One night that week, Sam was cleaning up the living room when her phone rang. The number on the caller ID made her pulse quicken slightly. "Hey, Mark," she greeted her brother.

"Hey, sis. How are you?"

"Good, you?"

"Real well. Listen, I have a business trip coming up in a few weeks and I was thinking that maybe I could arrange a layover in Colorado for a night, give us a chance to catch up. I was trying to remember the last time we actually saw each other, and I had to pull out a calendar to do it."

Sam smiled slightly. "Yeah, it's been a while."

"Phone calls have even gotten scarce in the last few months," he pointedly said. "What new project have they got you on that's keeping you so busy?"

She sighed. "Actually, it's not work that's been taking up most of my time."

There was a pause. "Are you seeing somebody?" he asked.

Sam hadn't ever told him about Jack, and decided this wasn't the time to do so. "That's not what I meant. I…I adopted two kids, Mark."

There was another silence, then the sound of laughter. "Okay, that was good one," he told her. "What's really going on?"

"I'm serious."

"What do you mean you're serious? Where did you get two kids?"

"It's a long story – "

"I've got time. How long ago was this?"

"Almost two months."

"Two months? In all that time, you never thought, 'Maybe I should pick up the phone and call my brother'?"

Sam sighed. "I meant to, I just… It's been pretty crazy trying to help them adjust and I was trying to figure out what to say." And get up the courage to do so, she thought to herself.

"I can't believe this…You're taking care of two kids, by yourself?"

"Not exactly," she replied, and instantly regretted it. Trying to explain Jack's role in this whole thing wasn't going to calm her brother down.

"What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

"I'm getting help and support from my friends here."

"Well, I guess that's something to be thankful for…" He sighed. "You really think that you can handle this alone?"

"It's a little late for that question, Mark."

"Yeah, I guess it is…I don't get it, Sam. Why would you keep this a secret?"

"It's not personal. I haven't been going around telling everyone I meet and then purposely left you out."

"I'd like to think I'm more than just 'some person'."

She sighed. "Of course you are. I've been really focused on making a life with the kids, and just… let the outside world stay outside."

"Sam?" a voice asked, and she turned to see Jake in his pajamas. "Will you tuck me in?"

"Yeah, Jake. Go get in bed and I'll be there in a minute." The little boy nodded and headed for his bedroom.

"Was that one of them?" Mark asked, having heard their voices through the phone.

Sam was starting to get a headache. "Yeah."

"You called him Jake?"

She took a deep breath. "Yeah. His name is Jacob." And there was so much more that needed to be said, but she was far too tired to get into it and Jake was waiting for her. "Look, I have to go. We'll talk again later, okay?"

"Yeah. Bye."

Sam didn't get much sleep that night, thinking about her conversation with Mark. Jake noticed that she was distracted in the morning and tried to cheer her up on the way to school. Once he'd been dropped off and Abbie was at day care, Sam stopped by the Air Force Academy Hospital before going over to the SGC.

"Do you have a few minutes to talk?" she asked Janet as she came into her office.

She nodded. "My next appointment isn't until 9:30. What's wrong?"

Sam closed the door behind her. "My brother called last night, wanting to catch up. I don't think I'd talked to him since Christmas."

Janet knew what that meant. "So, you hadn't told him…"

"No."

"Ah. How'd he take the news?"

"Not well. I don't know what our relationship was like in your reality, but here… We were distant for a long time after my mother died. We started talking again about seven years ago, and we definitely got closer, even if it wasn't like when we were young. We send holiday cards and call every now and then. He sends pictures of his kids sometimes; I think they'll both be in high school in the fall."

Janet nodded. "Mark came back into your life after Jake was born. He regretted not seeing your father before he died. Tried to make up for that."

"I can understand that he's upset to be hearing about all of this two months later. I didn't mean to hurt him, I really didn't, I just… I knew the first words out of his mouth would be questions about whether I could actually do this."

"Were they?"

"Pretty much. I know I don't have the perfect nuclear family, but… who hits perfection anyway?"

"I'm not even sure it exists."

"Exactly!"

Janet smiled. "You know that he's just worried about you, right?"

"I didn't ask him to be worried about me."

"No, but I think it comes with the territory of being an older brother."

Late that night, after Jake and Abbie were in bed, Sam sat on the couch and pulled out her phone to call her brother. "Hi, Sam," he answered.

"Hi. I just… I really am sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Mark. And I know you probably think I've lost my mind, but… I am doing this, and I hope that you can eventually be okay with it."

He sighed. "I don't think you've lost your mind – not completely, anyway – and I'm sorry for how I reacted, I was just… really surprised."

"I know."

"So, you have two kids now."

"Yep."

"Jacob and…"

"Jacob and Abigail Carter. Or just Jake and Abbie."

"Okay. Jake and Abbie. How old are they?"

"Jake's six and Abbie's about to turn two."

"And they're siblings? I mean, biological siblings; obviously they'd be siblings now."

"Yeah, they are."

"How did all of this happen?"

She wished so much that she could share the real story; that he was actually biologically related to these two kids and that Jake really was named after their late father instead of it just being a strange coincidence. But she couldn't, not now. And maybe that was part of the reason that she hadn't told Mark earlier – she didn't want to have to feed him the elaborate lie that they'd concocted.

"Wow," he said when she was finished. "I guess you saved them from a life in the system – or from being separated. I know that siblings are hard to get placed together."

If only he knew what kind of hell they were really saved from, she thought. He'd be just as amazed by them as I am. "I don't really think about it that way. It's not just what I'm doing for them; it's what they're doing for me, too. My life is totally different now."

He laughed. "Yeah, I felt the same way when David was born… You're really okay doing this by yourself? Not that I don't have faith in you, but… I know how hard raising two kids can be, and I've got Emma to share the load with. I don't want you to get burnt out."

She was tempted to tell him about Jack, but decided there had been enough surprises for one week. And besides that, she really didn't want to start another fight with him about why she was in Colorado and Jack was in Washington DC. "I'll be okay. Like I said, I've got my friends here."

"And you've got me, okay? I might be a time zone away, but any time you need advice or someone to vent to or anything, just call."

"Thank you."

"And maybe over the summer you guys could come out to San Diego or I could bring my family to Colorado so everyone can meet each other. I'm sure David and Lisa are gonna love having little cousins to play with."

Sam smiled. "That sounds good."

TBC...

A/N: For anyone wondering where Sam's brother was... there you go! I made up his wife's name; if someone knows what it actually is, I'll correct it. Thanks for the feedback I've been getting!