Story Notes:

            Type: Kidfic, humor

            Rating: G

            Length: 1200 words

            A/N: This one is dedicated to my nephew Isaiah who, at 4 years old, inspired most of the story with his question, “When will I be three again?”

 

 

Birthday Presents

 

Daniel watched as Jack cut the wrapping paper.  Daniel was sitting on the dining room table, with Cairo the monkey between his crossed legs, but Jack hadn’t told them to move.  Daniel was glad.  He couldn’t see as well from the chair because he was little.  He couldn’t wait until he was big like Jack.  Or like Teal’c.

 

“When it’s my birthday, I’m gonna be five,” Daniel announced, holding up five fingers to accompany his statement.

 

Jack folded the wrapping paper around the box that held Cassie’s present.  “Yup.  Hand me the tape please, Danny.”

 

Daniel handed over the tape, beaming.  He liked to help Jack with things.  “When’s it my birthday?”

 

Jack sighed.  “Do I have to answer that again?”

 

“I’ll do it.  First it’s Cassie’s, then Sam’s, then…”  Daniel went through the entire sequence of birthdays left to go.  He’d asked Jack so often since learning of Cassie’s birthday that he’d memorized the whole list.  He finished triumphantly, “And then it’s mine, and I’m gonna be five.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Cuz I’m four now, and five comes after four.”

 

Jack murmured another agreement, focused on holding the edges of the wrapping paper together while he affixed tape to them.  Daniel watched, but his mind was busy with other matters.

 

“Jack, when will I be three again?”

 

“You’re done being three, Danny.  And after your birthday comes and you turn five, then you’re done being four.”

 

“Oh.”  That was kinda sad.  He didn’t remember much about three, but he liked being four.  “Why?”

 

“That’s the way it works.  Can’t go backwards.”

 

“Why not?  You said I did it before.”

 

“Once was enough, Dannyboy, and I’m pretty sure you’re the only one in the universe who could have managed that trick.”

 

Daniel nodded wisely.  “Cuz I’m special.  Everyone says so.”

 

Jack chuckled.  “That’s right.  No problem with your self-esteem this time around, huh?”  He held up three bows.  “Which one?”

 

Daniel stabbed his finger at the red bow.  Jack stuck tape on the bow and handed it to Daniel, who placed it in the exact center of the present.

 

“Perfect,” Jack pronounced.  “Where’s the card?”

 

Daniel looked over each shoulder.  “Don’t know.”

 

“Hmm.  Check under Cairo’s butt.”

 

Daniel lifted the monkey and found the card.  “Look, Jack.  Cairo was hiding it.”  He set Cairo to the side while he read the letters Jack had printed on the index card.  “F-R-O-M.  What’s that say, Jack?”

 

“From.  Give it here.  I still have to shower before we head over to Fraisers.”

 

“I know this one,” Daniel said, snatching the card from Jack’s reaching fingers.  “That’s my name!  D-A-N-I-E-L.  That’s my name, Jack.”

 

“Yes, it is.  And the other name on there is mine.”  Jack waggled his fingers, and Daniel reluctantly handed over the card.  Jack taped it onto the present, and Daniel frowned because Jack hadn’t centered it or anything.  He’d just plopped it on.

 

“Can we go to the store?” Daniel asked.  “I wanna get a present for Cassie.”

 

“We got a present for Cassie.”  Jack tapped the box.  “Right here.”

 

“But I want one from just me.  Me and Cairo.”

 

Jack checked his watch.  “Well, we won’t have time for the store.  How about you and Cairo draw a picture for Cassie while I’m in the shower?  I bet no one else got her a picture.”

 

Daniel considered.  He could do that.  He drawed good pictures.  Everyone said so.  He nodded, grabbed Cairo, and scrambled from the table.  He had a real desk in his bedroom, with different sizes of paper and markers and crayons and books and artifacts and everything.

 

“How’s it going?” Jack asked, coming into Daniel’s bedroom twenty minutes later.  Daniel proudly displayed his picture.  “Well, that’s got to be the neatest picture I’ve ever seen.  What are those circles down there?”

 

“Paw prints.  Cairo drawed them.”

 

“Ah.  And those squiggly lines?”

 

“Jaaack!”  Honestly, Jack could be so silly sometimes.  “That’s a road.  See?  And that’s you and me and Cassie walking on the road.  Going to the park.”

 

“Wow.  Look at that.  I look big and strong.”

 

Daniel snorted.  “That’s cuz you are, Jack.”

 

“Oh.  Yeah.  So what’s this?”

 

“The park.  See?  Here’s the swings and the slide and the jungle gym.  And Cairo sitting in the sandbox, waiting for us.”  Daniel stole a glance at the monkey who was leaning against a stack of books on his desk and said in a loud whisper, “Cairo drawed that.” 

 

“Did he?”  Jack lifted an eyebrow.

 

“I told him it was bad cuz you said he’s not allowed in the sandbox.  But I think he misses the desert, Jack.  Maybe we should let him go in the sandbox with me next time we go to the park?”

 

“Sorry, Danny.  He can look at your Egypt books when he’s feeling lonely for desert, but no sandbox.  He gets too dirty.  He can sit with me at the picnic table, just like always.”

 

Daniel shrugged.  “Okay.  But you gotta stop grabbing him by the tail.  He’s afraid you’re going to drop him.”

 

“I wouldn’t do that.”

 

Daniel made a face.  “Yes, you would.”

 

“Wouldn’t.”

 

“Would.”

 

“Wouldn’t.”  Jack crossed his arms over his chest and sulked just like a baby. 

 

Daniel giggled.  Jack was so silly.

 

Jack grinned and gave Daniel a one-armed hug.  “Come on, buddy.  We’re gonna be late.  Shoes.”

 

“But what about my picture?”

           

“What about it?”  Jack swooped Daniel off his feet, tossed him on the bed, and plucked his shoes up from the floor.

 

Daniel wiggled away, pulling his feet out of Jack’s grasp.  “We gotta wrap it.”

 

Jack grabbed a foot, tugged Daniel closer, tickled him into submission, and then manhandled the shoe onto him.  “No time.”

 

“But Jaaack!  It’s not a real present if it’s not wrapped.”

 

Jack worked the other shoe on.  “How about we roll it up like a scroll and tie a ribbon around it?”

 

Oh.  Daniel felt his eyes go wide.  Sometimes Jack was really smart.  “Like a papyrus?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Then it’ll be like an artifact.”

 

“Exactly.  Put your coat on and get Cairo.  I’ll take care of your picture.”

 

The rolled picture, complete with pink ribbon, sat on the table with the other present when Daniel came out of his room.  He grinned.  Jack knelt to one knee, zipped up Daniel’s coat, and eyed the blanket wrapped around Cairo.

 

“Do we have to bring the blanket?”

 

Daniel nodded vigorously.  “Cairo needs it.  He doesn’t have a coat.”

 

Jack sighed.  “Fine.  But let’s not forget it this time, all right?  I don’t want to drive back to Janet’s in the middle of the night just because you won’t sleep without your blanket.”

 

Daniel nodded.  He didn’t want to forget it either.  The blanket had a very special corner that he rubbed against his nose while he was going to sleep.

 

Jack shrugged into his own coat, picked up the presents, and handed the scroll to Daniel.  “You wanna carry this?”

 

“Yeahsureyoubetcha,” Daniel said, rearranging Cairo and his blanket under one arm so he could hold his present.  He shivered with excitement.  Presents were the very best part of birthdays.  “Hey, Jack, can I help Cassie unwrap her presents?”