AuthorNote: I'm finally posting something! (Even if it's an incomplete something.) This is just me wondering what would happen if all the little gate-kiddies got together. You'd imagine they'd have a lot to talk about. I'm thinking of turning this into a series of short little pieces/episodes, and I would really love any ideas anyone might have. (Because I have, um, two?) This episode is Cassie dealing.

Spoilers: Singularity, Heroes, Secrets, Learning Curve, Maternal Instinct, Absolute Power, Show and Tell, Fragile Balance (which I haven't even seen yet!)…And probably lots more. Consider yourself warned…

Orphans

"My mom died," Cassie said faintly. "A Jaffa shot her."

She looked at the small shaven-headed boy, wrapped in his monk's robes.

"Is she where you are?"

He smiled enigmatically.

"She loves you. Such things as love are not so easily overcome by such a temporary state as death."

"Forget I asked," Cassie said in disgust, turning away and berating herself for thinking she was going to get a straight answer out of the Harcesis.

The younger girl who sat beside her continued drawing, an empty, complacent smile fixed loosely on her face. Cassie peeked at her sketchpad.

A twisted landscape of flowers and frolicking children burst forth from panels of complicated machinery. In a bottom corner was the ever-present symbol, a crude stick figure with short hair and a silly grin.

The girl looked up, a puzzled expression crossing her face, before being replaced with one of the looks of terrible sadness that seemed to periodically overwhelm her.

"Did I used to be different?" she asked Cassie haltingly.

Cassie's heart broke all over again. "Yes," she answered.

"I knew things." The girl frowned, looking frustrated.

"Yes, you did."

Marin's lip trembled.

"What happened?"

Cassie could only stare at her, wordlessly. She was saved from answering as the other girl's face smoothed out, and she turned back to her drawing, singing softly to herself.

"At least she's happy some of the time, " the put-together boy said. He rubbed a hand over his head, ruffling the hair that never quite seemed to hide his scars. He looked pointedly at Cassie. "Which is more than I can say for you."

"Don't you miss your mother?" she said cruelly.

His face clouded over. "Of course."

"I've lost my mother twice," Cassie said, picking at her cuticles. "And both times it was because of the Goa'uld."

She glared at Shifu.

"Your people."

He didn't respond.

"Your mother was taken by a Goa'uld. She was forced to be Apophis's queen. When she was pregnant with you she was afraid she was carrying a demon."

The words were spewing out hard and hot, burning Cassie's lips, bringing heat to her face, even as she spoke them.

"I know," Shifu said quietly.

"And then she died because of you."

"I know."

"Don't you care?" Don't you-"

"Enough Cassie."

The other Charlie had spoken.

She turned her rage on him.

"Shut up!" she screamed. "What do you know? You're dead, too!"

"I know what you're going through."

"No you don't! You've still got a mother."

"So have you. She's just not here. And neither is mine."

Cassie sobered, as she looked around the table. The three boys met her gaze unflinchingly, and she felt ashamed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It's all right," one of the other girls said, tipping back in her chair, and exhaling softly. A stream of bubbles gushed skyward. "And you do still have Sam."

The first girl looked up, and pointed excitedly at the figure tucked into the corner of her drawing. It was enough to make Cassie's lip tremble again.

"What if I lose her, too?" she asked fearfully. "Mom wasn't even on a regular SG team, and she got shot. Sam goes through the gate every day."

"She's quite good at getting herself out of situations," Grace said, catching a bubble on the tip of her finger.

"And Dad will look after her," the dead-Charlie said confidently. The put-together Charlie nodded his agreement.

Cassie looked at Shifu.

His face somehow grew immeasurably gentler.

"I cannot bring her back, Cassandra, however much we both may wish it."

"What good is being ascended if you can't use your powers?"

Her voice was regaining its hysterical edge.

He didn't answer.

"Sometimes I wish I was not ascended," Skaara spoke suddenly. "But then I am glad, because we are part of something bigger. Your mother was also part of something more, something she believed in."

"My mother died saving me," Charlie added.

"My father would gladly do the same for me," Rya'c stated proudly.

"I killed my parents," Loran said calmly, staring straight ahead.

"No Loran, your parents died because of the Goa'uld," Cassie said quickly.

"Did they? They weren't murdered, or poisoned, or shot with a staff weapon. They died because of me." He finally turned to look at her. "But I have come to peace with it. So will you. You just need time."

Cassie let out a laugh that was part sob. "I guess I'm supposed consider myself lucky."

"No," Loran disagreed. "You have lost two mothers. There is nothing trivial about that."

They stared at each other a moment, and she smiled faintly.

"I never had parents," Grace declared extravagantly, breaking the moment of silence in her customarily direct way. "And I'm no worse for wear!"

"That's what you think," the made-up Charlie snorted.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Shut up, Reetou-boy."

"Bubble-brains."

"Scarface!"

"Blondie!"

"Children!" shouted Mini-Jack, holding his head in his hands.

Grace stuck her tongue out at Charlie.

Jack groaned, and Cassie patted his arm sympathetically. "I know. They get on my nerves, too." He rolled his eyes in response.

Grace grinned, her smile still full of baby teeth.

"Will everything be all right now?" She asked, tipping her head to one side.

"Yes," Cassie said softly.

"Good," the child said briskly, brandishing her bubble wand.

"Now blow."

((I know this is very weird. Loran seems very OOC to me, and there's no way I can imitate Shifu's speech. It's like Shakespeare, only worse. ::Sigh:: Oh well… This is completely unbetaed, unproofread, and I um, just finished it writing it like ten minutes ago...So you can see why I really need people to review. I do take into account what people say, and I'll change it and repost it. As a reviewer you have power! Don't abuse it! Or do…whatever floats your boat and makes you click the pretty purple bar…))