Title: No Postage Due

Author: Debi C

Feedback: dcole6@satx.rr.com

Rating: G for friends

Pairing: not as you could tell

Category: QuickFicChallenge: Valentine's Day, Gen, Friendship

Status: Finished

Series: None

Season/Spoilers: a few minor ideas gleaned from Chain Reaction, Cold Lazarus, Forever In A Day, Seth, & Bloodlines

Archive: Alpha Gate. TheBoy. Heliopolis. Incoming Wormhole. Thruthestargate. Anyone else please ask.

Synopsis: It's the little things in life...

Notes: One QuickFicChallenge: Valentine's Day - With A Twist

Warnings: Hanky warning and not beta'd.

Disclaimer:Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/ Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I do not own the characters and indeed am only playing with them for a little while. I am not making any money from this and I'm still paying for everything I own so there's very little point in suing me. No copyright infringement whatsoever is intended. The story is for entertainment purposes only. At least I hope it's entertaining. The original characters, situations and story are mine. Please check with me first if you want to archive or link to this story.

No Postage Due
Debi C

Major General George Hammond arrived at his home after a long tiring Thursday at the SGC. It had been filled with pitfalls and pratfalls of every description. The Tok'ra wanted something, Senator Kinsey had called, Major Davis was in route to talk about funding...again. Then the last straw had been when the refrigeration unit went out in the dining hall. Yes, it had been a hell of a day. And tomorrow, Friday, the fourteenth of February, did not show any signs of improving. The way his luck had been running, a new NID problem would show up! Already, everybody was walking around with bad attitudes and worse tempers.

As he entered the kitchen he found a small pile of mail on his dining room table. His daughter-in-law must have come by earlier today to check on something and brought in the mail for him. As he sorted through the bills and advertisements, he found several large, red envelopes. Four of them were tied together with a ribbon and one larger one was lying on top of them. There were no stamps in the corner and no postmarks but they were all addressed very formally to several people and the biggest one was for Major General Grandpaw. He smiled at the piece of mail and opened it. Inside was a hand drawn card with a picture of a lopsided heart. In shaky crayon print, it said Happy Valentine's Day, and was signed from Kayla and Tessa. George held it in both his hands for a moment then carefully stuck it on the refrigerator with a magnet beside several other hand drawn pictures and photographs. Well, maybe today hadn't been such a bad day after all. He then read the note attached to the other four envelopes that were wrapped together and smiled to himself. Tomorrow would be a whole lot better.

Colonel Jack O'Neill entered his office Friday morning and dropped his long-suffering briefcase onto his desk. It had been a trying day so far. He'd been late to work because the truck had a flat when he went out to go to work. The reports due first thing this morning were late because he was and Kinsey called yesterday and had made Hammond impossible to be around.not that he blamed his boss. Kinsey made him downright homicidal.

He shuffled through his In-Box; it was full of the usual requests, reports, and documents that needed his blessing or disapproval. Then, O'Neill noticed a large, red envelope in the stack. There was no stamp in the corner and no postmark but it was addressed very formally to Colonel Jack. He picked up the piece of mail and opened it. Inside was a hand drawn card with a picture of a lopsided heart. In shaky crayon print, it said Happy Valentine's Day, and was signed Kayla and Tessa. Jack held it for a moment and then smiled a small smile. It reminded him of a card he'd gotten long ago from his own child, carefully drawn and lovingly colored. He looked down at the card where it lay in his hands with suspiciously moist eyes. Then, very carefully, he stepped to the wall directly across from his desk and attached it onto the frame of his astronomical charts with a piece of tape so he could see it as he worked. Today was a good day already.

Major Samantha Carter came into her office/lab in a fury. The important experiment that she'd been running on her prototype naquadah reactor had been completely compromised by an unwitting lab assistant dunderhead! Three weeks of her painstaking, meticulous work was down the drain. It would take another month of effort on her part to reestablish the guidelines necessary, refigure the mathematics and recalibrate the instrumentation controls that were needed for the work to be re-accomplished. And she'd wasted a good amount of the hard to acquire Naquadah fuel to boot. She was so pissed! It was impossible!

She threw down her lab coat on the workbench, scattering a pile of mail that had been lying there. She stopped a moment, did a double take and picked up a large red envelope. There was no stamp in the corner and no postmark but it was addressed very formally to Major Sammi. She smiled involuntarily at the piece of mail and carefully opened it. Inside was a hand drawn card with a picture of a lopsided heart. Sam sat down in her chair and looked at it with fondness, carefully reading the words inside. In shaky crayon print, it said "Happy Valentine's Day, signed Kayla and Tessa." Sam held it for a moment then carefully slipped it in the large outer frame of a picture of her brother Mark and his family. She remembered two other children, years ago making a card very much like this one for their mother and father. Then, she and her brother had played together with paper and scissors; now she played with the power source of the 'gods'. She had to smile at her own whimsy. Today was definitely going to be a better than average, good day.

Doctor Daniel Jackson was depressed. Everywhere around him, even on the television last night, everybody seemed to be having a good time. But his good times were over, as was his search for his lost wife. Sha'uri was dead back on Abydos, no longer a tortured prisoner but gone from him forever now. He remembered once trying to tell her about Valentines Day, but she hadn't really understood the concept, except that it was a special day for him for some reason. So, that one Valentine's Day they had together so long ago, she had been happy to show him how much she loved him. And he had been given that one year to show her how much she meant to him. But it was over...gone... like sand in the winds of his adopted world.

And today, even the weather had seemingly turned against him. His sinuses were screaming, his throat was raw and his head hurt like someone was pounding a bass drum on top of it. Then, to make matters worse, he had spilled his coffee on his journal from their last mission. Now, he was using paper towels to try to rescue his notes from the mess. As he wiped up the disaster and straightened his work area, he discovered a short stack of paperwork that had obviously been brought in earlier that morning. There were memos, yellow sticky notes and one large red envelope. There was no stamp in the corner and no postmark but it was addressed very formally to Dr Daniel. Mystified, he put the paper towel down on the desk, picked up the letter and opened it. Inside was a homemade card with a hand drawn picture of a lopsided heart. In shaky crayon print, it said Happy Valentine's Day, from Kayla and Tessa. Daniel stopped his cleaning efforts all together, perched himself on the stool next to his worktable, straightened his glasses and examined the card, admiring it's workmanship. After several minutes, he took the card over to his display shelf and arranged it next to his and Sha'uri's wedding cup. Standing back, he assured himself that it was even, level and straight. Then he smiled gently to himself. Maybe today would be all right after all.

Teal'c was not happy. He was growing more and more frustrated with his pupils in the self-defense classes. This morning, his early class had been in a very odd, playful mood. Normally this would not bother him. But today, his students had insisted on performing all the movements he had taught them in a most aggravating manner, as if they were playing with each other. It would lead to danger and injury for them on the field of battle. Then, after class, he had gone to the dining facility to discover that the freezer unit had failed and there was no fresh milk. The warrior knew that he had to calm himself or he would definitely ruin someone else's day in a more physical manner.

As he settled down to do his Kel-no-reem, he noticed a red colored envelope sitting on the low table that held some of his candles. There was no stamp in the corner and no postmark but it was addressed very formally to Mister Teal'c. He regarded the piece of mail curiously for several moments before he finally opened it. Inside the colorful cover was a hand drawn card with a picture of a lopsided stylized heart. In shaky crayon print, it said Happy Valentine's Day, and was signed by Kayla and Tessa. Teal'c didn't initially understand the meaning of the inscription until he recalled that O'Neill had tried to explain this Taur'i celebration called Valentine's Day to him. His friend and commander hadn't been too clear about the reason behind the bright red oddly shaped cards. It certainly didn't resemble any heart that he'd ever seen in a human being. But as he contemplated the signatures, he was reminded of the two small girl children that he had met at a bar-b-que at General Hammond's house. They were sweet children, and while they didn't physically resemble his own son, the innocence and trust they demonstrated did bring back the fond memories he had of his own child's younger years. He placed the card carefully in the center of the table and began his meditations with warm feelings and a small smile. He believed that it was going to be a good day.


Major General George Hammond sat at his desk, looking at the hand made Valentines Day card he'd brought with him from home and smiled down at it. When he had arrived at the SGC earlier today, he had completed his assigned tasks as he had been requested. Kayla and Tessa had outdone themselves again this year he had wanted to be sure that all the cards had been delivered by hand to the desk or workbench of the proper person. Now that he had done it, he could relax and start his workday. He had a feeling that this was going to be a great day after all.

fin