Ch 22

The next day, the kids were a little tired, moving a little slower than usual through breakfast. Jack was cleaning the kitchen after cooking while they dawdled at the table. Teal'c had eaten at his usual pace and volunteered to trim the tree outside the children's window so it wouldn't cause any more problems. Jack had shown him where all the tools were and left him to it.

"What are we gonna do today, Colonel?" Sam asked from the table.

"Well, how about if we go into town and pick you guys up some fishing gear, then see if we can catch something?"

"Cool!" Daniel agreed.

"Yeah, neat!"

"Okay, let's do that first," Jack agreed easily.

They ran off to their room to get dressed. "Hey, Sam, wanna be twins?" Daniel asked as they started rummaging through the duffel bag of clothes Jack had packed for them.

"Yeah!" Sam exclaimed. "Let's wear our overalls and match."

"Okay!"

They ended up having to pull all the clothes out of their bag to find two identical shirts – solid red ones – and their overalls. By the time they were pulling their socks on, they were both sitting obliviously in the middle of a giant mass of clothes.

"What's taking so long in there?" Colonel O'Neill asked as he poked his head inside the room. "Whoa, what the hell happened in here?"

"Ummm, a dollar!" Sam cried gleefully.

"We're not in the SGC anymore, princess, Hammond can't make me pay you," he countered with a wink.

She scowled at him, while Daniel pouted.

He crossed his arms and tried to mimic the faces they were making until they were both giggling uncontrollably on the pile of clothes.

"Okay," he finally said, clapping his hands. "Now, let's clean up after this tornado that hit your room. Whew, lucky it didn't hit the rest of the cabin, eh Campers?! Come on, let's put your clothes in this dresser here and get going."

They worked together, sorting out the clothes and tossing them into drawers. The kids were both happy he didn't insist on folding anything. They put on their hiking boots and stood up excitedly. "Ready to go to the fishing store!" Daniel exclaimed, putting his glasses on.

"Wait I want Uncle Teal'c to fix my hair!" Sam remembered, running over to her backpack for some hair ties.

"Have I been fired?" Jack asked hopefully, recalling the various mornings of his clumsy attempts to fix her hair to her exacting specifications.

"You can brush it and wash it but Uncle Teal'c is way better at fixing it pretty," she said, smiling and patting his arm. "You understand don't you Colonel?"

Trying not to laugh, he nodded and sighed dramatically. "I suppose. Guess I'll just go get myself ready then."

He headed out the door, calling, "Oh Uncle TEEEEEAL'C! Your presence is requested in the royal chamber."

Sam and Daniel looked at each other and shrugged, laughing. "He says weird things sometimes," Daniel observed.

"Indeed," Sam agreed, giggling at her own joke at Uncle Teal'c's expense.

Daniel fell onto the bed laughing. "Good one, Sam."

"What is so amusing this morning, children?" Teal'c asked as he entered.

They both looked at him and burst out laughing even harder.

"N…nothing," Sam finally gasped.

"Indeed?"

They were rolling on the floor laughing at this point, unable to stop. When they finally did, they lay there catching their breath. When Sam finally turned back to Teal'c, he was still just staring at them patiently, waiting for them to stop. And Colonel O'Neill was back, leaning in the doorway and looking extremely confused.

"What's wrong with the rugrats?" he finally asked.

"I am unsure," Teal'c responded.

"It's a inside joke," Daniel said, scrambling to his feet and giving Sam a hand to hers.

"Yeah, it's a secret," Sam agreed. "Uncle Teal'c do you know how to do a fancy braid?"

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The store was an interesting experience. Daniel and Sam quickly found a giant barrel full of live bait and, while Jack was busy looking at fishing line, Daniel somehow ended up more than halfway inside of it. "Uncle Teal'c! Colonel! Help!" Sam hollered, drawing both men's attention, as well as the few other people in the store.

"Ohforcryinoutloud," Jack muttered as he hurried over to the barrel, where Sam was clinging onto a struggling Daniel's legs and trying to pull him out of the barrel of dirt and worms. "How did that happen?" Jack demanded, hoisting Daniel out and setting him on his feet, scooping errant worms out of his hair and off his clothes. "Teal'c, can you take him outside to brush him off?" Jack asked, knowing Teal'c didn't know much about what supplies they needed.

"Come, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said firmly, scowling into the barrel of worms with obvious disgust. They were just similar enough to the Goa'uld to draw his disdain by association. He steered Daniel out of the store, Daniel trying to explain what had happened as they left.

Jack turned his attention to Sam, who was peering into the barrel curiously. "Don't touch anything else," Jack instructed, tugging her away from the barrel lightly by the back of the overalls.

She giggled and said, "Daniel just really loves dirt, sir."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with."

There wasn't a very large kids' section in the store, so it wasn't long before Jack had made his purchases – a life jacket for each child, a little fishing pole that came with a tiny tacklebox, a few random items he needed to replenish for himself, and – to Daniel's delight – a Styrofoam container of bait. They picked up a few groceries in the store across the street as well, then had ice cream in a little shop on the corner.

After that, they headed back to the cabin, Jack confident they wouldn't need to leave again for a while. He got the kids' fishing rods set up and gave them a little lesson in baiting their hooks and casting, and soon all four of them were watching their corks bobbing in the water of his pond. He breathed deeply and sighed, feeling really relaxed. His favorite place in the world. Nice and quiet…

"Now what happens?" Sam asked, breaking the full five minutes of silence he had been enjoying.

"Now you wait for a bite."

"Oh." Thirty seconds passed. "How long does that take?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"How hungry the fish are."

"Why?"

He sighed. Maybe fishing with two four year olds wasn't going to be very relaxing after all.

"O'Neill, are you certain there are fish in your pond?" Teal'c asked ten minutes later.

"Of course there are," Jack insisted. "And anyway that's not the point. You…"

"I got one!" Sam yelled, jumping to her feet suddenly and trying to reel it in as fast as possible.

"Slow down," Jack insisted. "Try not to jerk it, hold it still."

"Daniel help!"

Daniel dropped his own pole, which Teal'c grabbed before it fell in the water, and helped her hang onto it. Together they reeled a fish in. Jack pulled it up and was stunned at how big it was – he hadn't seen anything that big in his pond in years.

"Wow, good job campers!" he praised, grabbing his needle nose pliers to free the fish. "Teal'c, get the cooler," he called.

"Why is he all flapping?" Daniel asked suddenly, sounding alarmed.

"He's scared!" Sam yelled. "Get the thing outta his mouth!"

"Put him back in the water!" Daniel shouted, now crying. "You're killing him!"

"You're hurting him!"

"Ohforcryinoutloud," Jack groaned finally getting the stubborn hook out of the flapping fish's mouth. He had his finger sliced by a razor sharp tooth and had been finned along his forearm several times in the struggle.

With some regret, he quickly tossed the largest fish he'd seen in his pond in a decade back into the water and turned his attention to the kids, who were still screaming and crying about the "poor fishy" but were now starting to calm down a little now that he was back in the water.

"I don't want to catch any more fish!" Sam insisted.

"Me neither!" Daniel echoed. "That's mean!"

"Well, what did you think was going to happen when we caught one?" Jack asked, a little exasperated, trying to clean up his bleeding hand.

"Not that," they both said.

Jack sighed. "Okay, no more fishing."

"What?" Daniel whined. "But I like fishing!"

"Yeah, we just don't wanna catch any more fish," Sam insisted.

Jack laughed. "All right, fair enough. I'm going to go clean my hand, Teal'c, you got this?"

"Indeed," Teal'c said, carefully removing the hook from Daniel's line and handing the fishing pole back to the boy.

After spending the rest of the morning fishing with no bait, they all headed inside for a large lunch. The kids were worn out and fell asleep in their room soon after. The rest of the day was spent having fun – playing with the bikes and Jeep Jack had hauled up in the back of his truck, taking another hike all together this time, and a mostly unsuccessful (but still fun) attempt to play Frisbee in the clearing at the front of the cabin.

For dinner, Jack had a surprise for the kids. He built up the fire pit in the back and they roasted hot dogs on their own "sticks." Between the four of them, they steadily worked through two packages of hot dogs and two bags of chips.

"Tomorrow we have to eat vegetables," Jack announced idly, opening a bag of marshmallows. "Tonight, S'mores."

"YAAAAAY!" the kids shouted happily.

It was a fun night, eating s'mores. Especially once Jack had successfully gotten Daniel to stop accidentally setting his on fire, freaking out, waving it around dangerously until it flew off the skewer and had to be dodged mid-air then stomped on. That certainly added some excitement to the procedure!

Once it was fully dark, Jack set up the telescope he kept at the cabin. There was so little light pollution up here it was a great place for it, and he thoroughly enjoyed pointing things out to both kids, secretly amused at the fact that he was getting to tell Sam Carter something she didn't know about space.

Finally, both kids were falling asleep on their feet outside. Jack and Teal'c each carried a kid inside and gave them a quick wipe-down, trying to get sticky remnants of ketchup, marshmallow, and chocolate off their faces, before helping them sleepily into their pajamas and tucking them in. Both kids hugged their favorite toys to themselves and were asleep before Teal'c had turned the light off.

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The next week and a half passed the same way, although no one was bored. They spent time playing, exploring the woods, "fishing" without catching anything, riding bikes, playing board games inside the cabin, and just enjoying life and relaxing. Jack was genuinely enjoying his time at his favorite place, with his team, in whatever configuration they currently found themselves, but the more time passed the antsier he started to get.

He wasn't surprised when his cell phone rang one night after dinner. "O'Neill… General Hammond. Good to hear from you, sir."

Teal'c met his eye and silently ushered the kids off to get them bathed and ready for bed, so Jack could speak frankly on the phone. Appreciating it, Jack took the phone outside just to be safe. "What's going on, sir?"

"Well, everyone is still hard at work on the problem with your team… and actually, that's partly why I'm calling. Jacob is here, he's working with Thor – Thor has been back for some time now. Jacob would like you to come back so he can see Sam."

Jack clenched his jaw. "Do you… think that's a good idea, sir?"

"I don't see why not," Hammond said, sounding a little surprised. "He's her father, why shouldn't he see her?"

Jack sighed. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Of course, Jack."

Jack took a deep breath. "Sam is doing great, sir, but she HAS asked for her mom a few times over the past few weeks. Usually when she wakes up at night. I can tell she misses her, but overall she's happy and having fun. From what she's said it's pretty clear Jacob was gone most of the time when she was this age. To be perfectly honest she hasn't asked where he is, only her mom. I know she loves him and I'm sure she would be happy to see him but to be honest I'm concerned she would just start asking a bunch of questions about where her mom is, if just her dad shows up. Them being on a trip together she can understand, but I don't think she's ever been in a situation where her mom is unavailable and her dad isn't."

"I hadn't thought of that…" Hammond admitted.

"Additionally, I'm concerned she would be disturbed by how much older he looks from how she remembers him. I think she accepted you fairly easily because it had already been so long since she had seen you, her mind kind of filled in the blanks and accepted the differences pretty easily. I don't know if that would work on her dad."

"Hmmm."

"More than that though, sir, my main concern here is Daniel."

"Daniel?"

"Yeah, he has been fine with us, he's used to his parents going on digs where they occasionally couldn't bring him along, but it seems like introducing one parent to Sam here is just going to open up a whole can of worms for both of them. We have three dead parents here we can't account for if they start asking questions. I think I've been damn lucky so far they haven't been asking. Truthfully, I dread the thought of what opening that can of worms could do for all of us." Hammond didn't say anything for several moments, so Jack persisted. "Is there any way seeing them would help Jacob and Thor find a cure faster?"

"No," Hammond admitted. "I think he just wants to see her."

"That's totally understandable," Jack said. "And if you order us back I'll return. I just want my objections registered."

Hammond sighed. "Stay there for now. I'll bring it up next time they update me on their progress."

"Are they making any?"

"Not really. Apparently some really old Asgard texts MAY reference something Selmak remembers… so they're working on a translation of a translation of a translation. But in the meantime, Jacob and Selmak are helping Thor with the problem he originally came here wanting Sam to help with. The details would bore you, I'm sure, it's something to do with interfacing some of their technology into a new installation on Cimmeria, for the people there and for us to use to contact them more efficiently."

"Wow. Sounds boring. Sir."

"Indeed," Hammond chuckled wryly, imitating Teal'c. "I'll update you tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

Jack pocketed his phone and took a few minutes, staring out at his pond and thinking. "Hope I got that one right," he muttered to himself, taking a deep breath and heading back inside.

Teal'c had both kids bathed and in their pajamas, their damp hair neatly combed out. They were both sitting on his lap, a large storybook open between them while he read to them in his deep, calming voice. Both gave him sleepy smiles when he came inside. He waved and sat down, not wanting to interrupt story time, and sat quietly looking at the rest of his team while Teal'c finished the book, trying not to brood.

Fact was, he knew, he couldn't just keep them here forever. Jacob wanting to see Sam was in some ways just the first sign they couldn't just hide out and play forever.

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