When the hug was over, Jack stood up and surveyed the disaster that was the boys' room, shaking his head. "Ok you guys, lets put this room to rights, we have a library to visit today!" It only took them about twenty minutes to fold up the various blankets and sheets that had been part of the blanket fortress, and put away the ropes. Jack helped them shift the furniture back into position, wondering how they'd moved some of it in the first place. Smoothing the last wrinkle out of Daniel's bed, Jack surveyed the room; he could vacuum it when they got back. The vacuuming was one thing he didn't let Danny do, noticing that anything that stirred up dust made the boy sneeze even more, in fact, sometimes his breathing seemed to have a faint wheeze to it, but so far it had only happened now and again. Jack had meant to say something to Janet before their next checkup in a week or two, but things had been so busy, and Daniel seemed healthy otherwise. So he just made sure Daniel stayed away from dust and pollen and things like that.
He fed them all lunch, and then it was off to the library. Daniel and Sam wanted to run right off to the books, but he held them back. Even Teal'c looked overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books, and Jack knew this was a small local library. But first things were first, he wanted them to have a little bit of responsibility too, so he took them to the main desk, and got them all library cards. Daniel's eyes nearly bugged out when he saw the one with his name on it; obviously he'd never had one of his very own before. His next words confirmed it.
"You mean I can check books out on my own card now?" Daniel asked quietly.
"Sure can kiddo," Jack told him, handing over the card, grinning as Daniel stared at it.
"I always just had to look at the books at the library or get my foster parents to check things out for me." There was a tinge of awe in his voice, and Jack was again amazed at how such small things had such an impact on the young boy. He wished he could have been there, all those years ago. But if he had, then the Daniel Jackson he knew today would be an entirely different person.
Jack passed Teal'c's card over to the other boy, "I'll explain how that works, just don't lose it ok?" he said in answer to the boy's questioning look. Teal'c nodded, and placed the card in his pocket. Daniel was still staring at his. Sam had wandered to a small table set with brightly colored children's books and didn't seem interested in her own card, which was just as well since Jack didn't really trust her with it yet. He placed it in his wallet and looked at the two boys. "Ok, what's first?"
Daniel tore his gaze from the library card. "I need to look up books for my report on Ra."
Jack reminded himself that Ra was dead, and this Daniel didn't know that. "Ok, well, since Teal'c hasn't been to a library before, how about he goes with you?" Both boys nodded. "Good, I'm going to take Sam over to the kids section. If we haven't found you guys first, come find us over there ok?" The two sections were relatively close by, and the shelves were fairly low in the children's section so he'd be able to keep an eye on what went on in the non-fiction section.
An hour later, the kids were loaded down with books, and even Jack had a few fishing magazines to look at. The librarian looked mildly surprised as she checked out some of the kid's choices, and Jack had to admit he was mildly surprised himself. Initially, he'd steered Sam towards the second and third graders section, and she'd poked about among the selections for a little while, peeking at this or that book, and he'd ended up chatting with a librarian about kids when she'd come over asking if they needed anything. When the librarian had gone to assist someone else he'd found Sam in the fourth graders section, sprawled in a beanbag chair with a big chapter book open in front of her, content. He suddenly realized it was Sam's way of telling him that she was way beyond the picture books arrayed out in her age groups' section. And while she loved the pictures and silly stories of the little books, she wanted something meatier.
Daniel and Teal'c were no less surprising. Both boys had chosen a variety of historical books, from history and culture in Daniel's case, to ancient weaponry and war craft in Teal'c's case, quite a few on castles, knights, and medieval weapons, but he hid a smile when he saw a book or two about the history of the Air Force peeking out of the pile. Both boys also moved readily into the fiction section, selecting several books from there as well. Daniel, like Sam, chose from books above his reading level. Teal'c wandered the section for some time until the librarian came back, just as Jack was about to approach him. Noticing how the woman first glanced down at the books Teal'c was carrying before asking him a few questions, Jack decided to let the woman handle it. After a while, she led Teal'c over to the shelf, and handed him two books. When Teal'c came back, Jack glanced down, and smiled at the selection. "Johnny Tremain" and "Where the Red Fern Grows" sounded like good choices for the young boy.
After they left the library, Jack stopped at the local craft supply store, to buy some tempera paint, colored sand, and some other things he thought they could use to make a really cool volcano model for Teal'c's class project. He resisted the multitude of requests from Sam, and a few from Daniel, to buy all sorts of overpriced kits for everything from stamps to stickers to bugs. He most especially was not buying Sam a bug kit. He shuddered at the thought of her forgetting to cap something and something escaping. Besides, he had plenty of craft supplies at home and those kits barely came with anything useful in them. The kids were disappointed; they could usually get him to buy at least one thing!
On the way out however, his eye caught a display, and suddenly, he knew he had to have the kits, so that the kids could do them. They would do the volcano, and as soon as the volcano was out of the way, he'd have them do this. He checked the instructions, and bought one kit and more than enough refills to make several in case they messed up the first ones. The kids stared at the things he was putting in the cart. It didn't look like a lot of fun to them, but he knew it would be. Especially when they got to paint the finished product he thought, as he put the paint for the volcano project on the register counter, the paint now having a dual purpose.
When they got home, Jack cleared off the kitchen table and spread out some newspapers. He spent the next hour experimenting with various parts of water and flour trying to come up with the right consistency of paper mache paste. He failed miserably, much to Sam and Daniel's amusement and Teal'c's confusion as to what the flour and water mess had to do with demonstrating the deadly destructive nature of a volcano. Unless of course he was supposed to take a picture of the kitchen when they were done, to show what an eruption looked like.
Finally, after a desperate call to Janet Fraiser, and an even more desperate call to General Hammond, followed by General Hammond calling one of his own children and then returning a call to Jack, Jack finally had a workable recipe for paper mache paste. He was so excited, he called the General right back to thank him, forgetting that he had flour paste all over his hands, the giggles his only clue until it was too late telling him that the mixture was now all over the phone and his hair. He could only laugh helplessly at himself.
He set Sam and Daniel the task of tearing strips of newspaper, while he and Teal'c cut up a large cardboard box, creating a platform, which Jack explained to the boy would be the base of their model. He had finally explained that they would be creating a simulation of a volcano, one that looked and behaved like a real volcano, but without the heat or danger. Jack told him he expected Teal'c to provide input in how he wanted his volcano to look, since he had been studying them, and Teal'c nodded.
They put a juice can in the middle of their model and packed wadded up newspaper around it. Meanwhile, Sam and Daniel had finished with tearing strips, and Jack showed Teal'c how to dip the strips into the paste and use his fingers like a squeegee and how to wrap them around the newspaper wads to create slopes and such. It was inevitable that Sam and Daniel would want to help. It was equally inevitable that later as the slightly lopsided, but no less perfect in Teal'c's eyes, volcano model sat drying and Jack scratched at dried flour in his hair and started to clean up some of the mess, that he found a number of small white hand and finger prints around the kitchen. And somehow, he knew without a doubt, since Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel had all made at least one trip to the bathroom during the project, that he would find more small handprints around the house. He shook his head ruefully as he grabbed the washcloth off the sink and attacked the nearest, glad it was only flour.
As he wiped away the handprints, he smiled, and thought about the bag sitting on the counter. The hour was late now, and the kids would be in bed soon, but tomorrow, after they finished the volcano, he'd bring out the other project. And unlike the small handprints on his walls, doors, furniture, and yes, somehow, even the floor, this time, he'd have something to remember this time by, no matter what tomorrow may bring.
A/N: I just want to take the opportunity to bring attention to my betas again. They not only spend much time pre-reading and offering suggestions for this story, but also are fantastic writers themselves. If you need any convincing in just how fantastic, you've only to look at the 2005 Stargate Fan Awards. Special congratulations to Janissima for winning in her category with "A Mother's Love" and to SG1-Fanfic, for "Overtime," "A Beautiful Mind," "Come Fly With Me," and "What Will It Take?" Both authors and most of these stories can be found on my profile page, as they are all located here at Fanfic. There were many other fabulous stories that won awards as well, a few names I recognized as reviewers on my stories or simply favorites of mine as well. So congratulations to all the winners this year!