It's been a while, so I'll do this properly...

Title: Birthday Traditions 6

Author: Kate McCaye

Rating: T (ooh, new ratings. Rated for language and use of alcohol.)

Pairing: S/J UST

Summary: Part/Year 6 of the "Birthday Traditions" series. Sam has to celebrate without Daniel, but that doesn't mean she has to do it alone.

A/N: Well, officially I'm no longer Kate McCaye anymore, it's Kate Cooper now (is there anything more saccharin than Kate and Carson Cooper? Say it out loud. It's a bit nauseating, right?) Anyway, I'm not going to change my Pen Name or anything, that was just my way of explaining why I haven't been posting anything for months. So, I'm married now, and currently almost five months pregnant with (cue trumpets) twins! I've got identical and fraternal in the family (I have a twin brother and my mother was an identical twin) so we'll see what sort of combo we end up with (I want to be surprised.) Anyway, the little buggers kept me throwing up continuously for a loooong time and I was just NOT in the mood to write. Now that I'm actually starting to put on some weight, things are calming down. Enough of that, you're here for the story.

It's been a very long time since I posted BT5, so I expect interest in this has waned a bit, but that's okay. I wanted to do this year properly, which meant putting off writing it until everything calmed down around here (or came back down to a normal level of crazy.) Also, I'm still having trouble with this story because it's got to be sad, but I want there to be some laughs here and there. I watched a bunch of Season 6 episodes to try to put me in the right place to write Jack and Sam in this story, and was surprised by how 'together' they are in that season, I had never really noticed it before. Without Daniel there, they exchange looks all the time. And although of course Sam has to be devastated in this story, I think Season 6 was where she really started to lighten up a bit, so I'll try to keep all of those things in mind as I work on finishing this. So... after that long explanation, if you're still interested... enjoy!

Ch 1: Jell-o and Pooh

Sam Carter looked up as her CO appeared in the doorway of her lab, having recognized his footsteps in the hallway.

"Busy?" he asked with a grin. He had a thing of jell-o in each hand, blue for her, red for him.

"You know what they say," she said, saving the work on her computer and rolling over to her lab table, while he took a seat across from her on a stool and slid the blue jell-o over to her.

"That Carter is always working?" he asked, pulling a fork and spoon out of a pocket.

"That's what you always say," she said, her hand meeting his halfway across the table to take the spoon he was offering. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'there's always room for jell-o.'"

"I know," he said with the smirk that was infuriating and endearing at the same time.

As much as she was enjoying this little interruption, she sensed an ulterior motive in her CO. And since the date she'd been dreading for nearly a year was now only a week away, she had a pretty good guess as to what he wanted to talk about. She wasn't about to be the one to bring it up though.

Halfway through his jell-o, he did it. "We just heard from Dad. A little while ago. He's unavailable till Friday. Then he wants to spend the week with you."

"Really?" she asked, more than a little surprised.

"Yeah. But Thursday…" He trailed off, looking at her carefully.

She nodded into her jell-o, chopping it to mush with the spoon. Thursday was the actual day. Her birthday. Daniel's birthday.

"It's up to you, Carter," Jack said quietly. "I'm happy to try to… but I understand if you don't want to do anything this year."

"Really?" she asked.

She had been wondering what he was going to want to do. After Daniel had… left, the Colonel had been the poster boy for full denial. Even when she had chased him down and practically begged him to talk about it. But that still didn't really tell her how he'd want to handle their birthday.

Would he want to pretend like it was a normal year, and have a party like always, or would he rather just pretend like it was a regular Thursday? It would have been nice to be able to do the latter, but she just wasn't capable of it. And she knew he knew that. But he was letting her decide.

"I'd really rather just… not do anything this year, if that's okay with you, sir."

"If that's what you want, Carter. But if that's the case, can I make a request?" he glanced at her uncomfortably.

"Of course, sir."

"Take Thursday off. Please. And don't come to the mountain at all."

"Sir?"

"After last year's party, everyone here knows you and Daniel have the same birthday and… I just know if it were me I wouldn't want people staring at me all day."

"Yeah, I'd… thought about that too," she admitted quietly. "All right. I'll take Thursday off."

"Good," he said with a smile he hoped wasn't too sad. "And I'll inform the galaxy they are not to have any sort of emergency that needs that brain of yours."

"Thanks," she said, laughing despite her sad mood.

How was it that he could always, always manage to make her laugh, no matter what? Stuck on Apophis's ship, blinded and locked up? In the middle of a briefing? Just been kidnapped? No problem, he could still make her laugh.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.

She realized she'd been smiling sadly into her jell-o bowl for a couple of minutes and met his eyes with a genuinely grateful smile. "Yes, sir, I'm okay. Thanks for the jell-o."

"Anytime, Carter." He returned the smile and slid off the stool reluctantly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach Jonas a thing or two about boxing."

Thursday morning, Sam gave up trying to get some sleep when it started to get light outside. She got up, fed her cat, and started a pot of coffee mechanically, making it extra-strong since sleep had eluded her completely the night before. "Happy Birthday to me," she muttered, petting Quarks absently as she waited by the coffee maker.

What on Earth was she going to do with herself all day? Colonel O'Neill had been right about it being a good idea to stay home, but it also left her with little distraction from thoughts of Daniel. She thought about him all the time anyway, but the past week had just been filled more and more with apprehension about today, the day that was finally here.

Maybe she could pull Cassie out of school for a day of shopping. The kid was more than smart enough to miss a day here and there. Truth was, Cassie was still in high school only because she actually liked it, something Sam had trouble understanding sometimes.

But if Janet found out Sam got Cassie out of school, they'd both be in trouble, and Sam wasn't likely to be fun company for anybody today anyway. Plus in her current mood Cassie would probably be able to convince her to do something really stupid, like go get matching point-of-origin tattoos or something.

She had just poured herself a cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. Looking down at the huge tee-shirt she had "borrowed" from her CO four years ago and never returned, she went to the door cautiously, looking through the peephole.

She could barely make out the top of a mop of messy brown hair. Her neighbour, Morgan. He was a very friendly child, always willing to mow the lawn for her or help Cassie take turns watching Quarks and Magnet, the golden retriever Sam had given Colonel O'Neill for his birthday nearly two years ago. She had got Magnet from him in the first place actually. Her mother was his beloved pet. Sam opened the door and smiled, hoping she didn't look as tired as she felt. "Hi, Morgan. What can I do for you?"

The ten year-old boy was already dressed in his school uniform, his tie carefully tightened, probably by his mother, a friendly woman named Rachel who had remarried about a year and a half ago. It occurred to Sam that this was the first time she'd ever seen him looking so smart, as the boy seemed to attract dirt like Daniel had attracted trouble. She sighed and tried to clear her head again.

Morgan held a paper bag in one hand and a big balloon hovered next to him, its string held securely in the hand that held the paper bag, which she now noticed had a Starbucks label on the side. He pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger, the movement making her gut clench as it reminded her once again of Daniel.

Morgan was grinning ear to ear and said proudly, "Good morning, Sam. I'm supposed to give you this stuff," as if he had been entrusted with something vitally important, along the lines of 'find the Holy Grail.'

Quarks, hearing Morgan's voice, tried to squeeze past her. Blocking him with her leg, Sam said, "Wow, thanks, Morgan. Do you want to come in for a minute?"

"I can't, the bus will be here soon." He handed her the bag and the balloon and knelt to scratch Quarks under the chin. "Are you home sick?"

"No, but I probably look it, huh," Sam commented. "I'm just taking a day off. Did Colonel O'Neill put you up to this?"

"Yeah, he said not to say until you did though."

"I see." Sam peeked into the bag and saw a large blueberry scone. Her favourite kind, with the big sugar granules on top. "You sure you don't want to come in? This is huge, there's more than enough for two…"

"No thanks. Colonel Jack gave me some cookies already."

"Cookies?"

"I only ate one already, I'm saving the other for lunch," he assured her.

Laughing, Sam smiled. "Well, thanks for helping him out."

He shrugged. "No big deal. He just said he was late for work already, but that kind of didn't make sense, I mean it took him longer to explain everything to me than to just come over himself… are you mad at him or something?"

"No," Sam said, laughing. "Definitely not. He just thinks he's funny."

"I think he's funny too," Morgan answered.

Sam wrinkled her nose and said, "Please don't tell him that, his ego is big enough already."

Morgan giggled and said, "Okay." The school bus turned the corner at the end of the street, so Morgan said, "I gotta go. Bye, Quarks." He got to his feet and hugged Sam quickly. "Bye Sam, have a good day off work," he said with another grin, hurrying down the pavement.

"Thanks, Morgan, have a good day at school," Sam called, watching him go back over to his own yard to fetch his book bag before the bus arrived.

Shaking her head to herself as she shut the door, she realized her CO had just brightened her mood considerably without even being present. She took her scone into the kitchen to have with her coffee, the balloon floating behind her like a disembodied stalker.

She tied the string to a knob on the cupboard so it wouldn't wander around her house all day and wondered how long it would stay inflated. The bright "Happy Birthday" decoration made her certain it was meant to be a child's balloon… then again she supposed most balloons were made for children.

She slid the scone out of the bag onto a plate and a folded note slid out with it. Unfolding it, she furrowed her brow as she read it. In his familiar, surprisingly tidy narrow writing, he had written, " 'Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.' Don't forget, Cassie has finals next week, so I'd think twice about pulling her out of school if I were you, unless you want the good doctor to hunt you down." He had signed the note "The SGC Ultimate Boxing Champion."

"So I guess Teal'c wasn't competing," Sam said to her cat, shaking her head at the last part of the note. She pondered the first part of the note as she picked at her scone. It was clearly a quote, and it was familiar somehow, but she couldn't place it. She protected her scone from Quarks as she stared at the note, then decided it was going to bother her all day if she couldn't identify it.

She got up and put the remaining two-thirds of the scone away. Quarks looked at her as if he had been betrayed. She smiled at him and said, "Sorry, you wouldn't like it anyway. Come on." She scooped the cat up with one arm and took her coffee mug and the note in the other and went to the nearest computer, which was in her office.

Setting the coffee down and turning the computer on, she sat down with Quarks in her lap as she waited impatiently, cuddling the cat absently. Not used to all the attention in the middle of the day, Quarks purred happily and nuzzled her.

"Finally," Sam muttered as she accessed the Internet. She googled the phrase and was surprised when it popped up immediately, repeatedly. "Winnie-the-Pooh!" she exclaimed out loud. "Colonel Jack O'Neill of the SGC quoted Winnie-the-Pooh at me! And I have written proof!" Quarks looked at her as if she were mad and jumped out of her lap, streaking out of the room.

Daniel would hurt himself laughing if she could show him that note… sighing, Sam got up and headed back to the coffee pot. She could show it to Teal'c… but she might have to explain Winnie-the-Pooh first before he would think it was funny… same with Jonas. She sighed. Oh well, the Colonel's efforts had worked for a little while at least.