Thanks for all the reads and reviews!

This kind of turned into a "How much does Cassie know about what happens at the SGC?" piece. It was interesting to think about, since Cassie is obviously in a very unique position, and I imagine that when the base is locked down and Janet is stuck there, they can give her at least some information.

I remembered halfway through writing this that they wiped all mention of the foothold situation in season three from official records (see the episode "Shades of Grey"), but I didn't feel like changing with it. Just go with it, haha.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

November, 1999

"So the whole SGC was taken over by aliens?"

Cassie was hanging upside down on the monkey bars, with her legs tucked over the bar to keep her in place. Her long, red hair hung straight down towards the ground, and she extended her arms down as well, giggling at the rush she felt in her head.

Jack was leaning against the ladder of the monkey bars, watching her with an amused look on his face. "Yup."

"Even my mom?"

Jack grimaced at that, clearly remember the unpleasant encounter with the fake Dr. Janet Frasier. "Yup."

By the time that the decision had come down to strike the foothold situation from any sort of official record, Jack had already accidently let slip to Cassie that there had been an alien impersonating her mother. Cassie did have a (USAF, SGC and SG-1-approved) long-term babysitter for when Janet, or any other member of SG-1, had to stay on base for an extended period of time. She had been understandably upset when her mother hadn't bothered to contact her for over a week, to assure her that she and the rest of SG-1 was okay.

Jack, in an effort to calm Cassie down, had given the barest details of the situation, so that there weren't any misunderstandings between Cassie and Janet. While Cassie knew all about the Stargate and had some unique, first-hand experiences with the Goa'uld, she was still only thirteen years old, and could only be expected to handle so much. It was only then that Hammond had informed them all of the President's decision to cover up the foothold incident, and Jack had sheepishly gone back to Cassie, mentioning that she should probably keep the information to herself. Jack normally wasn't one to slip up with classified information, but Cassie, Janet, and SG-1 were in a unique situation, as they were her family.

They had both fessed up to Janet and the rest of SG-1, and they had all made a pact to keep Cassie's knowledge of the situation secret. That didn't stop her natural curiosity, though, and her easiest targets were Jack and Daniel. She knew that she could ask them at least a few questions, and get some sort of answer out of them.

Cassie, after having been with Major Reynold's wife, Mia, for nine days (even though Major Albert Reynolds had been stationed at the NID, everyone knew that he was a trustworthy, standup guy, and would soon be transferred to command his own team that the SGC. In fact, he had provided information to General Hammond and SG-1 that had been essential in apprehending the team behind stealing the Touchstone from Medrona, and was now being short-listed for a promotion). Mia Reynolds was a physical therapist that was contracted out by the SGC, and was often consulted due to the injuries some SG-team members received as a result of their dangerous line of work. She was nice and had the clearance to know about what was going on the SGC, and thus Cassie didn't have to think of some absurd cover story for her, like she had to the one time that Janet and SG-1 had been locked down on base because of an alien cold that had somehow turned everyone infected bright purple.

Still, Cassie had missed her mom, and the Earth holiday of Thanksgiving was alarmingly close. The members of SG-1 always spent the holiday at the Frasier household, as Cassie was still somewhat fascinated with Earth holidays and how they all seemed to center around rather large evening meals (she had only been on Earth for one so far, but she wasn't about to give up what had become one her "traditions"—having her new family there to celebrate and explain Earth's holidays to her). They had to prepare, and they were cutting it dangerously close by being quarantined to base.

On day 10, Sam had come to relieve Mia Reynolds. She looked tired, but she had taken Cassie to school and made sure that there was plenty of food for dinner when she had picked her up. The day after, Teal'c, Jack, and Daniel had shown up, to keep her entertained while they convinced Sam to get some rest.

That was when Jack had let slip what happened at the SGC… and he had also told her that Sam saved the day, so they all hadn't had anything to worry about, anyway. Which Cassie had agreed with—if there was anyone who could single-handedly save the SGC (and the planet, by extension), it was Samantha Carter.

Janet had finally come home two days later, declaring that everyone in the SGC was in perfect health. She had hugged Cassie for a very long time once she had gotten home, and Cassie had let her, even though she was thirteen years old and much too old for things like that.

Still, in the back of her mind, she never forgot about how she was the lone survivor of the planet Hanka, and how easily she had lost her family and friends… all the people she had ever known in her entire life, really. And she never forgot that, while she was incredibly lucky to have a new family that loved her and cared for her just as much as the one she used to have, she could lose them just as easily. She never wanted to forget how grateful she was for them, and sometimes that meant acknowledging her fears, and letting her mother and the rest of her family comfort her.

SG-1 had gone to their respective homes for a few days after that, to get some time to themselves in the aftermath of the foothold situation. Cassie had been careful not to ask her mom any questions, because she knew that as the chief medical officer of the SGC, Janet was privy to some very personal information of every person stationed there. So Cassie had resolved to save her questions for Jack and Daniel, who would be there that weekend for a postponed Thanksgiving dinner, and were the most likely to answer her questions.

It was how she ended up at the park—Janet, Sam, and Daniel had done some last-minute grocery shopping in order to prepare for the holiday dinner. Teal'c had elected to stay behind at the Frasier house to preform kel'noreem, so Jack had decided to take Cassie and Doc to the park so that they could be occupied for a few hours.

Cassie reached back up, grasping the monkey bars in her hands. She let her legs drop down, and then she let go of the monkey bars, falling to the ground as graceful as any thirteen year old could. "But Sam saved the day," Cassie stated as she stood up again. She brushed the woodchips off of her hands and looked expectantly at Jack, waiting to see what he would say.

He smiled fondly, in a much more open way than he would have had the rest of his team or Janet had been there. "Yeah, Carter saved the day and kicked some ass while she was at it." It was obvious, given his tone, how proud he was of his second in-command.

Cassie let out a giggle, for multiple reasons. When Jack got that look on his face and used that tone when talking about Sam, it only reinforced her belief that Jack and Sam should date (which was something that she really only had the guts to say out loud to her mother or Daniel). Secondly, Jack had just cursed in front of her, which always irked Janet and amused Cassie.

It took Jack a moment, but he finally seemed to realize that he had let a PG-13 word slip. Cassie laughed again and waved her hand, wordlessly assuring him that she wouldn't tattle on him to Janet.

"Come on," Jack said as he reached over to ruffle her hair. "Let's do the jungle gym one more time, and then we can head back to your house. Everyone should be back by then." He looped Doc's leash around his wrist and they made their way over to the tangle of bars rising ten feet into the air.

Cassie quickly scrambled to the top of it—she loved climbing—and sat at the top, observing almost the entire playground from her perch. Jack, at the bottom, smiled up at her and snapped a picture with the camera he was carrying. Every member of SG-1 had taken to carrying a camera whenever they were with her, so they could take as many pictures as possible. Sometimes Cassie pretended to be embarrassed by it now that she a little older, but she still secretly loved it. She had been fascinated by the concept of photographs when she had discovered them on Earth, and she especially loved that she could have so many tangible representations of memories with Janet and the rest of her second family.

Cassie carefully made her way back down to the ground and then crouched at her dog's side, petting his soft fur as she thought for a long moment. Jack seemed to understand that she was working her way up to saying something, and just gave her the time she needed.

Finally, Cassie quietly said, "It's kind of scary to know that something like that could happen at the SGC."

Jack mumbled an oath under his breath and bent down, swooping Cassie into his arms. He hugged her tightly, rubbing her back reassuringly. Cassie suddenly felt near tears, having finally voiced the fear that had been in the back of her mind since her mother had come home after the foothold situation. Cassie knew, of course, that SG-1 had already saved the world several times by that point. The danger had never seemed so close as it had this last time, and Cassie had been left knowing that something was wrong for days, with nothing to do but worry.

"Oh, Cassie," Jack finally said. He pulled back enough to look down at her, and gently wiped away the tears that had escaped. "As long as we're around, we're going to do everything we can to make sure that Earth stays safe."

He was talking about SG-1, of course, but he meant everyone at the SGC as well. They were a group of people who had unexpectedly found the safety of the entire planet resting on their shoulders, but they had all handled it remarkably well. SG-1 seemed to shoulder a fair amount of that responsibility, but they never seemed to let it get to them. Janet, as well, had the task of overseeing all of their health, both mental and physical. Cassie knew that no matter how stressful things got at the SGC, Janet never brought her work home with her. She always made time for Cassie, always made sure that she was safe.

Jack watched Cassie carefully as she came to those conclusions, and she nodded her head once she reminded herself of those facts. It was still hard not to be worried, but Cassie resolved to be brave, just as her whole family was.

Seeing that Cassie was collecting herself, Jack ruffled her hair and added, "Besides, we had Carter looking out for us. You know that we're always going to be okay if we have her, right?" He thought for a moment and then added, "Plus, T wasn't about to let Earth be taken over by aliens."

That finally got Cassie to laugh, and she nodded her head in agreement. "You're definitely right about that."

Satisfied that they could finally put the foothold situation to rest, Jack wrapped an arm around Cassie's shoulders and gave a little tug to Doc's leash to get him to start walking. "Come on, let's get back to the house. If we're lucky, everyone has already started cooking and we'll be able to sneak some samples!"

Jack was right—the rest of SG-1 and Janet had already started cooking by the time they got back to the house. Daniel was cutting up bread for stuffing, Sam was mashing potatoes, and Teal'c (who was always put in charge of the turkey, as the year before he had made the best one that any of them had ever had) was meticulously basting the main course.

"Oh, good!" Janet, who was at the stand mixer, turned it off and wiped her hands on a dish cloth. She crossed the kitchen and hugged Cassie in greeting, kissing her cheek. "You guys came back just in time. I just finished with the dough for the rolls, and I need someone to help me shape them!"

"That's my job!" Cassie declared. She quickly joined her mother at the counter, not so patiently waiting for Janet to get everything ready. Janet liberally sprinkled some flour on the wooden board, dumped the dough out, and supervised her daughter in the shaping of (mostly even) rolls. Janet stayed close by to carefully organize the rolls on a greased baking sheet and move them into the oven.

Jack went to lean against the counter next to where Sam was working. She had just added some cream and butter to the potatoes, and turned to get the salt and pepper when Jack tried to reach out and sneak a taste. Sam turned back around just in time to see Jack's finger—covered with a healthy dollop of mashed potatoes—headed to his mouth.

He froze momentarily, knowing that was caught and having no way to hide it. Sam shot him a look, like she was seriously considering slapping his hand, but he had already gotten away with the small sample. Instead, she said, "Sir," in that tone of voice she got whenever he touched something expensive and breakable in her lab.

Jack blinked innocently at her and stuck his finger in his mouth, quickly eating the mashed potatoes. "What?" He swallowed and grinned at Sam. "Hey, those are pretty good!"

Despite being somewhat annoyed that Jack had stuck his finger in her mashed potatoes, Sam ducked her head and smiled at the compliment. Last year, Sam—who wasn't exactly known for having luck in the kitchen, but wasn't always a complete disaster—had been too nervous to try and make anything for their first Thanksgiving as a team. She had bought a pumpkin pie from a bakery near her house instead, which had turned out to be a good call. Everyone had loved the pie, so Sam had picked up another one for this year and had decided to try her hand at cooking as well.

Her cheeks flushing pink, Sam sprinkled the salt and pepper into the potatoes. "Thank you, Sir. It's my mom's recipe."

"Why do you look so surprised, Carter?" Jack asked. "Like you've ever done anything bad in your entire life."

Like any good best friend, Janet quipped, "You weren't here the time she tried to bake chocolate chip cookies for Cassie."

Cassie immediately started giggling at the memory of that night. It had been one of the first nights after Janet had officially adopted her, and Sam and Janet had wanted to ease her into her new life on Earth by doing something fun. The dough had been mixed (even though Janet refused to let them eat the raw dough, Sam and Cassie had managed to sneak a bite) and the cookies were baking when Janet got a call from the SGC. There was no medical emergency, but Sergeant Siler had gotten mildly injured and Janet had needed to answer some questions. She left Sam to keep an eye on the cookies in the oven, but she had gotten distracted by an idea for a new Gate protocol. Cassie, bored with waiting for the cookies, had gone off to read a book. In the middle of doodling some plans and writing some notes, it was only then that Sam had noticed the burning smell.

Sam had opened the oven and had managed to prevent a kitchen fire from starting, but the house had been so filled with smoke that one of Janet's concerned neighbors had called the fire department. And thus, Cassie had gotten her first lesson in kitchen safety, with a visit from some fire fighters to boot. Cassie had excitedly shared the story with Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c the next day, while Sam moodily worked her through a huge, bakery-bought chocolate chip cookie.

"You got distracted and let the cookies burn," Jack reminded Sam as he bumped her hip with his own. "That's not the same as being bad at cooking."

"And we got to pick up those giant chocolate chip cookies from that place around the corner from my apartment," Daniel added. "I love that place." It was a bakery and a café, with some of the best coffee and breakfast sandwiches that Daniel had ever had. He'd always been too busy running to and from base to check it out—until Janet had asked him to pick up cookies after their disastrous attempt at baking, that is.

"True," Sam admitted eventually. She loved that place almost as much as Daniel did, and made a point to stop there whenever they were on Earth. Plus, the cookie fiasco ended up being a fun story to tell anyway.

While Sam was distracted, Jack tried again to sneak another swipe of mashed potatoes—they really were that good. Sam, catching him in the act this time, whacked the back of his hand with her own without thinking about it.

They both froze, with Jack looking surprised and Sam looking at him with wide eyes. She looked as if she couldn't quite believe that she had done that to her commanding officer, whereas Jack's expression was completely unreadable—at first.

Then a slow smile began to spread across his lips, and he grinned cheekily at her. He pulled his hand back, but winked at her instead. Sam blushed again and cleared her throat before saying, "You can taste test later. When I'm actually finished with them. I still have to add the cheese!"

"But I'm hungry now," Jack complained. He was whining on purpose, they all knew, just to annoy them because he had avoided being assigned an actual job in the kitchen.

"O'Neill." The tone of voice Teal'c was using clearly indicated that he would not entertain Jack's attempts to distract them at this point in the day. The turkey had at least another two hours before it was done, after all. "There are cheese and crackers and other assorted snack foods in the other room. I suggest you turn on the ball game of foot, as well."

Sam smothered a giggle behind her hand, while Jack said, "Ahhh, T… I think you mean football."

Teal'c inclined his head once in acknowledgement and then went over to Daniel, to check his progress on the stuffing. By that time, Cassie had finished shaping the rolls, and followed Jack into the living room.

They both settled on to the couch, and Jack flipped to one of the games that was playing that day. Maybe, he thought with a grin, once the rest of his team got preoccupied with cooking once again, he could recruit Cassie into bothering them as well. Of course, he would eventually offer to help… but it would be nice to have some fun first.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate!