-Homecoming-
"Are you sure that we couldn't pick her up from school?" Vala asks, popping up and pacing the office of the group home one more time.
"We're not put down as someone to pick her up. They wouldn't even let us take her," Daniel remind her.
"She should be here by now," Vala says.
Daniel laughs at his wife's excitement.
Just then a few kids from her elementary school trot through the door. "Dani!" Vala says.
"I thought you guys wouldn't be here until tomorrow," she says, throwing her arms around one of their necks before the other.
"Well, you can't stay with us until the adoption tomorrow, but we can keep you out until eight tonight," Daniel says.
"We also thought we'd help you pack," Vala says, holding up some checkered pastel suitcases.
Dani stares, not seeming to understand.
Daniel goes down on her knees before her. "You know, sweetie, every time I moved when I was a kid, I had a garbage bag. These suitcases are yours."
"Thanks," she says, a bit teary eyed. "Only… you won't be mad if I can't fill them?" she asks tentatively.
"Of course not, sweetie. I've been shopping for you for weeks already to fill up your drawers at home, and I would be more than happy to continue on shopping with you," Vala says.
Dani smiles, and put her little hand in Vala's hand as they march up the stairs to her room.
-Memories-
"So these are still their artifacts?" Danielle asks, amazed at the variety of artifacts at the museum.
"Yeah, everything is still here but the stones they died under," Daniel says.
"Doctor Jackson?" a museum worker says, approaching them, "I didn't expect to see you back here so soon."
Daniel grins, "Well, I had to show my… daughter. Well, I guess she's not really my daughter until tomorrow."
The man blinks at her, "Welcome. I assume you want a behind-the-scenes tour."
"You're kidding!" Danielle exclaims.
"You can even touch the hieroglyphics," Daniel whispers to her.
-0-
The adoption itself wasn't very impressive. They just stood in front of a judge and answered a couple of questions. It was the anticipation and the preparation that made it more interesting than the school she would normally be at on a Friday afternoon.
Then there was the really good part, the going home.
"I've never flown before," she says, placing her hand confidently in Daniel's. She's too old for the action, he notes, and he'll have to break her of the habit, but not until she's comfortable though.
"Are you scared?" he asks.
"I don't know," she looks into her face, like a toddler who has fallen down, and is curious as to whether or not it's been injured.
"I don't think so," he says with ease, "You're too smart to be afraid of an adventure."
"Adventure," she says.
"So what did you bring along to read?" he asks.
"I brought you something. I mean, if you want to. My teacher gave it to me when I left school. We're supposed to ask someone at the new school for the file, but she said it's faster to give it to the parents," she says, pulling a file out of her pack.
Daniel peeks inside, "Ah… your IEP. Thank you, very responsible."
"That is way too boring for a trip. You're supposed to have fun when you are on vacations. Do you like tic-tac-toe?" Vala pleads
-0-
Danielle flitted all over the room, and after she had closely examined every detail, and unpacked, it was time for supper and bed.
"Vala… I think you should see if she needs any help," Daniel says.
"She's eight years old, Daniel, I'm sure she can get ready for bed by herself."
"She's had a traumatic brain injury. Her motor skills have been impaired. Based on what her IEP says, she has trouble zipping her coat and she's already told us she can't do shoe laces. Maybe there are other things she can't do. Possibly things it would be better for a woman to help her with. I'm going to head into the living room. Come and get me if there is going to be story time."
Vala smiles, and knocks on the door of the bathroom.
"I'm in here," Danielle says.
"I know hun. I just wanted you to know that I'm here if you need help with anything. It's just us girls in here right now."
Danielle opens the door. She's wearing a short sleeve nightgown, and it's the first time that Vala seen how far the scars go up. They snake around her back.
"There is some cream, and I can't reach the spot on my back," she explains, handing a small jar to her new mother.
"Ok," Vala says, dipping her fingers in. She touches her fingers lightly to the skin, but draws them back when there is a flinch. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"
"No, it's just cold."
Vala rubs the lotion gently in. Danielle closes her eyes, obviously enjoying the relief that it brings.
"Do the burns hurt all the time?"
"They do, sometimes when the skin stretches or… sometimes for no reason at all," Danielle says.
Vala finishes with the lotion, and puts it on the counter, "You'll tell us if you need something right? Whether it's help with something you can't do because of the accident, or some food you like that we don't buy, or anything."
Danielle nods.
"We'd love for you to meet our friends tomorrow afternoon, but we totally understand if you don't want to hang out with a bunch of old people."
"It's not like I know anyone my own age here yet. I will, though, when I start going to school," Danielle adds quickly when she sees her new mother distressed at the first part of the words.
"Right, tomorrow morning we're going to go next door and meet the Lopezes. There are two girls, and they're both younger than you - three and six. Mrs. Lopez is going to be looking after you sometimes when we're both working. We planned it so that whenever we can, one of us will be home when you aren't in school. Sometimes, though, we're both going to be gone at the same time, even overnight."
Dani looks a bit alarmed, "I'm sorry I'm messing up your life."
Vala laughs, "Oh, honey, you're the best thing that has ever happened to me in this life so far," she says, giving the girl a little kiss on her forehead, "If that means I have to sit in Daniel's office a bit less often and pretend I understand what he's talking about, well, then so be it!"
-The team-
Danielle knew that she was getting a new family. She just hadn't realized how large and how odd that family was. Teal'c was quite intimidating at first, but when everyone started playing a card game that she didn't know, he volunteered to be her partner to teach it to her. Within five minutes he was telling her a "Jaffa joke" (he was actually from Egypt!) and she was dying with laughter, mostly at the fact that it wasn't even close to funny.
Cam was defiantly cool; he was the sort of person that you would want on your side.
It was Sam that really impressed her. She was beautiful, and smart, and strong. She was everything that Danielle hoped to grow up to be. Don't get her wrong, Danielle loved Vala. There was no-one else that she would want to shop with, and when it came to being read to in bed she would choose no-one else. However, Vala wasn't a genius, and that was something that Danielle would like to recover about herself.
"I'm sorry you spent the whole day hanging out with old people," Vala says as she puts dishes away.
"Are you kidding? That was fun! I've never agreed with the idea that people should only hang out with people that were the same age as you. For most of human history, people had friends of all different ages."
"Archeologist in training," Daniel says proudly. Then his brow furrows, "What do you like to do for fun? There are a couple of hours until you need to go to bed."
"I'm going to read some of those books you gave me in that bookshelf," she says, with true excitement in her voice.
"I'll meet you in the living room," he says, with just as big a grin on his face.
"I'm surrounded by nerds," Vala mutters, picking up a fashion magazine.
-First Day-
"Are you guys sure that you don't want me to come with you?" Daniel asks as they sit around the breakfast table the next day.
"There is no sense in both of us taking a day off," Vala says easily as she uses her spoon to scoop out the last of the marshmallows from her Lucky Charms. She obviously has no intention of eating the other part of the cereal, and this annoys Daniel more than he would like to admit. Vala had made an argument that they needed the cereal because there was a kid in the house now. Daniel now realizes that was a clever lie.
"Ok, but you need to know that I would," Daniel says.
"I'm not going to think that you don't like me just because you don't spend every minute with me," Dani assures him.
"Ok, well, my parents were workaholics, so if I ever start to get like that you guys are going to have to tell me. You guys matter more," he says.
"You're going to be late," Vala points out.
Daniel rinses out his bowl, and plants a kiss on the forehead of both of his girls before he runs out of the room.
"We'd better get going, too," Vala says, standing up to dump her own bowl, with all of the healthy parts of her breakfast in them.
Dani grabs her backpack and they head out of the room. Vala is more than a little nervous about driving with Dani in the car. It's only been a couple of weeks since she passed the driver's test, and Daniel bought her a used car. The thing was old, and not what you would call trust worthy, but Sam worked on it for a couple of nights, and assured them that even though it didn't look very nice, it had a heart of gold.
Still, Vala has never actually driven without Daniel in the car, and now she has a little girl relying on her. Still, Dani was the whole reason that she got her license. She figured that too much of the parenting would fall on her husband if she never learned to drive.
Five minutes later, they arrive at the school. Vala tried to time it so that the secretary wouldn't be too busy when she arrived, but she's a little off, so they have to wait in the middle of a crowd of people. When they get up to the front, there are a few registration forms. When Vala tells them about the IEP, they are referred to the special education teacher.
There are several, but the secretary glances at the first page of the IEP, and guesses at the one that she needs to go to.
They walk down the hallway with the slightly crazy directions of, "take a right at the blue hallway, take a left at the purple hallway, and find the green hallway. It's the second-to-the-last on the right."
Vala plans on knocking at the door, but it's open and full of kids.
"Hi, my daughter is starting school here tomorrow," she says to the nearest adult.
Dani starts a bit at the word "daughter", and Vala hopes that's ok. She doesn't know what she would say if it wasn't. Perhaps she should add the word "adopted" in, but that makes her feel like Dani might think that she didn't completely belong in this family.
"Hi, nice to meet you," a different woman says, standing up from behind a table.
"The secretary though she might belong here. I brought her paperwork from the last school," Vala says, feeling awkward and holding out her IEP for the woman.
"What's your name, honey?" the woman says, bending down before Dani.
"Danielle, Vala and Daniel just adopted me on Saturday."
"Well, welcome, sweetie. So, did you spend most of your time in the special education classroom, or did you go to a regular class at your old school?"
"I just saw Ms. Lewis for a little bit each day. I wasn't in special education before the accident. I'm getting better. I just forgot a lot of the math from before the accident. Sometimes I still forget little things… like how to use a fork right or something. It's really embarrassing, but after I work with whatever it is for a little bit, I always remember how to do it properly."
"Car accident, honey?" the woman asks, still on her knees.
Danielle nods.
"Nasty things. I'm so sorry you had to go through that," the woman says
with honest sympathy in her voice.
"She has seizures sometimes," Vala adds.
"I haven't had one in months. The medicine is working," Dani corrects.
"I'm new to the whole motherhood thing," Vala apologizes.
The woman stands, and waves the IEP that is still in her hand, "Oh, trust me, you're a lot more on top of it than most people. Do you mind sticking around for a bit and saying hi to some of your classmates in this room while I give this a glance? Then I'll be able to give you a little better idea of the kind of programming we'll do for her."
Vala nods, somewhat relieved. Dani skips off to talk to the kid nearest to her. It's a boy in a wheelchair. Vala would have guessed that he can't even talk, but when Dani greets him, he says an enthusiastic, "Hi, hi, hi!"
"You dropped your pencil," Dani says, picking up a large square one from the tray on the kid's wheelchair, and handing it to the kid.
He takes it, and presses it against the paper, making something that looks like a scribble to Vala. Dani takes a glance at it, and says, "Alec? Is that your name?"
The boy makes a sound which obviously means "yes", even though it sounds nothing like the word.
Vala's stomach sinks. This is where they want to put her baby girl?