Ch 4

Daniel woke up groggily and sat up, looking around. He was in an unfamiliar room, and it looked like a doctor's or a hospital or something. He saw a sleeping man in a chair next to him, and a little girl in the bed nearest him. Thinking to himself that the girl looked nice enough, he decided to go see if she knew where they were and what was going on. He climbed out of the bed carefully - off the bottom where there weren't any rails to get in the way - and padded over to the other bed, climbing up it from the bottom as well. He carefully made his way to the pillow, crossing his legs next to the sleeping girl's side, and touched her shoulder cautiously, shaking her a little.

"Hello? Wake up, please," he whispered.

She woke up and looked at him. "Hi!"

"Shh," Daniel said quickly, pointing to the sleeping man. "I'm Daniel, what's your name?"

"I'm Sam," she whispered back.

"Is that your dad?" Daniel asked, pointing to the man in the chair again.

"No, he's our friend. He knows my daddy, though, and my Uncle George, so maybe he knows your parents too. His name is Jack O'Neill. He's a Colonel in the Air Force."

"The what?"

She rolled her eyes. "The Air Force. You know, the soldier guys who fly planes and stuff? My dad is in it too. I think this place must be a Air Force base, but I don't think it's the one my Daddy works at."

"Oh," Daniel said. "Why are you here then?"

"I dunno… The Colonel said my parents had to go somewhere and they asked him to watch me. I guess yours wanted him to watch you too."

"My parents are archaeologists," Daniel said. "They don't fly planes."

"Archae… whats?" Sam asked.

"It's a big word," Daniel said proudly. "It means they dig up stuff from really old people and places. Sometimes even dinosaur bones!"

"Wow," Sam said, sufficiently awed, as any four year old would be, by the mention of dinosaurs.

"I guess maybe they had to go on another dig they couldn't take me on," Daniel said dubiously. "And I guess Grampa Nick couldn't watch me." Daniel's eyes flickered back to Jack curiously.

"He's really nice," Sam promised. "He gave me hot chocolate with whipped cream last night."

"Really?" Daniel asked, brightening considerably.

"Yeah. And in the night, I saw Doctor Janet come out of her office with her own cup that probably had it in there, when she thought I was sleeping. I bet there's more in there, want to go see?"

"Okay," he agreed, grinning. This girl had good ideas! He definitely wanted to be her friend. "I'm four," he offered.

"I'm four too!" Sam replied happily. "Come on, let's go. But be quiet so we don't wake him up," she ordered, crawling past him to the foot of the bed. Daniel slid off the edge expertly, but Sam was a good three or four inches shorter, and considerably lighter. Daniel tried to help her get down, awkwardly setting her on her feet.

"Thanks!" she said, grinning at him. She led the way over to the office door and peeked inside cautiously to make sure Janet wasn't in there anymore. The little room was empty.

The two small children hurried inside, Daniel shutting the door quietly behind them. Now they didn't have to be quite as quiet while they talked. "Who's Dr. Janet?" he asked.

"She took blood from me last night but she was really nice about it. And I got the hot chocolate after," Sam explained. "You were still asleep."

"Oh." Daniel pointed to a machine on one of the counters. It had a pot with a dark brown substance in it. "Is that the hot chocolate?"

"Yeah, I guess that's the machine that makes it," Sam concluded. They looked around and together dragged a rolling chair over to the counter. They both awkwardly climbed onto it.

Daniel looked around and saw a bunch of mugs sitting next to the machine.

"I'm not s'posed to use a cup without a lid," Sam admitted doubtfully, when he grabbed the nearest mug.

"We'll be really careful," Daniel suggested. "I get cups without lids all the time because you have to im-pro-vise in the field," he said, clearly proud of his big word usage. "If I can do it you can!"

"Okay," she agreed, taking the cup he handed her.

Together, they carefully took hold of the handle of what was, of course, unbeknownst to them, Janet's coffee pot. They knew it was going to be hot, so they were careful to only touch the handle and carefully moved it to the counter. Daniel then poured it into each cup, while Sam held the cups steady. He shoved the pot to the back of the counter and peered into the cup curiously. "It looks really dark," he said.

"It's good though," Sam promised.

They both took big sips at the same time, and promptly spit out the contents back into their mugs and set their cups down in revulsion. "That's the grossest hot chocolate ever!" Sam exclaimed, wiping her mouth on her shirt sleeve.

Daniel was wiping his tongue with his hand. "Eww, yuck!"

Once they'd both recovered, Sam said thoughtfully, "Maybe if we put enough milk or whipped cream in there…"

The two kids busied themselves examining all the stuff near the coffee pot, and soon had added a large quantity of vanilla instant creamer and an entirely unhealthy amount of sugar into each of their mugs, until the mugs would hold no further liquid. This time, they sipped cautiously. Both smiled at each other. It wasn't hot chocolate exactly, but… "Now it tastes good," Daniel said proudly. Sam nodded and they climbed off the chair before carefully carrying their mugs over to the clearest space in the room, where they sat down on the floor to enjoy their beverages.

"Do you go to school?" Sam asked once they were seated.

"Sometimes," Daniel said. "When I'm not with my parents on a dig or something. Then they teach me."

"That's neat. I go to school every day. Except weekends, duh. What grade are you in?"

Daniel shrugged. "I think last time I went to school I went to kindergarten. It was only for a week and then we had to move so my dad could teach in England."

"You move a lot huh."

"Yeah."

"I only have moved once so far but in the Air Force you have to move a lot. My brother, he's older than me, and he's already moved three times. I go to kindergarten too."

"Can you read?" Daniel asked. "I can."

"Yup! I can too! Can you do math?"

"Some."

"Yeah, me too, some."

The conversation continued as most conversations between particularly inquisitive and articulate four year olds getting to know each other do. The two were easily fast friends by the time their coffee cups were empty, neither noticing how loud they were getting as all the caffeine and sugar in their systems took effect.

They quickly grew bored in the tiny room and were just contemplating the merits of looking for something else to do or getting another cup of "hot chocolate" to take with them first when the door burst open and Jack and Janet looked at them in pure shock.

"Uh-oh. Busted," Sam said quietly.

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"Busted is right, young lady," Janet said firmly, eyes going from her misplaced coffee pot to the empty mugs in front of the children. "Colonel! You were supposed to be watching them! They've had coffee!"

"No way. Not even Carter and Daniel would like that stuff at four," Jack said defensively. He hoped not, at any rate. Kids on a sugar high were bad enough… kids with a mug full of caffeine and sugar…

"We thought it was a hot chocolate machine!" Sam explained quickly. "It was gross at first, but…"

"We made it taste good," Daniel concluded, grinning ear to ear.

"Hammond's going to kill me," Jack muttered to himself.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Sam announced to Janet suddenly.

"Me too," Daniel said, scrambling to his feet next to his new friend.

"First things first then, I suppose," Janet said, stepping out of the doorway and gesturing them to follow her. Sam did instantly, Daniel following her lead. Jack watched them go, looking at both of them like they were ticking time bombs.

Sure enough, Janet's exam of Daniel proved even more difficult than Sam's had been, despite the fact that Daniel didn't have as many questions about who they all were and where he was as Sam had - Jack was glad to learn that the little girl had apparently already explained things to Daniel's satisfaction. Remembering what little he knew about Daniel's childhood, he suspected the child was used to being moved around a lot and left with people. It was unfortunate, perhaps, in general, but it meant he seemed comfortable with all of them and his new surroundings almost instantly.

However, due to the caffeine and sugar, he couldn't sit still during the exam. He and Sam kept up a constant chatter, between themselves and with both adults, as they asked tons of questions about the tests Janet was running and then switched to asking Jack what they were going to do that day, and when they could have breakfast, and couldn't they please have some clothes that weren't quite so large, and could they go outside to play later…

Jack was used to both of them talking fast when they got excited about something, but as children he found the rate at which they were able to speak to be truly baffling. They seemed to understand each other just fine, but he frequently found himself several questions or answers behind as he had to stop and decode what they'd just said.

Janet had also had a long night of running as many tests as possible as fast as possible to get some answers about their condition, and the chattering was wearing on her nerves by the time she was done. Plus, Sam had already knocked over a canister of cotton balls and broken a thermometer in her effort to help Janet examine Daniel.

"No playing Doctor until you're thirty," Jack said firmly, taking the broken thermometer from her and pulling her away from the tray of medical supplies. "Or better yet, forty. And even then, you can't play that kind of doctor." Especially with Daniel, he added to himself.

Janet shot him an amused look and went to get a new thermometer.

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Half an hour later, Hammond turned up with clothing from them, which he had sent Walter to get from the store at the nearby Air Force Academy, since it opened earlier than civilian stores.

Walter had returned with what he could find - tiny black sweatpants with the Air Force logo on the left hip, and gray tee-shirts with the logo, each of which proclaimed "Future Recruit."

"Only a half lie, then," Jack said as he tossed a tiny shirt to each child. Both kids started eagerly pulling the large black shirts they were in over their heads. "I'll wait out here," Jack insisted, hurrying into the hallway quickly. He didn't care that he could hear Janet snickering at him as she started helping the children get dressed. The grown up Daniel was surprisingly unconcerned with his own modesty - maybe it was the year on Abydos or something, or simply that the man lived inside his own head, and Carter had shared a locker room with all three of them for years, but she did always at least change her shirt with her back to the rest of them.

Besides, now that they were little kids, it was just… weird. He'd let the doctor take care of the dressing, undressing, and grooming departments as much as she was willing, he decided firmly.

When they joined him in the hallway, he had to grin at the sight of them. The shirt was still a little big on Sam, but fit Daniel surprisingly well. And the sweatpants were rolled up at the waist a couple of times on the little girl. They also had on the cheap plastic flip flops Jack thought of as "shower shoes" and they were a bit too big for each of them, but would do for the time being. All in all, they looked much more comfortable. And cute in the matching ensembles, he thought to himself. They actually could pass for twins fairly easily, their looks similar enough even without the matching clothes.

"We're starving, Colonel!" Sam told him immediately. Daniel nodded eagerly.

"Well, come on then. Let's go give dear old Uncle Teal'c the surprise of his life at breakfast!" Jack decided, clapping his hands together eagerly.

"Who?" Daniel asked Sam as she took Jack's hand to follow him down the corridor.

"I dunno," Sam said with a shrug.

Daniel scurried around to Jack's other side, grabbing his other hand, and asked, "Who's Uncle Teal'c, Colonel Jack?"

"You can just call me Jack," Jack laughed. "And he's another good friend of ours. He's lots of fun, and very strong. I bet if you ask he'll let you climb all over him and give you all sorts of fun piggy back rides and everything!"

"Yay!" they both exclaimed, hopping along beside him eagerly, still full of caffeine.

Jack decided a sugar-free breakfast was definitely on the menu - if he could get them to eat it, of course. Somehow, he didn't think it would be easy.

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