Three feet of snow can hide a lot of things. Especially in the mountains where the trees and jutting rocks cast interesting shadows that can make solid ground look rough and treacherous ground look smooth and placid. In his defense, Jack had only been in this particular area three times, and the first two times there hadn't been any snow at all. It wasn't a place he knew well, and he hadn't really explored it in advance, knowing that he was going to have all day while Sam was shopping with the girls to take his time and look around.

In retrospect, Jaffer had tried to warn them, he knew, but he was too busy wrangling with Daniel – still going on about how the archeologist never paid attention to where he was going, and how they were always getting into trouble because of it.

"I'm telling you, Daniel-"

"It's not as bad as you're making it out, Jack," Daniel said, rehashing an argument that they frequently had – and not even a real argument, at that. "I don't-"

There was a sharp bark from Jaffer, who had veered towards the left without either of them noticing, and then the ground fell out from under them both as what had been solid ground covered with snow was suddenly the edge of a ravine with a lip of snow that was hanging precariously over the edge, hiding the sudden drop.

Down they tumbled, head over heels in Jack's case, and face first sliding in Daniel's with his hands out in front of him to try and catch something to slow his descent. All he found were rocks, though, and they were iced over and unable to help. They landed with a muffled thump in the heavy snow at the bottom of the drop, and both of them lay still for a moment.

"Well... why does this seem familiar?" Jack finally asked, without lifting his head. He was still doing a quick check to make sure nothing was broken; moving everything a little and feeling for that jolt of pain that said something was wrong.

"At least it isn't raining..." Obviously, Daniel had been thinking the same thing; reminded of the tumble they'd taken way back on Jack's birthday – another planet and another season, but with the same results.

"Well... joy..." Jack rolled over, and sat up, wincing at an ache in his side. He looked over at Daniel, who hadn't moved as far as he could tell. "Are you all right?"

"I think I broke my shoulder."

"Seriously?"

Daniel lifted his head, wincing, as he looked over at Jack.

"Maybe..."

"Can you move everything else?"

Feet moved. Hands moved. Head and fingers moved, but there was a definite gasp of pain when Daniel tried moving the arm attached to his left shoulder. That hurt and wouldn't move.

"Everything else seems to be working."

Jack heaved himself to his feet, and helped Daniel up into a sitting position. Then he eyed the shoulder critically through the open jacket the archeologist was wearing, looking at the way his left arm was hanging so limply.

"It's looks more dislocated than broken..."

"Well, it feels like it's going to fall off any minute," Daniel complained.

"You know, if you'd watch where you were going –"

"This isn't my fault."

They looked up the way they'd come. The fall was only about forty feet or so, but it was steep, and there was no way Jack was going to get up it, much less Daniel. A dark movement at the top caught Jack's eye, and he saw Jaffer's big head poke over the edge, and realized the lab was about to head down to join them.

"Jaffer, stay!"

No sense him getting stuck down here, too.

Jaffer barked, as if to argue with him, but didn't make a move to come down.

"You could send him for Ian," Daniel suggested.

"He's not Lassie, Daniel." Jack sighed. "Besides, Ian shouldn't be much behind us, and as long as he doesn't get surprised by the drop, we should be okay."

"We could call Sam..."

"Sure. Except that my cell phone is in the truck."

"Well, that's helpful."

"You call her."

"Mine's sitting at home on my counter."

"Convenient."

"Yeah."

"Maybe you could try to send Jaffer for Ian? At least so he knows something's going on... He went and got Sam that one time."

Jack shrugged, figuring it couldn't hurt. Besides, at least it'd make Daniel feel a little better if he thought help was on the way.

"Jaffer, go get Ian!" Jack called up to the lab. Jaffer sniffed the snow around the edges of the ravine, watching Jack and Daniel, but not showing any inclination to leave them.

"Well, that's helpful..."

"Yeah."

"I knew we should have put a keg on his collar when we had the chance."

Jack snorted.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Ian had never actually had a reason to hike through the mountains before. Oh, he'd hunted in the forests in the Northeast a few times – mainly in New England and even in eastern Canada, but he'd never been in the mountains, and he rather liked it.

It was quiet and calm, and pretty – although he'd never have used that word to describe it to anyone else. But he did like the way the trees held the snow on their branches – it was different in the western trees than the ones back home. And a lot cleaner.

He followed the trail they'd made in the snow back to the truck, counting cadence as he walked, without really noticing it. The whetstone was exactly where Jack had said it was, and Ian was glad Jack hadn't locked the truck, because he hadn't thought to ask for the keys. Of course, who was going to come out here and steal it, anyways? And why bother when there were a lot more trucks in town? He put the whetstone in the pocket of his sweatshirt and headed back towards the trees, walking in the tracks he'd already made so he didn't have to lift his feet quite so much. Trudging through the snow was a lot harder than running laps – and who knew better than he did?

He smiled, his attention wandering as he walked. It wasn't like he really needed to pay attention to where he was going, after all. It would be quite a trick to get lost with such an easy trail to follow, and you'd have to really not be paying attention to manage to hurt yourself on such level ground.