AN: Holiday Weekends Quick Updates! Enjoy!

Chapter Seventeen

Three days later and Janet had all but banned them from the infirmary. Cheyenne continued to cry hysterically, keeping both Jack and Sam from getting more than a few minutes sleep at a time. They'd gone back to maintaining silence between them, each rationalizing that it was safer than conversation. They took shifts, one of them attempting to sleep for a few hours, while the other tried to quiet Cheyenne. The only peace was when she was eating or the few blissful minutes when the poor thing drifted off to sleep.

After three days of very little sleep, Carter was holding a very loud infant and trying to heat a bottle for her. She could barely keep her eyes open, wondering how Cheyenne could possibly still have the energy to keep wailing. Half asleep and totally exhausted, she offered the bottle to Cheyenne, who eagerly sucked at it.

For half of a second.

Then she let out an ear-piercing shriek, the likes of which Carter had never heard. She dropped the bottle right out of her hand and nearly dropped the baby.

"Jack!" She ran to his room, throwing open the door. "Jack!"

He sat up, dazed from the lack of sleep and the matched pair of screaming females in his room. "What?"

"I think I scalded her. I forgot to check the bottle before I gave it to her!"

"Oh my God!" He was on his feet in a second. "How hot was it?"

Carter was hysterical, hearing her baby's cries and knowing she'd caused them. "I don't know. I just took it off the stove. We have to take her to the hospital."

"Why didn't you check it? Didn't you notice it was hot?" He was leading the way back to the kitchen, where there were at least some lights on.

"I don't know." She held Cheyenne tightly, wishing she could make time go backwards.

Jack squatted down, carefully testing the bottle with two fingers to see how hot it was. He came up with it a moment later. "Carter?"

"What are you doing? We have to get her to a hospital!"

He turned around, bravely testing the side of the pan before submerging his whole hand in it. "Carter?"

"What?" She turned to look at him, registering that he was far too calm.

"The bottle is ice cold. The water is ice cold. You didn't turn the stove on."

"You mean she's ok?" She looked at Cheyenne, who didn't seem to be screaming quite so loudly.

"She probably didn't enjoy freezing cold formula, but I think she's fine." He was smiling as he looked at them.

She felt like an idiot, tears still making their way down her cheeks. "I was so scared."

And in an instant, he was in front of her, pulling both of them into a hug. "Shh. It's ok. Everything's fine." He rubbed her back and she sagged into him as the adrenalin wore off. "I think you need some sleep, Carter."

She pulled back to look him in the eyes and nodded. "We all do." Glancing down, she realized that Cheyenne's cries had stopped and that she was staring up at them. "Oh, now you stop crying." Cheyenne gurgled at her.

"I think she got what she wanted."

Carter looked up, realizing Jack's arms were still wrapped around her. "What?"

"She doesn't like it when we fight."

Carter wanted to dispute his words, but she realized they were true. Cheyenne had been miserable at the grocery store, when they'd been arguing over what to buy. Cheyenne had started crying when Jack stormed out following their little interlude in the kitchen. And Cheyenne had been inconsolable for the previous ten days when they hadn't been speaking.

"How could she know?"

He shrugged. "She does."

Carter shook her head, refusing to admit something so intangible and unscientific even though she believed it was true. "You need sleep more than I do apparently." Admitting that it upset Cheyenne when they fought would mean they would have to stop fighting. Which would mean they would both have to deal with their feelings and with each other.

Jack smiled as he released his hold. "You know, all that perfection made you a little overbearing at times. I like seeing you frazzled."

"What?" She liked being calm and cool and controlled and unflappable. She thought he liked that about her too.

"You're adorable when you're frazzled, Carter."

Her mouth opened and closed uselessly as she tried and failed to come up with something to say. They hadn't spoken in over a week and he was suddenly back to normal, back to teasing her, without having gotten the apology she knew he deserved.

He winked. "And speechless too. I get extra bonus points for rendering you speechless."

"I'm sorry." She looked away from his eyes, from the intense emotion she saw there. "This is hard."

His hands came up and squeezed her shoulders. "It's hard for me too."

"I know." She saw Cheyenne, her tiny mouth stretched wide open in a yawn, exhausted from ten days of screaming to reunite her parents. "We can do this."

"Yes, we can." He moved behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders again and steering her to her bedroom. "After we get some sleep."

She stopped in the doorway when Jack turned into his room. "Jack?"

He looked back at her, his expression hopeful. "Yeah?"

The familiar guilt settled around her. "What if I'm not good enough?" She was referring to her distracted attempt at childcare, at how easily she could have hurt Cheyenne with a hot bottle, but also at how easily she'd hurt him.

He smiled gently. "She's lucky to have you." He turned away and closed the door behind him, leaving Carter to wonder if he'd understood her unspoken question. She hadn't moved an inch when he opened the door a moment later. "There's no one better out there, Carter." His eyes found hers and she knew he had understood. "Good night."

She smiled back. "Night, Jack."

The fact that they had made peace of some sort gave her the courage to voice a concern she'd been dealing with silently for a week and a half. He was attempting to make something edible out of a slew of ingredients she wouldn't even consider putting in the same pan. She was sitting at the table, feeling well rested for the first time in a week. Cheyenne was sucking on her rattle.

"Um, Jack?"

He glanced at her, revealing the flour he'd gotten all over his face. "What?"

She fought back the laugh that threatened. "The nursery is on the same side of the house as my bedroom."

He turned back to his culinary masterpiece and added half a bottle of beer to the mixture. "So?"

"I noticed last week that it gets very hot in there from the sun in the afternoon."

Jack was distracted momentarily as the pot caught fire and he was forced to throw the whole thing in the sink. He threw the cabinet door open, grabbed the cereal, and sat down across from her. "So?" He crunched on a handful of dry cereal and Carter wondered what they were going to do when Cheyenne got to the dry cereal stage. She'd probably have to battle her daddy for her food.

"So, I don't think it will be very comfortable for Cheyenne and particularly not conducive to her napping, if it's bright and hot."

He set the box on the table and folded his arms over his chest. "Why do I suspect that this conversation is going to end with a request that involves painting and moving furniture?"

She grinned and helped herself to a handful of cereal. "Because you're a very smart man?"

"That is categorically untrue."

She looked at the steaming pan in the sink. "Because you don't want to wind up with Cheyenne flambé?"

He stood up with a sigh. "I'm going." He paused in the doorway. "Unless you want to go get a different wallpaper border that has geographical consistency."

"No, that border is fine." She grinned at Cheyenne who was contemplating her daddy with drool running down her mouth. As soon as Jack was out of range, she winked at her daughter. "Yeah, I feel that way about him too."

Once the painting and papering had been done, Carter offered to help with moving the furniture. Jack waved her off. "No, no, I've got it. Go read or something."

"Are you mad?"

He looked up from the bed he was disassembling to fit through the door. "Is Cheyenne crying?"

"I can help, Jack." There was a lot more involved the second time around because of the stuff she had set up in her office. She felt bad that he thought he had to move it all himself.

"No, really. I want you to be very well rested."

She folded her arms over her chest and enjoyed the view of Jack, shirtless and sweaty once again. "Why?"

He grinned at her and she suddenly had the distinct impression he knew full well how much she enjoyed him with his shirt off. "Because I'm getting my back rub this time."

Consequences.5