Season 7, Early

Author's Note: This bit previously posted as "The New Kid" at Gateworld

Disclaimer: I only own the stories, folks.

PROLOGUE

It was a slow Thursday afternoon at Sal's Diner. In addition to Lenny, the short-order cook, and Kate, the waitress, there were only Tony, the regular, drinking his coffee at the counter and a teenaged girl sitting in the corner booth. The girl was nursing a chocolate milkshake with extra whipped cream and sprinkles. Had anyone given her much thought, they might have concluded that she lacked much of the trepidation of her age–she looked serene and composed as she waited. The remains of the afternoon sun glimmered off of her copper hair as she sat rapping her soft fingertips on the red, formica tabletop patiently.

Well, mostly patiently, Cassandra thought contemplating her fingers. After all, she had been waiting for over forty minutes. Her milkshake was more than half gone and she had been drinking it very, very slowly, trying to pace herself. She was contemplating ordering when the bells on the door jangled announcing someone's entrance. She looked up expectantly, not able to hide her smile when she saw that it was in fact him.

His deep eyes scanned the diner. Finding her, his face lit up into a genuine, though weary, smile. He walked towards her as she eagerly climbed out of the booth and into his embrace. Hugging him was like swimming in hot chocolate. "Hi Jack!" She said with glee.

"Hey, Cassandra," he responded, concealing his amusement at her warmth. "Glad you waited."

"Well," she began sliding back into the booth, "It hasn't been a hour yet."

Jack nodded. The two had set a statute of limitations early in their relationship–one hour was the get out of jail free card. "Would you believe that your mom held me up?"

Cass smiled. "That's not hard to believe. What was it this time?"

Jack narrowed his eyes slightly, "You know that I can't tell you that."

"You could hint," Cass replied as she mischievously raised her eyebrows.

"Ok," Jack conceded, "A hint." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "There were needles involved."

Now it was Cassandra's turn to narrow her eyes, but she didn't reply. Jack saw the smoldering, no less powerful in one so young he decided, and changed the subject. "So, how's school?"A slightly evil grin spread across Cassandra's face at Jack's subject change and her eyes became noticeably brighter, but Jack, distracted by the arrival of the waitress, failed to notice.

"What'll it be?" Kate asked. Jack nodded at Cassie indicating that she should order first.

"A cheeseburger and fries, please."

"Make that two," said Jack. "And, I'd like a cup of coffee." Looking over at Cass' shake, he asked, "Do you need a refill or anything?"

"Nah. I'm good."

"Kay," Kate read back the order, "That's two cheeseburgers, two fries, and a coffee. Coming right up." And she walked away.

"So," Cass began, "School's pretty good."

"Gettin' all sorts of new knowledge there, are ya?"

"You could say that." She paused and the small grin came back. "There's a new kid in my chemistry class."

Kate arrived with Jack's coffee and he took an appreciative swallow. "Hmmm?" he asked.

"I said that there's a new kid in my chemistry class, a sophomore, but apparently he's advanced."

"Oh?" Jack responded failing to feign much interest.

"Yes." Cassandra's eyes were fully on Jack's face. If he reacted in any way, she would notice. She continued, "The funny thing is that he sort of reminds me of you."

At this simple statement, Jack suddenly looked very alert. "Oh?"

"Yeah. His name is John O'neill, two Ls, and he's a transfer student from Minnesota." Cassandra looked as smug as a cat playing with a mouse. "Odd coincidence, huh?"

"Yes, odd," Jack answered looking slightly uncomfortable. "You said that this boy is in your chemistry class." He took another swallow of coffee.

"Uh-huh," Cass nodded. "And," she added, pausing for effect, "I'm his Algebra tutor."

At hearing this, the coffee in Jack's mouth came back out again, "You're his what?"

"His algebra tutor, for Algebra II," Cass tried not to laugh at Jack's not-so-covert reaction. "Not that he's stupid or anything. It's just that he needs a little extra help to sort of catch up or brush up, rather." She looked at Jack expectantly.

Jack was sitting back in the booth with a puzzled expression on his face. Cass had him cornered, she could tell, and he couldn't think of anyway to get out of it. As much as she had her suspicions about the identity of this new kid, she'd never actually voice them aloud, but she was having a little too much fun to drop the topic just yet. "And," she continued, "you know how there's that big dance coming up?"

Jack interrupted; he couldn't help it. "You are not to go with that boy to a dance. Is that understood."

She couldn't hide the humor from her eyes, "Jack, I wasn't going to say that I was going with him." And she smiled coyly at him knowing full well that she had been leading the conversation in that direction. "I'm going with Dominic–he asked me weeks ago."

Jack looked at Cass in confused expectation. She continued, "No. John asked me if I could introduce him to my friend Theresa. He asked her to the dance."

"Oh." Jack said looking a little consoled. Then, curious. "Theresa, huh?"

"Yeah. She's in our Chem class too. She's my age, tall, blonde, athletic, smart–actually she sort of reminds me of..."

Kate was back with the burgers. "Oh, look! Our food," Jack shifted enthusiastically.

Cass smiled at Jack's diversionary tactics and settled for, "She's a cool girl."

"Well," Jack said biting his burger, "Let's just hope that she's also a cautious girl." Then added at Cass's questioning look, "After all, boys his age aren't always...they can't always be... they're not...a boy in his place could..."

"Honestly, Jack," Cassie came to aid, "I think that he's pretty trustworthy. I'm sure that you'd think so too if you met him. Like I said before, he reminds me of you." Cass began eating her burger.

"Well, you never know," Jack added though he was enjoying her sideways compliment. "After all, high school girls could seem like easy pickings to a guy...from out of town," he concluded. Cass smiled–out of town–that reminded her of a similar cover story.

"So," he couldn't help himself, "Anything else I should know about this new kid?"

"Well," Cass answered, "He made the varsity hockey team. That's pretty unusual for a sophomore."

"Really?" Jack smirked, "Varsity hockey?"

Cass smiled. "Yeah, varsity hockey." Then, sarcastically in response to the gleaming in his eyes, "Gold stars all around." The look on Jack's face was so amusing, but her game had been played by this point–she had learned what she'd wanted to know and was satisfied that her guess had been right... "So, what movie do you want to go see?"