A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter Two: Rose is Red, The Other Two are Blue, What the Hell is Jack Gonna Do?

xxxxxx

Vala woke up, feeling a bit queasy, to find Rose staring wide eyed at her from Daniel's side of the bed.

"Where's daddy?"

"He's at work darling, go back to sleep."

"Nope, I peeped in the owfice and looked-ed in the kitchen."

Vala checked the time. "Did Danny fix you breakfast?"

"Yep, where's daddy?"

"Working out of town." Vala closed her eyes thankful for Danny and felt a small cool hand on her cheek.

"Jake says daddy is wooking on a stah in a glaxie fah fah away."

Vala's eyes popped open. "Did he?"

"Yep."

The cell phone on the bedside table beeped. With a defeated sigh, Vala rolled over and answered. When the conversation ended she got up, picked up Rose and dashed into the living room where the two boys were playing video games. "Get dressed!"

Both boys jumped. "Mom, what's happened?" Danny questioned, concerned.

"Carolyn's in labor. Get dressed, and get Rose dressed. Go!" She hit one on the speed dial.

"I'm not Woes, I'm…"

Danny was shutting down the game while Jake grabbed Rose's hand, "Come on Darling, we gotta get ready." They all stopped when they heard who their mother was talking to.

"Jack?"

"Hey, what's up?"

"Carolyn. She's in labor; I'm her stand in coach. Can you come stay with the kids?"

He grinned when he heard the excited, rowdy voices cheering in the background. "I'm on my way."

xxxxxx

The kids were in the back yard, safe and sound, and Jack was watching a hockey game with a chilled beer in his hand. Vala had called - Carolyn was doing well, but it might be a while. The base was trying to reach Mitchell without success, but they were due to check in, in about twenty minutes. He put his feet on the coffee table and settled back for an easy day. A wailing scream shot him right out of his comfort and heart stopped and horror crawling up his spine, Jack made a mad dash for the back yard.

Rose was crying and screaming at the same time while Danny and Jake stood stone still and stricken. "What the hell happened?!" He snatched little Rose up, patting her back and waiting for the boys to answer.

"She fell outta the swing, Uncle Jack. We were clear across the yard." Danny's eyes were wide with fear, and Jake was starting to tear up.

"Come on sweetheart. It's okay." Jack rubbed the back of her head feeling for bumps. "Where's it hurt, Rose?"

"Dah…," hiccup, Dah…," gasp, "Dahling." She corrected before returning to screech mode.

Relaxing a bit, Jack laughed. "Where does it hurt, Darling?"

"I…," hiccup, "I hurded my awm and," hiccup, "my six. I flew oudda the swing."

"Come on, we'll go in and check you out. You're gonna be fine. Come on in boys, let's get Rose…ah, I mean Darling taken care of." The boys looked worse than Rose, who was smiling now between little crying hiccups.

"Daddy told you not to swing so high, you'd give him a heart attack. You gave me one." Danny scolded in a trembling voice.

Once in the house, Jack instructed Danny to get a cool wet cloth and sent Jake for the first aid kit. Rose had a few minor scratches on her elbows, but nothing appeared to be broken, and like Vala, she squirmed and was ready to go back outside.

With the cool washcloth, Jack washed her face while Rose resisted, twisting her head to escape the cloth. "Hold still, will ya? I just wanna wash your face."

Jake set the First Aid kit on the table and waited for the verdict.

"I don't want one of doze Band aids, I want the fairy ones." Rose started crying all over again and Jack held his hands over his ears.

"I'll get 'em Darling, they're in the kitchen." Danny came back with an empty band aid tin. "Uh oh." He said backing up when Rose started wailing louder.

"For cryin' out loud!" Both Jake and Jack said at the same time.

"We'll get you some more." Jack, at a loss, kept patting her back.

"We can get a bunch of 'em cause I got the cwedit cawd." Rose's tears continued to run unheeded down her little chubby cheeks. "And we can get Danny's bike and Jake wans a basketball and sharkie needs her 'wimming pool." She sniffed and grinned happily.

"You have a credit card?" Jack was astounded.

"It's Daddy's." Danny supplied.

"She lifted it." Jake explained.

"You lifted Daniel's credit card! Like mother like daughter."

"He don't need it in oudda space, they only use naqua." Rose explained assuredly.

"Naquadah!" Both Jake and Danny corrected.

"Where do you kids get this stuff? Nevermind, don't answer that. You need to play inside for a while where I can keep and eye on you. You got a nuclear reactor back there somewhere? Because if you do, I want to know about it now." Jack put Rose down and shooed them all off. "I'm gonna have a nice long talk with your mother when she gets back." He said it low, not intending them to hear.

"Won't help, Daddy's been tryin' that for years." Danny hollered from down the hall.

xxxxxx

Vala squeezed Carolyn's hand.

"He's not going to be happy about this!" Gritting teeth and labored breathed, Carolyn looked up at her father.

Landry smiled. "Not my fault. I'm retired. General O'Neill talked him into it. She's pretty insistent when she puts her mind to it, besides; you told him you had at least two or maybe three weeks left."

"Well I thought I did!"

Vala patted Carolyn's hand. "So last night you were listing possible names, girl names and boy names. Have you picked one of each, since you insist on not knowing the sex?" Vala attempted to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject… ow!" Carolyn grimaced against the pain of the contractions. "They're slowing down. But they're still strong. I can't see the monitors. Where's that damned doctor? Lot of good she is! Find my chart; I need to know what's going on."

Landry and Vala exchanged knowing looks. "I'm going to go check with the base and see if they heard from Mitchell. Out of all the men on that base you had to pick the hot shot pilot!"

"We're not having this conversation again." Carolyn frowned at her father.

Holding up his hands he nodded. "Right. I'll be back."

After Landry left, Carolyn smiled up at Vala. "He's crazy about Cam. They go off on camping trips all the time. He just likes to tease me. Help me sit up. This is going to take a while."

xxxxxx

Jack tried to get back to watching the game, but he couldn't relax. Intermittently he'd walk down the hall and check on the kids. Rose was painting, Jake and Danny playing some video game, all quiet and calm. He walked back to the kitchen, opted for a soda instead of a beer, just in case they managed to blow the house up and he had to talk to the police. Damn, his nerves were still on edge.

By the time he settled once again in front of the TV, it started raining, followed shortly by thunder and lightening. Within a few minutes the lights flickered, and the TV went out momentarily, before the next boom shut the electricity down. He turned expecting the threesome to run into the room. No one appeared. With a cock of his head he listened intently. Giggling and laughter came from the back and he breathed a sigh of relief as he wandered down the hall. "Hey." At the door to the boy's room, Jack leaned against the doorframe.

Jake and Danny were painting on a large sheet of paper in the semi darkness and Rose was digging through the boy's toy box. "Hey Uncle Jack, wanna paint with us?" Danny looked up with a wide grin.

"Maybe later, I'll see if I can rustle up some kind of lunch." Hands in pockets as he returned to the kitchen, Jack fleetingly wished he'd had more kids.

The electricity returned just as he entered the kitchen. All was well in the Jackson household. Leaning a hip against the counter, Jack dialed Vala's cell phone. "What'cha ya doing?" He asked.

"Well, I was napping, Carolyn's asleep. How are you doing?"

"All's quiet. Rose fell out of the swing, but she's fine. Gave us all a scare. I don't suppose there's anymore fairy band aids around the house?"

Vala laughed. "Yes, they're in the top of the kitchen cabinet over the fridge. Four boxes. Just give her a box."

"A whole box?"

"Yes. And there's a 'booboo' tiara up there. Give her that as well. She'll be healed in no time."

"Okay. Let me know when the little squirt arrives."

"I will. Jack is it raining there?"

"Yeah."

"Let them play in the garage. We cleaned it out and made it child friendly. You can let them loose in there. They'll be fine."

"Thanks."

xxxxxx

Lunch consisted of fruity cereal for Rose, who had at least ten fairy band aids on her, none of which covered a scratch, and the tiara perched precariously on her head. Jake opted for left over baked chicken, grapes, pork and beans right out of the can and nearly an entire bag of potato chips. Danny made scrambled eggs, ham and toast for himself and Jack.

Following lunch Rose napped and the boys watched a soccer match with Jack as the rain continued its downpour. By the time Rose woke up, she'd forgot all about her injury and was dancing around in front of the TV blocking the best shots of the football game the other three were trying to watch. Eventually the kids got bored and headed to the garage to play. Vala finally called reporting on Carolyn with more detailed information than he cared to hear about dilation and childbirth. But Mitchell was on his way back and she'd call when she knew something.

xxxxxx

Jack had checked on the kids less than an hour ago, they were riding bicycles and a tricycle in circles in the garage. He went back to the TV and settled in. The rain continued steadily, making him sleepy. He drifted off into a cat nap.

He woke up to Rose's signature scream and was on his feet and running. Jerking the garage door open expecting some mangled bicycle accident Jack stopped, mouth falling open.

Danny and Jake were comforting Rose. Red Rose. Red from head to toe Rose. Red Rose with the red tiara in her tiny hands. "Dey…" more wailing "…reded my tiaria…"

The two blue boys turned to Jack, whites of their wide eyes emphasized by the head to toe blue paint. They wore some type of antennae on their heads. Jack rushed to the paint cans, picked one up and dialed the poison hot line he'd long ago entered in his phone. "Completely non-toxic, you're sure? Alright. Thanks." He slapped the phone closed and glowered at the boys.

"Jake wanted to be Andorian and Darlin' wanted to be the green woman, but we don't have green so we used the red instead. We didn't know she didn't want the tiara red." Danny explained as though it were just your average incident.

Jack was at a loss for words. He managed to take his attention from the bizarre group before him and read the label. Good. Soap and water. "Come on, we're going to play in the rain. Don't go through the house, use the garage back door." They all perked up at the mention of playing in the rain. Jack grabbed an empty bucket, and followed his little aliens out into the back yard.

"Alright, start rubbing that stuff off, I'll go get some suds. And stay right in front of the glass doors where I can keep an eye on you!" In the kitchen Jack filled up the bucket with soap and water, and snatched the dish scrubby from the sink.

"Hey."

Jack sloshed a bit of watery suds on the floor when he jumped, startled by Vala.

"Oh, hey, you're home early." He swallowed loudly.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Sort of. Mitchell show up?"

"Just in time." Vala smiled looking at the pail of suds.

"Girl or boy?"

"Boy."

"Damn, I can't keep up with one."

"Where are they?"

"Huh?"

"My children, Jack. Where are they?"

"Oh…umm, Daniel come back?"

"No."

"Sam?"

"No." Vala looked around. As her mouth fell open and her head slowly turned towards him, Jack's head slowly turned to the sliding glass doors. Rose was pressed against the glass smiling happily, covered in red paint. Danny and Jake, as blue as a summer sky, were both waving, their Andorian antenna bobbing to and fro.

"Where'd they get the paint?!" Vala rushed to the door and little Rose pressed her lips in a kiss through the glass.

"In the garage, I thought you said it was child friendly."

"Daniel!" Vala turned back, a scowl on her face.

"Daniel what?"

"Damn. Daniel bought it a few days before he left."

"Damn Daniel. It's all his fault. I called the paint company and the poison hotline, it's non toxic, just have to scrub it off with soap and water. I was coming in for suds."

"We always buy the Natural Paints brand. Daniel's very eco friendly." Vala noticed the rough kitchen scrubby in Jack's hand. "You weren't thinking of using that on my children!?"

"Sure I was, I'll be gentle…promise, but I can't get the stuff off of them. Is Daniel due back early? Because if he is I'm leaving this task for him."

"No." Vala had to put a hand over her mouth a moment holding in the laughter. "You better get to it. I don't have the strength." She looked out the window with a delightful grin watching her children dancing in the rain, blue and red water dripping off of them. Placing a hand on her abdomen, Vala shook her head and raised her eyes to Jack. "I'm sorry I took you away from your quiet day home alone. But I could use a nap. Thank you, Jack."

Jack's hand hesitated a moment on the door. "Thank you, Vala. I miss him since he went off to camp and her being off…world. This is just what I needed." Jack slid the door closed behind him as the kids took off screaming and running in three different directions from the scrubby wielding Uncle Jack.