Bake Sale
by
Jackjunkie
Click for details and warnings
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters
are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double
Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment
purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is
intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the
authors. This story may not be posted anywhere without the consent of the
authors.
Bake Sale
"I know that recipe's around here somewhere," muttered Jack, banging shut one cupboard door and yanking open another.
"There's a recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package," Daniel observed. "Isn't that good enough?"
"When you've tasted Granny O'Neill's chocolate chip cookies, nothing else is ever good enough," Jack contradicted.
"There's a box marked 'Recipes.'" Daniel pointed over Jack's shoulder.
"I see it." Jack pulled the box out from the bottom of the pile, ignoring the things that came crashing down around it. Carrying it to the kitchen table, he pulled off the cover and rummaged through the stack of papers inside. "Paydirt!" he yelled at last, waving a yellowed piece of paper under his teammate's nose.
Together they scanned the list of ingredients written in the spidery, old-fashioned script.
"It looks like we picked up everything we need." Jack left Daniel to finish reading through the instructions and flung open another cupboard. "I'll get out the bowls and mixer and stuff." Moving aside some dishes, he reached into the back of the storage space.
"Jack, who's Muffin?"
A loud bang issued from the cupboard accompanied by a yelp. Jack emerged rubbing his head where he'd bumped it on an upper shelf. Watering brown eyes appraised the inquiring blue ones. "Muffin? What do you mean? Why do you ask?"
"This note on the back of the recipe." Giving his glasses a little shove up the bridge of his nose, Daniel read, "'Dearest Muffin, Have as much fun making these cookies as we always had baking them together. Don't forget to check for eggshell pieces when you break the eggs. Love, Granny.'"
Jack snatched the paper out of the scientist's hands. "You must be reading it wrong. Granny's handwriting was never the best."
"Jack, you're blushing."
"Nonsense! Colonels don't blush, Daniel."
"Whatever you say, but then why...?" Jack saw understanding dawn in the azure eyes. "Ohhh, I get it. You're Muffin, aren't you, Jack? Jack?"
"Me? I am not!" Jack faltered under his friend's earnest gaze. "I mean I was, but... aw hell, I was just a little kid and she was my grandmother. It was a dopey nickname, but what was I supposed to do? You know how grandparents are."
"No, not really." A wistful note tinged the husky voice.
Giving himself a mental kick for forgetting Daniel had grown up without any real family, Jack brought the conversation back to the safer ground of the nickname. "Look, this had better not get around," he advised sternly.
"Oh, I don't know. It's too good not to share." A mischievous smile curved Daniel's lips.
Jack scowled. "Don't forget who has the authority to ground you from missions."
"You wouldn't!"
"Oh, wouldn't I?"
They were interrupted by the sound of running feet. "My homework's all done! Can we start the baking now?" Cassandra burst into the kitchen, dancing from foot to foot as she waited impatiently for an answer.
With a last warning look at Daniel, Jack turned to the young girl. "Fast work, Cassie. Okay, cookie time."
"Thanks again for helping me with the school bake sale."
"Anything for a lovely lady." Jack grinned and waggled his eyebrows as Cassie giggled. Issuing instructions to his two assistants on measuring and mixing, he broke an egg into a bowl.
"Want me to spoon out the eggshell pieces?" Daniel offered with a sidelong glance into the gooey liquid dotted with jagged bits of white.
"What's the matter, don't you like your cookies crunchy? Besides, the shells are good for you. They have, um, calcium."
Daniel and Cassandra simply looked at him skeptically in silence.
"Okay, okay, I'll take 'em out," Jack groused. "There, shell-free, see." He poured in the vanilla extract as he watched his companions stir the dry ingredients together. "Remember, Cassie, a good rule to go by is to always try to get as much flour in the cookies as on yourself," he winked as a white cloud drifted over the child.
"Ah-choo!"
"And watch out for sneezing anthropologists," he added. "They're notorious cookie hounds. They sniff out chocolate chips wherever you hide them."
The scientist played along. "Let me see. Are you hiding any here? Or here? Or here?"
Cassie shrieked with laughter as Daniel began tickling her.
"The troops are down. That leaves all the chocolate chips for me," Jack proclaimed triumphantly, waving the bag of chocolate chips over his head.
"Are we going to let him get away with that?" Daniel asked Cassie.
"No way!" she exclaimed, launching herself at the colonel.
"Truce! Truce!" Jack laughed, lifting her up and twirling her around. "We'll share the chocolate chips - but first we have to put them into the cookies."
They finished the preparations and dropped the last cookie-to-be in place.
"Here, Cassie, wanna lick the spoon?" Jack offered when the loaded cookie sheets were in the oven. "Daniel, you can have one of the beaters from the mixer; I'll take the other."
Daniel gingerly accepted the batter-coated implement, eying it warily while his fellow bakers eagerly lapped up the mixture on their utensils. "Jack, it's uncooked dough," he objected.
"It's good," Cassie told him. "Don't you like cookie dough ice cream?"
"Don't you eat the leftover batter when you bake cookies?" Jack asked him in surprise.
"I-I've never baked cookies before," Daniel admitted.
"Not even when you were a kid?"
"No."
Jack realized Daniel hadn't had many opportunities for the usual childhood treats he took for granted. "Go ahead, try it," he encouraged. "For someone who's eaten his share of alien lizard meat, you're awfully picky all of a sudden. You can't go through life without tasting raw cookie dough. It's un-American."
"It's a rule," Cassie explained.
"In that case," Daniel shrugged. Extending his tongue, he tentatively licked a tiny morsel of the dough on his beater. His blue eyes rounded behind the glass lenses at the sweet taste melting in his mouth. Now widely smiling, he gobbled up a much larger helping of the dough, smacking his lips to catch a bit that threatened to fall off. "It's good," he mumbled around a mouthful.
"Ya think?"
"You were right. I'll never doubt you again... at least in the kitchen."
"Thanks." Aiming a playful swat at Daniel's head, Jack turned to Cassie. "I think you need to go get washed up, young lady. If Janet sees you like that she'll think we turned you into the Pillsbury dough girl." Tapping a finger across her nose, he held its white tip out for her to see.
Cassie looked from her flour-coated self to the oven. "The cookies aren't done," she pointed out.
"You helped with all the important stuff," Jack reassured her. "We can take it from here."
"Okay, I guess I should go clean up," she agreed and left the kitchen.
With a glance at his watch, Jack opened the oven door. Breathing in the mouth-watering aroma, he declared the golden brown cookies perfectly done. Daniel helped him pull the cookie sheets out and set them on the stovetop.
Reaching into a drawer for a spatula, Jack heard a startled wail. He whirled around to see Daniel putting his fingers into his mouth.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud. What happened?"
Opening his mouth long enough to admit, "I burned myself," Daniel promptly returned to sucking his wounded fingers.
"Here, let me see," Jack insisted, taking Daniel's hand and gently examining the reddened areas. "It doesn't look bad, but let's run it under the cold water." Turning on the faucet, he held the injured fingers under the running water. With relief he watched Daniel's pained wince slowly fade as the liquid cooled the burn. Reaction edged his voice with irritation as he asked, "Don't you know better than to touch a hot cookie sheet?"
"I didn't touch the sheet," Daniel explained sheepishly, "it was the cookie."
"The cookie? The cookies!" Spinning around, Jack grabbed the spatula and hurriedly started lifting the cookies off the hot sheets onto plates to cool. "We don't want to disappoint Cassie by letting them get burned on the bottom at the last minute."
"Sorry," Daniel apologized.
"Don't worry, they're fine." Jack shoveled the last cookie out of danger. "How're your fingers?"
Daniel turned off the faucet and flexed them experimentally. "Better already."
"Here, try one while it's still warm," Jack offered, holding out a plate. "They're okay to touch now." He demonstrated, picking up a cookie and biting into it. A grin lit his face. "Just like Granny's," he articulated through a mouthful of crumbs.
Daniel nibbled cautiously. "Mm, these are great." He hungrily wolfed down a bigger bite. "We're good cooks."
"Eating's the fun part," Jack said. "Now how about helping me with the not so fun part? Let's clean up this mess."
They began to wash the dirty dishes. Cassie returned in time to help them dry, and then joined them in sampling more of their tasty results.
As they finished packing the cooled cookies into the plasticware Cass had brought with her, a knock sounded on the door. "I'll get it!" She ran to answer it, returning in a moment leading Dr. Fraiser. "We made all of these." She gestured grandly to the cookies.
"You've been busy," Janet commented with a look at the full containers.
Cassie jumped up and down in excitement. "Wait'll you taste them."
"Better make a quick getaway before Daniel eats them all," Jack advised.
"Hey, I only had two," came the indignant protest.
"It looks like there are plenty here for the bake sale," Janet mediated. "Thanks again for helping out. Cassandra honey, help me carry them out to the car. We've got to get going."
"Okay. Thank you." After hugging Jack and Daniel good-bye, Cassie skipped off after Janet.
As the door closed behind them, Daniel called, "Wait! You forgot one." He picked up a container left sitting on the counter.
Removing it from his hands, Jack placed it back down where it was. "No, they didn't. That's our share. The master chefs get to keep something for all that hard work." He grinned and flicked a crumb from Daniel's chin. "Come on, Cookieboy, let's get you cleaned up. You look stickier than Cassandra."
"You're not especially neat yourself, Muffin."
Daniel ducked as a wet dishrag flew past his ear. "Ja-ack!"
"You started it."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did."
"Didn't."
"Daniel!" Jack took a deep breath. "What'll it take to make you forget that name?"
Daniel appeared to think it over. "Wellll, we could start with more cookies."
"That's easy."
"And milk."
"Milk coming right up. Granny's cookies taste even better dunked in milk."
Daniel's face lit up hopefully. "Can we have chocolate milk?"
"Chocolate it is. I've got some Hershey's syrup right here."
"I need some more napkins."
"I can see that."
"And could you get me another glass? This one's not very good for dunking."
"Uh huh." Jack held the plastic bottle over Daniel's head and squirted.
A stream of chocolate syrup ran through the fine hair and dripped in sticky rivulets down his face. "Ja-ack!"
"You pushed it too far, Daniel."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did."
"Didn't."