-1I know, I know - I'm late again! But don't worry - I'll somehow get in the two or three chapters needed before Christmas g. Thank you everyone for your patience and feedback; I appreciate it very much!

Chapter 53 - Nick's Return

Monday, 22nd December

Jack decided not to tell Daniel about Nick's visit, just in case the old man didn't show up. Besides, he reasoned to himself, Daniel would get more of a surprise if Nick turned up unannounced.

Daniel was very excited to be spending the day with his grandparents and not having to go to day-care, although he informed Jack that he had to go the next day because that's when Santa would be visiting and Daniel wanted to visit him again. Jack promised that he would be allowed to go, then gave his little brother a hug before leaving to go into the base.

Because it was a nice morning - a little cold but no snow - Iris and Tom took Daniel down to the local park for an hour to help deal with all the young boy's energy. Daniel showed them how he could go down the slide, swing on the swing, and climb on the wooden fort. They were very impressed, making Daniel very proud of being able to play on the things that were foreign to him only a month ago.

They were back by ten, after which Daniel showed his grandparents how to build a pyramid and some other things out of Lego, the little boy chatting away the whole time. When Iris went off to prepare lunch, Daniel and Tom worked some more on the jigsaw. Daniel loved the challenge of trying to work out which piece fitted where and he was always very proud when he spotted the right place before Grandpa Tom did.

After lunch, Daniel sat on Grandma Iris' lap and read his grandparents a story. When he finished, he realised that his grandfather asleep, which struck him as quite funny and he told himself he would have to tell Jack when he got home. "Grandma, look!" He pointed at Grandpa Tom. "He went to sleep while I was reading!"

Iris chuckled, just as amused at the idea as Daniel was. "You read so well that Grandpa probably thought it was time to go to sleep," she stated.

Daniel turned so that he could see his grandmother better. "Are you sleepy too?" It would be an even better story if he had put both his grandparents to sleep.

"A little but I'll have my nap when Grandpa wakes up. Otherwise you won't have anyone to play with." She didn't want to leave Daniel unsupervised. Plus, she didn't want to miss when Nick arrived and that was only about an hour away.

"We'll all have a sleep," Daniel decided, settling himself more comfortably on his grandmother's lap before closing his eyes.

Iris looked down at the young boy and smiled; Daniel really was adorable. Letting her head rest back against the couch, Iris followed suit and drifted off to sleep.

They were all awake again by two o'clock, and Daniel decided he wanted to teach his grandparents how to read hieroglyphs. So he got out his alphabet book and sat on the couch with the others, patiently explaining about each hieroglyph and what they meant.

Daniel had gone through eight hieroglyphs by the time the doorbell rang. "Oh!" he exclaimed, sitting straight and almost dislodging his book. "Is Jack home?" he asked eagerly.

"I don't think so," Iris said as she stood up and went to answer the door. Upon opening it, she found Nick standing on the front step. "Nick. It's been a long time."

"Yes, it has," Nick agreed. He had seen the O'Neill's even less than he had visited his daughter.

"Grandpa Nick!" Daniel slid off the couch and ran to give his other grandfather a big hug. "You came back!"

"Of course I did." Nick patted Daniel on the head as he smiled down at the little boy. "I always keep my promises." The few he did make, that was. He realised too, with Daniel's welcome, that Jack hadn't mentioned anything about this visit. Did Jack, then, still think that he was going to disappoint Daniel by not coming when he said he would? Hadn't anything changed in the time Nick had been away?

Daniel took his grandpa's hand and pulled him towards the living room. "Grandpa Tom, look! Grandpa Nick's here!"

The two men sized each other up silently before shaking hands. They had got on alright the few times they had met, although Tom had always secretly thought that Nick was somewhat of a distant father, hardly ever visiting Claire and her family.

"Grandpa, look what we done!" Daniel said, showing Nick the jigsaw. "Grandpa Tom and me did lots of it yesterday and then today, and we're almost finished!"

"That's very impressive," Nick praised, wondering how much of the jigsaw Daniel had actually had done.

"I've done lots of things since you went away," Daniel continued, getting himself settled on the couch and pulling his grandfather down to sit next to him. "I was in the nativ-ty play at day-care and I was a wise man, and everyone said I was the bestest wise man ever, and I saw Santa Claus and he said that he would get Jack a present, and…"

The three adults listened in amusement as Daniel related all his recent activities, barely pausing for a breath. When he ran out of stories, he wanted to know all about what his grandpa had been doing.

"I took the crystal skull somewhere where it could be studied," Nick replied, thinking back over the past couple of weeks. He was tired of being constantly on the go, having packed up his dig so that he could move to Colorado Springs. "And then I came back here."

"Did you find a place to live? Can we go see it?" Daniel questioned, bouncing up and down in his excitement.

Nick nodded. "It's a small place on the other side of town. But we will until Jack is able to come with us to see it too."

"Jack'll be home soon, can we go then?" Daniel was really eager to see his Grandpa Nick's new home.

"We'll see," Nick replied, unsure of what kind of reception he would get from Jack since the phone call hadn't been too promising. He looked at the book on the table. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Ooh! I teached Grandpa Tom and Grandma Iris some hie-ro-glyphs. Do you want to learn some too?" Daniel asked, not waiting for an answer before he retrieved the book and sat it on his lap. He would have to go back to the start so that Grandpa Nick could catch up but that was okay because then his other grandparents could relearn them.

They had moved on from learning hieroglyphs to Nick telling Daniel stories about his time in Central America by the time Jack got home. Outside the front door, Jack braced himself, knowing that Daniel would quite likely be hyped up because of the visit and therefore way more enthusiastic than Jack currently was. That was, if Nick had bothered to show up at all. No, Jack decided; Nick would be there. The old man wasn't in the habit of disappointing Daniel; he only did that to Jack.

Entering the house, he could hear Daniel's excited chatter as well as Nick's Dutch accent. Time to put on his happy face, then. "Hey, everyone."

"Jack!" Daniel slid off the couch and ran over to his big brother, hugging him around the thighs. "Jack, Grandpa Nick's here and he says he has a new house and we can go and see it now you're home! Can we, pleeeeeease?"

Jack looked over at Nick, who simply shrugged. No help there then, Jack thought as he lifted Daniel into his arms. "It's a bit late today, kiddo. Maybe another day this week."

Daniel pouted at the reply. "But I want to go today."

"And I said no," Jack firmly replied. Daniel still continued to pout, and Jack could feel three pairs of elderly eyes on him, making him feel guilty. "How about we go on Wednesday? I have the day off--"

"Yay!" Daniel cut him off, the pout instantly transforming into a smile. He bounced up and down a couple of times before wriggling his way out of Jack's arms. "Grandpa, we can go on Wednesday!" He paused and turned to face Jack. "How many sleeps is that?"

"Two."

Daniel mentally counted to two and then nodded; that was alright. Two wasn't very many. He climbed back onto the couch between Grandpa Nick and Grandma Iris, then he looked between them. Who would he snuggle up to? Grandma smelled nice but Grandpa had just come back today. Would Grandma mind if he went to Grandpa because he'd had lots of cuddles with her today? Should he ask or should he just go and sit with Grandpa? Or maybe…

He moved closer to Grandpa Nick and then tugged on Grandma Iris' hand to bring her closer to him. When Daniel was sandwiched in between the two, he grinned happily. Problem solved. Then he realised that Grandpa Tom might feel left out and he peered worriedly in that direction.

Jack had observed Daniel's actions over the past minute and wondered what was going through the little boy's mind. "Danny, what's up?"

Daniel hesitated for a second and then zipped over to Jack, climbing onto his lap so that he could whisper loudly in his ear. "I want to sit with Grandpa Tom too but he won't fit. Do you think he'll be sad?" he asked, thinking that his grandparents couldn't hear him.

Hiding a grin - and knowing his grandparents were doing the same - Jack replied in a similar whisper, "I think he'll be okay. Grandfathers understand about these kind of things."

"Really?" When Jack nodded, Daniel was relieved. He went over to his Grandpa Tom and said solemnly, "I can't sit with you right now."

Tom allowed a small part of his smile to show through. "I understand. You can sit with me later."

"Okay!" Pleased that everything had worked out, Daniel went back to his spot on the couch. He liked being with his grandparents and with Jack.

"Daniel," Iris said, smiling down at her grandson, "Wasn't there something you were going to tell Jack?" When Daniel looked blankly at her, she elaborated, "About the book earlier?"

"Ooh!" Daniel bounced up and down as he explained, "I readed to Grandpa Tom after lunch and he falled asleep!" Daniel then started giggling, highly amused at the concept. "Grandma Iris said he must have thought it was bedtime!"

Jack chuckled as he looked over at Tom. "Forgot what time it was, Grandpa?" he teased.

Nick felt an unexpected pang of hurt at the happy tone Jack used towards Tom, and the casual use of the word 'Grandpa'. This was what he had deprived himself of for all these years: a chance to have Jack speak the same adoration-filled way towards him. He shouldn't have asked Jack to not call him Grandpa - it had definitely helped to drive a wedge between them. Somehow, he was going to have to make it up to Jack.

"Daniel did such a good job of reading, I must have," Tom played along, making the little boy giggle again. "I'll have to be really careful next time."

"Jack, can I read to you tonight?" Daniel wanted to see if he could send his big brother to sleep as well since it had worked so well on one of his grandparents.

"We'll see." Jack figured that Daniel would probably forget about it by bedtime and then he wouldn't have to pretend to fall asleep. "Now, what have you been up to all day besides making Grandpa Tom fall asleep?"

Daniel straightened up and launched into a recital of the day's events. The four adults all listened carefully, nodding or laughing in the right places, although Jack's smile became forced when Daniel started talking about Nick. At some point, he was going to have to find the time to talk to Nick without Daniel being present but he didn't know when that was going to happen.

Some time later, Iris excused herself to make dinner and Jack went with her into the kitchen. They heard the two old men take Daniel outside for awhile as the sun was still shining, and then they were free to talk.

"How did Daniel go today?" Jack asked as he started slicing the vegetables.

"Full of energy," Iris replied as she bustled around the kitchen. "We took him to the park this morning but it didn't seem to wear him out at all."

Jack grinned. "I don't know where he gets it from."

"You were just as bad when you were his age," Iris reminded him, patting his arm as she went past. "It's when they're not full of energy that you have to worry."

There was nothing to say to that so Jack just continued with his tasks in silence for another few minutes. Eventually though, he casually asked, "When did Nick arrive?"

Although she was tempted, Iris reminded herself that Jack was an adult and would have to sort through any issues he had with Nick on his own. "A little while after two. Daniel was very pleased to see him." Okay, so she couldn't not interfere.

"I know." Jack stopped what he was doing and bowed his head briefly before turning to face at his grandmother, a woman he had always looked up to. "I don't know how to get rid of the anger," he admitted.

Iris came over to put a hand over Jack's free hand. "By forgiving him and realising that he's only human. Everyone makes mistakes, Jack, and the older you get, the harder it is to fix them or even admit them. Nick's making an effort to be here for Daniel and for you, giving up his career, from what I understand. For him, that takes a lot of courage, especially since he knows what you think of him."

"He abandoned Mom when she needed him," Jack pointed out, not quite ready to forgive him.

"Or maybe Claire simply didn't tell him," Iris countered, thinking that a high possibility. By Jack's expression, she knew she was right. "I know you can't forgive your father yet but Nick shouldn't continue to be punished for being human." She hugged Jack as best as she could in the confines of the kitchen.

Jack put the knife he was holding down and hugged her back properly. "Thanks, Grandma." Even when he didn't like what she said, it always made sense.

Iris chuckled. "That's what I'm here for," she joked, getting back to work. She had confidence that Jack would sort things out with Nick, for Daniel's sake at first and then for his own.

Dinner was a fun affair, and then it was time for Nick to leave. Daniel didn't want his beloved grandfather to leave but allowed himself to be mollified with promises of seeing Nick again in two days' time. And Jack consciously rid himself of the edge that usually coloured his voice whenever he spoke to Nick when he arranged a time to come visit the old man's new place.

Then it was bath time, followed by bedtime. Daniel was still on a high after his grandpa's visit and it took two books before he finally drifted off to sleep, a smile on his face. He'd had a wonderful day. And tomorrow would be just as good.