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Disclaimer: Dont own it

--One Night On A Doorstop--

Colonel Jonathon "Jack" O'Neill USAF's truck could never be called a particularly quiet vehicle. In fact many a morning was met with a rather aggravated neighbor wondering why he felt it necessary to leave his house in the early hours of the morning, waking them all up (Jack rarely…unless it was pre-morning-coffee, admitted that he had been coming home). This night, therefore, was like many others that year and the seven years before, at roughly 2300 hours (after a briefing that seemed to defy the definition of brief) Jack drove up to his house, parked, stepped out of the car and stopped on the drive way. He rubbed a weary hand over his face, careful of the stitches through his cheek and stared for a few seconds at the bundle lying in his doorway.

Not so much curious as to what it was, he knew exactly what (well…who) it was, it was more of a question of why it was lying in front of his front door. However, a glance at his watch reminded him the need for sleep as he knelt down and shook the shoulder of the teenager. "Hey kiddo. Inside?"

She gazed up at him for a minute and he felt his heart constrict at the eyes and nodded silently accepting his offered hand.

He argued with the front door lock, growing slightly more frustrated at every seemingly futile turn of the key before shoving his shoulder into the right points on the door and letting them in. "Don't worry," he murmured. "I'll fix it before I go to sleep."

They managed to reach the kitchen before she fell into one of the chairs and he handed her a glass of water. "How long?"

"A day or so. Got here Thursday night. You were on some secret mission?"

"Yeah."

He quickly gave her the clear, studied surveying glance he gave to field operatives (although he usually allowed some appreciation in regards to one particular field agent but we're not going there at 2300 hours) and nodded. "You okay to take the spare room for tonight?"

She nodded, kissed his cheek and wondered down the hall silently. He watched the brown hair of the teenager go and shook his head, rolling his eyes. "For cryin' out loud," he muttered under his breath before falling into bed himself.

--

When he woke up the next morning, she was still in bed so he managed to call the base-getting the day off (not that he lamented taking off a day of only paperwork), and set up breakfast before she wandered in pulling her hair out of her face. She sat down across the table from him almost hugging the box of fruit loops as she shoveled them into her mouth. He let her eat for a while before he felt he had to start the questions.

"How'd you get here?"

"Taxi to the airport, borrowed some cash from Michael to get a flight."

"Borrowed?"

"He doesn't know about it yet."

He nodded, hiding his smirk and let her keep eating. "Want to tell me what happened?"

"Michael told me to leave." Jack silently nodded and looked deep into the large mug of coffee (something told him he'd need it today).

"Any plans?"

She looked up, almost surprised that he spoke, and shook her head. "I hadn't really thought passed getting here."

Jack smirked, "Always were a smart kid," and for the first time he saw a tiny smile…more the hint of a smile playing on her lips. "Well you're staying here right, there aren't any questions about that."

"I can't stay here forever Jack." She felt she had to argue, never one to accept help easily…just like Jack come to think of it.

He just stood and took the plates to the counter shrugging, "As long as you need kiddo."

--

His family was a military family, through and through. All his life he had been the definition of a 'military brat' and he could see it all played out in front of him. This was a wedding for crying out loud, yet there was one of his sisters sitting at a table with some General…Colonel, (he hadn't been listening) talking tactics while her daughter sat in her lap listening intently. He rolled his eyes, there was the third generation of the O'Neill donation to the American Armed Forces sitting in a purple frilly dress right now.

His other sister Bea, (Beatrice but even he wasn't game to call her that) sat grinning madly at the head table in her formal army uniform while her new husband (no, really, we're talking 2 hours new)smirked into his beer-Michael.

Jack couldn't help rolling his eyes at the thought of Michael, honestly was there nobody else around? Did she have to marry the definition of brainless thug? Not that he was all brains of course, but he'd like it if his niece's new father had something going on under the cru-cut.

Speaking of which.

"Hey Jack."

"Kiddo."

She'd changed, he noticed. Gone was the dark red lace and conservative neckline, now there were faded jeans and a simple black shirt. "What are you thinking?"

"Wondering how you'll survive with him."

Her face hardly changed, a slight twitch in the eyebrow mainly and only visible to someone who knew what to look for. She was already the perfection of military standard lack of emotion. "He's alright, just need to count the beer bottles."

He nodded and pulled her to his side, keeping an arm draped over her shoulders. "I'm always around if you need me ok?"

She smiled into his shoulder and he led her to the dance floor as some 80's 'classic' started. At his dancing she burst into a wide grin and they spun around, giggling and tripping over their feet.

He sat down with a groan and smirk, "I'm too old for that."

She rolled her eyes and poked him in the side, "Too old my ass, you're what…40?"

Jack pretended to be flattered, waving his hand around and smiling sweetly. "Not quite."

"You still at the same place?"

"Near Cheyenne?"

"Yeah."

He nodded looking over at her seriously again. "I'm serious Joanna-"

"How many times must I tell you 'Uncle Jonathon', it's Jo."

"No, you listen to me. If anything happens, if he gets too drunk or says anything, you come straight to me do you understand?"

She smiled again and nodded ,"Don't worry Jack, I swear."

He relaxed, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "I'm going to be away the next week, but I'll be back on Friday. Give me a call ok?"

"Where are you going?"

"You know the drill Jo, secret classified etc."

"Yeah…just hoping you'd slip up."

He shook his head, chuckling under his breath and hugged her tightly. "Love you kiddo."

"You too."

He shrugged back on the dress blue jacket, quickly checking the medals that it was his and smiled, "See ya."

--

They were watching the Simpsons when the phone rang. He was so relaxed that it almost made him jump out of his skin. "Jesus Christ!" Jo laughed and watched him grope around the table behind him to find the small, annoying, ringing device that was interrupting Homer's tirade. "O'Neill…Hey Carter…Yeah 'course it's still on…Oh, I'm not sick, it's just a family thing…yeah everything's fine…no you don't have to, oh wait, bring an alternative movie-don't' tell T but there's only so much Star Wars someone can take you know?...yeah…don't play too long with the doohickeys Carter."

He lay back on the couch not noticing the piercing questions Jo was throwing him…not that she was actually saying anything she was just watching and waiting.

He sat up and turned the TV off, walking through to the kitchen, beginning to open and close all the cupboards. "What'cha looking for?"

"Food. There isn't anything for dinner…oh, pizza…well we'll need beer, s'pose we'd better go out. Great."

"Jack?"

"Oh, sorry." He turned around only just seeming to realize that he wasn't talking to himself and smiled sheepishly. "I…forgot." Jo rolled her eyes, immediately letting him know it was alright. "My team, from the secret classified stuff? Yeah well every few weeks we get together…watch movies and all of that. Is that going to be okay? I mean I can call Carter back and cancel it if you don't want people around…?"

"Nah, it's fine. I want to meet your team. So we need beer?"

"Yeah, and probably something to eat while we wait for the pizza…although if Carter has her way then we'll get Chinese and I'll never hear the end of it."

Jo picked up her jacket, easily shrugging it on (he rolled his eyes as he noticed it was her cousin's army issue one) and looked up. "So, can I drive?"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Absolutely not. I am not letting anybody drive my truck…well I had to let Carter once but I had a broken leg and that's not important."

"So Carter's a girl?"

She sat in the passenger side watching him carefully, after 17 years she knew how to read the guarded uncle next to her and she almost grinned that even now he couldn't hold anything from her. "Woman but yes, she's a she."
"Let me guess, blonde?"

He glanced as they stopped at traffic lights, "Yeah…how'd you…?"

"Eric was saying how you got really drunk two years ago and told him about the blonde at work." Jack almost crashed his precious truck as the words registered. "But I suppose you haven't done anything about it cause you're well…you're a chicken."

"My chicken-ness isn't the problem," he muttered under his breath, pulling the truck back under his control.

Jo seemed to smile and turned to look out the window, "So, who's coming?

"My team," Jack shrugged. "Just the three of them."

"Yeah…tell me about them, come on Jack I'm curious."

Jack rolled his eyes as they pulled up at the store, leaping out of the truck trying to think of what he could tell her. "Danny's the archeologist…space monkey," he found himself blurting out. "Wait, you know Danny"

"Yes Jack," she said slowly, "Remember? Actually I can't blame you if you don't you weren't very sober for the time we were both here." With a look at his eyes she quickly smiled and changed the topic, "I didn't think he still put up with you?"

"I think it's a mutual putting up sort of thing."

"I'm not allowed to ask why you have an archeologist in Deep Space Radar Telemetry am I?"

He hugged her close as they pulled Guinness off the shelves before moving round to find food. "Sorry. Then there's Te-Murray." His mind ran amok with words that only a soldier knew and Jo smirked. Why is it that he was never able to hide anything from her? Well…there were two people he couldn't hide things from but we're not going there yet.

"Te?"

"Teal'c, he's African. But goes by Murray sometimes and I'm just used to calling him T I guess."

"Teal'c? Interesting name."

"Yeah, he's the combat expert and counter intelligence."

"And Carter?" He stopped pushing the trolley, almost pushing it into her legs as she whipped around and smiled sweetly. She took a bag of chips off the shelf and placed it innocently in the cart. "Carter, the hot blonde?"

"Carter's an astrophysicist, smartest person on Earth, the universe even."

"And?"

He rolled his eyes and didn't speak as they piled all their hard work into the back of the truck and began to drive. Once they came back to his driveway he stopped and looked at her seriously. "Frat Regs Jo."

Jo looked over at him, a sympathetic glance in her eyes. "That bad?"

"They suck."

Carter arrived first, slipping a laptop bag over her shoulder and swiping her hair out of her face in annoyance as she opened the door and dropped her stuff in the hallway. "Sir? It's just me."

Instead of being met with the CO she was used to, the head that poked itself out of the kitchen was that of a teenage girl with dark brown hair and deeper brown eyes. "Hey, you must be Carter."

"Hi…" Carter walked through to the kitchen, hiding how glad she was that her CO was sitting at the table fiddling with some string while the teenager muttered about a lack of coffee.

"She won't let me do anything," Jack mumbled as she came and sat across from him.

"Who…?"

The girl turned around and grinned, "Don't worry, I'm his niece. Jo."

"Sam. How did you know who I was?"

"I did a little interrogating before you arrived, apparently frat regs suck."

"Joanna!" Jack sat up straight, the childish pout immediately disappearing while Sam began to blush (he refused to admit she was pretty when she did that, bad Jack!).

The girl shrugged again as the doorbell rang, "Saved by the bell." She grinned and leapt out of the room.

Daniel was the least surprised, greeting Jo with a hug before glancing at Jack. "Don't worry Danny," she murmured, "He's saving me this time."

"Yeah I was about to ask," Sam smiled, "Why is it that you have a teenager staying with you all of a sudden? I thought Loki was back with another-" she stopped herself and glanced at the beer in front of her. "John."

Jack rolled his eyes, wondering if Jo had laced their drinks (he really wouldn't put it past her), "Nah. Jo's just staying with me for a while-"

"My step-dad's a jerk," Jo shrugged and joined them, her own beer clasped in her hands. "So I left and Jack's taken me in."

Jack was silent for a minute before glancing at the drink, "One, you hear me?"

"Jack, by the time I've finished with one you won't be able to count the rest."

"I'm better than Daniel!"

"Everybody's better than Daniel! I've never had a drink in my life and I bet I can hold it better than he can."

"Hey! Don't I get a say in this?"

--Traditional Team Night--

In true team night fashion, the night ended about 0100 with Daniel passed out on the couch and Teal'c doing his meditation thing in the easy chair while Sam and Jack cleaned up. Jo watched as they worked without speaking, silently moving around each other as though they'd been doing it a hundred times before, which considering how long they'd been a team, they probably had.

Quietly she pried the last drink from Daniel's fingers and went to throw it out, following Sam into the kitchen. "Hey," Sam whispered. "What's up?"

"Just trying to figure out you guys."

Sam laughed and turned off the tap, leaning on the counter and watching as Jack found a blanket and threw it over his friend. "They're closer than they let on right?"

Sam followed her look and grinned, "Oh yeah. They actually respect each other occasionally, doesn't stop them acting like two year olds"

"And you and Daniel?"

Sam thought for a minute, never been one to think about relationships…they were less confusing that way. "I suppose he's like my brother."

"And Teal'c?"

"Older brother, definitely."

Jo grinned, contemplating whether or not to ask her about Jack when he walked in himself. "You want the spare- crap ,sorry Jo's got it."

Sam smirked and nodded, "It's okay, I should get going-got some work to do before the briefing tomorrow and you've run out of couches anyway. Just make sure Daniel gets his coffee before he comes to work ok? I don't want to have to deal with his hangover."

Jack laughed and Jo noticed him finally relax in his 2IC's presence. She wondered if she should leave them alone for a minute but then groaned. If she knew anything about these two (and one of them she knew well, the other well enough) it was that these two were the definitions of 'professional' and even if they were left alone nothing would happen. She figured Daniel had tried that already.

They walked her to the door, Jack leaning against the frame as she picked up her things, so tired and maybe tipsy enough that her bag upended and things flew in all directions. Jack and Jo both instinctively dropped to the floor and helped her but with one shared glance between Jack and Sam, Jo was sent to grab the dust pan (not that she could see anything broken, but then she didn't know what half of this stuff was).

When she got back they were having a hushed conversation, Sam apologizing. "I'm so sorry sir, I didn't know she would be here otherwise I wouldn't have brought them. I just needed to look at them with some of the equipment at my house and got clearance to take them above ground as long as they were only kept with SGC personnel."

"It's okay Carter, I get it."

She nodded and clutched her bag tighter, finally seeming to notice that Jo was waiting a little behind her uncle. "I'll see you later Jo," she grinned, thankful for the distraction. "Call me if you need a girl to talk to while you're stuck with the caveman alright? Jack can get hold of me."

Jo smiled and nodded, "Thanks Sam. I'll see you later."

"Sir you still able to come tomorrow? It's a 24 hour trip."

"Yeah, I should be. I'll check it over with Hammond to see if someone can come check on her," he smiled and Carter left-no-one but Jo seeming to realize that she'd forgotten what looked like a shiny crystal under the hall table. She was about to mention it to Jack but something stopped her. The words wouldn't reach her mouth and she turned and walked down the hall into her room, waving to Jack as she went.

The next morning Teal'c was the first awake, putting on the coffee for the others and setting up what looked like a buffet, although he seemed to be the only one allowed to eat from it. Jack woke up next followed by Jo and eventually at 0800 they were forced to push a mug of coffee into Daniel's hands and almost carry him to the table. "He really can't handle alcohol can he," Jo smirked as they gave him a bowl of cereal and watching him mumble thanks.

"Daniel Jackson does not feel his inability to consume alcohol a bad thing."

After an entire night of Teal'c individual style of speech, Jo barely looked up as she heard him. "Yeah, it's just a little embarrassing."

Jack finished his and seemed significantly more coherent than when he had woken up and smiled at Jo. "Kiddo? I've got one of those secret missions-"

"P4X-692" Daniel groaned through his mug. "It's P4X-692, and my head hurts."

"Only you would remember that when you're dead Danny," Jack smirked and handed him a couple of pain-relief and a glass of water and turned back to his niece. "I should be back by tomorrow, about mid day. Are you alright with that? I'll have one of the SF's come over and check that everything's ok."

She looked up from her breakfast and smiled. "A cute SF?"

"Jo!"

"Sorry." They both knew why the SF was coming. Michael had a habit of getting drunk, doing something (such as kicking her out) and the getting more drunk and convincing himself that he had to fix what he'd done at all costs. "And they'll be able to contact me while I'm away, so if there's any trouble I want you to call this number," he scribbled it down on the page, "Ask for General Hammond and say it's a C15 okay? That should get you through."

"C15?"

"Family Emergency. Even if you just want to check up okay?"

Jo nodded and Jack grinned. "Don't worry, it's only Deep Space Radar Telemetry, very little can go wrong."

"I fail to agree O'Neill."

Jo looked at Teal'c for a minute and burst into giggles not listening as Jack told her to stop and Teal'c raised an eyebrow asking what was wrong.

Right before he left she hugged him tightly and wished him luck, "I think we both know you'd never go into Deep Space whatever and one day you'll get clearance to tell me."

"I promise," he kissed her forehead and held her close purposefully ignoring the soldier's sense that something wasn't right. "You going to be okay?"

"Yup, I'll be fine."

"Sweet."

It was only a few minutes into her getting ready for school, (yeah, apparently if you're a Colonel of the USAF with whatever program he was with you could organize to get into a new school pretty easily) that she remembered the glowing crystal.

Come to think of it, that's all she remembered.