Author's Note: These characters don't belong to me. this is just for fun.

General George Hammond closed the folder that lay in front of him. "Thank you, Dr. Jackson." He looked around at the people before him. "If that's all, SG1 is on stand-down." Seeing no objections, he smiled. "You all have some well-deserved leave on the books."

He was responded to with a chorus of "Thank you, Sir" as he stood.

Colonel Jack O'Neill and Major Samantha Carter also stood, and the general gave them a small nod before leaving.

"So." Jack tapped his fingers on the briefing room table and looked around at the faces of his teammates, receiving a small smile from Carter. He turned to his right. "Teal'c, you goin' to see the kid?"

Hands folded in front, the Jaffa angled his head in the colonel's direction, nodding slightly. "I am."

Jack turned back to face his second-in-command. "Carter?"

"Dad's gating in." she replied pleasantly. "We're going to go visit Mark for the holidays."

Jack nodded and smiled. Hands in his pockets, he looked across the table at the team's wayward archaeologist, who was still sat next to the standing major and also still reading through a file in front of him. "Daniel?"

Jackson looked up from whatever was apparently very engrossing. "Uh... I'm actually going to go..." Daniel paused, searching for a sequence of unoffending words, "...visit a friend."

"Yeah?" The colonel's interest was now sufficiently piqued. "Who?"

Daniel finally stood and began gathering the spread of papers that lay before him. "Actually, I worked with him for a brief time."

Jack had begun moving toward the door, but stopped abruptly. "Daniel." It was a statement of accusation, summed up in one name.

"Jack?" the accused looked up and questioned innocently.

The colonel stared incredulously, "You're going to work?" the disgust evident in his tone.

Having gathered all of his belongings, Daniel also began moving toward the door. "I said I was going to visit a friend."

Jack held out a hand, effectively stopping his teammate. "But he's one of your little Egypt friends."

Daniel's forehead crinkled as he raised his eyebrows. "One of my little Egypt friends.?" His eyes narrowed in feigned confusion.

"Another one of those anthropology nerds who scuffs around in the dirt trying to find -" Jack began. Frustration and realization hit him all at the same time: Daniel knew how to play him. "You know what I mean!" He looked at Carter for support and received another smile in return. Teal'c had his hands clasped behind his back and was merely observing the situation that unfolded. Both thought it best and infinitely more amusing to simply watch rather than get caught in the crossfire.

Daniel watched his friend become flustered. As Jack turned back to him after receiving no help from the rest of his team, Daniel took it as his cue. "He happens to be one of the foremost experts in Ancient Near East - "

"Yadda." A hand waved, as though the action would swat away whatever archaeological jargon was about to be hurled at him. "- the point is, you're going to work." The same hand now pointed an indicting finger.

"This isn't work for me." Daniel crossed his arms over his chest, creating a sort of shield to the aforementioned finger. "It's fun." A small smile. knowing the suggestion of anything even vaguely work-related being fun would get the response he was waiting for.

"On Christmas?!" Jack unwittingly ran smack into Daniel's well-constructed, though fairly obvious, ploy.

The archaeologist smiled broadly. "Jack, I enjoy this." Recognizing the conversation was about to come to a rather abrupt end, Teal'c stepped forward and opened the door for Sam. "It's either going to visit an old friend and working on a site," Daniel continued, grabbing the door from Teal'c. "or sitting in my apartment and cataloguing alien artifacts from the past five months."

Jack turned to follow his team out, shouting at Daniel's back, "On Christmas?!"