Jonas walked in the door, setting down his things as he heard Jack's truck pull away.  It was uncharacteristically quiet; usually when Cassie got home she'd turn on the stereo in her room while she did her homework.  It was late for her not to be home yet, he thought with a sudden pang of concern.

He walked up the stairs towards her room, knocking on the closed door.

"Cassie?  Are you home?"

Hearing only a muffled sound from the other side, he slowly opened the door.

Cassie was sitting at her desk in the dark.  As Jonas flipped on the light, she glanced up; a look of guilty anguish on her face.  Her eyes were red rimmed and her lovely young face was red and tear streaked from what had obviously been a crying jag.

"Hey, beautiful, what's wrong?" Jonas asked, a note of alarm in his voice.  It was not the first time that he'd found her crying; sometimes she wanted to talk, sometimes she didn't, the latter events he usually chalked up to "a girl thing," as Janet had tried to explain it.

Cassie responded by putting her head down on the desk and resuming her sobbing.

Jonas walked over to her carefully, putting a consoling hand on her shoulder.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked softly.

Cassie snuffled a bit.  Jonas was a man, so he might just be able to understand the dilemma she was in; after all, it was a man's fault, she thought bitterly.

"You know there's a dance at the school next month."

Jonas thought for a minute.  He remembered Cassie trying to convince Janet to be a chaperone, but Janet was afraid she might get paged to the infirmary, so Jonas had offered to assist her – if she got called in, he could still be there.

"I mean, how difficult can it be to chaperone a bunch of high school kids?" he remembered asking innocently.  Such events on Kelowna were subdued, and those who attended were usually quiet and respectful.

Janet had just looked at him when he had said that, a "you don't know what you're in for" grin on her face, but she had agreed, much to Cassie's delight.

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked quietly, his concern still evident in his tone.

"Well, Dominic and I weren't getting along, so when Ben asked me to go, I said yes.  I mean, Ben's the quarterback, everyone wants to go with him, so of course I said yes," Cassie explained.

Jonas was used to this, this outlining of the details surrounding whatever seemingly momentous event had produced this particular angst; he found it best not to attempt to comprehend it, but to simply nod in agreement and pretend that he understood.

"Well, then Dominic asked Cheryl to go, and of course, she said yes; I mean, she's only been after him ever since I got there," the slightest hint of jealous contempt creeping into her normally warm and friendly voice.

"Uh-huh," Jonas said, trying mightily to sound interested.

Cassie swallowed hard; this next part was the most difficult.  "So then, Judy and Ben made up and now he's going to take her instead of me," she said, her tears starting anew.

Jonas resisted the urge to ask who Judy was; his keen senses told him that it wasn't integral to the point.  The young man in question had broken a date with Cassie to take someone else; that was just wrong.  He somehow sensed that pointing this out to her wouldn't help, either; she knew that.

Unsure exactly what to say to her, Jonas sighed.

"I'm sorry, beautiful; that sounds awful," he said sincerely, rubbing her back affectionately.

Cassie didn't say anything, just renewed her sobbing.

Jonas heard the car drive up; Janet was home, he realized with a sigh of relief. 

"Well, look, I'll go downstairs and tell the doc you're not feeling well and then I'll bring you some dinner," Jonas offered, recognizing that she really wanted to be alone at that moment.

"Okay.  Thanks, Dad," she said, smiling through her tears at him.

Janet was in the kitchen, putting away the groceries she had bought on her way home.  Jonas began unloading some of the cans and boxes silently.  She looked up at him.

"So?" she said quietly.

Jonas sighed, glancing up the stairs.  "I don't know what to do about this one, Doc," he said.

Janet stopped.  "What is it?" she asked, a hint of anxiousness in her voice.

Jonas scratched his head; then he proceeded to repeat the whole story in a wondering tone, as if he wasn't sure what had happened, either.

"Well, it seems that she and Dominic weren't getting along, so somebody named Ben asked her to the dance, so of course she said yes, then Dominic asked Cheryl to go, but then Ben and Judy made up, so –"

"Jonas."

He looked up.

"Can I get the short version?" Janet asked with an ever so slightly exasperated smile.

"She no longer has a date for the dance next month."

"Oh, no," Janet said, her mother's anguish evident.  Anger set in as she realized what had happened.  "That little snake, I've got half a mind to call him up and – "

"Doc, that's exactly what she's afraid you'll do," Jonas said quietly, with a smile.

Janet gave him an indignant look, and opened her mouth to protest.

"You DID almost shoot the last creature who messed with her, doc, I think she's got a point," he said quietly, with just a hint of triumph, giving her one of his disarming grins.

Janet rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, knowing that he was right but not liking it one bit, even if it was accompanied by that smile.  "Alright then, I'll leave it alone."

Watching Janet in her motherly moments was one of Jonas' private delights; her feisty attitude and protectiveness really impressed upon him the depth of her love for Cassie, and he was endeared to her all over again whenever he saw it.

While he was in the infirmary after the operation, they had talked at length about Janet's feelings for Nirrti since her last appearance in the SGC; it was more than enough to give Jonas a deep respect for what Janet would be capable of if pushed where Cassandra was concerned.

They finished putting the groceries away in silence, but Jonas could almost see the wheels churning in Janet's mind.  As they made dinner together, a sly smile crossed her lips.

"What?" Jonas said, recognizing that look; he knew she'd thought of something.

Janet smiled at him.  "Never you mind," she said teasingly, with a sparkle in her deep brown eyes that lit up her beautiful face.  She handed him a plate for Cassandra.  "Just tell her that things will work out as they should; they always do."

Stay tuned!  Better yet, look for the next installment of "Elsewhere in Colorado Springs"…!!