Learning To Laugh Again

By: Lerrinus

Disclaimer: Of course I am not making any money off of this! Sam and Daniel and SG1 in general do not belong to me but man, if they did…!

Author's Note: This is my first story EVER, so please be gentle. My sister Kim told me to try to make a contribution since I have enjoyed everyone else's story so much! This little fic takes place in Season 9 so Col. Cameron Mitchell is aboard.

I'm sorry this story took so long to come back from its previous form but I had several midterm exams at the college gang up on me all at once and some strange work hours required by my current temporary job downtown also held me hostage. Good thing it's a fun and easy job!

Italics indicate thoughts.

I would like to give a great big shout out to Tsume-n-Carnate for the title, Brother to Vorlons for the revision/restructuring ideas and a warning to Nelarun – be careful what you ask for! Maybe someone did hear them…;-)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first time my story went out, I had a great time writing this and the feedback has been absolutely heartwarming! Thanks!

All right, all right, time to quit stalling and get on with the program, er, story!

Enjoy:-D

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1

Daniel Jackson entered Cheyenne Mountain in a thoughtful mood. SG1 was mostly reunited with Cameron now leading the team and everyone was getting along just fine so far. Their first half dozen missions had brought them all closer to one another but everyone still missed General O'Neill.

General "Jack O'Neill-with-two-ells-thank-you-very-much!"

AKA "O'Neill!", "Sir!" and "Ja-ack!"

He sighed as he approached the elevator and took a small sip of his coffee, those were the good old days – with the four them and General Hammond going – literally – to hell and back for planet Earth.

Now they had to run, swim and fly around after Cameron Mitchell…but it could always be worse – at least the new base commander tolerated and understood the weirdness that was SG1. You definitely needed some sort of sense of humour in this place or you would go mad very, very, very quickly.

He had heard that Mitchell was some sort of war hero, obviously the man had to be something special in order to be able to literally gather the remaining members of SG1 from all corners of the galaxy. Teal'c was on Chulak, Samantha Carter was at the Alpha site and Daniel was going to be on the Prometheus on its way to Atlantis and in fact he would be there right this instant if it weren't for –

Oh, for crying out loud he thought as the elevator finally came around. How could he complain about all that when he was back with his two most trusted friends Samantha Carter and Teal'c?

Besides, they may be the only ones who could keep him sane during these interesting times!

Teal'c was a tower of strength to Daniel; he had always been there for SG1 when needed. He had a calmness about him that could put the newest scientist at ease. Teal'c's relationship to Jack was that of an amused and sometimes confused older brother and he tolerated Cameron to one degree or another.

Sam, on the other hand –

Sam –

Sam.

Sam.

Sam.

Things weren't the same for her since Jack had left. Daniel had noticed that she had been for quiet than usual. She seemed more easily stressed and smiled a lot less than usual. She was like a sister to him and he missed her smiles.

Daniel came to a decision as the elevator slowed down. As her teammate, he felt it was his duty to cheer her up. He knew he definitely wasn't Jack – the special spark wasn't there – but he was going to do his best to make her smile again.

Daniel looked up from his coffee and smiled and his friend and close teammate Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter stepped into the elevator.

"Good morning, Samantha." He said.

Sam blinked and looked up at him from the file she was reading, feeling formal today, Daniel?

"Good morning, Daniel." At least he isn't calling me Colonel Carter, she thought. Odd.

Then she went back to reading her notes.

Hm, I had her attention, he thought, and then he spoke again, "Sam."

Sam blinked again and again she looked up at him, "Yes?"

Daniel just smiled at her. Like this, Sam.

She returned again to her notes, shaking her head and smiling slightly. Guess who hung around Jack too long? The smile then faded. She felt the emptiness of Jack not being there, he hadn't been there for a while. Man, oh man did she miss him!

Daniel sipped his coffee as her smile faded and tried again, "Sammy!"

And you're how old? She thought and pressed her lips together to fight a grin. All right, he wants to play, so let's play! "Danny!" she shot back, feeling a bit silly.

"Sammykins!" He grinned at her. That's right! He thought as he sipped his coffee.

"Dannykins!" She giggled at him.

He grinned at her as he stepped out of the elevator onto his floor. Just as the doors were closing, he shouted, "Sammymuffin!"

She took a deep breath and took a small step forward to respond but the doors were already closed.

Daniel finally got back from his lunch break, he had gotten caught up in an interesting report by Felgar-And-Friends…they were gonna do what to which artifact? He would have to read the report yet again to try to understand it.

He sighed. Sam hadn't joined him in the commissary for lunch today. Odd. Her coworkers in the science department said she was running some experiments on yadda, yadda, yadda…he had lost them at that point, anyways, so he had lunch alone.

I hope I didn't offend her this morning, he thought.

As he walked into his quiet office, he saw a small white plate on his desk with something small and familiar on it. It had a small white sign stuck into it at an angle.

He picked out the sign, read it, "Dannymuffin!" then laughed as he bit into the blueberry muffin Sam had left for him.

Wherever she was, he just knew she had to be laughing!

Fin