A/N: There's some language in this chapter. It's towards the end.

Thank you all for reading and for those who have reviewed, thank you for the encouragement!

Ch 8

At the toy store, Sam fell in love.

They had two full carts of stuff and were close to done. Jack had decided the kids needed bikes, remembering that Daniel had once told him that he had never had a bike as a kid because his parents had moved from dig to dig so often before they died. He had decided that bikes would be their special surprise for their good behavior with the police man earlier, and the kids were thrilled with the suggestion.

He knew they would need training wheels, of course, and that Hammond probably wouldn't be too thrilled with him bringing bikes onto the base, but he was hoping to take them home soon anyway. Maybe the threat of them tearing around the base on bikes would be extra incentive for Hammond to let them leave, Jack thought with a smile as he steered them to the bike section at the back of the store.

It was next to the bikes that Sam spotted the little battery-powered cars and vehicles. She stopped dead in her tracks, staring with her mouth wide open and her eyes looking impossibly large, and Jack realized that those things hadn't really been around when she was four the first time… but now that she was here, of COURSE she would find them fascinating.

"Sam? You okay there?" he asked in amusement when she hadn't moved a muscle for some time. He was peripherally aware of Daniel chattering away to Teal'c over at the racks of bikes, and knew the other man was helping the little boy. He crouched down next to her at her level, nudging her lightly. "Earth to Sam?"

"Colonel Jack, what are those?" she asked in awe.

"Uh, they're little tiny trucks and cars for kids to drive around in," he tried to explain.

"You don't have to pedal them?"

"Nope."

"Do you take them to the gas station?" she asked, looking puzzled.

He laughed. "No, they're battery powered."

"Must take a lot of batteries," she mused.

Knowing she was thinking of the batteries that went in flashlights, he said, "It's a different kind of battery, honey." He took a moment to appreciate the irony of trying to explain a machine to Carter. Only the fact that she was four made it even possible for him to explain it to her satisfaction… and he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to right now anyway.

"Sam!" Daniel called excitedly, getting both their attention. "Look at my bike! Come on, pick one out!"

Sam took another long look at the trucks and cars and then smiled and ran over to Daniel, excitedly admiring the bike he was sitting on, with Teal'c's help for balance.

Jack hung back, chewing his lip as he watched Teal'c and Daniel helping her with her bike selection. The battery-powered vehicles were ridiculously expensive considering that these guys weren't going to be little for long - hopefully. And yet… it wasn't often he got to make her, or anyone on his team for that matter - so happy with something so relatively simple and easy. He imagined the look on Hammond's face seeing Sam careening around in the vehicle with Daniel in the passenger seat clinging on for dear life and grinned to himself.

Then he watched the kids again. Teal'c was trying to entice her onto a girl's bike - pink, with streamers coming out of the handles and a flowery basket - and she was scowling and shaking her head firmly, arms crossed. He chuckled. Teal'c should have known better.

Ultimately, it was the fact that despite how much she'd obviously loved the things more than anything else in the entire store, and yet hadn't asked him for it, that made up his mind. She was just too darn sweet and cute for her own good, and Hammond would just have to understand that!

He assumed she wouldn't want the Barbie car. He was betting she would love the motorcycle, but he wanted something Daniel could ride in, because he damn well wasn't buying two of them! He decided the Jeep would be a good fit and grabbed the little slip to take to the register. This was perfect, because he could surprise her with it.

Then he went over to help hurry the bike selection process along. "Teal'c, she doesn't have to get a girls' bike if she doesn't want one," he said, grabbing a helmet and putting it on Daniel's head experimentally.

"The tags state these are the bicycles for young females, O'Neill," Teal'c stated firmly.

"Yeah, but it's not a law, T, it's just marketing. Come on, Sam, which one do you want?" he asked, putting the pink one back on the rack.

Grinning, she ran over to a flashy red boy's bike that had flames all over it. Laughing, Jack shrugged. "Suit yourself. Danny boy, you happy with that one?" he asked.

Daniel had picked out a yellow and black bike. He was grinning ear to ear under the helmet Jack had plopped on his head. "Yes, thank you!"

Five minutes later, helmets and pads were stacked on the top of the shopping carts' contents and Jack had a fistful of tags for the bikes and the surprise Jeep. As they waited in the checkout line and he watched the two children huddled excitedly over one of the toys they'd picked out, looking at the back of the package at all its features, he started to feel a little guilty about getting the Jeep without a surprise for Daniel.

The thing was, Carter was easy. She liked things that went fast. Always had, always would. Daniel's adult interests were harder to translate into children's toys, and Jack just couldn't think of something the little boy would love as much as Sam would love that Jeep.

He determined to present it to both of them as a toy to share, even though he knew Sam would like it more than Daniel would. Then, hopefully after spending a bit more time with them, Jack would be able to think of something that Daniel would like just as much. And, he reminded himself, they were really both getting bikes because he wanted Daniel to have one. With all that in mind, he set about having Teal'c distract the kids while he paid for everything, using the card Hammond had given him for the bulk of the purchases but buying the bikes and Jeep himself. He and an employee loaded the big stuff into the back of the truck first while Teal'c kept the kids and the carts up at the entrance to the store and waited for Jack to come get them.

Bags of stuff, children, and Jaffa loaded back into the car, Jack drove them all back to the mountain, Sam and Daniel chattering nonstop about all their new toys, arguing light-heartedly over what they were going to play with first.

"T, can you take the kids to the gym or something to play for a while while I get everything set up in the room?" Jack asked quietly so the kids couldn't hear as he drove.

"It would be my pleasure, O'Neill," Teal'c agreed. "I am most anxious to try Samantha Carter's 'jump rope.'"

"Right," Jack said. He suddenly had a mental image of Teal'c as a four year old and was very glad it was Daniel who had been in her lab with her at the time of the accident. He imagined a tiny Jaffa boy used to spending most of his time outdoors and roughhousing probably would have wreaked holy terror in the SGC in no time flat.

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The kids were thrilled with the idea of playing with Teal'c in the gym, and bounced around the side of the truck chattering eagerly about all they were going to do with him while Jack, in the bed of the truck, rummaged through the bags looking for toys that would be good to play with in the gym.

"Are we gonna ride our bikes in there?" Sam asked eagerly as he handed Teal'c a jump rope and a Nerf football.

"I have to put them together first," Jack explained.

"Oh," she said. She thought for a minute and asked hopefully, "Can I help you put mine together?"

Jack should have known she would want to do that. He thought for a minute. The only problem with it was that it would ruin the surprise of the Jeep. "Well, here are the choices," he said, checking to make sure he had Daniel and Teal'c's attention too. "If you go play with Teal'c now, I will try to get the bikes ready in time for you to ride them a little before dinner. Or if you want, I can save your bike to put together after dinner, Sam, and you can ride them in the morning."

She gave the decision more thought than Jack had ever seen a four year old think about anything. "Come on Sam I want to ride them today," Daniel finally wheedled.

"Okay," she agreed.

"Yaaaaaaaay!" Daniel cheered happily, hugging her awkwardly, since they were both still squirming excitedly. "Thanks, Sam!"

"You're welcome," she replied magnanimously.

"Hey, I'm the one putting them together," Jack objected light-heartedly. "Way to hog all the credit, there, Carter."

She just gave him a smile with her nose wrinkled. "You're funny sometimes, Colonel."

"Indeed," Teal'c interjected quickly, obviously deciding to hurry things along on his own. "Come, children. We will go to the gym."

The kids chorused goodbyes to Jack and quickly hurried after Teal'c, running beside him to keep up with his huge strides.

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Jack got several SFs to help him unload most of the stuff they'd bought, although he did transfer several bags of toys to the cab of his truck and leave them there, still hoping Hammond would let the kids go home with him soon and not wanting to have to repack EVERYTHING right away. He could always come back for them later if there was something in there they wanted, but they had more than enough new stuff to keep them occupied for the night.

He also decided to get Siler to help him put the bikes together, so there would be plenty of time for the kids to ride them before dinner. He started opening up the huge box containing the Jeep while Siler started on Sam's bike.

"Wow, that thing looks awesome," Siler called.

"Yeah," Jack frowned, reading the instructions. "Damn, you have to charge it overnight the first time." He looked around for somewhere to hide it and finally set it up in the corner behind the little couch, plugged in to charge. He covered it carefully with a blanket, then attempted to hide the suspiciously lumpy blanket behind a large potted plant.

Siler eyed the set-up skeptically but respectfully didn't say anything. Jack caught the look anyway, "Yeah I know it's not going to fool them. I just need them to leave it alone until tomorrow. Shouldn't be harder than getting them to leave wrapped Christmas presents alone."

"Whatever you say, sir," Siler said, tightening the training wheel he was working on with a final twist of the wrist.

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Teal'c was intrigued by the behavior of his two youngest teammates, who now deserved that designation by a considerably larger margin than before. Their supply of energy seemed disproportionate to their size.

Upon entering the gym, Teal'c had cleared away the moveable punching bags from the area they usually occupied, so that there was a large open space for the children to exert themselves. After running around to examine all of the workout equipment - much of which was currently occupied by SG-12 - the children ran over to him for entertainment.

When Daniel Jackson tripped on his way over and went sprawling face first on the ground, Teal'c decided it would be wise to spread out the sparring mats before they began playing, despite the fact that the boy scrambled back to his feet quickly insisting he was fine. One could never be too careful, particularly where Daniel Jackson was concerned.

The large blue mats in place, Teal'c asked the children what they wanted to play.

Sam and Daniel were having the time of their lives, shrieking and laughing as they ran around the gym. They had played tag for a while, but when Teal'c was 'it' it was so much more fun to get caught than anything else, because he scooped them up so effortlessly and when cajoled could be talked into tossing them up in the air. They screamed to be tossed higher and higher, until Teal'c, who always caught them gently, refused to throw them any higher, expressing "fear for their safety."

Sam also got him to swing her around and around in a circle until she was so dizzy she almost threw up and had to ask him to stop, knowing that if she did throw up he probably wouldn't play with her anymore and she would probably be sent back to Doctor Janet.

They played catch with the football, but that turned into dodge ball which was particularly challenging with one ball for three people and quickly also degenerated into another game of tag where you could also be pegged by the ball.

Daniel got caught trying to climb on the exercise equipment and was repeatedly pulled off by Teal'c until a warning that Teal'c would "Use Samantha Carter's new jump rope to bind you in place if you cannot remember to leave the equipment alone" stopped the little boy from further exploration.

Sam tried to teach Teal'c how to use the jump rope but it turned out she really wasn't very good at it herself yet, and the rope was really too short for Teal'c to use effectively. It lay forgotten in the middle of the mat as Sam convinced Daniel they should start a wrestling match with Teal'c by both jumping on him at the same time.

They shrieked with delight when he lifted them both easily, and that was how Jack found them in the gym - Teal'c standing in the middle of the blue mats with a four year old team member dangling from each massive bicep.

"Well, looks like you guys are having plenty of fun on your own," he called, pausing in his awkward entrance as he wheeled in two tiny bikes, one with each hand, crouched awkwardly as he walked. "I guess I'll just go find some other little kids to give these to!"

"No, no we want them!" they yelled. Daniel abruptly let go of Teal'c's arm and dropped three feet to the ground, stumbling slightly but staying mainly upright. Alarmed, Teal'c quickly set Sam down before she could copy him, and the two kids scrambled over to Jack, meeting him halfway.

All their pads and helmets were hanging off their bikes. "Okay, who's ridden a bike before?" Jack asked, plopping Sam's helmet on her head.

They looked at each other and shrugged.

"I sat on it in the store and Uncle Teal'c pushed me a little," Daniel said, fiddling with the chin strap on his helmet.

"And I have a tricycle at home but I don't really ride it anymore because it's for babies," Sam said. "I tried to ride Mark's bike but my feet wouldn't reach and anyway he punched me real hard when he caught me messing with it."

Frowning at that thought, Jack crouched down in front of her and started strapping elbow pads in place on her tiny arms.

"Why do we have to wear all these things?" she asked, watching Teal'c strapping knee pads on Daniel.

"Because you're not breaking anything on my watch," Jack said firmly.

Five minutes later, they were decked out in elbow and knee pads, and wrist guards, plus helmets. Jack knew it was a little extreme for bikes - they were actually skating pads he'd purchased - but he wasn't taking any chances with these two. Hell, if it were up to him he'd have them in full hockey gear… or maybe wrapped in bubble wrap.

"How are we supposed to move in this stuff?" Daniel asked.

"Can you bend your knees?" Jack asked, holding the bike steady since Sam was already trying to climb onto it.

"Yeah," he said, after trying.

"Then you're fine, stop complaining. You'll be thanking me when you don't get hurt."

Cumbersome pads notwithstanding, they were soon both riding around the cleared space, trying to race each other in the confined area.

"Can't we go outside, please, Colonel?" Sam asked hopefully after half an hour. "Where we can ride faster and in a straight line longer?"

"Not here, Sam, I'm sorry. Maybe tomorrow. Are you guys hungry?"

"Yes, sir!"

"I'm starving to death!" Daniel added dramatically, coming to a stop next to Sam.

"Okay, let's go put the bikes up for now and go eat," Jack decided.

"Can we ride our bikes to dinner?" Daniel asked.

Hammond would probably be in there…

"Ah, I'm gonna have to say no to that one too," Jack said. They looked so disappointed. "… but you can ride them back to our room," he relented.

"Yay!" Sam said excitedly, while Daniel called, "Thanks, Colonel Jack!" and started pedaling. "Race you, Sam!"

"No fair!" She yelled indignantly, taking off after him, pedaling with all her might.

Despite the fact that he knew they'd have to stop at the elevator, Jack still hurried after them, Teal'c following.

The race resumed once the elevator let them out on the proper floor, and they took off towards the VIP suite again, Sam in the lead now that they had gotten an even start. Jack followed more slowly now that they could see their finish line, and was just thinking to himself that he was glad they hadn't bumped into anyone who would go tell the General when, of course, the General himself came out of the VIP suite.

His sudden appearance right at their destination startled the kids, who tried to veer away and ended up crashing into each other instead. Bikes and kids all tangled into a heap on the ground three feet in front of Hammond, who hurried over to them and knelt down quickly, trying to pull the howling kids to their feet.

Daniel was howling that his arm hurt, but Sam was crying, "MY BIKE!" so Jack was pretty sure that at least one of them was just fine. It turned out that they both were. The pads had done their job and the kids were startled and might have a few bruises but were relatively unscathed. The bikes were also in good shape.

Once that had been sorted out and they weren't crying anymore, Hammond said, "Colonel O'Neill, I hope you have a good explanation for letting these children loose on bikes on my base. This is no place for bike riding!"

"Well, see I wanted to talk to you about that, sir," he said with what he hoped was a winning smile. "I wanted to talk to you about taking the kids home with me tomorrow."

"Yeah, can we Uncle George?" Sam asked eagerly.

"Please?" Daniel added hopefully.

Hammond looked down at the kids and frowned. "Teal'c, why don't you take them into their room and get them washed up for dinner."

"As you wish, General Hammond," Teal'c said, picking up a bike easily in each hand and herding them through the door.

Once they were alone, Hammond said, "I'm down here because I was looking for you, Jack. I got a report that you got three tickets this morning?"

Jack grimaced. "Yeah, the kids were distracting me and I ran a stop sign… then the cop saw they weren't in car seats."

Hammond sighed. "This is going to take a little cleaning up, since you now have tickets for two children who don't officially exist. And that is a prime example of why I'm hesitant to let them off the base. I'm afraid too many questions could be raised…"

"But they're kids, sir. This isn't a very kid-friendly environment. As you yourself just pointed out."

"I know," Hammond sighed. "Okay. For now, it's a no. let me think about it a little more. But in the meantime you do your part to keep them safe and under control while they're here. That means no bike riding in the hallway."

"Yes, sir," Jack said.

"Uncle George, did you come down here to have dinner with me?" Sam asked hopefully as the three of them came back out into the hall.

He looked down at the hopeful look on her cute little face and couldn't help but chuckle. "I sure did, Sammy. And I have a surprise for you."

"What?" she asked eagerly. "It's for Daniel too, right? He's my new best friend." She grabbed Daniel's hand as though that would ensure he was included in the surprise. Daniel beamed.

"That's nice, sweetheart. And yes, it's for Daniel too."

They both grinned eagerly.

"What is it?"

"I heard you didn't much care for breakfast or lunch, but I think you're going to like dinner much better."

"What are we having?" Sam asked, taking his hand.

"Spaghetti," Hammond told her.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" she yelled in delight. "My favorite!"

"I love it too!" Daniel squealed, as he ran after her towards the elevator.

"Wow, nobody has ever been that happy to go eat in the commissary before," Jack commented as the three adult men headed towards the elevator as well.

"I believe you are correct, O'Neill," Teal'c said after giving it some thought. "Although the spaghetti is in fact the superior dish served by this facility."

Jack chuckled and swiped his card for the elevator.

"I want to push the button," Daniel said quickly as they filed inside.

Shrugging, Jack told him what number to push. "Whatever floats your boat."

Sam, not to be outdone, pushed the button once it was already lit up… then kept pushing it. "Go faster, god dammit!" she muttered to the elevator.

"Samantha Grace Carter!" Hammond bellowed, shocked.

She turned to him with a guilty look on her face. "Uh-oh. Sorry, Uncle George."

"Where did you hear that language, young lady?"

"Uh…" she hesitated.

"Probably from me," Jack admitted reluctantly. "Although I can't remember saying that specifically recently, but she may have overheard me a couple of times today."

"Colonel, need I remind you that children have very impressionable minds, and therefore it is wise that you think before you speak when you are around them? Particularly my goddaughter?"

"Yes, sir."

"And Sam, you know you're not supposed to use words like that, don't you," Hammond added.

"Yes, sir. I'm very sorry."

She looked up at him with sad, huge eyes and Jack was sure that if Hammond could resist that face and those eyes, he was made of stone. Sure enough, he couldn't. He hugged her gently as the elevator dinged. "It's okay, sweetheart. Just try not to do it again."

"Yes, sir," she repeated.

She cheered up in the commissary line once they were within sight of the spaghetti, and by the time Jack and Teal'c were carefully carrying two very heavily laden trays over to their usual table, she and Daniel were chatting animatedly again about who was going to eat the most and what they were going to do after dinner.

Janet joined them before they had dug in, as Jack was setting a bowl of spaghetti and a plate of garlic bread and broccoli (optimistically) in front of each kid.

Jack didn't miss the fact that she surveyed each child VERY carefully, obviously looking for injuries. "They're fine, Doc."

"Why is their hair like that?" she demanded.

Jack glanced at them and shrugged. "Helmet hair, no biggie." it was a bit of a mess. Both kids had gotten sweaty riding their bikes and playing with Teal'c, so the helmets had sort of plastered wet hair to their heads in some pretty messy, random ways.

"Yeah, don't worry, Doctor Janet," Sam said sweetly, taking a big bite of spaghetti. "We crashed our bikes but we had so much pads on it didn't even hurt a bit!"

"Crashed?" Janet demanded sharply, then added, "Wait, what bikes?"

"Colonel Jack got us bikes because we played the quiet game so good when the police man pulled us over," Daniel explained.

Fraiser raised an eyebrow at Jack. "Police man?"

"Yeah, you know, you're the only one here with a kid, Doc, you could have told me they were supposed to be in car seats!"

"Cassie never used a car seat!" Janet argued.

"People," Hammond interrupted, wiping Sam's chin with a napkin - both kids were already liberally covered in sauce. Jack thought it was pointless to wipe her face mid-meal, but didn't bother voicing the thought to the General.

"And you don't have to keep showing up at meal times to check that I'm feeding them," Jack added, a bit hurt by the fact that nobody seemed to think he could keep them alive without help. "We're doing just fine on our own, just good old… well, halfway not-so-old SG1."

Of course, at that very moment, Daniel spilled his milk and screamed, "Oh, fuck!"

Half the commissary turned to look at them, some alarmed, some amused.

"Daniel!" Jack exclaimed, as Hammond bellowed, "COLONEL O'NEILL!" and Sam said in a bossy voice, "Daniel, you're not opposed to say that, you dumbass!"

Jack groaned and dropped his fork. "Okay, I know those last two didn't come from me."

"I believe O'Neill is correct," Teal'c interjected unexpectedly.

Hammond and Fraiser both stared at him. "Well I know they didn't hear it from you, Teal'c," Hammond said.

"You are correct, General Hammond. However, when we entered the gym today, SG-12 was finishing up their exercise regimen. I'm sure you are aware of the so-called colorful language frequently employed by that particular team."

That was putting it mildly, Jack thought. SG-12 was notoriously the most foul-mouthed unit in the mountain… by a long shot.

Hammond stood up and the whole commissary went silent. "All right, people! In light of what I just heard I'm instituting a new policy here, effective as long as we have our two young visitors around. I'm going to take a leaf out of my daughter's book and start a 'Swear Jar.' ANYONE caught swearing in the presence of Samantha Carter or Daniel Jackson will pay them each a dollar, immediately."

There were some amused looks and some good-natured grumbling after the chorus of 'yes sirs' that followed his order.

As he sat down, he noticed the kids grinning ear to ear and added, "And for every time one of you swears, you're going to lose a dollar."

They gulped. "Yes, sir."

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