AN: Sorry for the delay... I've been busy and then I was away all weekend. Please R&R!

Chapter Nine

Morning found Carter alone on the couch. Had it not been for the empty bassinette in the middle of her living room, she might have thought the entire thing was a dream from falling asleep on the couch. But there was a bassinette and a room full of things well-meaning friends had bought with Jack's money. And there was the quilt that someone had carefully tucked around her. She smiled happily and reveled in the contentment for a moment before she got up to search for the rest of her instant family.

She found them in the kitchen; Jack staring into a bare cabinet, their daughter snuggled face first in his neck. Carter almost sneered out of jealousy for that incredibly luck child, but then she remembered how he'd let her sleep in his arms and she decided they could share. "Morning."

Jack leaned back and smiled. "You don't have Fruit Loops, do you?"

She shook her head. "Wasn't expecting company."

He moved to the fridge to stare, trying to conjure up things that weren't there. "Carter, what do you eat?"

She moved past him and started up the coffee maker. "I eat at work. It's much easier that way. Someone else has to do the dishes."

Checking the freezer, he discovered some sort of toaster pastry. "How old are these?"

Carter shrugged. "I wouldn't eat them."

"Obviously, or they wouldn't still be here." He ripped open the box and put one in the toaster oven. "They're frozen. How bad could they be?"

"If you survive, make me one." The coffee was taking its own good time, so Carter turned to Jack and stretched out her arms.

Jack grinned cheekily. "So I don't have to buy you dinner first?"

"If you weren't holding the world's most adorable baby, I'd hurt you."

Still grinning, Jack handed over the tiny bundle who, to Carter's glee, accepted the switch without exception. "The world's most adorable baby still needs a name, Carter."

Carter had never once thought about baby names. On occasion when someone told her the name of their baby, she would pause long enough to wonder why anyone would do that to their child willingly, but that was as far as she got. It was another one of those things she assumed came up during pregnancy. "Any ideas?"

Jack's brow furrowed while he poked at the pastry, determined it was half-frozen, and put it back in to toast again. "What about Maggie?"

Carter considered it seriously for a minute. Maggie was cute, but Margaret was a big name for a little baby. And then she noticed the smirk on Jack's face. "No, absolutely not."

Jack wiped off the smirk. "Ok. What about Li-"

"No Lisa or Bart or Marge or Homer."

"D'oh!"

Carter chuckled to herself, quite proud for having avoided accidentally naming her child after a cartoon. "Any legitimate suggestions?"

Jack shrugged. "What was your mother's name?"

It was a perfectly thoughtful suggestion. So much so that Carter wished she didn't have to spoil it. "Samantha."

Jack shook his head as if he thought the act would change the answer. But Carter's face was serious. "You're kidding, right?"

She smiled. "My dad was overseas and apparently there was some Demerol involved. My mom swore she thought they were asking for her name, but dad never believed her."

"So I guess that's out?"

Carter nodded. "What about your mother?"

Jack shook his head. "Louise."

"Maybe we should get a book or something."

"We could ask Daniel to find something nice."

Carter grinned. "By the time he settles on something, she'll be old enough to pick out a name for herself."

"We should probably decide on a last name for her too, Carter."

She looked up startled. "O'Neill."

Jack looked just as startled. "Are you sure?"

"She's your daughter."

"She's yours too." From the look in his eyes, it was clear that it meant a great deal to him.

Carter was glad she hadn't hesitated. "O'Neill. We're not going to argue over it." She firmly believed that children should have their father's name, unless there was a legitimate reason otherwise. There were some traditions she thought had merit.

"We could hyphenate it."

"Stop."

"Yes, ma'am." He turned away to pull his burnt pastry out of the toaster oven. Carter could see his grin in the reflection and she smiled. There was hope, she decided, that someday she'd have the same name, but she could surprise him with that shock some other time. She watched as he put another in the toaster before offering her the burnt one in his hand.

"It's all yours."

He tossed it in the trash before he poured them each a cup of coffee. "What about Cheyenne?"

She glanced at the sleeping baby. "Cheyenne." It felt so natural on her lips; it was a word that meant a lot to both of them. A friend of hers had a daughter named Cheyenne. She grinned as she met Jack's eyes. "We could tell her it's where we met."

"And where we spent most of our time."

"And where we met her."

"And where she'll probably spend a fair amount of her childhood since I seriously doubt the Air Force is going to let both of us stay on leave until she's eighteen."

"It's perfect, Jack."

He grinned. "Cheyenne it is."

"We should call people." She wanted to tell the world. "I'll call my brother."

Jack grinned. "I'll call Daniel."

Carter reached for the phone and started dialing the number. But then she put the phone back down. "What am I supposed to tell him?"

"That you have a daughter named Cheyenne?" Jack's eyes widened. "Just don't mention me."

"He might guess when he hears the O'Neill part." Carter contemplated her daughter's blue eyes that had only just opened. "Maybe we should just send out announcements and not answer the phone when Uncle Mark calls."

Jack reached out and snatched Cheyenne from her mother's arms. "But we can still call Uncle Danny now."

Carter took Cheyenne right back. "We can call Uncle Danny while Daddy starts painting your nursery."

"And we're back to the painting."

Carter smiled in what she hoped was a placating manner. "While I go through the bags and see how much stuff we can return?"

Somewhat soothes by the idea of getting his credit card paid off before Cheyenne's college tuition was due, Jack smiled. "Ok, so I'm painting. After breakfast."

By the time Jack successfully cooked the pastry completely without burning it, they were down to the last one. They split it in half while they finished their coffee.

"This is actually pretty good." Carter inspected the indiscriminate berry filling closely, wondering why the included seed-like bits in what she was sure was an entirely man-made concoction that had never so much as seen a picture of a berry.

"If I'm going to paint, I'll want lunch afterward and in order to get lunch, we're going to have to go to the store."

Carter looked at Cheyenne. "We? As in all of us?" The phrase 'like a family' nearly fell out of her mouth, but she stopped herself just in time.

Jack shrugged. "Yeah, why not? You'll probably object if I only bring back beer and pretzels and hot dogs."

Grinning at the idea of them going out together like a family, she raised her eyebrows. "You don't know that."

Jack grinned back, trying to pretend he wasn't searching his memory for what she liked to eat. The truth was he usually spent shared meals either completely absorbed with what he was eating or entirely spellbound by Carter's mouth, so her tray never got much attention. "Ok, then, you're not allowed to complain about anything I bring back."

"No, it's ok. We can all go." The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to be seen in public with her precious baby and the gorgeous father of her precious baby.

"I should get some stuff from home too if I'm going to be staying here."

The first thing Carter thought was that it would be a shame since she much preferred him without a shirt. But then she wasn't sure if he was trying to back out of the invitation or not. "You'll probably get done faster if you go alone." She figured it would give him a way out if he didn't want her to go.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." His voice had an edge to it that was hard to read. Carter wanted to believe it was because he didn't think she wanted to go.

She convinced herself that he was just giving her a way out. "I should go. According to Daniel, you're broke."

Jack laughed and stood up. "I'll take her if you want to get dressed."

Carter busied herself with handing over Cheyenne to distract herself from his words. She was quite comfortable in her pajamas and she'd been paying no attention to the amount of skin she'd been showing. The look on Jack's face clearly indicated that, although he'd been keeping up his end of the conversation, it had not slipped his notice. She decided to postpone the analysis of how much she enjoyed sitting around with him while they were both half dressed and discussing what they were going to do with their day. Ducking into her room, she quickly dismissed the idea of showering. She wanted to take one, but she didn't want to be rude and she figured it was only fair that she wait until Jack would have the opportunity to get one as well. She changed quickly, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. Normally, she would have put on makeup, just a little to make herself presentable, but it wasn't normally. She stopped in the spare bedroom on her way back to grab the shirt Jack had left there the previous night.

"Ready." She put his shirt over the arm of the couch.

Jack looked up. "Already?" He had, it appeared, dumped all of the bags out all over the room.

"Was there a tornado in here?" She leaned over to check on Cheyenne in her bassinette, which Jack had decided to also use for additional storage - there were clothes hanging all over it.

"Daniel actually managed to forget a diaper bag."

"They must not have sold them because I'm pretty sure he bought everything in the entire store." She held up the booster seat which was a few years early.

"Do you have a back pack?" He looked particularly irritated at Daniel's excessive purchases, which Carter quickly realized had something to do with the breast pump sitting on the coffee table.

Carter shook her head at the situation. There was such a thing as being too thoughtful, and she felt that Daniel had crossed that line. "We're only going to the store. Do we need one? We could just buy one while we're out." She saw the smirk on Jack's face. "Right, I'll go get one." When she returned with the bag, Jack had a pile of things to take - bottles and diapers and a change of clothes, a pacifier, a rattle, and baby wipes. She didn't say anything; her face said it all. She didn't even like to carry a purse with her unless she had to; carrying luggage everywhere she went was going to take some getting used to.

Jack winked. "Trust me."

"Ok." Carter grabbed one of the outfits hanging on the bassinette. It was bright green with orange stripes. There was another one directly below it the exact same but in red and blue. "Please tell me this is the pile of stuff you don't want to keep."

Jack looked up, noticing the two outfits she held. His eyes widened in fear. "You don't actually think I would want to keep them, do you?"

Carter grinned and tossed them on top of the breast pump box. "That's the return pile." There was yet another disgusting outfit before her. "We should probably take everything back and pick out stuff we like." Jack was arranging items in the bag, so Carter put Cheyenne in her car seat. She smiled, feeling like an old pro at handling her daughter when her daughter gazed up at her happily.

"You can sort through it while I'm painting." He made a face at the outfits she'd rejected. "It can't all be that awful, but I trust your judgment." He motioned between the packed makeshift diaper bag and the baby. "Which one do you want?"

She grinned. "The cute one." Picking up the carrier, she headed for the door.

"I thought I was the cute one." Jack pulled his shirt over his head and grabbed the bag.

Carter shrugged at him, trying to hide her blush by looking at Cheyenne. "Not anymore."

Consequences.6