A/N: Wow, only two chapters into this and it's already got more reviews than the first two parts of this series combined - thank you all so much. Also, I'd just like to quickly thank those of you responsible for this series and a few of my other stories being nominated for the Stargate Fan Awards - I started posting stories here almost a year ago, and I never thought they would get this much attention, so thank you all. I really appreciate it. To answer a couple of questions - I'm not sure about the length of this story yet as far as chapters go, but each chapter is turning out to be much longer than usual, so it will definitely be a long story (by my definition of long, at any rate.) Also, I'm definitely going to have part of it take place after 'Threads' (or after most of 'Threads.') I admit, I do have an incomplete 'Missing Scenes from Threads' story lurking on my hard drive somewhere, but there are just so many of those out there that I never bothered to finish it up. Maybe I'll borrow a little bit of it for the end of this one. Also, this story is quickly turning into the shippiest and most serious thing I've ever written, because I really do want to try to live up to the expectations of those of you who have put so much time into reading this entire series, but I am trying to keep some humor in there to help balance it out. Hopefully that won't end up making it too slow.

Special thanks to Timo (mu-san) for his input and discussions about the Jack and Cassie dynamic.

Ch 3: Executing

Aileen was making a huge batch of margaritas in the kitchen, and Cassie was insisting on taking pictures of everybody. Jack tried to slink back away from the group under the pretense of getting himself a drink, but Cassie spotted him and called across the room, "Fix your tie, Jack!"

"Damn bossy girl," Jack muttered, fiddling with the collar of his shirt uncomfortably. He frowned down at himself and tried to tie his bow-tie. It had been a long time since he'd had to do such a thing, and without a mirror he was pretty hopeless. His neck was already beginning to hurt from trying to angle his chin down sharply to take a look at what he was doing.

Sam went over to help her CO automatically. "Need a hand, sir?" she offered, not waiting for an answer before she had replaced his fumbling fingers with her own smaller ones and began tying the tie.

"Or two," he agreed. "So, what's the verdict?"

"Sir?"

"On the party?"

"The party is wonderful!" she said immediately, glancing up at his face and smiling. It was at this point that she realized it was probably not the smartest idea she'd ever had, helping him with his tie. It brought them in very close proximity to each other and brought up all kinds of things she was trying very hard not to think about.

Clearing her throat, she focused back on the tie, which was being stubborn and refusing to sit straight, and said, "I can't believe the decorations... you know Daniel and I weren't expecting something this elaborate this year, right sir? I mean, we understand how busy you are..."

"It's not that much," he said with a shrug. Without thinking, she adjusted the cape around his shoulders, which the movement had skewed to the left. "And Cassie and Aileen did most of the work anyway."

"It's the thought that counts," she responded. "I know the Wizard of Oz part had to be your idea, not Cassie's."

"She wouldn't let me be the Scarecrow, I had to do something. She seems good, right? I mean, I think she's doing better than I had... hoped. But maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see."

"No, you're right," she said quickly. "She's tougher than the rest of us put together." Sam realized she was finished with the tie now and completely out of excuses to keep making little tiny adjustments to it, which she hadn't even realized she had been doing in the first place.

"Sam, come on!" Daniel called loudly, making them both jump slightly and snap out of the slight daze they had both sort of fallen into.

Their eyes met quickly and before she could replace it with her usual expression, smile, and head back to the group, Jack caught it. A definite flash of disappointment. It was fleeting, but it was there. It was the same sort of look she got whenever her dad had to leave, or whenever Jack kicked her out of her lab at an ungodly hour of the morning and made her drop whatever experiment she was working on. Only it disappeared a lot faster, but it had been a lot more intense.

Jack stood, rooted to the spot, thinking about that look. It was bizarre, but he was... comfortable now. He couldn't explain why that one moment rather than anything else that had happened since the last party, when she had sworn to him 'it wasn't serious' and 'it's not like they were getting married' and the horribly awkward day she had handed him that little box in her lab had affected him so much, but it had.

"O'Neill, are you all right?" Teal'c asked, suddenly standing next to him.

"Yeah," he said, smiling slowly. "Actually... I am."

He headed over for the pictures, with Teal'c following, wondering at the sudden change in O'Neill. He seemed confident and at ease suddenly. Perhaps it was the costume.

Daniel watched Jack and Teal'c joining the group, dimly registering that Cassie was replacing his fedora with his traditional sequined birthday top hat. Jack looked... like he was having fun. The last time he'd been walking like that had been his unplanned but extremely welcomed trip off-world with them, to go fetch Sam's new toy, which was apparently some type of ship that went through the Stargate, and a time machine all in one.

"What?" Jack demanded when he noticed Daniel noticing him.

"Nothing," Daniel said, glancing over at Sam, who was taking a picture of Cassie and Aileen.

She handed them back the camera and turned to see both Daniel and Jack looking at her, Daniel with the expression he got when he was just beginning to work on translating something Ancient, and Jack just... looking. She grinned at them both and said, "Daniel, did Teal'c tell you your Jedi name? Apparently mine is..." she turned to Teal'c.

"Nununbra Cansankar," he supplied. "And Daniel Jackson, you are Talas Ponman."

"That's... interesting. Thanks," Daniel said, attempting to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose before he remembered he was wearing his hated contact lenses.

Cassie had been firm on that point, even though Daniel thought he had made a pretty good case for the argument that Indiana Jones wore glasses too. "Only when he's teaching," Cassie had insisted, pulling his glasses off and disappearing with them.

They let Cassie and Aileen amuse themselves taking pictures of everybody in their costumes for a while, until the doorbell rang, at which point Cassie hurried to get it, quickly setting the camera aside. Jack hurried after her, assuming it was either the Chinese or Mexican food. It wasn't - it was Pete.

"Sorry I'm late, I guess I copied the directions down wrong," Pete said, smiling and taking in the costumed people in front of him in obvious confusion. Jack looked at the man's button down shirt and khaki slacks and looked down at the top of Cassie's head with a scowl, realizing what she had done.

"That's all right, Pete, the food's not even here yet," Jack said, shaking the man's hand around the bouquet of roses he had brought.

"Oh, my God, I completely forgot to get Teal'c or somebody to tell you, it was a surprise for Sam so she didn't know... this is a costume party," Cassie was saying in a 'genuinely' apologetic voice.

"That explains the uh, cape," Pete said as they stepped aside to let him in. "So, you're..."

"Sorry, Pete Shanahan, Cassandra Fraiser," Jack introduced them. Cassie shook his hand, giving him a much-too-sweet smile. Jack recognized the look in her eyes too. Pete was in for a rough night. Jack was now in the awkward position of trying to decide whether he should sit back and let her have at it, or try to exercise some control over the situation. He had been following a strictly neutral policy about Pete... but this might be taking it a bit too far.

"Nice to finally meet you, Sam talks about you all the time," Pete said to Cassie.

"Really? Huh, I feel like I don't know anything about you at all," Cassie commented innocently, leading him into the living room. "You're a fireman?"

"Cop," Pete corrected.

Jack watched their backs and shook his head. He doubted he'd be able to control her much anyway... for a formerly sweet little girl, Cassie was now looking remarkably like a spider that just caught a big, fat fly. Jack watched as Cassie introduced Pete to everyone, and flinched automatically when he kissed Sam on the cheek. Hey, he was trying, but it was an involuntary reaction, and to be fair she didn't look all that comfortable with the PDA either.

Neither was Magnet... who was living up to her name by sticking close to Sam's side, glaring up at Pete suspiciously despite the fact that Sam had already made her stop growling. The whole exchange was rather comical due to the fact that the growling dog threatening Pete was wearing wings and a halo, and out of all the large men in the room, the only one able to control the angel-dog was the pretty fairy.

Sam accepted the flowers Pete brought with a forced smile, looking around quickly for Daniel, who was thankfully in the kitchen or something. "Thanks, Pete, they're beautiful, but we're going to have to..." she was interrupted by a monstrous sneeze from Daniel, who had reappeared, taken one breath of the now rose-infested air, and instantly started sneezing, his eyes watering uncontrollably. "Put these somewhere else," she finished, waving off Daniel's attempt to join them and say hi to Pete. "Daniel's really, really allergic," she explained.

"Sorry, I didn't know..." Pete said as Jack quickly guided Daniel off down a hall.

"It's okay, how could you know?" Sam asked. "They're lovely, really, but we'd better take them outside."

"Yeah," Pete agreed. "I'll take them back to the car, we can take them back to your place."

"Good idea," she agreed, walking him to the door. When he was gone, she hurried off to find Jack and Daniel, not surprised to find them in the bathroom, Jack rifling through his medicine cabinet and Daniel sitting slumped on the edge of the bathtub with toilet paper stuffed up both nostrils, looking very miserable.

"If adventure has a name... it must be Indiana Jones," she was unable to resist teasing. Daniel shot her a look through watery eyes. She apologized and wet a washcloth, pressing it to his forehead.

"Dammit, all of this is drowsy formula, and he's already had half a beer!" Jack said in frustration, looking at the various medications. "If he takes this he'll miss his whole birthday party."

"I wish Janet was here," Daniel said miserably, making all three of them freeze on the spot. They never said things like that, because they all knew they were all thinking it anyway.

"Sir, didn't you have a bunch of Dayquil when you had that cold last month?" Sam asked, once they had all quietly resumed their tasks.

"Yeah! I left it... nightstand!" Jack hurried to his room and quickly came back with the medicine.

He carefully measured out a dose, but Daniel shook his head. "Make it a double."

"Daniel..."

Daniel sneezed, the toilet paper shooting out of his nose. Sam caught it automatically, and frowned. "Ewwww," all three of them said together, before she threw it quickly in the bin and nudged Jack out of the way so she could get to the sink and start scrubbing her hands.

"Dorry, Dam," Daniel apologized through his clogged nose, reaching over the toilet to pull more tissue off the roll.

"It's okay, Daniel. I'm sorry, if I had thought he would bring roses I would have told him you're allergic..."

"It was just an accident," Jack interrupted, handing Daniel his medicine. Daniel frowned at it, pinched his nose, and knocked it back, making a terrible face. "I actually started to like it after a week of that cold," Jack commented as he put the medicine away.

"Lucky you," Daniel muttered.

"Hey, this reminds me, did you hear the one about the archaeologist, the vampire and the fairy that all got stuck in a bathroom together?" Jack asked. Daniel gave him the 'I'm not amused' look while Sam gave him the remarkably similar 'I'm not going to act like I'm amused' one. "Guess not then," he said, adding, "I'll go open some windows to air out the living room."

"You might want to spray that air sanitizer stuff too, sir, that might help," Sam called as he left.

When Jack entered the living room, he wasn't surprised to find that Teal'c had already opened all the windows. Jack got the stuff Sam had suggested. Pete approached him nervously. "Is Daniel okay?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Jack said. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Pete. It wasn't his fault Daniel was violently allergic to the flowers he had chosen to bring.

The doorbell rang. "That must be the food," Jack said quickly, setting down the air freshener and hurrying to the door. As he passed Cassie and Aileen, he scowled at Cassie, who was looking way too pleased with the situation for his liking, and humming a song that sounded familiar. Jack vaguely registered that it was from a movie he had seen with Cassie a long time ago, but couldn't quite place it.

It was the Chinese food at the door. Jack enlisted Teal'c's help in accepting all the bags and quickly paid the delivery boy. "Let's get this in the kitchen and then we can start putting everything out, but we'll wait for Daniel's food to get here."

"There is more food arriving, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked as they took the food into the kitchen. "It appears you have already ordered, as you would say, enough to feed the armed forces."

Jack chuckled at Teal'c's close approximation of the expression and started unloading the bags of food. "Tell me if you find Carter's so we can put it in the freezer," he muttered, opening various cartons, looking for the extra-spicy Kung Pao chicken that was her favorite. And her absolute favorite, for some strange reason, was when it was cold.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

While Jack and Teal'c were preoccupied with getting all of the food arranged, and Sam was still fussing over Daniel, who had returned to the group looking much better but still unable to pronounce a few key consonants, Cassie nudged Aileen pointedly and said, "Phase Two."

They looked at Pete, nodded, and went over to him smiling. "Hi, Pete," Aileen said.

"Hey."

"Look, we feel really bad that you didn't know about the costumes... we've got some stuff left, we could go fashion a quick costume of some sort," Cassie suggested.

"Oh, that's all right, it's not a big deal..." Pete started.

"Aw, come on, Pete," Aileen wheedled, linking her arm through one of his as Cassie took the other one and they started steering him out of the living room.

"Yeah, come on, you don't want to be left out, do you?" Cassie asked innocently. "We can come up with something really good, it'll only take five minutes."

"Well... okay," Pete agreed, realizing at this point that he really couldn't not agree.

Cassie and Aileen exchanged very evil grins behind his back and got to work quickly.

"Let's see what we've got here, there's not a lot but we can do something..." Aileen called over her shoulder as she rummaged through the costume box. "Most of this stuff was for your godmother though, Cass, and somehow I doubt Pete wants to be a cat or a medieval princess..."

"You picked out all the costumes?" Pete asked.

"Teal'c did his own," Cassie explained, circling around him and eyeing what he was already wearing. "But Jack always insists on surprising Sam and Daniel with the theme, so we figured we might as well surprise him with his own costume."

"He looks really hot in that tux," Aileen said to Cassie, but Cassie knew she was doing it to bring it up in front of Pete.

"Hey, watch it, that's my godfather you're talking about," Cassie said playfully. She turned to Pete suddenly. "Do you have a shirt on under that one?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Good. Lose it. Aileen, grab me those elastics over there..."

"What?" Pete asked, watching the two of them, confused. Before he knew what was happening he was standing there in his undershirt while Aileen secured the hem of his trousers up around his knees with elastics and Cassie forced him into a set of lederhosen suspenders.

Done with his trousers, Aileen stood on her tiptoes and placed what was originally an elf hat, green with a little red feather in the side, on top of Pete's head.

"I really don't know that all this is necessary..." Pete started, glancing uncomfortably at the dog that had followed them into the bedroom and had been staring at him constantly, clearly telling him he was being guarded. Now she looked like she was laughing at him too. Pete usually loved dogs! This one was clearly messed up. Maybe he should get a new dog for himself and Sam, that way she wouldn't have to 'borrow' General O'Neill's dog all the time. "I mean, isn't this all a bit much seeing as how there's only six people here?"

"Well, Jack always does Sam and Daniel's party big," Cassie explained absently, straightening her appearance in the mirror. "This is actually the most toned-down party I can remember in... a long time. He's just way too busy to do it like he used to, but he did do all those decorations..."

"The Wizard of Oz stuff? That was him?" Pete asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," Cassie said. "It's some inside joke between the four of them, I don't know what it means. Oh well, you look good, Pete, come on!"

She hooked her arm through his once again and led him downstairs, trying to keep the grin on her face down to a somewhat normal level.

When everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at them as they entered, she knew she was failing miserably.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

After the initial surprise of Pete's costume, everyone recovered quickly and thanked him for participating and all, then carried on as though nothing unusual had happened. Everyone but Jack that is. He grabbed Cassie by the elbow and steered her away from the group into the kitchen. "Cassie, that's enough," he said firmly.

"What are you talking about, Jack?" Cassie asked innocently.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. I thought you had decided to act like a grown-up here, but clearly it's actually the exact opposite! I want you to stop what you're doing to Pete right this instant."

"What am I doing to Pete?" she repeated with a carefully blank look on her face.

"You're trying to make him look dumb and make him feel out of place, dressing him up like he's an overgrown member of the Von Trapp family singers or something..."

"I wasn't trying to do that, Jack, if it's just happening on its own maybe that's just the way things are..."

"Dammit, Cassie," he growled. "This is not a smart way to go about whatever it is you're trying to do, and I think I've got a pretty good idea of what that is. Just leave it alone, okay?"

"You seem to have that area pretty well covered," Cassie said, crossing her arms firmly. "And forgive the bluntness, Jack, but it doesn't seem to be working too well."

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about, Cassie," Jack said firmly. "This isn't just some stupid game, okay. You're trying to mess with people's feelings and it's not right. You're trying to mess with Sam's feelings and you're doing it maliciously, and that's something I will not tolerate, even from you."

"Jack, what about your feelings?" Cassie implored.

"Stop it."

"No. You're the one bringing all this up. Maybe I'm messing with her feelings but she's messing with yours too, despite the fact that it might not be deliberately. And maybe that's something I won't tolerate from her. Maybe I'm just as concerned about your happiness as you are about hers, did that ever occur to you? God, of all the people on this planet, you deserve to be happy more than anyone! You're the hero of the story, Jack, you're supposed to get the girl!"

"Cassie, this isn't a story," Jack said quietly. "And I do know that your heart's in the right place here, but... you're going about this all wrong. You're just going to end up hurting the people you're trying to help. Just... stop it."

Cassie looked down at the space between them, feeling defeated. "Jack, I just... I really do just want you both to be happy. I've kind of... okay, this is kind of embarrassing, but... when I was little I used to pretend that you were my dad sometimes."

His face softened and he looked away. "Dammit, Cassie," he said gently.

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad here, I'm really not, but... it's just that... Mom's gone and it's like you're all I have left now. It used to be you and Sam but now it's just you."

"Sam will always be there for you, Cassie..." Jack started.

Cassie shook her head. "I can't do it, Jack. If she marries Pete, it's never going to be like it was. I don't want to come home to 'them.'"

"I'm sorry if you feel that way, Cass, because I know that's going to hurt Sam just as much as it's going to hurt you. And I hope that you change your mind. But you know you can always come home here, right? Even when I'm chewing you out for being a brat."

"Yeah, I know," Cassie said, smiling for the first time since he'd dragged her in there. "That's why I used to tell my friends you were my dad."

He returned the smile, surprised. "Yeah?"

She nodded.

"Okay, I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you something nice too, huh." Cassie rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. "Your mom asked me a long time ago if she could tell you about Charlie. You had questions about me. So I know that you know about that."

Cassie nodded, biting her lip.

"Okay. Well, I guess what I want to say is... I know it's different because you're a girl, and actually that probably made it a lot easier for me but... I'm really grateful to you, Cass, because I got to see the whole part of childhood and growing up that he didn't have. I wouldn't have got to do the whole chaperoning dances and carting your junk off to college and all that stuff otherwise, and I would have missed a lot. So I guess what I'm saying is... backatcha."

She hugged him tightly. "I just wish..." she finally started.

"It'll be okay, Cassie," he said quietly, returning the hug and cupping the back of her head with one hand. "Just... wait and see."

"You know something I don't?"

"Yeah, I think I do," he said honestly.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Sam poked her head into the kitchen and smiled. "THERE you are, the..." she stopped, frowning. Cassie was hugging Jack tightly, and Jack looked like he'd recently been upset but was now relieved. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "What is it?"

"The fajitas are here. You're going to be eating leftovers for a while, sir."

"I'll just have a sleep over with Teal'c and Daniel," Jack said with a shrug.

Cassie let go of him then, wiping her eyes discreetly, and turned to Sam with a sudden smile. "Time to go to the Emerald City then, huh," she said, hurrying out of the kitchen.

Sam looked to Jack, wondering if he'd explain what that was all about now that Cassie was gone. He opened his mouth, then shook his head. "I'll explain later. Come on, let's go eat."

Everyone fixed their own plate, moving down the long table they had set up for serving the food. By the time Sam got out there, Teal'c and Daniel were already through the line, both their plates piled high with both types of food, although Daniel's was predominantly Mexican. They were trying to hurry everyone along, clearly eager to be seated and begin eating.

Sam joined Pete, Cassie, and Aileen in 'munchkinland' and laughed at the way they were eyeing the two different types of food. "Don't worry, Daniel and I won't be offended if you want to just pick one and stick with it," she assured them, sliding a few nachos onto her plate next to the eggroll that was already there.

Jack joined them quickly with one last container of Chinese food. "I think it's cold enough," he said, dumping half its contents onto Sam's plate.

"It's cold already?" Sam asked with a grin.

He shrugged. "I just put it in the freezer when it got here... speed up the process a bit..."

"Thank you, sir. You really thought of everything."

"Ah, it's your birthday. Don't get used to it though," he grumbled. It was a completely empty threat, they both knew it.

Sam smiled and said, "Thank you," one more time.

"What's that?" Pete asked, wondering why that container hadn't been brought out with the others.

"It's Kung Pao..." Sam explained. "Want to try it? It's cold though."

"Why is it cold?"

"Don't question it, Pete, just accept the fact that Carter is completely insane and go with it," Jack joked.

"It's not insane, and you like cold pizza," Sam said defensively.

"I eat cold pizza, Carter. There's a difference. I prefer it hot but I don't always have the patience to warm it up. You, on the other hand, prefer your god-awful extra-extra-spicy crap ice cold."

She shrugged. "It tastes better that way," she said for the eighty-four-thousandth time in her life. She turned back to Pete and offered him the carton. "So, want to try it?"

"Um, no thanks," he decided wisely.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Once everyone was seated at the dinner table, Jack looked around the green room at his now-green company. While it did seem oddly appropriate, at least in Sam's case – considering her costume, for her to be appearing green-tinted all of a sudden, for the rest of them it was just... weird.

"O'Neill, are you not going to say a few words before we eat?" Teal'c asked.

"Er. Yeah, okay." Jack got to his feet and awkwardly stalled, picking up his beer and looking around the room. "Uhh... we've got to be at work early tomorrow, so we're going to be on our good behavior tonight with the drinks... except for Danny of course who is well on his way to drunk already, after that one whole beer and two sips of Sam's margarita..." Jack said, smiling at the archaeologist, who rolled his eyes while everyone laughed. Sam, seated next to him, patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

Jack looked at the two of them and continued stalling. "...But I'm sure the fajitas will fix him right up..." For the life of him, all he could think about was the conversation in the kitchen with Cassie.

"All right... I don't want to spoil the party but, well, most of us are thinking about it anyway, so I'll just say it. Everyone here knows there's someone who should be here tonight that isn't." He stared at Teal'c, for some reason he was the only one Jack was capable of looking at while speaking all of a sudden. Teal'c was always a strangely calming presence.

"I know we all wish she was, even though wishing doesn't do any good... and there's always... doubts, if something is your fault or not, or even if you know it's not your fault but you still think maybe there was one thing you could have done that would have made everything turn out differently... it can become easier to just do nothing instead, when something like that happens, and nothing you did ever did anybody any good anyway..."

His eyes finally left Teal'c, drifting around the room. Sam was crying. Crap. Daniel was too. From the way their arms were positioned, Jack could tell they were squeezing each others' hands under the table. Swallowing hard and clearing his throat, Jack kept speaking. "I guess... what I'm trying to say is that sometimes those things can start to become overwhelming, and we forget... we forget to appreciate what we're left with in missing what we've lost. I don't want that, for any of you. And, I was thinking... in the few brief seconds I had after Teal'c put me on the spot like this..."

He flashed Teal'c a brief smile and noticed that Sam and Daniel smiled a little bit as well. Good. Better. "Which I'm sure Teal'c is regretting now," he added. "I was thinking about an old toast I heard in my family when I was a kid... I don't know where it came from or anything but... I guess I understand what it means now. Tonight."

His eyes settled on Cassie, whose eyes were watery but was refusing to cry, and he thought back to everything they had talked about in the kitchen as he finished. "It was like this... if I remember it right... May all our faults be written on the seashore, and may every good action prove a wave to wash them out." Everyone clinked their drinks together in silence and Jack sat down. After several somber moments, he said, "Somebody please say something funny now so I don't get stuck with a fridge full of leftovers."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Despite the uncharacteristic seriousness of what Jack had said, after several quiet, introspective minutes, everyone did begin eating, and gradually the talking and joking resumed. Cassie and Aileen told a few funny stories that made everyone laugh, which gave everyone else (who had grown up on Earth, at least,) a way in to the conversation with college stories of their own.

When dinner was finally over, Jack felt okay. It was true, everyone had been thinking about Janet anyway. Saying it out loud had made it easier to deal with, to feel like it was okay to have fun at the party even when they were all still missing her terribly.

While everyone else sat around the table chatting, Teal'c and Jack went into the kitchen to get Sam and Daniel's cake ready. This year it was covered in tiny toy airplanes and little plastic green army men, positioned as though they were engaged in an epic battle while still carefully avoiding treading on the words "Happy Birthday Sam and Daniel" in the middle of the cake.

Jack was glad it was Teal'c who had volunteered to come help him, as he knew Teal'c was okay with comfortable silences. The two men worked quickly, outlining the cake with sparkler candles and lighting them all. While Jack slid the cake off the counter, Teal'c quickly grabbed the tub of ice cream, the little party plates, and a stack of napkins, and followed Jack back into the dining room, the two of them beginning the singing as they entered.

While they sang 'Happy Birthday,' Jack set the cake down on the table, in the space between Sam and Daniel. He squeezed Daniel's left shoulder and Sam's right at the same time before stepping back to finish the song. When it was done, they started blowing out the candles from opposite sides of the cake, while everyone clapped.

When Jack slid the cake down to himself to start cutting it up, Sam snagged an army man from the corner so she could have the icing stuck to the bottom of it. He glanced at her and said, "You should have seen the look on the lady's face when I asked if she had any plastic army women." Everyone laughed, but Jack didn't really notice. What he did notice was that it was the first genuine smile out of her since the toast.