"Teal'c!" Jack shouted, after a quick glance to make sure Sam and Daniel had gotten to the kitchen. Teal'c ignored him, bending down to pick something up from the floor. "Teal'c!" he shouted again. This time, the boy stood up and Jack could see Billie struggling in the boy's arms. "This way!" he cried, and Teal'c looked at him, wide eyed before rounding the couch and closing the distance between them. The boy was far enough from the curtains to be safe for now, and Jack backpedaled, reaching inside the kitchen doorway, his hand automatically locating the fire extinguisher. "Get outside!" he ordered the kids in a no-nonsense voice. "Now!" Teal'c passed him and Jack knew the older boy would make sure the younger two got outside safely.
Tugging his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose, Jack headed back towards the smoldering fire, which had started to make it's way up towards the windowsill. Wasting no time, Jack pulled the pin and aimed the extinguisher's nozzle. Depressing the trigger, he shot a stream of white foam at the base of the flames, spreading the foam back and forth until it covered an area a good foot or two away from the outer edges of the fire once the fire itself had been extinguished. He was taking no chances, knowing even a small smoldering flame could spread quickly.
Satisfied the fire was out and staying that way, he crossed to the front door, flinging it open just as the first fire truck pulled up.
AsLongAsWeGotEachOther,WeCanTakeAnythingThatComesOurWayLocating the kids had been easy, as they'd all moved around front to stand by the neighbor's mailbox, exactly where he'd told them to meet in the event they had to leave the house in an emergency. The cordless phone clutched in Daniel's hand revealed not only the youngster's quick thinking, but the reason for the fire trucks.
Thanking the firefighters one more time, Jack walked the last of them to the truck. The kids waved vigorously from the curb, wrapped in blankets and jackets supplied by neighbors who had come outside when the first of the trucks had pulled up. None of them had ever had such an up close and personal look at a fire truck, and had been most impressed by the fully geared men and women that had poured out of both trucks, ready for anything.
Still, blankets and borrowed jackets non-withstanding, the kids were not dressed to be outside. Hustling the kids inside, Jack thanked all the various neighbors for their concern, pausing only long enough to scowl down at the sidewalk at the source of their unwanted holiday excitement.
Likely, he wouldn't have called the fire department, having already extinguished the small fire, which had been more smoke than anything else. But since they were already there, he had them take a look. Being cautious, the team leader had carried the source of the blaze outside, well away from anything flammable.
The two kits had seemed innocuous enough when he'd bought them under the urging of Walter Harriman, who'd jumped at the chance to do a little Christmas shopping with Jack for the kids one day when things had been slow on base. They'd even gone with the General's blessing, and a shopping list for his granddaughters. Jack had hesitated over the kits, but had caved on Walter's reasoning. The Junior Chemistry set had been for ten year olds, but considering Sam was already a grade level ahead and doing well, they'd reasoned that she would have no problem with it. Besides, the package claimed that all chemicals inside were safe, when used under supervision, even if accidentally mixed with one another or spilled.
Likewise, neither man thought Daniel would have trouble with the "find your own fossil" kit, which hid mock up "fossils" inside a rock-like substance and provided small tools and the like for uncovering them.
Neither of the kits' manufactures had ever anticipated that the contents of one kit would be combined with the contents of another.
Obviously they'd never met his miniature geniuses.
In an attempt to uncover Daniel's fossils faster, the two children had experimented with some of the chemicals in Sam's kit on the rock in Daniel's. Neither child had anticipated that the "rock" in Daniel's kit might have some chemicals in it of its own. Those chemicals didn't seem to like the ones from Sam's kit. They'd inadvertently released a lot of smoke, and more than a little heat. The two kids had jumped back startled, one of them knocking over the rest of Sam's kit.
The package had warned against heat.
The curtains, a little too close to the science experiment, hadn't stood a chance.
Jack sighed, his indrawn breath bringing with it the leftover tang of burned fabric and the slight odor of the remnants of various chemicals. He turned in the doorway, wondering if he should leave it open or not, when Hammond's familiar sedan pulled up. Jack knew there wasn't much hope of cleaning up or letting the house air out now. All the same, he warmly welcomed Hammond, Janet and Cassie, all of them exclaiming over the burned smell as they entered.
"We almost burned the house down," Sam answered the queries cheerfully.
Jack opened his mouth to correct the little girl, but Daniel beat him. "You should have seen all the firefighters!"
"They came in two trucks," added Teal'c. Jack just groaned, and scrubbed his face with his hands. He hadn't even had a chance to survey the damage.
"I think I smell something burning," Janet said.
"It's probably just the leftover…" Jack started to say, but Janet interrupted. "No, it's getting stronger."
Jack's eyes widened. "Dinner!" He bolted to the kitchen, opening the oven door only to release a cloud of thick gray smoke. Coughing, Jack waved a hand vainly in front of his face, locating the correct knobs and shutting them off. Overhead he heard the smoke detector go off, and excited shouts issued from the living room. He heard the deep voice of General Hammond quieting the kids, and hopefully preventing a second call to 911. He didn't think there was a daily limit, but he didn't really want to find out.
"Maybe you should take that outside," he heard Janet say behind him. Nodding, Jack grabbed the oven mitts and followed the small woman who held the door open for him and the smoldering remains of dinner.
Outside, the two adults stood on the back deck, staring at the charred and all but unrecognizable Christmas ham.
"You know, we could always go out for dinner," Janet suggested after a few moments of contemplative silence.
"I might be able to salvage something," Jack protested, mostly on principal, while poking at the blackened lump with a mitt-clad hand. Janet merely gave him a skeptical look, and headed back inside.
The last straw came when Jack re-entered the kitchen to see what he could save of the side dishes, only to find the one he'd been working on when the excitement had first started had somehow been knocked to the floor. Whether by the kids, himself, or the cat, he wasn't sure but Billie was doing a good job of cleaning up the mess however it had gotten there.
In the end, after several phone calls, Jack finally found a place that was open and could make deliveries. The kids certainly didn't mind pizza for Christmas dinner, and the adults wisely chose not to make any comments, not even over the festive red pepperoni and green pepper toppings he'd picked. (Although the kids picked most of those off.) Jack had ordered more than enough to go around, which turned out to be a good thing since Corporal Henderson, Major Ferretti, and the rest of the marines on SG-3 stopped in for a quick hello and to drop off a few Christmas gifts they were delivering from themselves and a few others at the SGC. Likewise, Walter Harriman stopped by too, though he didn't stay long, with his wife and kids in the car on the way to relatives for dinner.
At least dinner was easy to clean up. Unless one considered the mess the kitchen was after the cooking disasters. Fortunately, the cookies made the day before were unharmed. With mugs of coffee and hot chocolate, the cookies went down quite well before the various guests departed, all wishing one another a Merry Christmas.
The rest of the evening was spent quietly, with the kids involving themselves in the books and board games they'd received. That is after Jack had admonished them not to mix anything else together. Sam and Daniel had had the good grace to look at least slightly repentant at that. Jack couldn't bring himself to punish them either. After all, they hadn't meant to cause any problems. Accidents did happen. Besides, it was Christmas. Still, Jack couldn't help but feel relieved that there was nothing left of either of the kits when he heard the two speculating as to what combination had caused the unforeseen reaction.
Bedtime came, and a late one at that, since Jack didn't really mind them staying up a bit later than normal considering it was a holiday. Although he wondered how they found the energy to keep going considering the early start they'd had.
Eventually, everyone was tucked into bed. Sam, as usual, had crashed first, not even making it to bed. Jack had carried her there himself, tucking her in. He followed the boys into their room and tucked them in too. Daniel sleepily sought reassurance that Jack wasn't mad about the little escapade with the fossils. Jack tousled the boy's hair affectionately. "No, I'm not mad. Just be a little more careful in the future," he told him. Daniel nodded before turning into his pillow, more than half asleep already.
Truthfully, Jack wasn't really mad. He was just glad the kids were all ok. The damage was minimal, more mess than anything else. And he didn't particularly like those curtains anyway.
Teal'c murmured a quiet thank you from the top bunk as he settled back onto his bed, and Jack patted him gently on the shoulder, smothering a yawn with his other hand. Leaving the boys' room, Jack made his way to his own room. Passing Sam's room, Jack paused when he noticed what appeared to be a flash of light coming from around the cracked open door, a habit Jack hadn't managed to shake since the kids had come to stay.
Pushing the door the rest of the way open, Jack peered into the room dimly lit by the glow from the hallway light. Frowning, Jack reached for the overhead light when he noticed something odd.
Light filled the room, but Jack suddenly felt cold.
The bed was empty.
A/N: I guess I took a little too long with the update for awhile. Where did you all go? Take a second and click that little button if you haven't done it in a while, and let me know what you think, especially since we're almost done! Besides, reviews make me happy. And when I'm happy, I update faster. ;)