Season 5 Episode 6 – Rite of Passage

Episode Summary: It's Cassandra's 16th birthday. That's all you really need to know for the purpose of this tag.
Author's note:
Sorry this one's out of order, it should have gone up before 2001, not after. Ah well. Also, please note this tag is a prequel, set before the episode, not after the episode like all the others.


Daniel sat down heavily on the chair opposite Sam at her table in the mess.

"I found a language I can't translate." He said.

"Oh? I thought you were getting on well with the tablet SG-10 brought back?" Sam asked, surprised.

"I am, that's not the language I'm talking about." He said. "I don't speak teenage girl."

Sam grinned. "Cassie?"

"I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Somehow that ended in me feeling very confused and her being pissed at me."

Sam chuckled. "She's at a difficult age. Don't worry, she'll grow out of it."

"That's great, but it doesn't help me figure out a birthday present." He said. "And it's her sixteenth … it has to be something good."

Sam looked at him thoughtfully. "Maybe the four of us should do something together."

"The four of us? Hasn't Jack got something already?"

"He got her a tshirt that says 'What planet are you from?'. I think he can stretch to something else." She said dryly.

"Won't Cassie be a bit put out at getting one thing from all of us rather than four presents?"

"She's not a little kid, Daniel. We'll get her something special, something that costs a bit more as we're all pooling for it."

Daniel smiled. "Ok. I'm sold. Will you pick the present?"

"Unless the Colonel or Teal'c have any ideas … yeah, I guess I'm picking the present. I'll let them know and I'll go shopping tonight."


One week later…

"Oh, for heaven's sake!"

Carter's exclamation made Jack stop abruptly, three feet short of her lab door, reconsidering his intention to drop in on his way out of the mountain. The decision was made for him when he heard a crash, and he rushed into the room to find her precariously balanced on her desk's swivel chair with heavy-looking file folders scattered around on her on the floor, and holding a plastic crate half-off the shelf above her head.

"Carter, what the hell?" He said, moving at once to secure her on the rotating chair with his hands at her waist, while she lifted the heavy crate down.

"Thank you, sir." She said as she climbed down.

"Are you trying to land yourself in the infirmary?"

"I just … I needed these notes." She said, indicating the dusty pile of folders in the crate.

"And it couldn't have waited until tomorrow when there were other people around, because …?"

"Because I have a million things to do and none of them can wait until tomorrow." She said, sounding more stressed than Jack had ever heard her get over paperwork. "I need these notes to finish a report that the head of Area 51 needs tonight, I was going to do it this morning but we had a power fluctuation in the gate's capacitors that I had to work on all day, and my mission report needs writing, and General Hammond wants a report on the gate malfunction by 0800 tomorrow, and I'm supposed to be on the other side of Colorado Springs right now picking up Cassie's birthday present for tomorrow night." She said, sounding increasingly hysterical.

"Woah, Carter, breathe." Jack said. "Firstly, leave the mission report, that can wait. And I thought you already got Cassie's present the other day?"

"I had to order it in, I picked a necklace from the display but they'd already sold that one and they had to order in a new one for me."

"Ok, well, I can do that. They'll let me pick it up for you, right?"

"I think so, as long as you have the receipt from the payment. Are you sure you don't mind?"

"It's fine, I'm not doing anything. And I can talk to Hammond if you like, get you an extension on the gate glitch report."

"No. Thank you sir, but I should get that one done tonight while it's fresh in my mind." She said. "I'll do the Area 51 report first, then the gate report, and then I'll get some sleep in base quarters."

Jack nodded, frowning. "Carter, not that I don't get how invaluable your particular expertise is to everyone, but is there no one you can delegate this sort of stuff to?"

She sighed and rubbed her forehead tiredly. "Strictly speaking I guess there are other people who could have done it, but when I'm asked to do something … I just do it."

Jack smirked. "Too valuable for your own good, huh?"

"Yes sir." She smiled wryly. "Are you sure you're ok with picking up Cassie's necklace?"

"Absolutely. Where's the receipt?"

She opened her desk drawer and retrieved it, handing it to him, giving him a heartfelt 'Thank you'.

"You're welcome." He smiled. "I'll go pick it up now. Don't stay up all night with this stuff."


At the jewellery shop, Jack handed over the receipt to the imperious little man behind the counter, and rocked on his heels with his hands in his pockets while he waited for Cassie's necklace to be retrieved from the storage out back.

It took a while, and he took to wandering around the shop, browsing over the sparkly jewellery for lack of anything better to do.

That was when he saw it.

Doing an actual, honest-to-God double take, he blinked at the distinctively set sapphire and white-gold ring at the left of the display case. He'd seen that ring before. Had made a point, actually, of memorising exactly what it looked like.

It was the ring General Samantha Carter had worn on the ring-finger of her left hand in the year 2034.

He stared at it, frozen, for a few minutes. It was the same ring, he was sure of it. But what did it mean? Jewellery shops didn't stock the same rings forever … in a few months it could be gone. But would it be hideously presumptive of him to buy an engagement ring for Sam years before he was even allowed to date her? And what if this was wrong for the timeline? Surely buying a ring because he'd seen in the future that he'd bought the ring was some kind of freaky time-travel paradox? But as he had memorised what it looked like, that was unavoidable anyway … right?

The balding proprietor in his three piece suit came back with a necklace box, and cleared his throat. "Sir?"

"Yeah …" He pulled himself away from the display and went over to sign for the necklace.

"Were you perhaps interested in something else over there, sir?" The little man asked, smiling obsequiously.

Jack looked back at the ring again for a long moment. It was right there. He might never have this opportunity again. Wasn't Carter always going on about making sure they protected the timeline?

"Yes." He said decisively. "That engagement ring. I want to buy it."

Hours later, he went to bed with a smile on his face, thinking about Sam's ring tucked securely away in his wall-safe, ready and waiting for her.