"I really want to talk to you," O'Neill stated. Chekov shook his head and sidestepped O'Neill once more. "It's about Doctor Fraiser."

Chekov stopped and then pivoted towards O'Neill. "I have nothing to say about the doctor. Voice your concerns to her, not me."

"It's pretty obvious there's something going on between you two," O'Neill stated. "Treat her well, or you'll deal with me."

His threat was rewarded with a snort of laughter from the Russian and a spat of evil sounding Russian. "There is nothing going on between us. I also would advise you that you are not in the position to cast aspersions on her character. The rumors about fraternization and fornication between your team runs rampant through these halls."

O'Neill stepped closer to the slightly shorter man. "I'll be watching."

Chekov then stepped closer to O'Neill and stated in a quiet voice. "Then I will use that quaint American expression that you taught me. Bite me, Colonel."

The two stubborn Colonels stared at each, daring the other to blink first.

"Colonels?" General Hammond enunciated. "Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all," O'Neill glibly assured his Commanding Officer.

"He expressed a desire to be friendly. I told him… how did you say it those many months ago, Colonel?" Chekov pretended to appear confused and then pounced. "Over his dead body."

Chekov beamed, his delight over using American Slang blatantly fabricated.

"The expression is actually, not over my dead body," O'Neill helpfully offered.

"Yes, that is what I said. Over your dead body. Since you'll be dead, there's sadly… no way to be friendly. Good night," Chekov nodded his head and quietly made his escape, though Jack swore he could hear Polyushko-polye softly playing.

Hammond waited until it was just O'Neill and him in hallway.

"Colonel O'Neill," Hammond spoke mildly, which meant he was well and truly NOT AMUSED with Jack Jack. "One of these days, I may find myself in need his support. Have you forgotten that his assistance helped save Teal'c life?"

"For how much money?" protested O'Neill. "The Russian got their forty pieces of silver…"

"Your continual antagonism of the colonel is making him less likely to support me because he views us as package deal. Leave the Colonel alone."

"I was just being friendly," Jack protested even as Hammond escorted him to his office.

"Sit." Hammond ordered. So Jack sat. Hammond then exhaled, and asked, "What did you say?"

"Nothing. I was just being friendly, for crying out loud," protested Jack.

"And what friendly advice did you give him about his relationship with Dr. Fraiser?" Hammond questioned.

Jack narrowed his eyes before Hammond added, "You two pit bulls were so focused on each other that you failed to notice that I overheard part of your conversation. Dr. Fraiser will be most displeased to find you meddling in her personal life."

"I am just looking out for her," protested Jack.

"Jack," Hammond then paused, and exhaled very slowly. "Dr. Fraiser has taken on both Hathor and Nirrti. Do you honestly believe that she is in need of our assistance with a single, solitary Russian Colonel?"

"Our assistance?" Jack added significant emphasis on the word 'our'.

Hammond just gazed steadily at Jack until O'Neill dropped his eyes.

"When you put it that way, no," Jack admitted. "But he does anything to hurt her, SG1 is throwing a sock and soap party and you're invited."

"Get the hell outta my office, Jack," Hammond barked. However, Hammond didn't bother to his amusement.

Chekov finally made it to the safety of his quarters. As he was quite busy cursing in Russian under his breath, he failed to realize that the SGC was at status' CHEKOV LEVEL 1 – and everyone was fleeing the Oncoming Storm.

He drafted his report, reread it several times and decided it best to revise FERTILITY FESTIVAL to NATIVE STRANGERS WELCOMING CEREMONY. He could always claim confusion in translation later on if the ruse was discovered – and he'd warn SG4 to keep their damn lips shut.

A chatterbox is a treasure for a spy, or in this case, the Kremlin.

That done, he saw that he had an email from Cassie. Hi Misha! I'm having some problems with rotational kinematics and dynamics. If you have a few free minutes, can you call me? PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSE I need HELP!– Cassie.

Pondering the genetic quality that enabled Hanaka born teenagers to assimilate American culture so absolutely that she had begun using excessive letters and puncutations in her emails, Chekov decided to put the blame where it was well deserved. O'Neill.

Then he dialed for what he would hope would be a short conversation. No, instead, a few minutes on the phone turned into almost two hours, as he was tired so his Russian accent was more pronounced even as he tried his damndest to clearly enunciate. Plus he couldn't visualize her errors so she literally had to walk him thorough each and every equation.

"I'm so sorry it took so long," Cassie apologized. "You sound exhausted."

"It is no matter, I had nothing better to do here," he lied. Well, yes, he could have gotten a few hours' sleep but his ride was due shortly. He'd sleep when he was dead… more hopefully, he'd nap on the flight home. "Any other questions? I am leaving for home shortly, but will be back in two days. I should be here for the following two weeks if you need any additional assistance."

"Your bosses has you working hard, don't they?"

"It's what I do," he demurred.

"That means you'll be here this weekend? You doing anything Saturday night?" Cassie asked. "I have a physics exam on Monday. Plus I need to submit ideas for a report on the Siege of Leningrad and you said that your family was involved with that?"

Involved.

Try more like slaughtered, Chekov thought. He had lost his grandfather and all of his siblings in that disaster. Then he had shown up under the cabbage leaf, very much unanticipated, long after his parents had given up all hope on having another child.

"Did you get permission from your mother for me to tutor you on Saturday?"

Janet Fraiser was pragmatic. She'd dance with the devil, put up with him, if it helped Cassie pass Physics. Though part of him truly hoped that she would just say "Nyet!" to him tutoring.

"There shouldn't be a problem. I'll let you know what time," Cassie assured him. "Have a good flight home."

Saturday afternoon.

Janet Fraiser shook her head at Cassie. "You asked Colonel Chekov to tutor you and you forgot to mention it to me until he's almost here? Cassie, it's supposed to snow tonight. He may not want to drive in it."

"It's only supposed to be an inch or two," Cassie explained. "I need the help for my exam on Monday."

Janet counted to one hundred slowly and then exhaled.

"Well, tell him not to bring anything," Janet weakly protested even as she dialed Samantha Carter. She took her cell phone to another part of the house and prayed Samantha would pick up the phone.

"Hi, what's up?" Sam asked.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" Janet tried not to plead. "Can you come over?"

"Sure! What's up?"

"Colonel Chekov is tutoring Cassie tonight…"

"Sure, I'll take over tutoring Cassie so you two…" Sam quickly offered.

"NO. There is nothing happening between the two of us, but I don't want to be alone with him and Cassie. It seems that our rumored assignation is all over the base as even Hammond talked to me about it," Janet explained, even as she tried not to remember that one sweet kiss.

Her Russian bear, normally so brusque had been oddly diffident, as though he hadn't kissed anyone since his wife's death.

She wished she wouldn't remember the kiss. Because whenever she did, the painful reminder of how she drunkenly propositioned him immediately followed.

Hey! Let's go to bed so we can be the same height!

Bingo! There, the drunken slut was at it again and it always ended the same way, with a kiss to her forehead and Mishka's… no…. Chekov's sad smile. Plus there had been that odd look in his eyes that she couldn't translate then or now.

"Hammond? What did he say?" Sam asked.

"Mazel Tov," Janet confessed.

Sam's laughter didn't ease Janet's apprehension. "Hey, did I laugh at you regarding all your extraterrestrial boyfriends? I mean, could you even share one with me? Do you know how long it's been since I've been on a date?"

"Tea?" Sam asked after she had divested herself of her heavy coat. "I didn't know anyone here drank tea."

"Don't worry, there's coffee for you and Mom. It's just, Misha drinks tea," Cassie explained as she arranged the kitchen table just so. The plate with the teacup was placed right next to Janet's coffee cup and Cassie smiled at her handiwork.

"Oh… Misha…." Sam dryly stated.

"I thought he was interested in Mom," Cassie easily admitted. "I knew she was, but now she's back to calling him Colonel Chekov. I had to pretend I had a test on Monday that I needed his help on so he'd visit Mom."

"You did not lie to Colonel Chekov, Cassandra." Janet had overheard the last part of their conversation and she was stunned by Cassie's shenanigans. "He just flew in from Moscow this afternoon and he's coming here specifically to help you with your homework. He should be sleeping as it's two thirty in the morning in Moscow."

"He assured me that he slept on the way here," Cassie assured her mom. "Besides, he's parking his car in the driveway now."

"We will talk about this later, after I send him back to the base," Janet warned her wayward daughter. There was a knock on the door and Janet realized that neither Sam nor Cassie were moving to open the door. "You were supposed to be a good influence on her, Sam!"

"We need to give them some privacy," a serious Cassie informed Samantha.

"Some place we can hear," Sam suggested.

"I know just the spot."

Chekov knocked on the door and waited. He was weary in his very bones, and it smelled like snow, a heavy, wet snow, so he prayed that tonight's lesson would be a short one. When the door finally opened, it was Janet Fraiser. She stepped out of her house and closed the door behind her.

"Colonel Chekov…" She began.

"Michael," he interrupted. "I invited you to call me Miska… and you don't wish to do so. That's fine, but at least call me Michael. Now, Zhanna, why do you bar the door?"

"I need to tell you something…" Janet then paused and bit her lip. How she could tell Chekov that Cassandra had lied to him?

He waited. Inpatiently. As it was cold and he was quite tired.

"You do," he finally said. "You need to explain to me why you no longer talk to me. What have I done to anger you? You were the only American at the damn base who would talk to me, and now you don't. I don't understand. I have always treated you with deference. I did not take advantage of you, but you act like I shamed you. You kissed me, do you remember that? Or do you fear that your Russian bear… "

Chekov paused and Janet realized that the conversation was spiraling wildly out of control.

"I have not been with a woman since my wife died. You were the first one that I even kissed…" That was whispered so softly that Janet almost didn't hear him. "I feared that I had forgotten how it is done for it has been many years for me."

Very long paused and then Chekov spoke, "At the very end, I could only hold her because Irishka was so very frail. It mattered not to me, but Irishka … she feared it mattered much."

She said nothing because she wasn't sure what to say.

"Ah," Chekov softly exclaimed. "You are surprised. You did not know that the Russian bear could care so deeply. Open the damn door, Zhanna. I am weary. Let me help Cassie with her homework and then you will be quickly rid of your unwanted Russian bear."

"Michael…" Janet protested.

He didn't answer because really, he had said all he wanted to say.

As a dutiful guest, he had brought Zefir for their tea, made small talk and then began helping Cassie with her lessons. However, he gave her a small box first when it was just the two of them in the kitchen.

"I wasn't here for your Christmas, nor mine, but I had this for you," he explained. He gestured at the box, "Open. It is something small that I hope you like."

Cassie opened the box to find a small necklace. There were two stars on the necklace of differing sizes and Chekov helped her spread the necklace out on the table. "These represent the binary star system of your home world. PX8-987-A and PX8-987-B."

Her lip quivered, and Chekov leaned towards her. "I understand what it's like to be away from home. Where everything is similar yet not. I wear my father's cross when I come to America. It helps."

"Misha…" Cassie whispered. "I can't accept this. I lied, I didn't need help with my homework. I just wanted you to visit Mom."

"I guessed that," Chekov softly admitted. "I'm here anyway, as I wished to give that to you. Happy Christmas, Cassandra. Now open your book to page one hundred and seventeen so we can discuss your homework."