Author's Note – just to clarify, John is in his late teens. He's old enough to drive (I checked the Colorado Springs Police Dept website) but not old enough to drink in Colorado where the legal age for drinking is 21. I'm not trying to subvert the genre by having John live with foster parents but I sort of felt that Jack would have enough self awareness to take what he could from having a second chance and he wouldn't turn his back on a new family, if it was a good one.

……………………….

'I'm sorry.'

'What for? Yelling at me? Don't worry about it. I've been around the air-force my entire life, one way or another. I've been yelled at before.' She grimaced. 'Hell, I work with people who regard yelling as a positive form of self-expression.'

John smirked. No idea of whom she might be thinkin' there, John.

'It was still outa line though. My Mom says I have 'impulse control' issues.' He grimaced. 'I keep telling her it's not me, it's the rest of the world but I don't think she's buying it.' John screwed his face up in mock chagrin.

Sam laughed. Not a giggle but a real laugh. Throwing her head back and rocking so her feet came up off the step.

'Hey, it's not that funny!'

Sam finally got herself under control. 'I like the sound of your Mom!'

Vaguely affronted, John felt the need to clarify. 'She's actually my foster-Mom but I've called her Mom for nearly 3 years now.' He hurried on before she could put too much thought into that piece of information. 'She's pretty cool.'

John was still coming to grips with the fact that she didn't seem to have worked it out, even after the totally 'O'Neill' moment earlier. On one level he was relieved but part of him had to admit he'd like to have been able to be completely honest with her. The moment for honesty, however, had probably passed on her front doorstep 2 months ago and best not to dwell on it because he suspected if he'd told her who he was on that first day he wouldn't still be here. Would that have been a good thing or not?

On the up side, the little episode seemed to have unwound something in Sam and seeing her laugh was never going to be a bad thing as far as John was concerned.

Getting to her feet, Sam dusted off the rear of her cut-off's and shook her head 'John Owen, I suspect that someday in the not too distant future you're going to be breaking hearts. Meanwhile, can I get you a drink?'

Still digesting the first part of what she'd said and not sure whether to be flattered or insulted, John's eye-brow's shot north. 'Oh. Um, yeah. Sure.'

'I know you're not 21 so it's not going to be a beer but I can do diet soda, OJ or water.' She turned and headed back into the dark of the house.

'Um. Diet soda will be fine.'

John climbed the steps slowly behind her, not sure whether to follow or wait on the porch. He was still loitering indecisively when her voice floated out to him from somewhere inside. 'Come in, John, it's cooler in here and I promise I'm not going to bite.'

He stepped into her lounge from the kitchen when she waved him on through. Carter had always managed to convey the impression she was someone who could pack her life and leave at a moments notice but when you looked around her home you realised she'd actually made herself a pretty serious nest here. Everything was neat and ordered but there was a lot of … stuff. Everywhere. Books on shelves that ran from floor to ceiling around three sides of the room, a big squishy sofa and three armchairs both of which were also stacked high with books. The only thing that surprised him was the wall of photos opposite the fireplace. A jumble of different sizes and frames, many were pictures of her family; he could see Jacob in some and Mark in others. There were also a number of pictures of a blond woman he assumed was her mother. She didn't look as much like Carter as he'd thought she would. Same eyes and same way of tilting her head when she smiled but that was pretty much it as far as he could see.

It was the rest of the pictures that made his breath catch in the back of his throat. There were serious shots of medal ceremonies and awards, mixed in with more casual shots of the four of them at O'Malleys or elsewhere off-base. There were even a couple taken by Daniel on an off-world mission and obviously smuggled out of the mountain. How on earth she managed to explain the shadow of two giant moons in the back of those shots he had no idea. He would have smiled but one of the pictures in question showed Jack with Carter in a headlock, mugging it up for the camera by licking the side of her face while she laughed and tried to pull away. Another shot, possibly taken the same day, showed Teal'c holding a struggling Jack high above his head and had obviously been taken only moments before Jack was forced to take an impromptu swim. If I remember going in the water, why don't I remember licking Carter's face?

He was still transfixed by the pictures when Sam came in from the kitchen.

'Do you like them? It took me a whole weekend to put them up but I like having them there. Feels like my family is never too far away.'

'And these people are all your family?' He asked the question knowing what she'd say even before she said it.

'Yes.' No hesitation, no qualifications.

He had to turn away. 'Wow!' he whispered quietly, as much to himself as her.

She handed him a soda, her eyes on the pictures still. 'I know I'm not exactly related to a lot of these people but they're still my family. I've trusted my life to some of them and they've done the same with me. Most of them have seen me at my absolute worst and I've still known they loved me. To my mind, that makes them just as much my family as the ones I grew up with.'

She turned to face him. 'You said before that you live with a foster family, I'm assuming you don't have much in the way of real family yourself, John?'

'No.'

'I'm not going to pry but I wanted to show you my family because I hope, and I think, that one day you're family is going to be just as big.'

'I … ' he had to stop and clear his throat. 'I had … I lost … when I was 15 …' It wasn't much but she didn't seem to expect more. She just watched him. 'It made me grow up. Fast.'

He moved away from her. Needing to distance himself from the pain he could see reflected in her eyes. Damn it. For Sam, empathy had always been one of her ready gifts but he'd never liked it. Hadn't liked it before and didn't like it now. The line between compassion and pity was far too slender in his mind.

When he focussed his eyes, he realised he was looking at a rock on her mantle-shelf.

'What's this?' He picked it up and rolled it in his hand. It felt cool and smooth in his palm.

'It's a rock.'

He turned and gave her a half smile over his shoulder. 'Wise-ass. What's special about it?'

'Nothing. It's just a rock.'

'So why's it here? Why keep it?'

She took the rock out of his hand and closed her fingers around it. 'It's silly really. My team and I were on a … field trip. There was a lot of walking through not very interesting terrain. Sand and rock, dried river beds, that sort of thing. I think myself and Daniel, that's the guy with the glasses you can see in some of those pictures, might have been grumbling a bit about how there wasn't much to see and even less to do. Anyway, I noticed Jack, he's the tall one with grey hair, was kicking things in the dirt and the next thing you know I get a rock in the side of my knee. He laughed, so I kicked it back at him. Then Daniel piled in and the three of us kicked that rock at each other for six miles. We were all black and blue for weeks but it was some of the best fun I've had in my life.' She smiled at the memory. 'He wont admit it but Daniel still has a ping pong ball Jack threw at him after he beat him once.' John's eyebrows went up. Damn it had felt good to bounce that stupid ball off Daniel's head but he'd had no idea Danny kept the thing.

'So, this Jack….'

'He's the glue. He's what keeps us all together. It's like he balances us all out. Murray is serious, so Jack makes him take on the silly side of life. Daniel was a real geek when he first came on the team but he's kind of cool now and a lot of that's down to Jack's influence.'

'And what about you? What does he do for you?'

Sam looked up at him, searching his eyes for evidence he was being flippant but it wasn't there. He was deadly serious and he wanted to know.

'I'm not sure.' She looked down at the rock, still held in her hand. 'I used to think he flirted with me and that met some kind of need in me to be seen as more than a good little officer but it's more complicated than that. Besides, we don't really flirt any more. It's sort of got beyond that. If we flirted then we'd have to acknowledge we weren't doing anything else and that wouldn't necessarily be a healthy place for either of us to go.' She sighed. 'I think, for me, he lets me know that he cares unconditionally and I haven't had a lot of that in my life.'

She placed the rock back on the shelf and turned to him.

'So, John, what are you going to do with the rest of your life?'

………………………………….

Thanks for sticking with this, it is going somewhere, I promise – might be a few days before I can post again as I have to go out and earn a living…