Author's Notes: There were lots of great guesses and suggestions as to what Sam and Jack saw at the end of Chapter 14. None of them were correct, however (and I did already have this chapter written)! :) I really liked Arizona94's suggestion of a Wal-Mart... that tickled me so much, that I seriously tried to figure out how to work in a reference to it... lol...

Hope you like the surprise...

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Ch 17: SURPRISE

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From Chapter 14: He looked up at where she was standing. She too was scanning the area carefully. She glanced back at him and with silent hand signals, let him know that she'd seen something. He pantomimed a query for more information, but she had to shake her head and shrug a bit. While she was carefully scanning the area again, he slowly moved up to where she was standing.

And then he saw it.

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And then he saw it.

He was stunned.

He turned his head to look at her and she was grinning from ear to ear, extremely pleased with herself. She'd scored.

He turned back to the vista in front of them.

It was a lake. A stunningly beautiful, deep blue lake. He estimated that it was slightly larger than 'his' lake in Minnesota. He wondered if it had any fish. There were fish in the river near their camp... so there were probably fish in this lake.

Standing on their small rise, they had a good view of the entire shoreline. The trees came just about down to the water all the way around.

He turned back to see that her blinding grin had settled down to a smaller smug smile. Smug. And he realized that she had somehow known that this lake was here. She must have seen it the other afternoon when they were on the ridgetop and she'd hadn't pointed it out so that she could surprise him with it. No wonder she'd argued that they explore downriver before heading up the other ridgeline... he might have seen the lake from the other ridge...

Smug. OK, she'd earned it, he admitted, and then noticed that she was holding the binoculars out to him. Not saying a word, he just gave her a thankful grin and began scrutinizing the details of the shoreline through the binoculars.

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Two hours later and they'd walked half-way around the lake to a small sandy beach that they'd seen from the upstream side. Just a short way further along the shoreline was the lake's gentle outlet as the water once more followed the river's course downvalley. Setting up camp for the night on the patch of sand, they decided to opt for a campfire and the warm food that went along with that.

Later, after the evening's tasks had been taken care of, they sat on the same side of the fire, looking out across the lake.

"Thanks," he said softly.

"Hmm?" she came out of her musings.

"Thanks... for this," and he gestured at the lake.

"Oh," and she gave him a shy smile and looked back over the water. "You're welcome."

"How did you see this from the ridgeline?" He asked. "I scoured the area with binoculars and didn't see a lake anywhere."

The smile returned a bit, "I didn't see it from the ridgeline either," she admitted.

"But you knew it was here!," he exclaimed. "I'd swear that you were not surprised to find it!"

Her smile grew a little larger. "Yeah, I did know it was here," she answered incompletely... drawing out the fun.

"Argh!" he gave a low growl but the campfire gave her enough light so that she could see the smile twinkling in his eyes. "So, how did you know it was here?" he stressed the words carefully.

"Are you sure that you really want to know?" and her words from earlier floated into his mind. Her words, her smile... and that clickety, clickety, click...

"Your laptop...?" he ventured and she nodded but didn't supply anything else. Waiting. Forcing him to ask. To ask her to explain. To give the invitation for some technobabble. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Sa-a-m...?" he asked but left it open... not quite ready to give permission for the scientific explanation.

And the smile broke out full force again as she chuckled at his frustration. Giving in, however, she pulled her laptop out of her pack. He hadn't even known that she'd brought it, and idly wondered what else was in her pack. Impatiently he waited while the machine slowly booted (ok, ok, so it only took a little over two minutes, he begrudged). She silently watched him and he could see the bemusement in her eyes as she was fully aware of his barely restrained impatience.

Once it was booted, she immediately turned her focus on the screen and her hands flew across the keyboard again. Clickety, clickety, clickety, clickety... How was she so adept with that infernal internal touch-sensitive mousepad?...he thought querulously. He hated them. He liked the mouse with his home computer. Easy to use, tactile, it fit nicely in his hand and the cursor moved just where he expected it to on the screen. Unlike that 'supposed' mouse control on the laptop. He felt like such a klutz when he used it.

He noticed the silence and pulled his gaze from the horizon of the opposite shore of the lake. She had turned the laptop so that he could see the screen. Focusing on the screen, he saw an almost full-screen photo that she had taken from the ridgeline. When he glanced up to meet her expectant gaze, she explained, "I downloaded the photos and you can use this slide-viewer program to view the entire 360-degree panorama sequentially."

OK, he was impressed... And cool technological thingies weren't something that he would normally get too excited about... "Very nice," he offered.

Seeing his quizzical look, she rolled her eyes while fussing with the program controls. Watching the screen while she panned over the digitized view, he recognized the features and ridgelines from their previous excursion. And then she stopped panning across and began zooming in on one portion. He scooted a little closer to her side so that he could get the proper angle on the LCD display.

And there it was. He could just make out the far portion of the lake through the trees. "Sharp eyes, Sam," he praised and got that small smug smile in reply. Well, he decided that she'd earned the right to be smug. She'd presented him with A Lake, after all. And she had refrained from the technobabble explanation of how that photo software worked..., so... he'd definitely let her be smug. She'd scored!

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The next morning, they searched a little farther downstream before calling an end to this outing. They didn't find any intelligent life or anyone who could help fix the stargate or any way off of the planet... but Jack still considered this exploration a success. They had a lake!

Sam carefully marked the lake on their map, working from what they could presently see and from the photo records on her laptop. In the meantime, Jack walked a little further along the edges of the lake, searching for signs of fish. He didn't see any, but that didn't mean they weren't there. He smiled to himself. They'd just have to come back.

And, anyways... even if there weren't any fish, there was still the lake.

So, they'd just have to come back.

Stopping to study the updated map, he critiqued her charting of the lake's shape, size and location... comparing with his own visual cues and assessments. And then he noticed that just off to the side, she'd neatly inked 'Jack's Lake.'

Looking up he caught her watching for his reaction and she shrugged with a questioning look on her face. "It just seemed appropriate," she offered.

"I think it's perfect," he gave her a smile from his heart to say thanks. "But now, you know, we have to name something after you..."

She looked uncomfortable with that but then relented, "As long as we both agree...," she reminded him with a small smile. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment and then conceded (for now) with a small nod.

As they packed up and then headed back towards their main campsite in the clearing near the 'Gate, he wondered to himself...

She gave me a lake!

How do I pay that back?

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TBC

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Still building the ship... :)