Author's Note: Hey all, I started something new and I'd like you to take a look at it when you have a chance. Look in my FFNET profile to see what I'm talking about – and IM or Email me if you have any questions. Everyone must know my email by now; I think I've sent letters of one sort or another off to most of you! Well, that said, on with the story!

OOOOOOOOO

"You know..." Jacob said, looking down at the dish he washing – the millionth dish plus one, as far as he was concerned. "I am her father..."

Jack looked over at him, drying a plate.

"Yeah? So?"

"She's supposed to do what I say, isn't she? Something about honor your father and mother... or something...?"

"I think I read that somewhere..." Jack said, an amused gleam in his warm brown eyes. "What's your point?"

"Well..." Jacob rinsed the plate he had finished washing and handed it to Jack. "If I told her to let me stop doing dishes, she'd pretty much have to, wouldn't she?"

Jack shook his head.

"You can give it a try, Jacob, but I have a feeling that if you tried to pull a stunt like that, she'd just find more for you to do – like laundry or cleaning the toilet or something."

The Tok'ra frowned, then picked up the next dish from the steadily declining stack with a sigh. "You're probably right."

He washed the dish, and then brightened a little.

"We both outrank her."

"Not 'we'," Jack told him. "Unless you're talking about Selmac. You keep me out of this."

Jacob sighed.

"Look on the bright side," Jack said, stacking the now dry plate on the others they'd already washed.

"Yeah?"

"Once we're done doing these, we probably won't have to do anything else for the rest of the weekend."

"I'm leaving tonight, Jack."

"Well, I'll look on the bright side for both of us, then."

Jacob gave him a sour look, and handed him yet another clean dish to dry.

The dishes really weren't all that hard. With the help of Sally and Janet, Sam had planned ahead and had used many disposable dishes for her cooking. The turkey pan – which should have been the absolute worst of the dishes – had already been tossed in the trash with several containers that had brought food over to the house. Ian and Cassie had done a very thorough job of clearing out the serving dishes so there were no real messes to clean, and the hot soapy water the cadet had made was doing most of the work for them.

It was just more entertaining to complain.

Besides, everyone else had gone into the living room to sit around and watch Miracle on 34th Street, and Jacob and Jack had to have something to mope and pout about.

"Now I know how Cinderella felt," Jacob muttered.

"Corset too tight?"

Jacob snickered.

"Hey," Came a cheery voice from behind them. "Look what I found."

They both looked over their shoulders and saw Daniel walking into the kitchen, a small stack of saucers in his hands.

"Joy."

"I can't imagine how they were over-looked," the archeologist said, grinning broadly. "It's a lucky thing a guest just happened by and spotted them sitting on that chair..."

"Yeah, lucky..." Jacob said, gloomily, as Daniel set the stack on the counter next to his other stack.

"Sally..."

"Yes, Jack?"

"Call Daniel before I'm forced to feed him his glasses."

"Daniel, are you bothering them?" Sam asked from the living room.

"Yes," Jacob answered.

"Of course not, Sam," Daniel said, just as quickly.

"Get out of there before you end up joining them."

"You missed a spot," Daniel told Jacob, pointing at the dish he was washing as he turned and headed for the kitchen entrance. A wet and very soapy washcloth hit him in the back of the head before he'd made it three steps. Grinning – because how often does anyone get the chance to pester a General and a Colonel in one easy step – Daniel tossed the washcloth back to Jacob and went back into the living room, just in time to see the drunken Santa getting the boot.

Sam looked up from where she was lounging in the overstuffed (and slightly chewed up) easy chair. She was sitting there, Teal'c and Sally and Janet had the couch, and Ian was sprawled with Jaffer in front of the fire, while Cassie was stretched out next to Jack (the dog) who was definitely enjoying the girl's attentions as Cassie idly rubbed his belly while she alternated between watching Ian and watching the movie.

"How are they doing?"

"Oh, they're happy as can be..."

"Uh huh..."

Daniel sat down on the floor by Sally's feet, leaning back against her legs so he wouldn't be in the way, and smiled when she started running her fingers lightly through his hair. He loved it when she did that, and could understand exactly how Jack (the dog) felt just then.

"Well, they're not breaking things to avoid washing them, at least," Daniel said. That had been one of his favorite tricks when he'd been little – if a dish was broken, you'd have a lot of trouble washing it, now wouldn't you?

"That's a plus."

"You want me to go make sure they're not goofing off, Sam?" Ian offered, his dark eyes gleaming with mischievousness. Sam decided she liked that expression on him – it was a lot better than the serious ones, or the bleak ones that she'd seen before – although she might just enjoy the way his smile lit his eyes up.

"I think that would be a bad idea, Ian..."

"I could be diplomatic..."

"Oh yeah?" This she had to hear. "In that case, be my guest."

Ian rolled to his feet, stepping over Jaffer, then Jack, and then Cassie and Sam (and everyone else) watched as he walked to the dining room and then disappeared into the kitchen.

There was no mistaking the empirical tone in his voice when they heard him speak next.

"You're working too slowly, and Sam's sent me in to make sure the dishes are done before the mail man arrives with my pension check."

There was the sound of scuffling, a few wet noises, and then a yelp from Ian, muffled a bit by something.

"Sam! They've got me! Help!"