Daniel both loved and hated Christmas. He loathed buying presents and having to go to the crowded stores, but loved visiting friends, giving presents, and of course receiving them. He had decided to do his shopping at Wal-Mart this year, he figured it would be a one stop shop, plus he thought if he went at like 2 in the morning nobody would be there. As he looked over his list it was annoyingly blank.
Jack – Simpsons DVD
Sam –
Teal'c –
Mitchell –
Landry –
Well he figured at least two were taken care of: Vala was sort of an early Christmas present, but when he thought about it he felt bad, after all she could be dead or annoying the pants off some poor guy that was not him, oh well. He shrugged off the feeling.
As he guided his buggy down the electronics aisle he grabbed the DVDs for O'Neill. This was the easiest, all he had to do was ask Sam what Jack wanted and of course she had known.
"One down and only four, no wait, five more to go." He could not believe that he had almost forgotten Cassie. Sam would have killed him. As he was pushing the buggy waiting for inspiration to hit, it hit him like a bolt of lightning in front of the jewelry display. For Cassie he would get a locket and put a picture of Janet in it. He knew that Cassie was missing her mother terribly and maybe this would help.
As he placed the locket in the buggy he had an evil thought. Maybe he could get another locket for Sam and place a picture of Jack in it. "Nope," he thought, "She would kill me and then Jack would."
Inspiration struck again as he thought about Sam strangling him to death. A scarf would be good and also very practical. He saw a pretty blue scarf and decided to get it. He noticed a matching blue hat and decided to get that, too. "OK," he thought, "Another one bites the dust." That leaves Teal'c, Mitchell, and Gen. Landry.
Daniel decided to see if there were any new good books in. A book caught his eye "Five Places You Have to Visit in 50 States." "Hmmm," he thought, "Maybe Teal'c will like this. We could go see some of these places as a team, and maybe even invite Jack." So he threw it into the buggy. Daniel was tired of shopping. He did not understand how some people could enjoy shopping.
After roaming around the store for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what to get Mitchell and Landry he found himself back at the DVD aisle. "Oh, well, they are just going to have to enjoy whatever movie he picked up." When he got to the Sci-fi section he paused. He thought he remembered Mitchell saying something to Teal'c about some show, but he was not sure which one. He randomly picked two that looked interesting, "Andromeda" and "Farscape." After reading the back of "Andromeda" he sat it back down thinking, "That sounds so stupid, how could someone act on a show like that. This other show HAS to be better," so he threw it into the buggy.
For Landry he selected a show called "Everwood." Next year he swore he would just buy a stack of cards stick a $20 in it and be done with it. Now that he had all his presents. All he needed was wrapping paper, tape, and talent. He could translate thousands of year old text, but when it came to wrapping he was all thumbs.
Finally, with all his shopping over he headed to the only check-out open. Pausing for a second to look at the C.D display next to the check-out lane he picked one up. "Trans-Siberian Orchestra" it looked Christmassy, with a little kid and a Christmas tree in the snow, on the cover. He tossed it into the cart with the rest. He figured if he did not like it he could always give it to Sam, she would like it.
As Daniel placed his items on the conveyer belt he glanced at his cashier. She looked familiar, but he could not place her. After the buggy was empty Daniel moved up towards the cashier. This time he really saw her, and then he glanced at her name tag. Juliette it read. Juliette. Suddenly Daniel remembered his first years in college with her. He looked up staring. "Juliette?" He asked with a hint of uncertainty. She turned at the sound of her name, and recognized him too, "Daniel?"