AU: Charlie and Brittany have a medical appointment to confirm her pregnancy... Charlie is right and Bree is terrified...

TRIGGERS: Mention of stillbirth

Chapter 33: Finding Home

Friday, 25th June 2004 – Medical Centre, Colorado Springs – Brittany Wilson

"Congratulations!" The doctor said with a smile then produced the blood test results pointing at a number that read in the high seventy thousand's. "Based on this, you're around 10 weeks along. Though, you'll need an ultrasound to confirm."

"Wow, that's further along than we thought I'd be." I replied, giving Charlie a strange look.

"How long did you think you would be?" The doctor asked while folding his hands together.

"7, maybe 8 weeks." I replied earning myself a drole smile to go with those hands. I had made the mistake of telling him that I worked in the medical field when I came to get the blood test. Well, kind of. Just not with people. Or living creatures for that matter, but still I understood things even if my current job had fallen short of my expectations when I left university. There had been many times when I questioned the wisdom of majoring in macrobiology instead of something more useful, but since I met Charlie, all those doubts melted away because he was immensely proud of his 'smart-as-all-get-out' fiancée – his words not mine – and sought to tell everyone as often as possible how awesome it was to meet a girl who thought dinosaurs were cool.

Except this doctor of course.

"Ah yes, well we count the weeks from your last menstruation rather than the number of weeks from the time you suspect you conceived." He replied with smug 'I'm a medical doctor and you aren't' grin. My normal doctor was on vacation, so we went to a different one rather than wait. Another decision I now questioned the wisdom of.

"I am a macrobiologist, Doctor. I know how to calculate weeks of pregnancy in most lifeforms. Which means that I took those extra 2 weeks into account already. I was on antibiotics 6 weeks ago when I decided my fiancé was hot enough to eat." I replied with my own smugness. When I glanced at Charlie, he was smiling broadly while the Doctor merely raised his eyebrow.

"I see. Well, you were already pregnant at that stage." He replied drily and with so much confidence that you could practically see it clinging to the arrogance that filled the room.

"What about twins?" Charlie asked making me glare at him. We had been over this. We were not having twins. Not because I didn't want two children, nor because I didn't want to go through labour with two children at the same time, but for another reason that I had not wanted to share with him or frankly think about. He was from a large family full of twins, and I feared his reaction if he found out about my family's curse. So, I just buried my head in the proverbial sand and drowned out his insistence with logical genetic arguments, hoping he would give up.

"Possible, though twins are impossible to confirm with hCG levels since those levels vary greatly from person to person and even pregnancy to pregnancy." He informed us of something I already knew while I quietly cursed Charlie for bringing it up. "You can arrange an ultrasound from reception." The doctor added gesturing to the door then turned to his computer screen in a show of dismissal.

"It's not twins." I replied emphatically.

"Oh?" The doctor replied, once again giving me his attention.

"Charlie thinks just because his family is full of them that we'll have them as well. But it's not genetically possible." I defended my argument mentally requesting the doctor to back me up on this.

"That's true..." He agreed making me pull an 'I told you so' face at Charlie, "...for identical twins. Fraternal on the other hand could have been conceived weeks apart." He added making Charlie smile. "But I am sure I don't need to explain that to you. Doctor." He replied in such a way that I wanted to do him bodily harm.

"Thank you, Doctor." I said tersely, then stood and waited while Charlie opened the door.

"Thanks, Doc." Charlie said as we walked out. "So, fraternal twins…" He said as we walked down the corridor to reception.

"Charles Kawalsky, consider this tone of voice as me using all of your names. We are not having…" I began, berating him when he leaned in and kissed me in the corridor of the doctors clinic which was a low blow considered that we were in public, and I was so damned horny right now that I could pass as a triceratops. When he pulled back, he was wearing the biggest, cheesiest grin I had ever seen. "That was mean. Just wait until I get you home Major." I said before walking out into the waiting area to find a few knowing smiles and one scowl of disapproval from the other patients.

"Can't wait. But first, ultrasound. I want to see our babies." He continued with the twins theme as we lined up at the reception desk.

"You're unbelievable, you know that." I said as we stood in line. "Besides you have to wait. Ultrasounds book out weeks in advance, and before you suggest it, the ones at your work are not strong enough." The grumble in my voice seemed to be enough to dissuade him from saying another word, though not enough for him to not give me that smouldering look of his, accented by a single raised eyebrow. He knew what he was doing and knew damn well that I couldn't do a thing about it.

"Hello, may I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"Hi. We just finished with Doctor Tingwell. We need to book a dating scan." I said easily receiving a bright smile back in return.

"Congratulations. Let me see what we have available. Does any particular day suit you?" She asked politely while tapping on her keyboard.

"A Friday. I have every second Friday off from work." I said then decided to add rather unnecessarily that that included today, then the dates of the next three Friday's I had available.

"Wonderful, I can book you in for… oh… today. This afternoon. Our 2pm booking was just cancelled. Can you do today?" She asked, as I stood shell-shocked. "Ma'am?"

"Oh, ah…" I looked at Charlie who nodded ardently, "Yeah… yeah, we can. That's… fast. Thank you." I replied as a slither of fear crawled up my spine at the thought that we would know today. I wouldn't have weeks to prepare for finding out.

"Excellent. You will need to arrive at least 15 minutes early. Your last bathroom break must be prior 1pm, then you are required to drink 1 litre of water between 1.10pm and 1.40pm without going to the toilet." She listed out the instructions I remembered from Winona's first ultrasound recalling how much she complained about her dire need to pee for 10 minutes prior to her appointment. The receptionist handed me a card with the time and dated recorded on even though I didn't really need it because Charlie would not let me forget.

"Thank you." I replied, tucking the card into my pocket.

"Yes, thank you." Charlie mirrored. The receptionist smiled at both of us.

"It's always lovely to see your baby for the first time." The receptionist commented cheerily wearing a massive smile that made me grit my teeth.

"Babies." My darling fiancé said from beside me making the receptionist smile even brighter then clap really quickly in an excitable attention that belayed her age before I burst her bubble by informing her with a tight smile that we were absolutely not having…

~ ~ C 💕 B ~ ~

Same day – 1407 hours – Medical Centre, Colorado Springs – Major Charles Kawalsky

"Twins." The radiologist announced as she moved the gel coated wand around Bree's slightly pronounced abdomen. I resisted the urge to lean down and whisper 'see I told ya' in Bree's ear while she stared mesmerised at the black and white screen that clearly showed two distinct little blobs of 'Britarlie' babies. The name? Bestowed upon us by Cassie so that we always knew if she was talking about 'Britarlie' or 'Jam' since the two most important women in my life were merely weeks apart in their respective pregnancies.

"Oh my God." Bree whispered with a shuttered breath and squeezed my hand then looked at me with honest to goodness fear in her eyes. A bone deep fear that I had never seen before.

"Hey, sweetheart. It's OK. I'm right here." I soothed and kissed her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere." I whispered, my lips still on her skin making her reach up and hold on for dear life then burst into tears.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry." She burbled through a misery that I didn't understand.

"Bree, baby." I said, as I drew back and noted that the radiologist had left the room to give us privacy.

"I lied." She said and sobbed, "Ethan… Ethan was a twin. H-h-his…" She hiccupped, coughed and cried. "His brother was stillborn. We don't… talk about him." She cried, "Shimá… my mother believed she was cursed." Bree confessed unable to control her emotion. "What if…"

"Oh, baby, no." I interrupted her right there because this thinking was not conducive to keeping her calm and relaxed. "Your amá was not cursed." I soothed using the Navajo word for mother that I had picked up from her over the months we had been together. I loved how she wove the occasional Navajo word or phrase into her everyday speaking. The language was beautiful, and I loved hearing the inflection of her voice when she spoke her native tongue.

"She was just…" I closed my eyes because I knew that no matter how hard I tried to convince her that her brother being stillborn was not her mother's fault, and that it just happened sometimes, I knew she would struggle to believe me. I loved Bree intensely and would never blame her if that happened to us. "Just trust me, baby. It wasn't her fault." I said with complete conviction because it wasn't. I truly believed that even though I had never met either of her parents. From the stories Bree told me about her father fighting his parents for the right to marry her mother, I knew in my heart that he would not have blamed her either.

"I'm scared, Charlie." She said while clinging to me.

"Oh baby. They are going to be fine. Perfect and beautiful and amazing, just like their amá. I promise." I replied while holding her tightly, my hand stroking through her luscious brown hair knowing that it was a promise I probably shouldn't offer because you never really knew what the future held but determined that it was true all the same.

"You really think so?" She pressed as she pulled away and looked at me with tear filled brown eyes.

"I know so, baby. I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you or our girls." I repeated that same promise.

"Girls?" She asked with a small smirk then bit her lip, a tick that she seemed to have picked up from Samantha at some point.

"Eh, call it a hunch. Maybe a wish. To have two gorgeous little angels with olive skin, brown hair and brown eyes looking at me every day." I replied, running my fingers over her hair to brush a tendril off out of her eyes.

"What if I want a boy that looks like his azhe'e?" She replied with the Navajo word for father.

"One of each then." I agreed and ran my hand through her hair again simply because I loved its softness while putting my other hand over her abdomen that was most certainly making itself known a lot earlier than it normally would.

"Charlie?"

"Yeah. Can you ask her to come back. I really need to pee." She said with such desperation in her voice that I couldn't not laugh earning myself a smack on my arm.

"Sure thing." I replied, "And once we are done here, I have a surprise for you." I added as I signalled the radiographer to return, my finger running over the sharp edges of the key in my pocket.

Sam's old house wasn't exactly what she had been looking for, but it was close. Jacob had taken me there in the hours between giving me the key and leaving on the Tel'tak. We spent an hour looking around, turning the electricity on and removing the white sheets from the furniture. It was beautiful with three bedrooms plus an office. Apparently, Sam had bought it specifically so that both Cassie and he could have their own rooms. Now, one room would be for John, one for us and the other for our babies when they arrived.

~ ~ C 💕 B ~ ~

Same day – Colorado Springs – Brittany Wilson

Two.

Charlie had been right. In my ignorant fear that what happened to Shimá would translate to me, I had refused to accept that it could be possible and used science as my avenue for that denial.

"What are you thinking?" Charlie asked as we drove through the streets of… I looked around and realised that I didn't even know what part of the Springs we were in. Nothing looked familiar other than the mountains that loomed close by.

"Nothing." I said quickly though I knew immediately that I didn't fool him. "Did you call Harry about the pink horse?" I asked in a loose attempt at getting him to stop asking about the whirling emotions in my brain.

"It's a pony, and yes. He's got it all organised, right down to the pink dye." He replied easily as we turned right onto a wide street with some very nice houses either side of the road. "Now, try again."

"What?"

"Bree." He half scolded.

"It's nothing. Really. I'm fine." I insisted though not even I believed my own tone of voice.

"Brittany." He said my full first name which meant that all three names would be next if I didn't relent and tell him what was wrong.

"I don't know." I said, then placed both my hands over my babies. Babies. Two. Closing my eyes hoping that would settle my nerves but it didn't. It wasn't just the whole 'my mother lost a baby' thing, it was that we had to provide for two when we didn't even have a house. We would have one income for a while and two lots of everything and I was scared. "What are we going to do Charlie?" I asked as he pulled my new Ford Explorer up on the side of the road and turned in the driver's seat to look at me.

"We are going to have two amazing children. We are going to love them and cherish them and give them everything we can starting with this." He said and held up his hand curled into a fist. I looked at it for a few seconds before putting my hand under his. When he opened it, a small plastic figurine of a Carnotaurus – my favourite dinosaur – fell into my hand dragging with it a keyring and a key. Looking up, I immediately searched for a house that had a 'for sale' sign covered with an Under Offer or Sold sticker, but there were none in our immediate area. However, there was one still advertised as For Sale.

"C'mon." He coaxed, then opened his door and stepped out. "I was going to blindfold you but decided that a guessing game would be more fun." He added as I stepped up the kerb to stand beside him. "I'll even give you a hint."

"A hint. What kind of hint?" I pressed because I already knew that one of the six houses in our immediate vicinity belonged to this key.

"Houses, with bathrooms, plural." He repeated the same phrase Samantha had said on the morning that I discovered I was pregnant, after Charlie and I had enjoyed a rather vigorous and vocal shower together.

"Oh." I replied a little disenchanted, "That's it?" I queried hoping for something a little less vague. When he nodded with that infuriating smile that I loved, I looked around to try and determine which one my surprise could possibly be while the fear twisted and warped into anticipation. They were all beautiful. We had parked on the street opposite a house with a sale sign out the front. "Is this…" I pointed to the house, "…ours?"

He tutted, "I gave you a hint already." He said while leaning against my car with his muscular arms – that I tried to ignore – crossed over his chest. I watched him carefully for any further hints. A twitch, or flick of his eyes in a certain direction, but there was nothing but that smile and the occasional flex of his forearms that somehow my eyes seemed to zero in on no matter how slight the movement. With a smile of my own, I took the few steps I needed to be within touching distance and leaned in until I knew he could feel my warm breath on his lips then looked into his eyes while skating my hands along his arms just far enough away to tickle the hair without making any skin contact.

"Are you sure I don't get anything else?" I asked with a seductive tone, as I looked up at him from under my eyelashes, pressing my hips into the top of his thigh as added incentive. He flexed his arms again, hardened his gaze and gritted his teeth but stayed right where he was.

"Nice try. As hot as you are… Brittany, I'm trained to withstand torture." He said while I used all my wiles to get him to break and either tell me which house or engage in a little heavy petting against the car. In my current state, I didn't care that it was broad daylight and very public.

"Torture. A little harsh a description, don't you think?" I asked then scratched my nails down his triceps and along his forearms, though unfortunately that only served to make things heat up for me.

"Maybe." He replied with a hiss, "But this is." He added, then in a flash of hands, turned me around and pulled my ass into his burgeoning interest before dropping a kiss on my neck.

"Oh my God." I cried and slipped my hand up into his hair.

"Aht-aht. Not yet." He said then released his grip and pushed me away signalling that the ball was in my court. Dammit! Now I had to concentrate on something other than what was waiting for me on the other side of this stupid riddle. "The faster you find the house, the faster you get 'something else'."

"So mean." I muttered with a breathy huff of desire.

With a deep breath to centre myself, I flicked my eyes over the neighbourhood. From where Charlie had parked the car, there were six houses in easy sight. Three on our side of the street and three on the opposite side. With nothing more than the phrase spoken by Samantha as a vague clue, I looked at each one in turn ignoring the one posted as 'for sale' because that would be far too easy. Since he had made a point of mentioning Samantha, I figured it had something to do with her specifically, so I focused on the things I knew about her.

The houses on our side of the street were facing west which meant that despite the shadow of the mountain, the house would get hot in the afternoon and Samantha preferred morning sun, so I reasoned that it was likely to be one of the houses over the road, though I would need another characteristic since one wasn't enough. Looking right and left, I crossed over and walked along the grassed sidewalk occasionally looking back at Charlie to see if he would give anything anyway. Yeah, not likely. He still leaned against the car, only this time he had turned around and stretched his arms over the roof.

I immediately discounted the one with the red tiled roof after remembering a conversation she had with Teal'c about disliking the colour. That left one with a brown roof and the other with a grey roof. Both of those had hedgerows out the front, so no hint there so I walked closer and scanned the front yards. When my eyes fell on the small row of pink peonies in the garden of the grey roofed house, I instantly knew that was the one. Pink peonies had been her flower choice for her bouquet when she married Jack and a small vase in the living room always boasted fresh peonies.

When I turned around, Charlie was right behind me wearing a smile that was sad but also happy. "It was Sam's before she died." He explained without me asking.

"Really?" I said almost unable to contain my emotion.

"Yep." He replied. "Do you want to see inside?" He added as he reached out and retrieved the key that I had crushed so hard into my hand that it had left a mark. All I could do was nod because if I spoke, I feared I could breakdown and cry.

We walked up the path and took the five steps to the door. When he slid the key in and turned, the audible snick of the lock disengaging made my emotion tip over into a snuffling sigh. He let me walk through the door first into the breezy front room that boasted a half wall. The lounge suite against the half wall looked comfortable but the thing I loved most was the two ceiling high bookcases. The hallway was short with the master bedroom on the right and the open plan kitchen and dining at the end of the hallway. I could see the bathroom and two more bedrooms from where I stood.

"It's beautiful." I murmured clutching my hands to my chest as I looked around at the fully furnished living area.

"Jacob bought it from Sam's estate. He couldn't part with it. Now it's ours for as long as we need it. Rent free." Charlie said from close behind me. "There's only one stipulation. John gets one of the rooms."

"No problem. He can have that one." I said immediately pointing to the bedroom up the back closest to the kitchen and the second bathroom. I liked John. He was like a little brother even if he was a little strange and said some things that made him sound older than he was. Not that it mattered.

"Which room first?" Charlie asked, his hands finding my hips in such a way that my forgotten libido made itself known. Without any further words from either of us, I turned and tugged his hand towards the bathroom because this bathroom was mine and I was damn well going to have my fiancé in my bathroom. The other rooms could wait.