1. Hypothermia for the Holidays

The frost was so thick on the windowpane that Jack could barely see outside. Lush blankets of snow wrapped the winter landscape, his dock barely visible as it poked out of the snow bank. The lake itself was frozen over and the dusted trees stood still and silent like an audience, hushed in anticipation of a stupendous performance in the anticipatory moments before a curtain rise. Even his truck was long buried. The only movement outside the cabin was the snowflakes in the wind like a living snow globe.

Wiping the flannel of his elbow against the condensation of his breath on the windowpane, Jack cleared more of a view and smiled. This was it. This was what it was all about – the silence, the stillness, the white, blank, potential of the snow and the simplicity of the nothingness. He'd meant to bring the whole team out to the cabin for the holidays, to share with them what a perfect Christmas was like in his book. Then, of course, something had gone wonky with the gate and Carter had gotten stuck at the SGC, Teal'c, who was off world with SG12, was stuck off world until the gate was fixed, and, well, as a loud clatter of god only knew what announced behind him, it was just him and Daniel.

"Jack!" Sighing, Jack tore his gaze away from the silent snowfall and went to investigate the noise.

He found Daniel in the next room, wrapped in a tangle of Christmas lights or, rather, somehow wrapped both in the tangle and attached to the tree itself, both of them on the ground. Jack smirked and wished for a camera. This was partly his fault. When they'd passed a Christmas tree farm on their drive to the cabin, Daniel had spotted a pathetic-looking runt of a tree and Jack had acquiesced if Daniel bore the brunt of the decorating responsibility. He'd had a couple strings of lights sequestered away from some Christmas long ago and a few baubles and balls from who knew when. He'd tuned out Daniel's monologue about their most likely age and origin. The cabin had been in his family for many generations and, despite spending the holidays here as often as possible, away from the over saccharine, memory plagued frenzy of the rest of civilization, he'd never unearthed the decorations from their beat up, dust covered box. He had a vague recollection of a grandfather or perhaps a great grandfather being associated with the box. The ornaments held no sentimental value for him, though, not like the ones he hid away in his attic back home, the ones held together with popsicle sticks, glue, and glitter made by a pair of tiny hands. Shoving that memory back as far as it would go, Jack refocused on the dusty, meaningless box and the mess of fallen tree vs. Daniel at his feet.

A trumpeting sneeze from the archeologist trying to detangle himself from the fallen pine attested to the layer of dust covering the found box. Jack knelt down and freed Daniel's left leg, resettling the pine on its perch and shaking his head. It had even more of a bend in it now.

"You know, when I said you were going to be in charge of decorating the tree, I meant with ornaments and lights, not yourself." Brushing himself off and sneezing again for good measure, Daniel sent him a glare.

"Ha, ha, ha, you're hilarious." Daniel readjusted the tree. The top half wavered and flopped, dropping a load of pine needles.

"I think you broke it." Daniel tried again. The top of the tree let out a final, feeble crack and fell back to the floor in unison with Daniel's shoulders. On the tree stand, the rest of the trunk looked headless. If Daniel hadn't looked so glum, Jack would have laughed.

"Well, so we decorate the bottom half." Wrapping his arms around himself and avoiding his gaze, Daniel nudged the fallen top half with his toe, releasing a fountain of needles. The pathetic twig of a thing looked absolutely naked and worthy of nothing more than firewood.

"Daniel, it's no big deal. I've never put up a tree here anyway." Daniel, who was still avoiding his gaze, turned his back and didn't answer. Jack drew a hand through his hair and tried to find some patience.

He'd been afraid of this. In inviting the team up to his cabin sanctuary, he'd hoped that the four of them would have a way to escape from the plague of weighty emotions bound to visit this time of year. They all had their holiday demons. For him, it was memories of Charlie and Christmases long past, the main reason he was spending the holiday far away from all that had ever meant Christmas with Charlie, especially the box in his attic. As far as Teal'c went, the Tauri holiday season wasn't one to bring memories, but the perseveration on family units and quality time with parents and children was something Jack suspected might make the guy a bit down, not that he'd ever mention it. The same was true with Carter. He'd read her file. He knew her mother had died, but that she had a brother somewhere and a father who she didn't seem to talk to or about very often if ever. And then, of course, there was Daniel.

He'd read Daniel's file, too. He knew all about the fact that he'd lost his parents at a young age, spent time in the foster care system, and had a nomadic, academically stellar, but seemingly family-lacking life prior to the whole Abydos situation. Jack wasn't sure whether Daniel had celebrated the Tauri holidays on Abydos. They'd never talked about that time of year. To be completely honest, Jack hadn't really been sure whether Daniel celebrated Christmas until he'd been adamant that they pull over and pick up this discarded Christmas shrub now decapitated in his cabin's living room.

"Daniel?" Daniel still wasn't looking at him. Jack bit his tongue and let out a sigh. So much for escaping holiday demons…

"I'm guessing this isn't about the tree." Daniel let out a laugh that lacked any amusement

and shook his head, keeping his back turned.

"It's stupid." From the congested nature of Daniel's voice, Jack was willing to guess the younger man was barely holding back tears. Jack crossed his arms and waited. After a few minutes, Daniel turned around, the only evidence of losing his composure a slightly red tinge to his overly watery eyes which could be chalked up to the dust in the air. Jack chose not to comment.

"Well, if you want to make this shrub into kindling and go find a more suitable specimen outside, the sun's still up for another few hours and I've got an axe around here somewhere." The hopeful smile that returned to Daniel's face had Jack grabbing his coat and boots before the man could reply.

Suitably attired for the bitter winter chill outside the cabin, Jack listened to Daniel thudding along behind him through the snow. He'd found a handsaw along with the axe. The proper tools and the abundance of trees on his property had things stacked in their favor tree-cutting-wise. The only problem was that, thanks to the blowing of wind, the snowdrifts were up to their hips if not higher.

"Maybe this was a bad idea. Snow's too high to chop any of them." Daniel's voice was muffled behind his scarf and breathless from the chill. Jack shook his head. If the man had been close to or in tears in regards to a lack of a proper tree, he was damn well going to rise to the challenge and make this happen.

Jack paused and surveyed the woods. There was maybe two hours of daylight left. What little warmth the sun had brought was starting to fade. He'd lost the feeling in his toes and, while the snow encased around his legs was making his knee feel about ten years younger, it wasn't doing the rest of him any good. They'd probably have more luck where the trees met the lake. While the water was frozen over, the snowdrifts would be shallower and it might be a tad bit warmer.

"Head down closer to the lake. Snow won't be as deep near the water." Nodding his understanding, Daniel twisted and plowed his way through the trees towards the lake. Jack followed.

The snow did actually lessen in height the closer they grew to the waterline. By the time they were on the edge of the ice, it was barely ankle deep. Daniel still in the lead, they followed the edge of the iced over lake, inspecting saplings.

"We don't have all that many lights and decorations, so we might not want anything too big," Jack called. A few feet away, Daniel's hat bobbed in understanding. They carried on for a bit until Daniel stopped, pointing at a decent looking fir tree. It came up to their waists, but was elegant though diminutive. The boughs were well dispersed and full, leaving little space for too many decorations and looking festive enough without much help.

"Nice." Jack knelt next to Daniel and dug out the area around the base of the trunk. Together, they made fast work clearing out space to saw.

Jack motioned for Daniel to step back, sliding the handsaw under the snow-ladden boughs. Focused so closely analyzing the best way to make a clean cut, Jack didn't pay any attention to Daniel. He didn't spare the man a second glance until a surprised "woah" and a sickening crack of a splash announced trouble.

"Daniel?!" A quick glance revealed the errant man in question, three quarters submerged in the icy water, arms flailing and head bobbing around through a hole in the ice about halfway out in the lake.

"Damn it. Hold on. I'm coming." Wishing for his off world pack or at least a rope, Jack carefully stepped out onto the ice, listening and feeling for any crack or give.

"Stop splashing. Get your body to the edge of the hole and flop onto the ice. Kick your legs and try to slide out towards me." Jack watched Daniel follow instructions, wincing at the slight shift in the ice below his feet.

"Keep going, Daniel, you're doing great. Kick and slide." Daniel was most of the way out of the ice, waving his arms and legs like a belly flopped snow angel. Jack gazed back at the shore, wishing once more for rope and looking for a branch or something that could be a stand in.

By the time his eyes had fallen on a limb half emerging from the snow, Daniel was completely on solid ground and crawling slowly and carefully towards Jack.

"That's it, keep moving. Nice and easy, listen to the ice." If Jack could have bottled the look Daniel sent him, it would have made some powerful antifreeze. Jack smiled and waited till he was close enough before helping the man to his feet.

"How about we go back inside?" Teeth chattering too violently to talk, Daniel nodded and followed Jack to the dock and into the cabin.

By the time they made it through the threshold of the door, Daniel was pretty sure he was going to lose his toes and fingers. He could barely move his legs and arms. The sodden clothing encasing him from his shoulders down was starting to freeze, making movement difficult. The worst part was the fact that he had moved through the initial pain to total numbness. If he wasn't looking at his feet, legs, hands, heck, his entire body, he wasn't sure he'd know it was still attached. Daniel was sure he'd read somewhere that that kind of sensation or lack thereof was really bad when it came to frostbite.

Shoving the grate in front of the fireplace to the side, Jack poked at the embers, tossing the fallen head of the tree, a couple scraps of newspaper, and a log onto the reigniting fire before turning back to Daniel. The man stood dripping and shaking in the middle of the living room, a pale, terrified expression on his face.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Take them off." Jack gestured at his clothes. Daniel's eyes tripled in size.

"What? Here? Now? With… you?" he squawked. Jack smirked.

"No, Daniel, I mean back outside, or better yet, back in the lake. Yes, here, now, with me, or you're going to start losing parts. Let's go. I'll grab you something to change into." Chuckling at the expression on Daniel's face, Jack tossed his own coat over a chair and walked out of his boots in the direction of the bedrooms.

He'd been waffling about whether or not to go into Daniel's bag and fish around for his own clothes or to grab the nearest, warmest thing from Jack's closet when a series of yelps and screeches followed by a chorus of cackling resounded from the living room.

If Jack had wished for a camera earlier that day, he was sorely cursing the lack of one now. Daniel stood butt naked, his back to the fire and his hands grasping to cover what little was left of his dignity. In the doorway, laughing so hard tears were streaming from her averted eyes, was Carter and behind her, a shocked looking Teal'c was staring straight at the very naked, furiously blushing Daniel.

"Merry Christmas! I take it the gate's fixed?" Eyes shining with laughter, Carter fixed her averted gaze on Jack.

"Yes, sir. I… I'm not going to ask." Daniel cleared his throat and crept backwards towards the bedrooms, blush extending from his cheeks down his neck, muttering swears. Jack swallowed a don't ask don't tell joke at Daniel's expense and grinned.

"He, uh, fell in the lake. We were trying to chop down a tree." He took one of the bundles from Carter's arms, heart swelling in gratitude with the tinkle of a six pack, and stepped back to let them in.

"You were chopping down a tree in the lake?"

"Do trees grow in bodies of water on this planet, O'Neill?"

Shaking his head, he retreated towards the kitchen area, unloading the winter-chilled beer into the fridge and making room amid the various fixings for more of the groceries in Carter's arms.

"No. It's a long story…" he was about to inquire about what was going on back at the SGC and perhaps even hazard a question about what had been up with the gate which had the potential to launch Carter into a monologue he knew none of them would understand when Daniel reappeared. In addition to the dark red blush still well in place on his face, he was now fully clothed.

"Can I have one of those?" Smirking, Jack handed him a beer, popping off the cap on the fridge.

"You should probably drink something warm." Holding up a very un-Christmas finger, Daniel took a swig from the beer, made a face at the taste, and shuffled over to the couch closest to the fireplace, burrowing under blankets.

"Cheers!" Jack called, passing out beer to Carter and himself with eggnog for Teal'c. Still muffling laughter, Carter set down the rest of her belongings next to Teal'c's and made her way after them towards the living room, pausing by the decapitated tree.

"What happened to this one? Is it from the lake?" Jack cast Daniel a look in his blanket cocoon. He looked sad and mortified. Jack was about to try and turn the conversation in a new direction when, to his complete and utter surprise, Teal'c began to disrobe.

"Woah, woah, Teal'c, buddy, what's going on?" Teal'c paused, shirt removed, but pants thankfully still in place.

"Is it not customary for us to disrobe to celebrate the Christmas season, O'Neill?" Jack bit his lip and ran his fingers through his hair, looking back and forth between the shocked expressions of his teammates and the Jaffa. Carter hid her laughter in a swig of beer. Daniel closed his eyes and sighed.

"Yeah no, Teal'c, that's, uh… not customary. Daniel's clothes were wet and cold from falling through the ice. He, uh, was mid change when you came in." With a bow of his head, Teal'c donned his clothes again. Jack shoved Daniel's feet to the floor, making room on the couch, and stared into the fire.

"The songs of your planet do not speak truthfully then, O'Neill." Jack shifted his gaze back to Teal'c who had found a home in a dilapidated armchair, then to Carter and Daniel, opening his mouth and then shaking his head.

"Daniel?" A smile beating back the blush still on his cheeks, Daniel brought his head out of the blankets and looked to Teal'c.

"What songs, Teal'c?" Teal'c paused a moment in thought before replying and his answer had Jack laughing so hard he practically cracked a rib.

"On our journey here, Captain Carter had us listen to music she called carols specific to this festive season. One song played quite often. In the piece, listeners are asked to don their gay apparel. Captain Carter has explained to me that this word means both happiness and homosexuality." Jack wasn't sure what Daniel said in response, if anything. He didn't stop laughing so loudly that he couldn't hear their conversation for a good five minutes. Given the tears once again streaming down Carter's face, he surmised she'd had a similar reaction. Daniel was once again blushing, but laughter replaced any of the earlier mortification lining his face.

Glancing around the room at the decapitated, half lit Christmas tree and the shining faces of his team, Jack smiled. Sure, it hadn't exactly been what he'd planned when he'd invited them all up to his cabin to celebrate the holiday, but this was exactly the kind of Christmas worth celebrating.