It was Daniel who told Sam about Cassie at first. He walked into Sam's lab with a smile on his face. "Jack might have picked up another hitchhiker on our mission," he says leaning against the doorway.
"Please tell me that some other women did not fall in love with him," Sam begs.
"I won't call her a woman," Daniel says.
"What?" Sam asks her alarm not disappearing, but changing shape.
"Well, a little girl might just have captured his heart. She's been through a lot, Sam."
"Where is she?" Jack asks.
"VIP room," Daniel says.
"Daniel, go ask the General if we can bring her home."
Sam and Jack had just moved into a new house a week before. It has six rooms, which seamed excessive until you really started to do the math. Sam and Jack would need one room, one would be for the baby, one for Charlie, one for Ava, and then two rooms for Sam's mother and a nurse if she should choose to come to live with them. If not, they would convert them into offices.
In any case, one of the rooms of the house was made for a little girl right now. It was pink, and frilly, and full of dolls and books. She felt a desperate need to bring this little orphan there.
When she sees the girl she realizes the room is not right for her, because she is a lot older than was implied by Daniel's words.
"Hi," she says with a smile.
"Cassie, this is Sam. She's going to stay with you for a little bit okay?" Jack asks.
The little girl wraps her arms around Jack, and refuses to let go.
"Okay honey, I'll stay," he promises with a giggle.
"I had Daniel ask if you could come home with you. We've got a room a lot nicer there than this one. It's meant for a little girl, although one who is a lot smaller than you."
Cassie looks at them with a question in her eye. Both adults answer the question that she thinks they are asking.
"Yes, we live together," Jack says.
"It's a room for Jack's little girl Ava, but she only lives with us part time, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing with you for a while."
Cassie smiles, and starts to walk toward the door.
"Not quite yet. Daniel is asking permission for us. We can only take you if the general decides it is okay."
Cassie puts a hand on Sam's stomach.
"This is my son."
Cassie looks at Jack obviously confused by the face Sam had chosen to say "my" instead of "our" Sam really hopes he is going to field the question. Cassie is a lot older than his kids were, old enough that she could probably understand a story a bit closer to reality than the one he gave to the little kids.
"The baby is going to live with Sam and I when it is born, full time," he says with a smile. It's a nice way of handling things. Simple, clear, and completely without lies.
Sam can't help but wonder if they are not giving Cassie a pretty flawed impression of what Earth culture is like.
"Most Earth families are not as complicated as ours is."
Jack puts an arm around her. He desperately wants to say that he hopes this Earth family is going to get more complicated, but he knows better than to make promises to a girl that he doesn't know if he can keep. Instead he says, "But as long as everyone has lots of love it doesn't really matter how complicated the family is."
-0-
He can hear the panic attack from the other side of the bathroom door. He had been hoping, really sincerely hoping that Sam was only ever going to have to suffer one of those.
"Sam? Let me in honey," he coaxes.
"I'm fine Jack," she says with words clearly drown in tears.
"You're not fine, Sam. Just let me in. I just want to hold you until you feel better."
She opens the door, to reveal a face more red than he thought humans could go, and eyes more bloodshot than tear choked. He doesn't say a word, but just pulls her into a tight hug.
"I just started thinking about everything. The baby, Cassie, and my mother, and I just panicked. Then I started to think about my panicking and how this is not the way that adults deal with things, and it just made it so much worse."
"Sam, we don't have to take Cassie in."
"Jack, she is a little girl who just watched her whole planet die. The only time I saw her eyes light up was when she saw the panda bear on the wall of Ava's room. I'm not going to in there and inform her that she is homeless."
"That's not what we would be doing Sam. You know that Janet would be willing to take that little girl in. If not, we'd find her somewhere. And your mom doesn't have to come live with us either. She's been fine with your dad for years."
"She's been with him a long time, exactly! That's why she deserves a break! A change in pace! I can't just abandon her."
"Sam sweetie, you matter too. You matter just as much as your Mom, and Cassie, and the baby. Let's take some time away from everything, from your job, and kids, and thinking about the future. Let's just go to my cabin for a week. Then when we come back you can choose out the parts of your life you really want to keep. Okay? I mean, our bio kids stay, but the rest is all optional."
"Jack, I'm eight months pregnant."
"I said Minnesota, not the end of the Earth. We do have doctors there."
"Okay," she says leaning against him. He can feel the moment that her tense muscles relax, and he wonders if she even knew that she had clenched them.