Who: Sam, Jack, and Six What: Sam and Jack talk to Six about adoption When:March 15 Where: Their house Rating: low
Daniel said no bribing. This was a reminder Jack had had to tell himself several times today because his natural instinct was to give Six all the things, especially when they might be making her feel uncomfortable. Logically he told himself that she’d probably be happy, but he wasn’t sure. Adoption was a whole different ball game than being a ward and maybe Six just wasn’t there yet.
Jack had truly prepared himself in case of rejection. It would hurt, of course, but he’d try to not take it personally.
He exhaled and walked out of the kitchen to the dining area where they were having dinner. When better to bring this up than over food, right?
–
Sam was nervous about this conversation, mostly for Jack’s sake. They’d both come to see Six like a daughter and she was worried about how he’d react if she didn’t want to be adopted. She remembered the despondence and recklessness when they first met and knew from Daniel that those things had been much worse in the immediate aftermath of Charlie’s death. The last thing she wanted was to have him slip back into that mindset.
Her experience with Janet and Cassandra should be useful though, at least she hoped. There were a lot of similarities between Cassandra and Six, with the horrible things they’d lived through, and Sam hoped she and Jack could provide the same kind of stability and support for Six that Janet gave Cassie.
When Jack sat down at the table, she moved her leg so she could nudge his with her foot as a reminder that they were in this together.
“How was school today?” she asked Six, wanting to get a sense of the girl’s emotional state.
***
It had been almost a year since Six arrived in town and lived with Sam and Jack. By now she had grown quite fond of them both. So much so that she'd been quite upset when those weird angel statues had taken Sam from her. Before she wouldn't have blinked an eye, but that time, she really missed Sam even though she knew she'd be back. She would've felt the same if it had been Jack as well.
"Fine," she replied. "This boy in my class shared his chocolate chip cookies with me." She decided to leave out the part where she'd thought of stealing them. Yes, Six had come a long way but she still wasn't completely there yet. She still had a bit of a violent streak but not as bad as before.
***
He appreciated the silent reminder. He knew Sam would worry, but he liked to think he was older now and would handle rejection better. Maybe.
Jack leaned forward. "I don't have to talk to this boy, do I?" He was kidding of course and ended the faux serious question with a smile before leaning back against the chair. Yep, he was nervous. He'd rather be fighting a squadron of Goa'uld.
He cleared his throat. "So, safe to say you like it here right?"
Smooth Jack.
–
The growth that Six had experienced in the past year was amazing. Sam hoped that the dome would allow her to stay here for a long time so she didn’t have to go back to the terrible circumstances she was in at home.
She chuckled when Jack asked if he needed to talk to the boy, suspecting that Six wouldn’t even grasp his implication. “It sounds like you’re making friends,” she said. “That’s good.”
***
No, Six had no idea what Jack meant. She had only just turned ten and boys were the last thing on her mind. "No. Well, if you can convince him to bring more cookies, then maybe." If Jack talked to him about that, then she wouldn't mind.
She responded to Jack first. "Well, yeah. I don't have to worry about adults trying to eat me or starving to death." Both of which had nearly happened to her on a few occasions. "And I'm not sure he's my friend. I just like his cookies." At least she wasn't fighting the boy for the sweet treats or even stealing them. For someone like Six, that was huge progress.
***
"Maybe he's your friend because you're fun to be around. Just a thought." Jack might be biased though.
"Speaking of being fun to be around… Sam and I were wondering how you thought about the idea of being stuck with us more permanently… like if we adopted you." That was harder to say than he expected. He breathed out and added. "If you don't want to or you're not ready, you're still out kid Six so there's no pressure, but… well, the offer is there *
–
“Nothing will change if you say no,” Sam jumped in to add. “We like having you here and want whatever is best for you.” It would be a big step and it was entirely possible that Six wasn’t and never would be ready to take it. The way she was raised meant she didn’t exactly have a healthy concept of what parents were supposed to be, though she’d seen some good examples on television and in movies.
She didn’t realize she was holding her breath while waiting for the young girl’s response.
***
Six just gave Jack a look as if saying 'yeah, right.' Even she knew she wasn't the easiest person to be around. She definitely wasn't the friendliest and she highly doubt the boy thought she was fun.
She chewed on her food silently while Jack and Sam spoke. "What's adoption?" she asked then added, "I mean, what's the difference than what we're doing already?" To her, it seemed the same. She'd still be under Sam and Jack's care, just more permanently like Jack said. Wait, did that mean this was only temporary the entire time? She didn't know but she kept that thought to herself.
***
Well, that clearly threw Jack. Probably he should have explained adoption. Idiot.
“On the outside? Nothing really changes. We still be the same awesome trio like usual, but legally we’d be a family. So it’d be harder for anyone to try to take you away from us or us from you. There’s other stuff that happens later when Sam and I get older, but for now it’s more just really more of a permanency thing.” Did that make sense? He looked to Sam as if to see if that made sense and if he forgot anything.
–
Sam nodded. “From a legal standpoint, we’d be your parents,” she explained. “Instead of your guardians.” There wasn’t a huge difference in the two, but having the official paperwork would make Sam and Jack feel better about the whole thing. “And you’d be our daughter, instead of our ward.”
Saying ‘our daughter’ felt surreal in a lot of ways. She’d long ago given up on the idea of having children and she especially never would have thought she and Jack would get to this point. It felt right though.
***
Six sipped her chocolate milk as Jack and Sam explained. No surprise but she didn't care about all the legal stuff or the paperwork. She'd let them handle all that.
"I don't want to go anywhere else," she said. It had taken her a long time to trust Sam and Jack, to put them on her no bite list. If she were to go to a new family, then she'd have to start all over and frankly, she didn't want that. "I want to stay with you."
***
Did that mean yes to adoption? Jack wasn’t sure, but his heart was already leaping to the conclusion and he was smiling. “We want you to stay with us too.” Yes, he did look like he had just won the Superbowl or the Lottery or something, but he couldn’t help it. He did have the wherewithal to look at Sam as if to doublecheck he wasn’t getting ahead of himself…. Even if if was already getting ahead of himself.
–
It sounded like a yes to Sam and she gave Jack a nod before smiling at Six. “It’s going to take some time to get all the paperwork done,” she explained. “And you’ll probably have to talk to the judge and let them know that you agree to the adoption.” Which meant she’d have to dress nice and behave in public, but they had time to work on that.
“Do you have any questions about anything?” she asked.
***
It was a definite yes to adoption, especially if Six got to stay with Sam and Jack. She nodded as Sam explained about the paperwork and that she'll have to talk to a judge. "I can do that," she said. She could behave for that long too, although she wasn't too happy about dressing nice. But if that was what she had to do to stay here then she'd do it.
"Yeah, what's for dessert?"
***
Jack let out a laugh that was partially him letting out a breath of relief. "We have cake. I picked it up today." Celebratory cake waa different from bribing cake right?