Ch 28

Sam had barely had time to switch her computer and coffee pot on before her next visitors dropped into her lab. Teal'c was still carrying his box of doughnuts, although Sam suspected it was nearly empty by this point. He gave a slight head nod in greeting and set the box down in the middle of her work station as her father followed with a box full of computer printouts.

"You're late," he greeted succinctly.

"Good morning to you too, Dad. Want some coffee?" Sam was determined to cheer him right out of his grumpy mood, if it was remotely possible. Besides, as soon as he stepped into the room she felt instantly guilty about the way she'd woken up that morning. Of course, it had been perfectly innocent, but when your father also happens to be a General in the USAF and therefore represents all kinds of authority ingrained into you from early childhood… well, even those who were innocent could feel all kinds of guilty.

So, maybe she was overcompensating a little with the perky greeting. From the raised eyebrow she got from Teal'c, he certainly seemed to think so at least. And her dad was looking at her just a little too carefully, like he had his own internal version of a zay'tarc detector and was trying to get an accurate read on her or something.

"We will pass on the coffee, Samantha," Selmak said - apparently they'd swapped over while Sam had been preoccupied with guilt-gut. "Unfortunately, Lin'ok was unable to render assistance personally, but she has sent us what we will need to do the translations ourselves. There is much work to be done."

As he slapped a big stack of papers in front of her and handed Teal'c an even larger one, she couldn't help but think she might be pretty grateful for 'nap time' today.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Jack was wheeling a very full shopping cart through the grocery store. Danny was sitting happily in the seat at the front of the basket, swinging his legs and keeping an eye out for yummy-looking treats on the shelves as they passed by.

As Jack loaded up on fresh fruit and veggies for Teal'c, Danny eyed the nearby broccoli warily. "Nuffink gween, okay, Dack?" he requested.

Jack chuckled. "What about Teal'c and Sam though, they like the green veggies."

"Oh. Okay den, but not for me and you, okay?"

"Hmm, I don't think that's going to go over to well, but we'll see. Let's go over to the bakery and get you a cookie."

"Cookies?" he asked hopefully.

"Cookie. As in one. Don't worry, they're big."

And there were tons of different kinds to choose from, Jack realized as they reached the bakery. "Okay, what kind do you want?"

"Chock-wat."

"There's lots of chocolate… how about that one?" Jack pointed.

"Dat one too," Danny said, pointing to a sugar cookie in the row next to the chocolate one.

"Hey, I know you can count, I've heard you do it."

"No. For Sam," Danny explained.

"Oh." Jack laughed and said. "All right, well, we can't leave out Teal'c and the doc then… or Hammond, or Sam's dad…"

A dozen cookies later and they were heading to the dairy section for their last stop before hitting the checkout. "Hey Danny?" Jack asked as he tried to make room in the cart for milk and more eggs.

"Wha?" Danny asked around a big mouthful of cookie.

"How come you like Sam so much more than the rest of us?" Jack asked, curiously. He'd been wondering, and he hadn't spent a lot of time completely alone with the boy to ask.

"I wuv Sam and Tea and you," he said with his mouth full, clearly not seeing the point of the question.

"Yeah, I know you do, little guy," Jack said, reaching into his pocket for a napkin - he'd started keeping them handy, just in case. He decided he might as well just wait until the cookie was gone to wipe all the chocolate off of Danny's face and hands and tried to explain, "But like last night, remember? You were happy playing with all of us all day but when you got sleepy you wanted Sam to read to you, not Teal'c or me."

"Yes," Danny agreed, nodding.

"Right. So… why?"

Danny stared at him like he thought it was the dumbest question anybody could possibly ask. Jack had got that look from grown-up Daniel on more than one occasion, although he usually tried to be more subtle about it. Danny finally stated, in a tone that plainly said he thought Jack was being intentionally dense, asking him something so blatantly obvious, "Sam is soft."

Jack wasn't sure what he'd really been expecting Danny to say, but it certainly wasn't that. It was true, essentially, in whatever context you wanted to take it. But being "soft" wasn't exactly a characteristic valued by the USAF, so it was one of those things his 2IC was quite good at hiding from most people. Especially when he had first met her.

It was interesting now, to Jack, that something which, between her trying to hide it and him trying not to notice it, had taken him years to add to the list of the many adjectives that could describe her in certain situations, was apparently the most obvious characteristic to a small child. Then again, maybe he was reading too much into Danny's assessment. Maybe he just meant she was more comfortable to snuggle with.

"Dack I'm cold," Danny complained, patting Jack's forearm with a sticky, cookie-crumb-covered hand to get him wheeling the cart out of the refrigerated section of the grocery store, which, Jack realized, was probably not the best place to stop and think.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Sam was going nuts in her lab. Her dad had basically taken over most of the available table space with the various pieces of translations he was working on - and Selmak had taken over her dad for quite some time, since he was working in mainly Goa'uld. Teal'c, therefore, was still working mostly quietly, but was occasionally muttering in Goa'uld as well. Sam was having enough trouble with her own work, so it was just that much more frustrating.

"Major Carter, would you like the last doughnut?" Teal'c offered, holding the box open to her.

"No thanks, Teal'c," she said.

"Selmak?"

"No."

"Very well." Teal'c tore it in half and ate it in two large bites.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Jack set Danny on his feet next to the truck and reached into the back to start unloading the groceries. "Here, make yourself useful there, little guy." He acted like he was going to hand Danny an entire twelve-pack of diet soda. Danny held out his arms for it without the slightest hesitation. Jack laughed, gave him a lightweight bag instead, and grabbed a few more for himself before following Danny up the drive.

Jack proceeded to carry in and put away all of the groceries under the watchful eyes of Danny, who seemed to consider Jack's actions some sort of performance art or something. When he was done, Jack turned to the boy, standing in the middle of the kitchen, and asked, "Okay, what now?"

Danny thought for a moment and said, "Piggy movie!"

Jack groaned. "No. Please. Anything else. Want to ride your trike? We can go to the park again."

"Yeah!"

"Thank God," Jack muttered. Although it meant making sure the diaper bag was well-stocked with various supplies they might need (but probably wouldn't) as well as securing the tricycle in the back of the truck, Jack was more than willing to pile everything - including Danny - back into the truck if it meant they were far, far away from access to "the piggy movie."

"You are so getting crap about that when you're big," he muttered as he ushered Danny back out the door.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The park was a good idea - there were plenty of things with which to keep Danny occupied. As it was a weekday, it wasn't very crowded either. No lines for the swings, slides, or any of those bouncy little animal things. And plenty of space for Danny to exhaust his little legs pedaling his tricycle around.

Jack was determined he was going to return Danny in exactly the condition he'd been in before - meaning no new injuries. As such, he was paying such close attention to Danny - hovering around him more like Sam and Janet tended to do, to make sure he didn't fall or anything, that he wasn't noticing much else. Danny's attention, however, was quickly stolen by the arrival of the ice cream cart. "Ice cweam!" he yelled - his voice just one among a chorus of many as the guy with the cart had the nerve to ring his bell and attract the attention of every child within range. "Dack can we have ice cweam? Pease?"

Jack sighed. The kid was looking up at him with such a polite-but-eager face that it was really hard to say no. "We're supposed to go eat lunch in a little while though," he explained. "And if you're not hungry, we'll be interrogated. Sam and the doc will kill me."

"No dey won't."

"Yes they will."

"Not uh."

"Yeah… look. You already had that big cookie, I can't give you ice cream too."

"Pease?" Danny leaned into his leg, hugged him, and looked up hopefully.

Jack glanced over at the ice cream cart. It wasn't like Danny would be a toddler forever… they'd figure out the trunk soon and it wouldn't really matter, right? Then again, all that sugar… "How about a popsicle instead?" Jack offered, figuring it was slightly better. He wasn't entirely certain if that were really true or not, but it seemed like it could be.

"A wainbow one?" Danny asked excitedly.

"Yeah! Sure!" Jack agreed enthusiastically.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, let's go."

By the time they got to the cart, they were stuck at the end of a short line of children and the parents who had been even easier to convince than Jack. While they were waiting, Jack said, "Now, when we go have lunch you better eat."

"I will," he promised.

"And if you want to not mention the whole popsicle thing… or the cookie thing, that'll be great."

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

vvvvvvvvvvvvvv

After the park started to lose its appeal Jack suggested they return home. No way he was taking the kid straight to the base covered with red, green, orange, and purple popsicle stains - not to mention all the sand that got stuck to him after he decided to play in the sandbox shortly after his popsicle partly melted all down his arms.

Danny was happy to leave - while he didn't mind getting dirty, he didn't so much like sitting around with sand stuck to him. Since Jack found that he'd managed to get his hair sticky with the popsicle as well, Jack just gave him a quick bath once they got back to his house. He put him back in his tiny SGC outfit since they were going to the base. Danny didn't seem to care much either way, but Jack thought it was funny. And cute. Not that he'd admit it to anybody.

They still had some time to kill before they needed to head up to the base, which Danny was happy to fill by playing inside, luckily. So hopefully he wouldn't need another bath and costume change before they had to go. Before Danny could put in another request for "Babe," Jack suggested building a fort - getting the idea as he threw another load of towels and some of Danny's clothes into the wash. Danny, who had already shown that he liked building things with Legos and Lincoln logs, was all for it.

It had been a long time since Jack had undertaken such a task, but he soon remembered a few tricks, and they quickly had all the extra bedding in Jack's house, all the pillows from both beds, the couch cushions, Jack's hockey sticks, the coffee table, and two of the kitchen chairs turned into a fort/tent-like structure to make any small boy proud.

Remembering how much Charlie had liked flashlights, Jack found two of them and crawled inside the structure carefully, trying not to knock it all in on them. They played with the flashlights for a while - Danny obviously loved it.

Jack too was enjoying being able to play with the kid without an audience. While he was more comfortable around his team than anybody else in the universe, he was still their CO, and they still needed to be able to follow his orders without smirking behind his back about something he'd done to keep a toddler-sized Daniel Jackson entertained. Then again, there was also the fact that this wasn't just any kid, this was Daniel.

Eventually he'd be back to normal again, and Jack wanted to have more ammunition to use against him than his 2IC and Teal'c had to use on him. Then there was Sam - whom Danny had clearly singled out as his favorite right from the start, despite the fact that it had taken some time for Sam to be as comfortable around him as he was around her. Then there was the other Sam issue… which he wasn't going to touch at the moment with a ten-foot pole. Or the nearest hockey-stick propping up a blanket and a couch cushion… whichever.

Anyway, while he'd obviously already been crucial in keeping Danny relatively happy and healthy, it was just different knowing nobody else was around. He wouldn't have wanted it to always be like that, but it was a nice change for a while. "Dack, Dack wait dere, I be wight back!" Danny called suddenly, wriggling out of their construction. He came back dragging one of his books. "Wet's wead in here!"

"Sure," Jack agreed, pointing the flashlight at the book.

He read for only a few minutes before Danny looked around quickly. "Where's Toppy?"

"Uh, I don't know. When was the last time you had it?"

Danny shrugged. They looked inside the fort. They looked outside the fort. By the time they finished checking the house, Jack was getting nearly as worried as Danny - the stuffed dino was pretty much the kid's security blanket and pacifier all in one. "Dack I can't find him!"

"I know, we'll just keep looking till we find it. Don't panic… let's go check the truck, maybe you left it in the backseat." He checked everywhere, even under the seats. "Try to think of when you had it last," Jack said. He remembered seeing him with it off and on, but the dinosaur was tucked under Danny's left arm so much of the time that honestly, Jack didn't really notice it that much anymore.

"I don't know!"

A sudden thought occurred to Jack. "Oh, no. Danny, did you have it with you in the park?"

Danny's eyes grew wide as he tried hard to remember. Finally, he shrugged. "I can't merember."

Jack sighed and pulled his keys out again. "All right, back in the truck." As he buckled the very distraught little boy into his car seat, he couldn't help but mutter, "This really might be taking our 'no one gets left behind' motto a little too far."