AN: Keep the reviews coming! You have no idea how much they floor me!

Chapter Seven

I think you could have heard a pin drop in the momentary silence that followed. The funny thing about it was that Jack and Sam didn't seem to know why. They looked at each other for a moment and then looked around. I looked down, trying to force the corners of my mouth back down so that I wouldn't blind them with the brilliant smile on my face.

When I felt that I could make my smile seem relatively friendly and not maniacal, I looked up. "Sam was pretty much exactly like she is now. Perky. Inquisitive. Liked to talk to everyone about things that were far beyond their grasp."

Jack allowed himself a tiny smile before he forced his face back neutral. "I could see that."

I could have sworn there was a hint of disappointment in his voice, as though he'd really wanted to hear stories about her being a hellion. There were some, but I figured I needed to keep something for later. In case I ever met this group again, and I had a feeling I would, and needed to get them to warm up to me. I suspected that their bubble would close right back up the moment Stephanie and I took the kids home. I shrugged half-heartedly at Jack, trying to appear nonchalant. "Well, what else would you expect from a cheerleader?"

Again, there was silence. I didn't have to look to know Sam was cringing. Jack looked up at her with an obviously irrepressible smile slowly spreading from ear to ear. "A cheerleader, huh?" He looked away, studying his pizza box with renewed interest, but we could all hear his mutter. "Would've liked to see that."

"O'Neill, there are photographs of Colonel Carter in the album." Ever helpful, I was sure Teal'c was unsure of how to proceed when Sam and Jack turned on him. I didn't imagine it was a fun place to be, deciding whose loyalty was more precious.

Jack's eyes were wide when he turned to Teal'c. "Pictures?" Teal'c nodded once. "Of Carter?" I breathed a sigh of relief that he was calling her that again because it was somehow more appropriate. "In her cheerleading uniform?" His voice turned into a squeak on that one. I winced and scratched the very notion of appropriate from the record.

Teal'c, who was as unskilled at reading people as Stephanie, nodded. Then he stood up, pulling the album from under one of the pizzas and offered it to Jack. "Indeed, O'Neill, the number of photographs of young Colonel Carter would indicate that she was a favorite subject of the photographer."

"This, I gotta see." Jack shoved the pizza off his lap and wiped his hands on his jeans before reaching for the album eagerly. He stopped for a moment, his hand on the underside of the cover, pausing before he opened it. "You don't mind, do you?"

Personally, I thought it was extremely considerate of him, but apparently Sam thought otherwise. She sighed and shook her head. "If I said I did, would it stop you?"

Jack grinned at her. "Only until you fall asleep."

I found myself surprised that Jack expected to be in the house when Sam went to bed, but I hoped maybe Sam still had her child-like habit of curling up and napping at random times. She certainly still had the habit of rolling her eyes. "Go ahead."

Jack flipped open the cover, but he didn't look at the page. He glanced back up at Sam. "You really don't mind?"

Apparently that time he really was being considerate, because Sam scooted forward off the couch, sat down next to him, and started to narrate the album in a way she hadn't bothered for Daniel and Teal'c. I turned back to my dinner, pretending that I wasn't watching Sam and Jack. I tried not to notice the way he stared at her while she spoke. I tried not to notice the way she managed to almost imperceptibly shift closer to Jack until there was no space between them. The album rested partly on each of them and I seriously wondered if that was to hide the fact that they were sitting so close their legs were touching. At some point while the rest of us were still eating, I noticed that their conversation had grown very quiet. So quiet that I thought they had stopped talking altogether.

I grinned as I nudged Steph with my elbow, inclining my head to the side as unobtrusively as possible. Not unobtrusively enough, apparently, because Teal'c, who had been quietly eating the two pineapple and pepperoni pizzas himself, stopped and looked. He looked at me and then looked at Sam and Jack. I wanted to run and hide, for fear that my behavior would result in someone getting angry, quite legitimately, for drawing attention to a relationship that was new, secret, and not exactly within Air Force regulations as I recalled them.

As he had a hundred times that day, Teal'c surprised me. He quietly observed the pair on the floor and then spoke only two words. "Daniel Jackson."

It was like watching a movie. I was helpless to not turn, watching almost gleefully as Daniel turned to Teal'c. Teal'c inclined his head much the way I had and then Daniel was staring as well. For all the staring that I suspected would have normally not gone unnoticed by my usually hyper-alert sister and her boss, who to survive in the military must have been equally hyper-aware, neither of the pair looked up. They continued to peruse the album, one or both of them pointing at pictures now and again. Their bodies were intimately close; their voices intimately soft.

Stephanie's finger poked into my side and I almost snapped at her for drawing my attention away. But I saw that she was nodding at Teal'c. He was smiling, actually smiling, at Daniel. And Daniel, well, he was grinning like that cat that ate the canary.

Somehow, we managed to pull ourselves away from the floor show before Sam and Jack looked up. When they ran out of pictures, Sam excused herself and Jack moved to sit on the couch like a normal person. Sam was in the kitchen, but she'd barely turned the water on to wash the dishes before Jack spoke up.

"T, will you go take care of the dishes for her, please?"

At Jack's request, Sam returned to the living room, peering nervously over her shoulder at the kitchen. "Sir? Does he know how to wash dishes?"

It didn't seem like a task beyond the grasp of anyone who'd evolved past Neanderthal, but Jack didn't laugh and dismiss her question like I would have. He glanced in the direction of the kitchen and shrugged. "He's a smart guy. He'll figure it out."

Sam had only just sat down in the chair Teal'c had vacated when the sound of shattering glass caused us all to jump. Jack called out, asking the question that was on all of our minds. "Is everything ok out there, Teal'c?"

"All is well, O'Neill." Another crash of glass breaking. "The dishes will be finished shortly." Another dish broke and I jumped yet again. Somehow I doubted I would ever actually get used the sound.

"No, Teal'c, stop!" Daniel's near frantic voice sounded from the kitchen. It was immediately replaced with the more patient one I'd grown used to. "This is how you wash dishes. See, you run the water till it's hot, then you put soap in."

Jack smirked at Sam. "It would be much easier if you bought a dishwasher."

She smirked back. "Considering that I use about three dishes a week, I don't see how, sir."

The water turned off. Silence reigned for a second before another dish broke.

"Teal'c, you can't do that!" Daniel sounded exasperated.

"Your method is time consuming. My method is much more efficient."

"It's much more expensive too. Please, Teal'c, just try it this way."

I grinned at the pathetic way he was pleading with Teal'c. But then I saw the horrified expression on Sam's face. Jack, Stephanie, and I all turned around to see Teal'c holding a stack of several dinner plates over his head.

Teal'c appeared angry, especially when four people surrounded him to stop him from annihilating anymore dishware. He stared at Jack. "I was instructed to take care of the dishes. I was not given any specific criteria for doing so."

Jack shook his head and Sam glared at him as if to say 'I told you so.' He stepped forward, holding up his hands for the plates. "Teal'c, I meant for you to wash them."

Teal'c seemed to consider Jack's words as he handed over the stack. "I do not believe I would have agreed to that task, O'Neill. The soap would cause my skin to become dry and itchy."

Stephanie and I doubled over laughing. But in the incredulous silence that came from everyone else, I could just tell they were all staring at us. I stood up, patting Steph on the back. "We'll handle the dishes, if that's ok with everyone."

Teal'c bowed respectfully before leaving the room; Daniel disappeared a moment later. The kids had never responded as they were too busy playing with the race cars that came with their dinners. Which left me and Steph and Sam and Jack. I had no problem with doing the dishes, but I wasn't about to interrupt the staring contest in front of me.

There was a large pile of broken glass in front of the sink. Sam had her arms folded over her chest and her eyes narrowed. CO or not, there was no way she was going to let it go. It had been Jack's idea, after all.

A tense moment later, Jack conceded. "I'll replace them."

Sam smiled. "Thank you, sir. That's very kind of you." They walked back to the living room together, where I heard Jack riling up the kids for yet another round of 'King of the Teal'c.'

I swept up the mess while Stephanie started on the remaining dishes. We fell into the pattern we'd had years earlier, before we'd been able to afford a dishwasher. She washed; I dried.

And as she handed me the last plate, she leaned over to me and grinned. "You were right. She's got him wrapped around her little finger."

I smiled. I'd waited eleven years to hear my wife say that.