When Jack had suggested a team lunch, Sam hadn't expected that it would be the hot dog cart in the park. It was a really good hot dog cart, specializing in gourmet and unusual combinations. They even had Perrier. She asked him about it on the way to the picnic table where Jonas and Teal'c were already seated. Jonas had a jumbo chili cheese dog. Teal'c's was Chicago style, as was Jack's. Sam liked hers pretty basic – relish, ketchup and mustard. They had put their food on the table and then Sam had gone back to the cart with Jack to collect the baked beans, coleslaw and French fries.

"The park?" Sam asked, knowing that Jack would understand all the unspoken words in the question.

Her CO shrugged and then tilted his head at their team mates. "They spend enough time surrounded by four walls," he said.

"We take them off-world all the time," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, and they're working," Jack answered. "It's hard to enjoy the fresh air when you're running for your life in it." He lifted his cup of root beer and waved it around to indicate the park, "This is…peaceful."

Sam couldn't argue with that. As they approached the picnic table she moved over closer to Jack and bumped him with her shoulder a little bit. It was nothing that anyone would really notice. Really it could have been caused when she stepped around something in the grass.

But Jack glanced down at her from under his sunglasses and said, "Welcome."

Because he got all those unspoken words too – thank you for watching out for them, for their mental health, for their well-being, thank you for telling me why you did it so that I can learn from you, thank you for being Jack O'Neill.

Sam appreciated everything Jack did for his team and especially – at the moment – for Jonas. Jonas had spent an enormous amount of time under the weight of concrete and the hurt, resentful gaze of all of Daniel's colleagues. Jack's willingness to look beyond what had happened and actually see Jonas had gone a long way to helping everyone move into a place that was at least stable, if still deep in mourning.

The guys had taken places on the same side of the picnic table (which was metal and bolted to the concrete pad under it, or it would surely have tipped over just from the considerable mass of Teal'c.) It meant that Sam and Jack had to sit down beside each other. Jack didn't comment at all. Sam kind of grinned to herself.

In the very beginning, Jonas had been quiet. Then he had started talking more and asking questions until it had reached the point where he was hardly ever silent once his curiosity had been piqued.

His questions of the moment ranged from what kind of tree is that (aspen) to is that a blue jay (yes), ground squirrel (no, gray squirrel), what game are those kids playing (Frisbee). If he wasn't eating he was asking about his new planet. Then his attention was caught by a small, furry creature hopping across the grass.

"What's that?" he asked, genuinely excited.

"It's a rabbit," Sam answered, grinning at him.

"A rabbit," Jonas repeated, still staring at it as if he was enchanted.

Sam started to tell him more about rabbits, even though she didn't really know all that much. But Jonas put down what was left of this hot dog and jumped up off the bench.

"Oh, Jonas, no," she called, "It's just going to…okay, well, you'll find out."

With his teammates watching with varying degrees of amusement, consternation and perplexity, Jonas chased the brown rabbit around the park until it finally took off at a dead run. Jonas stood still in the grass and the sunlight, looking in the direction it had gone. His face was expectant and hopeful but when it didn't return he made his way back to the table.

Sliding back into his spot on the bench he reached for his Sprite and sipped at it thoughtfully.

"Will you be researching rabbits when we return to base, Jonas Quinn?" Teal'c asked.

Picking up the remains of his lunch Jonas nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yeah," he said. "It was just so cute."

"Well, be careful," Jack said. "They have big teeth and they can leap about."

Teal'c stared at O'Neill balefully. Sam choked on her Diet Coke and covered her laughter with a napkin.

"Sir!" Sam said, in admonishment.

Jonas blinked and said, "What?"

"Nothin'," Jack answered. "Finish your lunch."

Jonas looked quizzical but complied. "Yes, sir," he said.

(0)

Rabbits became Jonas Quinn's 'best new thing in the whole world' and somehow continued that way for much longer than anyone expected.

Coming back from P92-058, Jonas was talking about them – again – all the way from the Gate Room to the lockers.

"And they can run 35 miles an hour. Isn't that amazing? Something that small can run that fast. Of course 50% of the rabbit is hind legs so I guess it's not that surprising. Oh, and they can jump three feet or higher for the same reason. They can be domesticated too. Over 2 million people in the United States alone have pet rabbits."

Sam let him chatter at her, because she always did, and Sam was just as curious about the world as Jonas. If he wanted to give her free facts about rabbits, it seemed harmless enough. It was also a pretty easy way to give the guy some support and friendship.

Still, he managed to surprise her when they were out one day and Sam stopped at her favorite Farm and Garden store for grass seed and fertilizer. It was early spring and her lawn was more moss than grass at the moment. She'd taken Jonas along with her for another chance to get out in the fresh air, mindful of what she had learned from Jack about the team's mental health. He'd wandered off while she was talking about weed control with the good-looking guy in the garden department and Sam wasn't too worried about it. The place was huge and full of things that would catch his attention. She wasn't even worried when he came and asked for her keys because he had 'picked up a few things and wanted to put them in the car.'

She lost track of him again for a while at checkout. Dialing his number she waited patiently for him to answer the phone.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"In the car," he said.

"Why?" Sam couldn't quite stop the word because she was baffled.

"I didn't want to leave all this stuff unattended."

Okay, she had felt a small thrill of panic when he said that because Jonas had pretty good-sized quarters back on the base, but he didn't have a whole lot of room for a lot of stuff.

"What did you get?" Sam asked, trying to sound interested and not alarmed.

"Oh, you'll see," Jonas said and hung up on her.

Startled, Sam looked at the phone for a moment to be sure that's what had happened. Then the cashier needed her attention and she tucked the phone away, resolving to deal with it when she saw what he had gotten.

She could see him sitting in the Volvo with the door open. He had one leg stretched out on the pavement and something cradled in his arms, head bent over it.

Sam's thrill of alarm returned and notched up another couple of notes. By the time she got to the car her entire carillon of warning bells was going off.

There was the top of a cage visible in the back seat and a gigantic feed bag, so she knew what he was holding before she'd gotten all the way to him.

"Jonas," she began.

But he looked up at her with an expression of pure, idiotic joy and she stumbled to a helpless halt because Samantha Carter – badass, sharp shooting Air Force officer – was simply not that heartless.

"What did you do?" she asked with a heavy sigh.

In Jonas's arms was the smallest bit of rabbit-shaped gray fluff that she had ever seen.

"Isn't he awesome?" Jonas asked. "His name is Stormy."

Sam thought, Oh god. Then she took a deep breath as her genius brain ran through the regs. Okay, the base was full of cats, mostly for pest control. But a lot of them were owned (or in the way of cats, had decided to be owned by) some of the single guys who called the base home. There really was no reason Jonas couldn't have a pet. None that she could see anyway, though she wasn't the final say on the subject.

Forcing a bright indulgent smile onto her face Sam said, "He's gorgeous."

(0)