So this chapter didn't turn out how I'd origianlly planned to write it, but as I was typing this is just what flowed so I hope you like it.
It was shiny so he was obviously going to pick it up to look at it. Or rather climb up the bookshelf to reach it and look at it. It wasn't for nothing that his parents called him both magpie and cheeky monkey.
Carefully, knowing that if he fell not only was it likely to hurt, but he would definitely get in trouble with his mom and dad, Jacob climbed up the bookcase, using the shelves like a ladder, until he reached the box that had the shiny thing hanging out of it. Quickly he grabbed it and made his way back to the floor, planning on having a proper look at whatever it was once his feet were back on firm ground, rather than a few feet in the air.
His mom and dad were doing something they called spring cleaning, and they'd asked him to come into mom's office to grab the shredder since they'd found a load of stuff that needed shredding. It wasn't a room he went into often, there just wasn't any need, so he'd been curious about what was in here, and when he'd noticed the shiny necklace hanging out of a box he just couldn't resist going to get it.
"Jacob," he heard his mom call, "Any luck?"
"Just getting it mom," he shouted back, shoving the shiny into his pocket, quickly locating the shredder, unplugging it and then carrying it back to where mom and dad were busy going through paperwork.
"I can't believe how much there is," his dad was griping when he came back into the front room, where a stack of paper, which was a lot bigger than it had been when he'd left, was sitting in the middle of the floor.
"Here you go mom," Jacob said, setting the shredder down and then plugging it in so it was ready to use.
"Thank you sweety," his mom said with a smile, "Do you want to start running this through, a few sheets at a time?"
He nodded and started on the first pile he was handed. He developed a system and soon had the paper going through like a well-oiled machine. He only stopped when the hopper was full. "What do you want me to do with this?" he asked his mom and dad, stopping the machine.
His dad looked between him, the shredder, and his mom and then sighed quietly before saying, "Well it's either going to have to be burnt here, or taken away for proper disposal, so either way it's going to need to go into some bags."
"I'll go get some," mom said, "Why don't you go and get us all some drinks sweetie?" She was talking to his dad and Jacob knew that going through all this paperwork was probably killing his dad with boredom. Running the shredder was alright, watching the paper get ripped up was actually pretty cool, but his mom and dad had to read through everything before it got put in either the shred pile, keep pile, or return to the office pile, and there as a lot of reading to do. Jacob liked reading as much as the next person, and he knew his dad didn't mind it because even though he was now ten whole years old, they still read together at least a few times a week, but there was a lot of paper that had to be read.
His dad nodded and got up and left the room and headed for the kitchen, while his mom went to find bags. Finding himself alone and unable to continue shredding he pulled the shiny from his pocket and took the opportunity to study it.
Now he was looking at it properly he realised it was a set of dog tags. He'd seen plenty of them before, pretty much his whole family had them, but he didn't recognise the name.
He heard his mom coming back in and turned to her. "Who's Samantha Carter mom?" he asked.
His mom in her tracks and looked at him before putting the roll of bags she was carrying next to the shredder. "Where did you hear that name?" she asked him.
"I didn't hear it anywhere," he answered, "I read it from these." He held up the dog tags.
"Where on earth did you find those?" his mom asked, taking them from him and studying them.
"They were in a box in the office," Jacob said.
"What was in a box in the office?" his dad asked, coming back into the room carrying two cups of coffee and a small soda as a treat for Jacob.
Wordlessly his mom handed the dog tags to his dad, who put the cups down and took them. Jacob was worried he'd done something wrong, he'd never seen his parents acting like this before.
He was about to start apologising for snooping when his dad looked at him and smiled, although there was some sadness in that smile Jacob realised.
"I think it's time we told you about your great-grandfather and great-grandmother," he said, moving to sit on a sofa, his mom following him, and then both gesturing for Jacob to sit between them.
Jacob moved to sit between them and then kept glancing at both of them, waiting for them to start speaking.
"So," his dad started, "You know how your grandad was one of the people who told the world about the stargate?"
Jacob nodded. It had happened a long time before he had been born, before his parents had even known each other in fact, but he knew all about it because it was taught in school. He'd always loved those lessons because he was suddenly the centre of attention when people realised that it was his grandad on the screen. And it was obviously his grandad because aside from the fact Jacob had brilliant blonde hair and his grandfather had had brown hair, they were practically identical.
"Well, what a lot of people don't know is that your grandfather wasn't the first of our family to work for the SGC," his dad explained.
Jacob frowned slightly at that. "But that doesn't make sense," he said, "He had to have been, otherwise surely there would have been more records."
"There are," his dad explained, "But they're classified."
"But they declassified everything," Jacob argued, "At least that's what my teacher told us."
"Not quite everything," his mom said in her soft voice, "And you can't tell anyone what we're about to tell you ok, you have to promise."
Jacob quickly crossed his heart. "I promise," he said.
"Well, your grandfather actually took over the job of Head of Homeworld, from his mom, your great-grandmother, and she'd taken over from her husband, your great-grandfather, but it was decided that they were going to classify the names of everyone who had been a member of the SGC and Homeworld before a certain year because a lot of them were getting old and the powers that be decided that turning them over to the press in their old age would be a poor way to repay all their years of work. That's why when you look more deeply into the programme in a few years at school there's no names, everyone is just referred to as they SG team numbers."
"I guess that makes sense," Jacob said slowly, "But that doesn't really explain who Samantha Carter is."
"Like your dad said," his mom took over, "She's your great-grandmother, and her and your great-grandfather where part of the original SG1." Jacob felt a thrill up his spine at that. Everyone knew that SG1 had been the best team out there, and that they still were to this day even if there was less and less new planets to explore. "And the eventual Head of Homeworld. But she and your great-grandad are also the greatest love story ever told."
His mom stood and went to the bookcase and after searching for a moment pulled out an old photo. She handed it to Jacob and he looked down to see a faded photo of two smiling people on their wedding day. The man looked like him, just with dark hair while the woman. "It's her hair I've got," he said eventually, touching his own blond hair unconsciously, "I always wondered where that had come from, you've both got darker hair."
"Yep," his dad said. "Now, how about we tell you the story of the original SG1, when it was Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Colonel Jack O'Neill and Captain Doctor Samantha Carter. The greatest space adventure ever written, and the best love story ever told?"
Taking a drink from his soda as he looked down at the picture Jacob nodded. This was going to be good.
