Second Day

by

Annie

Daniel had fallen asleep on the way home, not even waking when Jack scooped him out of the passenger side seat of the Jack's truck and carried him inside. Jack managed to flip the covers on the spare bed back, while resting Daniel on one slightly bent knee, slipped him onto the bed and drew the covers up snuggly around his shoulders without arousing a murmur from the kid. Jack straightened up and stretched out the kinks in his back. He was as fit as the next Air Force colonel on active duty but it had been a while since he'd carried a kid around and it would take some getting used to, he thought. He purposefully blocked out memories of carrying a giggling Charlie to bed under his arm and bouncing the toddler up and down on the mattress till Sara yelled at them to quit before they broke the bed. No need at all for memories like that to resurface, Jack told himself. He'd buried them deep and anyway, Daniel was his friend, not his kid. This was temporary. Sam and Janet would work out how to fix this soon enough and then it'd be business as usual.

Daniel had been right about a shopping trip being in order though and Jack headed off to bed, setting his alarm for 6AM so he could be up before his small guest awoke and write out a shopping list and have a coffee in peace. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Screams woke him abruptly out of a sound sleep and he was up on his feet with his robe wrapped around him before he even was awake enough to identify the source. Once he had he almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to get to the spare bedroom, where he found Daniel out of bed, standing in front of the door, a look of horror on a face so pale Jack actually thought he was about to pass out. He grabbed Daniel up into his arms, cringing as the screams reached a decibel that Jack thought could possibly cause his eardrums to burst, then he sat down on the bed with Daniel on his lap and, without really thinking about what he was doing, began to rock the child back and forth in his arms, all the while murmuring what he hoped were soothing words in a soothing cadence. It took a while before the screams wound down into sobs then sobs into hiccupping breaths and once they had, Jack lifted Daniel's damp face away from where he'd buried it against Jack's chest and asked, "Nightmare?"

Daniel nodded shakily then seemed to realize where he was and straightened up, pulling out of the embrace of Jack's arms. "Sorry," he whispered in a voice that sounded a little husky from all the screaming, "I'm all right now."

"Okay," Jack said. "You want to talk about it?"

Daniel shook his head and flushed a little and Jack stood up and started to put him back under the covers. It was obvious the kid was embarrassed and Jack decided to make no more of the incident but as he started to lower Daniel to the mattress the boy's slender arms tightened around Jack's neck again. "Can you stay with me? Just for a while," Daniel asked, his cheeks reddening even more.

Jack surveyed the single bed with its single pillow and winced as his back reminded him that while Daniel might find it comfortable enough, he was no 4 feet tall kid himself.

Obviously noticing his hesitancy Daniel said quickly, "It's okay. I'll be fine now," as he unwound his arms from Jack's neck.

"Hey," Jack said, "not so fast." He lifted Daniel back up and turned and headed out of the room. "How about you sleep in my bed instead?" he suggested. "More room for both of us to stretch out."

"Are you sure?" Daniel asked but he plopped himself down readily enough on the bed when they got there and allowed Jack to pull the covers up over him.

"Okay," Jack saidwith a sigh of relief, climbing back into bed himself and turning onto his side away from Daniel. "Goodnight, Daniel."

"Goodnight, Jack," Daniel replied then added in a whisper, "thanks."

"Anytime, buddy, let's get some sleep. Shopping in the morning."

~oOo~

The next thing Jack was aware of was the sound of the TV tuned to one of the morning news shows. He got up and pulled on his robe then went out to the living room to see Daniel perched on his knees in front of the TV, watching avidly, a bowl of cereal on the floor in front of him.

"I do have a dining table," Jack griped goodnaturedly, grinning as Daniel jumped.

"Warn me next time," Daniel said. "You just about frightened me out of ten years growth."

"Can't have that," Jack quipped. "I don't think you have ten years growth left to be scared out of."

"Funny," Daniel said. "You're a laugh a minute, Jack." But he stood up and collected his bowl from the floor then walked across and clambered up onto one of the dining chairs and started to eat his breakfast. "I hope you don't mind I helped myself," he went on. "You had Cheerios and I figured at least I could manage that on my own..." His voice trailed off and he shot Jack a rueful look.

"No problem." Jack turned on the coffee maker in the kitchen. "I can make eggs and bacon if you want now I'm up," he offered.

Daniel shook his head. "This is fine," he said. "I'm kinda impatient to get on with shopping." He gestured down at his over-large scrubs.

"Don't blame you," Jack replied. He made his coffee and sipped at it as quickly as possible and decided to forego breakfast so they could get on the road as soon as possible. "I could drop you off with Sam," he suggested, "if you'd rather not been seen in public like that."

"I'd rather just stay with you," Daniel said quickly. He looked down at his scrubs and grimaced. "They do kinda look like pajamas so hopefully no one will take too much notice. Besides, how will you know what sizes to get?"

Jack forbore from mentioning that Daniel was currently around the same size Charlie had been a couple of years before he'd died. He could see Daniel wasn't keen on being separated from him, and given the kid's nightmare of the night before and the fact that he'd calmed down once he'd known Jack was there, Jack didn't really blame him for that. "Hey, we're going to Walmart," he said with a grin. "You won't look out of place at all."

And really he didn't, Jack realized as they entered the store. Several people were wandering the aisles but it was still early so there weren't all that many shoppers yet. One couple was dressed in their bathrobes and slippers so Jack wasn't too surprised that no one gave Daniel in his oversized scrubs a second glance. "Told you no one would notice," Jack said and Daniel looked up and gave him a grateful smile. "So, jeans first then tshirts, sweaters, underwear, pajamas, socks and shoes." Jack reeled the items off as they made their way over to the boyswear section. The underwear, jeans, socks and shoes were taken care of relatively quickly though Daniel insisted on Jack not going into the change room with him. Jack was happy to comply with that and waited just outside the door. The tshirts were more problematical.

"I am not wearing tshirts with cartoon animals or superheroes on them," Daniel said indignantly as they surveyed the rows of brightly decorated shirts.

"Okay," Jack agreed, sighing heavily as he looked for something plain Daniel would agree to wear. "Stay here," he ordered as he spotted a rack of solid color tshirts in the next aisle over, "I'll grab a few and bring them back for you to check out."

"Mmmhmm," Daniel said.

Jack frowned down at him. Daniel looked tired. Not surprising considering the events of the past couple of days and nights, Jack thought. He ruffled Daniel's hair reassuringly then headed down to grab the shirts. He hurried back with a selection of them piled into the shopping kart and came to a sudden heartstopping halt as he realized that Daniel was no longer standing where Jack had left him. "Crap," Jack muttered.

He walked across to the changerooms and opened up all the cubicles but they were all empty. "Daniel!" Jack whispered loudly, "where are you?" He retraced his steps back to where he'd just been, wondering if Daniel had tagged along after him and then taken a wrong turn on the way back but there was no sign of him in that aisle either. Jack turned in a slow circle, anxiety mounting, feeling his heartbeat pounding a swift tattoo of fear in his throat. He remembered Sara telling him once how scared she'd been one day when she'd lost sight of Charlie at the supermarket. Jack could taste that same sour taste of fear in his own mouth now that Sara had described to him. "Daniel!" he shouted loudly this time. A couple of curious shoppers turned briefly to look at him then a store attendant hurried over to him.

"Are you looking for your son?" she asked.

"Yes, he's about yay high and he's wearing-"

"Oversized hospital scrubs," she finished for him. "That's such a cute dressup idea. My Billy would just love that. I mean, maybe not oversized but proper ones, kids sized. Billy loves to play doctor-"

Jack resisted the impulse to slap his hand over the woman's prattling mouth. He peered at her name tag and said, in his firm Colonel O'Neill voice, "Arlene, can you tell me where he is right now?"

"Why sure, honey," she replied brightly. "He's down there at the books section. I told him those books he was looking at were too grown up for him but he just plonked himself down on the floor and started reading. My Billy's a good reader-"

The rest of her words faded into the distance as Jack turned the kart and took off running for the book department. "Thanks, Arlene," he yelled back over his shoulder, relief making him belatedly remember his manners.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked as sternly as he could when he came across Daniel sitting, as Arlene had said, with his nose buried in a book.

"Reading," Daniel replied, sparing a glance up at him. A frown creased his smooth little-boy forehead. "Are you okay, Jack? You look real pale and kinda sweaty."

Jack shook his head and ruthlessly swallowed his anger. "You about frightened me out of ten years growth," he said, proud of how unangry his voice sounded under the circumstances.

Daniel gave what Jack was sure was meant to be a winning smile. "Karma's a bitch," he said.

"Don't swear!" Jack said without thinking. He sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose where a monster headache was forming. "Sorry," he went on. "I know you're not a kid really. Well, not a real kid anyways." He sat down on the floor next to Daniel, groaning as his back and knees protested vehemently. "Don't laugh," he told Daniel mock-sternly, catching the kid trying to hide a smile behind his book. "You'll be my age one day, young Daniel."

"Will I?" Daniel asked wistfully, a sheen of tears dampening his eyes. "Do you really believe that?"

"Yes, I do," Jack stated forcefully, "and I don't think you're gonna have to grow up all over again to get there either." He hugged Daniel in against his side. "Sam and Janet are the best at doing what they do. They'll work something out. Sam was gonna try to contact her Dad. See if the Tok'ra have heard of those people. So... whatchya reading? Wanna read to me?"

Daniel did laugh this time as he held the book's cover up where Jack could see it. "Probably not your cup of tea," he said.

"Famous Archeologists Of The 20th Century," Jack read aloud. "You looking to see if your name is in there?"

"Not mine," Daniel said, "I mean, I know I'm on the internet probably somewhere but I don't think I was ever well known enough to make it into a book."

"Ah well, just as well," Jack said, groaning anew as he hauled himself to his feet then offered a hand down to Daniel. "They could publish your name but-"

"Then we'd have to kill them," Daniel finished for him. "I guess. I thought maybe my Dad and Mom..." His voice trailed off and Jack crouched in front of him.

"Listen," he said, "I know you probably miss your folks even more than ever right now, with the whole being partly a kid again deal but I will be here for you, Daniel, no matter what the future brings, okay?"

Daniel nodded and rubbed at his eyes with his fist.

"So, let's get these clothes paid for so we can get you decked out and looking like a kid and not like a Walmartian. Hey, that kid part of you feel like stopping for ice cream on the way home?"

"Now you're talking," Daniel said, taking off like a shot. "Race you to the checkout," he yelled over his shoulder. Loser buys the icecream!"

The end (for now)