The pain woke her early, earlier than she was accustomed to rising. Peanut moaned and rolled over, curling her knees to her chest until the pain receded and she was able to sit up. Her mother and father had been sick a few days before, Dr. Lam said it was merely a bug that needed to work it's way through their systems. She remembered her father drinking nothing but Root Beer in an attempt to alleviate his sufferings, then her mother downing copious amounts of Dr. Pepper. There was still a few cans of the stuff somewhere. Plus, her dad always kept a case of Coke in the basement for when the O'Neill kids dropped by. It was their drink of choice, and CJ had the distinction of being the only boy on base that could chug a twelve pack in under three minutes. Ella had even hinted at a twenty-four pack in under five minutes, but everyone knew Ella was a little stuck on her younger brother's accomplishments, real and imagined.
Easing her way downstairs, the twelve year old rested a moment on shaky legs before pulling open the refrigerator. The cool air to her fevered skin was a welcome relief, Peanut dug out three cans of Root Beer and one of Dr. Pepper and carried them up the stairs to her room, where she eased down into her bean bag chair and switched on the television. Even though it was Saturday, her day off from giving her parents grief, both her parents had been called in to work to meet someone off world, from a planet called Kelowna, someone named Jonas, that evidently her father had once had the ultimate pleasure of knowing years before he had even met her mother. Her stomach ached again, Peanut was tempted to tell her mother. Vala MalDoran was a force to be reckoned with when it came to her miracle child's health and safety. Telling her mother that she was in pain would only lead to hours of thermometers in strange places, penlights in the eyes at odd times, being urged to drink more than was surely healthy, and possibly even a visit to Aunt Carolyn in the infirmary. Not something Peanut wanted to go through.
Besides, Vala had told her that all women began changing at various times in their lives, and Peanut's little body would begin at any time. It was probably just the changes taking over.
Resting a chilly can against her stomach, Peanut sighed in something akin to relief as the pain eased slightly. Nestling deeper into the beanbag chair, Peanut allowed her eyes to drift closed until her cell phone's jaunty ring startled her awake again.
"Hi CJ." She murmured into the receiver when she had flipped it open.
"Tell your mom you're sick." he ordered. It never ceased to amaze her how he knew things like this. When she was sick, or when she was feeling down, he somehow always knew and would call to lift her spirits.
"I'm fine. Just probably started my period or something like my mom is saying might happen." She smiled lightly at his concern as fingers of pain drifted up her stomach. Easing the can into a different position, she fell silent. This was something else they could do, keep a line open for hours, and yet say nothing.
"How bad is the pain? One is absolutely no pain, none whatsoever, and ten the worst pain you've ever felt." He tried again.
"Eight? Eight and a half? But my mom says that this can happen. Just bad cramps." she shrugged, her eyes drifting closed again.
"I'm coming over." CJ declared.
"You can't. It's like, three miles from your house to mine." Peanut argued halfheartedly. She heard him pulling on his jacket and whispering to someone, probably Ella, about where he was going, then he was hurrying outside. She could hear the shed door open, knew he was getting his bike out.
"Booger, Spooky, Stay." He whispered fiercely at the two rescue dogs his father had brought home a few years back, after a near kidnapping attempt.
"Talk to me." he ordered when a long silence had passed between them.
"Jacek wants to visit. My mom's dad. She doesn't want me to meet him though. Says he'd be a bad influence on me, and she's already the worst that I can handle. Something like that. How's your mom doing with the pregnancy, she's what, seven months along now?" Peanut asked drowsily.
"Seven and a half." CJ panted. "We found out yesterday it's a boy. I wanted to call you, but your dad said you were already sleeping. That's unusual for you. You're always the last one to go to bed, and the first one up. Normally, you drag me out of bed. How long have you been feeling sick?" he asked.
"Oh, a couple or so days. It's normal, CJ. Trust me. This is a girl thing, bound to happen sooner or…" Peanut jolted to her feet and staggered into her bathroom before she vomited, the force of it bringing her to her knees on the hard tile floor next to the sink. She hadn't made it to the toilet, and she wasn't sure she wanted to move at all after that. Lifting her cell phone to her ear again, Peanut wiped her hand across her mouth to ride herself of the taste.
"I heard it. That sounded gnarly gross." CJ answered before she could speak. "Just lay down, and I'll take care of it when I get in." He went on. Peanut pulled her hand towel down to cover the mess she had made, then eased her way back into her room and to her beanbag chair.
"I gotta' sleep, CJ. I'm tired." She murmured, eyes closing of their own accord. It seemed that as hard as she struggled to keep them awake, the darkness was that much quicker to overtake her.
CJ heard the phone clunk to the floor as he rounded the corner to the Jackson home, quickly leaping the fence he darted around to the backyard and climbed the trellis to the roof, then walked along until he got to Peanut's window. She always left her window unlocked for him, something he was most grateful for now. Slithering inside, he dropped to the floor and hurried to her side, more worried now that he could see her. Sweat beaded her forehead, her skin pale and clammy to the touch. Slightly feverish. Taking note of the can pressed against her stomach, he gently pulled it away. Even unconscious, Peanut let loose with a moan that shook CJ to his core. Taking the stairs three at a time, he raced to Vala and Daniel's room, bursting open the door he shook the one closest to him. "Peanut's sick, we need to get her to the infirmary." he snapped, moving around the bed to shake the other lump awake. Vala bolted up, pulling her robe on as she raced to her daughter's room.
"How'd you get in? It's oh-four-forty-eight hours and I don't remember waking up to let you in." Daniel grumbled half-seriously.
"Peanut leaves a window unlocked in her room, just in case I need to get in. I leave one unlocked for her too. I called her this morning, and she was sick. That's why I came. When I got up to her room she was passed out. We were talking, and she passed out in mid-sentence. I just knew she was sick when I called, so I biked over from my house. Spooky followed me. I left him outside with my bike." CJ explained, hurrying up the stairs after Daniel.
"Hold Jacek back." Vala ordered them, shoving the German Shepherd away from the girl. CJ grabbed Peanut's dog and scooted back out of the way as Vala gently tried to rouse her daughter.
"How long was she unconscious?" Daniel asked after several useless seconds.
"Three minutes while I was on the phone with her. She kept saying she was tired, that she wanted to sleep. I heard her throw up too. It was gnarly gross."
"Vala, go get the car ready. I'll bring her down. CJ, call your parents and let them know where you are, tell them not to worry, we'll take you with us." Daniel ordered, scooping Peanut up. At the movements, she went painfully stiff and opened her eyes, clutching at her stomach.
"It hurts, Daddy!" she whimpered softly. Daniel carried her down the stairs to the car, easing her inside and putting the seat belt across her lap.
CJ slid into the back seat next to Vala and shared a worried look with her.
*******
Appendicitis. That's what had brought Peanut down. Carolyn had ordered immediate surgery after assessing the girl and drawing blood for tests.
"Why didn't I see it? I had it once before, had to get mine removed, why couldn't I see it?" Daniel asked softly.
"Daniel." Vala hugged him, holding him close as he broke down. "She's going to be fine. Carolyn said she got to her in time. Peanut's going to be great after this." She continued, her own fears making her voice shake.
"The surgery is taking longer than mine." Daniel managed then.
"Carolyn is just taking extra good care of our little girl. Only the best for Peanut, remember? You and I promised her that years ago, before she was ever born. She's getting the best medical treatment there is. It takes time for this sort of thing, darling." She replied soothingly.
"Another hour." Daniel murmured against her shoulder.
"I know darling. We almost lost her. One more hour, and we wouldn't have been able to save her." Vala whispered, holding him tighter at the thought.
CJ spotted his parents first, ran to them and into Sam's embrace.
"How is she?" Jack asked quietly, a hand on Daniel's arm.
"She's okay, in surgery, but Carolyn thinks she'll recover well. CJ found her early this morning. After this, he's welcome any time at our house." Daniel replied. Vala nodded vigorously in agreement.
"He didn't tell us where he was going before he left." Sam gave her son a look that promised trouble, until Ella stepped forward.
"He told me. I wrote it down and left the note on the table. CJ was a little worried over her, so I figured that would be the best thing." She told her parents.
Carolyn came out of surgery then and was surrounded by the family.
"We removed her appendix safely. She's in recovery now, should be waking up soon. If you like, I can take you both back there to be with her when she comes around." She explained.
"Do it. We'll see to Jonas when he comes." Jack urged gently.
As Daniel and Vala were led off by Carolyn, Sam turned to her son with a stern look.
"Next time you run off without telling an adult, you're grounded until you die." she warned.
"Like you never ran off without telling your parents." He shrugged innocently.
"Wrong answer, Buddy. Now you're grounded until the end of this century." Jack winced.
"Jonas'll be here soon, I'll deal with you after that. Consider yourself attached at the hip to either your father or myself until then." Sam ordered her wayward son.
*******
Surgery was fun. Waking up on medications that messed with her mind was even better.
Peanut opened her eyes slowly, the room still spinning with the effects of the morphine. She wanted to vomit, but couldn't feel her stomach. Or, anywhere below her neck for that matter.
Hey, there was no pain!
That's a plus, she thought.
"Baby?" Vala took Peanut's hand in her own when her daughter's eyes opened, looking around with fear at the strange room.
"Hey there, you feel okay now?" Daniel asked from Peanut's other side.
"…a'pened?" Peanut managed, swallowing the fuzziness that had settled around her tongue.
"Your appendix ruptured while you were in surgery. Aunt Carolyn had to work faster and harder, but you're going to be fine now. She said it was so bad, she couldn't understand why you didn't complain of it sooner." Vala murmured. Daniel blinked back tears at the memory of Carolyn telling them what had gone on behind the closed doors of the operating room. How close he had come to losing his miracle baby.
"You guys were busy all this week, then you got sick. I didn't wanna' bother you. I thought it was my period or something." Peanut explained, feeling stupid now.
"There is nothing more important to us than you. Nothing. You are the best thing that happened to us, and we feel terrible that you don't see it. Yeah, we were busy, but we can drop it at any time for you. You are our life. If we lost you…" Daniel's voice drifted off and he lifted their interlocked fingers to kiss.
"Darling, everything we are, everything we have become since you were born is because of you. You brought us together as a family, you…you're the glue. I know we get on your nerves, but it's only because you're our precious little miracle." Vala added, leaning forward to kiss her daughter's cheek.
"I know, you guys give up so much for me, you stopped going off world when I was born, and I know how you guys loved seeing new places, new cultures, new…hell, new alien life. Specially Dad with those rocks he calls artifacts. I just feel that you gave up so much, and I wanted you to have this weekend with your friend, without me getting in the way again." Peanut told Daniel.
"We gave it up because it was dangerous, not because of you. I didn't want to leave you and your mom in the lurch if anything happened to me. Being that she's an alien and all, it wouldn't do to have people suddenly start taking an interest in her life, they might think that you're an interest as well. I stay on Earth to protect you and your mother. No other reason. Look at Uncle Jack and Aunt Sam. They have two kids and one on the way, and yet they still go off world every few weeks. Ella and CJ stay with us or with Uncle Teal'c if he's on the planet. Doesn't mean their parents care about them any less. Just means that they feel safe with what they do. Their parents are good shooters, military trained, stealth ops, just to name a few. Your mom and I aren't. I don't feel safe off world with you here, alone. I retired to a desk job, Aunt Sam knows the risks along with Uncle Jack and neither one gives us grief over it. There may come a time when you will want to go through the gate, sooner rather than later I think, but until then we're sticking on Earth." Daniel told her with a gentle smile.
"That's right Darling. I feel the same way. Did you know that I was hurt when I was pregnant with you? I got shot off world, and when Daniel brought me back that's when we found out about you. I stopped all missions then, told General Landry that I wasn't going to be going through. He said it was my choice. I chose to keep you safe. I don't think you stopped me from going off world. You did stop me from carrying off these foolish ideas off world, knowing that you were inside me, I didn't want to risk losing you. Your father and I were so happy when we found out that you were going to be joining our family. We're not perfect, by any means, but we do love you, more than anything else. As we have said earlier, there is nothing more important to us than you. And, after all these years, we now see that we hurt you by our very own selfishness. One day, you will do great things. Until then, we're here for you. Always." Vala smiled, fingering a thick strand of Peanut's hair.
"And on that note, I think we'll make room for a certain young man who may or may not have a crush on you…" she teased when spotting CJ in the shadows by the door. When her parents had gone, CJ approached the bed slowly.
"You feeling okay now?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah. Mom and Dad say that I nearly died. I would be dead if you hadn't come over. How'd you know to call me?" Peanut asked.
"I just got this weird feeling, kept having a dream where you were hurt and couldn't move. When I woke up, I called. Kinda' weird. Like that time you pitched a fit while your dad was holding you, and you fell on the floor and broke your wrist. I knew. Weird, huh?" CJ asked, his nose crinkling to look like Sam's.
"Weird, yeah. So, did that guy, Jonas or whatever, did he come in?"
"Yeah. He talked to my dad and your dad for a while, then he went to his room here on base. He brought his family, a wife and two sons. They're both our age-ish, maybe one's a couple years older? Anyway, they're both really polite and all. I like Jonas too. He's nice enough, although my mom mentioned he had a crush on her once. Dad says that Jonas had a crush on anything female and two legged that came close enough for him to see. He even fell for a Goa'uld once. Or was it a Tok'ra? Dad said snakehead, that's all he would say. In all, I think he likes Jonas. He's going to be staying, kinda' like Uncle Teal'c. There was an uprising or something on Kelowna, and Jonas asked for political asylum here, because he was a political figure on his planet. So, General Landry said he could stay. Got him and his wife and kids all kinda' paperwork, meaning that they're now legal here." CJ told her quickly. Peanut nodded and closed her eyes again, resting back against her pillow.
"So, can I see your scar?" CJ asked then.
"What? No."
"C'mon, I let you see mine when the firecracker exploded in my hand last July."
"Okay." Peanut carefully pulled the bandage to the side, giving a view of the neat stitches in her skin.
"Gnarly gross." CJ breathed in awe.
"You said that when I threw up." Peanut grumbled, putting the bandage back into place.
"Yeah, it's kinda' universal." He shrugged.
"I'm gonna' rest for a little bit, you okay with that?"
"Sure. I'll stay with you until your parents get back." CJ shrugged. Sliding a chair over to her bedside, he made himself comfortable.
When Sam walked in an hour later to check on the two, she had to smile at the sight of CJ sleeping in the chair and his upper body lying on the medical bed, one of his small hands holding Peanut's as she slept.
The End