This story was written completely by lkhoward88 as I decided it was fine as it is, even without my minor edits. All credit should be directed that that way! As usual my next chapter may take a littlewhile to write but please feel free to leave reviews and thankyou to those who have already left such kind remarks.

Chapter 10

"So?" Janet asked as the two of them walked out of the mall, towards Janet's car.

"I have no idea," Sam admitted.

"You talked to him for fifteen minutes, and you still don't have clue?" Janet complained.

"I invited him to help me paint my bedroom tomorrow," Sam insisted.

Janet's eyebrows rose in a way that reminded Sam of Teal'c. "I thought Daniel and I were coming over to help you?"

"Uh-hu," Sam agreed with a slightly evil smile.

Janet just shook her head as they loaded everything into her car. "This will either go really, really well, or really, really bad," she claimed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Daniel did come over that afternoon, and they had a marathon study session, with Daniel helping Sam in French, and Sam re-teaching Daniel math and science. It was late by the time they were done.

"Why don't you just stay here tonight?" Sam suggested. "There's a guest bedroom and you could probably wear some of Mark's old clothes," she offered.

It only took one quick phone call to Daniel's foster parents for him to agree. They actually offered to drop off some clothes for him, given that they were headed out to drop off a friend of one of the other foster children anyways.

So when Jacob disappeared to the base early on Sunday morning, and Mark went to the gym for his new workout regiment, Daniel and Sam were left alone to begin painting her bedroom. When the doorbell rang, Sam assumed that it was Janet, so she had no qualms about sending Daniel to get it while she finished making breakfast.

"Oh," Jack said when Daniel opened the door. "I didn't know Sam had invited you."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, she didn't tell me you were coming either," Daniel retorted.

'One of us has to be the bigger man here,' Jack thought.

"Obviously if we're going to get anything done today, we're going to have to put our issues on hold, so truce?" Jack suggested.

Daniel looked suspiciously at Jack.

"Agreed."

But just because they had agreed to not fight, didn't mean that Daniel was going to make it easy on Jack, especially somewhere where he felt like he had the upper hand. So he left Jack to shut the door and follow him into the kitchen.

"Jack's here," Daniel announced as he walked into the kitchen.

Sam cringed at Daniel's tone of voice. "Sorry," she said tentatively.

Daniel eyed her like he knew she really wasn't apologizing and really wasn't sorry.

An uncomfortable silence settled in the room as Jack entered.

"So breakfast?" Sam said a little too brightly, trying to cover the silence. "You didn't eat yet, did you Jack?"

"Yeah, but I'm a guy. We're always hungry," Jack assured her as he eyed the pancakes Sam set in the middle of the table.

Breakfast was slightly uncomfortable until Janet arrived, at which point conversation about the current football and cheerleading season took over. Sam noticed that Daniel didn't have much to say, but hung on every word that Janet said.

After breakfast was cleaned up, they moved to Sam's room, where the boys took over moving the large pieces of furniture away from the walls while the girls began taping up the various pieces of woodwork and laying out drop clothes to cover the carpet.

Sam kept one eye and one ear on the boys, who seemed to actually be getting along.

"Did your dad threaten them?" Janet whispered to Sam.

"No," Sam whispered back, "That's what's scaring me."

"Maybe they've been kidnapped by aliens and been replaced by clones," Janet whispered in response.

Sam giggled.

"What's so funny?" Jack demanded, which only made Janet and Sam laugh harder.

Six hours later, Sam had a newly painted light blue room. But there was just one more thing that had to be done for the room to truly feel like home.

"Glow-in the dark stars?" Janet repeated incredulously.

"Planets and stars," Sam insisted.

Mark chose that moment to walk in. "I'm just glad that I don't have to do it this time," he admitted.

"I can't help it that you don't put them in the right spots," Sam bantered.

Mark raised his hands and quickly handed over the packages of glow in the dark stickers to Jack. "Maybe you'll have better luck Jack," Mark claimed as he made a hasty retreat from the room.

As Sam instructed Jack and Daniel in star placement, they both surprised each other when they realized they had something in common. Jack's interest in astronomy and Daniel's fondness of history meant they both knew quite a bit about the constellations they were putting up.

And because of it, Sam felt like she was in a movie where one guy was constantly trying to get the upper hand on the other by showing off his knowledge. They were so involved in their competition that they didn't even notice when Sam and Janet quietly left the room.

"You're not as stupid as you act," Daniel blurted out during a lull in the conversation.

"Well thank you," Jack said sarcastically.

"That didn't come out right," Daniel quickly admitted. "It's just, if I asked anyone in school to describe you, I don't think smart or intelligent would even be mentioned."

Jack climbed down off the ladder and sat on the edge of Sam's bed. "I learned a long time ago that hiding how smart I am is an advantage. No one expects much of you," he explained.

"But if you're that smart, you've got a great chance of getting a scholarship to college, especially with playing football and everything," Daniel exclaimed.

Jack shook his head. "I knew when I was eight that I was going to the Air Force Academy. My Dad's a General, so…"

"As long as you do decent, you have nothing to worry about," Daniel finished for him. "Not like me where a scholarship is the only way I go to college."

Jack stood up and clapped Daniel on the shoulder. "You're much smarter than me Danny-boy; you'll have no problems getting that scholarship."

Sam stood in the doorway with raised eyebrows. Suddenly, Jack and Daniel were getting along like they were best friends- even when she wasn't around.

'They've definitely been kidnapped by aliens,' Sam decided with a smile.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Jack's change in attitude towards Daniel wasn't quite as obvious at school, though he did insist on Daniel joining their lunch table. Jack even arranged the table so that Daniel was conveniently seated next to Janet every day.

Sam tried to call him on it once.

"I know what you're doing," Sam said one day while they stood by Jack's car, waiting for Mark to emerge from the locker room after practice.

"What?"

"With Janet and Daniel," Sam clarified.

Jack's face took on an attempted look of innocence. "Who me? You're imagining things Sam," Jack insisted.

"Say whatever you want Jack O'Neill, but you are playing Cupid," Sam replied with a smile.

"So what if I am? They both just need a push. Anyone that knows Daniel can tell that he has a huge crush on Janet. And I think Janet could be good for him, break him out of his shell a little bit," Jack maintained.

"But how do you know Janet will go along with your little plan?" Sam asked.

Jack shrugged. "I don't. But she could do a lot worse than Danny-boy, especially after her last boyfriend Tim."

"Tim?"

"They dated for two years and were getting pretty serious until Tim graduated last June and dumped her the next day," Jack explained.

"Oh. I didn't know that," Sam admitted.

"Yeah well, it's not exactly something she talks about," Jack said.

"So I didn't hear it from you," Sam summarized.

"Exactly," Jack agreed with one of his trademark smiles.