Janet pulled up in the driveway; she could see that every light in the house was on.  Her instinct to point out to them the effect of this on their electric bill was muddled by the warm feeling she got knowing that they were both at home.  Over the last couple of months, since Jonas had come to their household, she'd grown quite accustomed to this.  What's a few extra kilowatts, she chided herself, compared to the feeling that it gave her.

The weather was wonderfully warm in the soft twilight of mid summer.  As she went up the front walk, she could hear the sounds of the television set wafting through the open screen door; it was one of those cooking shows; Jonas was absolutely hooked on them, and as she entered the house, she could see he'd been trying to match their efforts again.

As she looked at him, his face stricken as he suddenly realized the mess he'd created along with his latest novelty food item, compliments of Emeril this time, she smiled.

"I'm sure it's wonderful; this will clean up," she said.  She made a mental note to advise General Hammond that Jonas was ready to return to his full duties; to this she added another note to take him out for a real dinner.  She'd been looking for an excuse to invite Lieutenant Hailey over to stay with Cassie, and with SG-1 offworld for the next couple of weeks, she knew Sam wouldn't be available to baby sit (although Janet would never have told Cassie that's what it was).

Jonas returned the smile, relieved that she wasn't upset with him about the chaos of the kitchen.  "It looked so easy the way he was doing it," he offered, sounding frustrated.  "At first I thought this television was a great teaching medium, but now I'm beginning to wonder how much truth it really presents," he continued, the puzzled frown he occasionally got creasing his brow.

She smiled to herself.  Since he'd been staying with them after his surgery, he tried valiantly to help out and he firmly believed that a good dinner was the key to a happy household.  She wondered briefly how many episodes of "Father Knows Best" and "Leave it to Beaver" he'd had to watch to become endowed with that particular wisdom.

"How about Friday night we go to the square and get you a real gourmet dinner?"

As she heard the words coming out of her mouth, Janet was surprised that her mental note had converted itself to this suggestion so quickly, though she shouldn't have been – Janet Fraiser was nothing if not a woman of action.  She thought he looked as surprised at her offer as she suddenly felt at having made it.

"Okay, I'd like that," he said, trying not to sound as amazed as he felt.

"Like what?" Cassie said as she descended the stairs.  Her jaw dropped at the sight of the somewhat unattractive though hopefully edible creation, inadvertently cringing at the chaotic mess of spills, broken eggshells and mysterious globs that decorated what was normally the kitchen and eating area; she looked over at her mother.

Janet turned; it was all coming together now, she thought with a certain sense of comfort.

"Cassie, there's a girl up on base who would like very much to meet you; I thought maybe she could come over and hang out on Friday night and I'll take Jonas down to the square to that nice restaurant we ate at for your last birthday."

Cassie grinned, recognizing her adoptive mother's keen ability to take exactly the right path when presented with a troubling situation.  She also knew firsthand that Janet had unending patience, having tried it often enough, Cassie thought to herself with an inward grimace.  Her innate senses told her that, as a teenager, she could be quite a handful; the Tauri children her own age would not know this for several years; perhaps not until they had children of their own.

"Cool," she replied casually.

Not having her own car, Lieutenant Jennifer Hailey rode with Dr. Fraiser back to the pleasant split-level in the suburbs of Colorado Springs.  She had been pleasantly surprised when Janet had called her and asked her to come and stay with Cassie; she thought the doctor might have filed her suggestion of friendship away with other kindnesses she'd been offered.

Cassie was out in the yard "teaching" Jonas how to play catch as the two drove up – Jonas knew perfectly well how to do this, but allowing Cassie to think she was showing him how to do things was the real fun.  He knew it gave her a sense of confidence, too, having only recently learned some things herself.

Cassie waved in the direction of the car; the girl in the passenger seat was pretty, obviously military though, thought Cassie.  She'd have to draw her out of that a bit, like she did with Sam, she thought happily.

Jonas smiled at the sight of the car; he was really excited about this dinner out that Janet had suggested.  In addition to his desire to explore more of this new world he now called home, he was looking forward to an evening alone with the pretty doctor.  Cassie was a great kid; he was secretly thrilled that she'd started calling him Dad when he had come to stay with them (though she admitted later that this was really a part of her ongoing plot to discombobulate the nosy neighbors), but he longed for the type of interaction that should not occur in the presence of those her age.

"Hi, Lieutenant Hailey," he greeted her casually as she got out of the car, recognizing the young blond officer from several times he'd seen her in the labs with Major Carter or Dr. Jackson.  Like himself, he'd noticed that she sometimes seemed as if she felt out of place at the SGC.  Her efforts to "make it" equaled his own; he felt an unspoken kinship with her on this level.

"Nice to see you again, sir," she said with a pleasant smile.  She looked at Cassie, a bit shyly.

Jonas turned.  He held out his arm, Cassie came to his side.  "This is Cassie."

"Hi," Cassie said.

"Hi.  My first name's Jennifer," Lieutenant Hailey said smoothly, as she held out her hand to the younger girl.

Cassie took it; it was small and soft, but strong.  This was a good, honest person, her naquadah enhanced instincts surmised.  She smiled.

"Do you like MTV?" Cassie asked.

"Love it," Jennifer said with a grin.  "Don't get much of a chance to see it any more, though, I'm afraid I might be quite a bit behind the times on it," she added demurely.

"That's okay, I'll catch you up on what's worthwhile," Cassie replied enthusiastically with a smile of her own.

Jonas grinned softly at the exchange, suspecting that, like he frequently did, Jennifer was instinctively setting Cassie up to spend the evening "teaching" her the finer art of appreciating MTV.

Janet had gone in the house to get ready while the three of them talked, and quickly changed into the fitted, sleeveless black linen shift that she favored on nights such as these; the simple dress was comfortable and served to highlight her natural beauty.

She slipped on her black patent leather heels and her favorite string of pearls, donning the matching earrings as she came down the stairs.

The three of them walked in the house just then, Jonas following the two girls. He stopped in the doorway, his mouth inadvertently dropping open.  He'd always known she was beautiful, but the sight of her dressed like this soundly confirmed it, her outfit perfectly accentuating all of the finer points of her attractive figure.

Cassie and Jennifer also stopped.  "Wow, Mom, you look great," Cassie said in an awestruck voice.

Janet eyed the three of them critically as she efficiently finished her task with the earrings.  "You look like you've never seen me in a dress before," she said lightly, realizing with a twinge of regret that they probably had not.  The combination of a household with a teenager and a recovering patient and running an on-base infirmary did not lend itself well to occasions for this sort of dress up fun, she thought ruefully.

She looked at Jonas now.  "Jonas, it's the custom on this planet for the lady to keep the man waiting, not the other way around," she said teasingly, with a hint of laughter in her eyes.

"Oh, uh, I'll just be a minute," he said, almost bashfully, as he bounded up the stairs to the spare bedroom.  Luckily, one of the things that Cassie had truly been able to instruct him in was the finer details of proper dressing for occasions on this planet; he reappeared momentarily in a pair of gray dress slacks, with a white no collar dress shirt, the top buttons of which he had left open, and a nice sport jacket that was just the right shade of charcoal gray to complement the other two pieces.

The combination brought out the true color of his eyes, Janet noticed, and she felt herself inadvertently drawing a breath at the sight of him.  He really was quite a nice looking young man, a forgotten part of her realized, not for the first time.

This reaction was not lost on the two girls.  Cassie elbowed Jennifer and giggled conspiratorially; Jennifer put a hand to her mouth to stifle her own.

Janet looked at them sharply, regaining herself.  "You two can order a pizza if you'd like; we should be back by 11:00," she stated in a matter of fact tone of voice.  She looked at Jonas.

"Ready?" she asked lightly, trying to quell the sudden nervousness she felt.

He smiled.  "Ready."

Janet was used to Jonas' relatively quiet demeanor; she secretly enjoyed watching him quizzically observing his surroundings as they drove downtown.  It reminded her that it really was good just to be alive.

It was a beautiful evening for a night out; the square was busy but not overly crowded.  They were seated at a small table outdoors; Jonas held Janet's chair for her, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by her.

The waiter lit the small oil lamp in the middle of the table before disappearing to fetch the wine that they had decided on.  They perused the menu briefly; when the waiter returned, Jonas suggested that the lady should try the wine when the waiter offered, and then waited for Janet to place her order before adding his own.

Whatever else he's capable of, she thought, his manners are impeccableVery few men on Earth really know how to act like a gentleman, she thought wryly.

Dinner was as good as the descriptions had sounded; the wine complemented it perfectly.  Contrary to both their feelings of trepidation, the conversation flowed easily between them.  They did, after all, have a common workplace and several common colleagues, not to mention now a common home and Cassie, whom Jonas had come to feel as fondly for as he'd imagined he'd ever feel about a daughter of his own.

Jonas' interest in Earth food added to the chatter; Janet was amused at his enthusiastic appreciation for it, and found herself enjoying her own more for it.

Nothing like an alien to remind you just how good life really is, she thought to herself again.  With Cassie, Janet had always thought it was her youth that contributed to the wonder she seemed to have about everything, but Jonas was equally intrigued by what she deemed the simplest of things.

This alternate perspective on everything Janet had ever taken for granted was humbling; despite her commitment to maintaining her professional demeanor with him, Jonas' view of life on Earth continually endeared him to her.

A brief flash of Samantha Carter and the Tollan Narim came into her head at the thought; she remembered Sam describing this same feeling when it came to time she had spent with him.  She stopped the memory before it could get to the tragic ending that their association had taken, not wanting to remember the deep pain it had caused her closest girl friend.

There was more wine than food, and Jonas emptied the remainder of the bottle into their two glasses.  He cherished every chance he got to venture out into this new world; every time he went out he noticed more and more things that amazed him – the trees, the mountains, the clear, clear sky….not something that he'd experienced much of on Kelowna, which was generally dreary after far too many generations of war.

Then there were the Tauri people – intense, outlandish, colorful; it was as if they were living out loud, he thought, every one completely different from the next, yet so much the same.  He knew they had their problems, but their ability to unite for a common purpose amazed him; this was understandable, since his previous living experience had been with a race that were incapable of this self-preserving skill.

As their plates were removed, he looked over at his dinner mate, the low light of the oil lamp softly illuminating her beautiful face in the growing twilight.  Though he saw her everyday, Jonas thought he would never stop being amazed at her beauty, with her shiny auburn hair and her incredibly big brown eyes.  The soft lines that were just beginning to make their presence known around her eyes and the edges of her mouth gave her something of a regal aura, Jonas thought; not signs of age so much as indicators of earned wisdom and serenity.

It was her personal strength that really wowed him, though; with all that she saw and dealt with on a daily basis, she so rarely lost her temper or seemed overwhelmed, and she always seemed to know exactly what to do, no matter what the situation.  Her faith in the karmatic idiom, everything will work out as it should, it always does, was admirable; she was never wrong.  He'd added it to his own list of mantras.

He'd known ever since that very first night in the infirmary that he was completely smitten; but he never thought he'd be part of her household, much less having a wonderful meal with her on a warm summer night.  Seeing her like this, relaxed and happy, he was thrilled that he could be part of it with her.  He felt a wave of gratitude and happiness come over him.

"Y'know, Janet, I really want you to know how much I appreciate all that you've done for me," Jonas said.  He looked directly at her now.  "You're an incredible woman, Janet, beautiful inside and out," he said quietly, thoughtfully.  He tipped his wineglass towards hers, clinking it lightly before taking another sip, watching her over the top of the glass.

His seriousness was reflected in the earnestness in his eyes; the pure humility in his voice struck Janet, giving her a warm feeling.  She was used to gratitude from her patients, but none of them had ever looked at her quite the way Jonas was looking at her now.

"Well, really, I should be thanking you," Janet said lightly, "for all you've done with Cassie," she added, consciously realizing she was practically deflecting him with a mention of Cassie.  As much as she was enjoying this, she knew she wasn't ready for the level of closeness that such an exchange might otherwise have conferred.  She reminded herself that Jonas was a patient.

Jonas noticed the diversionary tactic, and the slight hint of nervousness in her voice.  That he was making her uncomfortable initially bothered him when a sudden thought struck his keen senses:  She likes me.  More than she wants to, he realized.

He was still looking at her, smiling now; it was a look she hadn't seen on the face of a man for a long time.  It sent tingles up her spine, despite her mental reaffirmations that she was his physician.

Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the color of his eyes, or the warmth of his smile, but Janet realized just how much she had missed this type of interaction, how much she had missed someone looking at her that way, as if he had some intimate secret about her that she herself didn't know; she was also becoming acutely aware of just what a good looking man Jonas really was.

At this last thought, she felt suddenly shy, and broke off the gaze, looking down at her folded arms on the table.

Jonas sat up and placed his glass on the table.  "Well, Cassie's just a wonderful kid; she really makes it easy to be with her."

Janet laughed.  "Well, then, you should try being her mother some time," she stated emphatically, with a mixture of humor and slight sarcasm in her voice.

She shook her head, folding her arms on the table again.  "Some days, I just don't know," she sighed quietly.  A pensive look came over her lovely brown eyes as she gazed at the table between them.

"Aw, come on, Doc, you're not being fair to yourself," Jonas said.

She looked up at him wonderingly.

"You're her mother, you represent the guiding force in her life and she's at that age where she needs it and resents it at the same time," he stated in a knowing fashion.  "Me, I'm just the good time guy; you're the real parent," he added, somewhat sardonically, with a wave of his hand.

His enthusiasm for what he was saying gaining ground, he continued.  "You're doing the best you can, and that's all anybody can ask, right?  And from what I can see, the best you've got to give is the best she'll ever get," he stated firmly, grinning.

His face softened a bit.  "She knows that, too, Janet," he said quietly, leaning on the table, looking at her with a small smile.

Janet absorbed the weight of what he was saying, a shy smile playing on her lips at his frank observation of hers and Cassie's relationship and the familiar sound of the words with which he'd initially managed to get her attention in the infirmary that first night.

He excused himself to go to the men's room, discreetly paying the bill on the way back; another cultural idiom he'd learned from the male characters on the television shows the Tauri called soap operas.

As the waiter rang it up, Jonas looked over at her.  She was more relaxed than he'd ever seen her; it was what he had been secretly hoping he could do for her that evening.

She smiled as he approached the table; he gently took hold of the chair she was sitting on.

"Shall we?" he said graciously.

Momentarily Janet wondered about the bill; then she consciously tossed the thought aside, giving Jonas a smile as he helped her out of her chair.  Trust that he's taken care of it and let it go, she told herself; he's alien, not stupid.

Stepping out of the restaurant, they looked around at all of the people having a good time, laughing and chatting merrily.  Janet felt a sense of longing to be a part of it.  She looked at Jonas, and felt another rush of nervousness.  She steeled herself against it; she would not deny herself these brief moments of pleasure that can be had simply being in a man's company, she decided emphatically.

"It's a lovely evening, and I could use a breath of fresh air after all that wine," she said.  Taking a deep breath, she continued.

"Would you like to walk around the square before we head back?  We've got a little while," she added with the slightest note of hopefulness in her voice, looking up at the clock on the tower at the end of the square nearest them, then back at him.

Jonas noticed the slightest look of apprehension in her eyes again; she'd gone out on a limb here, he realized.

He smiled warmly at her.  "I'd like that," he said.  He turned and offered her his arm; tentatively, she slid hers around it and they strolled slowly amidst the frivolity of the warm night.

The street artists and performers were out in full force in the beautiful summer weather; it was a delight to watch them, especially the way the younger children reacted to their antics with such awestruck looks on their faces.

As they approached the last corner before the parking lot, the clock ticking away the moments much faster than either one of them would have liked, the sounds of a corner jazz band drifted towards them, growing louder as they approached.

Jonas suddenly started playfully moving his feet in time with the music; he released Janet's arm and broke into a full dance step.

He grinned at the bemused, wondering look on her face.  "Hey, I've watched all of the dance show reruns – Lawrence Welk, Solid Gold, Dance Fever – you name it.  It's not that hard once you've studied it," he said, with his usual matter-of-factness.

Impulsively, he grabbed Janet's hand and pulled her towards him; she twirled expertly into him, selected memories from another lifetime taking their appropriate place in her mind at that moment.

Jonas smiled to himself; she could dance, too.

As they easily moved their supple bodies to the rhythm, a small crowd began to gather, awed by the grace and ease with which the attractive couple tripped the light fantastic.

The band, inspired by the impromptu turn, sped up slightly, wrapping up the song on a sliding, low brass note tailor made for a long dip; Jonas obliged, expertly dipping Janet low to the ground.  She played right into it, her leg rising elegantly in the air next to him, as if of its own accord.

His face was close to hers now; he was grinning impishly, holding her firmly off the ground.  Janet felt wonderfully carefree, safe in his embrace; she hadn't danced like this in what seemed like forever.

The music stopped, and those in the gathering around them clapped politely.  Startled, they looked over at the crowd; they hadn't realized that they were being observed.

Jonas returned his gaze to Janet, slowly pulling her back to her feet.  She was breathless, her mouth open slightly, giggling; her beautiful face glowed with unbridled joy.  As they rose, still in their dance embrace, Jonas pulled her close and kissed her, passionately.  The on-lookers openly cheered now.

They parted, both equally surprised by the spontaneous action.  They stood looking at each other, breathless, neither exactly sure what to do next as the crowd dissipated.

Jonas reached over; taking Janet's face in both of his hands, he kissed her again, deeply, with all of the energy of his undeclared love.  It was another, whole new experience for him; the combination of his feelings for her and the complete newness of the world around him made feel as if he were kissing a woman for the first time.

Throwing caution to the wind, responding to the demands of her body, Janet let herself melt into his incredible kiss, sliding her arms under the sport jacket, around his back; he pulled her close.

The carillon of the clock tower rang then, signaling the passing of the third quarter of the hour and the end of their kiss.  He was still holding her, enjoying the warmth and softness of her; she let him, reveling in the feel of his strong arms around her, her every sense alive with the closeness of his finely honed physique.

"I wonder if this is how your 'Cinderella' felt at 11:45," Jonas said with a grin.

"11:45?  Is it that late already?" Janet quickly stepped back, out of their embrace, startled.  She turned to see the clock, sighing with relief when she saw that it was only 10:45.  She looked back at him now with an almost sad smile.

"Well, we should really go; we told the girls we'd be back by 11:00," she said lightly, in her I'm-just-your-physician tone of voice.  Her reserved, doctor manner had returned, but Jonas thought he detected just a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

"Yeah, you're right," he said casually, with his usual, easy, charming smile.  In that moment, Janet realized that, after this night, she might not ever see that smile again without feeling the tingle it now gave her.

They walked silently back to the car, each secretly treasuring the moments that had just passed between them.