The Progeny of Eden
by Kikkimax
Illia sat in the shade and watched the love of her life happily uncovering whatever mysteries lay buried in the sand. She thought back in time to her fateful mistake and remembered the pain she had caused. That would have been punishment enough but still the council chose to banish her and her kin from the city.
Now the family had to toil outside the dome in the elements to scrap together the means to survive from day to day. Yet when she looked into the dancing blue eyes of the one life she’d managed to save, it all seemed worthwhile.
‘Daniel,’ she called with her mind. He looked up from his task, a profound expression of concentration on his face. ‘Let’s go inside.’
He came to her willingly and she kissed his head as she gathered her small grandson into her arms and carried him into the sparsely furnished hut to prepare the evening meal. They had little, but she wanted for nothing; creature comforts meant nothing compared to the great joy of having a baby in the home.
Sitting the child at the table to play with his small wooden toys, Illia reflected on his unlikely existence. Since their expulsion from the city had been immediate upon sentencing, the council had not been witness to her daughter’s burgeoning abdomen and somehow they had managed to keep their emotions in check. The communal shunning that severed the mental bonds with everyone inside the dome further helped to hide the little one’s presence.
His birth had been difficult and frightening, leaving his mother Veda frail and weary for many days. But the boy himself had been without flaw and thrived under the attention of small, outcast clan. She hoped and prayed that their isolation would be enough to shelter him from the council.
As Daniel grew he continued to be happy and healthy with but a single difficulty, yet one which became more distressing with each passing day. Although he was obviously bright for his age, he had yet to try to communicate with anyone. The ability to receive was almost a certainly as he responded promptly when called, at least on a physical level, provided of course his intense attention wasn’t focused somewhere else.
With no references available to her to ease her mind, Illia struggled to overcome her growing conviction that his development was abnormal. Instead she made a conscious choice to think of it in terms of evolution. After all, her grandchild was an amalgam of two closely related yet undeniably different races. There were bound to be repercussions. She just hoped that she, and more importantly, Daniel could live with them.
With a sigh she put her grandmotherly worries away and turned her attention to peeling the roots she had gathered earlier from the garden. Even without the incessant cerebral chatter that she remembered fondly from her daughter’s early childhood, there was a sense of peace and utter fascination with the world emanating from the boy. With his sweet disposition and easy nature even if Daniel never developed the means to converse, the child would always be loved and cared for.
As she worked, Illia provided a colorful illustration to Daniel to keep his mind busy, pleased to see him smile as the images formed a story in his head. Suddenly the playful telling was interrupted by an anxious cry.
‘Mother!’
‘Veda? What is it?’ Illia asked in alarm, watching as the terrified child instantly picked up on the panic.
‘They know! The council has discovered our deception!’
Unable to shield Daniel from the wave of anguish and fear ripping through her, Illia pulled him up from the table into a crushing hug. Once the initial anxiety subsided and she was able to think again, she loosened her hold and began shushing the still frightened boy with another story. Grabbing several items and stuffing them into a bag she put into motion the plan they had foolishly pretended they would never need.
***
“What’s up?” Jack asked as he stepped into the control room, eyeing the light from an open wormhole flickering behind the closed iris. “Carter?”
“Sir,” Sam acknowledged his presence without offering any information as her fingers danced over the keyboard in front of her.
“General?” Jack tried again, this time turning to the grim faced man overlooking the ‘gate. “You paged?”
Hammond sighed with obvious discontent. “It appears we’re being hailed from P2C-
“835…” Jack repeated shaking his head slightly as he mentally went over his own short list of remembered planet designations. “That one doesn’t ring a bell, sir.”
“Uh, yeah, didn’t we go there a couple years ago?” Daniel asked, arriving with Teal’c in time to overhear the conversation.
“Indeed we did, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c uttered, apparently disturbed by the news. “I believe that was the planet with the domed city.”
“Where you were cloned,” Jack finished, his face darkening with the recognition. “Don’t we have call blocking?” he grumbled as the blue light abruptly blinked out.
“This isn’t AT&T, Jack,” Daniel noted as he turned pensively to the gate technician. “Was there an impact event?”
“No sir,” Sergeant Davis reported as the iris whirled open. “There have been three separate wormholes established in the last fifteen minutes from the same place. No impact events.”
“They know about the iris,” Daniel reasoned out loud, suddenly becoming aware of everyone looking at him. “The clones knew everything I did so one of them must have warned them not to attempt to come through the stargate to Earth.”
Jack grunted his displeasure. “Pity.”
“You know, this is exactly how Daniel got our attention last time,” Sam uttered distractedly, turning in her seat to face the group behind her.
“Actually, I went to the Alpha site…”
“The other Daniel,” Jack interrupted. “I mean Daniel…ssss; we ended up with four of em, ya know. And yeah, this is exactly how they got us to send a MALP.”
“Oh.”
“Incoming wormhole,” Davis announced, checking his screen as the first chevron lit
and the outer rim began to spin. “It’s from P2C-
“They seem determined. Couldn’t we at least send a MALP and see what they want?” Daniel suggested with a hopeful glance in General Hammond’s direction.
“No,” Jack insisted forcefully. “We don’t care what they want. We may not have call blocking, but I know damn good and well that place is locked out of the dialing computer. Right? General?”
“You’re right about that, Colonel,” Hammond agreed as the expected whoosh appeared. “Unfortunately that doesn’t keep them from dialing here. Close the iris, Sergeant.”
“Yes sir,” Davis responded, placing his hand on the iris control. Everyone silently watched the computer screen over his shoulder for several minutes until the empty wormhole sputtered out and the iris automatically spun open. “Again, no impact event.”
“They are clearly knocking on the door,” Daniel declared, releasing the breath he’d been holding.
“So? We don’t have to answer.”
“Jack…”
“Daniel.”
“What if it’s Daniel?” Sam asked softly, leaving both men open mouthed and staring at her, effectively halting the verbal sparring match before it even started.
“What?” they snapped in unison.
“Uh, Carter? Hello?” Jack continued, shoving his whole hand in Daniel’s direction. “We’ve got the original right here. Adam’s rib, remember? Show her the star scar,” he ordered the still gaping linguist.
“Uh… actually it sort of faded with time,” Daniel answered, reflexively fingering the material of his shirt over the spot where the cells had been extracted.
“I meant a clone, sir,” Sam tried again in mild exasperation.
Jack set his jaw but the rest of his face remained an emotionless mask. “Yeah, I know what you meant. They all died.”
“What if they didn’t?” Sam persisted. “What if one survived somehow? What if it’s… Two?”
“Is that possible?” Hammond asked with concern.
“A race as advanced as these would have the means of maintaining a life form in suspended animation,” Teal’c suggested. “Perhaps they chose to keep a Daniel Jackson in reserve.”
“I suppose they could have frozen one or something,” Daniel mused. “Maybe they found a way to reverse the damage.”
“And I repeat… So?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t understand your reluctance to even consider checking this out,”
Daniel began single-
“We watched you die,” Jack explained in a deceptively calm voice, “Over and over again.”
“I’m not dead.”
“Dammit, Daniel, you weren’t here. You didn’t have to watch them suffer.”
“I did!” Daniel affirmed, anger rising red in his face. “I guess you’ve forgotten the ones I was with died, too. And not in a warm, comfy infirmary bed with nurses and doctors and medicine to ease their pain; they died on the cold ground with nothing but me to take care of them.”
“And do you really want to watch that again?” Jack whispered hoarsely, unconcerned that every eye in the room was on them, “Because even without the amenities, I can’t imagine it being much worse.”
“What if they did put one in suspended animation and he just woke up? He might not know he’s not the original,” Sam broke in heatedly. “He might be frightened and alone on another planet, just trying to get home. It’s still Daniel, sir.”
“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Jack swore furiously, throwing his hands up as he turned away to pace to the other side of the control room. “It doesn’t matter. That planet is locked out anyway.”
The stargate began to spin and the chevrons once again lit one by one. “Off world
activation from P2C-
“Can it be unlocked?” Daniel asked urgently. “I mean it hasn’t been removed or… or deleted, it’s just locked, right?”
“That’s right,” Sam confirmed somberly as she looked up at him.
“What would it take to unlock it?”
“A few keystrokes.” Sam shifted her gaze to Jack.
“Colonel?” Hammond questioned, seeking input from his second in command before making his decision.
“Stroke ‘em,” Jack muttered unhappily without glancing up.
“Prepare a MALP, Sergeant,” Hammond ordered briskly. “SG-
“Yes sir,” Sam sighed in relief as she slid from the chair, casting her C.O. a concerned glance as she passed him on her way to the locker room. Teal’c followed without a word.
When Daniel stopped in front of him Jack looked up and met his eyes for a moment. Wordlessly they made their peace before heading off together as the new wormhole blossomed.
***
“Maybe they gave up,” Daniel sighed from the seat next to Sam. “They stopped calling what? Twenty minutes ago?”
“Yeah, eighteen to be exact. Pan right,” Sam directed, keeping her attention on the screen but keenly aware of the brooding man standing behind her.
“Perhaps the individual was frightened by the MALP and has hidden,” Teal’c offered calmly, leaning forward as he noticed something on the screen. “Sergeant Davis, please direct the camera towards the ground.”
“Footprints,” Sam noted as the image shifted down to the soft soil in front of the gate.
“Lot’s of ‘em,” Jack agreed, speaking for the first time since returning to the control room. “It looks like we missed the party.”
“Or maybe one person was pacing. Oh, wait!” Daniel pointed at one of the screens overhead.
A woman rushed from the bushes and advanced directly to the MALP. The camera followed her with a jerky motion, finally focusing on her face. The tracks of her tears were apparent as she silently pleaded for help.
“Well it’s definitely not Daniel.” Sam sounded extremely relieved.
“She looks familiar,” Daniel muttered, scrunching up his brow as he tried to remember.
“As I recall, they all look alike,” Jack argued grumpily. “Talk to her.”
“As I recall, they can’t hear,” Daniel retorted. “And unless this MALP can read brainwaves, the only way to find out what she wants is to go there.”
“You knew that before you suggested sending a MALP,” Jack accused. Getting no response other than guileless blue eyes he let out a long, noisy breath and turned to face Hammond. “Sir?”
“You have a go, SG-
“Yes sir,” Jack acknowledged, leading his team down the stairs and around the corner into the gateroom before speaking again. “Daniel.”
“Jack?”
“Stay where I can see you.”
Daniel stopped in mid-
“We already know they like your make and model. We don’t want a repeat performance,” Jack declared, staring his teammate down before reaching for his own equipment.
Forgoing an eye roll, Daniel nodded his head in reluctant agreement.
With no intention of staying, they were traveling light and quickly donned vests and gathered their weapons. Since the signal from the probe still held the wormhole open they were ready to go within seconds.
“Teal’c, you’re with me,” Jack ordered, clattering toward the gate then through it with the Jaffa close behind. Sam exchanged a sympathetic look with Daniel and they followed side by side.
As they cleared the event horizon, Daniel spotted the woman still kneeling in front of the MALP. He moved to her instinctively as Sam cut the signal and the event horizon sputtered out, but ran into Jack’s outstretched arm blocking his path.
Crying profusely and shaking with unnervingly silent sobs, the woman rose to her
feet and tried to compose herself as she swiftly studied each member of SG-
“O’Neill!” Teal’c shouted in the same instant Daniel’s head shot up in surprise. They both looked toward the little hill that rose above the stargate.
“We need to get out of here,” Daniel warned.
“Dial us home,” Jack ordered, hefting his weapon as a crowd of women crested the rise. “What did she say?” he asked Daniel urgently as Sam dialed Earth.
“She didn’t ‘say’ anything, she just showed me… them,” Daniel expounded, shocked as the woman thrust her burden into his arms and tearfully kissed him before rushing towards rather than away from the advancing mob. “I think she’s trying to buy us some time.”
The vortex barely settled before Sam punched in their IDC. “Go!”
Jack urged Daniel and Sam forward and then he and Teal’c stepped through together, leaving the MALP behind in their haste. They arrived back at the SGC to a screech of terror erupting from the blanket in Daniel’s arms. As weapons leveled at his chest from every direction, Daniel struggled to hang on to the thrashing form.
“Hold fire!” Jack yelled, reaching out to snatch away the rough woolen covering to expose a small, terrified face underneath. He stared dumbfounded at the child who continued to resist the tenuous grasp of the equally stunned archeologist. Daniel appeared to be losing the battle as the little arms and legs flailed in wild panic.
“It’s okay,” Sam soothed, quickly handing off her P-
“It’s a kid,” Jack muttered in disbelief, not loud enough to be heard over the wail.
Still holding the blanket and a woven bag, Daniel gaped as he distractedly rubbed
the ache at the top of his right thigh where he had been kicked repeatedly, thankful
the blows hadn’t landed a few inches to the left. “I don’t understand.” He opened
the bag in the hopes there might be something to explain what had just happened,
but found only a small assortment of baby clothes and a couple of hand-
“Shhh.” Sam rocked the little one rhythmically and pressed his head down to her shoulder. Slowly his cries began to quiet but he buried his face and held onto to his newfound friend with fierce determination.
“Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c stated solemnly.
“Yeah?” Daniel asked, closing his mouth and forcing his gaze up from the contents of the bag to Teal’c’s face. “Oh,” he mouthed quietly, catching on when he found Teal’c looking not at him but at the boy instead.
“You don’t think…” Sam started, aghast as she too looked down at the small blond head cradled against her. “Holy Hanna. He’s a clone.”
“Christ,” Jack swore angrily, looking anywhere but at the youngster at he tried to calm his conflicting emotions. Failing miserably, he turned on his heel and marched out of the gateroom even as the general entered from the opposite door.
The sound of the whimpering child broke the silence as the rest of SG-
“Major Carter?” Hammond asked expectantly, having witnessed Jack’s hasty exit.
Sam bit her lip as she looked up. “It looks like they’ve changed their M.O., sir,” she explained hesitantly, turning to better display her little bundle of joy. “They probably had some of Daniel’s DNA left over and found a way to start from scratch, so to speak.”
“But did they work out the other problems?”
“I hope so, but we really have no way to know for sure.” Sam grimaced, hugging the small body a bit tighter.
“Perhaps only time will reveal that information,” Teal’c agreed sagely.
Hammond nodded his understanding, a bleak expression on his face. “Very well. Get the little fellow down to the infirmary and let Doctor Fraiser check him over right away,” he ordered with a subtle sense of urgency.
“Yes sir,” Sam whispered, shifting the sniffling child to her hip to carry him.
Teal’c turned over the weapons in his hands to one of the gateroom guards and gathered the half sized blanket that still hung loosely from Daniel’s hand. “Are you not coming, Daniel Jackson?” he asked as he tucked the wrap around the baby and guided Sam towards the door, leaving Daniel standing alone on the ramp.
“I… uh, yeah,” Daniel replied, snapping out of his fugue long enough to exchange a bewildered glance with the general as he passed him.
“Are you okay with this, Daniel?” Hammond asked kindly, uncharacteristically using his first name as he clamped a hand to his shoulder to halt his escape.
Daniel let out a startled laugh. “Do you mean him or me? Sorry,” he muttered contritely. “I don’t know why I said that.” Sam stopped and stared at him worriedly over the top of the blanket.
“It’s all right, son, this is bound to be a shock to you.” Hammond patted his back and handed him off to Teal’c who gave his elbow a gentle tug to get him started again. “We’ll debrief in an hour.” The general called after them.
“Yes sir,” Sam answered for the group as they made their way down the corridor. She used a corner of the blanket to wipe little Daniel’s face.
Stopping in front of the elevator, the larger counterpart fumbled in his pocket for a Kleenex which he handed over to Sam with empathy. “If you really are me, your sinuses are going to hate you later,” he advised the tot knowingly, still quietly freaking out.
No longer screaming, the boy stared at Daniel and then Teal’c as Sam cleaned his face and runny nose. He still appeared to be frightened, but couldn’t help but look around inquisitively as they made their way to the infirmary.
***
Still in his linen tunic, the boy sat on the bed but maintained double handfuls of the hem of the shirt of the only person who looked even vaguely familiar. Sam rested one hand lightly on his chubby thigh as he gawked alternately at Daniel and Teal’c who stood behind her on either side. Intermittently he snuffled, triggering an instant nose wiping response from Sam. When Doctor Fraiser approached, his eyes went wide as he considered her.
“So this is our visitor. Hi there,” Janet greeted warmly. The child reached up hesitantly to pat her dark hair as she bent down to his level and smiled at him. “He looks a little flushed,” she observed, letting him get used to her before attempting to examine him.
“Actually I’m surprised he hasn’t thrown up,” Daniel replied. “Going through the gate the first time with your head covered can’t be much fun. Plus he was crying a little.”
“No, he was crying a lot,” Sam disagreed sympathetically. “Screaming is another word.”
“Well he had to be scared out of his mind,” Daniel retorted in a slightly defensive tone.
“I know,” Sam appeased with a smile at his protective stance.
“Poor little guy,” Janet cooed, pulling out her pen light and showing it to him as she clicked it on.
Interest sparked in the expressive face and he let go of Sam to investigate the light, easily tugging it from Janet’s loose grip. He shined it into his eyes before flashing it at the people around him inelegantly.
“Well, he’s certainly curious,” Janet enthused. “I’d say he’s very intelligent.”
“That’s not surprising considering his DNA.” Sam threw a grin over her shoulder. “Does he look like you did at that age?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Daniel shrugged, taking in the light colored hair, big blue eyes and eerily familiar if somewhat smaller features. “He would though, wouldn’t he? After all, he is me.”
Janet palpated the child’s neck while he was busy with the light. “So we’re going on the assumption that he’s a clone?” she asked without looking up.
Daniel’s eyebrows rose rapidly in surprise. “What else would he be?”
“Well, judging by his age, the average length of gestation in most humanoid species, and the timing of your last visit to his planet, I’d say natural reproduction is as likely as cloning in this case. Given the circumstances, I’m actually leaning more towards offspring.”
“What?” Daniel asked in alarm, taking a step backward. “But how could that happen?”
Janet arched one of her own eyebrows provocatively. “I can show you some pictures in a medical journal if you’d like.”
“Oh God,” Sam breathed quietly. “I forgot about that.”
“Forgot? Forgot what?” Daniel demanded looking from Sam to Teal’c and back to Janet apprehensively.
Sam turned to face him, leaving Janet to do her preliminary exam. “You read the follow up reports from the original mission?” she asked carefully.
“I meant to,” Daniel hedged. “But you guys had already hit the highlights and I didn’t really have the heart to read about any more deaths at the time. Besides, I had a lot of work to catch up on and right after that we got captured by Hathor. I just never got around to it.”
“Was your work load not reduced considerably by the clones when you returned from
P2C-
“Um, no, not really.” Daniel blinked at Teal’c, unwittingly exposing the lie with his telltale body language as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away.
“Daniel! You went back and rechecked everything the clones did, didn’t you?” Sam accused. “For heaven’s sake, they were you, you know.”
“Well I wasn’t sure. And I’ll have you know that one of the translations was not entirely accurate,” Daniel replied indignantly.
“One? How inaccurate was it?”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Daniel mumbled, wilting a little under Sam’s interrogation. “All right, there was one mistake, but it was fundamental and I couldn’t believe I would miss something so simple. Of course I understand that he might have been under a little stress at the time but… Hey, stop changing the subject! What did you neglect to tell me?”
“Teal’c, maybe you should go check on the colonel,” Sam suggested, tugging Daniel
over to sit on the next bed for a semi-
Teal’c readily took the out and bowed his head before making his way to the exit with one last glance at the baby.
“Chicken,” Daniel called after him petulantly.
“Okay,” Sam started with a deep breath. “When I finally found you after they separated us…”
“You didn’t find me.”
“I thought it was you,” Sam said, carefully controlling the urge to smack him. “At the time we had no idea there would be more than one of you. Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Sorry. Go on.”
“I saw a woman leave the room, that’s how I found you. Him. Anyway, there was blood on the sheet and a strong odor of sex.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Daniel denied automatically then paused for a beat. “Why would he do that?” he bemoaned, not doubting Sam’s words.
“He didn’t willingly do anything, he was taken advantage of. In fact he hadn’t even woken up from being created yet. But we tested the sheet, Daniel. It was positive for blood, semen, and vaginal secretions.”
As he processed the information Daniel’s gaze traveled slowly to the child. “So how do we know if this one’s a clone or, oh God… offspring?”
“A simple blood test will tell us either way,” Janet answered, keeping a hand on the now restless child as she turned to look at them. “If the DNA is a perfect match then he’s a clone. If it’s not we’ll still be able to determine if you’re the father.”
“I already know I’m not the father,” Daniel insisted fervently. “I wasn’t even there.”
“I meant genetically,” Janet clarified.
“Right. I still vote for the clone option.”
“What’s wrong, little guy?” Sam asked with concern as she headed back towards the now fussing baby. When she approached he threw his arms up so she picked him off the bed and held him as he continued to fidget, a look of desperation on his face. “Janet?”
“Yeah, could you take care of that while I gather a few things? Then I’ll finish his physical and draw some blood. Oh, and try to get a specimen,” Janet called back as she walked out of the examination area.
“Specimen?”
“What’s wrong? Is he sick?” Daniel asked, sidling up beside them.
“I don’t… oh. Oh no,” Sam swore as understanding dawned on her face. She held the now contented tot away from her at arms length as clear fluid finished trickling slowly down his bare legs. “That kind of specimen.”
His sense of self preservation kicked in and Daniel managed not to laugh at the large wet spot on Sam’s side. “I guess we’re not very good with kids,” he surmised guiltily even as he backed away. “Jack probably would have known.”
“Probably,” Sam ground out.
“Teal’c, too. Here,” Daniel offered, hesitantly taking the kid and standing him up in the middle of the bed, allowing him to hold his fingers for balance. “Maybe we should get him out of these wet clothes.”
He glanced back at Sam as she peeled off the shirt and let it fall to the floor.
She plucked the soaked tee away from her skin crankily and shot him a look that
dared him to say anything. “Or I can handle it,” he amended, sounding less than
self-
“Are you sure?” Sam asked, reluctant to leave in spite of her state. She grabbed a towel and threw it over the puddle in the floor, kicking it around with her booted foot until the liquid was absorbed.
“Yeah, I think he’s getting used to me,” Daniel nodded. “We’re good. Go ahead”
“Okay, but if you get into trouble call Janet,” Sam advised, picking up her shirt and the towel, holding them squeamishly by index fingers and thumbs as she retreated. “And have someone mop the floor.”
Daniel nodded absently as he turned back to his miniature doppelganger on the bed. “So,” he replied with forced cheerfulness. “I’m, ah, Daniel Jackson, peaceful explorer from Earth.”
The toddler’s eyes filled with tears and a low whimper commenced when he realized Sam was nowhere in sight.
“Hey, hey,” Daniel soothed fretfully. “It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you,” he promised searching frantically for anything to use as a diversion. “I know, I’ve got something. Here.” He presented the Government Issue ballpoint out of his pocket then breathed a sigh of relief as the baby took it and tried to figure out how to make it shine. When clicking the end repeatedly failed to produce the desired effects he pouted and looked up at Daniel accusingly. “Huh,” Daniel sympathized. “That one must be broken.”
“Daniel,” Janet scolded with a smile as she came back into the room. “Don’t tease him.”
“Not teasing,” Daniel corrected, “Distracting. There’s a difference.”
“Uh huh. Did you get a specimen?” She asked, frowning as she passed through the sticky spot on the floor.
“Oh… um… Sam did. But I don’t think you can use it, unless you squeeze it out of her clothes. Cleanup on aisle five, if you know what I mean.”
Janet caught on quickly but stifled her laugh, noting that Daniel had come out of the mishap unscathed. “He’s all wet,” she huffed, setting aside her supplies as she patted the soggy bottom with an already gloved hand.
She removed the tiny tunic to grunts of protest as the junior genius continued to
probe the mystery of the non-
“Pull-
“Absorbent underpants. They’re disposable. In the meantime, he could use a bath.”
Daniel checked his watch. “Actually, I’ve got a debriefing.”
Freed from the confines of his damp clothing, the little guy bent his knees and bounced gleefully on the bed as he held onto Daniel with one hand and the prized pen with the other, reveling in his own nakedness.
“You’re shameless,” Janet taunted, tickling his bare ribs and slipping the ballpoint away unnoticed before he could hurt himself with it. She artfully handed it back to Daniel without the baby being the wiser. “What a scandal! Doctor Jackson is dancing naked in the infirmary.”
“Yeah, don’t let that get around,” Daniel warned, liberating his last finger and easing back as Janet expertly took over.
“That’s my tummy. That’s my tummy,” Janet purred as she laid the toddler flat and pinched the fat little belly each time she said the word ‘tummy’, eliciting a peal of excited giggles. “That’s my tummy!”
Teal’c stopped in the doorway and raised an eyebrow as he witnessed the scene.
“Hey, Teal’c. Did you find Jack?” Daniel asked as he joined him, turning in fascination to watch the evolving play as exaggerated facial expressions were added by the doctor.
“O’Neill does not wish to be disturbed at the time,” Teal’c explained, alarmed as Janet apparently lost her mind. “I believe he does not wish to form an emotional bond with the child should the fate of the other clones befall him.”
“That makes sense,” Daniel empathized, looking back at the boy with a worried frown. “Jack’s got a soft spot for kids. Didn’t you tell him about Janet’s new theory?”
“I did not. O’Neill refuses to discuss the matter.”
“What about the debriefing?”
“SG-
“Oh, that’s probably better anyway. So I’m gonna head home. Maybe Janet will have some information for us tomorrow.”
“Ahhh… that’s my toe! Ahhhh… that’s my knee! Ahhhhh… that’s my tummy!”
“Or maybe not.”
***
“I’m not really sure what it is,” Daniel was saying to Teal’c when Jack sullenly entered the briefing room after hiding in his office for most of the morning.
“What what is?” Jack asked distractedly, heading straight for the coffee pot for another caffeine fix. He hadn’t come to terms with the situation until the early morning hours, but now his resolve was set. No matter how cute the kid might be, he refused to get involved. Daniel could handle the clone stuff this time. But Jack wasn’t so sure his friend wanted the job either, especially since Teal’c had already informed him that Daniel had blown out of the mountain only minutes after Jack had the night before.
“Oh, uh… I was telling Teal’c I’m not sure what it is about a baby that turns otherwise intelligent adults into blathering idiots,” Daniel explained. “Although what we saw yesterday does have its uses, particularly in regards to development of speech. And then there’s the incidental, rudimentary anatomy lesson. The baby talk itself isn’t really harmful, I suppose.”
Jack feigned indifference as he seated himself next to Daniel and started in on his
coffee. “Carter went goo-
“Nooo,” Daniel drawled slowly, deciding whether or not to spill the beans. “Janet, actually.”
“No way!” Jack grinned in spite of himself. “Don’t tell me the doc has a soft side she’s been hiding all these years.”
“She is a mother.”
“Yeah, but she also has that mad scientist/doctor evil thing going.”
Daniel grimaced. “I have to admit that I left before she started poking him with needles.”
“I can see that,” Jack commiserated.
“Doctor Fraiser seems most jovial in the company of the young Daniel Jackson.”
“Jovial? Really?” Jack asked as Sam and Janet’s voices sounded out in the hall.
“Oh yeah,” Daniel agreed quickly, turning towards the door as the women entered the room.
“Look what we’ve got,” Sam cooed, gesturing towards the bright eyed tot in Janet’s arms.
“Shouldn’t he be restricted to the infirmary? Quarantined or something?” Jack queried sourly, suddenly captivated by the contents of his cup.
“Why’s that, sir? He’s not sick,” Janet replied. “No he’s not. No he’s not,” she repeated in a falsetto voice as she lifted the baby up over her head and back down several times. The child squealed in delight.
“He’s adapting pretty well,” Daniel observed keenly. “I mean he’s been thrust into an alien environment with no way to communicate, yet he seems to be as happy as a clam.”
Jack harrumphed, stealing a glance as another round of giggles erupted. “Yeah, well, obviously the nut didn’t fall too far from the tree,” he quipped, ignoring the frown of annoyance that crossed Daniel’s face. “So he’s not sick. What’s he doing here?”
A conspiratorial look passed between Sam and Janet as Sam reached for Jack’s cup. “Warm your coffee, sir?”
“Yeah, sure,” Jack granted, passing the half empty cup over. “Now answer the question.”
“Well, since neither of you bothered to come see him this morning…” Janet started.
“Neither of whom?” Daniel interrupted, looking from Jack to Teal’c. “You went to see him?” he asked Teal’c, certain that Jack had not. Teal’c smiled and bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.
“Teal’c fed him breakfast,” Sam grinned, setting the cup safely aside without refilling it and moving to the other side of the table to take a seat.
“I would have come by… I just had some stuff to do…” Daniel trailed off lamely.
“We just thought that since the briefing is going to be about him, he should attend,” Janet finally finished, expertly dumping the baby into Jack’s lap.
“Hey,” Jack protested, glaring at the doctor in inverse proportion to her widening smile as she stepped back. “Daniel, take him,” he ordered the nearest person gruffly. Not wanting to touch the boy or even look at him, Jack was still instinctively hardwired not to let him fall. Everyone knew he wouldn’t drop him.
“I don’t want him either,” Daniel lamented, easing his chair away. “He leaks,” he explained awkwardly to icy glares sent his way.
“Carter!” Jack bellowed angrily, causing the child to stare up at him in fright, his lower lip beginning to quiver. A chorus of protests erupted from around the table. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Jack chanted softly, bouncing the toddler slightly on his knee until the anxious expression on his face lessened.
“Now we can forgo the hearing test,” Daniel sniffed haughtily, moving closer to rescue both Jack and the baby. Janet had the same idea and made a grab for the little one as well. The sudden attention caused a slight lip trembling relapse.
“Give him some space,” Jack advised, wanting nothing more than to avoid the tears
he knew would do him in. He realized his plan of avoidance had already been deliberately
and cruelly thwarted as his reluctance to get to know the miniature Daniel began
to melt. However he was mad as hell at the tactics used against him and vowed revenge
against the conspirators should the unthinkable happen. The thought set off an unwanted
twinge in his heart and he couldn’t stop himself from grasping one of the tiny hands
and tenderly separating each finger in search of the tell-
“That’s not going to happen, sir,” Janet promised gently.
“You’re sure?” Jack questioned, wanting to believe.
“We’re sure. He’s not a clone.”
“He’s not?” Jack asked again, uncertain he had heard right as Daniel sighed explosively and dropped his head. “So that means he’s a… well what do ya know. Daniel’s a poppa!” he proclaimed happily, smiling down at the still slightly wary child in his lap, seeing him in a whole new light.
“Not me!” Daniel protested irritably as he lifted his head.
“Daniel Jackson did not directly father this child,” Teal’c stated. “However the boy does spring from his lineage via one of the clones.”
“What he said,” Daniel agreed sulkily.
“Oh, that’s right. One of the other Daniels did manage to do the deed before we got him home,” Jack remembered thoughtfully, his frown returning. “And you’re sure this one’s not gonna go ‘poof’? After all, the one that made him was defective. I mean genetically, not just because he was Daniel.”
“Hey!”
“Well this little guy’s not going anywhere. He’s in perfect health.”
“We’re almost one hundred percent certain that since the sperm was viable when the boy was conceived there won’t be any repercussions now,” Sam put in. “Besides, if he were going to regress, it most likely would have happened a long time ago.”
“So he’s what? A regular kid?”
“Yes sir. Well, as regular as he can be with half of his genes coming from an alien species.”
“Cool,” Jack breathed, carefully taking in every angle of the small face as he’d been so reluctant to do before. He was amazed by the semblance to the glum man sitting to his right.
“I’ll take him now, sir,” Janet volunteered, her mission accomplished.
“I’ve got him,” Jack grumbled, playing the part of the martyr to the hilt even as he shifted the kid to his other knee and out of Janet’s reach. He smiled when the boy looked up at him intently, apparently sizing him up. Finally the child’s attention dropped from his face to his pocket and he helped himself to Jack’s pen.
“Colonel,” Janet protested, reaching over to extract the sharp object.
“It’s okay,” Jack soothed, scooting closer to the table and flipping open the notebook in front of him. He clicked the end of the pen and guided the small hand to the paper. After drawing only two lines with Jack’s assistance, the toddler took to the activity with gusto. “Quick study,” Jack proclaimed smugly as if he had anything to do with it.
“As you were,” Hammond ordered as he entered the room and moved straight to the head of the table. “How’s the boy?”
“He’s fine, sir,” Janet announced cheerfully taking a seat next to Sam and launching into her report. “Our tests show conclusively he is the biological offspring of Doctor Jackson and not a clone as we first suspected.”
“Um, offspring of one of the clones,” Daniel corrected pointedly.
“Well that’s wonderful news.” Hammond brightened up and beamed at the busy child. “There’s quite a likeness,” he added warmly.
“Really?” Daniel asked, not seeing it himself. Or trying hard not to.
“He’s a chip off the old block,” Jack agreed exuberantly. “Hell, yesterday we thought he was you.”
“Language, sir,” Janet admonished.
“What? It’s not like he’s gonna pick up anything. He doesn’t even talk. Does he?”
“No, but he screams really well,” Sam teased, shooting a rueful glance at Daniel when he glowered at her.
“And he coos and laughs,” Janet added. “Obviously he is physically capable of speech, but other than these inarticulate sounds he hasn’t uttered a peep.”
“Yes, but like I started to tell Teal’c earlier, speech is a learned skill. And since he’s never been around people who converse verbally, he doesn’t know how yet,” Daniel extrapolated, focusing on the practical matters instead of the emotional ones.
“But surely he’s been exposed to their language?” Hammond queried. “Even if it’s not spoken out loud.”
“Possibly,” Sam agreed. “Probably,” she amended. “But so far he hasn’t used any words at all, alien or otherwise.”
“Yes, but from what I was exposed to, these people don’t really use words per se,” Daniel explained. “It’s more like projected images and feelings. Even their written language is pictographic in nature. He doesn’t have a reference to connect the sounds we use as words with his thoughts.”
“But if he can laugh and scream and apparently hear then he’s more human than Barbie doll, right?” Jack asserted hopefully, “Because as a race, they don’t seem to do those things.”
“He responds to noises and has the capacity for speech, that’s all we know right now,” Sam summarized. “But it’s entirely possible he has telepathic abilities we’re not aware of. We have no way to test that.”
“Doctor Fraiser?”
“I agree, sir. As far as I can tell we have a happy, healthy, and very bright sixteen to eighteen month old on our hands. Other than a few separation issues which are normal for this age of development, and the fact he’s been spirited away from his mother, I’d say he’s coping very well.”
“Had a bad night, did he?” Hammond asked benevolently, his eyes twinkling as he watched his second in command completely engrossed in the child’s energetic activity.
“He was fine as long as someone held him,” Janet smiled, stifling a yawn that left no doubt as to who the holder had been.
“Yeah, about that spiriting thing,” Jack cut in, looking up as he once again joined the adult conversation. “Why do you think that woman suddenly dumped him on us that way?”
“I don’t know,” Daniel mused quietly. “She gave me an image of the mob coming over the hill and I could sense some deeply troubled emotions. I knew she wanted us to leave quickly, but she never gave me any indication of the boy.”
“Does not the act of sending the boy away imply that the woman feared for his safety among the city dwellers?” Teal’c asked.
“They wanted babies,” Daniel agreed considering Teal’c’s question thoughtfully. “What if they had only just discovered his existence? What if they decided to clone him?”
“Don’t those people ever learn?” Jack swore accusingly, trying not to let his aggravation slip into his voice.
“It’s just a theory.”
“But a likely one,” Sam nodded, picking up the thread. “Just to recap… one of the women snuck into where the Daniel clones were being created, then, uh… collected a sperm sample the old fashioned way…”
“Ew.”
“…she got pregnant and then… what? Stayed hidden all this time? She must have had help.”
“Well I don’t think the older woman who brought us the boy is his mother,” Daniel replied. “At least I hope not,” he added, a concerned frown etching his forehead.
“The woman I saw leaving the room was much younger,” Sam assured with an evocative smirk.
Daniel ignored her, raising a finger as he followed his own train of thought. “You know, I’m almost certain the older woman used to be one of the leaders.”
“Used to be?” Jack enquired.
“Did you see what she was wearing? It was thread bare and stained and stopped at her knees, a far cry from the elegant long tunics the leaders wore,” Daniel continued without waiting for a response. “Besides that, her hands were rough and her skin was sun damaged. If it was the same woman who instigated the cloning, then she’s led a much rougher life since the last time we saw her.”
“They punished her,” Teal’c stated with certainty. “Perhaps they even banished her from the safety of the dome.”
“Good,” Jack snorted indignantly.
“Jack.”
“What, Daniel? The whole damned business was a cluster-
“Language! Sir!”
“Sorry, little fella,” Jack mumbled when the child stopped drawing and looked up at him. Jack tore off the unevenly decorated page and set it aside revealing a new, unmarred canvas for the little artist. Turning back to the blank paper with interest, the boy started a second, masterpiece at a more sedate pace.
“His attention span is longer than yours, Jack,” Daniel noted wryly as he lifted the first sheet of lines and studied it closely.
“He’s probably smarter than me, too,” Jack went along acerbically. “But he got it from his mother’s side.”
“Actually, he is brilliant,” Daniel proclaimed seriously. “This is Linear B.”
“Really?” Jack asked in amazement as he leaned forward in his seat to view the odd scratches being made by sluggish, two handed jerks of the pen across the page.
When Jack looked up Daniel quickly hid a grin. “Ah, linguistic humor. Very funny. You and Teal’c should work up an act, go on the road,” Jack grouched pithily.
Despite her best efforts a snicker escaped Sam’s lips, which she tried unsuccessfully to disguise as a throat clearing endeavor.
“Laugh it up, Carter. I’m still seriously pissed at you. Speaking of which, I understand
you two brainiacs don’t even know a pee-
Sam’s mouth fell open as she turned to look daggers at Daniel.
“Hey, I didn’t tell him anything. I only told…” Daniel shifted his gaze sideways
to the self-
“People,” Hammond sighed. “Can we get back on topic? I’ve got a conference call with the Joint Chiefs in ten minutes. My foremost question is what do we do with the boy now that he’s here?”
For almost a minute everyone wordlessly glanced around the table at everyone else. Obviously no one had a ready answer, though Janet, Sam, and Jack wore identical ‘look what followed me home, can I keep him’ expressions. Teal’c was inscrutable as always and Daniel still looked slightly freaked out by the situation as a whole.
“Well, since we don’t have to come up with a permanent solution right this minute,” Jack ventured, “I say we give it a few days, think it over and see what happens.”
“Perez brought in an extra crib she had in storage and we’ve set up a nursery in one of the VIP rooms,” Janet added. “In fact some of the other staff are also bringing in used baby items as well. Cassandra is on a school trip this week so I’m available to help care for him. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting volunteers to watch him while I’m on duty.”
“All right,” Hammond granted. “We’ll meet again in two days and discuss our options then. But keep it simple, Doctor, don’t go overboard.”
“Yes sir,” Janet grinned excitedly.
“In the meantime, we need to come up with a name for him,” Jack decided.
“Why?” Daniel chimed in with a puzzled look.
“Because Daniel is taken and we can’t keep calling him ‘the boy’. And I think ‘Danny’ is a little too obvious, don’t you?”
“You’re right about that,” Daniel agreed wholeheartedly. “I guess it would be less confusing to come to some sort of consensus on what to call him.”
“I have always thought that should I ever father another son I would like to name him after the great warrior of Jaffa legend; Rokshama’nak,” Teal’c suggested. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room.
“That’s nice,” Daniel responded at last, casting a dubious glance around the table.
“Kind of a big name for a little guy, though, don’t you think?” Janet asked reasonably.
“Yeah,” Jack quickly agreed. “Besides, you’re still a relatively young man, just barely over a hundred, right? You may have more children some day. You don’t want to take the chance and use up all the good names,” he finished, running a hand over the baby’s blond head as the drawing that had been steadily slowing finally stopped completely.
“Indeed,” Teal’c gave in magnanimously after a moment of thought.
Jack gathered the drowsy child closer and smiled indulgently when the boy snuggled to him and closed his eyes. “Gate lag,” he guessed affectionately, already completely besotted.
Hammond chuckled as he rose from the table. “I’ll leave this one for you people to figure out,” he grinned. “But I wouldn’t mind terribly if you decided to call him George.”
“That’s a good one, sir,” Sam smiled for a second before realizing the general had been serious. “The name, I mean. Good name, sir.”
“A lot of historic significance,” Daniel granted without conviction.
“Just let me know,” Hammond called over his shoulder as he retired to his office.
“We’re not calling him George,” Jack announced the second the door was shut.
“We could name him Nicholas,” Sam offered.
“Why?” Jack and Daniel asked simultaneously.
“Nick doesn’t deserve a namesake,” Jack declared firmly. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
“What was your other grandfather’s name?” Janet inquired as she rounded the table to pluck the pen from the now lax fingers.
“Uh, that doesn’t really matter,” Daniel mumbled uncomfortably as he shifted in his seat.
“Come on, give,” Sam urged, sensing his reluctance and honing in on it relentlessly in search of revenge.
Daniel cleared his throat. “Andrew,” he muttered sotto voce.
“What was that?” Jack asked, leaning closer, assuming Daniel had lowered his voice in deference to the sleeping child.
“I said his name was Andrew,” Daniel repeated a little louder as he looked around the table with a defiant stare that made it clear he wasn’t going to take any flack about it. Another uneasy silence followed.
“That’s nice,” Teal’c finally deadpanned.
Jack gawked at Teal’c for a moment before turning his gaze to Daniel. “Your grandfather was Andrew Jackson?” he asked carefully.
“Well not that Andrew Jackson,” Daniel retorted with a pout.
“Okay, just so we’re clear,” Jack stated for the record, “Names that will not be considered include: Andrew, Stonewall, Shoeless Joe, Reggie, Jesse, Bo, Michael, Tito, Jermaine, and LaToya.”
“Latoy’a?” Teal’c asked, his eyes lighting up with interest.
“LaToya. And forget it. It’s a girl’s name,” Daniel shot him down. “But feel free to add it to your own list of baby names for future use,” he offered pragmatically, noting Teal’c’s unmistakable appreciation of the idea.
“Latoy’a of the Red Hills,” Jack approved. “I like it.”
“Why can’t we call him Andrew?” Sam asked, getting back to the matter at hand. “I think it’s cute.”
“Because, kids can be cruel, Carter,” Jack explained with a grunt of annoyance. “He’s stuck with Jackson so we have to work with that. We don’t want to expose him to any unnecessary ridicule down the road, not when we can so easily avoid it.”
“You’re assuming he’s going to stay on Earth,” Daniel said with surprise.
“Of course he’s going to stay on Earth,” Jack declared adamantly, daring anyone to argue.
“That hasn’t been decided,” Daniel argued anyway. “We haven’t even talked about any other options. Don’t you think he should go back to his family if the situation presents itself?”
“No. I think he should stay on Earth with his father,” Jack insisted.
“His father…” Daniel started angrily then bit back his reply and took a deep, calming breath before speaking again. “His father is dead. Right now all we have to decide is what we’re going to call him while he’s here.”
“Let’s agree not to name him after anyone,” Janet offered quickly to cut off whatever come back the colonel was preparing. “What would you call him, Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, Daniel,” Sam urged gently. “What’s a name you like?”
“What about Samuel?” Daniel asked with a sigh, playing along grudgingly.
“No,” Jack objected right away. “I forgot to mention Samuel L. Jackson. Besides, we’ve already got a Sam.”
“Which is why we would call him Sam-
“Forget it.”
“Richard?” Sam suggested rapidly, pulling a random name out of the air.
“Nah, that’s too stuffy. We might as well name him George. Besides, they’d eventually call him Dick,” Jack pointed out, shaking his head. “So no wiener names, either. That leaves out Peter, Richard, Willie, and Johnson off the top of my head. Sorry. No pun intended.”
“Johnson is a wiener name?” Daniel asked in confusion.
Janet grinned, still hovering over Jack’s shoulder. “You never heard of a big Johnson?”
“Actually… no. But we wouldn’t want to call him Johnson Jackson anyway.”
“I know, we’ll call him Max,” Jack made up his mind, glancing around for support but finding none. “What? He doesn’t look like a Max?”
“He does not,” Teal’c opposed. “In fact he looks a great deal like a Daniel but you have already dismissed that option.”
“It’s for simplicity, Teal’c,” Jack explained again, not so patiently this time. “We need to call him something besides Daniel. Something that won’t give his kindergarten teacher a coronary.”
“We could always just number him,” Daniel muttered for spite, earning a penitent look from Jack.
“Oh, I guess you heard about that. In my own defense, let me just say that those two together were mean.”
“Max is kind of sweet,” Sam allowed, knowing they would never reach a unanimous decision anyway. She was willing to let the colonel pick the name if only to ease her conscience about her role in the underhanded trick they had played on him earlier. And hopefully help dowse any thoughts of payback.
“Yeah, and it’s not like he can shorten it to an annoying nick name,” Daniel approved, warming to the name. “Max is okay, I guess.”
“Max it is,” Janet smiled, reaching down to take the sleeping bundle.
“I’ve got him,” Jack balked, clearly enjoying the feel of a sleeping baby in his arms.
Taken aback, Janet sighed with displeasure. “Don’t you have work to do, sir?”
“Don’t you?”
“Colonel, he should really learn to sleep in a bed,” Janet insisted, not backing off. “Nap time included.”
“If you want him, Doc, just say so,” Jack challenged cantankerously.
“I want him. And for the moment, I am in charge of his care.”
“Bully,” Jack complained, reluctantly turning over his charge.
“Come on Maxie,” Janet purred, lifting the child gently onto her shoulder. “Let’s put you to bed.”
“Maxie?” Daniel groaned. “Oh, that’s… that’s bad.”
“Don’t call him that,” Jack objected loudly to the doctor’s retreating back. “It makes him sound like a feminine hygiene product!”
***
Daniel left the briefing room in a hurry and headed straight for his office, hoping Jack would get the message that he didn’t want company when he closed the elevator doors practically in his face. Reaching his sanctuary in record time, he sighed in relief as he took off his jacket and draped it over the back of his chair. Briefly scanning the shelves he found what he was looking for and placed it reverently on his desk. He took a moment to sort his troubled thoughts before opening the ancient text.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help the boy; he most certainly did. He knew in his heart he would do whatever he could regardless of the circumstances. The fact that Max carried his DNA only clouded the issue. Even without the lab work to back it up, one glance at the child bore out a striking physical resemblance, no matter how hard Daniel tried to deny it.
The situation left him feeling strangely bereft, heightening his sense of loss in all matters concerning family. Genetically Max was his progeny even if he hadn’t been the actual sperm donor. As far as Daniel was concerned the paradox was just another cosmic joke of epic proportions, and once again he was the butt of it. He somehow thought that a clone, even a baby one, wouldn’t have packed such an emotional sucker punch.
Obviously Jack hadn’t taken the hint to back off as he showed up at the open door moments later to glare at Daniel for the deliberate slight at the elevator. Daniel glanced up impassively as he settled in his chair, preparing to immerse himself in something a little less perplexing for a while. Archaic manuscripts had always had a very soothing quality for him, especially when he had more pressing problems afoot. He’d been saving this one for just such an occasion, frequent as they were around the good old SGC. Ignoring Jack, he opened the book.
“Daniel,” Jack called as he entered the room uninvited, sounding oddly like a disappointed parent.
Taking a deep breath, Daniel folded his hands on his desk. “What do you need, Jack?”
“Can we talk for a minute?”
“We are talking.”
Jack harrumphed softly and seated himself on a nearby stool. “I meant about the boy,” he clarified unnecessarily.
“I thought the purpose of giving him a name was so we wouldn’t keep calling him ‘the boy’.”
“Nice avoidance technique. We can talk around this in circles all day; I’ve got nothin’ better to do.”
Knowing Jack well enough to see he wasn’t bluffing, Daniel grudgingly closed the
old, leather-
The brusqueness of the question caught Jack off guard and he paused to consider what he did want. “I’d just like to see you show a little more interest in your… in Max.”
“Son,” Daniel corrected edgily. “That’s what you were going to say. You want me to show a little more interest in my son.”
“I guess.”
Daniel moistened his lips as he prepared to speak, but kept his eyes carefully averted. “You want me to claim Max as my child and raise him here on Earth under the watchful eye of my friend and commanding officer,” he accused without any real heat.
“What would be so wrong with that?” Jack asked curtly, realizing as he heard Daniel’s words that it was exactly what he wanted.
“Less than two hours ago you weren’t even willing to look at him yourself,” Daniel pointed out evenly, making eye contact at last and holding it.
“Two hours ago I was an ass,” Jack admitted with an embarrassed wince.
“That hasn’t changed.”
With a snort Jack accepted the rejoinder as the bald truth and brushed it aside. “I know. I’m a hypocritical bastard.”
“Not necessarily. I can appreciate the self-
“Because you’re doing it too,” Jack nodded acceptingly. “But you of all people have to understand that if you’re going to go out spreading your DNA around the galaxy, you’re got to take some responsibility for it.”
“What?” Daniel gaped, caught somewhere between anger and incredulity. “We’re not talking about a broken condom here, Jack. I did not father this child no matter how you look at it.”
“Biologically…”
“Don’t give me biologically,” Daniel cut him off, finally giving in to his frustration, moving his hands as rapidly as he moved his mouth. “I did not ask to be cloned. I did not ask for one of my clones to be… to be taken advantage of. Maybe it happened more than once, to more than one of the clones? For all I know there could be dozens more children out there bearing my genes. Should we go gather them up and raise one big happy family?”
“Daniel,” Jack soothed. “Calm down.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice idea you’ve got there, Jack, but you haven’t thought it through. Look, I’ve… I’ve got a dangerous job, I’m never at home… sometimes when I’m busy I even forget to feed myself. How am I supposed to care for a special needs child?”
“Special needs?” Jack asked bluntly, surprised by the comment.
“Well for starters, he’s mute.”
“At the moment, but he can learn to talk. Right? Fraiser said so.”
“She thinks so, but she doesn’t know for sure. Even if he can learn, he’s already way, way behind. That puts him in the ‘special needs’ category.”
“Then who better for a father than a linguist?”
“And then there’s the fact he’s half alien. Keeping him on Earth would be risky. The NID would have a field day if they ever got their hands on him. What kind of life would he have then?”
“Well Cassie is full blood alien and they’ve never bothered her,” Jack replied complacently.
“Cassie is a full blood human alien, directly descended from her Earth ancestors,” Daniel countered, “And as far as we know she doesn’t have the potential for telepathy. How can I protect Max if I’m never around?”
“We can protect him,” Jack insisted. “No one expects you to do this by yourself.”
“What if something happens to me? To all of us? Who’ll raise him then? I… I don’t want him dropped off in some orphanage or foster care, especially when he has a family out there that cares for him. Growing up alone isn’t much fun,” Daniel sighed, running out of steam and dropping his gaze back to his desktop. “I’d hate to do that to him and he would hate me for it. I don’t want that responsibility.”
“Look at me,” Jack insisted gently, continuing only after Daniel hesitantly raised his eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made any assumptions.”
“S’okay,” Daniel waved him away dejectedly.
“No, it’s not okay,” Jack tried to explain, “Fatherhood is just such a wonderful thing. I guess I wanted that experience for you.”
“Why?”
Jack patted Daniel’s arm as he got to his feet. “Because I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more. You’d be a great dad, Daniel. I’m sorry I pushed. Just promise me you’ll think about it before you make up your mind.”
“Jack?” Daniel called out, sounding a little desperate as his friend headed towards the door. “Bad things… happen. You know that better than anybody. What if I did something wrong or… or didn’t do something I should have or just didn’t do the right thing? What if, Jack?”
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Jack didn’t turn around as he spoke. “No matter how much it hurt when I lost him, I’d never trade a minute of my time with Charlie for anything,” he pledged in a low voice. “In this life we don’t know what’s gonna happen from one minute to the next. None of us have any guarantees. So don’t be afraid to love Max because of what might or might not happen in the future.” Then he was gone without looking back.
Daniel sat quietly for a long time, running his hand over the leather cover of the book on his desk. Even as he longed to lose himself in the pages he couldn’t seem to make himself open it. Finally he hefted it thoughtfully before replacing it on the shelf. He didn’t need the distraction after all, he needed to think, to work through his warring emotions. He opened his journal instead and tried to sort out his thoughts.
***
Several hours and a good many pages later, Daniel still didn’t have a solid handle on his chaotic feelings. He had however decided the best thing to do would be to take the spirit of Jack’s advice; relax and spend some time with Max without worrying about the consequences. The concept made him a little nervous if only because he didn’t quite know what to expect from the whole ‘fatherhood’ experience. Some twisted kernel deep inside him harbored an evil pleasure that Sam didn’t seem to have an excess of parental instincts either. After all, he wasn’t the one who had ended up wet. Grabbing his jacket, he headed off to the VIP quarters.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out which room had been designated as the nursery. The first clue was a large cardboard Winnie the Pooh cutout waving from the door. And then there was the steady stream of people carrying in bags and dragging out large boxes who stopped to speak to him in hushed tones as they passed him in the hall. Daniel loitered around the door for a minute as he tried to make up his mind whether to endure the crowd and go in or just head back to his office and visit another time when things weren’t so busy.
“He’s beautiful, Doctor Jackson,” Jerry Barrett, one of the newest and burliest marines
from SG-
“Uh, thanks, Captain,” Daniel replied, not sure how to respond, especially since the man had never given him the time of day before.
“I told my wife last night that you got an unexpected visit from the stork and she boxed up some of my kid’s old stuff for you. Looks like most of it’s gonna fit just right.”
“That’s… that’s great. Really, thank you.”
“Don’t worry about getting any of it back to us. When Max outgrows it you can just pass it on to someone else,” Barrett smiled, slapping Daniel on the back like one proud dad to another before strolling off down the hall.
The door opened again and Sam popped her head out. “There you are,” she said. “I was just coming to look for you.”
“What’s going on?” Daniel peeked past her to the handful of people still bustling around in the room.
“Word got out on the grapevine about Max and things sort of got out of hand,” Sam grinned at him.
“Where is he?” Daniel asked, stepping through as Sam opened the door wider for him. “Surely he’s not asleep with all this going on.”
“You wouldn’t think so, would you?”
Sergeant Siler was perched on a ladder over the white crib in the corner as he hung a mobile of the local solar system with fishing line. One of the nurses expressed concern that Jupiter was lopsided and pleaded with him to fix it. The ladder teetered precariously as Siler leaned even further over the empty crib. Daniel moved to steady the ladder but Sam tugged him in the opposite direction.
They waded through strollers and playpens and other people who were comparing the
various and sundry baby equipment and furniture. Daniel could only guess what most
it was or what it was used for. Among the other treasures in the crowded room was
a small, dark-
Max, already dressed very Earthlike in a tee shirt, a pair of snap apart pants, and a little bitty pair of sneakers, rested safely across the room draped bonelessly over Jack’s shoulder. Jack and Janet sorted through several boxes of clothing they had dumped out on the big bed. An ongoing argument brewed quietly as they debated the merits of each piece, frequently grabbing garments out of one pile and dropping them into another.
“Wow,” Daniel finally managed. “This is some operation.”
“I know,” Sam agreed as she pulled him closer to the clothes sorting area. “Good thing we didn’t go overboard,” she joked.
“If he sleeps all day he’ll be up again all night,” Janet muttered testily as she jerked a pair of tiny, stained baseball pants out of one pile and tossed them across the room and out of Jack’s reach once and for all.
“Have a heart, woman,” Jack grumbled, retaliating by extracting a nice, peach colored button up shirt and lobbing it after the pants. “So his days and nights are a little mixed up. Time zones be damned, he just changed planets. If we wake him now he’ll be grumpy through dinner.”
“Hi,” Daniel greeted, his eyes drawn to the peaceful face drooling down the back of Jack’s shirt.
“Daniel.” Jack smiled as if he was especially pleased to see him.
Daniel narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Anything I can do to help?” he asked in spite of his better instincts.
“Yes,” Janet answered right away, dragging him over to a large rocking chair next to the nightstand. “Sit.”
Looking around warily, Daniel did as he was told. Jack approached him with a wicked grin as he lowered his burden and carefully deposited Max into his arms. “Uh…” Daniel started to protest as blue eyes squinted open to scowl up at him. Having seen the same expression many times from overnight missions and infirmary stays Jack, Sam, and Janet were impervious. But Daniel had never been on the receiving end of this particular look before. “That’s scary,” he muttered.
“You should see it coming from you,” Jack supplied cheerfully. “Way worse. Way, way worse.”
“Rock,” Janet hinted as the little one started a low whine of dissent.
“Oh, as in the chair,” Daniel caught on. Repositioning the child slightly as he started rocking, holding his breath until Max quieted, relaxed into the motion, and let his eyes slide shut.
“He’s beautiful,” Sam sighed dreamily as she stared down at them.
“That’s what Captain Barrett said,” Daniel frowned as he brushed damp blond hair back from the flushed little forehead.
“He is not,” Jack disputed tenderly, looking on with pride. “He’s handsome,” he corrected before he could be disemboweled by Max’s growing fan club.
“Uh uh. Handsome doesn’t even come close,” Janet smirked. “He is beautiful.”
“He’s hot,” Daniel added.
“Daniel,” Sam laughed lightly. “Of course he’s hot, just check out his dad.”
“What?” Daniel asked looking up in bewilderment. “No, I mean he really feels hot. I think he has a temperature.”
“He’s right,” Jack agreed, touching a rosy cheek with the back of his fingers. “Looks like he’s got a little fever here.”
“Don’t panic,” Janet soothed unworriedly as she moved over to the bedside table and
located a bottle of reddish-
“What if we exposed him to some common germ that he has no immunity to,” Daniel fretted, watching in awe as Janet nudged the baby’s lip with the nipple of the bottle and Max sucked it right in without waking. Daniel hesitantly took hold of the bottle itself when Janet repeated the nudging maneuver with his hand.
“You would have already exposed his world to any common germs that we carry long before he was born,” Janet pointed out.
“Maybe it’s an uncommon germ.”
“Daniel, settle down,” Jack ordered gently. “I agree with Doc, kids get fevers. Let’s just wait and see before we go ballistic.”
With a nod, Daniel swallowed his anxiety and concentrated on rocking the chair and holding the bottle steady as Max slowly drained it. He began to unwind and actually found himself enjoying the experience once he patted the bottom and discovered the absorbent underpants Janet had promised to get. Then the door opened and a serious looking General Hammond stormed the room, glancing around with a critical eye.
“Doctor Fraiser?” Hammond called as he approached. “I believe we have enough supplies now, don’t you?”
“Yes sir,” Janet agreed merrily. “We have some very generous people here at the SGC.”
“That we do, Doctor, that we do. How’s our boy?” the general asked as he moved closer, his expression softening considerably when he caught sight of Daniel rocking the baby. “So you decided to call him Max, did you?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” Jack answered proudly. “Named him myself.”
“Sounds like a dog’s name to me,” Hammond muttered under his breath disapprovingly.
“Actually,” Daniel appeased, keeping his voice low, “We named him George Max… ah… Maxwell. We’re just calling him Max for short,” he lied.
“George Maxwell Jackson,” Hammond drawled slowly, seeming to savor each word as he pronounced it. “That’s got quite a ring to it,” he grinned broadly.
Jack’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and then lowered quickly into an irritated sulk as he mouthed the words ‘suck up’ to Daniel behind the general’s back. Daniel shrugged unapologetically and lowered his eyes back toward the baby, tugging the now empty bottle free from the still suckling mouth.
“Are we ready, Sergeant?” Hammond asked as Siler finished up the mobile and climbed down from the ladder.
“Yes sir,” Siler confirmed, moving over to pick up a roll of clear plastic by the wall. “Will this do, sir?”
“Perfect!” Hammond exclaimed as he paced off a section of the room. “We’ll roll it out about here. My team’ll be along any minute. All right, people, let’s clear this area.”
“What’s going on?” Daniel whispered to Jack as the folks who had been helping with the furniture removed the ladder, extra equipment and supplies to the hall.
Jack gave him a dirty look. “Well what you perceived as a really rotten mood was
really just the general in mission-
“You mean I named him George for nothing?”
“Yep. Panicked and jumped the gun.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Jack placated, giving up his rancor. “As happy as it made the old man we’ll probably reap the rewards for weeks to come. Years even. Max might even get a trust fund out of it.”
“What’s he up to anyway?” Daniel had to ask, inclining his head towards Hammond as he supervised the rolling out of the plastic sheet.
“That’d be telling,” Jack gloated. “You’ll see.”
As soon as most of the open floor was covered in a thin layer of plastic, the general himself wheeled the little wading pool over to the center of it. As he dropped it into place the door opened and Teal’c came through with a fifty pound bag of sand propped on each shoulder. A line of airmen behind him were unloading a handcart, taking one bag apiece.
“Over here, Teal’c,” Hammond instructed, nudging the pool into just the right spot with his foot.
“A sandbox,” Daniel exclaimed as he rose from the chair to watch, automatically lifting the child to his shoulder. “That’s a wonderful idea.”
“When Kayla was little her grass allergies sometimes kept her inside in the springtime,” Hammond explained with a modest grin. “We had a set up like this in the family room so she could get dirty. She absolutely loved it.”
Max blinked his eyes open and twisted around to check out the action, resting one hand lightly on the side of Daniel’s face. He yawned, but didn’t cry or squirm as he watched the bags being unloaded into the floor.
“Let’s get Max to the infirmary and check him out while they fill it,” Janet suggested, tugging on Daniel’s sleeve. “Knowing your allergies, I don’t want either one of you breathing the dust as it settles.”
Daniel nodded his agreement and he and Max both looked over his shoulder one more time before following the petite doctor out the door.
“Bye Max,” Sam called after them.
Jack made a beeline for the corner to rescue the baseball pants while Janet was gone.
***
“You’re not gonna do this rectally, are you?” Daniel grimaced as he sat on a gurney and held Max in his lap while Janet went to get a thermometer.
Janet rolled her eyes as she opened a cabinet. “Not this time. If he had a high fever then yes, we would need to get a very accurate reading, but as it is,” she shrugged and held up a disposable temperature strip like the ones they carried in their field first aide kits.
“Okay,” Daniel sighed in relief.
“It’s not that bad,” Janet insisted in amused exasperation. She smiled at the identical looks of apprehension as she pulled on her lab coat, wrapped a stethoscope around her neck and advanced on them. “You’re rubbing off on him,” she complained. “Now he tenses up as soon as we come into the infirmary.”
“It’s genetic,” Daniel quipped. “Besides, you tend to stick us with needles and put things in our butts. Coming here is the SGC equivalent to being abducted by little green aliens.”
“I suppose it is,” Janet laughed affably, stepping closer to apply the strip to Max’s forehead. “He’s such a good baby,” she sighed, stroking his longish hair.
“Is he?”
“Oh yeah, he takes to people very quickly now that he’s had some time to adjust to our wild assortment of skin, eye, and hair color. Or lack of hair altogether, I won’t mention any names. And I think he’s used to getting a lot of attention.”
“You’re probably right about that. Not a lot of children where he comes from.”
“True,” Janet agreed, the barest of frowns crossing her face. “But he’s so solemn sometimes.”
“He misses his mother,” Daniel stated with quiet certainty.
They waited in silence for another minute and then Janet peeled off the flat piece of plastic. “100 point 2.”
“And that’s okay?”
“It’s fine. But we’ll keep watch on his temp anyway and make sure he stays hydrated. At some point we’ll need to discuss vaccinations if he’s going to stay on Earth.”
“See Max?” Daniel lamented to the baby. “It’s all about needles with her.”
Janet held out her hands and Max went to her immediately.
“You’re good with him,” Daniel observed neutrally, dropping his empty hands to his lap. “So how come you never had any babies of your own? Sorry. That’s none of my business,” he quickly backtracked, concerned he might have crossed a line.
“I always wanted a house full of kids,” Janet replied, brushing aside the apology with a smile as Max grasped the end of her stethoscope and banged it against her shoulder. “When I got married we started trying to get pregnant right away but it never happened. I guess it was for the best since the marriage didn’t last anyway. Cassie was a Godsend. I can’t imagine loving a kid I gave birth to any more than I do her.”
Daniel nodded and reached out to tie the lace of the tiny Nike that had come undone, ducking the swinging bell. “Shau’re wanted a baby. Everyone was disappointed when a year passed and we still hadn’t conceived. And let’s face it, Abydonian birth control pretty much amounted to the rhythm method.”
“And I’m sure you always counted carefully,” Janet teased, untangling the stethoscope from the busy hands and tossing it to the bed before someone got hurt.
“Yeah. Right. Anyway, I always assumed it was me that had the problem. Especially since Apophis didn’t have any trouble getting her pregnant,” Daniel sighed, smiling sadly at Max as he turned in Janet’s arms to study him.
“The Goa’uld would have corrected any physical problems she might have had to pregnancy, you know.”
“I know.”
“And since the clone didn’t have any difficulty impregnating Max’s mom, I’d say you’re probably okay, too. We can run some tests if you’d like, do a sperm count…”
“Janet,” Daniel interrupted hastily. “Don’t get carried away. I can’t even believe we’re discussing this.”
“Why not? I am your doctor.”
“Yes, but this is Max’s appointment, not mine. If I ever get the sudden urge for a sperm count I’ll give you a call.”
“You do that,” Janet grinned as Max reached out and smudged the lenses of Daniel’s glasses with his fingertips before plucking at the frames.
Daniel warily allowed the child to remove his specs, hoping Janet wouldn’t let him bang them up too badly. “Sam wanted Cassie,” he said softly.
“Yes she did,” Janet allowed, never taking her eyes off Max as he investigated his
newest toy. “But she knew she couldn’t take care of her and remain on a front line
team. Everyone understood that. And no one expects you to give up SG-
“I don’t want…” Daniel paused, looking miserable as he sorted his thoughts. “I don’t want to be like Nick,” he whispered after a long moment. “Everyone thinks I should all of a sudden act like a father, but I just don’t feel like one.”
“First of all, you are not like your grandfather,” Janet insisted with conviction. “And you are in no way obligated in this situation so don’t let anyone try to browbeat you into anything you’re not comfortable with. Besides, Colonel O’Neill had nine months to think about becoming a father; it didn’t hit him overnight from out of the blue. He had years to build emotional bonds with his son.”
“This isn’t about Jack.”
“But he’s the one you’re comparing yourself to, isn’t he?” Janet asked, prying Daniel’s glasses free and handing them back to him before placing the baby on the bed. “Don’t expect all the emotional stuff to fall into place just because you and Max share common genes. It takes time, but it’s worth it in the long run. Cassie and I didn’t even have that and look where we are today.”
Tugging his tee-
“Absolutely,” Janet agreed. “Ultimately, you’re not really his father anyway.”
“No,” Daniel’s smile faded as he slipped his glasses back on. “I’m not.”
“Medical team to the ‘gateroom. Repeat, medical team to the ‘gateroom,” a familiar voice announced over the loudspeaker.
“You okay?” Janet asked even as she sprinted for the door.
“Go,” Daniel urged, reflexively pulling Max into his arms as he watched her disappear out the door. Several seconds passed and he was pleased to see no tears this time when left alone in his company. He took a breath and blew it out, glancing around the empty infirmary. When he looked back at Max, he was greeted with a shy grin that more than bolstered his flagging confidence.
“This place is about to get busy, we should probably get out of here. Good thing they moved you to better accommodations, huh?” Daniel asked as he slid off the bed. “Come on, I’ll show you my office.” He thought about the wisdom of his choice as they made their way to the hall. “Just don’t touch anything,” he cautioned as an afterthought.
***
“Sergeant?” Hammond asked as he trotted into the control room.
“SG-
The general nodded as he took a moment to catch his breath, having run all the way from the elevator. He was thankful he’d already been on his way back up when the medical team had been called. “Anything else?” he asked.
“We haven’t been able to send anyone to recover the MALP from P2C-
“So they’ve still got guards in place,” Hammond replied, not surprised. “Try again
in twenty-
“Yes sir,” Davis acknowledged, marking the order on the duty log.
***
“Where’ve you been?” Jack nagged as he met Daniel in the hall. “I’ve been looking everywhere. Janet said she thought you left the infirmary over an hour ago.”
“We were just walking. I didn’t realize we were supposed to check in with you,” Daniel retorted. He held one arm straight down to meet Max’s which was extended all the way up, his hand clasping Daniel’s index finger as they meandered along.
Ignoring the jibe, Jack clapped his hands together once and held them out palms up to Max who happily let go of Daniel’s hand and went to him. He hoisted the kid effortlessly, pleased to prompt a giggle in the process.
“Jack,” Daniel objected. “The way everyone totes him around his feet never touch the floor.”
“So?”
“So it’s a wonder he remembers how to walk at all. His muscles are going to waste away.”
“He’ll get all the exercise he needs in the sand pit after he eats,” Jack scoffed, smiling brightly at the boy. “Hey kiddo. Uncle Teal’c’s ready to feed you.”
“Have it your way,” Daniel groused unexpectedly. “You guys can watch him until Janet’s free. See you later, Max,” he mumbled, turning back the other way.
“Where ya goin?” Jack asked in disbelief. “It’s time for his dinner. It’ll be bedtime before you know it.”
“Not since he slept all afternoon,” Daniel threw out Janet’s earlier complaint for the sake of argument.
“Oh he’ll sleep,” Jack promised. “We’ll just have to wear him out, that’s all.”
“Look, you wanted me to spend time with him, I’ve spent time with him,” Daniel exclaimed, impatiently checking his watch. Even he didn’t understand why he was suddenly in a foul mood especially since he and Max had had such a good time together, just the two of them. “I really should try to get some work done today.”
Jack huffed irritably. “I’ll let him walk,” he offered as Daniel shook his head and moved down the hall.
“Daniel,” Jack barked at him. “Daniel! Oh for cryin out loud. Your father can be such an ass,” he told the boy.
Daniel stopped and looked back angrily. “If the first word he speaks turns out to be an obscenity we’ll all know why,” he scolded.
“Come on, work later,” Jack urged solemnly, mentally kicking himself for moving in and taking over. “These are the moments you don’t want to miss.”
“Watching a big bald alien feed a small shaggy one?” Daniel asked, sarcastically batting his eyelashes.
“Exactly,” Jack agreed with a growing grin as he watched Daniel’s resolve begin to crumble.
Giving in with a reluctant nod, Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets and grumpily followed Jack back to baby central.
“He’s not shaggy, he just needs a haircut.”
***
“Oh, ew, that’s just gross.”
“You think that’s bad, it’s gonna come out the same color and consistency,” Jack offered astutely from where he leaned against the wall. “Only it’s gonna smell a lot worse.”
“Ew,” Daniel concurred with Sam as they stood together on the periphery as Teal’c patiently fed Max. In spite of the Jaffa’s best efforts the toddler wore almost as much of the food as he swallowed.
“He doesn’t like the carrots, Teal’c,” Jack kibitzed not for the first time.
“I wouldn’t eat them either,” Daniel agreed, his nose scrunched up in sympathy. “They’re way overcooked.”
“George Maxwell,” Teal’c gently admonished as he offered another carefully measured spoonful of the orange mush. “If you do not eat your vegetables there will be no desert.”
“I had to tell him about the name change,” Jack supplied to the puzzled looks sent his way. “It was killing him to just call the kid Max.” Sam and Daniel grinned at each other over the plausibility of the statement.
Max squirmed away, swatting the spoon and causing the contents to flip over the edge of the tray and splat on the plastic covered floor under the high chair.
“I told you so,” Jack sing-
“What a mess,” Daniel decreed, stepping further out of the line of fire. Sam moved with him, keeping him between her and the occasional glob of flying food.
“You think this is bad,” Jack reminisced with barely a hint of melancholy, “You should have seen the first time we gave Charlie spaghetti. I literally had to paint the wall. Twice. The sauce kept bleeding through.”
“That’s awful.”
“Nah,” Jack sighed, his eyes going soft. “It was a labor of love.”
“I want a baby,” Sam blurted out without warning.
“Uh oh, the biological alarm just went off,” Jack smirked. “Hit her snooze there, Daniel.”
Daniel huffed a laugh as he bumped Sam’s shoulder with his own.
“It didn’t work, I still want one,” Sam pouted playfully.
Jack’s eyes twinkled as he stood upright. “Here’s an idea; you guys can give Max a little brother or sister.”
Sam turned to Daniel and eyed him up and down, nodding her head in mock approval.
“Forget it,” Daniel groused, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared back her.
“Why not? You make beautiful babies,” Sam joked, laughing when he stalked over to the sandbox to get away from her. Her smile faded as he kept his back to them and knelt to shift his hand through the fine sand. “He’s not joking,” she asserted, moving towards him.
“Leave him alone for a minute,” Jack advised quietly, catching her arm and pulling her back. “He’ll cool down. I think we’ve been pushing too hard.”
“I believe George Maxwell has had enough,” Teal’c declared, removing the highchair
tray and setting it aside. He extricated Max from the carrot covered tee-
“Just sponge him off enough so the sand doesn’t stick,” Jack advised as he grabbed some clean clothes and followed. “If things go according to plan he’ll still have to have another bath before bed.”
“Daniel,” Sam muttered apologetically as she approached the still kneeling man.
“There are toys buried in here,” Daniel said in amazement as he uncovered a small matchbox car.
“That was the Colonel’s idea. He said Max should start his archeology training early.”
Daniel grinned as he rose to his feet, obviously touched by the gesture. He sobered and caught her eye. “No offense, but I don’t want to be anyone’s fallback guy.”
“What?” Sam asked, perplexed by the non sequitur.
Gingerly dusting off the toy in his hand, Daniel tried to explain. “My first year at UCLA there was this girl in one of my study groups. She went on and on about how with her looks and my brains what a great kid we’d make. Then she decided we should make a pact that if neither of us was married by the time we were thirty we’d get together and have a baby. She said she wanted to keep me in reserve in case she never met Mr. Right.”
Sam harrumphed. “She had some nerve.”
“Yeah, well, it got worse as the semester progressed. Finally she wrote up this
pseudo-
“Did you?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you did. That’s why you’re always hiding in your office,” Sam dared to tease.
Laughter sounded from the bathroom and Daniel knelt down to push the car back into
the sand. Jack grinned as he led Teal’c and a damp, but happy Max over to the sandbox.
With a long-
With a gleeful cry, Max swung the yellow scoop and showered the onlookers with sand before getting down to some serious digging. Within seconds he uncovered his first prize.
“He’s a natural,” Jack beamed, spitting the grit out of his mouth. His smile grew wider as Daniel wiped his sandy glasses and settled down next to the pool to watch the boy play, each apparently fascinated with their discoveries.
***
“Sorry I couldn’t get back sooner,” Janet apologized as she slipped into the dimly
lit room. “By the time we got SG-
“Keep it down,” a dark shape cautioned in Jack’s voice from the rocking chair next to the bed.
“Please, Colonel. Max has already proved he can sleep through anything.” Janet
moved to the crib, her shoes unexpectedly filling with sand as she passed the half-
“It’s not the little one I’m worried about waking,” Jack grinned as he flicked on the bedside lamp, indicating the large, softly snoring form on the bed.
“I see.” Janet slipped off her shoes and once again traversed the sandy, plastic covered floor. She managed a tired smile at the sweetly domestic scene but it only lasted a second.
Still in his tee-
“Wipe off the frown, Doc. He’s been fed, bathed, exhausted from dumping half a ton of sand out on the floor, bathed again and put to bed with no sign of fever. And that’s just Daniel,” Jack quipped. “Max is fine, too.”
“So why isn’t Max in the crib?” Janet asked as she reached to cover the closest and largest set of feet.
“He cried when we put him in it and Daniel couldn’t take the sight of the poor kid so miserable behind the bars. He said it looked too much like a prison cell,” Jack shrugged, reaching out to cover the smaller feet. He shooed Janet away as she moved to pick up the baby. “Leave him there,” he ordered gently.
“Sir,” Janet started to protest, her patience growing thin after the long day and sleepless night before.
“Hear me out,” Jack requested. “Then we’ll do whatever you think is best.”
“Go on,” Janet sighed expectantly.
“Today was hectic. We put a lot of time and energy into getting Daniel to come around to our way of thinking,” Jack began in a soft, steady voice. “But between you and me and our battle of wills we made all the decisions. At the same time we were trying to foster Daniel’s feelings for Max we ran roughshod right over the rest of his feelings.”
“We?” Janet asked with a touch of sarcasm. “You got a mouse in your pocket? Sir?”
“Don’t even try it Doc. Your way may be more subtle, but you want to keep the kid around as much as I do,” Jack charged evenly.
“I told Daniel he doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to,” Janet objected, recklessly tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, trying to keep her anger in check. “I reminded him that he’s not obligated.”
“Because you want to keep Max yourself if Daniel doesn’t want him,” Jack ventured. “You would take him to raise just like Cassie.”
“That’s not fair,” Janet breathed quietly.
“I’m not saying you did anything wrong,” Jack reassured. “And your way may very well be the best way. I’m just saying we need to let Daniel decide what he wants without any undo pressure from either of us.”
Janet nodded her reluctant agreement. “Touché, Colonel. I suppose we have been a little… domineering.”
“Yeah,” Jack admitted guiltily. “So… truce?” he offered, stretching out his hand.
“Truce,” Janet agreed with a firm handshake. “So what did you have in mind?”
“Simple. I propose we do a little more listening and a lot less talking. And if Daniel wants to let Max sleep with him in the big bed tonight, I say we let him.”
Janet slowly nodded her assent. “Okay, you win,” she gave in at last, swayed by
the well thought-
“Nope,” Jack replied, reaching down to unlace his boots. “I slept in a bed last night, you didn’t. So why don’t you go get some real sleep. I can make it an order,” he threatened lightly.
“Yes sir,” Janet acquiesced with a wave of her hand, still carrying her shoes as she made her exit. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Adjusting the cushion behind his back, Jack lifted his socked feet to the edge of the bed and made himself comfortable. “Hey, see about getting one of these for the infirmary, would you?” he called out quietly as she shut the door.
***
Daniel wrinkled his nose as he woke up to an unpleasant but not altogether unknown odor. “Jack,” he muttered in disgust as he pushed the olive drab socks out of his face and rolled over onto his back. Something small and warm followed his movement and snuggled to him. He looked down at the blond head tucked under his arm and smiled.
“Hey,” Jack greeted sleepily from his seat next to the bed as he thumped first one foot and then the other to the floor.
“Hey. Teal’c.”
“Teal’c?” Jack asked in confusion before glancing over his shoulder to find the big Jaffa standing in the doorway holding a shovel. “What’s that for? Oh, right, the sand.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c agreed moving into the room. “If George Maxwell is to enjoy another archeological dig, the dune must be restored as must the artifacts.” He glanced at the still sleeping baby and offered a gentle nod of approval before getting down to work, scooping sand and toys back into the pool. A soft ‘shoop shoop’ accompanied his movements as the shovel scrapped along the gritty plastic.
Propping himself up on one elbow Daniel lowered his gaze to Max. “He’s wet,” he said with concern as he tentatively patted the bulky bottom. “Should we wake him up to change him?”
“What do you think we should do?” Jack asked after a thoughtful pause.
“I don’t know; that’s why I asked. What would you do?”
“I asked you first.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Yes I did.”
“No you didn’t. I said ‘should we wake him up to change him’ and then you said ‘what do you think we should do’,” Daniel repeated verbatim.
“So what are you gonna do?” Jack persisted, leaving the ball firmly in Daniel’s court.
Daniel frowned slightly as he pulled the blanket up over Max’s back. “I’m going to let him sleep,” he said, sounding confident even as he furtively glanced up from under his lashes to see if Jack approved his decision.
“Okay,” Jack agreed easily, checking his watch. “It’s still early, why don’t you try to go back to sleep?”
“Mmm,” Daniel muttered noncommittally as he ran his fingers through Max’s hair. “He really does need a haircut.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Is that okay?”
“What do you think?”
“Jack,” Daniel sighed, mildly annoyed. He lay back down, dropping his hand away. “I think it’s not really my decision.”
Before Jack could respond with more than a frustrated sigh of his own the door cracked opened and Sam peeked in. “Everyone decent in here?” she asked.
“I’m absolutely certain that no one in there is decent,” Janet exclaimed with a laugh, pushing the door all the way open and elbowing her way in.
“Nothing you haven’t seen before, eh Doc?” Jack teased as he slipped into his boots and laced them up. “I’m gonna hit the shower,” he added. “But I think Daniel wants to go back to sleep.”
“No, I’m up,” Daniel disagreed unenthusiastically, throwing an arm across his eyes as Sam turned on the overhead lights.
“Max is still asleep?” Janet asked, heading straight for the bed.
“Apparently he’s not a morning person,” Daniel muttered.
“Imagine that.”
Daniel lifted his arm enough to throw a pissy look in Jack’s direction.
“He’s wet,” Janet announced as soon as she got her hands on the baby.
“Why yes, he is,” Jack granted tightly, pointing his chin in Daniel’s direction in
a shut-
“Should we wake him up to change him?” Daniel asked seriously as he sat up in the bed. “What happens if we don’t? Will he get a rash? Tell me, worst case scenario.”
“Worst case scenario?” Jack parroted with a smirk. “Does that really apply to diaper rash?”
“I just want to do the right thing,” Daniel explained defensively, his lower lip edging out slightly.
“Don’t worry, Daniel. It’ll be fine,” Janet pacified, now fully understanding Jack’s nonverbal warning. “Parenting 101; don’t sweat the small stuff.”
“That’s just it,” Daniel groused. “I don’t know what the small stuff is. None of it seems small right now.”
“It gets easier,” Janet promised, grasping his hand.
“Come on, Daniel,” Jack suggested as he climbed to his feet and handed Daniel his glasses from the nightstand. “You’ll feel better after you clean up and get some grub. I wonder who we can get to watch Max?” he added acerbically.
“I’ll do it,” Sam and Janet shouted at the same time. They glared at each other across the bed as the object of their potential dispute wrinkled his brow unhappily for a second before easing back into a deeper sleep.
“I will remain as well,” Teal’c replied, leaning the shovel against the wall as he finished his task.
“To referee no doubt,” Daniel exclaimed as he scooted to the side of the bed, careful not to jostle Max. He gathered his over shirt, socks, and boots but didn’t bother to put them on before shuffling barefooted to the door.
“Gotta love built-
***
Feeling human again after a shower and a shave, not to mention a pair of sand-
“Hungry?” Jack queried dryly, enjoying his eggs and toast at a more sensible pace.
“Gotta get back,” Daniel muttered around a mouthful of food.
“Why? Are we paying the sitters by the hour?”
“No. I just don’t want to miss anything important.” Daniel shrugged as he washed down his last bite.
“Like what?” Jack continued to tease. “Potty training?”
Daniel froze with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth as he stared at Jack in alarm. “We have to do that?” he gasped.
“Unless you want him heading off to college in diapers,” Jack grinned at the appalled expression on Daniel’s face. “Relax, it’s no big deal.”
“I heard that boys are a lot harder to train than girls.”
“I’ve heard that too but I don’t really have anything to compare it to. And I have
to admit Sara did most of the work since I was gone a lot. Look,” Jack said, abruptly
changing the subject, “you might as well have another cup of coffee ‘cause by the
time we get back Fraiser’ll already have Max dressed in some namby-
“I suppose I can live with that as long as we don’t have to call Max Rokshama’nak,” Daniel commiserated.
Jack frowned as he soaked up the runny yellow portion of his egg with his toast. “I’ve always meant to ask; how do you remember weird names like that?”
“Oh, ah… usually phonetically; ‘Rocks ham an ack’,” Daniel explained, enunciating each syllable clearly and precisely.
“See? If I’d have said it like that everyone would have looked at me like I was stupid,” Jack complained just as the klaxon began to blare.
“Unscheduled off-
Tossing his soggy toast onto his plate Jack scooted his chair back as he stood. “You coming with?”
“Actually…” Daniel hedged, biting his lip and squinting at Jack expectantly.
Jack snorted as he shook his head and headed for the door. “Yeah, I get it. I’ll catch up with ya later. Maybe we can talk Teal’c into letting you feed Max lunch.”
“Okay, see you later,” Daniel called after him. He picked up his cup and got a refill for the road.
***
When he got back to the nursery, Daniel found Teal’c just finishing up with Max’s breakfast while Sam and Janet debated what to dress the tot in from the several outfits spread out across the bed.
“What do you think, Daniel?” Janet asked solicitously as she waved a hand over the selection.
“Oh. Ah… hmmm,” Daniel hemmed and hawed as he examined the little sailor outfit complete with hat, the furred bunny suit, the miniature lederhosen, and the tiny red, white, and black hockey uniform. “Is it Halloween?”
“No,” Janet glowered.
“He doesn’t have anything… normal to wear?”
“This is normal for kids his age,” Sam insisted, her frown matching Janet’s.
“No, I mean… normal,” Daniel clarified. “Like what he had on yesterday.”
A giggle sounded along with Teal’c’s voice, merely a deep rumble in the background.
“That’s no fun,” Sam sniffed as she picked up the bunny suit and began to stroke it as if it were alive. “We just thought we’d put him in something cute. There’s a ton of this stuff and most of it looks like it’s never even been worn.”
“I wonder why?” Daniel mused irreverently as he backed out of swinging distance. “It absolutely has to be one of these?”
“It does.”
“In that case I vote for the baseball jersey.”
“Hockey,” Janet corrected with a chuckle.
“Hockey? Are you sure?”
“Yep, Colorado Avalanche.”
“Oh. Then definitely the sailor suit,” Daniel changed his mind. “If Jack sees the hockey one Max won’t ever get to wear anything else.”
“He’s already seen it,” Janet assured. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to
compromise on the shorts and tee-
“I can see that,” Daniel nodded, not really understanding at all. Another louder giggle caught his attention. He turned his head to watch Teal’c tickle Max’s belly and speak again very softly. In Goa’uld. His mouth fell open when Teal’c repeated the phrase, unaware he had acquired an audience.
“What did he say?” Janet asked in concern.
Daniel pursed his lips as he listened one more time just to make certain he had heard correctly. “That’s my tummy,” he translated with a smirk.
“SG-
“What now?” Sam grumbled, not having had her turn yet with dressing the baby.
“The off-
Teal’c handed Max over to Janet but paused when he saw the amused expressions aimed his way. He straightened his spine and led the way out with dignity, ignoring the muffled snickering behind his back.
***
Still good-
“Ow,” Sam muttered, rubbing her nose and grabbing the stair rail to keep from falling.
“Teal’c?” Daniel managed to sound forbearing and irritable at the same time, having been battered on both ends.
“What is it?” Sam questioned nasally from further down.
Daniel straightened his glasses as Teal’c smoothly stepped aside revealing an extremely unhappy Jack O’Neill standing behind a distinguished looking woman wearing a very recognizable type of long tunic. She remained placidly seated at the table but her eyes were drawn immediately to Daniel.
“We’ve got company,” Daniel informed Sam as he slid a hand under her arm and helped her climb the last two steps as she shook off the effects of the collision.
“Thanks,” she responded offhandedly, noting the tension in the room right away. “What’s she doing here?”
“That’s a very good question, Major,” Hammond retorted, close to a growl.
“How’d she get through the iris?” Daniel asked uneasily, acknowledging the woman’s polite smile with a slight bow of his head as he seated himself next to her. She immediately raised her hand to his forehead.
“Ah!” Jack objected strenuously, catching her by the wrist and gently but firmly returning her hand to the tabletop. “None of that,” he scolded.
“Uh, Jack,” Daniel started, not bothering to hide his bafflement, “That is how they communicate with us.”
“Major Estes has already been compromised,” Hammond informed him tightly as he, too, took a seat. Teal’c and Sam followed suite, but Jack remained planted in the space between Daniel and the visitor. “When she showed up there, he contacted us. I thought it best if we contained the situation here.”
“So she came here via the Alpha site,” Sam filled in the blank. “Just like Daniel did to get home.”
“Yeah, I wish you’d quit giving them ideas,” Jack admonished as he smacked Daniel lightly on the back of the head.
“Hey! I didn’t do anything,” Daniel denied indignantly, turning to gape at Jack. “One of the clones must have had the same thought.”
“Yeah, but he was using your brain when he thought it,” Jack accused.
With a final glare at Jack, Daniel turned to Hammond. “General, they can’t read our minds. Not in any way they would be able to extract useful information like passwords or codes.”
“They can’t?” Hammond asked in surprise. “I thought they could read the clones’ minds.”
“Well, yes, they could, but the clones had built-
“That’s right,” Sam piped in. “We think that’s why the clones didn’t… take. Basically their scientists screwed up something in the human genomes while they were tinkering with them.”
Hammond pursed his lips and studied their uninvited guest intently. “You’re certain?”
“Yes sir,” Sam nodded. “Major Estes is fine. There’s no reason to revamp the codes.”
“We have nothing to lose by trying to communicate,” Daniel added persuasively. “All we ever got from them were vague images and feelings. They never gave us any indication that they understood us any better than we did them.”
“I agree, sir.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jack gave in grudgingly, thinking back to the warm fuzzy he had received on the planet.
“So who is this woman?” Hammond queried. “She’s obviously not the one who gave us little George.”
“Little George?” Jack asked Daniel in a quiet aside, a hint of reprisal in his voice.
“I remember her,” Daniel said thoughtfully as he ignored Jack. “I think she’s probably very high up in their government hierarchy. She was there when they were debating if they should clone me or not.”
“I say we boot her butt back through the ‘gate for that reason alone.”
“She was against the idea.”
“Oh. Still...”
“With your permission, sir?” Daniel asked as he turned to fully face the older woman and scooted his chair away from the table and closer to her.
Hammond released a worried sigh. “Very well, Doctor Jackson. See if you can find out what she wants.”
“We know what she wants,” Jack swore under his breath, grimacing as the woman once again raised a hand to Daniel’s brow. “She wants Max.”
Daniel met her gaze and nodded his consent. He closed his eyes and tried to relax
as he cleared his mind. As soon as she touched him he got a hazy image, not exactly
of Max, but of a very similar looking blue-
“Daniel?” Jack asked restlessly. “What’s she saying?”
“Just… just…” Daniel mumbled in annoyance, raising a finger in an appeal for silence so he could concentrate. The concern seemed to grow and he felt himself break out into a cold sweat as he became more aware of her fear, fear for her own safety. “It’s alright,” he whispered, taking a deep breath and willing a calmness over both of them. Slowly he got her to relax. In his mind he pictured Max as he played gleefully in the sandbox, giggling as he slung sand over the edge of the pool.
The woman released a gasp of relief and clutched his arm gratefully with her free
hand. Next Daniel thought of Max sleeping across Jack’s shoulder then Teal’c patiently
feeding him. Almost unbidden came the memory of Sam holding Max at arms length as
urine trickled down his legs. The image proved cross-
“Daniel!” Jack butted in insistently this time, grasping him by the shoulder.
“It’s okay,” Daniel soothed, opening his eyes and smiling as the woman pulled her hand away from his face, keeping her other hand lightly on his knee. “She just wanted to make sure Max is okay.”
“She came here just for that?” Jack asked dubiously.
“It is highly unlikely,” Teal’c agreed, not swayed by the woman’s much more pleasant demeanor.
“General Hammond,” Daniel addressed the boss directly. “I think I might be able to get somewhere with this, but without a proper language it’s going to take some time.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Going somewhere a little… quieter?” he recommended, surreptitiously pointing in Jack’s direction with his eyes.
“Forget it,” Jack grunted, not needing to see Daniel’s face to know what he was signaling.
“Jack,” Daniel pleaded, turning to look at him. “They may have a great deal to offer us.”
“For Max?” Jack yelped in outrage.
“No!” Daniel protested vehemently. “That is NOT what I meant! Dammit, this is what we do. This is why we go out there,” he spat, waving a hand towards the Stargate. “I would think that opening a dialogue with this VERY advanced culture would be well worth our time.”
The woman glowered at Jack as she sensed Daniel’s indignation even without the benefit
of the hand-
“Okay, I can see where you might want to be alone with her…” Jack trailed off suggestively with a leer.
“Teal’c can come with us,” Daniel granted through gritted teeth.
***
“Colonel,” Janet greeted when Jack slipped into the nursery. She lay down her magazine and joined him next to the crib where he’d already set the solar system into motion.
“This thing’s not to scale. Look at it. Jupiter’s the same size as the sun for cryin’ out loud,” Jack grumbled distractedly.
“I don’t think Max cares,” Janet assured. “He just likes movement and the bright colors.”
“So how’d you get him to sleep in this?” he asked, tapping one of the white wooden slats with a knuckle as he watched the planets rotate jerkily around the too small, too orange sun.
Janet winked at him mischievously. “I have my ways, sir.”
“You rocked him to sleep and then put him down,” Jack extrapolated with a knowing grin as he lowered his gaze to the baby. “Too bad you can’t use the same technique on injured archeologists who can’t seem to stay in their infirmary beds.”
“Mmm,” Janet agreed. “Or bad tempered colonels. You two are just a bit too heavy to rock although sometimes I think your psychological ages are about right.”
Jack grunted a non-
“No sir! Air Force all the way,” Janet joked with a sloppy salute.
“You betcha. Hey, whatever happened to that Avalanche jersey? I swear, Doc, if you tossed it I’ll make you wish you were in the Navy.”
“So how go the negotiations?” Janet adroitly shifted the conversation.
“You know Daniel,” Jack sighed, unable to keep the troubled tone completely out of his voice. “It’s been six hours and he’s still pluggin’ away.”
“Kicked you out again?”
“Again?” Jack huffed. “I never got in to start with. Apparently I’m giving off bad vibes or something. Scaring our guest.”
“Sam might have mentioned that,” Janet admitted wryly.
As they hovered over the crib, Max began to stir in his sleep. “He’s a little warm,” Jack mentioned as he fingered a soft cheek.
“I know.”
“Same as yesterday?”
“Yes, he has a low grade fever but no other noticeable symptoms. He’s alert and active when he’s awake, he sleeps well, he’s been drinking plenty of fluids, and his appetite is fine. His initial blood work was well within normal limits for human children his age but now I’m thinking of running a follow up series.”
“Vampire,” Jack mocked lightly. “Has he been restless?”
“Not at all. In fact he’s the most pleasant, even tempered child I’ve ever been around, especially given the circumstances.”
“You sure he’s really Daniel’s?”
Janet cut her eyes at him and tried not to smile. As if on cue Max fluttered his eyes open and began to fuss. His gaze focused first on Jack and then Janet as he raised his arms and whimpered softly. Both of the adults reached for him, but with much longer arms, Jack easily edged Janet out.
“Oops. Spoke too soon.”
“Easy there, big guy,” Jack chanted as he brought him to his chest. “What’s the problem?” Max studied him intently for a second before he began to cry and push away, reaching down towards the floor.
“What’s wrong, Max?” Janet asked as she took him from Jack, her apprehension overtaking her smugness when the struggle only increased. She gripped him a little tighter in an effort to keep him from jumping out of her arms. “This isn’t like him.”
Suddenly Max straightened and looked towards the door. He calmed quickly as it opened. “Oh my,” Janet replied, pressing her lips together tightly.
“Daniel,” Jack said as he watched his friend enter the room, their alien visitor in tow. “What cha doin?”
Teal’c silently followed, closing the door behind him.
“She wanted to see Max for herself,” Daniel explained, releasing the woman’s hand as she headed directly to the baby. “She needed to make sure he’s really okay.”
“Right,” Jack drawled unhappily as the stranger reached for Max and he went to her without hesitation.
The woman carried Max to the bed and sat on the edge with him in her lap, her face a mask of awe and delight. Now a perfect little gentleman, Max investigated the fancy trim around the neck of her tunic. In turn she touched his face and hair before smiling up at Daniel broadly. Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and grinned back at her, his eyes a little misty behind his glasses.
“She’s taking him,” Jack stated flatly.
“No,” Daniel assured shaking his head. “They’ve decided Max should stay on Earth
to prevent any possible attempt to clone him. The only reason they sent Marla here
was to make sure we’re capable of taking care of him. After all, as far as the council
is concerned we’re nothing but a bunch of aggressive, under-
Jack harrumphed and threw a caustic grin in the woman’s direction. She eyed him back with distrust and Max stilled on her lap to turn and look as well.
“Her name is Marla?” Janet questioned. “That’s not quite what I would expect.”
“Uh, yeah,” Daniel mumbled, nibbling on his lower lip. “You don’t think she looks a little like an older Marla Maples?”
“You named her Marla? I would’ve thought after the ‘George Maxwell’ debacle you would have gotten out of the name game,” Jack scoffed.
“Well we have to call her something and I have no idea how to put the mental representation she showed me into words. It just doesn’t translate into anything pronounceable as far as I can tell.”
“Worse than ‘Rocks ham and eggs’?” Jack asked dubiously, proud to have remembered the warrior’s name using Daniel’s technique.
Janet and Daniel stared dumbly at Jack while Teal’c raised an ill willed eyebrow that promised swift and severe retribution for the offense to his ancient hero. “See?” Jack pointed out the reaction irritably to Daniel, “I told you that would happen.”
Daniel brushed off the tangent with a vigorous shake of his head and got back on topic. “It doesn’t matter what we call her verbally, she’ll never know the difference.”
“Ah! Careful, never say never. Max might tell her some day,” Jack deadpanned.
“I… what?” Daniel interrupted himself, turning to Jack to try to understand the newest joke just in case it was at his expense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The Colonel might be right,” Janet suggested tentatively. “I think Max knew when Marla was coming toward the nursery. He woke up right before she got here and I think he was even trying to get to her. He didn’t settle down until she came through the door. I think she might have been calling out to him… telepathically.”
“Really?” Daniel slipped into anthropological mode as he turned to watch the continuing, silent interaction between Marla and Max. “We suspected Max might have some latent telepathic abilities, and this does seem to support that theory. I wonder if he missed the internal dialogue. I wonder if he can even tell the difference between that and all the talking we do.”
“Some of us more than others.”
“That would certainly explain why he can sleep in a room full of people,” Janet agreed. “I always thought that was a little odd.”
“Yeah, maybe he’s used to a lot of background noise. Maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s internal or external,” Daniel extrapolated further.
“Perhaps George Maxwell is not of sufficient age to comprehend the difference,” Teal’c offered wisely.
“This is important,” Daniel uttered in amazement. “This is… this is… big. Max is our living breathing interface with these people. Provided of course he’s capable of learning to speak.”
“Max is a baby,” Jack objected impatiently. “In fact Max is your baby.”
“Jack, I know that,” Daniel retorted, sounding hurt. “I’m just pointing out that Max has naturally what these people tried to create in the clones.”
Marla cut the conversation short when she rose gracefully from her seat on the bed and carried Max to Daniel. Still holding the child she placed her hand on Daniel’s forehead, forming a mental circuit and giving him a glimpse into Max’s mind and emotions.
“Wow,” Daniel gasped in wonder. Max leaned forward and put his arms around Daniel’s neck. Taking him from Marla, they smiled at each other even after she dropped her hand and stepped away.
Teal’c moved to the door and ushered Marla out. She bowed to him politely and allowed him to escort her down the hall.
“Daniel?” Janet asked quietly.
“Oh. Oh, yeah. I guess we should see Marla off.” Still carrying Max, Daniel left the room.
Jack shot Janet a concerned look. “I’ll see you at the briefing this afternoon,” he said before following.
***
Marla kissed Max on the forehead then after a pause kissed Daniel as well. She started up the ramp and didn’t look back. Max made a confused noise and reached towards the event horizon with one hand when she disappeared from sight. As the wormhole winked out, he dropped his arm but continued to stare.
Glancing up, Daniel noticed Jack standing next to the general in the control room. Hammond leaned in to the microphone. “Doctor Jackson, I’d like a preliminary debriefing now. In my office, please.”
“Yes sir,” Daniel answered, punctuating his acknowledgment with a wave. “Come on, Max, let’s go see ‘big’ George.”
***
By the time they reached the office General Hammond was already seated at his desk with Jack in one of the chairs in front of it.
“There’s my boy,” Hammond called out, rising from his chair and holding his hands out to Max in an almost timid invitation. Pleasure radiated from every pore on his face when the child readily came to him. Looking every inch the proud grandpa he settled back down with Max on one knee as he tugged open a drawer to produce a small stuffed monkey. Max latched onto it with a gurgle of joy, tugging at its arms as he crammed a fuzzy ear into his mouth.
“Now, Georgie,” Hammond admonished gently as he pulled the soggy ear away. “You’re not supposed to eat it.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened at yet another nickname and Jack’s left eye twitched ever so slightly. Wisely, neither man commented.
“What did you learn from Ms. Maples?” Jack finally turned to Daniel to ask since Hammond was busy playing with Max.
Daniel took a deep breath. “Let me try to explain what I think I understand about these people. The whole process was a bit like mental charades.”
“Head games?”
“Something like that,” Daniel sighed, removing his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I feel like my brain has been pushed and pulled and stretched out of shape, actually.”
“Do you need to see Doctor Fraiser?” Hammond asked in concern, giving up indulgently and letting Max chew on the monkey as he pleased.
“I’m fine, sir,” Daniel insisted, slipping his glasses back on. “I have to admit up front, I didn’t get everything she tried to tell me.”
“Six hours, Daniel.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Surely you got something worthwhile. Let’s hear it.”
“Okay, just keep in mind this is only my take on how they communicate and it may be full of holes. They ‘speak’ by projecting cerebral images of their thoughts. In order for someone to ‘hear’ them, they have to ‘say’ it, and I suspect it’s fairly easy them to eavesdrop on any given conversation. Emotions on the other hand are broadcast spontaneously and are very hard to suppress or disguise.”
“So you might know one of them is unhappy but you wouldn’t know why unless she told you?”
“Exactly.”
“And what was our new friend feeling?” Hammond inquired without actually looking up.
“She was concerned for Max, but also frightened.”
“Of what?” Jack cut in.
“Of us. Remember this race tried very hard to weed out aggression in their society and ended up weeding out the entire male portion of their species in the process. Marla expected to find riots in the streets when she came here.”
“But we do have riots in the streets.”
“Not as a matter of daily course,” Daniel argued. “Luckily they are still rare and happen only under duress. We don’t wander around with weapons from one battle to the next.”
“Yes we do,” Jack persisted.
Daniel sighed wearily. “Yes, we do on occasion. But the general population doesn’t.”
“Oh. Gotcha,” Jack pointed a finger and winked.
“So all she wanted was to check up on the boy?” Hammond queried, bouncing an excited Max on his knee.
“Not entirely. They actually do want something,” Daniel replied hesitantly.
“I knew it!” Jack crowed triumphantly. “Please, don’t keep us in suspense, Doctor Jackson. What do they want from us?”
Daniel smiled tightly and studied his hands. “Genetic code.”
Jack glanced at Hammond then back to Daniel. “To make more clones,” he guessed bitterly.
“No,” Daniel denied with a shake of his head, “To make babies. Specifically, they want sperm.”
“Ah… on behalf of the entire human race, let me just say… no,” Jack declared.
“Yeah, that’s what I told her. At first.”
“At first?”
“Did they offer us anything in return for our… genetic code?” Hammond asked tactfully.
“Yes, actually. They offered us their entire knowledge base of genetics and their cloning techniques.”
Jack let out a low whistle. “That’s big,” he replied.
“I know. I also know what that knowledge cost them. And they’re way ahead of us socially and culturally. I’m sure we could wipe out our own civilization in half the time it took them,” Daniel explained. “I told them no thank you.”
“You told them no? I’m not sure the Pentagon would have given you the authority to do that, Doctor Jackson,” Hammond advised sternly, all play stopping.
“With all due respect, sir, I don’t care,” Daniel stubbornly proclaimed.
“You know I don’t like the idea of being relegated to sperm bank status either, but what about the medical advances that technology could give us?” Jack rebuked. “We could wipe out… stuff.”
“I thought of that,” Daniel said with a guilty frown. “But we wouldn’t stop there, would we? In no time at all we’d be mass producing children by model number, paying through the nose for the deluxe options. The rich would have the healthiest, smartest and most attractive kids and the rest of the world could go piss up a tree. That’s the way we do things in our current stage of development. Besides, they’re offering us something they have proven has no merit and doesn’t work well with human genomes.”
“He’s got a point there, sir,” Jack sighed grudgingly. “In essence they’re trying
to pay us off with eight-
Daniel stared at him for a moment before accepting the analogy and slowly nodding. “That’s right. And since we’ve got the one thing they desperately need if they are going to survive as a species, I think we might be able to negotiate for something else.”
“Like what?”
“Defense shields, anti-
“You might have mentioned this sooner,” Jack grumbled as he made a show of looking at his watch. “Like before the general blew an aneurysm. You shouldn’t have even brought up the genetic part. We never would have known the difference.”
“Well we spent a great deal of time hashing it out… and I didn’t want to lie about it,” Daniel shrugged sheepishly. “But it did cross my mind to not bring it up.”
Hammond grinned down at Max before turning his eyes to Daniel. “I have no doubts about your morals, Doctor Jackson. In fact I’d like your opinion on the ethics of providing our DNA to this alien race.”
“The bottom line is they are dying out. Apparently the Daniel that stayed with them
after SG-
“Melted,” Jack provided sadly.
“Regressed,” Daniel rebuked. “He convinced them they should find a way to survive. They’ve been researching and debating ever since. They finally came to the decision to ask us for help. But when the delegation left the dome for the stargate, they found out about Max and confronted his mother.
“I wish I could say let’s just give them what they need and expect nothing in return, but the opportunity to make some technological headway does seem enticing. Frankly, the chance for a mutually beneficial alliance with such an advanced civilization shouldn’t be wasted.”
“But would they be willing to form any kind of allegiance with us?” the general questioned sincerely. “They do seem to be xenophobic to some extent.”
“Yeah, you said they think we’re Neanderthals, remember?” Jack added.
“Well maybe not right away, but if we give them what they want, we will be forming the closest bond of all. Their children will be our children. In only one generation their leaders, in fact their entire population, will be our kin.”
“I don’t know,” Hammond balked. “Somehow it doesn’t seem right.”
“Sir, we’ve employed these very tactics on Earth for as long as we’ve been around. Royal families have married off their children to each other to prevent wars and guarantee allies for millennia…”
“Daniel,” Jack cautioned, warning off a lecture. “We get it.”
“We already know that physically the two species can produce viable offspring,” Daniel summed up as he stood and reached for the baby. “And Max doesn’t seem so wrong to me.”
Hammond nodded solemnly, handing over the damp monkey along with the baby. “Point taken, Doctor Jackson. I’ll talk to the President. When do they expect an answer?”
“They’ll give us as much time as we need, but I would think we shouldn’t drag this out too long,” Daniel advised.
“I’ll let you know. In the meantime we’ve got another briefing at fourteen hundred to discuss the disposition of little George,” Hammond replied, dismissing them distractedly as he reached for the red phone.
***
Some hours later when Jack stepped into the briefing room via the stairs, Sam and Teal’c were already seated at the table playing with Max. Conspicuously absent were Daniel and Doctor Fraiser. Before he could inquire as to their whereabouts Janet raised her voice angrily from just beyond the opposite door and Daniel quickly shushed her, drawing the conversation back down to a more private level.
“What’s up?” Jack queried as he snagged Max from Sam in spite of her protests and spirited him away to the other side of the table where he took a seat.
“We’re not sure,” Sam pouted. “But it doesn’t sound good.”
“I believe Doctor Fraiser and Daniel Jackson are not in agreement as to the best course of action for George Maxwell’s future care.”
“Ya think?”
Several tense minutes passed before a red in the face Fraiser entered the room. She stopped in the doorway to smooth her hair and consider the apprehensive faces staring at her.
“Where’s Daniel?” Sam asked as she flicked her gaze back toward the hallway.
“He’s in with the general now. They’ll be out in a minute,” Janet explained, taking the chair next to Jack and reaching out to straighten Max’s collar and run her fingers through his hair. He smiled at her with a little less than his usual wattage before thumping his head back to rest against Jack’s chest.
“I thought we discussed the bit about no undo pressure,” Jack said quietly but with an undertone of censure.
Janet shot an irritated glance his way as she sat back in her chair. “We’ll see how you feel about that when you hear Daniel’s decision,” she spat before releasing a heartfelt and regretful sigh. “I’m sorry, sir. That was uncalled for,” she apologized after a minute of stunned silence. “I’ll let Daniel explain.”
Hammond’s door flew open and Daniel made a beeline for the table, pointedly not making eye contact with anyone. The general followed with a troubled air about him.
“Daniel?” Jack prodded as his friend seated himself on the other side of Janet.
“Doctor Jackson has resigned from SG-
“Why?” Sam burst out in disbelief.
“Is this so?” Teal’c questioned at the same time.
“Max deserves a full time family, even if it’s just me,” Daniel shrugged. “I can’t take care of him if I’m never around.”
“What about Fraiser?” Jack asked, determined to stay calm. “I guess I sort of thought the two of you could work out some type of arrangement.”
“Shuttle him back and forth whenever I have time for him?” Daniel asked, not unkindly. “No. I… I don’t want to do that to him. I’ll take a room here at the base and fix something up in one of the empty labs near my office so I can watch him while I’m working.”
“You’re going to keep him here at the SGC? What kind of life is that going to be for him?” Sam questioned gently.
“Right now it’s the best we can do,” Hammond replied with a sympathetic glance in Daniel’s direction. “Until we know the extent of little George’s telepathic abilities we are not authorized to let him out among the general public. The Pentagon thinks the odds of being exposed are too great. They don’t think the world is ready to know there are aliens living among us.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jack exclaimed as he stroked Max’s head frowning to find it warmer than it should be. “So basically he’s a prisoner here.”
“Better here than area 51,” Daniel muttered bitterly. “He can’t go home, either. Marla made that clear.”
“So SG-
“Will go on without me, after tomorrow’s mission to P2C-
“We have a go for this crazy mission?”
“That’s right, you’ll leave at 0900, Colonel.”
Janet glanced around thoughtfully. “So the President has approved the use of…ahem…”
“Jism?” Jack suggested acidly.
“Yes, thank you sir,” Janet replied drolly, “I never would have thought of the proper medical terminology. I suppose I’m a little surprised he agreed.”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Daniel asked with a shrug. “After all it’s a plentiful, renewable resource and it won’t cost the taxpayers a penny.”
“Can’t wait to see this trade agreement. The party of the first part agrees to party for the second part…”
“Jack,” Daniel grumbled tiredly.
“And just where, pray tell, are we gonna get the goods?” Jack retorted. “Not from me, that’s for damn sure. You wanna do it that’s your decision.”
“I already gave at the office,” Daniel protested, his gaze settling on Max who sat unusually still in Jack’s lap with his eyes half closed. “So, no, I don’t think so. Besides, what they’re looking for here is diversity.”
“We could always make a withdrawal from a sperm bank,” Sam suggested. “It’s already frozen.”
“That wouldn’t be right,” Daniel objected mildly. “I mean those donors never intended to father alien babies.”
“Daniel, they came in a cup for money. They don’t care what happens to it.”
“People,” Hammond complained. “The President has authorized me to ask for… well, for contributions from the SGC staff. On a strictly volunteer bases, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Right. Give it up for your country. Now that’s patriotism in action.”
“I’m not sure I have the right equipment for semen,” Janet replied distractedly. “I’m not even sure I know what to do with it.”
Jack wisely kept his mouth shut, looking down at Max instead of commenting. Noticing the rapid flushing of the normally pale cheeks, he clamped a hand to the little forehead.
“It’s okay,” Daniel assured the slightly panicked doctor. “I’m sure they have the technology. We know they used the same batch of semen for at least several generations after their men were all gone.”
“Doc,” Jack spoke up worriedly, spurring Janet into action. “Something’s not right here.”
“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, pushing back his chair and getting to his feet to lean over Janet’s shoulder as she examined the baby.
“He’s burning up,” Janet acknowledged. “Let’s get him to the infirmary.”
Daniel plucked Max from Jack’s arms and led the way, Janet taking rapid steps to catch up to his longer stride.
“Sir?” Jack remembered to ask before leaving, already on his feet.
“Dismissed,” Hammond granted anxiously. “Keep me apprised, Colonel,” he called out as Jack disappeared out the door with Sam and Teal’c close behind.
***
At 0858 Daniel wandered into the gate room, slipping one arm into his vest and carrying his pack by the straps with the other. His holster, already strapped on but not yet tightened, flapped against his leg as he moved.
“Did you manage to get any sleep?” Jack asked suspiciously, eyeing his teammate for any sign he might not be up to an offworld mission.
“Some,” Daniel uttered, nonplussed as he dropped his pack to finish pulling his vest into place. “Max was restless most of the night.”
“But the fever’s still down?” Sam inquired as she moved closer to help him straighten out the twisted mess and heft the pack onto his back. Teal’c pitched in and tightened the leg strap of the holster.
“Yeah, a couple doses of Tylenol seemed to do the trick. But he’s got a fine, red rash on his back and torso this morning. Uh, thanks,” he added when he realized he was ready to go.
“The rash doesn’t look too bad though,” Jack assured. “Like a little heat reaction or something. Fraiser’s not worried. Much. What?” he asked at Daniel’s surprised look. “I checked in on him this morning while you were in the shower.”
“His appetite has not suffered,” Teal’c stated serenely. “He partook eagerly of his oatmeal this morning.”
“Oatmeal’s good for a rash,” Jack approved.
“Yeah, but you put in on your skin, you don’t eat it…” Sam started, stopping at the three amused glances sent her way. “Oh, right. Max does tend to wear his food, doesn’t he?”
“How is oatmeal for the hair?” Jack questioned rhetorically as the gate began to spin and the first chevron lit.
They waited patiently for the wormhole to engage and a few minutes after for the technician to check the MALP.
“SG-
“Oh yeah, we’re definitely gonna be getting lucky on this one, sir,” Jack remarked
with a two-
***
The team stepped out of the stargate and directly into a non-
“Hey!” Daniel shouted, attempting to go to her. His arms were captured from both sides and two more of the guards pressed their bodies against his chest to keep him away.
The woman’s family rushed to her side and fussed over her while glaring up at the guards, but they didn’t try to approach the team again. Tension radiated from both sides.
“Easy,” Jack stepped between the two groups and held his left hand up but kept his
right firmly on the grip of his weapon. “Let him go,” he warned the guards holding
Daniel. When they didn’t cooperate he grabbed the nearest one’s hand and brought
it up to his own head, consciously thinking about the damage a P-
The woman snatched her hand back and stepped away from Daniel. The others quickly
followed suite, nervously glancing at the weapon in question. They held a quick,
silent conversation and gave SG-
“I want to talk to her,” Daniel requested, pointing to the other women as he edged
closer to the guards. The leader hesitated momentarily before reaching for his face.
After a moment she tugged her hand away. “They’re outcasts,” Daniel explained to
the rest of SG-
“Let’s go,” Jack urged. “We can try on the way out.”
“That might endanger whatever accord we come to,” Daniel warned.
“Yeah, well, let’s see what they have to offer before we make any snap decisions.”
“Okay.” Daniel glanced over his shoulder to where the exiled band gathered at a forced distance. Their expressions of anguish and pain tore at his heart. He vowed to do something to help them.
Their discreetly armed escorts ushered them up the hill and toward the city beyond.
When they reached the summit SG-
***
Daniel turned his head to the left until he felt a subtle pop in his neck and then repeated the procedure to the right before replacing his glasses and rolling his shoulders to ease his tension. His one and only break was almost over and he found himself dreading the return to the council room.
Easily drawn off topic, the planet’s leaders seemed more interested in expressing
trivial thoughts and ideas to him than in coming to any type of agreement. If he
didn’t know better he would think they were dragging out the negotiations on purpose.
But he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why they would do that other than
the mere act of chatting him up and stealing the occasional semi-
Belatedly he considered that he was the first male they had encountered since, well,
the last time SG-
“Hey,” Jack greeted, breaking into Daniel’s thoughts as he entered the chamber they had been granted for privacy and rest until the end of the proceedings.
“Hey. Where are Sam and Teal’c?”
“Still on the techno tour,” Jack explained, thumbing over his shoulder towards the door. “Good thing all they want is sperm. Carter’s about ready to hand over her ovaries for some of their junk. How goes the talk portion of the mission?”
“It’s a little wearing,” Daniel admitted. “But I think we’re almost done.”
“Really. That was quick.”
“Says you,” Daniel grumbled. “I feel like I’m in the middle of a tennis game and I’m the ball. I know I’ve got permanent fingerprints embedded in my forehead. They get a little… excited.”
“You want me to take over for a while?” Jack asked in all seriousness.
Daniel eyed him doubtfully. “Uh, no, I don’t think so.”
“What? I can do diplomatic,” Jack objected, playing up a hurt expression. “Come on, you’ve already done the hard part, all I have to do is project a little interest, right? Besides, a blind man could see you’ve got one hell of a headache.”
“I’m okay. I just get a little overwhelmed by all the images when they all come at me at once. And then the emotions are even more, how should I say it? Some of them are a little, um…”
“Risqué?”
“Not exactly,” Daniel denied as his head bobbed slightly in unintentional confirmation. “Maybe they’re just a bit too personal.”
“Do you want me to go back in there with you?” Jack volunteered, hiding a smile from the flustered linguist.
“Would you?” The hope in his voice gave away Daniel’s discomfort, or it would have if Jack hadn’t already figured it out.
“If you don’t think I’ll scare them off,” Jack teased. “You know, with all my raw, untamed masculinity,” he added mischievously.
“No, that would be good,” Daniel agreed before Jack could back out. “Maybe your raw masculinity will draw them off me long enough to finish this so we can get the hell out of here.”
“In a big hurry to finish your last mission, are you?” Jack couldn’t stop himself from asking.
“Not now, Jack,” Daniel implored emphatically.
Jack almost caved at the pleading look, but pushed the conversation anyway. “We can work out something that’ll be good for you and for Max and still keep you on the team…”
“Jack? I’m going to make one more request,” Daniel interrupted with the steely glint of determination in his eyes that forecast in no uncertain terms he had already made up his mind.
“I’m afraid to ask,” Jack muttered to himself.
“I want to speak to Max’s mother. I’m ashamed to admit it, but in all my thinking about what to do with Max, I never once considered her feelings.”
“Dammit, Daniel,” Jack sighed helplessly.
“I promise I won’t blow the deal,” Daniel swore. “I just need to do this.”
Jack nodded wordlessly and followed Daniel back to the council’s meeting room.
***
“Sam, Teal’c,” Daniel called out, feeling absurdly relieved to find the rest of the team waiting for them in the council room sans the council. “Is this the stuff?”
“Whoa,” Jack exclaimed as he scanned the room.
When Sam turned to face them her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Oh yeah,” she grinned, extending a hand to encompass the array of devices now spread around the chamber. “The only problem is most of their technology utilizes a direct cerebral interface and won’t work with humans without some pretty significant modifications. And in all the data they’ve shown me there’s nothing but schematics and diagrams. There’s no text at all to explain anything in the references.”
“From what I’ve seen they use pictographs exclusively,” Daniel enlightened her with an apologetic shrug. “I doubt you’ll find anything else.”
“That’s gonna complicate things,” Sam muttered, biting her lip as she glanced around the room hungrily like a kid in a candy store with a dollar to spend.
“Carter, is any of this stuff worth a gallon of monkey juice?” Jack inquired, moving closer to check out the floating pallet by placing his foot on the edge and attempting to rock it. “Sweet,” he approved when it refused to budge. He resisted the urge to climb on and ride it like a surfboard, but didn’t rule out the option for later, like when it was tucked safely in Carter’s lab.
“Monkey juice?” Teal’c asked calmly with the obligatory eyebrow raise.
“He made that up,” Sam explained as she turned to study the next mechanism and avoid looking at any of her teammates.
“Did not.”
“A gallon?” Daniel gawked at Jack. “You do know there are millions of sperm in each, uh, sample.”
“Yes, Daniel,” Jack smirked, “I did know that. I just don’t expect this crap to come cheap.”
“Well, there’s cheap and then there’s cheap,” Daniel mused, pursing his lips thoughtfully. “I guess it’s all in how you look at it. After all, we are talking about the very building blocks of life here.”
Jack checked his watch. “You know, at this very moment Big George could be giving the troops his own spin on the old ‘it’s not what your country can do for you’ spiel.”
“Oh to be a fly on the wall for that speech,” Daniel snorted.
“So before our boys give it up for the cause, I’ll ask you again, Carter, is any
of this stuff sperm-
“All of it is,” Sam gushed, her enthusiasm dampening at the mocking expression on her commanding officer’s face. “I mean, yes sir. I’m just still not sure which one to ask for.”
“We get it all,” Daniel explained, realizing Sam hadn’t been made aware of the fact. “Or one of each anyway. That’s good, right? Even if it does take us years to backwards engineer it.”
“Sweet,” Sam uttered breathlessly, glancing around the room in unrestrained glee.
***
“It occurs to me,” Jack replied, deep in thought as Daniel took his place in the middle of the circle formed by the council, “Maybe they’re not getting exactly what they bargained for.”
Daniel frowned, gently holding off the first hand reaching for him. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Jack cautioned, “But you and Carter are the only ones they’ve actually communicated with this trip.”
“So?”
“So Carter’s a girl and she’s totally focused on the technology. But they’re judging the rest of us men by what they see in you. And let’s face it; you’re not exactly an average guy.”
“Yes I am,” Daniel insisted, looking a little hurt as he sought out Sam in the crowd for support.
Jack blew out a forced breath. “Daniel, there is absolutely nothing average about you. Not one thing. They may think they’re getting the top of the line plasma screen home theater with DVD and satellite radio system when what they’re really getting is…”
“Jack, you are not an eight track tape player,” Daniel headed him off, not liking where the conversation was going.
“No, I’m more of an old vinyl record player with a scratchy forty-
“That’s not true.”
“Look, we’ve got a great bunch of guys at the SGC. But no one, and I mean no one, is as open minded and big hearted and whatever the hell else these people see in you as you are. And since you’re not planning on making another donation, I just think they should take a peek inside the psyche of a more representative human male.”
“You think you’re more representative of the human race than I am?” Daniel asked heatedly.
“I’m not saying that, but I do have the same military mindset as the guys who will be doing the lion’s share of the donating. Truth in advertising, don’t cha think?”
“The Tau’ri are a warrior race,” Teal’c agreed, appearing at Jack’s shoulder. “Should these people not be made aware of your true nature?”
“Which is not to say that you can’t do the warrior thing,” Jack quickly amended to avoid bruising Daniel’s ego. “You’re just not a shoot first kinda guy.”
“Wait a minute,” Sam disagreed as she elbowed her way into the inner circle to protect her interests. “We don’t want to scare them off either.”
“Thanks, Carter,” Jack growled at her. “You think they’ll take one look inside my head and run for the hills taking your precious junk with them, huh?”
“No sir, I just…” Sam paused and looked at Daniel speculatively. “Don’t you think Daniel has enough faults to clue them in to the rest of you guys?”
“Whose side are you on?” Daniel questioned irritably, checking out the growing unease among the council members over their private argument.
“Daniel, just trust me,” Jack requested. “I’ll tone down my vile nature, I promise.”
“I do trust you,” Daniel gave in tiredly. “And you’re not vile. Most of the time. Let me explain the situation to them.” He released the hand he still held loosely and let Marla reach for his forehead. After a brief contact, she pulled away and turned to Jack.
Daniel bit his lip nervously. “You’re up,” he advised.
Jack nodded as he made eye contact with Marla and tried to clear his mind of anything inappropriate. She touched his face tentatively and drew back after only a second, her eyes wide and nervous.
“Jack?”
“It’s okay,” Jack soothed, reaching for Marla’s hand and gently pulling it back to his forehead. After another long moment she dropped her hand to his chest over his heart, deep concentration etched on her face. When she stepped back, seemingly satisfied, she smiled. “Piece of cake,” Jack grinned at his relieved teammates.
“There’s a CD player in there somewhere after all,” Sam said to Daniel, who nodded approvingly.
***
“It’s a done deal?” Jack asked skeptically as the council members slowly filed out of the room.
“Yep,” Daniel assured as he helped Teal’c load the smaller pieces of alien technology on top of the pallet for transport, under Sam’s vigilant direction. “A couple of their scientist will go back with Sam to operate this floaty thing and then they’ll help Janet set up the collection equipment. And then the real games can begin.”
“Oh you romantic, you,” Jack teased. “So how are they gonna sow the seeds? Turkey basters?”
“I don’t know, we didn’t get that involved,” Daniel said with an annoyed peek over his shoulder at Jack. “They’re taking volunteers and setting up some sort of schedule so they don’t end up having a hundred babies all in one week. Luckily they’ve learned their lesson and promise not to manipulate the genes in any way. Especially since Max worked out so well.”
“You’d think they’d at least want to examine Max a little more before jumping off the deep end,” Sam offered distractedly as she settled a small, delicate looking item on the sled.
Jack and Daniel both stared at her hard for a moment. “Let’s not give them any ideas, Carter,” Jack grumbled at last.
Daniel stifled a longsuffering sigh, dropping the last item into place with a thud. “That’s everything,” he replied to no one in particular as he turned in a slow circle to scan the room. “I’ll get someone to move this to the gate.” He motioned to one of the guards to indicate they were ready to go.
“And then?” Jack prodded.
“And then I’ve got one more piece of business here. I need to talk to Max’s mother.”
“Are you sure you really want to do that? Never mind,” Jack backpedaled, raising his hands in supplication to appease the mulish blue gaze turned his way. “Carter, take your goodies and head home. Teal’c, you go with her. I’ll bring Daniel along in a while.”
Teal’c bowed his head briefly but Sam hesitated, the soldier in her keeping her from questioning her CO outright.
“That’s an order, Major,” Jack said briskly.
“Yes sir,” Sam obeyed with only a fleeting look in Daniel’s direction before following as the guard effortlessly maneuvered the pallet into the corridor and out of sight.
“Where to?” Jack asked, indicating the now empty room.
“Marla.”
“That’s what I like about you, Daniel. You always shoot straight for the top,” Jack approved, ushering him to the door where the council had retreated.
***
Jack gave Marla another sympathetic grimace, having been on the receiving end of some of Daniel’s more passionate diatribes through the years. The grim set of her face had begun to crumble ten minutes earlier and Jack knew she was already on the long, painful descent into acquiescence. By the looks of it, Daniel would have her completely worn down or possibly in tears in the next ten minutes. Even without hearing the conversation, Jack followed along in fascination with each point and counter point, knowing intuitively every time Daniel scored a hit.
The fact that nothing was completely private on the telepathic world was underscored as the room slowly filled with spectators. Judging by the concerned looks, Jack figured that Marla had to be sending out some pretty powerful vibes. Finally, when the leader moved her hand away, as if refusing to argue further, Daniel whipped off his glasses and stared her down. A deadly combination of desperation, anger, and pleading filled his eyes and Jack was once again glad not to be the recipient for a change.
“Three, two, one…” Jack counted down quietly, pumping a fist in silent support when Marla closed her eyes and nodded.
The subdued crowd broke up into smaller groups along the walls and Marla excused herself, leaving Jack and Daniel alone in the middle of the room.
“You okay,” Jack asked as Daniel wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.
“She’s tough,” Daniel exclaimed, licking his dry lip as he slid his glasses back into place.
“Not tough enough, apparently. How’d you swing it?”
With a surprised smile Daniel accepted the cup being pressed into his hand. “Thank you,” he said to the young woman with a bob of his head. She beamed at him and moved away as he took a deep drink. “You have to consider that since there hasn’t been any real crime here in eons, they don’t really have a consistent system of punishment. I guess they lost the idea of mercy along the way as well.”
“What does that have to do with you talking to Max’s mom?”
“You do know that Max’s grandmother was the one who initiated my cloning?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Well in true political fashion when the project failed they dumped the blame entirely on her and kicked her whole family out, banishing them from the city and shunning them from all contact with its citizens. No appeals and no parole. Not ever.”
“Okay, so not exactly a fair sentence,” Jack observed sourly. “But as Max’s father
surely you have the right to discuss his well-
“But I’m not,” Daniel corrected. “By their laws, clones are considered siblings, or more precisely ‘sisters’ since all the laws regarding clones were written after the males were already extinct.”
“So to them you’re Max’s… aunt?” Jack asked in surprise and more than a little amusement.
Daniel released a low groan, kicking himself for bringing it up. “Yes,” he finally answered truthfully. “And since his mother and all of her relatives are exiled and his father is dead I am his sole guardian. So if I attempted contact with the outcasts under any other circumstances the council would by law strip away my status and demand Max’s return.”
“But Marla’s gonna bend the rules for you.”
“Just this once.”
“So you still haven’t answered my question,” Jack pressed. “How’d you swing it?”
Daniel looked away uncomfortably. “When I couldn’t sway her with any other argument I asked as a personal favor from her to me. Basically I begged.”
“So what do we do now?”
“They’re still not going to let them into the city for this so we’ll have to meet them at the gate,” Daniel explained, crossing his arms over his chest unhappily.
“You don’t have to go through with it,” Jack reminded him gently.
“Yeah, unfortunately I do,” Daniel whispered, knowing his continued relationship with Max might very well hang in the balance.
***
A large contingency from the city, including most of the council, followed the men as they left the dome and started in the direction of the stargate.
“Not gonna be much of a private conversation,” Jack observed dryly.
Daniel shrugged, keeping his head down as he walked. “Doesn’t matter.”
They continued in silence until they could see the top of the gate. “This is it,” Jack stated watching as Daniel paused to take a deep breath before striding purposefully up and over the little ridge.
The women sitting around the MALP rose apprehensively as the group came down the hill. They formed a human screen in front of the stargate, apparently ready for a fight as the much bigger crowd reached them, obviously frantic for information. When no resistance was perceived, they gave up their defensive positions and quickly surrounded Daniel, Jack remaining rooted to his side.
When the oldest woman confronted him, Daniel reached out and drew her in with his hands on her shoulders, resting his forehead against hers. He projected his concern for them and tried to let her know Max was all right. She immediately burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to his chest. He slid his arms around her back and tightened his grip, determined to ride out the tide of overwhelming grief and loss. Every member of the family broke down and cried as well, along with a few of the younger citizens from the opposing side. Several council members turned their backs, desperate to hold on to their indifference.
Aware that Daniel was in no physical danger, Jack stepped away from the group and caught Marla by the arm as she turned to go. Careful not to hurt her, he insistently edged her back to face the onslaught of pain. The pain she had had a hand in inflicting. She flinched but held her ground, reaffirming Daniel’s claim she was indeed one tough nut to crack.
When the weeping began to diminish, Daniel eased the elder woman back to arms length. Stoically fighting back tears of his own as she raised a hand to his head, he requested a conversation with the boy’s mother. Taking in the cluster of nearly identical blonde women, he admitted he didn’t have a clue which one she was.
The woman in his arms mentally flashed a name icon which meant nothing to Daniel, but as one of the young females glanced up at him shyly, he knew. Releasing her mother he stepped closer to her. “I still don’t know your name,” he muttered.
“Let’s call her Eve,” Jack suggested, suddenly appearing at his elbow with Marla in tow.
“Eve,” Daniel repeated softly, tensing visibly as she tentatively raised her hand. He relaxed a little and allowed the touch, eventually smiling as she replayed images of Max as an infant for him. Daniel returned the favor, unable to resist sharing the memory of Sam and the pee incident. They laughed together as members of both factions crowded closer to them, openly monitoring the conversation. Uninvited, they nevertheless shared the moment.
Suddenly Daniel tensed and pulled away slightly, shaking his head. Eve followed persistently with her hand.
“Daniel?”
“I just…” Daniel started to speak but was drawn into the memory. After another few seconds he gasped and jerked away. “How could you,” he swore, his face blanching as he stumbled back even further. The crowd on both sides echoed his emotions from the silent communal gasp to the growing anger and pain.
“Daniel,” Jack barked insistently. “What the hell did she do?”
Eve let her tears fall freely as she sank to the ground with silent wails, covering her head in disgrace. Her mother knelt beside her, cradling her in her arms, equally as mortified by what they had done.
“She used his memories… she used my memories of Shau’re to… to get a reaction so she could… take what she needed,” Daniel explained disjointedly as he felt the burn of rage and betrayal.
“The remorse is a little late, isn’t it?” Jack asked coldly, becoming aware of the increasing horror and fury around them.
Daniel turned away, his rounded shoulders and bent head clear indicators of his emotional
state. “They had no concept of rape, Jack. To her what she did was no worse than
borrowing someone’s toothpaste without permission. I guess my reaction gave her
an involuntary crash course on non-
“Looks like they all got that lesson,” Jack observed, glancing around at the crowd. The normally serene faces clearly projected rage, horror, and disgust.
From the corner of his eye Daniel glimpsed a hand reaching down to pick up a stone. He straightened and looked around anxiously, finding the women on both sides gathering rocks. “No. Oh, God. NO! Don’t do this,” he shouted as he dropped to his knees beside the despondent women, wrapping his arms around them to shield them with his own body.
“Shit,” Jack cursed, raising his weapon and standing over them protectively.
“She didn’t know!” Daniel yelled, shaking with emotion, broadcasting through Eve. “I forgive her. Please, please, don’t do this. I forgive you,” he whispered into her hair, his voice breaking as he held them both even tighter. He reflexively prepared for the first blow, praying Jack wouldn’t shoot anyone. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay,” he pacified Jack, the crowd, and himself.
In his mind he went through every circumstance of clemency he could think of from the small every day hurts to the really big ones like his grandfather abandoning him and Teal’c’s part in taking away his wife and ultimately killing her. Daniel followed each memory rapidly with sense of peace and relief he’d found when he was finally able to forgive them, even if he never quite forgot. The moment seemed to stretch for an eternity as he got lost in the emotions.
Jack spun around at the sound of a rock striking the ground. One of the council members stood there with her hand open and a large stone at her feet. Her face was a blank slate with the exception of a single tear which rolled down her cheek. She stared at the huddled forms on the ground for another minute before slowly turning around and heading back to the city.
Another rock landed in the dirt, then another and another until it sounded like the
pattering of a brief hail storm. The faces of the women were shell-
“I’m sorry,” Daniel continued to murmur. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jack admonished with a lump in his throat.
“I almost got them killed with my knee-
“Daniel,” Jack sighed, moving closer only to be cut off by a hand in the middle of his chest.
Marla gave Jack a beseeching look he didn’t quite understand but he backed off slightly
anyway when he felt the warmth in her sentiment as she touched him. Still coming
down from his adrenaline high and the perceived near-
“Looks like they learned another lesson today,” Jack uttered solemnly. “Forgiveness.”
Daniel sighed raggedly and clambered to his feet, stopping to pull the two reluctant women up as well before attempting to dust himself off. Marla sniffled a little as she tugged him in closer for a hug, mindless of the reddish soil that clung to her once pristine tunic. After a beat she pulled Eve and her mother in as well. Tentatively, the rest of the clan joined in the group hug with Daniel at the epicenter.
“Well isn’t that special,” Jack beamed.
“Shut up, Jack,” Daniel replied, not bothering to try to break free.
***
Janet held her breath more out of habit than any real concern as the blue shimmer
parted and the MALP rolled out of the gate, down the ramp, and over to the waiting
technicians. Nine times out of ten when she was present for a returning team one
or more of them exited battered and bloody. She only met the remainder of SG-
Another second passed before the two men she was waiting for stepped out and the event horizon abruptly dissipated. Jack looked stiff and unhappy but in better shape than Daniel who appeared oddly wet in places and dusty in others, and more than a little upset.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, hearing Daniel echo the same question back to her in the same breath.
“Max?” Jack queried urgently.
“We had some excitement while you were gone,” Janet explained quickly to ease the worried expressions on both faces as they advanced on her. “Everything is under control now. He’s fine.”
“What happened?” Daniel asked, sounding a little stuffy as if his sinuses were clogged.
“His fever went up again after you left. When it spiked at a hundred and three he had a febrile seizure.”
“I need to see him,” Daniel said, pulling away.
“Daniel, he’s fine,” Janet insisted, grasping his wrist to keep him in place. “With the help of the scientists who came back with Sam we even figured out what the problem was.”
“You fixed it?” Jack questioned as he held Daniel’s other arm, wanting to hear Janet out while she was in an informative mood.
“Yes, it turns out they have a well-
“He was fine to start with,” Jack argued for the sake of argument since Daniel didn’t seem inclined to do so at the moment.
“Obviously he had a small store of the substance in his cells but he depleted it fairly quickly. That’s why we didn’t notice the problem right away,” Janet explained readily. “The really good news is the scientists were able to synthesize a batch for us out of some pretty common chemicals so we can make as much as we need and delivery it intramuscularly once a week or so.”
“Shots,” Daniel interpreted sullenly. “That won’t be necessary,” he added as he shrugged away from the hands still holding him and headed for the door.
“Yes, Doctor Jackson, I’m afraid it will most definitely be necessary,” Janet called after him impatiently as he disappeared out the door. “Sir?” she asked, turning to Jack in exasperation.
“I think we screwed up, Doc,” Jack sighed heavily. “I need to see Hammond.”
***
“…and now that Max’s mother is no longer exiled she regains her parental rights,” Janet surmised, shifting uncomfortably in her seat across from the general.
“How’s that for a good news/bad news scenario,” Jack deadpanned from the chair next to her. “Daniel saved their lives, got them back their citizenships, and lost his kid in one fell swoop.”
“He could fight for him,” Janet persisted adamantly. “After what we’re giving them…”
“Fair trade,” Jack objected. “That’s got nothing to do with this. Both sides agreed to keep the issues separate.”
“But sir!”
Hammond cleared his throat forlornly. “Would the Daniel Jackson you know come between a mother and her son?”
“That whole family was devastated when they lost Max,” Jack explained further, rubbing a hand wearily through his hair. “You should have seen them, Doc. If I was choked up by their grief Daniel was beside himself.”
Janet bit her lip, trying to contain the threatening tears. “They said they couldn’t protect him, that they couldn’t keep him from being cloned.”
“You’re helping to put them back in the baby business yourself,” Jack pointed out gently. “There’s gonna be a bun in every available oven in no time. Who’s gonna want or need a clone? I think that was just a red herring they threw out there to keep Daniel off their devious little trail. Losing Max was just a new part of their punishment.”
“They lied.”
“Yeah.”
“We can visit,” Janet made one last plea.
Jack shook his head slowly. “All they want from us is our DNA, after that, they don’t need us. They don’t consider us advanced enough to be good allies. In fact they’ve requested as part of the deal that we leave them alone and let them rebuild their population.”
“That’s not exactly what we had in mind,” Hammond disapproved.
“No sir, but Daniel thinks the upcoming generation will eventually want to know their fathers’ people and you know he’s always right about these things. We have an open invitation to return… in twenty years. By the way, they want us to send Max back with the scientists when they return with our end of the bargain.”
“Doctor Fraiser,” Hammond said softly, pretending not to notice as she wiped her eyes, “How are the preparations for the collection going?”
“The equipment’s not quite ready since we delayed the scientists by having them work
on Max’s problem, but it won’t take long to finish setting it up,” Janet reported
in a clipped professional tone that belied her mottled face. “We’ve already distributed
specimen cups and paper bags to all the men’s restrooms and locker rooms. All they’ll
have to do is deliver the bag to a box outside the infirmary as soon as possible
after collecting the sample. It will be as anonymous as possible, no paperwork involved
and no camera at the drop-
“Thank you, Doctor. I’ve called a mandatory formation in the gateroom for all male personnel for sixteen thirty just after shift change to get as many as possible. Colonel, you’ll brief them at that time.”
“Me? Sir?” Jack squawked in surprise.
“Would you rather Doctor Jackson do it?” Hammond enquired cunningly.
The ‘hell yes’ was on his lips, but Jack bit his tongue and shook his head instead. “It would be my pleasure, sir. Daniel should spend the time with Max.”
“Very well. If we send the scientists back through the gate at 0900 in the morning, that will allow approximately a nineteen hour window for the airmen to make their contributions. Doctor Fraiser has a list of do’s and don’ts for you to pass on to the men. Dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jack muttered through clenched teeth as he stood. “Ah the privileges of rank,” he complained to Fraiser as soon as the general had closed his door, but she was already gone.
***
“Daniel,” Daniel enunciated carefully, pointing to his chest as he bent a little closer. “Daniel.”
Max studied him attentively from his perch on the bed, chewing on his monkey’s already misshapen ear, cooing happily and kicking his feet.
Daniel rubbed his eyes under his glasses, shored up his resolve and tried again, steadfastly ignoring the approaching footsteps. “Daniel.”
“I thought Teal’c might still be here,” Janet commented offhandedly as she rounded the bed to stand behind Max. “I owe him an apology for being curt with him earlier.”
“Yeah, he is kind of upset because you won’t let him contribute to the cause,” Daniel noted listlessly without glancing up, appearing slightly annoyed by the disruption.
“It’s already an iffy proposition,” Janet defended her position a little too forcefully. “Throwing Jaffa DNA into the mix will only complicate things. He’ll just have to understand.” She knew she was out of line, not with her reasoning but with her tone. Daniel didn’t call her on it. He didn’t bother to look at her either which only served to edge her unexpected anger up another notch.
“Max turned out okay,” Daniel differed softly, catching a bare foot and tickling the bottom of it. He allowed himself a poignant little smile when Max laughed in response before letting out a stream of unintelligent gurgles, almost a language of his own, proof positive that he could learn to speak. If only they had the time to teach him. Daniel’s smile slowly faded.
Janet closed her eyes to shut out the pain she saw on his face, the pain he could have so easily avoided for both of them. She tried to diffuse some of her resentment, counting backwards from ten under her breath.
“Daniel,” Daniel prodded again, sounding a tiny bit desperate. “Daniel…”
“Even if you can get him to say your name,” Janet interrupted spitefully, “He’s not going to remember you.” She hated herself immediately, clamping a hand over her mouth as the stinging behind her eyes grew almost unbearable.
Daniel dropped his head and sighed unevenly. The longer he went without speaking, the worse Janet felt. She had wanted to punish him but quickly found the reality was much uglier than the fantasy. As she reached for him he straightened, still not meeting her gaze. “I forgot,” he murmured so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.
“Forgot what?” Janet asked, having to clear her throat to get the words out. She pulled her hand back when he noticed it, flinching away.
“I was so busy pretending I was his father, I forgot that I wasn’t. As much as I want him, Janet, I don’t have the right to keep him from his real family.”
Not knowing what to say, Janet found a tissue and blew her nose as she witnessed him straighten further and pull himself together like he’d done so many times before. His remarkable resiliency astounded her and she found it almost impossible to hold on to her rage. Almost.
“You cut his hair,” Daniel noted with a fair attempt at casual, fingering the edge of the shorter, neater locks. “It looks good.” The monkey took a beating as Max shook it around and smacked it on the bed, babbling pleasantly all the while.
Janet removed the fine clipping bound by a tiny rubber band from the pocket of her lab coat. She had intended to make a scrapbook of all the firsts in Max’s new life on Earth, but that wasn’t going to happen now. Even though she wanted to share it with the man who hurt as much as she did, at the moment her anger wouldn’t let her. She closed her eyes again and returned the memento to her pocket. “Thanks,” she managed belatedly. “I wouldn’t have cut it without getting your opinion if it hadn’t gotten so matted when his fever broke.”
“I understand.”
The silence dragged on and when Janet finally opened her eyes she found Daniel watching her, his remorse written plainly on his face before he looked away. As if reading the adults’ emotions, Max quieted and sat very still between them, his gaze shifting from one to the other.
“You can keep him tonight,” Daniel offered at last in place of an apology for taking Max away from her, the cost of the gift obvious in his voice.
“That’s okay,” Janet lied clumsily, annoyed that Daniel could be so generous while sounding so close to tears. “Cassie’s coming home tonight so I need to be there.”
Daniel swallowed and blinked his eyes as if he’d just dodged the proverbial bullet. “Does he need to stay here? In the infirmary?”
“No, you can take him back to the nursery now,” Janet allowed, suddenly relieved they would be leaving so maybe she could hide in her office and have a good cry.
“Thanks,” Daniel mumbled, pulling Max to him and heading straight for the door.
“We would have been good parents together,” Janet whispered in his absence, praying she hadn’t just irreparably damaged a damn good friendship.
***
Jack slid a hand slowly down his face as he watched the room full of airmen, marines, and even the scattering of scientists bolt for the nearest exit. “Well that went well,” he observed to his faithful companion who had stood by him unflaggingly throughout the most uncomfortable formation in history.
“It did not,” Teal’c disagreed analytically.
After an irritated, sidelong glance in the Jaffa’s direction Jack turned his gaze to the window high above the control room to see Hammond peering down at him. He saluted the man smartly then faked a cocky grin to signal ‘mission accomplished’. Seemingly satisfied, the general moved away from the glass.
“Somehow, someday…” Jack muttered mutinously.
“It would appear the warriors of Earth are not eager to give the gift of life,” Teal’c noted with a disapproving tone.
“That’s blood, T, not… semen.” Jack coughed awkwardly, suddenly squeamish about saying
aloud what he’d just ask eighty-
“Indeed both fluids are necessary and should be held in equal regard. I find the reluctance of the Tau’ri to consider this matter foolish and inane.”
“I know they didn’t seem too enthused, but they’ll come around,” Jack assured with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Especially those damned marines. They’re always looking for a chance to jerk off on duty. I’m sure the coffers will be overflowing by morning.”
Teal’c looked impassive as he raised an eyebrow. “Should you not lead by example, O’Neill?”
“Ah, no. Just… no,” Jack shuddered, not able to put his reasons into words, but certain that fathering unknown children on another world would never feel right in his case. Not after Charlie. Not after Eudora.
“Daniel Jackson will contribute,” Teal’c stated with quiet confidence.
“He said he wouldn’t.”
“I believe in time he will come to see the endeavor for what it is. Daniel Jackson will not waste the opportunity to help spawn a new race of beings. It will bring him comfort in the coming days.”
“Teal’c, I think you just might be on to something,” Jack agreed upon reflection. “Come on, we’re supposed to meet Daniel and the kid in the commissary for a little going away party. Carter ordered balloons,” he added with a twinge of regret for ever having allowed himself to get so close, followed quickly by the guilt of dragging Daniel down with him.
***
The little party turned into a big one with the promised balloons, party favors and even cake. Everyone who had come into contact with Max, with the notable exception of one Doctor Janet Fraiser, and quite a few folks who hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know him, turned out to give the youngster a cheery send off.
Plans were made for an SGC loaning closet to be established with the unclaimed baby items and a contest was started for ideas on the best way to get rid of almost five hundred pounds of loose sand. Hammond finally signed off on Siler’s unimaginative idea to build average, everyday military sandbags, much to everyone’s disappointment.
After too little dinner and far too much frosting, Daniel took the guest of honor
back to the nursery for some quiet time before bed. With an unspoken pact, everyone
agreed to leave them alone for the night. As soon as Max was gone the affair turned
morose and everyone headed off in different directions, leaving the commissary in
shambles. Donations picked up noticeably at the drop-
***
Knowing his team as he did, Jack wasn’t surprised to find he was far from the first
visitor of the morning. Carter had apparently stopped by earlier for a private good-
A quick glance around the room told of the previous night’s activities. There was
some sand in the floor and a stack of children’s books next to the unmade bed, but
the crib appeared completely untouched. Max sat in his highchair amid the wreckage
of a muffin, wearing only a Pull-
“Hey,” Daniel greeted as he stepped out of the bathroom mostly dressed but rubbing
a towel over his face. “I thought Teal’c was going to stay,” he said, sounding a
little off as he slipped a blue fatigue top over his tee-
“He said he’d met us in the gate room,” Jack replied, encouraging Max to drink a little more juice.
“Oh.” Daniel moved to the stack of stuff in the rocker and picked up the bag Max had come with.
“What cha got there?” Jack asked as he made himself useful and procured a washcloth to clean Max’s face, chest, and hands.
“Since he obviously can’t take all his stuff with him we decided to each pick out
one or two items to send. For instance Teal’c selected his ‘archeology tools’,”
Daniel explained, indicating the colorful bucket and scoop as he put them into the
bag. “Sam wants him to have this god-
“I can’t wait to see what Fraiser picked out,” Jack grinned as he swept the muffin crumbs into his hand to dispose of them.
Daniel didn’t answer right away, but paused momentarily in his packing. “Janet hasn’t been by yet,” he finally murmured.
“Really?” Jack asked in surprise, spinning around to face his friend.
“We have some issues I suppose,” Daniel admitted diplomatically. “She hates me.”
Jack raised an eyebrow as he turned back to free Max from the chair and get on with cleaning him up. “She doesn’t hate you. She’s just a little disappointed. Let me guess, Uncle George is sending that goofy looking monkey.”
“Max loves this silly thing,” Daniel responded sadly, picking up the stuffed toy and holding it to his chest.
“We can still send the scientists home empty handed,” Jack offered in one last ditch attempt to keep the boy. “Well, not completely empty handed, just without Max.” He tossed aside the damp rag and gently patted the pink skin dry with a towel. As he finished Max burped up some juice requiring another round with the washrag.
“Jack…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know your penchant for doing the right thing, but sometimes it sucks.”
“Yeah, it does.”
The defeat in Daniel’s voice tore at him and Jack once again felt the sting of his own culpability. “Maybe they don’t deserve him,” he offered gruffly. “Did you ever think of that?”
“They’ve been punished enough,” Daniel insisted.
“Have they?” Jack gathered Max up, proceeding to the dresser to find him something to wear.
“There was no malice in what they did. Sure it was insensitive and selfish but there
was no cruel intent,” Daniel defended in a quiet, no-
“That’s crap,” Jack opposed as aggressively as he could without scaring Max. “That was on her, not him. If anybody’s innocent in all of this it’s Max.”
“Exactly. So why should he suffer for his mother’s sin? He needs his family.”
Jack yanked open a drawer and pawed through it before leaving it open and moving on to the next. “Look, I know this is the right thing to do, I just don’t happen to like it very much.”
“Is it the right thing to do?” Daniel asked, suddenly sounding unsure. He dropped the bag and sat on the edge of the bed.
“You don’t think it is?” Jack questioned in concern, walking away from the ravaged dresser drawers.
“It’s just an amazing coincidence that the right thing to do in this instance also happens to be the most convenient thing for me. Maybe I’m more like Nick than I’d care to admit.”
Jack handed Max over and knelt down in front of them. “Daniel, I may question your methods from time to time, but I have never, ever questioned your motives. And I’m not about to start now. Stop second guessing yourself,” he paused and took a deep breath. “Look, even if you did get pushed into this, I have no doubt you love Max and you only want to do what’s best for him.”
Daniel hugged Max and kissed him on the top of his head before speaking. “As someone very wise once told me, you can’t be afraid to love because of what might or might not happen in the future,” he paraphrased quietly. “And I know I’m better off having met Max. At least I got to experience fatherhood a little.”
“Wise, huh?” Jack beamed, fishing for another compliment.
“Very wise,” Daniel emphasized with the ghost of a grin.
“Oh, yah,” Jack approved happily, reclaiming Max from Daniel’s lap and returning to his quest for proper traveling attire.
“Can you watch him for awhile?” Daniel requested earnestly as he stood. “I was going to ask Teal’c but now he’s gone.”
“Don’t you want to spend every minute you’ve got left with him?”
“I do, but I’ve got something else I really need to take care of and frankly I’m running out of time. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I’ll get back as soon as I can,” Daniel hedged nervously, patting his pocket for the plastic container. “Please?”
“Sure, no problem. I hope everything comes out all right.”
“What?” Daniel asked worriedly.
“What?”
“What did you mean by that?”
Jack shrugged innocently, a gleam in his eye as he continued his search. Suddenly he hooted jubilantly waving around the hockey uniform he’d found stuffed in the back of a drawer. He carried Max to the bed and began to dress him.
Daniel stood in the doorway and watched them for a minute before heading off to find a private spot to complete his self appointed task.
“There aren’t nearly enough Jackson genes floating around the universe as far as I’m concerned,” Jack confided to Max knowingly as soon as the door was shut.
***
Janet took a moment to be ashamed of herself. As much as she wanted to hate Daniel for willingly giving up Max she knew it was simply his nature. He had no choice but to move heaven and earth to right any wrongs that fell within his power to do so, regardless of personal cost. She had often admired that trait in him and now for the first time ever she thought of it as a flaw instead of a strength. Why couldn’t he just this once have been selfish?
Children had always been a touchy subject for Janet, much more so before Cassie had come into her life. And while Cassie completed her, gave her purpose and soothed most of her motherly itches, Max had once again ignited the baby urges. She loved Cassie with all her heart but together they had missed out on so many things from diapers to teething, first steps to baby smells. She’d allowed herself to want too much and now her old hurts had come bubbling back to the surface to haunt her.
Sometimes Sam joked privately about her biological clock, but Janet doubted seriously if her friend had ever experienced the thrill that came with a late period, or the bitter disappointment when the stupid indicator on the end of a little plastic stick refused to turn blue. Ironically, it was Sam who had brought Cassie into her life.
Perhaps she had gotten greedy because she had fully expected Daniel to turn Max over to her as well. But Daniel marched to a different drummer and hardly ever did what was expected. He was an exasperating hero, and someday she’d forgive him. As soon as she managed to forgive herself.
Glancing at her watch, she decided to see Max off after all, no matter how hard it
was to say good-
***
“Did you make a good haul?” Jack called over Daniel’s shoulder as they stood facing each other under the control room as the gate dialed.
Daniel frowned and turned, shifting Max slightly on his hip to see who Jack was addressing. He flushed a little when he realized Janet was helping to maneuver what Jack had dubbed ‘the Slurpee machine’ into place in front of the ramp.
“Yes sir,” Janet answered, sounding much more cheerful than she had recently. “I’m actually surprised by how much we got.”
“Is that number of specimens in general or quantity per specimen,” Jack goaded evilly.
“Both,” Janet retorted, refusing to rise to the bait. She walked up to Daniel and accepted Max without a word. “Hey you,” she whispered, bouncing him slightly. “I’m going to miss you.” She closed her eyes and held him tight, hearing the whoosh and seeing the flash of blue even behind her eyelids. Max jumped at the sound and started to squirm in her arms as if trying to get a better view of the pretty light. Kissing his forehead she passed him back to Daniel before melting into the crowd on her way out.
General Hammond smiled stiffly as he came forward and patted the small head. “Take care of our boy,” he instructed the alien woman huskily as she waited next to Daniel to take Max away.
With Sergeant Siler’s help the other scientist pushed the frozen sperm bank up the ramp and disappeared with barely a nod of acknowledgement.
“Bye kids!” Jack shouted, raising a hand and smirking at Siler’s obvious cringe as
he came back down the ramp. Daniel made a face and looked away as Sam and Teal’c
said their final good-
“I love you, Max,” Sam sniffed, smoothing his hair. “I can’t believe it’s only been five days.”
“I look forward to the day we meet again, my small friend,” Teal’c intoned solemnly before crossing an arm over his chest and bowing his head in a formal Jaffa salute.
Words failed him so Jack merely went for an awkward hug without taking the child out of Daniel’s arms. His hand lingered on a soft cheek for a minute then he slowly withdrew it.
With an almost inaudible sigh Daniel followed the women halfway up the ramp before handing her the bag and then hesitated a second before letting Max go to her. When the woman reached for Daniel’s face he projected all of his love to Max who gurgled and cooed back to him.
“Daniel,” Daniel said quietly one last time, gripping a fat little hand tenderly. A fleeting, insane notion that maybe he got through teased a forlorn smile out of him before the reality of the situation came crashing back down. He pulled his hand away to prevent any of his troubled emotions from reaching Max.
The woman smiled empathetically then stepped away, taking Max with her. A minute later the wormhole disengaged and Daniel found himself still on the ramp. The shuffle of boots behind him indicated the gathering was breaking up but he didn’t move until an arm encircled his shoulders.
“You always amaze me, Doctor Jackson,” Jack replied, not letting go as he led him away.
***
Illia could barely contain herself when the circle burst to life. The excitement and joy around her was so all encompassing she could scarcely tell where they left off and she began. It was a great, great day. Although she had not regained her seat on the council, she vowed to work selflessly to do everything in her power to ensure the successful rebirth of her people. But the sense of community paled in comparison to her desire to recover her own personal joy, her grandchild.
Ohnay appeared first with the conserved genetic material, extremely pleased with the volume and diversity of the samples. She was quickly surrounded and whisked back to the city by a large portion of the jubilant crowd, eager to hear of her experiences on the dangerous and primitive planet. Others, mostly younger women who had never really seen a child, stayed and waited for a glimpse of the boy, eager to experience his mind.
Veda paced anxiously as the seconds dragged on. Finally Illia stilled her with a touch. ‘Patience,’ she urged. ‘Daniel will be home soon.’
At long last Korette appeared, holding a terrified Daniel tightly. As the wave of unexpected excitement hit him so soon after the frightening, bumpy ride the child promptly vomited on the scientist before bursting into wails of distress. Veda reached him first and fairly snatched him away, crying in relief and joy as she soothed her baby. The curious crowd respected the family and moved back, toning down their unintended emotional assault.
‘Daniel,’ Illia called to him over and over again as she stroked his hair and back, unable to touch him enough. As the physical and mental trauma began to pass, the boy calmed down and recognized his family, receiving hugs and kisses, fully returning the affection. The celebration promised to be unprecedented as the mob broke up and headed back to the dome. Veda allowed her mother to take the child but kept a hand on his leg which was covered in the strange clothing. They joined the throng to return to their new home, delighted to once again be part of the social order.
***
As they turned to go back to the city, Max leaned over his grandmother’s shoulder to reach toward the stargate. “Da,” he said clearly, but no one heard.
***
Daniel visited the infirmary the next day but Janet wasn’t there. One of the nurses informed him the doctor was taking a personal day to be with her daughter. Realizing she needed time, Daniel opted not to push the issue. Not yet anyway.
As he meandered back to his office Daniel wondered again how Max had done with his second trip through the gate, hoping it had gone better than the first. He worried. He sighed. He accepted reluctantly that he would probably never know. Someday he would see Max again, not as a baby but a fully grown man. Of course by then Max wouldn’t remember the trip, even if Daniel remembered to ask. There were so many things Daniel wanted to remember for both of them.
Flipping on the lights as he entered his lair, Daniel moved directly to a particular shelf and pulled out the old tome he’d been hankering to read. A tiny, buried part of him wished he had lost himself in it when he’d had the chance instead of choosing to reach out to the child of his clone. He immediately squashed the thought, reaffirming his decision to embrace the joy of the experience and cast off the pain. It sounded good in theory.
When he settled at his desk with his coveted prize a fleck of color on top of his journal caught his eye. The book was momentarily forgotten as he reached for the lock of blond hair tied with a small, baby blue ribbon over a rubber band. He stared at it for a moment before fingering it delicately, no doubt in his mind who had placed it there or why. Just as he raised it to his cheek his serenity was shattered as the klaxon went off.
“Security forces to the embarkation room. This is not a drill. Repeat, ALL security forces to the gateroom!”
Opening the antique book to the middle, Daniel solemnly arranged the peace offering between its worn pages and closed them up safely together to contemplate at a quieter time. If ever there was such a thing in his crazy life. He carefully returned the volume to its place on the shelf, shelving his bevy of feelings with it before sprinting for the control room to find out just exactly what the next big emergency would entail.
The End
