4

He heard the women pull up not long after the visitors left, and he rushed to help them unload the food.

"We had a couple of your team drop by" he told Sam

"Daniel and Teal'c?" she said

"No Daniel and Murrey" he told her, for some reason she blushed and nodded at him "What sort of a name is Teal'c?"

"Erm from Africa" she said quickly, a terrible liar! They were in the living room and Mark saw a photo on the mantle, he wandered over to it, it was a picture of Sam, her CO and the two men he had just met, and all of them were heavily armed, except the large black man, who had a pistol and knife, but a huge stick, where everyone else had an assault weapon… or that's what he thought they were called, they were black and mean and deadly looking. The plaque on the bottom said SG1, he picked it up,

"Your team?" he asked

"Yeah" she turned to the kitchen as if to escape his questions

"Why is Daniel decked out like a solider… and why are you?"

"I AM a solider Mark, just because I am a scientist doesn't mean I can't fight!"

"I never said you didn't" he stated "But you have been assigned here for eight years and this picture is less than 2 years old, I recognise the hair cut, and Daniel, the archaeologist who you said was a private joke? He seemed serious enough when we were talking"

"Mark, please, leave it alone, you KNOW I can't tell you" and there it was, the reason why he hated the air force and everything to do with it, secrecy!

Sam stayed in the kitchen packing away the food for a while, avoiding him he thought, but he had plenty of time, they were going to be together most of the week, rather than upset her now he decided to wait until after his fathers funeral, she had enough on her mind with organising that without him causing problems.

The phone rang and Sam looked through the hole in the wall between the two rooms "Let the machine get it" she said, and he sat, uncomfortably waiting for the recording to start, knowing he would be able to hear his hosts private messages.

"O'Neill, go" not the most eloquent of messages but it suited the military man that Jack was supposed to be.

"Jack?" a young girls voice came over the loud speaker "Is Sam off world? She isn't answering….

His sister came flying through the door and grabbed the phone from its cradle "Cassie! Sorry honey, I forgot to ring you and tell you."

Mark once more wandered up and down the room, pretending to look out at the kids who were running around as if grass had just been invented for them to fall on. Off WORLD?

He heard Sam tell the young woman the news of their father and tell her to 'contact Jack' and that she could stay at her place as Jack was hosting her brothers family.

"Your sofa bed is still made up, I was expecting to use it," she told her… they spoke for another 5 minutes and then with another reminder to 'call Jack' Sam hung up.

"Cassie?" he had heard the name, evidently she was someone who stayed at Sams on occasion, Pete had mentioned that she had moved out to somewhere else whenever he stayed over, but Mark had never got the full story of who she was, or why she slept at Sams.

"My best friends daughter" Sam said "When Janet died…" she closed her eyes the pain still fresh, so it was not that long ago "I… we… Cassie came to live with me until she started college this semester" he nodded, it was a brave person who took on a teenager who had lost her mother, his respect for his sister grew.

"Pete mentioned her a couple of times" he said, hoping the mention of Pete wouldn't cause an argument

"They didn't get on very well" she explained "she used to sleep here when Pete was staying"

"Jack runs a hotel? Or does he just like sleeping on base?" he asked

"No, Jack, Daniel and Te…Murrey are her uncles, we all look after her together, it was just that as I'm the closest thing to a mother she has left, I decided to have her most of the time" he seemed to ignore her slip, why was she having a problem with the mans name though, it was Teal'c Murrey wasn't it? Did it really matter if she called him by his first name instead of his last?

"Off WORLD?" he saw her eyes move rapidly from side to side as she tried to think something up… he actually saw the split second when she found it

"She means I am inside the mountain, it's like another…" he gave her the same look he had when she had tried to tell him it wasn't she who had dismantled his motorbike, and her voice died off "look Mark…"

"It's classified?" he said, she nodded. "Just tell me it's none of my business, don't try making up stories Sam, you suck at it"

The kids barrelled into the house at that moment, breaking the tension that had started to build up between the elder siblings, and Julie came forward from the kitchen too, and they all sat down in the living room while Alison told them of all the animals they thought they had spotted in the trees, the squirrel and the birds Mark believed, the bear and tiger he doubted!

John was as usual very quiet, he had at last stopped sucking his thumb but getting him to talk was like pulling teeth, though he would giggle and react like any other 9 year old sometimes, mostly he just watched, and trying to include him in a conversation was frustrating.

Sam's cell went off and she stood and walked to the passageway "Carter" she said, why she answered the phone like that he had no idea, maybe it was a military thing "Yessir, she just called here… yessir, oh thank you! … what time will… you sure? OK I'll see you tomorrow sir, and once again… thank you, yessir… still… thanks" her voice during the conversation had gone from totally normal, through surprise to almost full of tears at the end, Mark had to wonder, what was it that made these people so close, he had worked in the same office with the same people for over 20 years and he didn't even know half of their partners names! Never mind swap houses!

She stood with her back to them for a minute before he saw her breathe in deeply and turn, a smile on her face. "So, Cassie is going to sleep on base, you won't meet her until tomorrow, what say I take us all out for dinner?" Alison jumped up and down with excitement and Mark couldn't do anything but agree to her suggestion after she had made it in front of the kids.

They all had showers and changed, and Sam left to do the same, stating she would be back in an hour, when she got back they realised they had a problem. They couldn't lock the back doors! It seemed Sam had a key to the front door (which again made him wonder) but Jack had forgotten to leave the rest of the keys to secure the building, she got her phone out of her pocket again.

"Walter, where's General O… he is? Again? Oh!" the look on her face was total shock "Erm yes…no… can you put me through to Daniels lab…" there was a slight pause but the shocked look didn't fade "Daniel, where does Jack keep his spare keys for the back door… yeah he's on with the president and I don't want to disturb him to ask, but we can't go for dinner until we can lock up… don't suppose YOU have a backdoor key? No I have a front one too, how about, erm, Murrey? Damn I made sure I gave you all different keys to my place, how come we all have front door keys to his? … yeah go break into his locker and bring them" she laughed "no really, go see if you can get them from him, we will wait here… I was thinking O'Malleys… Oh yeah! SURE! More the merrier… Ok half an hour… bye"

"So…?" Mark prompted her

"The president is coming to the funeral" she said