Chapter Text
"Jaaa-aack, you said you wanted an excuse to be unavailable for meetings," Daniel had said. "Sam will be in science meetings all afternoon, I'm busy working on this translation with Dr Fournier, and Mitchell has played about all the Go Fish he can stay awake for. Vala is bored out of her skull, and you've got the time to go with her."
Teal'c was offworld visiting his son, though he would hopefully gate back before dinner. Mitchell was still in the infirmary after abdominal surgery. And tomorrow morning the Atlantis contingent would return home.
"Escorting Vala. Right." he'd sighed. God only knew what the SGC's resident alien space pirate would want to do. But if he wanted Sam and Daniel to be free to go out for dinner tonight, he'd better leave them to their intergalactic catching up, and get Vala out of their hair too.
"Do it for Sam," Daniel had brought out the heavy guns. Jack and Sam might have officially put their weird almost-not-quite relationship to rest years ago, that didn't mean that if Sam asked for the moon, Jack still wouldn't have a good go at giving it to her. Fortunately she was too good of a person to make use of this fact. Unfortunately, Daniel didn't hesitate to invoke her name if it suited his purpose.
That was how General Jack O'Neill had ended up driving toward the Colorado Springs Target with Vala Mal Doran in the passenger seat.
She was quiet, which he had understood was unusual for her. He'd only met her once in a meeting, and he'd pegged her as far more brash than shy.
"So what are we shopping for?"
"Atlantis," she said, patting the cargo pocket of her trousers. "Sam gave me a list."
Ah, so they really were shopping for Sam. He mentally forgave Daniel. A little.
"Okay, let's hear it," he said easily, wondering if she was quiet because of him.
"It's mostly baby stuff, for Teyla."
She forced some cheer, but it couldn't quite hide the brittleness, and he suddenly remembered hearing about her pregnancy, alone and stranded in another galaxy - then seeing the baby taken away to be grown immediately into their mortal enemy.
"Right," he nodded. "And the rest?"
"Not much. Wii games for the rec room, three simple digital video cameras, nice shower gel, microwave popcorn."
"That's it? We can do better than that," Jack decided, turning into the parking lot. He parked up and cracked his knuckles.
Vala watched him with large eyes, and he remembered her idea of what a general was like was probably formed by Hank Landry. This could be fun.
"Let's get two carts," he directed, grinning. Yes, let's shop.
It was partly to give the city a boost - he knows very well what care packages could do for morale - and partly to see Sam grin, but not in the least to see this bright, bouncy woman restored to her usual whirlwind self.
She was running her hands along the toiletry shelves in an indecisive sort of way when he gently bumped her cart with his own to get her attention.
"Can't decide?"
"They all smell nice," she shrugged, hand stilling at a lemon flavoured one.
"That one will make Sam grin," he nodded. Vala flashed him a grin of her own, apparently having heard about McKay and lemons. "How much did she say to get?"
"There's no amount on the list. I don't know if she meant just for herself..."
"There are almost fifty women in the city. Get a bottle of each," he recommended.
The look she gave him said that she'd certainly not expected to hear that from him.
"We can do that?" Apparently she heard 'no' a lot, he concluded. Daniel or Mitchell? Probably Daniel. He'd have to give her some ammunition. Plenty of stories.
"Sure. They can entertain themselves by swapping," he shrugged, and then they were both pulling bottles from the shelves.
He figured he didn't have to worry about load volume, so long as he kept it down to two, max 3 carts. It had been a last minute trip, and there was no pallet of boxes waiting to be taken back with them.
Sam, McKay and the French archaeologist Daniel was working with had come by jumper together with a marine who had been brought to Peterson for dental surgery, and Lt Cadman and a sergeant who helped her in the Atlantis 'Boom room'. The two of them had been Odyssey-beamed to MIT for an update talk about her PhD. He was glad she's brought somebody along who could rightly be called research assistant - it looked better than the marines they might have had to assign her otherwise. Just because the Trust had been quiet of late was no reason to lose caution.
He suspected this impromptu visit had been put together immediately after the weekly data burst. Which had contained news of Mitchell's mishap. It still felt strange sometimes that SG-1 v2.0 was that close, had bonded so heavily, and that he wasn't part of that anymore. He couldn't begrudge it though. Working with Mitchell had been good for Sam. He'd thought she should have been leading the team, but she seemed to have enjoyed it - and Mitchell had handled it well, the equal rank thing. No baggage, a healthy respect for her brilliance.
Point was, there would be space in the jumper for them to go a little crazy with the shopping.
"Come on, games," he navigated the isles, confident Vala would follow in his wake. She did, though it wasn't exactly a steady course - now and then she would get distracted by things on the shelves, and drop some things into her rapidly filling cart.
Jack found an employee and gave the affable smile that always seemed to worry people.
"Hi there. I am looking for some board games for a bunch of geek friends."
"Well sir, how complex are you thinking of? How long should a game take? Competitive or cooperative? I can recommend..."
He tried to follow the young man's explanation as several boxes were pulled out, when Vala showed up his peripheral vision, presenting with a flourish a box that said 'Escape from Atlantis'. He grinned, and she added it to her cart.
"Catan is popular, but if you say they're game geeks they may already have it. Agricola is quite complex and can easily fill an evening. Pandemic is fun and cooperative..."
About an hour later they had games, video cameras, bacon, vast loads of popcorn, a variety of spicy sauces to liven up commissary food, and he was still thinking about beer. He couldn't include much, so it had to be special. Maybe just a few bottles each for Sheppard and Lorne.
Then he remembered the baby supplies, and Vala's cheerful wandering progress slowed as they reached that section of the shop. She drifted through the isle of baby stuff, looking lost amidst heavily pregnant women and parents with small babies.
Unsure what to say or do to make her feel better, Jack began to fill up his cart with the sort of thing you gave to an expectant mother. A jar of nice smelling stuff to smear on her stomach. Some baby rompers in green and orange and purple. One of those cute blankets with a hood to wrap a baby in and make them look like a bear. Nothing too practical; the Athosians had to have their own way of seeing a baby taken care of, and he didn't want to impose Earth ways on her.
When he was finished he returned to where Vala was staring unseeingly at baby socks. She must have had hopes and wishes for her child, Jack figured. Must have longed to meet her baby in those last heavy months, like Sara had. To have it ripped from her arms...
He took the socks she'd been staring at, and added them to his cart. She shook herself from her musings, giving his cart a surprised look.
"I had a son," he brought out, feeling inexplicably compelled to share.
It felt strangely like relief to say it. Especially when she didn't ask the dreaded question. Just said:
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry for you, too."
With that the topic was closed, and they walked out of the isle, only stopping for her to grab a dolphin toy that had a recordable module inside of it. She had a smile on her face again, a little brittle still but growing as they entered an isle full of plush toys. The sadness back into its box again. He vaguely admired that.
"What's this thing?" she bounced back over.
"It's a reminder that life is very, very strange," he said, admiring the stuffed Platypus. It was really quite lifelike. "You should get one.. in fact, get several. I'm sure Sheppard needs one of those things in his life. Lorne too."
Vala's eyes lit up.
"How many?"
"I don't know, how many Platypus...pusses.. platypii do you think they need?"
"Platypie?" she shook her ponytails back over her shoulders.
"Ohh, pie."