He replied by asking me if I realized how beautiful I was all the time. I got a bit shy and tried to look away but he wouldn't let me. He told me that he had always thought that my beauty was breathtaking, and that he was having trouble breathing just looking at me then. As you can imagine I almost burst into tears, no one had ever said anything like that to me before. He lifted my head up with his finger and gave me the most soft gentle kiss you can imagine." Megan said this as she touched her free hand to her mouth and shared a secret smile with the group.

"We had been friends for about a year, and I considered us good friends, and when he kissed me it seemed so right. Like it was the most natural thing in the world to do." Megan paused remembering the moment in her mind. Tasting his lips on hers again.

Sam bought her out of her trance.

"What did your dad say?"

"Ah, well he didn't find out about it for a few months, I didn't want to tell him just in case things didn't work out and Daniel didn't tell him cause I think he was scared shitless of what dad would do to him when dad found out that Daniel was falling for his little girl, as he referred to me. After we had been out on the verandah for a while he asked me if I wanted to leave. I agreed and we went in and told you guys that we were leaving, we said that I wasn't feeling well.

Janet almost blew it when she started fussing about me. I whispered to her what had happened, and all she did was publicly announce that I needed bed rest, with a wink implying something else altogether. We went back to his place and the rest is history. Dad was pretty good when he found out, he was a bit strange for a while but he got over it. As he said he wouldn't have trusted anyone else except his best friend to look after his girl.

I know to other people it might sound weird, me marrying my dad's best friend and all, but their wasn't a big age gap or anything. Dad was young when I was born and Daniel was only four years older then me. I was planning his 30th birthday party when we were attacked. It was going to be a surprise. God, I miss him so much." And that is where Megan burst into tears.

Finally being able to mourn her husband and friends. Janet got up and helped Sam move Megan to the bed. Sometime while Sam was comforting Megan, Janet and Caitlin slipped out of the room with Johnny to leave them in peace for a while.

"I miss him so much, I haven't been able to cry for him until now, I'm sorry Sam."

"Don't you dare be sorry, let it all out. I'm here if you need anything."

With that Megan cried all her stress of the past six months out and held tight to the exact double of her best friend.

Please read and review. Ellie Mae