DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Never will be. Just borrowing them for a little while. Won't make any money off this so don't bother suing me. It won't do any good.
SUMMARY: This chapter is in between 'Fire and Ice' and 'Hathor'. Daniel has discovered that he has a daughter who is fourteen. How will he react when he realizes that Janet never told him about his daughter all those years ago?
FEEDBACK: I thrive on it. Thank you so much to all those who have already reviewed. I'm begging you all to hold on. I'm trying to write more but the muse wants me to skip to season 4 already and that wouldn't be fair.
A/N: This is a challenge response. It's actually a cross challenge for two separate challenges posted on the Daniel/Janet Challenge Archive. The first one deals with Daniel and Janet knowing each other before the SGC. The second one deals with Janet's death. It involves the fact that Janet's body wasn't brought back from the planet. What if Janet's not dead anymore? What if she was put in a sarcophagus? What if, after that, she was turned? Maybe she could be, maybe not. If she was, could Daniel (or all of SG1 for that matter) save her?
DEDICATION: I should have put this on the first chapter. This story is dedicated to Teryl Rothery, whose comments at a convention inspired the challenge regarding Janet not being brought back from 666 to be posted. It's also dedicated to all the people who would love to see Janet come back in any form.
"What do you mean 'our daughter'?" Daniel asked. He wasn't sure that he'd heard Janet right. Was she really implying that this young woman was his daughter?
"Ours, Daniel. Yours and mine. Remember that one night just before Nicholas picked you up for the summer after our senior year?" Daniel nodded. "That was when it happened. I found out about a month later that I was pregnant. The family across the street agreed to adopt her. Of course, she always knew that I was her birth mother."
"This is my daughter?" Daniel's incredulous voice brought tears to Janet's eyes. "Does she know about me?"
"Of course. I would never lie to her about you. She knows that you're her father. That's why she's here. I called her because we thought that you were dead and I wanted her to know. She came out here to help me through this."
"You never said anything. Not even when I came to see you."
"Daniel, you have to understand. I hadn't received even one letter from you and I thought you were too wrapped up in whatever Nicholas had you doing to even think about me."
"I sent you letters every week," he protested. Before Janet could say another word, Daniel stormed out of the room and left the hospital.
Janet just put her head down on Cat's bed and cried.
When Janet returned to the base later that afternoon, Daniel had locked himself away in his lab, ostensibly trying to translate some piece of alien technology brought back by one of the teams.
Sam was worried because Daniel wouldn't open his door for anyone. He had spoken to no one when he got there and hadn't even come out for lunch.
Entering Janet's office, Sam was even more worried to see the look on her friend's face. Janet looked, for all the world, as if someone had just killed her best friend.
"Janet, what's wrong?" Sam put her hand on Janet's shoulder.
"Daniel hates me." The whispered words were filled with guilt and remorse. Sam felt something heavy settle in the area of her heart. What had her friends done to each other to make them act like this?
"How can you say that?"
"Today, he came to see me after he was checked out after you guys brought him back. We fell asleep in my quarters. An SF knocked on the door and told me that the young lady that had been staying at my house was injured during an attempted break-in. Daniel took me to the hospital. I told him that the young woman was his daughter. He thinks I kept her from him on purpose." She looked up at Sam. "He hates me now. And I think he's right to." Janet hung her head.
"Janet, just give him some time to adjust to this information. He'll come round. You'll see."
"I hope you're right, Sam. I just got him back. I don't know if I can survive losing him again."
Daniel went out of his way to avoid Janet for the next several days. Janet was disconsolate; she wanted to talk to Daniel and yet he wouldn't even look at her.
Janet had had enough of this. She took a deep breath and knocked on the general's door.
"Come."
Walking in, Janet held herself tall. "Sir, I'd like to request a transfer."
"Dr. Frasier? Why?" The general was completely taken by surprise.
"I can't work under these conditions anymore."
"What conditions? Are you referring to the way Dr. Jackson is avoiding you?" At Janet's shocked face, the general nodded. "Everyone's noticed. I'll tell you what. How about I give you some leave? I know for a fact that you haven't taken any in at least a year. Take a couple of weeks off and we'll see what happens from there."
"Thank you, sir. I hope that things clear up between Dr. Jackson and myself before I come back. I do enjoy this assignment."
"I'm glad. Go on. And before you come back, bring your daughter by so that we can set up some clearance for her. Just to be on the safe side."
Janet heaved a sigh of relief. She hadn't really wanted to do this but she was tired of trying to stay out of Daniel's way.
"Yes, sir." Janet turned and was on her way out the door when a thought occurred to her. "Sir, I just want you to know that I really appreciate this."
General Hammond nodded and, before he could say another word to the woman, she had walked out the door closing it quietly behind her.
Janet spent the day sleeping in her room after crying brokenly for hours. Cat had stayed away from her because she wanted her mom to be able to figure things out for herself. She knew that Janet could handle this on her own and she didn't want her mom to feel crowded.
Of course, when she realized that Janet was asleep, she sat down in the living room and thought about what these two were putting each other through.
"Something had better change soon. Or else I'll have to step in and do something about it," Cat vowed to herself.
