Shelby looks around the dinner table, she has no idea how they are supposed to actually get the food into their mouths. She doesn't see any sort of utensil that she could use for eating. Ry'ac reaches into the pot, and grabs a fingerful of food which he puts into his mouth. Shelby is about to scold him when Teal'c's hand reaches his hand into the pot and grabs a piece of meat.
Shelby is stunned as she looks around as the rest of the family joins in the communal meal. She takes a piece of the meat and puts it in her own mouth.
She is starting to wonder what is going to be done with the sauce that is in the bottom of the pot. It looks delicious, and she can't figure out a way to get it into her mouth. Then Teal'c breaks off a bite of bread, and dips it into the sauce before bringing it to his mouth.
She repeats his action.
The conversation around the table is completely in Goa'uld. At first her husband dutifully translates every word for her. But soon he gets so caught up in the rapid fire conversation that he is not saying a single word.
She tries to guess the meaning of what they are saying based of facial expressions, and body language, but she can't really make heads nor tales of it.
She just smiles and enjoys the pleasant family scene.
Teal'c might say that the people of his world didn't have true families. But there is a lot of warmth and love around this table.
-0-0-0-
"I'm sorry if you felt a little left out during the conversation at dinner tonight," Teal'c says as the two of them are laying down to sleep that night.
"It's ok. It was interesting. I was wondering, is that what you feel like on Earth all the time?"
He looks at her, "I am uncertain. There is no way for me to know what you are feeling unless I project my own feelings on to you. Therefore, the answer to your question would always seem to be yes to me, and sometimes that answer would be an erroneous one."
She grins at him, "Ok… I felt confused, mostly. And a little left out. And like I was stupid."
"You are not stupid," he says, brushing a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
"Is that what it feels like?"
He nods his head.
"I'm sorry I don't help you more. I never realized how hard you have to work… all the time."
"You have helped me to understand many things about your planet."
"I know, but… I never realized how much you gave up by coming to Earth. You come from this rich beautiful culture."
"A slave culture."
"None the less, there are some really beautiful parts of your culture, and I hope you feel comfortable practicing parts of your culture."
"I do," he says.
"I want you to teach me more about Jaffa culture. I want to better understand where you come from."
"You have learned to kel'no'reem," he says.
"Yes, a little, but I want you to teach me more than that. Maybe you could teach me how to make that great food we ate tonight."
"I do not know how to cook, that is women's work," he replies.
She raises her eyebrows at him, "You cook at home."
"It is not women's work on Earth," he replies.
She smiles at him.
He moves forward to kiss her.
"Not here!" she exclaims laughing.
"What is your objection to copulation on other planets?"
"We're in a tent!"
"All the copulation that I engaged in before being assigned my house in my fortieth year took place in a tent." then Tea'c pauses, "That is not true, once I engaged in copulation in a field."
"A field? Really? You're a wild man. But tents are not none for their soundproof qualities."
"Neither are fields," he says, running his arm over hers.
"When we get home, and will not be overheard, I will make it up to you," Shelby says.
"Very well," he says, holding her close to him.
"Every night you lie next to me as if you slept, but you never sleep," she says.
"Indeed," he replies.
"Do you ever grow bored?" she asks.
"I do not," he says.
She smiles at her husband's very simple way of speaking. "How do you keep from growing bored?"
"I think."
"About?" she says unconsciously mimicking his monosyllabic method of talking.
"About you."
"And what exactly do you think about me?" she asks.
"I think about your past, our future and how I can make you happier."
"Ok, give me the cultural experience of Jaffa tent sex," she says in his ear.
The Next Day
Daniel watches his wife as she tickles a young nephew. She has a genuine smile on her face. Janet's smiles have been rare for the last couple months.
But in the last week she's been much more cheerful.
Maybe the darkness has begun to lift.
Just then William starts crying in his grandmother's arms, and Daniel walks over to retrieve him.
-0-0-0-
"Hi mom," Jack says, wrapping his arms around his mother.
She gives her son a hug before turning to her grandchildren. "My dear Tyler, you are really getting too big."
"I'll try to get smaller, Grandma, but I just won't grow that way," he teases back.
"And you're getting more clever each and every day, my dear Miss Emma," she says, turning to the girl wearing a tutu. Ballet has recently absorbed both of the older children's lives. Ty has bowed to social pressure enough not to wear the tights out in public. Actually, he hates the outfit all together, but he does like to dance. Particularly the lift moves.
"You can't really tell that I'm becoming more clever just be looking at me," Emma retorts.
"And that is a very clever thing to say," her grandmother says with a nod.
"I'm cleber," Hannah informs her grandmother.
"Of course you are," he grandmother says, picking her up.
The Next Day
Hannah and Ty have ripped open all of their Christmas presents with great relish, and are now playing with their new toys.
Emma is looking at her toys with a somber face.
Jack and Sam share a quick look over their daughter's head which ends in the decision that Sam is going to go talk to the child.
Sam sits down next to her, and says, "Why haven't you opened your presents?"
Emma looks up at her mother with confusion, and pain on her face, "Santa wasn't supposed to bring me anything," she says mournfully.
Sam remembers with a flash that Emma had given up her Christmas presents in order to give her dad something nice.
"Honey, I'm sure that Santa brought your father something really nice."
"If he did, he wouldn't have got me any presents, and he got me lots of presents," she says, nudging one of them with her finger thoughtfully.
"Sweetie, Santa loves you so much that he got presents for both of you. He knew that you were such a good girl, especially with you asking for no gifts, that he decided to get your Daddy something as well as you."
"How do you know?"
"I talked to him," Jack says, sitting down on the floor with his wife and daughter. He makes a grunt at the bending of his knees. He is getting a bit too old for this having young children thing. He wishes that he had started this whole parenthood thing a couple of years earlier.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that you know Santa?" Emma asks her father with a roll of her eyes.
"All parents do, how do you think Santa knows who is naughty or nice?" Mrs. O'Neill says brightly.
"You told Santa I was good?" Ty asks his father in shock.
"Of course I did," Jack says, looking at his son in shock, "Because you are a very good kid."
Ty looks thoughtful, as if he never considered this before.
"You're a good boy," Sam says, extending her arms to her son. He comes and sits on her lap, and Sam rests her chin on his head.
"And both of my daughters are good kids too," Jack adds, grinning at each of the girls in turn. Emma continues playing with her toy, ignoring the conversation, but Hannah beams at him.
"So Daddy got something nice in the black hole?" Emma asks.
"Yep, fruit cake, and ties, and best Daddy cups," Jack says holding up his own cup that he just received from his children.
"Black hole?" Mrs. O'Neill says with a quirked eyebrow.
Emma's eyes grow large.
"Your father is missing in action, isn't he?" Mrs. O'Neill asks carefully.
The girl turns and buries her head in Sam's shoulder.
"I'm sorry," her grandmother says, "This talk isn't very festive. Why don't you unwrap those presents, and find out what kind of a present Santa would bring a girl so good that she spends her whole Christmas wishing for presents for other people."
Emma grins, and begins pulling the wrapper off one of her presents. She gasps when she sees the doll tea set inside.
-0-0-0-
Giggling can be heard from the floor above as Jack and his mother sit down to share some eggnog with one another.
"So, you had a baby."
"That's old news, mom."
"And Emma's father is in a black hole."
"He is not in a black hole," Jack says carefully.
"Right, so what? Is he close to a black hole?" his mother asks, familiar with the way that Jack worded things from when he was a child.
Jack doesn't say anything.
"What kind of crazy science experiments are you doing in that mountain that you can lose someone in a black hole?" she asks.
"It's classified, mom," he almost whispers.
Mrs. O'Neill sighs, "I used to worry about you a lot. I worried about you when you were in 'Nam. I worried about you fighting communists for decades. I worried about you in the Gulf War. And then I stopped worrying about you. But today I realized I was wrong, again. Am I going to have to worry about you forever?"
"You don't need to worry about me, mom," he says.
She turns away from her son for a couple of seconds, and takes a long slow sip of her eggnog, "Do I have to worry about my daughter-in-law as well?"
Jack doesn't say anything, because after all those years he still feels bad about lying to his mother.
"Just know, if anything ever happened to the two of you, I'd move here and help Jacob take care of the children with you."
Jack feels teas coming to his eyes, "I appreciate that, mom."
"But you stay safe, son," she says pulling him over, and kissing him on the forehead like he did when he was a little boy.
"Yes, Ma'am," he says with a smile.
"I still want to know how you got pregnant," she says with a giggle.
"Classified," he says.
"Right," his mom says in an unconscious imitation of Jacob Carter's 'you've got to be kidding me' face.
-0-0-0-
Daniel has three books spread out in front of him as he lies in bed. His head bobs between the two of them. Janet sticks her head out of the bathroom two times before she actually walks out of the bathroom.
He glances up, and notices the outfit.
It's obviously Christmas themed, and involves a lot of silk and lace. Well, actually not much silk and lace.
"New outfit?" Daniel asks with false calm.
"You like it?" Janet asks, beginning to fidget, feeling herself too brash.
"I love it," he says, starting the laborious job of putting his books away carefully.
Janet comes over to the bed, "I'm glad you like it, because it's part of your Christmas present."
He pulls his wife onto the bed next to him, "You're sure you're ready for this?" he asks.
"Yeah, you've been waiting for a long time. I had this pregnancy where I was very so sick, and we were hardly together. Then, the baby was born, and we physically couldn't do anything for a while. And then came the depression, and I just didn't want to."
"I can wait until you're ready," Daniel says, looking tenderly at his wife.
"As the outfit indicates, I'm up for that."
Daniel gives his wife a passionate kiss. Then he pulls away, and lets fall a bit of double innuendo. "I'm up for it too."