The Next Day
"It's time to go to school, girls," Teal'c says softly, entering the girl's room the next morning.
"Is Mommy still sick?" Becky Lynn asks.
"Yep, but after I pick you up from school, you can go see her," Shelby says, coming in behind her husband.
"Did you talk to Mommy on the phone?" Tammy asks.
"I did, and she is sounding much better. Now up, up; we don't want to be late for school."
-0-0-0-
When the family arrives at their mother's hospital room that afternoon, Shelby uses the military hand signs she learned the SGC to tell them to be quite and not move. The little girls don't know these symbols, but they can guess and obey them based on context.
Inside, they can hear the conversation between a social worker and the patient of the room.
"We have to take a suicide attempt seriously," the social worker says.
"I wasn't trying to off myself," the woman argues.
"Well, we also have to take a drug use very seriously."
"I've been clean for a long time, I just slipped up the one time."
"Addiction isn't something that is easy to conquer."
"I know that, 'cause I did it once."
"Would you be willing to submit to drug rehab?"
"I'd be willing to do anything that would help me," she says in a voice so genuine that only Shelby is jaded enough to doubt it, "Only I can't afford no fancy rehab."
"I think we could put you on a waiting list for a free program. The only downside is that free programs are much shorter in duration."
"I can work real hard at meetings 'n whatnot when I get out," she says earnestly.
"Of course, you won't be able to have your kids until you have completed rehab, although you are going to be released from the hospital today."
"I understand. You want my daughters to be safe, as much as I do. It just kills me that they had to see me like that. I talked to my eldest daughter today, and thank goodness she is willing to take care of them until I am able to."
The women smiles, "Well, this was easier than I thought it was going to be. It's not often that I get someone so cooperative and willing to change."
"I just appreciate all the help that you're giving me."
Shelby then moves into the room, and the rest of her little family follows her in.
"Oh, my babies! Thank you for bringing them in!" their mother says, extending her hands.
"I'll let you see your family now," the social worker says, patting her leg softly as she walks out of the room.
As soon as the social worker is out of earshot, Shelby says, "I'm glad you're asking for help." She doesn't believe a word of what she overheard, but she's pretty sure that her mother won't put any effort into trying to deceive her own family. And she wants the truth out as soon as she can. She wants her family to know that she is not wrong in not believing a word that her mother says.
"Well, you know, that is the fastest way to get them back. With that speech I just gave the social worker, she's going to rush me through. I'll be in rehab in a couple of days. The cheap one is usually 14 days; if I suck up real nice I'll be out in a week. Then I'll be free."
"So all that junk 'bout you wanting to get clean was just for the law," Shelby says.
"No, not just for the law, I needed to get my babies back," she says, extending her arms to the little girls. They grin, and move over to hug her.
Shelby looks at her skeptically. But Teal'c believes whole-heartedly. He understands that love does not always make you good. He knows that when you love someone you want to be near them, even if being near them would be hurtful. This women is doing her very best to help these children, to be the mother that the deserved.
She was just really bad at it; really, really bad at it. He could relate to that. There were a lot of regrets that he had with his own child. He wished that he had known of the Earth way of raising children when he was still living with his own son.
It was better than the almost father-free way that the children of Chulak were raised.
The young girls are believing it as well, and they are hugging their mother with huge grins on their faces.
Even Shelby isn't callous enough to take this away from her sisters.
Two Days Later
"Hey, mom, can you help me with my homework?" Cassie asks, walking into her parents' bedroom. Her mother is face-down on the bed, sobbing.
"Can I help?" Cassie asks awkwardly. She isn't sure how to deal with this.
"I'm fine," Janet says. She hasn't had a just-cry-uncontrollably-for-no-reason sort of incident in a week. She still feels like every moment she makes is slugging through quicksand, though. But she is still slugging.
"You don't look fine," Cassie says, sitting down on her bed.
"Bring your homework in here, honey," Janet prompts her.
"No, it's ok. I mean, you have enough to deal with. I am going to ask my teacher tomorrow," she says.
"Really, I'm better now," Janet says, offering a smile that she hopes is convincing enough that her daughter will believe her. She'd already begun to forget what real facial expressions looked like.
The baby starts to cry right then. "I'll get him," Cassie says, standing up to fetch her baby brother.
"I'm pretty sure this fussiness is caused by the fact that it is time for him to eat," Janet says. The baby is still breast-feeding, because that is one of the more natural ways of fighting post-partum depression.
Janet walks into the baby's room, offering a smile which her daughter knows to be fake, but which the infant simply assumes is the way that Mommy smiles. He's known nothing different.
"Do you ever regret him?" Cassie asks, watching the interaction.
"Of course not! Why would I regret him?"
"You haven't been the same since he was born."
"Honey, your father and I talked to you about this. This is just a temporary chemical imbalance. I am going to get better, and I'm trying to keep it from affecting my kids. I'm sorry I haven't done a very good job of this."
"You have, mom. I just hate seeing you so sad. I mean, last week you didn't even get out of bed on your day off."
"I know, honey," she says, giving her daughter a smile which is real, even though it is sad. "I'm trying my hardest to get better. I am going to get better, sooner rather than later."
Cassie nods looking at her little baby brother.
"This isn't his fault," Janet says looking up at her.
"If you didn't have him, you never would have got depressed," Cassie says.
"Sweetie, he didn't do anything wrong. All he did was get born. This is my body's fault. It decided to screw up, not him," she says firmly.
William has finished eating, and his mother covers herself before pulling him up for a burp. "Go get your homework, honey."
"You're sure you're up to it?" Cassie asks.
"Yes, honey," Janet says, holding the small child near her as she follows her daughter up to the room. The feeling of the small child is one of the best depression fighters she'd discovered into since this whole thing started. It's tough to be sad when you have a tiny happy baby cuddled close against your flesh.
But she still is. She can't wait until this has passed.
One Week Later
They've been a family for a while, a real family. Teal'c likes it. He's never really been a part of a real family before. There is really no such thing as real families on Chulak.
He hates to see the girls go back to their mother, even though he actually believes that is probably the best thing for them. He is going to really miss being a real family. He and Shelby don't qualify as a family, no matter how good they are as a couple. Neither of them are in contact with any of their family, besides these two little girls and their mother.
"Teal'c, you should come with us to Mommy's house," Becky Lynn protests in the back seat of their car.
"I can't do that, little one," he says, stretching his large arm back into the car at a painful angle for him so she can grab on to his arm. She takes it, and it makes her smile.
"Mommy is all better, you'll be much happier back at your own house," Shelby says in a voice that really sounds like she believes it, although Teal'c can tell from her face that she does not.
"What if she gets sick again?" Tammy asks seriously.
"Then you will call us, and we will come there, and help you," Teal'c says firmly.
"Right. You don't need to take care of this by yourself. It's adult stuff," Shelby says, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure that her sisters are understanding her.
They nod their heads.
-0-0-0-
Shelby doesn't miss the fact that her mother has lost weight. That means that the detox was at least genuine, even though it might not necessarily be long-lasted. "How ya feeling?" she asks.
"Better now that I'm out of that place and back with my babies," she says, kneeling down and opening her arms to the small children.
She looks so genuine that Shelby feels jealous. She tries to remember if there were good times when she was little. She is old enough to know that memory is selective, but as hard as she tries, she only remembers the bad times and the worse times.
Maybe there were good times which her anger had made her forget.
Maybe there was no good times, and she was the practice kid, where all the mistakes had been made in preparation for the day when these children, these true children would come to exist.
"Mommy!" Becky Lynn says. She's so young that she has already forgiven her mother for everything that she had done.
Tammy stands back, until her mother comes to her. Then she reluctantly submits to a hug.
"Ya wanta stay for a bit?" Shelby's mother asks her.
She shakes her head, but Teal'c says "yes". And they stay for an hour, with the closest thing to family that either of them have these days.
Who Days Later
The O'Neills are playing a game of baseball in their backyard. Emma and Ty have just taken their turn at bat, and then Hannah wobbles up to bat. Her grandfather runs up behind her to stabilize the bat.
The toddler stomps her foot, barely missing Jacob's foot, and says, "Me do myself."
"Ty, why don't you go grab your old tee for your sister?" Sam suggests.
"Me do myself!" the girl repeats.
Jack shrugs, and tries to pitch it easy and low over the plate for the toddler.
Hannah bites her lip, and lets Sam return the ball to Jack. Jack takes the opportunity of catching the ball to walk a couple of steps closer without the girl noticing. He throws the ball even more carefully the second time, but she still misses.
Hannah is still totally determined, and can't wait for the third pitch. Her siblings, however, are getting rather tired of the whole business, and are rolling their eyes.
Hannah misses again.
"You're out, Hannah," Ty says.
"Is not!" she insists.
"She is out, though, three strikes," Emma informs the adults, assuming they don't know the rules of the game.
"I think my pitches were bad, I think that was three balls, and she has to walk," Jack puts forward.
"Definitely, worst throws I ever saw," Jacob puts forth, winking at the man behind Hannah's head.
"He gave you easy pitches, you're just too little, Hannah," her brother says.
"Not little!" she says, responding to the thing that is the most offensive thing you could say to the child of this age.
"No, you're not little, why don't you run around all the bases?" Sam says, trying to calm down a situation that she can see is quickly heading toward a tantrum.
"Nope," Hannah says staring down the ball, "I learn."
"You wanta ride bikes?" Ty asks Emma.
"Sure," she says, taking off.
Sam hands her catcher's mitt to her father before running after her children.
And Hannah spends the next hour trying to hit a ball.
"Where she got her stubborn streak from, I'll never know," Jacob teases Jack when the trio finally heads in when bedtime compels them.