A/N: I love reading all of your reviews, and do try to keep in mind what the majority seems to be hoping for. With this story, it's just impossible though - I've got half of you feeling sorry for poor Pete, and the other half wanting me to eviscerate the lad even further. Ah well, there are plenty of both types of stories out there already. This chapter was originally not a chapter in and of itself, but I decided the next part was too sad so I am working on adding more funny parts at the beginning and end of it, which would have made that plus this really long, and not available until probably the weekend. SO, here's a little something for the time being - sort of a respite before the sadder bits. If anyone's already read all of the books mentioned below, please don't spoil them for me - I haven't finished two of them yet!
Ch 4: Giving
After cake and ice cream, everyone was stuffed. They sat around talking for a little while, but Cassie quickly announced that it was time to play games. A few very full people groaned slightly.
"Now, Jack insisted on having a more 'grown-up' party this year, and didn't go along with my original idea for a toga party..." Cassie started.
Sam and Daniel both said, "Thank you!"
Cassie ignored them and kept talking. "But we have to play some party games..."
"We racked our brains," Aileen continued.
"But decided most of our favorite games wouldn't go over so well tonight... especially since Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel have to be at work really early..."
"So no quarters," Aileen said.
"Right. Or fuzzy duck," Cassie added, exchanging sad looks with Aileen.
"No fuzzy duck," Aileen agreed sadly. "But that's okay, we've got lots of other games."
"Okay, quarters I know, but what's fuzzy duck?" Sam asked, never having heard of the game before.
"It's not very complicated," Cassie said with a shrug.
"You just go round in a circle and everyone says 'fuzzy duck.' If you mess it up you've got to drink."
It took the rest of the room a few seconds to get it. Sam, Jack, and Pete were laughing. A few seconds later Daniel went, "Oh! You mean 'does he...'"
"Yes, Daniel!" Jack and Sam both interrupted together.
"How about some games that aren't rated R?" Jack suggested. "If we must play games, that is."
They spent the next hour and a half trying to play card games. Cassie and Aileen suggested a Spit tournament. The game, played between two people, required fast reflexes. After showing those who didn't already know how to play, everyone took turns and challenged the winners. It didn't really work very well though. Teal'c was infinitely better than the rest of them. They moved on to Spoons with similar results. Even the failure of the games was fun in and of itself, though, as everybody present was fairly competitive by nature, even at spoons.
"Okay, the last one is BS, for Jack's G-rated party," Cassie said, smirking at him. "Everyone know how to play?"
Pete and Daniel didn't know how, but it was quickly explained to them. This game turned out to be impossible to play with their particular group, as no member of SG1 was able to successfully bluff another because they knew each other's tells so well. The object of the game was supposed to be to get rid of your cards first, but with SG1 playing, they quickly warped it into a competition to see who could gather the most cards. They still enjoyed it, although that was probably due more to the margaritas than the merits of the game itself.
"Well, okay, the next game is kind of dumb, but it's actually surprisingly fun," Cassie said, handing everyone a balloon filled with regular air, tied to a string. "Tie this around one of your ankles. We spread out, and when I say 'go,' you try to pop everyone else's balloon while keeping yours safe. Last one with a balloon left wins."
"Of course, we're not entirely certain this will be fun with a bunch of people who aren't already well on their way to plastered," Aileen told Sam as they both tied their balloons to their ankles. At that moment Daniel bumped into the coffee table, banging his shin loudly, and yelped. "Okay, maybe I take that back," Aileen amended.
Surprisingly, the simple, juvenile game was actually a lot of fun. People tried to form alliances, then turned on them. Furniture was employed as bunkers. Jack and Daniel both tried to cheat by picking their balloons up off the ground. But the one having the most fun with this game was Maggie, who was happily pouncing on balloons and ended up popping more of them than anyone. She looked so surprised when she jumped on a balloon only to have it vanish with a loud pop that it made everyone laugh.
"Okay," Jack announced when everyone had collapsed onto the nearest piece of furniture after the game ended. "Now that that silliness is over, I think it's time for presents."
"Then we can play board games," Cassie said. "There's this awesome one we brought called 'Apples to Apples...'" She got up to help Jack bring the gifts over to Sam and Daniel, who were squashed together in Jack's favorite big chair.
"Okay, first of all, this isn't really your gift but I added some of last year's pictures to your albums," Cassie said, handing over the huge, heavy photo albums to Sam and Daniel.
Sam and Daniel thanked her and looked through the new pictures quickly. Knowing everyone else was waiting impatiently for them to open their gifts, they set them aside to look at slowly later. Sam and Daniel exchanged the gifts to and from each other first. They unwrapped them at the same time and burst out laughing and hugged each other excitedly.
"What is it?" Cassie called.
"We got each other the exact same thing... this hasn't happened since the first year," Daniel explained, laughing. They held up their boxes.
"Hey, that's the thing you gave me for my birthday," Jack said, recognizing the picture on the front of the boxes.
"What does it do?" Pete asked.
"Everything!" Daniel and Sam exclaimed together.
"It's like a souped-up palm pilot," Jack explained.
"The PalmOne Zire 72 Special Edition Handheld is not a souped-up palm pilot, sir," Sam said, looking offended at the mere suggestion. She turned her attention back to Daniel and confessed, "I hated wrapping it up for you, I was soooooo tempted to keep it myself."
"Me too!" Daniel said. "Teal'c had to pry it out of my hands and wrap it up for me."
"Thanks, Teal'c," Sam said, smiling over at him.
"You are welcome, Colonel Carter," he said with his almost-not-there smile.
"Thanks, Daniel," Sam said, hugging him round the shoulders and kissing him on the cheek.
"And thank you, Sam," he echoed, hugging her back. "You know these can record digital video, right, Jack, so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring them with us on trips..."
"No, Danny," Jack said firmly, but he looked amused at the hopeful look on Sam and Daniel's faces. "The toys stay at home. Don't make me start having to check your packs myself before you leave."
Sam looked at Cassie, Aileen, and Pete and explained, "We gave one of these to General O'Neill for his birthday and had already programmed a bunch of stuff into it and everything. And er... part of the gift was teaching him how to use it."
"We thought it would be really helpful with his new job and all," Daniel continued. "But we didn't think he'd figure out how to play games and listen to music on it by himself," Daniel added, laughing.
"Hey!" Jack objected, but they could tell he was amused. "Well, I'm glad you've got your own now, maybe you'll both stop coming up with excuses to borrow mine!"
They nodded, both already engrossed with reading the specifications on the back of the box, even though they both knew how to use the device already. Jack turned to the rest of the group and said, "Geeks and their toys." Everyone laughed, and Jack added, "Teal'c, I'm putting you in charge of making sure those don't find their way into your packs when you guys go off-w... off with your assignments."
Teal'c merely nodded and said, "Consider it done, O'Neill. Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson, please open my gift next." He handed them both neatly wrapped packages and sat back down next to Pete.
"Heavy," Daniel commented as he felt the weight of the box on his lap. Sam picked hers up experimentally and nodded.
Teal'c had given them both books. For Daniel, one called, The Egyptologist: A Novel, and another called, The Historian. "They are works of fiction, Daniel Jackson, but I believed you would enjoy them, and enjoy informing us of any factual errors contained within."
"Thanks, Teal'c! I've been meaning to read this one, and this other one is supposed to be even better!" Daniel exclaimed.
"Oh, me too, Teal'c, thanks!" Sam exclaimed, holding up the books Teal'c had given her, one of which was about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the other called Just Six Numbers.
"Geeks," Jack repeated affectionately as Sam and Daniel both got up out of their chair to hug Teal'c at the same time. Sam kissed him on the cheek as well. Daniel did not.
"You are both most welcome. I hope that you enjoy them."
"At home," Jack added pointedly. Sam and Daniel both looked at him and nodded as they sat back down in their chair.
Pete handed Sam and Daniel both envelopes. "Sorry, Daniel, it's kind of lame, but Sam told me this was one of your favorite things," he said.
"Wow, thanks, Pete, you didn't have to get me anything..." Daniel started, clearly surprised as he opened the envelope and laughed. It was a Starbucks gift card. "Definitely one of my favorite things. Thanks you, Pete."
"Sam, I uh, got your present today, sort of, but it's not going to be ready for another couple of weeks..." Pete explained. He was tempted to tell Sam about the house now, but thought it would be an even better thing to surprise her when they could actually go and see it.
"Thank you, Pete. And you already gave me those lovely flowers," she said, smiling at him and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
"Now me!" Cassie said. "Aileen helped me put these together," she explained as she handed them boxes, the same size but in different wrapping paper.
Sam and Daniel unwrapped their gifts and said, "Oh, wow," at the same time.
"They're different from your regular albums," Cassie explained as they started looking through them. "I mean, obviously they're different, but... they're only from our vacation to Disney World last year. There were so many pictures. And they're not just pictures, it's like a whole scrapbook thing... there was this store at Disney World that was all scrapbook stuff and we... we decided it would be a neat thing to do..."
Sam and Daniel both looked up at Cassie quickly, everyone realizing the 'we' meant Cassie and Janet.
"Wow, thank you, Cassie," Daniel said quietly, looking down at the book.
"These are beautiful. Thank you both, for doing this."
"I just glued where Cass told me to," Aileen said with a shrug. "She did all of the arranging and creative stuff."
"Come over here, you, I'm getting tired of getting up and down all the time," Daniel said. Cassie laughed and came over to them. They hugged her both tightly for a long time and kissed her.
When Cassie went back to sit next to Aileen, she was trying hard to keep everything together. Aileen squeezed her hand without saying anything, which seemed to help. Cassie cleared her throat and said, "Jack, looks like you're the cheese standing alone."
"Very cute," he said to Cassie, handing gift bags to Sam and Daniel. "Although I can't really compete with your gift, Miss Fraiser. Always determined to make me look bad, huh?"
"Well, you make it so easy, Jack," she responded, the mood lightening up considerably with their friendly teasing.
Daniel opened his gift first, pulling out a coffee mug that said, "I want my mummy" and had a cartoonish-looking Egyptian mummy on the opposite side, and novelty tee-shirt that said, "I'm allergic to stupid people."
"Now before you put that on and pretend to go into a sneezing fit around me, Danny boy, may I remind you once again that I sign your paychecks now," Jack said.
As the laughter died down, Daniel replied, "Now, Jack, I've never accused you of being stupid. Bull-headed, unmanageable, and single-minded, yes, but never stupid."
"Yeah, same to you, Spacemonkey," Jack muttered, but both men were smiling. "There's another one in there too," he added.
Daniel pulled out another shirt, facing himself so that only Sam and Daniel could read it. "Oh God," Daniel groaned, while Sam said reproachfully, "Sir!"
"Come on, show the rest of the class, Danny," Jack said, smiling and very pleased with himself. Daniel showed all of them the tee-shirt, which said 'Archaeologists Do It In the Dirt.'
Everyone got good laughs out of that, and finally Daniel turned to Sam. "Go on, Sam, open yours if you dare."
"I'm not so sure I should now," Sam said dryly, opening her gift nonetheless. She pulled out a plush Albert Einstein doll and laughed. "Thanks, sir."
"It's to replace that Major Matt Mason doll from when you were a kid," he said.
Everyone was still laughing and talking about the funny gifts when Sam noticed there was something else in the bottom of her gift bag. As she started pulling out the tissue paper, Jack, seeing what she was doing, said, "I should have given you that a while ago, but I never found the right time."
Sam looked over at him in surprise. He was halfway across the room, speaking much quieter than everyone else, but she had heard him just as clearly as though he were sitting right next to her. The sudden serious tone of his voice and look on his face surprised her, especially after all the joke gifts. Wondering what it could possibly be, she finally looked back down into the bag and gasped, pulling out the object inside. It was one of his off-world hats.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Pete knew SG1 had some strange inside jokes that he didn't really get, but for the life of him he could not imagine why an old, slightly battered baseball cap would render his fiancee speechless and make her instantly tear up.