Disclaimer:Yeah, I borrow a line from the Love Spit Love song "How Soon is Now?" if anyone watches Charmed the song is the song from the opening credits, and you'll recognize the line. I didn't want to use it, but it fits. Um, there's also a line from the pilot episode of MacGyver, which I also don't own.
A/N:Thanks to all who reviewed. You have made me very very happy. Vid Z, I know that women don't serve on subs, in fact my muse and I had quite an argument over whether or not to put that line in. So I thank you for knowing that fact, and I will say this, I never said that Kate had been on a submarine, I said that she had worked with submariners before, you inferred that I meant she had been on a sub, I never said it. But still, great catch, and please keep reviewing. To anyone who wants to win, well nothing excepts props, try to find the line from the song and the line from MacGyver. Remember, please review. Reviews make me happy.
Chapter 9
"Well that was weird," Daniel commented as he walked away from the infirmary with the rest of SG-1.
"What was weird?" Jack asked. He had seen Katie stand up to people many times. He had even seen her end the careers of officers who were needlessly risking their men. Though, he thought, I never thought I'd see her, or anyone for that matter, stand up to Teal'c like that. He was impressed and immensely proud of her, but for the life of him, he couldn't see anything weird about the exchange they had just witnessed.
"She called you Colonel O'Neill, Jack. And she gave an order that you didn't even question. I don't think I've ever seen that." Daniel stared at his best friend in amazement. He was so lost in his thoughts that he barely acknowledge Teal'c and Sam when they left the group to kel'nor'reem and 'get back to work' respectively. Continuing to walk with Jack Daniel tried to puzzle it all out. Jack didn't even think Kate's actions or words had been odd, of course, this was the same man who hadn't told his best friend about his daughter. It didn't make sense to Daniel, Jack could occasionally talk to him about Charlie, his dead son, but he wouldn't even tell anyone that he had a living daughter? It didn't make any sense. His behavior while telling them about Kate didn't make sense either, Daniel thought. Suddenly though, Daniel put together the pieces. Jack's odd introspective, almost ashamed behavior while telling them about his daughter, his complete lack of mentioning her to them over the last seven years, he was ashamed. Not of his daughter, no his pride in her was evident, if you knew how to read Jack O'Neill, but he was ashamed that she had been born when he was just 16. He was ashamed that she had had to live without a mother who loved her for 11 years; even though he didn't personally know Sara O'Neill, Daniel knew enough about her to know that she would have loved Kate as her own. He was ashamed that she had ever had to know what a single-parent household was like, that she'd been the one waiting nervously for him to come home from mission for her entire life.
Daniel knew his friend, knew that he would have put everything he had into his first family, Maria and Kate; knew that Jack did believe that marriage was supposed to be forever, even he had had his fall apart on him, twice now. For all the things that Jack was intensely ashamed of, Daniel was intensely jealous and envious of. Kate, though raised by a single father, and then stepmother, had been raised surrounded by love and protected from all things bad and evil in the world, at least as much as possible. Because that was the way Jack was with children. He was warm and loving and extremely protective. Kate, Daniel realized, for all that her life had undoubtedly been weird, had experienced a better childhood than any of the members of SG-1 could lay claim too. Hers hadn't been cut short by responsibility, hadn't been marred by tragedy, and she and Jack seemed to have a terrific relationship, much better than even Sam and Jacob's was these days.
When he realized that he and Jack were still walking and had in fact almost reached his lab, Daniel spoke up, "Let's go in my lab. We have some stuff to discuss." Though Jack really didn't want to talk at the moment, he knew better than to say no to Daniel when he was like this. He'd just come to bug Jack later and not drop whatever subject he'd chosen until he felt he had succeeded at getting them to do whatever it was he wanted. So reluctantly, Jack and Daniel entered the one room in the entire base that could put any museum or library to shame. As soon as he'd closed the door, for this was not a conversation he thought Jack would want overheard, he began, "Jack, I get that you feel ashamed in some way for having a child only 16 years your junior. But you shouldn't. I think that Kate must have had the best and happiest childhood out of the four members of SG-1. Whatever stigmas the two of you ran into over the years, you need to remember that those ways of thinking are dead, for the most part. But is that why talk about Kate even less than you talk about Charlie? Because of shame forced on you by others?"
"Daniel, I don't want to talk about this." Everything about Jack, voice tone, body language, facial expressions, screamed at Daniel to drop the subject. Daniel being Daniel, however, just ignored it.
"Jack, how many times have you said that SG-1 is a family? Families, at least the ones I know, accept and work through things together. And we will accept this. But we can't just accept it with one explanation. Besides, you raising Kate, it didn't just affect her, it affected you too. So in a way we have to reaccept you while we're accepting Kate and the whole idea of you having another child. Another child who is grown and well respected and very good at what she does. And not only is she all that, but she also has a father who loves her unconditionally for who she is and is proud of her. And don't try to deny that last part, I've known you too long to not be able to read you."
"Yes, I am proud of Katie, and yes, I love her unconditionally. She's her own person, even if she does occasionally act like me. And…you're right. I don't tell people about Katie because of the assumptions people make. About me and about her. I also don't tell because until eight years ago I had never lived the life of a bachelor. Even after Maria and I divorced, I had Katie with me, well after I got back from … a very bad place I had Katie with me. My entire existence for years was defined by my relationship with Katie. Everything suddenly feels like it was when Katie was little. Back when our identities were dependent on each other. Back when we were so dependent on each other that sometimes I felt that my teammates knew her as well as they knew me. And even though I loved her completely, even though I have always felt that she truly is the very best of me, and a whole lot of somebody else because I'm certainly not that good, but I have liked my independence from her over the last few years. Did I make a mistake yes, but she is not a mistake, she has never been a mistake, and never will be viewed as a mistake. Are we done here, Daniel? Or do you want more?"
"No Jack, I guess we are done here. Look, I have long accepted you for you, as has everyone else here. You worlds are colliding yes, but SG-1 can survive this. Can the SGC survive two O'Neill's that's a whole 'nother ball game," Daniel drawled.
As Jack opened the door, he turned back, much as Katie had done earlier, "Thanks Daniel."
"For what?"
"For…everything, including not judging me."
"That's what friends are for Jack."
"Still, thanks." With that Jack slipped out of Daniel lab, and headed to Teal'c's quarters. He knew his friend, and knew that his anger would not have abated. Jack's need to protect his daughter included protecting her from the wrath of a former First Prime.
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When Jack entered Teal'c's quarters he found his friend sitting on the floor, glaring at the wall, not mediating. Even though Teal'c didn't need to kel'nor'reem any longer he still found it helpful in controlling his emotions and understanding himself. But right now, he was obviously far to enraged to mediate. "Your daughter is most like you O'Neill. Very stubborn," he said rage hidden, but not abated.
Cracking a half-smile, Jack looked at his friend, "That she is. But she also has a point. Taking your revenge now will only harm the host. The host is as much a victim in all this as Shan'auc, after all, the poor guy thought he was agreeing to share his body, not be made a prisoner. We have no idea if Tanith ever actually let the host speak, Teal'c. Katie also takes oaths very seriously. She swore to protect all life, and that's what she will do. She is going to do everything in her power to heal and protect her patient. Even if it means possibly alienating my friends, more than I've already done. She'll do what she has do."
"Indeed she will my brother. And I will do what I must to avenge Shan'auc. KateO'Neill's loyalty and her belief in the seriousness of oaths is obviously a tribute to her upbringing. You have much to be proud of O'Neill."
"Indeed I do. And much to be ashamed of. But believe me Teal'c, she won't stop at anything if it means keeping her patient alive and safe. For the sake of the sanity of the base, it might be a good idea if you give up on the idea of revenge until the snake is out of the poor guy's head."
"I wish I could O'Neill. But Neither I nor the memory of Shan'auc will be appeased until her murderer has faced punishment."
"Okay, then. But don't say I didn't tell that nothing in this galaxy is going to help you if she catches you trying to hurt that guy."
"Indeed I shall remember this O'Neill."
Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, and knowing that Katie would be, well, as enraged as Teal'c was if she ever found out that he was trying to protect her. She often said that he was almost too overprotective of the people he loved. His only defense against that was that he let Sam go off-world into battle situations nearly every week. Of course if Sam ever found out that he had even thought that she would kick his ass across the galaxy and then blow him to smithereens.
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While Jack went to talk to Teal'c, Daniel decided to head to Sam's lab to see how she was dealing, or not dealing, with everything. When he got to her lab, she was sitting at her worktable, looking at a small hand sized gizmo that SG-3 had brought back the previous week. To anyone who didn't know Sam as well as the rest of SG-1 did, she appeared to be absorbed in her study of the alien technology. Daniel, however, could see that she wasn't even thinking about the device, really she was only looking at it to fool anyone who happened to walk into (or by) her lab, into thinking that she was working. "Hey Sam, how are you doing with all of this?"
"With all of what Daniel," she evaded the question. Just as Daniel had truly expected her too. If anything, Jack and Sam were the two hardest people to get to talk about how they felt. He'd actually gotten Jack to talk, though he also thought that those thoughts and feelings had been building in Jack for years and had been causing him quite a bit of guilt that perhaps he didn't need to feel. Still he figured getting Sam to talk was going to be impossible, but he still needed to try, and whether or not she wanted to, Sam needed to talk to someone about everything that had happened and been reveled in the last day.
"With Kate, and all that, how are you doing?"
"I don't know Daniel. How should I be doing with all of these revelations?"
"Sam, I mean, how are you doing in terms of your relationship with Jack?"
"What relationship, Daniel? As his 2IC I wish he had told me, but we don't have a relationship beyond that."
"You two are friends."
"Are we Daniel?"
"Well, if you hadn't decided to start dating Pete…"
"Then what, Daniel? What would we be? Maybe we waited too long, I don't know. We're only human Daniel. I'm only human. And I need to be loved; loved more than as a friend or a sister. Pete can give that to me. He can't. I don't even know if he cares that much anymore. Listen, Daniel, I need to get back to work. I'll see you later."
As Daniel walked out of Sam's lab, his shoulders slumped, and by the time he reached his lab, he collapsed in his chair. Slumping down so no one could see him, and feeling utterly defeated. He could see that both his friends' feelings for each other had only grown deeper over the years, even if they couldn't see it. If they would only stop denying their feelings everything would work out. After all, they were SG-1, they could do the impossible, so why couldn't the two people who most deserved to be happy, find a way to achieve that happiness?
