Ch 24

Five days later, Sam Carter stood on her CO's porch, biting her lip nervously. After a few aborted attempts, she finally raised her hand all the way to the door and knocked quickly.

It was a while before the door was opened. Jack O'Neill looked at her in surprise, his eyes widened. "Carter. Problem on the base?"

"Er… no sir," she said, shifting nervously on her feet. His hair looked very much like it hadn't been combed in a week, he seemed not to have shaved for nearly as long, and was wearing air force gray sweatpants with a hole in one knee and a faded Simpsons shirt that had clearly seen a lot of better day. "Did I wake you? I'm sorry, sir."

He waved a hand between them dismissively. "What's up, Carter?" he asked, sounding falsely casual.

"Well… nobody has heard from you in several days… Teal'c said you hung up on him on Tuesday, so…"

"You got the short straw?" he concluded.

"Actually, Daniel did," she admitted. "But… he looked a little bit too excited to be coming over. He's got a whole notebook full of questions he wants to ask you, so… I made him switch."

"Ah. Well, thanks for that." He nodded to the six pack of Guinness she was carrying in one hand, holding down by her side. "And that as well, if it's for me. Or were you just taking some delicious new friends for a walk?"

She laughed, even though the sarcasm felt a little forced, not his usual automatic rapport she was used to. She handed him the beer wordlessly, and offered, "Well, now that I'm legally old enough again, I figured the least I could do was buy you some beer."

He snorted and waved her inside, heading straight for the kitchen while she took her time taking off her light jacket and hanging it up. Taking a few deep breaths, she followed him into the den, where he was seated on the couch with an open Guinness and another waiting for her on the coffee table.

"So, um… how've you been?" she asked awkwardly after a few minutes of silence.

He shrugged. "Can't complain. Have a meeting with fraiser in two days to clear me for active duty again."

"Oh, right, your knee. Is it better?"

He shrugged. "I think it was pretty much better a couple weeks ago but there wasn't any reason to push her to test me on it then."

"Right, right." She picked at the label of her bottle. "Sir… I really want to thank you for everything you did for me, and Daniel. i… I don't really know what to say. I'm sorry."

He shrugged.

"Janet and General Hammond are very concerned," Sam said carefully, trying to look at him sideways to guage his reaction. "Um, I heard them talking about psych evaluations, and, well, I know how much you hate those, sir, so I guess I thought I'd just… you know… see if there was anything you might want to talk about. With, a friend, you know. First."

He was quiet for several more minutes, and she finally assumed he just wasn't going to respond. Feeling like she should go, she shifted awkwardly and said, "Okay, well, sorry for bothering you sir, I'll just."

"I'm so… confused," Jack said finally, sounding like it was costing him an arm and a leg to admit it. "And not in a 'crap Carter is trying to explain wormhole physics again' sort of way," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

She chuckled but didn't say anything, figuring now that he had started talking she shouldn't interrupt.

"It's so weird. i… I tried to totally compartmentalize everything when you guys were kids. I just… I mean it sort of didn't work because it was always obvious they were YOU. You were tearing around on that jeep like there was no tomorrow and I could never keep Daniel out of the dirt. But it was… so different, too. I just… I don't know. And then the last few weeks at the cabin especially, it was… like… I kept wishing you guys were there. I know that doesn't make sense. But I would catch myself thinking, 'I wish Carter could see that. I wish Daniel was here, he would love this.' Like, the whole time I was with the kid versions of you guys I was missing the grown up versions too."

"I don't think that sounds so crazy, sir," she interjected gently.

"Well, I mean it was easy not to dwell on it. You guys kept me on my toes for sure. It got harder not to think about it at the cabin though, I mean, things are just more relaxed up there, less distractions… and it's always been a family place to me. So being there with the kids and Teal'c, I guess, I just kept thinking the rest of my team should be there too… if that makes sense. Plus, that was after Thor had said he had no idea how to help. I guess that was when I started to think about future possibilities instead of just day to day. I tried not to but part of me kept thinking what if we never fix this? I mean there was no question I would have to keep you guys. But… it was a lot to think about. So I mainly just tried really really hard not to. Then it was all of a sudden just over, laugh it off and go back to normal once Fraiser clears you… I just… damn." He coughed to cover the emotion that had filled his voice suddenly. She pretended not to notice. "I can't even imagine what it was like," Sam offered quietly. "I mean, everyone at the base isn't being shy about sharing stories… most of them pretty embarrassing…" Jack waved it off. "They were all eating out of your hand. Daniel too. Forget it." She looked around the living room, smiling faintly. "Well, I guess it makes sense that you would need some time alone to sort through all of it, sir. It sounds very… confusing."

"I mean, don't get me wrong," he said suddenly. "I'm glad you're both back to normal. We need you. The SGC, I mean, you know, the planet, everyone… I'm glad to have my team back to full size. Definitely." She raised an eyebrow at how fast he was talking. "Still, I guess I just… I kind of miss them, ya know? I mean, the kids, you kids, you guys when you were kids. I got used to having them… you… around. And…" he trailed off absently.

"And what, sir?"

"It sounds really stupid, but… I didn't get to say goodbye to them. They… you… they… came into my room in the middle of a storm, so scared they were shaking, then we wake up and you guys are back to normal. I just… I guess I just need some time to process everything. I mean I get that I don't need to say goodbye because they're YOU and you guys are still here. And I'm glad of it, even if I still have no idea what happened. But, still…"

"You miss them," Sam agreed softly.

"Yeah. I miss them and I wish you guys could have met them. And I know that's all insane so I just feel stupid, trying to sort through it all."

"Well, would it help if I told you what Daniel, my dad, and Thor have found out about the device?"

He shrugged. "If you use small words. Maybe."

She laughed. "Basically… it was a vacation. The people who made the device, they loved children. They revered childhood as the best time of life, and… well, to make a long story Daniel spent forever telling me a little bit shorter, apparently they would take turns once a year using this device to turn them back into children for a month – one of THEIR months of course – so they could relax and enjoy life and be happy in the way only kids can do. So, it's basically just meant to be… fun," she concluded, the word sounding a little foreign on her own tongue. She frowned at that.

"well, you guys certainly had plenty of fun," he offered, meeting her eyes.

She smiled. "Because of you, from what I've heard, sir."

Jack shrugged. "Teal'c too. Team effort, Carter."

"Yes sir."

Someone started banging on his front door.

"Speaking of which," Jack muttered.

"They didn't tell me they were gonna…" Sam started, frowning as the front door opened uninvited and Daniel called, "Hellooooooo! Jack? Sam? We felt bad making you come alone and wanted to make sure everything's okay…"

"Of course you did," Jack grumbled, but he was smiling.

A little taken aback at the interruption, Sam was still happy to have her teammates there when she saw that not only were they clearly here to cheer up the Colonel whether he wanted it or not, they had brought massive amounts of food and a bag full of DVDs with them. They were here for the long haul, not willing to let the colonel brood by himself anymore.

As the day progressed, she could feel things returning to normal. Or, as normal as the complicated, simultaneously overly familiar and rigidly formal dynamics between their team could ever be.

As they all sat down to watch a movie Daniel had selected, he crammed himself next to her on the couch, completely wedging her between himself and the Colonel, who was steadily working his way through an entire pizza. "So, Jack, have you heard back from Jacob? Did he ever get his hands on that zat?"

"What zat?" Sam asked in alarm. She had spent some time with her father on base, but it had been well after Jack had gone home and cut himself off from everyone. She was unaware that anything had happened between them, and her dad had now been gone for a couple of days.

Jack stretched his arm along the back of the couch behind his 2IC so he could cuff Daniel in the back of the head. "Can it Spacemonkey. And no, we're good."

"What happened?" Sam demanded.

Jack shrugged. "Your dad was pretty pissed at me for not bringing you to him when he got here. I told him what I told Hammond about it, and that ultimately it had been hammond's decision. He didn't like that very much and may have threatened to do unpleasant things to me with a zat."

"Sir!" Sam said, horrified. And embarrassed. "I am so sorry. My father is so out of line…"

Jack shrugged. "I think I made the right call. No big deal. He chilled after George talked to him a little more, I think. Then asked a ton of questions about what you were like. I offered to put him up for an award for bravery in the face of adversity for raising you. Seriously, Carter, haven't you ever heard of sleeping through the night?"

Sam turned red. "Sorry, sir."

He waved the apology off. "Anyway, after that it was easy to get him talking about some of the trouble you caused the FIRST time you were a kid, and he mellowed after that. No big deal. I think he left here pretty happy about it all. he finally saw where I was coming from, keeping him away so you wouldn't be upset about your mom, and so Daniel wouldn't start asking about his parents." He gave the man a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "No big deal. Probably not the last time Jake will want to zat me, I'm used to it." He got to his feet and headed to the kitchen for another beer, whistling absently.

"We're very lucky," Daniel said quietly.

Sam raised an eyebrow at him.

"That we had Jack taking care of us. And Teal'c, of course," he added, smiling over at Teal'c, who was skipping through the previews of the movie they were about to watch.

"We took care of our teammates as you would do for us," Teal'c said. "You are as a brother and sister to me. I would not have it any other way."

"Thanks, Teal'c," Sam said with a smile, the gentle sincerity of his voice moving her in a way only Teal'c could ever do.

"Getting mushy on me, campers?" Jack asked as he came back into the room with fresh drinks for everyone.

"Never," Daniel said sarcastically, making Sam giggle.

"Hey, no giggling," Jack insisted with an exaggerated scowl. "Now that you're grown up again, I can actually enforce that one again."

They all laughed at that. When they had finally stopped, Daniel just wiped his eyes and said, "Yeah, Jack, good luck with that."

They all settled down around the living room, each one happy to be there. They were family, after all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The end.