Chapter 8
O'Neill Farmhouse, Blaine County, MT
August 20, 2010
"You know," Daniel echoed Janet's accusation even as his anger grew. "You know and you've said—done—nothing?"
Jack arched a silvered eyebrow and looked at the archaeologist pointedly.
"How?" Janet asked her eyes still on Sam. "How—when did you know?"
Sam paused in shelling peas and leveled a look at them. "Tell me Janet, how can a race that is capable of staving off aging, curing cancer, and possesses machines that can reverse tissue damage and mend broken bones not be able to cure the infertility on the Confederation's federated planets?" Sam asked pointedly before brutally driving home what she had to say next. "And it is only on the federated planets where the populations are dying, and beginning to die on allied planets. The Aschen homeworld has absolutely no problems with infertility. How can that be if all Confederation worlds have access to the same level of technology and knowledge?"
It was obvious that the O'Neills were far more knowledgeable about the Aschen's sterilisation. They had not even thought about the situation on other planets, being focused on what had been done to Earth.
"I can understand that you're angry at us—the world," Janet finally said. "But still Sam, we're talking about the entire world. Doesn't the fact that the world—you—can't have children mean you can put that anger aside and help?"
The two O'Neills exchanged looks again, Jack rolling his eyes again in exasperation, as Sam looked clearly amused.
"Jack, help me up will you?" Sam pushed the bowl of shelled peas to the centre of the table. Obligingly Jack held out his forearm to let her brace her weight even as his other hand went to her back. With her husband's help, Sam stood upright and stepped away from her chair. Clearly revealing what the table had kept from Janet and Daniel's sight.
A stomach swollen in the last term of pregnancy.
Daniel's jaw dropped as Janet's eyes grew impossibly round.
"You're pregnant!" Janet exclaimed, feeling redundant about saying the obvious even as she said.
Sam continued looking amused at their stupefied expressions as her hands smoothed over her stomach. When it became obvious that it was going to take more time for Daniel and Janet to recover from this revelation, Sam turned to her husband.
"Jack? I think it is past time for lunch. Do you think you could call the boys in?"
Jack gave a brief nod, stepped away from his wife, and descended the staircase. The dogs surrounded him again, as he made his way back in the direction he had come from earlier.
Rounding the table Sam strode leisurely with the distinctive gait of a pregnant woman to the back door leading into the house. Opening the door, she looked over her shoulder at Daniel and Janet and invited them in. "It shouldn't take Jack long to round up them up. Why don't you guys join us for lunch and you two can meet the boys."
Still dazed by the revelation of Sam's pregnancy both Janet and Daniel wondered who the 'boys' were as they followed Sam into the cool interior of the farmhouse. They found out six minutes later when two boys about age eight and six with sun bleached brown hair and blue and brown eyes respectively burst into the kitchen followed by Jack.
Not even the presence of two strangers gave them pause as they scrambled into their chairs around the kitchen table and eagerly looked at their mother as she set plates of chicken salad sandwiches on the table.
"You washed your hands?" Sam inquired.
"Yep," the oldest boy chirped as both boys held out their hands. The hands of the youngest were still practically dripping water.
"Daddy used the hose," the six-year-old exclaimed clearly thrilled at the experience as they both reached for sandwiches.
Sam cast a look at Jack who just gave his wife a charming smile even as he began filling glasses with lemonade from the pitcher Sam had taken from the refrigerator.
"Before you two start eating, why don't you introduce yourself to our guests," Sam suggested to her two sons in a voice that all children recognised was actually an order.
Blue and brown eyes turned to look at the two visitors sitting in their parents' customary chairs at opposite ends of the kitchen table.
"Hello," the older blue-eyed boy greeted. "I'm Josh."
The younger boy with brown eyes gave them a grin that revealed his missing front tooth. "Hi! I'm Matt and I'm six!"
Janet and Daniel greeted the two boys and gave their own names, but evidently, as the O'Neill sons turned their attentions immediately back to the sandwiches, they were far less interesting than food.
Jack set the glasses of lemonade on the table and Josh and Matt making a point of finishing their mouthfuls before thanking their father. Clearly displaying their best table manners—even if they first washed that mouthful down with lemonade.
Murmuring their own thanks as they each accepted a piece of sandwich, Janet and Daniel hungrily tucked into the lunch meal themselves. They had worked up quite an appetite because of their unexpected walk. The two boys finished their lunch long before the adults and waited with barely concealed impatience for their visitors to finished eating themselves.
Once Daniel had finished eating what he'd put on his plate the two boys began peppering him with questions. Mostly about where he and Janet had come from and why they had come to their farm.
Neither of their parents made any move to interrupt, content to let their sons pose the questions and listen to the answers. Tag teaming, the boys were superb, as only children could be, at interrogating.
Listening Jack and Sam learned that it had been Cassie that had located Jack through his ceramics website—and as yes, they were 'the' Daniel and Dr Fraiser of their parents' stories—and had transported to Montana to visit the gallery in town and from Sally had found out where they lived. Daniel was the one that mentioned that they had had to walk part way to the farm, which had invoked laughter from the two boys who had chastised them about not knowing about dead zones and not owning an electric car.
Hearing that—which explained for Sam why she had not heard a car drive into the yard—Jack nodded that yes, he would drive them the two kilometres back to their car when either their unexpected guest decided to leave or they decided it was time for them to leave.
The questions about why they had visited led to them learning that Daniel and Janet had wanted to ask Jack for help, had had the boys innocently asking why they could not ask their mommy or daddy to help? That invoked chuckles from their parents at the flustered look on their guests' faces.
They would let the boys ask some more questions and then end their fun.