Deciding it had been a long time since breakfast, Jack spotted the food court up ahead. "So who's hungry for some lunch?"
"Pizza!" came the simultaneous cries from Sam and Daniel.
Teal'c looked confused. "What is pizza?"
"You don't know what pizza is? What, are you from another planet?" Sam was incredulous.
Jack stepped in before Teal'c could answer. Sam's question was a little too close to home. "I guess we'll just have to have pizza then won't we?"
"Yay!" Sam and Daniel had spotted the food court and had each grabbed one of his arms, pulling him along faster. Trusting Teal'c to follow, Jack went along. Spotting the pizza place, the two American born kids led the way, and Jack ordered them a large cheese pizza, deciding that it was probably the safest. He knew what they all liked as adults, but as kids, he didn't want to find out they were all picky eaters with extremely different tastes and eating habits. He ordered milk to drink, forgoing soda, wanting again to avoid the sugar and caffeine in the soft drinks, since they had a long day, and they'd be cranky enough by the end of it without the addition of the chemicals.
As soon as they had their pie, Jack led them to an empty table, grabbing a big handful of napkins and several plates. Getting the kids to settle was a different story, but eventually he had them all sitting down, a piece of pizza in front of each one. And watching them eat, he was now glad he'd gone with the plain pizza.
Sam was dissecting her slice with scientific precision. She'd taken all of the cheese off, and put it in a little pile. Then she'd pulled the crust off, and moved it to the very edge of the plate. She was now licking the sauce off the remaining part, and getting a good bit of the sauce on her hands and face. Jack sighed, and turned his attention to Daniel.
Danny had done something similar, only the boy had eaten his cheese first, rather than leaving it in a pile on his plate. He was now nibbling through the pizza crust with the same attention his grown up self paid some of his artifacts. While he had some sauce on his face, due to the fact he was nibbling into the center of the slice, it was at least nowhere near the extent of the mess Sam was making.
Across from him sat Teal'c, staring in consternation at Sam and Daniel, clearly confused as to what to do with his own uneaten slice of pizza. Jack coughed, catching the boy's attention. Pointedly, Jack picked up his slice of pizza and bit into it the right way, nodding in satisfaction when Teal'c mimicked his actions and smiled after his first bite, clearly enjoying the taste and sensations of his first bite of pizza. At least the first bite that he could remember.
"More please." He looked up to find Sam holding up her plate, empty except for the very edge of the pizza crust, which she'd even nibbled out. She'd also eaten her cheese, although why she had to disassemble the poor slice first he had no clue, but then again, she seemed to like taking things apart.
"Me too please." Danny also held up his plate, he'd eaten his entire slice, crust and all.
Jack handed them napkins. "Wipe up first." They did as instructed. It helped some, although there was still an orange stain on faces and fingers. He took their plates and put another slice of pizza on each, watching in amusement as Sam disassembled hers again, and Daniel repeated his analysis process. Jack focused back on his own meal before there wouldn't be any more pizza left.
Before long, they were done, trash cleared away, and Jack had wet some napkins from the fountain to do a slightly better job and Sam and Danny's faces. They weren't happy with it, but he refused to go a step further until he had their faces and hands clean. After the clean up, Sam started squirming. "Colonel Jack, I have to go."
Jack was confused. "Go, go where? We have a lot of places to go."
Her squirming became more urgent. "No. Go. To the bathroom."
Realization dawned and his mouth opened in a small O. "Oh. The bathroom. Right. Yeah, ok." Rapidly, he tried to think, as he led her and the rest of the kids towards the sign that marked the public restrooms. Off world, as the only female member of the team it had never been a problem because he'd always known she could take care of herself. But now she was just a kid. He pulled her towards the rest room, surprised when she resisted.
"Colonel Jack, that's the boy's room, I can't go in there. I have to go in here." She pointed across to the ladies' room, still doing the urgent squirming potty dance inherent in all small children.
"I don't know if you're old enough to go by yourself Sam…" Jack frowned, still standing in front of the men's room. He was worried about letting her out of his sight, even for a minute. The stuff you heard on the news these days, about sexual predators and what not. And then there were all the other people that might be after his little group, like the NID for starters.
"I can do it. I really gotta go." By now, her legs were crossed and one of her hands had crept down lower. She was practically bouncing up and down in urgency.
Just then, a woman holding a baby in one arm and a toddler by the other hand walked up to him sensing his dilemma. "I'm just going in there myself, I can keep an eye on her if you like." She smiled, bouncing the baby in her arm.
"Please Colonel Jack, I gotta go now!"
"Well… Ok," he agreed reluctantly. "Don't forget to wash your hands!" he called after her as she ran into the room. The woman who had offered to keep an eye on his bundle of energy sent a knowing look over her shoulder before following Sam.
"Teal'c, why don't you take Danny and use the bathroom now? No telling when we might be able to stop again." Teal'c nodded, pulling the younger boy into the restroom. Jack trusted Teal'c to keep an eye on Danny, knowing that Teal'c was a lot more mature than an American child of the same age. Jack decided to forgo going to the bathroom himself, knowing if he limited his fluid intake, he could outlast this shopping expedition a lot longer than his now smaller counterparts.
As soon as the pit stop was over, he steered them off to the furniture store. Teal'c was absolutely fascinated by the mall, and Jack was amused by the open amazement on the young boy's face. As a full-grown man, Teal'c had shown wonderment at the many things on Earth, but it was nothing compared to the emotional display he was treated to now. Fortunately, Teal'c's amazement was taken for excitement and most people just smiled at the group as they passed by, especially since Sam was back to skipping or stomping every other step to set her new shoes off, grinning like a fool, and Daniel was still high over the thrill of being able to pick out something for himself rather than having it handed to him without choice.
Entering the store, Jack headed to the bedding displays, and showed the two boys the different choices that were available to them. Then before Sam had very long to pout that she wasn't getting a new bed too, he pulled her to the bedroom sets and told her to pick out a new desk and dresser. The kids occupied, Jack chose a location where he could make sure all three stayed out of trouble. A sales clerk approached just as the three kids came back to him indicating they'd all found things they wanted. He went with Sam first, seeing she'd picked out a plain white dresser that had a shooting yellow star painted on the top drawer and blue round knobs. The desk matched, with the same painted star on the top of the desk.
"Please Colonel Jack?" He checked the price tag and nodded, relieved that the sturdy little desk and dresser wouldn't cost too much; in fact, it was less than he'd intended to spend. He nodded to the clerk, and then followed the boys, who went to stand by their selection.
Jack checked the price tag first, and finding it reasonable, he checked their choice over. It was a nice looking set of beds. They'd gone for the bunk beds like he'd hoped, rather than two separate beds. The bottom bed stood at an angle to the top bunk, so that there was space for a bookshelf underneath. And under the bottom bed were two wheeled trays, for storing more things. It was made of solid pine; the ladder was sturdy and strong. The beds could be left stacked or put separately. It even came with two matching dressers. It looked like the boys had chosen well. He smiled at them. "Ok, we'll get it." The boys grinned, and the clerk left to fill out the sales slip and make delivery arrangements for the next day.
A/N: Ok, that's just too funny, but sometimes, I think I get just as many if not more comments based on my author's notes then about the actual story! You guys are just too funny! At least my life is amusing eh? Water problems, cats, housewreckings, fanfic ideas… Speaking of which, looks like my next fic I'll have to come up with some sort of Sam/Thor ship fic…