Stargate SG1 Fan Fiction ❯ The Secret Life of a Major General ❯ Chapter 31 ( Chapter 31 )

Chapter 31

Bathroom, O’Neill’s Residence, Alexandria, VA
June 17, 2005
Evening

Friday evening Jack was just finishing combing out Tyler’s hair after the twins’ bath when the distinctive tone of his personal cell phone filled the air. Putting the brush onto the bathroom counter he lifted Tyler down and set the pyjama clayed boy onto the floor. Striding out of the bathroom Jack hurried to his bedroom where he had plugged in his mobile phone to charge after he had gotten home from work hours ago. Flipping the device open he was surprised to see Sam identified as the caller and pushed the talk button.

“O’Neill,” he gave his customary greeting.

“Hi Sir,” Sam said self-consciously on the other end. “Sorry to disturb you.”

“Heck Carter,” Jack teased as he disconnected the charger—leaving it beside the outlet—and made his way out of the bedroom to track down the twins. “I half expected you to show up on my doorstep unannounced again.”

“Sorry, Sir,” Sam apologised.

Jack waved the issue away with his hand even though she could not see him. “So what can I do for you?”

“I was wondering Sir, if I could maybe come over this weekend—to visit the twins?”

“This weekend?” Jack inquired curiously. “Isn’t that cutting it a little close to your upcoming wedding?” Re-entering the bathroom Jack scowled slightly at Tyler who had pulled the already put away container of bath toys onto the floor and begun to play with them.

“No Sir,” Sam said tumultuously. Hearing a tone he did not recognise in her voice, Jack remained silent and let that silence encourage her to continue speaking as he picked up the bath toys again and began herding a protesting Tyler from the bathroom.

“I ah—we’re—I returned the ring to him—Pete and I aren’t getting married,” Sam said in a rush.

Jack was taken aback and could not come up with anything to say, but having finally told him about the cancelled wedding Sam forged determinedly onwards.

“I read the report, about Pete’s trace, and spent most of the week considering his past actions and such… and the knowledge that I repeatedly told him that my job came first—the program always came first. And if we were going to have a relationship, then he needed to acknowledge that fact and then we both would have had to work around that,” Sam confessed. “And when I got to Denver today, to visit with him and talk stuff over, I arrived to find out he’d bought a house for us.”

As Sam stopped speaking Jack finished herding Tyler into the twins’ bedroom where Emily was occupied with the toys sprawled across the floor. At the sight of his sister playing, Tyler was more than happy to stop protesting and forget about the bath toys and made a beeline for the collection of plastic food.

“He bought a house?” Jack was not sure he had heard that right. Something like that was not something you sprung on a woman like Sam.

Sam gave a heartless chuckle on the other end. “Yes, a house in Denver. We hadn’t even decided where we were going to live yet—and he bought a house.”

“Ah…” was all Jack was able to say.

“So,” Sam’s voice clearly indicated she was going to change the topic, “I was wondering if I could come over this weekend, to get to know Emily and Tyler.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“What if you don’t…?” Jack trailed off, uncertain at how to word what he was trying to say.

“I’d like to try Sir,” Sam stated.

“Alright Carter, I’ll see you soon.” Jack agreed lightly as he watched his children play together. “Do you want me to get you from the airport?”

“No Sir,” Sam refused. “I’ll catch a cab.”

Sam went on to state that she would call again later with her flight number and arrival time and after they said their goodbyes Jack closed his mobile phone. Slipping the device into a pant pocket he began encouraging the twins to tidy up before reading them their two bedtime stories, as each sibling chose their own story.

Once the toys were put away and after some deliberation, both children selected their bedtime book from their growing library collection. Sitting himself down on the children’s reading mat, piled with pillows and large stuffed animals, each child selected a side and snuggled up against him. Bedtime stories were not read in bed like Charlie’s had been, simply because the twins had separate beds and both like hearing the other’s story as well.

Jack adjusted the children against him so they would both have a clear view of the pictures and accepted the first book. However as he opened it and began to read the first page his mind was not on the familiar words of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? but on his own thoughts.

So this weekend would be it.

When he would learn just how much a role Sam wanted to play in the lives of Emily and Tyler and by extension, how much a role she would play in his life. And to think, he thought his move to the capitol would essentially remove her—SG-1 really—from his life and vice versa.

Late Saturday afternoon as Sam rode in the taxi from the airport to the general’s house in the Alexandrian suburbs her mind dwelled on the events of Friday. Particularly delivering the news of the broken engagement to Pete’s mother and after arguing again with Pete that their relationship was ended with no hope of resurrection, secured herself a hotel in Denver for the night. From the hotel room she had made several necessary phone calls to those invited to her wedding, like Mark and Hammond, to inform them that the wedding was off.

As the taxi pulled up in front of her destination, she steeled her nerves for the forthcoming visit and exited after paying the fare. With her black skirt swishing around her legs she walked up the walkway for the third time that month wondering why she was more nervous about this visit, which was expected, then her two other unannounced appearances. But then, those visits had been fuelled by anger; an anger that was definitely missing and replaced by uncertainty and anxiety.

But for the first time in a long time she was fully convicted of the rightness of what she was about to do. Commit to any form of relationship with her children and Jack that Jack would allow if she couldn’t convince him that he was what she wanted.

Taking a bracing breath, she raised her hand and pushed the doorbell. On the other side of the wooden panel came the sound of loud children voices and a man’s exasperated tone moving towards the door. The door opened to reveal Jack dressed casually in his weekend wear of jeans and grey t-shirt with two little bodies crowding against his legs in their own jeans and orange and yellow t-shirts.

“Sir,” Sam greeted as she nervously tugged on the hem of her red blouse.

“Carter,” Jack returned the greeting as he placed his hands on the heads of the twins to herd them back away from the doorway. “Come on in.”

“Thank you Sir,” Sam stepped over the threshold and removed her sandals, placing them on the shoe mat with the collection of other footwear.

“Emily, Tyler,” Jack addressed his children, “why don’t you take Sam into the living room and show her your toys?”

Jack was pleased to note that there was no hesitation in either of the twins as they eagerly urged Sam from the entranceway.

After their kidnapping and rescue in the days following there had been some stressful moments when they met new people, particularly blonde women, but having him present in some way always seem to remove the twins’ fear. The child psychologist that specialised in kidnapping trauma that he had spoken with had been a help in easing the twins, and himself, back into their regular routines and now neither of the children seemed to remember much—if anything—of that traumatising time.

It was a time that was still very much vivid in his mind though, especially as he utilised every ounce of his power to hunt down the Trust and how every many copies of that bastard Ba’al were still bouncing around. And he had never realised what an asset being the man in charge was, or a new staff could be, as almost no one questioned him about his information source and the few that did were content with his curt answer of ‘classified’ or ‘need to know.’

Leaving Sam to keep the twins occupied, and vice versa, Jack moved into the kitchen and began preparing supper for the four of them.

Sam and he had agreed on the phone that she would spend the evening while they were awake playing, and helping out with the twins, and after having spent that time with them, they would talk about what needed to be talked about once Tyler and Emily were in bed. It was an impending discussion that had Jack’s gut churning queasily in his stomach. For all the years that he realised he loved Sam, the faint possibility of a shared future had been firmly crushed when she had become engaged to Pete, and even with that broken engagement, hope had not returned.

He didn’t think it could.