"What are you looking at?" Sam asks Jack as he stares at a photograph in his locker.
"My family," he says in a strange dazed out voice. Sam sees the picture over his shoulder. It's not just his kids, but also his ex-wife. She understands, this woman was a part of his life for a really long time. She shouldn't let this hurt her.
"Okay, I'll leave you alone," she says walking quickly out of the room before she can start crying.
"Hey, Sam, are you okay?" Daniel says grabbing onto her elbow as she starts to leave the room.
She flashes him a huge smile, "Fine."
Jack leaves the room pushing past the two of them. Daniel looks at Sam knowingly, "Come on," he tells her as he ushers her over to his office.
-0-
"What is happening with Jack?" Daniel asks.
"It's nothing. I'm being a jealous idiot. He was looking at pictures of Sara."
"Sam, it doesn't mean anything. They are over. They are civil to each other, because of the kids. You mean everything to him."
"On the day that I met him they he was going out drinking to get over the fact that his divorce had just been finalized."
"Sam," Daniel says.
"I am being so stupid! I am going to have a baby Daniel. A baby! And here I am crying over some ill-fated relationship with some guy who belongs with his ex-wife."
"I don't know that he belongs with his ex-wife," Daniel says slowly.
"He has children, Daniel. They deserve their Dad!"
"And they have him. They have him as much as Sara allows him to. There is no way she's going to take Jack back. It was a big struggled to get her to agree to let Jack take the kids sometimes. If Ava hadn't plead his case for him all the time it might not turn out so well for him."
Sam looks down.
"Maybe you feel the same way about it that Sara does. Sam, if you want to get your kid away from him…"
"No," she says firmly.
"Okay, well, Jack is in this," Daniel says.
Sam looks at him in surprise, "You and Jack have talked about me?"
"Of course not," Daniel says with a coy smile.
Sam grins, "So, he's really serious about this?"
"He thinks he's unworthy Sam. Unworthy of you. Unworthy of his kids. His team. His friends," Daniel pauses before he gets to the last one, "His life."
These last words cause a sharp intake of breath from Sam. "I'll try to reassure him."
-0-
Sam is working in her lab with Daniel walks in. "Sam, Jack is here. Well, another Jack is here," he says softly.
"What?" she asks turning toward him, and expecting to see Jack in tow. She doesn't.
"I mean, another person came through the gate. It was Jack. But he was already here."
"You're sure this one is him?"
"DNA tests confirm."
"Then something else is at Jack ex's house," Sam says with terror in her voice.
"With his kids," Daniel says in terror.
-0-
When Sam arrives at Jack's house the kids are with their grandfather. Sara has taken Jack, or at least the thing that Sara thinks is Jack to the hospital. Ava reaches out her hands, and Sam takes her from her grandfather without even thinking about it.
"You must be the hot young blond my daughter told me about," Michael says.
Sam isn't exactly sure how to respond to that.
The older man smiles, "How is that son-in-law of mine doing?"
"Right now? I'm not sure," Sam says nervously bouncing Ava as the toddler starts to get antsy.
"I mean in general. Is that boy happy? He deserves to be happy, and he hasn't been for a long time."
Sam smiles insecurely, "I think so."
"If he's got you, and he's not happy he's a fool," Michael announces.
Ava taps on her shoulder, and pulls Sam's ear toward her, "Daddy loves you," she announces.
Sam blushes, and puts the little girl down, "I should probably get to the hospital to see what is happening. Is Charlie here? I should probably say goodbye to him."
Michael lets out a huge sigh, "That man of yours had some sort of talk, and now Charlie won't come out of his room."
Shit. What the hell did fake Jack do the kid?
"I'll just go…see him," she says going up the stairs. She's never been in this house before, but there is only one door closed, so she knocks on it.
"I'm not coming out Gramp."
"It's Samantha."
The door opens. "Did he tell me what you told me?"
"No," Sam says softly.
"It was a lie though."
"I guess I won't know unless you tell me what he said," she prompts hopefully.
"He said it wasn't my fault," Charlie says looking at his shoes.
"That's definitely the truth," Sam prompts.
"I almost killed my sister."
"Accidently, and almost. Those are the only parts that matter in that."
"What if she would have died?" he whispers.
"Then we would have been really sad, for a really long time, but we still would have loved you every bit as much," she says.
"Dad blames himself," Charlie says.
"And he shouldn't do that either," Sam observes.
"Will you hold me like you do Ava?" Charlie asks in a whisper so quiet that Sam almost has to ask him to say it again.
"Of course, baby," she says sitting down on the edge of his bed.
She starts to sing an obscure verse of "Twinkle, Twinkle" as she rocks him. Charlie begins crying, and looks embarrassed.
"You know your Daddy cries sometimes?" she asks him casually, as if she never even saw that he was crying.
"Really?"
"Sure. Everyone cries when someone they love gets hurt."
Charlie nods, and snuggles against her shoulder. A huge part of Sam still wants to rush to the hospital, but she knows that what she is doing right here, right now is more important.
-0-
Samantha is going to make an amazing mother, Jack thinks to himself. His kid is crying, and she's rocking him. Then, she tells him something, and he giggles. Giggles with tears running down his face.
"Charlie?" Jack says.
"Daddy," he says looking at the man with a question in his face. He clearly needs assurance that what he is doing is not wrong.
He gives the boy a wide grin which he hopes is a permission slip. He sits down on the bed by the kid's head, and he runs a hand over his son's hair.
"Are you sure about what you told me earlier?" Charlie asks.
Jack looks questionably at Sam hoping that the alien didn't hurt his kid, "I don't know, Sam, am I?"
"I think you're pretty sure the accident wasn't Charlie's fault, yeah," she says softly.
Jack's heart is in his throat. Sam had told him months ago that he should tell his kid that, but it wasn't him that finally did it. It took a damn rock to parent his kid properly.
"I am a hundred percent sure," Jack says.
"Can I come home with you tonight?" Charlie asks with wet eyes looking up at his father with hope.
"I'll ask your Mama, honey," he says.
"I promise I'll be good," Charlie says in a way that nearly breaks Jack's heart.
"Charlie, you do know that my mother and I didn't get divorced because of you."
"Because of what I did," Charlie says.
Tears comes to Jack's eyes, mostly because there is a grain of truth to his story. "No, Charlie. Your mother and I broke up because Daddy didn't know how to be a good husband and Daddy. When bad things happens he just pulls away and stops talking. He doesn't talk about how he feels and he doesn't cry."
"I do that too," Charlie says.
Shit. "Baby your mother and I are going to love you no matter what. People just don't stop loving their kids the way they do a husband or wife…it's just different."
"Why?"
"I don't really know kid. But I do know that I will love you forever and for always. Daddy was never mad at you, and I promise I didn't leave because of you."
-0-
"I should go home, Jack," Sam whispers later that night. Charlie has finally fallen asleep on the bunk his room.
"You could have my bed, and I could sleep on the couch," Jack offers.
"It's fine, Jack. It's long past time that I should be going home to my own house, and my own bed."
"I just feel bad that my kids keep chasing you away," he says.
Her heart is full, "Jack, I really like your kids. I'm not leaving to avoid them. I just don't want to be an invader."
"You're not," he says.
"Jack, I sleep here way more than I do at home."
"Move in then," he says.
"Move in? We've only known each other for two months!" Sam explains.
"You're right, it's crazy," Jack says glancing at his feet.
"Jack," she says softly. When he doesn't look at her she repeats the name again, "Jack, I'm not ready to share a bed with you yet."
"I told you that I'd be on the couch," he says confused.
"I know, but if we're living together…" she says.
"Carter, you and I have both gotten out of long term things. Both of them involve a great deal of pain. I'm not about to rush the physical thing. I would like to have you in the house when I wake up…when I go to bed."
"Well, if I'm here all the time anyway, I guess I might as well have my stuff here, most of it is anyway," she smiles.
"So you are saying, yes?"
"Yes."
The screaming of a child brings them into the bedroom to help Charlie out of his nightmare.