Ch 2: Lending a hand

Halfway through his first day of downtime, the 22nd, Jack was feeling like a pretty big loser. He was still on base, mainly because he didn't really have a reason to go home, and he was bored out of his tree without the rest of his team around.

Which partially explained why he was already in the control room when a wormhole unexpectedly engaged and the usual excitement followed. SG1's code was quickly sent through and Daniel's face appeared on all the monitors.

"Daniel, you in trouble?" he demanded quickly.

"Oh, you're there already. Good. And no. But thank you. I ah, could use a favor though."

"What?"

"Um, well, I promised to help Sam get ready for her family thing and I completely forgot about it after I talked to Dr. Walker. Sam, of course, being Sam, didn't remind me. Which means she's probably trying to do a bunch of decorating and stuff by herself. Can you go give her a hand?"

"Um, Daniel, I'm pretty sure Carter's got a phone. If she needed help she'd..."

"Jack," Daniel said pointedly.

"Yeah, you're right, we'd never know," Jack finished. "All right, fine."

"Great, thanks. Tell her I'm sorry and I hope she has a great time."

"Yeah, yeah. Just try not to get shot, Spacemonkey."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Jack. Ah, over and out."

Jack nodded at the few technicians still on duty and left. He went back to his quarters and changed into his street clothes, jeans and a thick gray sweater Daniel had given him last Christmas (matches your hair, Daniel had said with a smug grin) and grabbed his jacket.

It was extremely cold outside, and though it had been over a week since the last snowfall, there was still a respectable amount of it on the ground. Pulling a knit hat on as he made his way to his truck, he debated calling Carter ahead of time. He figured if he did she'd probably just tell him he didn't need to come over, so he decided against it.

As he headed towards her house, he figured she was probably tackling her day with typical Carter-ish single-minded focus. Which probably meant she hadn't given any thought to eating. Changing directions, he decided to pick up a pizza first.

When he pulled into her driveway, he saw that Daniel had been absolutely correct. His 2IC was on top of a ladder, hanging icicle lights with more precision than he'd have thought possible. She was so engrossed that she hadn't even glanced over at him as he killed the truck's engine and got out of the car. Not wanting to scare her and make her lose her balance, he watched her for several moments.

She was wearing the same hat he was and black gloves, but he thought she must be freezing - she was only wearing jeans, a blue fleecy thing of some kind, and a heavy vest over it. Completing the ensemble was the giant tool belt she had secured around her waist. She'd obviously had trouble with it, it appeared to be wrapped around twice.

She was actually measuring the distance between the hooks she was attaching, he marveled as he watched her slow progress.

"Carter!" he finally called. She looked over at him in surprise and waved. He grabbed the pizza, slammed his door, and headed over to the base of the ladder, inspecting its steadiness suspiciously.

"Hi, sir. What are you doing here?"

"Umm, Daniel said you needed help - and I brought pizza."

She looked at him, clearly puzzled. "Daniel? He's gone..."

"Yeah, I know, he radioed in, said he had told you he'd help you with all this and didn't and wanted me to come check on you."

"He... wow. Well, thanks for coming over, sir, I really appreciate it. But ah, Daniel never promised to help me get ready for everyone. I think he was..."

"Trying to be funny?" Jack supplied.

She looked at him funny and said, "Something like that, sir."

"Well, was I at least correct in assuming you haven't eaten yet?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Is it lunchtime already?"

"14.00, Carter. Come on down, you look frozen."

"Sir, I can't just leave these lights halfway done," she objected, going back to the task at hand.

"Sure you can," he said with a shrug. "Come on. Before the pizza gets as cold as you are."

She laughed and said, "All right, sir." He watched her make her way carefully down the ladder, steadying it just in case.

She headed inside and he followed, taking off his coat and hat while she removed her tool belt and vest. Catching him looking at the tool belt in amusement, she said, "It was Dad's. Good for holding stuff when you're climbing up a ladder."

"I noticed," he said as they walked through to the kitchen, Carter now carrying the pizza.

She set the pizza down on the table and gestured for him to sit down. He did, looking around her kitchen as she opened various cabinets, taking out plates and glasses. By the amount of time it was taking her to locate everything, he realized she didn't even know where stuff was in her own kitchen. That's more like it, he thought with a smile.

He looked around the kitchen, that still looked as though it had never been used, and remembered the weekend he, Daniel, and Teal'c had spent moving Carter into her Dad's large house after he had gone off to be a Tok'ra. It had been at her dad's request, and as she spent most of her time on base anyway, she hadn't cared either way. The few times in the past two years that he had been to her house, he felt strange, because it didn't really feel like Carter at all to him. He wondered if she felt at home there, or if she felt the same way.

"So, how's everything at work, sir?" she asked, handing him a plate, a glass of soda, (probably diet, he thought) and sitting down across from him with a smile. He opened the pizza box and waited for her to dig in.

"Surviving without you, but just barely, I'm told," he said, taking a couple slices for himself.

She smiled down at the pizza and said, "Well, I'd much rather be there than here, sir, to be honest. I found all of Dad's old Christmas decorations, but I hadn't realized how much work it was for him putting everything up."

"So don't put it all up," he suggested with a shrug.

"But my brothers and sister go all out at Christmas... the kids would be disappointed."

"Speaking of which... let's hear some more about this big mysterious family of yours, Carter."

"Well, there's not much to tell... My sister Emily's the oldest, she's got four kids, my brother Nigel has three, Jamie has three, Mark's got two... and my little brother Christopher, the baby of the family, is still in college."

"Wow. So there are going to be like... a lot of people here."

"Yes, sir. Umm... 21, including me. They start arriving at noon on the 24th. Which is why I've got to make sure everything goes perfectly."

"What about Dad? He's not coming?" Jack asked, surprised. With the way Jacob obviously felt about Sam, it was surprising he wouldn't try to come home for Christmas with all of his children.

"He's busy, apparently. I sent him a message but..." she sighed deeply and he realized he was just beginning to scratch the surface of a bunch of family issues. "He said he can't get away. It's all right, sir," she said quickly at the look on his face. "Ever since Mom died, Christmas has been... extremely stressful for him. I always thought he figured he couldn't make it as good as Mom, so he'd rather not try at all. Plus it must be even more painful for him than it ever was for us... my sister was old enough when it happened to sort of take over for Mom, she's the real mothery type, not really like me at all..."

"Don't sell yourself short, Carter, I've seen you with Cassie," Jack interrupted.

She smiled at him in surprise, but said, "Thanks, sir, but that's just icing. Emily's more like Janet. Anyway, to make a long story short, I've got a lot of cleaning and decorating to do."

"And it's too boring for ya," Jack realized. Of course, there wasn't anything Carter couldn't do, just things that were so boring she couldn't stand to do them.

She shrugged. "It's not the most exciting stuff on earth, but it's only fair that I take a turn along with everyone else. Especially now that I have room for everybody."

"This house is big, all right, but 21 people..." Jack said doubtfully.

"When you're from a big family, 'having room,' has a slightly different meaning, sir. It'll be crowded and loud and insane, but that's what we're all used to."

"Still," he said. "I would think your heavy work load would exempt you from taking a turn."

"It did, for a while. But now that they all know I've got Dad's house, and Dad's out of the rotation, I figured I should get back in there. Anyway, it's only once every five years. Obviously Chris can't host yet, as he's at school."

"Where does he go?"

"Stanford. He's flying in with Mark's family."

"So brilliance runs in the family."

She smiled and shrugged. "You're probably wondering why my dad and I never mentioned anybody else..."

"I understand why you didn't. I didn't ever ask. I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget there are... normal families that actually exist."

"It's okay, sir. And for the record, my family is far from normal!"

"Noted. I am surprised your dad never mentioned other kids... I mean he's obviously so proud of you..."

"Now he is. He wasn't always. And after Mom died, the older ones blamed him more than Chris and I did... and I'm the only one who followed him into the Air Force, so..."

"Daddy's favorite?" he asked with a smile.

"According to the rest," she said with a small smile. "Although that really only sets you up to be Daddy's biggest disappointment as well."

"Carter, you could never disappoint anybody," he said honestly.

She smiled in surprise at the compliment. The moment was getting a little too intense for comfort, so he cleared his throat and said, "Well, you're in luck, Carter. Because you happen to have a CO who's dumb enough to do housework and decoration without going insane from boredom. And he's free today."

She looked at him in shock. "Sir... I couldn't..."

"Consider it a Christmas present," he said with a shrug.

So they spent the entire day hanging icicle lights, covering shrubs with nets of lights, wrapping her trees, and setting up a perimeter around the yard. Then they cleaned the entire house and decorated the inside. They didn't talk very much while they worked, but each was glad to see that the way they worked in sync in the field transferred outside just as well. Finally, they were finished.

They sank to the couch, tired but happy to be done. "Carter, I can't help but notice you're missing something crucial to the whole Christmas experience," he commented.

"The tree," she agreed, nodding. "I'm going to get one tomorrow, put it up in that corner over there."

"Oh. And have the kids decorate it Christmas eve?"

"Well, that's what we used to do, but since there are so many nieces and nephews now, it just turns into a huge fight. So no. It will be decorated when they get here."

"Oh. Sounds good."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I'll let you get some sleep. Sounds like you might want to stock up before the family arrives." He got up, stretched, and headed to the closet for his jacket.

"Sir, thank you so much for helping me today. I really appreciate it," she said sincerely.

He smiled and nodded. "No problem, Carter. Have a good holiday."

"You too, sir," she said with a smile, hugging him impulsively, so quickly that he didn't have time to hug her back before she had already stepped away from him.

"Merry Christmas," he said sincerely, pulling his hat down over his ears and heading out the door.