Chapter 6 - Christmas

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. . ."

"Oh, no you don't!"

Sam turned just in time to see Jack scoop up four-year-old Maggie as she crossed the threshold into the control room. No matter how much she had initially fought against naming either of her children after animated characters, Jack had made a good point when he'd suggested that she looked like a Maggie. Then, he'd told her about his favorite aunt growing up, Margaret, and Sam could not say no.

The little girl squealed, her curled pigtails flying as Jack's fingers inadvertently tickled her. "Put me down, Daddy."

Though she'd only been at work for thirty minutes, Sam couldn't help but chuckle. "Hey, it's two of my favorite people!"

"This little one thinks it's lunchtime."

Sam checked her watch. "But it's only ten am."

Jack gestured behind him. "Did you not see the running?"

Though she'd been about to speak, Sam closed her mouth as she broke into a grin. "Yes, I did. Thank you."

Her daughter sat up straight in Jack's arms, turning her piercing brown eyes to Sam. "Play with me."

Memories of another little girl who had once asked her to do the same played at the corners of her mind. "Later, Maggie Grace, I promise. I'll bring bubbles."

The girl's bottom lip protruded out so far that it actually impressed Sam. "Now, please?"

Jack rolled his eyes at Sam, though he couldn't help but smile. "I got this, Carter. We'll see you for lunch and naps."

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. . ."

"Not you, too." Jack caught Jacob Tyler by the overalls before he managed to get all the way through the door.

Sam stood, bending down and kissing both her son (named for both his deceased grandfather and his older brother) and her daughter before she leaned in and kissed Jack. "You know, I never would have believed that you'd have more energy at sixty-two than you ever had fighting the bad guys."

Jack rolled his eyes as he lifted the twin four-year-olds for her to see. "Yeah, these two keep me young."

She chuckled as she turned back to the kids. "You know how it goes. Mommy has to work. Daniel said he was going to come and tell you a story from the Asgard archives later today, remember? I think he found the story of when Daddy met the Asgard for the first time."

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Aw, Mom, can't I help you with your science stuff?"

Maggie's face grew immediately animated. "If Jacob gets to stay, I want to stay, too!"

Jack turned an exasperated look to both of the kids. "Nobody is staying. Maybe Mommy can bring back a science experiment after she's done with her simulations. Until then, I think Teal'c was on for PE."

Sam bit back a comment. From the day the twins could walk, PE had been code for Jack bringing the twins down to the gym where Maggie and Jacob would wrestle and run while Jack would sit on the sidelines and talk to Teal'c. The Jaffa had initially tried to train both of the kids, but Sam figured he'd wait until they were a little older. At least, that's what she thought he meant when he said something about how the twins lacked the discipline of a young Jaffa.

Jack had retorted that what they might lack in discipline, they made up for in spirit.

He wasn't wrong if by spirit, he meant unyielding energy.

Sam looked back at her computer, her amusement fading. It wasn't fair for her kids to grow up in a metal box. Jack's kids should have a dog, a large backyard, and baseball gloves.

Mitchell ran past the control room, and another surge of guilt washed over her. Despite his initial approval of her having a life with Jack, he'd grown increasingly more sullen and irritated over recent years. She couldn't tell if it was because he was stuck on a ship or if it was because he resented the hours she spent with her growing children. In another life, those hours might otherwise have been used to get them home.

"Samantha?"

Sam looked up again, mustering a smile for Vala as she walked in the room. "Hi."

The twins instantly started making their case to Vala about how much they preferred doing science than listening to Daniel's stories.

Jack set both of the twins down. "Vala, would you mind taking them to Teal'c? I think he's in the gym."

"Of course." She offered two hands to the kids who instantly took them, dragging her out the door before Sam could tell her she'd make time later to hear what the other woman had to say.

Jack let them go out of earshot, watching Sam get back to work, before he leaned over the metal console in the control room. "Okay, Carter. Out with it."

"Out with what?"

"Whatever it is that's bugging you."

She sighed. "It's nothing. I'll be fine."

She reached for an Asgard control stone, and he lifted it off the console before she could slide it into position. "Ah! Don't lie to me."

"Jack, come on."

He held her gaze. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

She tensed, locking her arms across her chest. "It's Christmas next week."

"And?"

"And my four-year-old twins aren't going to church on Christmas Eve. They're never going to wear little costumes in a Christmas pageant. Hell, they're never going to build a snowman or decorate a Christmas tree."

"Snowman."

She shifted, uncomfortable. "Silly?"

Jack pondered her question before he shrugged. "Surprisingly normal, actually."

"Normal?"

He nodded. "Carter, just because we're on this ship doesn't mean we can't do some fun things for Christmas. In fact, it's probably more important than ever to do them to break up the monotony of our day."

"Yeah, but how—"

He leaned in for a kiss. "You run. Simulate. Leave the rest to me."

She melted into his kiss, her heart swelling in gratitude that though she sometimes took the fact for granted, she was not alone. An affectionate smile played on her lips as he pulled away. "Yes, sir."

"It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"

The cries came in surround sound from both of the kids as Sam was bounced awake. "G'morning," she croaked as she tried to sit up.

Jack walked into their quarters, holding a tray piled with cinnamon rolls.

Sam blinked. Cinnamon rolls?

Sam checked her watch. It was 0600 on December 24th. Why on Earth would Jack wake the kids up and bring cinnamon rolls for breakfast a whole day early?

Jack leaned down and kissed her. "Morning, beautiful."

She blushed. "Jack. . ."

He winked as he handed her a cinnamon roll. "I know it's the twenty-fourth, Sam. Trust me. I got a plan."

The kids settled in beside her as Jack doled out one cinnamon roll to each of them before he sat beside them on the bed. "Okay, Mommy made a good point the other day. We didn't grow up on a ship like you."

The twins' eyes widened. "You didn't?"

Jack shook his head. "I was born in Chicago. Grew up in Minnesota."

Maggie turned bright eyes to her mother. "What about you?"

Sam shrugged. "My dad was in the Air Force, so I lived in a lot of different places."

Jacob's mouth dropped open. "Did you have lots of different bedrooms?"

Sam's brow furrowed. What an odd question. "Yes, sweetie."

Maggie blinked at her. "More than five?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, Mags, more than five."

Maggie and Jacob stared at each other before they asked in tandem, "More than ten?"

Still somewhat baffled, Sam shrugged. "Uh, probably."

"More than—"

Jack held up his hands. "Kids, I think we're getting a little off track. Both your mom and I had lots of bedrooms because we lived in lots of houses before we moved onto this ship."

Click.

Besides their first three months of life where they'd slept in Sam and Jack's bedroom, the twins had shared a room just next door. They'd tried when the twins were about two to separate them in order to have an easier time putting the kids to bed, but both twins had such nightmares, that they'd put it off until the kids were a little older and would appreciate the personal space.

The idea of having ten or twelve bedrooms in eighteen years must have boggled their young minds. Spreading those bedrooms across a half-dozen houses would have been too much to handle, and if Sam were to try to explain the concept of cities, they might just lose all reason.

The twins crunched on their cinnamon rolls, like they couldn't imagine such opulence. "You're lucky."

Sam raised an eyebrow. She hadn't felt lucky. Not when she transferred to yet another school because of her dad's job. Still, she smiled down at Jacob. "You know, I guess I was. I got to meet a lot of different people and have a lot of different experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

Maggie tugged on her dad's t-shirt. "Are we gonna move to Minnesota?"

Sam and Jack shared a look. Was it time to tell the kids that they were stuck here? That the only reason they hadn't had any frame of reference for these many bedrooms was because they had only two choices? To stay here or have the ship blown up by an Ori blast?

Jack shook his head as he looked down at the four-year-old. "No. We're not moving, honey."

Maggie's face fell. "Oh."

"There were some Christmas traditions your mom and I had growing up that we wanted to share with you. Starting with those cinnamon rolls. Those were your Grandma O'Neill's Christmas tradition."

Sam stared at her husband. "Really? Your mom made cinnamon rolls?"

He shrugged. "I was born in the fifties in the Midwest, Carter. My mom did a lot of stuff that was considered traditional."

A thought crossed her mind, and she turned to him. "Wait, is that why you kept suggesting I knit something when I needed to relax?"

"I usually said it as a joke, Carter, but yeah, my mom would knit things."

Sam shook her head. "How did I not know that until now?"

"Daddy, Daddy, are we gonna knit today?"

Jack laughed. "Maybe another time, kiddo. But first up, we have snow angels!"

Sam's eyebrows shot up as Jack led the children who tossed their leftover cinnamon rolls onto the bed with abandon out into the corridor. "Snow angels?"

Jack paused on the other side of the door with a grin. "You comin', Carter?"

There was a gleam of mischief in Jack's eyes she hadn't seen for a long time before they'd gotten stuck on the ship. "Yeah, this I gotta see."

Maggie giggled as she slid her arms and hands inward and outward on the shaving cream covered floor. "Look, Mommy, I'm an angel!"

Sam wasn't sure what was funnier: the way the shaving cream clung to her kids' and Jack's pajamas or Teal'c spraying the floor of the ship with what must have been a years' supply of shaving cream so the group would have new surfaces to make angels on.

She leaned over to the Jaffa. "What did Jack have over you?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as if to ask her what she meant.

"How did he convince you to be his minion?"

Understanding dawned in Teal'c's eyes. "I believe the correct term is elf, Samantha Carter, and he used no disreputable means to persuade me to assist him in his efforts."

Sam nodded as if she believed him. "Right."

"Snow angels? I gotta get in on this." Before Teal'c had finished spraying the latest patch of ground with shaving cream, Mitchell dropped to the floor and joined the kids, eliciting one of the loudest eruptions of laughter Sam had ever uttered.

Daniel and Vala walked into the mess hall, Daniel's head ducked as he put on his glasses. "Guys, what's goin' on out here?"

Before Sam knew what had happened, Daniel's chest sported a soggy, melting dollop of shaving cream.

Jack was on his knees, his hands suspiciously covered in the white foam. "Snowball fight!"

Sam shrieked as with little prompting at all, the mess hall broke into pandemonium as shapeless blobs of shaving cream flew through the air and splattered over them all.

Sam helped Jack pick up the mugs of cocoa and discarded blankets from the bridge in the glow of the Christmas tree. "This was perfect, Jack. I'm still not sure how you got colored Christmas lights, but it's better than anything I could have imagined."

"I could have done without Daniel and Vala editorializing the Christmas story."

Sam giggled. "While I have to admit that Maggie and Jacob made an adorable Joseph and Mary in our oversized bathrobes, it just wouldn't have been the same without Daniel trying to explain that Christmas was only celebrated at this time of year so that the Christians could celebrate while hiding from drunk Romans."

Jack snickered. "Or Vala shrieking that she knew there was something wrong with our planet with the number of women who got pregnant without doing the deed. Our kids will be scarred for life."

Sam set the last of the blankets on the captain's chair as she wrapped her arms around her husband's neck. "Thank you."

He kissed her. "And we're not even done yet."

She dropped her hands from around his neck. "We're not?"

He shook his head. "You like pulling all-nighters, don't you?"

She squinted at him. "Jack. . ."

"I was thinking we could make the kids a couple of bikes."

Her heart quickened as she imagined her two babies flying down the corridors on wheels, Maggie's pigtails trailing behind her as the twins' laughter reverberated down the halls.

"Are you sure we can get them done in time?"

He shrugged. "Don't see why not. We have six adults who can help put them together."

She marveled at him. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

She couldn't find the right words to explain just how foreign this laughter and amusement was after so many years of staring at computer screens that told her she was as stuck today as she had been the day before. "How do you stay so optimistic and happy?"

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as he kissed her temple. "Wouldn't have had nearly such a fun day if you hadn't suggested we celebrate Christmas, Carter."

"Yeah, but I couldn't have—"

He pulled her to look at him. "That's what makes us a good team, Sam. We did this together. Like we do everything."

She put her hands on his cheeks as she kissed him. "Merry Christmas, Jack."

"Merry Christmas, Carter."

"Can you imagine what this Christmas would have been like if we had Landry onboard?"

Maybe it was Grandma Sullivan's eggnog, with a generous splash of Grandpa O'Neill's favorite whiskey, but Sam giggled at Vala's question. "I think we can assume we wouldn't have made any snow angels yesterday."

"Is that because we wouldn't have children on board or because Landry's that straight-laced?"

Sam took another sip of her nog. "Both?"

Vala smiled. "It's made life a little more interesting, I must admit."

"What?" Sam asked, looking at her friend.

"Having children on board. After my childhood, I wasn't sure that I would ever want children, and then Adria. . ."

Sam waited for Vala to finish.

"I never really knew what family could be like until I met SG-1, and watching you and Jack with your children was even more instructive. Thank you."

Sam's thoughts went back through the years. "Don't get me wrong, my father wasn't anything like yours, but there were days when I thought that family meant nothing but pain. Especially after my mother died. In a way, Jack gave that back to me. The fun, the hope. Not just because we have children, but because of who he is."

In a way, it had been all the more surprising because of how tragic Jack's story had started. In other ways, she should have expected it because Jack knew with a surprising accuracy the value of every single moment.

"Any fool can see how well matched you two are."

Sam took another sip of her nog as the children rode past on their bikes, training wheels and all. "Some observers might say the same about you and Daniel."

Vala shrugged. "Maybe, but for us, it's almost like what we had in common was more powerful than what was different. Do you know what I mean?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Like you completed each other's stories in ways you couldn't—and probably didn't even want to—expect."

"Exactly. But I sense it's different with you and Jack."

Sam crossed one leg over her knee as she sank back in the chair. "A little, I guess. I never believed in soulmates until I met Jack."

"Soulmates?"

"The idea of two people being halves of the same soul, separated and grappling to find each other against all odds."

"That's both beautiful and terrifying."

Sam chuckled. "Even here in this time dilation field, when we had our feelings out in the open, I was too nervous to take a step forward. And Jack—he gave me this laundry list of evidence that we would be good together. As if all the years we'd known each other wasn't enough."

Vala's eyebrows quirked in interest. "Evidence?"

"Daniel was the first person to clue us in, actually. He was the first person to travel to an alternate reality, and over the course of his time there, he found out that our counterparts were engaged."

"Daniel? The Daniel who was shocked when Jack told him you'd accepted his proposal?"

Sam glanced over at the archaeologist, only slightly surprised that he hadn't caught on. "Jack didn't tell me that."

Vala chuckled. "I don't think it was Jack's proposal which threw him. I think it was when Jack admitted he'd had Thor help him make the ring he gave you before the Asgard left the ship."

Sam glanced down at her left hand. "Thor—Jack asked Thor to help him make this ring?"

Vala took a sip of her egg nog. "Yes. Who did you think—?"

Tears welled up in Sam's eyes. That explained the Celtic knots on either side of the diamond with a new appreciation. Though they weren't typically associated with Norse culture, they were similar in style to the markings they'd seen on the protective technology on Asgard protected planets. "Jack told me he asked Daniel to help him make it after we were in the time dilation field."

Vala shook her head. "Are you only together because your alternates were together in some alternate reality?"

Sam looked up from her ring. "What? Why would you think that?"

"Well, you said you weren't going to say yes until Jack told you that there were these other realities. . ."

Sam tensed. "That's not what I meant. I was attracted to Jack the moment we met, but I didn't know what kind of man he was, if he was married, and besides, he was my commanding officer. My whole life had been governed by rules, and that was the biggest rule of them all."

Vala seemed to see her logic and nodded in agreement. "Fair."

"In fact, one of the only reasons that I'm even remotely creative is because my mother was one of the most laid-back people I ever knew. I'd tell her that I needed cardboard for my science project, and she'd ask me to find some. I thought she was so mean to me when I was a kid, but now—"

"She's the reason you can think on your feet the way you do."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, because I lost her when I was so young, and I clung to the Air Force's rules the way I did, I needed more evidence than some people might have expected. So far, of the twenty or so alternate realities our team has come across, there is about a ninety-five percent chance that some version of Samantha Carter ended up with some version of Jack O'Neill."

Vala whistled. "Wow."

Sam laughed. "Yeah. In one reality, Samantha Carter was married to Rodney McKay, but that didn't last long. There was no Jack O'Neill in that reality. At least not by the time the Stargate program started."

"You think he died?"

Sam set her cup on the table beside her. "There were plenty of opportunities for it in his past. As far as I can tell, the only realities where there isn't a happily ever after between us, are the ones where one or the other of us doesn't make it to the Stargate program."

"And that convinced your brain to let you lead with your heart?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. It took some time, and I made some mistakes along the way, but yeah, in the end it did."

"And the General was all right with that?"

Sam smiled as she caught her husband's eye. He grinned back at her. "Some people might not have been, but Jack was wonderful in giving me the space I needed to come to my own conclusion."

"He's a good man."

Sam winked. "So is Daniel."

Just then, Sam looked up to find Jack holding a sprig of mistletoe in the space between them. "Look what I found."

Sam grinned. "Where exactly did you find that?"

Jack shrugged as if to tell her that he wasn't going to give up his secret that easily. "Tradition dictates that when this is overhead—"

She sat back and crossed her arms as a mischievous smile played on her lips. "You think I'm going to kiss you just because tradition dictates it?"

He seemed intrigued that she would even pretend to withhold a kiss from him. "I was hoping, but if you don't want a kiss—"

As he moved to go back to chat with the guys, she snaked her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a passionate kiss which had Vala and Mitchell whistling and clapping the longer it went on. Jack's fingers squeezed as he tried to pull her closer.

Thanks to how Sam had threaded her fingers through Jack's short gray hair, it spiked when she finally released him. "How was that, General?"

He coughed, clearly dazed. "Good. That was—that was good."

Sam smirked as she sat back down. "Merry Christmas, Jack."

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" Sam stifled a giggle as Teal'c entered the room, dressed in an elaborate red and white suit, complete with white wig and beard.

"Hey, kids! It's Santa!"

The rest of the evening was spent in laughter as the adults took photos of the twins on Santa's lap and the group shared an evening meal before Sam and Jack took their exhausted twins to their beds.

Sam brushed Jacob's hair back from his forehead as she kissed him. Then, she and Jack switched places, and she did the same for Maggie. In the doorway of the twins' room, she and Jack held each other. "We have such beautiful babies, Jack, and you gave them the most perfect Christmas."

He kissed her temple as he took her hand. "Come on."

They walked past their quarters to the bridge where Jack sat on the floor with his arms around Sam so that they could view both the Christmas tree and the stars outside. "You know, I dreamed of this."

"Christmas?"

He shook his head. "You. Me. Stargazing."

"On your roof?"

He nodded. "Couple of beers. Maybe a bottle of wine. A blanket. My telescope."

She shivered with the warmth of his breath on her shoulder. "Your telescope, huh?"

"Top of the line."

She couldn't help but tease him. "Do you take all your dates up to stargaze on your roof?"

Jack nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck. "Don't be like that. You'd be the smartest astrophysicist by far."

She broke into laughter as the ridiculousness of his statement sunk in, as if he didn't realize just how many people in her field were male. "Entertain many astrophysicists, do you?"

"You know me, Carter. I never kiss and tell."

She shook her head as she snuggled closer to him and turned her attention back to the stars outside. "What would we do on this stargazing date on your roof?"

He leaned in and kissed her shoulder. "I can think of a few ideas."

She knew exactly what he meant, and she was amenable to the idea, but she enjoyed the stillness and his musings too much to give in just yet.

"If we hadn't gotten stuck in the time dilation field, do you think we would ever have done this?"

"Done what?"

"Gotten married. Had kids. Stargazed on your roof."

He tucked a strand of her long, blonde hair behind one ear. "You think we wouldn't?"

She shrugged. "You don't live in that house anymore, Jack. If we had gone back to Earth like we planned, I would have put in for a transfer to Atlantis, and we would have gotten a week or two every year or so."

"Doesn't mean we couldn't have gotten married."

She thought of her two precious children. "No, but it would mean we probably wouldn't have had kids, and I can't imagine a future that doesn't include them."

Jack kissed the tender spot beneath her earlobe. "You think too much."

A reluctant smile lifted the corners of her lips. She lifted herself onto her knees as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I take it you have a solution to my problem?"

He smirked. "I do have a few skills that might do the trick."

She let her fingers tangle in his short gray hair, gray hair that she'd done her best to trim for almost six years now. "I love you."

He brought a finger up to her cheek as a simple joy radiated from his brown eyes. "I know."

"You didn't happen to tell everyone we were stargazing on the bridge tonight, did you?"

Jack chuckled. "I may have dropped a few sock-on-the-door references that went over Teal'c's head."

She giggled, imagining the look on the Jaffa's face when someone finally explained what Jack had meant. "Well then, General. . . what are you waiting for?"