A/N This was written by me and shel (Jasper'sFavorite) for Shipmas at GW, I hope you like!

The Ship Family presents...
In associations with
Valerie and shel productions...

Jack and the Christmas preparations.

Jack had just gotten home from Christmas shopping.
He checked his list again. "OK, so I got Cassie's gift, and one for Daniel, and another one for Teal'c. So who did I forget?" He stopped short. Sam was standing in the kitchen, working on dinner.

Sam had spent an hour on this casserole, only to leave it in the oven for 15 minutes to long! She was just taking it out as Jack walked in. "Oh, Jack. Your home."

"Yes I am. So, what's for dinner?"

"Well it was gonna be this." She held up the casserole. "But, as you can see that's not going to happen any more. So I guess I'm headed to the Chinese place around the corner."

"OK, you have fun!" He called as she left. That's when he remembered the presents sitting in the corner. Sam had told him not to wrap them without her... But the urge was just too strong. He got the tape and wrapping paper and...

(All by shel from this point on.)

found a stash of Christmassy gift bags. He sat all the presents on the couch and made the decision to wrap Cassie's first as it was the biggest. Jack grabbed the scissors and walked over to the pile of wrapping paper.
"Jeez, Carter!" Jack thought, "how many roles did she buy?" With a shrug he pulled out a random role from the pile and took out the plastic. He guessed the size of the sheet he would need and, without bothering to measure the actual gift, cut out the size he thought looked perfect. Jack laid the paper on the coffee table and then set the package on top of it and began pulling the paper over every side of the box.

Jack thought he was doing tremendously well when he noticed that there wasn't enough to cover an entire side of the box. If the box was seen, then it was over. There was a picture of the item on every side and it was a dead give away. So with a sigh Jack ripped all the paper off, including the tape he had already used, and went to cut a more larger sheet of wrapping paper. Unfortunately, this time it was to large, so once again he tore it off and started the process all over again. Jack did this about five more times before he actually got the right size of paper. Then with a relieved smile he turned around and realized that he still had a lot more to wrap.

The others were just as hard to get, but he eventually got them all. What frustrated him the most, though, were the gift bags. When he placed the tape on the sides to keep them closed, it was always easy to see through it and into the bag. Ultimately he gave up on the regular clear tape and resorted to using duct tape. He cut small thin strips and placed them along the opening of each bag. Finally with a satisfied grin, Jack realized he was completely done. He'd gotten every present wrapped and/or in a bag.

Then he took a look around the room and his smile vanished. There was wrapping paper all over the room and even some stuck to the wall with tape. TAPE!! It was everywhere. Tape on the couch, on the coffee table, the walls, and even all over himself. With a grimace, Jack started pulling the tape off himself when Sam walked in the door. She stopped mid step when she saw the chaos that was her living room. Jack started to raise a hand to say something, but was cut off when she just walked off into the kitchen to take out the food.

"D'oh," Jack said as he followed Sam.

"So," he started.

"So," Sam countered, "I see you decided to wrap some gifts."

"Yeah, well" Jack said sheepishly.

"Did you wrap all of them" She asked.

Surprised at the question Jack answered, "Yes"

With a sigh Sam turned to Jack and said, "Let me go take a look at them." Sam walked into the living room with a grimace. Wrapping paper and tape was everywhere. Slowly she approached the pile of gifts that Jack had placed in the corner and almost laughed the moment she saw Jack's attempts. The boxes were wrapped haphazardly and there was tape on almost the entire surface of each gift wrapped box. Then there were the bags, which were taped shut with duct tape of all things.

She turned around and gave Jack an amused smile.

"Angry?" Jack asked

"No, just disappointed," Sam said.

"Disappointed?" Jack asked confused.

"Yeah, because now I owe Daniel twenty bucks." Sam sighed.

"Wait… What?" Jack said.

With an amused smile Sam told Jack, "Well when I mentioned to Daniel that we were going to wrap presents later on tonight, he snorted, saying no wonder I wouldn't let you do it alone. But he bet that the moment you got the chance that you try it yourself. I told him that you wouldn't if I told you not to. So Daniel won this bet."

Mouth on the floor, Jack just stared at Sam. "So wait you mean to tell me that you burned dinner on purpose just to see if I would do it or not?"

"Yep" Sam said with a smile.

"So I'm not in trouble?" Jack asked tentatively.

"No Jack you're not. But I do have one question, why did you duct tape the bags shut?" Sam asked seriously confused.

"Because the other tape was see through," Jack explained.

"Jack, you know that there is that tissue paper used in gift bags on the top shelf in the closet?" Sam said laughing.

"D'oh"

The End.

Hope you liked!!! Feedback is always welcome:D