AN: So... I had inventory the last 2 days. Snacks were not provided. Rude. One of the guys I regularly work with told me to tell my boss make sure there are snacks for mine mid week. I will text her about this today. I agree. Snacks are a must. Also I'm friends with the manager of the store Inventoried on and if I was either of her employees tasked with getting ready I'd be VERY worried about my job because she is NOT happy with either of them currently. Mostly over a buggy fill of stickers that both refused to put away for three days so it had over 600 items on a single inventory tag which is unacceptable. How it even happened is beyond me. Like how does that NOT throw their buy online counts in the gutter? I'd be furious too. This was the same store that had people telling customers they don't do holds. Yes we do. They just didn't want to. Utter nonsense. I'm a BIG advocate of if you don't want to do your job I have people lined up who do sooo... Also I have 2 inventories in one week. This means after this story there MIGHT be a lag for the next story being published as I'm too tired to write for more than an hour or so every few days. I don't have any current extra stories laying bout but I do have some partially finished ones so I'll TRY to work on one of those and hopefully be done at the end of 10 days or so making it only a couple days wait.

Chapter 5

Things went as back to normal as they could at that point and Grace ended her summer with a smile for her dad when he hugged her goodbye.

Lucas toddled out to see his sister and because Joe's hair was dark and wavy and had brown eyes and deep dimples similar to Jack's, he didn't even notice anything unusual about the boy. He was just Carter's kid so Jack waved at the little boy, a little sad that Joe had the life Jack had wanted and left.

Grace couldn't put her finger on it but whatever had bugged her about Joe before seemed amplified. He spent way too much time with the Aschen for Grace's tastes. Her mom explained he was the diplomatic ambassador for the other world but Grace got the distinct impression that Joe's loyalties were divided and she wasn't so sure when push came to shove that he'd side with her mom on this. Mom had told her they decided to try to have another baby now that Lucas was a little older. With no Goa'uld to battle, Sam could fulfill her wish for a big family. Grace was all right with that. She loved her little brother. She just wished her family was Jack, her father, was married to her mom, not Joe.

It was a day Lucas was giggling at something silly Grace was doing to make him laugh that she stopped dead. Lucas looked like Charlie. And the only way for Lucas to look like Charlie was if Joe wasn't Lucas' dad, Jack, her dad was.

Grace didn't know what to do. Dad clearly didn't know. Was that why mom had married Joe so quickly? Did mom know? Had she been dating both at the same time? She did vaguely remember her mom going out with Joe a few times before dad left. Gracie had no idea her dad had been gone longer than she knew. Did that mean mom really didn't know? Or did mom know and there was a reason she hadn't told dad?

Unable to figure it out and lacking Marge or Teal'c to field her thought processes on, Grace was alone in this one. She decided she couldn't talk to any of the adults about this… and now she was in the extremely distasteful position of listening to her little brother shout an excited 'daddy!' at Joe every time he came home from work and had to grit her teeth not to tell her little brother that's not your daddy.

Grace went back to being sullen and combative in spite of Jack's admonishments not to. By the time Spring came around, Sam was once again at her wit's end.

"Catherine Grace, if you don't stop arguing with me and your father at every turn, you will not be visiting your uncle this summer." Sam said sharply to her daughter who was glaring at her over a basket of laundry.

"I don't argue with my father. I argue with Joe. Because he's wrong." She shot back, her hands fisted at her waist.

"Young lady, you are seven not thirty. You will not speak of your stepfather that way."

"Why not?" Grace challenged her.

"I just told you why."

But Grace had an ace up her sleeve. She had found the court records about her custody. Her parents had joint custody. "You can't stop me."

"Oh yes I can."

"Can't!"

"I can and I will."

"Fine. I'll call dad's attorney and tell him you're violating the custody order." Grace said triumphantly.

Sam's eyes went very wide, her body stilled in shock. When had she? "Go to your room, young lady. We will discuss this later… And take that laundry with you." She ordered, harshly.

Grace made a face at her but did as she as told. She knew she had won.


"Well, she probably was snooping while we were at work, Sam." Joe told her reasonably.

"Do you think he knows she knows?"

"He will in a month."

"I don't think she should go."

"Sam, you can't punish her for being angry at you for lying to her. I mean, you can but you shouldn't. She's a smart kid. She was going to figure it out eventually."

Sam sighed. "I suppose you're right."

"Course I'm right. Now let's get back to that part about working on growing our family." He said with a little grin and gathered her into his arms for a playful kiss.

Sam still wasn't pregnant when Grace left with Jack. Grace had given her little brother a big hug and said she'd see him in a couple of months.

Grace, however, was already making plans otherwise. She wasn't coming home this time. It was too hard to look her sweet trusting little brother in the eyes and lie to him about Joe being his dad. Joe had to know. That's why they were trying to have another baby. Because so far all her mom's kids were Jack's.

She was caught in the middle of something not of her making. She couldn't lie to her brother but she wasn't about to tell her dad the truth. It would break his heart knowing for a second time, he had a child that he didn't get to raise. But at least Lucas was alive. And Joe did love Lucas, Grace reasoned… even if he was in the Aschen's pocket. He didn't even seem to take it too personally that Grace didn't really want him in her life. At least, mom got mad about it. Joe just kind of… accepted that Grace had decided not to like him.

If he cared, he'd be upset about it but all he seemed to care about was kissing Aschen butt.


"All right… out with it."

"Out with what?" Grace asked him, her eyes wide with innocence.

Jack gave his daughter a perturbed look. He wasn't falling for it.

Grace grimaced. She couldn't very well tell him the truth so she told him a half truth. "I might have accidently told mom I know you're my dad."

"I see." Was all Jack said.

"You aren't mad?"

"Grace, part of keeping a confidence is not blurting it out to the person you were specifically told not to." He smiled at her though. "You're young though. You'll get better at it."

Grace huffed out a sigh. "I'm sorry, dad."

"It's all right. We should have told you sooner anyway. We did it to protect ourselves at the time."

"Dad, were you still married to Aunt Sara when mom got pregnant with me?"

Jack nodded. "You're old enough to ask so you're old enough for the truth. She kicked me out and I told you the truth when I told you I don't regret the consequences… but the Air Force might have seen things differently." He pets Grace's head for a moment while they walk. "Later we found out I'm kind of unique so it was pretty important to continue protecting your identity."

"That's why Grandpa Jacob ran that test on me, isn't it?"

"What test?"

"He had a little plastic thing that looked like an egg and asked me to touch it. When I did, it glowed."

Jack slapped his hand to his forehead.

"He wasn't supposed to do that, was he?" She asked him innocently.

Jack shook his head. "The only reason I figure I'm still alive is he hasn't been able to track me down."

Grace giggled. "Daddy."

Jack grinned. She very rarely called him that and he had to admit his heart did somersaults when she did.

"Grandpa loves you by the way."

"Oh, he does, does he?"

"Uh huh. He told me so. Well... Selmak told me so. Grandpa tried to change the subject."

Jack's expression became pained. "Selmak… as in…"

"His symbiote."

"I take it back. You can keep a secret just fine. Does your mother know about this?"

"He told me not to tell her."

"But he neglected to tell you not to tell me."

"No… he said only if it was really important."

Jack nodded solemnly. He supposed at this point it probably was.

"Dad."

"Yah, Peanut?"

"I talked to my teachers. I could go to school remotely as long as you supervise my class work."

"Gracie, we've gone over this…"

"I don't want to go back there, Dad. I hate it. I hate the Aschen. I hate that Joe just does anything they want and all mom does is go along with it and makes excuses for them and now they want another baby too." She pleaded, almost whined.

Jack sighed. "Gracie, your mom won't love you less if they have another baby. That didn't happen when Lucas was born and it won't happen now either sweetie."

Gracie shook her head in denial, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"Tell you what. Standing Beaver said he'd continue your trapping lessons this week. If you want, I'll ask him about food gathering in the woods, too."

"Did his Great-Grandpa really know your Great-Grandpa?"

"Oh yah. They were good friends. His Grandpa told me once that his dad used to trick my Great-Grandpap out of his money all the time. He ran a little 'get to know the natives' class for the new people in town so he always knew everything that was going on around town. Great Grandpap got some great stories out of him and Standing Beaver still gets royalties on the books Grandpap wrote about his family."

He crouched to look at a blurred track. "What have we got?"

"Fox." She said, as she mimicked his posture.

He nodded. "You can tell by the scent markers and scat too..."

"Carnivores stink." Gracie said.

"That's right." He agreed. "What else?"

"They follow the herbivore trails so there's probably bunny tracks too." She looked up at him expectantly.

Jack smiled. "Correct."

"Dad?"

"Yah, Peanut?"

"Would things be different if it wasn't for the Aschen?"

"Depends on what you mean." He told her, standing up.

"I mean between you and mom. If Joe hadn't come along, would you and mom be together?"

Jack sighed. "Because of our jobs, we couldn't be."

"I don't think that's fair." Gracie sulked.

Jack squeezed her shoulder. "Lots of things in life aren't fair, kiddo. Sometimes we just have to deal with the situation at hand and hope for the best."

"If you could change it, would you?"

Jack thought for along moment. "Ideally, yes I would change it." He admitted to her.

Gracie nodded and filed that information away, not realizing yet how important this conversation would be to them both later.

"Let's go make some lunch and then we can get a little fishing in before the sun goes down." Jack suggested.

"Can we make a bonfire?"

"Of course." He told her as though that had been the plan all along.


The rest of summer passed quietly for them as the days slipped past one by one. Gracie still did not want to return home but Jack got her to grudgingly concede that even though she could take her classes remotely her mom would miss her and she needed help taking care of Lucas now that Marge was gone.

Gracie had not approved of his logic as she subconsciously registered it as being emotionally manipulative but fortunately she'd been unable to articulate the reason his perfectly reasonable logic made her give him the hairy eyeball.

"Be good for your mom." Jack told her gruffly, as he stopped the car in from of Sam's and Joe's house. Jack got out of the car and walked around to open Gracie's door.

Gracie sighed but didn't get out.

"Sweetie, you know how much I love you. Your mom loves you too and she needs you right now. We'll see each other in a few months. I promise." He'd never try to convince her Joe loved her too even though Jack knew the man did love his daughter in spite of her difficult attitude about him. Gracie would have to figure that out on her own.

Gracie's eyes welled up at the mention of her beloved auntie. Kneeling down by the door, Jack reached in and tugged her into his arms. "C'mere." He said softly and let her cry on him in the driveway for several moments. Joe was standing discreetly at the door for them. Sam was nowhere to be seen but he was expecting that. He and Joe nodded at each other in understanding.

Gracie let out a shuddering sigh. "Can I call you?"

Jack smiled. "Sure." He'd conceded that point that Sam and Joe could have his phone number so Gracie could call any time she needed to talk to him. Jack made a point of keeping his cell phone on him from that point on. They didn't have his land line and the number he gave Grace last year was a burner number just in case. Teal'c had it and no one else. Not even Daniel who he missed but he knew the other man had not forgiven him for running out on Sam in his eyes.

Gracie got reluctantly out of the truck and walked shoulders and head down to the house.

Jack humped her bags in. "Need a hand?" Joe asked him.

"Nah, I got this." Jack told him without rancor. He didn't hate the guy even if he was married to the woman Jack would never stop being in love with.

Neither of them brought up Sam who once again avoided seeing Jack. Joe knew his wife and he respected that Jack didn't push the issue even though he probably had every right to do so knowing how they both felt. Sam would never really stop loving Jack but she did love Joe as much as she was able and they were good for each other emotionally. He'd told her the truth when she'd asked if they had done the right thing. In his opinion, Jack and Sam weren't healthy for each other. Jack at least seemed to get that and moved on. That's why he kept contact to bare minimum and only as related to what Joe thought was Jack's oldest child. Joe wasn't sure if Gracie had said anything about her thoughts about Lucas but he was fairly certain Jack would demand a paternity test if she had said anything.

"How was she?"

"Good… Sad. She misses Margie."

"We all miss Aunt Marge."

Jack nodded in agreement. "Tell Carter thank you for me." Jack said almost sadly. His look haunted for some reason other than the realization that she was avoiding him. Joe noted something was bothering the other man but neither of them brought it up.

"I will. Thank you, Jack. It means a lot that you take the time to spend with her."

Jack flashed a grin. "Even if she wasn't mine, I'd still love her like she is, Joe." He said simply and left.

Joe honestly wasn't sure if the other man had meant Gracie or Sam.