A Week Later
"Can we go through the names of my cousins one more time?" Cassie asks her mother nervously.
"Honey, there isn't going to be a test," Janet teases her daughter.
"Have you explained airport security to her?" Daniel asks Janet, thinking that is probably going to be a much bigger deal when the girl actually encounters it.
"I don't know how you're supposed to act around cousins. I've never had cousins or aunts or uncles before," Cassie says.
"Sweetie, you've sent them e-mails, you've talked to them on the phone before," Janet says.
"It's not the same," Cassie says.
Daniel bends down to look into the eyes of her, "Let me tell you a secret, I'm not really used to a family either."
"But they aren't your family," Cassie says.
Janet is about to scold her for her rudeness, but Daniel isn't offended, and he says, "Last year, they decided that I was family."
"Well, if they adopted you ,they're surely going to adopt me," Cassie says with newfound confidence.
"You were worried that your own family wasn't going to love you?" Janet asks. "You're amazing, and they are going to love you with all of their hearts. You have absolutely no reason to be nervous."
"But I'm still nervous," Cassie informs her.
"They really are great people, Cass," Daniel assures her.
"Oh, I'm not nervous about them anymore. Now, I'm just nervous about flying in a plane," Cassie says with a laugh, "I think I'd feel better if I knew exactly how they flew."
Daniel looks at Janet who looks as stunned as he does. "I think a call to Auntie Sam is in order."
-0-0-0-
"No! I don't want Emma to leave! Come on, Emma, we'll hide where they can never find us!" Ty exclaims as the doorbell rings. He grabs the girl's hand, and they run up the stairs together.
Jack giggles as he opens the door. He has no doubt in his ability to find the children when he needs to.
"Hey, Jack, how is that baby of yours?" Henry asks.
"Fine. How is Stargate Command since I left it yesterday?"
"Dandy. Where are the kids?" he asks, looking around.
"They've decided to hide from us; they don't want to be separated," Jack explains.
"Shouldn't we go look for them?" he asks.
"It might be funnier if we wait down here until they're tired of hiding, and then have them come down to look for us."
Henry laughs, "Jack O'Neill, you are something else."
"You want a beer?" Jack asks walking into the kitchen.
Henry nods his head, and Jack grabs two of them out of the fridge, and hands one to his friend.
"What are you plans for Christmas?" Jack asks.
Henry shrugs.
"Hammond doesn't have you on a mission, does he?" Jack asks.
"No, there are no missions scheduled over Christmas."
"So are you leaving, going to visit family or anything?" Jack asks.
"There really isn't any family to visit."
"I'm sorry," Jack says. "Hey, why don't you come to Christmas at our house?"
"I couldn't impose like that."
"It's not going to be anything big. Just a normal dinner at our house, plus my mom. Seriously, you're welcome to come. We could use a little more family, as well."
"If you really just wanted more people, you would have a lot of people to invite. Your team, for instance."
"Daniel is spending Christmas with Janet's family. Feretti is going to see his folks. Even Teal'c is having dinner with a girl he met at church," he ignores the eye raise the last comment gives him, "And even if all of this wasn't true, I'd want to spend Christmas with you and your daughter."
"Says the man who's gone through the Stargate more than any other person of Earth," Henry says.
"So that's a yes on the Christmas?" Jack asks.
"Emma could use a little more family," he agrees.
"Daddy, come find us!" Emma calls.
The Next Day
"Cassie, why don't you sit by the window, it has the best view," Daniel asks Cassie, as he and Janet board the plane with the girl between them.
"Doesn't it also have the scariest view?" she asks nervously.
"It's not nearly as scary as the way that we got from Toronto to Colorado," Daniel says cryptically, earning a laugh from the little girl, "But you can sit wherever you want."
"I think that I want to sit by the window," she says boldy.
A women smiles at them, and lightly touches the girl's arm as they pass, "Honey, you look just like your dad."
Cassie blinks at the older women for a long second, trying to figure out exactly how to respond to the comment. She eventually settles on, "Thanks, 'cause he's super-handsome."
Daniel's cheeks go red at the proclamation, and Janet snickers behind him.*
-0-0-0-
"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Cassie's new grandmother exclaims, giving her the kind of hug which literally takes away the breath, before passing her over to her great-grandmother. The older women has a lot less strength, but she still has enough strength to make it very difficult to breath for a couple of seconds.
"The kids are all making snowmen in the backyard. You probably don't have snow pants, with how infrequently it snows down in Colorado, but never fear, the family brought everyone's old snow clothes, and there is probably something you can fit into," the older mother says, letting go of the child, only to guide her by her shoulders out of the room.
"I'd rather stay here with you," Cassie says nervously.
"Nonsense!" the older women exclaims. "You want to go out and play with the children."
"Janet," Cassie says with terror in her eyes.
But it's not her mother that comes to her rescue. Daniel asks, "You want me to come out with you for a little bit?"
Her whole face lights up, and he takes her hand as they move to the back of the house to find snow-suits.
-0-0-0-
Hannah is laying on her stomach on a blanket in the living room. Tyler is laying in front of her face, making funny faces at her, and she's moving her arms around. It looks like she's trying to swat her big brother in the face.
The doorbell rings, and Tyler runs to it and begins jumping up, trying to peer through the peephole that is far above his head.
"Let me get it," his grandfather says, coming up behind.
"It's Emma, I just know it!" Tyler says.
Ty is, of course, correct his prediction. As soon as the door opens to allow Emma and her father into the house, Emma exclaims, "I brought my dress-up clothes. Let's go play princess!" Emma says, waving a suitcase in her hands.
"Yes!" Ty says, pumping the air before following behind her.
"I'm terribly sorry about the fact that your grandson is probably going to spend Christmas in a dress. I tried to talk her out of this idea, but my efforts were rewarded by not only tears, but a very condemning and logical talk from my little girl about what a bigot I was not to letting a little boy dress however he wanted to dress."
"She didn't use the word bigot, did she?"
"Nope, but the words she used did have quite a bite to them, though. I believe the term 'poopy head' was brandied about," Henry admits.
"We're not much bothered by Ty's choice of clothing anymore," Jacob admits with a smile.
"That's good; I'm not quite as accepting about it as I'd like to be," Henry admits.
Jacob smiles, "Parenting, or grandparenting, for that matter, is a strange thing, isn't it? You put all of this effort into trying to make your kids into the person you want them to be. You try to teach them right from wrong. You read to them and talk to them so they'll do better in school. You make them do chores so they'll be independent one day. You try to guide them into having the right friends. You enroll them in all sorts of after school activities, and fret about what kind of music and movies and books they're exposed to."
Henry nods.
"And sometimes you get so caught up in that that you forget, you have almost no say in the sort of person they become someday."
Henry looks at the man in surprise. Just then, Sam comes running through the room, "I think I'm burning the turkey! Dad, why didn't you remind me to set a timer on the turkey?!"
"Probably because you never asked me to, dear," he says calmly.
When she's out of sight, he looks back at Boyd and says, "And it's only when they're grown up that you realize that it's good you don't have complete control over the person that they become. Because let me tell you, in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined a person as amazing as my daughter. Ty isn't the grandson that I would have asked for, but I am so unbelievably glad that he is the grandson that I got."
-0-0-0-
Janet glances out the window at the snowball fight that is going on in the backyard. The combatants range from four to sixteen, with the exception of Daniel, the only adult.
He throws a snowball, hitting Cassie directly in the chest. The snow covers her in a chilly powder, and she scoops a handful of snow off the ground to retaliate. He grabs one of her toddler-aged cousins, and holds the child up as a human shield.
The children seem to be forming some sort of Geneva convention about how ethical this behavior is when he puts a snow ball in the hand of the youngster, and charges a few of the older boys who are hiding behind a fort.
The boys are so surprised by the unexpected onslaught that the toddler manages to drop the snowball in her hand on one of their heads. It falls off the head without even having cracked, and all the children begin laughing.
"He's great with kids," Janet's grandmother says, coming up behind her unannounced.
Janet turns toward the older women, and accepts the cup of hot chocolate that she is offered, "That he is," she admits.
"And you're engaged now, last year you wouldn't even admit that you were dating," the women continues.
"We weren't dating last Christmas, it wasn't that we weren't willing to admit it, Gran."
"He's a good one, Janet. I never liked that first husband of yours."
"I know, Gran, you told him so the first time that you met him."
"That's the sort of thing that happens when you don't get married in a church. You and Daniel are going to get married properly, aren't you?"
"Gran, we haven't made any plans yet," she says staring out the window. "But maybe we should do it in the church, we could use all the luck that we could get."
"Ah, you don't need luck when someone loves you like he does. You can see it in his eyes."
Just then Daniel catches sight of her in the window. His eyes light up, and a huge grin covers his face. He waves to her, and is so distracted that a snow ball hits him square in the face. Some of the snow gets into his mouth, because of his wide grin, and he turns to chase down the culprit.
"Your eyes are a bit harder to read, Janet. Do you love him?"
Janet takes a sip of the steamy liquid as she allows herself to imagine, for the first time, what it would be like if she and Daniel really worked out. If they stayed together long enough to have lots of children, and grandchildren.
She turns to her grandmother, "Don't my eyes give an answer?"
"They do now, darlin'," the older women says giving her a kiss on the cheek before walking away.
*This is based on the fact that people always used to tell my mom she looked just like my grandma, who was her mother-in-law. She did look a lot more like that Grandma than her own mother! And that was her comeback, "Thanks, 'cause she's beautiful." If you correct people, they just feel super awkward, like it's an insult to say you look like someone you're not related to.