Chapter One: The Beginning
Page Ten3, July 1999 Saturday 8:45 AM Jack casually leaned against the counter, watching Sam test-walk the leather boots she'd found on sale.
This was not his idea of a good Saturday.
He was with Daniel; sleep was good. "How about these?" Jack fought down a grin, aware he'd antagonized Daniel quite enough by just making the poor guy come along, but it was almost too much.
The sight of him wearing those goofy tuxedo slippers was enough to make Carter take a happy pause.
"Daniel! They're adorable! Where'd you find them?" "Over there. By the taxicab ones." He made a general motion to the displays behind him where Janet was scouring for her own set of goofy slippers.
Jack looked down at the
telescope-shaped ones the girls had tossed at him when he was ignoring Daniel's exasperation with yet another shoe store standing between him and bed.
They were cute.
He just didn't see the
point in getting them instead of curling up with a big pillow and entering unconscious-land for as long as he could get away with.
He was fine for active duty, but that last bout with an arrow
through his arm…well, it'd taken out a bit more of him than he'd admitted to anyone.
It was proving a little rough getting back on his feet and pretending it was "same old, same old"
when they'd gotten the other Stargate back, not to mention the Touchstone.
He was the reason Hammond had given the team the day off and he was pretty sure they knew it.
Janet also being
off was just an unexpected pleasure…or complication, depending how one looked at it.
Jack was checking the price on a shoehorn when he heard Sam swallow hard and then gasp.
He looked over
to see if it was serious, but when she just shook her head a bit and continued on, he pretended he hadn't noticed.
She'd been having more difficulty with Jolinar's memories surfacing at
inconvenient times and they'd all been keeping a closer eye on her than normal.
Jack watched her just a bit longer before letting himself be drawn into a conversation with the salesman who had
assumed he was with either Fraiser or Carter.
While he had been considering asking Janet out, he knew he couldn't because he didn't think he'd be able to keep it strictly off-duty.
If someone threatened her, he already had enough problems controlling himself, much less if they actually began exploring just how deep their friendship went.
Besides, she still kept in touch
with Sara and that situation was one thing he was trying to stay away from right now.
His ex-wife'd gone through enough without hearing about him and Janet getting together, especially with
the financial problems she was having right now.
Beepers went off and all four adults jumped, pulling them out and after reading the message, immediately began making their final purchases of
the day.
Jack smiled for a moment when Janet snuck her slippers onto the counter in time to get Daniel to buy them.
A long-suffering sigh let them all know Daniel hadn't been fooled into
thinking the peanut-shaped slippers were his and he gallantly had them put in a separate bag, presenting them to Janet before preceding them all out of the store's entrance.
Jack grinned at
his second-in-command as she approached the counter beside him, showing no intention of paying for the footsie-telescopes.
Sam bought them along with the race car ones she'd picked up for
Teal'c and he held open the door for her as they left the building.* * * * * * 9:10 AM Sam caught up to the Colonel, matching his stride easily as they crossed the
parking lot. ...continue to page eleven... |
