SOME THINGS ARE JUST MEANT TO BE A SURPRISE

By SG1Storyteller

 

Daniel walked into Sam Carter’s lab and sat down opposite her with a dejected expression on his face and his shoulders slouched in defeat. She looked over at him with an identical one on her lovely face. Teal’c was already there with her and he too looked like someone had just kicked him, which was uncharacteristic for the usually stoic Jaffa warrior.

"So I guess we should talk about this, huh?" He glanced from Teal’c to Sam seeing both of them nodding in agreement.

"I though there might be something you want to tell us?" The expression
on Sam's face went from dejected to accusatory.

“Tell you?” Daniel was bewildered.

“Don’t play innocent, Daniel, you told him didn’t you, you told the colonel about his surprise party." Sam was sputtering her words in exasperation.

"I didn't tell him anything, General Hammond did!" Daniel’s face wore a hurt expression that she would even think such a thing.

“General Hammond did?" Sam was getting more perplexed by the minute as she stood up to walk around her lab, shoving her hands in her pockets. "I can't believe he told the colonel about the surprise party we were planning for his birthday.  I mean I expected something like this from you, but not General Hammond!" she sighed.

"Why would you expect me to give away the surprise?" Daniel’s lower lip pushed out in a pout, “I mean why not Teal’c, why me?”

“I am much more adept at resisting O’Neill’s attempts to gain information from me.” Teal’c gave him a self assured look.

That made Daniel’s pout even more pronounced, “look I know I just got back from being ascended and all, but I can still keep a secret from Jack if I have to.”

Sam sat opposite him again and patted Daniel’s hand soothingly. "I believe you, Daniel," she gave another sigh, “Did General Hammond say why he told the colonel about the surprise party?”

"Well I guess they had sort of had a run in when Jack came into Hammond’s office asking for some time off to go to his cabin to go fishing. I think he was trying to sneak away from us so we couldn’t do anything for his birthday.  I was on my way to
General Hammond's office, and I over heard them talking about Jack having some leave time.”

Daniel gave Sam a look that asked her to understand the general’s predicament, “Hammond tried everything to stall this and to make up reasons why Jack needed to stay around the SGC, but, well you know Jack, he backed the general into a corner and Hammond blurted out that there was a party planned in honor of his birthday,”  Daniel gave a rueful smile, “ I tried to back pedal away before anyone saw me, but Jack came barreling out of Hammond’s office with this dark expression on his face.”

"He didn't say anything to you?" Sam was curious.

"Well I tried to explain to him how important this was to all of us to have a party for him and he just glared at me,” Daniel gave a sheepish shrug to his shoulders, “I tried again Jack said if I mentioned it one more time he was gonna send me back to Oma. After that, I thought it would be better to stay out of his way for a while.”

 “Colonel O'Neill said that to you?” Sam was staring at him and there was a glimmer of determination in her eyes, “Well, we’ll see about this.” She stood up and straightened her shoulders.

"Sam...you’re not going to do something.  .rash are you?" Daniel was looking at her with mild alarm on his face.

"This morning I woke up with all the plans for the colonel’s surprise party mapped out in my head," she spoke quietly, “who to invite, what to serve and where to hold the party at.  He’s not going to get away with being too stubborn to let us do this for him.”

"O’Neill appears to not want to be cooperative about this." Teal’c gave her challenging raise of his eyebrow.

"What he doesn’t want to be in this is one thing. What’s going to happen is another." Sam’s response to Teal’c made Daniel's eyebrows go up to the roof in an expression of surprise.

"Uhm, Sam, that might not be such a good idea," his voice betrayed his worry.

Sam gave him a sideways glance "thanks for your support,” her tone was slightly sarcastic.

“DanielJackson is correct MajorCarter, O’Neill has stated his dislike for this intention to have a surprise celebration of his day of birth. Perhaps we should consider his wishes in this.”

She looked him up and down appraisingly. "If you don’t think you can handle this, Teal’c," the challenge was laid down as neat as a glove in a call to duel.  

Daniel watched the expression of amused surprise on the Jaffa warrior’s face and hid his smirk behind his hand. ‘Score one for Sam,’ he thought to himself as he observed his two friends smiling at each other.

“So what are you going to do to get Jack to cooperate now that he knows about the party and we can’t surprise him anymore?” Daniel had given this question careful thought before asking it.

Sam cocked her head at him and gave a half smile. “Who says we still can’t surprise him.”

“Uh-oh, why do I get a funny feeling from that,” Daniel was looking at her closely, his nose scrunched up in trepidation.

“Because you love a challenge just like we do,” Sam patted his shoulder lightly as she passed him on her way to heading for the door.

“Where are you going, MajorCarter?” Teal’c called after her.

“To have a talk with General Hammond,” her response came back to them over shoulders set very straight in determination once more.

The two men watched her leave, both wearing identical expression of bemused admiration for her on their faces.

“MajorCarter seems not to be dissuaded from her objective in the least,” Teal’c noted.

“Jack doesn’t stand a chance.” Daniel’s lips curved into a knowing smile.

“Do you think MajorCarter will expect our services in her subterfuge again?” There was a gleam of mischief in the warrior’s dark eyes.

“Oh, yeah,” Daniel’s chuckle held an edge of wicked humor in it.

 

++++++

Jack O’Neill set his duffle bag down on the front porch of his fishing cabin with a satisfied thump. He paused before opening the front door to draw in a huge lungful of clean, crisp air tinged with the scent of water and woods. ‘Yes,’ he thought to himself, ‘now this was the way to celebrate his birthday, alone in with just his fishing rod and a couple of cold ones in the cooler’. He felt a twinge of guilt at blowing off the surprise party that the rest of SG1 and had wanted to throw for him. He knew that part of the celebration was also to acknowledge the return of Daniel Jackson and the restoration of SG-1 as the team it had started out to be. While no one was more pleased than Jack O’Neill to have his friend Daniel back, he just didn’t want a big fuss made over him and his birthday.

Jack inserted the key into the lock of his cabin door, picked up his duffle bag and pushed the door open. He had no sooner put his hand on the light switch when his senses alerted him to something wrong, but it was too late. Another hand covered his and worked the switch to throw the cabin into light.

“SURPRISE!” a dozen voices of his closest friends and fellow SGC personnel chimed at him in a loud and happy tone. Standing in the middle of them was his 2IC Sam Carter flanked by her accomplices Daniel Jackson and General Hammond. At Jack’s side stood Teal’c who had been the one to meet him at the light switch.

“Oh for crying out loud!” his tone was filled with mock indignation, and his face wore a smile he couldn’t contain.

“We got’cha, sir,” Sam beamed her victory smile at him as Teal’c joined Daniel Jackson at her side. They were wearing very pleased with themselves expressions as well.

Jack shook a good-natured warning finger at his team. “I’ll remember this and I’ll get you for it.” His face wore a broad smile.

“Yeah, well until then, why don’t you come in and have a beer, Jack.” Daniel held up a cold bottle of Jack’s favorite brew enticingly.

Jack crossed over to join them and as he savored his first swig of the cold beer, he also found himself realizing he needed to bask in the attention and affection of these three people who were so much like family to him more than he needed to be alone with his thoughts about getting older. Then he turned around and addressed the crowd that had been standing quietly after the initial shout of surprise. “Hey is this a party or what?”

“It is indeed a party, O’Neill,” Teal’c laughed as he grabbed a silly looking hat from a table full of them and placed it on Jack’s head before any protest could be made.

“It’s you, sir,” Sam smiled at him.

“Yep, Jack, it’s definitely you,” Daniel agreed through his own smile.

“Laugh it up, kids…cause your next,” he reached for three hats on the table and the fun really began.