Christmas Eve, Five Years in a Row

The first December Janet worked at the SGC was the busiest in her life. She had spent the better part of the month trying to find the cure to an alien disease that had taken over at the base…again. It was very virulent and seemed to defy every possible cure she could come up with…until the week before Christmas. She had finally happened on the cure, and most of the members of the SGC were recovering nicely. All except two…Miranda Phillips, one of Janet's nurses, and Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Janet had discovered soon after joining the SGC that having a member of SG1 sick or injured, meant having 4 members of SG1 in the infirmary. They simply refused to leave as long as one of their own was still there. So, Christmas Eve morning found all four members of the premier team in Janet's domain. She stumbled over and around them all day, and was just about ready to demand that all three healthy members take a short break from Daniel-watching before she had them all banned permanently. Before she could issue her threat, however, one of her nurses screamed for her attention. Miranda, the sick nurse, had taken a turn for the worse. Both she and Dr. Jackson seemed totally resistant to the cure that worked so well for all the other members of the SGC. Hours later, Miranda succumbed to the disease and Janet gave up all hopes of getting the rest of SG1 to leave. She knew they were now there for the duration.

Just before midnight, Janet came to check on Daniel yet again. Jack had fallen asleep in a chair beside his friend's bed. Samantha Carter had long since claimed the bed beside Daniel's and was sleeping heavily. Teal'c was in a quiet corner of the infirmary, engaged in Kel'no'reem. Moments before the stroke of midnight, Daniel opened his eyes for the first time in weeks. His vital signs told her that his fever had finally broken, but she placed a hand on his forehead anyway, just to be sure. He was still groggy, didn't attempt to speak, and probably didn't understand anything Janet said yet, but she didn't even bother to fight the urge to brush back a wisp of his hair and whisper, "Merry Christmas, Dr. Jackson."

The second Christmas found Janet's life changed from any year that had gone before. She had adopted an alien child earlier that year, and for the first Christmas ever, was busy trying to make it the absolute best for the child in her life. Cassie gave a meaning to Janet's life that she had never thought possible, and she loved the child dearly. Unfortunately, with children and Christmas inevitably came the dreaded words, "some assembly required." This Christmas Eve found Janet on the floor in the middle of a pile of metal that was supposed to be a bicycle, holding what she was sure were actually directions for the assembly of a toaster, because no matter how closely Janet thought she was following the instructions, what she ended up with didn't even remotely resemble a bike. She was beginning to think the entire thing would look much nicer on the front lawn, surrounded by the remains of the front picture window.

As she dismantled her fourth attempt, she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it, she was surprised to find Daniel with a bag of wrapped gifts. When she looked past him toward the driveway, she was even more surprised to find a borrowed pickup full of even more presents. Apparently everyone in the SGC decided that their favorite little alien needed to be fully immersed in the Earth-custom of receiving Christmas presents and generally being spoiled rotten.

It took almost a half an hour to bring in all the gifts and arrange them around the tree, even with both of them carrying them in. Once that was finally finished, Janet convinced Daniel to stay a while and help her eat the cookies she and Cassie had made earlier. Janet had stuffed herself with cookie dough, right along with her excited assistant baker, and now couldn't face the idea of eating any more. But Cassie would be heartbroken if 'Santa' didn't eat the huge pile of freshly baked cookies she had left for him. Daniel was happy to help.

Janet settled back onto the floor to start wrestling with the bike once more. Daniel watched and ate cookies until Janet literally threw a screwdriver across the room, nearly ending the life of a beautiful floor lamp by the door. Daniel set aside his plate of cookies and took over the assembly. As it turned out, he had quite a bit of experience assembling kids' toys for Christmas. Apparently, he had often helped various foster families assemble gifts for 'the real kids', so this bike was nothing he couldn't handle.

Janet watched, her heart breaking for the little boy who had never had his own bike and never felt like one of 'the real kids'. After he finished and parked the shiny red bike near the tree, Janet handed Daniel another cup of coffee and quietly said, "Merry Christmas Daniel."

The next year found Janet back at the SGC. There had been a foothold situation the day before and the entire mountain was under lockdown until further notice. Fortunately, Sam had been off-base at the time of the incident, and was now watching Cassie. Jack had Teal'c in the cafeteria instructing him in the wonders of late-night pie eating. Janet settled down to do paperwork and generally spend a boring Christmas Eve and Christmas until General Hammond and the President decided it was safe to let everyone go home.

Just when she thought this was the without a doubt the absolute worse Christmas Eve ever, Daniel walked into the infirmary with a small artificial Christmas Tree, and just as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day, he said, "Merry Christmas Janet."

Even though no one would have thought it possible, the following Christmas Eve found Janet in even direr straights. She had spent the past several days with almost no sleep, trying to avert yet another medical crisis at the SGC, and had finally been allowed to leave late in the evening on Christmas Eve. As she hurried home to get Christmas ready for Cassie, a drunk who had started his Christmas partying a little early slammed into the driver's side door of her car. The drunk walked away from the accident with no injuries and very little knowledge of what had actually happened. Janet ended up in intensive care.

The SGC had been notified as soon as Janet was identified, and SG1 rushed to be with her at the hospital. She was in surgery by the time they arrived and they had very little information about her injuries except that she had broken several ribs, punctured a lung, and had several other internal injuries.

As an hour's wait dragged into two, Sam decided to go pick up Cassie from a neighbor's house, and try to assure the girl that Janet would be fine, even though she herself wasn't exactly sure about that point yet. Jack and Teal'c were called back to the SGC and Daniel was left to wait alone for word about Janet.

Finally, just before midnight, she was brought into her room in intensive care, and Daniel convinced the nurses to let him sit with her, even though he wasn't family. As Christmas morning officially dawned, Daniel slipped his hand into Janet's and said, "Merry Christmas, Jan."

The following year felt all wrong. There was no medical emergency at the SGC. Everyone was allowed to go home for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and in fact had been allowed to leave early on Christmas Eve. No one was sick or injured. There were no recalcitrant toys to assemble. Everything was as it should be. Yet as Janet sat alone on the couch long after her teenaged daughter had gone to bed, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing.

Minutes before midnight, she realized what it was. Daniel knocked on the door, and was again bearing gifts, though not nearly as many as he had for Cassie's first Christmas. She smiled and felt that the holiday was now complete. Somewhere along the line, spending Christmas Eve with Daniel had become a tradition. As she stepped aside to allow him to enter, they both said, simultaneously, "Merry Christmas."

The End