Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate: SG-1' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now. Also, thanks are due to MaureenT, whose exceptional 'Stargate' fanfics are what first got me interested in the Sam/Daniel pairing originally, to say nothing of the invaluable information and suggestions she has provided for the upcoming chapters
Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me
AN: Sorry about the delay here; I was a bit stuck for ideas for this bit, but I owe a great deal to drgemini86 for offering suggestions for this part of the plot (Even if I'm not sure how good a job I did on them in the end)
Child of the Ancients
As the journey progressed, Sam, Daniel and Liam both found themselves found themselves spending almost as much free time with the McKay siblings as they spent by themselves. Sam swiftly established that Jeanie was a far easier person to get along with than her brother, with the other McKay sibling particularly enjoying hearing some of the tales about her brother's time in the Stargate program, ranging from the ones where he risked his life to save the day- she cited it as being encouraging to know that even her brother could change, such as when he'd nearly overdosed on Wraith enzyme to save his teammates- to the ones where he was humiliated in some way or another- the incident with Laura Cadman being trapped in his mind still managed to make her laugh- depending on her mood.
Their time with Rodney McKay wasn't always as comfortable, of course; even if McKay had clearly given up any thoughts of being with Sam- in that sense of the word- a long time ago, he still had some unresolved issues as far his old feelings for her were concerned. More than once Liam and Daniel caught McKay looking at Sam in a manner that looked like he wasn't certain if he wanted to go over and kiss her- or at least attempt to ask her for coffee- or run from the room, only 'making his mind up' when he realised that one or both of them had noticed the attention he was paying her.
Daniel generally managed to convince Liam not to resort to using his powers to try and make a point to McKay about the inappropriateness of his actions, but he'd have been lying if there weren't a few occasions where he allowed Liam to get away with the occasional small prank. McKay had already been shocked to find himself hovering several inches above the floor on more than one occasion, and Liam had even done a few more mundane tricks such as secretly tripping the scientist up or tweaking a few of his notes. It was never anything serious, of course- just a few misplaced numbers and a couple of casual comments that McKay could easily correct or ignore-, but the way the scientist complained anyone would think he'd been denied the opportunity to discover the secret of the meaning of life whenever he discovered another of Liam's little 'doodles'. Sam tried to make a show of lecturing Liam about it, of course, but the fact that she was always smiling when she was giving the lectures in question did a great deal to assure Liam that she wasn't as angry as she might pretend to be.
When they weren't continuing their work on their respective projects- Sam doing a mixture of working on Merlin's device and helping the McKay siblings refine Jeanie's theory while Daniel and Liam continued to study the information they had available regarding Merlin-, the Jacksons made every effort possible to set time aside to spend with each other. Sam and Daniel's date opportunities were limited- Jeanie was the only person available on an even semi-regular basis to look after Liam, with the rest of the Daedalus crew being too occupied with either work or their own leisure time to give Liam enough attention-, but they enjoyed the few moments they managed to spend together, with one or the other of them often arranging a private meal for themselves with some help from the Daedalus culinary staff. The possible meal options were naturally limited, of course, but they still managed to have the occasional decent meal now and again when the moment presented itself.
When they weren't spending time getting adjusted to their new relationship with each other, Sam and Daniel naturally focused most of their attention on spending time with Liam in a more leisurely atmosphere. As it turned out, Mitchell's additions to their luggage hadn't been limited to the occasional DVD; he'd also included an entire Xbox 360 computer game system, accompanied by some other games, evidently believing that it would be unfair to restrict Liam's opportunity to learn more about Earth culture simply because he wasn't going to be on-planet.
The DVD collection didn't include anything rated higher than PG-13, of course- Liam might have access to a great deal of knowledge but he was still only a child as far as his age and actual life experience went-, but he'd still included a fairly diverse range of entertainment possibilities. Sam and Daniel had been expecting that Mitchell would provide them with the entirety of the Lord of the Rings series- they hadn't managed to find the time to watch The Two Towers or The Return of the King while they were on Earth, so it only made sense that they do so now-, but a few of the other options presented to them, such as King Kong or The Man in the Iron Mask,came as a more significant surprise; they were almost ashamed to admit that they'd failed to consider the possibility that Liam might enjoy a few more historically-themed films as well as the more futuristic-themed ones.
On the other hand, Sam was just grateful Mitchell hadn't included the likes of The Core or Signs amid his film choices; those films always managed to annoy her whenever she watched it, no matter how hard she tried to ignore the glaring scientific inconsistencies, and he'd probably have only included it in the collection as a 'joke' knowing that Liam would have wanted to check it out. Right now, she'd just appreciate the chance to sit back and relax with her son and… his father (To say nothing of appreciating some time to feel more comfortable thinking of her and Daniel as parents so suddenly)… rather than constantly subconsciously picking holes in the plots of the films she was watching with them (Even Independence Day was stretching her ability to accept the plot; she was only just able to accept the idea of being able to infect the alien ship with a computer virus due to the implication that Earth technology had been reverse-engineered from the ship that the characters had studied in Area 51, and even then the issue of how the ship got that close to Earth without affecting Earth's tides remained a problem).
As it was, regardless of Sam's habit of noting some of the scientific inaccuracies in some films, the three of them always enjoyed their occasional 'film nights' with each other, often alternating between watching the films with just the three of them or inviting some of the other members of the crew in for a larger event. They'd had pretty much every member of the crew currently off-duty for their showing of King Kong- evidently it truly was one of those timeless classics, regardless of the strange subject matter-, although the later showing of Shrek had just consisted of the three of them; both of them felt that the more kid-centric films would be their best chances for bonding opportunities with Liam, and so preferred to 'screen' those ones in private.
On one particular occasion the Jacksons had once ended up watching the Atlantis film again when Jeannie had come along to their quarters seeking a break from McKay's continued focus on her theory- personally Sam thought she might have wanted a bit more time to adjust to her first meeting with Hermiod; the Asgard could be a rather significant surprise when a person met them for the first time even if they'd known about alien life for a while-, naturally prompting Jeanie to ask if the real Atlantis was anything like the one shown in the film.
Daniel and Sam had both subsequently spent a significant part of the night answering the questions that McKay apparently hadn't been able to spare the time to answer himself; even with their own limited experience with Atlantis, they were still able to provide a decent amount of information about the city thanks to their previous visits. In many ways, when they'd looked back at the film the resemblance between it and the actual Atlantis was rather surprising; Atlantis might not have the giant robots that the Disney version had possessed, nor was it underground, but both were capable of erecting a city-wide force field to protect the city against outside attack, both relied on crystals- ZPMs looked enough like crystals for them to count in this analogy- as a power source, and both even possessed small flying machines left behind by the original owners. The fine details were obviously different, of course, but at the same time it was surprising how similar the film was to the reality, despite the fact that it had been released almost three years before they even knew Atlantis was anything more than a myth.
Even outside the film nights, Daniel and Sam found themselves spending a surprising amount of time with the Daedalus crew despite the lack of time they'd spent with them in the past; their previous visit to Atlantis had mostly featured the four available members of SG-1 spending time together without allowing for much time to bond with others. Neither of Liam's parents were entirely surprised at the amount of offers they received from some of the younger members of the crew to compete against Liam on the Xbox 360 when his parents were occupied, but at the same time even some of the older members of the crew welcomed the opportunity to spend some time with him. Daniel still recalled the occasion when he'd gone to fetch Liam to send him to bed and discovered him engaged in a race on the XBox with some of the older crew members, easily outstripping most of them on the current course of Need for Speed.
The crew's interactions with the Jacksons on Liam-related matters weren't just limited to playing games or watching films, however; on the contrary, Sam and Daniel swiftly found themselves having to deal with all kinds of varied advice about their status as new parents. Some cases just featured people offering suggestions regarding what they'd enjoyed doing in their own childhoods, but a few of the older staff members- mostly those who Daniel had encountered playing on the XBox with Liam that one time; he speculated that they were taking advantage of Liam's presence to, at least in some way, 'make up' for the time they missed with their own children while on the ship- offered their own bits of parental advice to the two SG-1 members, ranging from simple suggestions such as what time they should make Liam go to bed at to the schools they should see about sending him to when they got around to that part of his new life (Personally neither of them were certain about how they'd handle Liam's education; with the Ancient knowledge in his subconscious he already knew more than most adults, but at the same time he deserved the chance to have a life outside of the SGC).
One of the most unexpected people to give Daniel advice regarding Liam was Colonel Caldwell, who spoke briefly with Daniel shortly before they departed from their galaxy, just after the latest film screening- The Man in the Iron Mask- had finished. Once the news about what film they were planning on showing had gone public, it had become another 'full-crew' film, with most of the off-duty personnel coming to watch it, Daniel having subsequently volunteered to pack everything away; the full-crew films were commonly watched in the mess hall to accommodate them, necessitating the television screen and DVD player being moved to that part of the ship. He'd just finished packing the television back into the box they'd used to transport it- Mitchell had needed to provide them with a television of their own as most of the monitors in the Daedalus were needed to keep an eye on the computer systems- when a slight knock at the door prompted him to turn around to see Colonel Caldwell standing at the entrance.
"Colonel Caldwell?" Daniel said, looking in surprise at the Daedalus commander. "What are you doing here?"
"Just thought I'd make sure everything was going well down here; it's rather quiet on the bridge at the moment, and I like to feel like I'm earning my pay here," Sumner said by way of explanation, smiling slightly at Daniel as he nodded at the archaeologist; the colonel rarely spent enough time at the SGC to consider anyone there a friend, but SG-1 had all spent some time with him after the Trust's attempt to blow up Atlantis and his infestation with a Goa'uld had come to light, doing what they could to help him get over the experience, and had formed a certain bond with him.
"Fair enough," Daniel replied, smiling slightly back at the commander as he turned back to study the boxes that he'd been using to store the equipment. "Well, I'm pretty much finished here, you'll be glad to know; I just need to get these down to our room and everything's sorted."
"Until your son wants to watch something tomorrow, of course," Caldwell added, smiling slightly at Daniel as he spoke. "Any ideas what tomorrow's film will be?"
"I think he expressed an interest in The Mask of Zorro, but beyond that I really can't be sure," Daniel replied (He was already planning on making sure Liam was aware of the film's historical inconsistencies; unlike Sam with science-fiction films, Daniel never actively criticised historically inaccurate films while watching them, but he did what he could to correct peoples' views of the events depicted afterwards).
"Well, be sure to let us know when he decides; that kid's always a pleasure to spend time with," Caldwell said, smiling slightly at the archaeologist before a more solemn expression crossed his face. "On the topic of kids… from one father to another, there's one thing I find you always need to remember."
"Which is?" Daniel asked, trying to conceal his surprise at this confirmation that Caldwell had a family himself. He vaguely recalled some reference in Caldwell's file to him being divorced with children, but in general he tried to avoid studying the files of those who weren't in his department in too great detail; if he was studying the files of the archaeologists he at least had the reason that he needed to get a better picture of their histories if they were for some reason required to go off-world at any point, but when he looked at any other files he felt like he was probing too much into people's private lives for no reason.
"Make sure you watch how much you let the kids get away with," Caldwell said, looking solemnly at the archaeologist as he spoke. "Give them too much freedom and you lose any authority you might have with them, but give them too little and they just…"
He paused for a moment, evidently searching for the best way to phrase what he was about to say before he continued. "They end up resenting you for doing what you thought was best, forcing you to realise that you went on the wrong side of the line between protecting them and imprisoning them, to the extent where they'd rather go all the way to the other side of the country rather than see you again…"
As Caldwell lowered his head, a grim, dejected expression on his face, Daniel could only reach out and place an uncertain, intended-to-be-comforting hand on the other man's shoulder. He'd known that Colonel Sumner's personal life hadn't been without its problems- it was one of the reasons he'd been selected as the permanent commander of the Daedalus; while he still had people back on Earth, there was nobody immediately close enough to him for them to wonder why he was so often out of contact for long periods-, but knowing that and hearing him talk about it were two different things.
"I'm… I'm sorry," he said at last, looking uncomfortably at Caldwell; he might not have known the man well, but he could tell that the man had some particularly painful emotions associated with this topic.
As much as Daniel wished he could say more to try and help Caldwell, he honestly couldn't; having grown up in the foster system himself, he doubted that he was in any kind of position to be giving advice about how Caldwell might go about improving his relationship with his family. Even if they'd been actual friends rather than only business associates, Daniel didn't know enough about the specifics of the situation to offer any more advice, and he hardly felt.
Despite Daniel's own feelings of inadequacy, it was clear that Caldwell didn't feel he had anything to apologise for, the other man simply smiling slightly back at the archaeologist's statement as he placed a grateful hand on the other man's shoulder.
"Thanks," the colonel said shortly, taking a deep breath before he removed his hand and stood back, his expression one of cool professionalism again. "Well, I'd better get back to the control room; we have to pass through what Tok'ra intelligence tells us is a rather Ori-focused region of space before we exit this galaxy, and I somehow doubt we want to risk running into another one of those weapons satellites."
Daniel could only nod grimly in agreement as the Colonel turned around and headed back towards the bridge; even after so many months, the memory of the tragedy that had befallen the Caledonia/Rand protectorate continued to haunt his dreams.
He knew that it was unlikely he could have done anything different to save the Prometheus and the planet without possessing foreknowledge of the crisis or some means of contacting the planet's leaders directly, but when he remembered the destruction that had been caused by that weapon…
He didn't blame Caldwell for wanting to take precautions to prevent something like that from happening again; he'd lived through that once, and, with the added need to care for his son taken into account, he did not want it to happen again.
Still… even with the knowledge of the greater responsibility Liam's presence in his life presented him with…
At least he had a son who knew what he did for a living and could play a part in his life; Caldwell didn't even have that much available to him.
Shaking his head slightly in sympathy for the military commander, Daniel turned around and headed back towards his office, resolving to get through at least another hour or so of research before Liam returned from his current 'babysitter' (Although he and Sam took care to never use the term in Liam's presence; they had a feeling he wouldn't care for it no matter how young he was chronologically).
Once they were out of the Milky Way galaxy and beginning the long trip back to Pegasus, the situation generally became much calmer, the initial 'novelty' of having a child on board the ship having 'worn off' after the first week. The trip through the galactic void between the two galaxies wasn't exactly the most interesting time Sam and Daniel had ever spent together, of course, but with Mitchell's various assorted entertainment supplies to keep them occupied they managed to find some ways to 'amuse' themselves even when they weren't on duty. Sam divided her work time between helping McKay and Jeanie refine their theory and working on making Merlin's device work without the need for further naquadah generators while Liam and Daniel focused on researching Merlin, with Daniel also taking the time to answer some of Liam's further questions about Earth history. Liam had been particularly interested in hearing about the cultures where the Goa'uld, the Asgard and the Ancients had made their own significant impacts on the societies as they developed, although for some reason the Norse myths remained his favourite tales from that part of his 'lessons'. The work was never exactly easy, of course, but all of them- the McKays in particular; Sam and Daniel's need to spend time with Liam somewhat limited the time they could spend on their duties- made significant progress in tackling their assigned duties, each of them finding at least a clue towards the next stage in their research each day as time went on.
Eventually, as the Daedalus finally arrived back in the Pegasus Galaxy and moved on to the last stage of the journey, the workload began to die down, the assorted scientists having reached the limit of what they could accomplish with the resources available to them on the ship. With some help from Hermiod and Sam, the McKay siblings having managed to develop and expand Jeanie's theory in a manner that would allow the staff at Atlantis to develop a containment unit for the zero point energy that would be gathered from the experiment; all that was required now was for the McKay siblings to get there themselves to oversee the final stages of the project before they actually began their attempts to open the 'bridge' that would allow them to access the zero point energy.
Sam's own research with Merlin's device had made some progress, but she had been unable to definitively test her theories about whether or not she had succeeded in making it work with only the naquadah generators either way. She had no real idea what would happen if she shifted herself out of phase while in a moving vessel, and wasn't inclined to find out what would happen in case the worst-case scenario occurred and she remained in one place while the ship continued; there was a difference between being held in place by a planet's gravity and being held in place by the artificial gravity field generated by a spaceship.
With her own work as complete as she could make it, and Atlantis still at least two days' journey away, Sam had taken the opportunity to pack the generators and Merlin's device away- until she was back on solid ground there was nothing further she dared to do with that particular technology- and went off to the office where Daniel had been doing his research. The two of them hadn't really discussed much about their own independent projects during their time together, preferring to focus on non-Stargate related topics of conversation to improve their ability to develop a normal family dynamic, but with them about to leave the ship for Atlantis Sam felt that this was as good a time as any to find out how things were going at his end.
As she opened the door, she couldn't stop herself from smiling slightly at the sight of the two most important men in her life sitting around a desk, Liam's arms folded and his head resting on top of a book that seemed to be about Arthurian-related history topics while Daniel stared silently at a computer screen, the illumination from the monitor the only light in the office (Sam was willing to bet he'd turned the lights off in order to give Liam the chance to rest).
"Mmm?" Daniel said as she walked into the room, looking up at the door only to give her a slight smile as he saw her walk in. "Oh, hey, Sam."
"Hi," Sam replied, smiling back as she walked over to give him a brief kiss- simultaneously reaching over to affectionately stroke Liam's hair as gently as she dared without waking him up before she sat down beside his father. "I just finished packing Merlin's device, so I thought I'd see how things were going here; have you two had any luck finding anything new about the Sangraal yet?"
"Not really," Daniel replied, shaking his head as he indicated his son with a slight smile as Liam lay asleep at the table. "Liam's been looking up the mythological aspects of the Arthur stories in case we missed something in that avenue of investigation, while I've been trying to work out the relevance of something I noticed earlier."
"Which is?" Sam asked, looking curiously at the archaeologist.
"Well, look at this," Daniel said, as he turned to the computer screen before him, tapping a few buttons to display a galactic map with three planets highlighted. "These are the locations of the planets that Arthur and his knights set off to in their quest for the Sangreal; Castiana, Sahal, and Vagonbrei."
"Yeah, we searched all three and discovered nothing; what about them?" Sam asked, turning to look inquiringly at Daniel.
Daniel smiled. "Well, that's what I thought," he said, raising a finger to emphasise his point before he turned back to the screen. "Until I noticed this."
As Daniel tapped a few buttons on the keyboard, the display changed to focus on the relative positions of the three planets in relation to each other, another tap of a button creating equal-length lines between the planets, as they were displayed ina two-dimensional format on the screen before the two new parents.
"Their coordinates form an equilateral triangle," Daniel continued, his smile growing slightly broader as he saw the dawning interest on Sam's face. "Now, add their departure point, the Camelot planet, and you get…"
Daniel tapped another key and a fourth point appeared on the screen, causing the display before them to move into a more three-dimensional shape that displayed a wire diagram of a pyramid connecting the four planets.
"A tetrahedron," Daniel said, indicating the screen before him as he looked back at Sam. "A perfect pyramid."
"And that means… what?" Sam asked, looking curiously at the father of her child. "I mean, I know that it can't be a coincidence, but what's the point of it all?"
Daniel sighed.
"Unfortunately, that's the problem; I'm not sure yet," he admitted, shaking his head regretfully. "I know there's got to be something, but I just can't figure out what; there's just too many possibilities and nothing that accounts for all four planets being involved…"
"Have you told this to anyone else yet?" Sam asked.
"When I don't even know what it means?" Daniel replied, looking over at Sam with a slight shrug. "I'm trying to see if I can come up with an explanation for it myself before I go any further; I've got a few ideas, but I'd like to try them out and see what I get as a result."
"Well, let me know if you think of anything I can do to help," Sam said, smiling slightly at him as she leaned in for a brief kiss before she stood up. "Anyway, we should probably start packing everything up; we're arriving at Atlantis in the next day or so, and I'd like to make sure I have everything packed before we get there."
"Right," Daniel said, nodding in agreement as he glanced over at where Liam lay on the desk. "I'll take Liam to bed; we can see about clearing the books out tomorrow morning."
AN 2: OK, next chapter moves into the events of "McKay and Mrs Miller" from this timeline, after which we move into the real plotline of this story as the Jacksons and the Atlantis expedition learn the truth about Merlin's 'prototype Sangraal'