Chapter 45
O’Neill Farmhouse, Blain County, MT
November 11, 2010
Many, many hours after Turner’s Veterans Day ceremony and the absolute social circus that had developed when it had been realised that the town’s hero and crew had returned, the now exhausted O’Neill family walked though their front door close to midnight.
The boys, while thrilled that their dad was home, barely put up a murmur of protest as their mom hustled them straight from their winter clothes into their beds they were so tired from all the excitement of the day. Listening to the sounds of Josh and Matt getting ready for bed through the open door of the nursery, Jack tucked his sleeping daughter into her crib.
Then, hand resting on the mattress beside her sleeping form, he just stood beside the crib and watched Hope.
As the newly reunited father, he had had priority on Hope during the afternoon and evening’s excitement, but that did not mean he had not had to give her up for brief periods to others of his crew, like Sally, or Sam for feedings during that time. Those moments of separation, except for when Sam had taken her as he had accompanied them to a quiet area for some time together, meant Jack had not quite gotten his fill yet of Hope and how she had changed even with the regular video calls.
Some time after the noise of the boys banging about in the bathroom and their rooms had quieted down Jack looked up from watching Hope having sensed that Sam was watching him from the doorway. Seeing his wife leaning against the doorframe, her arms wrapped around herself and almost seeming to hesitate to intrude between daughter and father, Jack held out his free hand to her.
Light-footed Sam crossed the distance between them and lacing her fingers with those of his offered hand. She leaned against his side as they both turned to watching their sleeping daughter. Long, contented minutes later, Sam began to speak.
“You still haven’t said why you’ve returned, especially as nothing was said about your departure in the last Conference broadcast.”
Jack’s lips turned up into a wry smile. “I don’t think they know Iðavöllr is gone. I left immediately after the last session and with the time difference, even with the broadcast being made in real time, means it’s not quite morning for Alaris yet.”
“So, why?”
“Because I was serving no purpose there,” Jack shifted his head to look at Sam as she leaned against his side. “We’d never planned for me to be there either. Phase IV was to be performed by the people of the Confederation. As leader of the military force that had subdued the Aschen but not an independent nation there was no need for me to be there.”
Well, that was not quite true, as the military leader probably quite a lot of people thought he should be there, but he had done what he had set out to do. He did not feel the need to be there himself as he had years ago with political things as a member of SGC to exert some control over potential damaging situations. With the United Worlds Assembly all he needed to do was check in on the situation a few times. His mission after all had been to free the Confederation and then retire to his pottery and most importantly, his family.
Mission accomplished, ergo, he got to go home.
While yes, he like Sam had a vested interest in the outcome of Phase IV, he was rather detached from the situation and if the entire thing fell through, as long as it did not result in Aschen freedom and war between the nations, he was fully prepared to wash his hands of the situation.
He was a military man, interested only in commanding to defend and ensure freedom, not leading a nation, let alone an entire Confederation—which at the assembly seemed to be the way the wind was blowing.
Sam accepted his explanation for the time being and lifting her weight from his side, tugged on their clasped hands, and urged him from the nursery to their room. Tiredly, eyes and hands caressing, they helped each other shed their clothing. The earlier sharp desire felt in the afternoon was banked by the tiredness although the light touches stirred the coals.
But those light touches were all they indulged in with the tiredness of the day and expectation of Hope awaking within a few hours weighing down on them. Clothing shed they slipped beneath the covers of their bed together and curled against each other. Relaxing, soothed by the feel of skin and limbs against each other once again, the tension of their separation slowly eased from them as they slipped into sleep.
. . .
Sam awaked the next morning, still weighted down by sleepiness, and simply luxuriated in the feel and warmth of her husband spooning against her back and legs. Jack’s breath washed rhythmically over the back of her neck and the missed comforting weight of his arm draped over her side was back. The other limb she knew was probably tucked underneath his head under the pillow.
Quite a change from his sleeping habits almost a decade ago, sprawled in the centre of the bed, face buried in the pillows with his butt in the air. Hers as well, before she used to sleep flat on her back and she now slept on her side spooned around Jack’s arm.
The winter light coming in from their east facing window was dim, meaning that as it was the beginning of November it was sometime before oh-seven-hundred hours which was about when the sun was now rising. She could not tell the exact time because the alarm clock was on the other side of the bed on Jack’s side, which they were both facing away from.
The arm curved around her torso gave her an affectionate squeeze. Alerting her to the fact that her husband was awake as well.
“Morning,” Sam murmured.
“Good morning,” Jack rumbled back as she felt him twist against her back slightly to check the display of the alarm clock. “So, how hard do you think the boys are going to fight going to school this morning?”
“A lot,” Sam predicted, knowing that while it was not a fight about going to school, it was about having to go to school and not stay home with their father as they wanted. Something they had already expressed yesterday. “But today’s Friday and then it’ll be the weekend and considering they’ve already missed school with our trip out East and with you, I would like for them to attend.”
“All right,” Jack agreed as he began to roll away from her and turned off the alarm clock as they were up so they did not need the alarm to sound. “School for them today it will be. And yourself?”
“What?” Sam sat up in bed and looked curiously at him.
“What are your plans for the day?”
Sam lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Not much different from most of my days now that the Confederation is free.”
As Jack began pulling clothes from his drawers for the day he looked over at Sam as she sat in the centre of their bed. “Think you could make time for your husband?”
Sam smiled amusedly at the teasing tone of his voice and replied in tone. “I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule. But I’m sure I could pencil you in for a moment or two.”
“A moment or two?” Jack assumed an expression of outrage.
Sam giggled at his false expression as she rose from the bed and stalked seductively to him. The winter morning light illuminated her pale skin with a golden glow as her long hair whispered softly against her back. “Well, with the right incentive maybe I could find an hour…”
Jack’s expression of false outrage shifted to a roguish one as he reached out and after placing his hands on either side of her hips, deliberately drew them up her sides, sensitising the skin.
“An hour?” he said as his hands stroked down and then up again on the same path, watching Sam’s blue eyes grow unfocused and her breath unsteady. “I think wife,” he leaned forward to rumble seductively against the sensitive spot under her right ear, “you’ll give me more than that.”
Sam shivered at the brush of lips and air and found herself nodding her agreement. She did not intend to deny him anyways. That would just be depriving herself of the pleasure of reacquainting herself with her husband after three months of celibacy, because of the last stage of her pregnancy and later because of their separation.
“But for now,” Jack regretfully lifted his hands from Sam’s body and took a step back just as there was a noise from the baby monitor in their room, “the children call.”
Hope’s murmur heard through the monitor had Sam’s mind already switching tracks as she too stepped away from Jack and began dressing for the day. It was just as she was settling in the chair in the nursery to nurse Hope that she remembered what she had scheduled for the coming weekend.
A visit from Dominic and Cassie with the intention of beginning to prepare for the ‘reveal all’ interviews they had given to Dominic in exchange for not breaking news of the resistance’s existence before the resistance operation had occurred.
Well that probably was not what Jack was expecting to do, but maybe it would be best just to get the interviews done and over with. Get the last of Kinsey’s accusations finally and fully laid to rest in the eyes of the public.