Completely Committed

This is an excerpt from a set of notes a social worker made on Jonathan J. O’Neill: “…despite the death of his wife, Mr. O’Neill is completely committed to his children.”

He heard the whispers, he saw the looks, the pity when they saw him and just like when Janet died, he looked away, wouldn’t listen and threw himself into the caring of his children.

When the nightmares started, he ignored the prescribed pills. When Dr. Keller asked why, he told her that if he took them, he wouldn’t be able to hear his kids if they cried for him.

When Christmas came, Jack put up the decorations and put presents under the tree. He invited his parents, and Janet’s, and Sara’s. He invited cousins and aunts and uncles and let his sisters plan a big roast dinner. When his mother found him sobbing over the upstairs bathroom basin, she asked him why he hadn’t kept Christmas small this year, why endure the family, the reminders that everyone was here but Sara?

Jack gazed back at her with those dark O’Neill eyes and whispered, a small smile beginning at the corner of his mouth, that it was Cassie’s first Christmas; it had to be big, it had to be wonderful, everyone had to be here…for her, for his kid.

And when his bereavement leave ended, and the Air Force called him back…Jack sat down at his desk and wrote his formal resignation.

This time, no one asked him why.

~~~

AN: And thus endth the history lesson. ALSO, because I'm awesome like that, I'm giving you guys a choice. What would you guys like next from the BWS series?

Option A) "When the Wanderer Returned" - a semi direct sequel to this fic detailing Sam Carter's return to the Springs and the lives of the remaining O'Neills. (Longer chapters and Sam/Jack 'shippy goodness), or...

Option B) A supernaturally tale of the traveling O'Neill's either on some kind of job or the first time they encounter the Winchesters. (oneshot, teens with shotguns, possible Teal'c cameo)

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