37) The two men entered the cabin quietly, unsure what everybody was up to. Trish could always be napping and if she was they didn't want to wake her. With Matt being so naturally quiet, and Jack's years in Black Ops they were able to make it to the kitchen for beer before anybody else knew they were there.

Jack saw Sam standing with her back to them when they decided to join the rest of their family in the next room. She was animatedly talking to Jacob, waving her hands around as she explained something about doohickeys and thingamabobs. Jacob obviously saw him, but didn't give any indication Sam could read, giving Jack the chance to encircle her with his arms making her jump.

"Jack!" She spun around in his arms and playfully hit him in the shoulder. "What was that for?"

"Nothin'" he laughed back, kissing her soundly. The sound of someone clearing their throat behind him caught Jack's attention and he remembered who was there with him.

"Sam," he said turning around, keeping one arm around her waist. "This is my father, Matthew O'Neill. Pops this is Samantha Carter, and her dad, General Jacob Carter."

"Nice to meet you," he said shaking their hands.

"Um, not to sound rude," Sam started out nervously. Jack gave her a gentle squeeze, not really sure what it was she was going to say, but he knew if she was going to ask, she was curious and couldn't figure it out on her own. "But, uh, you don't look old enough to be Jack's father."

Matt looked momentarily uncomfortable, but was spared answering by Sean shouting from down the hall. "Pape Matt, that you?" The young man joined the rest of the group, his wife trailing slightly at his side.

"Hey Bean." The men gave a manly handshake to back slap, while everybody migrated outside. It was too nice a day to spend it sitting inside.

"Bean?" Jack asked, looking his son up and down.

Sean shrugged. "Back in grade school, I used to write my S's with a point and they looked like B's, so my teacher started calling me Bean." He smiled at the memory. Mr. Kirkpatrick had been his favorite teacher. Unfortunately, he was also one of the oldest in the school and had had Jack, Karol and Rick all in class together, so he had often called Sean, John. Bean had been a nice way to remember his name.

Sam glanced over at Trish and noticed she was looking a little hot, and not feeling too well herself, Sam decided they should sit down by the water. "Jack, I think I'm going to leave you guys alone for a little bit." Sam started to head off to the lake.

"I'll join her. You be men grunt, drink, beat your chests." Trish leaned forward to give her husband a kiss.

As she turned to follow Sam, he gave her a playful swat on the butt. "Go, get out of here, woman," he laughed. She gave him a smirk and joined Sam at the dock.

Jacob laughed and decided to leave Jack alone with his son and father.

Three generations of straight-faced O'Neills stood on the porch, beers in hand. None of them were big on talking, Sean being the most vocal of them all.

Matt took a swig of his beer, sighing internally. "Yup."

Jack followed suit. "Yup."

"Uh huh." A grin broke out across Sean's face as he took a gulp from his own bottle. Jack's lip curled up in his half smile his team was so familiar with. Matt broke out into full laughter.

"We really are awful at this, aren't we?"

Sean turned to his grandfather, smiling at the sight the three of them made. "You could say that."

"Colin should be here soon, I should leave you two to it." Jack squinted into the light of the summer sun.

"Jack, we'll straighten this mess out, don't worry," his father said quietly.

Jack sighed heavily. "Yeahsureyoubetcha," he mumbled, sarcastically. "I'm gonna go see if Sam wants to come with me." He patted his son on the back and headed down to the dock to find Sam.

"Dad?" Sean called out to him.

Jack turned, lifting an eyebrow in response.

"It's not important, but, where's Rico?" He hadn't seen the dog since he'd arrived earlier that morning and with how protective he'd been the first time they met, he was surprised he wasn't out inspecting everybody.

"Down at the dock with Sam. He doesn't leave her side. Most of the time nobody notices him." Jack smiled and turned back to retrieve, in his eyes, the most beautiful woman in the world.

Matt turned to his grandson, wondering how he was going to word what he needed to say. Situations were already tense and he didn't want to make things worse. "You should try to reach Jay on his cell," he suggested.

Sean tilted his head to the side, not really sure what Matt was getting at. "Why?"

"Get him to come here before he goes to the other cabin or things are just going to get worse. If he talks to your grandmother we may never see him again." He sat down on the few steps leading up to the small porch as Sean nodded and pulled out his cell. He listened to Sean's end of the conversation, making sure Jay didn't get out of hand.

"Hey, Pape Matt wants you to come to the small cabin first… No, he went for a walk… I don't know… Yeah sure, whatever." Sean closed the phone and sat next to his grandfather on the steps. He downed the last of his beer and sighed.

"He made better time than you thought," he said.

"We stopped by there on our drive up. He told us they were probably going to have to make a lot of stops, so I just assumed he'd be a while behind us," Matt explained.

"Well, he should be here sooner than Dad's ready for."

"How much sooner?"

"He's in town now."

Matt nodded, knowing full well that wasn't enough time for Jack to think about what he was going to say, even with Jay and Sean talking before hand.