A/N: Thank you all for the kind thoughts about my grandfather. I ended up staying there longer than originally planned and it took a while to get back into things once I was back home. I am going to try hard not to leave this story un-updated for so long again. Thank you all for your patience and for reading!

Ch 10

The next morning when Jack woke up, he was surprised to see that the kids were still asleep. A glance at his watch and a sharp pain in his knee told him why - it was only six o'clock. The combination of all the times he normally had to be up at this hour, plus the fact that his knee was apparently sending pain signals to his brain even in sleep, meant that Jack still woke up early even when he could have slept in a bit.

Sighing, he got up to go to the bathroom.

Rubbing his eyes blearily, he flipped on the light and did a double take before letting out an automatic string of expletives. Sometime between going to bed and now, the bathroom had been hit by a tornado.

A tornado that had apparently relocated most of the kids' toys into the bathroom before spreading them all over the place.

The tiny room looked like a toy chest had exploded in it. Books, puzzles, games, stuffed animals, and legos were lying everywhere - even in the sink. He peered into the toilet and was only somewhat comforted to find that mercifully empty.

Apparently his little friends had had a little party in the night.

He carefully picked his way over to the toilet to relieve himself, trying to take deep breaths and stay calm. The pain in his knee was now irritating him more than ever, probably just because it was an easy thing to focus on other than the real source of his frustration. That, and he'd probably overdone it with the kids the previous day. And he hadn't been taking the pain meds the doc had prescribed… and may have missed an anti-inflammatory dosage or two… and had quit icing it.

Anyway, his knee was annoying him. So was the mess.

He finished up in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and making a note to bring his razor up from his locker after he used it later, then went back into the room. Two sets of curious eyes were staring at him sleepily from the same bed, blinking at him owlishly as the kids woke.

"We heard yelling," Daniel informed him, sitting up against his pillows but still under his covers.

Sam was next to him on top of the covers, clearly having moved there upon waking. "You owe us seven dollars now," she informed him.

"Seven?"

"You said dammit twice and you said hell and sh…" Daniel started, while Sam held up another finger at each word he got to.

"All right, all right," Jack interrupted. "I believe you. My wallet's in my locker. I'll pay up when I go get dressed. Although I don't think it's very fair for you to set traps for me to catch me swearing."

"Huh?" Daniel asked, looking at Sam, puzzled.

She looked just as confused, and shrugged in response.

"What else could possibly have happened to the bathroom?" Jack continued innocently, trying to sound oblivious.

"Uhhh… did someone break the potty or something?" Daniel asked.

Jack looked at both of them. Daniel looked confused and a little curious. Sam, on the other hand, was now hugging her knees and staring down at the blanket. He has assumed it was both of them, but apparently he was wrong.

"Sam?" he prompted. "Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes, sir," she admitted almost inaudibly.

He sat down on her empty bed and waited for her to continue. She didn't. didn't even look at him.

"Sam," he prompted again. "What happened?"

"I guess maybe I left a mess in there," she said after taking a huge breath and finally looking up, although still not at him.

"When and why did you do that?" he prodded gently, surprised by her subdued and sheepish responses.

"I woke up," she said with a shrug.

"You woke up."

"You guys were sleeping so I took the toys in there to be quiet so I wouldn't bother you," she explained. "I played til I got sleepy again then I came back to bed. I was gonna clean it up today."

"Why were you up playing in the middle of the night?" he asked, baffled.

She shrugged. "I woke up."

He could tell she really had no other explanation for him. Trying to remind himself she was only four, he took a deep breath. "Okay. Well, then why don't you go clean up. Then we'll all get dressed and go have breakfast."

"Am I in trouble?" she asked, biting her lip and looking at him nervously.

"Nope. Just clean up your mess." He really didn't think there was anything to be 'in trouble' about, after all. It wasn't as if she had broken anything or hurt anybody or anything. If she'd been that wide awake for that long, he really couldn't blame her for entertaining herself… and was actually surprised she hadn't woken him up in the process. Actually, that was weird…

He followed her into the bathroom and started taking legos out of the sink absently. "Hey, Sam?"

"Uh-huh?"

He smiled, finding it truly amusing how she switched randomly from 'yes sir's to 'yeah's and 'uh-huh's.

"Did you have a bad dream last night?"

"Nope," she replied.

"You sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. So nothing's bothering you? You just woke up."

"I just woke up," she confirmed.

Daniel pushed past her, heading straight for the toilet, clearly a man on a mission.

"O…kay, let's just get out of Danny's way for a second," Jack said quickly, amused. He grabbed Sam and left to give him some privacy - not that Daniel cared one way or another, which was clearly evident by the fact that he had been climbing onto the toilet before they were even out of the room.

Once the bathroom had been used by all and cleaned up, Jack told the kids to get dressed. He watched as they held a whispered conversation with each other amongst much giggling, then ran over to their new clothes and started rummaging through them, tossing stuff out of the way as they looked for whatever it was they wanted.

He checked in with Teal'c and Fraiser while he waited for the kids to get dressed, and had just hung up the phone when he felt a tug on the leg of his sweatpants. Looking down, he smiled broadly at both kids. They were wearing their little black tee-shirts, green cargo pants, and boots. Daniel's laces were still untied, and Sam was holding a hair brush and a ponytail holder out to him expectantly.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Jack asked, taking the ponytail holder curiously.

"Ponytail," she said, turning her back to him and standing still.

"All right, I'll give it a try," he said, taking the brush.

"NO bumps!" she added firmly.

"No what?"

"Bumps. No bumps." She patted the top of her head. "Make it all smooth."

"You are very lucky you're so cute," he stated matter-of-factly, gathering all of her hair up experimentally in one hand, trying to run the brush through with the other.

Ten minutes later, he was about ready to cry. Daniel was whining that he was starving to death and couldn't they please go on to breakfast, and Sam had marched into the bathroom to check her ponytail in the mirror three times already and declared it "too bumpy" each time.

Jack spotted the blanket in the corner and decided to change tactics as he tried once again to do the ponytail. "Sam, this is the last time I'm doing this this morning. If you don't like it, you can have Janet fix it for you after breakfast. If we don't get on with our day, you'll never get to see your surprise over there in the corner, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" she remembered excitedly.

Daniel even stopped whining too.

Smiling to himself at his brilliant negotiating techniques, he tightened the little wavy ponytail one last time and patted her on the bed. "Okay, you two. Let's go get breakfast so we can come back here for your surprise."

"Aww, can't we see it now?" Sam pleaded.

"Nope. Because I know I will never be able to tear you away from it once you see it," he said, only succeeding in building up their excitement level even more.

Daniel started inching towards the blanket, looking curiously and trying to blend in with his surroundings while Jack was apparently focused on Sam. Needless to say, it didn't work. He hadn't gone two feet before he found himself scooped up and dumped over Jack's shoulder.

"Ahhhh!" he squealed, as Sam laughed at him and tried to dodge out of the way as well, making a break towards the blankety lump. She was promptly scooped up as well, and joined Daniel hanging upside down over Jack's opposite shoulder.

Each kid doing an impression of a sack of potatoes, Jack carried the giggling kids out of the room, pretending they each weighed a ton to elicit further laughs from both of them.

"Why do we have to go in here?" Sam asked curiously five minutes later once they were in SG-1's private locker room.

"Because this is where my clothes and shaving stuff all is. Why don't you guys play while I get dressed."

"Play what?"

He shrugged. "Tag. Hide and seek. The quiet game…"

Sam smacked Daniel on the shoulder and took off around the bench in the middle of the room with a giggle, calling, "You're it!"

Jack busied himself shaving, humming to himself absently as the occasional giggle wafted his way.

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Tag had turned into hide and seek fairly quickly. Sam ducked into one of the cubby-like locker areas in the room and tried to hide behind the uniform hanging there. An ID badge caught her attention because it was right at eye level, sticking out of a pocket. She pulled it out and examined it curiously, surprised to see her own name on it. The picture was a grown-up who looked kind of like her mom.

"Got you!" Daniel exclaimed, jumping into the small space with her.

"Shh!" she scolded, pulling him further in. "Daniel, look at this! It says Samantha Carter on it, that's me!" she showed him eagerly.

"It's just like Colonel Jack's thing that opens the doors and elevator," Daniel whispered excitedly.

"Yeah I know!"

"That's not you though," he pointed out.

She shrugged and slipped it into her pocket. "I guess it's like when you buy a picture frame and there's a picture of someone else in it. I haven't had my picture taken yet is all."

"Where's mine?" Daniel pouted, looking around.

"Come on, let's go check another uniform." She grabbed his hand and peeked out to make sure Jack was still busy, and they slunk into the next little open closet-like area, where someone else's stuff was.

They quickly found Daniel's corresponding badge. "Wow," he whispered. "Should we ask Colonel Jack when we're getting our pictures on them?"

Sam bit her lip and shook her head firmly after thinking for a minute. "He might take em away. Let's keep em secret at least until we get to use them a couple times."

"Okay," Daniel agreed, pocketing his badge and zipping his lips with his fingers.

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"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Jack called.

Two little heads peeped out of Daniel's cubby with sheepish grins. "Playing hide and seek," Daniel reported innocently.

"doesn't that work better when one of you is looking for the other?" he asked.

"We were waiting for you to find us," Sam answered. "Can we have breakfast now, please? We're starving, Colonel!"

"Starving, huh? Well, come on, you two. Let's go see if Teal'c has left any breakfast for anyone else."

Laughing at the thought of Teal'c eating all the food on the whole base, the kids led the way to the elevator.

Jack didn't even try to keep the kids from having a bit of sugar at breakfast. He let them get pancakes - no doubt to be drowned in syrup - and grabbed bananas and toast for each of them, figuring that as long as he kept them away from the coffee and donuts they'd be doing better today than yesterday.

He steered them them to SG-1's usual table, where Teal'c was already halfway through his usual massive breakfast. "Morning, Uncle Teal'c!" Daniel greeted with a huge grin. "Good morning, Uncle Teal'c!" Sam threw her arms around him in a happy greeting before climbing into her chair.

"Good morning, Daniel. Good morning, Samantha. Did you sleep well?"

"Yup!" Daniel reported, digging into his pancakes enthusiastically. "Where's Doctor Janet?" he asked with his mouth full.

"Probably in the infirmary already," Jack answered. "That's our next stop."

Both kids looked at him in alarm at that news. "Why do we have to go back there?" Sam demanded.

"Yeah, we're not sick! We don't have to get more shots, do we?" Daniel asked nervously.

"No. I want her to look at your eyes, Daniel."

"Oh yeah," they remembered.

Jack could tell Daniel was getting nervous through the rest of breakfast.

"What's wrong?" he prompted quietly as Sam started talking to Teal'c about something she'd drawn in the middle of the night, apparently.

"Is it gonna hurt?" Daniel asked.

"Nope, not at all," he promised. "She may have to put some drops in that might make your eyes a little sensitive for a little while, but that's all."

"Oh. Okay." He nodded and tried to look unconcerned for the rest of the meal.

Once they were finished eating, after a stop to get them cleaned up, Jack took them to the infirmary, where they ran to Janet to greet her as enthusiastically as they'd greeted Teal'c.

Surprised, she hugged them back and quickly turned her attention to Jack. "Colonel, you missed your post-op on that knee yesterday."

"Uh… I was hoping you forgot about that," he hedged.

Janet gave him a look that plainly said 'fat chance' and gestured to the nearest gurney. Grumbling to himself, Jack sat down on the edge of it, watching in amusement as the kids surrounded him.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

Daniel just looked relieved that nobody was examining his eyes yet, and determined to remain silent and hopefully inconspicuous.

"Nothing," Jack said quickly, not wanting them to worry. "She just wants to look at my knee."

"Why?" Daniel asked, despite himself.

"Because I had an operation on it a while ago and she needs to make sure it's healing. Which it obviously is or I wouldn't have been able to keep up with you two yesterday, right? Tell her I don't need to be checked out so she'll let us go play."

As Janet came over with his chart and a couple of instruments, both Sam and Daniel piped up immediately.

"Colonel Jack isn't sick!"

"The Colonel's knees are all better! He was running around all the time with us yesterday even though he doesn't do very good ponytails. Can you fix my hair please Doctor Janet?"

Amused, Janet said, "Sure, sweetie, after I look at the Colonel's knee." she turned her attention to Jack and added, " And you are not getting out of this no matter how many adorable children you sic on me."

He shrugged and tried to bunch his pants up to his knee. They didn't quite go up high enough. "No way, Colonel. Drop 'em," she ordered, eliciting twin giggles from the children.

Jack rolled his eyes and started loosening his belt as Sam and Daniel scrambled up onto the opposite gurney to watch the knee exam, both clearly curious about what could possibly be wrong with someone's knee.

By the time Janet was done poking, prodding, and flexing the joint, it was twice as sore as it had been and Jack felt like a goldfish because the kids had been watching intently the whole time and asking a million questions, all of which Janet had done her best to answer.

She gave him an ice pack for the swelling exacerbated by the exam and made him swallow the pills he kept forgetting to take right in front of her, then turned her attention to Sam's hair.

In five minute she had the ponytail adequately smooth to Sam's standards. Jack watched the process carefully, mentally taking notes, then said quietly, "Hey, doc?"

"What is it, Colonel?" she asked, confused by the tone. She came back over to check the ice on his knee.

"Did you check out Daniel's eyes when they… woke up? He couldn't see the pictures in the book I was reading them last night, and Sam could."

Janet's eyes widened and she said quietly, "I didn't really check… Daniel's medical file states he didn't get glasses until he was ten, so I just assumed…"

"Well, maybe he needed them earlier and no one noticed," Jack answered.

"Good point." She turned to Daniel with a smile. "Come on, sweetie, let's go check out your eyes."

Daniel's eyes widened in fear. "They're good!" he insisted.

"Daniel," Jack said. "It will help you feel better, I promise."

Sam, who was next to him, grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed, smiling encouragingly. "It'll be okay, Daniel. I'll go first if you want."

He gave her a small smile but nodded eagerly. Sam turned to Janet. "You can check mine first, Doctor Janet."

Janet looked at Jack, who shrugged. It might take longer, but if it kept them both happy, he was all for it. Janet got out her penlight with a slight sigh. "Okay, Sam, look straight ahead…"

An hour later, both kids' eyes had been examined, and Janet had determined that Daniel needed glasses. "He's about 20/60 already," she informed Jack. "Do you want to take them both to pick up some frames? I could send a nurse out to get some if you'd prefer."

Jack thought about both kids in an eyewear store… yeah, it just wasn't how he preferred to spend the rest of the morning. "Just send someone if you don't mind. I doubt they'd have much fun there."

"Where?" Sam asked, perking up at the word "fun" from where she and Daniel were busy building something out of tongue depressors on one of the beds.

"Picking out Daniel's glasses. We're just going to go play while someone else goes to get them."

"Okay," Daniel agreed quickly.

"Who's going to pick mine out?" Sam asked.

"You don't need them, sweetie," Janet explained.

"But I want them! You looked at my eyes too, how come I don't get them?"

"She can have mine," Daniel offered immediately.

Jack groaned. One kid didn't want glasses, the other one did. Of course. "Sam, Daniel's glasses will only help Daniel see better. They will make your eyes and head hurt."

"But if he's getting some I want some too," Sam insisted.

"Daniel's eyes need help. Yours don't," Janet tried to explain.

"But…"

"Okay," Jack interrupted. "Sam, you're not getting glasses because you don't need them. Daniel does. That's all there is to it. Now, do you guys want to go see your surprise, or not?" he asked.

Remembering the mysterious lumpy blanket quickly distracted both children, who immediately started trying to drag him out of the infirmary.

Chuckling, Janet watched them go, calling, "Good luck!"

Glasses arguments hopefully pushed aside for the moment, Jack fielded questions about the surprise until they were back in their room, at which point the kids immediately bolted for the blanket lump in the corner.

Dragging the potted plant out of their way with all their might, they pulled the blanket off, squealing with delight when they saw the Jeep underneath. Sam was bouncing in place with her arms around Daniel's shoulders, shrieking happily. Daniel was excited too, although Jack could tell he didn't really know what the toy could do yet.

Smiling at them, Jack let them carry on for a few minutes before saying, "Okay, okay, we don't want people thinking there's an emergency in here. Calm down."

"Can we drive it? Can we drive it, please please please, Colonel?" Sam asked eagerly, climbing into it as she spoke.

"Sure," he said, reaching around her to turn it on. He showed her how to put it in reverse and carefully backed it out of the corner, then put Daniel in the passenger seat.

"Wow, it really drives?" Daniel asked excitedly.

"Yeah isn't it the awesomest? I saw them at the store when you were lookin at the bikes," Sam explained as Jack switched it to forward.

"Now, you want to push…" he started, stopping when she floored it and the Jeep lurched forward into the couch.

"Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed as Sam laughed.

"Slowly," Jack finished, shaking his head. "Okay, do a couple laps around the room, Speed Demon."

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she screamed happily. Daniel was just screaming - sounding half happy, half afraid for his life.

"Figures," Jack said, making a show of leaping up onto the couch to avoid being run over.

It didn't take the kids long to get the hang of it. Sam drove it around, weaving around the furniture in the room, for a few minutes, then Daniel had a turn, calming down a bit once he realized Sam wasn't going to kill them both.

When it was Sam's turn to drive again and they got out to switch seats, they were both grinning.

"Thank you so much for the awesome Jeep, Colonel Jack!" Daniel said.

"Yeah, it's the most awesome present ever in the whole world!" Sam agreed enthusiastically, running over to him and throwing her arms around his waist in an enthusiastic hug.

Daniel copied her.

"No problem," he said, ruffling Daniel's hair and patting Sam on the back (he wasn't about to ruffle hair he'd spent all morning fixing!)

"Can we drive it in the hallway, please?" Sam pleaded, looking up at him hopefully.

Jack hesitated. He was all for it, personally, but doubted the rest of the base - Hammond especially - would share his feelings.

"Please?" she asked again when she saw he was on the fence and he didn't respond right away. "It'll be so much more fun with more space, and we won't be afraid of breaking all the stuff in here… please, Colonel?"

"All right," he relented, feeling like the world's biggest pushover. "Just up and down the hallway though, okay?" Nobody would have a reason to be near the VIP corridor anyway, unless they were looking for them…

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" they exclaimed happily, jumping up and down in place before bounding back over to the Jeep. Jack held the door open for them and watched from the doorway as they zoomed up and down the corridor for several minutes. The phone ringing in the VIP room interrupted and he went back in to answer it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, where'd Colonel Jack go?" Daniel asked, spotting the empty doorway.

Sam shrugged and stopped the Jeep by the elevator. "Let's see if this works like his," she suggested, standing up in the seat and pulling out the ID card she'd swiped from the locker room earlier. She swiped it through the reader and sure enough, the elevator opened a few seconds later.

"Saaaaaaaaaaaam," Daniel warned as she quickly drove the toy car into the elevator. "We are gonna get in soooooooo much trouble!"

She shrugged and said, "He never said we couldn't go on the elevator. Besides, I wanna show our Jeep to Uncle George and Uncle Teal'c!"

Daniel bit his lip, but pushed the button that would take them to the commissary - that was where Teal'c seemed to be most of the time.

xxxxxxxxx

Jack hung up the phone, grumbling to himself. Hammond was asking for reports he hadn't written yet, and didn't seem to think that an injured knee and double babysitting duty was adequate excuse for their lateness.

As Hammond had pointed out, those two things were fairly recent, but the paperwork had been due months ago.

Jack was just going to have to suck it up and go get his laptop, that was all there was to it. He headed out of the room to tell the kids and stopped in confusion when he didn't see them. "SAM? DANIEL?" he called, hurrying to the end of the corridor and looking down the next one, which was empty.

"Oh crap," he muttered.