Talis had already gotten two blocks down by the time Daniel got out of the bar. He ran to catch up with her. He called her name, but she kept walking, her fists clenching. He finally caught up to her and spun her around. Luckily, he ducked in time to avoid her fist. He grabbed her by the arms giving her a little shake, tears were running down her face. Daniel pulled her to him.
"So that's it," she spit out, "you think I'm easy. Hey look there's Talis. She already has one child out of wedlock, and she slept with me the second we got back here. She must be easy, she sure as hell isn't smart."
"Hush," he said holding her to him, "You know I don't think that. When I look at you, I'm envious, you're so full of life. You've been raising your child all by yourself this whole time, no support, no family except for Archamedes. You run your own ship, made all of those modifications, how could you think for a minute you're stupid? As for being easy. You're beautiful, intelligent, and vibrant. I felt lucky that you showed interest in me. She was just a jealous woman, and I'm sorry that my actions put you in that situation." He put his arm around her shoulders, and they started to walk back to the bar.
"Thank you for coming after me." she said quietly.
"Thank you for missing me with that right hook," he teased, "I want to be your friend, Talis, if it turns into something else, all the better, but can we at least be friends."
Talis looked up at the good looking doctor, "I would like that Daniel."
Several days later General Hammond called Talis into his office. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you in here Ms. Starling." he began.
"Yes sir," she responded nervously.
"I received a call from the President approving my recommendation to offer you a job here with SGC, and your friend Archamedes, as well. We'd like, if it's acceptable to you, to assign you to one of our SG teams, also we'd like to be able to use you and your ship as a rescue vessel in those certain circumstances where it would be needed. I'm authorized to give you a few days to think about it. Whether or not you accept, I have also been authorized to set up paperwork for you, the boy, and your daughter as citizens of the USA, and a trust fund has been established that should see you through, until you discover what it is you want to do. Let me give you these documents, you can review them, they show what your salary and benefits would be, it also outlines what we've talked about today."
"Thank you General sir," Talis said accepting the paperwork and leaving his office. She walked down the hall in a daze. Finding herself standing outside of Daniel's office. They had established a habit of having coffee every morning, and she was a few minutes late due to her meeting. She knocked on his door and heard a muffled enter.
"You know, I don't know why you even knock anymore?" He said not looking up from an artifact he was looking at, when she didn't answer he looked at her and frowned. She was white as a sheet. "Talis are you ok? Do you need to go to the infirmary."
She shook her head at this. "He offered me a job." she said faintly. Handing Daniel the paperwork. He looked over it briefly. He hadn't really thought she would be staying, now he saw that there might be a possibility.
"Says here, even if you don't take the job, you can stay and they'll set you up with all the important stuff."
"I know, he told me, I never thought I'd stay, you know. I thought Zoë would get better, the general would say thanks so much, we don't have any room for you, and send us on our merry little way. But now he's offering all of us the chance to start over." She sat down on the chair next to Daniel's desk, staring off into space. "I need to talk to Archamedes."
"Good idea, do you know what you want to do?" Daniel asked her curious now.
"Archamedes, wouldn't be known as a former slave here. He could go to school, a real school, he's so smart, and Zoë, she would have so many opportunities. Me, I wouldn't be smuggling anymore, that would be hard, it's what I've done for so long. I've never gotten involved in anyone's causes before." she stood up and started pacing, her eyes focused inward, "if I took the job, I couldn't say that anymore, I wouldn't be neutral anymore."
"Sounds like you have a lot to think about." Daniel said.
She looked up at him, "Yes, I'd better go see Archamedes, thank you Daniel." She swiftly kissed him on the cheek before she could talk herself out of it, and left.
The next day, Talis left General Hammond's office feeling much more confident. She was now gainfully employed. She was supposed to set up a time for Air Force tutors to test Archamedes, so that he could see what he needed to learn before enrolling in a school. Being 17, he would probably be able to skip high school, and go straight into college, or even the military if he chose.
She was also supposed to be going with Sam soon to find a place off base, so that she, Arch, and Zoë, had a place to call their own. The birth certificates were being set up with Arch being Talis' younger brother. So far, Sam was the only one, besides her family, and General Hammond now, that knew what her choice had been.
She wasn't sure how she was going to tell Daniel. She wasn't sure if he would be happy, or even care at all. He had been true to becoming her friend, but she knew that didn't mean anything in the scheme of things. She was actually heading to his office for their morning coffee. A strange beverage, but she enjoyed the taste. And he really enjoyed coffee. Instead of knocking she walked in. He looked up a little surprised.
"Hey," he grinned, happy that she had finally listened about the knocking. "I got a new blend for us to try today." he said walking over to the coffee machine.
"I accepted General Hammond's offer." she said in a rush.
Daniel closed his eyes in relief, then turned with a huge smile. "That's wonderful Talis, I'm really glad."
"Sam and I are going to look for a house for Arch, Zoë, and me. I'm also going to need help finding furniture, once I find a house of course. Would you help me with that?"
"I certainly will." he answered, and swept her into a hug. 'just a friendly hug' he told himself.
'This is just a friendly hug,' Talis thought to herself, but returned it enthusiastically.
After going through some basic training that General Hammond had devised for her, Talis joined SG-2. By April things had settled into a fair routine. Sam had helped her find a nice house fairly close to the base. It was huge, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, but Talis figured the space was necessary. Talis had decided to purchase the house, and they were waiting for something called escrow. Daniel was taking her to different stores looking for furniture. They would make themselves at home in the areas the stores had designed so that they could sell sets, and end up cracking up every time.
For Zo's first birthday, the gang got together and ended up taking the little girl to Chuck E. Cheese's. Talis glowed watching her daughter laughing and clapping at all the fun going on around her. The group decided to call it a night when the baby's eyes started drooping. Cassie and Talis, decided to walk down to the parking area with the baby in the stroller, while Sam, Daniel and Jack tried to pull Teal'c away from the Hammer the Gopher game. They would grab Arch on the way out, he was busy flirting with the waitress. The girls walked down the street towards the cars. They came abreast of an alley, when a hand shot out and grabbed Talis by the arm. She turned to see a young man, holding a knife, and trembling.
"Give me your wallets, and make it fast!" he demanded.
Talis looked at the boy, because really that's what he was. She sighed, spun her wrist so she was gripping his instead, she kicked the knife from the boys hand, and threw him face down into the pavement, holding him in a wristlock behind his back. "I think you've made a mistake." she told him lightly. She made sure he wasn't carrying anymore weapons, Cassie was staring at the whole thing dumbfounded, "You ok Cass?"
"Yeah," she answered a little wobbly, "should I call the cops?"
Talis heard the boy's swift intake of breath, "What's your name boy?" she heard a muffled voice answer with the name Ben. "Well Ben, I'm thinking the police won't be necessary. What do you think?" She let the boy go and he scooted against the wall of the alley, blood from a scrape running down his cheek.
"No ma'am," he said looking at her uneasily.
She grabbed a baby wipe from the diaper bag, crouched in front of the boy, and handed it to him. "Clean your face." she ordered. She looked at the boy.
He was in jeans that had seen better days, but were clean, old sneakers, and an old college sweat shirt hoodie, which was pulled over a head with clean short brown hair. She had his wallet in her hand, opening it she saw that there was no money in it, a faded picture of a pretty young girl with long chestnut hair, signed Love Shannon on the back, and a photo id showing that she was dealing with one Benjamin Chambers, age 18.
"So, Ben, now we're at what's called an impasse. Luckily my daughter is sleeping, so I won't be shooting you, which is good. I haven't had to shoot anyone in a long time. I would hate to have to do it when I'm in such a good mood, ya know?"
"No ma'am, I mean yes ma'am." the boy stammered, his eyes widened as the rest of their group had joined Cassie, and were looking at the scene with widened eyes.
"You're also lucky that Cass doesn't scare too easily, 'cuz that would have pissed me off too. So Ben, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. Comprehend?"
"Yes, ma'am." he said starting to get nervous, he blurted out, "I'm sorry, I needed the money."
"Why don't you have a job?"
"I was working at the Convention Center here in town, working for my girlfriends father. Shannon got pregnant, her father fired me, and anytime someone calls for a reference he tells them I got caught stealing. I'm sorry," the boy started to cry, "I needed money, I left my house a long time ago, and Shannon's Dad kicked her out. She needs to see a doctor, and we got no place to go."
Talis looked at the boy. "Why'd you leave home?"
"My Mom died, my Dad was an abusive Bastard."
"Did you graduate high school?" Talis looked at the boy trying to compose himself, his head shot up at this and she saw pride in his eyes.
"I ain't no drop out! I stayed at the Y. I graduated."
Talis looked over at the group, they looked back at her as if to say 'this is your party.' She stood up, and looked down at the boy, he reminded her of herself in many ways. She held her hand out to him, "Let's go get Shannon, and talk about your options."
Ben looked up at her suspiciously, with not much to lose, he took her hand and stood up.
They picked up the girl at the local Y, where she was watching TV. She looked so young with her slightly rounded belly. She smiled radiantly when she saw Ben, then frowned as she saw Talis.
Talis smiled at the girl reassuringly, "Hello Shannon, I'm Talis, Ben thought you might like to grab a bite to eat with us?"
The girl looked up at Ben for confirmation, and seemed relieved when he nodded his agreement. The group got a table at a diner nearby, and ordered food. In the meantime, Ben had explained how he had met the group, the girl looked very unhappy at the thought of him committing a crime to care for them.
Talis knew her friends didn't exactly understand what she was doing, but she knew they'd figure it out. She couldn't turn her back on the couple. Not after everything she herself had been through, and the new life she'd received. "Well, Ben, you have some options here."
Ben looked at the woman, who had already shocked him with her behavior. "What options? We're not getting rid of the baby!" he said hotly.
Talis looked at the boy, and shook her head. "That's my daughter," she said pointing at Zoë, "You won't ever see her father in the picture. If I can have a child and do everything on my own, I wouldn't suggest less to you. Now as I see it, you're trying to take care of your responsibilities. The problem is, the way you're going about it. I'm going to tell you a little story, my friends here don't know all of it, although I'm sure they suspected. When I was on my own, making all the decisions for myself, my 16 year old brother, and having a child on the way, I made some decisions on how I was going to support us. And let me tell you, my delivery service, I guess you could call it, wasn't always on the up and up, a lot of it was on the negative side of legal. There were a lot of law enforcement that wanted to talk to me, a lot of places and things I couldn't go and do, because of that. You got lucky tonight, Ben. You met me." Talis folded her arms on the table in front of her and looked at the boy.
Everyone at the table was quiet, she knew that she had just confirmed that she wasn't the most honest person, and knew they would look at her different now. She sighed inwardly. "I'm giving you two options. One, I give you money for a nice motel for the evening, I take Shannon to the doctor tomorrow, and then leave you to make your own choices, and stay out of your life. I hope you don't choose that one. Before I give you option two, tell me something, you love Shannon?"
"Yes ma'am." Ben said strongly, squeezing the girl's hand.
"I want you to meet my friends now. Could you guys give your names, what you do, who you work for?" she said looking at the rest of the table. She saw Samantha start to understand where she was heading.
"My name's Archie, I'm 17, joining the Air Force, and going to their school here in the fall." Archie said shyly.
"I'm Daniel Jackson, I'm an independent contractor with the Air force, a doctor of several things." Daniel answered still confused. But Talis saw Jack start to get it too.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force. Work with this bunch of hooligans."
"Major Samantha Carter, United States Air Force, second in command to Colonel O'Neill, I'm also a doctor of Astrophysics."
"I am Teal'c, I work with the Air Force under Colonel O'Neill's command."
"I'm Cassie," the girl said grinning at the couple, "my mom was a major in the United States Air Force, and Chief Medical Officer at the base here in town, I'm in college."
The couple looked at Talis, "My name is Talis Starling, I command my own ship, I work as an independent contractor for the Air Force. Now, if an old smuggler like me can turn my life around, why can't you?"
"I tried the military. Hank, Shannon's father, told them I was a thief and a drug user."
"Are you?" Jack asked.
"No sir!" Shannon answered before Ben could. "Ben's smart, and good, he sacrifices everything for me!"
Ben looked at his girlfriend, "We want to get married, we will get married."
"Have you taken the tests to see what you scored for entry yet?" Sam asked.
"Yes ma'am, I scored pretty high, but....." he looked down dejectedly.
Jack pulled a card from his wallet, and wrote a number on the back. "If you're serious about wanting to join, call me tomorrow. I'll take you to a recruiter I know and get you set up. If you do join, and you're married, they provide you with base housing, health for both of you and the baby, you'd have to go through boot first, but if your scores were good enough, you wouldn't have to just enlist, you could go in as an officer. They'd train you, so if you chose to get out after your first tour, you'd be able to get a job anywhere else."
Ben and Shannon were holding each others hand tightly. "Sir, if you don't mind," Ben said to Jack, "instead of waiting to call you tomorrow, can I just tell you now that I'm serious?"
Jack smiled at the young man, "Where do I pick you up?"
Talis smiled, "My place." Daniel looked at her quickly, concerned, "Since I'll be taking Shannon to the doctor tomorrow, I think overall that's the best course of action. Where have you guys been sleeping?"
"My car." Ben said quietly. "We park somewhere different every night. I've been pawning stuff for gas and food money, but I don't have anything else to pawn."
Talis felt so angry at the parents of these kids. Daniel stopped her on their way out of the restaurant. "I'm staying at your place tonight."
"Why? It isn't like there's anything there to steal yet." She told him.
"I don't care, I'm staying." He said stubbornly. She sighed and nodded her assent.
Jack walked up to Talis and looked down at her. "You did a good thing here tonight Starling."
"Not bad for an old criminal, huh? Bet you're thinking Hammond was nuts to hire me on permanent huh?"
"We do a lot of stuff we aren't necessarily proud of to survive, Starling, what you have to keep in mind, is what decisions we make when we have more than one option. You gave that kid options; options that you didn't have, and he took the right one. I think we got pretty damn lucky that you decided to stick around. We'll see you tomorrow," he squeezed her shoulder and turned to go, "By the way, make sure your guard dog gets some sleep, he's a little bitchy when's he tired."
Talis got her group home. Arch went to his room, and headed straight for bed. Talis tucked Zoë in for the night, and headed back to the living room, where her three guests were waiting. Daniel was fixing drinks in the kitchen, and Ben and Shannon were standing in the middle of the room looking around themselves.
"Did you buy this house when you were a smuggler?" Shannon whispered.
"Gosh no, where I came from smuggling wasn't that lucrative. No, I bought this in the last month, since working for the Air Force. Come on I'll show you your room." Talis got them settled in for the night, and headed back to the living room, where Daniel was looking out her sliding glass door.
"You ready for bed there Hero."
"Yeah, if you have a pillow and blanket, I'll stretch out on the couch here." he said turning to face her.
"No you won't." she told him.
"I won't?" he asked.
"Dr.Jackson, I think that you should know by now, that if you're going to be staying the night at my house, you're sure as hell not going to be sleeping on the couch." She walked to him slowly, taking him by the hand and leading him to the master suite.
The only other bedroom near it was Zo's, the other three were on the other side of the house. It had been a big appeal for her, giving both her, and Archamedes needed privacy. She got him into her room and pushed him to the bed. She took his shoes and socks off, and started working on his pants.
He started to say something, she stopped him by putting her fingers over his mouth. "Daniel, Can't you just enjoy it? Let's not analyze this. I want you, you want me. There doesn't have to be hearts and flowers for this."
She unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off of his shoulders, leaving him only in his boxer briefs on her bed. She backed away from him slightly and started to remove her clothes. When she was down to just her matching red bra and panties, she walked back to him. She kneeled on the bed, straddling him and ground herself into his arousal, he moaned slightly. She ran her tongue down his chest, around his navel, and sucked him through his boxers, smiling as he jumped slightly. Talis pulled his shorts off of him and took him into her mouth. She took his erection down her throat as far as she could, he was thrusting his hips up slightly, she started humming, knowing it would add to his pleasure, and he got even harder. As she moved him in and out of her mouth, she ran her fingers over his testicles. Every once in a while she would swirl her tongue over the tip of his penis, run her tongue down and suck the testicles into her mouth, she could tell that Daniel was on the edge. She could feel herself on the edge as well, so wet from having him in her mouth.
Without taking her panties off, she slid up his body, positioned herself, moved the panties to the side, and inserted him into her. Daniel thought he would come right then, she was so tight, and had already worked him in her mouth, but then she started riding him, harder and harder. They came together in one huge orgasm. She rolled off him, to his side, turned off the lights and snuggled in under the covers. He pulled her to him, and they went to sleep.
Talis was gone when Daniel woke up the next morning. He got dressed and headed to the base with a slightly heavy heart.
"So that's it," she spit out, "you think I'm easy. Hey look there's Talis. She already has one child out of wedlock, and she slept with me the second we got back here. She must be easy, she sure as hell isn't smart."
"Hush," he said holding her to him, "You know I don't think that. When I look at you, I'm envious, you're so full of life. You've been raising your child all by yourself this whole time, no support, no family except for Archamedes. You run your own ship, made all of those modifications, how could you think for a minute you're stupid? As for being easy. You're beautiful, intelligent, and vibrant. I felt lucky that you showed interest in me. She was just a jealous woman, and I'm sorry that my actions put you in that situation." He put his arm around her shoulders, and they started to walk back to the bar.
"Thank you for coming after me." she said quietly.
"Thank you for missing me with that right hook," he teased, "I want to be your friend, Talis, if it turns into something else, all the better, but can we at least be friends."
Talis looked up at the good looking doctor, "I would like that Daniel."
Several days later General Hammond called Talis into his office. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you in here Ms. Starling." he began.
"Yes sir," she responded nervously.
"I received a call from the President approving my recommendation to offer you a job here with SGC, and your friend Archamedes, as well. We'd like, if it's acceptable to you, to assign you to one of our SG teams, also we'd like to be able to use you and your ship as a rescue vessel in those certain circumstances where it would be needed. I'm authorized to give you a few days to think about it. Whether or not you accept, I have also been authorized to set up paperwork for you, the boy, and your daughter as citizens of the USA, and a trust fund has been established that should see you through, until you discover what it is you want to do. Let me give you these documents, you can review them, they show what your salary and benefits would be, it also outlines what we've talked about today."
"Thank you General sir," Talis said accepting the paperwork and leaving his office. She walked down the hall in a daze. Finding herself standing outside of Daniel's office. They had established a habit of having coffee every morning, and she was a few minutes late due to her meeting. She knocked on his door and heard a muffled enter.
"You know, I don't know why you even knock anymore?" He said not looking up from an artifact he was looking at, when she didn't answer he looked at her and frowned. She was white as a sheet. "Talis are you ok? Do you need to go to the infirmary."
She shook her head at this. "He offered me a job." she said faintly. Handing Daniel the paperwork. He looked over it briefly. He hadn't really thought she would be staying, now he saw that there might be a possibility.
"Says here, even if you don't take the job, you can stay and they'll set you up with all the important stuff."
"I know, he told me, I never thought I'd stay, you know. I thought Zoë would get better, the general would say thanks so much, we don't have any room for you, and send us on our merry little way. But now he's offering all of us the chance to start over." She sat down on the chair next to Daniel's desk, staring off into space. "I need to talk to Archamedes."
"Good idea, do you know what you want to do?" Daniel asked her curious now.
"Archamedes, wouldn't be known as a former slave here. He could go to school, a real school, he's so smart, and Zoë, she would have so many opportunities. Me, I wouldn't be smuggling anymore, that would be hard, it's what I've done for so long. I've never gotten involved in anyone's causes before." she stood up and started pacing, her eyes focused inward, "if I took the job, I couldn't say that anymore, I wouldn't be neutral anymore."
"Sounds like you have a lot to think about." Daniel said.
She looked up at him, "Yes, I'd better go see Archamedes, thank you Daniel." She swiftly kissed him on the cheek before she could talk herself out of it, and left.
The next day, Talis left General Hammond's office feeling much more confident. She was now gainfully employed. She was supposed to set up a time for Air Force tutors to test Archamedes, so that he could see what he needed to learn before enrolling in a school. Being 17, he would probably be able to skip high school, and go straight into college, or even the military if he chose.
She was also supposed to be going with Sam soon to find a place off base, so that she, Arch, and Zoë, had a place to call their own. The birth certificates were being set up with Arch being Talis' younger brother. So far, Sam was the only one, besides her family, and General Hammond now, that knew what her choice had been.
She wasn't sure how she was going to tell Daniel. She wasn't sure if he would be happy, or even care at all. He had been true to becoming her friend, but she knew that didn't mean anything in the scheme of things. She was actually heading to his office for their morning coffee. A strange beverage, but she enjoyed the taste. And he really enjoyed coffee. Instead of knocking she walked in. He looked up a little surprised.
"Hey," he grinned, happy that she had finally listened about the knocking. "I got a new blend for us to try today." he said walking over to the coffee machine.
"I accepted General Hammond's offer." she said in a rush.
Daniel closed his eyes in relief, then turned with a huge smile. "That's wonderful Talis, I'm really glad."
"Sam and I are going to look for a house for Arch, Zoë, and me. I'm also going to need help finding furniture, once I find a house of course. Would you help me with that?"
"I certainly will." he answered, and swept her into a hug. 'just a friendly hug' he told himself.
'This is just a friendly hug,' Talis thought to herself, but returned it enthusiastically.
After going through some basic training that General Hammond had devised for her, Talis joined SG-2. By April things had settled into a fair routine. Sam had helped her find a nice house fairly close to the base. It was huge, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, but Talis figured the space was necessary. Talis had decided to purchase the house, and they were waiting for something called escrow. Daniel was taking her to different stores looking for furniture. They would make themselves at home in the areas the stores had designed so that they could sell sets, and end up cracking up every time.
For Zo's first birthday, the gang got together and ended up taking the little girl to Chuck E. Cheese's. Talis glowed watching her daughter laughing and clapping at all the fun going on around her. The group decided to call it a night when the baby's eyes started drooping. Cassie and Talis, decided to walk down to the parking area with the baby in the stroller, while Sam, Daniel and Jack tried to pull Teal'c away from the Hammer the Gopher game. They would grab Arch on the way out, he was busy flirting with the waitress. The girls walked down the street towards the cars. They came abreast of an alley, when a hand shot out and grabbed Talis by the arm. She turned to see a young man, holding a knife, and trembling.
"Give me your wallets, and make it fast!" he demanded.
Talis looked at the boy, because really that's what he was. She sighed, spun her wrist so she was gripping his instead, she kicked the knife from the boys hand, and threw him face down into the pavement, holding him in a wristlock behind his back. "I think you've made a mistake." she told him lightly. She made sure he wasn't carrying anymore weapons, Cassie was staring at the whole thing dumbfounded, "You ok Cass?"
"Yeah," she answered a little wobbly, "should I call the cops?"
Talis heard the boy's swift intake of breath, "What's your name boy?" she heard a muffled voice answer with the name Ben. "Well Ben, I'm thinking the police won't be necessary. What do you think?" She let the boy go and he scooted against the wall of the alley, blood from a scrape running down his cheek.
"No ma'am," he said looking at her uneasily.
She grabbed a baby wipe from the diaper bag, crouched in front of the boy, and handed it to him. "Clean your face." she ordered. She looked at the boy.
He was in jeans that had seen better days, but were clean, old sneakers, and an old college sweat shirt hoodie, which was pulled over a head with clean short brown hair. She had his wallet in her hand, opening it she saw that there was no money in it, a faded picture of a pretty young girl with long chestnut hair, signed Love Shannon on the back, and a photo id showing that she was dealing with one Benjamin Chambers, age 18.
"So, Ben, now we're at what's called an impasse. Luckily my daughter is sleeping, so I won't be shooting you, which is good. I haven't had to shoot anyone in a long time. I would hate to have to do it when I'm in such a good mood, ya know?"
"No ma'am, I mean yes ma'am." the boy stammered, his eyes widened as the rest of their group had joined Cassie, and were looking at the scene with widened eyes.
"You're also lucky that Cass doesn't scare too easily, 'cuz that would have pissed me off too. So Ben, I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to answer them. Comprehend?"
"Yes, ma'am." he said starting to get nervous, he blurted out, "I'm sorry, I needed the money."
"Why don't you have a job?"
"I was working at the Convention Center here in town, working for my girlfriends father. Shannon got pregnant, her father fired me, and anytime someone calls for a reference he tells them I got caught stealing. I'm sorry," the boy started to cry, "I needed money, I left my house a long time ago, and Shannon's Dad kicked her out. She needs to see a doctor, and we got no place to go."
Talis looked at the boy. "Why'd you leave home?"
"My Mom died, my Dad was an abusive Bastard."
"Did you graduate high school?" Talis looked at the boy trying to compose himself, his head shot up at this and she saw pride in his eyes.
"I ain't no drop out! I stayed at the Y. I graduated."
Talis looked over at the group, they looked back at her as if to say 'this is your party.' She stood up, and looked down at the boy, he reminded her of herself in many ways. She held her hand out to him, "Let's go get Shannon, and talk about your options."
Ben looked up at her suspiciously, with not much to lose, he took her hand and stood up.
They picked up the girl at the local Y, where she was watching TV. She looked so young with her slightly rounded belly. She smiled radiantly when she saw Ben, then frowned as she saw Talis.
Talis smiled at the girl reassuringly, "Hello Shannon, I'm Talis, Ben thought you might like to grab a bite to eat with us?"
The girl looked up at Ben for confirmation, and seemed relieved when he nodded his agreement. The group got a table at a diner nearby, and ordered food. In the meantime, Ben had explained how he had met the group, the girl looked very unhappy at the thought of him committing a crime to care for them.
Talis knew her friends didn't exactly understand what she was doing, but she knew they'd figure it out. She couldn't turn her back on the couple. Not after everything she herself had been through, and the new life she'd received. "Well, Ben, you have some options here."
Ben looked at the woman, who had already shocked him with her behavior. "What options? We're not getting rid of the baby!" he said hotly.
Talis looked at the boy, and shook her head. "That's my daughter," she said pointing at Zoë, "You won't ever see her father in the picture. If I can have a child and do everything on my own, I wouldn't suggest less to you. Now as I see it, you're trying to take care of your responsibilities. The problem is, the way you're going about it. I'm going to tell you a little story, my friends here don't know all of it, although I'm sure they suspected. When I was on my own, making all the decisions for myself, my 16 year old brother, and having a child on the way, I made some decisions on how I was going to support us. And let me tell you, my delivery service, I guess you could call it, wasn't always on the up and up, a lot of it was on the negative side of legal. There were a lot of law enforcement that wanted to talk to me, a lot of places and things I couldn't go and do, because of that. You got lucky tonight, Ben. You met me." Talis folded her arms on the table in front of her and looked at the boy.
Everyone at the table was quiet, she knew that she had just confirmed that she wasn't the most honest person, and knew they would look at her different now. She sighed inwardly. "I'm giving you two options. One, I give you money for a nice motel for the evening, I take Shannon to the doctor tomorrow, and then leave you to make your own choices, and stay out of your life. I hope you don't choose that one. Before I give you option two, tell me something, you love Shannon?"
"Yes ma'am." Ben said strongly, squeezing the girl's hand.
"I want you to meet my friends now. Could you guys give your names, what you do, who you work for?" she said looking at the rest of the table. She saw Samantha start to understand where she was heading.
"My name's Archie, I'm 17, joining the Air Force, and going to their school here in the fall." Archie said shyly.
"I'm Daniel Jackson, I'm an independent contractor with the Air force, a doctor of several things." Daniel answered still confused. But Talis saw Jack start to get it too.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force. Work with this bunch of hooligans."
"Major Samantha Carter, United States Air Force, second in command to Colonel O'Neill, I'm also a doctor of Astrophysics."
"I am Teal'c, I work with the Air Force under Colonel O'Neill's command."
"I'm Cassie," the girl said grinning at the couple, "my mom was a major in the United States Air Force, and Chief Medical Officer at the base here in town, I'm in college."
The couple looked at Talis, "My name is Talis Starling, I command my own ship, I work as an independent contractor for the Air Force. Now, if an old smuggler like me can turn my life around, why can't you?"
"I tried the military. Hank, Shannon's father, told them I was a thief and a drug user."
"Are you?" Jack asked.
"No sir!" Shannon answered before Ben could. "Ben's smart, and good, he sacrifices everything for me!"
Ben looked at his girlfriend, "We want to get married, we will get married."
"Have you taken the tests to see what you scored for entry yet?" Sam asked.
"Yes ma'am, I scored pretty high, but....." he looked down dejectedly.
Jack pulled a card from his wallet, and wrote a number on the back. "If you're serious about wanting to join, call me tomorrow. I'll take you to a recruiter I know and get you set up. If you do join, and you're married, they provide you with base housing, health for both of you and the baby, you'd have to go through boot first, but if your scores were good enough, you wouldn't have to just enlist, you could go in as an officer. They'd train you, so if you chose to get out after your first tour, you'd be able to get a job anywhere else."
Ben and Shannon were holding each others hand tightly. "Sir, if you don't mind," Ben said to Jack, "instead of waiting to call you tomorrow, can I just tell you now that I'm serious?"
Jack smiled at the young man, "Where do I pick you up?"
Talis smiled, "My place." Daniel looked at her quickly, concerned, "Since I'll be taking Shannon to the doctor tomorrow, I think overall that's the best course of action. Where have you guys been sleeping?"
"My car." Ben said quietly. "We park somewhere different every night. I've been pawning stuff for gas and food money, but I don't have anything else to pawn."
Talis felt so angry at the parents of these kids. Daniel stopped her on their way out of the restaurant. "I'm staying at your place tonight."
"Why? It isn't like there's anything there to steal yet." She told him.
"I don't care, I'm staying." He said stubbornly. She sighed and nodded her assent.
Jack walked up to Talis and looked down at her. "You did a good thing here tonight Starling."
"Not bad for an old criminal, huh? Bet you're thinking Hammond was nuts to hire me on permanent huh?"
"We do a lot of stuff we aren't necessarily proud of to survive, Starling, what you have to keep in mind, is what decisions we make when we have more than one option. You gave that kid options; options that you didn't have, and he took the right one. I think we got pretty damn lucky that you decided to stick around. We'll see you tomorrow," he squeezed her shoulder and turned to go, "By the way, make sure your guard dog gets some sleep, he's a little bitchy when's he tired."
Talis got her group home. Arch went to his room, and headed straight for bed. Talis tucked Zoë in for the night, and headed back to the living room, where her three guests were waiting. Daniel was fixing drinks in the kitchen, and Ben and Shannon were standing in the middle of the room looking around themselves.
"Did you buy this house when you were a smuggler?" Shannon whispered.
"Gosh no, where I came from smuggling wasn't that lucrative. No, I bought this in the last month, since working for the Air Force. Come on I'll show you your room." Talis got them settled in for the night, and headed back to the living room, where Daniel was looking out her sliding glass door.
"You ready for bed there Hero."
"Yeah, if you have a pillow and blanket, I'll stretch out on the couch here." he said turning to face her.
"No you won't." she told him.
"I won't?" he asked.
"Dr.Jackson, I think that you should know by now, that if you're going to be staying the night at my house, you're sure as hell not going to be sleeping on the couch." She walked to him slowly, taking him by the hand and leading him to the master suite.
The only other bedroom near it was Zo's, the other three were on the other side of the house. It had been a big appeal for her, giving both her, and Archamedes needed privacy. She got him into her room and pushed him to the bed. She took his shoes and socks off, and started working on his pants.
He started to say something, she stopped him by putting her fingers over his mouth. "Daniel, Can't you just enjoy it? Let's not analyze this. I want you, you want me. There doesn't have to be hearts and flowers for this."
She unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off of his shoulders, leaving him only in his boxer briefs on her bed. She backed away from him slightly and started to remove her clothes. When she was down to just her matching red bra and panties, she walked back to him. She kneeled on the bed, straddling him and ground herself into his arousal, he moaned slightly. She ran her tongue down his chest, around his navel, and sucked him through his boxers, smiling as he jumped slightly. Talis pulled his shorts off of him and took him into her mouth. She took his erection down her throat as far as she could, he was thrusting his hips up slightly, she started humming, knowing it would add to his pleasure, and he got even harder. As she moved him in and out of her mouth, she ran her fingers over his testicles. Every once in a while she would swirl her tongue over the tip of his penis, run her tongue down and suck the testicles into her mouth, she could tell that Daniel was on the edge. She could feel herself on the edge as well, so wet from having him in her mouth.
Without taking her panties off, she slid up his body, positioned herself, moved the panties to the side, and inserted him into her. Daniel thought he would come right then, she was so tight, and had already worked him in her mouth, but then she started riding him, harder and harder. They came together in one huge orgasm. She rolled off him, to his side, turned off the lights and snuggled in under the covers. He pulled her to him, and they went to sleep.
Talis was gone when Daniel woke up the next morning. He got dressed and headed to the base with a slightly heavy heart.