Getting Ian off the base wasn't much easier than getting him into it, and it was almost 11PM by the time he and Sam drove out of the main gate, well behind Jack and Daniel – who were able to come and go with relative ease.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked Ian after a while of driving in comfortable silence. She'd noticed he was rubbing his shoulder a bit since they'd returned through the gate.

He looked over at her, but she couldn't see his expression in the dark interior of the car. His voice was normal enough though when he spoke.

"I'm fine."

"Shoulder hurt?" She pressed.

"Yeah." Now his voice sounded just a bit rueful. "I probably should have done a bit of stretching before I let myself get bullied into that sparring match."

Sam smiled.

"Nothing like the holidays to get yourself out of shape."

"Well, I am used to running about a million miles a day, you know."

"A million?"

"Give or take a few."

She chuckled. But she knew he was right. He was used to doing a lot of running – of course, it was all his own fault since it was punishment for one transgression or another during his school day – but she knew he wasn't complaining.

"Would you feel better if I made you go running in the morning if you don't get up by five?"

It was Ian's turn to chuckle.

"Actually, I think I'll go for a run tonight before I go to bed."

"It's pretty late."

He nodded.

"I know, but the sidewalks are all shoveled, and I noticed earlier that there wasn't any ice on them. I really could use the exercise." Besides, he thought best when he was running, and he had a lot to think about. "I could run down to that school and do a few laps on their track before bedtime."

"It's pretty late…" she repeated, frowning.

Ian smiled; it was nice that she was worried, but he wasn't. It wasn't like she and Jack lived in the ghetto or anything.

"I won't be gone long," he promised as they pulled into the driveway. The house was dark – Jack had to stop and drop Daniel off, after all, and he wasn't there yet. Besides, he'd probably stopped off somewhere to get dinner. "Do you want me to wait until Jack gets home?" Ian asked as they got out of the car. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of leaving her alone.

Sam smiled, and this time he could see it in the soft glow of the porch light.

"Worried about leaving me alone?"

"Of course not…"

Uh huh.

She didn't say anything, though, as she unlocked the door, and he held it open for her so she could precede him into the house.

"You won't be gone long?"

"No, ma'am." He promised. "Scout's honor."

"Were you a scout?"

"For about a week – until I told the scout leader where he could shove his good citizen badge."

Sam laughed. Why wasn't she surprised?

"Just try not to fall and break a leg or something, okay?"

"I'll be careful," he told her. "If the track at the school is iced over, I won't use it."

"Okay."

He headed for his room to change – there was no way he was going to run in jeans if he could avoid it – and Sam went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Only a few minutes later she heard him coming back down the hall, wearing white sweats and the white Air Force academy sweatshirt. She was glad to see he was in light colors; at least she wouldn't have to worry about him getting hit by a car.

"Back before you know it," he told her with a grin as he stopped to tie his shoes.

Wondering why she had such a bad feeling about him going jogging, Sam gave him a weak smile and watched as he headed out the door.

"Be careful."

"I will."

He stopped in the front yard long enough to stretch properly – since that was the whole reason he ached just then anyways there wasn't any sense in making it worse if he could avoid it – and then hopped the picket fence easily and headed up the road at a fairly quick pace, his long legs hitting stride quickly.

So… Teal'c was an alien. That was probably something he should have recognized without help, he decided, grinning as he crossed the street and headed along the sidewalk there – it was better cleared than the sidewalk he'd been on, and he didn't want to break a leg anymore than Sam wanted him to. No one was that big without using steroids, and the guy had a definite odd way of speaking when you looked back at it. Of course, Ian hadn't really had all that much contact with him, but as he remembered back to the Kinsey affair, he now knew why Jack had allowed Teal'c to come when he wouldn't allow anyone else to. Teal'c wasn't held accountable to the laws of the country – why would he be – so he couldn't be in trouble if he'd helped Jack actually kill Kinsey. At the worst they would have deported him, Ian supposed.

"Should have given him a fucking medal…" Ian muttered to himself. Kinsey was such a bastard; going after Shawn like that just to get at Jack. You wanted to hurt someone; you went to them, as far as Ian was concerned. Not some little kid. No matter how tough the little kid was.

But the whole alien thing… that brought up another thing entirely, because that opened up possibilities that Ian hadn't ever considered. If aliens were real – and he now knew they were without a doubt real – he wondered what other things that he'd always thought were bullshit were real as well.

Conspiracies and cover-ups galore started through his mind as he crossed the street once more, his breathing still easy and his stride still effortless as he entered the schoolyard and headed for the running track, which appeared to be clear and bare. Kennedy? Area 51? Hey, he'd have to ask about area 51… he remembered once joking to Shawn about running Area 51 when he graduated from the Academy, but that had been a jest. Now that he knew aliens were real, maybe the Area 51 aliens were real, too, and maybe there was something to the whole idea of running such a place – or at least checking it out someday…

He was so involved with his contemplations that he didn't notice the blue Bronco that pulled into the parking lot of the schoolyard, with its lights off, and didn't notice the large forms getting out of it until they were almost upon him as he came around the last turn of the first lap of the running track. Only then did he notice the five men, and they'd blocked the track, forcing him to either stop or turn and run. And Ian would never run.

"Well, well, well…" said the one in front, smiling with absolutely no humor in his expression. "What do we have here…?"