Title: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
Author: KellethMetheus
Spoilers: none
Category: Drama
Summary: Sam find a lost photo on Christmas Eve.
Disclaimer: Not mine but on Christmas day I will own season 2 of Atlantis. I can finally watch it in order when my kids open their gift.
Warnings: None
Challenge: 12 Days Day 5- A black and while photo is left in the locker room on Christmas Eve. What is it and who left it?

Sam walked into the locker room feeling weary. It was her turn to use the facilities last. When SG-1 had first been put together Jack and Daniel had tired to insist that she always use the locker room first, but she had put her foot down and insisted they take their turn too.

Tonight was Christmas Eve and she was ready to head home to her empty house. She had contemplated going to SanDiego to see Mark and his family, but in the end it was just too stressful. Her brother barely tolerated her presence and it was easier to just stay home. Her other option was her father, but she didn't even want to go there.

Lifting her foot, she began to unlace her boot; first the right one and then the left hit the floor. When she bent to pick them up, she spotted something on the floor. An old creased black and white photograph lay there forgotten. Gently she picked it up and studied it.

A woman dressed in a ladies suit from the 50's held a chubby little boy in her lap, a Christmas tree sat in the background, as she smiled for the camera. Mother and son both looked so happy. Sam turned the photo over and found 'me and Jack Christmas 1959' scrawled on the back in a flowing hand.

Turning it back over Sam looked at the little boy more closely. His face was split with a toothless grin. What twists and turns in this little man's life had led him to become the person he is now? She knew about some of the sadness and horror in his life from his file: Iraq, Charlie, his divorce, and Sam was sure there was much under all the black sensor lines.

Sam lay the picture down on the locker bench and continued to get changed. Finished she turned to leave only to see the picture once more.

Should she return it to the Colonel? He was a very private man. After all, they had only learned he had a son when a copy of Jack came through the gate hoping to learn about Earth and the people who lived there.

Sighing deeply she took the picture and then headed topside.

~0o0o0~

A few minutes later Sam stood on Jack's doorstep unsure as she knocked on the door. Finally it opened and a very belligerent Jack answered the door with a bottle of Guinness in his hand. "What do you want?"

Sam swallowed hard as the scent of beer wafted over her. "Sir, you left this on the floor in the locker room. I thought you'd want it back." Holding it out to Jack, she waited.

Jack snatched it out of her hands and was going to close the door but he stopped. "Do you want to come in? I have more beer."

Sam nodded hesitantly, unsure if she really did and followed him inside. Jack motioned to the couch and she sat down while he disappeared into another part of the house. A few minutes later he came back and offered her a bottle. The two of them sat in companionable silence as they drank.

Finally, Jack looked down at the picture in his hand. "My mother was a beautiful woman. She loved me so much. This was the last Merry Christmas we had. Dad died and she married Steve. He was the biggest jerk I even knew. I tried to get her to leave him but she wouldn't. He was so persuasive and smooth when he was drunk, he always convinced her to come back. On Christmas Eve, when I was twelve, he beat her to death in a drunken rage. He would have killed me too, but I ran when she told me. She gave her life for me."

Sam took the picture from him, not sure what to say. Slowly, she reached out and squeezed his hand. They looked anywhere but each other as they listened the clock strike midnight and Christmas day begin. Each one with the hope that the next year might be a little better than the last because they were no longer alone.