Rascals - Chapter 20


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"You know, Teal'c, I'm beginning to wonder if it had been easier if we'd just taken those temporary placements on other teams instead of this!" O'Neill said.

They had just entered the recreation room, to find Sam, Martouf/Lantash, and Anise/Freya gathered around a big table where a large amount of electric parts were spread out. It was difficult to tell what it was, but from the missing stereo, O'Neill suspected that was what it was. Or had been. It seemed they had almost gotten it down to its individual components.

Sam looked up to see him. "Sir." She looked a bit guilty.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Sorry, sir, but we were listening to some music on the radio, and we couldn't get a good signal."

"Probably because the signal have to go through lots of rock." Martouf added.

"Yeah, so we thought we'd try to enhance the reception..." Sam said.

"We need a liquid naquadah power cell, better conductors, probably a receiver crystal, and..." Anise began.

O'Neill interrupted her. "And do you have any of those parts?"

"Um...no." She looked guilty.

O'Neill sighed deeply.

"Can you put it all together? Like quickly? There's a party organised in here in three hours and the guys wanna come in and start setting up now!"

"Ehh...we...like...have been trying to. For almost an hour." Sam looked down.

"We'll get it done, sir." Martouf said, quickly.

"Do that." He turned and left together with Teal'c.

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"Kids! I have some fun news! Hammond's invited us to spend the weekend at his house!" O'Neill said, entering the VIP quarters. "And Hammond has a biiiiiig garden you can play in!"

"YAAAAAY!" Everyone screamed enthusiastically.

"He has grand kids, right? Will they be there?" Sam wanted to know.

"Two, as far as I know. Yes, they'll be there, but I think they're a bit too old to wanna play with you." O'Neill smiled, then sobered. "Listen, you'll have to give us your word not to talk about anything alien, okay?"

"What do you mean?" Freya asked.

"You can't mention the Stargate - that's just a big no-no - and please no flashing your eyes or using the boom-box voice, okay?" He ruffled her hair affectionately.

"I don't have a boom-box voice, do I?" Lantash said.

"Well, I guess that's not really an accurate description...at least not while you're a kid." He smiled again. "You know what I mean, right?"

"Yes, I do. I'll do my best not to. Sir!" Lantash saluted him.

O'Neill shook his head and slapped him on the shoulder. "I'm sure you will, son."

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"Welcome, kids." Hammond said, opening the door. "Jacob, Teal'c...Jack."

"Hi..." Sam said, looking around a little uneasily.

The other children entered after her, even more subdued. Jacob followed, together with O'Neill and Teal'c.

"Hi, George." Jacob shook his friends hand.

"This is Tessa and Kayla." Hammond presented the two girls in the room. They smiled, a little shyly, at all the guests.

"Hi, Tessa and Kayla!" Daniel greeted politely. "I'm Daniel, and I'm 6!"

Kayla smiled. "Hi, Daniel. I'm 10." She looked at him as if she felt a lot older and wiser than him.

"And I'm 11, but almost 12." Tessa told them.

Martouf greeted them with the typical Tok'ra half-bow, holding his hands together before his chest. Freya and Yosuuf repeated the gesture, making Hammond's grandchildren giggle.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Tessa said.

"No..." Martouf glanced quickly at O'Neill, then remembered the cover story. "I am from...Canada."

Tessa and Kayla apparently accepted that.

"Why don't you show them the house and the garden while we grown-ups talk?" Hammond suggested.

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"There's home-baked raspberry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert." Hammond announced, smiling a little at the eager faces of the children.

Sam closed her eyes and sniffed. "Smells wonderful."

They put the pies on the large table. There were four big pies, but Daniel and Martouf both looked worriedly at the cakes and then at the number of people around the table. Hammond, his son and daughter in law, his two granddaughters, O'Neill, Teal'c, Sam, Anise/Freya, and Yosuuf/Garshaw...and themselves, of course. Four pies seemed to be far too little!

Hammond noticed their looks and laughed a little.

"Don't worry! There are four more in the kitchen - I saw them. You can eat as much as you want!"

The two boys smiled happily. "Thank you, sir!" They said in unison.

"Just don't eat so much you get a tummy-ache!" O'Neill warned.

"No worries!" Daniel scoffed. He turned to Martouf. "I bet I can eat more pie than you can!"

"No you can't!" Martouf said.

"Can too."

"Can't!" He leaned closer, whispering. "Don't forget we're two - you're just one!"

"Like that will matter! Lantash is tiny compared to me!" Daniel hissed.

Martouf bowed his head, giving control to Lantash.

"I'll show you who is tiny!" He said, remembering to not use the voice distortion. "I accept your challenge!"

They quickly ate one large piece of pie each, then one more, and another. They both accepted a fourth piece, but eating went slowly this time.

"Boys!" Tessa said, with disdain. "I'm so happy I don't have any brothers!"

"My tummy hurts!" Daniel whined.

Lantash looked slightly green, though much better than Daniel. Victoriously, he downed the last piece of his pie, then looked at Daniel, daring him to finish his cake. Daniel just shook his head and pushed the plate away.

Relieved, Lantash focused on temporarily raising their metabolism some more, in order to digest the food quickly. He really did not feel very well, but at least his stomach did not hurt like Daniel's obviously did. Martouf was reproaching him for accepting the bait, but Lantash knew very well Martouf had been equally tempted. 

O'Neill looked at them, not feeling sorry for them in the least. "I'm sure our generous host is pleased you like the cake so much. Do you want more?"

Daniel and Lantash both shook their heads, quickly telling him no thank you. The others around the table all snickered a little.


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