All righty, here's the next chapter. I hope everyone enjoys this one, because I'm going to camp this next week so it will be anoher couple weeks before I can update again. So if it seems a while until I do, don't worry. I'll be back and I will finish the story. I promise! I'm having a lot of fun with this one, lol. :) So anyway, please enjoy and review quickly so I can see them before I leave for camp Sunday, so I can be working on the next chapter while I'm gone! Have a great week everybody!

Chapter 4

"What about Janet?" Vala asked as she and Daniel quietly stepped out of the walk-in closet in their bedroom, both now in fresh clothes.

Daniel looked at the sleeping girl on their bed, and then to the clock on the bedside table. It read two twenty. He sighed. "I'm not bothering Cassie this time of night, not to mention anyone else. We'll have to take her with us." With that said, he headed off toward his daughter's room.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Vala asked, following him.

"Do we have a choice? She already knows, Vala. I don't see a problem here."

"Well, how is she going to get to school in the morning?"

Daniel pushed open the door to Janet's room. It was relatively clean, thank goodness. Otherwise what he was looking for would be that much harder to find. As it was, there were only a few random items scattered about, and he easily spotted his objection in the middle of the pink-carpeted floor.

"We'll jump off that bridge when we get to it," he muttered, snatching his daughter's tennis shoes off the floor.

"What?" Vala yelped.

Daniel winced. "Sorry--been hanging around Jack too much again."

"Ah," she said, nodding knowingly and moving to Janet's dresser to find some clothes for her. Diving in, a moment later she came back up with a pair of jeans a sweat shirt. "Here we go." With her heavy coat, she would be warm enough in the Colorado winter night, and the clothes were decent enough for school the next day if they didn't get back to the house before then.

Daniel nodded, reached into another drawer to grab a pair of socks and then started back toward their room carrying them and the shoes, Vala not far behind. Vala was the first back to the bed, however, and sat on the edge of it, leaning over her daughter.

"Janet," she said quietly, shaking the girl. "Come on, sweetheart-time to wake to wake up." After a couple more tries her eyes opened.

Janet yawned, "Mommy…it's still dark," she said sleepily.

"I know, Janet," Daniel said, sitting beside Vala. "But we need to go for a ride. Just help your mom get these clothes on you and then you can go back to sleep, okay?"

The eight-year-old nodded minutely, and sat halfway up even though she wasn't quite awake yet. That was all right because they didn't need her to be.

Daniel stood. "Okay. I'll get the car warmed up and I'll be right back, okay?"

Vala nodded, and once he had left she dressed her daughter. By the time Daniel came back in she had gotten the socks on and was tying the first shoe. Janet had already fallen back to sleep. Daniel sat beside her and gently pushed the other shoe on and tied it, then stood and picked the girl up. She didn't stir again. He smiled and then turned toward the door.

"The car's ready. We can go now," he said quietly.

"All right, uhm…wait; she'll need something to do when she wakes up if she's stuck at the base for a while…oh! Her backpack will work. She'll need it for school and she always keeps extra books in there…"

"How do you know that?" Daniel asked, following her into Janet's room again.

She raised an eyebrow at him, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "Despite what you may think, Daniel, my background hasn't made me a terrible mother. From what she's told me, she goes to the school library at least twice a week, she always keeps the books in her backpack, and I usually try to look at the books she's bringing home."

"Oh…" Daniel trailed sheepishly. "That's right. I knew that." The he frowned. "Have I ever given you the impression I think that? 'Cause I don't, I promise-"

Vala held up her other hand to stop him as she picked up the backpack from the floor next to Janet's desk and swung it over her shoulder, now really smiling. "No, no, Daniel; not at all. It was just a stupid comment, really…"

Daniel shrugged. "Okay, fine. Can we go now? Genera Landry's going to wonder where we are…"

Vala nodded. "Right, right. Let's go."

Daniel turned and walked from the room, stopping in the front hall where the coats were. Gently setting Janet on the bench under the coats next to the wall, he reached up and grabbed hers before sliding it on her. Then he and Vala put their own on, Daniel scooped their daughter up again and they headed for the car. Janet still hadn't stirred again. The girl slept like a rock--the world would have to end before she'd wake up. Daniel wished he could do that.

Janet finally moved again in the elevator ride down into the mountain.

"Daddy? Where are we?" a small, still sleep-fogged voice asked, and Daniel looked down at her.

"We're at the SGC, Janet. Something came up and mommy and daddy had to come back to work. It's too late to wake up Cassie, so you had to come with us."

"Oh," Janet yawned, stretching her arms. "Okay." Her arms came down around her father's neck and stayed there as she fell asleep again.

Vala shook her head and smiled. "Sometimes that kid amazes me."

Daniel got several strange looks walking down the halls of the SGC with a sleeping eight-year-old child in his arm, but it didn't bother him. After all, he was part of an SG team that often made first contact with new worlds. He was used to being looked at strangely.

He hoped that they'd gotten there before their colleagues, so that before the others arrived he could find somewhere to let Janet sleep, but-

"Hey Daniel."

Daniel looked up as he and Vala walked into the conference room, where Sam, Jack, Cameron, Teal'c and General Landry already sat, waiting.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" Daniel asked of the man who addressed him.

The retired general shrugged. "Hank said I could come along--besides, sounded urgent and all that." Grinning, O'Neill motioned toward the girl that Jackson carried, her arms still around his neck. "Nice necklace."

"Ha ha," Daniel stated dryly as Vala snorted. Then he directed his attention toward Landry. "Uhm…general, we kind of had no choice but to bring her along since we both had to come, uh…What can I do with her."

The general stood and moved back toward his office. He was smiling faintly, but all could see in his eyes that whatever he had called them here for was serious, indeed. "It's all right, Doctor Jackson. I can have someone come by the conference room and bring her to one of the VIP rooms and watch her. She can sleep there for now."

Daniel sighed. "Thank you, sir."

Vala had already taken a seat and Daniel sat down beside her, still holding Janet. A moment later General Landry returned to sit down again, and Daniel set his daughter's feet on the floor, holding her up while he tried to wake her.

"Come on, Janet. You need to wake up for another few minutes for me, okay?"

She yawned. "Huh?"

At that moment a young female airman came in and stepped up Janet. "I can take her, sir," she said to Daniel, smiling down at the girl.

Janet looked up at the woman and then back at her parents.

"It's all right, Janet. You can go with her," Vala assured her.

"She'll take you somewhere you can sleep, and we'll come get you when we're done here, okay?" Daniel said, rubbing her back.

Janet nodded sleepily, and when the young woman held out a hand for her she took it, but not before reaching out for a hug from both of her parents. Then she quietly followed the airman out. Daniel and Vala watched her go, and then finally turned back to the table, ready for the briefing.

Daniel rubbed at his eyes, and then sighed heavily in frustration, suddenly realizing that everything was blurry.

"What's wrong?" Vala asked.

"Darn it, I forgot to put my contacts in…" the archaeologist mumbled.

"You keep an extra pair of glasses in your office."

Daniel looked up at her, remembering that she was right. "Oh…I knew that." Though the truth was that he had forgotten. He hadn't worn glasses regularly in seven years.

Smiling at the couple's interaction, jack sat up and cleared his throat. "Okay, general, would you mind telling us why we needed to come here at three in the morning?"

Landry sighed. "Because intelligence seems to have discovered something--and unfortunately it involves a word I'm sure we all hoped we'd never hear again-" Everyone came to full attention at that. "-Ori."

Daniel literally snapped back at that. "What?"

"No!" Vala gasped.

"You're kidding!" Sam yelped.

"Don't tell me we missed some," Cameron groaned.

"Wait--wasn't that weapon supposed to destroy all of them?" Jack frowned.

"Hold your horses, people," Landry said, holding up his hands. "Yes, the weapon was supposed to destroy all of them, and it did--but not all of their followers. We knew that."

"What do mean?" Daniel frowned. The first part his dream flashed through his mind again. "Have they gotten one of the ships going again or something? With the Ori gone they shouldn't work…"

The general shook his head. "We're not sure. All we know is that there is a ship, and it's headed toward earth. It's five times as big as any Ori ship we've encountered before, and it's come all the way from the Ori galaxy."

"Right," Sam said, nodding. "All the super-gates were destroyed."

"So that's why it's taken this long to get here?" Mitchell questioned.

"That's what it looks like," Landry nodded.

Jack looked confused. "But I thought that once the Ori were destroyed, all the technology powered by them wouldn't work anymore."

Sam shook her head. "I don't know, Jack. They must have found a way to harness it for use even if they were gone."

"A final blow," Daniel said quietly, realization dawning, along with growing horror.

"What?" Vala asked.

"They knew we'd found Merlin's weapon. They knew they were doomed, so they pulled together everything they could to throw at us before they were wiped out. That all came together as this ship, whoever and whatever's on it and what's powering it." Everyone else seemed stunned.

Finally Cameron broke the silence with a simple, yet accurate, statement. "Crap."