A/N: One more to go after this one in the original story, then the epilogue.

Ch 47: Daniel's Debrief

They sat in silence, waiting for Daniel to wake up, for a long time. Sam leaned forward in her chair with her elbows on her knees and her fingers clasped, watching him closely for signs of waking. The trunk had been removed from the room - it would continue to be deciphered at a slower pace, then the people at Area 51 would probably end up adding it to their collection.

"He looks cold," Sam said suddenly, getting up and grabbing the blanket folded at the foot of Daniel's bed. She spread it over him carefully. When she sat back down, Jack decided he'd try and break some of the tension in the room.

"I don't know, Carter, he still looks cold to me," Jack declared before pulling the diaper bag out from underneath the bed. He made a show of spreading the dinosaur blanket on top of him as well, although since it was meant for a baby it wasn't much bigger than a pillow case. Then he tucked Toppy in with him as well and stepped back to admire his handiwork. He had to admit, it was a pretty amusing sight. Sam shook her head and smiled, looking down at the floor.

Having everyone fussing over his bedcovers woke Daniel up. He groaned and grabbed his head, opened his eyes, and looked around. His vision was blurry because he didn't have his glasses on. When he came face to face with the dinosaur stuffy, he looked so confused that Sam laughed out loud.

He turned quickly to the blurry forms of his friends - Jack and Sam were on one side of his bed, Teal'c on the other. "Hey guys… what did I miss?" he asked, picking up the dinosaur and looking at it curiously. He noticed the baby blanket and said, "Oh no."

"Oh yes. Any idea what you've been up to the past week, Danny boy?" Jack asked as Sam handed Daniel his glasses, which were waiting for him on the bedside table, and sat down on the foot of his bed.

"Uh… not really," Daniel said as he put his glasses on. "I uh… there's some… fuzziness. And my head… hurts."

"Janet will give you something for it," Sam promised, patting his leg through the blankets. "It didn't last very long when J… the Colonel had it."

"O…kay," Daniel said, looking at her in confusion. He'd never heard Sam use that tone of voice on him before - come to think of it, had she ever used that tone of voice with anyone before? She sounded like she was reading him a bedtime story or something. And had she almost just called Jack by his first name? Daniel was confused, to say the least.

"It is good to see you well, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, definitely the happiest Jaffa Daniel had ever seen.

"Thanks, Teal'c. What's with all this… stuff?"

"Stuff?" Jack demanded. "You'd better apologize or Toppy there will never forgive you. After all you've been through together! Carter, I certainly hope you treated Mr. Buns with more respect than this."

"What the hell are you talking about, Jack?" Daniel asked, looking to Sam for an explanation. "And what on earth is a Mr. Buns?"

"He's a rabbit," Sam said dismissively, as though that answered everything. "Daniel, what's the last thing you remember doing clearly?" Sam asked as Teal'c sent for Dr. Fraiser.

"Uh, let's see… I was working in my lab at night… on that trunk that SG-12 found. I must have triggered something because one side of it just opened, out of nowhere, while I was touching it."

"You don't say," Jack said sarcastically.

"… I slid inside of it to check it out."

"Why?" Jack interrupted.

"What do you mean, why?" Daniel asked, baffled.

They looked at each other like… well, like Jack and Daniel frequently did, Sam thought. As if they operated on such vastly different wavelengths they might as well be different species.

"I mean, why would you crawl inside a trunk?"

"Because… it opened," Daniel stated simply.

Their second staring contest was interrupted by Janet arriving, penlight and all. After giving Daniel another check-up, during which he patiently answered all of her questions, he asked, "So… the trunk did something to me?"

"I'll say," Janet said.

"That was a week ago, Daniel. You don't remember anything after that?" Sam asked.

"Well… I guess I sort of remember feelings. I remember feeling… good. Happy."

Jack snorted. "I'm not surprised. You spent most of the week with your face hidden in Carter's chest."

"What?" Daniel spluttered, while Sam shot Jack an embarrassed and irritated look and Janet scolded, "Sir!"

"Well, he did," Jack said reasonably. "Sit back, Danny boy, let us tell you a story."

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"Don't take it personally, sir. After all, you've slept through plenty of his briefings," Sam said, unable to hide her amusement at the fact that Daniel had fallen back asleep almost immediately after Jack began his story - he'd only got through the most basic facts. Janet was guessing that Jack had been right earlier - he would need a lot more time to recover from his transformation than Jack had.

Speaking with Daniel Jackson, though briefly, had assured Teal'c that he would recovery quickly. Seeing no need for all three of them to continue monitoring him as he slept, Teal'c excused himself. "That guy's hiding something," Jack said thoughtfully as he left.

Sam nodded absently and picked up Daniel's chart, going over it once more, just to be safe. "He's fine, Carter," Jack said, amused.

She'd immediately nominated herself Daniel's Keeper when SG-1 had been formed, and he'd been glad of it. She'd taught Daniel how to shoot and show up on time (mostly) and had a knack for getting him to stop talking just as Jack hit his geek-threshold. That role had dwindled, as Daniel learned how to be part of a first contact unit quickly and gradually acquired better and better field skills… and as the rest of his team grew on Jack's affections, as well. Now, though, Jack wouldn't be all that surprised if Carter was back to playing mother hen to Daniel for quite some time.

"I know," she answered absently, nearly a full minute after he'd spoken. She sat back down next to him and glanced at the notebook in his lap. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making a list of grievances," Jack answered, holding up the paper to show that he had indeed labelled it, 'List of Grievances.' "See, number one is… well, number one. Peeing on me."

"I see."

"Yup. Then on the back is the list of things I'm going to make fun of him for. Sucking his thumb's at the top, along with stripping at every available opportunity. Oh yeah, trying to eat a worm! This is too easy…" Chuckling to himself, he continued adding to both lists, making a show of flipping the pages of the notebook as often as possible as he went from list to list.

"I'll have to be sure to give him some ammunition of his own then," Sam said. "I seem to remember somebody putting on quite a show with some dolls and a miniature stargate."

"Hey, you should be making your own list of grievances against him, not helping him. He puked all over you."

"Because you were swinging him around in circles after stuffing him full of barbecue!" Sam reminded.

"Oh. Yeah." He gave an apologetic smile and got back to working on his list.

The next time Daniel woke up, Jack was still there, slumped slightly in his chair. Sam was still in her chair as well, but she was asleep. Jack glanced up at Daniel from his notebook and saw that he was awake. He nudged Sam lightly. "He's awake."

She woke quickly, sitting up straight and asking, "How do you feel?"

"Tired," Daniel answered honestly. "Really, really tired. But I want to know more about what happened to me."

"Well, I conveniently have a little list here that should help us out," Jack said, waving his piece of paper.

"Just… quickly, sir, before you start your story again," Sam interrupted. "Daniel, when Colonel O'Neill used the trunk today, he remembered what happened."

"Sort of," Jack said. "Although it's harder to remember now than it was when I first woke up," he realized.

"Really?" Sam asked. "Well, that fits with your description of it as seeming like a dream at least. But Daniel, you don't remember the past week at all?"

"I'm… I'm not sure. I sort of remember feeling small, like you all were so much bigger than me. And I remember being safe and happy, so thank you for that. But I don't really remember specific details. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Sam said with a shrug. "That's probably just a combination of the nature of the device and the nature of the mind of a toddler. Hopefully a complete translation - which I'm sure you'll be an enormous help with once you're feeling better - will clear things up a bit, but I think we've got a good basic understanding of what it does and how it does it."

"Or at least you do," Jack put in. "Now, back to my list. Number One… you peed on me."

"I did not!" Daniel objected, looking at Sam hopefully.

"I'm afraid you did," she confirmed.

"You puked all over Carter too," Jack added. "Got some on me as well on another occasion too, but she got the worst of that department."

"I… well. I'm sorry, guys."

"Speaking of sorry," Sam said, biting her lip. "The ah… second time he was talking about, we were in your office and… well, your Egyptian urn was right there and… well, let's just say it'll never smell the same again."

"Oh, man," Daniel whined.

Jack cleared his throat loudly. "Excuse me kids, I believe we were on my list of grievances. Now, the appropriately named Number Two. Danny boy, you made changing a dirty diaper in the men's room at Toys'R'Us into one of the top ten things I hope I never have to do again. Number three…"

By the time Jack had finished his list, Daniel was thoroughly embarrassed and truly sorry about how much trouble caring for him had been. Sam felt the need to set the record straight - while she knew Jack would insist vehemently to Daniel that is had been a right pain in the ass, she knew Jack had enjoyed the experience on the whole. "Don't believe the surly-Colonel act, Daniel," she assured him, turning to Jack. "You loved every minute you spent with him and you know it."

Daniel was surprised when Jack didn't outright object to the accusation, just grumbled something unintelligible and flipped his paper over.

Teal'c showed up again halfway through a more detailed account of 'Danny's week.' And he'd brought pictures, which explained what he had been so busy doing all day. "I have gathered all the pictures taken on the various disposable cameras in use by all of us throughout the week. I believe visual representations of the event will facilitate our retelling of events to you, Daniel Jackson."

"Wow, that's a lot of pictures," Daniel commented as Teal'c placed the bag in his lap and Daniel looked inside.

Sam grabbed the first envelope of prints and sat down next to Daniel, who scooted over to give her more room so they could see the pictures together. They spent the next two hours going through all the pictures and describing their contexts to Daniel - who often ended up with three very different accounts of the same picture from Jack, Sam, and Teal'c respectively.

Sam loved looking at the pictures with Daniel and telling him all about how he had been as a toddler, which Daniel loved as well. Having lost his parents so early, he didn't have any 'when you were little…' stories that went beyond his own fuzzy memories. But it did also remind her that Danny was gone… or, to be more specific, just grown-up. And she missed the little guy already.

After a while, Daniel was struggling to stay awake, at which point Janet came in and shooed them all away so he could rest. Sam packed up all the remaining Danny-things into the diaper bag, conveniently 'forgetting' Toppy. She had no doubt that a certain stuffed triceratops would soon be among the clutter of Daniel's office.

As they all filed out the door, Daniel stopped Teal'c, who was last. "Teal'c, wait a minute." Teal'c paused in the doorway, waiting for Sam and Jack to continue without him, and turned back to Daniel.

"What is it, Daniel Jackson?"

"I just wanted to ask… without Jack and Sam here. What exactly is going on between them? I mean, half those pictures were telling a very different story than the ones coming out of their mouths."

"I concur," Teal'c agreed. "I am unsure of any specific changes in the nature of their relationship, however. They are both determined not to let this event alter anything permanently."

"Still?"

Teal'c nodded. "That is my impression from speaking with them separately and observing their behavior when Jacob Carter raised similar concerns."

"Huh. Well. That's… unfortunate. From what I saw in those pictures, they'd be wonderful parents. I mean, not that we didn't know that already, but I don't think Sam ever gave it much thought before."

"I agree. Despite the fact that they continue to further their relationship, as you have said, at the pace of a snail, I do believe that as a two year-old boy, you have managed to make more progress in a matter of days than we have done in the past several years."

"Really?" Daniel asked. Teal'c nodded. "Thanks, Teal'c."

"Sleep well, Daniel Jackson."

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Jack arrived alone after Daniel had been awake from his latest nap for only about ten minutes. "Hey, you by yourself?" Jack asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah," Daniel said, sitting up so he could speak easier. "Janet just left."

"I was expecting Carter to be sitting in here with you again. You ah… might notice her hovering more than usual for a while," he warned.

"Yeah, about that," Daniel said pointedly. "I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate everything you did for me last week, Jack. I mean, I know you would have done it for any kid, but… it means a lot to me. Thank you."

Jack shrugged. "You'd have done the same for any of us."

"Of course. But I just… I thought maybe having to take care of me might have… caused some additional problems given the whole… thing… with you and Sam."

"There is no 'me and Sam,' Daniel," Jack reminded him.

"Okay, but… I just meant… I'm sorry if I put you in an uncomfortable situation. Teal'c told me about Jacob being here and being… concerned."

"That blabbermouth," Jack muttered. "Look - yeah, some of it was… awkward. But most of it was just fine, so don't worry about it."

"Okay, I won't."

"Good."

"What exactly do you mean 'it was fine?'"

"Daniel…" Jack warned.

"I'm sorry, it just… I saw those pictures Jack. And in a lot of the ones where you or Sam or you and Sam didn't know they were being taken, you guys are happy. Really happy."

"What's your point?"

"I guess… the way I see it, you could either get all sullen and extra-mean while you brood internally over what you guys are missing out on, or you could see it as something you both could have."

Jack snorted. "Right. And since I'm guessing you're not volunteering to let us shrink you again…"

"Well, I assumed you'd figure out a way to make your own kid. I could draw you a diagram…"

"You know, this is why I liked you much better as a toddler."

"Jack, I'm trying to help you. And Sam. I just want you both to be happy."

"I know you do," he said, running a hand through his hair and glancing around the room. "Look. When I've… when I've thought about… in the future, when the Goa'uld are gone or I have to retire or whatever… anyway. It's always been… all or nothing, you know? So yeah, this past week brought up some stuff. But it wasn't anything new."

"I would have assumed that about you," Daniel said, nodding. "But I think Sam deserves to at least know… all that stuff you're hinting at but not really saying. And I don't think that right now she does."

"Oh, come on. How could she not know?"

Daniel shrugged. "She's Sam."

"She didn't think she'd be good with you either," Jack said, thinking out loud. "But that's different, she'd never been around a kid before. I see her every day and she's the smartest person on the planet. She has to know. Either that or she doesn't want to."

Daniel shook his head. "At least make sure you're really both on the same page, Jack. I doubt you've had many conversations with each other even as obfuscated as this one is, so…"

"Dammit Daniel…"

"Jack, don't make me throw a tantrum," Daniel threatened.

Jack chuckled and waved a dismissive hand. "All right, keep your diaper on. I'd better go find her anyway, if she's not in here with you she's probably back at work already."

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