Godlings and Graduations

Disclaimer: The characters that I don't make up don't belong to me; I simply borrow them for the duration of the story. Everyone else is simply a figment of my imagination. I'm not making money off this story, so don't sue me!

Author's Note: I wasn't going to start this until I was finished with the Harry Potter crossover, but I fell to the pressure of several people asking me continually for the next story, so here you go!

OOOOOOOO

"I don't know, Sam…" Ian said, looking at the miniature that was sitting on the table in front of them. "It doesn't look exactly like the one that I drew…"

Sam smiled, and picked up the paper that she and Ian had been using as a blueprint for the prototype spacecraft that they'd been working on for the last week.

"It's not going to look exactly like it, Ian," she said reasonably. "Not until we can actually try to build a full-sized one – and we both know it'll be a while before we can do that."

Especially if they wanted to put the drive in it that Ian had been working on. They still had to actually build that drive, first, and then work out the problem of finding an alloy to build the ship out of that would be strong enough to handle the structural stresses that Ian's drive would put on the ship. Otherwise it would fly apart the first time they tried to activate the thing.

"It's kind of ugly…"

Sam shrugged, and set the paper down on the table beside the little spacecraft.

"At least we didn't build it out of legos this time."

He smiled at that, glancing over at the shelf that she had put his original creation on. That one was ugly, too, he decided. But it wasn't supposed to be pretty, it was supposed to be able to handle his drive, and that was all that mattered. He could let someone else worry about the aesthetics involved – once they had the main design down.

"So now all we need to do is build the drive…" Ian said.

"Which we'll start working on once school's out and you have a bit more free time to help."

There was no way Sam was going to tackle that drive by herself – even though she was pretty sure she understood it. It was Ian's brainchild, and it'd be better if he were there during the development. And not distracted by schoolwork.

Ian scowled at the mention of school getting out, and Sam knew it wasn't because he wasn't looking forward to having the classes at the academy stop for the summer. It was something else entirely.

"Still haven't figured out what to get Cassie for graduation?"

He shook his head, not even bothering to ask how she knew he hadn't gotten Cassie a present, yet. Jack knew. And what Jack knew, Sam knew.

"Not a clue."

"It's not supposed to be that difficult, Ian," Sam told him, smiling.

"It's not all that easy."

"Get her a piece of jewelry. She'd love it – especially from you."

He frowned; looking over at the door to Sam's lab as if to make sure that there wasn't anyone else around, and then shook his head.

"If I get her a ring – or a necklace or something like that – then she's going to think I'm planning on having a long-term relationship with her."

Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You're not?"

"I would. But…" he trailed off, looking as if he were trying to think of the right words to say. He already knew he'd said it wrong – just to judge by the way Sam was looking at him. "She's great, Sam."

"I know."

"But she's going to be off to college next fall."

"And you think you guys couldn't do a long-distance relationship?"

"I think she's going to find out that there are a lot of guys out there that are just as smart as I am – and are a lot easier to be in a relationship with. And I don't want her to feel chained to me… which she might if I gave her any kind of jewelry."

Sam shook her head.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Ian."

He shrugged, but he didn't say anything, and she knew that he didn't believe that. Even more, he turned away from her, which told her that he really didn't believe it – and that annoyed her.

"Ian, we're going to have to work on this low self-esteem thing you have going on…"

Now he did look at her, and she was surprised to see a ghost of a smile on his face.

"There's nothing wrong with my self-esteem, Sam. You can ask anyone at the academy; I'm better than all of them and have no problem reminding them of it every time I see them."

Sam chuckled, and started to say something, but she was interrupted by a rap on the door. Both of them turned and saw Daniel standing there.

"Ian? Are you coming to briefing or is General Hammond going to have to send out the hounds?"

Sam had a feeling Hammond had said exactly that when he'd sent Daniel to remind the cadet about their morning briefing.

"I'm coming right now, Daniel," Ian said, not at all self-conscious about having someone come fetch him for a briefing he should have remembered they were scheduled to have. He hadn't forgotten, after all. He'd simply been busy with something else just then. He gave Sam a quick smile. "I'll see you later."

"This conversation isn't over, Ian…" she warned him. She'd let it drop for now, but only because he had other things to do just then.

"Yes, Ma'am."

He wasn't worried. Sam had lots of other things to occupy her mind. She'd forget about their conversation eventually. He headed for the door. They had a briefing, and a mission – and if he got lucky, maybe an idea for a present for Cassie would fall out of the sky and hit him on the head.