Found - part 26
I can't quite believe it's happened, but this is the last chapter. I have finally finished the Lost/Found story. I hope you enjoy the ending.
Laughter erupted from the living room, and Sam smiled to herself at the sound of it. She loved it when the whole family was together. She pulled a packet of candles down from the cupboard above her head, and placed a single candle in the centre of the cake. Looking round the kitchen, she found the box of matches that Jack had left by the cooker, and with one stroke against the lighter paper lit a match, and held it to the candle until the flame caught, making the birthday cake complete. She poked her head around the door, and nodded to Jack, who promptly doused the lights in the living room. As it was twilight outside, it wasn't completely dark in the room, but it was enough to give the candle more effect.
Sam carried the cake into the living room, serenaded by eight voices in a rousing if slightly off-key chorus of 'Happy Birthday'. She placed the cake down on the low table, in front of her one year-old granddaughter, held tightly in Tally's lap. The little girl was fascinated by the candle, but safe in Tally's arms, she couldn't touch it like she wanted.
" … Happy Birthday dear Lana, Happy Birthday to you!" Cassandra Fraiser, Vala Mal Doran, and Luke O'Neill were the last to finish the song, drawing out the last word in a comic attempt at harmony. Jack swatted Luke's head affectionately and mock-glared at Cassie and Vala, making the younger of the two women giggle.
The candle blown out (more by Tally than Lana), Teal'c turned the lights back on, and settled beside Daniel on the sofa to watch as Tally cuddled her daughter and Jase cut the birthday cake. The young family were positively adorable. They'd been living on their own for a few months now, in an apartment not far from the house Sam, Jack and Luke lived in, and coping admirably with the new situation. Tally had a job at the SGC, as a lab assistant to Dr Lee and studying physics under the tuition of her mother. Jase was in college, studying engineering, and was loving every second of it. For a while they had wrestled with the problem of what to do with Lana while they studied or worked, but Jack quickly volunteered to take care of her during the day. He had no desire to sit on the sidelines in a full-time consultancy position at the SGC, and he wasn't particularly welcome there in light of Kinsey's presidency anyway. And he loved the time he spent with his granddaughter.
Luke, meanwhile, was spending half his time at home with a paid tutor, and half at the SGC. Jack and Sam had attempted to put him into high school, but that idea had soon fallen flat – Luke's education up to the age of 16 had been vastly different to the average kid his age, and the school was in some subjects too far behind him, and in others infinitely ahead. After being tutored a little at the SGC under Sam and Daniel, to supplement the basic classes his home tutor was giving him, he discovered a surprising aptitude and interest in archaeology, much to Daniel's delight and Jack's horror. Now he spent the mornings with his tutor and the afternoons learning archaeology and history from Daniel, or science and math from Sam when Daniel was busy.
In the year and a half since Vala had come through the gate with the Ancient tablet, Daniel and SG-1 had been on a desperate race to locate the San Graal, and use it to destroy the Ori. In that time, Vala had become an integral part of the SGC, and she was starting to consider it her home. And now, with the Ori gone for good, Daniel was beginning to relax for the first time in over twenty-five years, and even felt the first stirrings of feelings for the raven-haired newcomer; not that he was ready to admit that yet. He hadn't yet figured out whether she was genuine in her advances towards him, or was just messing with him.
Later that evening, after Cassie, Vala, Daniel and Teal'c had left, and Tally and Jase had fallen asleep on the sofa, Jack and Sam sat on the steps of their back porch, with their granddaughter sleeping peacefully in Sam's arms. Sam rested her head on Jack's shoulder, and gazed at the stars.
"This is what it was all for." Sam murmured quietly, so as not to wake the baby.
Jack turned his head to frown at his wife. "Huh?"
"Moments like this. You know, all the things we went through; fighting the goa'uld and ignoring how we felt about each other, trying to bring our kids up on a world that had barely mastered electricity. Losing Luke for a year. All the heart-ache and trials."
"You're feeling sappy tonight aren't you?" Jack smirked at her.
"Don't poke fun at me, you know what I mean." Sam scolded with a smile. "Don't you feel the same way, that it was all worth it for moments like this? Sitting in a wonderful home with our kids safe and warm. And beautiful little Lana here." She smiled down at the sleeping one year-old.
"I think you're absolutely barmy." Jack said, and kissed her temple affectionately. "But I do know what you mean. It's nice that everything worked out. Eventually."
"Grumpy old man." Sam grumbled with a chuckle.
"Sentimental old woman." Jack retorted, grinning from ear to ear. "But I love you anyway."
"And I love you Jack."
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Lana stirred in her sleep and whimpered a little.
"Come on, let's go in before we freeze our butts off." Jack said, levering himself up, and giving Sam a hand, encumbered as she was with the baby.
"Eloquent as ever."
"What do you want, poetry?" Jack held his hands up in mock impatience.
She grinned at him as they went inside, and silently laid Lana down in her cot in the living room, careful not to wake Tally and Jase.
They turned the lights off, locked the doors and windows, and went to bed. After a few more whispered words of love, the house was asleep.
I hope you liked it. I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has reviewed over the course of this story. It has been a massive encouragement to me, and the story probably wouldn't have happened without you. I love you all to bits!
Please let me know what you thought of the ending, and the story in general.
Your happy writer, Beka :-D