Hey there, a very weak chappie here. But I couldn't take the first part out of my mind :D
Anyhow… Enjoy!
M.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
"Humm? Hi? How can I help you?" He asked the woman who was standing outside the door.
"Isn't this the O'Neill residence?" The woman blinked quickly at the shirtless man.
"I'm in no position to confirm nor deny that." He answered as he saw the woman moving back and confirming the address before moving past him.
"Ma'am? You can't be in here. I will call the cops if you don't go back away." He tried to convince her but she walked towards the entrance and besides what she supposed was the key bowl, there was a picture of the couple she knew.
"I am in the right place," she explained as if it made all the sense in the world to him. "I'm …"
"Daniel, here! You can have… Miss Kelly?" Sam asked surprised at the woman who was standing inside her home.
Sam quickly threw the item she had in her hand towards Daniel, while the other woman smiled seemingly connecting the dots between Sam and shirtless Daniel. The archeologist blushed and turned around he donned the shirt his friend had just given him. He cleared his throat when Miss Kelly wouldn't take her eyes out of him and the way he was trying to fit Jack's shirt which even if he was now more built it was still a size too big on him.
"Where are your husband and daughter?" The Social Services woman asked with a knowing look after shaking herself out of ogling Daniel.
"Naysa is upstairs finally asleep," Sam pointed. "What are you doing here Miss Kelly?" She braced herself.
"I told your husband I would drop by," she answered straining the word husband. "You haven't answered my question, Mrs. O'Neill."
Daniel doubted between hiding back upstairs or being there for whatever help he could be to Sam with the sighed and moved to point her towards the living room.
"Nice house, is your current status worthy of this? I mean, with a … Friend … Like him, you could run away. But I guess the neighborhood and the house do have a weight on your decision to remain here."
"Excuse me, ma'am. But you are getting it completely wrong here. I'm their friend, we've known each other for ages! I was Jack's best man, and I'm going to be Naysa's godfather. So, whatever you think you know about us it is wrong." Daniel huffed outraged. "And I won't accept you are treating her like a gold digger in her own home."
"Daniel." Sam stopped him, and he frowned. "Miss Kelly is from Social Services, remember we told you about that?"
"Oh, yeah. When they believed Jack was the cause of your post mission status," Sam nodded. "Well, I'm sorry. But Social services or not, ma'am. You have no right to barge into a home and talk like that about the people living in it."
"You can think whatever you want, Mister. I don't care; I'm not here to be all nice and pretty but to evaluate the circumstances in which Naysa O'Neill lives."
"Well, you have seen it. They live well, in a nice home in a nice neighborhood. Her parents provide her with everything she needs, and they both are respectable citizens. What else do you need to know?"
"Who are you?" She asked taking a notepad out of her purse
"I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson. And yes, you can quote me."
"And what are you doing here, Doctor Jackson?" She asked jotting down something. He looked at Sam for permission of sorts, and she nodded.
"I was babysitting Naysa."
"Was?" Sam sighed.
"You asked where my husband is. Well, I should start explaining that the Doctor we are seeing asked us to have a date night every two or three weeks. Something about Naysa growing up and the empty nest syndrome."
"A date night?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I can give you her number, and you can contact her for information. Although, I'm not entirely sure how much she will be telling you for the Doctor Patient confidentiality agreement added with the Non disclose agreement from the USAF." She shrugged. "Leaving that aside, we called Daniel and he agreed on babysitting."
"They came up a little closer to midnight, and we all went to bed. I mean, they to their room and I to the guest room," he blushed.
"Okay, now I know where Mister O'Neill was last night."
"General," Sam interrupted her, clenching her jaw.
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's General O'Neill. Miss Kelly," Sam pointed with a definite hint in her voice that left no room for arguing something she had learned from Jack. "He is a national hero; he went beyond the line of duty enough times to be called Mister so you can feel better."
"Alright," she said rolling her eyes. "You are still not justifying the whereabouts of General O'Neill."
"Ah, he got a call around six. And he had to go."
"He 'had' to go?"
"Yes. Typically, when you get a call from the President, you don't say I can't. You go. Even if Jack did say it, he asked the meeting to be postponed for a couple of hours due to Naysa's condition. It couldn't be, and the President needed him in it. Therefore, he had to go."
"Right, the President," she jotted down something else in her notepad. "You mentioned Naysa's condition. It's been a month since the time Doctor Atwood called Social Services to report him, that's more than enough time to get over the stomach flu she was hospitalized for."
"Yes. This morning, we woke up around 4:30 as we always did. Naysa usually sleeps up till 5:30 or 6. Or when she does wake up early, she plays in her room until one of us goes to her room. I used that time to make Daniel favorite breakfast as a thank you for taking care of her. Naysa has built on a diet that agrees with her body experiences which, sadly, still doesn't allow her to eat milk chocolate. We usually keep it high enough for her not to reach it."
"You need an extra set of eyes to watch over Naysa," Daniel smiled. "Jack and I were setting the table. Sam was busy cooking, and we didn't notice her coming down. She is so stealth that we never saw her."
"When I heard the plate of finished pancakes moving, it was already too late she was half way through one. We hoped it wouldn't do anything to her, it was not a piece large enough to grant a run to the hospital, But Jack swept her off and took her out of my arms and towards her bathroom while I searched for her meds," Sam explained.
"Jack got the call then, he pleaded with President Hayes to postpone the meeting, but it was impossible. And he had to go. Anyhow, they were taking good care of her but when he came down with his uniform he asked me to keep an eye on them, and when I did, Naysa threw over me." He grimaced. "I came down to place my shirt in the washer, and you appeared at the door," he finished shrugging.
"Her meds are designed to knock her out, and that way is allowing her body enough time to process the food that rejected. When she finally fell asleep, I went to find a shirt that he could borrow and here we are."
"Hmm," Miss Kelly hummed not quite convinced, "And when can we be expecting your husband, Mrs. O'Neill?"
"Well, meetings like this can take an hour to … Who knows? The longest extension I recall was a week."
"A month." Daniel provided. "When you first went MIA, he was stuck in meetings for a month. Not having you around was quite a chaos back then."
"Oh."
"Yeah. It was quite complex since they didn't know for sure who to ask the right questions. And you know the ones who have your field don't have your expertise which was quite the problem. Anyhow, we don't know when he will be returning Miss Kelly, but until he does, I'm staying around to help them."
"Very well then, since I won't be able to see the culprit I will like to have the data of your Doctors and overall, your daughter's Doctors to verify the things you are saying. Although, at least you are looking far better than when I met you."
"Look, Miss Kelly, I appreciate your concern for me and my daughter. But we are fine; I can forward you the contact information you need if you give me an email address." She waited for the woman to search a card and took it when it was extended to her. "Sincerely, you are just wasting your time trying to find anything on Jack."
"Am I? I already discovered that he lost a son before… With his own service weapon." She added knowingly making both Sam and Daniel growl, their eyes changing instantly to the coldest stares she had ever seen.
"Do. Not. Bring. That. Up." Sam pointed. "Jack was an excellent father, and he still is. He had to go through a lot to let the blame he felt towards the accident go away." She clenched her jaw. "I warn you, Miss Kelly; I can make your life hell if you try to make that of ours. Now, if you excuse me, I need to check my daughter, and you can find a way out of my home."
Sam turned on her heels and walked towards the stairs and as she did she heard Daniel pointing the woman the way out. Sam was too far away to hear Daniel's answer to her accusation. But the woman learned that an angry archeologist could look as lethal as an angry Colonel. And Miss Kelly left the property wondering if she was willing to know how an angry General looked like, with that she decided that if the Doctors agreed with the version they gave her, she would only come to check the well being of the kid to comply with her obligations. Then, she would let them go, or find them another worker to replace her.