Five Odd Jobs Jack Had That Have Helped Him On SG-1
Title: Five Odd Jobs Jack Had That Have Helped Him On SG-1
Author: speedy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: If I owned Stargate, Daniel and Sheppard would never have clothes on.
Notes: Originally posted in response to a prompt at sg1_five_things.
1. Mechanic
Patrick O'Neill was a car mechanic, self-employed, and was also the mechanic for the local school district's buses. When Jack was fourteen, Patrick employed his oldest son as an assistant. It was more like slave labor, Jack still says, but the teenager received payment in the form of the car he'd spent the last two years repairing for his sixteenth birthday.
Jack had found those skills useful numerous times through the years, but particularly during SG-1's little trip to 1969, when Michael and Jenny's piece of shit bus, the same model he and his father repaired (and probably was repairing at that same moment, kept breaking down on the way to Catherine's place in New York.
2. Cat Babysitter
He was never a cat fan, hated them really, but his mother wouldn't budge. So fifteen year old Jack spent a month taking care of Mrs. Shoemaker's five feline monsters while the old lady was in the hospital. Unfortunately he couldn't just drop the food into the bowl and go, they were all on some sort of medication or special food. Those cats managed to fit in some of the weirdest places, not all big enough for him to just pull the damn cat out. He usually came out of her house with several new cuts he was sure would end up with gangrene. The less said about the litter box, the better.
He used every trick he'd learned from Mrs. Shoemaker's cats to coax out the alien kitten that had somehow became attached to the GDO from the middle of the hollowed out log. Daniel, the cat lover on the team, was off in Glowy-Land and his latest replacement had even worse allergies than that McKay guy.
3. Waitress
Actually, Jack wasn't the waitress, his mother was. He was thirteen when she broken her arm in an accident that may have been partly his fault. The diner where she worked was small and not very busy, and she was the only waitress during the week. Feeling guilty, he offered to help her carry plates at work. Her boss was kind enough to pay him a small wage for his effort.
The balance he learned that summer was helpful when Weird Chinese Food People of P8X-something required a show of strength and skill, by balancing weights on his hands.
4. Carpenter
Jack's uncle and grandfather both spent their lives working with their hands. One summer, Jack helped them build a cabin by a pond, the one he now owns. Other years, he helped build sheds, furniture, decks, and whatever else they were working on. He was pretty good at it, even years later when he built a treehouse for Charlie.
That's how when SG-1 came across a village that had just been devastated by high winds, he knew just where to start.
5. Brownie Leader
It's the one odd job, even under torture, Jack will not admit to. Not that he's ashamed of it or anything. His parents had always found something to occupy their kids' time - Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, sports, church, family, odd jobs - but they both worked full-time and didn't have the time to always be involved. A lot of the parenting responsibilities fell on teenaged Jack, the oldest of the six O'Neill kids. Not that he minded. He actually enjoyed teaching the girls the stuff he'd learned in Cub Scouts. It took him time to figure out how to handle girls that weren't blood related to him (intimidation or extortion weren't options), ten little monsters (two of whom shared his DNA) that thought he was the grossest, dumbest thing alive. They got used to him, he got used to them, and by the time another mother stepped up to take over, the situation was working out well. He's actually quite proud that his troop was larger and learned far more than they had under Mrs. O'Reilly and Mrs. Buchanan. And that his troop showed up the Cub Scout troop on their joint campout.
Jack still uses those skills every day, corralling people whose thought processes are completely alien to him, have opinions on everything and don't always take orders well. Plus, it's helpful with the women under his command.
Author: speedy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: If I owned Stargate, Daniel and Sheppard would never have clothes on.
Notes: Originally posted in response to a prompt at sg1_five_things.
1. Mechanic
Patrick O'Neill was a car mechanic, self-employed, and was also the mechanic for the local school district's buses. When Jack was fourteen, Patrick employed his oldest son as an assistant. It was more like slave labor, Jack still says, but the teenager received payment in the form of the car he'd spent the last two years repairing for his sixteenth birthday.
Jack had found those skills useful numerous times through the years, but particularly during SG-1's little trip to 1969, when Michael and Jenny's piece of shit bus, the same model he and his father repaired (and probably was repairing at that same moment, kept breaking down on the way to Catherine's place in New York.
2. Cat Babysitter
He was never a cat fan, hated them really, but his mother wouldn't budge. So fifteen year old Jack spent a month taking care of Mrs. Shoemaker's five feline monsters while the old lady was in the hospital. Unfortunately he couldn't just drop the food into the bowl and go, they were all on some sort of medication or special food. Those cats managed to fit in some of the weirdest places, not all big enough for him to just pull the damn cat out. He usually came out of her house with several new cuts he was sure would end up with gangrene. The less said about the litter box, the better.
He used every trick he'd learned from Mrs. Shoemaker's cats to coax out the alien kitten that had somehow became attached to the GDO from the middle of the hollowed out log. Daniel, the cat lover on the team, was off in Glowy-Land and his latest replacement had even worse allergies than that McKay guy.
3. Waitress
Actually, Jack wasn't the waitress, his mother was. He was thirteen when she broken her arm in an accident that may have been partly his fault. The diner where she worked was small and not very busy, and she was the only waitress during the week. Feeling guilty, he offered to help her carry plates at work. Her boss was kind enough to pay him a small wage for his effort.
The balance he learned that summer was helpful when Weird Chinese Food People of P8X-something required a show of strength and skill, by balancing weights on his hands.
4. Carpenter
Jack's uncle and grandfather both spent their lives working with their hands. One summer, Jack helped them build a cabin by a pond, the one he now owns. Other years, he helped build sheds, furniture, decks, and whatever else they were working on. He was pretty good at it, even years later when he built a treehouse for Charlie.
That's how when SG-1 came across a village that had just been devastated by high winds, he knew just where to start.
5. Brownie Leader
It's the one odd job, even under torture, Jack will not admit to. Not that he's ashamed of it or anything. His parents had always found something to occupy their kids' time - Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, sports, church, family, odd jobs - but they both worked full-time and didn't have the time to always be involved. A lot of the parenting responsibilities fell on teenaged Jack, the oldest of the six O'Neill kids. Not that he minded. He actually enjoyed teaching the girls the stuff he'd learned in Cub Scouts. It took him time to figure out how to handle girls that weren't blood related to him (intimidation or extortion weren't options), ten little monsters (two of whom shared his DNA) that thought he was the grossest, dumbest thing alive. They got used to him, he got used to them, and by the time another mother stepped up to take over, the situation was working out well. He's actually quite proud that his troop was larger and learned far more than they had under Mrs. O'Reilly and Mrs. Buchanan. And that his troop showed up the Cub Scout troop on their joint campout.
Jack still uses those skills every day, corralling people whose thought processes are completely alien to him, have opinions on everything and don't always take orders well. Plus, it's helpful with the women under his command.