Ch 2: Mockingbirds

She wasn't surprised when Daniel and Teal'c visited her shortly after her CO left. "Hey, guys," she said with a small smile, feeling slightly guilty as they found her holding the book he had left in his locker.

"Hey, Sam," Daniel replied, taking his usual seat.

Teal'c stood next to him, ramrod straight as always, and inclined his head to her. "Guess you heard about our two weeks," she said.

"Indeed."

"Yeah."

"The Colonel wants us to go fishing."

"I am planning to visit my son. You are both most welcome to accompany me," Teal'c offered.

"Thanks, Teal'c, but I want you to have a good time with R'yac. Father son bonding and all that," Carter said with a genuine smile, which he returned in his own unique way.

"Daniel Jackson?" he asked, turning to the smaller man next to him.

"Thanks, Teal'c, but I'm going to stay here with Sam. Make sure Jack doesn't try to bully her into fishing."

"And I'll do the same for you," Carter replied.

Daniel nodded at her and turned back to Teal'c. "Tell R'yac we said hi though."

"I will," he promised, turning to go.

"Wait, you're going right now?" Carter asked, surprised.

"General Hammond has given me permission to leave as soon as I wish."

"Okay, just..." she crossed her lab to him and hesitated slightly. Teal'c was even less physically demonstrative than she was, which was saying something. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek quickly, smiling at him sincerely. "We'll miss you. Be careful."

"Likewise," he said, smiling and bowing to them both before leaving the two scientists alone.

"He didn't want his stuff back?" Daniel asked, nodding at the book in Sam's hands.

She looked down at it and said, "Guess not. I told him he could take it and he just left it there."

"That's... odd. He told me once that was his favorite book," he said with a quick smile he was even quicker to cover up.

"Really?" Sam asked curiously in spite of herself. She had always been a bit jealous of Daniel's relationship to her CO. They seemed to know so much more about each other, although they also argued constantly and saw things from completely opposite perspectives. Daniel, of course, had the luxury of being able to say anything he liked to Jack without worrying about being brought up on insubordination charges.

"Yeah. I was surprised, at first, but it's one of my favorites too, and I guess I can see it now. The whole Atticus thing..."

"Yeah," Sam agreed, suddenly understanding how the two very different men could both relate to the same parts of the wonderful book.

"Anyway, we sort of... bonded over it, I guess you'd say. Once."

"When?"

"Um... it was when he was recuperating from Antarctica. I came to visit him and he was reading it. As you can tell, his copy's nearly worn out."

Sam looked at the book in her hands. It looked like some of her favorites from childhood, that had survived being carried around in pockets, dropped, bent, thumbed through, dropped in the tub, and rolled over onto after she'd fallen asleep reading them in the middle of the night.

She started thumbing through it absently, only half paying attention to Daniel, who started talking just for the sake of talking, throwing out idle suggestions of how they could spend their vacation time. Her brow creased as she thumbed through the book. "Daniel, do you know if this has always had things underlined in it?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"I mean, would you be able to tell if the Colonel had underlined these things before... or maybe after, as a... clue... I'm probably just seeing connections because I want to," she said dismissively, closing the book quickly.

"What's he got underlined?" Daniel asked.

Sam knew from the tone in his voice that he was just humoring her, he didn't really expect her to be onto anything. She didn't care. "There's a lot of them. Some are the funnier bits. Some aren't. Here's one: 'Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults.'" She thumbed through the book, knowing she had seen several more underlined phrases. "The quote at the beginning, about having nothing to fear but fear itself," she added.

"And the one everyone remembers from that book?" Daniel asked gently. "'You never really understand a person until you see things from their point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it?'"

"Yes... okay, I know it's kind of cliché, Daniel, but... what if he was trying to tell us something? What if he left us clues to what he was up to the only way he could without putting us all in danger?"

"Sam, I really, really wish that were true, as much as you do," Daniel said sadly, putting his arm around her and squeezing her shoulder. "But I think you're seeing what you want to see."

She turned to him, her eyes huge, and asked, "Would you check with me? Just in case? Please?"

"Of course. What do you want me to do?"

"The last part of the book. They're talking about 'The Gray Ghost...' the part about all you need to do is stand on the porch. Let's just go see if there's anything there. If we don't find anything, I'll let it go."

"You want us to go to Jack's house and snoop around?" Daniel asked, raising both eyebrows.

"He's going fishing," Sam reminded him pointedly.

Daniel sighed and said, "All right. I'm in."