Chapter Text
As they walk in the main entrance, Jack feels Charlie reach for his hand. The aquarium is his favorite place in the world, but he’s feeling a little shy today, and Jack doesn’t blame him.
Instead of the regular ticket counter, Jack and Charlie walk to the guest services desk. The man sitting behind it looks up from his computer. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Jack O’Neill, and this is my son, Charlie.”
“Oh, the O’Neill family! Hi, I’m Walter. I’ll take you guys inside.”
Jack and his son follow Walter through the doors into the vast, empty lobby, sunlight streaming through the skylights. It’s usually teeming with families, but the museum doesn’t open until the afternoon today, and they’re the only ones here.
Walter checks his phone. “Your guide will meet you here in a minute, okay? Enjoy.”
Jack has no idea what to expect. The original invitation came from the museum’s education director, an affable older man named George Hammond who seemed like a born grandfather. The aquarium’s local school essay contest was his brainchild, and it’s been running for a few years. Charlie loves science; he spent a month working on his essay, and when the Hammond had called the O’Neill home to tell them that Charlie had won, the boy had been elated.
But the person walking towards them doesn’t seem to be Hammond. He doesn’t think so, anyway. Not from the voice on the phone. The person walking through the oceanography displays is young, blonde, and female.
And distractingly pretty.
“Hi. I’m Sam.” She immediately fixes on Charlie. “So you must be the guy who wrote that essay, huh?”
“You read it?”
“Of course I did.” She crouches down to his level to shake his hand. “That’s why I volunteered to be your tour guide today.”
Charlie’s eyes are wide. “Cool.”
She straightens, looking up at Jack. “So – you must be Mr. O’Neill?”
“Jack, please.”
“Jack. Hi.” She shakes his hand. Her grip is firm, her palm warm and smooth. “Let’s get going, okay? If we’re lucky, we can see everything. Even the otters.”
Charlie’s eyes go wide. “I love otters.”
“So do I.”
She walks them past the sea lions, where one of the staff is already in the enclosure.
“Hi, Daniel.” Sam leans on the railing, nodding to a young man with floppy brown hair who’s shoveling fish into a bucket. “We’ve got visitors. This is Charlie and his dad.”
“Hey, guys.” The young man waves. “Charlie, you want to help me feed them?”
Charlie’s eyes go wide. “Dad? Can I?”
“If he says so, sure. Be careful, bud.”
As Daniel helps Charlie over the barrier and walks with him towards the edge of the enclosure, Jack turns to Sam. “Thank you.”
She looks at him questioningly, and Jack shrugs. “He’s been talking about this tour for weeks.”
“Good. He’s a nice kid.” She smiles fondly as they watch Daniel hand him a fish, and Charlie promptly drops it. “Does he have any brothers and sisters?”
Jack shook his head. “Nope. Ever since his mom left, it’s just been the two of us.”
“That must be tough.”
“Sometimes. But, like you said. He’s a good kid.”
She nudges his shoulder with hers. “I have a feeling he’s got a pretty great dad, too.”
He looks down to find her eyes fixed on his, so close, and the sudden, unexpected rush of attraction takes his breath away.
Splashing from the tank breaks the mood, and Jack looks to find Charlie laughing as Daniel tosses a fish high up in the air and one of the sea lions catches it.
Charlie gapes at the moray eels and vivid tropical fish with wide eyes, and they find the otters splashing and squeaking happily around their tank.
“Charlie keeps asking me to get him a pet otter,” Jack explains.
“Oh, really?” Sam turns to Charlie.
“I’d rather have five,” the boy explains. “But I told Dad we can start with one.”
“Why five?”
“Because I like them,” Charlie says, as if it’s obvious. “I want a bunch of them.”
Sam looks up at Jack and shrugs. “He’s got a point. If you’ve got one, why not just get four more?”
“See, Dad? She says it’s fine.”
Jack groans. “You’re not helping, you know that?”
Sam just arches an eyebrow at him, smiling impishly, and the look stops him short. She has a winsome, charming smile. It hits him square in the chest, and he can’t remember the last time he so enjoyed a woman teasing him.
As it turns out, Sam’s area of specialty is tropical marine life. She takes them into a brand-new exhibit that’s not open yet, showing them the series of models depicting the vast ecosystem of Brazilian tributaries that spill into the Atlantic Ocean.
“Wow.” Charlie looks around wide-eyed. “Wait, is that you?”
He points to a photo in one display, and Sam laughs. “Yeah, that’s me. I was on my first real expedition down there.”
Jack leans in for a closer look. In the photo, she’s standing on a boat with a handful of other scientists, all grinning proudly at the camera, pink-cheeked and sunburned, wetsuits tied around their waists.
“Very nice.” She looks at him, and he shrugs. “Should have taken sunscreen, though.”
“It’s just one of those things no one thinks of when you spend half the day underwater,” Sam tells him. “We were all pretty fried by the end of the trip.”
Charlie looks up at them. “Dad makes me wear sunscreen. He says if I don’t, I’ll burn up like he burned the hot dogs that one time on the grill.”
Sam arches an eyebrow, looking up at Jack. “Really?”
“It was one time,” Jack insists, setting his hands on Charlie’s shoulders. “Besides, we were talking about you here. And your reckless disregard for sun protection.”
“Uh-huh.” Her eyes are sparkling, but she just waves a hand towards one of the next displays. “Let’s move on, shall we, gentlemen?”
As it turns out, Charlie’s essay has earned them sufficient celebrity that they get treated to lunch at the museum cafeteria. Jack squeezes his son’s shoulder as they walk towards their table. “Write an essay every day, buddy. I won’t have to cook anymore.”
He’s been wondering if their charming guide is going to go back to work at some point, or even just hand them off to an intern once she’s tired of them, but Sam joins them for lunch, patiently answering Charlie’s endless questions about boats and swimming and orcas and stingrays and otters and octopi and giant squids and is there really a Loch Ness Monster?
“I don’t think there’s a Loch Ness Monster,” she says. “Most of the famous sightings have been debunked. And it could be something as simple as a shadow on the water. So I’m not convinced.”
“But what about aliens?” Jack asks.
“What about them?”
“Maybe they put it there.” He grins. “And they just take it home at night.”
She smiles at that, an adorable, fond little smile that says it’s not particularly funny, but it’s stupid enough that I like it. “I guess I didn’t consider that possibility.”
“Well, there you go.” Jack gestures with his fork. “That’s science, you know.”
Charlie looks back and forth between them, his face screwed up in concentration. “Dad, I think Sam’s right.”
“What?” Jack gasps in mock outrage. “You don’t think it’s aliens, either?”
“No.”
He harumphs. “Well, when the aliens do come here and tell us all about it, I’m going to say ‘I told you so.’ And you’re both going to feel pretty foolish.”
Sam raises her eyebrows and looks at Charlie, who just shakes his head and goes back to his fish-shaped macaroni, and Jack doesn’t know how to explain the soft warmth in his chest at the sight of his shy, careful young son connecting so easily with this woman.
Before Jack realizes it, it’s two, and they’re back at the front desk. The aquarium’s open now, and he watches children and families streaming in around them.
Sam bends to shake Charlie’s hand as the boy thanks her enthusiastically for the best day ever.
“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it.” She ruffles his hair fondly. “You know, I started just like you.”
“Really?”
She nods. “It all starts in science class. And now I’m a marine biologist. Keep studying, and you’ll get there.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Good. Oh! Here.” She pulls something out of her pocket. “If you have any questions, or if you’re coming back to the aquarium, let me know.”
Jack takes the card she hands him. Samantha Carter, PhD, marine biologist. Under the aquarium’s official logo, she’s jotted a cell number in pencil. When he looks up, she’s got a sparkle in her eyes, and if he didn’t know better – is she checking him out?
“So – call you?”
It’s a risk, but she gives him a little smile, and he’s pretty sure he’s not imagining it. “Call me.”