Author: A. Karswyll
Rated: K
Words: 1,190
Summary: Jack O'Neill is determined that this June 6th, he will not be the only one celebrating the holiday and how else to involve reluctant teammates but to surprise them with some gifts? But he isn't the only one in store for a surprise.
Season 4
6 June 2000
Jack O'Neill held a small box in one hand and whistled under his breath as he navigated the tunnel hallways of the base to Carter's lab. The door was open so he poked his head through the doorway and was pleased to see all three teammates present, which meant Daniel and Teal'c had joined forces today to get Carter to lunch. She'd been overly absorbed with the… something device from P3X… whatever this past week and skipping too many meals.
"Hi campers," he greeted.
"Sir," Carter rose to attention beside her workbench.
"Hi Jack."
"O'Neill."
He nodded his head at their greetings and eyed the device on her workbench but figured, as the guys were all standing next to it, it was safe to approach. He entered the lab and held his package up. "Somewhere I can put this down for a sec Carter?"
Carter eyed his box far too warily in his opinion. It wasn't like it was some wacko alien device like the one gutted on her workbench that could turn people to stone or whatever it did.
"Here Sir," she pointed to reasonably bare area of the workbench close to her.
He set the box down and flipped up the top flaps and took out the first toy, a bright yellow coloured one like his blue one. "Here, this is for you," he passed it to her and then passed a wooden yo-yo made of dark and light coloured woods glued together to Daniel and a green Yoda yo-yo to Teal'c in turn. "Happy National Yo-yo Day!"
Carter turned the spool-like toy over in her hand like it was some foreign thing. "They really celebrate, um, yo-yos Sir?"
"Yep, on Duncan's birthday," he enthusiastically informed them and took out his own yo-yo and threaded the string loop onto his finger. Really, by this point one would think his team would get that he didn't make up the odd holidays he celebrated—other people had already done it for him.
"Who is Duncan?" Teal'c asked as he examined the Yoda yo-yo he held and although it was regular sized the green coloured toy look small in his hands.
"Donald Duncan," Jack named him and dropped his hand to let the blue yo-yo spin down the string to spin at the end in the sleeping motion, "he invented the yo-yo in the 1930s."
Daniel frowned. "That's not true, the yo-yo is an ancient invention and while its origins are hard to identify we do know that the ancient Greeks had them. I know of a two thousand four hundred forty year old kylix, a type of wine-drinking cup, on which a boy is depicted playing with a yo-yo. Also, Greek records from the period describe the toy and state they were made out of wood, metal, or painted terracotta, that is, fired clay."
Jack snapped his yo-yo back up the string. "Okay, okay, Duncan didn't invent, invent them. But he did make them all popular again and start the contests and stuff. And it's because he bought the first yo-yo factory from the Filipino guy that we call them yo-yos and not bandalores. And never mind that stuff, try them out."
Daniel looked doubtful but slipped his finger into the string loop and dropped his dual coloured wooden yo-yo. It spun down the string and when Daniel jerked his hand up it wound up and then back down and after a few attempts to get the yo-yo to return to his hand the toy spun out in circles at the end and Daniel had to pull it up to rewind the string.
"Just need some practice," Jack said cheerfully and dropped his yo-yo to the end of its string, put it to sleep, and then walked the dog across the concrete floor. He pulled the toy back into his hand and turned to Carter. "Give it a try Carter."
Carter looked reluctant as well, but took the yellow toy in hand and dropped her yo-yo down the string and while it swung from side to side for a moment she managed to put it to sleep, where it spun on the end of the string for some time, before returning it to her hand.
"Good, good." Jack approved. "We'll have you Going Around the World in no time. What you about T?"
Teal'c slipped a finger into the loop and the green yo-yo dropped down the string and back up to his hand in one smooth motion.
"Not bad," Jack complimented.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow and tossed the yo-yo in an arch from left to right and as it spun out, caught the string with two of his left fingers so the yo-yo landed dead on its string and formed a loop in the string. With his right hand he pushed on the looped string and flipped the yo-yo over his left to land on the string, swung it back over the left hand to arch down and over his right hand when the yo-yo landed on the string a third time. He flipped it back over his throw hand, swung it back around to spin around his left fingers to catch it on the string on the second circle.
"Whoa." Jack recognized the advanced trick called Skin the Gerbil—which was way, way ahead of his measly Walk the Dog. He looked sidelong at Carter and Daniel, and while he wasn't open mouthed in surprise like the other man was, to judge from their expressions at least he wasn't the only one surprised! "I um, take it Jaffa have yo-yos?"
"Indeed." Teal'c inclined his head and unwound his yo-yo to bring it back to rest in his hand. "It is a most useful tool for the coordination of hand and eye. Thank you for the gift O'Neill. I am most pleased with the image of Grand Master Yoda upon it."
"You're ah, welcome." Jack cleared his throat, pocketed his yo-yo, and clapped his hands together, "Well, lunchtime! We ready to go?"
He blew out a relived breath when the three nodded. They exited Carter's lab and with Teal'c and Daniel in front engrossed in their own conversation as Daniel asked numerous question of the big guy about Jaffa yo-yos, he bumped his shoulder into Carter's shoulder.
"Sir?" she gave him a quizzical look.
"Hey, Carter, what do yo-yos and life have in common?"
Carter's expression would be categorized as the equivalent of an eye-roll on anyone that wasn't as skilled poker-face subordinate as she was. "Sir?"
He bumped her shoulder again. "C'mon Carter."
"Okay Sir," Carter obligingly played along, "what do yo-yos and life have in common?"
"They have their ups and downs," he delivered the punch line and grinned in triumph at the laugh that won from Carter as she shook her head at him. So celebrating National Yo-yo Day wasn't going quite like he'd planned, showing off the tricks he knew while teaching his team how to play with a yo-yo, but Carter was still laughing at his jokes so it was a fine holiday indeed.
To see Skin the Gerbil in action visit http://yoyoexpert.com/learn/060-expert-skin-the-gerbil.html
