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Chapter Eight

I stopped dead in my tracks when I returned to the living room. Stephanie hadn't been expecting it and walked straight into me. Before my disbelieving eyes sat Teal'c. With Matt and Nicky curled up, sound asleep on his lap. His huge arms cradled them protectively, keeping them from falling.

"It would appear that your children require rest, Mark Carter."

I glanced at Stephanie, disappointed at the idea of leaving. Weird as they were, I'd quickly grown fond of Sam's little group. My newly gained confidence in reading people told me that Stephanie felt the same. I couldn't say that I'd really enjoyed the day - considering the circumstances - but Sam and her friends had made me feel welcome, which I never would have imagined possible around Air Force officers or even civilians who chose to work with Air Force officers.

I turned to Sam, who was by herself, sleeping on the couch. I was sorry to bother her. I sat on the edge of the sofa and shook her lightly. She awoke instantly, her eyes searching for a problem before settling back on me. "Sam, we should probably get going."

Sam looked for more upset than she should have. "No, Mark, stay. I've got plenty of room."

"We don't want to put you out. You've had all these people here all day. You probably want some time to yourself." Stephanie's words sounded almost sincere, but I thought she was really offering to leave so Jack could stay. I winced out of fear that it was too obvious for Sam not to be humiliated and frankly because she was talking to my baby sister and I was damn near humiliated myself.

"The guys are going to leave." To her credit, Sam had learned over the years how to sound like she was simply stating a fact and making a rational argument, but I knew her better than that. As an older brother, I knew a cleverly disguised whine when I heard one. She didn't want to be alone. And it seemed that Jack really wasn't staying.

I couldn't leave her. I smiled and nodded. "Ok, where should we put the kids?"

Sam didn't think about it for a second. "They can have my bed and that way you and Stephanie can take the guest room."

I shook my head. "No, they're not putting you out of your bed. They can sleep on the couch in the den."

"I'm not going to sleep anyway, Mark. This way I'll be able to do some work while I'm up without disturbing anyone. And if I do want to sleep, the couch in the den pulls out. Please?"

My argument was rendered powerless in the wake of her plea. I sighed in resignation as I stood up. "Fine, but Jack had better not kick my ass for this." I heard Daniel's snicker, but I'd expected a complaint from Jack. When I looked around, I realized he wasn't in sight. "Where'd he go anyway?"

Uncharacteristically, Sam looked like she was about to cry. She looked away, frowning.

Teal'c answered me, effortlessly standing up without waking or dropping my kids. "General O'Neill has returned to work for a short while."

Sam made an irritated noise, but she didn't speak. I couldn't honestly tell whether she was angry or hurt. And then I saw the way she narrowed her eyes and glared at the coffee table as though ready to declare war on it. She was definitely frustrated; I'd seen that face before. She actually wanted to go to work.

"Should we leave? Do you guys need to go?" In my day there, I'd come to the conclusion that they were simply too cool and amusing to not have truly important, secret jobs, despite the Deep Space bull. Maybe they were superheroes. A vision of Jack dressed like Superman blindsided me and I started to laugh. He was a little too skinny for the role, really, but Teal'c would play it beautifully.

Daniel moved to sit next to Sam, resting his hand on her back. "Everything's going to be fine, Sam." He looked at me and rolled his eyes. "Jack ordered us to stay here."

He didn't have to say anymore; I understood. Not only was Sam worried about whatever was going on, she was undoubtedly irked that Jack wasn't allowing her to address it. Sam had never been the type to sit back and watch the world go by. Not a chance. Sam preferred to be out there, making the world go by.

Sam shrugged off Daniel's attempt to make her feel better, squaring her shoulders and sitting up straight. "I'm fine. I'm just not used to having this much time not working."

Daniel smiled. "Maybe you could build yourself a dishwasher to avoid anymore problems with Teal'c." Sam cracked a smile for his benefit, but it faded quickly the instant he walked away.

I was torn then - Teal'c was in the hallway with the kids, waiting for me and Stephanie to put them to bed. Sam was back to looking sad and forlorn and I wanted to try to reassure her myself, despite Daniel's failure.

Stephanie pushed me gently towards the couch. "I'll put the munchkins to bed."

I sat down beside Sam and tried to catch her eye. I wasn't actually sure of what to say, but it seemed like I should be there, that if she was going to break down, it was my responsibility to help her. She refused to meet my eyes, but she wasn't crying. I figured she was on the verge and was trying to fight them. I spoke softly, knowing Daniel would be decent enough to tune out. "How are you holding up?"

She forced a thin smile. "I'm fine." Although she didn't say it, I could just about here a clipped 'sir' at the end.

"Not Colonel Carter. I mean Sam. How's Sam doing?"

She didn't force a smile; she just looked at me with pain evident in her completely dry eyes and shrugged. "I can't believe he's gone. It just doesn't feel real."

I knew all too well what she was feeling; it had been months after mom died when it finally sunk in that she wasn't ever coming back. I opened my mouth to comfort her, but Colonel Carter reappeared with her paper thin smile.

"But I'm fine. Really. It's all the people and the cake and the sitting around doing nothing. I'll be fine once I get back to work." I don't know if she was trying to convince me or her, but she wasn't succeeding at either. "Are you tired? You can go to bed. I'm always up late. I don't mean to keep you guys up."

Ignoring her attempt to blow me off, I changed the subject. "So how long are you off? Maybe you can come back with us for a few days. Try to relax."

She shook her head. "The general ordered me off the base for a week, but he'll relent."

I smiled. Only she would consider a mandatory vacation to be a punishment. "Why, cause he's not that mean?"

Her eyes twinkled for a moment as she smiled for real. "He'll need me. Someone on the base will need me long before a week is up."

My sister was cute, but smug. "You sure you're that important to them? You really think they can't live without sweet little Sammy for seven whole days?"

She glared at me and I knew she was seriously entertaining the idea of stomping on my foot as she'd always done when I called her that. "Sweet little Sammy is an astrophysicist and, yes, they will need me."

"Is that confidence or arrogance?"

"It's more of a psychic thing." She grinned hard and then tried to look innocent. "I might have booby-trapped a few things in my lab."

We started to laugh and for a few minutes there, it was exactly like it had always been - my sprightly little sister getting into trouble and confiding in me, and me alone, about her exploits.

She sorted through the pile of pizza boxes that still littered the table, unaffected by the fact that with only six people we'd managed to eat all but one slice of the ten pies. My stomach rolled at the thought, but something told me Sam had witnessed gluttony like that many times over. When she finally found what she was looking for, she sat back.

"You didn't get a chance to see these." She offered me a small pile of photos, yet untouched by her slightly compulsive organizational habits as they weren't in a neatly labeled album.

I found myself looking at fairly recent pictures - at least in the last decade or so. They were mostly of dad, random, un-posed shots where the subjects seemed to be unaware of the photographer. There was only one shot that wasn't candid - it was of dad and Sam with their arms around each other, grinning like fools. I knew they had to have been taken at work because everyone, including dad and Jack were in BDUs. It was weird to see awkwardly trimmed, evidently to prevent inadvertent viewing of classified things, pictures of my dad sitting at a conference table with Sam and her friends. They were reading from the folders in front of them or looking at one another with varying degrees of incredulousness on their faces, but it was still serious. They weren't having a get together. It didn't look fun. I'd heard people say that my dad and Sam worked together, I never really thought about them working together. I guess I'd imagined them passing in the halls between their offices, but certainly not in combat camouflage with actual guns in their hands. Sam was in the Air Force, but she was a damn scientist. She wasn't actually supposed to shoot anything. I shivered at the sight of my baby sister, the energetic, talkative science geek, with a helmet on and armed to the teeth. And the look of determination on her face didn't sit well with me either. I flipped past it quickly.

The next one was of Jack and Sam. I don't know who was taking pictures when they were obviously shipping out for somewhere, but as scary as they were - and they were scary - it heartened me to see Jack and Sam shoulder to shoulder as they'd been in the chapel.

The last picture in the stack was dog-eared, but I didn't comment on it. I instinctively knew why it was a favorite, for the same reason as my father was smiling in the background of the image. Jack and Sam were seated at a table of some sort. It looked like the same one from the earlier pictures, but everyone else was gone, except for dad and the photographer whose accidental capture of the door jamb revealed that he was hiding in another room. My father's body was slightly blurry; he looked like he was just walking in the room. His smile was wide and bright though, a smile I hadn't seen in years. Jack had a file folder in his hands. Sam was leaning in, maybe trying to help him with something. But at that moment, they'd stopped whatever they were doing, and were simply staring into one another's eyes. Because of her position looking over his arm, she was far closer to him than I could see her normally being at work. It was like for one moment in time, everything around them - the stress and the guns and the work - had all faded away, leaving just them. And a proud, consenting father looking on.