One evening about a week and a half later, Sam was trying to get dinner together for Abbie and Jake when her cell phone started ringing. "Hey, Daniel," she answered it after checking the caller ID.

"Hey. Is Jake around?"

She frowned. "Should I ask why you're calling him?"

"Nope." She rolled her eyes, but handed the phone to the little boy.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jake, it's Daniel. I assume Sam's listening to every word you say now, isn't she?"

He glanced up at her. "Uh-huh."

"All right, then just use short answers – yes or no only. I need your help with something; are you up for it?"

"Okay."

Sam kept listening, but didn't get much of anything from the fact that Jake was saying nothing but, "Uh-huh," "Nope," and "Okay." He finally ended the call and handed the phone back to her.

"Anything you want to share?" she asked.

Jake shook his head. "Nope."

She wasn't able to get a single detail out of him for the next two days. On Saturday morning, just as she was setting out plates with brunch, the phone rang. What is it with people always calling during meals? she wondered as she reached for the device.

"Hello?"

"Colonel Carter?" she was pretty sure she recognized the voice as belonging to one of the lab technicians at the SGC.

"Yeah, Airman, what is it?"

"I'm sorry to bother you on the weekend, Ma'am, but there's been an… 'incident' in the labs and we need you here ASAP."

She frowned. "Dr. Lee should be on-call this weekend."

"He's not answering his phone, Ma'am."

"There's a list of people for you to call, Airman."

"We have, Ma'am. No one else is available."

"I'm not either." There was a noise in the background that sounded suspiciously like a small explosion. "What was that?"

"Um… like I said, Ma'am. We've had an incident here."

Sam sighed. "I'll be there in 20 minutes."

"Thank you, Ma'am." The Airman hung up and turned around to face the other two people in the lab. "What did you just do?"

Cam and Vala looked at him sheepishly. "That was a slightly larger bang than I was going for," the pilot admitted. "What, you never put a bit of sodium in water in your college chemistry class?"

Vala looked down at the shattered beaker and spilled water on the slightly scorched bench in front of them. "I think that was a bit more than 'a bit'," she pointed out.

"Hey, at least it sounded convincing on the phone right? I bet she'll be here in 15 minutes, tops."

True to his prediction, Sam's Volvo was in the parking lot 15 minutes later. "I'm still hungry," Jake complained as they rode the elevator down into Cheyenne Mountain.

"I know you are, buddy," Sam told him as she shifted Abbie to her other hip. "I'll take you to the mess hall once I figure out what's going on around here."

Jake shook his head. "No, I want something to eat now."

"Jake – "

"Please! I'm hungry."

"You would think that I'm starving you. Okay, you know how to get from the mess to my lab, right?" He shook his head. "You knew the last time we were here…"

"I forget. Come with me, please?"

Sam looked at her watch. If fifteen minutes without her help wasn't long enough to create a disaster, then sixteen probably wouldn't be either. "Okay, fine. But we have to hurry."

As soon as they got off the elevator, they headed for the mess hall. Sam decided it was a good sign that there weren't any alarms blaring or personnel running around in a panic.

As soon as Jake pushed the doors open, Sam froze. The mess hall was filled with people, and a banner on the back wall read 'Happy Birthday, Sam!'

"Surprise!" her teammates called as she came in the room. Sam was speechless for a minute.

"Oh, my God," she finally said. "You guys set this all up?"

"With a little help," Daniel said as he gave Jake a high-five.

There was cake and drinks and other goodies, and several people had brought presents. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon together. Jake and Abbie were appropriately sugar-high by the time that Sam and Janet got them loaded into the former's car.

"Happy Birthday," Janet told her friend as she gave her a hug.

"Thank you. This was… great, really. Tell everyone that I really did appreciate it."

"I will."

"You want to come over to the house for dinner tonight?"

"You just want help wrangling those two," Janet accused with a laugh, looking through the car window at Jake and Abbie. They were playing with a small foam ball that Jake had found in the backseat.

"Am I that obvious?" Sam asked.

"Yep. Besides, I have plans for tonight."

"With Cassie?"

She smiled. "No… with one of the other doctors from the Air Force Academy Hospital."

Sam raised an eyebrow; she'd had no idea that Janet had started seeing someone. She was glad her friend was moving on, though. "Oh, really?"

"It's nothing all that big," she tried to convince her. "Just…two friends sharing a meal."

"Where?"

Janet looked away, knowing that she was busted. "Blue Star." An upscale restaurant in Colorado Springs with an incredible wine list.

Sam laughed. "Okay, I want to hear all the details on Monday."

"Will do. Have a good night with the kids."

Abbie loudly sang along with the radio the whole way home, which greatly amused the other occupants of the car. "Oh, I hope you guys are gonna crash pretty soon," Sam told them with a laugh.

"Wasn't it fun, Sam?" Jake asked.

"It definitely was. Thank you for helping Daniel with his plans."

"It would have been better if Jack was here."

Sam sighed. Jack was supposed to have been visiting that weekend, but a conference had come up that he absolutely HAD to be at. "Yeah, it would have been, but I'm grateful for what I did have. And he'll probably call tonight."

Both kids were still bouncing off the walls by the time they got to the house; they had a jumping contest to get inside instead of walking. Sam shook her head with a smile as she watched, hoping that their antics wouldn't result in her having to break out the first-aid kit. As they all came into the living room, they stopped short.

"Dada!" Abbie squealed.

"Jack, you're here!" Jake cried at the same time, and they both went running for hugs.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked as she joined them.

"I had a spare six hours and I couldn't think of a better place to spend them," he told her. "Happy Birthday."

They shared the work for baths and bedtime that night, knowing that Jack would have to leave soon after. By the time Jake was finally out, Sam and Jack had an hour left to talk before he needed to head to the airport. She pulled a couple beers out of the fridge and they curled up together on the couch.

"There's something I've wanted to talk to you about," she told him.

"What's up?"

"No one's said it officially yet, but I'm pretty sure they're going to need me to go to the Midway Station and help with some of the problems they've been having there."

Jack sat up. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think General Landry doesn't want to bring it up because of Jake and Abbie, but…We really need to get this sorted out and they're running out of options."

"How long would you be gone?"

"I don't know. A couple weeks maybe."

"What about Jake and Abbie?" Since she'd stopped going on missions with SG-1 about two months earlier, Sam hadn't ever been away from the kids overnight – this was going to be a big deal.

"Well, school's almost out for the summer," she pointed out. "I was thinking that maybe they'd like to see DC?"

Jack froze. "You mean…you want me to take them?"

"Yeah. I thought it would be a chance for them to get out of Colorado, see somewhere new. And they'd get to spend more time with you."

He shook his head. "I don't know about this, Sam."

She frowned a little, surprised by his reaction. "Why not? I mean, we were just talking a few days ago about me bringing them out to see you over the summer."

"It's not the same thing."

"I know that, but…" Sam sighed, frustrated. "I don't get it, Jack. Jake and Abbie love you. They love spending time with you. And it seems like the feeling's mutual, unless I'm totally off-base." She'd been watching him get closer to the kids every time he came to visit. She could hear how his voice changed when Jake or Abbie got on the phone at night. Yes, she understood that he had some valid concerns, but they were never going to have a chance to get past them if he didn't even try.

"That's got nothing to do with it," Jack mumbled, eyes focused on the floor.

"It should," she shot back. "I think they need this trip – and I think you do, too."

Jack sighed. She was asking for something he wasn't sure he could give: trust in himself. It would be so much easier to suggest that she ask Janet instead, but he couldn't do it. Sam was right; as long as he was very, very careful, this could be something really good for him and the kids. They were stealing his heart and he really did want to spend more time with them. "Okay."

Sam blinked. "Okay? You'll do it?"

"Yeah. They can come to DC."

She smiled. "Great."

TBC...

A/N: I know Sam's birthday is actually in December, but I decided to go with Orlin's delusion that it's in May for my own purposes. :-) As always, thanks for the feedback!