Author's Notes: Thanks to my wonderful beta, gategrrl. As always, she did a great job. Comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

The small boy sniffled and readjusted the glasses on his face once again. They were his first pair and he was still getting used to the way they felt on his face. Finally satisfied, he pressed his facing up against the window pane. The flakes had started out big, fat and fluffy floating lazily to the ground. Now they were smaller, whipping around in the sky and on the ground like the grains of sand in a sandstorm. A gust of wind swept across the tarmac creating oasis's of black and dunes of white. Suddenly feeling homesick, he decided to turn his attention to what was happening inside the terminal. He was greeted by a sea of dismal faces.

There was not much for a boy of six to do in a half-deserted, closed-down airport during a blizzard, but he needed to find something to occupy his time. The problem was most of the people in the waiting area had already found something to occupy their time. If they weren't sleeping or eating then their heads were buried in a book or magazine. If they weren't doing any of those activities, well then, they were either too bored, too angry, or too upset to want to entertain or be entertained by a six year old boy.

Realizing this was going to be the longest night in his whole entire life, the young boy dragged himself over to a woman who was busy making notations in a notebook. Plopping himself down on the floor in front of her, he gave a long suffering sigh, and said, "Mom, when's our flight?"

"I'm not sure, Danny," the woman replied, her face still buried in the notebook. "We have to wait for the storm to pass."

"How long before the storm passes?" Danny Jackson was now lying flat on his back with his arms pointing straight up in the air. His hands flopped lazily up and down.

"I don't know dear." The mother replied barely taking notice of her son's position.

The flopping hands had succeeded in entertaining him for about ten seconds. He rolled over on his stomach, placed his chin in his hands and watched his mother work. She was obviously working on something very important because she was frowning. He had learned that the more she frowned the more important the work was. He scrunched his own face up trying to imitate hers and wondered if the space between his eyebrows made that same interesting v-shape when he tried to concentrate really, really hard. As she made another notation in her notebook, Danny wondered if now would be a good time to ask about getting his own camel.

"How long are we gonna visit Nick?"

He thought it best not to ask about the camel just yet.

"We're not sure, darling," she replied making another notation. "Your grandfather said he found something important on one of his digs."

"Claire, how does this sound?" the man sitting next to her handed her an index cards. Claire read the card. "That sounds good, but I think you need to ..."

"If he's my grandfather how come I don't call him grandpa or gramps or grandfather?" The word grandfather was said in what Danny thought was a deep imposing voice. "How come I have to call him Nick?" Still lying on his stomach, Danny let the heel of his shoes slap loudly and lazily together causing the man sitting across from them to rustle his paper in protest.

Claire looked down at her son, somewhat annoyed, but she still smiled. "Danny, your father and I really need to get this work done, so you need to find yourself something to do?"

"But there's nothing to do," Danny replied with as much frustration as his voice could muster. "I'm bored."

Danny's father reached down into a duffle bag that was sitting on the floor next to him and pulled out a large pad of paper and a charcoal pencil. "I know," he said ripping off a sheet of paper and handing it and the pencil to Danny. "Why don't you make some rubbings?"

`Thanks," said Danny eagerly taking the offering.

He found an open space and sat down. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his treasures. He had two small artifacts. Samir, one of his father's workers on their last dig, had said they were just bits of rock, but Danny was sure they were very important artifacts. Along with the artifacts he had a thin leather strap from an old sandal, a piece of burlap with a bit of red lettering, and a few coins. He had a couple Piastres from Egypt, a 2-pound coin and a 1-pound coin from England, and some American coins. Danny thought the eagle on the back of the large American coin was pretty cool so he decided to make a rubbing of that first.

It wasn't long before Danny had made rubbings of everything in his pocket. There was still a lot of paper left to use and Danny was still bored, so he decided to search the waiting area for more artifacts. That's when he saw her. She was a few years older than him, sitting on the floor playing with a doll, but it wasn't a girl doll. It was a boy doll and it was dressed like an astronaut. Danny watched as she made the doll hop across the seat cushion, then up onto the arm of the chair, and finally soar through the air with several complicated loops and figure eights until she maneuvered him to a safe landing onto a small, blue, plastic suitcase seated next to her.

"Hi!" said Danny who had made his way across the waiting area and was now standing next to her.

"Hi!" said the girl looking up and pushing a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"My name's Danny," he continued. "What's yours?"

"Sam. What's that?" She pointed to the parchment Danny was holding.

Danny held up the paper for Sam to see. "It's some rubbings. I thought Sam was a boy's name."

"It's short for Samantha. These are neat." Sam reached out and touched the rubbings being careful not to smear them. "Can I try?"

"Sure." Danny handed the parchment and pencil to his new friend.

Sam studied the images and then turned to a woman who was knitting a yellow scarf. A small boy lay curled up on the seat next to her fast asleep. "Mom," she said excitedly.

The woman put her finger to her mouth and whispered, "Sammie, you're brother just got to sleep."

"Sorry." She lowered her voice to a raspy whisper. "I need some coins."

"What do you need them for?"

"I'm making a rubbing. See."

Sam's mother placed the knitting down, and Danny and Sam waited for her to examine the images.

"Oh, these are lovely," she exclaimed looking at Danny. "Did you make them?"

Danny pushed the glasses back up on the bridge of his nose and nodded. Sam's mom then got one of those concerned motherly looks on her face as she started to look around the waiting room.

"Honey, where are your parents?"

"They're right over there," he said pointing to the other side of the waiting area.

"Mom, can we have the coins?" There was a little bit of exasperation in Sam's voice.

"All right," she said reaching into her purse and handing the coins to Sam. "But I don't want you running off anywhere."

"We won't. We'll be right over there," said Sam pointing to her left.

Coins in hand, the two new friends made their way over to the tile walkway just outside the waiting area. Once they were seated, Danny gave Sam a quick lesson in how to make a rubbing. He showed her how to hold the charcoal flat and rub it very gently over the surface of the paper until the object underneath began to appear. As Sam began to make her own rubbings, Danny picked up the astronaut doll she had set down beside her.

"Who's this?" Danny had placed the doll's arms over its head and was now moving its legs making the doll walk on a thin line on the tile floor.

"Major Matt Mason." Sam looked at her handiwork and then held it up for Danny to see. "How's this?"

Danny nodded his head. "Looks good. Why do you have a boy doll?"

"It's not a doll. It's an action figure."

"Oh." Danny now made the doll walk on its hands. "Why do you have an action figure?"

"Cuz I'm gonna be an astronaut when I grow up."

"Cool," said Danny handing the doll back to Sam. She returned the doll's arms to its side.

"I'm gonna be an archeologist like my mom and dad." Danny replied. "Do you want to see what I found on my last dig?"

He pulled his treasures out of his pocket and placed them on the floor.

"Oooh!" exclaimed Sam picking up one of the artifacts to examine it more closely. It had a trace of quartz in it that made it sparkle.

"I think that was a jewel in a ceremonial necklace one of the pharaoh's gave to his daughter for her birthday."

"Cool," she said returning the artifact.

"You can have it."

"I can?" she asked, smiling.

"Sure."

Danny looked down at the parchment as Sam put the artifact in her pocket There was still a lot of empty space to use. "Do you have anything else you want make a rubbing of?"

Sam frowned and started to shake her head. She stopped and her eyes brightened a bit. "I know," she said taking off her new tennis shoes and showing the bumpy surface of the soles. "How's this?"

"Yes!" Danny quickly removed his own shoes. The bottoms of his were disappointingly smooth. He frowned.

"That's okay," said Sam handing him her left shoe and the charcoal. "You can do one of mine."

Danny took the shoe and the charcoal. He then broke the charcoal in half and handed a piece back to Sam. "We can do it together."

Sam placed the shoes under the parchment and two of them huddled over the paper. Each one carefully rubbed their piece of charcoal over the surface of the parchment revealing the bumpy surface of the sole.

"Where you going?" Sam asked.

"Belize. We're going to visit my grandpa, but I'm not allowed to call him grandpa. Where are you going?"

"We're moving to Florida and I don't want to," said Sam with a pout. "Why aren't you allowed to call your grandpa, grandpa."

"I don't know. Why don't you want to move to Florida?"

"Because it's stupid. We move all the time. My dad's in the Air Force. He got reassigned to Florida and now we have to move again."

Danny nodded his head knowingly. "We move a lot too."

Danny thought how nice it was to have a friend like Sam and felt a little bit sad that he'd probably never see her again. He now hoped the storm wouldn't be letting up any time soon. He liked Sam.

Their rubbings completed, the two friends sat back and admired their handiwork.

"So, what do you want to do now?" he asked.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?" she replied with a shrug.

The two friends looked around and pondered their predicament. The waiting area was filled with people trying to sleep, trying to read, trying to eat, or trying to wait. One angry man was standing at the ticket counter giving the agent a hard time. The agent shook her head.

"I'm sorry Mr. Kinsey, but I can't do anything about the weather."

Danny looked down the hallway. Shops on either side of the grey and white checkerboard floor were closed up tight. He had noticed that scattered among the grey and white tiles was an occasional blue tile.

"I know!" Danny grabbed Major Matt Mason and jumped onto a blue tile "We have to take the secret space portals to a planet in a galaxy a gazillion miles away."

"Yeah," said Sam grabbing the parchment paper and joining Danny on the blue tile. "And the evil aliens on the planet are about to launch their top secret weapon and you need to decipher the alien's secret language, so I can disarm the bomb."

"Right." Danny took the parchment paper from Sam as he handed her the doll.

Sam held up the doll and in her best deep military Major Matt Mason voice, said, "Men, the planet is a bazillion ...

"Gazillion."

"... a gazillion light years away and you have to go through twenty blue space portals to get there. You must hurry if you want to save the world."

Danny watched as Sam smartly saluted the doll. "Yes, sir," she replied. Danny made a quick salute and responded with his own "Aye, aye, sir."

The two friends hopped from portal to portal in their stocking feet, counting as they went.

"One!" Hop. "Two!" Hop. "Three!" Hop.

Danny and Sam laughed and hopped their way through the galaxy, paying little attention to the occasional turn they made in their search for the blue space portals.

"Nineteen!" Hop. "Twenty!" Hop.

"We're here," Sam announced breathlessly.

Suddenly, Danny clutched his chest and made a very melodramatic gasping sound. Falling to his knees he panted out, "Can't breathe. No oxygen ... on ... planet." He collapsed to the ground and closed his eyes.

"Yes you can," reprimanded Sam as she stepped over him. "The planet has the same atmosphere as earth."

"Oh." Danny quickly stood up and began exploring the planet.

"Mmm, I don't see any aliens around. Perhaps they're in their top-secret hideout planning their next mission."

"Yes, but we have to be careful because they may show up at any minute." Sam held out her right hand like a gun and carefully circled around looking for hidden aliens.

Danny gasped and ran over to a McDonald's billboard claiming - You Deserve a Break Today. "Look," he cried running his fingers over the letters. "It's the secret alien message. I have to use my secret alien decoder paper to see what it says."

He placed the parchment over the billboard and looked at the faded red-lettering that showed through the thin paper.

Sam slid up beside him keeping a watchful eye out for the aliens. "Can you decode it Dr. Dan?"

"Yes, I can Captain Major Sam, but it's going to take some time."

"All right." Sam went down on one knee and took aim down the hallway. "You get to work. I'll keep an eye out for the evil aliens."

Danny sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Oh no! It's say the aliens are going to attack earth tomorrow. We have to find the alien spaceship and stop them."

The two space travelers scanned the surface of the planet. "It's over there!" shouted Sam pointing to a small kiosk pushed up against the wall. As Sam ran towards the space ship Danny clutched at his chest again and moaned as he fell to his knees.

"Aarrgh! The aliens got me." He fell to the ground and closed his eyes.

"Don't worry Dr. Dan. I'll save you!"

Sam shot at the invisible aliens and raced back to her fallen comrade. Danny reached out to Sam, gave a dramatic cough and said, "Go; there's nothing you can do for me. I'm dying." Danny gave two more dramatic coughs and grabbed Sam's arm. "Save yourself Sam. Save the world" With that, he turned his head and let his tongue hang out the side of his mouth.

"No!" cried Sam. "I'm not leaving you behind." She grabbed his arm and dragging him to the other side of the hall. "I have advanced medical training and I can save you."

Danny opened one eye and looked up at his friend. "But I'm dead." He protested.

Sam seemed to ponder this predicament and then reached into the back pocket of her jeans. She pulled out a Hershey bar and exclaimed. "But I have some special alien medicine that will bring you back to life."

"Oh!" said Danny sitting up. His eyes grew bright and his smile widened at the sight of the chocolate bar.

"You're supposed to be dead," said Sam pushing him back down.

"Oh yeah."

Danny lay back down, closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. The sweet smell of Hershey's chocolate filled his nose as Sam placed a small piece of candy on his lips. He opened his mouth and let the alien medicine do its work.

"Mmmm," he smiled as he savored the chocolate.

"Are you alive yet?"

"No, I'm still dead. I need more alien medicine."

Sam broke off another piece of chocolate and put it in Danny's mouth.

"Your attention please," an announcer's voice spoke over the public address system. "The National Weather Service has announced that the storm-front has passed. We should be resuming our flights shortly. We appreciate ...."

There was no discussion. The two friends exchanged panicked wide-eyed looks and took off running down the hallway.

"Wait," shouted Sam stopping suddenly. She pointed to a hallway on her right. "It's this way."

Danny looked down the path Sam had chosen. It didn't look familiar to him. Then turning to look at the hallway he had been blindly running down, he realized there was nothing familiar about that passageway either. Nothing looked familiar.

"Are we lost?"

Danny could see Sam's bottom lip begin to quiver and her eyes start to tear up as she looked first down her chosen path and then his.

"No," she said with a little bit too much determination in her voice. "It's this way." With that, she turned and began walking down the hallway. Danny, who had decided it was probably better if they were lost together, tagged along.

"Have you ever been lost before?" Danny was trying to keep up with Sam who had quickened her pace.

"No, and we're not lost now!"

"Oh," said Danny rather disappointedly.

They were halfway down the hall when Sam stopped. She looked around, then turned and started walking back the way they had come.

"I get lost all the time. It's fun."

When they arrived back at the intersection they had started from, Danny pointed to his original path.

"I think it's this way."

Sam looked down the hall, nervously twisting Major Matt Mason. "But I don't recognize anything."

"Neither do I," said Danny who had taken to hopping on one foot from a grey square to a white square and back again.

"Then why should we go that way?"

Regaining his balance, Danny stood on two feet and shrugged. "I don't know. It just feels right. My dad once said I must be part homing pigeon because I can always find my way home. They once had two whole villages looking for me and I got home before they did."

Sam sighed. "Okay, we'll do it your way.

Danny eagerly took the lead. At each intersection, Danny made a quick decision - either left, right, or straight-ahead, never revealing to Sam that for the most part, his decisions were based on the fact that something looked interesting down his chosen path. They were halfway to the next intersection when a voice called out.

"Hey!"

They turned and saw a young man walking towards them.

"Hi!" Danny waved to the stranger. "My name's Danny, what's yours?" Sam pulled him back. "You shouldn't talk to strangers," she whispered in his ear.

"I'm Jack."

The young man now stood in front of them. He pointed at Sam.

"And I'm guessing you're Sam?"

She said nothing, but glared at the young man suspiciously.

"Hey, how'd you know her name?"

"Because there's a bunch of people looking for you two. Come on, I'll take you back." Jack held out his hand which Danny took eagerly.

"No," said Sam tugging at Danny. "Didn't you say it was this way?" She pointed down the hallway.

"We were on our way back," Danny replied casually looking up at Jack.

"Yeah, well you were headed the wrong way there, Danny-boy."

Danny nodded. "I thought so."

"Wait a minute," Sam shouted. "I thought you knew where you were going."

"Not really. I just knew we weren't going to be lost forever. And look," he held up Jack's hand. "We're not lost any more."

Sam leaned against the wall and pouted. "Well, how do we know he's going to take us back?"

Danny frowned and sized up Jack. He certainly looked friendly. Turning back to Sam he replied, "How do we know he won't?"

Jack let out an exasperated sigh, "Look, half the people in this airport are looking for you two, and I just happened to be the lucky person, or unlucky person," he said eyeing Sam, "to have found you." She answered with a scowl of her own.

He offered his other hand to Sam. "So, are you coming?"

Sam hesitated for a moment, then stepped away from the wall and stood next to Danny.

"I'm not talking to him," she whispered to her friend. Danny nodded then turned to Jack and whispered rather loudly.

"She's not talking to you."

"Fine. She doesn't have to."

The three of them walked through the deserted hall together. Danny happily holding on to Jack's hand and Sam walking next to her friend keeping a wary eye on their rescuer.

"So, what were you two doing all the way out here?"

"We were on a secret mission to save the earth from an alien invasion. I died. Sam saved me."

"Well, that was nice of you Sam."

Sam hmphed and did her best not to look at the two of them.

"And I had to use my special alien decoder paper to read the alien language." Danny held up the parchment with their rubbings on it for Jack to see. "See?"

Jack looked at the parchment. "Cool. So, if it wasn't for you two we'd be under attack by these aliens?"

"Yep!" announced Danny hopping over an invisible obstacle on the floor.

It wasn't long before Danny had made a game of jumping or leaping over invisible obstacles on the floor. Sam appeared to be loosening up a little and had joined Danny in hopping over these obstacles.

"So, Sam," Jack asked casually, "What's the name of your doll?"

Sam jumped across two squares. "His name is ..." Sam stopped quickly and turned to Danny. "Tell him, his name is Major Matt Mason and he's not a doll."

Danny looked at Jack. "She said his name is Major Matt Mason and he's not a doll."

"He's not?"

"No," said Danny shaking his head. "He's an action figure."

"An action figure, you say?"

"Yep. I don't have any action figures."

Danny made a gallant attempt to jump over three squares. The effort threw him off balance, but luckily Jack was there to keep him upright.

"Whoa there buddy," remarked Jack. "So, would you like an action figure?"

"I want a camel."

"A camel?"

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna get one when we move back to Egypt. Right now we're going to Belize. Belize. Belize. Belize." Each Belize was said with a loud percussive sound of the `b' accompanied by a hop to the left, then to the right and then back again. He stopped on a blue square and looked up at Jack.

"So, where're you going Jack?"

Jack bent down and half-whispered in Danny's ear. "It's top secret."

Danny's eyes grew wide. "Are you a spy?"

He said nothing, but placed a finger to his lips. "So, Samantha," he said addressing Sam, "where are you flying off to?"

"Florida," said Sam with a gasp.

Jack turned to Danny. "Hey she's talk..."

"Mom!" shouted Sam as she took off running.

Down at the end of the hallway a small group of people had gathered. Among them were Danny's parents and Sam's mom. Each mother was holding their child's shoes in their hands. Claire looked as though she was trying to reassure Sam's mom. At the sound of her daughter's voice, Sam's mom turned and a tearful Sam raced into her mother's open arms.

"She's never been lost before," Danny remarked casually as the two of them continued to walk towards the group.

"And I suppose you have?"

"Yep, lots of times."

Jack nodded. "That explains a lot."

A pleasant voice crackled over the P.A. system, "United Flight 407 to Minneapolis/St. Paul now boarding at Gate E7."

Jack looked at his watch. "Say, my flight is at the other end of the terminal and it's about ready to leave. So, do you think you can stay found?"

Danny nodded.

"Wait," said Danny digging into his pocket. He pulled out his last artifacts. "This is for you."

Jack looked at the small rock and bounced it in his hand. "Hey, nice rock."

"It's not a rock. It's an artifact." Danny corrected him.

"Ah, I see. Well, thanks for the artifact."

"You're welcome."

Jack placed the artifact in his pocket and held out his hand to Danny. "Well, gotta go Danny-boy. It was nice meeting you."

The boy placed his small hand in Jack's and shook.

"It was nice meeting you."

As Jack turned away, Danny ran to his parents and shouted. "Hey mom, hey dad, I made some new friends."

The end.