Note: I am shamelessly inventing a lot of nuts-and-bolts details about doing archeology in the academic world during the early seventies, using information from various sources and weaving it into what I feel is a plausible whole. Aside from actually interviewing an archeologist who was working in Egypt in this time period, I can't think of any practical means of researching this. And since I don't know any such specialists, I'm left with Stargate SOP: Make something up and hope it passes muster. If anyone with actual knowledge about these procedural details spots an error, please let me know!

Chapter 7

Janet came out of the building, opening her mouth as if to call something to him, then stopped, seeing Jack with his arm around Daniel. Well, she was one of a small number of experts in Daniel Jackson's body language.

She walked over to the two of them and squatted before Daniel. Dr. Fraiser spoke in a gentle voice. "Hello, Daniel. My name is Janet. I know you don't remember me, but I'm a friend of yours, and also your doctor."

Daniel looked at her, brows knit as he contemplated her. "You're going to know me in the future?"

Janet looked at Jack in startlement, not being privy to Daniel's way of conceptualizing what had happened to him. Jack explained in a few words, keeping his arm around Daniel, feeling the boy start to relax slightly.

"I see." said Janet, contemplating the explanation. "Well, Daniel, I'd like to examine you, to make sure that you're all right after what happened to you. Would you let me do that?"

Daniel hesitated, then looked at Jack, "Will you come with me?"

Jack hesitated, and checked his other teammates. Teal'c and Bra'tac seemed to be deep in an intense conversation, and as Teal'c knew Bra'tac far better than Jack, he shouldn't be too bothered by Jack's disappearance. Hammond had apparently done his quarter trick, because Sammi was excitedly examining a coin. She seemed pretty comfortable with "Uncle George".

He said, " Sure," and caught General Hammond's eye, pointing in turn to Janet, Daniel and himself. At Hammond's nod he carefully levered himself up, putting as little strain as possible on his knee. Janet threw him a sharp glance; Jack made a slight grimace, but gave a dismissive wave. He held out his hand, and the small boy took it. They both followed Janet into the building.

Janet's impromptu clinic looked surprisingly complete for three people, but Janet was known for not cutting corners. Or Jack had assumed it was for three people until Janet said, "Colonel, why don't I take a look at you first?" glancing briefly at Daniel, who staring around in mixed fascination and apprehension at the unfamiliar equipment.

Jack sighed. It seemed unfair that he wouldn't even be able to amuse himself as usual by giving Janet a hard time, since he was clearly being called on to "set a good example". But on the plus side, there might be something she could do to relieve his knee, though he was afraid the dread term arthroscopic surgery would be mentioned again.

In deference to his knee, she did allow him to sit in a chair instead of the examining table while she did her routine. Daniel watched with fascination. "That looks a lot like doctors do in my time," he commented as she worked with the stethoscope. "Don't you have tricorders like on Star Trek, or stuff like that in the future?"

Janet laughed. "No, we don't have those yet, sad to say. We have made a lot of advances though, but most of it's not portable enough to bring through the gate. But this is something new." She showed him an ear thermometer, then demonstrated its use on Jack, to Daniel's delight.

Jack suffered through the rest of the exam, and as he feared, she did tell him another surgery was in his future. But she also gave him an anti-inflammatory pill, applied liniment to his abused knee and give him a portable ice pack for it. This also inspired Daniel's glee, since she let him be the one to twist it to activate it. Feeling it turn icy cold in his hands afterward made his eyes go huge as saucers.

After all this, Daniel had no qualms about letting Janet twist off his space blanket toga and lift him to the table to examine him. He obediently pulled the neck of Carter's tee out to let her slip the stethoscope down it.

"So, how old are you, Daniel?" Janet asked as she listened intently to different places on Daniel's chest.

"Six and a half." answered Daniel absently, staring down his shirt to track her motions with interest. "Well, almost six and a half. I'll really turn six and a half on June 16th, but I won't have my half-birthday until July 8th."

Janet's hands paused in their well-practiced routine, and Jack felt his eyebrows lift at this startling answer. For a moment his mind gibbered in wild fear that they'd somehow gotten the wrong Daniel, and the real Daniel was somewhere out there, needing rescue. But he forced himself to listen to the conversation intently and as expressionlessly as he could. Military discipline again: First gather intel, then plan your strategy.

Janet was excellent, as always. She resumed her interrupted motions and asked, "Your half-birthday? What do you mean by that?"

Daniel looked up at her in surprise. "You know me in the future, and you don't know about my half-birthday?"

"Well, sweetie, you've never mentioned it before." said Janet smoothly. "Maybe you didn't think it was important."

Daniel considered this. "I guess the grown-up me doesn't care about presents," he said dubiously, apparently considering this far harder to believe than mere time travel.

"Well, Dannyboy, when you start gettin' old, you start wantin' to avoid remembering that day." said Jack in a fake creaky voice, rubbing the small of his back with a grimace, as if it ached.

The distraction worked; Daniel giggled, then answered Janet's question, at least after she posed it to him again. It seemed that his "whole birthday" was December 16th, but that was too close to Christmas. Plus his parents had to finish up their semester paperwork, and get ready for that winter's archeological dig. The Egyptian climate meant it was best to do archeology in the winter. Then they had to write up their finds, negotiate with the Egyptian government about removing artifacts from the country, report to the grant provider, arrange for museums to display their finds for however long the Egyptian government let them keep them, etc, etc.

And by the time all that was done, it was time to move to whichever university in whatever country his parents were going to be teaching at that year until the next dig season. So with all that going on, it wasn't "convenient" to celebrate Daniel's birthday until July 8th. "And they said that day is important for senna... sent-ih-mental reasons too." said Daniel solemnly. "That's the day they both told each other 'I love you' for the first time." Jack listened to this, his heart aching for a little boy who had to wait until his parents found it "convenient" to celebrate his birthday.

But to be fair to his parents, they seemed to go all out with his half-birthday; stopping their own work for a few days to concentrate on Daniel, taking him on trips to points of interest in the city/state/country of their current occupancy. Daniel certainly seemed happy enough with this arrangement. It was apparently a rare point of stability in his strange, nomadic existence.

And that led to the second surprise when Daniel described his last "half-birthday" in New York City for the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration. While Daniel burbled on about fireworks, parades, and a trip up to the top of the Statue of Liberty, Jack did a little mental arithmetic and calculated that would make Daniel's date of birth December 16, 1970, not July 8, 1965 as his records showed.

So... did they have their own Daniel, who had been lying about his true age for years, or did they have a child-Daniel from an alternate universe who happened to be born five and a half years later than their Daniel? If it was the second, how did they find THEIR Daniel and rescue him, and restore his alternate to his correct time and place? What if the same were true of Sammi and Teal'c?

Crap! Just when you think a situation can't get any more complicated!

Author's Note: I know that Michael Shanks' birthday is actually December 15th, but I had a desk calendar once that contained the scintillating information that December 16th was Chocolate-Covered Anything Day... and well, I just couldn't resist!