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The staring went on for a full minute before the silence was broken by the telephone. Sam had just opened her mouth to say something - what, she didn't know - and jumped when the shrill ring of the phone startled her. She wasn't going to answer it but when Daniel started bouncing on the chair, saying something about 'Grandma Iris', Sam decided she should probably pick up. Holding the handset to her ear, she tentatively said, "Hello?"
There was a brief silence on the other end before a woman's voice stated, Hello. Could I please speak to Jack O'Neill?
"Uh, he's out at the moment," Sam replied.
What about Daniel?
"He's here. Just hold on." Sam held the phone out to Daniel, who took it enthusiastically.
"Grandma Iris!" he exclaimed. He figured it would be her because she rang at about the same time every couple of days.
Daniel, Iris said with much warmth in her voice. Who answered the phone?
"That was Sam. Jack's on a date and Sam is looking after me," Daniel informed her, his little legs swinging and banging against the edge of the couch. "We haven't done anything yet 'cos Jack hasn't gone long. Are you coming for the nativ-ty play soon?" he changed the subject. "Robert's mommy is going to make my costume and make me a king!"
That sounds wonderful, Daniel, Iris enthused. Yes, Grandpa Tom and I are coming down and we're going to stay over Christmas as well. She was planning on giving Jack some tips on what to buy for her youngest grandson.
"Yay! We're going to get a Christmas tree, and I have a star to put on it, but we're not going to the North Pole to get the tree 'cos Jack says that we can get them here," Daniel rambled on, happy to be talking with his grandma. Sam watched the little boy's enthusiastic face as he was talking about all the events of the past couple of days. Daniel seemed like a bright, happy boy but not around new people. She would have to think of something soon to make him like her, otherwise he would tell Jack and there would go her hopes of a date.
"Bye-bye!" Daniel said before he handed the phone back to Sam. "Hang up now," he ordered her.
Sam obeyed and then turned back to her charge for the evening. "So…" she started to say.
"I have to write Jack a message," Daniel proclaimed and he hurried off to his room. Coming back, crayons and a piece of paper in hand, he knelt at the table and started writing, sounding out the words as he went. He got as far as 'Grandma Iris ra-' before he got stuck. "How do you write 'ng'?" he asked, unable to sound it out.
She spelt it out and watched the little boy write down the letters, his tongue poking out between his lips as he concentrated. Sam had been a smart child herself so she wasn't greatly surprised by Daniel's ability.
"Grandma Iris says to put in on the fridge so that Jack sees it when he gets home," Daniel stated when he had finished writing. He had added 'litle forks' because Grandma Iris had said that he needed to tell Jack that he needed littler things to eat with because big things were messy and hard to hold. Daniel frowned as he looked at what he had written. Something didn't look right. "Did I spell things right?" he asked Sam, holding up the piece of paper for her to see.
"Almost," Sam replied. "You need to put another 't' in 'little'. Right there," she said, pointing to the correct place.
"Okay." Daniel wrote the extra letter squashed in between two others. "All done," he proclaimed happily. Picking the piece of paper up, he took it out to the kitchen and looked for a place to put it on the fridge. "Sam!" he called for help when he realised that he couldn't reach the magnets.
"What? Oh," Sam said as she came into the kitchen and saw Daniel trying to reach the magnets. "I'll get that." She took the note out of his hands and stuck it on the fridge.
Daniel grinned happily. "Thank you! Now Jack will see that when he gets home and I'll be able to tell him all about Grandma Iris ringing!" That was something to look forward to.
iO-kay/i, Sam thought to herself. "So, what do you want to do?" she asked the little boy.
Daniel frowned in thought for a moment and then his face brightened. "Can you teach me the song about the reindeer with the red nose? Jack said he was going to teach me it but he forgotted." He hadn't remembered either because there was so many other things to do like go to day-care and play with his Legos and have a bath every night and read his books.
"Rudolph?" Sam queried. It had been a long time since she had sung that particular song - or any other Christmas songs - that she wasn't sure that she remembered it all. "I think I can. Okay, repeat after me--"
"Wait!" Daniel ran off to his bedroom again and came back with another sheet of paper. "Write the words down and then we can sing it together," he instructed eagerly, holding out a blue crayon for Sam to take.
The words? Sam searched her memory frantically to recall what the words to the song were. When she thought that she had them, Sam started writing. Daniel watched her keenly, sounding out the words as they appeared on the page.
"What's that one?" he asked, pointing to one at the end of the first line.
"Reindeer," Sam replied as she continued to write.
"Rein-deer," Daniel echoed, committing the word to memory before looking at the next lot of words. "Why did they laugh at him? That was mean," he said a minute later.
"Um, I think it was because his red nose made him different to the others," Sam stated, not really having stopped to think about that before.
"But that's no reason to be mean," Daniel pointed out, very indignant that the reindeer treated Rudolph so badly. "Mommy always said we shouldn't make fun of people who are different to us because it's not nice and we wouldn't like it if they made fun of us 'cos we're different to other people too."
Sam sorted through that sentence in her head and said, "That's right. Some people make fun of me because I'm smarter than they are and you're right, it's not nice. That's why I try not to do the same thing." She didn't make fun of people who were different but she had to admit that she had her prejudices just like everyone else.
"What does smarter mean?" Daniel inquired curiously.
"Well, smart means that you're very clever or can do something very well, and so smarter means that you're better at something than other people," Sam tried to explain.
"Daddy says I have an ap-ti-toode for languages," Daniel informed her, swinging his legs against the edge of the couch. "Does that mean I'm smart? I can speak three-and-a-half languages." He held up the right number of fingers.
Sam was quite impressed; she only knew English and high school Spanish, although she had picked up some Latin terms in her study of astronomy and physics. Imagine a four-year-old knowing more languages than her! "That means that you're smart at languages, yes," she agreed. She didn't know how good he was at anything else so she felt she had to qualify her statement.
"Is being smart good?" was Daniel's next question; after all, he didn't want to tell anyone he was smart if they were going to be mean like Adam.
"Most of the time, it can be good but some people who aren't smart don't like those who are," Sam stated, knowing about this from personal experience. All through school, she had been teased because she was naturally good at maths and sciences. That had annoyed her but she figured that she would have the last laugh since she was at Cheyenne Mountain as part of the 'Doorway to Heaven' project, which promised to be wonderful if only they could get the giant ring to work. If she was the one to get it to work, then everyone would respect her abilities. "But if you get do to great things because you're smart, then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks," she continued.
Daniel thought that through and then nodded. "Daddy is really smart 'cos he knows that the pyramids are older than everyone says, and that the Sphinx is older too, and other people make fun of him but they're wrong and he's right," he said in one breath. "And Mommy is really smart too 'cos she knows lots of words and stories, and she knows lots about things that happened in the past." He was very proud of having smart parents, and was pleased to be like them.
iHe's not using past tense/i, Sam noted; that was interesting. Maybe it was because he was only young and didn't know how to change the tense to talk about people who had died. Or maybe he didn't want to admit they were gone; she had been like that when her mother had died ten years ago.
"What happens next in the song?" Daniel questioned, changing back to the original topic.
Sam quickly wrote the next couple of lines down while Daniel read the words. "What are reindeer games?" he asked.
"Um, I don't really know," Sam said; she had never really thought about that before. "Maybe 'chasey'," she suggested.
"Jack and I played 'chasey'!" Daniel shared enthusiastically. "He chased me and then I chased him and then I fell down and got ouchies on my hands but Jack fixed them." He held up his hands to show Sam where the scrapes had been.
Sam didn't really didn't know what to say to that but she ventured, "I bet that hurt."
"A little but then Jack kissed my ouchies and made them better," Daniel told her.
That statement amused Sam, and it made her wonder how good a kisser Jack was. Hopefully, she would find out one day soon; the fact that he was currently out on a date with someone else didn't deter her fantasy.
"What's next?" Daniel pulled Sam's mind back to the task at hand. He watched eagerly as she wrote more words, curious at to what had happened next to poor Rudolph. When he read that Santa had chosen Rudolph to lead the sleigh - he had to ask what that word was and was able to associate it with the sleigh that his Grandpa Nick had told him about a few days ago - he cheered, happy for the red-nosed reindeer. "The other reindeer were sorry they were mean, weren't they? Did they say sorry?"
"Most likely," Sam stated.
"Good." That helped to satisfy Daniel's sense of justice. "Now let's sing it!"
Sam cleared her throat a couple of times; she really hadn't been prepared for singing tonight but she would give it a go. She started singing, doing one line at a time and then letting Daniel copy her. After a couple of times through, they sang the whole song together, both of them off-key but enjoying themselves.
"Let's play 'Snap' now," Daniel suddenly announced after the second full rendition of 'Rudolph'; he knew it well enough to sing to Jack tomorrow. He ran and got the cards, then brought them back to the living room. "Do you know how to play?" he asked as he climbed onto the couch again.
"I'm not sure," Sam replied, thinking back to her youth. She had been so focused on being smart that she had missed out on some of the typical childhood things like card games.
"Well, we have to start with the same amount of cards," Daniel explained authoritatively. "Then we each put one down and when the cards match, you have to put your hands on the cards and shout 'snap'! And then the person with all the cards at the end wins!" He really liked this game because it was lots of fun!
"Okay." Sam figured that she would be able to get the hang of it easily but she would have to be careful not to win all the time. Janet had warned her that kids don't like losing a lot so she would have to try and balance the game.
"Now, you give us equal cards," Daniel instructed, handing the set of cards over because he wanted to make sure that they were dealt correctly. Then he watched like a hawk, counting along with Sam to ensure that they each got twenty-six cards each. "Okay, now I put a card down, and then you put one down." He lay down a seven of hearts.
Sam put a Queen of Spades on top of his. "That's not the same number," Daniel told her, "so we have to put down another card each."
And so the game went on, Sam learning how to play very quickly. She soon found herself having a wonderful time, laughing good-naturedly whenever Daniel beat her to the cards. To her surprise, they were fairly evenly matched as the little boy had a keen eye and fast hands.
After nearly ten minutes, Sam finally called a halt to the game as no-one had yet won - a fact Daniel protested. "I know," Sam said, "but I think we should call that game a draw."
Daniel thought about that and decided that was fair. "Okay. Can I have a Super-dooper chocolate milkshake now?" he asked, forgetting that Sam couldn't make them.
"Uh, I don't know how," Sam admitted again. "How about you show me your Lego?" she suggested, thinking that the activity might take up the rest of the time until she could put Daniel to bed.
"Oh!" Daniel was immediately side-tracked from wanting his milkshake. "Jack said I should show you how to build a pyramid!" And he sped off to his bedroom to fetch the bucket of Lego and mat. Then he was back quickly and started to set everything up in the centre of the living room. He had got over his shyness with Sam now because she was proving to be okay for a grown-up girl. "It's real tricky," Daniel stated as he got started with the pyramid. "But you can copy me if you want to. Or you can build something else."
"Thank you," Sam said as she joined Daniel on the floor and started picking out Lego blocks to attempt a pyramid.
Daniel patiently instructed her on how to build a pyramid, remembering to fill in the middle so that the walls didn't fall in. He also shared some of the things he had been taught about pyramids and Egypt, barely pausing to take a breath as he got into full flow. So it was with some reluctance that Sam told him that it was bedtime at 1945 hours because she was enjoying the monologue. iDaniel is definitely very smart/i, she thought when she realised just how much he knew at such a young age; iI hope Jack realises this and helps him reach his full potential/i. Of course, if she ended up dating and then marrying Jack, then she would be able to help Daniel fulfil his potential and that would be wonderful achievement.
Full of energy, Daniel went off to complete his bathroom rituals, bouncing up and down on his toes as he was brushing his teeth. He didn't want to go to bed but he knew that Jack wanted him to do what he was told, otherwise there might be consequences and Daniel didn't want to find out what they were, especially since they were going to the cabin tomorrow. "Can I ring Jack?" he begged as he climbing into bed.
"Sure." Sam went and brought the portable phone into the bedroom. She dialled the number Jack had given her and then handed the phone over to Daniel.
"Hi, Jack!" Daniel said as soon as he heard his brother's voice.
Hey, kiddo, Jack replied. Having fun?
"Yep! We played 'Snap' and builded pyramids and Sam taught me the song about Rudolph," Daniel shared enthusiastically. "And now she's going to read me a story."
Wow, that sounds great, Jack agreed.
"Are you having fun too?" Daniel asked, not wanting to hang up because that would mean that it was story time and after that, he would have to go to sleep.
Oh yes, definitely, came the amused answer.
They chatted for another few minutes before Jack disconnected the call. Daniel handed the phone back to Sam and snuggled down under the bed cover. Then he remembered that he hadn't got a book for Sam to read so he crawled to the end of his bed where his bookshelf was and retrieved his favourite book; it was always a good one to see if people could do the different voices and then he would know whether they were people he could like. "This one," he said, handing the book to Sam.
"O-kay." Sam took a look at the title: 'Androcles and the Lion'. Oh boy. "And you want the voices?"
"Uh-huh." Daniel nodded vigorously. This was going to be fun! "I'm ready," he announced.
iI'm not/i, Sam thought as she opened the book. She'd never had to do stories with different voices before and she didn't want to fail in the task, even if her only critic would be a four-year-old boy. She took a deep breath and started reading, determined to do her best.
Daniel listened keenly, giving Sam some hints as to how lions roared when she seemed at a loss. At the end, he decided that she wasn't too bad but needed a lot of practise to get the voices right, like his mommy could, and like Jack, and Lou, and Grandma Iris could as well. He gave Sam a big smile as praise and then snuggled down under his covers. "Can you check for monsters please?" he asked, holding Thoth close.
"Monsters?" Janet hadn't mentioned anything about that in her debrief. Oh well - she had better go with the flow. "Uh, where do they usually hide?"
Daniel pointed towards his wardrobe and then under the bed. "They like dark places," he solemnly informed her.
"Right." Sam dutifully checked under the bed and then in the wardrobe, pretending to search for monsters - of what kind, she wasn't at all sure. She felt silly but reasoned that Jack probably had to do this every night so there was no harm in doing it this once. "I can't find anything," she reported after a quick check of the wardrobe. "Think you can go to sleep now?"
"I'm not tired," Daniel decided. "Can you read me another story?" It wasn't time for Jack to come home yet so he didn't want to go to sleep.
Sam checked the time - it was now after 2000 hours, which meant that Daniel was supposed to be asleep. "I don't think that would be a good idea. You're supposed to go to sleep now."
"But I don't want to," Daniel whined, giving Sam his best pout.
"I know but you've already called Jack and told him that you were going to sleep, remember?" Sam tried to reason with him but found it hard to ignore the pout. "So that means that you have to do that."
"Uh-uh," Daniel disagreed. If he wasn't tired, then he wasn't going to go to sleep.
"Um…" Sam quickly sorted through all the advice Janet had given her; why didn't there seem to be that much on getting children to go to sleep except to be firm with them? "You have to get a good sleep tonight because I'm sure Jack will want to do something fun this weekend," she tried, hoping that might work.
"We're going to the cabin in Minnie-something," Daniel shared, not quite remembering the name properly. Waving his hands about excitedly, he continued, "Jack's going to fly us in an airplane and go 'vrrrmmm'! I'm a good airplane. Wanna see?" He started to get out of bed.
"Not right now," Sam said, catching the little boy before he could get too far. "You're supposed to go to sleep and when you wake up, Jack will be here."
Daniel flopped back, thwarted in his attempt to stay up longer. "But I don't want to go to sleep," he complained.
"Well, you have to," Sam resorted to saying. "Otherwise Jack won't be very happy when he gets home."
After doing a little more pouting, Daniel curled up under the covers again, Thoth hold against his chest. He didn't want to make Jack unhappy, so he would just have to lie in bed until Jack came home and pretend to be asleep but really be awake. He'd had a stern talking to his eyelids, who were often known to make him fall asleep when he didn't want to, and he was fairly sure that they would co-operate this time. "Okay. Goodnight, Sam."
"Goodnight, Daniel." She turned off the overhead light but didn't realise that she needed to turn the nightlight on. So she had barely got back to the living room when she realised that the little boy was trailing her. "Daniel?"
"You have to turn the little light on," Daniel informed her, pleased with having an excuse to get out of bed. "I'll show you." He took her hand and pulled her back towards his bedroom, then showed her the nightlight. "Jack says I'm not s'pposed to touch it."
"Right." Sam switched the nightlight on and then helped Daniel back into bed. "Is that better?"
"Uh-huh." His room was less scary now. He closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep, but when Sam left the room, Daniel got out of bed and went to his bookshelf. Retrieving one of his favourite books, he crawled back into bed and started to read in the dim light. A few minutes later, book lying open on his chest, Daniel's eyes betrayed him and he fell asleep.
Unaware of what her baby-sitting charge was doing, Sam had gone into the living room and started her laptop up. The next couple of hours went very quickly for her as she studied up on a new development in astrophysics, so she was startled when the front door opened and Jack walked in. She smiled at him and stood up. "How was your evening?" she asked in a friendly voice, remembering not to call him 'Captain'.
"It was good," Jack replied casually. It had actually been better than good; he had really enjoyed Sara's company, and the movie they had gone to see had been excellent. The more he saw of Sara, the more he liked her. "How did you go with Daniel?"
"Piece of cake, si--, uh, Jack," Sam stated, exaggerating only a slight bit. "He didn't really want to go to sleep but I convinced him to stay in bed."
"Good. Uh, do you know what the going rate for baby-sitting is?" Jack asked awkwardly. Lou hadn't wanted to be paid for looking after Daniel so Jack wasn't entirely sure what the etiquette was.
"Don't worry about it," Sam waved it off. "I was happy to do it. Daniel's a good kid," she said sincerely.
"Yes, he is," Jack agreed. He didn't know what else to say and the silence began to stretch out.
"Well, I'd better get going," Sam finally said, feeling a little uncomfortable because of the silence. "I'll see myself out," she added, hoping that Jack wouldn't take any notice of that and walk her out to the car or something.
"Okay. Thanks for doing this," Jack stated as he walked Sam to the door. He was struck by how similar she was to Sara and a part of him wondered what Sam would be like to take out on a date. Then he remembered that she was a scientist, even if she did wear an Air Force uniform, and that decided him; he wouldn't understand half the things she said!
"No problem." Sam gave him an awkward smile and then went out the door. Halfway down the path, she turned to see if the door was closed - it was. She was miffed at that but then she reminded herself that he didn't really know her yet. If she was to get him, then she would have to be more conspicuous at work… somehow. Sam got into the car and drove away, planning ways to make Jack date her.
Inside the house, Jack had gone straight to Daniel's room. The first thing he noticed was the book lying open on the bed, slowly rising and falling in time to Daniel's breathing. He shook his head; his little brother had obviously tried to stay up longer but hadn't managed it. A smile on his face, he removed the book and put it back on the shelf before returning to Daniel's side. "Hey, kiddo, I'm home," he said softly.
There was no response from the sleeping child. Jack leaned over and kissed Daniel's forehead before doing the same thing with Thoth - although he would deny that action to all but his brother. "You tell Danny, okay?" he instructed the stuffed bear, who just stared at him silently.
Jack chuckled softly. "Great, now I'm talking to toys," he muttered to himself. Then he took a piece of paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and put it on the pillow where Daniel would see it in the morning. The idea had come to him earlier in the day at work, and he had sketched a picture of him kissing Daniel's forehead so that the little boy would know that Jack had fulfilled his promise to let him know when he was home. And in case Daniel didn't understand the picture, Jack had written the words 'I'm home' underneath. He didn't know how well this idea would go down but it was worth a try.
After ruffling Daniel's hair gently, Jack left the bedroom and went to his own to get ready for bed, a big smile on his face. Life was good.