A/N: Thanks everyone! So many happy reviews. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint - I'm still trying to mix the funny/sad, which is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I suppose I might need to give a warning: Drunk Sam ahead, so if you object to that, you might want to bail.

Krazyalien: Personally, I have a Pomeranian and a German Shorthair Pointer, but my twin brother (Jack) has two Goldens, and our brother Nathan has one as well, so I have plenty of experience with their abundant energy! Also, in case anyone was wondering, Quarks is a real kitten that my niece got last Christmas. He is very cute and quite mad on his own, evenwithout catnip.

I have to say, I think I got the funniest review ever on the last chapter: to the person who is 'licking this fic' as much as the others... you nearly killed me laughing! I know it's just a typo but I got this mental image of somebody licking a computer monitor, going 'Mmm, just as good as the last one' and... yeah. I nearly lost it!

Ch 4: Drunk and Drunker

Jack waited for Sam and Maggie to come back inside, figuring she wanted to be alone to collect her thoughts for a bit. He had tried to come prepared for a variety of scenarios - but he still didn't know what he was doing, he just didn't want Sam to be alone thinking about Daniel all night. He had noticed the photo albums were out on the coffee table earlier but hadn't commented on them. Now, he sat down on the couch and started thumbing through Sam's album while he waited for her.

"Cassie did that one," Sam explained quietly, sitting down next to him.

"Today?" Jack asked, flipping ahead to the spot where he'd left off the year before and new pictures he hadn't seen began. He slid the book over so that it rested half in his lap, half in hers so they could both see it.

"Yeah. I added to Daniel's and she added to mine. I haven't even looked at this one yet."

"Well, I'm sure she didn't do as good of a job as I did, but let's see..." Jack said lightly.

They looked through the book quietly, occasionally laughing at a candid picture or commenting on what had been happening at the time it had been taken.

"Can I look at Daniel's?" Jack asked when Sam finally set hers aside on an end table.

"Of course," Sam said, tucking her feet underneath her while he reached for the large album with one hand. An envelope slid out of it, from between the last pages.

"What's this?" Jack mumbled, picking it up. Sam gasped and froze as Jack pulled out the gift she had given Daniel last year: passes to Disney World. They never got the chance to use them.

Based on her reaction, Jack figured out roughly what was going on and set the book down quickly. "I'm sorry, Carter..."

Seeing those passes, remembering the night she had given them to him, suddenly made something inside of her snap. She felt a sharp stabbing pain in her heart and couldn't breathe. Then she burst into tears she instantly knew wouldn't be stopping any time soon and launched herself into Jack's arms, not caring at the moment that he was her CO and this was highly unprofessional behaviour for a Major in the USAF.

Jack gathered her to him, surprised by her sudden outburst but feeling like it had probably been a long time coming. He had no idea what to say or do, so he just sat there, rocking slightly, one hand curled around her neck, the other rubbing her back in big, slow circles. His neck and the collar of his shirt was getting soaked with hot tears, and he soon became worried that she was going to make herself hyperventilate.

"Breathe in," he instructed, repeating it over and over until she was no longer hysterical. She was still crying hard, but she was no longer gasping and shuddering.

After a long, long time, Sam finally started talking in between sobs. Jack wasn't sure if she knew she was speaking out loud or not, because it sounded like she was talking to herself, saying things like, "Loved him so much," and "he had no idea."

Jack waited until she had completely cried herself out, which took so long he wondered when the last time she had really cried was. He felt like an ass, because that was something he should have known, and would have known if he hadn't been distancing himself from all things Daniel-related so much.

When she was still and quiet, still crying a little bit, he finally started talking. "Daniel knew how you felt about him, Carter." He was careful not to call her 'Sam,' just now. That was Daniel's thing. "He knew because he felt the same way. It doesn't matter if you never say it. You were closer than most brothers and sisters. And all brothers know their little sisters love them. It's just a fact, like gravity."

"Why won't he come back?" Sam asked, sounding tiny and afraid, two words he would never have thought to put in the same sentence with Sam Carter. "Orlin retook human form, if Daniel's really ascended, why won't he... de-scend?"

"You miss him so much right now you're not thinking like you, Carter," Jack said quietly. "Daniel won't do that because he's not selfish. Coming back to us would be selfish. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing right now, I guess."

He looked down at the top of her messy hair, debating for the millionth time whether or not he should tell her Daniel had shown up when he had been captured by Ba'al. It would probably just make her upset that Daniel hadn't visited her too, if she even believed him, so he said nothing.

"What do you want to do now, Carter? Want me to leave you alone?"

"No!" she said quickly, clinging to him a bit tighter than before. Despite the horrible circumstances, he couldn't help but be a little bit pleased at that.

"Want some birthday cake?" he tried.

"No."

"Okay." He paused for a minute, took a deep breath, and said, "Want to get really drunk and trade stories about Daniel?"

"God, yes!"

He laughed and said, "Good thing I came prepared for anything." Sam watched, surprised, as he went over to one of the bags he hadn't touched yet. He pulled out a large bag of lemons, a huge, dangerous looking bottle of tequila, and said, "I figured you have salt."

Eyes slightly widened, she nodded and said, "Yeah, in the cupboard next to the fridge."

"Okay then, I'll be right back."

She watched him go and felt slightly alarmed for the first time that night. Normally, a night alone with Jack O'Neill would have her completely on edge. Well, then again, normally there weren't nights alone with Jack O'Neill, but that was beside the point. He was clearly there because she needed a friend right now, despite the fact that it was also the one day a year that always ended up with the two of them in an increasingly passionate lip-lock.

Her cheeks flushed automatically as she remembered last year's encounter on the couch. She had been so consumed by thoughts of Daniel as she dreaded her birthday approaching this year that this was literally the first time she had even thought about what would happen this year between herself and Jack.

Then she calmed down as she realized he knew all of that too. They hadn't talked about it, but she knew he knew. She knew that meant he also probably wasn't going to kiss her tonight, at all. Tonight was about Daniel, and despite how Jack and Daniel had constantly bickered, there were some pretty deep feelings between the two of them as well, and Sam figured Jack would consider it a bit disrespectful to Daniel to use tonight as an excuse to stick his tongue down her throat.

"What are you thinking about?" Jack asked, making Sam jump a little bit and blush.

"Nothing. Wondering where my shot glasses are," she lied.

He raised both eyebrows but didn't comment. "I brought two."

"You did come prepared."

"Yeah, well... I'm not sure this is what Daniel would want you to do today, but I know he wouldn't want us to end the tradition entirely because he's not here," he said with a shrug, setting a big bowl of lemon wedges in the middle of the coffee table, pulling the salt shaker out of his pocket, and setting two shot glasses next to it.

"You sure this is what you want to do?" he asked.

"I'm sure," she said quickly, moving around to the other side of the coffee table and sitting on the floor, so Jack could have the couch, because his knees would hurt on the floor.

She knew that because she hadn't slept or eaten much in the past week, she was about to get really drunk, really fast. And probably be really sick after that. And all of a sudden, that was exactly what she wanted: to stop being expected to deal with everything perfectly.

Jack sat down on the edge of the couch and opened the bottle of tequila, carefully pouring two shots. "To Daniel?"

Sam nodded and picked her shot up without bothering with the salt, so he shrugged and did the same, clinking his shot against hers and swallowing it. She made the funniest face he had ever seen in his life, like she had just swallowed a bug. He handed her a lemon and popped one in his mouth, sucking on it quickly.

The lemon just made her face get even funnier. Her cheeks were bright red and her eyes were watering. He laughed and said, "Sorry, I thought you liked tequila."

"Why'd you think that?"

"You said something once about margarita parties with the doc..."

"That tasted nothing like a margarita!"

"Sorry... you handle alcohol like you've trained for it, I guess I assumed you'd had straight tequila..."

"I stuck mostly to vodka in college," she explained.

"Another piece of the Carter mystery unfolds," he said. "We don't have to do this if you don't like it..."

"No, I want to!" she insisted, getting up on her knees. "Pour another. I'll know what to expect this time."

He decided not to point out that she had essentially just given him an order. He poured the shots and reached across the table to grab her hand, turning her arm over and pushing the sleeve of her sweater up to her elbow.

He picked up the salt and said, "Lick your wrist."

"I'm glad Jonas isn't here," she said suddenly, feeling rather silly as she licked her wrist and he sprinkled salt on it, then did the same to himself.

"Why?" he asked, licking off the salt and taking his shot. She copied him and made a slightly less-exaggerated face this time, but it still made him laugh.

"Well, as far as I know he's never had a drink before and you know how excited he gets about trying new things. Plus he still thinks I'm perfect," she added absently, setting her lemon wedge down neatly next to the other one she had already used.

"Er... okay. Do you want to tell the first thing about Daniel, or should I?"

"You go first."

"Okay. Well, I know you read all the reports from the first trip to Abydos, but I'll tell you what it was like seeing him meet Sha're..."

Sam looked so eager to hear the story, like a little kid, that Jack laughed. He decided to make all of his stories as long as he possibly could, to stretch out the time between shots.

Sam, it turned out as the evening progressed, had the opposite plan in mind. Her 'stories' quickly started making less and less sense and getting shorter and shorter as she got more and more drunk. Jack was more than a little concerned; he had been drunk with Carter plenty of times, and she always kept up with him better than anybody else, and she was one of the most in-control drunk people he had ever met, when she wanted to be.

Apparently she didn't want to be tonight. Which Jack certainly understood. He had done the same thing for a lot longer than one night, because of Charlie. If this was how Sam wanted to get through a painful day, he was just glad he was there to make sure she was okay.

Plus, he had to admit, it was kind of funny, because he could ask her anything tonight, and she was answering him.

"Sam, your turn to tell a Daniel story," he reminded her.

"Right. Okay... this one... this one is a secret," she whispered loudly. "I wasn't s'posed to tell you about it but Daniel's just going to have to show up and stop me if he wants."

"Uh..."

"No, it's not a bad secret, it's a funny secret. He was afraid you'd hurt him..."

"Start at the beginning, Carter."

"Right. Okay. You know when we first became a team and Daniel was kinda... geeky?"

"Kinda?" he repeated incredulously. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Well he wanted to get tougher and all, so I would help him work out and take him to the shooting range and all that..."

"I know, he told me how much he appreciated all that."

"Did he tell you 'bout little bunny foo foo?" Sam asked.

"No... who's little bunny foo foo?"

"You are!" Sam informed him, laughing hysterically.

"What? How do you figure that one, Carter?"

"Because... see it was this thing... he did this impression of you, when you box. He said you like hop around, like this..." She got to her feet unsteadily and tried to do an imitation of Daniel's imitation of Jack boxing.

"Carter, be careful, you're gonna fall," Jack warned.

"No, I'm not. And so he would make up funny words to the song and hop around doing an impression of you boxing, like, 'Little bunny foo foo hoppin round the gate room pickin on the scientists and boppin em on the head'... it was funnier when he did it," she said, stopping suddenly and looking very pouty.

Jack laughed and said, "Uh... good story, Carter. Come sit down now, okay? I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"Why?" she asked, maneuvering around the coffee table unsteadily and flopping down next to him on the couch.

"Because if I have to take you in to the doc like this she'll kill me," he explained patiently.

"Nah, she won't kill you," Sam insisted. "She likes you way too much. She might give you some extra shots though, just for fun."

"Right... hey, Carter? Why do you keep doing that thing with your shoulders?"

"What thing?"

"That."

"Oh. They hurt."

"Why?"

"I hurt all over."

"Why?" he asked, alarmed.

She shrugged. "I don't sleep anymore so I run."

He tried to work out if there was any logic in that statement but finally gave up.

"Let's have our cake now!" Sam exclaimed, apparently wanting to change the subject.

"Er... okay. Want to have some dinner first though?"

"We already ate dinner," she reminded him.

"Damn, I thought you might have forgotten. Well... want some leftovers first? It'll make you feel better."

"I feel fine," she insisted. "Let's have cake."

"Okay, guess it's better than nothing," Jack mumbled, getting up. He really felt the alcohol in his system when he stood up, but he was still okay, whereas Sam was wasted. She was going to feel like hell tomorrow.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay here on the couch while I get everything ready, okay? I'll bring it to you in a few minutes."

"Okay," she agreed, giving him a huge grin.

Shaking his head slightly, Jack grabbed the bag from the bakery and called Maggie to him on his way to the kitchen. She and Quarks, who had probably been off having a good laugh about the crazy humans in the living room, sauntered into the kitchen.

Jack had got a small, round cake this year, the same flavour as always, but it was decorated plainly. He didn't know if he should have both their names on it or just Sam's, so he had just left it blank. He put a cone-shaped party hat on his head, then put one on Maggie, then put the tiny one he got at the pet store (yes, he had gone shopping specifically for that) on Quarks. "Okay, guys, follow me," he said, sticking one sparkler in the middle of the cake and lighting it.

Maggie, of course, smelt the food, so she followed him. Quarks followed her. Jack took the cake into the living room. Sam looked at all their hats and laughed. Jack set the cake down on the table, pushing aside the empty bottle of tequila, and asked, "Do you want your crown thingy this year?"

He knew it was called a tiara, but he just refused to say the word tiara. She nodded, so he put it on her head for her, not trusting her to do it herself without poking her own eye out. He dumped Quarks in her lap. She was looking down at Quarks's hat. "Where'd you find one this small?"

"Pet stores have everything these days," Jack informed her. "Okay, now, no mocking my singing since I'm the only one here this year... Maggie, feel free to join in..." He sang 'Happy Birthday' while keeping a hold of Maggie's collar to keep her away from the cake, knowing chocolate was poisonous for dogs.

Quarks escaped while Sam leaned forward to blow out the sparkler. Maggie pawed her own hat off then went to help Quarks with his, and they started batting the hats around on the floor, playing with them.

Sam watched them playing and said, "Quarks is the best present ever. Thank you, sir."

He chuckled as he cut up the cake and said, "Well, that was four years ago, but you're welcome. I'm kind of fond of Maggie too, you know."

"Yeah, I know," she agreed, taking the plate of cake he handed her. "Does cake go with tequila?"

"We're about to find out," Jack said with a shrug, taking a big bite of cake.

Sam did the same, and declared enthusiastically, "Yup. It goes."