AN: Sorry I haven't been posting daily. It's all there... I just haven't felt motivated to be on the computer the last few days and keep forgetting.

Scarred Ones' Mountain

Three weeks later the land was signed for and they were camping out while they decided where they would put a cabin, two if they could get them both built before winter. Sam and Daniel weren't much help to Jack and Teal'c who had both dug their share of foundations for houses. Currently they were arguing about the merits of digging a basement.

"Jack, Daniel and I will go examine the perimeter of the land." Sam said as she threw her leg over her placid gelding. Jack had the only mare who had decided she was in charge of the other horses and was a biter.

Jack jogged over to Sam and put his hand over hers as she took the reins and looked up at her. "Carter… Sam… Keep your eyes peeled all right? There's natives out there and who knows what else."

"I've got my shotgun and Daniel has his side arm." She reminded him.

"Do you want mine too?" He asked, his eyes concerned.

"What's gotten into you?"

"I don't know… Probably ol' granddad filling my head with crazy ideas again." He shrugged. "Ignore me. I'm being paranoid."

"I'll keep an eye on Daniel for you."

"Yah because Danny is the one I worry about." He quipped.

Sam giggled. "Actually Jack… he is the one you worry about. We'll be safe. Okay?"

"Okay." He grudgingly agreed and backed away.

As Daniel and Sam rode off, Teal'c admonished him. "Samantha is able to care for herself, O'Neill."

"I know that." Jack said querulously.

"Then why do you fuss at her?"

"Habit." He growled. "All right if we get some of those rocks lying around building a cellar shouldn't be too hard. Those pine trees back towards the ridge ought to be sturdy enough for support beams don'cha think?"

"Indeed they should." Teal'c agreed.

"Jack is starting to act unusually Jackish." Daniel pointed out to Sam.

Sam shrugged as she looked around. "He thinks it's his Great Grandfather filling his head full of crazy ideas again."

Daniel chuckled. "I think I understand why he always rolls his eyes at science fiction movies. He was raised with one of its founding members."

Sam giggled. "I suppose it could be a reason. Ernest spins some pretty wild stories and sometimes I think looking around Yonish's lab that they have quite a bit of truth to them. It certainly explains Jack's reports."

Daniel laughed. "I always wondered why he was always so far behind in his work. That one General we had... What was his name? Bauer? Told Jack his reports needed bullet points."

"Writer's block?" Sam said incredulously.

"Why not? Jack is more like Ernest than I think either of them would like to admit."

"Ernest smiles more." Sam said sadly, both of them knowing why Jack's smiles, while genuine, were rare.

"Jack's smiles are more genuine." Daniel countered.

Sam gave him an almost shy smile. Jack smiled most often at her… and when he did his eyes lit up the moment before. Of course he also smiled when he was being sarcastic but then his eyes twinkle with mirth.

They reached the wooded ridge Jack and Teal'c had discussed after Daniel and Sam left and looked out over the valley below them.

"It's beautiful." She said of the blooming mesquite bushes. Huge tree sized shrubs bloomed bright yellow in the morning light.

"They shouldn't even be here you know. This area must be just hot and arid enough that they thrive. In a hundred years that valley will be full of houses and all those trees will be long gone."

"That's really sad you know."

"Yah."

"Let's go check that low area where the ridge switches back then head back." She suggests. She clicks at her docile gelding and he walks placidly forward. They reach the low point where the ridge has turned into a gully and Sam turns at a soft 'twang'. Daniel's hat flies off, an arrow neatly through it. He rubs his head where a stream of blood pours from a shallow nick in his scalp.

Sam brings her rifle to bear on the leader but they find themselves swiftly surrounded.

"What should we do with them?" A brave asks the obvious leader in Arapaho.

"They do not look like buffalo hunters but they may yet be the white hood butchers." The leader replies in his native tongue.

"Uh... hi. I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Samantha Carter… we just bought this land. We mean you no harm." He said tentatively.

"Are they siblings? The woman would bring a good price." Another brave suggests, still speaking Arapaho.

"You will be silent." The leader orders Daniel in English..

"You speak English?" Daniel says surprised.

"You speak English." The leader repeated back to him in a mocking tone. "Why are you here?"

"Er… well I just explained we bought the land and-"

"No! Why are you here?"

"Daniel, I think he's asking why we bought the land." Sam supplied.

"The woman speaks correctly. We do not tolerate buffalo hunters near our land. We do not allow the hooded butchers either."

"Um… hooded butchers… as in?"

"They drag out people of your friend's kind onto our land and hang them from trees or burn them alive."

"The KKK?! No… no, we just want to farm. Yonish and Ernest said you guys were friends." Daniel objects as he swipes away at blood running down the side of his face.

"You speak of White Eyes. You are his friends?"

"Uh, if you mean Ernest Pratt. Yes, he's my friend's er… relative. We bought this land to be near him."

"Well. That changes everything. I am Lone Eagle, chief of my tribe. You say your friend is White eyes' relative?"

"Ah, yes, actually they bear an uncanny resemblance. Um… I'd say Jack is a bit less diplomatic." Daniel tells him.

Sam giggles. That was putting it mildly.

"I still say we sell the woman." The first brave says and gives Sam the side eye.

"Enough." Lone Eagle warns him. "Friends of the Legend are friends of ours or have you forgotten what he has done for us?"

The brave who had made the remarks had the dignity to look ashamed.

"We would like to meet this relative of White Eyes." he told Daniel and motioned for one of the braves to return Daniel's hat.

Daniel sighed and carefully tugged the arrow out. "This is going to cost a fortune to fix."

"Why are you complaining, Daniel? You got it for free." Sam admonished him and chucked her horse forward, leading the natives back to where Jack and Teal'c were discussing the location of a house.

Daniel sighed.

"You did not answer my question about what you will do with this land." Lone Eagle said.

"Oh, we plan to farm it. Jack and I are pretty good with plants but we'll have some sheep too for the rockier areas that are too much trouble to farm." Sam told them.

"You should get some goats. Their milk makes good soap you can sell quickly." Lone Eagle tells her.

Sam smiled brightly at him. "That's a good idea. I'll suggest it."

"How long have the KKK been invading your land to kill people, Lone Eagle?" Daniel asks.

"It has been many seasons. We run them off but my braves cannot be everywhere and they take advantage of hunting season." Lone Eagle told him. "White Eyes has tried to get rid of them but they only come back in larger numbers each time. They are not afraid of the Legend of Sheridan."

"Well, I suppose that makes some sense if he's against killing them." Daniel observed.

"White Eyes does not need to kill people to solve problems." Lone Eagle admonished him. "He would rather die himself than kill another."

"I think I'm starting to see why Jack and Ernest might have some issues." Daniel said thoughtfully but not unironically.

They had reached the open plateau where Jack and Teal'c were planning out the homestead. Teal'c saw them first. "O'Neill." He warned.

Jack turned and almost went for his rifle when he noted Sam's posture was relaxed and she was smiling in amusement at the comment a native made in spite of the blood trickling from Daniel's head.

"If White Eyes were ten years older, he would look like this man." He observed to Sam.

"Yah, they look an awful lot alike. Lone Eagle, this is Jack O'Neill and our friend, Teal'c." Sam told him.

One of the braves took a close look at Teal'c. "This one I know. He climbed out of Horned Serpent Mountain with the others." He tells Lone Eagle.

"Hiintcabiit?" Daniel asks. "The serpent mountain? Yes, we came from there… we ah… got lost."

"There is no way through the top of the serpent mountain except through the spirit world." Lone Eagle told him.

"Well, that's not too far off actually. We ended up here by accident you see."

"Daniel." Jack warned him. "Ixnay on the splanationexay...ay." He told him, frowning.

"But Jack, if anyone will understand and accept our problem it's the natives. They of all cultures have been the most comfortable with the concept of sky people."

"I don't care, Daniel. It's bad enough Ernest and Yonish know." Jack growls.

Lone Eagle laughed. "I do not think you are sky people. Thunder Hands knows much magic but he is not of the Sky People either. The Sky People are small and wear no clothing."

Sam and Daniel and Jack look at each other. "Loki." Jack mutters.

"Or possibly Heimdal or Thor Jack. We know they were visiting Earth in this time period."

"Think we could bum a ride home?" Jack suggested.

"It is indeed a possibility, O'Neill. Were the Asgard to simply place us in stasis until our own time that would indeed resolve our issue."

"That's a really bad idea, guys." Sam tells them.

"Why Carter?"

"Well s… um, Jack, the Asgard can't tell the future. There's no way of knowing if the ship we are placed on will survive any subsequent battle and leaving us here might led to us being dug up and found too early."

"Nuts." Jack grumbled.

"It was a really good idea in theory though." she said and flashed him a smile.

"It was?" Jack sounded surprised and Sam chuckled and shook her head in amusement.

"It was." She assures him with a beaming smile.

Daniel rolled his eyes. If they were any cuter, he'd vomit.

"Well, campers, it's a bit late. How about we get dinner going?" Jack finally says after he and Sam share a long look.

"Indeed."

"If you accept, we will join you for your meal. We have provisions to share as well." Lone Eagle offered.

Jack grinned at the man. "Thank you." He said with a nod.

"They could easily be brothers." Lone Eagle remarks.

"Uncanny, isn't it." Daniel said as he dismounted and grabbed a pack off one of the horses.

Sam got off her horse as well and started expertly assembling a fire.

"I bought a flint box in town yesterday." Jack remarks, knowing they couldn't keep using his AF issue lighter.

Daniel started setting up the camp kitchen.

After they ate everyone including Lone Eagle's men sat around contentedly.

"Wish I had my guitar." Jack grumbled. Sam tucked comfortably next to him.

"I have my uncle's if you would like to trade for it Jack." Lone Eagle told him.

"What would you want for it?"

"What is it that you do?"

"Make furniture mostly. Town isn't big enough to need a deputy."

"My wife needs a side table. Think you could do that?"

"Sure."

"Make me a side table for next to her rocking chair, oh, about ten by twelve inches and the guitar is yours." Lone Eagle told Jack.

"Sweet. Thanks. I'll have to put a little extra time in at the shop at night. Sam?"

"No, that's fine. It's worth it to listen to you play again."

"Again?" Daniel asks.

Sam gives Jack an amused look. Sitting on his observation deck looking at stars while he strummed out old love ballads and sometimes sang in his slightly high tenor. Once in a while she'd join him in her sweet contralto.

Jack just shrugs. "We don't invite you to those kinds of parties, Danny."

Lone Eagle laughed. "You are very funny, Jack. It runs in the family."

"Yah… Ernie is a hoot." Jack agreed dryly.

Sam giggled. "Be nice, Jack. Ernie is charming. You just don't see it because you're too much alike."

Jack made a rude noise with his lips.

Lone Eagle laughed even harder.