Title: My Brother's Children
Author: Jo. R
Rating:13+
Category: Angst, fluff, Sam/Jack, kid!fic, clichés!
Spoilers: Set season nine, spoilers for 'Threads'.
Summary: Cliché!fic: Sam's brother dies…
Archive: samjack4evah!
Disclaimer: The characters mentioned in this aren't mine and I'm sure they are very, very pleased to hear it!
Authors Notes: Well, Sharim had this really great idea, one that I just couldn't resist but it was actually harder to follow through with than I thought it'd be. Hope you enjoy it and as you're reading it, join me in playing one of my new favourite games: count the cliché!
Thanks to Sharim for letting me play in the cliché playground and Ruthie for being a cool beta.
Airports weren't among her favourite places, even in the best of circumstances. There were always too many people making too much noise, the sound of all of their voices compacting to an angry buzz that made her head thump. Departure lounges were the worst, which was part of the reason Sam allowed herself to linger in Jack's embrace just outside of the main departure lounge gates.
"Call me when you get there, and when you find out what's going on." Jack's voice was rough, his guilt at being unable to go with her palpable. "As soon as I get back to DC, I'll do some grovelling, see if I can get a break in my schedule."
She nodded but didn't say anything. Couldn't say anything out of fear her voice would break and give away just how scared she was. She just kept remembering, kept hearing her father's voice explain brokenly that her mother was dead and kept imagining the same tinny voice from the other side of her cell phone saying the same thing about Mark and Beth and their two children. Oh, God, the kids. Her grip on him tightened, fingers digging into his back almost painfully as she exhaled shakily against the skin of his neck.
"You have to go, Sam." His voice sounded disjointed, almost as incomprehensible as the announcements being made between static bursts from the speakers above and around them. "Your flight's being called."
She pulled away and blinked, her expression one of vague surprise. She nodded, feeling very much as though she was watching herself on a TV screen with no actual control over what she said and did. "I'll go," she said eventually, her tongue feeling heavy and dry. Sam glanced at his face and saw the concern in his eyes, forcing herself to smile bravely when she realised she was worrying him. "I'm okay."
Jack returned her smile that was obviously unconvinced. "Call me," he repeated gently, drawing her back against him for a few fleeting moments. "Whatever time it is. If you need me, just call. I'll tell my aide to put you through straight away."
"Thank you." Her smile was small but genuine. Sam took one last look at his face, taking comfort in the familiar features and slipped out of his arms completely. She turned away from him and squared her shoulders, waking with determined strides through the gates, towards the waiting plane.
It would be okay. Mark would be fine, Beth would be fine, the kids would be fine. She told herself that repeatedly, the words running through her head in an endless mantra, and by the time she boarded her plane and settled into her seat for takeoff, she almost had herself convinced.
It didn't seem possible that so many hours had passed between laughing and joking with her team mates, both old and new, on a rare night out with the guys and landing in San Diego, catching a taxi to the hospital where her last remaining family members had been taken following the accident.
One look at the doctor's face told her all she needed to know. Sam's shoulders slumped and she sank into the chair the kind-looking doctor ushered her into, her purse hitting the floor but going unnoticed.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Carter." Doctor Laurie sat down in the chair opposite Sam's, leaning forward slightly. His gaze was fixed on her face, his expression sympathetic. "Your sister-in-law passed away an hour ago. There was nothing more we could do for her."
Beth's face appeared in her mind, a smile so full of happiness and love on her lips, her face aglow with joy as she talked animatedly about her children, about her husband. Sweet Beth, Sam remembered numbly, who had helped mend the bridges between Mark and their father, and Mark and her. Beth who had been so strong and so supportive during the drawn out process of Jacob Carter's 'official' memorial service.
"What about my brother?" She asked after several long, drawn out moments, pushing her sister-in-law's face from her thoughts. She would grieve and mourn later, when she knew what was going with the rest of her family.
"His condition is critical," the doctor answered somewhat evasively. "We've done everything we can, the rest is up to him."
A screech of alarms stopped her from asking more. The doctor flashed her an apologetic look and mumbled his excuses, ducking out of the room as quickly as he could without causing too much of a scene. She didn't know exactly what was going on but didn't really need to; whatever it was, she knew it wasn't good.
Her instincts didn't fail her and within ten minutes, Doctor Laurie returned to confirm her suspicions, the expression on his face grave.
Sam shook her head and pressed a hand to thin, white lips, her eyes filling with tears even as he sat down and spoke to her softly.
"I'm so, so sorry, Ms. Carter. Your brother passed away a few moments ago. He suffered from massive blood loss, some internal bleeding that we hadn't picked up on. I am so sorry, there was nothing we could do. He didn't feel any pain, he was very heavily medicated. At least you can take comfort in knowing he just slipped away without knowing what was happening."
There was no way she could take comfort in knowing her brother was dead, no way she could believe he hadn't suffered. She'd seen too much, knew too much. Her father had once tried to lie to her and said her mother had felt no pain but she knew differently now. She wasn't a child.
"The children?" The voice that left her mouth didn't sound like hers. "Where are they…?"
"Yes, the children." Doctor Laurie blinked and reached for a file with various notes in it. He frowned over them and looked up at her. "Abigail and Luke Carter, six and nine years old respectively?" Sam nodded in confirmation. "Your nephew escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. Your niece suffered a broken arm and fractured rib. They're both up on the children's ward."
"Do they know about their parents?" Again, the voice didn't sound like hers. It didn't even feel like she was there at all. "Has someone told them…?" 'That they're orphans? That I'm all they've got now?'
Doctor Laurie shook his head. "We thought that might be better coming from you."
'Gee, thanks.' Sam forced a small smile but found it hard to believe that kind of news could be anything less than horrific coming from anyone. "I'd like to seem them now. Can you tell me where to go?"
"I'll take you," Doctor Laurie offered, his expression relaxing into a sympathetic smile when he realised she wasn't going to force him to break the news to her niece and nephew. "I have to do my rounds anyway."
Sam nodded but was no longer really listening. He had to do his rounds, the nurses had to do their check ups. Everything went on as normal for everyone else in the hospital and in the world at large but not for her, not for Luke, not for Abigail. Everything had irreversibly changed for them and there wasn't a damn thing that she, super woman of the SGC, could do about it.
She walked with leaden feet, sure that the doctor had to slow his pace so she could keep up but she didn't care. It didn't matter. Her mind was a whirlwind of misery, of despair. She didn't know what to say, how to say what needed to be said but in the end she didn't have to.
Something must've shown on her face, in her eyes. A helpless sadness she had no control over.
Sam stepped into the small private room her niece and nephew were in and looked at them. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again as tears welled up in her eyes. Abigail and Luke surged forward, going immediately to their Aunt, arms wrapped around her desperately as they cried.
It was only then that she realised she was crying, too. Only then that she realised that instead of being the comforter, she was the one being comforted.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, her legs folding beneath her so she was sat on the floor with two children cuddled in as close as they could get. "I'm so sorry, Luke, Abby. I'm so, so sorry."
The funeral was over with quickly. In the end, it was almost as if it had never happened. Estranged family turned up and expressed their sympathies but none of them really cared about what would happen next. Even Beth's family, her brother and his wife and her cousins, didn't seem bothered about what happened to Luke and Abigail now their parents were dead.
Friends of Mark and Beth were a little kinder, a little more concerned. Even her former fiancé, Pete Shanahan, attended the funeral in the company of his ex-wife and told her if she needed him, they'd be there. They – he and his wife. If she hadn't had her own partner standing by her side, Sam didn't know what she would've done.
One of the other couples there had a daughter Abigail's age, a little girl called Amy who was obviously a friend. Sam remembered her because the little girl had tugged on her hand and looked up at her with earnest eyes and asked if Abigail would be back at school on Monday.
It had broken her heart to say no, hurt her beyond words when she'd had to sit down with Luke and Abigail at the end of the day and present them with yet another upheaval, a reminder that they would be moving to Colorado Springs with her.
"It's okay, Aunt Sam." Luke stared up at her with big blue eyes, not unlike his father's. "We understand."
Beside him, Abigail nodded her head gravely. "We're going to live in a new house with you and Uncle Jack," she said softly, looking past Sam to smile at the surprised 'uncle'. "Isn't that right?"
"Ah… I…" Sam glanced over her shoulder and saw Jack shrug his shoulders awkwardly. "You'll be living with me, honey, but Uncle Jack spends most of his time in Washington. He'll come and visit, though, won't you?"
The question was aimed at him with a speculative, almost stricken look. Jack found himself smiling and nodding despite the growing panic in the pit of his stomach. "Sure I will. Hey, guys, why don't you go and see what Uncle Daniel and Uncle Teal'c are up to? I'm sure they said something about ice cream…"
"How easily the young are distracted," Sam said with a sigh, straightening up once her niece and nephew had disappeared from sight. "I didn't mean to put you on the spot there," she apologised when his arms slipped around her waist. "I didn't realise they knew…"
"We haven't made a secret of it," he pointed out quietly. "They know we've been sharing the same bedroom since I got here."
"I know but it's too complicated for them to understand." With another sigh, Sam twisted around in his arms to face him. She stared into his eyes searchingly. "How do I explain to them that our relationship isn't like their parents? They'll expect us to be the perfect family, an old married couple. You coming home at a set time every night to me having a perfect meal ready for you on the table. I can't do that, Jack. I love them to pieces but I can't give them the normal life they need. I can cut back at the SGC and I will but I can't give it up altogether. I can't say no, I can't work late tonight in an end of the world scenario because I've got two kids to feed and bathe and get up for school in the morning."
His hands moved from around her waist to settle on her shoulders and he leaned in to kiss her, an amused smirk on his face. "You're cute when you're frantic," he told her lovingly. "But don't stress out, Carter. We can do. Heck, after what we've been through, we can do anything."
"You say we but you're not going to be there," Sam protested softly, pulling away slightly when he tried to kiss her again. "We're lucky if you can get away one weekend a month to come and see me in Colorado, Jack. And I'm not going to be able to come and see you anymore so…"
"So what?" He let his hands drop to his sides and took a step back. "Are you saying you want it to be over?"
"No, I'm not saying that." The smile she gave him was sad and uncertain and didn't fill him with confidence. "I'm just saying… I don't know what I'm saying. I don't know anything right now. I have two children to look after and a house that isn't big enough for one of them, let alone both of them. I have a full-time, permanently stressful job that's too important to me to just give up no matter how much I love Abby and Luke and that makes me feel like the world's worst mom-wannabe. If I can't look after Mark's kids, how can I even think about having my own? If I can't make the sacrifices they need me to make, what does that say about me? Does it make me a bad person, because I really really feel like it does and I don't know what to do about it."
Jack moved and wrapped his arms around her again, resting his chin on her head as she buried her face into his shoulder. "You're not a bad person, Sam. You could never be a bad person. We'll figure it out, okay? It won't be easy, and it's going to take a lot of time but we'll figure it out. I promise."
When he spoke like that and rubbed his hand in soothing circles over her back through the thin black suit she wore, Sam found it was almost impossible not to believe him. She closed her eyes and held on tight, letting the tears fall from her eyes even as she kept back the accompanying sound.
For those few moments, time stopped and everyone was as he said it would be, everything was okay.
Ten minutes later, Abigail called out to her and time started again. Sam pulled away from his embrace and squared her shoulders against reality. Okay was a thing of the past, a thing of fantasy. She managed a small, weak smile of thanks and slipped out of the room, heading back into the harsh reality her life had become.
Daniel, Teal'c and Jack left San Diego before she did. Sam found she had too much packing to do, too many loose ends to tie up before she could head home so it was with a heavy heart that she said goodbye at the airport and watched the three people who'd helped her so much leave her behind.
Daniel hugged her and promised he'd be there to meet her at the airport when she got home.
Teal'c embraced her and told her she was a strong and admirable woman.
Jack held her closely, a little tighter than necessary, and kissed her neck, her forehead and her nose before placing a lingering kiss on her lips. "I'll see you as soon as I can," he promised, unable to follow Daniel and Teal'c's lead by promising to be there when she got home. "Just hang in there, Sam. Stay strong. I love you."
Her words gave her comfort for a full two hours after he'd left. Then she looked down at the two children curled up asleep either side of her on the couch in her brother's home and felt the smile slip away. She glanced at the open, half-packed boxes and felt tears sting her eyes again. A photograph of Mark and Beth on their wedding day peeked out from the nearest box and Sam found she had to look away.
"I can't believe you did this to me," she murmured aloud, glaring at the empty space in the chair just opposite the couch. Mark's chair, where it was so easy to imagine him sitting. "I don't know anything about being a Mom, Mark. I don't know what to tell them when they get upset or how to tell them off when they do something wrong. I can't believe you've gone and left me so soon after Dad."
She paused, as if waiting for a response, but predictably none came.
Sam sat glaring at the empty chair long into the night, waiting for what she didn't know. Eventually, just as dawn approached, she fell into a restless sleep of her own, the sound of her brother's voice paving the way for troubled dreams.
"I'm sorry, Sam, but I know you'll be okay."
Another week passed and finally it was time to say goodbye to San Diego and head back to Colorado Springs. Sam couldn't, in all honestly, say she wasn't pleased about it but she did feel bad about making the kids leave their home and their friends behind, especially when she noticed Abigail crying silently while Luke looked on, staring out of the window of the moving plane despondently.
She opened her mouth to say something, to offer some words of wisdom, but realised she didn't have any to give. She didn't know what to say to them nor how to broach the conversation without her own messed up emotions getting in the way. It seemed every time she looked at them now she wanted to cry. Gone were the happy memories of being their favourite aunt, of spoiling them with ice cream and trips to the toy store. She was their guardian now, their mover, and because of that the special relationship they'd once shared was gone.
Sam didn't know how she kept it together during takeoff. She sat in the aisle seat and clutched Abigail's hand when the little girl reached out for her, smiling tightly as she was pushed back in her seat and the plane ascended into the skies.
She closed her eyes until the plane levelled out and opened them only when she took a deep breath, trying to calm the nausea rolling around her stomach.
"Aunt Sam?" Abigail stared at her curiously. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." The words were barely out of her mouth when she felt it happen. Sam's eyes widened and her mouth closed abruptly. Her fingers fumbled with the seat belt fastening and she hastily left her seat, walking as hurriedly as she could along the narrow aisle towards the toilet.
She barely had the door locked behind her and the toilet seat up when she retched, closing her eyes against the sting of tears.
'There goes breakfast,' she thought ruefully, putting the toilet seat down and pressing the button to flush it away.
For a few moments, she leaned against the wall opposite, feeling very cramped and claustrophobic in the small cabin. She had just started running the cold tap, splashing the cool water over her face when she heard the knock on the door outside and the politely concerned voice of a stewardess slipped through.
"Ma'am? Are you alright in there? Your children are worried."
Sam swallowed a moan and shut off the tap. Another reminder that she wasn't alone, another reminder that she had someone else to consider.
With a hand that wasn't exactly steady, Sam unlocked the door. She hesitated for a split second before pulling it back, allowing herself a few more moments to get herself under control.
Three faces stared at her. One belonging to the polite stewardess, the other two belonging to Luke and Abigail. She did her best to smile at them and stepped out of the small cabin, forcing them all to take a step back.
"I'm okay," she told them, reaching out to touch Abigail's hair, Luke's shoulder. "Just ate something that disagreed with me."
Abigail looked at her unconvinced. Luke just nodded. She threw the stewardess a reassuring smile and ushered the two children back down the aisle to their seats, keeping her face focused on their backs so she wouldn't have to see the pitying glances of the people they passed.
When the food and drinks trolley came by a few minutes later, Sam declined the cup of coffee she would have usually snatched out of the offering hand. The scent of it made her head spin and her stomach churn. Instead she opted for water, springing for soda for the kids, and leaned back in her chair, taking small sips.
Praying for the flight to go by quickly and without further incident.
A beaming Daniel and a stoic Teal'c greeted them as they filed away from baggage reclaim with their bags in tow. The smile on Daniel's face faded marginally when he caught sight of her.
"You okay, Sam? You look a little green?"
She rewarded him with a slight glare. "Feel a little green, thanks." And nauseous, she added, and very, very suspicious. "Would you mind keeping an eye on the kids? I have to pick something up from the airport shop?"
Teal'c had barely nodded and Daniel's 'Sure, okay' hadn't even left his mouth by the time she started walking away from them, purse clutched to her side.
"Aunt Sam was sick," Abigail piped up informatively.
"She didn't eat anything on the plane," Luke chimed in.
'Kids,' Sam thought, a little fondly, a little alarmed. 'Never miss anything.'
She slipped away from them, confident Teal'c and Daniel would cope on their own for a few moments – probably better than she would've done and they were her niece and nephew – and headed towards the chemist around the corner. It didn't take her long to store her purchase away in her purse, still wrapped in its inconspicuous brown bag but still she hesitated before rejoining the kids and her friends.
'Don't be so paranoid,' she told herself crossly, forcing a smile as she rejoined them. 'You're not that unlucky.'
Daniel was beaming again, his grin clearly saying 'I know something you don't know' and even the kids looked happier, their eyes alight with anticipation.
"You ready to go?" Daniel asked, bouncing on the soles of his feet. "We're going to be a bit late as it is."
"Late for what?" Sam returned, automatically reaching down and taking the two hands waiting for hers. "We're just going to my house and I'm pretty sure I don't have a curfew."
Daniel grinned even more but didn't say anything. Sam glanced at Teal'c, trying to catch his eye, but even the Jaffa looked away.
With a sigh, she let herself be led away, paying as much attention she could to the chattering children walking either side of her.
It'd already been such a long day, she mused. Could it possibly get any longer?
The answer was yes.
"This isn't my house," she said stupidly, getting out of the car to look up at the large, old-fashioned house that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. "What are we doing here?"
Daniel just grinned at her and opened the door to the backseat so Luke and Abigail could get out and explore. Teal'c, too, unfolded his legs and slid out from the back, staring up at the house with a look of approval on his face.
"It is indeed your home, Colonel Carter," he responded with a solemn nod. "O'Neill wished it to be a surprise."
"A surprise?" Sam repeated. "This is his idea of a surprise?"
"Part of it," came a smug sounding voice. She turned her head slightly and watched him hold the door of the house open for the kids before continuing down the steps leading off the porch, approaching her with a wary grin on his face. "I told you we'd figure it out. This is one half of the solution."
Sam looked at him and blinked. Then she looked passed him to the big – huge, gigantic, totally out of her price range – house and blinked again. She motioned to it with one hand and opened her mouth, her lips moving wordlessly. "You bought me a house?"
"I bought us a house," he corrected. Jack motioned to Daniel and Teal'c to move aside. "Danny-boy, T, go keep an eye on the rugrats, will ya?" He returned his attention to Sam without waiting to see if they followed his orders, wrapping an arm around her waist so he could stand beside her and survey the house. "I know I should've consulted you first but it's exactly how you described your dream house to be. Plus the timing's perfect. It's got plenty of space, plenty of bedrooms…" The hand at her hip curled around the bone and drew her closer. "Plenty of room for Abby and Luke and for any munchkins we might have of our own…"
She swallowed at his words and forced her mind away from the brown-paper wrapped item in her purse. "It's beautiful," she managed. "Really beautiful but, Jack, you shouldn't have done it. What's the point in spending so much money on something you won't be around to enjoy?"
Jack turned her around to face him, grinning at her. "That's the second part of the surprise," he told her softly. He lifted one hand to her face and leaned in to press his lips against hers. "I talked to my bosses, to the President and the Joint Chiefs, and we came to an agreement. I work for them on a part-time consultancy basis, from home wherever possible, from the SGC the rest of the time."
Sam stared at him in surprise. For the second time in as many minutes, she found she was wordless. She shook her head, looked from him to the house and back again, and shook her head again. "I don't…" One shoulder rose and fell in a shrug and to her utter humiliation, she felt her eyes fill with tears. "Does this house have a bathroom? One I can go to right now?" She asked desperately, feeling her stomach turn.
"There's a half-bathroom downstairs, third door on the left when you go in," Jack answered in bewilderment, barely having time to drop his arms from her waist before she darted away from him and disappeared inside. "Was it something I said…?"
He followed her into the house at a slightly slower pace, smiling in spite of himself when he heard Luke and Abigail squabbling upstairs over who had which bedroom, with Daniel playing mediator and Teal'c… Well, Teal'c, if Jack knew him at all, would be sitting back and enjoying the show from a distance.
Cautiously, he approached the closed bathroom door, wincing when he heard the telltale sound of something throwing up coming from inside. "Sam? Honey?" He knocked softly on the door. "You okay in there?"
The response was muffled but could have been 'yeah, I'm fine' or 'what do you think?' He chose to believe it was the former and stood with his back against the wall beside the door, waiting for her patiently.
Five minutes passed. He heard the toilet flush and stood up straighter. Another five minutes passed and she still hadn't reappeared. Another two minutes and the toilet flushed again, followed by another few minutes of silence.
"Sam? Are you sure you're okay in there?"
A shuffling sound was the only reply, followed by the click of the lock being drawn back and the door opening. Sam held a hand behind her back, her face pale and shiny. "You're giving up your career to be a father to my brother's kids," she murmured softly, taking a small step towards him. "You're doing that because you knew I couldn't."
"No, I'm doing it because it's time." Jack stared at her in confusion and wrapped his arms around her waist loosely. "I'm not getting any younger, Sam. I figure we're going to want to start a family of our own a few years down the line but by then it might be too late so… Let's take advantage of what we've been given. Luke and Abigail are great kids and this way, you get to stay at the SGC without feeling guilty and we get to take our relationship to the next level. Yeah, we might be skipping a few steps but that doesn't matter. Not really. This is where we'd end up in the long-run."
She smiled at him, a little bit nervously, still holding one hand behind her back. "You know those steps we're skipping?"
"Yeah?"
"How would you feel about maybe not skipping them all?" Seeing the confusion on his face, Sam sighed and withdrew her hand from behind her back, clutching the plastic stick in her hand with an anxious expression on her face. "Is the house big enough for two kids and a nursery?"
Jack stared at her dumbly. It was his turn to be wordless. He glanced from her face to the plastic stick in her hand and back to her face. "We're having a baby?"
"Looks that way." She smiled but it was a nervous smile, her eyes searching his face for more of a reaction than utter surprise. "Are we happy about it?"
"Happy?" He repeated.
"Yeah, you know. It's a feeling you usually get when you're pleased about something. Kind of the opposite of sad and angry and not happy?"
His lips were pressed against hers before she could really start to lose her temper. Sam pulled back. "I just threw up, Jack, you don't want to be kissing me right now."
Of course he agreed, but wasn't about to say so. Instead he settled for beaming at her and pulling her closer. "I'm happy," he murmured. "I'm really, really happy." He pulled back and grinned, a little crazily, and tugged on her hand, pulling her up the stairs to the bedroom where the children were still squabbling while Daniel had joined Teal'c and was just watching helplessly. "We're having a baby!" He announced, unable to keep himself from grinning even more.
"Congratulations!" Daniel descended on them with a hug. Teal'c embraced them each in turn but the children hung back.
"Does this mean you don't want us anymore?" Luke asked, grasping his sister's hand, their feud forgotten. "Do we have to go back to San Diego?"
"No!" Sam traded glances with Jack and knelt on the floor and eye-level, tugging Jack down beside her because he still held onto her hand. "We love you guys and we don't want you to go anywhere. You're as much a part of this family as the new baby will be."
Abigail smiled but Luke, being the oldest, wasn't convinced. "Really?" He asked sceptically, looking to Jack for confirmation. "You still want us around?"
"Of course we do." Jack grinned at him and held out the hand that wasn't holding Sam's, letting it rest on Luke's shoulder. "You're stuck with us, kiddo. Whether you want to be or not."
Whether it was the words or the truth behind them, Sam and Jack didn't know. All they knew was that they were suddenly caught up in a big hug with the two children, sitting on the floor in the room that eventually became a nursery instead of a bedroom at the insistence of Luke and Abigail.
Seven months later, the extended family grew bigger and Mark Jacob George Carter-O'Neill was born. Another year after that, he was joined in the nursery by Bethany Janet Cassandra Carter-O'Neill and the happy family was finally almost complete.
Sam and Jack sat on the porch of their big family home, watching fondly as Uncles Daniel, Teal'c and Cameron ran around after Luke and Abigail. Little Mark and Bethany were curled up on their parent's knees, watching the action but content not to be a part of it.
"Thank you," Sam murmured, resting her head on her husband's shoulder.
"For what?" Jack asked, rubbing little Mark's back as the toddler babbled noisily.
"For my family," she responded, smiling down at Bethany as her youngest child chortled happily. She smiled at Jack's 'your welcome' and shifted her head so she could glance at her husband. "Jack?"
"Hmmm?"
"You know how we said four was the limit?"
"Mmm hmm?"
"What if we were to up it to five…?"
The End.