She took it far better than Daniel expected her to. He watched as her eyes took in the disaster that had once been her couch, watched as they lingered on the coffee table legs – one of which looked as though it had been almost completely chewed through (the others simply bore tooth marks) – and then saw her look at the recliner lever – which was simply gone. She looked at Binky, who had looked over at her when she'd made her appearance, but the jet-black cat didn't look any more apologetic than Jaffer did. Of course, she probably didn't do any of the damage, either, and didn't have any reason to be sorry.

"I'll buy you new furniture," Daniel told her apologetically, putting his arm around her.

Sally gave him a weak smile, and walked into the living room, and Jaffer stopped chewing on his leash and watched her, his tail thumping cheerfully as she came closer, the motion sending couch stuffing flying off the sofa and onto the coffee table and floor.

"It can probably be fixed…" Sally said, reaching down and untangling Jaffer's leash from the lever it was snagged on.

"You think so?' Daniel asked, uncertainly, walking into the room as well.

"Well… not the couch…" Sally said, picking up some of the stuffing that Binky was lying on. "And probably not the coffee table…"

"Or the lever to the recliner…" Daniel said, fingering the chewed off stub.

"I can't believe he did this in such little time…" Sally said, looking around again and then looking down at Jaffer. "You're bad."

Since her tone didn't sound at all disapproving, Jaffer had a hard time taking that seriously. The tail wagged even harder, and the stuffing flew even further. Yeah. He was bad. He was soooo bad.

"Jack and Sam are on their way…" Daniel said, picking up a handful of the couch filling, and wondering if he could stuff it back into the couch.

Sally sighed, and looked around the room once more.

"We can take them to lunch," she said. "But first, I need a shower. You should probably take him outside and see if he needs to go, or something."

"What about this?" Daniel asked.

"We'll clean it up later. It's not going anywhere."

Daniel shook his head and walked over and tried to take the leash from Jaffer's mouth, but the lab clamped his jaws down tight, his eyes bright and playful. Yeah, he looked guilty, didn't he?

"Give it to me, Jaffer," Daniel told him, tugging on it. It was a mistake, because Jaffer simply tugged back, figuring that Daniel was playing with him – and Jaffer loved a good game of tug of war.

The archeologist made an annoyed noise, but he wasn't really any more annoyed than Sally was. They were both too shell-shocked to be anything but stunned, and add in the remaining euphoria from the last hour or so, combined with the whole engagement thing, and even a torn up living room and an unrepentant dog weren't enough to ruin things for them.

He tugged again, and Jaffer made the low growl that Daniel had frequently heard him make when playing with Jack.

Sally laughed, knowing that Daniel wasn't going to win that round. She rested her hand lightly on his shoulder for a moment to get his attention.

"I'll be back in a few minutes."

"I'll be here."

He wasn't going anywhere, apparently. He tugged on the leash.

OOOOOOOOO

"I'm sure it's not as bad as Daniel made it sound," Sam said, smiling slightly.

"He made it sound bad."

"He's probably exaggerating. How much trouble could Jaffer have caused with Sally and Daniel both right there?"

Jack shrugged, considering that, while Sam went back to looking at the picture that Doctor Sawyer had taken of the ultrasound monitor. On the image was a perfect picture of their baby sucking his thumb – it'd been taken before the baby had moved positions.

Jack glanced over when Sam fell silent, and smiled to himself as he turned back to the road. He'd seen the picture, and even though he didn't have anywhere near the memory Ian Brooks did, he could have told anyone who asked exactly what position the baby was in in it, and what hand was being lifted, and any other number of details.

"You're probably right," Jack said, shrugging. "They wouldn't have let him get too out of control…" Jaffer could be a handful, but if he was doing something he knew he wasn't supposed to be doing, and Daniel had told him to stop, he would have stopped. He wasn't a bad dog. Just… easily bored.

"Of course I'm right," Sam told him, not looking up from the picture as they turned a corner, almost to Sally's house, now. "I am a genius, after all."

OOOOOOOO

In the end, it took four pieces of sliced chicken to get Jaffer to relinquish his hold on the leash. Daniel had almost succeeded on the first piece, but he hadn't counted on Binky coming over to investigate what Jaffer was being bribed with, and when the archeologist's attention was on the cat – who was suddenly meowing as if she hadn't eaten in months – the dog had managed to swipe two pieces out of his hand without so much as grazing Daniel's skin with those sharp teeth.

"What? Did you two plan this?" Daniel muttered, jerking his hand away from Jaffer and glaring at the cat, who was still waiting for her piece of chicken and was yowling like there was someone pulling her tail.

He gave Binky her chicken, and took the leash from Jaffer, and examined it, debating whether it was sturdy enough to actually use or if he should just wait for Jack to come and take the dog out himself. Jack wouldn't have to worry about Jaffer running off, after all.

Then he heard a car door slam outside – and Jaffer's head turned sharply as he heard it as well. And then another door. The lab's tail started wagging excitedly, and Jaffer launched himself off the sofa, past Daniel who suddenly found the end of the leash jerked out of his hand once more, and to the door, where he made a low woofing noise and waited.

Sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the door.

Daniel went over to the door and stepped on the trailing end of the leash – just in case it wasn't Jack and Sam – and then opened the door. Jaffer sprang out the door, swarming Jack excitedly, and Jack knelt down and caught the lab in a rough embrace, holding him tightly – both because he was happy to see him, and because it was a good way to keep the dog from accidentally knocking Sam over in his excitement.

"There's my boy!"

Sam watched them for a moment, and then looked over at Daniel.

"How was he?"

Without a word, the archeologist opened the door further, and gestured for Sam to go inside. Which she did. And then she stopped abruptly.

"Oh my…"