Lorne's team gets trapped off world and needs a way to pass the time.
A/N: Ok, so this one happened because I was fleshing out my version of Lorne's team a little more, and I decided to make St. Clair be from the Midwest, and that meant I had to make him teach everyone to play Euchre. It may or may not reflect some personal experience...
In Between Scene: Euchre
"So, remember, you can only play this if you don't have any diamonds."
Dominic Jones frowned at the card he had just laid down. "That is a diamond."
"No," St. Clair said. "Remember, because hearts is trump, that means the jack of diamonds is the left bower, so it becomes a heart. If you play that and you have another diamond, you'll renege. Plus, I'm winning right now, you don't need to trump me."
"This game is stupid," Dom complained, taking his card back and throwing out a ten of diamonds instead. "You keep switching which card is the highest. I'm pretty sure you're just making it up."
"I'm not making it up," St. Clair chuckled. "The jack of trump is always the highest, and the one of the same color is the second highest. That's the only weird rule. I promise, once you figure it out it's really easy."
"So what do I have to play to win?" Major Lorne said, studying the cards on the ground.
St. Clair moved the cards so they were sitting in front of the person who had played each. "I led with the king of diamonds, Kennel played the ten of clubs, and Jones played the ten of diamonds. You have to play diamonds if you have it, but if not, you can trump it with any heart."
The major made a face like he was deciding which card to play and then laid down the nine of hearts. St. Clair slid the cards toward him and then motioned for him to play again. "Your lead, sir."
A bright flash of lightning followed closely by a rumble of thunder that vibrated the entire cave interrupted the game and drew Dom's attention back toward the entrance. The rain hadn't slowed down at all—if anything it was pouring even harder than it had been when they'd made the break for the cave. It seemed this storm wasn't going to let up any time soon. At least they'd managed to find some shelter that probably wouldn't flood, and while they were all soaked, it was a tropical climate, so they didn't have to worry about being cold.
"Jones, your turn," St. Clair said. "I'm winning this one, so don't trump it unless you don't have anything else to play."
Dom threw out what must have been an acceptable card, because St. Clair happily raked them in and started the next round. At least one of them was glad for the pop-up tropical storm that had trapped them here, miles from the Stargate, for the foreseeable future. St. Clair had been wanting to teach them his card game for ages, and they finally had no good excuse for him not to.
Dom managed to finish out the round without messing up again, even though he was barely paying attention. "Another point for us," St. Clair said, moving his score cards to reveal another spade symbol. "That puts us in the barn."
Dom wasn't the only one who gave St. Clair a look. "What?" he said defensively. "That's what you call it when you're one point away from winning."
"You Indiana farmers and your weird card games," Dom mumbled, shaking his head.
"Hey, it's not just Indiana," St. Clair argued. "Lots of people in the Midwest play. Ask Lieutenant Tucker, he knows it." He gathered up the cards and handed them to Kennel. "It's your deal, Lieutenant."
Kennel shuffled the cards and dealt them, flipping over the top card on the remaining deck and setting it down. "Jack of spades," he announced as everyone picked up their hands to check what they had.
"Jones, it's your call," St. Clair prompted after a moment.
Dom studied his hand. He had an ace and ten of spades and the rest of his cards were red. "So if I pick it up, that means Kennel actually picks it up?"
St. Clair nodded. "Right. And that will mean spades is trump, and he'll have the right bower. So only call it if you have a lot of other spades."
Dom had no idea if his hand was considered good or not. "Uh, pass?" he said. He would let someone else decide.
"Pass," Lorne echoed.
St. Clair scrunched his face like he was disgusted at his cards. "Pass."
Kennel flipped the jack over and set the cards aside.
"You know what they say, sir," St. Clair said to Kennel. "Turn down a bower, lose for an hour." It took him a second to notice the glares from his teammates. "What? That's what they say."
Dom spoke for the rest of them, "This is exactly why none of us wanted to play this game with you, Pope."
"Oh, come on," St. Clair said. "It's fun. I grew up on Euchre. It's what we did at family reunions."
"Because there was nothing else to do in Indiana?" Kennel murmured, getting snorts of laughter from Dom and Lorne.
St. Clair ignored the comment. "Jones, it's back to you."
"Hell, I don't know," Dom said, looking at his cards again. "Pass, I guess."
Lorne sighed. "Diamonds?" he said with a shrug.
"Diamonds it is," St. Clair said. "Your lead, Jones."
More lightning, this time accompanied by a spectacular crack of thunder that made them all flinch, interrupted the game. "Jesus," Dom muttered once the rumbling and flashes of light died down again. The rain seemed to pound down harder outside as the wind picked up, sprinkling them with moisture despite being so deep inside the narrow cave. "Think this has upgraded from tropical storm to hurricane yet?"
Major Lorne was watching the cave entrance with a thoughtful scowl. "We have another check in in a few minutes. We'll see if they have any updates for us. As long as the MALP didn't blow away." When they'd missed their scheduled return time earlier, Atlantis had dialed in to check on them and, after hearing about the intense storm, sent a MALP through to boost their radio signal and get scans of the storm. Zelenka thought that it looked like it would pass in a few hours, but given how quickly it had appeared, he warned that it could evolve into something more serious. They'd agreed that the best thing to do would be to wait for the worst to pass in the cave, and Atlantis would check in every two hours.
Shaking himself, Dom turned his back to the storm and looked at his cards, deciding to start with an ace of hearts. He had no idea if that was a good move or not, and he didn't really care, but he won the trick. The next one he lost to Lorne, who took the third as well, but then Dom came back and took the fourth and St. Clair got the fifth.
"Sorry, Major. Looks like we euchred you," St. Clair said, collecting the cards.
"Does that mean we're done?" Lorne asked, hope in his voice.
St. Clair frowned at him. "Did you lose on purpose, sir?"
The radio saved Lorne from answering. "Major Lorne, this is Zelenka, do you copy?" It was a bit broken and hard to hear over the noise of the wind and rain, but thankfully they could understand it well enough.
"Lorne here. Give me good news, Doc."
"I'm afraid it looks like the storm has grown in intensity, and does not look like it will pass for another five to seven hours. How are you holding up?"
"The cave is providing good enough shelter. It's wet, but we're uphill so hopefully it won't flood. We should be okay to hunker down here and wait it out," Lorne replied, looking as unhappy about the news as Dom felt.
"That is good news. I do not think you would make it very far in this storm, and a jumper would have difficulty flying through this. Once it is safe to do so, we may need to send one through to pick you up anyway, depending on the severity of the flooding and erosion."
"Yeah, it was pretty muddy getting up here," Lorne agreed. "I imagine all our trails will be washed out by the time this is over."
"Yes, very likely. We will check in again at 1400. Stay safe."
"Thanks, Doc."
They were all quiet for a moment as the transmission ended, each thinking about being stuck in the small cave for another five hours minimum. Not Dom's idea of a fun day, but better than getting struck by lightning outside. As if reading his mind, there was another flash and rumble of thunder.
"So, another round?" St. Clair eventually said, holding up the cards.
"I'm going to watch the rain for a bit," Lorne said, getting up and stretching as much as possible without hitting his head on the ceiling of the cave and walking toward the cave's entrance. He'd apparently reached his team interaction quota for the day.
Kennel shrugged and reached into his pack for his book, scooting a little ways away to find a comfortable spot to read.
"Sorry, Pope," Dom said in response to St. Clair's disappointed pout. He took the cards from his friend and added them back to the rest of the deck that St. Clair had removed for his game, shuffling them together. "Want to play Speed instead?"
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