Chapter Five
When Daniel returned, his return was met with an excited young boy. Daniel couldn't help the smile that bloomed on his face when Kenan threw his small body at him. Kenan certainly got his energy from his mother, Daniel noted to himself as he swung Kenan into his arms. "Hi there," Daniel greeted, "miss me?"
"Yes!" Kenan exclaimed and added dramatically, "You were gone forever!"
Daniel snorted. "I was only gone for like an hour," he playfully told the boy.
Kenan giggled. "Will you play with me? Aquila had to go to school with the boys and I'm not allowed to go until next year."
Daniel couldn't remember meeting a child so eager to learn and go to school. It was normally the opposite. "Sure," he agreed and set him down, "I just need to talk to your mom first, okay?"
"Okay!"
Daniel laughed again as he watched Kenan bounce away like he was the energizer bunny. He noticed that he's probably laughed more in this week with Vala and Kenan than he has in the past ten years…and he liked it, that feeling of joy, of contentment.
"He seems happy," Gaius commented as he came to stand next to Daniel, eyes following the energetic five-year-old.
"From what I've observed the past week, he usually is," Daniel remarked and then added, "though he does seem happier today, if that's possible."
"He has been worried about his mother leaving again," Gaius divulged, "but he was given assurance that she will never leave him like that again. He is simply happy that his mother won't be leaving him anytime soon."
Dread filled Daniel. "So…she's made her decision," he stated rather than asked.
Gaius laid a hand on his shoulder. "She has," he confirmed, "What that decision is, it's up to her to tell you. She's inside."
Daniel mumbled his thanks and went to go find her. It wasn't a big deal. He suspected that this would happen and it didn't change anything for him, not anything important at least. As much as he loved Earth and working for the Stargate program, he loved Vala more and had already decided almost a week ago that he'd do whatever it took to keep her in his life; even if it meant moving to an entirely different planet. It would be hard to convince the SGC to let him go, but they couldn't force him to stay…right?
Upon entering the house, Junia directed him to Aquila's room, where they had been bunking the past week, and when he walked in on her packing his things, pain shot to his heart. Man he was going to miss her while he dealt with all the ramifications of his impending resignation, knowing it would take time before he could return to Lyria and to Vala and Kenan.
"So, you knew my request for more time off would be denied," he said as he came to stand next to her and the bags and clothes she had laid out on the bed.
Vala scoffed softly and turned to him, giving him a smile. "Of course. You're way to valuable to them, not to mention your tendency of getting into scrapes that end up killing you one way or another," she teased, "Why I bet Jack is worried sick at the thought of you being here with a space pirate with a propensity of getting into trouble as well."
He snorted, grabbing the last shirt of his she had folded and stuck it in the duffle bag before zipping it up. "He likes to call you Space Princess, combining Mitchel's nickname for you with his own for me."
"That's sweet. Space Princess," she tested the name, "I like it. Sounds fancy."
"Sounds like a cartoon character from a children's show," he retorted.
"I like cartoons!" she defended the name and grabbed the last of her own clothes to pack in the second duffle.
Daniel grabbed her arm and pulled it away from the duffle. "Vala, you don't have to go. They said you could stay longer. Only I have to go," he explained sadly. "Besides, Gaius said you already made your decision."
"That's right, I have," she confessed gently and shoved the clothes into the bag, zipping it up, grabbed his, and set both of the next to the door where a more rustic pack laid, made from simple fabric.
He swore his heart stopped momentarily before beating rapidly. "Whose pack is that?" he asked hesitantly.
"Junia gave it to me for Kenan," she answered and continued like everything was normal, "While we'll have to get him more appropriate clothing once we're home, he fond of a few things here and I'd hate to leave them. Why I made the quilt I packed before he was born and I'm quite proud of, despite its flaws."
"Wait, wait," he raised a hand to stop her, "you're coming home with me?" he whispered in awe, shock, and elation all at once.
Vala came up to him and wrapped her hands around his neck. "Yes."
"You and Kenan, you're coming to Earth with me?"
"Yes, I'm bringing him home with us," she affirmed gently and blinked away the moisture gathering in her eyes. "So you have to make good on your promise and get Jack to allow us to live off base."
Daniel huffed out a laugh, one of joy and relief and caressed her cheek. "I'll call him as soon as we get back," he vowed and touched their foreheads together. "How does Kenan feel about this? Does he want to come?" he inquired gingerly.
"He can't wait. It was his choice, I made sure of that," she reassured him, "One of the main reasons he wants to is because you'll be there."
He pulled away from her. "Really?"
"Really. He's quite fond of you."
"I'm fond of him, too," he declared, "He's incredible."
"Of course he is, though I guess I'm a bit biased," she smiled softly at him, "Another reason we wants to go is so that he can attend the school you went to and become an archeologist."
His brows shot up and eyes widened. "Kenan said that?"
"Weird right? He is nothing like me and I have no idea where he gets it from. Sometimes I wonder if he truly is mine," she joked, "He's more like you than me. It would be my luck that I fall for a man who loves boring things and have my son love the same boring line of work as well."
"It must be fate."
"You don't believe in fate, at least not this type of fate."
"I think I'm starting to," he confessed. "You're my fate, you and Kenan."
"Whatever you say, darling," she patted his cheek and stepped out of his arms.
Daniel caught her arm before she could fully escape. "C'mere," and pulled her and gave her heated kiss, which she returned whole heartedly.
Life on Earth wouldn't be perfect, they understood that, but it still would be amazing, as long as they were together.
Daniel reluctantly left Vala to make good on his promise to Kenan that he'd play with him. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend time with Kenan, he did, but he also wanted to stay with Vala. Today had marked the first real step forward they took in their new relationship. Yes, they had talked about it the first night here, but that had been when everything was up in the air and Vala didn't know what the future held for them, before she knew how her son would react to Daniel. She hadn't been able to make a decision that first night, too much was uncertain, but now, she could and did, and Daniel couldn't be happier.
Kenan spotted him the second he stepped outside and hurried to him with a baseball mitt and a ball. Sam had sent them, along with an adult mitt, with Kenan in mind when she had sent the other supplies. The little guy loved them, even if he was still getting the hang of it. Maybe Vala and him could sign him up for little league? Jack would love that.
"Can we play with these?" Kenan begged, bouncing up and down.
Daniel laughed at his enthusiasm and energy. He wondered if Vala had been like this as a child, so full of life and boundless energy. "Yeah, sure. Do you remember what I showed you last time?" he asked, grabbing the adult mitt.
While Daniel wasn't a big sports guy, he knew all about playing catch. Jack had been very particular when Cassie had first gotten to Earth. She loved it so much, she begged to play with all of them multiples time and Jack refused to let anyone teach her bad habits or techniques and instructive everyone of the proper and best techniques when it came to catch. Cassie had grown up able to throw a wicked pitch, perfection itself. Jack had never been prouder.
Kenan's face scrunched up as he thought. Daniel thought it was one of the cutest things he'd ever seen and held back a smile. "I think so…"
Daniel couldn't help but chuckle. "It's okay if you didn't. I can show you again."
After showing him and explaining again, Kenan threw the ball to Daniel. "Like that?" he asked.
"Excellent!" Daniel beamed and then cringed on the inside. That sounded way too much like Jack. Gods, he hoped he didn't become like the man.
Daniel threw the ball back and Kenan cheered when he caught it. "Daniel, I caught it!"
"Good job, little man!" he praised.
They went back and forth in the same manner for the next several minutes before Daniel approached the topic he wanted to discuss with Kenan. "So, your mom says you guys are coming back to Earth with me. Are you okay with that? Is that what you want?"
"Yes," he replied nonchalantly, throwing the ball to Daniel. "I wanna be with mama and you. I wanna be an archeologist like you," he stumbled over the word again.
"You do, do ya?" Daniel remarked, a smile growing on his face. "You're sure though? There would be rules there and things you wouldn't be able to tell people."
"Mama already told me about them. She said we'd hafta live on a boring base. I don't know what that is, but she said we could see you every day, so I don't mind."
Daniel snorted at Vala's description of the base. "Hopefully, you won't have to live on the base for long. I'm going to try my hardest to get you two off as soon as possible."
"Can we live with you?" Kenan asked innocently.
Daniel paused, hand poised to toss the ball. He lowered the ball into his mitt. "Do you want to live with me?"
"Yes," he answered simply. "Would you have to marry mama first?"
Instead of answering that question directly, he sidestepped and asked one of own, "Would you be okay if I married mama?" he finally chucked the ball back.
"If you married mama, that means you'd be my papa, right?" Kenan asked instead.
"Would you like me to be?" Inwardly, Daniel was cracking up a bit. Their conversation sounded like to a therapy session – answering a question with another question.
Kenan nodded and returned the ball. "I don't have a papa and I like you and Tante Junia says you love mama. She told mama and Onkel Gaius that you'd be a good papa for me."
Daniel raised his brows. "She did?" he asked, surprised.
"Uh-huh," Kenan confirmed.
Daniel settled the ball in the mitt and took it off, crossing the distance between the two of them. He crouched down to make himself as eyelevel as possible for Kenan. "I'm gonna be honest with you; I do love your mother, a lot. I was really stupid and tried to pretend I didn't. Now, I can't bear to lose her. She means the world to me. I didn't know about you either. Your mama didn't tell anyone because she wanted to protect you. I never expected you, but I wouldn't change anything for the world.
"I like kids and I already love you, but I don't know what I'm doing. I would like nothing more than to be your dad, but you need to know I might be bad at it. I never thought I would have children, even though I wanted them. So, if you can live with me making a lot of mistakes and not knowing what I'm doing, I'd like nothing more than to marry your mama and be your dad. You two now mean the world to me and I would love it if you two became my family. So, what do you say? Are you okay with that?"
"Yes," he replied nonchalant, "It's okay if you make mistakes. I make mistakes too. You just have to learn from them."
His eyebrows went up again. "I now get what your mom was talking about," he remarked. Where did this kid come from? He was just too adorable. Kenan shot give a confused look. "Never mind."
"We going with you tomorrow, right?"
"That's right," Daniel confirmed.
"And you'll marry mama and become my papa so we can live with you?"
"Eventually…" Daniel dragged the word out. Damn, this kid moved fast. "You know, it's a little disconcerting how willing you are to move in with a complete stranger," Daniel commented offhand.
Despite the big words, Kenan must've had something similar said to him in the past, for he matter-of-factly responded with, "Tante Junia says I'm a good judge of character."
Daniel belly laughed at Kenan's statement and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You definitely didn't get that from your mom."
Kenan's confused glance only made Daniel laugh more.
Author's Note: Sorry for the late update but it's Thanksgiving here and I spent my day with family. For my fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving! And for those who celebrate!
Also, Daniel is not the father of Kenan! Just putting that out there for anyone who might be wondering. Just thought it would be cool for them to be similar. I had been planning on going somewhere with that once back on Earth but I scraped it and didn't want to change it here so...yeah