Two Weeks Later
"I've got some down-time!" Jack says cheerfully as he comes into the house. "Your mom does, too, and we're going to the cabin!"
"We have school," Ty reminds him.
"Your mother and I have the first down time that we've had in ages, and we are going to use it!" Jack tells his kids.
Emma stares at him with fear in her eyes. Her two siblings might be able to miss a few days of school with little effect. But Emma's C-average counts on her being there and working her tail off every single day.
"You're only going to miss two days, it's going to be ok, I promise. Now, go pack your bags!" he says, excited to actually be getting out of town for the first time in what seemed like ages.
-0-0-0-
"We're just going to stop for gas, and then we're going to pick up your mother at the academy, and be on our way to nature!"
"This sounds lame, what are we going to do so far from civilization?" Emma complains.
"We're going to hike and fish!" Hannah says with a huge grin on her face. She loves nature even more than sports.
Jack pulls up in front of a gas station, and gets out to start pumping gas into his car.
"Hey, there. You just caught me fixing a carburetor. I didn't even hear you pull in," the owner of the gas station says.
"No, it's not a problem," Jack says waving him off.
"You sure? It's a full-service station. You know, the price includes yours truly," the man says proudly.
"I got it, thanks," Jack says, a little annoyed that the man is still talking to him. He just wants to be on his way.
"All right. At least I can wash your windows for you," the man says as he washes the windows of the mini-van. Suddenly, Jack sees a giant insect flying through the air. A distinctly alien-looking giant insect. No, this kind of thing can't happen when his kids are around. He has to do something to protect them.
"Get down!" he shouts to his family, as well as the gas station attendant. He a paranoid enough dad that in his family don't just have fire drills. They have tornado drills, and intruder drills, and gun-shot-from-the-street drills as well.
His kids know that when Dad tells them to get down, they'd better be down with their heads covered. It doesn't actually matter if the threat is real or imaginary. Although, it is a little odd that their father is including some stranger in his drills. Jacob doesn't obey right away, but he sees from a look in Jack's eye that this is serious. He doesn't understand it, but he trusts his son-in-law enough to cover the kids as well as he can in the car.
Jack opens the door of the truck, and grabs a box from under the seat. He spins the combination on the safety box to free a pistol.
"Does mom know that you have a gun in the van?" Emma asks with wide eyes.
Jack nods, and turns away from the van.
"Jeez, the money's inside in a lockbox under the counter," the gas station owner says, looking the three small children in the car. He can't believe this man is going to rob him with them watching. He can't figure out whether to call child protection services or the police first when this is all over.
"I'm not gonna rob you, just get down!" Jack insists.
The man drops down to the pavement saying, "Getting down." Jack takes a couple of shots at the bugs, but they fly away completely unaffected, "Don't kill me please! I'm a vet!"
"I'm not gonna kill you; get up," Jack says, helping the man stand up, "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, U.S. Air Force. Did you see anything?"
"Uh… just my life… flashing before my eyes. What the hell were you shooting at?"
"It's classified," Jack says. He turns to his kids, "Did you guys see it?"
Emma and Ty are shaking their heads, but Hannah is too scared to say anything. Jack clicks the safety on the gun, and puts it in the band of his pants as if it was a holster. Then he picks up the scared girl, "Its ok, Hannah bandana," he says softly.
The girl isn't crying, but she buries her head in his shoulder, desperate for comfort.
Jack dials his phone. "O'Neill for Hammond," he says.
-0-0-0-
A knock at the door startles Shelby out of the best sleep that she's had in two weeks.
That doesn't mean that it was particularly restful sleep. When you've got twin newborns, you'll take what you can get.
She's grateful that whoever it was had the sense to knock, and not ring the bell, so she's the only one that was woken up.
She sees Sam behind the door. "Hi! Apparently Jack got my children and father exposed to some sort of alien virus. Teal'c got exposed to at the base. I was at the academy giving a lecture, so I didn't get exposed. No-one knows how long this is going to last for, so Teal'c asked me to come and help you out with the babies."
"Is it dangerous?" Shelby asks.
"No. They're seeing inter-dimensional beings, but it's not making them sick or anything."
"Well, the twins are asleep, and I don't have to pick up the other kids from school for three hours," Shelby says.
Sam takes stock of the younger women. She's dressed in a bathrobe, and from the looks of it, she's been wearing the same bathrobe for several days. Her hair is twisted in a truly impressive tangle that stands out at a strange angle. She looks like she's aged a decade since her babies were born, and like she probably hasn't slept in all that time.
She remembers how hard it was to be a single mother to Ty, and he was only one baby. Shelby has twins, plus three older children to take care of. Granted, Shelby isn't a single mother, but with Teal'c being out on missions so often, and at the very least gone all day, she is a lot closer than either she or her husband would probably like to admit.
"Why don't you go take a nap?"
"I don't know if the twins will sleep long," Shelby says.
"I've got them. You're formula-feeding right?"
Shelby blinks in gratitude, "I'm going to shower!" she says with excitement.
-0-0-0-
"Grandpa," Hannah squirms with terror in her face as another worm squirms across the floor of the living room.
"Daniel told us on the phone they can't hurt us. They don't even occupy the same plane of existence, see," Ty says, rolling through them.
His little sister screams in horror, and tries to pull him away.
"Must you screech?" Emma asks in her most dignified tone.
"Grandpa, there are monsters," Hannah says, crawling into his lap. She isn't old enough to really understand the cover story. Honestly, she's more unnerved by the fact that there are things which can be seen, and not touched, than she is by the creatures themselves.
"There not monsters, honey, and they're not going to hurt you," Jacob assures her.
Ty looks at his scared little sister, and thinks up a new strategy. He disappears into his room, and builds himself a makeshift gun out of Legos. He returns, and starts pretending to shoot at the creatures.
Jacob knows that Jack doesn't approve of his kids playing with any kind of fake weapons, and is just about to take the toy away from his grandson.
Then he realizes that the girl in his arms in no longer terrified. Ty is hopping around the room taking decent shots at all the bugs, and not getting near any of the humans. He's doing commando rolls, ducks, and at one point a good imitation of a military crawl.
Jacob doesn't have the heart to make the boy stop.
-0-0-0-
Sam turned her phone onto vibrate as soon as she knew she was going to be around babies. She learned that lesson when Hannah is born. There is nothing worse than just getting a baby to sleep, and having her being woken up by someone who just called you to chat.
When the phone vibrates, it still wakes up one of the babies on her lap. Lexi stares at her with an annoyed look on her face that is 100% Shelby.
Sam bounces her until the baby closes her eyes, "O'Neill," she says into the phone.
"Sam, a team here figured out the alien device. We've got a cure; it spreads by touch. I've got a lot of people to go shake hands with. I just wanted you to know that the crisis is more or less over."
"Ok, thanks," she says, hanging up the phone.
Sam smiles down at the newborn in her arms. She slowly pulls the child closer to her. "I want one of these," she whispers.
She wonders how open her husband is going to feel to having a family so big it no longer fits inside a minivan.
-0-0-0-
Jack has spent enough time in black ops to know that his wife is not asleep as she lies next to him. He rolls over, and looks at her.
Her eyes stay closed for another minute or two in silent rebellion against him.
"Sam?" he prompts.
"It wouldn't be that crazy, would it?" she blurts. She has been thinking about an addition to their family hard enough that she has actually begun to believe that she had said something out load.
"I don't know, babe, I guess that would depend what we were talking about," her husband says softly.
"A baby," she says quickly.
He shakes his head, "You spend one afternoon with twins, and you want some of your own."
"Well, not twins, exactly. They are a lot of work. If this is crazy, that's ok. I can just go and spend some time with Shelby's babies. Actually, I plan on doing that anyway. I mean, she's pretty overwhelmed. She obviously hadn't showered for days. I remember that, when we didn't have time to sleep or eat or shower."
"Yet you've developed the urge to repeat this?" he asks, with an eyebrow raised in a strange query.
"I really do," she says with a flinch. Then she rushes on, "But if you don't, I completely understand. We have three children; that's enough."
He tucks a stand of hair behind her ear, "We had three children by accident."
"You regret them?" she asks with surprise, a sudden sinking in her stomach.
"No," he says firmly, "No, and I can't really imagine myself regretting a fourth kid either. Four is a lot, but we've got three adults in our family. That is something a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have. Money certainly isn't as issue. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't have four children."
"We shouldn't have another kid just because you don't see a reason not to have another kid. I actually want you to want this, Jack," she protests.
He smiles at her, "We have three kids, but I've never actually gotten to see you pregnant."
"I could be the only wife in the world that has a husband who can really sympathize with her. After all, you have been pregnant yourself."
"Hannah is just growing out of that stage where she says something adorable every single day. It would be nice to have a couple more years of that."
"So we're going to have a baby?" she asks a little tentatively.
"Yes," he says with a grin.
The Next Day
The O'Neills finally did make it up to the cabin. Between the Stargate program and his children's events, Jack doesn't get to his home away from home as often as he would like.
Even when he does get up there, the cabin isn't what it used to be, and Jack is really ok with that.
He's even ok when the nature hike turns into more of a ballet dance. He even participates.
Hannah is less ok. She plops down on the trail with arms and legs crossed in anger.
Sam and Jack use their silent parent communication to decide that Jack is going to be the one to go talk to her.
"I'm sorry, dad," she says as soon as he sits down.
"Hey, that's ok, Han; we all get angry sometimes."
"No, I'm sorry about them," she says, pointing to her brother and her sister.
"Hannah, they're having fun. That is the purpose of a vacation."
"They messed up our hike," she says.
"Well, you and I might have to go on a hike later," he tells her.
Hannah nods her head, but looks really sad.
"What?" he asks, stroking the French braid in her hair.
"Grandpa was going to bake cookies later. I wanted to help."
"Ok, you and I can hike right now," he says, helping her to her feet. They leave her siblings behind dancing, but he can see that he hasn't exactly solved the problem.
"Hannah, what is it?" he prompts.
"I don't like hiking!" she blurts out.
"Ok, what do you want to do?" he asks, bending down in front of her.
"You like hiking, dad," she tell him.
"I do," he smiles, "But I like hanging out with my kids more."
"They don't like hiking or baseball, all they ever do is girly stuff," she says, with more burden in her voice than Jack had ever hoped to hear from his youngest daughter.
"Honey, do you do all these boyish things because you think I want you to?" he asks with a choke in his throat.
She bites her lip, trying to keep the truth from spilling out. "Ty isn't the son you wanted."
"What on Earth made you think that?" he asks.
Hannah looks at her father in surprise.
"Ty is exactly who he is supposed to be. I love him, and I wouldn't change him for anything. I love my daughters, too. I would love you, Hannah, no matter who you decide to be. It would break my heart if you did anything just because you thought that's what I wanted you to do."
"Really?" she asks.
"Really, really," he says.
"I want to swim," she says.
"The lake is too cold, Hannah Banana. We'll have to wait until summer."
"No, dad; I want to quit soft ball, and swim."
"Okey-dokey, mermaid," he says.
"Really?" he asks.
"Yep, now what do you really want to do right now?"
"Dance?" she asks, still uncertain that this would be an acceptable choice.
"You've got it," he stays, standing up to brush the dust off his bad knees before taking his little daughter by the hand, and going back to the rest of the family.
"Would Grandpa care if I didn't make cookies with him?"
"Not at all. Mommy and Grandpa want you to be exactly who you are, too," he says.
Hannah skips as she walks, "Would he still let me lick the spoon, even if I didn't help?"
"I think there is a good chance, little one," he says.
His little girl grins up at him with a more carefree look than she's worn in a long time. Her tiny burdens have been released.