The following weekend, Jack had the pleasure of coming down with the kids' cold. As he lay in bed Saturday morning, wishing he could stay there, he decided that he needed to be more specific when he encouraged the kids to share. He'd just about gotten up the energy needed to drag his sorry butt out of bed, when there was a soft rap on the door.
"Colonel Jack?" came Daniel's quiet voice.
"Come in," he rasped, and then coughed.
The door swung open slowly and Daniel walked in, followed by Sam who looked entirely too excited for how he felt. The little girl hopped up on his bed making him groan and greeting him with a cheerful "Hi Colonel Jack!"
Fortunately, before Jack could growl at her, Teal'c walked in carefully bearing a tray. Jack's eyebrows rose as he realized what the tray contained. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked, pulling himself to a sitting position.
"We made you breakfast!" Sam crowed.
"We wanted to make you pancakes, but none of us knew how," Daniel admitted sheepishly while Teal'c inclined his head towards him and balanced the tray across Jack's legs.
Jack blinked again in surprise, and decided as he surveyed the tray that he was glad none of them could because the tray was quite something. For starters, it looked like they'd let Sam pour everything, since there were extra cereal flakes floating in puddles of milk on the tray mingling with the juice that had slopped out of the overfull glass. In addition to the overflowing cereal and juice where half a dozen well buttered slices of toast, crackers, and cookies. Narrowing his eyes he spotted the telltale evidence of chocolate on Sam's face, and several crumbs on Daniel's shirt. Teal'c as always, was immaculate, though Jack had now idea how since he'd carried the tray up and Jack could feel something wet seeping onto his leg through the covers from it. The tray was complete with a small glass holding water and a scraggly looking weed that looked like it had been plucked from the back yard.
He had no idea how he was supposed to eat the food, but he knew he had to eat it all, or at least most of it, or the kids would be disappointed. He plastered a smile on his face. "This looks delicious!" He took a bite of soggy cereal. "This is the best cereal I've ever eaten!"
The kids all grinned, pleased with themselves, and somehow Jack managed to force himself to eat. Luckily, it seemed the kids had only had a few cookies, as they were more than happy to help him eat some of the toast and more cookies from the tray.
The next morning, Jack made sure to be up well before the kids were in order to prevent a recurrence of breakfast in bed. Something he made doubly sure of after witnessing the kitchen in the aftermath of preparations. And he'd thought the tray looked bad!
Otherwise, life proceeded quietly into the next week, much to Jack's relief. Every new week, sometimes every day, seemed to bring new adventures or near catastrophes. Sam's broken arm and Daniel's asthma attack were more than enough, he was sure, to make a few more gray hairs sprout.
They had their quiet moments of course, but it couldn't go quietly all the time. This was SG-1, or the future of them after all. Fortunately, Sam managed not to kill herself, or even injure herself more than a few bumps and scrapes when she fell out of a tree she had climbed, broken arm and all, trying to retrieve a poorly-thrown ball. Tree climbing was added to the growing list of things that Sam wasn't allowed to do while her arm was in a cast. As was climbing anything, which Jack decided to add as an afterthought, studying the scowling little girl.
And then there was the time she'd dismantled the old spare TV. He didn't use it much, but the kids were all watching a movie. (Jack had been shocked to learn that none of the kids had seen The Wizard of Oz at this stage in their development but had no particular desire to see it again and there was a game on to boot.) So he'd gone to dig it out of the closet only to find it rattle suspiciously when he lifted it, the insides in a million pieces when he'd looked. He'd known immediately who the culprit was, and her guilty look on seeing the evidence had only confirmed it. Needless to say, she'd not been allowed to watch the rest of her movie, and Jack found an ironic sort of justice in it. If he couldn't watch what he wanted, than neither could she being as she was the cause. Young and undeveloped mind or not, he couldn't just have her dismantling expensive electronics. Who knew what might fall victim to her curiosity next? Or what she might forget to unplug before engaging in her curious nature. The punishment over, Jack sat down with her, confirming she'd merely wanted to know what was inside the small set, but then had been unable to put it back together. After letting her settle for a few days on the impulse to leave things in one piece, he took her to the local goodwill store and together they bought a few old or broken electronics like clocks and a beat up old stereo, along with some used tools. Over the next few days, Sam spent quite a bit of spare time over her new "workshop" dismantling and reassembling things. And then she surprised them both by actually getting one of the clock radios to work again.
Unfortunately, Sam's newfound outlet couldn't occupy her all the time, and she still sometimes got into trouble. Like when she'd tried to re-warm something in the microwave, and had set it for a ridiculous amount of time. Fortunately Jack had sleepily heard the muted beeps of the machine and realization kicked in about how little these kids actually knew about the thing. Those impulses sent him out of bed and into the kitchen just in time to see the food item in question start to smolder and char.
Sam wasn't the only instigator. One time, Daniel had dug up part of the flowerbeds and yard, looking for "artifacts" the boy had explained, a streak of dirt on his nose making Jack's fingers itch for the camera. Daniel had been reading books on the local history, rich with stories about the ancient Indians that had lived in the area prior to the gold rush of the late 1800's. It was unfortunate that Daniel's fledgling attempt at archaeology was not only in his backyard, but also just after a rainstorm where the ground was the softest and muddiest. And of course Sam and Teal'c had helped with the project. He wasn't sure which of the three had the most mud on them, and he again thanked Janet in her foresight for applying the waterproof cast on Sam, though somehow he doubted they'd ever get all the mud out of it. At least the mud covered most of the glitter that was still on it.
And then there was the time the other two kids had convinced Teal'c of what fun it would be to roll up the rug and slide down the long downstairs hall in their socks across the newly polished wood floor. New to the sport, and not expecting the lack of control in such a slide, Teal'c had slid right into one of the end tables. Another visit to the infirmary and seven stitches took care of the gash on Teal'c's head. The boy thankfully didn't have a concussion, and Jack was experienced enough to not be freaked out about the amount of blood coming from a head wound although Sam had been wide-eyed and tearful and Daniel was looking a little peaked before they'd slowed the bleeding down enough to travel.
Despite a few instances though, Daniel was rather bookish and quiet, and Teal'c serious and protective of the younger two. Where one child was, the others weren't generally far and more often than not involved in some way. Sam was the adventurous one of the lot, and seemed to be getting into the most scrapes of the three.
His heart had plummeted to his stomach when the school nurse had called him, not for the first time, to report that Sam was again in her office. The adventurous little girl wasn't necessarily accident prone, but when one tried to think of new and creative ways to use a see-saw or swing set or swing at a t-ball or reach something on the top shelf while having a cast on one's arm, things tended to happen. He'd even started a list, almost as long, of things that Sam was absolutely forbidden to do even after getting her cast off. He was really starting to wonder more than ever how she'd survived childhood the first time.
And despite the growing number of days the kids had been with him, now approaching a month, he was learning more and more about their early personalities, and more about their particular likes and dislikes, even as children.
One afternoon was more memorable than the others.
The kids settled at the table and Jack set plates containing their after school snacks in front of each child. Today it was crackers and cheese. The kids chattered animatedly about their day. Actually, Danny and Teal'c chattered, Sam ate with single-minded determination, polishing off her snack faster than anyone else. She looked up when she finished, rising up on her knees in her chair and holding up her plate. "More please?"
Jack raised his eyebrows. Danny and Teal'c had barely eaten half of their snacks. "I don't know Sam, we're going to have dinner in a few hours."
"Please Colonel Jack, I'm really hungry." She continued to hold her plate up.
His eyebrows rose further. "Why so hungry, didn't you have lunch today?" And now he suspected something was up by the way she suddenly looked down, not meeting his eyes.
Daniel confirmed it a moment later. "She wouldn't eat her lunch," he tattled, his mouth full of cracker.
Sam dropped her plate and gave Daniel a light shove. "Shut up Danny!"
Jack came around and grabbed Sam's shoulder, giving Daniel a warning look before he could retaliate. "Hey! Sam, what have I said about fighting? And don't talk with your mouth full Daniel." Rebuked, Daniel glared at his plate, and Sam thumped down into her seat in a similar posture, arms crossed. He turned his attention back to her. "Now. Why didn't you eat your lunch?"
"Wasn't hungry," she mumbled.
Immediately concerned, he touched his hand to her forehead, brushing back a few strands of hair. "You don't seem feverish. Are you feeling alright?"
Silent until now, Teal'c spoke up. "Samantha did not like her bologna sandwich."
"Teal'c!" Sam protested, wiggling to kick at Teal'c under the table for betraying her. Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow and Jack's hand clapped down on her shoulder again, holding her in place.
"Unless you want a one way trip to your room until dinner young lady, I suggest you knock it off right now." Jack's tone was warning. He hadn't had to punish them very much, but when he had, they generally deserved it, had received fair warning, and they all knew it.
Sam stilled, staring down at her plate, poking at her cracker crumbs with one finger. "Sorry," she mumbled, only slightly repentant, and stinging at the double betrayal.
Jack sighed. Sometimes dealing with them was like pulling teeth. "Ok, so you don't like bologna. But the bread was ok right? Right?" he repeated when she didn't answer at first. Finally, he received a slight shaking of her head as she continued to stare at her plate, poking at the crumbs. The two boys were suddenly equally as interested in their plates. Obviously their role as traitors only went so far. Resisting the urge to pull out his hair in frustration, he tried again. "Ok, fine. So no sandwich at all. But there was other stuff in there you could have had, so you shouldn't have had to go hungry…" But she was still staring at her plate, not making a sound. "Sam, tell me you ate the other stuff in your lunch box?" He waited, but no reply was forthcoming.
Leaving the kids at the table, Jack walked over to the counter and picked up Sam's lunch box, the one with the space shuttle on it. It was suspiciously heavy. He sighed as he opened it to reveal everything inside almost exactly as he'd packed it this morning. Turning back to the table, he looked at Sam. "Alright Sam, why couldn't you eat anything else? And nobody else answer, I want to hear it from Sam." This one should be good he thought.
She was silent for a long time, fidgeting slightly in her seat as she continued to poke at her discarded crumbs. Finally she sighed, and looked up. "I couldn't eat anything because it was all con… con… contam… contaminated." Her face screwed up over the big, unfamiliar word, but eventually she got it out.
Jack blinked, her response a bit unexpected. "I guess you really don't like bologna sandwiches." She shook her head, staring at the table again. "And I guess you couldn't have anything from Teal'c and Danny because they also had bologna sandwiches." She nodded. He made a decision. "Ok, from now on, the night before, we all pack our lunches together, that way we make sure everybody has lunches they like to eat. Sound good?" Nods all around. "And, just in case we make anymore mistakes, and somebody's lunch gets contaminated," he smiled at the idea, "you tell a teacher. I highly doubt the teachers will let you go hungry, and I pretty much know everyone there already." Jack thought about all the meetings he'd already been to with the nurse, the principal, and various teachers and councilors, and he was fairly sure that any one of the teachers wouldn't have a problem making sure the kids had something to eat in the event of another contamination. For that matter, there was always the occasional mishap of a spill or forgotten lunch. Maybe he should call tomorrow and see about sending in some just in case lunch money or something.
He picked up the box of crackers and placed a few more on Sam's plate, adding a slice of cheese. He smiled as he put the box away, wondering how a kid could develop such an aversion to bologna.
A/N: This little chapter was written especially for Janissima, in honor of her wonderful fic "A Father's Determination." Ms. J kept putting up with me continually making fun of her evil OC, Bologna… err… Beroni! And so I just had to do a little something to honor it, especially since she was beta reading my story while I was poking fun at hers! So thanks Ms. J! (If you haven't read Janissima's prizewinning "A Mother's Love" or the sequel, "A Father's Determination" you really should, JJ is just the cutest thing ever!)
I later added in a few more adventures of mini SG-1 from your suggestions. Thanks so much, you all were an adventurous lot and I feel like my childhood was pretty mild in comparison. Some suggestions where submitted more or less by multiple individuals, others got my brain going so thanks. And I have to remark that you all are a precognitive bunch because you've often suggested things I've already written or were planning to write! (Like getting the kids sick, though I hope I surprised you with my variation!)
And my apologies for the lack of update, but life continues to be well packed, especially with the holiday season. Compounded by the fact that I've finally caught up with myself and the chapters I've written. So from now on you'll be waiting until I've written them for me to post, since I don't have any spares anymore. I'm also working on more than one other story for posting after GP. On the other hand, I think we are a lot closer to an ending than ever before. While there are plenty of things I'd love to see Jack and the kids do, the story can't go on forever, and something has to happen! Don't worry though; there are a few adventures ahead, if only I can make it past the writer's block. Oh, and a big thank you again to all my readers and reviewers, those that read from the first posting, to those just joining or new to my work. As always, wonderful to hear from you!
And to add insult to injury, fanfic wouldn't let me post the other day!