A/N: Okay, very sorry about the late update, but I was having unforseen trouble writing the next part. And I know I'm going to regret posting this before finishing the next chapter, but I decided it was high time I gave you guys another chp. Hope you like and please review. Misao-incarnate.
o o o
"Mmm," Daniel grumbled, and glared at O'ahka, who had thrown yet another wad of wet paper at him. Her co-conspiritor, Jack, gave her a sideways grin and tore off another little piece from his supply of note-book paper. He handed it across to O'ahka beneath Daniel's desk, slyly.
She giggled and took it, apparently rolling it up into a tiny, little ball underneath the table. Daniel rolled his eyes and tried to go back to his work. A second later, a wet little white obstruction splatted onto the surface of his glasses and stuck there like a miniature suction cup.
Daniel took off his glasses and wiped them on the end of his shirt, all the while listening to the unsuccessfully stifled giggles of a certain little girl. "Jack," he said in light exasperation, "Would you cut it out?"
"Me?" Jack protested, feigning uninvolvement, "O'ahka's been throwing the spit-balls the whole time."
Teal'c assured Daniel from his seat on the couch, "I was watching from the beginning, and it was indeed O'ahka who was throwing the projectiles." Yeah, and Jack had been the one feeding her the paper the whole time. What was it? The glasses? Did they automatically awaken some primal child to teacher instinct that made one want to throw spit-balls and raise their hand a million times to ask to go to the bathroom, thereby, interrupting his extremely, well, pretty important work?
Had to be.
"See?" Jack questioned, gloating.
O'ahka watched Daniel. He looked like he was trying to come up with a witty retort, but then he shut his mouth as if changing his mind. She wondered what he'd been about to say. She couldn't read anyone's thoughts anymore, though. The longer she stayed like this, the more human she became.
And that wasn't necessarily a good thing...
"O'ahka?" Sam questioned, and she looked up to find the Colonel standing in the doorway to Daniel's office, holding a folder in her right hand. She held it up, indicating to O'ahka that this was the topic she needed to discuss with her. "Will you come talk to me for a minute?"
O'ahka tossed a nervous glance in Daniel's direction, knowing with an almost flawless certainty what Sam wanted to talk to her about. Daniel merely gave her a questioning look then shrugged, so she slipped out of her chair and walked to Sam.
Samantha dropped a hand onto her shoulder and led her out into the hall and down it a ways, out of earshot. It was probably her intention to keep Daniel, Jack, and Teal'c from overhearing what she had to say.
O'ahka swallowed, finding her mouth strangely dry. She also noticed that her hands were trembling a little and rather damp, so she tucked them under her armpits. "What is it, Sam?" she questioned, timidly.
Samantha wondered, "Were you ever going to tell Daniel that you took his DNA to create your own body?"
O'ahka gasped and her lower lip started to tremble. "I didn't know it was wrong..."
Sam knelt in front of her, set the folder on the floor beside them and took O'ahka's arms in her hands. "It's okay, but I need to know something... I had Dr. Brightman check for a match with my blood, but it turned out to be negative. Whose DNA did you use for your surrogate mother?"
O'ahka knew she'd done something terrible the second she'd had that conversation with Sam in the mess hall that day. But at the time she hadn't felt the need to reveal her secret to anyone. After all, if she changed back into her natural form, it wouldn't matter anymore... Well, that was the excuse she'd used to mollify her guilty conscience, at least.
She felt like such a fake, but she just couldn't bring herself to tell Sam the truth. "But I only took Daniel's DNA," she lied.
Sam gave her a skeptical look and said, "Your DNA didn't match up with Daniel's perfectly. You can't be his clone, anyway. You're a girl."
O'ahka blushed and stared at her feet. She didn't want Sam to hate her. And if she told her what she'd done, she would. And then she would tell Daniel, and Daniel would hate her too. "All right," Sam told her, and O'ahka glanced up at her in surprise.
"What?" she questioned the Colonel.
"If you don't want to tell the truth to me then that's fine," Sam told her, "But I think you should tell Daniel everything."
O'ahka shook her head, and Sam sighed. "I won't make you," she said. "I won't even tell him myself, okay?"
"Okay..." O'ahka answered uncertainly. Sam rose to her feet and held out her hand to O'ahka. She took it hesitantly and followed Sam down the hallway back to Daniel's office.
When they entered, Daniel wondered, "Is everything all right?"
Sam looked down at O'ahka, giving her a "go ahead" look, but O'ahka just nodded. She couldn't tell him... at least not yet. She glanced up at Sam guiltily and then away again.
Jack questioned, "What's going on? Carter, did you get those test results back yet?"
Sam nodded. "I'll tell you about it later," she said, and O'ahka felt grateful. Why would Sam cover for her if she was angry?
Daniel frowned slightly, and then turned to Jack. "I've been meaning to ask you if O'ahka could get cleared to go offbase. Since she's human and passed all the physicals...?"
"O'? Go offbase?" Jack asked, grimacing a bit. O'ahka ran over to him and grabbed his hand in both of hers.
"Please? Please, can I?" she begged. "I know you're not mad at me anymore! I want to see what your planet looks like outside." She hated that whiney note in her voice, but she couldn't seem to hold it back.
Jack gave her a long, speculative gaze but then said, "Maybe."
O'ahka groaned loudly, abruptly dropping Jack's hands. "You are so mean," she grumbled.
Daniel mentioned, "I've noticed that you haven't been picking up on our thoughts, lately..." O'ahka froze. "Is that because you're becoming more human?" She looked at him sharply, and saw that his expression was simply curious.
Feeling less threatened, O'ahka nodded. "Yeah..." She yawned, and then glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly nine pm. Speaking of... "I'm sort of tired."
Sam said from beside her, "Let's get you to bed then." O'ahka took her hand on her own this time, and Sam smiled at her.
She glanced at Daniel, but he remained seated. She decided he wasn't going to come with them this time to tuck her in. Sighing, she started to turn, when Jack rose and volunteered, "I'll go with you."
Daniel glanced at him quickly, his mouth dropping in surprise. Sam merely nodded, "Sure." When Sam gave Daniel a furtive glance, though, O'ahka impulsively broke free and ran back to him.
What was it human children did before going to bed? She'd only remembered bits and pieces from Daniel and Sam's thoughts and memories. She was afraid that she was going to get this terribly mixed up, but she had to try, anyway.
Climbing into Daniel's lap, and blatantly ignoring his surprise, she balanced herself with her hands on his shoulders and whispered in his ear, "If I should die before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take... Amen." Was she forgetting something? She wondered, drawing back and smiling at Daniel proudly.
Her smile caught on her teeth then faded when she saw the striken look on his face. His eyes were wide and a little worried, and for some reason it scared her. She started to hop off of his lap in mortification, and found herself smothered in a bear hug.
"Goodnight, O'ahka," he whispered back to her. So, that's what you were supposed to say.
"Goodnight," she piped back at him a bit breathlessly because he was squeezing her sort of hard. He released her, and smiled a sheepish half-grin. She scampered back to Sam, feeling embarrassed and confused. She had said the wrong thing, but she couldn't understand why it had upset Daniel so much.
Oh, well... She would figure it out later.
o o o
"Sam... ?" O'ahka's question pulled Samantha back into the little girl's temporary room. Jack had told them both good night a few minutes earlier and gone off to his office.
"Yes?" she asked, switching the light back on. O'ahka peaked at her from beneath the covers she was holding all the way up to beneath her eyes.
"What are little kids supposed to say to grownups before they go to bed?"
Maybe this had something to do with the scene from earlier, O'ahka climbing onto Daniel's lap and thereafter causing a shocked expression to appear on his face. It would have been comical if it weren't so spooky. "Well, 'goodnight' is a good place to start," Sam told her, uncertain about what she was really asking.
O'ahka lowered the covers to her mouth. "I thought there was a prayer, too?"
"Yeah..." Sam blinked. Suspiciously, she questioned, "What prayer did you say to Daniel?"
O'ahka repeated the words in a mumbled voice, but it was pretty obvious what it was just from the familiar rhythm. "Oh, gosh," Sam muttered. "O'ahka... You don't go around saying that when people are unsure if you're going to actually last through the night."
O'ahka sat up, letting the blanket drop the rest of the way. "Why wouldn't I live?"
"You're the one who told us that you could fade away again at any moment," Sam reminded her.
O'ahka looked pale as she contradicted in a subdued tone, "That's only if I'm in my original state..."
Sam rolled her eyes to the ceiling, wondering, 'Why me?' "I think you freaked Daniel out a little bit, but don't worry. He'll get over it..."
"I didn't mean to do that," O'ahka said, sorrowfully.
"It's okay," Sam assured her, feeling slightly guilty for not knowing what else to say.
O'ahka sniffled. "I'm sorry."
This she could respond to, Sam realized, then walked back to O'ahka, leaned down and gave her a hug. She kissed O'ahka's cheek and told her, "Good night."
"Good night," O'ahka responded, giving Sam a peck on the cheek.
Sam slipped out of the room, turning off the light.
o o o
Jack dropped by Daniel's office in the morning. "Hey," he greeted cheerfully. Then upon realizing Daniel was hybernating among his nest of books, he tapped him on the shoulder just to see if he could scare him awake.
"Go away..." Daniel grumbled somewhat incoherently.
"I came to tell you that your little alien girl has permission to go off base now," Jack dangled the carrot. Usually it took coffee to get Daniel to wake up this quickly...
"What?" Daniel questioned, sitting up and straightening his glasses then taking them off to rub his eyes.
"O' can go offbase... But make sure you take Teal'c or Carter with you too," Jack told the archeologist.
Daniel blinked. "Oh... I should go get her then... What time is it?" He slipped his glasses back on and glanced over at the clock.
"Nine... you stayed up late, didn't you?" Jack questioned.
Daniel gave him an evasive glare. "I was working." More likely he was worrying. About what, Jack didn't know. But he could guess... O' had said something to him the other night that had freaked him out.
"I'm going to go find O'ahka," Daniel told him, standing up and straightening his rumpled shirt.
"Sure, go right ahead," Jack shot the sarcastic parting comment at Daniel's back. Daniel ignored him, and Jack wished he'd just said "okay."
o o o
Daniel expected O'ahka to be up already, bugging Sam in her office. But when he got there, Sam told him that she'd checked on O'ahka a couple hours ago and she'd still been asleep.
Daniel's heart seemed to trip over itself for a few beats then started up again in supermode. Why was he overreacting like this? She was probably just sleeping late... But didn't young children wake up earlier than this? He had no idea...
"Daniel?" Sam wondered, abandoning the project she was working on and following him out into the hall.
He started jogging for O'ahka's room, and Sam told him, "I'm sure she's okay..." But she didn't sound certain.
"I just have this feeling," Daniel mumbled.
They reached the door to O'ahka's room, and Daniel jerked it open and hurried inside. His breath caught at the sight of her. She was curled up on her side beneath the blankets, and her face was flushed and glistening with sweat.
But that wasn't what had caused his heart to stop... Her hair had darkened to a medium brown and her skin tone had become a pale olive. But most disturbing of all, instead of the slightly wavy lengths of hair she'd previously had, curls tumbled across her face, over the pillows and her shoulders.
"O'ahka..." Sam whispered.
Daniel bit back his question. Had Sam already known? He clenched his teeth and sat on the edge of O'ahka's bed. He brushed the hair away from her face and told Sam, "She has a fever."
Sam suggested optimistically, "It might be from changing... Her body might just need more time to adjust." He hoped she was right and this wasn't some sideaffect from what O'ahka had done to herself.
"How did she do it?" he asked, standing up, pulling back the covers, and lifting O'ahka into his arms.
"I think she took your DNA so that she could make herself human..." Sam answered reticently. "I told her I wouldn't tell," she explained at Daniel's sharp look.
He changed the subject, "I'm taking her to the infirmary just in case this isn't supposed to happen."
Why hadn't Sam told him first? Why had she gone to O'ahka? Was this because she wanted to keep her? Maybe because she hadn't gotten to keep Cassie... He tried not to be angry, and realized it wasn't exactly anger or betrayal he was feeling. It was jealousy. Why had O'ahka trusted Sam with her secret over him?
o o o