A Birthday Colonel
By zeilfanaat
Disclaimer: Stargate: SG-1 is not mine. No infringement intended. Any characters that are not from the series or the movie, are mine.
A/N: Thanks to all of you for the reviews. Here's the last chapter of this story.
Chapter 3
Janet gave her gift to the Colonel, a smile playing on her lips.
"Congratulations, Sir."
"Thanks, Doc." Silently he wondered what that secretive expression in her eyes was all about, while he unwrapped the rectangular object. When he saw what was inside, he had to quickly draw his face into an expressionless mask, before he could burst into laughter. Slowly he picked up the book. Then he looked up at the doctor, who was looking at him innocently, though he noticed her eyes twinkling. "Why, thank you, Janet. Ehm, from the picture I assume this is a book about chess?"
She nodded, while the rest of the group looked at them confused. "May I ask why it is in…" He looked back down at the book's title, seemingly to try and figure out what language it was.
"It's apparently Swedish, Sir," Janet filled in, playing along.
"Swedish? Can I see?" Daniel asked. "Why Swedish?" Jack showed him the book, and curiously Daniel started to look inside, still waiting for Janet's answer.
"Well," Janet started, having thought of an excuse beforehand. "I had seen this book a few months ago, in English. But when I wanted to buy it for the Colonel, they told me it was sold, and that they only had the original version."
"Which was in Swedish," Daniel said, rather than asked. Janet nodded, and Daniel handed the book back to Jack.
"Yes. It would have taken too long to order."
"And how am I supposed to understand it?" Jack asked amused.
"Well Sir, I think now you need to open Cassie's gift," Janet replied, at which Cassie eagerly jumped up.
"Happy birthday Uncle Jack!" She hugged him, and handed him the package. Again it was rectangular, but it was smaller and thicker. Cassie stood next to him as he opened her gift. Jack started laughing when he saw what it was.
He held up the gift to show the rest. "Swedish – English/ English – Swedish dictionary," Daniel read out loud. Sam started giggling, and Daniel and George smiled. Jack pulled Cassie in another hug. "Thanks Cass. I'm sure I'll understand the book much better now."
Cassie grinned. Teal'c stood. "I believe it is time for my present. I will acquire it from the kitchen." Within no time Teal'c was back, and held the box out to Jack. "It would be wise to refrain from turning it," he deadpanned.
Jack raised one eyebrow. "Ok," he said slowly, putting the startling heavy box on his lap, and cautiously pried the tape loose. Once that had happened, he opened the box. He carefully took out the bowl. Curiously he looked up at the Jaffa. "A goldfish?"
"So you can have at least one fish in your pond," Teal'c said with a straight face, the only hint of humour glinting in his eyes. Again the whole group started laughing. "Thank you Teal'c," Jack said to his brother-in-arms with a grin.
"Thank all of you." He looked around at the people in the room, his 'family'. "Now… let's eat." They moved to the dinner table, where the food was stalled out. Janet and Sam quickly walked to the kitchen to take out the rest of the food from the fridge. Everyone could just take what they wanted and put it on their plate, and go and sit wherever they liked. Soon everyone was talking and enjoying their meal. Jack had put the presents to a side, and together with Cassie had fed the goldfish with food from a small bottle that had also been inside the box.
The evening passed by quickly as everyone was enjoying themselves, but finally General Hammond announced his departure.
"I'll be going now. I will see you tomorrow."
A chorus of goodbyes floated around the room, and Jack walked his CO to the door.
"I'll bring by the plate tomorrow, George," he said, referring to the plate of food Hammond had brought with him. "That's ok, Jack. You can bring it next time you're coming around to my place." Jack nodded, and Hammond left.
Sam would bring Teal'c back to base, so they would probably be leaving soon too. Or not.
"Sir, we can help with cleaning up."
"Sure you can, but I'm reclaiming the kitchen as my domain. You still have to drive up the mountain and back, which reminds me – Teal'c, make sure Carter actually goes home again, and does not stay at the SGC." Teal'c nodded. "I will ascertain myself of it, O'Neill."
"I wasn't going to stay," was Sam's indignant response.
"Uhuh," Jack said, obviously not believing that for one second, as he stared at her pointedly.
"Not long, at least," she amended grudgingly. Jack's mouth curved into a grin, but he refrained from commenting.
"I'll see you two tomorrow then."
"Are you sure you don't want help with the dishes?" Sam asked for one last time. Janet appeared from the living room, carrying a couple of empty glasses. "Don't worry about it Sam, we'll take care of it."
"OK. Goodnight everyone."
Sam and Teal'c left as well, and Daniel, Janet and Jack cleared the living and dining room. Cassie had fallen asleep on the couch a bit earlier. Soon Jack and Janet were finishing off the last dishes. Daniel looked around to see if there was anything left to do.
"You can go home Daniel. We'll finish this last bit," Jack said, rinsing another glass, and handing it to Janet who dried it and put it back into the cupboard.
"OK, if you're sure. By the way, when are you going to get your dishwasher fixed?"
"Yes, we're sure. Don't know about the dishwasher, and frankly don't care much at the moment either. See you tomorrow, Daniel," Jack said, nodding towards his friend, since his hands were covered in soap.
"OK, see you. Goodnight." Daniel left as well, and the two adults finished the dishes in silence.
"Ok, that was that," Jack said, washing off the soap from his hands. Janet looked around as well, checking there was nothing else. Then she looked at the Colonel.
"Sir."
"I'm not even going to remind you," Jack said as he dried his hands with a towel. Janet smiled briefly.
"Jack," she corrected herself. "About the book."
The grey-haired man looked at her, and smiled. "Nicely done. I assume it had something to do with my Swedish goodbye?"
Janet smiled too, though she didn't reply; it wasn't necessary. "If you'd rather have the English version, I can go back to the store and switch."
"Are you kidding! I think it's great to have it in Swedish. Besides, I need something to use the dictionary for." He winked at her. Janet's smile widened, and she nodded. "That's what I thought. At least you'll have something else to practice your Swedish with."
Then Jack frowned. "'Something else'?" He inquired suspiciously. Janet winced at her slip. 'Why does he have to pick up on those little things?' She thought. Seeing Jack's expression, she knew she would have to explain.
"I know you have a book to learn Swedish."
"And how would you know that?" Suddenly it dawned. "No, don't tell me. You had Cassie find out for you, didn't you."
Janet nodded, and watched as Jack shook his head. "Sneaky. I was wondering why she didn't just ask me about the books."
"Well, I figured you probably had more books in different languages; I just needed to know whether you already had anything in Swedish. I couldn't very well ask you, and neither could Cassie of course. She told me she had seen where you hide your books, though she didn't tell me where. All she said was that she'd seen a book about learning Swedish, and that it was the only Swedish book she'd seen."
Jack nodded, lost in thought. "Do you mind?" Janet asked after a while, causing Jack to look up.
"Mind what?"
"Having Cassie go through your books."
For a moment Jack looked at the woman before him. He didn't like people going through his stuff, but he couldn't blame Cassie for being curious.
"No, I don't mind. The two of you already know I speak German, so what's the point in hiding that from you? Though I would prefer if it didn't happen again," he added with a pointed look.
"Don't worry, I don't even know where you have those books, and I won't tell anyone about them either, if you don't want to," Janet offered.
Jack quirked his eyebrow. "You're scaring me Doc. How many experiments do you want to perform on me in return?" He asked mockingly.
"Is that an offer, Sir?" Janet asked, causing Jack to quickly back-pedal. "You were saying?"
Janet smirked, but let him off the hook. "We'll stick to our original deal. You don't tell about my language-abilities, and I won't tell about yours, or your hidden bookshelves."
"Agreed," Jack said. But now Janet had another question.
"So… do you already speak Swedish, or not?"
A mysterious smile formed on Jack's face, and Janet just knew she wouldn't get the answer out of him… not tonight at least. She'd get another opportunity to try and pry it out of him… at some point in time. Maybe she could ask when he was drowsy from pain-meds, next time he was in the infirmary…?
They had walked to the living room, and stopped. A tender look spread across their faces, as they looked at the sleeping girl on the couch. Then Janet caught sight of the clock, and sighed. "We should be going," she said softly. "Oh, I hate to wake her like this."
Jack looked sideward at the doctor. "You know you can leave her here; spare bedroom is always set up." For a moment Janet considered the offer. She knew Cassie wouldn't mind. Then she shook her head. The Colonel would have to be back at base early in the morning, and she didn't want to cause him any trouble. Not that Jack would consider it trouble to get Cassie up and about, and back at her place – he loved the girl as a daughter, that much was obvious. But they would have to wake Cassie at some point, so they might as well do it now, and let her sleep in her own bed. Besides, Janet liked to be close to her own daughter. She was already away too often, dealing with emergencies on base.
"I know, but I think it's better if she can sleep a bit longer in the morning." Jack nodded, correctly guessing at what thoughts had played through Janet's mind. Cassie may be an alien child, she was Janet's daughter as much as Charlie had been his son.
"I'll see if I can carry her to your car without waking her up," he said, but Janet shook her head. "She'll have to wake up once we get home anyway, she'll probably fall back asleep in the car." She went to sit next to the sleeping girl, and while pushing a loose strand out of Cassie's face, she started talking to her.
Groggily Cassie mumbled something, but her eyes remained closed.
"Come on Honey, we're going home," Janet insisted gently, while caressing her daughter's hair. Finally Cassie's eyes opened partly, looking first at her mother, and then at Jack, who stood just a little further. "Wh… What?" She asked sleepily.
Janet smiled, and helped Cassie to a sitting position, while Jack disappeared and came back with their coats. The doctor accepted hers, and Jack helped Cassie into her coat.
The care and familiar ease with which he did it reminded Janet of what a great father he was for Cassie and must have been for Charlie. With a start she realised Charlie had been about Cassie's age. She wondered if it was significant, but after a moment of consideration declined that thought. He would have loved Cassie as a daughter anyway, had she been older, younger or this age. The only additional emotion it may have brought would have been reminders for the Colonel of what his son may have been doing had he still been alive.
"Ready to go. Come, I'll bring you to the car," Jack interrupted her thoughts. Cassie leant heavily against him when they stood, and he ended up carrying her to the car anyway. The anticipation and excitement of the day had exhausted her young body.
His hand gently caressed the girl's cheek, before Jack closed the car door and walked around to the driver's side. "Do you need help getting her inside?" He asked Janet. She shook her head and smiled. "I'll manage; I've had experience holding up Colonels who wouldn't admit to being ill or injured," she said, her eyes twinkling with playful mischief. Jack took it in his stride, and replied seriously.
"Those Colonels really should thank you for the support." Both knew he meant not only the physical kind of support, and Janet accepted his covert gratitude with an understanding nod.
"Gute Nacht, Jack," (Goodnight, Jack,) she said with a grin, to lighten up the mood. Immediately Jack's eyes sparkled with amusement.
"Dobran-, eh, God Natt, Janet," Jack responded, quickly correcting himself when he realised his mistake. Janet looked at him sharply, but his face revealed nothing. Whatever he had wanted to say, before saying 'goodnight' in Swedish, hadn't been any language she recognised. But it was obvious he wasn't going to tell her, and she needed to get Cassie home, so with a last warning look, she turned the key and drove off. Jack watched them disappear, inwardly smiling. 'Tack, Janet.' (Thanks, Janet.)
A/N: 'Dobranoc' means goodnight in Polish, 'God Natt' is goodnight in Swedish, and 'Tack' is also Swedish. Please correct me if I'm wrong, because my Polish and Swedish are limited to what I could find on the internet.
Well, that's it people. The end of this story. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!