Daughter of My Heart, Chapter Nineteen
[Spoilers for Entity]
Janet was glad to see that she'd managed to rattle the Colonel enough to put the team back into some semblance of civilized behaviour, at least at work.
Daniel still declined to join them for Friday dinners, and Cassie was still furiously upset with both her parents, but for the most part, Sam, Daniel and Jack had evidently called a truce.
The bickering stopped. The accusations settled. They were once again able to communicate at work without biting each other's head off. SG-1 was even able to resume duty.
It was an uneasy victory and it didn't solve all their problems, but she'd take it. For now, at least.
Weeks turned to months, and still, her parents wouldn't speak beyond necessity. Family time was reduced to long evenings and even longer weekends with her more reserved mom, and alternating weekends with an overly cheerful version of her dad. The only semblance of normalcy left to her was her time with Janet, which, fortunately, was considerable these days.
Cassie sighed, staring blankly at the contents of Janet's fridge.
She missed the old days, when Mom and Dad coming home was the most exciting thing in the world. When Sam would laugh and come up with crazy, spontaneous things for them to do together, and Daniel would tag along, sometimes voluntarily, other times at their insistence. What she wouldn't give to have one more carefree day with them, to just enjoy being part of a family again.
Because frankly, whatever concessions they'd made to give Cassie some semblance of family life, was no family at all. They were all miserable, yet she seemed to be the only one who knew it.
The blaring of the phone startled her, and she slammed the fridge shut, quickly grabbing the receiver.
"Hello?," she said, noting the base number on the display.
"Hey, Cass. I just wanted you to know that we have a bit of a situation here, and it looks like I'll be in all night. Daniel will come by in a bit to pick you up."
"Where's Mom?," Cassie asked, wondering why her dad, rather than Sam was coming to pick her up.
Janet sighed. "She's a little tied up right now, Sweetie."
A little tied up. Probably code for 'in imminent danger', but no one ever liked to sell her on the truth.
"All right," Cassie mumbled. Maybe she could coerce something like the truth out of Daniel.
"I'll talk to you later!"
"Yeah. Bye," Cassie replied, replacing the phone on the counter.
Great. Maybe she could petition General Hammond and Teal'c to let her live off-world with Teal'c's family.
It had to beat this.
Daniel drove slowly to Janet's house, anticipating Cassie's typically shrewd line of questioning regarding the whereabouts of her mother.
There was absolutely no way he was going to tell her that Sam was once again being held hostage by some alien parasite hell-bent on destroying Earth. Or that the thing kept promising that the only way for it to leave Sam was for her to die.
Obviously nobody had any intention of killing her. So they'd find another way.
They always did.
Pulling into Janet's driveway, he braced himself for the inevitable. Cassie was already packed and at the door, waiting. Daniel tried not to think how unusual that must be for a teenaged girl, and what it said about the life they were giving her.
She marched over to the car as soon as he had it stopped, yanking the back door open to dump her things inside. Closing it, she moved to her own door, slipping inside without so much as a 'hey, how are you?'.
"Hey, Cass," Daniel tried. "How was school?"
Cassie leveled him with her best all-knowing glare, crossing her arms over her chest. Daniel's gaze shifted uncomfortably to the steering wheel. Cassie didn't budge.
"How does Chinese sound for dinner?," he asked instead.
"What happened this time?," she asked, voice cool and unemotional.
"Oh, same old, same old. You know the drill," Daniel said casually, not quite meeting her gaze.
"You're lying," she pressed, her tone rock-hard.
Really, Jack had nothing on her interrogation style. She could work for the CIA if she wanted.
"It's need-to-know, Cassandra," he reminded, keeping his own tone light.
"If it involves you or mom, I think I deserve to know," Cassie stipulated.
"Not how it works, kiddo," he said, putting the car in gear.
"Janet's pulling a night shift for whatever it is, so I know it's bad," Cassie pressed.
"Janet's a doctor, and responsible for everyone working under Cheyenne Mountain. There are thousands of reasons why she might have to stay for a double shift."
"But if you're back, that means SG-1 is back, and so is Mom. So why isn't she here to pick me up?"
"I wouldn't know," Daniel lied. "What she does post-mission is none of my business."
"Oh, come on!," Cassie yelled. "Whether you like it or not, I know you still care about her! So why don't you spare me the 'I-hate-Sam-Carter' crap and tell me the truth?"
"Cassandra Carter, you are out of your depth here," he warned, gritting his teeth as he gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"Am I? Because it feels like I'm the only one around here who ever seems to know what's really going on!"
Daniel pulled the car onto the side of the road, trying to keep his emotions in check. "What's that supposed to mean?," he demanded coldly, not meeting her gaze.
"It means you're tearing this family apart, and you won't even tell me why!," she shouted back.
"Cass..." Daniel sighed. "I really don't know what to tell you."
"Tell me you're going to fix this, Dad." Her voice cracked. "I hate this...so much," she said, tears pooling in her eyes.
Daniel undid his seatbelt, pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry, Cass," he whispered, feeling her sob quietly into his side. "I...I'll try. Okay?"
Cassie nodded mutely, although Daniel was fairly certain she wouldn't believe it until he somehow found a way to make it happen.
And he really had no idea where even to begin.