Okay, we're leaving for Christmas vacation to go visit family soon, so I had to bring this to some type of conclusion so you people wouldn't freak at me. So, here's the last of it before Christmas vacation is over and I'm back at my own computer. Know that THIS STORY IS NOT OVER. This is something of a conslusion so you guys aren't hanging over the holidays, but when I get home I'm really going to finish it, have a nicer ending...oh, and a follow up one-shot after new years fic. :P Hope you guys like 'that' one when it comes. But anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and 'please' let me know if you do and what you like. You guys help so much I love you all and again MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Chapter 7

The racket from the falling car jarred Daniel to full wakefulness, but the pain that came with consciousness pulled another moan from his throat.

"W…what?" he muttered weakly.

Vala looked down at him and managed a smile. "It's all right, Daniel. You'll be fine." His eyes locked on her for a moment before wandering again, taking in his friends, the broken trees at the edge of the cliff, and the absence of the vehicle he last remembered being in.

"Where's the car?" he slurred.

The other four looked at each other for a moment.

Jack moved forward first. "Uhm, well, Daniel, it kind of fell off," he informed in the way that only Jack O'Neill could.

"Oh…"

Obviously, Daniel was too weak or hurting too much to care.

"What happened?" Vala asked worriedly.

He tried to shrug, but grimaced. "Ice."

Sam, meanwhile, had moved to take a look at his leg, but it wasn't until she tried to turn it a bit to get a better look at the wound that someone noticed--namely, Daniel, who gasped suddenly.

"Sorry!" Sam winced.

"-t's okay."

Sam sighed. "That ambulance needs to get here. This doesn't look good."

"Neither does this," Jack added. He'd been doing a bit of checking over of his friend as well, and had found the shoulder wound.

"Jack…"

"Ah ah. I don't wanna hear the 'I'm fine' bit, Daniel. You are anything but fine," the retired general chastised.

Daniel sighed, but that hurt too, and his breath hitched a bit as he tried to let it out.

"Daniel?" Vala asked in concern.

"He's probably got a cracked rib or two; I wouldn't be surprised," Sam offered.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Wonderful," he mumbled.

Cassie, meanwhile, could no longer hold Janet in the car. The baby had to be watched too, so when the girl escaped, there was no going after her.

"Daddy!" she shouted, jumping out of the vehicle and running down the hill toward her parents.

Vala looked up as their daughter slid to a stop beside them and dropped into a snow next to Daniel "Janet! I thought I told you to stay in the car."

"But mom-"

"Vala, give the kid a break; she's worried about her dad," Jack encouraged.

Vala sighed and nodded, and Janet flashed her Uncle Jack a smile before turning her full attention to her father. "Dad?" she asked worriedly.

Daniel smiled weakly. "It's okay, Janet…I'll be fine."

"A-Are you sure?" the girl swallowed. Her voice shook a bit as her eyes scanned the amount of blood on his shoulder and leg, and the nasty bump on his head. Thankfully, though, she had landed to the right of him, and Daniel was able to grope for her hand in the snow and wrap his around it.

"Yeah," he assured her. And as he looked at the tears in her eyes, he knew he would be. She didn't hate him; he shouldn't be hating himself. Sure, they still had things to work out, and there were more than everyone's fair share of apologies to be made, but it would be all right.

Finally Janet gave a small smile back, and as the sound of an ambulance siren sounded in the background and began to draw closer, all of them smiled, because they felt it too. They would all be all right.

"I still can't believe they only kept you one more night," Jack groused Thursday afternoon at his house, pacing in front of Daniel. It had been Tuesday night since Daniel's rescue, and he had come home that morning. The Christmas party at the O'Neill's had been delayed while Jackson had been in the hospital, until now. Most of the gang was there, and Christmas music--Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, at the moment--played on the stereo here in the living room, but the party wouldn't officially start until the rest of the guests arrived. "I never got out of the infirmary at the SGC that soon for anything that serious."

"Jack, it's not that serious," Daniel protested from his chair.

O'Neill stopped and stared at him. "Uh huh. Only you could say you're fine after you get robbed, stabbed in the shoulder, beat up, hit ice, roll your car down a hill, get your leg cut up by a piece of metal, crack a couple of ribs, hit your head hard enough to get a minor concussion, and get pulled out of the car just before it crashes to the bottom of a cliff," the retired general mussed, shaking his head at his younger friend.

Daniel blinked up at him for a moment, trying find the joke, and realized that behind the sarcasm Jack was serious. He was worried about him. Daniel glanced down at the sling his left arm was in, felt the bandage still around his head, and the others still around his leg and chest under his clothes, and realized that O'Neill had every right to. He'd told them the truth about what had happened to him before they found him. He hadn't had much choice when the origin of the shoulder wound had raised questions by the doctors. Vala had been none too pleased with the information, but it hadn't been him she was mad at, of course.

Janet wasn't mad at him anymore, either. Vala had brought both children to visit him the day before once he'd gotten much of his strength back, but had left him and Janet alone long enough for them to have a nice, long talk. Apologies had been made--mostly on his part--and accepted. Plans to fix the problems that had arise had been made to begin as soon as he was free, and once that was done they had ended up lapsing back into their habit of talking hours away. Well, it could have been hours if visiting hours hadn't ended.

Daniel shrugged at Jack with his good shoulder and smiled. "That's me I guess."

Jack grimaced. "Yeah, and that being you is gonna get you killed one of these days. Ohh wait, it already has--more than once."

Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"Do I have to name them off? Abydos mission one, Kelowna, Ori ship earlier this year for cryin out loud. I know there's more in there, but that's enough to make my point."

"Okay, okay," Daniel chuckled. "I get the point. I'll be more careful from now on, okay? Believe me, with a family now I want to."

"Good, because I'm not ascending just to keep you company anymore. The whole process was kinda interesting, but overall it got pretty darn boring up there," Jack said, grinning finally.

Daniel started to say something else when the Mitchell's came into the living room, having just arrived. Both twins rushed across the room as soon as they could get away from their mother. It seemed that their mother had instructed them as to his injuries, because the two six-year-olds locked onto the only two uninjured limbs he had. For a moment that was a bit embarrassing, especially after he glanced up and caught a look of concern on Carolyn's face that confirmed it, but the feeling was lost once he looked back down at the kids that were currently latched onto his right arm and leg.

"Uncle Daniel, are you okay?" Tiffany asked first, ever the more outspoken.

Zach looked up at him with wide eyes from the floor where he's wrapped his arms around Jackson's leg and said tentatively, "Mommy told us you got hurt."

Daniel smiled and ruffled the boys hair before bringing his arm back up to hug Tiffany. "Yeah, I did, but I'll be okay. You don't have to worry about me."

Cameron grinned and shook his head as he and Carolyn approached. "You could say that line in your sleep, Jackson."

"I probably could," Daniel laughed.

"Where's the rest of the crew?"

Jack raised a finger. "Ah. The females are in the kitchen, and Teal'c, Cassie, and Skaara aren't here yet."

"And Charlie's sleeping," Daniel added, nodding to the carrier in the seat next to him where the baby was.

"Again," Jack smirked, but a small cry from the spot wiped away O'Neill's smirk and brought his eyebrows up. "Or not." Jack leaned down and picked the baby up, who calmed as soon as he was in his uncle's arms. "You want him, Daniel?" he said, asking out of courtesy.

Daniel glanced at the girl attached to the arm he could have used to hold the baby while sitting and shook his head. "Nah, you keep him. He's happy you," he smiled.

"No objections," Jack agreed. Quite happy with his charge, the retired general crossed to the couch and sat down to play with little Charlie.

Tiffany, meanwhile, leaned over, kissed his cheek, and then took her brother's hand and pulled him away, obviously content in her knowledge that Daniel was fine. "Come on, let's go find the others in the kitchen," she suggested--or rather, ordered. But Zach had no qualms with the idea, and followed her.

"Hey Daniel, one question…" Cam began.

"Yeah?"

"What's with this week and close calls with cliffs?" he asked, motioning to Jackson's sling.

Daniel winced. "I have no idea."

Carolyn put and arm around her husband's shoulders and looked down at Daniel. "As a doctor maybe I'm supposed to be used to this kind of thing, but that doesn't mean I like being woken up by the phone in the middle of the night to be told one of my friends just had a serious car accident and as his doctor could I please come to hospital immediately."

"Sorry about that."

"Well, let's just try not to do it again, shall we? At least not before the year's over," she smiled.

Daniel laughed. "Yeah, I'll try."

That was when the doorbell rang once more, and the front door opened when Sam answered it. Cassie and Skaara stepped in from the cold, followed after a moment by Teal'c.

"All right! Everybody's here--let's get this party started!" Jack called, standing with Charlie. "Sam, is the food ready?"

"Yep, ready and on the table," Sam answered, hugging Cassie.

Vala and Janet came out into the living room too, the Mitchell children trailing at their heels. We Wish You a Merry Christmas came on in the background.

"Time to eat, time to eat!" Tiffany yelled.

"Eat!" Zach echoed, tugging on his father's pants leg.

"All right, all right," Cameron laughed.

Carolyn leaned down and scooped Tiffany up. "We all heard both of you the first time, silly; not so loud," she chastised.

"Sorry," the two chorused together. Daniel grinned; they'd been doing that since both of them could talk.

Janet and Vala came over to Daniel, and Janet stuck out her hand. "Can I help you up?" she asked.

"Sure," Daniel answered, taking it. He was too heavy for Janet to help up by herself, so Vala pulled up on his arm, but together they got Daniel on his feet. He hugged both of them before Janet handed him the crutch he'd been using with his good arm. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, dad."

"Okay, into the dining room, people, it's turkey time!" Jack was shouting about the noise of the group.

Daniel managed to bend down far enough to kiss his daughter's cheek. "I love you."

Janet replied happily, hugging him again carefully. "I love you too."