Mistletoe Moment
Author’s Note: For The Ancient Obsessions Advent Challenge – December 16 (Mistletoe)
On the surface, Jack O’Neill didn’t seem to be a very contemplative man.
Most who knew of him wouldn’t have thought of him as a thinker.
But those who knew him would disagree.
Jack O’Neill could think with the best of them.
And tonight was a thinking night.
Despite the raucous reveling around him, Jack was lost in thought.
While Daniel danced with Janet and Sam attempted to explain the ‘Chipmunk Christmas’ album to Teal’c, Jack sipped a beer and sat comfortably in one corner of the room, thinking.
He was trying to make a decision, and he wasn’t having a very easy time of it.
His eyes focused keenly on the source of his preoccupation as Janet joined Sam and Teal’c in trying to decipher why singing rodents were ever a hit and Daniel flopped wearily on the couch.
Finally, a slow smile crawled its way to Jack’s lips, and he nodded slightly to himself.
As the nervous teenage boy who’d been Jack’s focus from the second he entered the house finally mustered the courage to kiss Cassandra Fraiser on the cheek under the mistletoe Jack had meticulously hung over his door, Jack made his decision.
That single moment made things abundantly clear to him, and as pride battled with a bittersweet sadness in his soul, he came to a realization.
While there was a part of him that protested against it violently and wanted to use that violence on the adolescent male across the room, Jack knew that SG-1’s little girl was growing up fast, and he couldn’t deny that she was doing so with style.
As a soft crimson crept into Cassie’s cheeks, Jack’s smile grew.
His often quietly busy brain settled on one simple thought to express itself.
‘You go, girl… but son, I’ll be watching.’
The End
