"Drive carefully Colonel, the roads are slick." Janet directed as Jack, holding the puppy followed Sam into the parking lot. Reluctantly Sam was hobbling across the icy parking lot on the aluminum crutches that Janet had ordered her to use. Janet knew the minute they were out of her sight Sam would toss them aside, but hopefully Jack would stay on her about keeping her weight off the knee.

Jack put the pup into the bed of his truck before unlocking the passenger side door and helping Sam in. He took her crutches and tossed them into the backseat before rounding to his side and climbing in.

"Where's the puppy?" Sam asked glaring at him.

"He's in the back, where dogs belong."

"Colonel! He's just a little puppy and its snowing!"

"He's a husky Sam, hes made for snow." the engine of the diesel roared as he turned the key still staring at Sam, who glared back at him. He noticed her hand sitting defiantly on the handle of the door with the 'get him or I will' look across her features.

"Ok, ok." Jack hopped out and went to the back of the truck, reached in and pulled the puppy out. He carried him back into the cab of the truck and set him on seat next to Sam. The puppy sat against Sam's side and shivered like it was freezing to death. As he climbed back into the truck both Sam and the pup, looked at him like he was the cruelest man on the planet. "Spoilt brat" he whispered to the puppy.

Not even fifteen minutes after pulling out of the parking lot, Jack glanced over at his passenger and realized she had fallen into a deep sleep. The whole ride to her house he tried much as possible to avoid and sudden movements of the vehicle which ultimately caused her head to roll into the glass of the window. An act that he was sure Janet Frasier would not approve of. He looked down at the pup, who seemed non-interested in the car ride and simply looked back at him.

"What should we do for dinner?" he asked the dog. The husky's ears perked and he tilted his head, staring at Jack intently. "Burgers? Steak? Fish? I agree, steak sounds great." The puppy quickly lost interest in the Colonel's talk of food and layed down quietly for the rest of the short drive.

Fifteen minutes later, Jack pulled his truck into Sam's driveway and shut off the engine. He got out of the truck and set the puppy down in the front yard while he walked around to the passenger side to wake Sam. He opened the door, and leaned across her to unbuckle her seatbelt, when she jumped awake, alerted by his presence so close suddenly.

"Chill Carter, its just me. We're here." She blinked away the fog of sleep and turned to step out of the truck. Jack quickly handed her the aluminum crutches and she handed him her house keys.

He walked ahead of her and unlocked the door, leaving it wide for her to enter, while he went back to the truck to grab his overnight bag he had packed. The puppy raced full speed into the house after Sam and skid to a hault in the livingroom, looking quickly over all of the stuff he was bound to destroy in record time.

"Hey Carter, you still got all those steaks from our barbecue we had to bail on?"

"Yes sir, they're in the freezer."

"Excellent. Why don't you go clean up, get comfortable and I'll put some steaks on, then we'll watch a movie."

Sam nodded and crutched her way back to her bedroom and Jack busied himself with wandering around her kitchen, searching every cabinet for the right stuff. He pulled the steaks from the freezer, tossed them into the microwave on defrost, and pulled a bunch of spices from the spice rack he found on the counter. The puppy padded into the kitchen, and sat next to his feet while he prepared the steaks.

"You see," he said to the puppy, "The key to making a good steak is to poke a few holes in it first so the flavor gets down into the middle. Then season both sides with all your favorite stuff." Jack loaded both steaks with all different kinds of seasoning and set them aside on a plate. The puppy followed him out into the backyard, where he lit the grill and cracked open a beer he had found in Carter's fridge.

"You need a name."

The puppy bounded around the yard, happily chasing a grasshopper. With one smooth pounce the grasshopper was flat and the dog lost interest.

"Disasembled." Jack laughed

Jack went back into the house, leaving the puppy in the yard while he turned on the tv. He stood in the middle of the living room for a few minutes, dumbstruck by the raging lunatic running amok on the Jerry Springer show. He quickly changed the channel, found an episode of cops, and retrieved the steaks from the kitchen counter and headed back outside. When he exited the house he was greated with a very dirty puppy. He immediately glanced out into the yard and spotted the reason for the filth.

"Bad dog!" he scolded. The puppy seemed to have spotted one of Sam's potted plants and decided it was very dangerous, and had to be destroyed. The mostly empty flower pot lay on its side on the bottom step of the porch. A dark trail of potting soil led out to the middle of the yard, where a very mangled and shredded, and now unrecognizable plant lay dead. He also noticed to left of the deceased plant, in the flower bed, was a deep hole, where the pup had attempted to put the dead plant six feet under, before interupted by Jack.

"Good idea." Jack said walking out into the middle of the yard and picking up the peices of the plant. "Hide the evidence. She'll never know." he tossed the remaining peices of the plant into the hole, scooped the loose dirt up over it and sat back on his heels. The puppy ran over to him and looked happy at what he'd done.

"Would you like to say anything?"

"Uh, Colonel? What are you doing?"

Jack jumped and looked behind him. Sam stood in the doorway, in her pajamas staring at the man that seemed to be digging in her flower bed. He stood quickly, wiped his hands on his pants and walked back up to the porch.

"Uh, the dog dug a hole, I was filling it back in."

"With my lilacs?" He'd been caught.

"Oh. Well they kinda got destroyed, so I gave them a proper burial. Since the hole was there already and everything. Hey want steak!" he changed the subject.

"Sure."

"They'll be a bit. Go get comfortable, I'll bring them in when they're done."

She turned to hobble back into the house. He rolled his eyes that she had left her crutches back in her bedroom and was using every peice of furniture between the back door and the couch to keep her balance. She plopped down into her big comfy couch and quickly changed the channel from Cops, to the discovery channel.

"So Carter," Jack yelled from the porch, " I was thinkin. Why don't we give this little guy a name. At least somethin to call him while you have him."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well I don't know, he's your dog. I'm just tired of calling him the puppy."

When the steaks were done Jack set them out on plates and brought them into the living room and handed Sam a fork and knife.

"Sorry there's nothing with it. I couldn't find any vegetables or mashed potatoes or anything."

"Thats fine, I'm not really all that hungry anyways."

"Nice Jammies." he teased looking at her curled up on the couch in her oversize Air Force sweatshirt and her black pants printed wildly with Marvin the Martian.

"Um, yeah, present from Cassandra."

They ate their steaks while watching Joe's apartment. Sam stopped eating a few times to cringe at the grossness of the film, but Jack seemed to be enjoying it so, she didn't say anything. A half hour into it, he took her plate from her and brought her back a pepsi and took his seat on the couch next to her. He laughed as the roach named Ralph said one of very sarcastic lines, that Jack noted for future use. He looked over at Sam when she didn't laugh. She was curled up in corner of the couch, her injured leg stretched out, where he could feel her foot against his leg. Her eyes were closed and her breathing slow and deep, as she slept. He stared at her for a long time. Finally he stood up, retrieved a blanket from the back of a chair and covered her up with it. Then he picked up the puppy, which he had decided to name Ralph, and placed him with her. He then went into the kitchen to clean up the dinner mess, and when he came back, the puppy was curled up and sleeping with her. Jack smiled and sat back down, turning the volume of the tv down low while he finished watching the movie.