Hello all! I really enjoyed writing this, and hope you enjoy reading it!

I forgot the disclaimer before, so here goes: They're not mine.

Enjoy:D

Jack

The most annoying noise in the universe is that of an alarm clock. I swear that's how they designed it.

0600, and the high-pitched beebee, beebee, beebee can be heard all over the house. And I don't even know how to turn it off. Thankfully, it does so automatically after half an hour, but still…

I reluctantly lurch out of bed, eyes still closed, and head for the bathroom.

Twenty seconds later, I walk out again, and into the hallway: I've forgotten something.

Daniel is sleeping, huddled completely under the covers of the queen bed still in my former guest bedroom—although I've ordered Daniel's new bed, it hasn't arrived yet.

I shake the lump under the blankets. "Daniel, wake up," I whisper.

"G'way," mumbles the lump.

I shake it again. "We have to go to work," I insist. "C'mon."

The blankets are hurled aside. Daniel opens one eye and looks at me. "You are evil," he says.

I smile sweetly. "I know," I reply. Now that he's exposed, I can begin my attack. I pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, and he starts squirming.

"Putmedownputmedownputmedown!"

"Okay," I say. I set him down in front of the sink. "Brush your teeth," I order. Daniel looks up and scowls. "Just because I'm short doesn't mean you can order me around."

"I'm your CO. Remember?"

Indistinct mutters barely reach my ears as I walk away.

I've been in the kitchen for only a few minutes when little Daniel slouches in, obviously still wishing he were in bed.

"Morning," I comment, and notice he's going straight to the coffee pot. "Uh, is that such a good idea? You're not exactly in the ideal age range for coffee anymore."

"Ask me if I care," Daniel says grumpily. He's pouring a cup of coffee while standing on the little footstool I got him so he could reach the counters.

"Seems like someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning," I remark quietly, and blue eyes glare at me from a babyish face as Daniel carries the cup to the table.

"Actually, I was forcibly removed from the wrong side of the bed," he clarifies.

I sigh, and gesture to the coffee cup, which is 5 inches in diameter. Daniel bought it a few years ago for when he's at my house. "Is that all you're having?"

"Yup." Daniel's look tells me I'll regret questioning him further.

"Janet's gonna kill me," I mutter.

"So how is he?" Sam asks.

"Okay," I reply. "Weird, but okay."

As soon as I walk into Carter's lab, she brings up the topic of our new Daniel. She's fascinated by the connotations that go with putting a nearly 40-year-old consciousness into the brain of a six-year-old. I'd tell her how scary Daniel suddenly is, but I'm counting on her as a babysitter.

"Weird how?" Sam presses.

I shrug. "Well, he's so little… but he's so Daniel. Pissy Daniel, anyway. And then again, every once in a while he does something really juvenile."

She smiles sympathetically. "It's gotta be hard for him," she says. "A smart guy like him suddenly stuck in a tiny body and told he can't take care of himself anymore. I'd be pretty cranky too, I imagine."

I shrug. "Yeah, well he's certainly that."

At work, I don't have a lot to do. Really, my job on base is to be around in case there's an emergency. So once I leave Carter's office, it's natural for me to head to Daniel's.

I find him sitting dejectedly on the floor, and am reminded of Charlie: he did the same thing when he was upset.

"What's wrong?" I ask quietly, and he looks up, surprised.

"Oh, hey, Jack," he says, forcing a smile on his face. "I was just—thinking. It helps to think here."

"What do you mean?" I inquire, walking over to sit down next to him.

He shrugs. "Nothing, really," he murmurs. I wait.

After a few minutes, he says, "It's so different. I mean, my body feels different, but so does my mind." He pauses. "It's harder to concentrate. I work on translating something from a language I know as well as English, and after half an hour I just can't do it anymore. I mean, it still makes sense, but it feels like every ten seconds my mind's wandering."

I smile. "Sounds a little like me in high school," I say, and Daniel smiles back--a quick smile, practically gone before it's there, but I saw it. "Look," I continue, "I have an idea about this." I look to him for approval, but his face is unreadable, so I keep talking. "Work for however long you can, and then take a ten-minute break. Work again, break. Work, break. It might be a little less efficient, but in the end it might help you not get so stressed out."

Daniel's looking at me dubiously, and I frown. "At least try it." He nods. "Thanks," he whispers, subdued.

"Is…this why you've been so grumpy?" I ask, carefully.

Daniel looks at me, indignant. "I have not been grumpy!" I raise my eyebrows, Teal'c-like. Oh, really?

Daniel frowns and bites his lip: a very cute gesture. "Well, maybe I've been a little…sarcastic."

"Definitely sarcastic," I agree.

A small smile appears on his face. "Sorry."

"No problem. But people are gonna start giving you weird looks if you're so snarky all the time."

Daniel sighs. "I just want to be normal," he remarks quietly.

"When was the last time you felt normal?" I ask, curious.

His small face squinches in thought. "Umm…I was told my mom had a very normal pregnancy."

I snort. "Good answer."

"But now I feel even weirder than before," Daniel says. "When—before, the last time I was a kid, I was precocious, a dork, but I was still a kid. I felt like a kid, and that was okay, because I was one. But now I feel like an adult, only sometimes I don't. And I don't know which I'm supposed to be." He sighs. "It's confusing."

"I know," I say softly. "It'll be okay."

"You don't know that," he retorts bleakly.

"Nope," I declare. "But we've always done okay before. Why not now?"

The little boy shrugs and leans against me, and I put my arm around his small shoulders. I can tell Daniel doesn't quite believe me, but he is reassured, and that's enough for now.

Hello…thank you, everyone, for your comments! However, there was one I sorta disagreed with. Ryu Gaia: First, Daniel is not, as is suspected by most FF writers, a sniveling wretch. If that's not what you meant by "out of character," I'm sorry. Second, "First person isn't a very good way to write stories"? What about To Kill a Mockingbird, or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, or The Great Gatsby, or Jane Eyre? Those were pretty good stories. Also, the first chapter wasn't in first person, it was in 3rd person omniscient. That means the guy narrating knows everything, even thoughts. If you don't like my stuff, sorry. That's just the way I write.

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