A week turned into two weeks. As they approached the end of the second week, Sam, Jack and the medical team solidified a discharge plan they hoped would insure a successful long term recovery for Sam and the whole family.

OoOoOo

CHAPTER FIVE: SOME HELP FROM A FRIEND

Jack pulled into his driveway about 1800 hours. He'd been at Memorial visiting Sam and had stayed later than usual for the discharge planning meeting.

The twins heard his car pull up and were at the door to meet him.

"Daddy, daddy, Uncle Daniel ordered fried chicken for dinner!" Jake exclaimed.

Daniel had stayed with the twins while Jack was at the hospital. When Jack had called saying he'd be late, Daniel had taken dinner into his own hands. And Daniel didn't cook.

"Fried chicken, you say? You mean that artery clogging, greasy stuff with fifty million grams of saturated fat?" Jack asked, looking at Daniel.

"Jack, that's what they wanted," Daniel answered sheepishly. "And they were getting hungry. We've been bike riding most of the afternoon, you know."

"Daniel, here's daddy lesson 101: The kids don't always get what they want," Jack whispered teasingly to his good friend. "Sam's gonna kick your butt."

"How's Mommy, Daddy?" Grace asked, tugging at her father's hand.

Jack scooped his daughter up in his arms, held her little body so she was facing him directly and with a big smile said, "Mommy's coming home, day after tomorrow! Isn't that great?"

"Yay!" Grace and Jake shouted spontaneously in unison.

Once her father put her down, Grace quickly lost the spark of her initial excitement, and fixed her father with a somber look.

"Daddy," Grace said. "Why didn't Mommy want to see us?"

Jack took a deep breath, preparing himself for another version of the now familiar talk with his children. Despite the practice, he had yet to figure out a good way to explain the visiting restriction to the twins. He was grateful Sam was almost ready to come home; the phone calls definitely weren't cutting it and the kids really missed seeing their mother.

"Princess, let's sit down," Jack said, leading his daughter into the family room, "you too Jake, come on." Daniel followed Jack and the kids, holding baby Jon.

When everyone was seated, Jack began, "You guys remember what I told you when Mommy had to go the hospital, right?"

"Yes Daddy," Jake said. "You told us Mommy was very sick. You said she had the kind of sickness that made her feelings hurt real bad."

"Not hurt like the headaches. Mommy has a hurt that makes her very sad," Grace added decisively.

"That's right, Grace. When someone is so sad, it's hard for them to feel better without help from a doctor. And for these last few days, Mommy's doctors decided she needed lots of rest to feel better."

"But you take Jon to see Mommy," Grace protested.

"He doesn't let anybody rest," Jake added.

"Well, that's true," Jack admitted. "Truth is, mommy still feels very bad about what happened here the day she went to the hospital."

"You mean me trying to feed Jon?" Grace asked.

"She knows telling you to do that was wrong," Jack answered.

"Mommy already said sorry, Daddy. We're not mad, are we Grace?" Jake said.

Grace shook her head vehemently. "Is Mommy mad at us?" She asked.

"Princess, Mommy is definitely not mad at you or your brother. She's kind of mad at herself. The doctors wanted her to feel better before she saw you guys," Jack offered, hoping they could understand, just a little.

"Okay, but Mommy shouldn't be mad at herself. She already said sorry. We love her."

"Then what do you say we all go and tell her that tomorrow," Jack suggested.

"Can we really?" Jake asked hopefully.

"Absolutely, Slugger. Absolutely."

OoOoOo

After the children were asleep, Daniel stayed for awhile to talk with his friend.

"How are you, Jack?"

Jack seemed to be staring at nothing in particular as he answered Daniel – or at least acknowledged the statement.

"Sam's still having a hard time, Daniel. She's still depressed. Not as bad as a couple weeks ago, but she's so sad," Jack said, not even aware he'd totally avoided Daniel's question. "It's going to take awhile to get back to normal."

"How are you?" Daniel persisted.

"Oh yeah, that. Not good, Daniel. I miss my wife," he finally admitted, wincing slightly.

"Can't be easy," Daniel ventured, his mind going to Sarah and wishing she could come home like Sam would eventually. Even after nearly two years, he could hardly believe his second wife had chosen to take her own life. And in some ways, he continued to blame himself for what had happened.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I must sound pretty selfish," Jack said, accurately reading and interrupting Daniel's morose thoughts. "At least I know Sam can come home again."

Daniel simply looked at Jack, telling his friend, without words, that he understood and wanted him to keep talking.

"I know Sam's been gone before, Daniel. Off with alien entities and all, but funny thing is, I understood that. Strange as it was, I understood it. Now she's here but she's not here. I miss her, her smile, her laughter, her love of life. I miss holding her in my arms, making love to her." Jack paused briefly, closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "I miss Sam."

"I know the feeling, my friend. It's pretty lonely, isn't it?" Daniel said quietly.

"Yes, it is. You know, Daniel, if I hadn't had that experience with Ben Archer I might have been as idiotic about this as that crazy movie star on all the talk shows. You know the one dancing on the sofas with Oprah."

"Hey, even you couldn't be such a narcissistic jerk," Daniel said with certainty.

"Thanks, Danny, quite a vote of confidence there," Jack replied not quite sure how to take Daniel's comment.

"No, really Jack, what I mean is, even if you hadn't gone through some therapy of your own, you'd have figured it out for Sam's sake. That's the kind of man you are."

The friends fell silent for a few minutes. Finally Jack realized he'd been so wrapped up in his own family concerns he knew very little of what was going on with Daniel these days.

"How about you, Daniel? How are you doing?" he asked.

"Recently, pretty good, Jack. I'm seeing Janet, you know."

Jack stared at his good friend. He looked confused.

"Seeing as in … dating?" he asked with a lilting voice.

"Yeah, as in dating. You didn't know?"

"You didn't tell me."

"Did so."

"Did not."

"Did so."

"Not…. Hey, let's forget this little game. What's going on with you and the doc? How'd I miss this?"

"I think maybe you were a little pre-occupied these past few months."

"Ya think?"

They both chuckled slightly, Jack almost laughing for the first time in a long while.

"Janet asked me over for dinner the first week I was back from Egypt. The rest as they say is history," Daniel announced with a boyish twinkle in his eye.

"Really? So this is serious?"

"I certainly hope so, Jack. She's an incredible woman. Somehow she manages to keep her cool and hold us all together. Don't know where we'd be without her. Lately, don't know where I'd be without her. Remember when we almost lost her?"

"Don't think I'll ever forget, Danny. An inch over on her flap jacket and that blast would've killed her. That was eight years ago, seems like yesterday."

The two men sat silently together for a few more moments, realizing once again how much they'd all been through together. They were bonded as few other friends would ever be.

"I'm happy for you, Daniel."

OoOoOo

Daniel had volunteered to clean up the kitchen while Jack gave baby Jon his nighttime bottle, hoping to settle him for a few hours. Daniel, hardly Mr. Domestic, finished his task first and went to check on Jack.

Standing at the door to the nursery, Daniel looked inside. It was a sight that warmed his heart.

Jack was rocking Jon, very slowly. Jack's large hand held the little baby gently against his right shoulder, and a burp was apparently on the way. All the while, Daniel could hear his friend talking softly to his son.

"Come on little guy. Just one burp for your Dad. Okay, now that's more like it," Jack said sotto voce once the mission was accomplished. He gently lowered Jon in his arms and started to rock again. "Now that's done, it's time for one tiny baby to go to sleep. Did you know your Mommy is coming home soon? She loves you very much. And so do I. You mean the world to me, Jon."

When Daniel first walked into the room, he'd planned to relieve Jack so his very overtired friend could get some rest. But looking at Jack with his son, he knew the man wouldn't trade this moment. So instead, Daniel simply said goodnight.

"And Jack…"

"Yes Daniel?"

"If I ever get to be a father…."

"Thanks."

TBC

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