Author's note: I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. This just popped into my head last night and won't leave me alone; it has not been beta'd because I won't bug my poor betas on Christmas. :-) Nor have I obsessed over it for weeks, as I usually do - I'm posting it as I go to make myself write it all tonight. Sorry it's not all going up at once - I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Are you kidding? I don't own anything.

White Christmas

It was oh nine hundred hours on December twenty-third, and Sam Carter was waiting patiently in the Embarkation Room, only mildly perturbed at being sent off world two days before Christmas. Teal'c, too, waited, calm as ever. But when Colonel O'Neill checked his watch for the ninth time in under a minute, she spoke up. "Sergeant? Would you page Daniel, please?"

"Yes, ma'am," Walter responded crisply.

The Colonel shot her a glare. "Doesn't he get that the sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get back?"

"Holiday plans, sir?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes."

One eyebrow lifted in surprise before it occurred to her to stop it. "Yeah?" He had no family – that she knew of – and though Daniel had mentioned a team thing for Christmas a few times, it had only been in passing. Unless, of course, they'd turned it into a guy thing. She pushed down a little stab of panic that she was being left out. "Whatcha doing? If I may ask."

He shrugged. "It involves a couch, a hockey game, and multiple beers."

Oh. "Cheery," she managed with a forced smile. That sounded terrible, and in her head, she started plotting the long-forgotten team holiday. "You know, I'll have to check with Janet, but I bet Cassie would love to see you guys for Christmas."

"I gave you her present." Panic flashed across his brown eyes. "Didn't I?"

"Yes, sir. But you could give it to her yourself. She's really getting into Christmas this year – which is great – and maybe we could do dinner or something. I mean, we're all the family she has." And after three years on Earth, she was finally starting to settle into the traditions.

"Hmm," he said.

"She's been talking for weeks about a white Christmas, since it's been kind of warm this year. I've never known a kid to be so into the weather until now. She's really got her heart set on it." And, if she were honest, so did Sam. The box in the attic full of her mother's old snow globes came to mind, though she could never bear to put them out.

"I build a mean snowman," he offered, and the image it conjured made her grin. "Of course," he added – loudly – as Daniel wandered his way into the Embarkation Room, "if we don't leave soon, Christmas will come and go without us."

She grinned as the archaeologist finally realized how late he was and hurried over. "Sorry."

With an exaggerated sigh, Colonel O'Neill motioned to the Control Room that they were ready, and the General authorized the dial sequence. It was mere seconds before Daniel asked, "Hey, Sam?"

"Yes, Daniel?"

"Can I drive FRED this time?"

Surprised, she glanced at the all-terrain vehicle near the ramp, fully loaded with all her supplies – her expensive supplies – then to him, then to the remote in her hand.

"Call it an early Christmas present," he pressed.

Maybe it was the gleeful boyish look on his face, but she caved. "Don't wreck it, and bring it back with a full tank," she joked, handing him the remote.

"Have I told you lately how great you are?"

Rolling her eyes, she stepped up next to her CO as the wormhole engaged. "I hope I don't live to regret that."

"Me, too. To Oz," he invited, ever so slightly ahead of her as he strode up the ramp to the vortex and stepped through.

She saw it too late, after one leg was already through. After her chest, one arm, and even the tip of her nose had passed the threshold and halting her inertia would have been impossible, and her brain was calculating the implications of it even as momentum carried her past.

The wormhole flickered.