A/N: Thank you all especially for the last chapter's reviews and warm wishes for my sick Stargate buddy. The big boy's doing much better and we managed to keep the little boys from getting sick, so all is well.

Ch 31

When they got to the VIP room, Danny let go of their hands and ran around, taking in the familiar surroundings. "Remember this place, little buddy?" Jack asked, sighing with relief when he was finally able to lose the diaper-bag appendage, dumping it in a chair.

"Uh-huh."

While most of Danny's things were now at Jack's, they had left enough things behind for his trips to the base that he had a few random toys - the ones he hadn't been as interested in - and books left. And the portable crib that he'd never actually slept in, which was still set up by the foot of the bed.

Sam set her laptop on the table while Danny started pulling things out of his voluminous diaper bag. First was Toppy, of course, followed by his dino blanket, which was quickly tossed over a shoulder as he dug further into the bag. He pulled out a sippy cup, a book, and a slightly crumpled picture torn out of his dinosaur coloring book - the one he'd made last night for Sam.

After plopping himself down on the floor to remove his shoes, he crawled back up to his feet and ran over to her, pressing the picture into her leg. "Sam I maked dis for you."

"You did?" She unfolded the picture and sat down on the couch to look at it, smiling as Danny scrambled up onto the couch with her. "Wow, thanks, Danny. This is great." She admired the picture he'd colored and said, "I'll have to put it in my lab."

"Oh, you so have to leave it there after he's big," Jack said, sitting down on the couch with them and stretching his arms with a huge yawn. "And where's my picture, by the way, huh?" He poked a finger into Danny's armpit, making him squeal and try to burrow under Sam's arm for protection.

"I make you one wight now!" Danny exclaimed, sliding off the couch and running back over to his bag again.

"I didn't mean right this second…" Jack started. "How about after your nap?"

"I not tiwed," Danny said dismissively, bringing his huge box of crayons and coloring book back over to them. Jack stretched his legs out to prop his feet up on the coffee table, blocking Danny's path. Danny grinned and crawled underneath his legs. Sam laughed as he popped back up to his feet between them, set his things down on the coffee table, and started leafing through the coloring book for the picture he wanted to color.

Sam leaned over and ran a hand through Danny's hair. "Aren't you sleepy?"

"No."

"He will be. We had a busy day," Jack said with an overly huge arm stretch and a yawn.

Sam looked at him sideways as he settled back into the couch comfortably. "I'm not sure General Hammond intended nap time to be a group thing, sir," she said mildly.

"I'm just giving him a good example to follow."

"Of course you are."

"I am. Watch. Grab those books." He nodded at the books Danny had stacked on the coffee table. Sam grabbed a few of them and handed them to him. "Thanks. Oh this is a good book!" he said enthusiastically as he opened one of them up and started pretending to read it silently.

Sam watched, amused. He laughed loudly, making Danny turn around and look at them. He took in the sight of Jack enjoying one of his books by himself for several seconds before turning back to his coloring. "It's working," Jack muttered.

"Mind if I read with you?" Sam asked, catching on.

"No, of course not, Sam." She scooted closer to him and craned her neck a bit awkwardly to see the book. Jack could easily see that that wasn't the most comfortable position for her. Danny turned to look at them again and Jack, remembering how much Danny liked to snuggle Sam when he was sleepy, decided to try and make him jealous enough to join the group. He wrapped his arm around her and slid her across the cushion until she was against his side.

She watched Danny watch them and guessed what he was up to, settling into his side comfortably. She was a little nervous because they were on the base, but they were supposed to be getting Danny to take a nap so they could both work… and this seemed like as good a tactic as any, and a lot more relaxing than just chasing him around until hopefully he ran out of energy before they did.Jack settled the book propped up on his legs, near his knees, and said, "Wow, look at that!"

"Unbelievable," Sam agreed.

Danny tossed his crayon down on his picture and said, "Wet me see."

Jack peered over the top of the book at him and said, "I thought you were busy."

"No I not."

"Nah, you just go on coloring by yourself. We'll just sit here and read."

"No, I wanna wead too. Pease, Dack?" He patted Jack's knee hopefully.

"Well, I don't know if we have room for you."

"Yeah huh, I'm wittle!" Danny tossed Toppy onto the couch next to Sam and tried to climb up into her lap. She laughed and helped him, pulling him up on top of them both. They shifted until they were all settled comfortably, Danny sideways in Sam's lap with Toppy under one arm. His legs and feet dangled over into Jack's lap. He cuddled into her with his cheek pressed into her chest, positioning himself carefully so that he was comfortable and could see the book as well.

Jack glanced at him once he had stopped squirming and had to conceal a smile as he remembered their conversation in the grocery store. Somehow he doubted Sam would be amused if he brought up the "Sam is soft" conversation now. "Everybody all set?" he asked. Danny nodded. "You sure? Danny? Toppy, you good? Sam? Do we need to try to track down Mr. Buns?"

She turned faintly pink and tried to elbow him, but it wasn't very effective since her arm was already trapped against his side.

"Wead," Danny instructed.

"All right, all right. I guess you want us to start all over now that you're here too, don't you?"

"Yes pease."

Jack flipped back to the beginning of the book and began reading. Sam started stroking Danny's hair, which sped up his falling-asleep process considerably. She knew it was working when he started sucking his thumb. It took another two books for him to fall asleep completely, but he finally did.

"Now what?" Sam whispered when Jack set the book aside. They were both pretty much trapped underneath the sleeping little boy.

"Let's wait a few minutes until he's deeper asleep, then we can try to move him."

Sam nodded without lifting her head from where it had drifted to his shoulder and stifled a yawn. She was finding it hard to stay awake herself.

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Several minutes later, Jack thought he was the only one still awake. He was taking his time convincing himself to get up, move Danny, and go get some of his work done - which was, of course, supposed to be the reason he had brought Danny up to the base in the first place.

He heard the door open and turned to look over the back of the couch, surprised when Sam lifted her head and did the same - apparently she hadn't been completely asleep after all. Hammond, Jacob Carter, and Teal'c all filed into the room.

"Enter the three bald men," Jack said under his breath. Since Sam was right there, she heard him, and stifled a laugh as she tried to sit up without waking Danny. "Here, I'll get him." Jack slid a hand under Danny's knees, lifting his legs up off of his lap, got to his feet, and carefully transferred Danny to his own arms with Sam's help.

All the adults were silent during the transfer, worried about waking Danny, as Jack took him over to the crib and Sam followed with the stuffy, stopping to grab the blanket on the way as well. Jack set him down carefully and felt very proud of himself when Danny curled on his side and kept right on sleeping.

Sam covered him with the blanket and put Toppy next to him, and they joined the clump of men - bald men - by the open doorway. The first thing Sam noticed was that her dad was back in a bad mood.

"I thought he might be sleeping so I didn't want to call," Hammond explained. "Colonel, I believe you have work to do."

"Yes, sir," he said quickly, glad to get away from the look Jacob was giving him. It finally occurred to Jack that maybe Jacob didn't like finding him sitting so comfortably on a couch with his daughter.

Just as Jack started to wonder if that was somehow connected to Jacob's overall bad temper, Sam said, "Sir, I've brought my laptop with me so I can keep working while Danny sleeps. We obviously can't leave him in here alone, even if he is sleeping."

"Very good, Major," Hammond said.

Jacob disagreed. "Why can't Jack stay with Daniel so Sam can go back to her lab?"

Knowing Sam didn't want to go back to her lab for the time being, Jack said, "Sorry, Carter. I need the computer in my office. Unless, of course, you'd like to give me an extension on those reports, General?" he tried, turning to Hammond.

"Another extension, you mean? I don't think so, Jack. Go." He nodded, said goodbye to everyone, and left.

"I didn't even know he had an office," Jacob said to no one in particular.

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Once she was alone with Danny sleeping away in his crib, Sam got back to work with a renewed energy. She was relieved that they were finally making progress - although her own contributions so far hadn't been up to her usual standards. Despite how much she loved Danny, she was still eager to get their Daniel back, as fast as possible. And, yes, she wanted to do as much to help as she could.

She frowned as she stared at her computer screen and realized that she needed some of Daniel's books for this particular section. She glanced over at the crib thoughtfully for a moment and smiled as the solution occurred to her.

Packing up all of her stuff, she shouldered her bag and went over to the crib. She unlocked the brakes and tried rolling the crib experimentally. Danny didn't wake up. "Yes," she said quietly as she realized her plan would work, if she was careful.

She received many strange looks as she passed through the corridors until she reached Daniel's lab, but for the most part she ignored them. These people should really have been used to seeing unusual sights by this point, yet they seemed more surprised and amused at the sight of her pushing a crib through the hallways - particularly at the struggle to get it on and off the elevator - than they did when aliens dropped by.

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