"Oh, look, there's Daniel and Teal'c."

Sam followed Janet's gaze, and spotted her former teammates sitting in the corner. Daniel seemed to be working on something as he ate, showing it to Teal'c for input periodically. Janet headed across the cafeteria towards them, and Sam picked up her tray and followed. As they approached, they heard the two speaking in Goa'uld.

"Language lessons?" Sam said.

"Oh, hey, Sam," Daniel said, pushing his glasses up. "Don't worry about interrupting us, right, Teal'c?" He glanced over at the alien and watched bemusedly as he shoveled food into his mouth, evidently taking advantage of the break.

Sam understood the feeling; while the quantity of food Teal'c ate per meal and the speed at which he consumed it had stopped shocking her some time ago (they ate together, if not regularly, at least frequently), it was still a sight to see. "Where's Jack?" she asked as she took her seat. Generally, he was the one who rounded them all up for meals, sometimes dragging her and Daniel from their labs protesting all the way.

"Still dealing with base physical exams. I think he's in a meeting with the other team leaders, by now." Daniel glanced at his watch.

"That team selection thing?"

"Think so."

"What team selection thing?" Janet asked, sitting down across from Daniel.

"Oh, General Hammond decided that he's not going to put anyone on a team that goes through the gate until that person's been approved by an SG team leader," Daniel said.

"Considering that an SG team is the most unusual post in the US Air Force, that kind of vetting is probably a good idea," Janet said.

"Absolutely." Sam cut her sandwich in half. "They're going to be starting regular training rotations for each team, with scenarios and drills drawn from some of the things we've actually encountered out there. Anyway, I think what they're doing today is figuring out the basic selection and evaluation criteria they're going to use, and making sure everybody's on the same page. Jack was grumbling quietly about it this morning."

"Jack? Quiet?" Daniel's forehead wrinkled.

Sam shrugged. "As quiet as Jack gets, anyway. After the week we've had, I don't think he wanted to complain much where I could hear. Not that I mind—having Jack grumble about the little things can be kind of fun to listen to. Normally, anyway."

Daniel snorted.

"How are things going with your Dad?" Janet asked.

Sam shrugged. "We didn't see him yesterday, so nothing's changed on that front. But other than that …" she took a bite. "We were all settled in for a quiet evening at home together when the doorbell rang. It was Jack's brother, showing up unannounced."

"Jack's got a brother?" Daniel asked.

"Two. And a sister, Peggy. Anyway, this was Michael, who's two years older than Jack. He'd left a couple of messages on our phone machine, which I had assumed Jack had answered, but he apparently hadn't, so we had no idea Michael was coming. He's in Colorado on a business trip, and stopped by to visit Sarah and guilt-trip Jack."

"Should not his first concern be for his own brother, and not his brother's former wife?" Teal'c asked.

"You'd think," Sam said. "But I got the feeling that if he could have kept Sarah in the family and gotten rid of Jack, Michael would have preferred it to what actually happened. Granted, Jack's relationship with me was fairly sudden, as was the pregnancy, and it hasn't been that long since the divorce. And Michael has reason to be upset that he heard the news from Sarah instead of from Jack (who still hasn't told the rest of his family)." She took stabbed her fork into her salad, wishing it were Michael's head.

"Maybe that was all it was," Daniel suggested.

"Not a chance," Sam replied. "He tried to warn me off Jack."

"You're kidding," Janet said.

"I wish I were. Michael made it sound like Jack was a mute, irresponsible jerk with the IQ of a very small animal, and asked me what I could possibly see in him. I gritted my teeth and smiled as nicely as I could and refuted all his points. He didn't stay long after that, though he gave us his cell number—says he'll be in the area for a few days, if we want to get together again." She shook her head. "I know we should try to be on at least civil terms with both our families. But right now, I'm about ready to scream!"

"Well, you could always lock Michael and your Dad in a small room and let them fight it out," Daniel said with a smile. "That'd take care of the problem."

"Tempting," Sam said, "but unfortunately, they wouldn't fight. They'd be in complete agreement that Jack's not good enough for me and I should leave him."

A week later, Sam was in her lab when Daniel came in. "Hey," she said absently. "How's Teal'c doing?" Although she'd been there as Janet experimented on Teal'c's symbiote, Sam had left after they'd put the symbiote back in and Teal'c had woken up. She knew he'd been disappointed at the failure of the attempt to remove his symbiote, but he didn't like sympathy and she wasn't sure how else to support him. Jack was best at dealing with the alien, anyway.

"Not well," Daniel said. "I think something's wrong with him. We were in a briefing, and he walked out. He wanted to go back to Chulak to retrieve another symbiote for them to study, and Hammond said no. Jack's going to go talk with him, see what's going on."

"I hope he's all right," Sam said, frowning. "That's not like him—usually he's so stoic, almost fatalistic. If something doesn't go his way, he either accepts it or fights it, but whatever he does he doesn't throw a fit and walk out. I guess the symbiote thing is bothering him more than he lets on."

"That, or else there's something else wrong," Daniel agreed. "Jack's talking with him now, to see if there's anything we can do. I'm not really sure where to even begin—as far as we know, nobody's had experience with aliens since the Stargate was buried."

"But you lived on Abydos for a year," Sam said.

"Yeah, but that was Abydos," Daniel said. "Their culture is a fairly standard middle-eastern nomadic type. I mean, the whole "false gods" thing is an interesting overlay, but the middle east is my specialty area. I had a good basis to start with. Jaffa culture—I haven't been able to come up with any parallel or similar cultures on Earth yet, nothing close enough for a real comparison. Teal'c is so contained; he doesn't give much away about what he's thinking, and doesn't talk much about his home, and that doesn't help. Anything I could come up with at this point would be pure guesswork. An educated guess, but that's it."

"I guess we'll just have to hope Jack can take care of things," Sam said.