THE GIFT



He was making more mess than he was intending to... considering he was attempting to tidy his desk. It was all going against him, and objects kept falling to the floor. He had no idea what had possessed him to clean up in here, but it was a good idea. He could barely see the surface of the desk.

"This is hopeless," he mumbled, screwing up a piece of useless paper, and tossing it at the wastepaper basket. It bounced off the rim, and fell to the floor.

He sighed with a frown, and slumped into his chair, feeling it rock back with the force.

Jonas Quinn had never really been a great fan of tidiness in the way of his office, either here or on Kelowna. With a groan, he sat forward in his chair, and started anew.

Within five minutes, he had succeeded in creating an even bigger state of disarray than he had started off with. This was counterproductive... to say the least.

At that moment, perhaps to give him salvation from cleaning, his door opened, and in strode a blonde-haired woman. She was reasonably tall, and was undeniably attractive.

"Wow... I thought you were going to tidy this place up," she quipped with a lost smile. Her blue eyes looked around in confusion, and then found their way to meet Jonas'.

He sighed. "Hi."

She cocked her head, closing the door behind her.

"Well, I was trying... but it seems to be beating me so far. I never was one for cleaning," Jonas admitted, leaning back lazily in his chair, tempted to kick all of the mess onto the floor with a booted foot. He resisted the urge, and instead, looked up to glance at Sam, and asked, "Was there something wrong?"

She frowned. "Can't I just visit a friend at Christmas?"

Jonas mouthed 'oh', and sat up. He had forgotten all about this Christmas business, and it had him baffled, seeing the base staff walking around with fuzzy decorations, cards and presents. It had taken him a while to understand the holiday... which wasn't really a holiday for the SGC. They were all still working over this period. Well... almost all. A few of the officers had headed home to be with their families.

Sam stood before his desk, and said, "Did you want me to give you a hand with all this?"

Jonas shook his head. "No, it's fine. Don't worry. I will get it done. I'm not gonna let it beat me that easily."

They laughed quietly, and then fell into silence once again.

And then suddenly, Sam brought something out from behind her back, and handed it tentatively to Jonas, the other hand finding a home in her pocket.

Jonas looked her in the eye, and asked, "What's this?"

Sam glanced down at the wrapped parcel, and sheepishly said, "Well, it's Christmas... and I didn't want you to go without a present. Even Teal'c gets gifts around here." She smiled, pointing the parcel at him once again.

A little warily, Jonas took it from her, inspecting it curiously.

"Well, open it," Sam told him.

He titled his head. "Aren't you supposed to wait until Christmas day for that?"

She waved her hand, and said with a smile, "What's the fun in that? Besides, I want to know whether you like it or not." She looked doubtful.

With a slow breath in, and feeling a little puzzled, Jonas said, "Okay."

He tore the paper off the parcel, and pulled out a book. He flicked it open, seeing that it was completely blank. It was leather bound, and had a single engraved marking on the front. He recognised it instantly.

Kelowna's unique Stargate symbol.

He looked up at Sam in surprise, not quite sure what to say.

She smiled. "Do you like it?"

"Are you kidding?" he replied in contained astonishment, "it's great. Thank you."

It was then that Sam took it upon herself to sit opposite him in the spare chair, as she explained, "Well, every year until now, I used to give a diary like that to Daniel..." she paused for a moment, a faint smile haunting her pretty features, before she continued, "every year had a different engraving on it. And since you're constantly having to refer to his own notes, I thought you might like to... well, make some of your own from time to time."

Jonas smiled warmly, gratefully, as he flicked through the plain pages once again. He understood the sentiment of such a gift, and he was genuinely touched at the thought Sam had put into it. She was right of course. Ever since Jonas had come to Earth and joined SG-1, he was constantly referring to the notes of Dr. Jackson, and always finding something to jot down the odd bit of information on. Now he had his own book to do just that.

"You didn't have to do this you know," he said to her, making sure not to sound ungrateful.

She shook her head. "Of course I did. You've done so much to prove yourself to us, and it's the least I could do in return. Besides, it wouldn't be much of a Christmas if you didn't at least get one present... it might as well have been from me."

Jonas nodded with a friendly smile. Then he said, "I feel a little guilty. I haven't got you anything."

She laughed. "I'll let you off... this year. It is your first Christmas after all."

Jonas grinned at her light-hearted reply, and said once again, "Thank you."

She simply nodded, and with a restless sigh, stood fro the chair, and gave a half-wave. "Don't mention it."

Sam left the room without another word.

Jonas looked down at the blank diary once again, and then back up at the door. She had gone to a lot of trouble to get this special gift for him, and he truly appreciated it.

Daniel had had a good friend in Sam... as did the Colonel and Teal'c.

And now so did he.

Jonas smiled.