Grace tapped on her bag nervously, unknowingly mirroring her sister's actions upon her own airport arrival.

She'd exited the plane to find that her mom hadn't arrived yet. A ping on her - or rather, Allie's - cell alerted her to the reason why: she was stuck in traffic behind a wreck. Grace gathered her luggage and sat on a bench as she waited for Mom to arrive.

She tried to make herself comfortable, but she couldn't help sitting up tensely. She was so close to meeting her mom. To hear her dad talk, Mom was the smartest, toughest, and most attractive woman he had ever met. Grace was worrying now that this uber-cool woman wouldn't like her. She didn't feel as awesome as Samantha Carter sounded.

Allie had admitted that she herself never really got terribly interested in science. But she was fierce, athletic, and pretty cool as far as Grace was concerned. Grace was more bookish. Quieter. And while she did enjoy sports and was fairly good at the ones she participated in, she didn't think she attracted as much attention as Allie did.

But Dad loved her in part because she was so much like her mom - maybe Mom would like having a mini-me.

Once Grace could reveal who she was, that is.

"Allie!"

Grace's head snapped up as she began looking for the source of the call. A quick scan and,There she is.

Mom had short, dark hair - an attempt to disguise some of the recognizable features of this reality's Samantha Carter, Grace had theorized. She was grinning excitedly as she quickly made her way to where Grace was seated. She looked - Huggable, Grace concluded reflectively. She jumped up quickly to test her hypothesis.

"Hey, sweetie!" Mom breathed out with a laugh as she squeezed her tight.

Grace knew she should probably pull back from the embrace, but she really didn't want to do so. Mom was cuddly and warm. "Hey, Mom," she whispered. It felt good to use that name. Dad really was wonderful, but he wasn't this soft. And he definitely didn't smell this good. What is this scent? Grace wondered vaguely. She'd have to find it somewhere.

"Sorry I'm so late, kiddo," Mom began speaking, pulling back so she could see Grace without actually ending the hug. "Traffic was terrible! That wreck was pretty big."

Grace winced sympathetically. "Sounds pretty bad."

Mom nodded before focusing in on her. "Did you enjoy camp?" she asked, smiling.

Grace gave her an exaggerated nod, returning the smile. "Sure did!" she answered enthusiastically. She had, of course, but she was going to have to work to keep up Allie's exuberant expressions.

"I want to hear all about it," Mom said decisively, standing up and directing Grace to turn towards the exit with her luggage. "But first, let's get out of here."

Grace was as eager to go home as she was, so it wasn't too long before they were rolling out in Mom's car. She was a bit disappointed that her mother hadn't brought her motorcycle before reminding herself that it wouldn't be practical with all of her luggage. Also, she realized happily, she could continue talking with her mother this way.

"I've got a bit of a surprise at the house," Mom said with a grin as they pulled out onto the road.

"A surprise?" Grace exclaimed, not needing to artificially ramp up her enthusiasm at all with this response. "What is it?"

"Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you!" Mom laughed. Her eyes glowed with excitement as she glanced at Grace teasingly. "Just wait, Allie-cat. You'll find out soon enough."

Allie-cat is a fun nickname, Grace thought, sighing inwardly. Wonder what Mom would have called me... She made a mental note to ask her dad about any nicknames she had used for her before returning her attention to conversation.

"So last time on the phone you said you 'got a life' this summer?" she quizzed, jokingly acting like a stern parent. "What did you do?"

Mom looked a bit uneasy as she responded. "Well... I reconnected with an old friend. We went bowling and out to eat a lot. Different things like that."

"That's cool!" Grace acknowledged. She was a bit puzzled by her mother's reluctance to respond - as well as the appearance of some old, unidentified friend.

Before she could pursue the topic further, however, Mom went on to ask more questions about camp. They were soon chatting away about the games and some of the things that Grace had done with her friend "Renee."

"It's so funny that your best friend at camp has the name I use professionally," Mom said with another laugh.

"Yeah!" Grace chuckled a bit nervously. Boy, is it ever? At least Mom clearly had no idea that this friend was going by a fake name. Still, Grace felt better when she steered the conversation to some of her other camp friends.

When Mom asked about the flight home, Grace was surprised to find out that the name "Kerry Johnson" was familiar to her.

"Kerry Johnson?" Mom asked, clearly surprised herself. "CIA Kerry Johnson?"

Grace dredged her memory for the description her Dad had made about this woman way back when. "Um... yes, I think so."

"Wow." Mom's voice fell a bit flat. Grace was pretty sure she did NOT have fond memories of her.

This feeling was further confirmed by her next statement. "You know, she dated your dad for a little bit."

"WHAT?" Grace almost shouted, her shock overriding her innate sense that Allie probably wouldn't have such a strong reaction to this news. He didn't tell me!! "When?!"

Mom looked a bit concerned by her daughter's response, but Grace got the distinct feeling that she empathized with her. "It wasn't long before he and I got together, actually. You see, he thought I'd given up on us ever being a real couple, and he didn't want to spend the rest of his life alone."

"Really?" Grace wondered aloud, the wheels in her head spinning. I can work with this, she mused, her ultimate goal of bringing her parents together dancing around in the back of her head. "So what changed?"

Mom looked a bit dreamy now. Allie's right, Grace concluded. She's still in love with him. "Well, he was right to doubt - I was engaged to someone else."

Grace vaguely remembered hearing that before, so she wasn't exactly shocked by this news.

Mom continued. "But I realized - with a little help from my dad - that I was looking for..." she paused and then giggled a bit, "love in all the wrong places. I'd thought your dad and I didn't have a chance with all of the regs in the way, and I was looking for a way to create the life I thought I wanted. The trouble was that I couldn't have it without him."

Gosh, Grace thought with a sigh. How romantic. She couldn't help smiling as her mom kept talking.

"So we each broke up with who we were with at the time." She smiled, looking as if she were recalling some very fond memories. "It wasn't long at all before your dad and I got married and had you."

Grace grinned suddenly as she realized, "Isn't it 'with whom,' Mom?"

Mom looked at her in shock before breaking out into a full-bodied laugh. "You're right!" she choked out through her laughter. "Oh, you sound just like your dad!"

Grace joined in with her own laugh, reveling in an unexpected sense of relief. Mom likes me!

Unfortunately, Grace couldn't immediately turn the conversation back to her dad. She was interrupted by the distraction of their arrival home - and a strange notification sound coming from their vehicle.

"Rats," Mom muttered, looking at the dashboard. "Allie, let me check this out a minute." She gave her a sly glance with a hint of a smile. "You can go in and see the surprise while I work on this."

Mom was enough of a wonderful surprise, but Grace still wanted to see what was inside. She hopped out of the car and raced to the door, fumbling with her house key before entering. After closing the door behind her, she whirled around.

"Hey, Allie!" a bright and cheerful Cassandra Fraiser called out from her perch on the couch.

Grace knew Cassandra very well - this was a great surprise! "Cassie!" she yelled, running over to be wrapped up in a bear hug. Cassie was 31 now and still in her residency as she worked towards becoming a full fledged pediatrician. She was still fun in spite of being an adult, as Grace occasionally joked.

Grace heard a cough coming from the kitchen, and turned her head to see what - or who - was there.

A petite woman with knowing brown eyes and an up-turned mouth looked at her somewhat teasingly. "Aren't you going to hug your Aunt Janet, Grace?"

So before we meet the boyfriend...

Sorry for the delay. I'd had a mental block on this conversation for a while - then Sam decided she needed to say all the things.

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