A/N: Wow, the reviews from the last chapter were especially sweet. I'm told that a Hero Turtle is the same thing as a Ninja Turtle, for iamdragonrider and anybody else who was curious. I didn't realize they have different names.
Ch 11
Danny woke up early the next morning. Very early. Fully refreshed and as full of as much energy as it was possible to contain in his little body, he scrambled out from under the covers and turned his attention to the person nearest him: Sam. She was asleep on her stomach next to him. He pulled the covers off of her and threw himself onto her back. "WAKE UP SAM!"
She groaned, hoping the wetness soaking through her tee-shirt was drool and not pee. "Danny, it's so early," she complained. "Don't you want to sleep a little more?"
"Nope," he answered, crawling over her to get to the edge of the bed and get down. She stopped him, wrapping an arm around him and sliding him back across the bed to her. He laughed and squirmed, trying to get away.
"Hey, people are trying to sleep in here you know!" Jack called from the couch.
"Dack, no sweep! Wet's pway!" Still trying to get away from Sam, Danny squirmed around. She tickled him and he giggled and tried to retaliate.
"Hey, no giggling, especially this early in the morning," Jack ordered, coming over to the bed with the intention of getting Danny off of Sam - he was jumping around on her and while she didn't seem to mind, and he'd certainly seen her withstand far greater tortures, it still couldn't be all that pleasant.
Danny, however, was having far too much fun even to acknowledge the falsely stern tone of Jack's voice. Apparently Jack's stern-Colonel-voice had about as much affect on Danny at two as it did on Daniel at thirty-whatever. Nonplussed, Danny got to his feet on the mattress and started bouncing around. When he noticed Jack standing next to the bed, he bounced right off of him and kept jumping.
Sam, also noticing Jack's sudden proximity and feeling strange about lying in bed in front of him, sat up straight and tried to look as collected as she usually did - which only added to the ridiculousness of the situation, as her wrinkled tee-shirt had several drool stains on it and her hair was absolutely a disaster. She made another grab for Danny, worried he was going to bounce right off the bed despite all their precautions. Danny, at the same time, bounced up and made a grab for Jack, catching handfuls of his grey tee-shirt.
The end result was that all three of them ended up in a heap on the bed, and as Jack found himself off-balance and falling, he barely managed to avoid landing on Danny. In avoiding squashing Danny, he squashed Sam instead, who shrieked louder than Danny and tried to push him away, but Danny had jumped on top of both of them and sounded like he was having the time of his life.
With all the movement, noise, and general chaos, not to mention the early morning hour, it was understandable that neither Jack nor Sam noticed that they were all being loud enough to cause a commotion in the hallway. General Hammond pushed through the gathering crowd outside the VIP quarters, closely followed by Dr. Fraiser and Teal'c, and knocked on the door once even though he knew the people inside couldn't hear him, and let himself in.
When Teal'c entered the room last and saw his three teammates in a tangled and laughing pile on the bed, he wisely shut the door behind himself so that none of the other SGC personnel would find anything interesting to talk about. "Good morning, people!" Hammond bellowed loudly when their entrance went unnoticed by his officers.
Jack and Sam both froze, Sam on her knees in the middle of the bed, dangling Danny upside down over Jack. "Sam, Sam, putmedown!" Danny squawked. Sam set him down on the mattress next to Jack and scrambled to her feet next to the bed, smoothing her shirt and adjusting her pajama pants, which were all twisted, as Danny promptly jumped on top of Jack, unaware of their new audience.
"Good morning, sir."
Jack got to his feet beside her quickly while she did, evading Danny, but Sam was much faster. "General."
Janet had to stifle at how funny they looked, hair and clothes all rumpled from sleep and the early-morning wrestling session they'd interrupted, yet both standing at attention, demeanor and faces parade-ready even if their appearance was not.
Danny tugged on Jack's hand from where he was standing behind them on the bed, and when he was ignored he began climbing up Jack's back for a piggy-back ride. Jack tried to grab a hold of him but couldn't reach. Sam pulled him off Jack's back and tried to hold him, but he was still too excited and squirmy to be still. She set him down and he ran over to all the new people in the room to greet them, while Jack and Sam kept all their attention on General Hammond, wondering what he was going to do or say about the strange situation.
General Hammond himself was unsure of what to say or do. He knew putting them in such a domestic situation was dangerous and really unfair to both of them, but there was nothing to be done about that. Besides, they wouldn't want Danny left in anybody else's care anyway. And he felt bad about the expectations placed upon them, but they placed them on themselves as well.
Finally, he shook his head and decided not to say anything about it at all. If they were going to give him a reason not to trust them, they certainly would have done it a long time ago. "Good morning, people. I realize it's early - as I'm sure you do too - but you're causing a disturbance on my base. Especially you, little fellow," Hammond said, looking down at the cute little boy who was tugging on the leg of his pants and smiling up at him.
"Me?" Danny asked innocently.
"Yes. You." Hammond scooped the boy up and said, "I'm glad you've had your fun with your… team… this morning because you're going to have some new babysitters today. Major Carter, there's a backlog of gate diagnostics I need you to run, among several other things."
"Yes, sir."
"Colonel O'Neill, you and Teal'c have training sessions all morning. After lunch I want you working on your overdue mission reports."
"Yes, sir." Jack was so grateful at the way the General was apparently choosing to handle their 'situation' that he didn't even complain about having to do his reports.
vvvvvvvvvv
Sam found herself in the unfamiliar position of having trouble focusing on her work that morning. She couldn't help but wonder what Danny was doing. Colonel Pierce was watching him at the moment, and while Sam knew he had kids of his own and that Danny was in excellent hands, she was still a little worried. It was the first time Danny would be away from all of them - Jack, Teal'c, Janet, and Sam - for any length of time.
She tried to get through her work as quickly as possible, and it occurred to her that while, yes, she had designed the dialing program in the first place, after all these years, there really should be plenty of other people who knew it as well as she did. Or at least well enough for her not to be expected to do such a boring, menial diagnostic.
Now in a fairly foul mood that would normally be more characteristic of her CO than herself, Sam found a stopping point and went to check on the progress of the scientists working on Daniel's trunk. As she had feared but expected, they hadn't made any progress.
After running it through tons of diagnostics, all they could say definitively was that it was a trunk-like box. A big alien box that appeared seamless, but contained thousands of pages worth of indecipherable writing on it. Now grumpier than before, she went back to her own work.
vvvvvvvvvv
Jack and Teal'c sent the new (and incredibly worn out) recruits off to the showers. "Let's get Danny and go to lunch."
"Should we not shower first, O'Neill?"
"You saying I stink, T?"
"I did not say that, O'Neill. But if you are asking, yes. You do not smell good."
"Hey, thanks, buddy. But we don't have that much time before the next group of kids comes in. Come on."
They found Danny with Colonel Pierce and half his team. Danny was drawing. With markers. "Those better be washable," Jack said as he held Danny up and examined the markings on his arms and hands.
"They are," Pierce assured him. "Glad you showed up, Jack. I didn't volunteer to feed the kid, you know."
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks anyway. Say bye, Danny."
"BYE!" Danny called loudly, waving at everyone. As Jack carried him out of the room, followed by Teal'c, Danny started updating them on everything that had happened to him since they had last seen each other. Unfortunately, there was a language barrier. Jack picked up on his own name and Teal'c's sprinkled liberally through the chattering, but that was about it.
He glanced at Teal'c and said, "T, you don't speak toddler by any chance, do you?"
"I do not, O'Neill," Teal'c stated, then deadpanned, "However it seems to be similar to Ewok."
Jack gave a sarcastic laugh. Danny was still talking. "Dack, Dack, Tea, I hungwy."
"Good, cuz we're going to lunch."
"Sam?"
"Ah… I dunno about that, she's got a lot of work to do today and…"
"SAM!"
"We'll see," Jack said, flipping Danny over to distract him with an airplane ride the rest of the way to the commissary. "Ah, if only you were this easy to distract when you're full-sized and boring us all to death with lectures about dead languages and crap," he commented with a sigh as Teal'c held the door open to the commissary.
"I do not believe Daniel Jackson would normally allow you to use him as a UAV, O'Neill," Teal'c commented, grabbing trays for both of them.
Sam didn't show up for lunch, but Danny was happy enough with Teal'c and Jack. They put him in the multi-colored little booster seat that had taken Jack twenty minutes to put together the first time, and both Jack and Teal'c took turns helping Danny with his lunch so the full-grown men didn't have to sacrifice their own meals for Danny's. A few scowls from Jack to the Airmen who apparently found this amusing to watch quickly put them in their place.
By the end of lunch, Danny was coated in a nice layer of mac and cheese, catsup, hot dog particles, and smooshed carrots on top of the magic marker tattoos from earlier. "This kid needs to be hosed off," Jack declared.
"Shall we take him outside? I believe there is a hose by the tactical vehicles."
Jack tried to figure out whether or not Teal'c was joking. The guy's delivery was so deadpan that sometimes even Jack couldn't tell. "Um, I was thinking more along the lines of giving him a bath."
"I believe Dr. Fraiser is unavailable until three o'clock," Teal'c reminded him.
"Oh yeah. You're right. Okay, you go wait for the new recruits, just in case I'm late. I'm going to go shower off with him real quick before I take him to… where's he going next?"
"Felger," Teal'c supplied.
"What? That guy can't take care of himself, much less…"
"I believe his lab assistant, Chloe, will be there as well. She has much experience watching her siblings' offspring, O'Neill."
"How do you know those types of things?" Jack asked as they dumped their trays and headed out of the commissary.
"It is simple. I am Teal'c."
"Right."
vvvvvvvvvvv
Sam poked her head into Hammond's office nervously. The General looked up from his computer and said, "Major, what can I do for you?"
"I'm sorry to bother you, sir…"
Hammond got up and joined her in the doorway, since she was either too nervous about whatever she wanted to talk to him about, or she had decided to test the door frame's structural integrity. "What is it?"
"I was taking a quick break and I decided to pop in on Danny. He's supposed to be in the VIP room with Felger and Chloe but they haven't seen him. I can't find him anywhere, and…" Hammond took her arm and started leading her down the hallway so that they could begin looking for him while she talked. "Janet's busy in the infirmary with four SG teams that just came back, so I know he's not in there, and the Colonel and Teal'c have one more training session before they're finished for the day and…"
Hammond was about to interrupt her to try to reassure her that he was certain Danny was just fine, wherever he was, but was saved the trouble when they were both interrupted by a very naked, wet, soapy little boy careening around the corner and running towards them.
"Danny!" Sam exclaimed.
Hammond had barely gotten over the sudden and strange appearance of the boy when they were joined by Jack, dripping wet as well and only wearing damp BDU pants, running towards them barefoot and carrying a towel.
"Daniel Nicholas Jackson, get back here!" he ordered futilely.
As he spoke, he slipped in some of the suds that were flying off of Danny, and crashed loudly to the floor, sliding into the wall just for good measure. He groaned and pushed himself up into a sitting position with a wince.
The action spurred the stunned General and Major back into action. Before Danny could slip and fall as well, Sam scooped him up carefully, ignoring the boy's chattering as she followed Hammond to the fallen Colonel's aid. Hammond gave his somewhat-sudsy 2IC a hand to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. "You okay, Jack?"
"Yeah, good thing this nice soft concrete wall and floor broke my fall." Attempting to look somewhat dignified, he brushed off his sleeve and added, "Carter," with a professional nod.
"Sir," she replied, now trying hard not to smile or laugh once the surprise of the situation had worn off.
"Colonel, aren't you supposed to be training new recruits right now?" Hammond asked as Jack wrapped the towel he was carrying around Danny and took him from Sam.
Not answering his CO right away, Jack was, at the moment, preoccupied with the pint-sized source of his current discomfort. Holding Danny up at eye-level, he said, "Well, it's official. You are now literally a pain in my ass."
"Jack!"
"Sir!"
"What? It's Daniel."
"Pain in d'ass," Danny contributed, pressing both his palms to Jack's cheeks.
Sam stifled a laugh in the back of her hand while Hammond muttered, "Oh brother," then searched around for a change in topic. "Colonel, you were about to explain to me why you're out here instead of conducting your last training session of the day."
"Yes, sir. Well, I thought I had time but the kid wouldn't be still, and there was a whole big thing with the soap and… anyway. He was wearing his lunch and covered in marker, and I needed a shower after the morning sessions…"
"I understand, Colonel. Major, could you escort Danny back to your room and get him situated with his new babysitters before getting back to work?"
"Yes, sir." Danny was passed back to Sam once more.
"Thank you. And Colonel O'Neill, get yourself dressed and down to the training room ASAP. And… make sure you get the shampoo out of your ears."
"Yes, sir," Jack said smartly, patting Danny on the head, then tapping his 2IC on the shoulder. "Tag. You're it." He walked off down the hall at a brisk pace, although somewhat stiffly, carefully trying to avoid the puddles in the hall.
"Sir, with your permission…"
"Dismissed, Major."
Hammond watched Major Carter struggle to hold onto the slippery little boy on her way to the elevator before going back to his office to call and have someone come dry the corridors before anybody else slipped and hurt themselves. As he picked up the phone, he shook his head and thought to himself that the SGC was really no place for a little boy, even one as cute as a little Daniel Jackson.
vvvvvvvvvv
Sam let herself into the VIP room, where a more-nervous-than-usual Felger was waiting with his assistant Chloe. "Oh you found him," Chloe said as Sam entered with Daniel held tightly in the towel.
"The Colonel was giving him a bath," Sam explained, smiling to herself at how weird the statement was. "So, Chloe, are you sure you don't mind…"
"No, we're looking forward to it. Right Jay?"
"Y-y-yeah. Always willing to do whatever we can to help SG-1."
"Thanks," Sam said, forcing a smile at him before turning back to Chloe, whom she knew would be the one actually watching Danny. Today Felger would be her assistant. "He usually takes a nap right about now but he might still be a little wound up, and I don't know what he had for lunch, so…"
"Don't worry, Major Carter. I watch my nieces and nephews all the time, he'll be fine."
"I know," she said, still reluctant to hand Danny over to her.
Picking up on her hesitation, Danny shied away from Chloe and said, "S-sam?"
"I have to go back to work for a while, Danny. Chloe and Jay are going to play with you though. This is Chloe. She's really nice, and she loves kids."
"Kay," Danny agreed. "I wuv you Sam."
Now more reluctant to leave than before, she kissed his wet hair and finally let Chloe take him. "I love you too, Danny. Be good, okay?"
"Okay. Bye bye!"
"He'll be fine," Chloe repeated.
"I know. And thanks. I'll be in the lab if anything happens. Otherwise, Teal'c will come get him at fifteen-thirty…"
"I know. Don't worry. Just go."
"Okay." Sam nodded and ruffled Danny's hair again. "Bye, Danny."
"Bye," he repeated, waving. He turned his attention to Chloe and tried to take off her glasses. Chuckling, Sam waved to Jay, who was preoccupied with the remote control T-Rex - either trying to take it apart, or just playing with it, she wasn't sure. She looked at her watch with a sigh and left, going back to work reluctantly.
vvvvvvvvvv
A/N: I have no idea if Daniel actually has a middle name or not, so I just gave him his grandfather's.