Ch 12: Too close for comfort

Jack couldn't find Carter. She wasn't downstairs anywhere, not in her room. He figured maybe she was hiding up in the playroom with all the kids, so he completely bypassed the second floor and went straight up to the attic.

He stepped into the room cautiously, looking around for signs of Carter, but she wasn't there either. He turned to leave before any of them spotted him, but stopped as he heard Rory cry, "Stop! You're wrecking it!"

He turned back to see what the problem was. Matty was standing in the middle of a giant pile of Legos.

Before Jack could intervene, Sydney had got to her feet from where she was reading, glared at Matty, who was a head taller than her and probably weighed twenty pounds more, and said, "Leave my brother alone!"

"Shut up, Sydney," Matty said with a sneer.

"Hey!" Jack objected.

In the time it took him to cross the room, Sydney had already lunged at Matt, tackled him to the ground, and was on top of him. Jack saw her get in one punch to his nose before he grabbed her round the waist and pulled her off of him.

Matty immediately started screaming and crying, and Sydney was trying to squirm away from him. "Hey, be still," Jack said gruffly, throwing her over one shoulder, holding her legs securely.

He pulled Matty to his feet and marched them both out of the room. Sydney was still trying to squirm and hitting his back with her tiny fists, and Matt was holding his nose, which was bleeding profusely, so that Jack was having to steer him down the stairs.

He took them into the kitchen and the conversation immediately stopped. Anne and Nigel hurried over to them. "Matty, what happened, are you okay?" his mom demanded quickly, grabbing a dishtowel and pulling his hands away from his face, holding the cloth over his nose. His dad picked him up and took him over to a chair, his mom walking beside them, still holding the bloody cloth to his nose.

"Umm, Jack," Emily said. "Am I to take it from the way my daughter is now struggling to get away from you that she did this?"

"Yeah, she did, but it wasn't really her fault," Jack said, setting Sydney down on her feet.

"Yes, I'm sure," Emily said, looking at Sydney pointedly. She slunk over to her mom slowly.

"No, it really... well, I didn't see all of it, but Matt was picking on Rory, Sydney was really just trying to get him to leave her brother alone," Jack said.

"That's no excuse to hit Matthew in the face," John said to his daughter, going over to the sink to see how Matt was.

"I don't think it's broken," Nigel said as Anne went to go get some ice from the freezer.

"Sydney, go to Aunt Sam's room and stay there until we come up to talk to you, please," Emily said wearily.

Sydney glared at Jack as she walked past him. He sighed. "Well, that's two," he muttered.

"Two?" John asked.

"Yeah, apparently I've got two Carters mad at me now."

"Oh, Sam's not mad at you," Emily said dismissively. "She's just upset because our idiot brothers have been pestering her nonstop ever since we got here and found you. And Sydney's just mad in general, she'll calm down soon enough. She's six, she doesn't carry a grudge."

"Ah, thanks. Well, if my work here is done, I'll just go..." Jack said, backing out the kitchen.

He wondered if Carter maybe had gone out to her nest. He hurried into her room to grab his boots. Sydney was curled up in a ball in the middle of the bed.

"Sorry, I forgot you were in here," he said quietly.

"Free country," she answered.

"You going to be mad at me forever?" he asked, pulling on his boots.

"No," she said, looking up at him. "Matt would have told on me anyway. Thanks for telling Mom and Dad it wasn't my fault."

"You were just trying to protect Rory, there's nothing wrong with that in my book."

"Yeah, well Mommy and Daddy don't have the same book as you, 'parently."

He smiled at her and pulled on his coat. "Where are you going?"

"Trying to find your dear Auntie Sam. You think you're the only one mad at me?"

"Why is she mad at you?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm going to try to find out."

"Good luck," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," he said, ruffling her hair. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and said, "Oh, Sydney?"

"What?"

"Nice punch."

She smiled and nodded. He opened the door and was face to face with Carter.

"Sorry," she said quickly.

At the same time, he said, "Hey, I was trying to find you."

She smiled quickly and said, "I'm fine."

"I know, but... before..."

"It was weird. I know. Sorry. Let's just forget it," she said quickly with another too-big smile.

"Don't you think we should... talk... maybe?" he said quietly.

Carter sighed and said, "All right. Syddo, would you excuse us please?"

"I can't," she said. "I'm s'posed to stay in here."

"Syd, please. Look," she pulled out something from her back pocket and handed it to her.

"New sound card, yes!" Sydney exclaimed, jumping off the bed and running for the door. She froze and turned back to them, looking at Jack expectantly.

"Yeah, I'll take care of it," he said, waving her away.

"Take care of what?" Carter asked after she was gone.

"She's being punished," he explained.

"What? Why?"

"Well, I was looking for you in the play room and Matt was being a real jerk to Rory, so Sydney knocked him to the ground and got in one good punch to his nose before I pulled her off him."

"No," Carter said, looking shocked and impressed at the same time.

Jack nodded.

"Well... is Matty okay?"

"Yeah, probably just embarrassed his smaller cousin cleaned his clock," Jack said smugly. "It was a great punch, Carter, and that kid's had it coming... and she tackled him exactly like you did when..." his enthusiasm trailed off and he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked down.

"Look, um, Colonel, I completely overreacted before and I don't really know why, I mean, I know it's just a stupid tradition, it's not a big deal. Can we just forget it?"

"Okay. If that's what you want," he said a bit sadly.

"What do you mean?"

"I just... you know me, I get confused. I wasn't going to insist you... stick to the tradition. You didn't have to... but you did... then you got so upset... I don't know what happened."

"Neither do I though. I'm sorry. Can we just..."

"Yeah. Sure," he said with a smile, patting her arm. "Look. If you want me to go, the snow is probably cleared enough by now, if we can dig out the cars..."

"No!" she said quickly. "Why would you... I thought you were having a good time."

"I'm having a great time, are you kidding. But it's your family, Carter. If me being here is making you... get confused or whatever, I don't care. I'll just go."

She sighed, looking down. "Please don't leave. I'm glad you're here, I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you," he insisted quickly. "It's just the situation, it makes things... confusing. But I think we were doing a pretty good job up until then, don't you?"

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding.

He nodded slowly, opening his arms a little bit. She stepped into them and hugged him. He hugged her back, wondering if this was the first time they'd ever hugged each other when there hadn't been an injury or death involved. He was almost certain it was.

"Hey, do you watch 'The X-Files?'" he asked suddenly.

She stepped away from him and gave him the 'you're crazy' look. "Yeah... Teal'c and Cassie got me into it. Why?"

"Just something Mark and Chris were saying earlier," he said with a shrug. "Forget it."

"All right. I'm going to go make sure Sydney's doing okay with that sound card."

"Have fun," he said with a smile. She nodded and left.

He took off the boots and coat and went into the kitchen. "How's the nose?" he asked. Matty was sulking now, but seemed fine.

"He'll live," Nigel said.

"Ah, just so you know, Carter sent Sydney out of her bedroom without knowing she was being punished, so she's not in there anymore."

"Thanks, Jack," John said. "I'm going to go talk to the little lightweight."

"Don't let her give you the look!" Emily called as her husband left.

Three of the kids ran into the room and circled around Jack. "Come play hide and seek with us!" Kieran begged, grabbing his hand.

"All right," he agreed, following them into the living room, where most of the kids, plus Chris were assembled.

"Okay, raise your hand if you can't count to thirty," Chris was saying. Half the hands went up. "Okay... how about this... raise your hand if you can count to ten."

All the hands went up. "Better. Raise your hand if you can count to ten three times in a row." Eventually all the hands went up, less enthusiastically than before.

"Good enough," Chris said. "So everybody's big enough to be 'it' this year. Who wants to be 'it' first?"

Gwen and Kieran both raised their hands. "Okay, you guys can both be 'it,' but you have to hunt for us together, okay?"

"That's not fair!" Julia objected.

"Yeah, they're twins, it's okay," Chris said with a shrug. "All right. So... the chair here is base. You guys close your eyes and count, okay?"

They nodded.

"Now, no hiding together," Chris warned the kids. "And no going outside." He suddenly seemed to remember something and added, "And no hiding in the washing machine, Conor!"

"Aw, man!" Conor said dejectedly.

Jack laughed as Chris muttered, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," and nudged him along.

The twins started counting, so Jack looked around. He figured it wouldn't be very fair to hide behind the chair, pop up as soon as they took off, and take a seat. He spotted the coat closet in the front hall and shrugged, deciding that was just as good a place as any. He stepped inside the small closet, shoving the coats to either side so he'd fit, and shut the door as quietly as possible.

He smiled into the darkness. He could still hear the twins counting together, and every once in a while a pair of little feet would run past somewhere.

"READY OR NOT HERE WE COME!" the twins yelled finally.

Jack waited. And waited. And waited. Either the rest of the Carter family was excellent at this game, or the twins were really bad at the seeking part.

Finally, the door opened. "About time," he said, then frowned as his eyes adjusted and he saw that it wasn't the twins; it was Carter.

"Get in here!" he exclaimed, grabbing both her arms and pulling her inside. He peeked around the door and shut it again.

"What are you doing?" they both demanded at the same time.

"Shh!" Jack said quickly. "We're playing hide and seek," he whispered. "What are you doing?"

"I was going to go out to the garage to get a screwdriver for Syd... I needed my coat."

"Well, you're not getting out of here now, if the twins see you they'll come looking in here."

"There's nobody out there, Colonel."

"Oh, didn't know you have X-Ray vision. Shh, they might hear you."

They stayed quiet for several moments, during which time it occurred to Jack he had just confined himself to a tiny dark space with his 2IC. Smart move, he thought with a sigh.

"What are you doing?" Carter whispered insistently. He could feel her moving her arms around.

"What?"

"You just breathed on me, my hair went everywhere," she explained.

"Sorry," he said. He wasn't sure, but he thought it had gotten about ten degrees hotter since she had joined him. Great, I'll be smelling lovely, he thought, reaching up to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

His elbow collided with some part of Carter in the process. "Ouch!" she hissed.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately, reaching out for her to see if she was okay. He grabbed her arms again. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, but it sounded forced.

"I'm really, really sorry. Where did I hit you?"

"Umm... in the... chest. Sir." Even though it was pitch black, he thought he could see her blushing. He realized he was still holding onto her arms and let go of her abruptly.

"Sorry," he repeated, shuffling his feet. "I'll just... put my hands in my pockets and be still."

"Good idea," she said. "Or a better idea... we could just leave the hot, stuffy coat closet."

"And quit the game? Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not even playing the game," she said, sighing in exasperation. Her sigh hit him squarely in the soft part of the throat. He shivered involuntarily, glad it was so dark there was no way she had seen that, and swallowed hard.

"Yeah, but if you leave, someone might see..." he argued.

"All right, all right. Hey, at least I don't feel guilty about kneeing you in the..."

"Thank you Carter," he interrupted. "I thought we had agreed not to mention that again."

"Sorry."

"And for the record, that hurts a lot worse than me barely nudging your boob."

"That was not a nudge!"

"Well, it wasn't the same as you falling right on top of me like your knee was on a guided missile lock to my crotch."

"I'm sure you've been hurt worse before, it's not like I shot you with a..."

"Oh, you have no idea how much that particular area..."

"I thought you wanted us to be quiet," she said suddenly, realizing they were whisper-yelling.

"Oh. Right," he said quietly, leaning back against the wall.

"Are you leaning against the wall?" she asked two seconds later.

"Maybe. Why?"

"Well, I think since I'm basically doing you a favor here, keeping your little hiding place secret, I should get to lean against the wall."

"Yeah, okay," he said, turning sideways. She squeezed past him, brushing against him in the process. As he heard her settle against the wall, he smiled in satisfaction. Already worth it, he thought.

"So, did Sydney get in trouble?" Jack asked after a few seconds of heavy silence.

"She had to apologize to Matty and she got a spanking."

"What!" Jack demanded.

Carter laughed at his indignation. "Yeah, the kids in our family get spankings. Come on, I'm sure you did too, you're much older than..."

"Easy, Carter," he said grumpily.

"Sorry."

"She's so little though!" he blurted out.

"Oh please. First of all, her dad did it so it was a lot lighter than when my sister does it. Second of all, she knew what was coming and had already put on three pairs of underwear and a pair of sweatpants under her jeans. I seriously doubt she even felt it."

"Oh," he said. "Well... okay then."

He could feel her shaking with silent laughter.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing."

He was about to reply to that when they heard the front door, which was only about five feet away, open and an all-too familiar voice called, "Surprise! Merry Christmas!"

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A/N: Thanks for the responses, everyone. I especially appreciate everyone who writes in saying how much they like Sydney.