"How's your stomach?"
Jack sighed, leaning back against the cushion of the couch and pulled Sam into a hug.
"I might have had a little too much ice cream…"
Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Ice cream?"
He rolled his eyes.
"And potato salad."
"And?"
"Cake…"
"And…?"
"Sam…"
"I warned you…"
"I know."
"You grazed your way through the entire afternoon."
"I know."
"I told you your stomach would be upset."
"I know."
"You're not as young as-"
"Ian and River ate twice what I did – and Shawn-"
"If they jumped off a bridge eating a Big Mac, would you?"
Jack scowled.
"You know, you used to be a lot more sympathetic… I think motherhood has jaded you."
Sam smiled, leaning against him and kissing his cheek softly.
"Or it's made me more practical."
He smiled and she sighed.
"Did you talk to Ian, yet?"
"About what?"
"The Ashrak problem," Sam clarified. "It will probably take a while for Frenush to realize that this group failed, too, but it's going to happen eventually and then he's going to send new ones."
Jack shook his head.
"I doubt he's thought much about it," he said. "Or rather, he probably has, but probably hasn't put anything in stone, yet."
"You'll see, though, before he goes back to Atlantis?"
"I'll talk to him, sure." He smiled. "It's not like he would be able to just go off and attack them, though – even assuming he disregarded everything we talked about and the fact that he's under orders not to. He said he'd need the Cassandra, and to get her, he'd need Air Force authority."
"Unless of course he decided he needed Atlantis and picked the entire city up and took it. Remember, Atlantis has more fire power than any other platform."
"He wouldn't do that."
"No. I'm just pointing out that he doesn't really need to get permission if he decided for some reason he'd be better off not getting us involved."
Jack had to agree that she was right, but he knew Ian – and so did she – and they knew he wouldn't do something like that. Luckily.
"I'll make sure to talk to him before we go."
They were flying back to DC that night. While it was nice to have a bit of family and friends time, he was still President, and couldn't be gone for long, after all. The same with Nathan, who was flying back with Maggie on a separate flight as was standard procedure. He knew that Maggie was going to talk to Ian and Cassie about taking the twins (and Alexander if they'd allow it) back with them to have some time with them.
"And you'll remember to let me know what he says?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Sam intended to see Ian before they left, but she didn't see him very often, and she wanted to have a relaxed conversation with him. She'd let Jack handle the serious stuff this time.
OOOOOOOOOO
"You know… there's probably a formula for this…"
Ian snorted, looking over at Cassandra. Both of them were watching as the twins sat at the table, slowly falling asleep while trying to finish their cake and ice cream.
"Where x would be the amount of sugar needed to overcome y which is the amount of sleepiness that comes with a long day of excitement?"
She smiled as Michael's head bobbed, his eyes closing just as he took a bite of chocolate ice cream. He was almost asleep; the spoon was sliding in his grip, melted ice cream dripping down the handle and his hand, but he manfully jerked his eyes open and sat up, reflexively swallowing the ice cream before his head bobbed again and his eyes closed.
"Something like that."
Dotty had long ago been carried off to her bedroom, and Nia hadn't been far behind.
"I'd say they've had more than enough of x," he said, handing a sleeping Alexander over to her. "I'm going to put them in with Dotty and Nia for now."
"Clean them up, first."
"Of course."
He started for the table, and was joined by Andrew as he reached out and took Carter's spoon from him.
"Want some help?"
"It's going to be messy," he warned.
Andrew grinned.
"I don't mind."
Ian nodded and Andrew eased the spoon out of Michael's failing grasp. The boy opened his eyes as Andrew picked him up, but his head dropped onto Andrew's shoulder almost immediately, smearing both of them with sodden cake crumbs and a lot of melted ice cream.
"I told you," Ian said, grinning even though Carter had done the same thing to him. He was used to it, after all.
Andrew shrugged and followed Ian into the bathroom where the New Yorker propped Carter up with one hand and pulled the boy's shirt off with the other. Then it was a simple matter of using a warm wet cloth to wipe ice cream and other goo from his face neck and hands. Then he traded spots with Andrew who had already followed his example and stripped Michael's shirt off so he could get cleaned up as well. He wasn't as smooth and competent as Ian, but the boy never opened his eyes through the gentle ministrations. Clearly y had overcome x finally.
"So… any idea what we can do about the Ashrak?" Andrew asked, when Ian finished wiping Michael's face.
The New Yorker nodded an affirmative, but didn't say anything as he picked up his son and gestured for Andrew to get Carter. Andrew was far too used to following Ian's lead to argue with him. Instead he picked the boy up and followed him into Dotty's room where Ian put them both into bed. Andrew hid a grin when he watched Ian kiss the two – and then pressed kisses against Dotty and Nia's cheeks, too. What a softy!
Ian scowled, telling Andrew he hadn't hid the smile well enough.
"Come on." He closed the door firmly behind them, and nodded to the Secret Service agent that was Nia's primary protector. The woman nodded back, telling him that she'd let him know when – if – the boys woke up.
"You're worried that they might have heard something?" Andrew asked.
"They would have heard it," Ian said. "And would have remembered it."
"You're sure?"
"I always did."
Good point.
"So what are we going to do about the Ashrak?"
"I'm still working on it, Andrew," Ian told him. "But we definitely need to make sure Shawn's family is safe while we figure it out."
"How?"
"I'm already on that. Let's go see Shawn."