"It's a Me-o-Lantern," Jack says, winking at Cassie, who tilts her little head in expression of doubt. "What? I'm Jack; this is a lantern. It's named after me." He shrugs, smiling broadly.
Cassie wrinkles her nose. "Daniel said the name comes from folklore even older than you."
"Even older than-" Jack's eyes snap up toward the archeologist as his voice raises a pitch. "Daniel, what have you been telling this sweet child?"
Daniel shakes his head and takes a sip of his hard cider, rolling his eyes at the scene of a pumpkin gut-covered Jack O'Neill sitting on the deck carving a surprisingly good jack-o-lantern over old newspapers. This had not been on his Jack bingo card. "Only the truth, Jack."
Later, Cassie asks Jack why he's carefully picking out the pumpkin seeds from the stringy orange and yellow insides of their creations. "Oh," he says. His tone is bashful, but Cassie doesn't recognize that nuance yet. He smiles down at her as he drops a few more slimy seeds into the strainer. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Yes," she says excitedly, the thrill of a conspiracy already sparkling in her eyes.
Jack makes a show of looking left and right and behind himself in the kitchen before lowering himself to Cassie's eye level and whispering, "Sam likes them, can't get enough." He holds a seed in front of her between his long index finger and thumb. "See, Cass, this little bugger can be washed, salted, and roasted and it's a super tasty treat. Brain food even."
"Really?" Cassie's eyes broadcast that natural suspicious nature he appreciated so much.
"Cross my heart, Cass," he smiled. "And you know how Sam gets so wrapped up in her work sometimes and forgets a snack?"
"Yeah…"
Jack looked down at the seed before rising back to his full height, knees creaking slightly. He flicks the clean seed into the strainer and gathers more from the guts bowl. "I figure we can roast these up with some salt, maybe some cinnamon and sugar on a few, and… you know, leave them places she'll find them when she's busy doing all that geek stuff and needs a surprise snack." He flicks his eyes down to Cassie's and is relieved to see her grinning excitedly. If she's part of this, then it's not weird or overstepping. If it's something he's doing with Cassie, then it's a sweet gesture they did together and not him fussing over Carter in a way that probably wasn't appropriate, but he couldn't help.
A few days later, seeds flavored and toasted, Jack finds the time to sneak into Sam's lab and hide the little half baggies of pumpkin seeds in all the places he knows she'll find them, each one with a note that says "Don't forget your brain food! Love, Cassie."
The first time he strolls into the lab to find her popping a pumpkin seed into her mouth, smiling down at the note with enough warmth to roast a whole field of pumpkins- well that's just the greatest effing day he's had in a while.
