Author's Note: Ian's in Jack's chain of command – since right now he's assigned to the SGC and SG-1 in particular – and normally Jack wouldn't put up with him blowing up like that without at least calling him on the language. This time, though, I wrote that Jack had deliberately goaded Ian into getting angry, and I didn't think Jack would reprimand Ian for swearing when it was his fault the guy was so mad. Thanks for reviewing, guys!
OOOOOOOO
Yeah, that did it. Ian could see it immediately. Jack suddenly had a big dumb grin on his face that he was doing a shitty job of hiding, Fraiser's face was shocked, and Sam looked weepy-eyed. He scowled, and dumped Sammy off his lap so he could stand up.
"Come on," Ian said, avoiding looking at any of them since he was sure they were all going to start commenting on what he'd said – something he could do with out. "Let's go to the cabin."
"We gotta get toilet paper," Sammy said, not at all upset at Ian for getting up. All he knew was that Ian was staying. "River's waiting…"
Ian nodded. As much as he was amused by the fact that it was Hayden who was waiting – and he might have left him waiting even longer, just because it was him – he knew he was going to need that toilet paper eventually, too, so that was going to be their first stop.
"Good idea, Ian," Jack said, nodding. "Make sure everyone's awake, will you?"
"Yeah."
Jaffer trotted out of the room with Ian and Sammy, the little boy talking excitedly to Ian about all the activities that he'd missed, his hand holding Ian's firmly, and Janet and Sam both looked at Jack.
"What did you say to him?"
Jack shrugged.
"Just stuff."
"It worked," Janet said, impressed.
Jack just shrugged again, and decided to change the subject. He wouldn't want people talking about him behind his back – although Ian probably expected it.
"Are you sticking around for the rest of the week?" He asked Fraiser.
She nodded.
"I might as well – although Cassie's going to be disappointed that she missed the chance to be here."
"Where is she?"
"She was spending the night at a friend's when we left – and I think it was going to be an extended stay… maybe a couple of days. She's trying to get as much time with her friends as she can before she goes away to school."
"Understandable," Sam said.
Janet nodded.
"I remember doing the same thing before I went to school."
"Spending time with your brontosaurus?" Jack teased.
The doctor smiled.
"I'll remind you, Colonel, that you're older than I am…"
"No I'm not."
"Yes, you are," Sam said.
"You two just think that I am," he said, taking a sip of his coffee. "I lied on my birth certificate."
Janet snorted, and the conversation turned to the schedule for the day – what little Jack had seen.
OOOOOOOOO
"And then we drew a picture of some dogs playing poker," Sammy said, excitedly as he, Ian and Jaffer went towards the part of the building that held Gary Hines' office. "It looked pretty good – Shawn said someone thought they looked like water camels or something, but I think we did good – and we got credit for it. And I used my elephant key chain that my gramma gave me to hold my house key and we got credit for that, too. And we took a pillow, and we had to have a barrette, but none of us had one, so River went over to one of the girl groups that were running around and brought us one back really quick. And then we-"
"Ian!"
As they were coming around the corner, Gary Hines was coming the opposite direction and he found them before they found him. "How are you feeling?"
Ian nodded a greeting, grateful for a respite from Sammy's constant chatter.
"I'm fine."
"Are you back for the rest of camp?"
"Yeah."
"Good!"
Gary looked like he wanted to ask more questions – or maybe discuss Ian's health a little more, but Sammy was there and the Camp Director didn't think that injuries were really something that needed to be discussed with children in the vicinity – and he would never have hurt the boy's feelings by asking him to go away.
"We need toilet paper," Sammy said into the slight pause. "River's stuck on the-"
Gary smiled, and held up a hand to stop him.
"It's in the closet over there, Sammy. Will you guys ring the wake up bell for me when you go back to the cabin?"
Ian nodded.
"Sure."
"Thanks. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
It was morning and he had several things to do, but mostly, he wanted to find one of the medical staff and make sure that Ian was really okay – since the young man looked worn out and rather beat up. Even more than he had before the incident with Libby and the washout.
"Sure."
With Sammy in the lead, they headed for the closet Gary had pointed to, while Hines headed for the cafeteria, figuring (correctly) that that was where everyone would end up congregating for their first cup of coffee before starting the day.
OOOOOOOO
"And then we had to find a feather – but at least we didn't have to find the piece of hair, because I wasn't going to let them have any of my hair, and Chance's hair is too short – and so is Brian's – so we wouldn't have been able to get that unless River talked one of the girls out of it – he seems pretty good at that kind of thing, you know? I wouldn't have-"
"Sammy…"
Ian's head was killing him. Maybe from the activity – even what little walking he was doing was more than he'd done the last couple of days – but most likely it was from the nonstop talking.
The little boy hushed immediately.
"Huh?"
"Why don't you run up ahead and ring the bell for Gary?"
His face lit up. He'd assumed that Ian was going to ring it, since Gary had asked him – and who wouldn't want to ring the bell?
"Can I?"
"Why not?"
"Wow!"
The boy handed Ian the two rolls of toilet paper they taken from the closet, and then took off up the hill, Jaffer running behind him, excitedly, always willing to chase a little kid when given the opportunity.
Ian shook his head. He'd have to ask Fraiser for some aspirin – or maybe Mandy. Then he wouldn't have to deal with a barrage of questions about how he was feeling.
Yeah, right. He had a feeling he was going to be answering that question all day. Starting with the kids in the cabin, probably.