Saturday morning saw Jack's predictions proven true. Despite sleeping later than normal himself, he was still up well before the kids had even started to stir. He used the time wisely in planning the day, as well as deciding on a suitable punishment for the kids taking off on their own. While he understood their reasons for going off trying to find General Hammond (he snickered at the kid's reasoning, which Hammond had revealed just before leaving last night) he needed to show them he would not tolerate such behavior again. What they had done could have proven very dangerous, and he wanted to impart that their actions had held farther-reaching consequences than just their selves. They had, after all, inconvenienced a lot of people with their little stunt.
For a moment, Jack was struck by the irony of needing to punish his teammates. It was starting to get easy to think in the terms of correcting them as children, and that thought should probably scare him more than it did. As time passed, and little to no progress was made by the science and linguistics team working on a solution, it became increasingly difficult to connect the children he saw on a day to day basis with the adults he had known. That he hoped he would one day see again. There didn't seem much he could do about it though, except continue on as he had been and do his best to keep them safe. And teach them right from wrong when necessary.
About an hour after he'd gotten up, three sleepy children made their way downstairs, lured in by the smell of the hearty breakfast he'd prepared. He'd known they'd be hungry after having only eaten cookies and other junk the night before. They were lucky they all didn't wake up with stomachaches. Jack placed full plates in front of each child, and another plate of hamburger on the floor for Bill, who had followed the kids downstairs.
Jack allowed the kids to fill their stomachs, the normal morning chatter replaced by a contemplative silence as the kids ate with single-minded determination. Finally though, their pace slowed showing they were getting full. Clearing his throat, he was granted their sudden and undivided attention. Faces looked at him with an air of expectant dread.
"I'm very disappointed in all of you," he started off. The kids all looked down at their mostly empty plates, food suddenly not as appealing anymore. "What you did could have been very dangerous, not to mention how many people you all inconvenienced with your little trip." He paused, and heads remained bowed, small bodies fidgeting in their seats as they waited for the other shoe to drop. Teal'c was the only one sitting still with his head raised, gaze locked on something nonexistent past his shoulder in an overly familiar pose. He must have had that military stand-at-attention look drilled into him from an early age.
"I understand why you did what you did, but it doesn't change the facts," he continued. "You should have come to me first, and all of this might have been prevented. But you decided all by yourselves to take matters into your own hands. You left here without permission, without letting me know where you were going. I expect it to never happen again, do you understand me?" His tone was no-nonsense as he looked at them; receiving nods and whispered yes sirs in reply.
"Now, I understand why you did what you did, but all the people that changed their plans last night to come and look for you may not. Therefore, I expect all of you to write out a letter of apology and thanks to each person that was here last night. And I want you to say in each letter that you will never do anything like that again." The kids all shared glances as if trying to puzzle out just how many letters that would be. But Jack wasn't finished.
"And furthermore, there will be no TV and no videogames for a week. And none of your are to venture outside without me or my express permission, do I make myself clear?" More nods and yeses followed. "Good. I expect you to get started on those letters right away. And we have an appointment this afternoon to take Bill to the vet for a check up." Faces brightened somewhat at the mention of Bill.
"Do we really get to keep Bill?" Daniel asked hesitantly.
"Yes, you can keep Bill," Jack answered, holding up a hand to forestall the eager cries. "I'm going to remind you that a kitten is a big responsibility." Faces sobered and every eye was now watching him intently. "He is going to need food and water and cleaning up after every day, whether you feel like it or not. You'll have to keep him from getting into things, and he may do things you don't like because he doesn't know any better. He's yours now, and your responsibility. Pets are not just something you can forget about or get rid of when it gets too hard to take care of them. If you care for him properly, he can be your friend for a very long time. But if I feel like you can't take care of him the right way, I'll be forced to find someone who will. Are you sure you can handle it? This is a big responsibility."
The kids all shared a look, leaning in to whisper among themselves. Finally they straightened up, and Daniel spoke, his shoulders square. "We can do it, please let us keep Bill." Nods from the other two confirmed the boy's statement.
Jack smiled for the first time that morning. They were good kids, but he should have known that, knowing what they were like as adults after all. Retrieving Bill from under one of the chairs, he placed the curious kitten in Teal'c's arms. Promising to help the kids learn how to take care of their new pet, he cleared the dishes with Daniel and Sam's help, and then brought out paper and craft supplies on the table. He'd written down all the names of the people that had come to aid the search and gave the list to the kids, leaving them to work out what they wanted to do with the letters. The kids got right down to business, putting their heads together in that way they had. There were no complaints about the other part of their punishment, despite the fact they were missing the favored Saturday morning cartoons. They seemed to take the punishment in stride. He shouldn't have been surprised about that either.
Checking on them a short while later, he found all three engaged in an assembly line of sorts. They had decided to put their notes into cards. Daniel folded each piece of paper into a card shape, and carefully drew pictures on them. When he was done, he passed the card to Sam who colored the pictures in. The colored card then went to Teal'c, who wrote out careful notes to each recipient inside. The finished card got passed around again for signatures. Bill helped by swatting at the pencils and crayons the kids were using, and diving at the crumpled bits of paper that were the rejects.
Glancing over shoulders, Jack had a hard time holding back a chuckle over the contents of the cards. They were keepers all right. He thought about saving the master draft, which Teal'c was now copying meticulously, minus the scratch outs.
"Dear Sir, (or Madam depending on the recipient)
Thank you for help-
ing us get un-lost.
We were very scared.
We are sorry we ran
away. We promise to
ever ever run away
without telling some-
body ever again.
Signed,
Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Bill"
The addition of Bill's name to the signed names nearly sent him over the edge. Not only would most of the recipients not have a clue who or what Bill was, but the provisional promise at the end was priceless. He wondered who had contributed the word, "un-lost." Jack decided to leave the kids to it, they were doing well enough it seemed.
Walking away from the table, Jack couldn't help but shake his head. His team seemed more than capable of getting themselves into (and out of) trouble just as much, if not more so, than when they were adults. All despite the fact they were children, or perhaps because of. Now the real question was, how much more trouble could he expect from them before they grew up again?
A/N 3:Ok.This is reallypathetic, but this morning, I honestly thought I had posted this last night, before I went to work. So when I got home this morning, I was shocked that I hadn't recieved a single review! I was so sad. And then I realized that I thought I uploaded it, but may have forgotten to post! And then, I remembered that I HAD tried, but it just kept timing out and not uploading like it had in the morning. So now it finally seems to be letting me now. Lol, can't believe I thought I had. You guys are still out there... There's at least 1000 hitseach on the last ten chapters,and over a hundred getting story alerts, even if I only hear from about 0.1 percent of you! (hint hint) (I really was sad until I'd remebered I'd forgotten that it was broken!)
A/N 2: Now if fanfic will let me post…
A/N 1: Well I hope you didn't expect me to let Jack be too mean to them. After all, they found General Hammond! Heh. I'm working on the next several chapters (literally as the only way around the writer's block was to write what muse felt like seeing so there's a few scenes here and there… just to write what's in between now!) It's getting there, so hopefully not quite too long of a wait for the next chapter. It really is getting close to the end though. I'm guestimating about 10 or so more chapters, but I have yet to write all of them, or even start some of them, so it really is a guestimate! So I guess now you can start speculating how it will end lol. And anymore last hurrahs for the kids to go out with a bang lol. (Though so far with this fic, some of your guesses have been so dead on to what I'd written or planned it was downright eerie!)
And my cats, for those of you who wonder… All I can say is they are not morning people. Dragon can remain asleep in one spot for more than 8 hours at a time, he'll emerge whenever he thinks there's a chance of food, blinking and bleary eyed, carefully stretching every joint while he wakes up. Sam isn't quite so dead to the world. He usually has to get up every couple hours, to make sure nothing was changed without his express knowledge. Sometime he returns to his usual sleepy spot, and sometimes he finds a new perfect place for a nap. Sammy generally looks rumpled and sleepy, like he just woke up (which he probably did, and he's oh so huggable… I'm sure he hates being cute) Sammy's latest favorite sleeping spot is smack dab in the center of my bed, and he usually turns up shortly before I plan on being there.