Thessa was still sleeping and Daniel took the time to sit in a dark room and think. This had always been the best place to think—the darkness helped his thoughts settle. In fact, the room he was sitting in was the very room that he had come to when Janet was killed—in fact he was sitting in the same corner. He should post a sign to mark his spot here.
An empty coffee cup was knocked over by his feet; his shoes were kicked off in the far corner—where he had thrown them. He was trying to understand everything that Thessa had told him. While reminding himself what he could tell the others and what he would have to keep to himself for the time being until things were different and the truth wouldn't hurt his friends.
The idea of having a daughter had brought all the dreams Daniel once had for his life right to the front of his mind and with it the loss he had fought to ignore since he lost Sara all those years ago.
He wanted to marry her, to have children with her, to have a life with her. But somehow all his dreams for a family were placed second to his work and after he came to the SGC all thoughts of a family were lost in the wind.
But now, he had Thessa, a young girl he didn't know—but somehow he knew her. He felt his bond to her as though it were an invisible wire that connected them. The sensation was overwhelming at first but he adapted to his fatherly instincts quicker than he would have thought.
He had been given everything he wanted. He had a beautiful daughter and although her mother was dead—there was the idea of her, there was the possibility, and that was enough. But how could he let go of her now? She only just come into his life and here she was telling him that he was going to give his life for hers and Jack O'Neill would be her father. It wasn't fair, there had to be a way to get around this, there had to be a way her could stay with her—a way he could be her father.
When Thessa woke she recognized the scent of the pillows right away—her father. She smiled and hugged the pillow, remembering how scared she had been when Jack first brought her to his house. He didn't know how to comfort her at first and took a small shirt from Daniel's apartment and let her wear it. Some how her father's scent had comforted her—it was familiar and safe. Till this day she slept in that shirt and remembered her father every time she felt the fabric on her shoulders.
Rolling over on the bed Thessa sat up on the edge and looked around her father's room and again she recognized her surroundings. She always knew that Jack had brought some of her father's things to the house so she might feel closer to him—but everything she saw around her was from her home. She walked about the room letting her fingers float over the statues of Isis, Amen Ra and Hathor. The bust of the Sphinx that served as a bookend made her smile—Jack had given it to her one day out of the blue and it had always been her favorite among her father's possessions. She paused as she came across the picture frames on his dresser. A snap shot of Daniel on a camel, one taken of him and Teal'c where Daniel was the only one smiling and Teal'c of course was presenting his classic smirk and eyebrow combination. The third picture caught her eye. It was a simple picture and yet it pulled at her heartstrings and brought tears to her eyes. I had been taken at a party in a happier time in their lives. Someone had taken the photograph while they weren't looking and captured a picture of the original SG-1 as most people had never seen them. Daniel sat at the far end of a picnic bench with a soda can in his hand and was playing cards with Teal'c—by the looks of it he was teaching him to play poker and Teal'c was not enjoying the lesson. Jack and Sam sat in the middle of the table, Jack next to Teal'c and Sam next to Daniel. They were talking and at the moment the picture was taken, Sam was leaning on her hand and picking up a French fry with the other. Jack was motioning to Teal'c and Daniel as he spoke but his eyes were locked on Sam—as always.
Backing away from the dresser, Thessa looked around the room and dried her eyes. This was something she had always wanted to see as a child—but now she realized that she had her father around her all her life, she just never knew it.
Normally-- in any other situation where Jack O'Neill was put in a position to do as he was told and nothing else—he would go against his orders and do it his own way out of spite.
But now, he found himself sympathizing with Daniel. He remembered how he pushed everyone away when he lost Charlie—what he had almost done when the Air Force pulled him out of retirement. It had saved his life then, saved his soul. Daniel had been a part of that. Even though he had begun as a buzzing sound in his ears—Jack couldn't deny that Daniel Jackson had become not only one of his greatest friends but one of few people in this world that he trusted. There was no way he could doubt him now. He couldn't and wouldn't turn his back on Daniel and question his motives. He would be there for him-- in any capacity that was needed.
The halls were quiet. No footsteps echoed through the corridors and no alarms rang out from incoming worm holes. It was nothing like she remembered—although Thessa had only been here a few times as a child, she remembered it vividly. The smell of the paint mixed with the recycled air from the vents had settled in her memory like a photograph.
As she walked through the silent halls, Thessa felt something that had eluded her as a child--She felt as though she belonged here. It felt perfectly normal for her to be walking around this top-secret facility as though she had occupied it her whole life. It was common for her to roam the halls and duck into her father's office and sit in his chair to wait for him.
The chair gave into her weight as she leaned back and propped her feet on the edge of the desk. She looked around the room and smiled as she felt her father close for the first time.