A/N – Ok, now I actually have the right document uploaded...XD I feel stupid, I accidentally uploaded a chapter from another story...That's what happens when school wears me out...

Well, with this holiday season marking the one year anniversary of the first time I saw Stargate: SG-1, I thought I might as well write a good ol Christmas story involving our fave pair of peeps. So here we go, the clichéd, shamelessly shippy holiday tale of Sam and Jack that is sure to warm yer li'l hearts!

On a more serious note. I wanted to do something involving Jack's family. They don't really say much about them in the series, so I invented the whole O'Neill posse. I would like to dedicate Dane O'Neill to my bff molly, who insisted that Jack have a younger brother.

Chapter 1

It was that time of year again, and Jack could tell by the way the airmen at the entrance to the base kept rubbing their hands together, watching their breath trail up in a fog before their faces. The leaves were all gone off the trees and more often than not the sky was a dark steely grey. But it hadn't snowed, yet.

He found the rest of his team already in the commissary, Daniel eating some waffles and sipping at coffee, Sam with her nose stuck in some mission file, and Teal'c digging in to a hearty looking tray of food.

" G'morning, campers!" Jack said cheerily, sitting down next to Teal'c.

"Hi, Jack." Daniel squinted at him. "You seem…cheerful this morning."

"Tis the holidays, Danny-boy." Jack replied, resting his elbows on the table. He shot a look over at Sam, but she still didn't raise her eyes from whatever it was she was reading. "I heard Hammond's giving us all a nice long break."

"Indeed." Teal'c said. "I plan to return to Chulak to spend time with Ray'ac."

"Ah," Jack nodded. "What about you two?" he included the two on the other side of the table, though was pretty sure Sam only just comprehended that she was being spoken to.

"I was going to go visit Catherine." Daniel said. "She and her family invited me over for Christmas and I haven't seen her in a while…What about you?"

Jack shrugged, picking up the saltshaker and pretending to be fascinated with it. "Oh…I've got a family thing."

"Really?" Daniel's exclamation came out sounding more surprised than he'd probably intended it.

"Yes, Danny, really!" Jack rolled his eyes. "I do actually have a family, you know."

"I know, I just was surprised because you never talk about them."

"Yeah, well, there's a reason for that." Jack's mood seemed to have soured a bit and he slumped back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. "My dad didn't like Sarah. No idea why. He's just strange like that…excuse me eccentric like that. So he kinda stopped talking to me, and then…well the rest of it's my fault. I didn't particularly want to talk to any of them after Charlie died."

"Oh." Daniel didn't seem to know how to respond to that. "So why're you doing something with them for Christmas?"

"One of my cousins has cancer…he wanted the family to get back together for the holidays and said that the family includes me." Jack smirked, his cheerful mood from earlier returning somewhat. "Which brings me around to the real reason I'd wanted to talk to you guys. I'm not too excited about facing the whole O'Neill clan on my own and was going to ask if one of you wanted to tag along, but seeing as you're busy…"

Daniel nodded apologetically, then nudged Sam in the side with his elbow. She didn't look up at first, but the second time he did it her head snapped up.

"What?"

"You said you weren't doing anything." Daniel prompted.

"So…?"

"So why don't you go along?"

Sam's cheeks turned a faint tint of pink and she frowned slightly. "Oh…I don't…that might not…"

"It's ok." Jack said, cutting off her stuttering. He stood up. "Really. I'll manage." Sticking his hands in his pockets he sauntered out of the commissary.

Daniel turned in his seat to give Sam a slightly annoyed expression. "Why can't you go with him?"

"Daniel!" Sam rolled her eyes. "That wouldn't be a good idea, trust me."

"Saaaamm. It would be a nice gesture."

"Indeed," the large Jaffa decided to put his two cents worth in. "I believe it would be a very kind gesture towards O'Neill."

"Why me?!" Sam whined, eyes wide.

"Because you're the one that doesn't have any plans." Daniel replied, sipping his coffee. "And besides. Jack and I would probably end up killing each other after two days and Teal'c's….an alien. Something tells me you'd go over better with Jack's family."

"His family. That's exactly the reason I can't go. They'd probably think we weretogether or something."

"Uhuh." Daniel grinned. "And if I went they'd think Jack was gay. See? You're a much better choice."

Sam looked at her two friends. Faced with their pleading (or in Teal'c's case, stony) expressions, she felt slightly overwhelmed and nodded, sighing as she stood up. "Ok…ok fine. Maybe. I'll think about it." She turned to leave, and heard Daniel whisper something to Teal'c. "And no fair getting Janet to convince me to go!"

She found Jack later in the exercise room, jogging on one of the treadmills and listening to some Christmas music on the crappy boom box in the corner. He got off the treadmill when Sam entered and shut off the music.

"Hey, Carter, what's up?"

"Not much…you still want someone to go with you to your family thing, sir?" The 'sir' sounded strangely tacked on, and Sam found herself wishing ruefully for just a moment that she could loose the military formality.

"Sure, if you think you're up to it. My family can be quite a crazy bunch and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of them." Jack grinned at her then took a swig from his water bottle. Then he added in an oddly sentimental tone, "I'd love for you to come, Carter."

"Great. So where is it?"

"Minnesota." Jack replied, grabbing his duffel bag. "It ought to be beautiful up there this time of year…all that snow…" He grinned sheepishly when Sam raised her eyebrows. " 'White Christmas', Carter, don't tell me you've never seen it."

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas," Sam muttered, shaking her head and laughing. They turned and walked into the hall, shoulder to shoulder.

"Just like the ones I used to knoooww!" Jack bellowed, attracting more than a few odd looks.

Sam rolled her eyes at her CO. "So, sir, do you think we should tell Hammond?"

"Tell him what? Carter, I doubt he cares what his personnel do over their vacation."

"I know. But this is a little different than the standard vacation activity."

Jack put a finger to his lips. "Shh…what he doesn't know can't hurt him. Or get back to Kinsey. Besides, we're not doing anything wrong."

"And my dad –"

"I will say it again, Carter, we're doing nothing wrong and what he doesn't know can't hurt him." Jack slapped her jovially on the back. "Besides, your old man should be happy that I'm actually managing to drag you out of that little hole in the ground you call a lab and forcing you to rejoin society."

They parted ways at the locker rooms, Jack going to take a shower and Sam heading up to the control room to see if anything interesting was going on.

Siler and Walter were stringing some colored lights up over the window that looked down into the gate room while Hammond supervised.

"Doing some holiday decorating, sir?" Sam said, stepping up alongside the general.

"I thought we might spruce the place up a bit," Hammond nodded, turning to her. "Got plans for the holiday, Major?"

Sam nodded, not going into details.

"That's good." Hammond looked back at Siler and Walter, who, despite their capabilities of keeping the gate running smoothly, seemed unable to figure out how to untangle the string of lights. "I'm going to visit my granddaughters…" he chuckled. "They've already got very long Christmas lists filled out."

Sam smiled, thinking about her own niece and nephew and making a mental note to call Mark and see what they wanted. Oh and she had to get Cassie something…

Excusing herself, Sam turned and walked out of the control room. She headed down to the infirmary, which also had a few decorations up. Janet was just releasing one of the new members of SG-11, who had been down with the flu for the past couple days. Sam waited until her friend was done, then walked over.

"Hey, Janet."

"Hey, what's up?" Janet was busy writing something on her clipboard and didn't look up.

"Not much." Sam sat down on the edge of the bed. "I was just thinking about what I should get Cassie for Christmas."

"Don't get her one of those new playstations."

"Why? Don't you want her to have one?" Sam smirked.

"Not that, I've just already bought her one," Janet sighed, shaking her head and looking up at Sam. "Sometimes I think I spoil that girl too much."

"Naahhh," Sam flapped her hand dismissively. "I could get her some games to go with it."

"Good idea." Janet set her clipboard down and folded her arms over her chest. "Are you doing anything on Christmas? You could always come over to our place."

"Oh, I've got plans, actually."

"Ah. Going out to see your brother?"

Sam shifted. "No."

Janet raised an eyebrow. "Really? Then…" her eyes lit up. "Sam! You wouldn't have a date, would you?"

"Janet! No!"

"Ok then, if you're not spending it with your family and its not a date, then what is it? And staying in your lab doesn't count."

"I'm going to Minnesota with Colonel O'Neill."

Janet's expression changed. "And the rest of the team?"

"N-no just us."

There was a long moment of silence when Janet just stared at her, and Sam could tell that the petite doctor was working hard at holding back a grin. "Just you. The two of you."

"Yeah, he's got some family thing and was too chicken to go by himself."

"Right. You sure you're not just going to spend the week all cozied up in his cabin by the roaring fire?" Janet said, wiggling her eyebrows.

Sam scowled at her. "He's my commanding officer. We're just friends, sheesh! This is exactly why I didn't want to do this in the first place…" She got suddenly to her feet and Janet reached out to put a placating hand on her arm.

"Oh, Sam, I'm just teasing you. I'm sure you'll have fun."

"I hope so." Sam said, then gave her friend a quick hug and hurried off to finish some mission reports.

Later that night Jack sat on his couch, phone balanced between his shoulder and ear while he watched the first few flakes of snow falling past the streetlight outside. It wasn't enough to stick yet, but the weather forecast had called for a couple inches by the end of the week.

"So you're definitely coming then?" It was his cousin on the other line, Ben, the one with cancer. He was a little younger than Jack, but the two had been close for a while before Jack had gotten too involved in the Air Force and starting a family.

"Yeah. I'm bringing a friend too, if that's ok."

"That's fine. Anyone I know?"

"Nope." Jack shifted around on the couch, slouching down a little lower. "She's my second in command, Sam Carter."

"A girl?" Ben chuckled. "Wow, Jack, didn't see that one coming."

"She's just a friend! 'Sides, Air Force regs say we can't have any sort of relationship."

"Sure. Anyway, I'm sure your dad will be thrilled." Ben's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Actually, I think Dad might like her. She's more his idea of a 'good woman' than Sarah was." Jack frowned a little at the description. "But hey, you didn't get a hold of Dane, by any chance, did you?"

"It took me forever to track him down! That man quite literally lost himself in San Fran. But yeah, I talked to him."

". . .And is he coming?"

"He said he would only if you were." Ben's tone was a little more serious. "He misses you."

"I know. Tell him I'll be there."

"M'kay. Talk to you soon, Jack."

"Yeah, you too." Jack hung up the phone, dropping it onto the end table before stretching out all the way on the couch and folding his arm behind the back of his head.

It seemed like his family – or rather, his immediate family – had all grown apart because of various causes, and most of those causes could be blamed on his dear old father. Jack had reasons for not talking about his family with the rest of SG-1, mainly because it was too painful and too complex.

Dane was Jack's younger brother, born well after Jack had left home. Their mother, who had been just a little too old, perhaps, to be having another child, died just after Dane was born. Jack knew almost immediately that this was already a huge strike against Dane when it came to their father, but Jack was already swept up in the Air Force and didn't care enough to take a break from it.

Jack tried to come home whenever he could and help with his little brother, and their was family around that lent some much needed assistance, but Dane had still started making run away attempts from the time he turned twelve up until he actually moved out. The farthest he'd got was Jack's military base, and Jack had gotten back from training one day to find Dane sitting in his CO's office.

It ended when Dane was 17 and he simultaneously packed his bags and was thrown out. Jack had talked to him on and off for a few years on and off, but now three years had passed when no one had known where to find Dane. It was a relief to know that he was still ok.

"So, I'm sorry I won't be able to come back for Christmas."

Sam looked up from her steaming cup of coffee to smile at her father. "It's ok, Dad, really. At least you're here now." They were sitting at a small table in the local Starbucks, listening to the low chatter of the other customers and the holiday music that was playing.

"Yeah, I just wish I could spend the holidays with you and Mark."

"I know," Sam reached over and patted her father's hands. "But Mark and Carol are going to visit her parents and I….I've got stuff to do. Plans."

"Plans?" Jacob shot her a questioning look over the rim of his coffee mug.

"Yeah. I'm doing stuff with a friend of mine." Sam replied cryptically.

Jacob snorted, giving his daughter one of those 'looks'. "Sam…the way you just said 'friend' makes me a little suspicious."

"Nothing for you to worry about, Dad."

Jacob leaned in closer to her over the table, then Selmak spoke in a whisper that wouldn't be audible to anyone else in the store. "The more you speak like that, the more suspicious Jacob gets."

Sam could feel the color rising in her cheeks. "I'm not going to tell you! You'll just…get mad at me."

"Why would I get mad at you? I won't get mad at you!"

"Colonel O'Neill."

"Sam!!!"

Sam half closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair, sipping her coffee and giving her father a look.

I told you so.