Dinner was boisterous and noisy as all the campers in the dining room were trying to tell each other the highlights of their day. China's table was especially loud; since the boys were intent on telling Jack everything he'd missed on the Nature Walk. He listened intently to each boy, allowing each one to describe the walk in whatever way he wanted, and was properly enthusiastic about everything they'd seen. He noticed that Shawn seemed a little quiet during the meal, but when he asked, the boy just told him he was thinking about something and grinned.

After the dinner dishes were stacked and the announcements were read, Jack sent the boys to the gym with Sam, Jean and Sally and the girls from France, and told Teal'c that the cabin would be empty if he wanted to shower and get cleaned up.

"Just meet us at the fire pit," He told the Jaffa as he and Daniel sat and finished a last cup of coffee. They'd seen the fire pit on their tour of the camp before the kids had arrived, so Jack knew Teal'c would be able to find it. Teal'c nodded and left the dining room, and Jack took a final drink from his coffee cup and stood up.

"We'd better get going. Your fans are probably waiting to see you run around with a basketball."

Daniel shook his head in disbelief, "Can you believe the way they're looking at me?"

"Better you than me." Jack told him, grinning.

"I should have kissed Sam," Daniel said, more to himself than to Jack, although Jack heard him and laughed.

"That did work out pretty well."

"Yeah, it did. You're not half as dumb as you act, you know?"

The two handed their cups to the dishwashers, and then walked down the stairs to the gym to see how much trouble their boys were causing Sam and her girls.

The game was dodge ball. The entire camp was playing – except for Murray, who was showering – and the teams were about as fair as they could be. China was on the same team as France, Egypt and Switzerland, and they were facing off against Germany, Mexico, UK and Morocco. Two boy cabins and two girl cabins against two boy cabins and two girl cabins. It was utter pandemonium, and a whole lot of fun. Right up until an errant playground ball hit Jack right in the face and he dropped like a rock. The entire camp winced in sympathy as he picked himself up off the floor, surrounded by his boys, and went over to sit against the wall to watch the rest of the game.

"Go avenge me, guys," Jack told China. The boys had intended to sit out as well, to keep him company – or to make sure he was okay, Jack wasn't sure – but he didn't want them to miss the fun.

"You sure?"

"Yup. If you don't get in there, we're going to lose, and it'll be my fault for dragging you guys all out of the game. So get in there."

So he'd sat and watched, but watching was almost as much fun as playing. When someone was knocked out of the game, they'd come over and stand by Jack while they waited for a teammate to catch a ball and bring them back in. He got a lot of sympathetic looks and winces, but he also had a lot of fun rooting for his boys.

Gina came over and sat next to him when she was hit with a ball, and Jack smiled at her. She smiled back, and scooted a little closer. Had it been Jean, Jack would have been uncomfortable, but it wasn't, and he wasn't.

"Are you having fun?" He asked her, ducking when a ball came close to hitting him.

"Uh huh. Are you?"

"Yeah."

"Does your face hurt?"

"A little. Not as much as it probably looks like it does, though."

"It looks pretty bad."

"I know."

"Gina! You're in!" The little girl sprang to her feet and took off, waving a quick good-bye to O'Neill, who smiled.

Gina was replaced only a moment later by Sam, who plopped down next to O'Neill and took a moment to study the bruises on his face.

"You look awful."

"Thanks."

"Does it hurt?"

"Only when I get hit with a ball. Thank God Teal'c hadn't thrown it."

"True." Carter was quiet for a moment, watching the game. "Thanks for helping me with Gina today, Sir."

"Oh, you're going to have to do a whole lot better than that, Sam," O'Neill said, smiling over at her. "You owe me big time for that one, and you know it."

"Whatever you want," Sam said instantly. She agreed completely; she did owe him big time for the assist.

"Sam! You're in!"

She stood up and patted his shoulder, then scurried back into the game.

Eventually, the allies lost their battle. Switzerland just hadn't been a match for the might of Germany, and China had such small players and was two short with Jack and Teal'c both out of the game that they were no match for the might of Morocco and UK. But it had been fun, and the boys were all laughing as they came to the sidelines to rejoin their fallen leader.

"We didn't avenge you, Jack," Daniel told him, reaching down and taking O'Neill's hand to help him to his feet.

"Ah, well, you gave it a good showing." Jack grinned at his boys, pleased that they were good sports about losing, and ruffled Simon's hair, since he was closest. "Maybe I'll be able to talk the cook out of some kind of goody to repay the hard effort."

This was met with shouts of approval, and Daniel smiled. "You're planning on pumping them full of sugar before bedtime?"

"Hmmm... I hadn't actually looked at it that way. But we do have Campfire first, so maybe they'll forget about it until tomorrow?"

"Not likely."

The two men grinned and headed out the door, following their kids and the rest of the camp down to the fire pit.