A/N: There really wasn't a lot I could do in the humor department on this one without it not making sense. But it is what it is. The story will end on a good note, I promise. More than one good note actually, now that I'm working on that epilogue...

Ch 46: Growing Up Fast

Danny slept for nearly two hours sleeping in Sam's lap in the infirmary, but to Sam it still wasn't nearly long enough. She knew there was no way she could reasonably ask everyone to hold off on the 'switch' just so she could spend a little more time with Danny, and that when he woke up, that was essentially it. When he started to stir, she shifted his blanket up to shield his face from the infirmary lights, and stroked his hair lightly, hoping he would go back to sleep, or that it would at least slow down the waking-up process.

A week ago - it had really only been about a week, she marveled, although it seemed like much longer - she would never have believed that holding a child you loved you while he slept would never get boring. She had learned a lot about herself from Danny.

Jack watched her trying to prolong Danny's nap time. He knew exactly what she was doing, and why, and didn't blame her. He wouldn't have turned down the chance to cuddle the little guy for a while himself, but he wasn't about to ask her to hand him over, and, since they were on the base, in the infirmary, he figured going over there and wrapping his arms around both of them wouldn't be very well-received. Probably not by Sam under the circumstances, and definitely not by General Hammond.

Just as he was about to decide it was worth a try anyway, Danny woke up. Still snuggled in Sam's lap, he sat upright and turned to Jack, smiling at him. "Hi Dack, you waked up fwom your nap!"

"And so did you."

"Yup," Danny agreed, sliding out of Sam's lap. She let go of him reluctantly, getting up quickly when he immediately ran over to the trunk. "Why you move dis fing?"

Jack glanced at Sam, who was clearly trying to get her emotions in check so they could do what they had to do. Clearing his throat, he got to his feet and went over to Danny. "I was playing with it earlier," he said.

"Wiffout me?"

"Yup. You were busy."

"I can pway wiff it now?"

"Sure. In a few minutes. Come here." He picked Danny up and flipped him upside down, holding him by the waist. Danny let his arms flop towards the ground, giggling.

"Wook Sam wook at me! Dack frow me!"

Jack made a big show of gearing up to toss him on the bed but made sure he landed squarely in the middle and didn't actually throw him hard. Danny bounced up to a sitting position, laughing. "Mon, Sam!"

"Yeah, come on, Sam, I can't tickle this little guy by myself," Jack added.

She gave him a look that plainly said his effort was appreciated, but way too transparent to work, but as Danny continued to laugh and got to his feet on the mattress, leaning into Jack for balance, she accepted the hand anyway. He tugged her from her chair to the bed, whispering, "Get her," to Danny in the process.

Danny, who was fully recharged from his nap, launched himself at Sam, tackling her back into the bed. "Hey, I thought I was supposed to be getting you," she objected, tickling him.

He tried to get her back, dragging Jack back into the game as well when he almost kicked him in the groin. Jack grabbed the little foot just in time and tickled it, and the tickle fight finally started to cheer up everyone.

"Well, you're all obviously awake now," Janet commented, glad to see that not only Danny but Sam was laughing as well. Still, Teal'c had just gone to get the General, and Janet figured that it would be best for all concerned if he didn't witness the amusing spectacle.

"Yup, we all are awake now Doc!" Danny called cheerfully, climbing onto Jack's back like a monkey.

As they smoothed hair and clothes back into place, General Hammond and Teal'c entered. "Well, this place will certainly be much quieter in a little while," General Hammond remarked, sounding like he was going to miss the little guy's presence as well.

Sam swallowed hard and nodded. She knew the General was trying to keep the situation as light as possible - they all were. But as soon as Janet had stepped into the infirmary and spoken, all the instant cheering Jack and Danny had been creating vanished - at least for Sam.

"Sam can I pease pay wiff da twunk now?" Danny called, tilting his head upside down to see her.

She pulled him off of Jack's back and hugged him close. "Sure. I have something neat to show you. It's got tiny little marks on it, we'll look through a special magnifying lens and see them, and you can touch some of them. Does that sound like… like fun?"

"Yeah!" he agreed.

"Uh, Sam, let's get him out of those clothes first," Janet said.

"Good idea." She pulled Danny's shirt over his head. Danny looked a little confused, but he didn't really mind having his clothes removed - it was actually fun to be naked. But he was in the infirmary, so he was a little worried that he might be getting shots.

"Dack dunnot wet da doc poke me," he said firmly.

Jack chuckled as he wrapped a blanket around him "All right, don't worry. She won't."

Sam finished helping Danny out of his clothes and took the blanket Janet had offered, wrapping it around him securely. Hopefully it would provide grown-up Daniel some modesty. "Sam show me da twunk now! Pease pwease pease?"

"Okay, just… okay." She took a deep breath and got to her feet, holding Danny in the blanket so that it would stay on.

"Sam," Jack said quietly, turning slightly away from everyone else so that he was blocking their view of her face. "You don't have to do this. Teal'c can show him which ones to push. You don't even have to watch."

"No, it's… it's fine," she said firmly. "I'm fine. Thank you though." She gave a very unconvincing smile and brushed past him to the trunk. Reluctant to let go of Danny, she realized Jack deserved to say goodbye to him too, as much as they could under the circumstances. And she needed at least one free hand to find the right spots on the trunk anyway.

"Here, Danny, go to Jack for a minute while I find the special buttons I wanted to show you."

Jack took the boy, trying to keep the blanket somewhat in place. Danny was looking at Sam with a very thoughtful look for someone so young. Worried that Danny would pick up on her hesitation, he distracted him again by playing peek-a-boo with part of the blanket.

Janet raised an eyebrow at the sight, and turned to Teal'c, who was doing the same. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked the large man stood next to her.

"I believe I am, Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c said.

"What?" Jack asked, looking over at both of them.

"Just thinking about Danny's first day here. He was wrapped up in a blanket then and neither of you wanted anything to do with him."

"Yeah, like you wouldn't have done the same thing if he'd peed on you," Jack said, flattening Danny's hair down - it had static electricity from the blanket.

"Okay," Sam interrupted, sitting back on her heels beside the trunk. "I… I've got it. We're ready."

Jack crouched down next to her, setting Danny on his feet and adjusting the blanket. He kept his other hand from touching any other part of the device and helped keep him still as Sam carefully pressed his tiny fingers to the proper symbols.

She worked quickly, trying to rush through this part as much as possible. She knew once she saw their Daniel back safe and sound it would be easier - she had missed him too, after all. This was the hardest part. It had to be. She paused before the last symbol, glancing quickly at Jack before settling her eyes on Danny again.

Jack's hand landed on her shoulder and he leaned in even closer, ostensibly so he could look at the symbols as well, but when she felt him squeeze her shoulder lightly and rub her shirt with his thumb, she realized he was just using it as an excuse.

"Saaaam," Danny said impatiently, getting squirmy again. He had really thought the trunk would be more fun, but they were making him be awfully still. It was still neat to look at all the funny little drawings though.

Sam let out the breath she'd been holding and nodded, pressing his finger to the final symbol. The device activated again, glowing the same yellow light as before. "Wow!" Danny exclaimed, trying to hurry around to the open side and inspect it.

"Hang on there buddy, you're losing your blanket," Jack said, keeping him in place for a few more moments while he draped it more securely over his shoulders, folding it over so he wouldn't trip. As he fussed with the blanket, he kissed the side of the little boy's head and said quietly, "I love you, Danny."

Danny wasn't interested in exchanging affections at the moment - he wanted to see what was inside that trunk, now! But Sam was surprised that Jack was stalling to have his own moment with Danny - while it had been as private as he could make it under the circumstances, he still had several witnesses. She flashed him a smile and kissed Danny on the cheek and hugged him, echoing Jack's sentiment as well.

"Wet me go, I want to see what's in dere," Danny demanded, squirming. "Sam, wet me go," Danny repeated, having absolutely no idea how unfortunate his choice of words were.

She realized they had no idea how long the trunk might stay active and released him numbly - he was right, she had to let him go.

Danny's eyes widened as he saw the bright light inside, and he said, "Wow, pwetty" before crawling inside. The trunk slid shut, and he was gone. Jack pulled Sam up to her feet and everyone got closer as they waited for the device to open.

After several moments, Sam started to panic. "He's… why hasn't it opened yet, it should… it didn't take this long before."

She reached out to touch the trunk but Jack stopped her, trapping her arms to her sides. "You said that was a bad idea, remember? Nobody else can touch it while there's someone already in it."

"But… he can't have much air in there, it shouldn't… it didn't take this long, I must have… I must have done something wrong…" She turned into him and hugged him tightly, either forgetting to care that they were on base, on duty, or just plain forgetting. Jack glanced at Teal'c, Janet, and General Hammond as he tried to comfort her, but nobody had anything encouraging to say, and everyone was starting to get pretty worried themselves as the seconds ticked by, each one feeling like a minute, and nothing happened.

Sam wasn't crying, but he wished that she would, because she was shaking with the effort of not crying, and he was having a vivid flashback to yet another time Daniel had been putting them through this kind of worry - one of the first times actually, when they'd really thought he was dead and she'd proven otherwise by letting herself get hypnotized.

Jack shook his head firmly. "You did it right," he said. "It's just… it's ah…" he tried to think of anything that could explain why it was taking so long. "You'd only set me back a decade, Danny went back longer. So it's just taking longer. Plus I did it all in one day and he's been young for a week. That's… that's all it is. Right?"

"I believe O'Neill is correct," Teal'c said.

"I'm right," Jack muttered to himself, staring over Sam's shoulder at the box and trying to will it to open. "I'm right I'm right I'm right," he repeated under his breath.

After what seemed like forever but was really only ten minutes, the opposite end of the trunk slid open. "Sam, it's open," Janet called immediately, hurrying to the side with Teal'c, who quickly pulled Daniel Jackson out of the trunk, hooking his arms under the younger man's armpits and hauling him out. The blanket was lost in the effort, as it hadn't been around the crawling toddler very securely in the first place.

"He's okay!"

Sam turned quickly at the pronouncement, in time to see a fully grown but extremely naked and unconscious Daniel Jackson being supported by Teal'c. She turned back towards Jack just as quickly, averting her eyes. While she'd gotten used to taking care of Danny as a toddler, she certainly didn't need to see a fully-grown Daniel Jackson's pale, unconscious bum. "Is he really okay, Janet?" she called.

"I think so, Sam, just… give us a second here…" She wrapped another blanket around Daniel's waist quickly, holding it bunched in place. "All right, Teal'c, let's just move him onto the gurney, the nurses can get him into a gown later."

They quickly had Daniel situated on a gurney, and Janet checked all of his vitals. "I need to hook him up to an EEG but I think he's just fine."

At the pronouncement, Jack, Sam, and General Hammond breathed a collective sigh of relief and moved closer to the bed, as they had all been trying to stay out of the doctor's way.

"We'll have to wait for him to wake up to be sure, but these readings match Daniel's normal deep sleep wave patterns. He might take longer to wake up, since he was in there longer and all…" Janet turned to the rest of SG-1 and knew none of them would leave the room until he woke up. "I'll get you some more chairs," she said quietly, squeezing Teal'c's arm on the way out to speak with a nurse and set up some tests.

General Hammond surveyed his flagship team, which for all outward appearances was now back to normal - Daniel Jackson looked as he always did, although Hammond was still unused to seeing the man without his glasses. "Good work, everybody. I know you're going to be here, but you're all officially off-duty. Consider yourselves on stand-down for the next two weeks, I think you've all more than earned yourselves a little down-time."

"Yes, sir," Jack and Sam both answered.

Janet entered with two more chairs, which Teal'c quickly took from her. "Thanks, Teal'c."

"Doctor, let me know when he wakes up," Hammond instructed. He turned back to his team and said what he always said when they came back whole. "Welcome back, SG-1."