Chapter 3: Now Again
"… And I never brought the beer again," Daniel said in satisfaction.
"I'm sorry, Daniel, but that's not the interesting part of the story," Vala said, grinning ear to ear. "I can't believe you said that, General!"
"I had kind of forgotten that part," Jack admitted. "Thanks so much for reminding me," he said sarcastically, smacking Daniel in the arm.
"Hey," Sam objected.
"I didn't mean I don't!" he said quickly. "I just meant, I didn't…. okay, maybe I did, who knows, but I definitely didn't mean to say it…" he was between a rock and a hard place. The rock being Daniel, he supposed.
"That's fairly obvious, since it took the two of you almost a decade after that to get together," Cassie snorted.
"So, Jack," Daniel continued ribbing his friend. "Would you say you were more embarrassed blurting out 'I love you' to Sam at that barbecue, or telling her you adored her when you first met her, in front of Hammond and everyone?"
Vala grinned. Cameron choked on his beer. Even Cassie looked surprised.
"He was being sarcastic, Daniel," Sam defended. "God, I was impossible that day." she had her own embarrassment about how she'd acted that day and didn't want Daniel bringing it up if at all possible.
"Actually, I wasn't," Jack said with a shrug.
Sam looked at him in surprise but decided now wasn't the time to go into more detail about that… not in front of everyone, at any rate. "Anyway, Daniel, you were on Abydos, how do you even know about that?" Sam demanded.
"Kawalsky told me when you guys came to Chulak," Daniel said smugly.
"Traitor," Jack muttered, finishing his beer before declaring, "Okay, well, story time is over."
"Now can we play the game you were talking about, Daniel? With the wiskets and the ballots?" Vala asked.
"Wickets and mallets," Cassie corrected, as she turned to Jack. "We were talking about playing croquet. I'll go dig up the old set," she offered.
"I'll help," Cameron offered, going after her.
"Croquet?" Jack asked. "Is that wise?" he was picturing Teal'c sending one of those heavy balls flying straight through the windshield of his car, and Vala taking a croquet mallet to Daniel's head when he insisted she play by the rules…
"It'll be fun," Daniel said.
"If you say so," Jack shrugged. "It's getting dark though so I don't know how you're going to see. You better hurry. I'll go help Cassie, she'll never find that thing alone."
"I'll go too, I think it might be behind some of my stuff that's sitting in the garage," Sam remembered.
The two of them headed out to the garage, Sam rubbing her arms for warmth absently as they hit the cooler night air outside.
"I had forgotten about that thing at the first barbecue too until Daniel brought it up," she commented, grinning. "But as soon as he said it I knew exactly what he was talking about."
"I didn't mean it like that," Jack said. "If I had I wouldn't have said it, as the next several years proved… oh hell, I guess I did mean it, but I didn't really know I meant it. Or how much more I would mean it. You know?" he figured he wasn't saying this quite right, and hoped she was filling in the blanks on her end, like she usually did.
"I know," she said, stopping outside the door to the garage and turning to face him. "I guess… it's easy to forget… it really has been so long. But even back then, I…" she trailed off, suddenly looking thoughtfully into the distance.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Ask me again."
"What?" he repeated.
"Not that. I mean, ask me again. Tonight, after everyone leaves."
It took him a minute to realize what she was talking about. Then he grinned. "Really?"
"Yeah."
He pulled her to him and kissed her soundly. "Would it be rude to kick them all out right now?"
"Yes," she laughed.
"Damn. Okay, let's get this stupid croquet thing over with and send them all off," he declared, yanking open the garage door.
He and Sam hurried inside and stopped dead in their tracks upon the sight that greeted them.
Cassandra Fraiser and Cameron Mitchell were making out on the hood of Sam's old Volvo.
And Jack O'Neill was certain he was having a stroke.
The wind blew the door behind Jack and Sam shut, making Cassie and Cameron jump apart and turn toward them guiltily.
"Um, surprise?" Cassie offered when nobody had spoken for what seemed like forever.
Jack's mind was racing, although he supposed he still looked like he was struck by a sudden coma from the outside.
"You… Cassandra Fraiser! This is your… how the hell…" Sam started. Apparently her brain, for once, wasn't working much faster than Jack's.
"Mitchell," Jack finally ground out. The younger man looked at him nervously, wiping his hands on his pants over and over for some reason. "Run," Jack advised, making a dive at him.
Cassie jumped between them and Sam had the presence of mind to grab his arm before he could actually hit him.
"I'm sorry, General, I didn't want you to find out this way. I didn't even want to tell you guys yet but Cassie insisted…"
"SO not helping!" Cassie cut in.
"Get inside, now," Sam said sharply to them. "Both of you."
They shuffled past gratefully.
"Tell me you didn't know about this," Jack said once they were alone.
"Of course not. I'm just as surprised as you are."
"He's got to be at least ten years older than her."
"Careful there, I wouldn't go playing that card," she pointed out.
"Why?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Oh. Well that's different," he insisted grumpily.
"This is… not at all what I expected," Sam was saying thoughtfully. "Although… it kind of makes sense in a weird way… maybe."
"No it doesn't," Jack insisted.
"Well, okay, maybe it doesn't. but we need to calm down and at least go hear them out."
"Do we have to? Can we not just go to Area 51, get in the time machine, and erase the last five minutes of our lives?"
She laughed. "I'm afraid not."
"Damn. Okay, fine, we'll do it your way."
They headed for the door again. "Well, you do have to hand it to them," Sam remarked.
"About what?"
"I think they just gave us the mother of all barbecue surprises."
"I'm getting too old for this," Jack groaned dramatically.
"You say that after every barbecue," Sam reminded.
"Well, I mean it this time," he insisted. "I swear to God, if we go in there and Vala declares she's pregnant with Daniel's half-alien baby, or Teal'c says he's running off to join the circus, I'm chucking it all in and retiring for good to a nice uninhabited planet somewhere."
"Am I invited?"
"Of course," he said, wrapping an arm around her. Then, knowing full well it was going to earn him an elbow to the ribs, he added, "I have to have someone to chill the beer, after all."
The end.
Author's Note: I know the Cassie/Cameron thing may seem weird to some people. I just wanted to get another "surprise" in there and this was an idea I had toyed with in another unfinished story I have. I went into it more in that one but here it just seemed like a funny way to end this one. Thank you all very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.