Sam slowly opened her eyes. Small shafts of light filtered through her blinds and danced on the floor. A small smile played around her lips as she heard a bird singing outside her window. As she laid there the events of the past few days flashed across her memory. A silent tear traced its way down her cheek. Upon waking up to the beautiful day, she had hoped that it had all been a nightmare. But no, it was 0900 on Monday morning and…
"Crap!" Sam exclaimed as she jumped out of bed and rushed around her room to get ready.
Jackie looked down the hall towards the stairs. She smiled as she heard the muffled comments and curses coming from Sam's bedroom at the top of the stairs. She silently sipped her coffee as she listened to Daniel on the other end of the phone.
"Daniel, Sam just woke up, and she's not going to be very happy with me when I tell her that I turned her alarm off. I'll have her call you back within the hour." Jackie heard Daniel chuckling as she hung up.
Moments later, Sam came tumbling down the stairs, trying to put her shoes on as she ran. As she entered the kitchen Jackie held out a mug of coffee. Sam eyed it as she balanced precariously on one foot, trying to tie her shoe.
"Would you mind putting that in my travel mug for me?" Sam asked, switching feet. "Landry is going to kill me for being late. I could have sworn I set my alarm last night."
"You did." Jackie responded, not having moved since Sam walked in. Sam looked up at her, her eyes flashing. "Landry said he didn't want to see even one of your blonde hairs before Wednesday morning." Jackie once again held out the cup of coffee. "Coffee?"
"So you just decided to turn off my alarm instead of telling me?" Sam's raised foot settled loudly on the tile floor.
"I was going to tell you, but when I went into your room and you were…" Jackie paused, not quite sure how to continue. "When you fell asleep I decided I'd just face your wrath this morning." Jackie held the coffee out further. As Sam took it, Jackie picked up the phone and also passed it to Sam. "Daniel called just as you were waking up. I promised him you'd call."
After talking to Daniel, Sam went out for a run. An hour later, she returned only to find Jackie's overnight bag sitting in the front hall and the younger woman rushing around the house.
"You're leaving?" A stunned Sam asked as Jackie ran down the stairs.
Jackie stopped mid-stride and looked at Sam. She debated whether or not to tell Sam what was going on. The look in Sam's eyes convinced her, besides she could use some backup on this one.
"Detective Roberts called while you were out." A brief flicker of hope flashed through Sam's eyes. Jackie knew she had made the right choice. "He was able to track down the bullet. It's a special order bullet that is only sold in one place in the world." Jackie paused again. Seeing the anticipation in Sam's eyes she continued, "Prague."
"When do we leave?"
"As soon as you're ready to go…I'm flying."
"Where exactly are we going?" Sam asked as she started the car.
"Cheyenne Mountain airstrip." Jackie responded nonchalantly.
Sam shot Jackie a funny look, but Jackie ignored it. Twenty minutes later they arrived at the airstrip. Jackie gave Sam directions until they were in a far corner of the airstrip near a clump of trees. Once the car had stopped Jackie grabbed her bag and climbed out. As Sam followed suit Jackie moved away from the strip towards the trees.
"Jackie?" Sam asked. Her confusion was obvious.
Jackie shot a grin over her shoulder at Sam as she pulled a remote out of her pocked. Pressing a button a smallish alien vessel materialized in front of them.
"Is that…?" Sam gasped. She followed Jackie to the back of the ship as the back hatch opened.
"Welcome to Air Puddle jumper." Jackie said, thoroughly enjoying Sam's surprise. "We will be flying non-stop from Colorado to Prague. No turbulence is expected today as the inertial dampeners are fully operational. Once you are on board please stow your carry on baggage in the overhead compartments and find your seat. All trays and seat backs must be in their upright position for take off and landing." Jackie finished with a huge grin on her face.
"You've spent way too much time hanging out with General O'Neill." Sam said, laughing for the first time in days. Suddenly Sam stopped. "Wait a minute. The only puddle jumper I know about on earth is at Area 51. How the hell did you get your hands on it?"
"Key phrase there Sam, 'that you know about'." Jackie smiled over her shoulder as she dumped her bag on the bench.
"Yeah, but I'm usually kept in the loop about all alien technology found, on or off world."
"Again, 'usually'." Jackie said moving to the front of the jumper. Turning around she had a serious look on her face. "I need you to trust me Sam."
"Right." Sam said, not fully sure that she did. As she dropped her bag in the back of the jumper a thought came to her. "How are you going to fly this thing Jackie? You need the Ancient gene in order to…" Sam was cut off by the sound of the jumper powering up. "Never mind." She said as she sat down.
"Ready?" Jackie asked. At the nod from Sam she lifted off, cloaking the jumper as she did.
The puddle jumper was somewhere over Chicago when Sam suddenly sat up and looked at her watch.
"Dammit!" She exclaimed.
Jackie looked over at her and raised one eyebrow. Sam couldn't help but think how much like Teal'c that action was.
"Everything okay?" Jackie asked.
"I invited Daniel and Teal'c over for dinner tonight. I completely forgot to call and cancel."
"No problem." Jackie smiled. Reaching over to the console she hit a few buttons and the sound of ringing filled the small ship.
"Hello?"
"Hey Daniel, it's Jackie."
"Hey Jackie, what's up?"
"I'm afraid I'm calling to reschedule our dinner tonight."
"Is everything alright?" Daniel couldn't hide his concern.
"Everything's fine. I thought it would be good for Sam to get away for a couple of days. I didn't know about the dinner until just now. Rain check?"
"Yeah." Daniel responded in disappointment. "Call when you get back."
"We will. Bye Daniel."
"Bye."
Jackie hit a button and the ship was once again quiet. Instinctively she knew that Sam was just dying to ask her a dozen questions. Glancing over at her Jackie confirmed what she suspected. Flashing a huge grin Jackie decided to open the floor.
"I admire your restraint Sam."
"What?"
"You're dying to ask me all kinds of questions. Ask away."
Sam studied Jackie's face for a moment, unsure if she was serious or just teasing. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her.
"Okay, first, how did you just call Daniel?" Sam caught the twinkle in Jackie's eyes at her question.
"Let's just say I customized this thing a little."
"A little? You just used the radio of an Ancient space pod to call Daniel on his cell phone."
"Actually, that was the easy part. Because cell phones are wireless, they act a lot like radios. I just had to add a small device so that I could dial specific numbers."
"Huh. When we get back you are going to have to show me exactly how you've customized this thing."
"Not a problem. Although I think some of the stuff you will recognize."
"There's still one thing I don't understand." Sam said, getting a raised eyebrow from Jackie she continued, "This is how you flew General O'Neill from D.C. to Colorado Springs, right?"
"Yeah." Jackie responded, not quite understanding where this was going.
"He knew about there being a second puddle jumper on earth and he didn't tell me about it?"
"In his defense, he only found out the day before we flew out." Jackie said smiling. "If he had told you about it, he would have ruined the surprise of his visit."
"But he could have told me after you arrived."
Jackie just smiled, but Sam noticed something else in her eyes, something that she couldn't quite explain.
"We have a long flight ahead of us Sam; you may want to get some sleep."