Amanda Jackson sat in her office at the SGC translating the scrolls she had uncovered on YLR-357. She had been at it ever since her team had returned and gone through their physicals and debriefing.

When she began getting restless, she glanced at her watch and frowned, focusing her eyes intently on the time. It was 2000 hours and that meant she had been at her work for three hours now.

She closed her eyes and placed a hand on her face. Such actions could only glean on result. She counted down five seconds in her head and then heardthe ever-exasperating voice of her team leader coming from the doorway.

"Watch'ya doin'?" he asked with way too much pleasantness in his tone.

"Work" she said dismissively, lowering her hand to glare at him.

He beamed and fully entered her office, "You know what they say, all work and no play…"

"Makes Jacob an annoying boy" she finished sharply.

He shrugged and began to fiddle with some of her more valuable artifacts that were carefully placed around the room. Amanda reflexively got out of her chair and hurried to pry the items from her friends idle hands.

"Weren't you going tomess around with an ion cannon or something?" she asked, taking her artifacts to another end of her office and distancing them from impending disaster.

"Naquadah generated ionized particle wave cannon" he clarified.

"Yeah, yeah…something that's meant to blow something else up…why aren't you in your lab meddling with your own doohickeys?"

"Because I'm hungry and I need to get off the base…and Cassie's taken over my lab and forcing all my civilian techs to help her paint it orange" he provided by way of explanation.

Amanda wrinkled her nose, "Painful" she sympathized.

"Just wait till she gets her crazed mind set on this level, I hear rumors that she's picked out a shock blue for your office"

"How in the galaxy did that girl get authorization to rainbow color the interior of the most secure secret military operations facility on the entire planet?"

"She has the President completely enamored" he rolled his eyes, "He spoils the woman"

"Yes, I'm sure it's the unwavering affection that dear Cassandra elicits in people that allots her complete authority to go around painting every gray wall in sight and not the fact that the President lost a bet to her last year during that pool you were taking on whether or not Lt. Caleb would confess that he's in love with Dr. Damien" Amanda announced in one easy and sarcastic breath.

"Right, nothing at all to do with that" Jacob replied tonelessly, "Anyway, do you want to grab a bite at O'Malley's?"

Amanda thought about it. She'd really like to get the translation done, but she knew if she didn't go Jacob would just stick around and aggravate her until she got out of her office.

"Let's shake and move" she replied, grabbing her standard uniform button up.

"Hey, those were so my lines"

"Poetic license"

"You're not a poet"

"Twinkle, twinkle, little Stargate..."

"Funny"

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Lif'kel stood in the embarkation room next to Cassandra as the active Stargate in front of then disengaged and produced to very familiar people.

"Lif'kel, brother" Ry'ac walked down the ramp to embrace his blood relation, "I am glad to have this opportunity to come visit you"

"As am I, Ry'ac" Lif'kel replied, returning the hug.

"How lovely it is to see you again" Kar'yn greeted her husband's brother. "And Cassandra, it's been much too long" the women embraced.

"You don't know the half of it" Cassie complained, "Besides you at the moment, I am the oldest girl on base"

"I trust you are well, Cassandra" Ry'ac acknowledged his long time friend. Him and Cassie had been, what you would probably call, the original kids of SG-1. They had been so doted upon by the entire SGC when they were younger, until the competition showed up in the form of the members of the current SG-1.

"Yea, I'm fine, great, good, and I'm going to steal your wife away for an hour or five so she can see what I've done with the place" the woman said, grabbing Kar'yn's hand and dragging her out of the gate room.

The Jaffa was barely able to toss back a proper goodbye before the large metallic doors closed on their retreating forms.

Ry'ac chuckled to himself, "She claims to be the eldest of the SGC, but she still acts several years younger"

Lif'kel nodded passively, "How is our father?" he inquired.

"Quite well" Ry'ac replied as the two exited the room, "But I have a feeling you did not request my presence here to talk about Teal'c…I also doubt very much that you wish to hear how the rebellion is fairing"

"You are correct in your assumptions. As much as I would like this to be a purely social visit, there was a slightly ulterior motive to my asking you here" Lif'kel said honestly, "My friend, Jacob O'Neill, has been behaving strangely towards Amanda Jackson…I thought at first that he might be ill, but his last physical examination showed no evidence of this. I discussed his change in attitude with Dr. Linden, she told me he might have a 'crush'"

Ry'ac laughed, "Why Lif'kel, have you called me all this way to help you play match maker?"

Lif'kel frowned, "On the contrary, I wished to cure his ailment so that he will quit acting in such a way"

Ry'ac shook his head with a smile, "I'm afraid you are very helpless concerning matters of the heart my friend. The only way to return your friend to normal is to have him court Amanda"

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"Oooooo, pretty" Vala said as she browsed past a shop window on a quaint yet busy city street.

The locals called the planet Daniel and her were on Quamin; Vala had picked it as a place to spend some of her newly acquired gold, because the people there did not require that you turn the raw material into some other form of currency, and also because it had the best shopping in the galaxy as far as she was concerned.

Daniel sighed and trudged grudgingly behind her with endless bags of things she'd already bought hanging off his arms, "Don't you think you have enough?" he asked in a pleading tone.

"We've only just finished with clothes" she answered, "Now we have to get shoes to match. Every. Single. Outfit"

Each of her last three words was punctuated by him wincing, "Ever heard the term Cruel and Unusual?" he muttered.

"No, why?"

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Jack O'Neill glared menacingly at his reflection in the mirror.

"Sneering at the wrinkles won't make them go away, Jack" Sam O'Neill said with a touch of humor in her voice as she entered the bathroom and kissed him on the cheek.

The couple was in their quarters on the base at the Alpha site preparing for a visit from the Chief of Security who was going to be inspecting the safety protocols and training specifics of the off-world compound to see if there needed to be any improvements.

Sam was to have a preliminary meeting with him to discuss funding and what they could afford to work on and Jack would give the grand tour and a run down of the system they were using at the training Academy.

Having to make Jack deck himself out in formals for the visit sent him on another one of his I'm-getting-too-old-and-ugly trips.

"Sure, you can joke about it…you're still young and sexy" he commented, turning to her and weaving his arms around her waist.

Sam laughed, "Appearances can be deceiving, I've been using hair dye since I hit forty and anti-aging cream since I was twenty-nine"

And she could exercise uninhibitedly because she didn't have the burdens he did of a bad back and knees. She still looked as young as she did when she'd strolled into the briefing room at the SGC thirty-six years ago and challenged him to an arm wrestling match.

"I hate being old," he whined.

"Take solace in the fact that you act anything but your age" she replied.

"Was that an insult?"

"Compliment"

"Sounded like an ins-"

She cut him off with a fierce kiss.

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