Daniel got to know his son better. He took his wife's advice and spent more time with him during the day time hours. In two weeks Daniel was able to hold him and calm him down when he started to scream at night. It was a great relief for Sam who was able to relax a little more and sometimes even get to bed earlier. She and Daniel still weren't on the best of terms, but things were getting better between him and the baby. They now had a relationship and Sam wasn't like a single mother with a newborn.
Sam did however feel like she was alone. She and Daniel didn't talk or touch much at all. The baby was 9 weeks old now and Daniel and Sam were drifting further and further apart. She figured he was falling out of love with her and she didn't know how much longer she wanted to stay around. She wanted to get it over with since it had been her idea for them to be a family in the first place.
Daniel would come home from work and take the baby from her for an hour or so while she made dinner. Than she would take the baby for a while. After dinner, Daniel would take the baby back and let Sam do what she needed to do and get to bed. They worked together with the baby now, but that was all they did together. They hadn't been out since her father left. They barely did anything except argue or throw around stabbing remarks.
Little Jacob had been falling asleep at 10PM lately and tonight was no different. Sam stayed up with him and put him to bed because Daniel was in somewhat of a bad mood. Apparently work related. When she came out of the bedroom she saw Daniel standing in the kitchen in his boxers making a sandwich.
"Sam," Daniel said when she caught his eye.
"What?" Sam answered while averting her eyes from his neither regions.
"Are you busy?" Daniel asked quietly, slightly amused at her sudden shyness to him. On Kemet they had seen each other naked many times since bathing was a communal event.
Sam blinked."No. I was going to switch the laundry. Do you need something?"
"We need food for the baby. We used the last of it in tonight." Daniel said as he turned back to his sandwich.
"Damn it! That's why I told you to pick some up on your way home tonight."Huffed Sam.
Daniel gave her an odd look. "No you didn't."
"Yes I did. I called you and…" Sam stopped for a minute. "Oh, you were already gone. I tried your cell but you must of had it turned off" She mumbled.
"Well, you wanna go get some? I'm already in my boxers. I'll stay here with the baby." Daniel was still making focused on his sandwich.
Sam sighed. "Yeah, I guess I'll go." She really didn't want to go out but she also didn't want to have to go out at 7AM when Jake woke up for breakfast and wanted some cereal. "Do you want anything while I'm out?"
"No, but don't be long." Daniel then shoved a mouthful of ham sandwich into his mouth, chewing intently. "Be safe." He said after swallowing the bite.
"I won't. I'm going to the corner store and then right back home. I will." Sam walked away and grabbed her purse and coat on the way out the door. She rolled her eyes as soon as she walked down the hall. "What a lazy son-of-a-bitch." She thought to herself. 'He makes his wife go out on the streets of Colorado Springs at 10PM. He's gonna get it when I get home.'
Daniel cleaned up his mess in the kitchen and thought about what he just did. He couldn't believe he sent her out at that time. He didn't realize it was so late. He needed to do something before he got into trouble. They weren't on the best of terms lately and he didn't want to do anything to make that worse. In fact he needed to start making it better. It was time that they started to act like husband and wife instead of mommy and daddy. They needed to find each other again and he needed to take the first step in that direction since it was him having the most trouble.
When Sam walked into the house her jaw dropped. All the lights were off and the living room was glowing with candles. There was soft music playing in the background and everything was picked up. She looked around for Daniel, but she didn't see him. She had to go to the kitchen to put the cereal and milk away anyway.
Daniel didn't know that she came in the house because he was in the bedroom and didn't hear her. He had just jumped out of the shower and threw a pair of loose sweat pants on and towel dried his hair before stepping into the living room. He looked around to make sure things were perfect and then went to the kitchen where he found Sam."Hi," He said.
"Hi," Sam looked at him oddly. "What's going on?"
"I love you and I want to have my bondmate back if she'll still have me." The honestly caught her off guard and she didn't know what to say. "You don't have to answer me now. I think it's time we start to work on us, don't you?" She looked into his eyes and nodded yes. "Will you sit down with me and have a glass of wine?" Daniel offered her his trademark grin. The one that could make the coldest of hearts, melt.
"I, uh…" Sam was stunned and couldn't think of anything to say. This was the first time since they were rescued from Kemet that Daniel expressed interest in having her back as his bondmate.
"If you're too tired, I understand. It's late and we both have to get up early." Daniel said in a whisper not wanting to break the quiet mood that had been set.
Sam was tired and she did want to go bed, but this was something she needed to do. She didn't want to turn him away and give him the wrong message and she was happy that he took the initiative to show her he wanted things to get better between them. "No. I'm not too tired."
"Good," Daniel smiled. "Go get comfortable and get in your pajamas or something and I'll get the wine."
"Okay." Sam didn't know what to think of all this and went into her bedroom to change. She wasn't in the mood to look good, she was in the mood to be comfortable. When she was done, she met him in the living room. He was sitting on the couch holding two glasses of wine.
Daniel handed her a glass, "Here you go."
"Thank you," Sam took the glass and headed over to sit in the chair.
"No," Daniel said stopping her. "Sit next to me." He patted the spot next to him and she sat down. She looked at him and a smile spread across his face. She could never help herself when he did that and a smiled started to spread across her face as well. "I love to see that." He whispered.
Sam smiled and then straightened up to be Major Carter. "What's this all about?"
Daniel looked into her eyes and decided not to play any games and that being straight forward was what was best. "It's about us. What happened to us, Sam?"
"Well…I know that our colicky newborn has had a lot to do with that. He brought a lot of changes." Sam said, honestly.
"I know and I take the blame for you feeling like a single mother for those first 6 weeks. I know that had a lot to do with it." Daniel said as he took a sip of wine.
"It does, but that's not the only thing." Sam also took a sip and turned to stare at her husband.
"You're right. I don't want our marriage to be like this." Daniel said quietly, not able to meet her gaze. "I want us to work for JD's sake. He deserves to have a mother and a father who love him as much as they love each other. But sometimes I fear that...I fear that love was left behind on Kemet."
"I don't want our marriage to be like this either." Sam said.
"What do you want to do?" Daniel asked.
"I don't know. I really don't know, Daniel. I want us to work. I wanted that from the very beginning." Sam stated.
"Sam, open up to me. Talk to me. I know that in the last 2 months things haven't been great. When we talk, all we do is talk about the baby or how our day went." Daniel said.
Sam took a deep breath and then said what was on her mind. "I don't even know you anymore. How can I talk to you?"
Daniel felt like he had just been stabbed in the heart. "Sam, how can you say that? I'm the same Daniel that you've known all these years. Nothing has changed"
"For starters, the man I bonded with wouldn't have left me." Sam still kept her gaze on Daniel.
"I had issues that I had to work out. I thought we went through this already. I thought you promised to try and at least understand where I was coming from." Daniel frowned.
"Daniel, you're here, but you're not here. Do you know how many nights I would go to bed crying? All the nights that I kept Janet up on the phone talking about a future that I had no idea about? Then you showed up on my door step trying to rid yourself of the guilt that you felt. You wouldn't of even stayed if I hadn't went into labor right then and there. Now lets jump to after the baby was born. Jake would be screaming for hours on end and you'd just go out or wouldn't help at all, I was alone. You weren't there for me."
"I didn't know." Daniel mumbled.
Sam frowned. "That's because you were sound asleep by the time I finally got to bed."
"There wasn't anything I could do anyway." Daniel tried to defend his actions which was something that he didn't like to do.
Sam looked into his eyes. "You could have held me and let me cry on you. You could have taken the baby for just five minutes."
Daniel looked at her for a brief moment before turning his gaze to the glass of wine in his hand. "I've gotten better with the baby in the last 3 weeks. You know that."
"Yes and because of that we have time to sit down and talk." Sam took another sip of wine.
"Do you know I love you?" She shook her head no because she didn't know. That scared him when she did that. "Do you still love me?" She nodded yes and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you want to work on this?" Daniel asked, cautiously. A part of him wished she'd say no so he could leave. But another part of him was screaming for her to say yes because he loved her so damn much.
"Yes I do. I'll be honest with you Daniel there have been times when I didn't know what I was doing staying married to you. I thought about packing up, taking Jake and leaving."Sam said.
That was news to him and Daniel didn't like what heard. "What stopped you?"
"A lot of things. You, Jack. I didn't want to take the baby away from him. Since he is little Jacob's godfather and loves him to death." Sam noticed the look on his face and she felt bad. Every reason she had given him was about the baby or Jack and not him. "And I didn't want to go. I wanted this to get better."
"How long were you going to wait before you did anything?" Daniel was slightly startled by this news but pissed at the same time.
"I don't know. I was hoping my husband would notice." Said Sam.
"He did." Daniel had by now finished his glass of wine and discarded the glass on the coffee table.
"What do we do?" Sam asked.
"We work out our problems. I love you with all my heart. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to be a part time father to JD. I love you and that will never change." Daniel said.
"You know something?" Sam asked.
"What?" Daniel looked at her.
Sam looked deep into his eyes. "I miss you."
Daniel could see that her eyes were watering and that she felt like she was all alone. He didn't want to make her feel that way anymore. He took her glass and set it on the table. "I don't want you to miss me when I'm right here."
Sam moved into his open arms and let him hug her. "Daniel, I want to be like we were."
"I know honey," Daniel rubbed her back comfortingly. "We will. We just need time." But he couldn't help but thinking that would never happen. Things would never be like they were.
Sam moved back and looked at him. "I wish we could go out."
"Why can't we?" Daniel questioned.
Sam blinked. "Who's gonna watch Jake?"
"You got a point there. No one wants to watch a screaming baby. I'll think of something." Daniel said quietly almost like he was thinking aloud.
"Okay. I'm so tired. Do you want to go to bed and we'll talk more tomorrow?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Daniel couldn't help but feel the blush creeping up his cheeks know that he'd be spending the night in her room instead of his own tonight.
"Good." Sam got up and he walked behind her. After they blew the candles out and turned the radio off, they went to bed. Sam checked on the baby, turned the baby monitor on then headed back to her room and got into bed. She felt Daniel wrap his arms around her and she melted into him. It had been a long time since she was able to feel his warm body against her own. And it felt really good.
When the baby woke at 3AM Sam got up with him and fed him and he went right back to sleep and so did she. When 6AM came around Daniel was up with the baby which was something he hadn't done since the first week the baby was home.
Sam's eyes popped open when she heard the baby. Before she had a chance to move she felt Daniel move out of bed. He walked out of the room and into the nursery where the baby was and picked him up. "Shhh, buddy. Daddy will get you. Hang on a couple of minutes." Jake started to calm down as soon as he was in Daniel's arms. "See, that's what you're supposed to do at night when Daddy picks you up."
Sam closed her eyes again and went back to sleep. She heard Daniel come back in the room about a half an hour later. "Is he sleeping?"
"Yep," Daniel answered. "Go back to bed. I'm gonna get ready for work." He bent down and gave her a kiss. "I love you."
Sam smiled. It had been so long since he had kissed her and told her he loved her. "I love you too."
"You and the baby should come see me for lunch." Daniel said as he began to get dressed. "I'm sure General Hammond is dying to see the little guy.
"I'll see what kind of mood the baby's in and maybe we'll take a walk and come see you." Sam said with a smile. She knew that a lot of people at the SGC were more than dying to see Daniel Jackson's son just to see if he was as handsome as his father. Or so Janet had told her one day over the phone. She had over heard one of her nurses talking about a betting pool that was going around and everyone was involved. Everyone that hadn't seen the baby already, that is.
"Good." Daniel smiled and kissed her head. "Go back to sleep." With that he was out the door with a cup of coffee in his hand that he must have made after tending to JD.