Author's Note:

Well, hi! I'm back... sort of. I don't know if anyone else is still interested in this story after all this time but it has always really bothered me that I left it unfinished. I have no excuse really... at the time I wasn't sure how to end it, and then, I guess life happened and I just kept pushing it aside until I had no idea what to do about it. I've been thinking about it again recently for some reason, so, I'm going to try my best to get it done. What follows is going to be a mixture of bits I had written back then, the rough outline I had for the rest of the story, and new parts added to try to flesh that out. I think there are probably roughly 10 chapters left to this story including an epilogue, which I actually wrote a long time ago (the first time I tried to come back to this story and get it done).

If you read this story years ago and were disappointed it didn't end, or if you're discovering it new now, thank you so much for taking the time to read.

Ch 18

The kids were up so late that night watching the movie (although they did both eventually fall asleep before it ended), that Jack wasn't surprised that he was the first one up in the morning. He and Teal'c had moved both sleeping children to their bed when the movie ended, Teal'c retiring to Jack's office and the comfortable sofa there. Sam had woken Jack at about three in the morning complaining that her head was aching, forcing Jack to rouse Teal'c to stay with her while he ran to the nearest 24-hour drugstore for Children's ibuprofen. By the time she was asleep again, Jack was exhausted, and vaguely realized as he went back to sleep that she'd been up in the middle of the night for one reason or another every single night. He made a mental note to ask Jacob about that next time he saw him. Or maybe Hammond knew…

It seemed like no time at all before Jack's alarm was going off. He'd forgotten it didn't need to be set since he didn't have to report to base first thing, as he normally did He swatted it off angrily but the damage was done and he couldn't go back to sleep. Making his way to the kitchen, he started a pot of coffee and wasn't surprised when Teal'c showed up before it was done, looking for his usual glass of morning orange juice.

"Will you be able to take me back to the base this morning, O'Neill, or should I see if an Airman can render assistance?" Teal'c asked.

"We'll take you unless you need to be back at a certain time. I kind of want Fraiser to give Sam a once-over anyway. If Sam doesn't freak out about it."

"Very well. I promised Sergeant Siler I would do staff weapon training with him at eleven but have no other concrete plans before then."

"Uh… Hammond know about that? I thought you and Siler weren't supposed to train together after last time."

"He healed sufficiently, and convinced Hammond the problem occurred due to his own clumsiness."

"Ah, right. Okay, then. What do you want for breakfast?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam and Daniel were happy to be going back to the base. They always got dollars there from overhearing swear words, and Uncle George was there, and they could get snacks in the commissary… it seemed like a fun place to them, even though they did think it was weird how there were no windows or anything.

After breakfast, they got dressed after a brief argument with Jack over wearing their SG-1 uniforms. He wouldn't let them wear them because of how dirty they were from the day before. Disappointed, the kids had finally relented and dressed themselves in something else. Daniel had picked a dinosaur shirt with raptors all over it and a pair of cargo shorts, and Sam had surprised them by putting on one of the few dresses she'd picked out - a purple plaid one that she couldn't help spinning around in because of how it fanned out when she did. If only there were swings at the SGC, then she could really have fun in it!

She also insisted on pigtails in her hair. After doing them too uneven for her tastes twice, Jack threw the hairbrush at Teal'c, who amazed all by quickly and neatly putting her hair up into two perfectly symmetrical pigtails in about 45 seconds. Jack was hoping the cute hair and dress would distract people from the giant bandaid on her forehead.

Backpack of activities on their shoulders, the kids said goodbye to Teal'c and followed Jack down the corridors of the SGC, waving and smiling greetings to passing people whenever they could.

"Hey, where are we going?" Sam asked suspiciously as she started to recognize the corridors they were in.

"Just dropping in to say hi to Dr. Fraiser," Jack said casually, opening the door to the infirmary.

Sam crossed her arms and shook her head firmly. "Not uh. No way."

"Excuse me?" Jack countered, crossing his own arms and looking down at her just as stubbornly.

"No way, SIR," she corrected, not changing her posture or tone at all.

"Defying orders so early in the morning?" Janet called, appearing in the doorway to inspect the commotion. Her eyes immediately flew to the band-aid on Sam's forehead and she sighed. "Come on in, guys. What happened?"

"Sam cut her head open last night and there was blood EVERYWHERE!" Daniel reported promptly and dramatically. "Her brains were falling out all over the place!" Despite the dire pronouncement, he still smiled at her cheerfully and hugged her.

Sam nodded eagerly. "Yeah, and…"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," Jack said. "I told you both, there were no brains. It's just a scratch, Doc," he assured Fraiser, who was already leading the protesting little girl over to a bed to be examined. "And it's entirely your fault, once again."

"How do you figure that, Colonel?"

"You made me clean them up! She's been fine careening around the yard in a battery-powered Jeep, playing leap-frog with a Jaffa, and who knows what else, and she hurts herself after a bath of all things! She slipped when she was going to get her pajamas and slid into a wall."

"Poor baby," Janet said sympathetically, peeling off the band-aid to look at the cut.

"Ow!" Sam whined. "Don't!"

"Colonel, hold her still, please."

"No way, Doc. She does enough damage accidentally. I'm not pissing her off intentionally."

Janet scowled at him while Sam grinned triumphantly at the doctor. "Fine," Janet grumbled. "Sam, if you are good and still during the exam, I'll take you to the commissary for some ice cream."

"Okay," Sam agreed, sitting on her hands and squinching her eyes shut hard, determined to be still.

"Hypocrite," Jack mumbled, picking up a thermometer and rolling it between his hands idly. Janet pretended not to hear him.

Five minutes later, Janet put a fresh band-aid on Sam's head and smiled at her. "Well, scrapes aside, you both do look much better today than yesterday. I think your baths did you a world of good."

"Hmmph," Daniel said, scowling and looking unimpressed.

"Yeah, humph," Sam repeated with a twin scowl, grabbing Daniel's hand. "Come on, Daniel, I'll share my ice cream with you!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Taking two adorable kids, one of whom was sporting a purple band-aid on her forehead, into the base commissary turned out to be a bad idea. So many people were coming over to talk to them and kept asking about Sam's injury that Jack was starting to feel paranoid and guilty the more he heard the story from the kids' point of view. It just sounded weird hearing them talk about taking a bath together under his supervision (the looks the Marines had given him hadn't helped anything there), and the kids kept saying how funny it was he'd made them wear swimsuits, which earned him some even stranger looks for some reason he couldn't fathom… then the way they talked about it you'd think Sam had left pools of blood all over the house, and of course they HAD to mention staying up ALL night to watch an AWESOME scary grown up movie with stuff blowing up and people getting shot and cut in half…

Jack wasn't surprised that word had reached Hammond before the ice cream was gone, and they were all summoned to his office.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam and Daniel excitedly pocketed the IDs the Colonel slipped them wordlessly in the elevator on their way to meet Hammond. They grinned at him but he just mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key. They nodded eagerly, both bouncing with anticipation at seeing Hammond, whom Daniel liked by extension because Sam was so fond of him.

She immediately ran into his office and jumped in his lap so she could be the one to tell him about her band-aid.

"Hi, Sammy. I hear you two had quite an adventure last night."

"We did!" She promptly recounted the story for him with input from Daniel. When she was done, he kissed her forehead carefully above the band-aid.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay, sweetheart." he turned to Jack and said, "I sent them home with you to keep them out of trouble, Colonel."

"It wasn't Colonel O'Neill's fault," Sam said quickly.

"It was an accident," Daniel added.

"And our own accident because we were running barefoot and wet."

"Without permission," Daniel added again.

"And he did a good job cleaning up all the blood and making me feel all better," Sam praised.

"Well… all right," Hammond said a bit reluctantly. He knew accidents would happen with children, of course, but couldn't help but feel that perhaps his goddaughter was getting into more than her fair share of them.

"We came to stay with you just like you asked yesterday, Uncle George!" Sam said happily.

"That's wonderful, Sammy. I just have a couple of things to do first, then how about I take both of you out to a very special lunch?"

"Yeah!" Daniel and Sam chorused eagerly.

"Wait," Daniel said after a moment. "Colonel Jack isn't invited too?"

"Oh that's okay," Jack said, waving a hand. "I've got loads to do around here. Memos to ignore, paperwork to put off…"

He left behind two grinning children and whistled all the way to the elevator, grinning himself. Hammond wasn't going to know what hit him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Uncle George where are we going?" Sam asked for the twelfth time, thinking while he was distracted on the red phone he might be more likely to answer her.

"Shhh, play quietly for another minute, Sammy," Hammond whispered quickly, covering the mouthpiece with his hand.

Sam sighed but did as told, going back over to Daniel and picking up a crayon to help him finish the picture they were coloring. The kids were bored, and getting really hungry. They had been about to leave when the red phone rang and the red phone, Uncle George had quickly told them, could never be ignored. He was talking to someone called "Mr. President." And it was taking forever.

"I'm staaaaaaaaaaaaarving," Daniel whispered dramatically to Sam, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Me too," Sam agreed. She bit her lip, looking at the adult in the room for a moment, then said, "Let's go."

"Where?" Daniel asked, eyes wide.

"Let's go get a snack. Just a little one, we won't spoil our lunch. I know how to get to the commentary."

"Commissary," Daniel corrected proudly.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Whatever, you can say it but can you get us there?" she asked, slipping her badge a little bit out of her pocket.

Daniel pulled his own out too, not wanting to be outdone. "I can! Come on, let's go get some cookies."

They waited until Hammond had turned his back to them and was totally wrapped up in the phone call, and quickly snuck out of the office.

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"There we go, sorry that took so long," Hammond said jovially as he turned back to the kids, intent on praising them for being so quiet and patient.

He frowned as he realized he was addressing an empty room. He immediately pressed a button on his desk. "Walter?"

"Sir?" Walter responded dutifully.

Hammond hesitated. If word got out he'd already lost the kids, O'Neill would never let him hear the end of it. "Uh… I need to see you in my office. Now."

A discreet, private inquiry with Walter told him no one had reported the kids missing or found. He sighed and, remembering they were hungry, decided to check the commissary for them first. He sent Walter to quietly check the other places they spent a lot of time on base.

Luckily, he'd guessed right. Almost. The kids weren't in the commissary. They were in the kitchen. With the cook. Baking cookies. They grinned happily at them, coated in a nice dusting of flour each. Daniel had a smeared raw egg down the front of his shirt as well.

"Hey Uncle George!" Sam greeted happily, waving at him with a big spoon in her hand.

"What on earth are you doing in here, young lady?"

"We came looking for cookies," Daniel explained.

"We were starving to death and you were taking forever on the phone," Sam said, trying to sound truly pathetic.

"But they didn't have any cookies today," Daniel continued.

"So we asked if we could make some," Sam concluded with a shrug, balling up a giant wad of dough in her little hand and plopping it down on a baking tray next to a similarly misshapen row of others.

The cook shrugged and offered Hammond a sheepish grin. "She outranks me, sir," he attempted to explain.

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