One Month Later
"You know I love hockey, but it does have its downside," Ty says as he finishes tying his skates just outside the hockey rink.
"The fights?" Emma suggests.
"The fact that you can't fight when you're still a kid?" Hannah guesses.
"The fact that the sport is technically not school-sponsored, so your parents have to drive you to every game?" Sam suggests.
"The fact that your family asks silly questions?" Jack says.
"I was going to say the fact that the helmet totally messes up your hair," Ty says.
"We'll fix it when you get off the ice," Sam says as Jack tries desperately (and fails) to avoid rolling his eyes.
Ty pulls the helmet over his head, and skates onto the ice.
"Daddy, when can I play hockey?" Hannah asks.
"Well, I'm going to make you wait a couple more years, and then you can pick any sport you want to. You could be in ballet like your sister is and your brother used to be, or you could decide to play basketball or baseball or water polo," Jack says.
"I don't even know what water polo is, and I'm going to play hockey, 'cause that's your favorite, Daddy."
"Oh, that's not true, Han, my favorite is whatever sport my kids are into," he says.
"So your favorite is ballet?" Emma asks excitedly.
"Yeah, sure, you betcha, there is nothing better than a good ballet recital," he says.
"Brother's got the puck," Hannah informs her father.
"Go Ty!" he says, dangling Hannah by her armpits and standing up in all the excitement.
"Daddy, you said that ballet was your favorite," Emma pouts.
"It is when you're doing it, sweetie. Right now, Ty is doing hockey, so hockey is my favorite," Jack says without even glancing at her.
"When I get home, watch me dance?" Emma asks.
"Sure, I'll even help you practice the lifts like we did last time," he assures her.
"Thanks, Daddy," she says, standing up on the bleachers to put a kiss on his cheek.
"Score!" he shouts as Ty makes a hit into the bucket.
Sam reaches over to take Hannah from his arms, since the toddler is rocking back and forth in a dangerous manner.
The Next Day
"Tammy, come play with us," Becky Lynn wines from the floor where she is wrestling with Teal'c.
Tammy shakes her head without making a single sound.
"Do you want to watch TV, then?" Shelby asks.
"No," Tammy whispers.
Shelby walks over, and sits on the couch next to her sister, "Is something wrong? Are you getting picked on at school or something?" Shelby knows that nothing makes you a target more than being poor. Which is sad, because poor kids are one ones who can least deal with isolation from friends.
Tammy shakes her head.
"Well, something is going on with you, tell me," she says, touching her arm. Tammy flinches.
"Oh, God," Shelby says, using the Lords name in vain for the first time in her life, "Honey, can I talk to you into the other room?"
"Is everything ok?" Teal'c asks, looking up at her.
"I just need to talk to my sister," she says, trying to force her face into a smile, but not quite managing.
She ushers the little girl into the master bedroom, figuring that the things they are about to discuss belongs in an adult space.
Tammy sits down on the bed, and Shelby kneels before her, trying desperately not to cry. "Tammy, did your Daddy touch you somewhere bad?"
Tammy doesn't say anything, she just starts to cry.
"Oh, honey," Shelby says.
"I'm sorry," Tammy mutters.
"Not your fault, it is his fault, ok? And I'm going to make sure he doesn't do this to you again. This is not ok, you hear me?" she says with voice edged in anger.
Teal'c knocks on the door.
"Come on in," Shelby says.
"What has occurred to distress Tammy?" he asks.
"I'm going to call up Mom and tell her we are keeping the kids for a little longer," Shelby says.
"I enjoy having your sisters with me for as long as possible," Teal'c says.
"Will Teal'c be mad if he knows?" Tammy asks timidly.
"Yes, he will, but not at you," Shelby answers honestly.
"Has someone injured her?" Teal'c asks angrily.
Tammy collapses onto the bed, hiding her face in embarrassment.
"Who has injured her?" Teal'c demands.
"Teal'c, we're going to talk about this later," she says softly.
"Why won't you tell him? If it wasn't my fault, you'd tell him?" Tammy ways.
Shelby moves herself between the door and her husband, "Teal'c, Tammy's father touched her."
His eyes search his wife's face for a second, he's not familiar with the Earth terms, but he still has a gut feeling of what she means, "Where did he touch her?"
"Teal'c," Shelby says her non-answer being enough.
"I shall kill him," he says with absolute certainty, moving past his wife as if she wasn't even blocking his way in the least.
"Teal'c, you can't," Shelby pleads.
"He deserves to die!" Teal'c proclaims.
"I agree, but if you are in jail, you won't be around to protect her," Shelby says.
"If I kill him, she won't need to be protected from anyone," Teal'c says.
"Except the next loser my mom brings home!" Shelby shouts.
Teal'c looks in her eyes, realizing with horror a lot of things about his wife that he never knew.
"I will not allow her to go back to that house. If I have to take her offworld, I will," Teal'c proclaims.
"Offworld?" Tammy asks from the bed, fascinated by the argument going on around her.
"We're going to keep her safe," Shelby says.
"How?" Teal'c asks.
"I have no idea, I just know that we're going to do it. You stay with her, don't hug unless she asks for it. And I'm going to go tell Mom that the girls are spending the week with us without tipping my hand."
-0-0-0-
"Is this Officer Shanahan?" Shelby asks into the phone.
"Speaking, who is this?" he asks.
"This is Shelby… you met me a couple of months ago when my husband was getting accused of things that he didn't do. And then you saw me again a while ago outside of my apartment building," she says.
"I remember you, how can I help you?" Pete says.
"I have a sister who is in a bad situation," she says.
"Right, well, I think it's really good that your 'sister' is asking for help," Pete says on the other end of the phone.
"No, it's really my sister, my baby sister, she's ten. She's only ten," Shelby says with more emotion in her voice than she meant it to be.
"What happened?" the policeman says.
"Her father…"Shelby fumes.
"He hit her, right? Her father would be your stepfather, I assume?" Pete says, believing Shelby's story for the first time.
"Right, but he didn't hit her. He molested her," Shelby says.
"My god, does she live with him?"
"Yes, but they're staying with us for a week."
"They?"
"I've got two sisters, a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old. They are staying with my husband and I for a week. I figured that would be long enough for us to get them some kind of protection. I just don't know how to go about protecting a little kid from her father."
"Did he hurt both of them?"
"No. I mean, at least, I don't think so. I should probably ask Becky Lynn. But I really don't think so, because it didn't start until…" she pauses, knowing she's reveled too much.
"He did this to you too," Pete says.
"This is why I left home at fourteen," she confesses quietly.
"Listen, I'm going to send social services over, your sister is going to have to explain what happened."
"Well, that will be fun," she says sarcastically.
"Telling your story will probably help."
"Great, it will be a party," she says.
"And I can't promise that they're going to be placed with you, they could easily end up in the foster care system."
"Teal'c and I have taken care of them before. I mean, mom's dropped them off, and they call us up when they get scared or when Mom is stupid. And last year we took care of them when she was in rehab," Shelby explains.
"That is going to help."
"So you're going to send social services over to my house?" she asks.
"Yeah, I've got the address on file here."
"I never thought I would be asking for someone to send social services over."
"We're not the enemy, ma'am," he says.
-0-0-0-
Shelby spends several minutes trying to think of a way to spin this. She finally realizes that she's never going to find the words that is going to make what she is about to say very palatable, so she's going to have to go with what she has.
She walks into the room that she shares with Teal'c and sits down on the bed so the small girl is between them. "Tammy, tomorrow, a nice person is going to come to our house. You're going to have to tell them what your dad did to you, and then you are not going to have to go back to him. You're probably going to stay with Teal'c and I."
"For how long?" Tammy asks.
"Probably forever."
"What about Mommy?"
"As long as your Mommy is with your Daddy, you can't live with her," Shelby says softly.
"I wish Mommy was the person she says she is," Tammy whispers.
"You and me both, honey," Shelby sighs to her sister.
"And I don't want to tell anyone about what Daddy did," she says.
"I know," Shelby says. God did she know. "How about if I tell him about what he did to me fist?"
"'Cause he hit you."
"That's not all that he's done," she says, locking eyes with her little sister.
Teal'c starts to stand up, no doubt preparing to kill someone, "Sit down! We need to be on our best behavior. Otherwise, they won't get to stay with us."
"He deserves to die for his actions," Teal'c says.
"First, we need to keep him from repeating his actions," Shelby says, "I need to go talk to Becky Lynn."
"Don't tell her!" Tammy says, looking completely panicked.
"I'm not, I'm just going to tell her that you guys might be staying with us for a long time."
-0-0-0-
Shelby is emotionally exhausted by the time she's explained it to Becky Lynn, and made sure that her youngest sister hadn't suffered the same abuse. She gets the kids off to bed, and reads them a story.
When she goes into the bedroom, Teal'c is already kel-no-reeming on the floor with his legs crossed.
She gets into bed, and lays there wishing that her husband was human so his arms would be wrapped around her. So that he would sleep next to her, and make her feel like everything was going to be ok.
"We're going to need to buy a house," she says.
He hates it when she interrupts his kal-no-rem, sometimes it takes him hours to get back into it. But he will still be awake for more of the night than she will be.
"Why is this purchase necessary?" Teal'c asks without opening his eyes.
"We've got kids."
"They have stayed with us on previous occasions."
"I know, but this time they're not staying with us. This time they are going to live with us. This time, we're going to be parents. And they need their own room, and we've got four people in one bathroom, and that is not going to work. And they need a backyard, Tammy likes to build her little forts out of sticks and Becky Lynn loves to plant those branches. She always thinks they're going to grow into trees. Of course, they're not going to, but that's not the point..."
"We will ensure that the children have everything that they require," he says.
"We both have dangerous jobs, so we're going to have to figure out who is going to take care of them if something happened to us. There are probably papers involved with that, and I don't know anything about papers. Actually, there are probably papers involved with taking them. Are we going to have to go to court? I don't know if I can go to court."
"I am unfamiliar with your legal system."
"Does our apartment go to the same elementary school as their house? I suppose it doesn't matter, because we are going to have to get a house," Shelby says, completely confused as to why her husband hasn't started panicking yet.
"It does not; however, we can apply for open enrollment."
"What are you talking about? And how do you know about open enrollment?"
"I attended a school board meeting before we first met," he replies.
"You know everything. You know about open enrollment, and you've raised a kid before, and you're not freaking out, so you win!"
He finally opens his eyes, and peers at her, "I was unaware that I entered a contest, but I am pleased that I am the victor."
"So not funny!" Shelby says.
He comes over to the bed, and wraps his arms around her, "You are going to be a fine mother."
"How do you know?" she asks.
"I know you, Shelby," he replies.
She buries her head in his chest.
"Shelby?" Tammy's voice says from the door.
"What do you need?" Shelby asks, sitting up and moving away from her husband.
"Can I sleep here tonight?" she asks.
"Of course you may, I will retire to the living room for the evening," Teal'c says, trying to keep up the pretence that he sleeps.
"Can't you stay, please?" Tammy asks.
"If that's what you want," he says.
"Come on," Shelby says, patting the spot between them.
Tammy curls up between them, "The anger is like spaghetti snakes in my stomach."
"Yeah," Shelby agrees, even though the analogy doesn't make sense to her.
"He's my Daddy, and I love him," Tammy says.
"That's the worse part, isn't it?" Shelby asks.
Tammy nods.
"I would never hurt you in any way, and neither would Teal'c. You know that, right?" Shelby asks.
Tammy smiles, "That's why I came. It's much saflier with you." Tammy shuts her eyes after the regressed speech.
And Shelby's doubts about her ability to be a mother disappear. She can do this. All she has to do is make her sister 'saflier'. And she may not be able to be a great mother, but she can certainly be better than her mother was.