Part 5
"Oh, wow," Danny breathes, staring at the sweeping view of the Rockies. "Is that snow?"
Daniel smiles indulgently. "You've seen snow before. It was winter in New York when you left, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, but that was... different. It was dirty and people walked in it a lot. It wasn't like this, on mountains." He blinks up at Daniel and takes a long, deep breath, tasting the air. "This isn't New York, is it?"
"You're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," I tell him. "Welcome to Colorado."
Danny squeezes his eyebrows together and gives me a puzzled look. "I wasn't in Kansas before, either. Who is Toto?"
"Oh, for crying out loud, you've never seen the Wizard of Oz? Next you're going to tell me you don't know what ice cream is."
"I know what it is," Danny protests. "It's what the big kids make you give them after dinner."
"What kind of a place was this Hanson Home, Daniel?" Carter asks indignantly. "It sounds like they didn't take very good care of you."
"Indeed," Teal'c growls.
"It was only ice cream," Daniel says. "It's not that big a deal."
"And pens," Carter adds. "And psychiatrists who peddled drugs rather than real treatment."
"And whatever you're not telling us about cameras," I say. Daniel scowls at me and tugs the boy a little closer to his side. He's being irritatingly stubborn about this one.
"You have to understand that it was meant to be a temporary place," he sighs. "A transition between entering the custody of the state and going into foster care. The kids there all had problems. Some had just lost their parents, or been abandoned, or had the state take them away due to abuse or neglect. The place was under-funded and overcrowded. They had a lot of difficult kids and not enough time and people to deal with them. Someone like me, who didn't make a lot of noise and stayed in the background..."
"You were easy to forget," Carter says. She's stroking Danny's hair now, looking like she wants to hug him, but he's not quite ready for that. Only Daniel is allowed to get that close. Although he did let me touch his hair in the hallway—and I could probably get away with more, judging by the tentative, hopeful looks he keeps giving me, but I don't know that I want to get away with more. I don't know if I want to let myself get too close to this kid. I know we can't keep him. Rationally, realistically, I know that.
Daniel shrugs. "It wasn't that bad," he tells Carter. "I turned out all right, didn't I?"
I bump my shoulder into Daniel's, wiggling my eyebrows just to make the kid smile. "I wouldn't go that far."
"Ja-ack..."
"Caffeine addicted."
"I prefer the term coffee connoisseur."
"Rock obsessed."
"Archeologist."
"Reads too much."
"Jack, according to you, anything more than Sports Illustrated and crossword puzzles is too much."
"Basically a super geek."
Danny has been watching this exchange with bright eyes, obviously struggling not to laugh. I don't know why he thinks he has to hold it back—no, actually, I'm starting to get a good idea why. But I'm going to make him laugh whether he likes it or not, and it's going swimmingly until that 'super geek' line. Then he scowls and looks daggers at me, reaching up to take Daniel's hand.
"It's not nice to call names," he says. "I don't like that name."
Now I've got Carter and Teal'c glaring at me. I raise my hands and take a step back, going for my best charming smile. "Okay, sorry, didn't know it would hit a nerve. Anything else that's off limits? Plantboy? Spacemonkey?" I need something more to lighten the moment, which has become uncomfortably tense, so I wave goodbye to only watching movies in English and slip into Arabic, asking, "Baby? Hot stuff? Chocolate covered archeologist?"
Daniel cracks up, and the boy gawps at him for a moment and then follows suit, laughing with a palm pressed against his mouth to muffle the sounds. I can't resist reaching out and pulling that hand away, wanting so much to hear that high, sweet sound. Although, now that I think of it, the kid probably understood what I said, and kids repeat things. Bit late to take it back, though.
Carter frowns, her hands on her hips, staring at me suspiciously. "What was that last one, Colonel?"
"Daniel Jackson has been teaching me some of the languages of this world," Teal'c says. "I believe O'Neill spoke Arabic. And I believe I understood what he said." Then he fixes me with a look that very much wants to be a smile.
"Um." I swallow and make my face go still. "Never mind, Major. Nothing important."
She opens her mouth to protest, but that's when Hammond saves me by appearing through the trees. Carter immediately snaps to, and I straighten as well, nodding at the general. He acknowledges us with a wave, but his attention is mostly on Danny.
"Hello, young man," he says softly. "I hear you're doing a bit better than you were yesterday."
The boy eyes him warily and presses close to Daniel's side. He tries out a tentative smile, but doesn't speak.
"This is General Hammond," Daniel says. "He's also a friend of mine. You can trust him."
The general looks pleased to hear this, and he smiles warmly at Danny. "You know," he says, "I have a couple granddaughters about your age. I bet they'd love to meet you."
Danny raises his eyebrows dubiously. "I don't know. All the kids I know don't like me very much."
Carter makes a rather suspicious sounding cough and looks away. Hammond's smile becomes a tad forced. "Well, maybe those kids haven't had a chance to get to know you. I'm sure my girls will be different."
"Yes, sir," Danny says dutifully.
Hammond raises his eyebrows. "You can call me George, son."
"But everyone calls you sir. I heard them."
He crouches down and takes Danny's hand, shaking it gently. "You are not everyone. You're special."
For this he gets a huge, shining smile, and Danny nods rapidly. Hammond grins and pats him on the head, and then rises to face us. His smile slips away, and I feel my stomach do a little flip. Looks like the fun is over.
"I've had a few phone calls this morning," Hammond says. "It appears that there are some people interested in our new arrival."
"NID?" Carter guesses, her eyes narrowed.
"Yes. We can expect Colonel Simmons to arrive tomorrow."
"He's not taking him," Daniel says firmly.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Hammond replies. "So far, no mention has been made of taking the boy anywhere. The official line is that they are simply 'taking an interest' in him."
"I will not permit this child to be harmed in any way," Teal'c says gravely. "Your NID has no sense of honor, and should not be trusted with him."
"Don't worry about that," I tell him. "I don't plan on trusting those rats anywhere near Danny."
"But what do they want?" Daniel asks. "I mean, granted, he's a little unusual, but it's not like he has any special knowledge or secret capabilities. He's only a boy."
"They have their own agenda," Hammond sighs. "But rest assured, I will do everything in my power to ensure the child is safe. Have you made any decisions regarding his eventual status?"
Danny, who has been following all this with wide, worried eyes, suddenly grabs Daniel's hand and looks up at him pleadingly. Daniel crouches and picks the boy up, holding his slight frame easily. "I'm going to take care of him," he says. His face is hard, his eyes flashing. No arguing with him on this one.
"Doctor Jackson..."
"I'm sorry, sir, but this is not negotiable. I'll do whatever I have to do as far as the SGC goes, up to and including resigning if that's necessary, but I *am* going to take care of him."
Hammond nods slowly. "I would hope it doesn't come to resigning. We'll figure out your duty status later, Doctor, but for the time being, I'll draw up the paperwork to place him in your full custody. Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"
"I'm sure." Daniel lifts his chin stubbornly, cutting his eyes to the side to direct his next words to me as well. "I will not be the next name on the long list of people who have let him down. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it."
"Very well." The general turns back toward the mountain, gesturing for us to follow. "Until the difficulty with the NID is resolved, it would be best to keep the child inside, where he's more secure."
"You think they'd actually try to snatch him?" Carter asks in disbelief.
"I think it's better to be safe than sorry."
None of us can argue with that, and by the way Danny hides his face against Daniel's neck, it's time to drop the subject.
"So, General, how did you know we were up here?" I ask, trying for a light tone.
"Doctor Fraiser told me." He draws me back away from the others as they file into the mountain. "By the way, Jack," he says, "If you're going to use a term like chocolate covered archeologist, you should speak a language that your CO doesn't understand."
He claps me on the back and disappears through the main entrance, leaving me blinking stupidly in his wake. So far today it appears that I've been signed up for parenthood again, seeing as my partner has decided to adopt *without* discussing it with me, I've been outed to my CO, and gotten tacit approval, and I've been informed that my newest family member may be in danger of being kidnapped.
Maybe I should have stayed in bed.
~~~
"Now, this is for the birth certificate that we're creating for you. We have to get you listed as your own person, separate from me, before I can legally adopt you. Although I think we're going to list you as my biological son—we certainly have the resemblance down—and that will make gaining legal custody much smoother."
Danny nods seriously, scanning the page in front of him. We're in Hammond's office surrounded by the myriad forms necessary to create a person out of thin air. Danny needs a social security number, a birth certificate, a place of birth, a full name, medical documents supporting his relationship to Daniel, and a birth mother, which hasn't been mentioned yet. That's before we can dive into the huge pile of custody and guardianship papers.
With each form, Daniel fills it out carefully and then passes it to the boy, explaining exactly what it is. He insisted on this. He absolutely refused to leave Danny out of this process, saying that it was his life they were messing with, and he had a right to be there and be heard. Yet another thing about this whole mess that Daniel takes very personally. I'm getting a lot of impressions on how he was handled as a child, and they're all bad.
I'm helping out by filling in the easy information that I already know, names and addresses and all of Daniel's basic stats. Much as I hate paperwork, this is a viable excuse to be here, and be a part of things. I can't help feeling a little squeezed out. Daniel and the boy have a kind of understanding and closeness that I can't possibly compete with. I know that Daniel has plenty of love to go around and it's not a contest. I know it. But I'm here anyway, just... because.
"Okay, I'm listing your birth mother as the woman I was married to, all right?" Daniel tosses me a vague, apologetic look. Hey, it's not like I expected to be the other parent or anything. Hammond might be willing to look the other way, but that would be pushing things a tad too far.
"You were married?"
Daniel nods slowly. "Yes. Sha're. We were married for a while, but she died a few years ago."
"Oh," the boy says. "It's sad when people die." He tilts his head to one side and puts a hand on Daniel's wrist. I see Daniel's familiar compassion in him. "Were you sad? Do you still miss her? I still miss Mom and Dad a lot."
"Yes," Daniel says simply, "but that's normal. I'll probably always miss her."
Danny nods, tugging thoughtfully at his lower lip with his teeth. "You'll be okay," he decides. "You're very big and you have lots of friends."
Daniel smiles and glances at me. "Yeah," he says. "Having friends helps." And that seems to close the discussion for them as Daniel goes back to his forms and the kid goes back to the hieroglyphics he's doodling on the back of a spare piece of paper.
"Daniel?"
"Hmm?" He looks up at me, his hand finishing the word it was writing even as his eyes meet mine. "Jack?"
"What do you want me to write as his address?"
Daniel looks around the office quickly, as if his answer might be overheard. Hammond let us use the place for privacy but he skipped out after dumping the forms on us. Wise man.
"Well, he's going to be living with me..."
"And you live with me," I point out. And if this drives home the point that he took this on without even consulting me first, so much the better.
"Not officially."
"So if you list his address as your house, where you don't actually live, and two months down the road a caseworker comes by doing a surprise after adoption check and finds the place empty and obviously unused, what do you think will happen?"
Daniel blinks several times and lifts his chin a little, raising his eyebrows. "And what do you think will happen if I write your address and the caseworker finds him living with a gay couple, one of whom is in the military? Not to mention what will happen when we basically state blatantly to the chain of command that we're living together?"
"Thank you, Daniel, for making my point for me."
"What?"
I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. "I'm saying that you didn't think this through very well. Not to mention you made a huge decision that will affect both of us without talking about it with me. At all."
"So I should let him go? Break my promise and send him away?" Daniel bristles, folding his arms tightly across his chest. The boy looks back and forth at us like a spectator at a tennis match, chewing nervously on his lower lip. We shouldn't be talking like this in front of him, but Daniel gets defensive every time I suggest talking about the kid without him being present. He doesn't want to do anything behind Danny's back, as he sees it.
"I didn't say that," I reply, and then take a deep breath. Steady. "Look, Daniel, I know this hits very close to home for you. I know you feel you need to do this, and I'm all for it."
He blinks uncertainly at me. "You are?"
"Yes. I've always thought you'd make a great father, and frankly, no one else will understand what is clearly a very special kid the way you will. But I've done the fatherhood thing before, and I'm... I would have liked to have been asked. That's all."
Daniel's mouth falls open and his eyes go wide. "Oh, Jack... god, of course, Charlie. I didn't even think of that. You're right, I'm sorry, I should have asked before making any decisions. This must be bringing up so many old memories for you—"
"It's fine," I interrupt. It's fine. I'm fine. I can handle this. "That's not a problem. I'm only thinking of how we're going to work a child into our relationship."
"It's not a problem?" Daniel raises an eyebrow. "How can you just shrug this off so casually? Not only Charlie, but the whole idea of having a child..." He trails off and stares blankly at the forms for a long moment. "We've been moving very fast," he says quietly. "I don't think I fully appreciated what this means, to both of us. Jack, I am sorry. I should have talked to you first."
"Yeah, you should have. But it's a bit late now, isn't it?"
Daniel's mouth tightens and he dips his head a little. "I said I was sorry. What do you want me to do?"
"Crap, Daniel, I don't know. I'm just saying that we're flying blind here, rushing into something that we may not be ready for." I'm picking absently at the wrinkled corner of one of the forms, trying to smooth it out. I can feel Daniel's eyes on me, but I don't look up.
"You're not fine with it, are you?" he asks softly. "What, you don't want to risk being a father again? Don't want to risk losing another child?"
I snap my head up and glare at him for a long moment. That subject is off limits and he knows it. "That's not it," I say. "That's not it at all. I'm thinking about what it's going to mean for you, and for us."
Danny has his hands in Daniel's shirt again, clutching the material in his fists and tugging at it. Daniel drops a hand to his hair and strokes it absently, giving the boy a reassuring smile.
"We'll figure it out," he says.
"How?"
"I have to do this, Jack."
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. "Daniel, I know. I see, because it's right in front of me, how lost you were. I see what happened to you, and I know you want to fix it in some way by making sure it doesn't happen to him. You need to do this, and I get it, but I don't think you're facing the reality of it. Having a child changes everything. Trust me on this."
"We'll just advance our plans a little," he says. "We were looking for the right time—looks like we found it."
"Our plans? As in me taking Hammond's place when he retires and you running the research and culture side of the SGC from on-world? You're saying we do that *now?*"
Daniel shuffles his feet and looks down nervously. "I know it's a lot to ask. It's a lot sooner than we planned. If you want, I could move out, live in the house until the first year is up—"
"No. Not an option," I say flatly. "I'd retire before I'd give you up."
A slow smile spreads across his face. "I'm talking about moving out, Jack, not breaking up."
"Still. I remember living alone, Daniel, and I didn't like it. We need a different solution."
"I'll have to leave SG-1 either way," he says. "I can't be gone for days on end and still be responsible for a child. Not to mention the risks inherent to first contact. I'll stay with the SGC, and maybe take the occasional trip through the gate to worlds that are known to be safe, but that's all."
Daniel leaving SG-1. Damn. "This is all so fast," I mumble. "Hell, just yesterday you were off-world digging in the dirt and things were... normal. What are Carter and Teal'c going to say? What about the general? We're talking about changes that will affect more than just us."
"I know." Daniel closes his eyes and massages his temples for a moment. "I know. This is all..." He shoves vaguely at the forms, sending a few skittering to the floor. "I'm a little overwhelmed here, Jack. This is too big to swallow all at once. I feel like going home and sitting for a while, watching TV and letting my brain atrophy."
The boy laughs suddenly and we stare at him. "That's what Mom used to say," he says. "That TV would make my brain atrophy."
Daniel chuckles softly. "Yeah, she did, didn't she? She said 'when I was your age, television was called books.' Then she'd turn off that little black and white number we had that only got one local Arabic-speaking channel anyway, and put a book in my hands, or an artifact and a cleaning brush."
"The Hanson House had a color TV," Danny says in tones of great awe. "And a bunch of channels and something called PBS."
Suddenly I feel very old.
"Well, the one we have at home is much better than that one. It's this thin," Daniel holds his fingers a couple inches apart, "and hangs on the wall like a painting. We get hundreds of satellite channels as well as the local stuff."
"Daniel?" I raise an eyebrow. The big screen plasma TV is at my house.
"Jack," he says levelly. "Put down your address for him. And for me, too. Whatever happens, happens."
I blink at him, raising my eyebrows incredulously. "What? Are you nuts? I can't believe you even suggested that. There are plenty of people who would love to knock both of us out of the program, and you'd be giving them the ammunition they need. You might as well walk up to a goa'uld and hand him a zat gun and say 'hey, shoot me, will you?'"
Daniel narrows his eyes and shifts slightly in his chair, his jaw jutting out. "You're exaggerating. Besides, even if we told everyone that we live together, so what? Straight men can't live together? It's not like we're ever home anyway. It's practical. Saves on rent money. Your house is too big for one person, and I keep losing residences when I die. Who wouldn't believe us?"
"Uh, how about, everyone? There are already enough rumors going around about us as it is. Adding fuel to the fire is the last thing we need."
Daniel rolls his eyes and shoves impatiently at the papers on the desk, sending a few fluttering to the floor. "Oh, hell, I bet these forms disappear into a black hole of paperwork somewhere. Do you think anyone has time to actually read all this crap?"
"I think that the chances of us getting into serious trouble for stating in writing that we live together are much greater than the chances of a random after adoption check on your house."
He throws his hands up in the air. "So now you're saying to put my address down for him and keep living together anyway? Isn't that what I wanted to do in the first place?"
"Which means you won the argument. You should be happy."
Daniel blinks, opens his mouth, and then closes it again with a snap. He leans down and tugs Danny close, ruffling his hair and whispering in his ear, "See what I put up with?"
"Don't let him fool you, Danny," I say. "I'm the nice one. Everyone thinks the great Doctor Jackson is the sweetest guy in the world, but they should give me a medal for putting up with him in his pre-caffeinated state. Not to mention the endless documentaries about people who died a long time ago..."
Daniel grins and then proceeds to blithely ignore my complaining as usual, picking up the next form. I sigh and shake my cramping hand, and then try to concentrate on fitting the information into the ridiculously tiny boxes on these forms. There are still a lot of problems that we haven't dealt with yet, but I'd rather fill out paperwork than think about that.
~~~
"Oh, wow," Danny breathes, staring at the sweeping view of the Rockies. "Is that snow?"
Daniel smiles indulgently. "You've seen snow before. It was winter in New York when you left, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, but that was... different. It was dirty and people walked in it a lot. It wasn't like this, on mountains." He blinks up at Daniel and takes a long, deep breath, tasting the air. "This isn't New York, is it?"
"You're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," I tell him. "Welcome to Colorado."
Danny squeezes his eyebrows together and gives me a puzzled look. "I wasn't in Kansas before, either. Who is Toto?"
"Oh, for crying out loud, you've never seen the Wizard of Oz? Next you're going to tell me you don't know what ice cream is."
"I know what it is," Danny protests. "It's what the big kids make you give them after dinner."
"What kind of a place was this Hanson Home, Daniel?" Carter asks indignantly. "It sounds like they didn't take very good care of you."
"Indeed," Teal'c growls.
"It was only ice cream," Daniel says. "It's not that big a deal."
"And pens," Carter adds. "And psychiatrists who peddled drugs rather than real treatment."
"And whatever you're not telling us about cameras," I say. Daniel scowls at me and tugs the boy a little closer to his side. He's being irritatingly stubborn about this one.
"You have to understand that it was meant to be a temporary place," he sighs. "A transition between entering the custody of the state and going into foster care. The kids there all had problems. Some had just lost their parents, or been abandoned, or had the state take them away due to abuse or neglect. The place was under-funded and overcrowded. They had a lot of difficult kids and not enough time and people to deal with them. Someone like me, who didn't make a lot of noise and stayed in the background..."
"You were easy to forget," Carter says. She's stroking Danny's hair now, looking like she wants to hug him, but he's not quite ready for that. Only Daniel is allowed to get that close. Although he did let me touch his hair in the hallway—and I could probably get away with more, judging by the tentative, hopeful looks he keeps giving me, but I don't know that I want to get away with more. I don't know if I want to let myself get too close to this kid. I know we can't keep him. Rationally, realistically, I know that.
Daniel shrugs. "It wasn't that bad," he tells Carter. "I turned out all right, didn't I?"
I bump my shoulder into Daniel's, wiggling my eyebrows just to make the kid smile. "I wouldn't go that far."
"Ja-ack..."
"Caffeine addicted."
"I prefer the term coffee connoisseur."
"Rock obsessed."
"Archeologist."
"Reads too much."
"Jack, according to you, anything more than Sports Illustrated and crossword puzzles is too much."
"Basically a super geek."
Danny has been watching this exchange with bright eyes, obviously struggling not to laugh. I don't know why he thinks he has to hold it back—no, actually, I'm starting to get a good idea why. But I'm going to make him laugh whether he likes it or not, and it's going swimmingly until that 'super geek' line. Then he scowls and looks daggers at me, reaching up to take Daniel's hand.
"It's not nice to call names," he says. "I don't like that name."
Now I've got Carter and Teal'c glaring at me. I raise my hands and take a step back, going for my best charming smile. "Okay, sorry, didn't know it would hit a nerve. Anything else that's off limits? Plantboy? Spacemonkey?" I need something more to lighten the moment, which has become uncomfortably tense, so I wave goodbye to only watching movies in English and slip into Arabic, asking, "Baby? Hot stuff? Chocolate covered archeologist?"
Daniel cracks up, and the boy gawps at him for a moment and then follows suit, laughing with a palm pressed against his mouth to muffle the sounds. I can't resist reaching out and pulling that hand away, wanting so much to hear that high, sweet sound. Although, now that I think of it, the kid probably understood what I said, and kids repeat things. Bit late to take it back, though.
Carter frowns, her hands on her hips, staring at me suspiciously. "What was that last one, Colonel?"
"Daniel Jackson has been teaching me some of the languages of this world," Teal'c says. "I believe O'Neill spoke Arabic. And I believe I understood what he said." Then he fixes me with a look that very much wants to be a smile.
"Um." I swallow and make my face go still. "Never mind, Major. Nothing important."
She opens her mouth to protest, but that's when Hammond saves me by appearing through the trees. Carter immediately snaps to, and I straighten as well, nodding at the general. He acknowledges us with a wave, but his attention is mostly on Danny.
"Hello, young man," he says softly. "I hear you're doing a bit better than you were yesterday."
The boy eyes him warily and presses close to Daniel's side. He tries out a tentative smile, but doesn't speak.
"This is General Hammond," Daniel says. "He's also a friend of mine. You can trust him."
The general looks pleased to hear this, and he smiles warmly at Danny. "You know," he says, "I have a couple granddaughters about your age. I bet they'd love to meet you."
Danny raises his eyebrows dubiously. "I don't know. All the kids I know don't like me very much."
Carter makes a rather suspicious sounding cough and looks away. Hammond's smile becomes a tad forced. "Well, maybe those kids haven't had a chance to get to know you. I'm sure my girls will be different."
"Yes, sir," Danny says dutifully.
Hammond raises his eyebrows. "You can call me George, son."
"But everyone calls you sir. I heard them."
He crouches down and takes Danny's hand, shaking it gently. "You are not everyone. You're special."
For this he gets a huge, shining smile, and Danny nods rapidly. Hammond grins and pats him on the head, and then rises to face us. His smile slips away, and I feel my stomach do a little flip. Looks like the fun is over.
"I've had a few phone calls this morning," Hammond says. "It appears that there are some people interested in our new arrival."
"NID?" Carter guesses, her eyes narrowed.
"Yes. We can expect Colonel Simmons to arrive tomorrow."
"He's not taking him," Daniel says firmly.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Hammond replies. "So far, no mention has been made of taking the boy anywhere. The official line is that they are simply 'taking an interest' in him."
"I will not permit this child to be harmed in any way," Teal'c says gravely. "Your NID has no sense of honor, and should not be trusted with him."
"Don't worry about that," I tell him. "I don't plan on trusting those rats anywhere near Danny."
"But what do they want?" Daniel asks. "I mean, granted, he's a little unusual, but it's not like he has any special knowledge or secret capabilities. He's only a boy."
"They have their own agenda," Hammond sighs. "But rest assured, I will do everything in my power to ensure the child is safe. Have you made any decisions regarding his eventual status?"
Danny, who has been following all this with wide, worried eyes, suddenly grabs Daniel's hand and looks up at him pleadingly. Daniel crouches and picks the boy up, holding his slight frame easily. "I'm going to take care of him," he says. His face is hard, his eyes flashing. No arguing with him on this one.
"Doctor Jackson..."
"I'm sorry, sir, but this is not negotiable. I'll do whatever I have to do as far as the SGC goes, up to and including resigning if that's necessary, but I *am* going to take care of him."
Hammond nods slowly. "I would hope it doesn't come to resigning. We'll figure out your duty status later, Doctor, but for the time being, I'll draw up the paperwork to place him in your full custody. Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"
"I'm sure." Daniel lifts his chin stubbornly, cutting his eyes to the side to direct his next words to me as well. "I will not be the next name on the long list of people who have let him down. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it."
"Very well." The general turns back toward the mountain, gesturing for us to follow. "Until the difficulty with the NID is resolved, it would be best to keep the child inside, where he's more secure."
"You think they'd actually try to snatch him?" Carter asks in disbelief.
"I think it's better to be safe than sorry."
None of us can argue with that, and by the way Danny hides his face against Daniel's neck, it's time to drop the subject.
"So, General, how did you know we were up here?" I ask, trying for a light tone.
"Doctor Fraiser told me." He draws me back away from the others as they file into the mountain. "By the way, Jack," he says, "If you're going to use a term like chocolate covered archeologist, you should speak a language that your CO doesn't understand."
He claps me on the back and disappears through the main entrance, leaving me blinking stupidly in his wake. So far today it appears that I've been signed up for parenthood again, seeing as my partner has decided to adopt *without* discussing it with me, I've been outed to my CO, and gotten tacit approval, and I've been informed that my newest family member may be in danger of being kidnapped.
Maybe I should have stayed in bed.
~~~
"Now, this is for the birth certificate that we're creating for you. We have to get you listed as your own person, separate from me, before I can legally adopt you. Although I think we're going to list you as my biological son—we certainly have the resemblance down—and that will make gaining legal custody much smoother."
Danny nods seriously, scanning the page in front of him. We're in Hammond's office surrounded by the myriad forms necessary to create a person out of thin air. Danny needs a social security number, a birth certificate, a place of birth, a full name, medical documents supporting his relationship to Daniel, and a birth mother, which hasn't been mentioned yet. That's before we can dive into the huge pile of custody and guardianship papers.
With each form, Daniel fills it out carefully and then passes it to the boy, explaining exactly what it is. He insisted on this. He absolutely refused to leave Danny out of this process, saying that it was his life they were messing with, and he had a right to be there and be heard. Yet another thing about this whole mess that Daniel takes very personally. I'm getting a lot of impressions on how he was handled as a child, and they're all bad.
I'm helping out by filling in the easy information that I already know, names and addresses and all of Daniel's basic stats. Much as I hate paperwork, this is a viable excuse to be here, and be a part of things. I can't help feeling a little squeezed out. Daniel and the boy have a kind of understanding and closeness that I can't possibly compete with. I know that Daniel has plenty of love to go around and it's not a contest. I know it. But I'm here anyway, just... because.
"Okay, I'm listing your birth mother as the woman I was married to, all right?" Daniel tosses me a vague, apologetic look. Hey, it's not like I expected to be the other parent or anything. Hammond might be willing to look the other way, but that would be pushing things a tad too far.
"You were married?"
Daniel nods slowly. "Yes. Sha're. We were married for a while, but she died a few years ago."
"Oh," the boy says. "It's sad when people die." He tilts his head to one side and puts a hand on Daniel's wrist. I see Daniel's familiar compassion in him. "Were you sad? Do you still miss her? I still miss Mom and Dad a lot."
"Yes," Daniel says simply, "but that's normal. I'll probably always miss her."
Danny nods, tugging thoughtfully at his lower lip with his teeth. "You'll be okay," he decides. "You're very big and you have lots of friends."
Daniel smiles and glances at me. "Yeah," he says. "Having friends helps." And that seems to close the discussion for them as Daniel goes back to his forms and the kid goes back to the hieroglyphics he's doodling on the back of a spare piece of paper.
"Daniel?"
"Hmm?" He looks up at me, his hand finishing the word it was writing even as his eyes meet mine. "Jack?"
"What do you want me to write as his address?"
Daniel looks around the office quickly, as if his answer might be overheard. Hammond let us use the place for privacy but he skipped out after dumping the forms on us. Wise man.
"Well, he's going to be living with me..."
"And you live with me," I point out. And if this drives home the point that he took this on without even consulting me first, so much the better.
"Not officially."
"So if you list his address as your house, where you don't actually live, and two months down the road a caseworker comes by doing a surprise after adoption check and finds the place empty and obviously unused, what do you think will happen?"
Daniel blinks several times and lifts his chin a little, raising his eyebrows. "And what do you think will happen if I write your address and the caseworker finds him living with a gay couple, one of whom is in the military? Not to mention what will happen when we basically state blatantly to the chain of command that we're living together?"
"Thank you, Daniel, for making my point for me."
"What?"
I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. "I'm saying that you didn't think this through very well. Not to mention you made a huge decision that will affect both of us without talking about it with me. At all."
"So I should let him go? Break my promise and send him away?" Daniel bristles, folding his arms tightly across his chest. The boy looks back and forth at us like a spectator at a tennis match, chewing nervously on his lower lip. We shouldn't be talking like this in front of him, but Daniel gets defensive every time I suggest talking about the kid without him being present. He doesn't want to do anything behind Danny's back, as he sees it.
"I didn't say that," I reply, and then take a deep breath. Steady. "Look, Daniel, I know this hits very close to home for you. I know you feel you need to do this, and I'm all for it."
He blinks uncertainly at me. "You are?"
"Yes. I've always thought you'd make a great father, and frankly, no one else will understand what is clearly a very special kid the way you will. But I've done the fatherhood thing before, and I'm... I would have liked to have been asked. That's all."
Daniel's mouth falls open and his eyes go wide. "Oh, Jack... god, of course, Charlie. I didn't even think of that. You're right, I'm sorry, I should have asked before making any decisions. This must be bringing up so many old memories for you—"
"It's fine," I interrupt. It's fine. I'm fine. I can handle this. "That's not a problem. I'm only thinking of how we're going to work a child into our relationship."
"It's not a problem?" Daniel raises an eyebrow. "How can you just shrug this off so casually? Not only Charlie, but the whole idea of having a child..." He trails off and stares blankly at the forms for a long moment. "We've been moving very fast," he says quietly. "I don't think I fully appreciated what this means, to both of us. Jack, I am sorry. I should have talked to you first."
"Yeah, you should have. But it's a bit late now, isn't it?"
Daniel's mouth tightens and he dips his head a little. "I said I was sorry. What do you want me to do?"
"Crap, Daniel, I don't know. I'm just saying that we're flying blind here, rushing into something that we may not be ready for." I'm picking absently at the wrinkled corner of one of the forms, trying to smooth it out. I can feel Daniel's eyes on me, but I don't look up.
"You're not fine with it, are you?" he asks softly. "What, you don't want to risk being a father again? Don't want to risk losing another child?"
I snap my head up and glare at him for a long moment. That subject is off limits and he knows it. "That's not it," I say. "That's not it at all. I'm thinking about what it's going to mean for you, and for us."
Danny has his hands in Daniel's shirt again, clutching the material in his fists and tugging at it. Daniel drops a hand to his hair and strokes it absently, giving the boy a reassuring smile.
"We'll figure it out," he says.
"How?"
"I have to do this, Jack."
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. "Daniel, I know. I see, because it's right in front of me, how lost you were. I see what happened to you, and I know you want to fix it in some way by making sure it doesn't happen to him. You need to do this, and I get it, but I don't think you're facing the reality of it. Having a child changes everything. Trust me on this."
"We'll just advance our plans a little," he says. "We were looking for the right time—looks like we found it."
"Our plans? As in me taking Hammond's place when he retires and you running the research and culture side of the SGC from on-world? You're saying we do that *now?*"
Daniel shuffles his feet and looks down nervously. "I know it's a lot to ask. It's a lot sooner than we planned. If you want, I could move out, live in the house until the first year is up—"
"No. Not an option," I say flatly. "I'd retire before I'd give you up."
A slow smile spreads across his face. "I'm talking about moving out, Jack, not breaking up."
"Still. I remember living alone, Daniel, and I didn't like it. We need a different solution."
"I'll have to leave SG-1 either way," he says. "I can't be gone for days on end and still be responsible for a child. Not to mention the risks inherent to first contact. I'll stay with the SGC, and maybe take the occasional trip through the gate to worlds that are known to be safe, but that's all."
Daniel leaving SG-1. Damn. "This is all so fast," I mumble. "Hell, just yesterday you were off-world digging in the dirt and things were... normal. What are Carter and Teal'c going to say? What about the general? We're talking about changes that will affect more than just us."
"I know." Daniel closes his eyes and massages his temples for a moment. "I know. This is all..." He shoves vaguely at the forms, sending a few skittering to the floor. "I'm a little overwhelmed here, Jack. This is too big to swallow all at once. I feel like going home and sitting for a while, watching TV and letting my brain atrophy."
The boy laughs suddenly and we stare at him. "That's what Mom used to say," he says. "That TV would make my brain atrophy."
Daniel chuckles softly. "Yeah, she did, didn't she? She said 'when I was your age, television was called books.' Then she'd turn off that little black and white number we had that only got one local Arabic-speaking channel anyway, and put a book in my hands, or an artifact and a cleaning brush."
"The Hanson House had a color TV," Danny says in tones of great awe. "And a bunch of channels and something called PBS."
Suddenly I feel very old.
"Well, the one we have at home is much better than that one. It's this thin," Daniel holds his fingers a couple inches apart, "and hangs on the wall like a painting. We get hundreds of satellite channels as well as the local stuff."
"Daniel?" I raise an eyebrow. The big screen plasma TV is at my house.
"Jack," he says levelly. "Put down your address for him. And for me, too. Whatever happens, happens."
I blink at him, raising my eyebrows incredulously. "What? Are you nuts? I can't believe you even suggested that. There are plenty of people who would love to knock both of us out of the program, and you'd be giving them the ammunition they need. You might as well walk up to a goa'uld and hand him a zat gun and say 'hey, shoot me, will you?'"
Daniel narrows his eyes and shifts slightly in his chair, his jaw jutting out. "You're exaggerating. Besides, even if we told everyone that we live together, so what? Straight men can't live together? It's not like we're ever home anyway. It's practical. Saves on rent money. Your house is too big for one person, and I keep losing residences when I die. Who wouldn't believe us?"
"Uh, how about, everyone? There are already enough rumors going around about us as it is. Adding fuel to the fire is the last thing we need."
Daniel rolls his eyes and shoves impatiently at the papers on the desk, sending a few fluttering to the floor. "Oh, hell, I bet these forms disappear into a black hole of paperwork somewhere. Do you think anyone has time to actually read all this crap?"
"I think that the chances of us getting into serious trouble for stating in writing that we live together are much greater than the chances of a random after adoption check on your house."
He throws his hands up in the air. "So now you're saying to put my address down for him and keep living together anyway? Isn't that what I wanted to do in the first place?"
"Which means you won the argument. You should be happy."
Daniel blinks, opens his mouth, and then closes it again with a snap. He leans down and tugs Danny close, ruffling his hair and whispering in his ear, "See what I put up with?"
"Don't let him fool you, Danny," I say. "I'm the nice one. Everyone thinks the great Doctor Jackson is the sweetest guy in the world, but they should give me a medal for putting up with him in his pre-caffeinated state. Not to mention the endless documentaries about people who died a long time ago..."
Daniel grins and then proceeds to blithely ignore my complaining as usual, picking up the next form. I sigh and shake my cramping hand, and then try to concentrate on fitting the information into the ridiculously tiny boxes on these forms. There are still a lot of problems that we haven't dealt with yet, but I'd rather fill out paperwork than think about that.
~~~