Ok so I'm back to my old sporadic posting so you'll havta bear with me a bit. I wrote this instead of doing a mechanics paper because I was feeling so bad for not posting for a while so it' a bit rushed. Thanks for the reviews, it was because of them I wrote this chapter so review again and you might get another chapter soonish.

Jack stopped his car a few blocks from his house unable to go any further. How could he go into his house and change the lives of everyone in it, he had no right to do that, Charlie and Cassie had already gone through so much in their short lives. They deserved to be happy even if it was just for a few minutes extra and Jack also wasn't sure that he'd totally gotten his head around the fact that Sam was fighting for her life in hospital when it was hot and sunny outside.

It was hard to conceive that despite all of the hours he had spent anxiously waiting in hospital it was only 10am, it was almost as if the past 9 hours were sent in some horrible alternate reality and when he got home Sam would be waiting for him wondering why he hadn't been home when she'd arrived. He knew that this was a lie but it was the only thing he could do to compose and allow himself to start driving again.

When he reached his drive he could not see Daniel's car in the drive but then remembered Janet saying that she was going to drop Daniel and Cassie off last night. When he entered his house he was surprised to find it empty, normally at this hour Joey would be running around the house trying to avoid the morning bath after her breakfast or Sean would be running around the house playing a game or looking for yet another toy he had lost.

"Hello?" Jack called out his voice booming throughout the silence, "Anyone there?" As he moved through the house he could see evidence that the kids had been up and about by the clean dishes drying on the sink and the random cereals still on the side having not been put away. As he moved upstairs he could hear voices coming from the end of the hall up towards Charlie's room.

When Jack opened the door he found Charlie, still dressed in his night clothes of boxers and a t-shirt was laid on top of his bed with Cassie still under her covers on the pulled out sofa bed, PS2 consol in both of their hands and their eyes glued to the television where they were playing SSX. Both were so engrossed in their game that neither heard Jack enter, instead they threw insults at each other to try and put them off the game. Most parents would be worried about a boy and girl of their age spending a night in the same room but he trusted Cassie and Charlie completely and didn't think that they felt that way about each other anyway.

"Um hello?" Jack said causing the two to turn their heads, completely forgetting about the game, "You're up early." Although this was true as Charlie was not normally up before 12 on the weekend Jack knew he was just saying t to stall the inevitable.

"Yeah well Danny woke her up a while ago" Charlie said gesturing to Cassie "And she decided that if he was up then I hadta get up too." He continued feigning annoyance whilst she just grinned at him in a grim that said 'I don't care and it was actually quite amusing'.

"So where is our resident space monkey and my two favourite little monsters?"

"Daniel took them for a walk to pick up his car and then they were going to go to the SGC to pick up Teal'c."

"Oh, okay then. Were they ok with him?"

"Actually yeah he was really good with them, I mean they missed you but he even got Joey to have a bath without her screaming the house down." Charlie mused, he could see that his dad had a lot on his mind. Despite what Jack thought Charlie could read him like a book, he could tell when he was lying and this was one of those times when he defiantly had something big on his mind, he could see the fear and pain in his dad's eyes. He was going to tell them something big, of that Charlie was sure.

"Really that good." Jack said absentmindedly not really listening.

"Yeah, so is everything sorted now?" Charlie asked, when his dad didn't answer Charlie began to become concerned, "Hello in there, is anyone in there" he said sitting up and waving his arms at Jack to get his attention. When Jack finally looked at him he seemed surprised to see him. "So is everything sorted at the SGC did you save the world once again?"

"I didn't go to the SGC, I'll tell you when Daniel and Teal'c get back so hurry up and get dressed." Jack said leaving.

Charlie looked at Cassie and they exchanged confused looks, "Well that was weird, even by his standards that was weird."

"Yeah I wonder what's up." Cassie mused.

"He probably just found out that mom isn't coming home for at least another week." Charlie grinned enticing a smile from Cassie as he climbed down the ladder of is bunk and pulled on some jeans from off of the floor along with an almost clean Quicksilver t-shirt after throwing the one he'd been wearing during the night back onto his unmade bed. "Well I'll get outta your way and let you get dressed," he said walking out, when he was almost out of the room he turned round and grinned, "unless that is you want an audience" he said quickly as he dodged a pillow thrown by the less than amused Cassie; he then proceeded to laugh all the way downstairs.

His laughter promptly stopped when he saw his father sat in the family room staring at a photo of their family; it had been taken soon after they had moved in during the first O'Neill barbeque at the house. Sam and Jack had been laid on the grass playing with Joey whilst Charlie sat next to them tickling Sean. None of them had known that Teal'c had taken a photo of them until they went to pick up the printed photos from the shop. Jack was absentmindedly running his finger over the picture of Sam and looked as if he would cry at any moment. This was one of the rare Jack O'Neill moments that nobody ever got to see; when all of the military bravado fell down to leave only the man behind, Charlie felt both shocked and privileged to watch it.

Charlie stood at the doorway watching his dad until he heard car doors slam outside and Jack snapped out of his trance with a large intake of breath and quickly placed the photo with the others on the side.

"Daddy!" Sean screeched in excitement as the front door slammed open as he ran through it ignoring Charlie as he passed and flinging himself at Jack who opened his arms ready. "We've been to your work daddy and grandpa George gave me and Joey some sweets and then we went to look for uncle Teal'c and then we found him and then I had some more sweets and then…" he said his voice high with excitement.

Jack smiled in spite of the situation and even managed to laugh slightly at his son, "So you had fun then?" Sean enthusiastically nodded his head then frowned slightly.

"But I missed you lots too and I was sad when you weren't there when I woked up." He pouted.

"I know I missed not being there too but I had something really important that I needed to do." Just then Joey cam toddling into the room with Daniel walking close behind her in case she stumbled when she saw her dad her little face lit up.

"Dada home!" she squealed running over to him as fast as her little legs would carry her, her arms outstretched trying to reach him. Jack shifted Sean so he could sit on one of his legs and Joey the other as he scooped him up and she snuggled into him glad to have her daddy back.

"Hey there baby how's daddy's little girl today, hey?"

"She's been fine, a bit cranky but I think that's just because she missed you." Daniel said smiling at the sight of Jack with his two children now content on his lap, his voice softened with concern, "How are you?"

"Ah, you know the knees aren't as good as they used to be and the back hurts a bit from sitting in those chairs for so long but I can't complain, there's people in much worse shape than me, much worse." He empathised hoping Daniel understood the cryptic message, he could see from the look on his face that he did. Jack looked down at his two youngest children and realised that they didn't need to hear what was going on right now; Joey for one wouldn't even understand.

Daniel seemed to understand what Jack was thinking and came over to the kids and crouched down to their eye level. "Hey do you guys wanna go to the park with Uncle Teal'c and me?" Sean looked up at his dad who nodded and a smile spread over the boys face as he jumped up and ran off to fetch his ball. Jack planted a kiss on top of Joey's head before handing her to Daniel.

"Thanks Danny"

"Don't mention it I love spending time with them so does Teal'c you know that." He said as he left to strap Joey into her stroller and find Sean.

Jack finally saw Charlie still stood in the doorway, "hey how long have you been there?"

"Not long" Charlie said as he entered the room and sat down, a few minutes later Cassie sat down next to him. The air was filled with tension but neither Cassie nor Charlie knew why as they threw looks at each other and waited for someone to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Jack what's going on you're starting to scare me?" Cassie asked as Jack continued to stare at them.

"There was an accident last night," he finally said, "that's why I went out, not to go to the SGC but to go to the hospital."

"How bad is she?" Charlie said, already knowing from observing his dad that it was Sam.

"Not good, she was in a car accident her legs been smashed to pieces and she may never regain full use of it again and she's in a coma with possible brain damage and they don't know if or when she's going to wake up." Charlie looked at his dad unable to believe it, what had he done to cause not just one but now nearly four of his parents to die, was he cursed because he was sure that no one could be that unlucky.

Charlie couldn't take it and bolted form the room needing to be alone, leaving just Jack and Cassie who felt slightly out of the loop as she still didn't completely know what was going on. With her voice on the edge of tears Cassie spoke to Jack, "Who is it?"

"Sam…its Sam" Jack sighed as Cassie dissolved into tears, Sam was a good person she didn't deserve this, she'd been Cassie's first friend on this planet; almost a second mom. The only one to believe in her and stay with her after she had been ordered to leave despite the possibility of dieing as well. Cassie hardly felt Jack's arms come round her as he pulled her into a hug and rocked her back and forth as he would with Joey to try and calm her down when she was upset and hurting. After what seemed like hours Cassie pulled away with no more tears left to cry and looked round for Charlie, sure that he'd be there after suddenly feeling the need to look at him.

"Where's Charlie?" she sniffed

"Upstairs, I know Charlie well enough to know when he wants to be alone and this is most defiantly one of these times." Cassie got up regardless of what Jack said, her need to make sure he was ok too great to listen to his advice.

Charlie wasn't in his room when she looked so she made her way downstairs checking every room as she went. She finally found him in Sam's dark room sank into a corner almost in a ball, his arms brought up around his legs and his head resting on his knees. She walked over to him slowly and sat down next to him. She could see a wet river running down his face to indicate that he'd been crying and only recently stopped.

Charlie put his arm around Cassie and leading his head against hers, neither able to express what they were thinking and feeling but both feeling slightly better for being together. Charlie's body writhed every few seconds as he struggled to keep the tears that his body so desperately wanted to eject at bay. Cassie began to rub his cheek gently with her fingers, trying to soothe him knowing that he was feeling something way worse than she was; Sam was after all his mom.

Eventually Charlie brought his eyes up to hers and she could finally see the pain he was going through. She couldn't bear to see her best friend in so much pain so with out knowing why she leaned forward to pull him into a hug but instead began to kiss him. At first he did nothing, too shocked to even think but quickly he was kissing her back with the same ferocity and intensity that she was all of their angst and pain spoken in one scorching kiss. Cassie was surprised that it felt so natural to be kissing Charlie O'Neill as their tongues duelled. Suddenly Charlie pushed her away and jumped up, a looked of horror plastered on his face.

When Cassie had begun to kiss him Charlie had been shocked, it was probably the last thing he had expected considering what they had just learnt. It had just been instinctive that he kissed her back and as much as he wanted the kiss to continue he had to push her away as he didn't want to risk losing his best friend after agreeing only the night before that that was what they were going to be, best friends and nothing more. Charlie couldn't deal with anything else and staggered to the doorway saying, "I can't deal with this now, everything's just too screwed up as it is. I think we should give each other some space for a while, until everything's sunk in." He left Cassie confused and alone in the dark room and went to find the one person he could depend upon.

Charlie found Jack sat on the couch staring at the rug having not moved since Cassie went to find Charlie. Charlie took one look at his dad and knew he was feeling just as lost as Charlie. Jack looked up almost instinctively and saw his son in more pain than he'd ever seen and that sight alone almost killed him. Jack got up and walked to his son drawing him into a hug, almost crushing him to his chest, but Charlie didn't seem to mind. Instead Charlie returned the hug just as fiercely allowing the tears that he had been holding at bay because he wanted to be strong for Cassie fall freely, soaking his fathers willing shoulder.

Jack found to his amazement and surprise that he also began to cry, finally able to open up to someone and not feel weak or embarrassed as he had with Sara or anyone else. They held onto each other until they had no more tears left to cry and were emotionally drained and then collapsed onto the couch.

"How's Cassie?"

"She's ok I guess, I just needed some time to let it all sink in and everything's so screwed up with us at the moment we just need some time apart."

"Anything I can help you with?"

"I think it's something we need to work out on our own but you could help me with something else."

"Name it"

Charlie took a breath to get the thought clear in is mind, "I wanna see her…I need to see her" Charlie said resolutely, Jack took one look at Charlie and knew what he meant and that he would not be swayed form seeing Sam.

"Ok, I'll take you with me later but first I need to sleep" Jack said getting up and squeezing Charlie's shoulder. "Don't worry she'll be fine" he said and for the first time since he had heard the news about Sam's accident he actually believed what he was saying, he actually had hope.

Yet another chapter filled with angst, oh how I love writing them! I haven't decided what's in the next chapter yet so I couldn't tell you, sorry.