Author's Note: Ian almost certainly has a formal cadet uniform, but I figured he'd look better in a tux. Just a little artistic license, I suppose :) .

OOOOOOOOOOO

"You look tired."

Ian looked up from the breakfast he was picking his way through, and smiled when he saw Sam standing over him. She noticed that even his smile looked tired.

"I was up late last night."

"Oh?"

Just then Daniel walked over and joined them, carrying a tray of his own and Sam noticed that he looked just as tired.

"Hey, Sam."

He sat down across from Ian, a stack of papers on his tray with his coffee and breakfast.

"Good morning, Daniel."

"Join us?"

She shook her head, and rested a hand lightly on Ian's shoulder.

"Actually, I need to talk to Ian for a moment – if I'm not interrupting anything?"

They both shook their heads at the same time, and Ian stood up, leaving his breakfast where it was.

"I'll see you in the briefing, Daniel."

Daniel nodded, and started shuffling through his papers, rereading them while at the same time he drank his coffee and ate his breakfast, and Sam and Ian headed for the door.

"What's up, Sam?"

"Walk with me for a minute…?"

"Sure."

They walked down the hall for only a few paces while Sam made sure there wasn't anyone else around, and then she spoke up.

"How's your side?"

"It's okay."

"Doesn't hurt?"

"Nah."

"Not at all?"

He smiled, slightly.

"A little."

She smiled. She was pretty sure it hurt a lot more than he was admitting.

"Did you get your tux for the dance?"

"Yeah."

"And a corsage?"

He nodded.

"I'm all set, Sam."

"Good." She hesitated, and then, when she couldn't think of a good way to bring it up, she shrugged. "Ian… whatever happens today… you need to make sure that you don't take it personally."

He stopped.

"What do you mean, Sam?"

"Janet's feeling a bit... overprotective right now, as I'm sure you've noticed?"

"Yeah…"

You'd have to be dead not to notice.

"She'll probably give you quite the lecture about what she expects from you – either today sometime, or tonight when you pick Cass up."

Ian nodded.

"I'm expecting her to."

He was expecting her to give him the evil eye all day; too, so he was glad that SG-1 was going to go offworld so he wouldn't have to put up with it.

"Yeah, well… you might get one from Jack, too."

Ian nodded again.

"I expect that, too."

"You do?"

"He's the closest thing Cassie has to a father…" Ian said, shrugging. "And he's been giving me looks lately that tell me he wants to say something, but doesn't know exactly how to bring it up. I figure it has to be about the dance, because I haven't done anything else wrong."

Sam smiled; she should have been surprised that Ian didn't really need the warning, but she wasn't. He'd just proven to her that he was as observant as she already knew he was.

"Just remember; no matter what he says, he likes you."

"I'll do that, Sam," he promised her. "Thank you for the warning, though."

It was exactly the kind of thing he expected from her – she'd shown him several times what kind of friend she was, and this was just another example of it.

"I didn't want you to feel ambushed."

"I won't. Now."

"Will you stop by the house tonight? I'd love to see you and Cass together, dressed up."

"Sure."

"Good. Now that I've delivered my warning… I have some things I need to do before the briefing. Do you want to come?"

He shook his head.

"I need to do a couple things, too," he told her. "I'll see you there, okay?"

OOOOOOOO

"You look tired."

Daniel looked up and saw Jack, Sam and Teal'c entering the briefing room. He'd finished his breakfast and had taken another cup of coffee and his papers to the one place he knew he'd never be interrupted – at least until a few minutes before the briefing was scheduled to start.

"I was up late."

Jack bit back an automatic comment about Daniel's love life, but the twinkle in his brown eyes plainly told Daniel what he had been about to say, and Daniel shook his head.

"I was at Ian's."

Which explained to Sam why the Cadet had looked so tired – although she'd expected that was the reason.

"Doing what?"

"Looking through books, and studying this Lao language form." Daniel held up the papers that he'd been looking at. "Ian's memory is incredible… I mean, I know you guys told me it was, but yesterday he had a brief glance at the side wall of that little stone building we saw, and last night he was able to write them all down – more or less."

"More or less?" Jack repeated.

"He saw them, but some of them were faded and worn down, and while he remembered what they looked like – which is just amazing – they weren't complete. I'd like to get back there and check it out, while the rest of you look for more structures."

Jack frowned. He had absolutely no intention of leaving Daniel alone again – he had no desire to go swamp slogging that afternoon.

"Why don't we talk to Hammond about that?"

"About what?"

They all looked up and saw that General Hammond was emerging from his office, and at almost the same moment the door opened, and Ian came in and sat down next to Daniel.

Jack gestured at Daniel, who took that as his cue to repeat his desire to return to the planet and why. Since the planet had already been checked out – a little bit, anyways – and had been proven to be less dangerous than some places they'd been, Hammond was more than willing to send SG-1 and the cadet back. It was a good mission, and it was relatively safe – which was what Hammond wanted just then. That way he didn't have to worry about Ian and Sam didn't have to worry so much about Jack.

By the time Daniel was finished speaking, Hammond was already nodding.

"You have a go, SG-1, just try to stay clean."

Jack gave Daniel a pointed look as he stood up.

"We will, Sir."

Daniel didn't say anything.