(continued from the last chapter, Most Beautiful)

THE SURPRISE

By the time the O'Neills had finished dinner it was well past midnight. As Sam felt herself ready to fall asleep, Jack asked, "Are you too tired for a surprise?"

"A surprise? What is it?"

"Now if I told you…"

With a look of mock indignation, Sam sat down heavily at the kitchen table, "Hmphf… Okay, be that way. See if I care."

"Oh now you do sound like an eight year old," he said, starting to tickle her till she giggled.

"Hey!"

"Alright, you win…"

"The surprise?"

"Yep."

"Oh, you are going to be one soft touch for these kids!"

"Oh yeah, that's why Mrs. O'Neill will be doing the discipline."

Sam just gave him a look and followed him. "Where are we going?"

"The basement. You've been dying to go there, right?" Jack had made the basement off limits more than a month ago telling Sam he was building a workshop for his favorite hobby, wood-working.

Jack led the way to the basement. He knew the workshop itself would surprise Sam. He'd been adding equipment gradually over the past three months so at this point, it was pretty complete. Of course the real reason he'd kept Sam out of the area was to conceal the surprise he'd been working on just for her.

As he opened the door, he heard a sharp intake of breath from Sam who was astonished by how the shop had expanded since last she'd been inside.

"So this is the surprise – you've maxed out our credit cards?"

"Not exactly," he said in a teasing tone. "Over here." Jack directed Sam to an out of the way alcove where the rocker he'd been working on stood completed. Made of a delicate cherry wood, it was polished to a lovely finish. Sam's eyes were immediately drawn to the star field carved in great detail on the back of the hand-made chair.

"You made it? For me? For us?" she asked, her eyes slowly starting to fill with happy tears, one hand in Jack's and the other massaging her rather large abdomen.

"I didn't want to make you cry, you know."

Sam turned towards her husband with a look of pure, unadulterated love that shown through her tears. That look always disarmed Jack. It reminded him of the man he wanted to be for Sam and triggered his own fierce feelings of devotion.

"I love you, you know," was all he could say and of course it was more than enough.

"I love you," Sam answered, gently touching his check with her hand and gazing in his eyes.

"You wanna try it out?"

Smiling, Sam walked over and sat down in the large, comfortable chair, graced as it was with her husband's professional workmanship and attention to detail. Jack knelt down in front of Sam and wrapped his arms around her as far as they would reach.

"See this is my idea. It might sound corny, but …

"Sitting in the chair holding the babies will be like being in your arms…."

"Hey, does being pregnant make you a mind reader, or what?"

"No I just know my wonderful husband, who's really a romantic at heart."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and it's not corny at all. It's beautiful." She said with a smile that for Jack was beyond all things beautiful.