Sam looked up from the couch when the door opened, admitting Teal'c, Daniel and Cassie. All three of them were covered in snow and were soaked, but they also looked as if they'd been having the time of their life.

"Stay there," Sam said before they could get even close to walking on her carpet.

All three froze, although Daniel did manage to close the door behind him.

"Hang your coats up and take your shoes off," Sam ordered them.

They did as they were told, and they even went one further by brushing all the snow off their pants before moving onto the carpet and into the living room.

"What are you watching?" Cassie asked, noticing immediately that they were all on the sofa watching TV and sipping coffee.

"The Thanksgiving day parade," Janet answered, reaching out and brushing a clump of snow from her daughter's hair when Cassie came over to sit by her. She wouldn't have many more chances to do something like that, she knew. "Where are Jack and Ian?"

"They're going to start – I mean finish – thedriveway." Daniel told her, flopping down on the floor by Sally's feet so he could lean back against her legs.

Sam smiled. Which meant they'd probably be outside another five hours at this rate. She'd noticed when she'd gone out with Sally and Janet that they hadn't made any progress on their shoveling. Ah well, they were both smart enough to come in if they got cold. Well... no, they probably weren't, so she'd check on them in a bit. After the next commercial, or when she pulled the pumpkin pies out of the oven, maybe.

OOOOOOOO

"You know, we'd probably get this done a lot faster if you actually tossed your snow to the side of the driveway," Ian said about half an hour later. He had just had a shovelful of snow land on him – for the fourth time – and was brushing it off, scowling over at Jack, who gave him an innocent look.

"The shovel slipped."

"My ass..."

"What? It did..."

"Uh huh."

Ian scooped up a shovelful of snow and tossed it over at Jack, who had turned back to his own side of the driveway. The heavy snow landed perfectly, splattering the Colonel in the back of the head.

Jack looked over, a scowl of his own.

"Oops."

Ian's look wasn't so innocent, and Jack didn't buy it for a minute.

"You're pushing it, Bucko." He warned.

And again, Ian couldn't help but rise to the challenge that gleamed in Jack's brown eyes. He deliberately scooped up another shovelful of snow, and tossed it at O'Neill; throwing down a gauntlet of his own.

OOOOOOOO

The door opened without warning, and Jaffer and Jack came bolting in, both covered in snow and cheerful as could be. Following closely behind them were Jack and Ian, and Sam knew in a glance that something was wrong with Ian. Jack was just too close to him, his expression tight with concern, and Ian had his hand clapped against the side of his head, a look of pain on his face. Sam was on her feet in an instant.

"What happened?"

"Jack accidentally threw his shovel at me..."

Sam looked at Jack as Janet moved off the couch and came over to the door as well.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Jack told Sam, reaching up and moving Ian's hand so they could see the injury. "The shovel slipped out of my hand and hit him."

Sam didn't doubt that for a minute. There was no way Jack would have intentionally hurt Ian.

"Let me see, Ian," Janet told him, gentle fingers parting the short dark hair as she tried to see the gash that was producing the blood that was caking the cadet's hair. Ian hissed with pain when she found the cut the hard way, but he did manage to bite back the curse that was right on the tip of his tongue.

"Is he all right?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine," Ian said, trying to pull his head away from Janet and Jack both. Neither would let him go, though, and Janet frowned.

"Hold still."

"Bring him into the dining room, Janet," Sam said. "Then you can get a better look at-"

"I'm fine," Ian said, again. He didn't like being the center of so much attention. "It's just a scratch."

"Let me be the judge of that," Janet told him, taking the sleeve of Ian's sweatshirt and pulling him into the house, through the living room and to the dining room where she pushed him down into a chair. Jack and Sam crowded close, with Cassie, Daniel and the others watching as well from just a step back.

Ian's hair was drenched, but it was mostly water from melted snow, and he was shivering, but that was just from cold – and he was cold. Sam was standing next to Jack and she could feel him shivering, too. So much for them being smart enough to come in and get warm when they needed to. She didn't tell him to get something warm to drink, though, because she knew he had no intention of moving until he knew that Ian was going to be all right.

"Well...?" Jack asked a second later, confirming what Sam had been thinking.

"I'm looking, Colonel, hush."

"How come she gets to call you Colonel?" Ian asked, looking up at Jack.

"Hold still," Janet told him – again.

"Because she has big needles." Sam said.

"That's not –" He yelped when Janet touched a particularly painful spot, and Janet winced in shared pain.

"That's going to need stitches," she decided.

"No, it doesn't," Ian said, scowling. "It's nothing big. Just put a Bandai-"

"Don't argue with me," Janet said. She looked over at Jack. "Feel like a drive to the hospital?"

Jack nodded.

"I'll get my keys."

"It's fine," Ian said, again, moving his head from her hand, scowling thunderously. "I don't need-"

"Colonel."

"Ian."

"I'm fine. Really."

"Do what she says, okay?" Jack told him. "She is a doctor, after all, and I don't want to see brains leaking out of a hole in your head that I made..."

Ian's scowl didn't fade, but when Sam knelt down next to him, her own blue eyes just as concerned as Jack's brown ones, he sighed, because he knew what she was going to say, and he knew he wouldn't be able to tell her no.

"Go get it looked at, Ian? Please?"

The scowl faded, turning into a look of resignation, and he nodded. It wouldn't hurt to have it looked at, he supposed.

"Fine..."