I am SUCH a schmuck for not posting anytime recently, but my friggin' muse took a vacation on me, blast it all! He's returned though, so hopefully this story will chug onward, lol! Enjoy, and PLEASE review!


Janet looked at clock and paced the floor once more. It was 2 in the morning and Cassie was STILL not back from her trip to the movies with Kinsah. "I swear, when I get my hands on them, they are BOTH going to die..." she announced.

Daniel looked at her and yawned slightly. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation..." he replied sleepily.

"Some help you are!"

He shrugged, and removed his glasses to rub his weary eyes. "Maybe they had a flat tire?" he offered.

Janet raised an eyebrow. "And I got her a cell phone because..."

He held up the cell phone with a wry smile on his face. "Can't call anybody if you don't have it." he replied.

"How many times have I told her to ALWAYS have it with her!"

The door opened from behind the, admitting a sheepish Cassie and her equally embarrassed partner in (supposed) crime. "Hi Mom..." Cassie began.

Daniel winced. He KNEW what was coming...and didn't envy her one iota!

"CASSANDRA FRAISER!" Janet roared.

Kinsah's eyes widened and he scooted behind Daniel, peering out from behind the archaeologist with a horrified, yet fascinated expression on his face. "She loud..." he whispered.

"Believe me Kinsah, this is nothing..." Daniel replied. "You should hear her call for Jack when it's time for his physical...you can hear her all the way on the surface!"

This made the young man chuckle a bit but he stopped immediately as Janet pegged them both with what Daniel lovingly called the "Prepare to be PULVERIZED!" look. Once certain that she had control of the room, she turned back to her cringing daughter. "How many times have I told you to take your cell phone with you, Cassie? You could have been laying outdeadin a ditch somewhere and I would never have known! Besides the fact that you were out past your curfew, young lady! What do you have to say for yourself!"

"Ummm..." Cassie began.

"Don't talk back to me young lady!"

Janet paced for a moment, then swung back to face her. "Well? Answer me!"

Kinsah poked his head around Daniel. "You not make sense..." he said.

"Was I talking to you?" Janet asked.

Kinsah wisely remained silent while Daniel said, "You know dear, he has a point."

She glared at him and he hastily added, "A SMALL point."

"You know Mom, I DO have to be up for school in 5 hours...maybe we could talk about this in the morning!" Cassie said quickly.

"It IS morning! That's the point!" Janet replied tersely.

"Ummm...I'm sorry that I was so irresponsible, and I'm REALLY sorry. I'll never do it again!" her daughter replied.

"You'd better believe you're never going to do it again! You're grounded until you're ready to get married! And so are you!" she said, turning to Kinsah.

"What is "grounded"?" Kinsah asked, more thanpuzzled.

"Bad news..." Cassie muttered.

"Oh yes, it's bad news! You're going to come to the SGC and help me file triplicates of paperwork everyday after school!"

"Mom!" Cassie cried in protest.

"And NO playing Jack's Playstation! This is punishment, not a free for all!"

Cassie gave Janet her best pleading look. "Not even 1 round of Tetris?"

"NOTHING!" came the response.

Daniel mimicked juggling behind Janet's back and Cassie giggled. Janet whirled around to find her fiance comtemplating the ground VERY intently. Turning back around, she fixed her fierce glance onto Kinsah.

"You are in BIG trouble, young man!" she fumed

Kinsah looked puzzled, which prompted the enraged doctor to say, "Don't give me that "I Don't Know What You're Talking About" look..."

"Okay Janet, I think enough is enough..." Daniel began soothingly.

She pegged him with a fierce glare, then took a deep breath. "Tomorrow after school Cassie, I will pick you up and you will begin filing paperwork for me...and Nick is going to hear about this, Kinsah!"

Janet stalked off to go to bed while Daniel, Cassie, and Kinsah watched her leave.

"Who need weapon against Goa'uld when Doctor mad?" the offworlder asked, somewhat in awe of the display he had just witnessed. Daniel and Cassie suppressed snickers and Daniel replied, "Now if we could just harness her..."

"I heard that, Daniel Elias Jackson!" came an agitated voice from above. He winced and Cassie said smugly, "Busted!"

"Yeah, yeah...go to bed. I'm going to take Kinsah back to the base. See you...later today." Daniel said, lightly hugging the girl. She then turned to Kinsah and threw her arms around him. Daniel was slightly alarmed to notice that this did not phase Kinsah the slightest bit...the boy returned her embrace and kissed her on the cheek. Oh no... he thought. Janet is going to KILL somebody...probablyme!


Nick paced Daniel's office, where he had temporarily set up residence. "I'm going to KILL that boy!" he muttered. Lena had long since gone to bed, but Nick was still up, waiting for the young man to come back.

He remembered when he was 16 and he'd tried to sneak back into the house after being out a little later than he should have...well, if you wanted to call 4:30 in the morning a LITTLE later! It had failed, of course when he knocked over something in the living room and Raddy, who was home on leave, thought he was a burgler and nearly took him out right where he stood! That had resulted in another not so pleasant exchange between him and his mother and Nick quickly thought about something else. He and his mother had not really spoken to each other since he was 12...not after what had happened to Thomas...

The door opened and he whirled around to find a sleepy eyed Daniel and a bashful looking Kinsah. He noted that the time was 2:50 in the morning.

"Where on earth have you been?" Nick demanded, his arms crossed in front of him.

Kinsah gave Daniel a panicked look and the older man chuckled. "Went to movie with Cassie." Kinsah replied.

"Since 5 o'clock? What were you doing, having an Oprah book discussion about it?" Nick asked sarcastically.

The boy looked up at him and the slightly hurt expression in his eyes reminded Nick of something from long ago and tore at his heart.

"Just...go to bed. We'll talk about it later..." he told Kinsah distractedly, his mind now a million miles away.

Daniel and Kinsah looked at each other, both of them sensing the change in the dancer's mood. Kinsah nodded, and walked over to Nick, hugging him. The ethnomusicologist embraced the young man, clinging to him for a moment before letting go and reaching up a hand to tousle his hair. "Go to bed, bad boy." Nick said in a voice of mock sternness.

The boy smiled and left the room swiftly. Daniel looked over at Nick who seemed to be in his own little world.

"Penny for them..." he said lightly.

Nick mentally shook himself and smiled wryly. "What, they're only worth that much?"

"Okay...10 cents but that's my final offer." Daniel joked.

A ghost of his usual smile worked itself over Nick's pale face and Daniel found himself wondering what was troubling his new friend. "Seriously though Nick, if you ever need to talk or anything..."

The dancer nodded. "Thanks, Daniel...I appreciate everything you've done for me the past few days." he replied softly.

Still somewhat concerned, the anthropologist nodded slowly and walked out of the office as Nick sat down in the chair behind the desk and was lost in memories until he glanced up at the clock and noticed it was 5:30 in the morning.


Lena awoke and knew immediately Nick had not come to bed. Wondering where on earth he was, she showered and dressed quickly, then went down to Daniel's office. She found him slumped over the desk, his head resting on a stack of old archeology books. He looked extremely tired and worn out and instead of waking him up, she cleared off another chair for herself and sat there, watching him as he slept.

Reaching out a gentle hand, she swept some of his errant hair out of his face and took a good look at him. HIs face was pale and even in sleep held a look of such sadness that it made her wonder what he'd been thinking about. Lena continued softly playing in his hair until he finally awoke about an hour later. "Hey.." he said, giving her a sleepy smile.

"Hey yourself...you didn't come to bed." she replied lightly.

Yawning, Nick rose to his feet, stretching his lean dancer's frame this way and that. "Yeah, I know...I guess I got distracted thinking about some stuff and fell asleep here on top of Daniel's precious books..." he replied lightly.

"What stuff?" she asked, just as airy as he had been.

He turned and walked around the desk, his back to her. "Oh, just some old times back in Australia."

She was more than surprised that he had told her this...usually Nick never spoke of his life before they had met in the States. She knew the bare details of his upbringing in Perth, but nothing more beyond that. Not even Raddeus talked about their childhood, and judging from the look on his face as he slept, those had not been very happy times for the Kosovich boys.

Deciding to accept his explination for the time being, Lena did not push. She figured that Nick would tell her when he was good and ready to.

Walking out into the hallway with him, she was slightly thrilled when he took her hand in his and held it as they made their way to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. "Did Kinsah finally come back?" she asked.

Nick smiled. "Yes he did...at almost 3 in the morning!"

Lena gaped at him. "3 in the morning?" she asked incredulously.

He nodded and a slight laugh was in his voice. "Apparently he went to the movies with Cassie...that's all I asked before I sent him to bed...I told him we'd talk about it this morning."

Kinsah was already there, seated at a table with Daniel, Jack, and Sam. He looked up guiltily at Nick and the dancer felt a surge of sympathy for the young man. He was in a strange place with strange people and strange rules so Nick decided to try and go a little easy on him.

"Hi Kinsah." he said simply as he seated himself at the table.

The young man looked somewhat surprised but replied, "Hi Nick'las."

As he began to eat his breakfast, Nick gently asked Kinsah to explain exactly what had happened and when he said that the car had gotten a flat and Cassie had to change it, the adults exchanged smiles, then outright laughed when the young man explained that Cassie had also left her cell phone at home as well."

"Ooohhh...instant trouble." Nick groaned while attempting to spear a slippery piece of sausage.

"BIG trouble." Kinsah grumbled. "I grounded and not even know what grounded be!"

The others laughed. "Grounded is when you do something wrong and you get certain privileges taken away...like if you're a child and you break something, you can't go outside and play." Nick explained.

"But I not do anything!" Kinsah protested.

"Yes, but YOU try telling that to Janet." Daniel responded dryly. Kinsah shuddered and said, "Not want other eardrum broken too!"

Sam and Lena snorted while the men outright laughed and finished their meals before heading off to their various occupations, leaving Lena feeling very lonely.


Evil, ain't I? If you want to know what happens, just hit the button and let me know what you thought, okay?