Disclaimer: Alias and all the characters belong to JJ Abrams. But I wouldn't mind borrowing Jack for a little while...

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"What is this?"

Jack asked as he spied the cream-colored pamphlet that had been placed in a pile of papers on his desk. He had sat down in his home office only moments before, having returned from a three-week mission the previous day, and needed to sort through some papers that night.

"What is what?"

Laura asked innocently from the kitchen, where she was cleaning up the table. She had put Sydney to bed after dinner, and was only now finally getting around to straightening up the kitchen. Laura could tell by Jack's tone that he had spotted the Wilderness Guides/Wilderness Girls pamphlet she had gotten from another mother during Sydney's gymnastics lesson the week before. As she heard Jack start to complain under his breath, she tried to suppress a smile as she put down the dirty dish she had just picked up from the table and headed for Jack's office.

Laura entered the room and noted the stern look on Jack's face as he perused the pamphlet in front of him.

"Laura, what is this about?"

Laura, no longer able to hide her amusement, began the speech that she had been rehearsing for Jack ever since she heard about the Wilderness Guides/Wilderness Girls program.

"Jack, I know how often you're gone from home with your job, and you know how much Sydney loves to spend time with you, so I thought it would be a great idea if you and her spent some time together... without me. You know, some father-daughter bonding time."

Laura waited for Jack's response, realizing that this idea would not appeal to him at first. She knew she'd have to sell the whole Wilderness program to Jack. And unlike her handler, with whom she wheeled and dealed on a regular occasion, Mr. Jack Bristow was no easy customer, and would require some serious incentives to make the sale.

"But Laura, when I come home, I want to spend time with Sydney AND you. Besides, how am I supposed to take care of a little girl all weekend on my own? Are you aware that she could come back from this Wilderness Girls excursion banged-up, bruised, skinned knees, broken bones, black eyes..."

"Oh, I'm not worried about Sydney's safety," Laura quickly replied. "There will be all those other parents there to help look out for her. It's you I'm worried about, Mr. Bristow. I'm scared you won't be able to hold up to all the small talk and down-and-dirty dealings about tent positioning, fire production, marshmallow roasting, and so forth."

Laura looked at Jack with her best façade of mock concern, which Jack immediately saw straight through.

"Laura, this is nothing more than a blatant attempt to get me to bond with a bunch of other parents I hardly know and their whiny kids while you get a weekend all to yourself to do God knows what, without the presence of your needy husband and daughter."

It was Jack's turn to smile. He realized what Laura had come into this battle knowing - it would take a fair amount of negotiating on both sides before this conflict came to an end, and Jack planned to accrue as many concessions as he could before he acceded to the Wilderness Girls weekend for which he surmised he had already been signed up, thanks to his lovely wife.

Now it was Laura's turn to pretend to be miffed.

"Jack, you know as well as I do that the only people we ever socialize with are your work contacts and a few other professors from the English department. I just thought it would be nice for you to get to know some of Sydney's friends' parents, and Sydney would be thrilled. She is forever talking about her friends' Wilderness Girls weekends, and how much fun they have, asking me why can't she go too."

Laura didn't tell Jack the real reason she wanted him and Sydney to join Wilderness Girls. She knew that eventually she would have to leave her family, and she also knew that the more friends Jack and Sydney had to depend on during that difficult time, the easier it would be for them to cope with the situation.

Jack sarcastically responded to Laura's plea.

"Well, since you have this sudden interest in our family's social skills or lack thereof, why don't you take Sydney, Mrs. social butterfly?"

Jack smiled, thinking he'd won this round. But Laura quickly made him realize his folly.

"Because, Mr. social butterfly, the Wilderness Girls program is specifically for fathers and daughters. Although, I'm sure there are some other fathers in the group that wouldn't mind me hanging around all weekend...I wonder, after the girls are asleep, would the other Guides be up for some skinny dipping in the lake with Mrs. Guide? Personally, I'd much rather have that kind of fun with you, but if you will not take responsibility for our daughter, I guess it's up to me to be one of the guys."

Laura smiled wickedly at Jack, while simultaneously using both her hands to pull her hair out of the bun she had put it in that morning, taking out the bobby pins then turning her head over to shake out her mane. As she flipped her head back up and ran her left hand through her hair, while slowly unbuttoning the top buttons on her shirt with her right hand, she eyed Jack again.

Laura knew that her hair was Jack's weakness, it always had been. He insisted she keep it long, and when Sydney was born he had always protested strongly when Laura wanted to get her hair trimmed. Laura had tried to explain how tangled the hair of a rambunctious little girl could get, and how the after-bath detangling sessions always led to battles and tears, but Jack objected. For Jack the long tresses of his wife and daughter were the two most precious possessions of his household.

Jack took a lingering look at Laura's long hair and the actions of her right hand, and swallowed hard. Then, coming out of the hair-induced trance, Jack replied with his own clever retort.

"Well, if you're so interested in me spending time with Sydney's friends' parents, couldn't I just hang out with the other moms at gymnastics or soccer practice? Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Bridges always seem to find something to, erm, discuss with me at these functions."

Laura scowled at Jack and quickly moved her right hand away from her buttons. She knew the type of discussions Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Bridges wanted to have with Jack, and the thought made her fume. She despised Mrs. Anderson, and the way she always grabbed Jack's arm while talking to him, squeezing his bicep. And Mrs. Bridges, wearing far too much makeup, laughing loudly at every witty comment Jack made, continually asking Jack if he had a brother with whom she could be set up, forever hinting at her recent divorce and her current "availability."

Laura knew all too well the effect Jack had on the other soccer moms, and she always made sure to arrange her teaching schedule so she could be home to take Sydney and pick her up from her activities, to keep those other cloying mothers away from her husband. Laura had worked too hard to win Jack in the first place, and now that she had him, she did not plan to have any one else threaten her position.

Jack, realizing his last statement might have been over the line, changed tactics. He had not entered the Wilderness Girls argument to anger Laura. Jack knew from experience the mercurial nature of his wife's temper; how she could go from hot to cold in a second, and he wanted her to stay on his good side, at least until they made it to bed that night. At that point, he mused to himself, she could have whatever side she wanted, as long as she remained in an accommodating mood for everything he had planned once they got into bed.

"Laura, you know I'm kidding, I actually couldn't stand to be around Mrs. Anderson or Mrs. Bridges for very long - every time they talk to me, I hear their words, but all I think about is their poor husbands, and how they don't have the luxury that I do - coming home to you."

Jack knew he'd made a wise move as the smile returned to Laura's face. Taking that as a cue, he got up from his desk and walked over to his wife. He gently placed a hand on each of her shoulders, slowly turning her around. Then, as he began massaging her shoulders, he decided now would be a great time to make his concession speech.

"You know I love to spend time with Sydney, and if you want me to take her on a Wilderness Girls weekend, I will. I hate that my job forces me to be away from her for such long periods of time - every time I leave I pray that she won't have changed at all when I return. But there's always something different - a lost tooth, a new gymnastics trick, a her latest round of spelling words - these things that you get to see every day Laura, they're the little things that I miss, and I regret it more than you'll ever know."

As Laura listened to Jack's words, her mind started thinking of the future, when she would not be there to see all these little changes in their daughter, and all the bigger ones that would occur later. Laura realized again how important this weekend - and all the Wilderness Girls weekends to come - would be for Sydney and Jack. It would allow them to connect in a special way, with an activity that was just theirs. Once she left, hopefully they would continue with Wilderness Girls, and continue to make memories of the two of them together. Laura hoped that by asking Jack to do this with Sydney, she was giving them both something that would help them get through her absence from their lives.

"Oh Jack, thank you - Sydney will be thrilled." Jack began to reply, but Laura, not wanting to miss an opportunity to add in a witty retort of her own, proceeded.

"I think you should be the one to tell her at breakfast, so that she and her friends at school can start planning what tortures... I mean, activities you all will be participating in."

Then Laura turned back towards Jack, cocked her right eyebrow as part of a conspiratorial smirk, and put her arms around his neck.

She continued talking, "I know it will be a difficult transition to go from dangerous missions to a camping trip with a bunch of weekend warriors acting like middle-aged boy scouts, but I also know you are a master at handling difficult situations."

Jack grinned down at his wife, meeting her gaze with his own puckish look. He leaned his head down to kiss her, but as his lips met hers, he began to smile once again. Laura, perturbed that Jack had thwarted the kiss, became irate.

"Why did you stop?"

"I was just thinking about that remark you made earlier about the skinny dipping...it's too bad there's not a lake in the neighborhood - that's the kind of Wilderness Girls activity I'd like for us to be participating in right now."

Laura, now unable to suppress her own smile, answered by speaking against Jack's lips.

"Well, we don't have a lake, which is too bad, really, but we do have a nice big bathtub upstairs... and with all that talk of Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Bridges earlier, I think it would be best if we washed all thoughts of those two trollops away as soon as possible."

Jack kissed Laura tenderly for a moment, then broke apart long enough to end the discussion. As he wrapped his arms around his wife, he whispered in her ear, "that sounds like the best Wilderness Girl activity I've heard yet." Then he broke their embrace and picked up Laura's hand as they left his office and headed for the bathroom and "Lake Prothalamion," as Laura affectionately dubbed the conjugal bathtub that night.