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Acting One's Age
by Keaira
Chapter 10 – A Little Panic

"Are we done yet?"

Janet sighed and fervently wished the answer was yes.

"We'll be done sooner, Jack, if you pick which shirt you want."

"I don't want either," he said stubbornly, folding his arms over his chest.

"Well that's not acceptable. You need a nice shirt."

"Why? Are you going to make me go to church or something?"

Not on your life, she thought. Beside the fact that she wasn't really a religious person herself and she wasn't aware of any devout religious worship on his part, she'd never torture herself or anyone else by trying to force Jack O'Neill to sit still long enough for someone to deliver a sermon he wouldn't hear anyway.

"No," was what she said aloud.

"Then why do I need a shirt like that?"

"Because you might need it. But if you really don't want to pick one right now, then I suppose we could go shopping again later."

"Works for me."

She stifled an urge to growl in frustration and closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she reopened them he was gone and she spun around looking for him.

"Jack!"

"What?" His head popped out from behind a display of pants and she relaxed again. Well, sort of.

"Don't run off."

"I didn't," he said defensively. "I'm right here."

She bit her tongue to keep from snapping at him and held the shirts up. "Pick one."

He looked at the two of them and then at her. "Just because I pick one doesn't mean I want to wear it."

She leveled a Look at him and he shrugged. "Well it doesn't," he said.

"Just pick one."

He looked at the shirts again and then pointed to the white one in her right hand.

"Thank you," she said and put the shirt he hadn't chosen back on the rack.

Then he wandered over to the wall where a multitude of ties were displayed.

"Hey, Janet?"

"Yes, Jack?" she said absently, trying to decide which color to get for Danny.

"Are you gonna make me get a tie?"

Do I look crazy? she thought, but managed not to say.

"Why?" she asked instead.

"Because if you wanted to I'll make you a deal."

She stopped looking at the shirts and stared at him.

"What kind of deal?" she asked suspiciously.

He turned around and met her gaze.

"I won't put up a fuss and I'll even let you put it on me if I get to pick the tie."

Her eyes narrowed and she regarded him for a few moments. He didn't even flinch, he just continued to stare back innocently.

"Do you have a specific tie in mind?"

"Maybe."

"Not that I'm going to make you do so, but would your mother allow you to wear it to church?"

He pondered this for a minute. "It doesn't have any bad words on it or anything like that."

"Jack."

"Yes. She would."

"Which one is it?"

"It's the only one I'll wear."

"Jack."

"I'm just saying."

"Which one is it?"

He turned and selected a silk tie off the wall, then brought it over and presented it for her inspection.

It had the Simpsons on it, but he was right, there were no swear words or anything like that on it.

She looked up at him and then nodded. "Okay. Deal."

"Sweet!"

"Where's Danny?" she asked. Sam was sitting with the bags from the others stores and scribbling on another piece of paper.

"I dunno. He was with Sam." They both looked at where the blonde girl was guarding the bags but there was no sign of a little brunet boy with her.

Biting back a curse, Janet took the clothes she'd already picked out and went over to Sam, Jack close behind.

"Sam? Where's Danny?"

She didn't answer at first so Janet tried again.

"Sam!"

She jumped and looked up. "Huh?"

"Where's Danny?"

"He's right . . ." She looked around and realized he was gone. "I don't know. He was right here."

Janet sighed. She wasn't really fond of the idea of splitting them up even more, but she knew Daniel often wandered off without realizing how far away he was. It was likely Danny had done something similar and she didn't want to waste time.

"Okay. Sam, stay here and watch our things. Jack, start at the back of the store and work your way forward, make sure you search anywhere small enough for him to crawl into."

Both of them nodded and she looked at the front of the store. "I'll start at the front and work my way back here. Let's go."

Jack took off at a jog for the rear of the store and she hurried to the door.

oOoo

"Thank you, young man."

"You're welcome."

"Oh you're so cute," the old woman cooed and dug in her purse for a dollar which she handed to him. "Here you go, dear."

"What's this for?" Danny asked.

"For helping me."

"Oh. Thank you."

"You're welcome, dear."

"Elsa!"

She looked up at where an old man was glaring at her. "Coming, Harold!" She turned back to Danny and smiled once more. "I have to go. Thank you again for your help."

"You're welcome."

"Elsa!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Goodbye, dear." She left then, gushing about Danny to Harold who replied with the distracted agreements of a husband used to his wife's chatter.

Danny looked down at the dollar again and then shrugged and stuffed it in his pocket.

He turned around to go back to where he'd left Sam and then stopped suddenly. Where was the store?

Turning in a slow circle he felt panic well up.

He couldn't see the clothes store or Sam or Jack or Doctor Janet.

But he hadn't gone that far! He was just looking at the woman in the red dress. She'd looked kind of like his mom, but it wasn't his mom.

Then he heard the song his mom always sang to him before bed and followed it to the music box store. He wanted to show the others but before he had a chance to go find them he saw Elsa. She'd dropped her bag and was trying to pick everything up.

His parents had always said it was only polite to help people like Elsa, so he had.

He turned around again and saw the music box store but . . . he couldn't remember which way he'd come from before that.

Trying not to cry he went to sit on a bench in the middle of the hall and try to figure out what to do.

oOoo

Janet rounded the last rack and came to a stop next to the bench where Sam and Jack were sitting with the bags.

"No luck?" she said, although she could already see Danny wasn't there.

"Nope," Jack said.

"I'm sorry, Janet," Sam said. "I didn't mean to lose him!"

"It's okay," she soothed and then looked around, wishing Danny would just magically appear. "Let's buy our stuff and go look for him. He can't have wandered that far."

Sam and Jack nodded and waited where they were as she quickly bought the things she'd picked out. She would have skipped it and just gone, but she didn't want to have to come back and it didn't take that long anyway.

Within minutes they were outside and looking both ways while Janet tried to figure out which way to go.

"Okay. Any ideas? Did we pass any stores Danny might have wanted to stop in?"

"There was a book store that way," Jack said and pointed to the right.

"Let's go. And keep your eyes open for him."

Jack and Sam nodded and they left, three sets of eyes searching for one little boy.

Thanks for the reviews and thanks for reading! Until next time . . .

"Studies show that research causes cancer in lab rats." – Anonymous

Keaira