Ch 14

Jack looked up from the hockey game he was watching as someone knocked frantically on his door. Since his pizza had been delivered an hour ago, he couldn't think of anybody who'd have a reason to be pounding on his door at almost ten o'clock at night. He padded to the door in his socks, plucking a stray pepperoni off of his tee-shirt and popping it into his mouth on the way.

He opened the door and didn't know which was the more surprising thing about the two people on his doorstep: the fact that they were there at all, or how absolutely miserable they both looked.

Danny was crying harder than he had been when he fell off his tricycle earlier. His face was red and wet from tears and his runny nose. He clung to Sam tightly with one little arm, and to his new favorite toy with the other.

Sam, though, looked perhaps even worse. In addition to being covered with various stains that Jack thought for a moment were blood but quickly determined were tomato sauce, her eyes were bright as though she had been crying a little too, or was about to, and she looked on the verge of losing it completely. The last time he'd seen her look so stressed, she had been up for three days straight trying to increase gate computer efficiency or something.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. He's sick. I took him home and he was fine, I fed him and now he's sick. I broke him! I broke Daniel!"

"You didn't break him," Jack said automatically, ushering them inside. "Kids get sick all the time."

He muted the hockey game and gestured to the couch, sitting down next to them. "Hey, Danny. You wanna try suffering in silence for a minute or two?" he asked. Danny continued to cry. "I guess not. Sam, what happened?"

"I don't know. Everything was fine. I fed him and he ate and made a big mess… he started sneezing, then got all congested while we were playing. Then he got upset when he started to feel bad, and the crying is making it harder for him to breathe and just making him more stopped up but he won't stop… I got in the car to go to the drug store but I don't even know what to get and with him crying it would just be even more… I didn't know what to do and I just… came here."

"I'm glad. Look. We know Danny has allergies, and don't kids grow out of some of their allergies?"

"Yes, but…"

"So he probably had pretty bad allergies when he was really little, and it was the first time he's gone off base so something in your house must have…" Jack stopped, thinking as he spoke, and said, "Your cat. I bet it was your cat."

"Oh my God, you're right. That's… that's brilliant, why didn't I realize…"

"Your attention was understandably elsewhere. Don't be so hard on yourself. This is good. It means he's not sick. He's out of the house, as soon as we get all the cat hair off both of you and out of him he'll clear up. Look. I'll run to the store. You try to relax, even if he keeps crying. Get him out of those clothes that have cat on them. Then get him in a bath. I'll be back fast, okay?" Sam nodded, glad to have a clear plan for fixing what she still felt responsible for doing wrong. "Did you bring any diapers or should I get those too?"

"The diaper bag's in my car."

"Good. I'll be back soon." He got up, squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, and hurried off.

vvvvvvvvvv

Jack could easily have been pulled over on his way to the drug store. Luckily, the police of Colorado Springs apparently had more important places to be that night. He soon found himself somewhere he hadn't been in well over a decade: standing in the children's aisle of a drug store at night, reading the backs of various packages, trying to figure out how each was different, and which one would be best for the little boy waiting at home's particular symptoms.

As his mind flashed back to how miserable Danny had looked, and how worried, scared, and guilty Sam had looked, he resorted to his old stand-by: get it all. Two different kinds of thermometers, baby Vapor Rub, Dimetapp, baby Benadryl, a humidifier, and various other miscellaneous but brightly-packaged things that looked potentially useful, as well as several pints of ice cream from the refrigerated display by the checkout later, and he was jumping back into his truck and hurrying back home.

"Sam?" he called loudly when he saw that the den was empty. He checked the kitchen, which was also empty, and wondered if she was still giving Danny a bath. Sticking the ice cream in the freezer, he continued through the house looking for his unexpected visitors.

"Sam? Are you back here?" he called as he entered the bathroom, stopping when he found them. "Hey. How's it going?"

"Okay," Sam answered. "He's stopped crying, obviously. I think he was more surprised by the fact that I dumped him in the tub than anything else, but it did get him to stop crying. I think he looks like he feels a little bit better already."

"Yeah, you both do," Jack commented, dumping his purchases on the countertop and looking at them both.

Once, many years ago, he'd had a very weird and disturbing dream about finding Daniel and Sam in his bathroom together.

Thankfully, this was nothing like that nightmare. Sam, for one thing, was still fully clothed, although she had been splashed liberally enough to consider entering a wet tee-shirt contest. Jack pretended not to notice. Danny sat in a half-full tub of bubbles. His cheeks were still pink and he was still sniffly, but at least he wasn't all snotty. He still didn't look like he felt great, but he seemed too worn out to continue crying.

"I got a bunch of stuff for him. Let's see. Since it's allergies, not a cold, let's give him some Dimetapp first. We always had to bring some for Charlie when we visited Sarah's sister because they had all these rabbits… anyway, it worked really well." Jack rummaged in the bags and found the medicine, poured the proper dose, and gave it to Sam. "I don't think I'll be able to get it in him. Plus your shirt's already stained and mine isn't."

"Check again, sir, there's some cheese on your collar," she responded with an amused smile. He was so relieved she was relaxed enough to be smiling that he didn't even bother coming up with a clever retort. Sam waved the medicine measurer in front of Danny encouragingly and said, "This tastes really good, Danny. Come on, taste it, it's yummy."

Danny eyed it suspiciously and shook his head. Since he was in the tub, Sam was worried about him falling and hurting himself if he tried to get away to avoid the medicine, so she leaned awkwardly over the tub and tried to keep him still. Danny had other plans and ended up squirming away from her, sliding around the tub, laughing and splashing her.

"Want to double team him?" Jack suggested, holding out his hand to take the medicine back.

"Looks like we better," Sam agreed, passing him the dispenser and snagging Danny by the slippery little arms. She practically ended up in the tub with him but she managed to hold him still long enough for Jack to pour the medicine into his mouth.

Refusing to swallow, Danny held the entire dose in his mouth and glared at them both as though they'd committed high treason. Jack recognized the look and retreated out of the line of fire, should Danny choose to spit out the purple syrup, but he suddenly looked surprised and swallowed it. Then he looked at them both hopefully and asked, "More?"

"Nice job," Jack commented as he grabbed Sam's arm to help her balance as she got back onto the side of the tub.

"Thanks."

"Sure." Jack opened the baby Vick's and asked, "How'd you make the bubbles?"

"I um, used your shampoo," Sam said sheepishly, glancing at him sideways.

He chuckled and handed her the little jar. "Put some on his chest. It'll help clear him up fast, especially in the tub, then hopefully the Dimetapp will kick in."

Sam nodded and did as instructed. Danny looked down at his chest curiously at the cooling sensation of the Vick's, and gradually relaxed in the water. By the time they had his hair washed and the water had started to cool, he was very drowsy.

Sam pulled the plug and picked him up carefully, holding him out away from her body while Jack wrapped the towel around him. "This is still so weird if you stop and think about it," she muttered as she shifted him to one arm and started trying to dry him off.

"Yeah, tell me about it. We just gave Daniel Jackson a bubble bath. Speaking of which, you better take a shower too, to make sure you get all the cat off of you. I'll wash all your clothes, but I make no guarantees on those stains. If he's still not better in the morning we better call the Doc, but I think he's going to be okay."

"Yeah, he seems better already," Sam agreed, rubbing Danny's back through the towel.

"Here, I'll get him dressed. Oh, and I'll find something for you to wear too. Did you bring him some jammies?" Jack asked. "Okay, wait… let's just not tell anybody… especially anybody named Teal'c, Janet, or Cassandra Fraiser that I just said 'jammies,' okay?"

Sam passed Danny to him, but she was avoiding eye contact, and looking embarrassed, and he'd expected at least a smile for that one. "What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"Nothing," Sam said quickly, flashing a smile.

"Liar. Come on. Tell me before he pees on me again." Jack stopped and narrowed his eyes at Danny. "Don't get any ideas, little guy."

"Kay, Dack."

Sam sighed and said, "I just… I really thought I could… that I didn't need help. I guess I was… you know… wrong."

Jack fought the urge to laugh. She said 'wrong' like it was the most foul swear word on the planet. He assumed laughing would not be an appreciated response, so he swallowed his chuckle and said, "Ah, Carter, you weren't wrong. Danny's allergic to cats. That's all. And he's a lot lower to the ground now so I guess it got to him faster or something. Anyway, you'll both just have to stay here." He patted her on the shoulder with his free hand and took that as his cue to leave the bathroom with Danny.

vvvvvvvvvv

Sam quickly took a shower, trying not to think about how weird her life was. She was showering in her CO's house and it looked like she'd be spending the night - and all that was after they bathed their youngest team-mate. They had been in a quasi-domestic setting and routine on the base, in the VIP suite, and that had been close enough to the line they always avoided going anywhere near… but on base there had still been the constant reminder of all the SGC-related rules and regulations. Now, it was bound to be even more complicated. And Hammond had told her to stay off the base until Monday, and Danny was apparently allergic to her house…

She sighed and got out of the shower. After towelling off, she wrapped the towel firmly around herself and peeked into the bedroom, which was empty, but there was a small folded stack of clothes on the foot of the bed. Sam tried very hard not to be impressed by how thoughtful Jack was being about all of this, and pulled on a tee-shirt and pair of sweatpants that she was completely swimming in. She rolled the waistband up to make them fit a bit better, but they were still way too big. Sometimes she forgot how large her CO actually was, because next to Teal'c, pretty much anybody looked small. Plus all of his civilian clothes seemed to be exceedingly baggy on him, much less on her. Hoping the sweatpants would stay on, she brushed out her hair and gathered up her clothes, Danny's clothes, and the towels they'd used, and carried them all out of the bedroom.

The hockey game was back on. Danny was sitting on the couch next to Jack, and looked especially small and cute in his jammies with his damp hair carefully combed away from his face. He noticed her before Jack did, apparently not as interested in hockey as Jack was. "Sam, Sam, commear."

"Give her a break, buddy. Come on, now, you're supposed to be learning the finer points of hockey." Jack pointed at the television with the remote.

"No hock-ey, Dack. Dwink?"

"You can have a drink and watch hockey at the same time," Jack explained, in the sort of voice Daniel, when he was fully grown, often used during a briefing. "Actually, it's part of the whole experience. Come on." He got up with Danny and headed to the kitchen, saying, "How do you feel about beer?"

Sam rolled her eyes when they were gone, knowing that Jack wasn't going to give Danny beer. She sat down and checked the game to see how much longer it was going to be on, sighing when she realized it had just started.

"There we are, little buddy, a nice beer while we watch the game," Jack said loudly as they came back into the room. Sam looked up at them, surprised that Danny actually was holding a bottle of beer in his little hand. That just looked so wrong. Adorable little boy in footy pajamas, holding a beer. So, so wrong. Jack was carrying another beer as well as a sippy cup, and when he sat down on the couch and put Danny next to him, he said, "Go on, give yours to Sam, after the night she's had she's more than earned it. You get the yummy warm milk."

Danny dutifully leaned over and handed the unopened beer to Sam, who took it with a laugh. "Thanks, Danny. Very funny by the way, sir."

"We try, don't we Danny?"

"Yup," he agreed as he took the sippy cup with both hands and started drinking. He rested against Jack's side, but Sam noticed he was about as interested in the hockey game as she was. Which was 'not very.'

"Sam commear," he repeated when he caught her looking at him, hitting the cushion right next to him for emphasis.

Sensing she was still feeling rather upset and embarrassed about the unexpected turn the evening had taken, Jack turned his attention to both of them as Sam slid closer to Danny. Since Danny himself was so small, that conveniently brought her much closer to Jack as well. "There's clean sheets on the bed in the guest room, and it's up against the wall, so you should both be okay in there."

"I'm sorry we ruined your night, I just didn't know where else to go… it's hard to think with a baby crying…"

"Yeah. And for the record, you didn't ruin it. After a couple days with this little guy, it was pretty quiet around here all alone anyway."

"Well, I think we certainly took care of the quiet part," Sam said. "I had no idea how completely unnerving it is to listen to a baby cry and not be able to stop it…"

"You did stop it, eventually. Kids cry when they don't feel good, Carter. It's not a big deal. Look at him now, he's all right, aren't you buddy?" He ruffled Danny's damp hair, but Danny was getting sleepy, having thoroughly exhausted himself, and was not in the mood to be ruffled. He tried to swat Jack's hand away and cuddled into Sam instead, climbing in her lap and snuggling into her with his arms full of his dinosaur and his sippy cup.

"There, see? He's fine. And he'll be asleep in no time."

"Thank you… again. I… I wasn't…"

"Stop thanking me already." Deciding grumbly was the way to go at the moment, he added, "I can't hear the game when you're thanking me."

"Sorry," she said quietly, smiling down at Danny and tucking his hair back into place.

"Or when you're apologizing," Jack added, nudging her shoulder.

As they watched the hockey game, they fell into silence, apart from Danny's breathing. He wasn't quite snoring, but his nose was still a little stuffy, and his breathing was made more difficult by the fact that he kept trying to suck his thumb and breathe through his mouth at the same time. Sam kept gently tugging his hand away from his mouth and a few minutes later he would sneak it back again.

He also couldn't quite fall all the way asleep. He kept waking himself up. Sam rubbed his back in big circles and kept feeling his forehead. "Want to go set up the humidifier?" Jack asked.

"You got a humidifier?"

"Yeah. Come on, we can put it by the bed."

"What about your game? It's almost over."

"It's a replay from earlier," he admitted. "I saw the final score already. Come on."

Sam, carrying Danny, followed him down the hall to the guest room and stood by the bed, rocking slightly back and forth trying to get him to go to sleep while Jack set up the humidifier and got it going. "I'm gonna go finish the laundry. And eat some more pizza. Want some?"

"No thanks."

"Sure? If you were feeding the kid spaghetti I doubt you got to eat much of it yourself."

"I'm all right. I want to stay with him until he's asleep."

"Okay. Keep me posted." He reached out to ruffle Danny's hair again, but, remembering last time, stopped himself and patted his head gently instead. Sam thought it was a bit like petting a dog, but it was still pretty sweet. "Get some sleep, buddy."

"Kay Dack I wuv you."

"Yeah… uh… me too."

Refusing to look Sam directly in the eye, he left quickly, mumbling about laundry.

vvvvvvvvvvvv

Despite Jack's prediction that Danny would be asleep in no time, it was a very long night for all three of them. It seemed like Sam would just get him to fall asleep and would barely begin dozing off herself when Danny would cough himself awake. Jack heard her in the kitchen in the middle of the night and found her giving him another dose of medicine. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it had been six hours since his last dose. A long six hours. Danny was a lot better, but just seemed too tired and uncomfortable to sleep, at least for long.

"We can watch him in shifts you know. Like in the field."

"I've got it," Sam said quickly. Realizing it was snappish, she amended, "I want to. Really. I mean, I want him to sleep, but… I don't think I'd be able to sleep anyway, you know… wondering if he was sleeping…"

"Okay."

After separating from them in the hallway, Jack had trouble going back to sleep. He could hear shuffling and occasionally quiet talking from the guest room, but it wasn't the noise that was keeping him up - it was just the fact that he knew nobody else was getting any sleep.

He finally got up to check on them again, stopping outside the door when he could hear Sam singing quietly. The tune was a familiar lullaby, but she was making up her own words - either she didn't know the real lyrics or she had got sick of them already. "Go to sleep, close your eyes… just close them and go to sleep… dream of artifacts and… hieroglyphs… and other boring things that should put you to sleep…"

Jack forgot to stifle his chuckle and the singing stopped abruptly. He nudged the door the rest of the way open and tried to look apologetic, but it was very hard when Sam was looking so caught-in-the-headlights. "I'm telling him you said rocks were boring when he's big," Jack said quietly.

From the way she had continued half-bouncing, half-swaying even after seeing him, he figured she had been doing it so long she wasn't even aware of it anymore. "Sure you don't want me to take him for a while? He gets heavy."

"Tell me about it. But I'm okay… I think he's about to fall asleep… I can sort of tell…"

"Kay. Good night again, then. Come get me if you change your mind."

vvvvvvvvv

The next time he checked on them, he'd intended to do it stealthily, but it turned out unnecessary. He peeked into the bedroom and was immediately overwhelmed by the mentholated smell of the open Vicks jar sitting on the nightstand next to the humidifier, which was starting to sputter.

The room was quiet, apart from the slightly wet breathing sounds from the smaller of his two sleeping guests. Danny was ensconced in the middle of the bed, covers neatly tucked around him, propped up at a slight angle to help his breathing. It looked like Sam had devised some sort of system for the way the pillows were all arranged around him. Knowing her, there was a distinct possibility that mathematical equations had been involved in the process. Danny had his thumb in his mouth and his other arm around his dinosaur, and looked so peaceful that it was hard to believe this was the same child who had been screaming bloody murder on his doorstep earlier that evening.

Sam, on the other hand, looked like she'd fallen asleep in the middle of something. She was on top of the covers, on her side forming a barrier between the edge of the mattress and Danny, just in case. Several crumpled tissues surrounded her, and one of her socks, which were actually Jack's and therefore way too big, had fallen off and was on the floor next to the bed, along with several other tissues, and the other sock was only halfway on her foot, dangling precariously.

Her head wasn't even on a pillow and the sweatpants he'd loaned her were barely hanging on, but the shirt was huge also, so she was still properly covered. She had one hand curled underneath her chin, and upon closer inspection Jack could see that she was still holding the digital thermometer.

He pulled it out of her hand carefully, moved everything that wasn't Sam or Danny off of the bed, took all the tissues into the bathroom and threw them away, closed the Vicks, and refilled the humidifier, all without making either of them stir. That done, he tugged the sock the rest of the way off Sam's foot and debated trying to get her under the covers without waking her completely.

Doubting his ability to pull it off, and also not wanting to risk waking Danny again as well, he went back to his room and grabbed one of his pillows, then into his closet for his warmest blanket. Returning to the guest room, he lifted Sam's head carefully with one hand and slid the pillow underneath her at what he hoped was a comfortable spot, amazed when she didn't wake up. He tucked the blanket around her carefully, studied them both for several long moments, and hoped they would both be able to sleep through the rest of the night as he turned off the lamp and left.