First Steps
"Good afternoon, Sir. Is there something I can help you with?" Jack O'Neill studied the small woman sitting at the entrance desk of the section of the Pentagon he was now trying to get into. This was not the usual secretary. She made eye contact with him for only a brief moment before turning her smiling attention to what he was carrying in one arm, balanced on his hip; a baby girl with large brown eyes and tiny wisps of golden brown hair beginning to grow.
"Uh yes…I need to see Colonel Sam Carter." He said with an anxious impatience. Whatever the matter was it couldn't have been too bad, a smile was trying to creep up the sides of his mouth, but it was hard for someone who didn't know him to see that.
The tiny woman was now standing, and with some effort, leaning over the reception desk in front of her to reach out and coo at the baby. "I'm sorry Sir, but Colonel Carter is unavailable, would you like to leave a message?"
The smile never left Jack's face, and he never let the tone of his voice alter from one of placation. It was an attempt to keep baby Danni peaceful as well as to get his way. "Look, I know it doesn't say 'General' on my outfit, but it used to. I don't know if you're new or not, but I also used to work here…so if you don't mind, we'll wait in her office until she IS available."
"Sir I'm sorry, but I'm under strict orders here, obviously you had enough clearance to get to this point, but without proper authorization there is no way for me to allow you into Colonel Carter's office without her express permission. You and your granddaughter can wait in the lobby if you would like and I can send for you if she becomes available."
At the term 'granddaughter' Jack's face drained to a pale shade before it began to become pinker and pinker until it was nearly red. "Actually…" He started, trying to regain his calm. "This is my daughter, and her mother just happens to be Colonel Carter. Is that clearance enough?"
The petite woman lost a foot of her already short stature and sulked away from the desk. "You're Major General O'Neill?"
Jack smiled and nodded. His expression earned a small happy squeal from Danni.
The secretary held back a smile of embarrassment very poorly as she sat back down. "Your wife is in her office…it's down this hall and then take a right…"
Jack cut her off. "Thank you, but we know the way." He smiled and raised his chin a little higher than usual before walking past the kiosk.
Upon reaching the door with the appropriate name plate, Jack knocked briefly.
"Come in." Sam's voice beckoned with a hostile tone.
"Mommy sounds a bit pissed doesn't she?" Jack asked his daughter with a hint of baby-voice sarcasm.
"Mama!" Danni squeaked and clapped her hands as Jack opened the door.
"We could come back if this is a bad…lunch?" Jack laughed as he came in and shut the door behind him. "The food here can't be that much better than I remember, you sure that's enough to warrant the 'unavailable' excuse at the front desk?"
Sam quickly wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. "Sorry…I just can't get a moment's peace today." She was now beaming; any melancholy the day had brought seemed to disappear as soon as her husband and child came into the room. "This is a wonderful surprise." She quickly pushed away from her desk and stood as she began to head across her office to greet them. "How's Mommy's little princess?"
"Ack!" Jack's right hand shot up a warning finger. "You stay there."
Sam's features were bemused as she watched Jack stoop over, with some care, and place Danni on the floor, where she stood gaining her balance.
"Go give Mommy a hug." He urged. And with that the little girl, with great care, began to walk step by step towards the blond now covering her mouth with one hand.
Danni made it another five or six steps before gravity took over and her knees took her to the carpeted floor. Instead of crying, she just started giggling and pushed herself back up, regained her balance, and made it the few steps left to where Sam was now crouched with open arms and little tears of happiness in the corners of her eyes.
"Uncle T, I don't want to be disrespectful or anything, but this is...stupid."
"If you continue to vocalize your thoughts, then you will mask the sound of an approaching attacker." Teal'c warned in a stern yet compassionate voice.
"Since when have I ever been able to keep my mouth…ahhh!" There was a loud thud on the matted floor. "That is IT!" Danni reached both of her hands to her face and ripped the blindfold that had been tied around her eyes off and threw it to her side as she sat up. "I can't do this." She stood now, sunk her shoulders and bit her bottom lip.
"You can, and you will. But it takes great patience to become a warrior of skill."
"Uncle Teal'c, I appreciate this, I really do…but I don't think I'm cut out for this. And I'm no warrior." She added.
"You are capable of all that you set your spirit and mind towards." Teal'c encouraged her. "And do you not think yourself a warrior like your parents?"
Danni had a big smile on lips, but her eyes were narrowed. "That's a no." She started. "Mom and Dad do the save the world thing, not me."
"Do you not wish to follow in their footsteps?" Teal'c almost seemed concerned, but the direction in which the conversation was leading to had caught Danni off guard.
The girl studied the mat for a moment before looking just to the outside of Teal'c's eyes as she responded. "The military just isn't…no I'm not."
"I see." Teal'c actually smiled and Danni's eyes narrowed in response before she swallowed back the response she had been building. That was not what she had expected to have to respond to. "Nevertheless, your father and I both would like you to be well trained in these arts for your own security."
"OK, fine, but can we do it without the blindfold for a while. I keep waiting for you to ask me to wax something."
"For now." Teal'c bowed his head. "Attack me."
"What?" Danni's eyes bulged.
"I am going to turn my back, I wish for you to take advantage of my position and attempt to knock me down. By thinking like an aggressor, you will learn to react to one."
"You want me to knock you down?"
"If you do not set out on a quest then you will procure nothing in return."
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained…I got it."
Teal'c turned his back and Danni muttered to herself under her breath. "Attack me, yeah right. Where'd you get that bruise from Danni? Oh, this one? Or do you mean that one…oh well you see this old alien dude told me to attack him…"
"Danni." Teal'c boomed.
"If I attack when you tell me to then you'll known I'm coming. Element of surprise, hel-lo."
"Very well…" Teal'c's last word was uttered on an intake of breath as he sensed the person rushing up behind him. Danni's attempt was good, but not good enough for the seasoned warrior. She found herself once more on the floor, and once more she was pouting.
Jack and Sam's bedroom was feeling rather crowded. The two were rushing around the space going through drawers and shelves with a vengeance while trying not to bump into their daughter or trip over the large dog now sleeping sprawled across the floor.
"Look, Sweetheart, you're going to stay with Daniel and Vala until we get back. There are no arguments, just do what we say." Sam said as she was swiftly throwing clothing into a medium sized suitcase. Jack was doing the same.
"But…I…why can't I stay home? I'm sixteen for crying out loud, and I'm a senior, I think that justifies responsibility."
"Well you just keep thinking about that while you're at Daniel's." Jack quipped as Sam tore the shirt he was trying to pack from his hands and tossed it onto a chair. Desperate situation or not, he wasn't wearing that one.
"But I don't wanna…" Danni whined.
Jack began to zip his much smaller bag. "There are lots of things we don't want to do in life Danni, be happy this one doesn't involve any life or death situations."
"It might." The girl huffed.
"Oh please don't tell me you're still fighting with Nick?" Jack didn't have time to worry about the situation now brewing at home while the one across the universe could not wait.
"We're not fighting, we just aren't communicating. And, if he happens to come within five feet of me, I may be well within my rights to maim him."
"OK, what do you say we keep the maiming to a minimum, and you two can use this as an opportunity to work out whatever this little feud is all about?" Sam said with casual ease. Somehow her word was always more final than Jack's. Perhaps because for Jack, arguing with Danni was like arguing with himself.
Danni rolled her head on her shoulders. "Can I PLEASE just stay at home…Uncle Teal'c can come stay with me, it'll be fine."
Sam put her hands Danni's shoulders. "Uncle Teal'c has a lot he needs to be doing while he is staying on the base. You'll be seeing him for lessons, but aside from that he is going to be very busy. And honestly, if it was any other time, we would leave you at the house, but this is different." Sam's knowing glance got a defeated nod of acknowledgement from her daughter. They were going to keep her under thumb until they were absolutely sure the Tok'Ra intervention had worked.
They were done packing within a matter of minutes, and within the hour Danni had been dropped into Vala's awaiting hug on the front steps of the Jackson home.
"Cheer up sweetheart." Vala smiled. "You and I can go shopping this weekend!"
Danni's eyes gave a small sparkle. "Thanks Aunt Vala."
Agent Hayden of the NID had worked hard to keep his discovery under wraps. Even with all of his hard work and effort however, one of his colleagues had accidentally stumbled over his extra curricular activities and called him out on it. Now the two stood in darkness, arguing.
Agent Bateman, who had been with the NID longer than Hayden but had less experience with dealing with the Stargate Program and its many offshoots, was still outranked by him.
"The girl has to die. There is no other way around it." Hayden barked at the younger man. That's what he had gotten for meddling.
Agent Bateman wasn't one to back down, even if on the inside he was concerned about the wrath swimming in his superior's eyes. He had agreed to keep his secret, and to help him come up with a solution without involving the others, but he still thought there was another way. "And, if she is who you say she is, then killing her now could change everything. There is no telling how much her older version has affected the time line. Not to mention you'd be flipping some very deadly switches if her family finds out who is behind this."
"It's worth it." Hayden pressed.
"Is it?"
"Look, the plan is perfect. She'll die in a mundane fashion that nobody else would ever think twice about. It's foolproof."
"So, are you doing this on your own, or do I need to book a flight to Colorado as well?"
"Use cash." Hayden whispered as he opened the storage room door and allowed his eyes to readjust from their secret meeting. "We don't want any suspicions aroused on either end."
Danni sat on a twin bed covered in pastels and ruffles; definitely not her taste.
"Kate?"
"Yeah?" Came the reply from the identical bed beside the one she was on. Kate Jackson, the youngest of all, sat pouring over a book. She had taken on more of her father's personality than her brother ever had.
"Whatcha reading?"
"A book…" the young girl's voice rolled the words out. "It's good."
"I figured that from the way you're staring at it like a flame you little moth. What's it about?"
Kate was still absorbed in her learning experience. "Huh? Oh, Ancient Greek mythology."
"Fun times." Danni pulled a false sarcastic smile on her face as she studied the cover of the book in question. There was an image of some ancient representation of a woman. She was strangely fierce, she had a spear, helmet and shield, and a snake curled up the side of her ankle.
"Who's that on the cover?"
Kate grew a curious stare and flipped the book around. "Oh her, that's supposed to be a statue of Athena, she was the goddess of wisdom and war."
"I remember sleeping in that class," Danni started. "I thought her brother Ares was the god of war?"
"Well yeah, but Athena, she was the levelheaded one. She was more of the war planning, like intelligent war. Ares now, he was too quick to fight and not think it through. Athena, she was a planner, a plotter of sorts. She even beat her brother, threw him across some mythical fields, no sweat."
"You know, you're pretty smart for a kid."
"You too, when you try." Kate smiled at her. Danni was the big sister she never had. Whenever her brother had bothered her, she could always count on Danni to put him in his place. But now, that friendship was caught stretched across a rift, and neither was willing to throw the other a rope. The youngest Jackson just wanted it all to be mended. "So, why don't you just go talk to him?"
"Who, your brother?" Danni scoffed. "Don't make me take back what I said about you being smart little one."
"Hey now, I'm twelve, that's not that little, and besides, I'm tired of you moping around in my room."
Danni exhaled and slowly leaned to her side until she was curled up on the bed still staring at the book in Kate's hands. "I don't think talking is going to fix this one Kate."
"Don't read me the riot act, but all of this over another girl?"
"That's NOT what this is about." She replied sternly.
"Well that's what Mom and Dad seem to think."
"Probably what Nick thinks too." Danni whispered.
"Well if it isn't that girl Claire then what is it?"
"Complicated."
"Intrigue. Fabulous."
"Little girl, big words…stop that or you'll turn into me."
"What's wrong with being you?" Kate watched her idol's face widen with shock before it sank into an abysmal sadness.
"You'd be surprised…look I'll tell you all about it when you're older…you don't need to worry about stuff like that."
"What do you mean; those dreams?" Kate asked as she closed the book and set it beside her.
Danni's glance narrowed as she maneuvered her weight to her elbows and propped her chin in her palms. "Who told you about those?"
"No one, I was eaves dropping. Dad and Mom were talking about it. They were scarred that me and Nick might get them too…but right now we only have that funny stuff in our blood."
"I wish that was ALL I had."
"Are they really bad?"
Danni bit her bottom lip. "Sometimes it makes it hard to know how much of me is 'me'." She shook her head. "You'll understand when your older OK kiddo? Trust me, we shouldn't even be talking about this. It's too much for you to worry about. Besides, I don't have them anymore."
"Then why were you tossing and turning last night?"
"Just because I don't have those dreams, doesn't mean I don't have issues of my own to deal with still."
"Well." Kate started as she stood up and walked to the door. "That particular issue is in his room right now…" And she stepped out into the hallway made a face that indicated the already known direction of his room, and continued on her way.
Danni dropped her face into the thick comforter of the bed, let out a small scream of exasperation and then rolled onto her back. She practiced getting up by the nifty trick Teal'c had taught her to use when she had been knocked down. It worked rather well and she smiled slightly before remembering why it was she got up in the first place.
Making the steps to his door was easy. Lifting her hand up into a small fist to knock was harder. But actually knocking…well that seemed impossible.
A/N: Hello everyone. So there's the set up for the second act. My my the summer sure has gotten busy. But I have too on these stories. There should be a lot more soon, I've just been working out some details. P.S. I named Daniel and Vala's daughter after Katherine Langford, but the 'Kate' part is a shout out to my goddaughter.
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