Chapter Twelve

Driving back from the base, Carter had an odd thought. She had spent a lot of time alone in her life. Not emotionally alone, not lonely, but physically by herself. Most of her time was spent working, but when she needed to get away, to be alone, she always had her home. It stunned her to realize that she no longer had that refuge, that she might never have it again. Her space, her escape had become home to her daughter and, however temporarily, her CO as well. Even though she wasn't looking for peace and quiet at that moment, she didn't like the idea that it wasn't ever going to be available.

The drive to her house from the base wasn't a long commute, but it was long enough for her to decide that she didn't really mind losing her privacy and her empty house. It had troubled her at first, but only until she realized she was trading up - instead of somewhere to hide when she was upset, she had someone to hold and, if things worked out the way she wanted, she'd have someone to hold her as well.

The drive also took her past a strip mall which housed the largest book store she'd ever seen. Carter was self-sufficient. If there was something she didn't know, she would research it and learn everything she could. She turned into the parking lot without conscious thought. She didn't want to have to ask Jack everything or guess if he wasn't around. She headed into the store with a smile. There was nothing she couldn't learn, except French and it really hadn't been an issue after the tenth grade, if she had enough time and reference materials.

After dropping over three hundred dollars on books and lugging them into the house, she started to wonder when she was going to have time to read them. She also realized she'd been bitten by the Daniel shopping bug and looked around for somewhere to hide the books so Jack wouldn't be able to tease her. But the only place she could think of was her bedroom and she'd have to walk past the nursery, where she assumed he still was, to get them there. Resigned to her fate, she sat down on the couch, put the books on the coffee table and tried to pick on to read first. She settled on one and decided it was too quiet. She smiled at herself; peace and quiet was overrated.

"Jack? I'm home."

Jack emerged from the hall a moment later, fully dressed, much to Carter's chagrin. But the fact that he was talking to her daughter in the silliest, sweetest voice she'd ever heard made it ok. "Look! There's your mommy!"

It wasn't clear that Cheyenne knew or cared what his words meant, but Carter appreciated them. And Cheyenne did seem to like her. Unfortunately, Carter couldn't even respond before Jack saw the books.

"Gee, Carter, did you leave any for the other mommies?"

She smiled, knowing she deserved the teasing for going overboard. "I don't really care about the other mommies. Besides, they have more time to prepare."

He picked up on book before he sat next to her. It was a book on pregnancy. "I think you could have skipped this one."

She shrugged. "There are chapters in there about the baby's first few weeks of life and I didn't want to miss anything."

"Sure there are."

"Oh, shut up." Carter glared at him playfully, but he didn't notice because he had opened the book to those chapters he didn't believe existed and was reading. After a moment, he tossed the book back on the coffee table and grinned stupidly at his daughter. "Daddy would rather play with you than read boring books."

"Daddy would rather play with open canisters of nerve gas than read boring books."

Jack smiled. "Daddy has a sense of adventure."

Carter couldn't help but giggle. "Right, and mommy doesn't."

Jack thought about it for a moment and then started to laugh too. "Ok, so mommy has a sense of adventure and she likes to read boring books." His gaze turned to Carter finally. "You know, you're not going to have any time to take care of Cheyenne. You'll be too busy reading about taking care of Cheyenne."

Carter shrugged and tried to concentrate on her book, an impossible task while sitting next to Mr. Gorgeous and Baby Adorable. She glanced at Jack, who was holding Cheyenne in front of his face and blowing raspberries on her belly. Shaking her head she laughed out loud. "I think I've just lost every last bit of respect for you, Jack."

"No, you haven't." Jack looked offended as he set Cheyenne on his far side. For a heart stopping moment, she feared she'd stepped too far over the line. But then he turned his whole body to face her, sliding his hands into her hair and tilting her head back with lightning fast movements. He was grinning as he leaned over her and blew a raspberry into her neck.

She actually squealed at the overwhelming sensations - Jack looming over her, his cold, wet hair brushing her chin, his warm, strong hands in her hair, his lips on her skin.

He was laughing as he pulled back, staying in his position above her and winking. "Now you have."

She could tell he was delighted with himself, much the way she was delighted with him. But she wasn't about to let him win. She smirked at him as she managed to turn back to her book, even with him so close. "This way I'll be ready for the next one."

All traces of laughter drained from his face along with the color. His eyes grew comically wide. "The next one?" His eyes darted down to her stomach. "Are we having another one?"

She kept a straight face, letting him panic over exactly what had transpired on the base that required her attention. She knew he was envisioning all sorts of things that Thor might have decided to try. After a moment, she started to feel bad for scaring him. "That seems to be up to Thor, now doesn't it?"

He sat back and covered his face with his hands. "Don't scare me like that. You'll give an old man a heart attack."

Carter nodded at Cheyenne who was gurgling happily with their laughter. "If she didn't give you a heart attack, I certainly never will." As she turned back to her book, she realized something that caused her attention to snap right back to him. Jack wasn't covered in yellow paint. "Why is your hair wet?"

He gathered Cheyenne back into his arms, paying little attention to Carter. "Because I took a shower."

"What?" Her brain didn't even have a chance to conjure up inappropriate thoughts about Jack in her shower.

Jack looked at her, uncertainty obvious, nervous at the idea that he'd overstepped his bounds. He was so used to giving the orders, to making the rules, that he was like a fish out of water with the thought of needing permission from her. "Was I supposed to ask first?"

She took Cheyenne in her arms, fearing her baby had been traumatized. "You left her all alone out here while you took a shower? What were you thinking? What if she needed you? How could you be so selfish?"

Jack chuckled and relaxed as he put his hand on Carter's shoulder to comfort her. "Of course I didn't leave her alone. I took her in with me."

"What?" Carter practically sprang off the couch, turning to stare at him in horror. "You did what? You can't take a baby in the shower with you!"

"Carter, it's fine. People do it all the time." He was far more amused at Carter's shock than she thought he should have been. "It's better than leaving them all alone in the other room."

She quickly ran through her list of objections, trying to find one to dispute Jack's statement since she had no experience with infants to draw on. She immediately discounted her first thought that no one was taking a shower with Jack in her bathroom, or anywhere really, unless it was her because she technically didn't have a claim on him and because it wasn't the sort of thing that Samantha Carter was supposed to say. The next thing she thought of was that Cheyenne might be psychologically damaged from showering with a man, but she couldn't use that because Cheyenne didn't appear to be aware of all that much besides her own physical comfort, which, incidentally, was obviously upset because she was starting to frown and fuss in her arms.

Afraid that she'd run out of reasons and that she was taking too long to answer, she went with the next thing that popped into her head. "What if she got wet?"

Jack full on laughed at her and got up from the couch. "She's a baby, Carter, not a gremlin. She's fine. Water is about the last thing you need to fear her getting into." He disappeared into the kitchen, giving Carter ample time to feel like an idiot in private so that her face was burning red when he returned with a beer in one hand and a bottle in the other.

Cheyenne started to cry again and Carter settled her in the bassinette. She flopped down on the couch and picked up a book, rocking the bassinette with her foot. Jack was watching her with an omnipotent smirk on his face. She looked up at him and glared. "Then I guess I should read up, huh?"

Cheyenne stopped fussing when Jack gave her the bottle. Carter hated that he'd already developed an instinct of knowing what Cheyenne needed. Even knowing Jack had a baby before, Carter felt that she should have a stronger instinct since she was Cheyenne's mother. Everyone else in the world ascribed more of a connection to mothers than fathers and Carter hated even more that she lost that advantage because she'd been robbed of being pregnant.

"She smiles when she sees you, do you know that?"

Carter looked up, surprised that he wasn't gloating. She couldn't hide her smile. "She does?" According to the book in her hands, babies didn't smile at people until they were a few months old, but Carter decided that just meant Cheyenne was smarter than the rest.

He nodded, settling back down next to her and poking through the pile of books again. "I hope you bought one on back massages because you so owe me."

Carter closed the book she was holding and raised her eyebrow. "Oh, I don't need any help with that." She grinned at his startled expression. He kept baiting her; it was obvious that he wanted to play. And she wasn't about to discourage him.

Consequences.5