Jack suddenly found his voice. "Wait just a minute. Let's get some ground truths established here. Are you sure it's yours?"
Danny and Daniel turned near identical looks on him, their blue eyes mirroring the same distaste. Danny said sarcastically, "What part of she was a virgin didn't you understand Dad?"
Sam spoke for the first time, asking, "Is she completely sure? Maybe she was confused about her cycle?"
"She went to Planned Parenthood and got a pregnancy test," Danny said, destroying that fragile hope.
Jack picked up on the Planned Parenthood reference immediately. "So she's thinking of a termination?"
This got him another hostile glare from Danny. "She's a devout Catholic. The guilt would kill her."
"Danny, it would better for everyone," Jack pleaded.
"Better for the dead baby? My mother didn't abort me," Danny retorted hotly.
That cast a pall over the entire group. Daniel had vivid images spring to his mind of some poor girl he couldn't even remember left to fend for herself with Danny in her womb. His horrid, lurid dream came back to him and he could taste the bile rising in his throat. Sam thought about Danny as she had first seen him, a very small, innocent, defenseless little creature. Jack wished he had paid more attention to the public debate over this issue. He knew there were people who had put together a set of arguments for his point of view but he didn't know those arguments well enough to present them persuasively.
Finally Jack said, "Danny, it isn't really a baby yet."
Sam, still thinking about her precious baby Danny, said, "Yet if born prematurely, it looks exactly like a baby and grows into a child?"
Daniel held up a hand. "This is not the place for a recapitulation of the ProLife/ProChoice debate. We are not Hannitty and Colmes. We're the parents of a boy who got the girl he loves pregnant and wants to do the right thing if he can determine what that is. And, the girl, who is really the one making the decision, isn't planning on an abortion."
Danny looked at Daniel stunned. "How did you know that I love her? I only just figured it out myself."
Daniel smiled faintly. "Maybe you have more of me in you than you want to admit. Danny, please answer my initial question. What does she want to do?"
"She's really confused. The only things she's sure of are that she won't have an abortion and her parents and brother are going to go completely nonlinear. I think she's more frightened of them than she is of what the pregnancy might bring."
Daniel nodded. "I'm afraid she's probably right about their initial reaction but I would hope that they would get over it. The next question is what do you want to do about it?"
"I don't want to lose my child or my future or hers. I guess I want to have it all," he said sadly, "and I know that isn't possible real world." He turned completely to face Daniel now. "I was hoping maybe if she wants to give the baby up for adoption you and Mom could raise it."
"Oh for crying out loud," Jack exploded. "This isn't 'General Hospital' or some other stupid soap opera. You need to put this behind you." He tacked on belatedly, "and so does she."
Daniel more or less ignored Jack. "Your mother and I would have to discuss any adoption."
Sam made some inarticulate noise but said nothing.
Jack said, slowly, "I guess I don't seem too sensitive to you so far, Danny. The thing is, my primary concern has to be you, my son. You have tremendous potential even though you've not been interested in showing it for a few years. I don't want to see it all blown here and now."
"What about Carmen's potential? What about our baby's potential?" Danny asked. "The way out of this is not something that saves just me."
Jack made a helpless gesture, as if to say, "I know that."
"The first step has to be Carmen's. Until she tells her parents and decides what she wants to do, Danny doesn't even know his options. But," Daniel continued to focus exclusively on Danny as he had through out the whole discussion, "You need to let her know what kinds of things she can expect from you so she can take that into consideration."
Danny nodded, "I kind of did already. I told her I'd marry her or take her wherever she wanted to go or be with her when she told her parents or see if you guys would take the kid. I told her she should not think about any limits from me. I'll do whatever she needs."
Daniel was quite obviously very moved. "I'm so proud of you Danny. Not for how she got pregnant, obviously, but for everything you've done since then." Suddenly Danny and Daniel were hugging. Danny closed his eyes and to Sam and Jack watching him lean against Daniel, it almost seemed like he was drawing strength from him. When they broke apart, Danny looked at Daniel and said, "Thanks Dad for being here."
Nobody seemed to have anything to say after that. They sat awkwardly for a moment and then Danny said to Jack, "Don't you have to go take Sara out?"
Jack said, "I'm not going to do that NOW."
"Why not? Nothing's happening here. I REALLY don't want to talk about this any more. I just have to wait until I hear from Carmen like Daniel said," Danny said reasonably. He got up and went upstairs and they all just sat and watched him go.
"Well," said Jack. "Well." He sat for a moment before saying, "Snappy one-liners seem to be failing me here and I don't want to talk about feelings any more either so I guess I will go."
They heard the door close softly and then Sam got up and went to sit next to Daniel who was still on the couch. "He called me Dad," Daniel said softly. "Did you hear him?"
"You were telling him everything he wanted to hear. You should have heard yourself." Sam said. "You don't think that when we come back and say we're not willing to raise his child he's NOT going to think that was me and not you?"
She sounded angry and Daniel looked at her surprised. "WHEN we come back? Are you saying you wouldn't be willing to take the baby? Sam, I missed out on Danny's childhood. This would be another chance." He looked at her beseechingly.
"I didn't miss out on Danny's childhood, remember? I'm in my fifties. I would be in my 70's before the child got out of college. Is that a fair thing to do to a child?"
He was looking at her absolutely appalled. It was almost an audition for the role of Caesar when stabbed by Brutus. He shook his head, stood up, and said, "I, I um have some reading to do," he gestured vaguely, "upstairs." He plodded up the stairs, his steps very heavy and left Sam alone and suddenly quite frightened of what was happening to all of them.
For awhile each of the three miserable people sat in their misery alone. After a couple of hours, Danny rapped lightly on the door of Daniel's study. "Are you busy?" Danny asked tentatively.
"Just trying to occupy my mind so it wouldn't think about other things," Daniel said. "Come on in."
"I'm really sorry I've forced you to do that," Danny said looking at his feet.
Daniel tilted his head and looked at Danny, then looked away before speaking, "It's actually not you, Danny. It's your mother."
"You remember her?" Danny's voice rose incredulously.
"Not really but what I keep thinking is what might have happened to her. I get her pregnant and then, apparently, I go into deep freeze and I'm not there. You're standing up for Carmen. Did anyone stand up for her?"
"What do you mean, 'deep freeze?'" Danny asked.
Daniel flushed, realizing he had breeched classified information but suddenly thought Danny had a right to know some of it. "Surely you've noticed that I look awfully young for someone who was 39 when you were born. And I don't remember all those missing years either. The government thinks I was in some form of suspended animation, frozen."
"Nah," Danny said quickly. Then he realized that Daniel wasn't kidding. He might be delusional but he definitely wasn't kidding. "This is like the X-Files. I mean, nobody can really do that can they?"
"We can't. That doesn't mean someone somewhere can't." They sat and looked at each other.
"Why, Dad?" Danny asked. "Why would anyone want to do that?"
Daniel broke into a wide smile. "That's the second time you called me Dad."
Danny bit his lip and looked sheepish. "It was probably about time, huh? I've been a real brat to you and you've been pretty patient about it. I…"
Daniel laughed and cut in, "You're enough Jack's son that it's time to just say fine and let it go. We've both okay with it now. And, back to your original question, we don't know why someone would put me in suspended animation but tests on me seem to confirm that it happened."
"Wow. I bet I can't tell anyone this or they'll have to kill me, right?" Danny asked. Daniel nodded. "Thanks for trusting me. Mom and Dad have never told me anything."
"This isn't a contest, Danny, and I'm not trying to make it one. Maybe we'll come to a place where you just happen to have three parents instead of two."
"Dad," Danny said and they both laughed a little at his use of the name, "Do you have any idea at all what might have happened to my mother?"
"I'm having really bad dreams, missing pieces of my memory I'm guessing, and I think they've been about her. It's different from what I remembered at first. Those memories were clearly implanted somehow but I'm not sure what these new ones mean yet," Daniel replied carefully.
"Sometimes I wish I could just move to an alternate universe where none of this happened. Do you suppose there would be one where I'd be dating Carmen but she wouldn't be pregnant?" Danny asked whimsically.
Daniel's response was in the same vein with his remark about being invisible the night before, way too serious for such a fantastic topic and delivered as if he spoke from experience. "Alternate universes tend to suck. Chances are she'd be in love with someone else. Engaged to him or even married. You might not even be there." Now that he knew about Daniel being frozen, Danny wondered for just a moment if maybe Daniel actually did know something about being invisible or going to an alternate universe. But cryogenics was something people were actually working on. Invisibility and alternate universes – that was Marvel Comics.
Danny realized he needed to focus. "Actually, the reason I came in was I got done talking to Carmen a few minutes ago. I think I about have her persuaded that if when she tells her parents, they won't let her stay here and finish school, we get married, what do they call it, "in name only," so she gets out from under her parent's control and I have some rights." He covered his face with his hands and rubbed hard. "The problem is that they would have to agree to it. The only place in the whole country AND Mexico where you can get married without parental consent before 18 is Mississippi. I looked it up on the internet."
He looked at Daniel and shrugged. "Let's say, for the sake of discussion, they agree. I thought she could stay here and I could keep living at Dad's. Then after the baby was born and we were out of high school, we could see what the right thing to do about the marriage was. I know I should have talked to you and Mom first but it just sort of happened. Do you think you and Mom could let her live here like that?"
"Why don't we go find your mother and go get something to eat?" Daniel suggested. "We can talk about it."
As they started to go downstairs, Danny's cell phone on his belt started ringing. He snatched it up and noting the caller id answered, "Carmen. Is everything all right?"
He listened intently, more and more distraught as she told him what had happened when she told her family. "I'm coming over there," he said at last. She tried to talk him out of it because of her brother's rage and threats but he said, "I don't care. I'm not afraid of him and I'm not leaving you in that situation."
Danny looked at Daniel, pale as a ghost. "She's in her room. She told her parents and they went crazy. Her father called her a puta, a slut. Her brother hit her before her parents pulled him away. Ramon, the brother, also said he was going to kill me. Her parents are sending her to Mexico to her grandmother. She doesn't want to go. She was born here and she's spent her whole life here. To make things worse, the grandmother's really horrid and lives with an uncle who is another Ramon. I wouldn't be able to help her, be part of this, and I'd not have any rights as far as the decisions go about our kid. Carmen's a straight A student and, put together with her minority status, she should be able to get a great scholarship at a really good school if she just finishes this last year of high school with good grades. Dad, I CANNOT leave her there."
Daniel said, "The thing is Danny we don't have any legal rights here."
They stood looking at each other, mutually at a loss. "Dad, look I have to go. I have to tell them that it wasn't her doing. And, maybe if I offer to marry her, they'd let me."
"You're not going alone, Danny," Daniel said very forcefully.
Danny threw up a hand. "Hey, no problem. I don't want to. Her loco brother could do almost anything."
Daniel clapped him on the shoulder. "Good. Let's get your mother."
"Does she have to go too?" Danny asked, uncomfortable with putting his mother in this situation.
"Having a woman there might defuse things a little, don't you think? Plus I don't think she'd ever forgive us if she wasn't invited and she needs to be okay with the idea of Carmen living here. Either she or Jack is going to have to be willing to give you consent to get married and I'm not holding my breath for Jack to agree. Despite that, we should call Jack, give him a chance to be there." Jack's cell ran through to his voicemail and they couldn't think of a non-heart stopping message to leave so they hung up.
The scene that followed at the Duarte's joined Sam and Daniel's top 10 list of experiences they never wanted to have again along with the experience of telling Jack about their relationship. Danny and Sam didn't speak Spanish so they were spared much of the verbal abuse but Daniel understood virtually every word. On one level, he had to admire Carlos Duarte's absolute command of colorful invective. With Carlos' genes and Daniel's running in the baby, the child was bound to be good with words.
Finally after a really ugly half an hour or so, they were able to have something more like a discussion although they still were not allowed to see Carmen. Danny told them, haltingly but forthrightly, that he had been the aggressor and virtually raped Carmen. They didn't get any angrier than they already were at the confession because they patently didn't believe she hadn't been willing. After all, she was still seeing him.
Danny, with Sam and Daniel's help, tried to talk about solutions other than marriage that wouldn't involve Carmen going to Mexico but her parents were adamant. Danny then asked for her father's permission to marry Carmen, explaining that they would not live together but he would take responsibility for providing for her. Carmen had told him that it would be hard on their pride to admit it but money could really make a difference. The family sent all the money it could spare to Mexico to take care of her grandmother and to help other family members.
"We are not a charity," Carmen's father said, clearly insulted.
"Of course not, sir," Danny said. "But I am sure you agree that it is a man's duty to support his wife and children as well as, when he can, help his family and hers." You could see the wheels turning behind Carlos Duarte's eyes. He and his wife worked very hard, both holding down two jobs, and accepted a financial responsibility to a large number of people. The financial problems associated with Carmen's pregnancy undoubtedly exacerbated the moral and religious issues for him.
There was more talking and more talking. Mrs. Duarte remained silent but became visibly more and more upset. Finally, she got her husband's attention and said something to him quietly. They left the room and when they returned, Carlos gave Danny permission to ask Carmen to marry him.
When Carmen entered the room, she immediately ran to Danny and sheltered herself in his arms. The look her parents exchanged clearly communicated their skepticism that she had not been willing. Danny felt fiercely protective of her, looking at her puffy eyes and the red welt standing out angrily on her cheek where Ramon had slapped her. He tuned out everyone else and locked into Carmen. "Remember what we talked about," he said. "Marry me and live with my family while you finish high school."
Carmen studied him for a long time. "Are you sure, Danny? This is going to mess up your life."
Danny said, "Things will be tough for both of us until after the baby's born but people have lived through much worse. And afterwards we'll be able to go on with our lives, feeling good about the decisions we made."
Carmen said very, very softly, "Then, yes, Danny, I'll marry you."
That was when Ramon came home. In a matter of seconds, he had a knife out and went straight for Danny. Daniel demonstrated that he was more than an archeologist and a linguist. With a series of quick, decisive moves, he disarmed Ramon and had him pinned on the floor under his knee. There was a lot of yelling in Spanish. Daniel looked at Danny and Sam. "Do you want me to call the police?"
Carmen's parents looked shaken. "Por favor, Dr. Jackson, do not call the police. He has 18 years. He is still finishing high school because he got in some trouble a couple of years ago and we sent him home for awhile. This would go his record."
Sam said, greatly troubled, "I can't agree to my son being at risk. Ramon has already vandalized our home repeatedly. Now this."
Danny put his arm around her. "Mom, I can't start my marriage putting my brother-in-law in jail."
Ramon said vehemently from the floor, "You are not fking marrying my sister."
His father began to explain to him in Spanish exactly what was going to happen and why he wasn't going to do anything about it. Ramon cussed without stopping the entire time. When he finished, Carlos Duarte said to Daniel, "Let me have him, please."
Daniel took his knee off the boy's back, hauled him to his feet, and handed him over to his father who immediately backhanded Ramon across the mouth. "I promise you on my word of honor you will have no more trouble from him unless your son mistreats my daughter." Ramon started to say something. Carlos raised his hand as if to slap him again, and Ramon shut up.
Carlos Duarte escorted Ramon to another room. When he returned, they all sat down to talk logistics. Danny had done his research thoroughly on the Internet. At least one of each of their parents needed to come to apply for the license with Danny and Carmen. The license was only $20, there was no blood test required and no waiting period. The first day that was feasible, given the Duartes' work schedules, was Tuesday. They would have to schedule an appointment with the appropriate judge to actually perform the service and they would make that happen as quickly as possible. Danny didn't want to leave Carmen there but the Duartes absolutely refused to have her stay with either Jack or Sam and Daniel until after the ceremony.
They drove back home in heavy silence. It was only as they were pulling into the driveway that Danny said, "We still haven't discussed what happens to the baby after it's born."
Sam said, tensely, "We need Carmen for that discussion, don't we? It isn't going change anything that happens between now and the wedding ceremony anyway, is it?"
Danny nodded. "I guess that's right. I'll go home in the morning and talk to my dad about everything."
"Do you want," Daniel began.
"I think it's better if I handle this," Danny said. "He is not going to like it at all and you guys have started actually getting along. I don't want this to cause a lot of bad feeling. He needs to see this as my idea and not yours." So that was the way they played it.
The following afternoon, Jack arrived at Sam and Daniel's door very upset. He went straight into the kitchen and helped himself to a beer before he plopped down on the couch. "Sam, are you going to sign to permit Danny to get married? I told him I wouldn't."
Sam said, simply, "I am."
Jack hurled the bottle into their fireplace. "Damn it, Sam! That isn't the answer. Thousands of girls just go somewhere, have the baby, and give it up for adoption. How many times have you heard it said that having to get married like this ruins people's lives."
Sam laid a hand on Daniel's arm to stop him from speaking. "If he was going to drop out of school and support her, I would agree. But we're talking about a marriage in name only. And as to those thousands of girls, our son doesn't feel responsible for what happened to them. He feels responsible for this one."
"And what about his future?" Jack demanded.
"Think about it Jack. This is the first time since shortly after we moved back to Colorado that he's taken responsibility for anything. This could actually be what saves him."
Jack didn't speak for awhile. Then he walked over to the fireplace, and looked in, a little embarrassed. "I made quite a mess, didn't I? I guess I'm the one who ought to clean it up."
Daniel offered, "Let me help."
Things were difficult for Sam and Daniel for awhile. The discussion about the baby had been their first real fight since they got married. When they went to bed, they didn't reach for each other. Each lay on their own side of the bed, their backs to each other, and took a really long time going to sleep. Tuesday night, about a half an hour after they had turned out the lights, Sam sat up, turned on the lamp next to her side of the bed, and shook Daniel. "What," he said, distinctly irritated.
"It's time for this festival of passive aggressivity to come to an end," Sam announced.
"Who's passive aggressive?" Daniel asked. "It sure as hell isn't me."
Sam laid it out. "We had a fight three whole days ago. We're both continuing to withhold affection and avoiding resolving the problem. What would you call it?"
"Sam," Daniel said, with exaggerated patience, "We don't even know if Carmen wants to give the baby up and whether, if she did, she'd want to give it to us. It seems sort of stupid to batter each other when there may not be anything to fight about."
"Okay, you're right. We have to table the resolution but how about the affection withholding part?" She looked at him challengingly and then began to trail her hand up the inside of his thigh.
"Sam, turn off the light," he said softly. She narrowed her eyes and studied him to decide what motivated the request. He slowly undid the tie on the front of her nightgown and slipped his hand inside. "I promise you won't regret it."
Jack spent a lot of time that week with Sara, talking it through, over and over again. He felt horrible but she was a real source of strength. Thursday night, they were sitting on the couch at his place. They had exhausted the topic, once again, and were trying to watch a movie on cable they remembered fondly from more than thirty years before. "I could have sworn this was a much funnier movie," Sara said.
"I certainly remembered that we laughed our asses off," Jack said.
"Can you believe that woman's hair?" Sara said. The offending Mall bangs were so extreme that they almost took her breath away.
"It's a matched set with his hair," Jack said indicating the aggressive mullet sported by her costar. "One thing you have to say for the military. It really didn't encourage the mullet. I NEVER looked like that. I seem to remember that you thought this guy was really sexy though."
"What?" she said indignantly.
"I'm just saying maybe he put you in the mood because that was the night that we didn't even make it all the way home from the movie theater before you jumped me," he said.
"I jumped you?" she said. "You're sure about that? I sort of remember being the jumpee, not the jumper."
"We were walking along the street and you kissed me in a particularly suggestive manner," Jack asserted.
"A kiss is a kiss. You were just looking for an invitation."
"Nah, this was special. I'll show you what I mean." He leaned over, pulled her close, and kissed her. Much later, while the credits were rolling, he said, "See, that actor still gets you in the mood."
Sara was there with Jack when the ceremony was held the following Saturday as were Carlos and Angelina Duarte, and Sam and Daniel. Ramon wasn't there but no one missed him. Carmen was luminous. She wore a cream colored silk dress belonging to her mother, a clever seamstress who had altered it to fit perfectly. Her hair was pulled back in a simple twist and she carried a bouquet of red roses. Danny wore a charcoal grey suit and a red tie. The way that they looked at each other called into question the idea of a marriage "in name only." Sam, Daniel, and Jack found they had qualms about that part of the plan.
They went to a small but excellent Mexican restaurant near the courthouse afterwards. It was almost like a normal post wedding celebration except that, at the end, the groom went home with his father and the bride went to stay with his mother.
A week later, Danny had been over, spending time with Carmen. Exhausted, as is typical of that point in the pregnancy, she went to bed early. Before Danny went back to Jack's, Daniel asked Danny and Sam to join him at the table in the breakfast nook. He sat down across from them and said, "There's something I have to tell both of you. Watching this situation with Carmen has made me realize that I can't live with myself unless I go back to … to where they found me, to where they found Danny, and make sure that there isn't anything I can do to help Danny's mother. I talked to command and they've agreed to let me go, although not alone. In addition to some SG personnel, Teal'c is coming from Chulak and going with me. They've very motivated to know what happened."
Sam said, vehemently, "I'm not loosing you again. If you go, I go too."
"Sam, you're not in the Air Force any more. You're in great shape but they wouldn't think you met the quals for this mission. Besides, Danny needs you right now." He looked at Danny then. "It really isn't good timing but the longer I wait the less the odds are that I can do anything." Sam started to speak and he shook his head. "I know what you're going to say. It's already been years but I have to do it. I keep dreaming about her. I can't sleep. I can't live with myself."
"I guess the fact that you care is part of what I love about you," Sam said slowly, her beautiful blue eyes swimming with tears. She clutched his hand across the table. "You'll be taking my heart with you. Please don't break it."