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Sam was in her lab typing up notes from their latest mission. Her brows were furrowed as she tried to type everything that had happened. It had been a long mission and she was tired. She barely remembered to not include the part where she had to watch as the Colonel took off his BDU shirt, which left him in just his black t-shirt underneath. It had been a hot planet, but it had been nothing compared to how he had looked. She was lost in her thoughts remembering having to watch the sweat roll down his neck when a knock sounded at her lab door and made her jump.
“Major Carter, I require your assistance.”
“Teal’c, you scared me!” Sam was still breathing heavily trying to calm her body’s automatic response down.
“I apologize, Major Carter. But your assistance is needed immediately.”
“Sure, what’s up? Alien invasion? Is the gate down again? Wait, no alarms are going off. What’s wrong?” Her heart rate was starting to go up again.
“No, it is not an emergency at the base.”
“Ok.” Sam drew out the word wondering what was going on.
“I would like to inquire about something called ‘Jaffa cakes.’”
“What is that?”
“It is unclear. I was partaking in the ritual of grocery shopping with Daniel Jackson this afternoon and overheard someone wishing they could find Jaffa cakes.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of that. Did you ask Daniel?”
“I did not. He was otherwise occupied at the time. I believe he was actively pursuing the perfect set of bananas.”
Sam chuckled. “That sounds like Daniel. Let me search the internet for it, since I’m assuming it was just a normal guy talking about them?”
“Yes, I took the opportunity to walk by the two gentlemen and sensed no naquadah nor did they indicate that they recognized me in any way. I did follow them outside where I was able to procure the license plate for the vehicle they were utilizing for transportation.”
“Alright, well, hopefully we shouldn’t need that. Let’s first see if the internet has anything for us.” Sam turned once more towards her computer and minimized her mission notes. After connecting to the base internet and opening up the browser, she brought up a search engine and typed ‘Jaffa cakes’ into the search bar.
After a moment search results started to populate on the screen. One of the first ones was a link to a Wikipedia page. Sam clicked on it and waited on the page to load. “Ok, it looks like it’s just some sort of cake that is popular in England. It’s a sponge cake with an orange jam and chocolate. Apparently, it was named after Jaffa oranges.”
“The Jaffa have oranges as well, Major Carter?”
“In this case, Jaffa is for a city in Israel. I didn’t know there was a city called ‘Jaffa’. That’s interesting.”
“Indeed. These cakes have nothing to do actual Jaffa then?”
Colonel O’Neill walked in at that point, “Did I just hear the word ‘cake’?”
“Yes, sir. We are investigating something that Teal’c overheard in the grocery store.”
“Something about cake? Buddy, if you wanted to talk about cake, why didn’t you come to me? I’m kinda hurt.” Jack put his hand up on his chest as though he was wounded.
“O’Neill, I chose to inquire with Major Carter first because I believed she had the most skills readily available to assist me.”
Jack raised his eyebrows at that. “Skills? For cake? I don’t really think she could even bake a cake. And what other skills would be involved?”
“Sir,” Sam started trying not to come off too offended, “I’ll have you know I used to bake cookies with my mom all the time.”
“That was a long time ago. And cookies are not cake.” Jack was confused why she seemed so offended. It’s not like her lack of kitchen skills was news to anyone here.
“No, sir. Anyway, baking cakes is not what we are discussing.”
Daniel took that opportunity to walk into the lab, “There you guys are. What are we discussing?”
“Something about cakes apparently. But, not about making them. Carter was just about to explain.”
“Yes, sir. Teal’c overheard some guys in the grocery store mention something called, ‘Jaffa cakes’. We were just trying to figure out what that was. According to the internet, they are popular in England. They are made up of a sponge cake—”
“Orange jam and a chocolate top?” Jack asked.
“Yes, sir. How did you know?”
“Carter, I’m offended. Again. I am a cake connoisseur after all. I should know my cakes.”
“I apologize, O’Neill. Apparently, I should have started with you on this inquiry after all.” Teal’c bowed his head in apology to Jack.
“Yes. Yes, you should have. But, let’s not dwell, shall we?”
“How do you know about these cakes, sir? And how come you never brought them up considering their name?”
“Well, it wasn’t until you started talking about them and England that I remembered. When I was stationed overseas for a while, I took a trip to England and I remembered eating them. It was so long ago, I didn’t really remember the name, obviously.”
“According to the internet, they are named after Jaffa oranges. Which are named for the city called Jaffa in Israel.” Sam recounted what she had already explained to Teal’c after reading the Wikipedia page.
Daniel had come over to read the Wikipedia page over Sam’s shoulder. “Oh, I’ve been there.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at this, while Sam looked up at him over her shoulder and asked, “You’ve been to Jaffa?”
“Um, yeah. It’s just across the border from Egypt. It’s a long drive, but I’ve gone there a few times while I was on various digs in Egypt.”
“And you never thought to mention to Teal’c here that there was a city named the same as his people?” Sam questioned.
Daniel stood back up and pushed up his glasses. “Well, like Jack here, I don’t really remember everything either. I can’t say I’ve thought about it since the last time I was there. It is a beautiful city though right on the Mediterranean Sea, from what I recall. Lots of history.” Daniel leaned back on the desk and crossed his arms getting ready to launch into lecture time. “The town was mentioned in several Egyptian sources as ‘Yapu’ and mythology says that was named for Yafet. He was one of the sons of Noah, you know as in Noah’s ark in the Bible. There are also some rocks near the harbor that is supposed to be the place where Andromeda was rescued by Perseus.”
By this point, Jack had tuned the man out from his lecture, but when he heard a pause in the words spoke up, “So, the Jaffa have cake. But it’s nothing to do with the Jaffa we’ve come to know.”
Sam dipped her head as she tried not to smile. Daniel, irritated that he was interrupted said, “Well, technically, the city may have been named after the Jaffa. The Goa’uld predate the city, after all.”
“Right, so how do we get some?”
Sam was able to control her laughter by then and asked, “Sir?”
“Well, surely we can find a way to get some of these Jaffa Cakes to enjoy and have T here try them out. Especially if they are named after him and his people.”
“Well, let me see if I can find a way, sir.” Sam turned back to her computer once again to open a new search window this time searching for places to buy Jaffa cakes somewhere closer than across an ocean. “They are actually on Amazon.”
“Amazon? What the heck is that, Carter? Other than a river and rainforest.”
Sam gave him a smile again, this time letting him see it. “It’s an online shopping marketplace. You buy what you want and they deliver it to you. They have a lot of things.”
“What, people can’t just go to the store anymore?”
“I think people are very lazy, sir. Besides, case in point, they seem to sell things that aren’t in stores.”
“Alright, so how can we buy these?”
“I can add a box of the cakes to my cart, put my credit card information in and in a week or so it’ll show up at the base.”
“Well, alright then. Do it, Carter.”
“Yes, sir.” Sam added a box of 48 cakes to her cart and walked through the checkout process entering in the base as the shipping address. Even though they weren’t supposed to use the base as their personal delivery service, who knows if they’d be on the planet when these got delivered. Besides, she had approval from her CO, so she could always blame him if she got in trouble. “If I get in trouble for this—”
“Yeah, yeah, Carter. Blame it on me.” Sam ducked her head again holding in the smile. “So, while we wait for these, anyone want to join me in the cafeteria for the cake of the day?”
*****
One Week Later
Sam walked into her lab and saw a large cardboard box on her desk. Looking at it, she saw Amazon listed as the shipper and realized what it was. Grabbing the closest sharp object she could find, she tore the box open and pulled out the giant box of Jaffa Cakes. Grabbing 4 cake packages from the box, she went to go find her teammates.
She found Jack just coming out of the elevator on her floor. “Carter, I was just on my way to your lab.”
“I can see that, sir. I was just on my way to find you.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, sir. I got a delivery today.” She shoved the two cakes in one of her hands at him.
He instinctively pulled back as her hand came flying at him. Then he reached up to grab what she was holding, brushing her fingertips in the process, of course. Looking at the packages, he read the label, “Jaffa Cakes. Oh, they came? Sweet.”
“Yes, sir. Let’s go see if we can find Daniel and Teal’c.” They turned and Jack punched the button to call the elevator again. They went by Daniel’s office first and was able to gift him one of the packages and then dragged him away from his books and rocks to go find Teal’c. They found him in his quarters and finally all four of them made their way to the cafeteria.
Jack, Sam, and Daniel made themselves a cup of coffee, while Teal’c requested the milk of a cow from one of the women behind the counter. They all sat down at their table with their drinks and their Jaffa Cake package. They waited while Teal’c opened the package very carefully without tearing into it and laid the wrapping flat on the table with the cake in the middle. Then the rest of them tore into theirs grabbing the cakes out.
“Alright, here goes nothing.” Daniel said before biting into his cake. The rest of them followed taking a bite. Teal’c ended up with only a third left in his hand when he got done with his ‘bite.’
“Just as I remember it,” Jack stated. “I mean, it doesn’t beat a freshly made cake, but it’s pretty good.”
Sam, meanwhile, was taking a sip of her coffee to help wash it down. “Yeah, I don’t know, sir.”
Jack looked over at her seeing her grimace. “No good?”
“Not really a fan of the orange, I guess,” she replied.
Jack reached over and grabbed up the rest of her cake setting it top of his package, while he finished polishing off the rest of his. “Well, more for me then. Daniel, what about you?”
“It’s good. It’s a bit sweet, but I like it. Teal’c?”
Teal’c had already finished his cake and was currently drinking his milk. Once he had gulped the entire glass down, he said, “I too enjoy this cake. I would be happy to claim this as the Jaffa’s cake.”
Sam had to chuckle at that. “Well, there are 44 more that you guys can have.”
Teal’c bowed his head, “Thank you, Major Carter, for assisting me in this inquiry and purchasing these cakes.”
“Sure, Teal’c. No problem.”
Jack had finished his cake and was just about done with Sam’s cake as well. “Hey, what do Jaffa and cake have in common?”
Sam looked over at him enthusiastically eating her cake that she had already taken a bite of and tried to ignore the feeling it gave her. “What, sir?”
“Oranges!”
Daniel was unable to contain his eye roll and said, “Really, Jack?”
Sam, however, was already smiling after Jack’s answer and let out a giggle at hearing Daniel’s question. She caught Jack staring at her, which also made her blush.
“Well, I thought it was good. And Carter here agrees with me, don’t you?”
Sam was trying to contain her giggle but still nodded her head, “Yes, sir.”
Daniel couldn’t contain a second eye roll and glanced over to Teal’c.
Teal’c was simply watching the interaction with a raised eyebrow, but had a small hint of a smile on his face. Indeed, he would enjoy partaking in more of these cakes with his friends for years to come, hopefully.