Chapter 16

Osiris smirked at their expressions. "Yes, I lied to you. Ironically, I was telling the truth about that. She was never dead. Now do you believe me?"

Daniel didn't snap out of it until Janet struggled again, and the Goa'uld tightened his grip and brought the knife closer to the throat, forcing a distressed whimper from her.

"Let her go." He went for deadly, but he was pretty sure it came out strange. And no one else seemed willing to talk here. Not when it involved the girl they'd all thought dead for several months; they didn't seem to know what to do but keep their weapons trained on the threat.

"Don't worry, Daniel; you can have your precious daughter back soon enough. Just let me through the stargate."

Mitchell spoke up then, finally. "We can't do that."

"Then she'll die." Osiris moved suddenly, and both Vala and Janet screamed. But when he stilled again, there was only a thin stream of blood trickling from under one corner of the knife, and she was still alive. Still alive. She'd never been dead! Daniel didn't know whether to laugh or cry or kick himself a million times over. But right now he couldn't do any of it. He had to keep her alive first.

How he hated déjà vu…

Osiris sneered. "It would be a little hard to fake slitting her throat, don't you think? I would cooperate if I were you."

"Just leave her alone," Vala shouted angrily.

Daniel didn't know what else to do. They couldn't let the Goa'uld go, and they couldn't let anything happen to Janet, either.

On the other side of the several-deep circle of SGC personnel surrounding Osiris, Daniel saw Travis pull out a zat. That would work. Sure, it was painful, but it was better than dying. Maybe no one had thought of it--or at least not acted on the thought--because he and Vala were there. They didn't know what they would want, as her parents. They were hesitant. All of these people were trained to the gills in combat and encounter situations. But put them here, and they had no clue what to do beyond protocol--don't let the bad guy get away, and keep the hostages alive. Pretty much.

He wanted to scream at them. Just save her!

But all he could do was look at Travis discretely, trying to tell him to do it without letting Osiris know he was telling him to. The young man looked understandably uncomfortable, but he needed to just do it!

Mitchell must have seen it, too. He stepped forward and held out both hands. "Okay…why don't we put the knife down and we can all have a nice chat about this?" His talking covered Travis opening the zat.

Osiris glared. "There will be no talking. Open the 'gate, let me go through, and you can have the girl. And do not worry about coming through after me. You will all stay far enough away that you cannot come through while it is still open, and once on another planet I will dial out again immediately--several times. You will not find m--"

Travis fired.

Both Osiris and Janet dropped with the crackling blue beam. Daniel wanted to move, but found he was still rooted to the spot he was standing on.

Travis dropped the zat as the circle around the Goa'uld and girl broke up, and hurried to push the unconscious snake off of and away from Janet. Then he went to wake her up, rolling her onto her back and shaking her gently.

"Janet? Janet, come on, wake up…"

Daniel felt Vala grab his arm tightly, and together they stumbled a little closer, still in too much shock to do much else.

Janet groaned and opened her eyes. Travis sighed. "Hey…are you okay?" He still looked just as shocked that she was really there, in front of him, alive.

She grimaced. "Yea…I guess so…oww…thanks. I think."

Travis managed a nervous laugh. "Hey, you would have done the same for me."

"If you say so." She sat up and hugged him hard for a moment. By then Daniel and Vala were there, and she went straight from Travis's arms to her parents'. "Mom, Dad!" And she started to cry. "Dad…I thought you were dead…."

Daniel held on tighter than he thought possible.

"We thought you were…" Vala choked from her other side.

Daniel swallowed hard, trying to hold back his own tears. "He lied to both of us, baby, I'm so sorry…" But it was no use, and soon all three of them were sobbing. "I love you," he told her, over and over again. "I love you, I love you…"

"We love you," Vala repeated.

"I love you guys too," Janet cried. "I missed you so much."

Daniel sobbed. "You have no idea."

Sudden movement behind them. Janet was the only one of them who could see what it was. She shrieked. A zat blast rang out, a thump. Daniel and Vala both twisted, and saw Osiris falling back to the ground, unmoving. Cameron was holding out the zat he'd just fired. "He was going to attack you," he explained.

Daniel gaped a little. "Cam…He was just shot a minute ago…"

Mitchell shrugged. "Oops."

He shook it off and turned back to his wife and daughter. Janet was starting to stand, so he and Vala stood too, helping her a little.

"Mom, Dad, I'm fine…" she insisted.

"We know," Vala smiled, a little shakily. "But bear with us." She stopped and looked at her daughter when they were all standing. "You're taller than me." It wasn't a question, or something to be upset about--just a statement, a bewildered observation. Daniel noticed it, too. Where before she'd been a little shorter than them both, now she was a tad taller than her mother, but still just shy of his height.

"Look at that hair," he added, taking in the long locks that reached almost to her knees. That was certainly different.

Janet smiled shyly. "They didn't believe in women cutting their hair very often."

"They who?" Vala asked. Both of them had one arm around her from either side, holding her as close as possible. Daniel was sure it must have been difficult to breathe squashed between them like that, but she wasn't complaining. It was a good thing too, because he didn't think he could let go if he wanted to.

"Oh…I wasn't here the whole time; really only a few weeks. Another tribe captured me. They were a whole lot nicer, but they just wouldn't let me leave."

Daniel felt his arm tighten again. "Then how did you get here?"

"They were attacked by another tribe," she grimaced, as if it bothered her. They'd have to talk more later. "It seems there's a lot of tribal warfare around here. Skirmishes, anyway." But then she quieted, and didn't seem to want to comment on the subject further.

By then everyone else had cleared away and went back up to the base camp to finish packing up. Only the rest of SGs 1 and 13 had stayed close. Now, sensing a lull in the conversation, they all gathered closer to welcome Janet back--all still more than a little surprised. They all had to hug her through her parents, because neither would let go. But they didn't seem to mind.

Finally Daniel eyed them all, making them back away enough that he and Vala could guide Janet toward the 'gate. He sighed. "Let's go home."

Jack crossed his arms and huffed impatiently, staring out the conference room window. "I wish they'd hurry up."

Sam raised an eyebrow at him from where she stood closer to it. "They're not due back for another hour. They have to finish picking up camp."

"I know, I know…but I'm worried about Daniel. I was never fond of the idea of him going back there. Vala either. I know they got him, but…well, you know Daniel. He'll find some way to get into trouble."

She just shook her head at him.

And then, as if on cue, the unscheduled-offworld-activation alarm went off.

"What'd I tell ya?" Jack said, getting up and heading down the steps to the control room ahead of her. Sam followed quickly.

"Jack, it could be anything…."

"It's SG-1's IDC, ma'am," the 'gate tech told them as soon as they stepped off the stairs. Jack gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes.

"Are we getting any other signals, or are they coming through?" she asked.

"Radio, ma'am."

"Ah, hey Sam?" It was Mitchell's voice.

Sam's head cocked up a little "What is it? Finish packing early?"

The colonel chuckled on the other end. "Not exactly. And don't worry, we don't have a problem either--well, except that Osiris almost escaped and now he's dead…"

"What??"

"Never mind. We're fine here. But we ah…kind of ran across…something…I think you should see."

There was a mischievous tone quality to his voice, and Jack spoke up. "Mitchell, what're you tryin' to pull?"

"Nothing," he answered innocently. "Just wait. Some of us are coming through now."

Sam sighed and rolled her eyes again. "If you say so, colonel. SGC out." She nodded, and the 'gate tech cut the transmission. They looked up to watch the 'gate.

SG-13 came through first, then Cameron and Teal'c. Last were Daniel and Vala, and…

Sam gasped. "Oh my god!"

"What the--" Jack followed his wife as she rushed down toward the 'gate room, unable to help feeling more than a little reverse déjà vu. Sam was running until she got just inside the 'gate room door, where she stopped and stared. The teams there were looking at both of them in amusement. Jack was sure he still looked just as stunned as his wife.

Sam sputtered. "W-what? I don't understand…"

Daniel grimaced. "Apparently it was a trick," he admitted quietly. "She was never…gone." Janet waved tentatively.

Jack saw Sam swallow hard before she hurried forward to embrace her. He stood still for another moment, not sure what to make of this. Really? She'd never been dead? Then where had she been? It wasn't until he realized that a few of them were looking at him that he snapped out of it and joined the huddle around Janet, smiling now. He didn't know what to say; all he could do was wait until Sam let go of her so he could have his turn. By then he was already choking up, no matter how much he might not want to.

"I'm back, Uncle Jack," she said softly in amusement when he hugged her.

He had to smile. "You are a Jackson."

Janet just laughed through her tears.

The reception was just as interesting when her parents brought her to the infirmary to have her checked over. Aunt Carolyn dropped the folders she was carrying when they walked in.

"Couldn't someone have warned her first?" Janet asked her dad later.

Daniel just smiled. "It's more fun this way."

"You would know." He winked.

"I'm going to get this kind of reaction everywhere I go for a while, aren't I?"

He shrugged. "You'll get used to it; don't worry, it won't last forever."

Not too much later that day, Janet had passed out on a bed in the infirmary after several tests, everyone else that had been following her and her parents around out of shock and joy that she was back had been cleared out and told to get back to work, and Daniel and Vala were in Carolyn's office. The doctor came in and closed the door behind her. She crossed to her desk and dropped into the chair, looking just a little overwhelmed.

How she felt, however, couldn't even begin to explain how the Jacksons looked.

"Well, she's healthy," Carolyn assured them. "In case you haven't noticed, she's also grown five or six inches and needs a bath and a haircut, but she's fine." They sighed together. "There are a few things you should probably know about, though."

Daniel looked like he'd been expecting that. "Like what?"

She sighed. "I say she's healthy, and she is. Now. But….she said she was still with Osiris's tribe for several weeks before she was taken by another, right?"

Vala nodded. "Right…and?"

"Well, that would explain what we found, and what we saw in the x-rays."

"What did you find?"

Carolyn winced. "Scar tissue, mostly around her midsection. A lot of its from ribs that were cracked or broken and healed a little off. That's not uncommon, when there is no sophisticated medical care available. And there is…a little bit of surface scarring from whatever caused it." A delicate way of saying that Osiris and his lackeys had beaten her. She frowned. "None of it's anything to worry about, not major enough to require that it be fixed, but I assumed you'd want to know that it was there."

Vala looked a little pale, and Daniel nodded slowly. "You're right; we do…Thanks for being honest."

She shrugged. "It's my job." Then she softened and became the friend they knew again instead of the doctor. "Are guys okay? Janet will be fine, I promise"

Vala offered a brave smile. "We'll be fine."

Daniel shook his head, not in contradiction but just in thought. "I can't believe I let this happen. We left her there…" But none of them had anything appropriate to reply to that.

It was late. Vala was asleep on the next bed, movement in the infirmary was minimal, and Daniel was the only person he could see from where he sat next to Janet's bed who was awake. He knew Janet was fine, and that there was really no reason for him to be sitting here with her, but he couldn't leave. Vala couldn't either, but she'd also been exhausted from the day's events just like the rest of them.

Daniel would be asleep, too, if it weren't for what weighed on him.

The weight of Janet being gone had been lifted from his shoulders, and at least for a few moments he'd felt freer than he had in a long time. But then another guilt had settled over him, and he couldn't shake it any more than he'd been able to shake the guilt over her supposed death in the first place.

How could he have let it happen? He should have felt something…he should have known to look for her anyway, something…She shouldn't have been left there for so long.

Janet stirred, and he sat up a little more, wanting to be there for her if she woke. Moments later, her eyes flickered open, and she smiled at him. "Hi, daddy."

He got up to sit on the bed beside her and smiled in return, but she must have seen what was lurking in his mind behind the expression, because she sat up immediately on her knees and wrapped her arms around him hard.

"You're blaming yourself, aren't you?"

"I-I…" He didn't know what to say to that.

"You are," she sighed, still holding on. "You shouldn't. You couldn't have known I was alive…I know what you say happen to me. I would have thought exactly what you did. And I thought you were dead too…all he did was tell me that, and I believed him eventually. If either of us, I'm the one who should have known better."

Daniel swallowed. "Janet…it's not your fault either."

"You're right," she said softly. "It's nobody's fault, besides Osiris's. It just happened the way it did. We couldn't have done anything about it." Finally she pulled back and looked at him. "What matters is that I'm home now. That's all. You don't need to be blaming yourself about anything. We'll be okay. It'll be okay," she repeated, looking him in the eyes. And he knew she was right. He knew what she was talking about, and she was right.

He couldn't suppress a small sob. Janet hadn't only grown physically while she'd been gone.

She wasn't his little girl anymore.

The next morning, Janet was more than glad to take a shower in the locker room. It wasn't a great as a bath, but she could always do that when she got home. Home…it was almost hard to believe she was really here.

"Sorry about the BDUs," Vala apologized when she got out. "I would have run home and dug out some of your own clothes, but I doubt any of your pants would have fit you anymore. They all would've been too short."

Janet looked down at the green pants and black shirt and shrugged. "It's okay."

Vala chuckled. "I guess we'll have to do some serious shopping soon."

"Considering where I've been the past ten months, that sounds great," she sighed, shaking out her hair some more. She scowled in frustration. "I have no idea what I'm going to do with it."

"In the long run or right now?"

"Right now. Back there, we were out in the sun all the time, so it dried our hair pretty quickly no matter how long or thick it was, and it dried your clothes quickly too, if they got wet from your hair. But here that's different. And I don't guess I'd be able to find a bow-dryer here on base would I…"

"Probably not," Vala agreed. She sat down on one of the locker room benches and beckoned to her daughter. "Come here, let me help. I'll braid it for you."

Janet sat. "That could work."

"Good," her mother said from behind her. Janet felt her start to braid her still damp hair. "You are much more tan," she commented after a moment.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, it looks good on you." Vala turned her around and looked at her. "Yes, definitely a good thing. But you were always a pretty girl." She smiled at her encouragingly, but almost regretfully. "Now you're a beautiful young woman."

Janet swallowed. "Mom…" And she leaned in and hugged her tightly.

Travis was passing the locker rooms when Janet and Mrs. Jackson came out of one of them. Janet stopped when she saw him. "Travis…"

Travis smiled shyly. "Janet…hi."

Vala patted her daughter on the arm. "I'll be around," she said shortly, and then went on. Janet looked after her for a moment before looking back at him.

"Hi…how are you doing?"

He shrugged. "I'm fine. I'm just glad you're alive. How are you holding up?"

She smirked. "You make it sound like something bad just happened. I just got home, Travis, I'm great. Sure, it's going to take a little adjusting to, but I'll be fine. Thanks for asking though."

"Right, sorry…"

"It's okay."

He swallowed and stared at the floor for a moment. "I missed you a lot when we thought you were gone," he said after a moment. "It was hard…thinking I'd never see you again."

When he finally looked up again, Janet was looking back, an inscrutable expression on her face. "I missed you a lot too," she said finally. She looked the way her mother had gone. "But, I'd better go. Mom and dad are taking me home." She smiled. "They've got to explain everything to Charlie and Adrian first, but then I can see them. I can't wait. I bet they've both grown. Neither of them is the same age they were when I last saw them."

Travis smiled. "Yea…and they're great kids. They've missed you too."

Janet stepped back a couple of steps. "Well, I'll see you around huh?"

"Sure…" She started to go, and he called after her. "It's good to have you back!" What else was he supposed to say?

"Thanks!" She waved back at him, and then was gone. Travis sighed.

Vala glanced in the back seat. "Now stay down, and then come wait by the door once we're all inside."

Janet laughed from the back seat. "This is going to be fun."

Daniel grinned, then got out of the car. Across the street, Hank was already getting the boys out of his car and escorting them across the road to the house. He knew about Janet. Since he'd been keeping the boys he hadn't seen her yet, but he knew, and he was grinning.

"Daddy! Mommy!" Both of them called. When they were across the street and in the driveway, Hank let go of their hands and they ran to their parents. Charlie ended up wrapped around Vala's legs, and Daniel bent down to hug Adrian.

"Hey," he smiled. "How are you guys?"

"Good!" Charlie grinned.

Adrian looked up at Daniel curiously. "Daddy…"

He looked down at him. "Hmm? What is it?"

The boy tilted his head at him. "You're happy. Is something going on?"

He exchanged glances with Vala and stood, taking his son's hand. "Well, you'll find out. Let's go inside first, okay?"

All five of them went inside, but Daniel and Vala gathered their sons around them just inside the door.

"What is it?" Charlie asked, bouncing a little. He seemed to sense, too, that something was going on?

Vala took a deep breath. "Well boys…remember when I told you that Janet had to go somewhere for a really long time?" Both of them nodded, suddenly not looking so happy anymore.

Daniel continued quickly. "Well, we thought that was right. But then we found out that she didn't have to go for as long as we thought. We were wrong. We're sorry."

Charlie gasped. "Is she coming back?"

"When?" Adrian asked.

Vala stepped back casually and rapped on the front door. It opened, and the boys' eyes widened when they saw who came in.

"Janet!" they shouted simultaneously.

"Hey!" Janet got on her knees, and they both ran to her and wrapped their arms around her neck and arms. She coughed. "Whoa! Guys, I need to breathe…" They loosened their grip just a little, and she sighed and hugged them back hard. "I missed you guys so much. You're so big!"

Adrian still looked a little wary. "You're not gonna go again, are you?"

"No…no, of course not. I'm not going to leave like that again," she promised, and Daniel could see tears in her eyes as she kissed them both.

When Charlie and Adrian finally let go, Hank was able to get a hug in once she'd stood. "I can't really say I'm surprised," he grinned. "I always knew you were just like your father."