"This has turned into a complete circus," Daniel said to Cam. He felt incredibly harried. A small party for 8 children had mushroomed to include friends of the other three children and several adults, the latter all added within the past 24 hours or so. First Cam had informed Daniel that he had drafted Carolyn Lam and her colleague from the SGC medical team, Dr. Bay DeBarr, to help. Daniel had snorted and said, "Cam, if you want to date Carolyn, why don't you just ask her out?"
Cam acted innocent and said, "I don't know where you're getting that."
"From what Dan told me, the two of you were regular Lotharios in high school. Where is all this shyness coming from?"
"Lotharios?"
"Don't start acting Jack-style dumb," Daniel said. "He'll be here and he will be filling that role." The addition of Jack and Sam, while delighting Daniel as far as seeing Sam, had him really worried. They would have to maintain the fiction that there was nothing between them in front of, as Dan would have said, "hell and half of Georgia."
"Okay, so you drafted Bay and Carolyn. How did Liz MacDuff and Lina Ragen get involved? I'm not sure they even know Mitch," Daniel continued. He liked Liz, a pretty young geologist with the SGC, and Lina, an intriguing refugee from another planet who was now part of the SGC, but they did seem to be an inclusion from out in left field, way, way out in left field.
"Actually they do, but I really asked them, on your behalf of course, because of Sergeant Harriman."
"Walter?" Daniel said, his voice little more than a squeak. "You asked them FOR ME because of Walter? Did you mention at some point that he's coming?"
"You like Walter and Mitch loves him."
"Yes," Daniel said slowly. "By the time we left the Mountain, Mitch had established close, personal relationships with what seemed like half the people there. Please tell me you haven't invited all of them."
"No, but surely you've noticed Walter's interest in Liz MacDuff?"
"No," Daniel said.
"You've been preoccupied. So I asked Liz so he could have an opportunity to socialize with her, but then I asked Lina because we didn't want to be too obviously pairing up Walter and Liz."
Daniel had quit fussing with balloons and was leaning up against the kitchen wall, his arms crossed, watching Cam like he was a floor show. "Of course we wouldn't," he said.
"I figured Liz would be more comfortable arriving with someone. Liz and Lina are really good friends," he pointed out to an eye rolling Daniel. "I did tell you that I arranged for Catering by Antoinette to bring some heavy hors d'ouevres so you wouldn't have to worry about anything but kids' food?"
Daniel just looked at him. Finally he said, "Are there any other adults besides Bay and Carolyn, Walter, Lina and Liz, Antoinette, who you of course asked to stay awhile after she brought the food?" Cam nodded with a 'what else was I supposed to do?' expression. Daniel finished, "and Jack and Sam?"
"Yeah you did mention Jack being here. I don't get that."
"Right," Daniel said, plunged back into panic at the thought. He decided then and there that he was going to unilaterally tell Cam all. Sam might not like it, but he needed support. "Sam and I decided that it would help her to end things with Jack if he was made painfully aware of the involvement she's going to have with the kids."
"Wait. Just wait. We'll get to the breaking things off with Jack in a moment, but did you not ask her to stay away from the kids because her indecision was confusing them?"
"That was before we discovered we were in love," Daniel said calmly.
"You're in LOVE!" Cam ended rather loudly.
"Ssssh," Daniel said. "She's going to break it off with Jack, but she's worried about hurting him."
Cam shook his head. "You don't want to hear what I think about all this."
"Actually, I don't," Daniel said. He slapped Cam on the back. "I know you're worried that it's not going to work out but it's meant to be. It will be okay." He took in Cam's dubious expression. "I promise."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sam and Jack got to Daniel's about 1:30. This drove Sam crazy, but Jack kept telling her it was poor form to ever get to any party right when it started. He claimed that this discombobulated the hosts who were generally not really ready because they didn't expect anyone to be on time.
"This is a children's party, Jack," she said, not too patiently, "not a cocktail party with a bunch of generals."
"They all act like children," Jack said. "No adjustment required." He nudged her gently to get her moving up the front walk.
Mitch himself opened the door and his face split into a huge smile at the sight of Sam. He didn't even seem to be unhappy at seeing Jack. He grabbed Sam's hand and dragged her into the house. "Look at all the balloons!" he said happily.
Sam quite honestly didn't think she had ever seen so many balloons in her life. She felt almost positive that Daniel had alleviated a bad case of nerves about the party by compulsively blowing up more and more balloons. It was sort of like how he could get stuck in a conversational topic and just natter on. "This is great Mitch," she said.
Jack added, "Do we get to pop any?"
Mitch looked at him horrified. "I'm making a rule right now," he said. "No popping."
"Okay," Jack said. "Where should I put this?" nodding down to the huge package in his arms.
"Wow!" Mitch said. It was almost as if his attention had been so focused on Sam that he hadn't noticed that Jack was carrying a very large gift. He towed Sam into the dining room where there was a large pile of gifts on the sideboard.
Jake and another boy in his late teens ambled into the dining room. Jake stopped in his tracks when he saw Jack. Sam watched curiously as Jack greeted Jake and introduced himself to his friend. Jake seemed to relate to Jack immediately. She realized that she really didn't know what Jack's relationship had been to Dan and Mandy's family in their own reality. Perhaps Jake and Jack had been close.
Mary Clare and another equally attractive girl appeared at that point. The boy with Jake, Justin, made puppy dog eyes at Mary Clare. She was oblivious to his interest. "Has anyone seen Cam?" she asked.
The other girl giggled and Mary Clare frowned at her. Jake rolled his eyes and Mary Clare gave him a dirty look and left the room, followed by her friend. Justin looked after her longingly and Jake said, "Give it up Justin. You're not even in uniform." Justin trailed after the girls anyway. Jake and Jack exchanged a look that seemed to be communicating some sort of message Sam wasn't getting. Jack said, "You wouldn't happen to have a pool table in the house would you?"
Jake looked at him a little warily, "Yeah. Daniel got one a few months ago."
"How about you show me whether you're any good, for a snotty nosed kid that is."
Jake laughed. "You're on," he responded. They wandered off and Sam was left wondering what had just happened.
Mitch conducted her next to the kitchen to show her the cake and then to the bonus room/playroom over the garage. Daniel was watching, hands on hips, as Carolyn and Bay were playing some game that involved a lot of shrieking with Mitch's guests, Catherine, and two of her friends. He gave Sam a heart stopping smile when she came up the stairs. Mitch ran to join in and Sam went to stand at Daniel's side.
"This isn't getting to you, is it?" Sam asked. Daniel had gone back to frowning after his initial pleasure at seeing her.
"I feel better when all the little ones are directly in sight. I can't help but be really worried that one of them is going to get hurt. They're flinging themselves around like rag dolls," he said, plaintively, pointing at the giggling mass of kids.
"We do have two medical doctors on the premises," Sam pointed out. She couldn't help but get a kick out of Daniel's mother hen act.
"Speaking of which," he said, "where the hell is Cam?"
"I don't follow," Sam said. Daniel just made a face.
Suddenly, Catherine started to cry. She came running across the room to Daniel and flung herself in his arms. Daniel looked over at Carolyn and Bay. Carolyn shrugged and Bay shook her head. Daniel couldn't get Catherine to talk about what was wrong so he picked her up and carried her downstairs, away from the craziness, with Sam right behind them. They went into the quiet living room and nodded at Walter, Lina, and Liz who were deep in conversation, standing in the doorway between the living room and the dining room. Daniel sat down in an armchair with Catherine in his lap and Sam perched on the arm of the chair. Sam leaned over and smoothed the child's soft, fine hair from her sweaty forehead. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" she asked gently.
Catherine looked up at her, blue eyes still leaking a few tears, and said, "Jenny said I was stupid and didn't know how to play the game right."
Sam said softly, "I know two things for sure. You are NOT stupid and Jenny is quite rude."
Catherine's face broke into a dazzling smile and Sam returned it, stunned with the power an adult feels when they make a child happy. Catherine reached up and put an arm around Sam's neck and hugged. Daniel and Sam's eyes met over the child's head. Sam's heart was in her eyes as was Daniel's and they were lost in each other for a very long minute. Something made them look up at last, to meet Jack's stricken brown eyes, where he stood with Jake just inside the door into the foyer.
"Daniel, how's it going?" Jack said, sounding a little like a robot who spoke the first words programmed to come out. Catherine slid off Daniel's lap and ran off. Sam thought, She's feeling better and there's about to be boring adult talk.
"It's good, Jack," Daniel said. "It's been way too long since I've seen you."
"I definitely should check up on you more often," Jack said. It seemed to Sam like that statement definitely had layers to it. Had she and Daniel been that obvious?
"Mary Clare tells me that you were a really fun uncle for the kids growing up. I know they'd love to learn to get to know you again," Daniel said. Sam thought he was about to go into his running on phase and really wanted to stop him. The whole situation was making her very uncomfortable.
Jack took care of it himself. "Look, it's been years since I've had this much exposure to little kids. I think I'm going to go take a quick walk around your neighborhood and fortify myself for the next round of the festivities." He lifted a hand in farewell and went off to get his jacket.
Jake strolled over to within a couple of feet of Sam and Daniel and said, "If he saw what I just saw… " He looked at them and then said, with surprising maturity, "You probably belong together, you're that much like my parents, but it isn't fair to him to not tell him the truth if something is going on."
Daniel clenched his hair. "I hear you Jake." He looked at Sam and she realized that Daniel was having a hard time believing there was any good reason to keep this farce up.
Sam grimaced. She didn't want to blow it with this kid before things even started. "Jake, there are things you don't know. It's really important to me not to hurt Jack and I'm just figuring out how to best do that."
Jake said, "Nothing is ever easy, is it?" and left, leaving Sam and Daniel staring after him, their mouths hanging open.
By 2:30 Cam had heard enough screaming, squealing little children for awhile and felt he needed a break. He felt guilty enough about how he had escalated the whole thing that he didn't feel he could actually leave. He decided a break might coincide nicely with making a move on Carolyn. He found Carolyn and pretended a muscle spasm. "I wasn't aware you were prone to those, Colonel," she said, not sounding too sympathetic.
"My calf is really seizing up badly," he said, straight faced. "Do you think you could, I don't know, massage it or something?"
"You want me to rub your leg?" she asked, laughing a little.
"Where's the sympathy?" he asked. "What about your oath?"
"Tell you what, Cameron Mitchell. Let's get a little privacy--maybe the upstairs bathroom would work--and we'll dispose of this whole situation."
He meekly followed her up the stairs, feigning a limp. They entered the bathroom and she swung the door closed behind them. It didn't latch and swung back open an inch or two. Cam noticed, but, didn't act on it. Carolyn said, "Okay, soldier. You want to make a pass at me, don't come up with a phony illness that compromises me professionally."
"Compromises you professionally?" he said incredulously.
"Whatever," she said. "Let's just kiss once, get all this ridiculous flirting that has gone on for months behind us, and go back to the party. Depending on how the kiss goes, we can pursue it later or close the door on the whole episode."
Cam looked at her astonished. This was a remarkable approach to romance that reduced it a clinical level he wasn't entirely sure about. "You want me to kiss you?"
"For an officer on the fast track to general, you seem to spend an awful lot of your time uncertain about what your course of action is," she said.
That wasn't the sort of challenge Cameron Mitchell was going to ignore and he put one arm around her waist and ran his thumb across her mouth, before dipping his head to kiss her. It wasn't a beginner's kiss and she didn't react like a woman who'd never been kissed before. It was actually morphing into something more than a kiss when Cam heard an out of place sound. He spent too much time in combat situations to shut off his soldier's awareness just because he was kissing someone. He lifted his eyes and saw Mary Clare staring at them through the gap in the door. He saw her face just long enough to know that she was distraught and then she was gone.
Jack had still not recovered from the tableau of mother, father, and child in the living room. It had been a real Norman Rockwell moment and he had felt like an out of place Salvador Dali or Picasso, unable and probably unwilling to ever paint that sort of picture himself. When he returned to the house from his walk, the children were sitting quietly in front of the TV watching a DVD. It was Mary Kate and Ashley and he would have preferred gum surgery. He went looking for a part of the house out of earshot of the Olsen twins. He wandered upstairs to the bonus room and found Mary Clare, sitting in the window seat alone. She looked up at him with such a sad face that instead of turning and leaving, he felt compelled to say, "Is something wrong? Are you okay?"
"Uncle Jack," she said, "it's awful."
Jack realized that his counterpart in another reality had a relationship with this young girl who looked so like Sam. She was too distraught at the moment to clearly differentiate him from the other Jack and he decided he would just have to temporarily step up to the role. "What's awful, honey?" he asked, sitting down on the window seat next to her.
"Sometimes you love someone so much you can't even see anyone else, but they don't love you back."
"Sometimes that happens," Jack agreed.
"You can walk around knowing that, but you still have hope until you see them with someone else."
Jack could only nod mutely.
She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. "You know what? If it's meant to be, it will happen. If I'm meant to be the one, then it won't work out with anyone else. Eighteen is too young, but in six or seven years, who knows what might happen." She stood up and Jack followed suit. "Thank you Uncle Jack. It always helps to talk to you." She hugged him and tripped down the stairs, leaving him alone.
Jack stared out the window at the snow covered ground below. Did Mary Clare speak for him too or was he just seeing things that weren't there because he was jealous and scared deep down by the Parkinson's? She wasn't giving up. Couldn't he be at least as brave and determined as an eighteen year old girl? He sat there for a long time and when he descended to join in the gift opening, he still didn't have an answer.