Dr Phillip Hadley's Blue Stuff
Dr Phillip Hadley's Blue Stuff
by Jojo
Title: Dr Phillip Hadley's Blue Stuff
Author: Jojo
Email: randomleaves@yahoo.co.uk
Category: FutureStory, Romance
Season: future Season
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Very fluffy future story. Very fluffy.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Jack awoke with a groan, lying on his back. Not quite prepared to open his eyes and face the day, he rolled onto his side automatically to reach for his wife who might just be sympathetic to his complaints. Sadly for Jack, rather than the warm, soft and beautiful bundle of his wife, his searching hands immediately met with the scratchy cushions of the den sofa.
Opening one eye, he tried to recall what he'd done to deserve sleeping on the sofa, instead of in their bed.
Coming up blank - and, actually, come to think of it, nothing he'd ever done had resulted in Sam evicting him from the bedroom - he turned back on his back and rubbed at his face.
'' Daddy?''
'' Wha!'' he yelped in terror. He glanced over, saw his daughter perched on the battered pine coffee table and sighed. Oh yeah, military training, completely down the drain, he thought, heart racing. '' Megan. God, you scared the crap outta me.''
'' Daddy,'' she said in imperious tones, mouth pursed in disapproval at her father's language, though Jack got the distinct impression that if Sam didn't tell him off so much about it, then Megan wouldn't care either way.
'' Yeah, yeah, sorry. Don't tell your mother. What time is it?''
'' The big hand's on the six and so's the little one. Almost.''
Almost? '' You mean to tell me it's half past five?''
She thought about this for a moment, small face scrunched up. '' Um.... yeeeessss.''
Half past five. Great. Just great.
Megan unfolded her pyjamaed legs and climbed off the coffee table, crept towards her father. '' I've had breakfast already, Daddy.''
'' At half past five?'' On a Saturday? he mentally added. Children. Completely bizarre species.
She nodded eagerly, blonde plaits bouncing. Carefully, she started the mountain climb up onto the sofa and then up on top of his chest. '' Why are you in the den, Daddy?''
'' Er....''
She shifted until she was comfortable, making her father grunt occasionally. '' Mummy said you were going to be late last night. Did Uncle Jonas have a nice birthday?''
Suddenly, things were becoming clearer.
'' I think so.'' Jack wasn't entirely sure Jonas had quite understood the concept of a surprise birthday party and he had been, literally, terrified when they'd pulled it on him in the commissary of the SGC. '' He liked the food,'' Jack decided. '' Definitely.''
Megan plucked at the loosened tie around his neck. '' I got you this for Christmas.''
Proudly, he surveyed his little girl, his baby. Her eyes had been blue when she'd been born, like all babies, but at about two years old they'd started to darken slowly, subtly, until now, at five, they were almost as dark as his own. Beyond that, she was her mother's image. Jacob was wrapped around her little finger and (well, it was obvious, wasn't it?) so was he. '' So you did.''
'' Well, Mummy bought it but I chose it,'' Megan clarified, to be straight with him.
And Mummy had thought it would be terribly funny, no doubt, to watch her husband wearing a tie with little sheep dancing across it. Mummy had a wicked sense of humour. '' Thank you very much,'' Jack said sombrely.
She grinned. '' Just wait 'till you see what we've got you this year.'' She bounced once, squishing his intestines. '' Do you want me to tell you?''
He shook his head. Sam had started Christmas shopping already? What month was it? Oh, no, was it November? Already? He'd better get his act together if he was going to get his shopping done nice and early, unlike last year's Christmas Eve fiasco when he'd pleaded with Sam to give him a hint about what she'd like.
She'd been devilishly amused by the whole thing and he had a feeling she'd been speaking to Sara. Again. Why was it so unnerving that his wife and his ex-wife seemed to get on so damned well? He couldn't count the occasions when he and Richard, Sara's second husband, had stood uncomfortably discussing sports in the high street as Sara and Sam chatted away eagerly, shuffling bags and children between them.
It wasn't just the obvious that bothered him. Sara was an important part of his past, and he liked that Sam shared it with him. It was... well, he now knew things about Richard that a man really shouldn't know about another man. Sam seemed to have no problem sharing the details of the conversations she had with Sara, and he had an awful feeling Sara did the same thing with Richard. Hence the uncomfortable talk in the high street where they avoided each others eyes and talked about manly things.
Richard liked bubble baths, you know.
He couldn't repress the shudder.
Megan's eyes were wandering around the room. '' I don't think Mummy's going to like the silly string,'' she said contemplatively.
Jack's head jerked up and he looked around the small back room. '' Jesus!'' he exclaimed, sitting up but remembering to hold on to Megan as she squawked and toppled backwards into his arms.
What on earth had possessed him? Blue, white and red silly string was strewn around the room, around lampshades, over the TV and hi-fi, across the bookshelves stacked unevenly with children's books. '' Oh my God,'' he murmured. There was a worrying blank in his memory where this atrocity had occurred. Surely he hadn't.... He didn't remember... He simply didn't recall drinking enough to forget that he'd silly strung the house. Sure there'd been lots of that blue stuff with ice cubes in it but he'd been assured it was non-alcoholic. Heck, even Hammond had been drinking the stuff by the gallon.
He hoisted her up into his arms. '' Okay, baby, we're going to have to do a little tidying up.''
'' Aw....''
Yup. Her father's daughter all right.
In the end, all Megan really did was follow her father around the room as he wiped up as much of the string as he possibly could. She chattered in her usual enchanting fashion, occasionally tugging at his trousers if she thought he wasn't paying her enough attention, told him - in detail - what she'd had for supper the night before, and on a scale of one to ten how burnt each item was.
'' I think she's getting better, Daddy,'' Megan said in cheerful tones as they trouped into the kitchen to dispose of the gunk. He rolled his eyes at the state of the kitchen table - she still wasn't quite perfect at pouring Froot Loops from the box into her little plastic bowl and the floor and table was spotted with the cereal. Sweetly, Megan put her little hand in his. '' It's all right. Bob'll get them.''
Bob's ears raised at the mention of his name but, beyond that, he remained perfectly asleep in his dog basket in the corner, his tongue lolling out.
Jack's secret belief that Bob was actually a cat in dog's clothing remained intact. He knew they should have called him Garfield.
Still, she was right. He would, eventually, eat the food on the floor and though Sam had warned them both time and time again that eating human food wasn't good for him, Jack was willing to let a few Froot Loops slide. He put the box away, washed up the bowl and the spoon and then it all became too much and he sat down on the breakfast bar stool and watched his daughter clamber up on the one next to him.
'' So. What do you do this early in the morning, anyway?''
'' Cartoons.''
'' Ah. And why aren't you doing that now?''
'' I think you were sleeping on the remote.''
He nodded. So it hadn't been daughterly love, then, that had kept her at her father's side. '' Well, you can go and do that now. And I'll... go back to bed.''
She was sympathetic. '' Headache, Daddy?''
Jack's eyes narrowed. '' Why would you say that?''
'' Mummy said you would have one when I asked if I'd see you in the morning.''
'' Oh, did she now?''
'' Yes. Then she said...'' The fruit bowl piqued her interested and she reached across the table and pluck a grape off from the vine.
'' She said...'' Jack pressed. It was always extraordinarily frustrating trying to get things out of Megan, particularly in relation to Sam. It was almost as if Megan was winding him up, but Jack was hopeful he had a few more years of innocence before she learnt that particular tactic from her mother.
'' She said you'd probably be headover.'' Her fair brow furrowed at the word she didn't really understand. '' No, hunghead. You know..''
'' I know.'' He bent his head, kissed her baby-fine hair. '' Have fun watching TV.''
'' I will, Daddy.''
Upstairs, Jack pushed open the door to the master bedroom and peeked inside. He was beginning to sense that in his... state... the previous night, he'd been unwilling to inflict himself upon his wife in her condition. Nice of him, considering she'd been telling stories to their daughter about him.
Glaring at the lump in the bed, he flung his tie off onto the chair in the corner of the room where Sam had obviously been reading the night before. He tilted his head to read the cover the book laid of the arm and his eyebrows raised. Another pregnancy book. Second Babies. Of course. Like the first pregnancy books had helped. Megan had defied every rule of first pregnancies. She'd been early, for one, and she'd been fast. Two hours of labour and he was a father again. No one had been more astonished than Jack who'd gone in expecting the long haul and had found himself phoning up relatives seemingly minutes after he'd first called them to explain that Sam was in labour.
So, theoretically, their next child should be two months late and Sam would be in labour for a week.
Not that he was going to tell her that.
A rustling behind him had his head turning. She was awake. Blinking like a mole, hair sticking up all over the place. His first reaction? To grin broadly. '' God. Tell me you haven't just got back home.''
At his age? Who did she think he was? Superman? '' I woke up on the sofa downstairs.''
'' That was... nice of you.'' She reached up and rubbed a hand over her face and then turned to looked at the clock. Her groan was loud and heartfelt. '' Jack,'' she complained, flopping back down on the bed.
He shucked his trousers, left them where they landed, then threw his shirt off. Changing further was beyond him so he walked over to the bed, crawled onto it from the end and clambered over to his wife. Underneath the duvets, the space was warm and inviting and he sighed, his aching bones relaxing. Sofas and men his age no longer mixed, he decided, cuddling up to her as they fitted into the only comfortable sleeping position they could find when she was at this stage in her pregnancy.
'' Was it good?''
'' The bits I can remember.''
She snorted, then shifted a little closer to him, the bump that held their child brushing his stomach. '' Tell me you didn't drink whatever it is that Phill's been concocting in his lab all week.''
'' Is that what the blue stuff was?''
Sam nodded. '' It's supposed to be non-alcoholic, and yet gives you the same... buzz, I suppose.''
'' And that would explain the memory loss! Wow. I'd wondered why I didn't feel hungover.''
'' Did Jonas like his present?''
Jack smiled. '' Oh yeah. He... grinned.''
She slapped his side gently.
'' He sends his love, says he'll see you on Monday. Hey, I thought you were working Tuesdays and Thursdays?''
'' Uh-uh. The General swung it so I'd be working the same part time hours as you now that Meg's started school.''
'' Sweet.'' In his mind's eye, Jack could see endless months of him and Sam. All alone. In the house. Alone. Okay, not really practical since she was seven months pregnant, but that wasn't the point.
She started dropping off at this point and he started to join her, then he remembered. And couldn't, frankly, believe he'd forgotten.
'' Oh yeah,'' he said as casually as he possibly could, '' and Daniel's back.''
He waited for the expected squeal, the outrage that he hadn't called her immediately to tell her. But it never came.
'' Mmm,'' she murmured against his chest. '' He dropped by yesterday evening. Meg was quite taken with him. Of course, he was showing off the whole... glowing jellyfish thing.''
'' Of course. Hey, he came to see you before me!''
'' Well... yes.'' She patted him lightly, reassuringly. '' He always liked me better than you.''
He looked down at her, saw by the way she was sucking in her cheeks that she was winding him up. He decided he'd be the big one and not comment further on her outrageous comment. He kissed her forehead instead. '' Go to sleep, Sam.''
'' Yes, sir,'' she murmured sleepily.
His shoulders shook with laughter. Sir. God, it had been years since she'd called him that. Only when she was very, very relaxed did it occasionally slip out and sometimes, when she was teasing him, as they made love.
One of his hands slid down between them and rubbed over the bump of their baby. '' 'Night, Matthew.''
'' Amanda,'' came a whispered laugh.
'' Theo.''
'' Jennifer.''
He grinned. He loved this argument. '' John Junior.''
'' Hah! Catherine.''
'' Ooh. I like that one,'' he said suddenly. '' Catherine O'Neill. What were our middle names again?''
'' Jacob John and,'' she yawned, wrinkled her nose, '' and Anne.''
'' Catherine Anne O'Neill.'' Hmm. Yes, he did like that. Anne after her mother and, interestingly, his. They had intended to give Megan that middle name but somehow giving her Charlotte had seemed more appropriate.
'' It's going to be a boy,'' Sam announced suddenly, in exactly the same tone of voice she'd used to predict Megan's sex.
'' Hey, you always argue for the girl....''
'' That's because.. because... well, just because. Matthew Jacob John O'Neill.''
'' It would be a shame to waste the excess set of names,'' he mused mock-thoughtfully.
'' Give me two years and we'll talk about it again.''
'' I'll have forgotten by then.''
She lifted her head, blue eyes shining. '' That's the plan.'' Then she kissed him.
THE END - read my fanfic at www.geocities.com/randomleaves/
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Jojo
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