Daniel isn't quite as brave as Jack. If the shit hits the fan, they are both about equally useful. It's just that Daniel's utility rests more with his intelligence, and Jack's rests more with his bravery.
So when Jack manages to get himself all sick in some mysterious way, I don't get snuck in. I do, however, get a phone call.
"Daniel feels pretty guilty about what happened to you," I tell him.
"Well, he shouldn't," Jack says, and his voice is gruff and bitter, but I don't necessarily think it is anger at Daniel.
"He said that he begged you to bring home some artifact, and it made you get sick."
"Yeah," Jack says. The roughness of his voice is no doubt partly from his sickness.
"Are you going to be okay?" I ask.
"Oh, yeah. Takes more than this to keep me down," he says with false cheer.
"Are you going to be able to get out of there for Thanksgiving next week?" I ask.
"Really, where would be a better place to spend a national holiday than a military base?" he asks back.
"I'll talk to Janet and see if I can get you out of there," I say cheerfully trying to give him something by way of distraction.
"I didn't really have plans for this holiday before I… got sick," he says with a little pause that clues me in to the fact that this 'sickness' is a lie. I can't help but wonder if all the 'sickness' this team has gone through in the last more than a year weren't the same kind of a lie.
"Jack, you've got to come over to our house," I suggest.
"I'm not going to be well enough to get out by then. Besides, I don't want you inviting me just because I'm sick."
"That's not the only reason, Jack," I protest.
"You guys didn't invite me last year," he points out.
"We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving last year," I inform him. We were both still way too lost in grief for that.
He pauses, absorbing that fact for a few seconds before he says, "I'm glad you guys are celebrating this year. I just don't think there is much chance of Janet springing me before that," he says.
Well, we'll just have to see about that, I think to myself before changing the subject to something that would make Jack more cheerful instead of just spending all of his energy evading my questions.
-0-
"So what are you plans for the holiday?" I ask Joe, leaning against him.
"I'm working," he says.
"That sucks! It's totally not fair you have to work on a day that everyone else has off."
"I volunteered. Everyone else had plans, and a family that they wanted to spend the holiday with. I really didn't have anything important to miss."
I pull away from Joe enough that I can look at his face, "You don't have any family?"
"Well, I do. I just don't spend any time with them. Least of all holidays."
"Why not?" I say grabbing onto his hand.
"It's nothing big or dramatic. My parents worked a lot when I was a kid. My dad is super-critical of everything that I do. I have never done anything right. My mom told me not to join the military, and has never really forgiven me for ignoring her advice."
"I'm sorry," I say.
"I so, don't have a right to complain after all that you've been through," he says, embarrassed.
"Hey, I got fourteen good years with my family. It doesn't sound like it was ever really good for you," I say with sympathy.
"Well, I haven't given up on having a happy family someday," he says with a grin that makes my stomach do a little happy dance.
-0-
"I can't believe you got me out of the infirmary," Jack says as he lies on Daniel's couch.
"You'd been there for eight days, and that was long enough," I tease.
"You've got Janet twisted around your little finger, use that power wisely," he warns.
Just then the good doctor comes into the room. She's always wearing heals that are almost as large as Daniel claimed long ago when he drunkenly held out his hands and said "so big". She always wears big heals, but these are a bit beyond the par. "Colonel, I've got your dinner," she says holding a glass with a straw in it.
He can't see her from where he is, so he's confused, "I thought dinner wasn't done yet."
"Yours is," she says cheerfully, handing him the glass.
"Steph, forget everything I said about you having the Doc under control. Keep working on it, aim high."
We all sit down on the floor of the living room while Jack eats. We might have had the whole dinner there if he hadn't drifted off to sleep. His shirt slips when he moves in his sleep, and I see a huge red welt on his shoulder.
I glance at Janet in alarm. Her lips go tight together, and she nods her head. Then she looks at him in a way that melts my heart. It's sort of like the protective way that Daniel looks at his babies in the cradle, but more so.
It's got to be hard to be a doctor to these people. They are always out there doing crazy stuff, and risking their lives, and she is the one that puts them back together when they fall apart.
She's got to know that there is going to be a day when she won't be able to put them back together again, and that's got to kill her.
"He's going to be fine, right?" I whisper.
She nods, and then she stands up from the floor and walks into the kitchen in those giant heals. We all follow her, and sit down around the table to eat.
-0-
I am going to be taking a couple of grad classes next semester. I still have two undergrad classes to finish, but they are going to let me take some grad classes too. I'm actually going to be doing them through the local college. The kids are old enough that I can't get any online work done when I am in charge of them. It would actually be easier to get out of the house a few hours a week to do the classes.
Daniel supports me, of course, but he would probably support me no matter what I decided to do. Catherine and Ernest are going to be taking care of the babies whenever I am out of the house and Daniel isn't home.
That means that I actually have to go on campus for an orientation day, though. Each new graduate student is assigned an existing graduate student as a mentor. Can you guess who my mentor was?
That's right, the ex-boyfriend.
"Please tell me that you didn't arrange this," I plead.
"I just found out an hour ago," he says.
"Well, you actually gave me a tour of this college when you were going here, so we can probably skip it."
"Let's go for a walk anyway," he says.
"Why?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.
"I just want to talk, okay? We were together for long enough that a ten minute conversation as part of a campus event shouldn't be a big deal for you," he says.
"Fine, but if this is going to be a thousand rounds of 'are you okay', I think I would prefer the actual campus tour."
"I'll just assume you're fine unless you tell me, then," he says. We take off walking together, and I can't help but be glad I'm going to be coming onto campus a few times a week. It's beautiful. "Joe works with them, doesn't he?"
"It's not a cult. It's a military job," I defend.
"I know, I'm not telling you not to date him. I'm not delusional enough to think I have a say in that. I'm just concerned that you don't have anyone in your life that isn't involved in that place."
"I do so," I defend.
"Right, you've got a foster mother that you see every now and again. Who else?"
"The babies," I say.
He smiles, "I just think you should make some friends when you come here. You need someone in your life that isn't all about that place."
"This conversation actually fits well in with your mentor duties," I say surprised.
"Imagine that," he says.
I'd planned on requesting a new mentor, but I'm not going to. "I miss you," I admit.
"Whose fault is that?" he asks with so much pain in his voice that I wonder if I should be the one asking if he's okay.
"I'm sorry."
"I am too. We've both got someone else now," he says softly. My stomach twists. I don't like the fact that I am a dog in the hay. I rejected him, I have no right to be jealous. "That doesn't mean that we can't be friends."
"No, it doesn't," he says.
When we first broke up, I never would have imagined that I would be able to be friends with him.
"You still have to make other non-military friends, though, preferably ones somewhere between two years old and thirty."
"Do not disparage friendships with small children," I scold.
"How are the munchkins?" he responds.
Right, this one likes kids.