A/N: This story is told in a none linear fashion, I hope it is not too confusing.

It is a Sam and Jack tale, as usual. There is some harsh vulgar language – blame Jack.

And some topics may be distasteful to some.

"You know, you take up a lot of room."

He rose to his full six foot two and straightened his broad shoulders. He turned his head looking at her with eyes wide.

"Do I look fat? He asked as he patted his stomach.

She threw a piece of damp laundry at him. Space was at a premium in the grim shack they called home. It was bedroom, kitchen and storage all in the space no larger than her bathroom at home in Colorado Springs…on Earth. Her bathroom at least was clean and had running water and a floor. For crying out loud it had a roof that didn't leak. God, she hated it here. And no, he didn't look fat, if anything he looked like he could use a decent meal.

Jack had been looking in a pile of stuff that he had collected from the dump in hopes to sell or use for barter. And Sam had been trying to hang some damp laundry in a space you couldn't swing a cat. Morosely she thought the locals probably ate all the cats.

And later they'd have to reshuffle all the shit if they wanted enough room to be able to lie down to sleep, sleep with the laundry dripping on them. Oh yes, this was the life.

Jack worked to improve their living conditions but work was scarce. One look at his grey hair and it was "no thanks, pops" if they were polite or "bugger off, grandpa" and a well placed kick if they weren't. So Jack did what so many of the locals did, scavenged at the municipal dump. He would have rather gone right to the wealthier neighborhoods to snatch the items before they were mixed with the foulest of trash but his kind, the poor and such assorted riff raff were not welcomed there. So he became a treasure hunter and provided for the two of them, maybe not in the style they were accustom to but they weren't exactly starving. Oh, if Jacob Carter could see the squalor he housed Sam in, Jacob would so kick his ass.