"How can a place this big not have a single can opener?"

Andrew looked up from rummaging through the only drawer of the kitchen that they hadn't yet checked.

"We have a can opener," he said, defensively. "I know they had an electric one on the counter – I just don't know where it is…"

Ian looked around. He didn't see a can opener – and he was pretty sure it wasn't something that could be easily missed. Of course, the kitchen was huge. Warm and friendly enough – and well-stocked with all sorts of time saving gadgets. All except for a can opener. They couldn't even find one of the hand-held ones that didn't rely on electricity, and Ian was pretty sure that his mother had at least two of the bastards in her kitchen.

"Maybe it's in the shop…"

Andrew looked over at him again, frowning.

"In the shop?"

Ian shrugged.

"Or maybe it broke and they threw it away, how the hell would I know…?"

Andrew shut the bottom drawer, knowing that a screwdriver set wasn't going to help them.

"I suppose we could use a knife…"

"Nah, that never works very well."

Ian knew; he'd tried it before.

They both turned towards the fridge.

"There's no way there'll be anything in there worth eating," Andrew said, although he opened it. "Not with everyone having gone away for so long…"

Sure enough, the fridge held only those things that wouldn't spoil after a prolonged absence; condiments like ketchup, mustard, relish and mayo – all the usual stuff. But nothing worth eating, and no can opener.

Ian reached up and opened the freezer, figuring they'd have food in there, and found a plethora of bags of frozen vegetables. Peas, carrots, peas and carrots, stir fry, corn and even some frozen cabbages – which made the New Yorker shudder.

"Ugh."

"There's meat in the deep freeze," Andrew told him, heading out the far door into a room Ian hadn't been shown on the tour earlier. "I suppose we could thaw some out and cook it."

The cadet followed the younger guy into the room, and found a huge white freezer dominating one entire side of the little room. The other side was covered in shelves, which were well-stocked with food; cans of all sorts, from tuna to tomatoes and canned chicken to more corn. All of it without a can opener in sight.

Andrew opened the freezer, and Ian crossed the room to take a look as well. Sure enough, this freezer was filled with neatly labeled white-wrapped packages of all sorts of meat.

"My uncles use the lodge for hunting in the fall," Andrew explained. "So some of this is wild meat – venison mostly, from elk and deer – although there's also hamburger and steaks, and fish and God only knows what else."

Ian leaned down and pulled out a package, which was marked as venison, and decided from the heft that it had to be a roast.

"Venison?"

Andrew nodded.

"Sounds fine."

"I'll start thawing it, you find a pan to cook it in."

"Okay."

OOOOOOO

It wasn't as bad as it might have been. An oven is a fairly forgiving thing, and between the two of them, they managed to bake the roast without burning the place down – or even setting fire to anything. Of course, since there was no way a fire truck would be able to come rescue them, both of them were very careful not to leave anything where it might be in danger of going up in flames.

Besides the venison roast – which was more than a bit raw in the middle although the outsides were charred black – Ian had found a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese in the cupboard and had managed to throw that together as well.

"It could have been worse…" Andrew said as he sawed off another chunk of cooked meat – both of them were avoiding eating the raw part, but it was a fair sized roast and they had plenty.

"We didn't get hurt," Ian agreed.

"And we didn't burn the place down."

Ian smiled, and leaned back, taking a sip of a Mountain Dew. It was a good thing they'd brought their own drinks, because all they'd found in the cupboards and fridge were diet shakes Andrew said his grandmothers drank when they didn't feel like making a meal and tea bags.

"Want to arm wrestle to see who does the dishes?"

Andrew snorted into his Pepsi.

"I don't think so."

OOOOOOOO

"Do you think they're starving?"

Jack smiled and shook his head, handing Jacob over to Sam so she could feed him while he went into the kitchen to make their own dinner. Jaffer joined him immediately, always eager to help clean up anything that might fall on the floor.

"They can always draw straws and see who gets to eat the other if things get bad…"

Sam grinned and cuddled Jake against her, watching as he began nursing and then turning so she could watch Jack busy himself at the stove.

"Or they could take Ian's Glock and go kill a bear or something."

It was no secret Ian kept his backup weapon in the locked glove box of his car.

"Killing it would be easy," Jack said, looking over at her and smiling softly at the sight of the two of them together. It was something that never got old to him. "How would they cook it?"

"What I want to know is when did Ian start hanging out with Andrew?" Sam asked. "Andrew's not really in Ian's age group, after all."

Jack had that answer, though. He'd talked to Teal'c while Sam had taken Jaffer outside for a quick potty break (Jack had been holding Jake, so he didn't have that duty).

"It's all Teal'c's idea, apparently," he told her. "Something's been bothering Andrew and Teal'c and Andrew's folks are hoping that having someone older who went through pretty much what Andrew's going through now will give him someone to talk to."

"What about Shawn?"

Jack smiled.

"Shawn's not a normal situation, Sam. He never has been. If Ian wasn't handy, Teal'c would have come to you, next – even though you're a girl and God only knows if Andrew would have talked to you – we're not even sure he'll talk to Ian, after all. The problem – as Miyra sees it – is that Andrew's having trouble fitting in, and rightfully so, and because of that he doesn't have a lot of friends, and the ones he does have don't even go to the same school that he does. Ian was in high school in a similar situation – and while I never would have thought of it – Teal'c did, and asked him to hang out with Andrew for the day, just to see if he could get him to tell him what was going on inside that genius head of his."

"Well, they should have plenty of time to talk, now… Maybe Andrew will even learn something…"

Jack's grin was amused.

"If nothing else, he's probably learning a lot of new four letter words."