Approaching the room, Jack was surprised to find the lights off, and it was only eight thirty. They couldn't be asleep already, could they? A giggle and muffled shriek quickly told him otherwise. Motioning for Teal'c to stay quiet, Jack approached the partially open door silently.
Without warning, he slammed the door wide, flipping on the light switch simultaneously while bellowing, "What's going on in here!"
He was rewarded with two high pitched shrieks and one very deep yelp from Airman Micheals, as the man leapt out from under the blanket in the corner, revealing the room's three occupants. He scrambled to his feet, and Jack had to laugh at the sight. "Sir, Colonel, sir…" The man stammered in shock.
"At ease Airman. What is going on in here?" This time he repeated his question more softly as he was accosted by two flying bundles of energy.
"Colonel Jack! We've been telling Ghost Stories! And we had S'mores!" Too late, Jack noticed the sticky fingers and chocolate smeared faces as skinny little arms wound around his waist from both sides. Both kids bounced up and down in excitement, and Jack spied the half eaten plate of microwaved S'mores and sighed, realizing the sugar would probably keep them going for several more hours. "Colonel Jack, do you have any Ghost Stories you can tell us?"
Jack looked down into the hopeful faces and couldn't resist. They were too damn cute. "Oh, all right. Teal'c grab another blanket, I bet you've never had S'mores. Sam, where's your ice pack, go get it and come sit by me." He figured that way he could make sure she kept it on most of the time. She returned with it after retrieving it from under the bed. He didn't want to know how it got there. He was pleased to see that it was fairly fresh, despite a few smears of chocolate (it matched Sam's chocolate smeared face), looking like Micheals had at least got more ice to put in it while making a run on S'mores.
Airman Micheals excused himself to return to his other duties, but passed over the flashlight and doused the overhead lights on the way out. Jack pulled the blanket over their heads, and settled in for a night of storytelling, feeling the small body of little Sam Carter pressing up against him on one side, and young Danny on his other. Teal'c sat directly across from him, knees practically touching him, the boy's youthful eyes wide watching the shadows from the flashlight play across his face in fascination as the story unfolded.
Nearly two hours later, the weight against his side told him Sam had fallen asleep, and the yawns and pressure from the other side told him Danny wasn't far behind. Across from him, Teal'c had been caught yawning a few times, and when Jack found himself yawning at a critical point in the latest story, making Danny giggle and Teal'c smile, Jack decided it was time to call it a night. Standing, and stretching carefully so as not to jostle Sam too much, Jack looked down at the sleeping figure and remembered the bag of medicine. Danny still sat where he'd been left, blinking sleepily.
"C'mon Danny, time for bed." Jack prodded the boy into standing, relieved when Teal'c took over leading the younger boy towards the bathroom to get ready for bed. Fortunately, the two younger children had already been dressed in oversized t-shirts in preparation for bed before the start of the storytelling, so that was one less obstacle to deal with. Teal'c glanced back at Sam on the way to the bathroom, but Jack shook his head. "Leave her a minute, I just need to get something first."
Jack made a quick trip to the commissary, and came back with a glass of juice and some more ice for Sam. Then he stopped by the bathroom for another clean washcloth. Gently, he lifted the little girl off the floor, and settled her in her bed. She murmured sleepily, protesting when he sat her up, and used the washcloth for the dual purpose of cleaning her sticky face and hands and waking her up enough to take the Tylenol. "C'mon sleepyhead, you need to take some medicine." He carefully fished the correct dose out of the bag as blue eyes opened to regard him sleepily and somewhat crankily. He grinned at them, and held up the pills. "Here, take these, and you can have some juice and go back to sleep." Her brow furrowed in confusion, and for a moment, she reminded him so much of her grown up self it hurt. Obediently, she opened her mouth, and he popped the chew tabs in.
She made a face as she chewed them. "Yuck."
He just laughed, and held the juice glass to her lips. She drank a few sips, and then her eyes were closing. He gently laid her down and propped the ice pack up against her face where it could do the most good until she moved and knocked it off. He'd come back and check on her later. Then he pulled the blankets up, tucking them in while she snuggled under the covers, and brushed a kiss on her forehead before he realized what he was doing. "Night Sam," he murmured into her hair.
"Night Colonel Jack," came the sleepy reply, and his heart warmed, bringing a soft smile to his lips.
He turned to find Danny already in bed, and moved to remove the boy's glasses, gently ruffling his hair. "Night Danny." Daniel was already fast asleep, and didn't reply.
Straightening, he turned his attention to the top bunk. Teal'c was sitting cross-legged on it. "You ok Teal'c?"
"I am well Colonel O'Neill."
"You going to sleep?" He cocked his head to one side and studied the youngster's face.
"I will." Teal'c shifted on the bed and raised his chin slightly.
"If you need to talk about anything, anything at all, my door's open anytime." At the boy's confused look, Jack explained. "You can talk to me, anytime you need to." The confusion cleared, and Teal'c nodded. Jack reached up and patted Teal'c on the knee. "Try not to stay up all night, it's been a long day, and you need rest too. Remember what we talked about, watching over each other. I'm counting on you, and they're counting on you too, they just don't know it right now. But don't forget, you can always count on me, ok?" Teal'c nodded, and smiled. "Good night Teal'c."
"Good night Colonel O'Neill."
Jack left the kids' room then, entering his own adjoining room, but left the door cracked open, in case any of the kids needed anything. He lay awake staring at the ceiling for some time, wondering how he would manage if they couldn't get them back the way they were supposed to be. That, and he realized with a pang, how much he missed his teammates already.
Waking several times during the night, Jack was pleased to note that the children all slept. He refreshed Sam's ice pack, replacing it on her face each time, and waking her once more for more Tylenol. The bruising would be interesting, and he hoped it would have a chance to fade before the Tok'ra, and likely her father Jacob, chose to show up.
A/N: And they shut the water off again yesterday, but only for a short time thankfully, we got worried they'd shut it off the entire weekend, since we didn't think they'd be inclined to work the weekend! But it came on in the evening after 5 pm, though the pressure wasn't much to talk about for a while. By the time I left for work, there was still a lot of water in the street and water coming from the hydrants so I wonder what they were doing that late. I figure about the time I move, they'll be doing it at my new place and I'll just have to move back home, no way I'm putting up with this twice! No way!
Once again, thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter, glad you liked the young Teal'c, hope you liked the little ghost stories and s'mores from this one! And yes, I plan on updating Moo X-Treme… Eventually… Muse just wants to write this one for a while… Moo has been slow to write, and comes in little spurts here and there, though I have some ideas for the next chapter, and since I've stalled a bit and haven't been writing so much on this one but editing maybe I'll write Moo, but I can't promise anything! It's harder to write Moo too, since I like to whump the characters, but I can't whump in Moo. And I seem to emotionally need to write a lot of whumping, it's therapeutic for me :P