Sam walked into the kitchen, somewhat nervously. A whole week had passed since they'd last talked about Grace, and she was a little worried that Jack had since changed his mind about at least trying to adopt the little girl.

"Jack?" She murmured as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Hm?" He asked, reading a newspaper as he drank one of his own.

"I'm...going to the elementary school to read again today. It's the kindergarten class again." She bit her lip. "Two days ago, when I went and read last, I got a chance to talk to Grace. She's really a very sweet and special girl. I think you'd like her."

He looked up at her for a moment. "I'm sure I will. I happen to be fond of kids."

She tried to muster a small smile, but it wavered for a few moments. "You know...you could come with me. And meet her..."

"What time?"

"Uh...her class comes in at eleven."

"Can't today. Meeting with the Joint Chiefs at 10:30 and with Barrett at 1."

Her heart fell. He wasn't interested at all in even meeting Grace. Why would she think that he was interested in adopting her?

She turned her face from him as she pretended to look out the kitchen window and drink her coffee. A long silence reigned as she tried to remind herself that he always had a good reason for doing something. Even if it didn't feel right to her. Didn't seem to be anything more than accident.

"We could probably make contact with her foster parents and see if we can't meet her in a different environment from the school. They might even allow us to take her for ice cream or to the zoo or a museum..." Jack finally said after a moment. "I could take the afternoon off one of these days. Probably next Thursday. Thursday would be best for me."

"I'll see what I can do," she said, looking over at him with a faint smile. That was her husband...thinking things through carefully, but always coming through in the end.

-

Sam took her husband's hand as he helped her to step out of the car. He'd come home at two-thirty after his meetings at the Pentagon, changed into civilian clothes, and taken her to Grace Taylor's foster home. "You ready for this?" She asked, softly.

"As I'll ever be..." He murmured.

She looked over at him, curiously, and he shrugged. "I'm...a little nervous." He admitted.

"She's adorable." Sam assured. "She's shy. About as shy as Cassie was when she first got here. She likes to read. She's always got a book in her hand. Even when I'm reading, she has something different in her hand."

He studied her for a moment, affectionately. "You really like her, don't you?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I guess I do."

He took her hand in his as they walked up the rest of the way to the door of the house, and Jack knocked firmly on the door.

A short, blond woman opened the door cautiously before smiling. "You must be the O'Neills."

"We are." Jack said, nodding as he took off his sunglasses.

"I'm Suzanne Harper. Grace's foster mom."

Sam smiled softly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"And you. Come on in." She said, opening the door more widely before she closed the door behind them. "Grace will be here in a few minutes, but I thought that maybe we could get to know each other for a little bit while we're waiting for her?"

Sam nodded. "Sure." She looked at Jack for a moment. "Uh...my husband and I have been married for...a little less than a year, but we've known each other for nearly fourteen. I have some leave from the Air Force, and I decided to start volunteering at the elementary school in an effort to get involved in the community. I met Grace, and thought she was really special, and now...we're here. Thinking about adopting her."

"Do you have any children from previous marriages?" Suzanne asked, innocently.

Jack tensed slightly before he shook his head. "No."

"Oh."

"This is my first marriage," Sam explained. "And Jack's first marriage ended in divorce. It...uh...it's not something he likes to talk about."

"Of course." She said, nodding. "My brother and his wife got divorced a few years ago, and it was a sticky situation."

Light footsteps could be heard on the wooden floors, and they all turned to catch a glimpse of the little girl who was responsible for them. Grace stopped only a few feet away from them, dressed in overalls, a turtleneck, and socks. Her curly brown hair was separated into two pigtails on either side of her head, and as Sam had observed previously, she had a book clutched in one hand which she kept at her side. She studied Sam and Jack carefully with wide hazel eyes.

"Mrs. O'Neill?" She asked, looking over at Sam.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. This is my husband, Mr. O'Neill."

Grace turned her eyes to him as she pursed her lips in concentration. It was as if she was making a decision, and needed to focus her energies on the task at hand.

Finally, she took a few steps toward the Lieutenant General, and grasped his hand with her free one, gently dragging him to the couch.

Sam and Suzanne watched in surprise.

"Do you like to read, Mr. O'Neill?"

"I do." He answered as they walked through the living room.

Grace quickly climbed up onto the couch, and patted the seat beside her.

Jack sat down in the appointed seat, and she pulled the arm closest to her around her miniature frame before she gave him the book. "Will you please read this to me? I'd do it myself, but the some of the words are too big."

Jack's face softened into a small smile. "Sure."

"Do you want some coffee?" Suzanne asked as she looked over at Sam.

Sam turned her attention from the scene before she nodded. "Sure."

A few moments later, Sam was watching Jack read the story to Grace in the living room over the kitchen counter as Suzanne finished preparing the coffee maker.

Finally, Suzanne stepped over to stand beside Sam as they watched.

"She's never taken to anyone that quickly." She admitted.

Sam turned. "Huh?"

"She's very shy. And very precocious." Suzanne explained. "She takes a long time to warm up to people. In fact, I'm not sure she's ever asked Barry or me to read her a story since she got here."

"So, she already knew how to read when she first got here?" Sam asked, surprised.

Suzanne nodded. "I think she had parents who taught her flashcards or something..."

"Ah."

"Your husband is very good with children." She said after a long pause.

Sam smiled. "Yes, he is."

"And he never had any of his own?"

Sam tensed before inhaling softly. "There was...an accident. His only son died when he was ten."

"That's awful."

She nodded, absently. "That was just about fifteen years ago."

They lulled into a pause, and could hear Grace's soft giggles as Jack managed, almost miraculously, to pull her from her shell withthe goofy voices he used to accompany the story of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

"So, why Grace?" Suzanne asked after a few moments. "I mean, Sonya said you'd seemed to recognize her when you first saw her."

Sam inhaled slowly. "Do you...believe in miracles? Angels?"

"I do." She said, soberly.

Sam looked surprised, and Suzanne continued. "My husband, Barry, was in a scuba diving accident about...oh, six years ago, or so. He should have died with the amount of time that he was in the water, fighting against the elements. He should have drowned, having lost consciousness a long time before...but he said that there was...a little girl. She called herself "Grace", and she talked to him. Got him to save himself, basically."

Sam's eyebrows shot up.

"When Grace came to live with us, he turned to me, and he said that she looked familiar."

"She'd been the girl he'd talked to?"

She nodded. "What about you?"

"Well, in my line of work, there are a lot of things that can go wrong..." Sam began. "A lot of chances to think that something's real when it's not..."

"And?"

"About...six years ago...I was in one of those situations. I was stranded, and I saw hallucinations of my team members, and my...husband, though we weren't married at the time. But there was this...girl..."

"Who called herself Grace and looked exactly like her?"

"Yeah." Sam admitted.

Suzanne smiled. "Then, I hope everything works out for you guys."

Sam bit her lip. "Me too."

-

They were silent on the drive home. They hadn't left the Harper residence with Grace, only spent a few hours reading to her and talking to her. Sam was deep in thought as she watched the scenery pass.

"Something wrong?" Jack asked, looking over at her as they walked in the door.

"I don't believe in angels." She murmured, pensively.

He raised an eyebrow. "Neither do I. What's the deal?"

She looked over at him, almost realizing for the first time that she'd actually spoken aloud. "Oh...nothing..."

"Don't nothing me," he teased softly as he placed the keys on the table in the entry way. "I can see the wheels turning in your head."

"Grace...she apparently saved more than just me that year."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Apparently, she helped Suzanne's husband when he was in a scuba diving accident."

"Right..." He said, skeptically.

"Jack. You and I both know there could be any number of explanations for this..."

"Like?"

"Well, she never ACTUALLY told either of us what to do. Just helped us figure it out on our own. She can read, but she's just barely five years old. And she has parents who mysteriously died in a car accident, leaving her without any family whatsoever."

"And..."

"Maybe she's an Ancient."

"Right..." Jack said, sarcastically.

"It's not impossible, is it? I mean, they've come down in child form before..."

"And what? She just felt like doing the human thing again?"

"I don't know, but maybe we don't have to know. Maybe we just need to know that she's an Ancient."

"We don't even know that!" Jack cried. "And quite frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to know that."

"Why not?"

"Because she'd be taken off to Area 51 before you could say "we'd like to adopt her"."

"Not necessarily..."

"Sam, deciding that she's an Ancient could only bring pain to that little girl's life. Suddenly, people from all over the galaxy would be trying to kidnap her from us, and use her for their own purposes."

She looked away.

"Look, I get it. It's a mystery, and your job...your passion...is to make the mysterious seem less...well, mysterious...but maybe that's what we shouldn't do."

She inhaled as she looked back at him.

"Sam, if by some miracle, we are able to adopt her, she'll be in enough danger with our positions."

Sam nodded, slowly.

"But if we tell people that we think she's an Ancient? First of all, we make the ascended beings more than a little peeved that we figured it out. Second of all, we freak Danny and the rest of the SGC personnel out, thinking that there's some...Ancient Armageddon...going on, and thirdly, we open up a can of worms that is nothing but a bad dream."

"You're right." She admitted, though she didn't really want to admit that she was wrong.

He walked over and rubbed her arms with his hands, gently, as he looked into her eyes. "On a more positive note...I like her."

Sam managed a small smile. "I knew you would."

"And I think she likes me too."

"Suzanne said she hadn't taken to anyone as well as she took to you in all of the time that she'd been with them."

"She's a cute kid."

Sam nodded. "Yep."

"Now...dinner?"

She smiled warmly. "Sounds good."