Mango Sticky Rice

A thought occurred to Cam as he walked up the steps to the front door of Carolyn's house, and it was still on her mind when she answered the door. "You texted me your address," he blurted out in greeting, "but I didn't text you mine. Did you get my address from my file?"

Caught, but not at what he thought, she said no. "I got it from Teal'c. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize," he said as she sat on a stool by the door to tie her running shoes. "Teal'c, though, might have some explaining to do."

Carolyn heard the lightness in his voice and knew neither she nor Teal'c was actually in trouble. "Are you sure you want to run together?"

He waved his hand over his running clothes in answer. "Don't let me leave without giving you back your dress, though. It's in my car. Didn't want Teal'c dropping in and getting ideas about why you needed my address," he chuckled.

Laughing, she led the way out of the house and locked the door as he started down the steps. "It's a three-block walk to where the trail starts," she explained as she zipped her jacket up to her chin. It was only in the low 40s and the sun wasn't warming the air much. "I call it a warm-up and just walk."

"Sounds good," he said, falling into step beside her. "Is your mother still in town?"

"She left for San Francisco last night, meetings or something before he meets her there. And since she'd asked me all the Mother Questions the night before about the clothes mix-up, it was kind of peaceful last night."

It would've been felt too odd to say something about that specifically so he kept it related and not specific. "My mother has started the annual 'are you bringing someone for the holidays?' questions. I told her my team is on duty over Thanksgiving. She asked about Christmas."

"And are you taking someone home for Christmas?"

He looked at her in surprise, hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt to ward against the cold. "I'll probably trade holidays with Dixon so he can spend Christmas with his kids and I'll be 2IC. Or something. General Landry hasn't set his schedule yet."

Carolyn knew it was partly dependent on her mother. She also knew he was taking an extra day on his long weekend to fly to Washington and discuss his retirement with General O'Neill and the Air Force command but she'd been sworn to secrecy on that. "He doesn't tell me those things until he briefs command," she said, in a half-truth, "sorry."

Cam shook his head as they reached the end of the sidewalk and the start of the trail. "I wasn't fishing for inside information. I promise. Ready to run?"

She was, and they stretched one final time before they started on the trail that looped through the low hills below Cheyenne Mountain.

Back at her house an hour and a half later, she handed him a bottle of water from the refrigerator as they stood in the kitchen. "Thanks for running with me, Cam. I hate running with only my thoughts for company but headphones make me nervous."

They touched water bottles like they had beer bottles earlier in the week. "I agree, on both counts, so we can run together whenever. That's a good trail too."

"Are you hungry? I have sticky rice with mango or oatmeal packets."

"Sticky rice with mango sounds like a dessert," Cam commented, shrugging after he considered it, "so let's have that."

Carolyn laughed and got the rice and mango out of the fridge. "Technically, Vietnamese people can eat sticky rice at any time of day and mango does make it more dessert-like but… the stuff my mom made is only going to be good another day so…"

"Do you make Vietnamese things?" he asked as she started scooping rice into bowls. "And can I get out forks… or do you use chopsticks?"

"I do make Vietnamese food sometimes. And you can use either forks or chopsticks. They're both in that drawer," she said, pointing with the knife she was slicing mango with. "Get me whatever you get for yourself."

Cam grabbed two sets of chopsticks. "I did a three month training course in Okinawa," he explained, "and the instructor counted cultural sensitivity as part of the course. If I offend you, I'll switch to a fork."

"I spent all of my childhood in America and while my mom did teach me her culture, she immersed herself in America. I promise not to judge," she said, setting the bowls on a small table in the breakfast nook. And it turned out she had nothing to judge, because he didn't let a single grain of rice fall.

After they ate, Cam went to his car to get her dress and a change of clothes for himself, not wanting to walk into Stargate Command in sweats. Carolyn hadn't mentioned where the bathroom was so, since she wasn't in sight when he came back, he assumed she was using it. He'd seen her subtly examining his apartment so he took the chance to take stock of her space. There was a huge collage of postcards artfully crafted and hanging on one wall, and he assumed her mother sent one from wherever she was. There weren't many photographs on the mantle and bookshelf, though one of her Carolyn at maybe nine in a fancy dress with both parents featured prominently. There was a small piano in one corner, a basket full of blankets beside the sofa, and a stack of romance novels on the coffee table. He examined the shelf of DVDs below her television last, raising an eyebrow at box sets of all of the Star Trek series.

"The romance novels are my mom's," Carolyn said, catching him in the act, "but the Star Treks are mine. Now you know my guilty pleasure."

Cam grinned at her. "Nothing wrong with Star Trek, although it is a little… you know, given what we do."

"I'm aware," she said, blushing just a little. "When I was little, and confused as kids are, I kind of smushed NASA and the Air Force together and then when my dad would be home, he let me watch the show with him and I think I thought it was maybe what he did."

"That's a sweet story," he said softly. "What about the piano? Do you play?"

"I do. Not often, and I'm not playing for you, but yes. And in case the place looks bland, my mother actually bought it and I'm technically updating it while I live here so she can rent it or sell it or something."

"Technically?"

"Work keeps me busy," she shrugged, "you know."

Cam did indeed, thinking about the 1960 Indian Chief motorcycle languishing unrestored in his storage unit. "Anyway, there's your dress. Bathroom in there?"

She nodded and waved him permission. "You can shower if you want. I have gender neutral soap and shampoo, I think. Towels are on the rack."

He took advantage of the offer because he was about to take command of the base for four days, wouldn't be able to leave, and the showers in Cheyenne Mountain were better than what he'd had in Iraq but still not ideal. Clad in clean clothes and freshly showered, he dumped his running clothes into a gym bag and found Carolyn in the kitchen. "You don't come on duty until tomorrow afternoon, right?"

"Mm-hmm. Why?"

"I kind of need a favor."

Carolyn gave him a curious look. "Okay?"

"If I give you my apartment key, will you go get my library books and drop them off at the Cheyenne Mountain branch of the library so I don't have late fees?"

"Sure," she said, a little surprised by the request. She mostly passed by his apartment on her way to SGC and the library branch was only a little out of the way. "Are you sure you want to give me your key?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn't trust you, Dr. Lam?" he asked, his eyes dancing with laughter.

She admitted there wasn't, laughing with him, and accepted his key as she walked him to his car. "Are they still on the coffee table?"

"They are. And thanks. See you tomorrow, Carolyn."

The handover of command went as it usually did, and ended with the signing of the documents that meant if anything went wrong, it would be Cam's responsibility in it's entirety. "Shouldn't be too much trouble," General Landry said as he kept two copies, one for his own files and another for the base files, and gave one to Cam.

"Saying that might be tempting fate, sir, given how things go here," Cam said with a wry smile.

Landry laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Fair enough, Colonel. "Before I go, I wanted to talk to you about the future. I'd like what I say to you know to stay between us."

He tried to visibly wince. "Of course, sir."

"I'm taking a fairly out of the way detour to Washington to start laying the groundwork for my retirement. You know about the mandatory retirement at sixty-four unless the Pentagon gets Congressional approval. I plan to let General O'Neill know that I'm retiring. Sixty-four is old, as you'll find out one day, but my relationship with Carolyn is better than it's ever been and now that Kim and I have reconnected, I don't want to risk losing time with either of them because of this job. Do you know what I mean?"

Torn between hoping he wasn't going to be offered more responsibility on a permanent basis and wishing he wasn't hearing about General Landry's love life, he tried to be glad for Carolyn and her parents. "I think I do, sir. No one can begrudge you taking your leave now after the incredible service you've given the Air Force and the country."

"Thank you. That was a little bit of a textbook answer," he chuckled, "but I appreciate the sentiment because I understand the awkwardness. Anyway, this brings up two things I wanted to discuss briefly with you. The first, and I should say that Colonel Reynolds has been informed about my retirement so you two can talk about it between yourselves, is to ask if you have anyone I should consider recommending as my replacement to General O'Neill."

Cam thought about it for a half-second before he had his answer. "Colonel Carter. Colonel Reynolds, if you need a second."

Landry laughed and shook his head. "You two are like schoolboys, always pointing at each other to shift attention from yourselves. I ought to suggest Colonel Dixon and ignore you both."

"I'd be honored to serve under Colonel Dixon as well."

"I told O'Neill I was going to ask you, and that you and Reynolds would probably list each other in the top three. He said to leave you alone, you just like the jobs you're doing now. I think he's jealous you're being more successful at not getting promoted than he was."

Still balanced between the official meeting and the off-the-record meeting, Cam allowed himself a small smile. "And the other thing, sir?" he said, not wanting to get bogged down in that first one.

"The other thing is more personal, Colonel. I'm aware you've been spending time outside of Cheyenne Mountain with Carolyn. I'm not asking for details, I probably don't want details. What I want to say is that, as your commander, I don't care if there is something other than friendship happening between you. Neither of your careers in the Air Force are in jeopardy as far as I'm concerned. If anyone else raises a fuss in the Air Force, the IOA will overrule them, I think. As her father, I want her to be happy regardless of what that looks like. I'll go to hell and back to keep her happy and safe."

"I understand, sir," Cam said, finding no other words that seemed appropriate to say. "May I ask one question?"

Landry nodded.

"Does Carolyn know about your retirement?"

"Ah, yes. She does. And I can see she didn't tell you. You can talk to her about it."

"Thank you, sir." Cam stood up to leave, then remembered it was technically his office for the next few days and stood awkwardly waiting for inspiration to strike.

Landry grabbed his bomber jacked and shrugged into it, zipping it halfway up. "I didn't tell her I was going to talk to you about her, though. Do with that what you will. Godspeed, Colonel Mitchell, and I'll be back next week."

Cam saluted him as he left, then slumped against the wall.

"You've been in charge for what, five minutes, and you're already melting into the wall?"

He opened his eyes and scowled at Daniel. "I've been in charge for what, five minutes, and you've already forgotten how to knock?"

Daniel rapped his fist on the doorframe and smirked. "Better?"

"Sure," he said, pushing off the wall. "What do you want?"

"Bill Lee says he has something important that you and I need to see as soon as possible."

"I've only been in charge for what, five minutes, and Dr. Lee is already what… blowing up the place?" he muttered as he followed Daniel, telling the commander's aide where he was going.

Daniel shook his head as they reached the elevator. "No, he said something about robots."

"Oh god," he moaned.