This takes place after "A Hundred Days" and before "Shades of Grey."

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

February, 2000

Cassie wretched the wheel of the race car game to the side, letting out a squeal of delight when the bright blue race car blew past the finish line in first place. She had soundly beat Jack, who came across the line a few seconds later in sixth place. Cassie huffed out a loud sigh, annoyed that her victory wasn't as sweet as she wanted it to be.

"You know, you don't have to let me win," Cassie pointed out. "I'm not a little kid anym— Jack. What's wrong?"

Jack was sitting in the gaming seat next Cassie, hands still on the steering wheel, a faraway look in his eyes. Cassie had only ever seen that look on Jack's face once or twice, and her mother or Daniel typically swept her away before she could ask any questions. Now it was just Cassie and Jack, and she was feeling woefully inadequate as she tried to figure out what to do.

Jack blinked rapidly and seemed to finally remember where he was at. He visibly gave himself a shake and turned to Cassie with a ghost of a smile on his face. "Sorry, Cass, my mind was somewhere else. I didn't let you win, you know… Not exactly, anyway." He gave a dry, half-laugh, and Cassie pressed her lips together.

"Jack, come on." She may only have been thirteen, but she knew that something was up.

Ignoring Cassie's entreaty completely, Jack stood up and jerked his head towards the pinball machines. "Let's go play. I might be able to teach you a thing or two."

Cassie heaved another sigh but decided not to press the issue… for the moment, anyway. She might have been mature for her age, but she was still only thirteen years old, and thus was only able to let something go for a short period of time.

So she followed Jack over to the pinball machine and elbowed him out of the way, demanding that she take the first game because she was the youngest. For the first time all afternoon, Jack engaged, cheering her on and giving her tips on how to score the most points. Cassie finished with a respectable amount of points, and stepped aside so that Jack could have his turn. He started out well, playing with actual effort. As the game went on, though, Jack quickly lost focus and seemed to be lost in his own little world once again.

Cassie bit her lip as she watched him. Jack had been missing for weeks, and the rest of SG-1 had been at loose ends since then, struggling to come back together after so much time apart. No one had really answered the questions that Cassie had asked, other than assuring her that they had been doing everything they could to bring him home.

Eventually, Cassie had gotten the news that Jack was back home, but her mother had delivered that information to her with a sad sort of smile—something had happened, and Jack's rescue wasn't the happy reunion that Cassie had been imaging for months. Despite her curiosity, she kept her questions to herself, knowing that they likely weren't going to be answered anyway.

Then, two weeks after Jack had returned home, he had shown up at Janet's house, asking if he could spend a Saturday with Cassie. Of course, Cassie had been happy to spend time with Jack, especially since it had been so long since she had seen him. She'd hugged him for a long time on the front porch of the Fraiser residence, while Jack had tried not to appear too emotional in front of Janet.

They'd gone out for burgers, fries, and milkshakes for lunch. Then Jack had taken Cassie to the local arcade, where they had been going from game to game for the past hour. It didn't take a genius—or an adult, for that matter—to figure out that Jack was clearly trying to run from something.

By that point, Jack had stopped playing the pinball game entirely, and didn't even seem to notice that he had lost. Cassie watched him for a long moment before she put her hand on his arm. "Come on, Jack. Let's go sit down."

Jack didn't say anything as Cassie led him over to a table. She held our hand out, pointing to the pocket Jack kept his wallet in when he gave her a questioning look. Wordlessly, Jack handed his wallet over and Cassie went to the concession stand to order two sodas and nachos. When Cassie had brought all the items back to the table, Jack was still sitting there, staring blankly at the tabletop.

Cassie put the tray down on the table with a little more force than she normally would have. The sound jarred Jack from the apparent trance he was in. He cleared his throat and rubbed his hands over his face, looking tired and older than he ever had before. He tried to smile at Cassie as she took her seat across from him and sipped from her soda, but he couldn't quite manage it.

"What's going on?" Cassie asked quietly.

Jack was quiet for a long moment, clearly struggling with what to say. He didn't want to lie to her, but there was only so much that he could really tell her. Finally, he said, "I'm just tired, kiddo. I'm sorry I'm ruining our day out."

"Should we go home?" Cassie asked. She was so happy to see Jack, and was so glad that she got to spend time with him after he had been gone for months, but if he wasn't feeling up to it, she certainly didn't want to keep him out.

"Of course, if you want to go home, we can," Jack said quickly. "But we also… don't have to."

Cassie smiled at that, and plucked a chip slathered in processed cheese off of the pile of nachos between them. "There's no way we're going home yet. We have to finish these nachos!"

Jack gave her a small—but genuine—smile in return. They both dug into the nachos and drank their sodas, enjoying their newly relaxed atmosphere. Cassie started talking about the projects she had been doing in science and social studies, and how Sam and Daniel had helped her. Often, Cassie had the best-researched projects at school, thanks to the advice of her family. The distraction seemed to work, for a while, and Jack was genuinely laughing and engaging as Cassie told her story.

But then Cassie mentioned that Daniel had stayed up late with her one night, meticulously building a diorama for her social studies class of the American revolution. Jack got that far-off look in his eyes again, and Cassie trailed off in the middle of her description of the very realistic miniature cannon that Daniel had constructed.

"Jack." Cassie's tone was eerily similar to her mother's, and Jack couldn't help the involuntary jerk that happened, as it did anytime Janet Fraiser used that tone on him. Cassie had crossed her arms and pinned Jack with a pointed look as well—paired with the red hair, Cassie was a clone of her mother.

Jack knew that he couldn't evade Cassie anymore, but he couldn't tell her what was really going on, either. So he settled for saying, "Things might get a little rough over the next couple of weeks, kiddo."

Cassie bit her lip and refrained from telling Jack that things were already pretty rough. They should have been celebrating his return home after being gone/stuck/missing (Cassie wasn't entirely sure what had happened) for several months. There had been no happy reunion, no big party, no hugs, not even a smile. Cassie didn't want to hear that things were going to get worse, when she couldn't imagine what the "worse" might contain.

Jack wasn't going to elaborate, or give her any details. He wasn't going to reassure her, even, because he truly didn't know if the team was going to be able to come back from what he was going to have to do. They were already fractured enough as it was after his prolonged stay on Edora.

Cassie stared down at the half-eaten nachos for a long time. Jack watched her, trying to prepare any number of non-responses in his mind in case Cassie asked any further questions though. This was where it got too hard—no matter what, there were always going to be things he would need to keep from the people he cared about.

Then Cassie squared her shoulders, looked back up at Jack and asked, "Can we go play Skeeball?"

She was still upset, he could tell, but she wasn't going to ask Jack any questions that he couldn't answer. Cassandra Fraiser was an amazing kid, wise beyond her years in ways that she shouldn't have to be. He had to believe that in the end, he was doing the right thing and that somehow, they can all get back to the way things used to be. Plus, there was the whole beating the bad guys and restoring trust with their allies thing to consider, as well.

"Yeah, Cass, we can play Skeeball." They finished their nachos and sodas, got up from the table together, and Jack wrapped an arm around Cassie's shoulders and hugged her to his side as they walked. They were nearly to the Skeeball machines when Jack said, "And don't think I didn't notice the way you swiped my wallet."

Just as he knew she would, Cassie scoffed loudly. "Excuse me, swiped? You gave me your wallet!"

Jack chuckled as he took out his wallet once again and paid for the tokens needed for the game. It was good to know that no matter what, some things never changed.

Thanks for reading!