Under Construction: Moving In
Under Construction: Moving In
by Meriem Clayton
Summary: Alien captors changed Sam, Daniel, and Jack's lives forever. Babies and weddings prove that as Jack says, "Here's to those who mean to do us harm but bless us inspite of themselves."
Category: Drama, Romance, Series
Season: Season 7
Pairing: Daniel/Sam, Jack/Sara, Teal'c/Janet
Rating: 13+
Warnings: minor language, sexual situations
Author's Notes: Thanks to my wonderful betas, Monica and Jess.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story was created for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Archived on: 07/24/05
When Major Samantha Carter bought her house, the ad had rhapsodized over the generous master bedroom. The ad's author hadn't anticipated filling the room with a queen-sized bed complete with an expectant mother on bed rest and six of her giddy friends. Several chairs, since the party had been going on for too long for everyone to stand and the unoccupied side of the bed was full of food, took up even more space. The room now felt more like a walk in closet. Sam didn't mind a bit. These were the people she would most want to be with in a walk in closet or a submarine or a hot air balloon or any other small confined space. In any case, their lively attempt to buck up her spirits before the c-section scheduled for the next morning, by definition, made the room exactly the right size.
Colonel Jack O'Neill, her commanding officer, and in a bizarre twist of fate, the father of one of the two twins she carried, stood in the middle of the free floor space, waving a clipboard. During the time Sam, Jack, and a third team mate, Dr. Daniel Jackson, had been imprisoned by aliens, their captors had used Jack's involuntary contribution to make her pregnant without the least breech of the non-fraternization rules on either of their parts. "All right, campers," he announced, his stern tone compromised by his grin," we ARE holding a mission briefing here and I expect a little more decorum."
Teal'c leaned over and whispered something in Dr. Janet Fraiser's ear. Teal'c was completely deadpan but he must have said something really wicked about Jack because Janet exploded with laughter, unintentionally snorting some of her beer up her nose, and people began unnecessarily pounding on her back while she sputtered. "No need to do that sort of thing when someone's breathing just fine," she said, trying to enlighten them from her superior medical knowledge but the worst offender in the pounding department, her daughter Cassie, was getting too much of a charge out of the pounding to stop quickly.
Jack repeated, now doing a very credible imitation of an irritated commanding officer who is about to tell a whole platoon to drop and do punishment pushups, "Decorum, people, decorum."
They all more or less subsided except Jack's fiance, Sara, who figured it didn't apply to her. She just kept giggling at him, stopping, and then starting again. He pointedly ignored her. "Now, let's make sure that we're all clear on our roles for Operation C-Section." Mention of the medical procedure that they were all a little afraid of did calm the room a bit. "First we have the mission lead, Major Dr. Samantha Carter." Sam raised clasped hands over her head and gave a sort of fighter's salute to the crowd. "Sam has met the quals for mission lead by being pregnant which I damn well hope no one else in this room can say?"
He looked at Cassie in a minatory way and waggled his eyebrows. She quickly responded, "No, no way that would be me, Uncle Jack."
"Remember that young lady," he said. "Next we have the labor coach and co-father, Dr. Daniel Jackson. Where are you, Dr. Jackson?" he asked as if his best friend was not standing immediately beside him.
"Right here, sir. Reporting for duty, sir," Daniel snapped out sounding very military, and then blowing it by cracking up. Sam turned to mush inside, watching Daniel, the other man the aliens had used as a donor when they inseminated her. He hadn't yet formally proposed again but two weeks before they had finally gotten past all the hurt from her initial rejection of him and his subsequent involvement with Janet and committed to each other.
"Do you have your credentials with you, Dr. Danny?" Jack asked.
Daniel whipped out a card showing he had completed the training as labor coach. "Very good. Moving on, we have the logistics team. Ms. Sara, formerly and in the future once again, O'Neill, and Ms. Cassie Fraiser. Please review your preparations, ladies."
Sam looked affectionately at Sara as the woman consulted her own clipboard and begun going down a list. During their five-month alien imprisonment, Jack and Daniel, kept together in the same cell, had helped each other to reevaluate their lives. As a direct result,Jack had reconciled with his ex-wife and Sam had gained a very close and valued friend.
Sara stated briskly, "Suitcase packed with nightgown, footies, birth announcements, change of clothing for the mother, cosmetics and toiletries, clothing for the babies, and receiving blankets."
Cassie said, "Check."
"Diaper bag ready."
"Check."
"Baby car seats for bringing babies home."
"Check."
"Coach's bag ready?"
"Check."
Jack interrupted, "Coach's bag?"
"You didn't want to be a coach, Jack. It's not your problem," Daniel said, good naturedly.
"I think as the CO of this base, I need to look into this coach's bag thing," Jack responded.
"Who made you CO?" Janet asked.
"I believe that the logistics check is being interrupted by some ill-advised insubordination," Jack said warningly and pantomimed bopping Janet over the head with the clipboard without really contacting with her head.
"Supplies for the waiting room," Sara continued.
"Check," Cassie said quickly to move the group along before they got back to the coach's bag again.
"Excuse me," Teal'c said. "I am on the waiting room detail and I wish to know what sort of supplies is being provided."
Sara pulled out a list, a couple of sheets down, from her clipboard and gave it to Teal'c. He read it very seriously and handed it back. "I see no alcoholic beverages. Is this due to Tauri regulations or improper planning?"
Sara pretended to be quite offended and punched him lightly. "There is nothing left unplanned about this mission, bud."
Jack decided it was time to resume control and said, "Moving on to the critical role of Waiting Room Coordinator. Teal'c, are you prepared to keep this group of people in-line?"
Teal'c said, "I have drawn up some rules, ColonelO'Neill, and I will distribute them at the end of the briefing." He looked at Janet and she sniggered. It was apparent there was, in fact, a sheet of paper with some not too serious rules listed dreamed up by the two of them. Sam was intrigued by this byplay. Ever since Janet and Daniel had broken it off, Teal'c had been spending a lot of time with Janet. It looked to her as if they had connected beyond Teal'c just providing a shoulder to cry on.
"Finally, we have the medical observer, Dr. Janet Fraiser," Jack concluded. "Dr. Fraiser, any words for the mission team?"
"What can I say?" Janet responded. "You're trained, you're equipped, and you're eager. I see nothing but glory ahead."
There was a lot of cheering and hi-fiving and Cassie actually winked at the group, raised a Bic on high, and flicked it. When the hubbub ebbed a bit, Jack said, "All right now. Let's hit our bunks. We're deploying early."
"Grab food on your way out," Janet added and in a matter of seconds, food and people disappeared from the room; that is, except for the labor coach.
He sat down on the bed next to Sam and took her hand. "You okay?" he asked, looking at face anxiously for any sign of jitters.
She nodded. "This was great," she said. "Whose idea was this, anyway?"
"We're a hive mind anymore," Daniel laughed. "We've all spent so much time together supporting you since you were put on bed rest that it's hard to tell where any idea comes from. It's like it's there for everyone, boom, all at once."
"I've got to say I'm awed by Janet being so much a part of things," Sam said. "She's magnificent, stepping aside so you would be free to be with me and, it appears, not holding it against me."
"I think the whole time Janet and I were together, you were there in the background. We never let the relationship become complete," he blushed a little, "you know what I mean, because she had to be sure I was really over you."
"You know what the weirdest part of this is?" Sam asked.
"There's so much weird to choose from," Daniel said, looking at her a little sadly, and stroking her hair for just a second. "Like the two fathers of your children are best friends, really close. Like your best friends are the fianc of one of your children's fathers and the ex-girlfriend of the other."
"We really do sound like some sort of commune, don't we?" Sam laughed. "No, the weirdest part is that you and I are in love and talking about marriage, having a child together, and we've never done more than a couple of brother/sister closed mouth kisses."
"Do you think I don't want to?" he said, a little annoyed for a moment. Daniel didn't always pick up on the fact that someone was joking as quickly as he should. His first reaction was usually careful, serious consideration of any statement. "The doctors were really emphatic. Not only no sex but no sexual excitement. And we didn't get together until after you were put on bed rest."
"Daniel, I don't really think they meant no kissing. I think they meant no orgasms," Sam said, exasperated and more than a little frustrated.
"If I kissed you, really kissed you, I don't know that I could stop," Daniel said. "This is better, safer. Speaking of which, I think I need to let you get some sleep. It is an early morning."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Operation C-Section was a tribute to the tactical skills the United States Air Force had taught its officers and passed on to its civilian employees. The doctor, with the extra motivation of Sam's large and involved entourage hovering around, did a perfect job. The babies deserved their share of credit, contributing their health and freedom from problems. Their Apgar scores were at the top just as some day their SATs, given their parents unquestioned intelligence, would undoubtedly be.
Both fathers were allowed to stay in the room since neither Sam nor the obstetrician objected, but the first night, Daniel took Jack aside and said, "Do you think, I could have about 15 minutes alone with her?"
Jack said, "Ah, the formal proposal."
"And," Daniel said, "the first real kiss."
Jack was amazed. "And I thought we didn't have any secrets," he teased.
"Well think about it, Jack," Daniel said. "When was I supposed to have kissed her?"
Jack just shook his head. "I'll meander down to the cafeteria. It's been days since I've had the opportunity to eat any really bad food."
Daniel asked. "I'll need to run down to the gift shop first. I noticed they had flowers. Then if you'll distract Sam a moment?" The babies both decided to cooperate with Daniel's plan and quieted down. A short time later, Jack moved aside and suddenly Daniel was revealed to Sam holding a bouquet of flowers.
"I'll be back in a bit," Jack said, not that anyone was listening to him, and ushered himself out.
Daniel presented the flowers to Sam and then pulled two candles and matches out of the coach's bag and positioned them on the nightstand. He lit them and turned off the overhead light. Next he produced a bottle of wine and two glasses. Sam was watching him with a bemused but pleased expression. He put one knee on the bed and, quasi-kneeling, said, "Sam, will you marry me?"
Sam was too overwhelmed to speak at first but then she realized that he was starting to look a little nervous. He had, after all, been turned down once. She quickly found her voice and said, "Oh, yes!"
Daniel pulled something out of a pocket, took her hand, and slid it on. "I hope you like it. It's like the one my mother had."
Sam moved her hand toward the flickering candle and saw a sapphire in an antique looking setting surrounded by small rubies. "Oh, Daniel," she said, tears shimmering in her eyes.
"Do you like it?" he asked anxiously. "I know, any more, women are usually involved in picking out their own rings."
"Daniel, it couldn't be more perfect," she said sincerely. Her voice got huskier and lower and she invited, "Come here." She pulled him down on top of her and they had roughly fifty first real kisses.
Daniel kept trying to break free, very aware that there were limits on how far they should be going immediately after birth, but she was like a greedy woman faced with a box of chocolates. Just one more; then I'll stop. One arm was wound around his neck and she was making a lot of trouble with the other hand. Finally Daniel captured her hands and pinned them above her head. He looked down at her swollen mouth and could feel her soft body under him. She squirmed a calculated squirm and he groaned. Summoning up every ounce of self-control, he looked deep into her eyes and said, "You're mine now whether we've made that a physical fact or not, right?"
She said, very softly, "All yours, forever."
Everyone was euphoric for about 24 hours and then the problems began. At first, no one knew which baby was Jack's and which was Daniel's. This created a problem getting them out of the hospital at the end of three days because a birth certificate was required and Sam didn't want to name them until she knew. Because both fathers had the same blood type, the blood tests couldn't be used. The hospital administration seemed to think that Sam had this problem because she was a promiscuous bimbo and didn't seem disposed to be of any assistance. Sam stayed one more day than really necessary and, thank God, they had the DNA results after 4 days. Sam had already been quite sure she knew which baby was which and she was proved right.
John "Jackie" O'Neill Carter and Daniel "Danny" Jackson Carter came home to a triumphal welcome from the "Operation C-Section" team but things went downhill rapidly. Sam wanted to nurse, a challenging, but achievable, goal with twins. She was in continual contact, or so it seemed, with the lactation consultant who had advised her to nurse them at the same time, with the babies in a football hold on each side. Otherwise, she advised, Sam would be nursing constantly. However, the babies didn't want to eat at the same time all the time and ignored little talks about getting with the program.
Sam and Daniel had been going to plan their wedding after she came home from the hospital but nobody had the energy to plan anything between feeding, changing diapers, changing clothes - theirs and the babies - due to diaper overflow and spit up, washing clothes, going to the store to buy diapers, and try to figure out why little people wouldn't stop crying.
Jack and Sara had fallen in love with both babies immediately, only slightly more besotted with Jack's child than Daniel's. They ended up moving into the house temporarily to get more time with the children and be able to provide more help to Daniel and Sam.
Sara was in the kitchen, cleaning up after a simple meal she had fixed for the four of them. Jack stood in the doorway, just watching her, savoring this moment when she was unaware of him. Sara was so graceful and so full of spirit, even here in the kitchen when she thought herself alone. She hummed a little, chuckled at the antics of a cat she glimpsed out the window, and chided a spoon that was stuck uncooperatively in the silverware basket of the dishwasher. The whole time, she never stopped moving, getting the job done.
Her running shoes, mid-thigh khaki skirt, and polo shirt, coupled with her short no-nonsense haircut, her simple jewelery, and minimal make up said soccer mom. Jack knew there was a whole other woman there, under her skin. She made him anything but a disciplined soldier and he turned her into something wild and unconventional.
Suddenly he really wanted to bring that other woman out. He walked on cat feet up behind her but she heard him at the last moment. It was obvious in the softening of her posture and the way she carefully set what she was holding down and waited for him to reach out to her. He put his arms around her and pulled her against his hard, muscled body. She turned in his grasp and slipped her hands up under his shirt while giving him a deep kiss. He looked at her face, older than when he had first fallen in love with her, but, to him, more beautiful. "Sara, don't ever let me get stupid again," he said softly.
Sara laughed and said, "It's a promise," and began to provide some memorable motivation.
Given how much they loved each other, it made no sense at all that Jack and Sara's wedding plans seemed to be careening out of control. They were having trouble agreeing on even the smallest details and Jack was frankly baffled as to why there were suddenly so many issues.
One evening, Jack and Daniel sat bleary eyed in front of the television, turned down so low as to be barely audible. They had all become paranoid about even the slightest sound because there was a chance at any time, day or night, it might wake somebody very small but very loud. Both men were too exhausted to sleep, a curious condition that was new to Daniel, but part of the suppressed memories coming back to Jack of Charlie's babyhood. "You getting much done at work?" Jack asked. Both were out of vacation time except for the few days they were hoarding for their weddings and had been forced to return to the Mountain.
Daniel snorted. "Of course," he said, keeping his voice low.
Jack said, "What have I told you about trying to be sarcastic? That's my job."
Daniel just sighed. "If I can't pull it together soon, I doubt I'll have a job."
Jack retorted, "I'm sure they can find previously Ascended archeologists with a working knowledge of Ancient script and Jaffa growing on trees."
Daniel laughed, "And you do have that pesky alien gene thing going for you."
Jack said, "You know, I've been wondering."
Daniel said, "Would you really want Jackie to have the gene?"
Jack looked at him surprised. "It never occurred to me that I might not want him to."
"I wouldn't want the NID to know he did, if he did," Daniel said. They both contemplated that for a moment.
"This wedding thing is making me crazy," Jack said, launching into the new topic without preamble.
"You and me both. I remember hearing jokes about bridezilla but I would never have thought Sam would go so nuts," Daniel responded, glumly picking the label off his beer bottle in tiny pieces.
"That's supposed to be a sign of sexual frustration you know," Jack observed, jerking his head toward the pile of little pieces of label on the coffee table.
That got him a really dirty look. "Tell me about it. She did just have a baby you know."
"Ouch. I was just joking and forgot your life was kind of a joke," Jack said. Daniel tried to hurl a throw pillow at him but it was too soft and squishy and didn't really make enough of a statement.
"Look. The thing is they're tag teaming us, Sara and Sam. I think they sit up there and just egg each other on," Daniel observed. "Here's a thought. Maybe we should have a double wedding."
"This would make the decision making process simpler, how?" Jack said.
Daniel explained, "It would be more complex in one sense but they would now have to agree with each other instead each of them encouraging the other to demand God knows what." His voice got high and coy, "Danny, I think it would be just darling if we had the twins go down the aisle in a little pony drawn carriage in front of me."
Jack was thunderstruck. "She didn't propose that. Please tell me she didn't."
"Not actually, but there have been some real triumphs of sentimentality and mawkishness going on. He added, "From an Air Force officer for God's sake."
Jack was beginning to like the idea. "They haven't been suggesting things that were the least bit similar, have they?"
Daniel took the thought further. "No. I think a double wedding makes them focus on dealing with each other and I expect the compromise will eliminate most of the more bizarre ideas."
The two men shook on it and went upstairs to inform their fiancs and the babies.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Almost four months later, on a beautiful, cloudless Saturday in late summer, streams of people, many in dress uniforms, poured into Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The church was full except where the wedding party and the babies would sit. In the front pews on each side, there were bouquets of roses for parents who could be present only in their hearts.
The brides barely had space to turn around in the little room they were sharing with the female half of the wedding party. Both had long, full skirted, cream colored wedding dresses and full length veils which took up a respectable amount of space. The babies, at least, were in a different room with Janet which helped control the pandemonium. Cassie, Sam's sister-in-law, Julie, Sara's sister Lindy, and Sara's niece Garnet were the bridesmaids. They had wanted to acknowledge Janet but knew that asking her to be an attendant at her ex-boyfriend's wedding was a little bit much. Janet had dealt with the awkward situation by forthrightly saying, "I don't know if you're going to ask me to be in the wedding but I would really rather have the babies all to myself during the service." No one had thought about parking the Danny and Jackie in a nursery. They were going to be up front in the first row.
Julie said, "Sam, Mark is really glad that your Dad was able to come and walk you down the aisle. Mark's obsessing about the grey hairs that have started showing up at his temples. I think he was afraid he really would look like your father to people. And, although he doesn't like to admit it, he really is glad to see Jacob."
Lindy asked, "How did you decide on General Hammond to walk you down, Sara? I didn't think you really knew him."
Sara said, "Our dad and our uncles have all passed away. George Hammond means so much to Jack and I really liked him from the moment I met him. It works for me."
"General Hammond told me how touched he was by the request. He's been a great supporter to Jack, who, you have to admit, would tax the patience of a less flexible commanding officer," Sam added.
"Okay," Garnet spoke up, "Let me be sure I've got this straight." The college student had missed the rehearsal and most of the rehearsal dinner due to problems with her flight and had been nervously drilling on the details ever since. The only thing she was really confident about was that her former uncle was about to become her uncle again. "Major Carter."
"Sam," she corrected.
"Sam," Garnet resumed, "you're marrying Daniel Jackson and the groomsmen for both you and Aunt Sara are Mark Carter, Julie's husband and your brother," Sam nodded, "Teal'c -- where is he from again?" she paused to ask.
Sam said, "Africa."
Garnet looked a little dubious but continued, "Walter, who works at Cheyenne Mountain, and this guy, Jonas. I think you said he's a physicist you worked with a couple of years ago while Dr. Jackson was on another assignment. Where is he working now, by the way?"
Sara hadn't been able to get a straight answer on either Teal'c's or Jonas' actual backgrounds and waited with interest to see how Garnet's question was answered. Sam looked straight at Garnet and said, very seriously, "He's actually a sort of illegal alien. He doesn't really have papers that would satisfy the emigration service so if you could just let it drop..."
Garnet nodded vigorously, "Oh, yeah, sure."
The wedding coordinator stuck her head in at that point. "Five minutes," she said. The woman looked so incredibly happy, you would have thought she was the bride. She found every detail of this convoluted wedding party absolutely fascinating. There were the twins who had two different fathers, the two grooms. These fathers seemed to be in complete harmony with each other as did the two brides, despite the fact that one bride was marrying a father of one of the other bride's children. There was a very large, muscular, groomsman who absolutely had to have a hat on at all times. There was another groomsman, Jonas, who had seemed to be baffled by any number of common wedding traditions. During the rehearsal, he had been appalled when the subject of what would be thrown at the wedding party instead of rice came up. Apparently he viewed even watching the wedding party leave as hostile. One of the grooms, she couldn't remember which one, had taken him to one side at that point and he seemed to calm down. It was just all too interesting.
Exactly five minutes later, they were at the entrance to the sanctuary and could see Fr. Bill standing up front looking reassuring with Jack and Daniel and the groomsmen lined up. The processional began to play and the bridesmaids each filed down the aisle. Sara now started walking toward Jack. George Hammond had her arm but she was oblivious to him and everyone but the silver-haired man in the dress uniform and Charlie's gentle presence. Jack had no idea that she talked regularly to Charlie and as he watched her come toward him now, more beautiful than the last time he married her, he couldn't have known that Charlie was walking next to her in spirit and had just been told, "Your dad is one handsome man."
Sam looked at Jacob, a trifle nervously, and said, "Let's do it."
He held her back a beat. "This is the best decision you ever made. It gives me so much peace, facing the things I have to face, to know that both of my children are happy."
As they started forward, women were happily crying all over the place. Men were smiling broadly, clueless as to how their wives, daughters, and girl friends could be enjoying their tears so thoroughly. Sam felt on the brink of tears herself, at her father's words, at the love that overwhelmed her for Daniel and everyone else present, at the sight of her beautiful children in Janet's arms. It made her blue eyes luminous and Daniel was caught in them and never able to look away until the end of the ceremony.
Fr. Bill would always rate this as the best wedding of his entire career as a priest. Despite the odd circumstances, it felt more right than any other ceremony he ever performed, as he looked at Daniel and Sam, lost in each other's blue eyes, and Jack and Sara, so comfortable with each other but yet with such passion just below the surface. The babies quieted down right before the service began and were perfect throughout. Fr. Bill took it as a sign of God's presence and benediction.
Later, Daniel stood briefly with Teal'c, watching the dancing outside at the little bed and breakfast where the reception was held. "I never thought I'd be this happy," he said simply.
"I have never been able to forgive myself for your loss of Sha're, DanielJackson," Teal'c said, "until now."
"I forgave you a long time ago, Teal'c," Daniel said. "You know that."
Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow and replied, "There is a difference. But, DanielJackson, now that you have forgiven me and I have forgiven me, I would ask you for a favor."
"Anything, my friend," Daniel said, completely baffled as to what that might be.
"I know of your custom with the garter and the bouquet. Such signs are very important with the Jaffa," Teal'c said, baffling Daniel even further with this seeming non sequitur. He then compounded it with another one. "You told me I was a good man when I went to be with DoctorJanet after it ended between the two of you." He clapped Daniel on the back. "I am less good than you might think. Please try to throw me your garter and perhaps you could influence Sam to aim her bouquet toward DoctorJanet." Teal'c strolled away.
Daniel still hadn't lost his stupefied expression when Jack joined him. "So," his best friend asked him, "Is everybody happy?"
Daniel left Jack a little confused when he answered, "There may be some people who aren't happy but I think that's about to change." He put an arm around Jack's shoulders and said, "I think we should have a toast to those aliens, in code of course so no classified information is shared. What they did to Sam and what we learned in our time in that cell made all the difference. I'm sure they didn't plan on it but they gave us our sons and our wives and a much deeper friendship with each other."
Jack stood a little later with a glass of wine and said, "I'd like to make a toast on behalf of Daniel and I. Here's to those who mean to do us harm but bless us in spite of themselves."
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to Meriem Clayton
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