"Sam!"

Samantha Carter turned to the sound. She knew who was calling her name. She saw a red headed blur moving in her direction across the parking lot. Sam suddenly remembered she had her Christmas shopping in the bags she was carrying. Some of it was fragile. Oh crap.

She just managed to set the bags on the ground and straighten somewhat when she felt the impact as Cassie's arms wrapped tightly around her.

"Umph…..Hey there Cass, how are you Baby?" Sam asked as she struggled to maintain balance.

"I'm good. I missed you." Came the reply as Cassie snuggled against her.

Sam giggled. "Cass, you and I just saw each other three days ago." Sam stroked the young woman's hair while maintaining the hug. She noticed Janet walking up to them with a smirk on her face.

"Hi Sam. I see you have been shopping."

Sam smiled. "Yeah, had to get it done while we had downtime."

Janet nodded. She had just signed off on the paperwork releasing Colonel O'Neill from the infirmary. While she would have preferred one more day of observation, she was pretty sure he would have snuck out against her orders and her staff had let her know they would help him, just to get rid of him. He was such a lousy patient.

Janet glanced at the bags sitting on the pavement behind Sam's car. She was well aware of Cassie's propensity to hug with force of an NFL linebacker so she was glad to see Sam had managed to safely put her stuff down. Now that Cassie had hit a few growth spurts, though still small framed, she actually had some size and weight to factor in.

Cassie finally released Sam and looked up at the beautiful blonde. "Whatcha doing?"

"Just finishing shopping and guess I need to eat. Would you guys like to join me?" Sam replied.

"Sweet!"

Sam glanced at Janet, who was rolling her eyes. They both knew who the young girl had gotten that phrase from.

After stowing all the shopping bags in Sam's car, they began to walk to the restaurant area of the shopping center.

"So Sam, you ARE going to be in town for my birthday this year, right?" Cassie asked.

Sam giggled as Janet again rolled her eyes. "Your sixteenth? Wouldn't miss it. As 'Murray' says, undomesticated equines could not keep me away."

Cassie laughed as the three walked to the door.

"So, is this Dominic guy going to be there?"

"Mom! You told?!"

"Hey, at least no one has told your uncles yet." Came the reply

The last thing heard before the door to the restaurant closed was a small voice asking, "They won't hurt him will they?"