Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long! I'll put another out tonight, sometime, but it might be the middle of the night. I have irregular sleeping hours, so you never know when I might get on the comp and type...

~*~

The two of them walked into the main living room and Jack saw that the couches and chairs had been pushed out of the way to make a large space in the middle of the room. Shelby and Lucille were dividing the family members and friends into teams of two, with each grandmother being a captain.

"Jack, you're on my team," Lucille called as he entered, and Anna pushed him over towards that side of the room as she moved to sit with her father, who was on Shelby's team.

"What are we playing?" He asked as he sat down on one of the sofas.

"Apparently we are playing various games, O'Neill," Teal'c said as he sat down next to Jack, right before Brittany could. Obviously unwilling to challenge the Jaffa for the spot, Brittany went over and sat next to Shawn, who was on the other side of Jack.

"We're starting with Charades." Lucille told him. "You know how to play?"

Jack nodded, but Teal'c shook his head.

"It's easy, Murray," Andrew assured him. "You just try to get people to guess the phrase without using any words. Only actions. You act them out."

Teal'c looked as though he could have thought of a dozen more interesting things he could do than act out phrases, but he wasn't going to complain. If this was what they wanted him to do, then this was what he'd do.

"It's fun, Teal'c," Jack said, grinning. "You'll see."

He was actually looking forward to this. Jack didn't really get a lot of time for fun and games in his life. Usually it was always so life or death with him and the people around him. Andrew's family was a great group of people, and it was truly a joy to spend down time with them and the boys that he cared so much for. The only thing missing was Sam.

"Are we ready?" David asked from the other team.

Everyone nodded, and there were a few excited yells from the boys, who were evenly divided amongst the grownups.

"Okay, we have a hat, and what we did was take a bunch of cards from the Pictionary game and put them in the hat. What that game wants you to draw, we want you to act out." He held up the hat, which was an old fedora, and pulled cards out to show them. "If you boys get a word you don't know, just ask and someone on the other team will take you into the kitchen and tell you what it is. There are different colors on the cards, which are different categories, so we'll roll a multi colored die to see which color you act out. Everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded, again, and David pulled out a coin.

"Mom? Call it." He flipped the coin, and Lucille called heads. It came out heads, and they went first.

"Jack?" Lucille looked at the Colonel, "You want to do the honors?"

The boys on both teams cheered as Jack stood up and went over to David, who was holding the hat. He pulled out a card, and rolled the die, and compared the color on the die to the one on the card. And groaned. 'Makeup'? He smiled, and looked at his team to see if they were ready, and David started the timer. He'd have 60 seconds to get his team to guess the word.

When he saw that all eyes were on him – including the other team as well – Jack started primping like a female, tossing his hair over his shoulder and batting his eyes.

"You're a girl!" Scott called.

"A hottie!" Lucille called.

Jack nodded, then acted like he was putting on lipstick.

"You've got a date!" Shawn called.

"Getting married!"

"Lipstick! You're putting on lipstick!"

He nodded again, and then went all out, pretending to put on mascara and powdering his nose. Around him the suggestions flew.

"You're a hooker!"

"A dancer!"

"You are putting make up on."

"Yes!" He grinned and pointed at Teal'c.

"Good job, Murray!" Andrew called. Jenny had come into the room during Jack's performance and had sat down on the arm of the sofa, next to Teal'c. She slapped him on the shoulder.

"Good guess, Murray!"

The Jaffa beamed.

"Our turn!"

Shelby decided to let one of her boys go first, and Tyler went up to the front of the room and drew a card out of the hat, then rolled the die. And so the game began.

Jack wasn't the only one who enjoyed himself that evening. The boys, who were usually so much more interested in video games and movies and technology, had a ball. They didn't know all the words, and some of them had trouble acting out the words they did know, but it was fun for them. Made even more so by the fact that the adults were always willing to help. Even Teal'c enjoyed the game more than he thought he would. The fact that his first word he had to act out was 'ballerina' made the others laugh, but Teal'c had long discovered the difference between being laughed at and being laughed with, and he found it as entertaining as the others. Once Anna had taken him into the kitchen and told him what a ballerina was and gave him a few suggestions on how one acted.

The night rolled on, with everyone yelling and laughing, and the game getting a little rowdy at the end, when Daniel had to act out Sumo Wrestler, and decided to use Andrew as a supporting cast member by bumping his belly against the boy, who'd been standing next to the sofa, and knocking him back into Teal'c. His team had guessed the word immediately, much to Anna's amusement.

It was fairly late when Lucille finally decided to call it a night. There were groans and complaints – and not just from the boys – when she told everyone to get to bed.

"We've got a busy day tomorrow," she told everyone, and Shelby nodded. The two matriarchs shooed them all off to bed, and Jack followed Shawn and the boys to make sure they were settled before he went to his room. David, Daniel and Teal'c followed him.

"No video games, guys," David told the boys when they got into the room.

"Okay, dad."

"And no staying up late talking. We're going to be up early tomorrow, and I don't want grumpy guys."

"Okay."

David left and Jack leaned against the doorframe and watched as the boys all got into their sleeping bags.

"We'll see you in the morning, guys," Daniel said, smiling. He was strongly reminded of the times they sent the boys to bed while they'd been at camp. Something Teal'c and Jack were also remembering. The boys all said their good nights, and with a sigh, Jack turned off the light and the three of them walked up the stairs.

"You're pretty quiet all of the sudden, Jack." Daniel noticed when they reached the top of the staircase. "Missing someone?"

Jack didn't bother to hide it. He nodded.

"Yeah."

"Major Carter would have enjoyed the evening's festivities," Teal'c said. "I, too, wish she had been here for them."

"If you get too lonely, you can always come in and sleep with us," Daniel said, grinning.

"I'll never get that lonely," O'Neill told him with a mock look of horror. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

They went into their room and Jack went across the hall to his own.

His bag was sitting on the bed, which was huge, and looked incredibly comfortable. There was a padded hope chest at the bottom of it, and Jack set his bag on the chest and changed into a pair of sweats to sleep in. The room was about the same size and Teal'c and Daniel's, and when Jack looked out the window into the dark night he could see snow falling in the light of the porch light, so he knew he'd have a pretty nice view once the sun came up.

Wishing once more that Sam was with him, Jack turned off the light and went to bed, sliding under the blankets and feeling the down comforter smother him in warmth immediately. He thought it would take him longer to fall asleep, but the bed was soft, the blankets were warm, and he'd just had a wonderful evening with a great group of people, and Jack was about as relaxed as he ever got. He fell asleep almost immediately.

~*~

Sometime in the dark of the night, a figure appeared at the door to Jack's room. She nudged the door open slightly, and looked inside. Seeing him asleep, she started to turn and leave, but something made her change her mind, and the figure padded silently over to the bed.

The Soldier in Jack was aware of another presence in the room as soon as the door opened slightly. The Soldier classified the interloper, deciding if the intruder was a threat or a friend, and immediately the Soldier relaxed, and went dormant once more, leaving Jack still asleep. When the warm body joined him on the bed, Jack reached out automatically in his sleep, aware in a small corner of his mind that if it was someone or something dangerous he'd already have been awake. He cuddled against her, his hand caressing her even as he slept, and he felt the body move closer to him in response. Jack sighed silently, and slept on into the night.

~*~

AN: Little cliffhanger for you all... whoever could it be?