Author's Note: Nah, they're not all that rare here where I live (Washington state) but we only get them once a year and I've only recently tried them. Since I'm 32 and just trying them, I figure it's not impossible for other people to have never tried them, and besides, there's the joy of discovery, right? Just a reminder, this story has no plot, so don't panic if you don't think it's developing fast enough... we have all the time in the world to bring everyone in... and I'm in no hurry... I want to play a bit.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Did you have lunch, Ian?" Sam asked as she put the last of the groceries into the fridge, then pulled Jaffer's nose out of it so she could shut the door. Ian and Jack had both been hovering in the background, watching her to make sure she didn't have anything heavy to lift and offering advice where to put all the extra food that had been bought for the holiday cooking. It was warm in the house, so Ian had pulled off his sweatshirt, leaving himself in a plain white t-shirt and jeans, and Sam had told him to just drape it over the back of one of the dining room chairs.

"Nah, but I don't nee-"

"We already ate, but-"

"My fault, I should have asked you when I picked you up. We could have stopped somewhere."

Ian grinned; it was nice that they cared.

"I had a big breakfast," he told them. "I'm fine for now."

"You sure?" Sam asked, dubiously.

"Yeah, I really-"

"We could break out one of those Pomeranians," Jack suggested.

Ian nodded, that was a thought.

"Want me to call Janet and ask her what she knows about them?"

"Nah," Jack went into the kitchen and took one of the pomegranates off the counter where Sam had left them. "It's a piece of fruit and we're two smart guys. How hard can it be to figure out, right Ian?"

"Yes, Sir."

The two of them went to the table sat down, putting the fruit between them.

"We probably need a knife..." Jack said, running his hand along the rough outer edge of the rind.

"I could call Janet..." Sam said, again, as Ian got up and went into the kitchen, getting lucky with the first drawer he opened and pulling out a wicked looking kitchen knife.

"We got it, Major," he told her with a cocky smile, bringing the knife back over to the table. "If it was poisonous they wouldn't be selling it at the grocery store, right?"

"Well..." They sold rat poison in stores, right?

Ian handed the knife to Jack – hilt first, Sam noticed – and O'Neill took it in his left hand and picked up the pomegranate in the right. He stabbed into the rind experimentally, smiling when the sharp point pierced the tough exterior easily.

"See? No sweat..."

A thin trickle of reddish purple juice came out, just enough for Sam to decide they needed a paper towel.

"See if you can peel it off," Ian suggested. "Like an orange."

Jack put the knife down and used his thumbnail to get a grip on the rind of the fruit, and pulled back a little.

"Ugh..."

"What?"

Ian leaned over to look, and saw a line of reddish purplish things that looked more like little red blood cells than anything else.

"Ick..."

"Which part do you eat?" Sam asked, leaning over to look as well. "Those red things or the white stuff?"

"I think it's supposed to be boiled," Jack decided, handing the fruit over to Ian, who peeled off a bit more of the husk, revealing even more of the red seed things. Tons of them, all clumped together in neat rows.

"Probably the red parts," he said, trying to pry one out. It was crushed between his finger and thumb, though, and squirted red juice at his face. He used the back of his hand to wipe it off, but Sam noticed it left a purplish red streak on his face and his hand. He bit back a curse that he normally wouldn't have, and picked up the knife, using the point to pry one of the seeds out. "It's too small to boil."

"Not if you boil a bunch of them." Jack said, picking up the seed and looking at it.

"Eat it." Ian suggested.

"No way. You eat it, first. If you don't die, then I'll try one."

"I'm the guest... you're not supposed to try and poison the guest..."

"It was your idea to bring the thing home with us... you eat it."

Sam smiled, and sat down at the table as well.

"Are you sure you don't want me to call Janet? Or Sally? One of them would probably know-"

Ian plucked another seed out of the fruit with the knife, and picked it up. He looked at it for a moment, then shrugged and popped it into his mouth.

"Try chewing it," Jack said after a moment.

"I'm getting to that," Ian told him. He worked the seed between his front teeth and bit down on it – and tasted the almost bitter juice of the seed as it broke open. It was tart, but not too bad, he decided.

"Well?" Jack asked, watching him intently. He could tell the cadet had tasted something, judging from the way he was acting.

"It's... not bad." Ian said, swallowing the little seed part and reaching for the knife again. "It's pretty good, actually." He pried another seed out, but cut it, once again squirting juice on his hand.

Jack looked at him suspiciously for a moment, and then popped his seed into his mouth and bit down on it.

"Hey..." He looked at Sam. "Not bad."

She shook her head with an amused grin, and got up.

"Aren't you going to have some?" Jack asked.

"I'm going to go finish that report I'm writing so I don't have to do it later. You two have something to keep you occupied, so you won't need me for a while, and it needs to be done. Just try not to make a mess."

"Make a mess? Us?"

Ian was already trying to figure out how to get more than one seed out of the fruit at a time – since he'd decided you'd get twice the taste if you had twice the seeds – and already had his right hand smeared with purple juice. He looked up at Sam with an innocent look that really wasn't all that innocent looking – obviously he'd have to work on it, since Jack and Jaffer both had better looks than that one.

"We won't make a mess..."