Title: Camping Can Be Fun

Author: spacegypsy1

Rating: Teen +
Category: Action/Adventure/Romance
Season: After Season 10
Featured Character(s): Jack, Sam, Daniel, Vala, Teal'c, Mitchell
Pairings: J/S and D/V

Warnings: Maybe – later, this is going to get very slightly risqué.

A/N: From Marishal's story idea! Thanks Mari. And thanks to the reviewers who feed the monsters in my head.

Synopsis: Camping begins. Jack teaches Vala to fish, Daniel get's KP duty, Campfire confessions. Jack and Sam are still getting close. Teal'c continues to speak and Mitchell tells a scary story.

Chapter Two: Campers

The campsite, on land owned by some friend of Jack's, sat in a valley, surrounded by the snow capped Rocky Mountains. It bordered a meandering stream. The clearing, half-circled by evergreens, grew wild flowers in abundance.

Jack stopped the SUV a good ways from the actual campsite, where a picnic table and a stoned circled campfire pit sat in the middle of the clearing. They all piled out of the vehicle to stare in wonder at the beautiful landscape.

"Okay, campers, let's unload."

"Why'd we park so far?" Mitchell asked.

"It's the rules. No motorized vehicles are allowed beyond the tree line." Jack began to untie the ropes to the car top.

"Good plan." Mitchell went to the other side to help with the ropes.

Teal'c wandered off, appearing to recon the area. Ever the vigilant Jaffa.

"Where's the lady's room?" Vala whispered to Sam as the two carried some of the camping equipment to the picnic table.

Sam pursed her lips, "Ah, pick your spot," setting down the box of cook wear Sam gestured to the woods.

Vala's eyes widened. "Oh, I see. Why didn't we go to that cabin? You know, the one with the facilities and the electricity?"

"That's not camping according to Jack."

Like worker bees they all moved back and forth from the vehicle to the campsite unloading supplies.

Every time Daniel passed Vala he would try to speak to her, but she refused to even look his way.

He finally gave up trying. If she wasn't speaking to him, this might turn out to be the best camping trip he's been on in a long while. The thought encouraged him and he smiled. When they got back to the SGC he'd figure out a way to make it up to her.

It took all four of them to set up the three tents. They stood back and admired their handiwork.

"Vala and Sam," Jack pointed to the tent in the middle.

"Me and Daniel," he pointed to the tent on the left.

"Mitchell, Teal'c." He indicated the tent on the right. "Yep, that's it. Dark thirty is comin' in fast. Sam, you, T, and Mitchell gather some firewood for a honkin' big fire. Me and Vala will fish for our dinner."

Vala rubbed her palms together in cheerful anticipation.

"Hey, what about me?" Daniel asked.

"You're the kitchen wench. Get everything set up, make the coffee, chill the beer and make sure the fire is ready for fryin' the fish."

"How'd I get KP duty first?" Daniel placed his hands on his hips.

Walking away, fishing equipment in hand, and Vala trailing along, happily toting other fishing paraphernalia, Jack shouted back, "'cause you were a naughty boy in the car!"

The hands went in the pockets, the head dropped. Daniel stood unhappily alone in the clearing.

Settling on the bank, Jack started checking the reels on both fishing rods, rummaging through the assortment of hooks and choosing the correct ones. Vala, swatting at imagined insects, watched him work.

"What's that?" Vala pointed to the bait Jack attached to the line.

"It's a trout fly."

"It's quite pretty. I think I like that one. What's it called."

Jack rolled his eyes. "BH Caddis Pupa; you're not going to go all girly on me are you?"

"What do you mean?" Vala squatted by the fishing tackle box and poked around studying various flies.

"You know, 'yew, slimy fish, oh, poor little fishie,' and other fishing atrocities that make women squeamish." Finishing the tie, Jack tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned, he handed over the rod.

"You know my history," Standing, Vala began to test its weight, flicking the rod back and forth. "I don't believe there is anything left in the universe that could possibly make me squeamish…. General." She said it as though she was skeptical of his ability to hold that position.

Vala took a seat on the canvas stool beside Jack. He was looking at her oddly. "What?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing, I think you're gonna do just fine." Laughing, he tossed the line out. "Casting, 101." He began the lesson.

"She copied his cast, landing the fly to the right and just beyond his."

"Very good," He turned his face to her, beaming.

She smiled proudly.

--

Belly's full of fresh caught trout, the group sat in a circle around the fire. Beers were passed around.

Mitchell held a beer in one hand and a stick with the Smores in the other. He waggled the stick over the fire, "My granmaw used to say,"

Everyone groaned.

"What? You don't like my granmaw?"

"We love her, go one." Sam jabbed Jack in the ribs anticipating his response.

"Cut it out!" Jack bellowed.

"There's a 'No Tell – Motel down the road if you two want to get a room." Mitchell sucked down half the beer, tossed the can in the general direction of their garbage can, then burned his fingers pulling the Smores off the stick. "Yikes, hot! Anyway," he continued, wolfing down the marshmallow, chocolate delicacy, and pulling another beer from the cooler. "My granmaw used to say that you can tell your future spouse by staring at the fire. She says that you can see either the face of the person, or their name, or initials in the flickering flame."

"Did you just throw a beer can on the ground?"

"Jackson, it's a common camping practice, tomorrow we pick them up and when we leave we take them out with us."

"Oh."

"Kelno'reem." Teal'c stated.

In turn, each of them looked at the Jaffa. In the firelight, his face glowed golden; the emblem on his forehead appeared to shimmer.

"Go on." Jack prompted.

"It is a Jaffa's grandfather who would teach their young to stare into the flames and begin the practice of Kelno'reem. Instead of seeing something in the flame, you become the flame."

Vala leaned over to whisper in Daniel's ear. "See I told you he was talking a lot. I don't like the flames. I've been in them." She shivered.

Daniel resisted the urge to run a hand down her loose hair. He smiled kindly, but didn't know what to say. But she was talking to him again and that made him happy.

Silence stretched for a long while. Beers were replaced and more Smores were cooked in the quiet solitude. In the bowl of the mountains, you could look up and see a million stars. Many of which they had all visited.

"When I was a child," Daniel began, "I spent most of my life around camp fires on digs with my parents. I never knew them as anything but … what you all might have experienced around a dinner table with your family."

"Ha, not at my house, more like the …I'm sorry Daniel go on." Vala sat back to listen.

He felt a tug at his heartstrings and tried his best to ignore it. "We slept in tents and yurts and cooked outside. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were around the campfire. I've missed that. Being with family around the campfire."

"The first time I went camping, I fell into the campfire!" Sam laughed and Jack's head jerked around.

"What?"

"My dad went to look for more firewood, flashlight in hand. Mom had run to the car for something and my brother and I were chasing each other around the fire. I almost caught him and he reached back to push me away. I tripped over my own feet and landed right in the fire."

"What happened?" Vala leaned forward in horror.

"I got up, brushed the smoldering ashes from my jeans and beat the crap out of my brother!"

They all laughed.

Silence reigned again.

"I no longer like fires." Vala stated very quietly, "But here with you, safely in the circle of friends, I'm finding it quite nice." She ducked her head, folding her arms across her chest.

Daniel tossed his empty beer can across the campsite, then Mitchell followed, actually hitting the garbage can.

"Nice shot!" Jack quipped. After a brief pause he began to speak. "Charlie and I used to build campfires in the back yard." He took a deep steadying breath. "He'd gather all the little sticks, millions of them. And I'd get the bigger ones, we had to constantly be adding sticks to keep it going. We didn't have any big trees, or anyway to cut up firewood, so we'd just keep piling on the twigs. That boy loved a campfire."

Sam reached and squeezed his hand. And Jack O'Neill did the oddest thing. He leaned over and kissed her right on the mouth.

A little buzzed, tired from the trip and setting up camp they stared silently at the flames.

Mitchell began his story quietly into the silence. "It was a dark and stormy night, the couple had been parked in the woods for about an hour. Makin' out. They never heard the man ….." His deep southern drawl continued on.