"You must be Megan," Sam says, extending her hand to the eleven year old. Megan's hair is chin-length, and blond. It doesn't look like she's seen the inside of a tub for a while. She has blue eyes as cold as ice, and she doesn't extend her hand or say anything. Her face is so expressionless that she could give Teal'c a run for the money.
"You're going to be coming home with my husband and I," Sam says. The girl plants her feet on the floor firmly. Clearly she has no intention of going anywhere.
"Megan, come on, this place will be good," Jordan assures her. Jack isn't sure why the kid decided to trust him so completely, but apparently it's not unusual for abused kids to have a sort of protector radar. They can see it in your eye when you would die defending them, and they cling to you.
"They're the reason mom can't take care of us anymore," she accuses the adults.
"I think the words you're looking for are 'thank you', little missy, now get in the car," Jack says flippantly.
Sam and Megan turn to him with identical glares of distain.
"Megan, you need to go with these kind folks. You and I both know you can't stand in the hallway forever, and if we have to wait until you fall asleep and drag you to their house, it isn't going to be good for anyone," the social worker says.
"Fine! But if my mom chokes on her own vomit and dies because I wasn't there to take care of her, it's on you assholes."
"Eleven," Jack mouths to Sam behind the young girl's back, with shock on his face.
-0-
"What is this?" Jordan asks, staring at the grill.
"Steak, I thought you guys coming to stay with us would be cause to celebrate," Jack says.
"What are you doing to it?" Jordan asks.
"He better not be burning it," Sam says, walking out to examine the progress of the meat while holding the baby.
"I've just never seen… that," Jordan explains.
"Grilling, you've never seen grilling before," Jack says, nonplussed.
"I mean, I didn't know that people got meat that wasn't from a restaurant. I mean, like mac and cheese or pizza rolls, but…"
Both of the adults are staring at him.
"What?" he asks nervously.
"Jordan, are you telling me that you've never had a home-cooked meal before? You've never had food that started as like hunks of raw meat and fruits and vegetables, and became food?"
He shakes his head.
Sam impulsively leans forward and kisses his forehead. She can tell by his eyes that this is something that is new for him as well. It's over the line. It's way too soon, but apparently she got away with it, because he doesn't seem bothered by it.
"How is Meg?" Jack asks.
"She locked herself in her bedroom," Sam says.
"She does that a lot," Jordan says with worry.
"She is going to be just fine," Jack assures him. He doesn't need Jordan to be acting like an adult in worrying about his sister. They have real adults in their lives now.
-0-
Sam hears a noise in the middle of the night. Surprisingly, it isn't her daughter crying, but she is pretty sure it was one of the new kids in her house. When she enters the living room, she sees Meg with her head buried in the fridge.
"Jesus! I'm sorry. I'll go back to bed," she exclaims, jumping when she sees Sam.
"It's all right, honey. If you are hungry, I can cook you something."
"Cook?" Meg says sarcastically.
Sam forgot that was a foreign concept to these kids.
"Well, do you want me to heat up the steak?" Sam offers.
Meg crunches her nose. "You don't have any pizza rolls or anything."
Sam glances at the clock, "We could look for an all-night diner."
Meg's eyes brighten up. "Seriously?"
"Not going to let you starve, just let me leave a quick note for Jack."
-0-
Sam decides not to push Megan by making her talk while they eat. She remembers how long it took her to come around to her father after her mom's death, and she knew him beforehand. Of course, there had been the complicated fact that she had blamed her father for her mother's death, but if she was honest with herself, she would have to admit that Meg blamed Jack for getting separated from her mother in much the same way.
"Can I get dessert, too?" Meg asks with eyes shining.
"Sure, but it will cost you," Sam replies teasingly.
"I don't have any money," Meg points.
"Oh, it's not going to cost you money. Oh, no, it's going to cost you behavior. You are going to have to talk to me the whole time we eat it," Sam says with a wicked grin.
"Do I at least get to choose the topic of conversation?" Meg asks, narrowing her eyes at the older woman.
"Sure, whatever you want."
"X-files," Meg says with confidence.
"The TV show?"
Megan nods, thinking for sure that this is going to be a deal breaker. No adult is going to want to talk about what her mother referred to as 'that shit'.
"Fine, but no spoilers, I'm about a half season behind," Sam admits.
"What? You watch the show?"
"Sure. Are you going to be offended if I point out the inaccuracies? It drives Jack nuts when I do that. That's actually why I'm a half season behind. He refuses to watch any science fiction with me anymore. Since the baby entered the picture, I really haven't had that much free time anyway. We should watch it together sometime."
A tiny smile forms in the corner of Megan's mouth. She might be as hard as nails, but love is like acid to this little heart that's never known it, and acid of course dissolves nails.
-0-
The Next Day
"Please, I am way too old to have someone walk me to class," Megan rolls her eyes.
"I need to meet your teacher."
"Well, can you do it sometime when I'm not around? You are so embarrassing!" Megan begs.
"I'll walk a few steps behind," Sam says, bowing to the girl's will gain. She wonders if she will ever reach the point where she feels like she is giving the girl she calls her daughter directions, instead of taking them from her.
The woman standing at the door to the classroom is young, almost impossibly young for a teacher. She greets Megan, and Megan is just about the only student who skirts by without a fist pound and a "Good morning, Mrs. Greenberg".
"Hi, I am Meg's new foster mother, Mrs. O'Neill," Sam says, extending her hand.
"Nice to meet you," the woman says with a wide grin, "The girl has had a bit of a run of hard luck lately, hasn't she? I hope she will be able to say with your family for a while."
"Well, we'd like to keep her and her brother forever, but we might not have control over it."
"Well, that's good," the woman smiles, "Will she be going back on her medication then?"
"Medication?" Sam asks in surprise.
"Yes, she has a prescription for ADHD medication, but her mother didn't believe in it. She became quite angry whenever I discussed it with her."
"Yes, I am familiar with the woman's volume," Sam mutters causing the teacher to let out a very quiet giggle. "I wasn't aware she had problems with focus," Sam looks at the girl poking the boy in front of her. She should have guessed.
"I feel sorry for her. She tries so hard. It sometimes takes her seventeen or eighteen tries to get through one long division problem. I put her in her own little study area, and it does help her focus, but she views it as punishment, and the girl has a hard enough life," the teachers speaks the last words in a whisper that alerts Sam to the surprising fact that her husband has probably not been the only one filling out those abuse and neglect forms that he got so familiar with.
"I'll contact a doctor about it. If you have any questions or comments, I'm leaving our contact information with the front office."
"I'm so glad to have met you, Mrs. O'Neill," the woman says with a smile.
-0-
"Hello, welcome to class," a teacher in her sixties greets Jordan with both words and sign language. Jordan pushes past the teacher into the classroom, only slightly less embarrassed by his guardian than his older sister.
"Jordan knows sign language?" Jack asks in surprise.
"No, I've been trying to teach it to him, and the whole class, ever since I found out that he was losing his hearing. He insists that he is fine, and he doesn't need it. I thought having the rest of the kids learn it would help, but it didn't."
Jack blinks. Jordan told him the first time they met that he was going deaf, not that he was just hearing impaired. Since then, Jordan had seemed so normal, listening better than most kids to make up for his lack of hearing, that Jack had sort of forgotten about the future part of his diagnosis.
This kid isn't just hard of hearing, this kid is losing his hearing.
"Are you… his somehow?" the teacher asks.
"Yes, sorry, my wife and I are his foster parents, and we are looking at the possibility of adopting him and his sister. My name is Jack O'Neill."
"Pleasure to meet you," the teacher says, giving him a hand shake which his firm and long. "You should talk to the school nurse about his hearing. She tried to convince the mom to get hearing aids. I know that she was really against it, but the nurse says it's going to make his hearing deteriorate faster."
Anger boils in Jack's heart at the idea of the mother letting some kid go deaf out of neglect.
"I'll stop by, thanks," Jack says.
-0-
When the kids are all in bed that night (a bit late, Sam let Megan stay up to watch an episode of X-Files with her), Jack hands Sam a sign language book.
"What's this?" she asks.
"I think we'd better start learning. The kid is going to need it to communicate one day, and he's too afraid of being different to learn it. The teacher is a gem that is teaching it to the whole class to try to lessen that, but I think he's going to need to know that he's always going to be able to talk to his family."
"Wow, yeah."
"I found a class… Tuesday night. Jon will watch the girls. Should we pull the trigger and register?" Jack asks.
"We should invite Meg to come. If she doesn't want to, we should probably not push it."
He nods. His wife is good at this whole making people feel like they are family.
"The kid probably needs a hearing aid too. Something like that we need to go through official foster care channels, and his mom is dead set against it, even if it is going to make her son go deaf not to get it."
"Bastard."
"Worst case, we take care of it after we adopt them. I'm tempted to pull some strings and get it rushed."
"Not yet," Sam cautions not wanting to have to go there unless it was really necessary. "We're going to have to look into get meds for Meg. Apparently she's got ADHD, and mom…"
"Refused meds," they say together.
Jack squeezes Sam's hand harder than necessary. She can tell that he is just barely holding in his fury.
"Jack, they are going to be fine now. They're safe now."