Told you I'd update regularly on this now. :) Thanks to the people who reviewed! Knowing what you all thinks helps me a lot, so 'please' tell me what you think, whether you like it or don't, just be nice, lol. Constructive feedback is always great, and I love to know what parts of new chapters you like best. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I can't wait to hear from all of you:)

Chapter 4

Once Mrs. Jackson left, Janet had retreated to her room to get ready for bed. Travis had gone back to the Jackson's kitchen to finish washing the dishes, and now that he was done he headed up the stairs to check on Charlie and Janet.

Janet's room was closest to the top of the stairs, and the door was partly open and the light off, so he quietly peeked through the opening, expecting to find the girl asleep in bed. She wasn't there.

"Janet?" he asked, pushing the door open and turning on the light. She was nowhere in the room. Travis turned the light off and backed out, then turned and looked around helplessly. "Janet?" he said louder. She wasn't in the bathroom; the door was wide open, and he hadn't heard her come back downstairs. With nowhere else to look, he pushed open the door to the master bedroom.

There she was. Janet was sitting on the edge of her parent's bed, silently watching her baby brother sleeping in his crib by the wall. What brightness there was to see by came from a small nightlight in the power socket beside the baby bed, and the bit of moonlight that came in through the curtains. She looked up at him as he stepped into the room, and he opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing, but she held a finger to her lips. Travis closed his mouth again, and Janet got up and came toward the door. He back out of the room to let her out, and she closed the door once they were both in the hallway.

"Whatcha doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Janet shrugged, sighed, and sank down to sit against the wall beside the bedroom door. "I couldn't sleep; watching Charlie makes me feel better sometimes," she said quietly. "I'm worried about dad."

Travis knelt down near her. "I know how you feel; I'm worried about your dad too--but I'm sure the doctors will know what's wrong and help him."

She nodded, but said nothing else. She pulled her legs up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them. There was silence for a moment or so, before she picked up her head.

"Travis, what grade are you in?" she asked nonchalantly. He could tell it was the kind of question where the answer didn't really matter, but that one asking just needed someone to talk to. That certainly made sense now.

"I'm a senior," he answered.

"That's twelfth grade, right?"

Travis nodded. "Right. What about you? What grade are you in?" he was pretty sure either she or Doctor Jackson had told him at one point, but he couldn't remember.

"Fifth grade," she said.

"Really?" he blinked.

Janet nodded. "When I was in first grade, they moved me up to second."

"That's awesome. Do you know what you wanna be when you grow up?"

She nodded and smiled. "I want to be an archaeologist like dad--or maybe just an Egyptologist. I only like Egypt when it comes to ancient history, not all the places he likes. I like learning other languages too, though." She shrugged sheepishly. "So something like that."

Travis chuckled. "That ought to make your dad happy."

"Yep," she grinned. "He's been teaching me a couple other languages besides the Spanish I'm taking at school."

"Which ones?"

Her smiled faltered just a bit at that, but a second later she had it back in place and shrugged. "Just a couple of really old ones. I don't think anybody even uses them anymore. They're fun though."

"That's cool."

"What about you?" she asked. "What are you gonna do when you get done with school?"

"I'm going into the air force academy."

Janet brightened again at that. "Oh great! That means you don't have to go away for college, right? You'll still work at the store and visit us and stuff?"

He smiled. "That's right. I don't have to move anywhere." He pushed his hair out of his face. "I'll have to cut my hair though."

She looked at him for a moment, tilting her head. "Well, it'll be different, but I think you'd look okay with shorter hair."

"Well, thanks."

Daniel felt consciousness returning and, remembering the pain, fought to stay in the darkness at first. Then he felt a hand in his, and realized that the pain was gone. Slowly, he pulled his open, and saw the all-too-familiar image of Vala sitting beside his infirmary bed, waiting for him with concern still written on her face.

"Hi," she smiled in relief.

"Hey," Daniel replied. His head hurt, and his voice cracked around his dry mouth and throat, and Vala reached for a cup of water that sat nearby and handed it to him. He took it and drank gratefully, not handing it back to her until he'd slowly gotten half the cup down. Vala set it down beside her and then leaned forward in her chair, hands still entwined around one of his. He squeezed gently.

"What happened?"

Vala winced. "That's kind of hard to explain. I'm not really sure myself, but you're all right now."

"You almost weren't, though."

Daniel looked up to see a tired and frustrated-looking Carolyn Mitchell approaching them. "What do you mean?"

She reached the side of the bed and stopped, crossing her arms. "SG-1 was on P74-342 yesterday. Did you eat anything there?"

He tried to think, but didn't come up with much. Stargate Command had been in growing relations with the people of P74-342 for several weeks. They looked mostly human, but their skeletal structure was slightly different, smaller. They were very friendly, though.

"Uhm…I think. Maybe a little. Wouldn't want to be rude…"

Carolyn huffed. "Did you not get the memo to be careful? We thought they were only slightly different, but it turns out that even though in appearance there's not much different, on further investigation of those that would submit to medical scans for our curiosity, we discovered that their physiology is actually very different from ours. What they can stomach and what we can is extremely different."

Daniel stared at her. "Carolyn, I hardly think that was indigestion."

"No, it wasn't. What you had was dangerous reaction to whatever it was you ate. Whatever was in it almost killed you."

He sat up straighter in the bed. "What?" he questioned in disbelief.

The doctor sighed. "I did some bloodwork on you, and there was trace of something in it that I've never seen before. I can't even begin to describe its composition, it's so different. The only reason it didn't kill you when it reached your bloodstream, as far as I can tell, is because something in the sedative I gave you counteracted it. I didn't do that on purpose either. It was a lucky coincidence. If it hadn't been stopped, it wouldn't have shut down your heart."

"So what does that mean?" Vala asked.

Carolyn's lips pursed into a thin line for a moment. "It means that Daniel is so lucky to be alive, it's not even funny."

Feeling a little faint and quite sure he was pale, Daniel slumped back against the pillows behind him. Vala was squeezing his hand so hard he thought his fingers might break, but he was squeezing back just as firmly. He swallowed hard.

Carolyn sighed. "But that's over now. It didn't leave any damage, and besides being a little more tired that usual for a couple of days, you should be fine. You can go home whenever you feel up to it."

"Thanks," Daniel replied quietly. The doctor nodded, then retreated to her office. It was still the weekend, so she would probably go home herself soon.

"How are you feeling?" Vala asked, standing from the chair to sit beside him on the bed.

Daniel sighed. "All right. I'll be fine." Then he grimaced and held a hand to his head. "Killer headache, though."

"Any fever?" she questioned, holding the back of her hand to his forehead. Daniel batted it away.

"Hey, I'm your husband, not your kid," he complained. She pouted.

Daniel sighed again and pulled her to him. "Sorry," he apologized, embracing her. Vala hugged back firmly and smiled. "It's all right," she assured him. "I'm just glad you're okay. She pulled back after a moment, and he kissed her. Then she grinned.

"Speaking of kids, they're waiting outside."

"Well go get them," he insisted. Vala pecked him on the cheek and left, but came back a moment later with Janet walking beside her and Charlie in her arms. Janet broke into a run and jumped onto the edge of the bed to hug him.

"Dad, are you okay?" she asked as Daniel hugged her in return.

"I'm fine. How about you?"

"I'm okay," she answered, sitting back on her heels, then glanced back as Vala reached the bed again and handed little Charlie over his father.

"Hey little buddy," Daniel grinned, hugging his son too before setting the boy on his lap. Charlie grinned back.

Half an hour later, Daniel was dressed in his own clothes again, and Vala, Janet, and Charlie were waiting for him so they could head home. He thanked Carolyn again, then pushed through the door out into the corridor where his family waited. Vala had Charlie, and Janet was bouncing on her toes, ready to go.

"Okay, we can go," Daniel smiled at them. Janet was about to say something in response, when Samantha O'Neill walked past.

"Hey, Aunt Sam," she waved.

Sam stopped. "Hey Janet…what are you guys doing here today?"

Daniel spoke first, before Vala could explain. "Just a little medical problem. It's all right now."

Sam looked at him appraisingly for a moment. Daniel knew she knew him, and didn't believe the 'no big deal' story for one moment, but she refrained from commenting about it--probably because she saw that he really did look fine.

Vala glanced at him, obviously a little annoyed, but let it go. "So why are you in on the weekend?" she asked.

Sam shrugged. "I just had a little bit of work to finish up--and General Landry wanted to see me about something."

"Getting some business done before he retires next month?" Daniel asked.

"Something like that," Sam agreed tightly.

"When is he going to get around to finding someone to replace him?" Vala mussed aloud. "It's getting a little close. Granted, we're going to miss him, but it would be nice to know who's taking over all the same."

Sam shrugged a bit. "I have a feeling it won't be long."

Daniel looked at her, wondering if there was another layer to that statement, but couldn't tell for sure. "Are you okay, Sam?"

"I'm fine," she nodded.

Vala spoke up. "Oh, there's a Valentines Day party at our house next week. We'll start about five, probably. You and Jack can come, right?"

Sam though only for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, we should be able to."

"Great," Vala grinned.

"Okay, I've got to go now, but I'll catch you tomorrow, okay?" Sam said.

Daniel nodded. "Okay. Later."

Sam smiled and nodded, then continued down the corridor, leaving the Jacksons to get on their way home. Daniel felt Janet's hand slip into his, and he draped his arm around Vala's shoulders. Another disaster averted.

"Let's go home."

Valentine's Day couldn't have come too soon for Vala. The week was spent at work, SG-1 went on one uneventful recon mission, and she did a lot of extra cleaning downstairs at the house. Daniel spent the time at home after work either playing with Charlie and Janet or continuing to work on the translation of the few symbol-covered clay pieces they'd found on P63-oh-who-cared.

Finally, the day came. Everyone was able to make it to the party, and the beginning went normally, with the adults eating and talking, and the children alternately eating and running around and up and down the stairs playing. Skaara was the happiest of anyone there, and Vala and Carolyn were the only two besides Cassie herself who knew why. The three women had planned their announcement for near the end of the party, and after three or four hours it was winding down. The men were finishing up what seemed to be a sports discussion, the kids were upstairs in Janet's room, and Cassie, Carolyn, and Vala got together off to one side of the room.

"Now?" Vala questioned.

"Might as well," Carolyn grinned.

But it was at that moment that Sam stood from her seat beside Jack, and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. It worked, and seconds later they were all looking at her. She sighed and sat back down as the other women came back to the group and sat by their husbands as well.

"What is it, Sam?" Daniel asked.

Vala saw Jack silently urge his wife on, and she took a deep breath.

"Well…" Sam started slowly. "I need your opinions on something."

"Sure," Cameron agreed.

"We will be glad to be of assistance," Teal'c nodded.

She sighed. "Okay, you all know General Landry is retiring next month, right?" There were nods all around, then she continued. "Well…he wants me to take his place."