Epilogue

Jack jerked awake as Sam suddenly grabbed his arm. “I think this is it,” she said quietly.

“What?!” Jack exclaimed, sitting up quickly and flicking on the light.

He looked at her in alarm. She was sweating slightly although it was very cool in the room. She winced and grabbed her abdomen, which Jack had recently taken to calling ‘the bowling ball.’

“This can’t be it,” he said, rubbing her back as she sat up and leaned forward. “It’s three weeks early…”

“I don’t think… the babies know… they’re early,” Sam panted, biting her lip in pain.

“All right, hang on,” he said quickly, jumping out of bed and grabbing his discarded jeans from earlier.

He tried to hurry down the hall to Jordan’s room at the same time he was trying to get dressed, which ended up not being one of the brighter ideas in history. He banged on her door with one shoe as he pulled the other one on.

Jordan opened the door, rubbing her eyes in confusion. “Are the babies coming?” she asked sleepily.

“Yes. Get your coat and some shoes and be at the front door in less than five minutes,” he instructed, already hurrying back to their bedroom.

“Jack, you’re doing this next time,” Sam called as he grabbed her coat and helped her into it.

“All right, we’ll see if Thor can help us out on that,” he said lightly, tucking her hair back behind her ears and throwing back the covers, preparing to pick her up.

“I can walk!” Sam objected, suddenly grabbing his tee-shirt in pain.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said quickly, scooping her up and hurrying downstairs, where Jordan was already waiting by the front door with her coat on over her pajamas and her feet stuck hastily into her boots. She had her backpack on as well, to his amazement, and she was holding his car keys for him.

“Good girl,” he said with a grin as she opened the door for him. He turned to make sure she was locking it behind them and then hurried to the truck with Sam, who was watching Jordan carefully to make sure she didn’t fall, as there was still ice and snow left on the ground.

“Be careful there, buddy… why do you have your backpack?” Sam asked as Jack strapped Jordan into the passenger seat.

“Alex said when his mom had a baby last year it took FOREVER. I don’t want to be bored,” Jordan explained as Jack practically tossed her over into the backseat and jumped behind the wheel.

“Shit, my phone…”

“You said shit, Daddy… oops, I just said it! Hey, your phone’s back here!” she grabbed it off the seat and passed it to him, leaning over to look at Sam with a worried look on her face. “Are you okay, Mommy?”

“I’m fine, pal… thousands of women have babies every day, it’s nothing to be worried about…”

“JANET!” Jack screamed into the phone as he ran past a stop sign. “Tell me you’re on duty tonight! YES! We’re on our way, Sam’s having the babies… yes, now, what do you think I’m joking about this?! All right, sorry. Sorry, you’re right. Okay. We’ll be there in ten minutes… yes of course I’m driving safely!” He hung up the phone and tossed it back with Jordan, glancing at her. “Buckle your seatbelt,” he ordered.

Seven minutes later he screeched to a stop at the first base security checkpoint. He flashed his badge irritably at the unfortunate SF that was on duty that night and barked, “I’m General Jack O’Neill, this is Colonel Samantha Carter and she’s in the process of making people so you’d better get on that walkie talkie and have everyone at the next three security points ready to wave us through without stopping or so help me…”

“Daddy!” Jordan said in surprise, not used to hearing him sound so abrupt with his subordinates, nor as hysterical. He calmed down as the SF promised it would be taken care of and he sped away.

He pulled quickly into his parking space and went around to help Sam out. As she wasn’t currently having a contraction, she tried to get out on her own, but he wasn’t having it. He pulled her out of the car as Jordan jumped out behind her and slammed the door.

He turned to rush inside with her and was pleased to see Janet and an airman hurrying over with a wheelchair.

“It’s not like I’m dying!” Sam objected as she was set in the chair and they tried to break wheelchair speed records getting her into the infirmary; the airman wheeling her, Janet taking her vitals and running beside the wheelchair, Jack running along the other side with Jordan in his arms.

xxxxx

After the initial excitement was over, however, Jordan proved to be right. It took a LONG time. She was sitting on the bed next to Sam’s with her giant box of Crayons open, busy making cards for everybody to announce the arrival of the new babies. “How do you spell congratulations?” she called.

Jack handed Sam another cup of ice chips and called out the spelling over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” Jordan called back, yawning into the back of her hand. Janet came back in, checked Sam’s progress, and announced it would be at least another eight hours.

Sam looked over at the other bed, where Jordan was coloring, and said, “She has school tomorrow. I mean today.”

“I don’t want to go to school, I want to be here when the babies are born!”

“Honey, at this rate you can go to school and come back and still be here when the babies are born,” Janet tried to tell her.

“No, I might miss something interesting… Daddy?” she pleaded, turning her case to the guy she could always win over.

“One day…” Jack said dismissively, looking at Sam and Janet.

“You were the one who wanted to let her skip grades, she doesn’t need to be missing school… besides, like Janet said, apparently these babies are taking their time. Like their big sister,” Sam added, tapping Jordan’s nose.

“How about I call Daniel to go pick up your uniform at your house and he’ll take you to school, and he’ll come pick you up during the day if things get… interesting. It’s only fifteen minutes away, he’ll be able to get you in plenty of time,” Janet suggested.

“All right,” Jordan agreed reluctantly. “It’s not like I’ll be thinking about school anyway, but whatever.”

xxxxx

Janet was right. It was almost nine hours later, Jordan was back from school, and there were still no babies. Sam was completely exhausted, the entire base was basically holding their breath, the infirmary had been designated off-limits by Janet unless you “were bleeding profusely,” although nobody really wanted to go near it anyway, judging by the impressive stream of cursing issuing down the halls at regular intervals.

Jordan, still in her uniform from school but back to coloring, had even stopped saying, “Mommy said dammit, mommy said…”

“Déjà vu all over again, huh,” Jack remarked as Daniel and Teal’c came in with more snacks for everyone, namely Jordan, and more ice chips for Sam.

“What does that mean?” Jordan asked as she peeled the banana Teal’c handed her and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he picked her up with one arm.

“This event is remarkably similar to your own birth, Jordan O’Neill,” he told her.

“I hurt you that much, Mommy?” she asked, alarmed.

“You were worth it, Jordan,” Sam promised tiredly.

“These new babies better be good ones,” Jordan decided sternly.

xxxxx

Finally, the first baby was born.

Jordan was upset that she had to go wait out in the hall with Teal’c and Daniel, but they kept her busy thinking of silly names they could maybe use, and guessing whether the babies were going to be both girls, both boys, or one of each. Janet came out soon and settled half the debate. “One healthy boy, a little small, but he’s going to be just fine,“ she assured them.

“Told you one was a boy!” Jordan crowed to Daniel, before both she and Daniel demanded, “Can we see?” with identical eagerness.

Janet laughed. “Not yet. He’s not even cleaned up and Sam’s still got one more to go. I have to go.” She hurried back inside, shutting the door behind herself firmly.

She grabbed some fresh gloves and watched as the nurse finished wrapping the baby up snugly in a blanket.

“I can’t see him,” Sam complained.

“Me neither! Doc, come on!”

“All right, hold your horses, General,” Janet scolded, taking the baby. “Oh, look at you, cutie.”

She handed over the baby to his father reluctantly, knowing she had more work to do and would get to hold him later. Jack inhaled sharply as the tiny squirming bundle wrapped thoroughly in a white blanket was pressed into his arms. He looked down at him and said quietly, “Woa. He’s here. He’s a… person. He’s so tiny!”

“I want to see him!” Jordan insisted, running into the room. Daniel was scrambling after her into the room, trying to grab her.

“She squirmed away from me as soon as she sent Teal’c off to get her some Jell-o,” Daniel explained apologetically.

“It’s okay, Danny,” Jack said with a chuckle as he knelt down so Jordan could see the baby.

Sam tried to watch all of this, but Janet, who had checked the fetal monitor and was now insisting she keep pushing, which she was much too tired to do, wouldn’t have it.

“Sam, I know you’re tired, honey, but you can’t stop now,” Janet ordered. “General!” she suddenly snapped. “A little help here?”

“Right,” he said quickly, standing up and moving closer to Sam’s head, carefully shifting the baby to the crook of one arm so he could hold Sam’s hand with the other. “Do what the doc says…”

“YOU do what the doc says,” she said grumpily.

“Sam… you’re almost done.” He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, not sure which one was better: earlier, when she’d been squeezing it to death, or now, when she was so tired it was just resting limply in his. “One down, one to go. And this one’s going to be wondering where his neighbor is pretty soon.” He waited for several moments while Sam got a good long look at the baby. When Janet cleared her throat again, he scowled briefly at her before squeezing Sam’s hand and prompting, “Come on, what’s it gonna be? Another boy or another girl? Ready?” She smiled in an exhausted sort of way and nodded. “All right, let’s find out…”

A minute later, and Daniel and Jordan had exchanged scared looks and practically raced each other out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them. They leaned against the door in the hallway, catching their breath.

Teal’c was leaning against the opposite wall, taking in their hasty retreat in stride, blue jello for Jordan in one hand.

“It’s coming,” Daniel announced hoarsely.

“Daniel Jackson, I have watched you yourself deliver two offspring single-handedly.”

“Yeah but that was different… it was just one at a time and I was too focused to take in the whole picture… plus that’s Sam in there.”

Jordan wrinkled her nose at the jell-o. “I’m not so hungry anymore,” she admitted.

Another minute later, and the nurse was washing off another screaming baby.

“They’re so loud!” Jordan objected from the hallway, covering her ears with her hands.

Daniel laughed. “You were pretty loud yourself, you know.”

“ ‘Were’ implies that she has since ceased, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c added.

“Hey!” Jordan objected, shoving at his leg playfully. He merely looked down at her with an amused eyebrow raised.

She was the only person who could get away with that with such impunity, Daniel mused. Although, he realized, that number had probably, from the sound of things, just tripled.

Janet opened the door again and said, “All right, Jordan, let’s get you suited up to meet your new brother and sister.”

“But Auntie I already went in there for a second before when there was one already born and I wasn’t wearing the hospital clothes… wait! A brother AND a sister? A boy and a girl twin?? Teal’c! It’s what we wanted!” She jumped up into Teal’c’s arms excitedly, trusting him to catch her.

He caught and hugged her before setting her back down on her feet. “It is indeed a happy day, Jordan O’Neill. Go and meet your new siblings. They are fortunate to have a big sister who has already proven that she is more than capable of the responsibilities that such a title carries with it. You have protected them so far, and must continue to do so.”

She nodded, trying to show from her expression that she was taking what he said seriously - but at the moment she was just so excited she could hardly stay still. She turned to Janet and said, “All right, doc, suit me up!”

Janet laughed and held out a hand for her, looking over her head to Teal’c and Daniel. “They wanted you all at once. I’m being the bad guy. Give Sam a chance to recover a tiny bit, huh guys?”

“Sure,” Daniel said.

“We will be right here,” Teal’c promised.

xxxxx

An hour later, everyone was clean and dry and quiet. Sam had slept briefly but was awake again. Janet was running lots of tests on the babies since they were twins and had been born early, but so far they seemed perfectly fine even though they were a bit small at just over six pounds each. The chaos of the room had been replaced by a dreamy slowness.

The bed was now extremely crowded with five people on it; Sam still lay in it, of course, with the babies tucked against her. Jack was sitting on the edge next to her legs, trying to hold Jordan in his lap, but she kept leaning over to try and see the babies up close. They were both wrapped in white blankets, as the SGC infirmary didn’t usually double as a maternity ward, but Jack knew the one on the left was his son and the one on the right was his daughter. They were already as precious as his first son and daughter.

“So… what are we going to name these guys?” Sam asked, looking down at their sleeping little heads.

After much discussion between the two of them, with some rather creative input from Jordan as well, they had narrowed their list of names to a short list of boys and girls names, but hadn’t come to any final decisions yet.

“After what you just did, I forfeit the right to name them. Anything you pick is fine with me.”

She smiled, remembering that he’d said pretty much the same thing when Jordan was born, and looked down at the baby girl. “I’m not sure. What do you think, Jordan?”

“Uncle T and I already decided! Luke and Leia!”

Sam groaned. Jack chuckled, and, knowing that his wife would never agree to it, said, “It does have a nice ring to it.”

“Why am I not surprised. You and Teal’c… honey, you don’t want the babies to be made fun of when they go to school, do you?”

“Luke and Leia are like the best brother-sister twins ever, Mommy, nobody’s gonna make fun of that.”

“She has a point,” Jack contributed.

Sam gave him a look. He chuckled but added, “Although your mom’s right, Jo. Besides, they’re gonna get all the attention every time I have to introduce all three of you if you name ’em that.”

“Oh yeah. Maybe just separate names then, like we talked about before,” Jordan decided, thinking to herself that her dad had a very good point there.

“I think that’s for the best,” Sam agreed quickly. “Why don’t we name your sister first.”

“Hermione!” Jordan said immediately. “Hermione and Harry!”

Sam laughed. “Um, let’s… keep thinking.”

“I have an idea,” Jack suggested quietly, leaning over and pulling back the side of the blanket to see the baby’s face better. Sam and Jordan looked at him expectantly. “How about Cheyenne?”

“Like Cheyenne Mountain? That’s here, Daddy!”

“I know, that’s the point, Jo. This is your favorite place in the world, right?”

“In the universe, Daddy,” she corrected.

“Well, even better. And your mom and I are pretty fond of it too. It is where we met.”

“That’s true,” Sam agreed, tilting her head up to kiss him.

“Oh for cryin’ out loud,” Jordan growled under her breath. She leaned in to the baby and whispered, “You better get used to that, Cheyenne, they do that a lot.”

Her parents smiled and pulled apart reluctantly. “Well, I think this one’s named then.”

“She needs a middle name, like me,” Jordan reminded.

“True,” Jack agreed. “Well, what’s your name again, pal? It’s so long I forget it sometimes.”

She giggled and said, “No you don’t, Daddy. It’s Jordan Janet Carter O’Neill. But on my stuff at school it just says Jordan J. O’Neill… hey, I know! My letters are J.J. so let’s make hers C.C.!”

“How, Jo?”

“Cheyenne… Cassandra! That’s a C too, right?”

“That’s right, buddy, but that’s a really long name,” Jack said.

“It has a nice ring to it though,” Sam said. “Will you show her how to write all that, Jo?”

“Yes! I will, I promise!” she agreed quickly.

They both laughed. “Okay then,” Jack said. “That one’s done.”

“Stick a fork in her, she’s done!” Jordan agreed. “But not for real though. She looks pretty soft.”

Jack chuckled, ruffling her hair. “What about the boy? Anybody got any ideas?”

“James,” Jordan said quickly.

“That’s a good name, Jo. But I think your sister might feel left out if you two have ‘J’ names and she doesn’t,” Sam said.

“Daddy’s got a ‘J’ name too,” Jordan added. “Okay, maybe that’s too much ‘J’s.’ Mommy, do you feel left out being the only ‘S’ name right now?”

She laughed. “No, honey. But I’m not a baby.”

“We should give him a ‘S’ name to match you, Mommy!” Jordan declared. “I better go talk to Uncle Danny about this, he knows way more words than you guys.” Before they could stop her she had jumped off the bed and run out the door.

Jack and Sam had a few quiet moments with the babies before Jordan came running back in, dragging Daniel behind her by the hand, Teal’c following, waiting to see what was going to happen with that tiny smile of amusement of his. Jordan was grinning from ear to ear. “Told you he’d know what to do!” she declared.

“Yeah? Let’s hear it,” Jack said. Teal’c and Daniel stood next to the bed and Jordan scrambled back up on the bed next to Sam’s legs, sitting up on her knees.

“I told Uncle Daniel I said James and you said it was too many J’s so I wanted an S, and he said there was an S name from my favorite Harry Potter that meant James in Irish and that Daddy was Irish anyway so the rest of us all are too and…”

“Whoa, whoa, breathe, Jo,” Jack interrupted. “And calm down and tell us the name.”

“Seamus!” she said eagerly. “It’s perfect because it starts with the same sound for the twins, the S-H sound, and it starts with S like Mommy so now nobody will ever feel left out!”

Jack peered at the sleeping baby carefully. “That’s perfect,” he agreed, leaning over everybody to kiss Jordan on the cheek, then the baby’s head very gently.

“You guys can do the middle name since I did the other one,” Jordan said generously.

Jack laughed and said, “Wow, how magnanimous of you, Jo. Thanks.”

“Jackson,” Sam said suddenly, smiling at Jack. “Because he’s your son. And because of Daniel.”

“Ooh, good one, Mommy!” Jordan declared.

“Glad you approve, sweetheart,” Sam said with a tired laugh.

“Now that you’ve settled on names for those two, I guess it’s safe to open the floodgates, huh?” Daniel asked. “Janet’s having trouble keeping General Hammond and Jacob away.”

“Absolutely,” Sam agreed. “Here, Teal’c, why don’t you take Cheyenne, Daniel take Seamus, and Jack and Jordan can go get everyone else. I’ll… just stay here.”

Teal’c and Daniel didn’t need to be offered to hold the babies twice, and Jordan was eager to go spread the word about her new brother and sister. She ran to the door, then turned back and nearly ran over Jack on her way back to the babies. “I will be right back,” she told them, placing careful kisses to the tops of their heads. “Bye, ‘Shy,’ bye ‘Shay!’”

She ran out of the room, so Jack had no choice but to follow her quickly. Sam laughed. “Well, it didn’t take them long to get nicknames.”

“They’re cute nicknames,” Daniel said, smiling down at the baby he was holding. “And cuter babies. This is the boy, right?”

“Yes!” Sam said, sounding offended.

“Sorry! They’ve got the hats on and they both look just like Jordan did… which is probably lucky because that means they’ll look like you.”

“Their eyes are dark, dark blue,” Sam corrected. “I bet they’ll turn brown like Jack’s.”

“Well, hopefully they’ll take after you apart from that.”

“Why is that your hope, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked, although all of his attention was focused on the baby he was holding. “Jordan O’Neill possesses many traits from both of her parents, and she has, as I believe you say, ‘turned out okay.’”

“Good point, Teal’c,” Daniel agreed. “Although if they’ve got the same amount of energy she has, I’m not babysitting all of them alone.”

“We will have to ‘double-team’ them,” Teal’c agreed.

Sam laughed and it turned into a yawn halfway through. “Well, it’ll be a while before they’re chasing after Jo. You should be safe for at least six months or so; it’s bound to take them that long to figure out how to crawl.”

xxxxx

Nearly two years later…

Sam woke up with a start, her heart racing. She glanced at the clock. It was early in the morning, still dark. She turned to look at Jack, who was sound asleep, hair sticking up at a million different angles, snoring very quietly.

She slipped out of bed and padded down the hall, pulling on her robe over her camisole and shorts as she went. She got to Jordan’s room first. Peeking inside, she nearly had a heart attack when she saw that her daughter’s bed was empty.

She hurried into the nursery and sighed in relief, wiping her eyes absently. Jordan was on the floor between the twins’ cribs, sound asleep in her Harry Potter sleeping bag, Homer Simpson doll tucked under one arm.

Sam slipped inside quietly and checked on the twins.

At just under two years old, they wouldn’t be happy in their cribs much longer. They got better and better at following after their sister every day, and weren’t scared of anything. Both got into their share of trouble, but Cheyenne was the biggest climber of all three, whereas Seamus was excellent at hiding in and under things. They still resembled their sister in the face, but they had their father’s deep brown eyes and their hair had darkened to a sandy combination of light, light brown and dark blonde, and was as straight as could be, whereas Jordan’s was wavy.

Sam kissed both of them carefully, glad when they didn’t wake up, adjusted their blankets, and then knelt down next to Jordan, tucking her hair back in place and kissing her forehead.

“You’re going to wake her up,” Jack said quietly from the doorway.

Sam got to her feet guiltily and joined him, hugging him tightly. “I can’t help it - it’s today, Jack.”

“I know,” he agreed, rubbing her back and kissing her. “It’s been three years now though, hon.”

“She wasn’t in her bed when I went to check. I was terrified… I knew she was in here but in that moment I still…”

“I know.”

“Three years ago on this day when we woke up she was gone. We almost lost her, Jack.”

“And we almost lost you and the babies, getting her back. But we didn’t. That’s all that matters. Everyone’s here and accounted for.”

The cat slunk past them into the nursery, rubbing against Jack’s legs in the process. Jack chuckled quietly as they watched the cat curl up against Jordan’s side and start purring. “Even Thorabelle,” Sam added with a smile.

“Yeah, even Thorabelle. Come on. We need more sleep. They’re cute now, but they’re gonna be awake soon.”

“Aw, they’re still cute when they’re awake,” Sam argued, hugging his arm as they headed back down the hall.

“Yeah, you weren’t saying that on the way home from the park yesterday.”

“Well, while I was fishing Jordan out of the pond she conveniently ‘fell’ into, the twins tried to ride the ducks!”

“So?”

“The real ducks, Jack. Not the plastic ones next to the sandbox.”

“Oh. Jo left that part out when she told me about it yesterday.”

“Conveniently.”

They got back in bed, both thinking about the incident from the previous day and trying to stay remotely upset about it. In light of the fact that both of them were thinking about how terrible this day had been three years ago… it was impossible.

The end.