The Next Day
"Daddy, can Emma come over to our house today?" Ty asks, bouncing as his father picks him up from day care.
"My daddy said I could anytime!" a girl in a very fluffy pink princess dress says, bounding before Jack.
"How about we call him up, and see if you can come today? Who is he?" Jack asks, squatting down before the little girl.
"Henry Boyd," she says.
"Major Boyd?" Jack asks with a smile.
Emma nods.
"He's a good man," Jack says.
"I know," she says with a smile.
"I can ring him up for you, sir," the day care worker says.
"I'd appreciate that, thanks," Jack says.
-0-0-0-
"And this is my Grandpa," Ty says, continuing the tour.
"What is a Grandpa?" Emma asks.
"Well," Ty explains, "He takes care of me when Mommy and Daddy aren't here. And he's really good at stories and pancakes."
"Oh, so a grandpa is kind of like a nanny," Emma says, nodding her head, "I have a nanny, she takes care of me when Daddy goes to outer space."
"Doesn't your Mommy do that?" Ty asks completely missing the classified part of her statement. Jacob just figures it's some childish hyperbole for flying a plane.
"'Member, I don't have a Mommy just like you don't useta have a Daddy."
"Right, I forgetted," Ty says.
Jacob smiles sadly at the little girl and pulls her onto his lap, "Would you a story?"
"I get to sit on his lap," Ty says rather jealously.
"I've got two knees, little one," his grandfather says sympathetically.
The Next Day
Janet comes out of her office, and almost slams straight into Daniel Jackson. Daniel Jackson carrying a giant basket.
"Ah, this is probably inappropriate…" he mutters with a flush coming over his cheeks as he hands it to her.
She looks down at the basket and sees just about every kind of chocolate confection known to man. There are some movies in there, and a bottle of Midol. And… oh my gosh, a box of tampons.
"Dr. Jackson, did you make me a period basket?" she asks with a grin in her voice.
His face is now an intense color of bright red, "It's just… I didn't realize how much they sucked before. And you were so nice to us that I figured you deserved something. I mean, you go through it all the time, and don't lay down in the infirmary and whine every month."
"Well, I have to admit that I want to sometimes," Janet admits.
Daniel walks away and then turns back, "Ah… chick flicks," he blurts.
"Yeah," Janet says slowly, not sure where this is going.
"You want to go to one?" Daniel asks. Daniel has never really had friends, and much less has he dated. Sara occasionally dragged him away from his work to dinner or a movie, but it had always been her initiating it. With Sha're, he had just found himself suddenly married. Daniel isn't sure if he wants friendship or dating right now, but he figures it can start with a movie.
Sha're told him that he was supposed to be happy after her. He didn't think it was going to be possible. But maybe it is. And maybe Janet deserves happiness just as much as he does.
Janet Fraizer cannot imagine what just happened. The delectable Doctor Jackson just asked her on a date. "Yeah." Or maybe it wasn't a date, she scolds herself. Maybe they were just friends. He did just lose his wife a couple of months ago, and with the hormones still coursing through his body (though they were fading now that the people of the planet had given him a cure), they could just about qualify as girlfriends.
Daniel pulls himself into a self-hug. "When is your shift done?"
"Seven."
"See ya then?" he asks.
"Yeah," she says. She watches him walk away, and detect a slight bounce in the step she has never noticed before.
-0-0-0-
"Seriously? That is your car?" Janet asks, staring at the car before her incredulously.
"It's fine," Daniel points out with a slight pout. Janet decides that a pouting Daniel Jackson is even more amazing than a Daniel absorbed in an artifact, her previously favorite form of the man.
"You save the world on a regular basis, don't they pay you?" Janet asks as she sits down in his clunker.
"I do not save the world on a regular basis," Daniel protests as he buckles his seat belt.
"You pretty much single handedly opened the Stargate," Janet continues.
"That is an exaggeration," Daniel protests. He puts the car in reverse, and puts his hand absently on the passenger seat as he turns to look behind him before backing up. It's an action he's done ever since learning to drive, when he was eighteen. And he has no notice of the fact that this action almost leaves Janet breathless as his fingers make brief contact with her shoulder. "If you want to talk about people who save the world, let's start with you. I mean, how many times have you identified and cured some alien contagion that could take down the world? More often than not, some contagion that I had a hand in brining through the gate."
Janet stares at him for a long moment, "Is it really possible that you have no idea how amazing you are?"
He blushes.
"I should also tell you that the basket was unnecessary. It turns out you are not the member of SG-1 that has the most trouble coping with temporarily having female organs. That honor would go to Teal'c. He punched out three marines today," she informs him.
"What did they say?" Daniel asks giggling.
"I have no idea. He wouldn't say, and the marines were not about to repeat it, but I can pretty much guarantee you it was some sort of a crack about his extra equipment." She stares at him for a little bit before continuing, "Daniel, I find that I know very little about you. I mean, besides what happens to you in the mountain. What do you do outside the mountain?" she asks.
"Sleep."
Janet laughs, "Well, I take that to mean that you almost never leave the mountain, because as your doctor I know that you don't do very much of that."
"I am a bit of a workaholic," Daniel says with a touch of bitterness in his tone.
"And yet, you're not working now," Janet says softly.
"No, I'm not," Daniel says, and his voice clearly shows that he is puzzled by his own actions.
"Where are you from, Daniel?" Janet asks.
"That question has a really long answer," Daniel warns.
"We've got time," Janet says with a smile.
"I was born in Greece. I lived in Iraq, Italy, and Egypt. I had some brief trips to the States, but I've been America bound ever since I turned eight; well, except for Abydos. I lived in just about every place in New York State. I went to a community college there for a couple of years, and then I did the rest of my schooling in Chicago. Then I ended up here."
"Doctor Jackson, are you an army brat?" Janet asks, surprised.
Daniel swallows hard, "My dad was an anthropologist, and my mom was a linguist."
"How did they settle on New York?" she asks.
There is a long moment of silence, "Death."
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," she says, clasping her hand over her mouth, "I should have read your file!"
"Don't apologize for not being a stalker, Janet, you couldn't have known," he says quietly.
She puts her hand gently on his arm. "I'm sorry," and now it's not an apology but sympathy. "It's hard to move around a lot. At least that's why my ex kept trying to tell me after I joined the Air Force."
Daniel's head whips around so fast that Janet is more than a little surprised he doesn't get whiplash. "You were married?" he squeaks with surprise and alarm.
"It was four years ago. It is very much over."
"What happened?" he asks softly. Then he rushes on, "I mean, you don't have to tell me, I'm being noisy."
"It's ok, Daniel, he was… really controlling. After we got married, I said I wanted to have kids. He informed me that we weren't going to have them. It wasn't even about the kids, you know. It was about the fact that I had no say in whether or not we were going to have them. He just informed me it wasn't happening. I'd say that was the beginning of the end."
Daniel doesn't acknowledge her sharing, and after a really long moment of silence, she changes the topic. But no matter what topic she tries to engage him in, she doesn't get much of a response.
Janet sighs. Well, if he's going to get like that just because she's divorced, he isn't worth her time. What hypocrisy! I mean, the man's wife had only died a few months ago, and he was already on a… was it a date?
Daniel glances over at her, just once, with a little sadness. Maybe they would have been great together. But it doesn't really matter. Because he can't give her kids. And if she left her husband for that, what chance do they have at the future?
-0-0-0-
"I do not understand why you are not overjoyed by this blessed event," the mayor says as soon as they walk through the Stargate.
"This is my wife, Samantha," Jack says by way of introduction, and avoidance.
The stout man turns to her, "Did you not wish to have another child?"
"We did, we just were not expecting it yet. And when we did we expected to have it in the usual way," Sam says.
"I don't understand. Most women are delighted to let their husbands do part of the child-bearing. Is it not a lot of inconvenience and pain?" the major asks.
"Yes, but it's a little hard to explain in our world. We just don't have the technology," Sam protests.
"But childbirth this way is painless. When the time comes, the top of the artificial womb simply disintegrates," the major explains.
"Sweet, no C-section," Jack interjects.
"Painless? Are you kidding me?" Sam pouts. "Let me assure you, Jack, Ty's birth was anything but painless."
"Look, we're a little concerned about the process, about how safe it is for the baby," Jack says.
"And Jack," Sam adds.
"I assure you, it is safer than childbirth the normal way. The hormones and the artificial womb are more closely regulated. With male pregnancies, it is almost impossible to have a miscarriage unless the fetus is non-viable," the mayor says.
"You're kidding?" Sam says, looking at him.
"We have some questions about how exactly this… works," Jack says.
"Well, you can refer the more technical questions to the doctor. If you have any questions about the experience of male pregnancy, I would be the person to ask," the major says.
-0-0-0-
"Everything looks to be developing naturally. His hormone levels are as they should be. The baby is the appropriate size. I'm going to give you something for the nausea," the alien doctor says.
"Hold it, you have a cure for morning sickness?" Sam asks.
The doctor nods.
Sam turns to Jack, "If we have another kid, I am so coming here for pre-natal care."
"Ah, this kid is Sam's, right?" Jack asks.
"Oh, there is a question of maternity? You've been with women other than your wife?" the doctor says in surprise.
"God, no!" Jack exclaims. "I just don't understand how exactly… what parts came from who?"
The doctor smiles, "We call it male pregnancy, but that isn't technically accurate. Eggs must be produced before birth, and males simply don't do that."
"You don't say," Jack says sarcastically.
Sam gives him a hard elbow in the side. She doesn't want him to insult the man with answers.
"The medicine that we gave you causes a hormonal change in any women who comes into intimate contact with the man. They release an egg which is fertilized by his sperm, and absorbed by his new reproductive system during the sexual act. The child then develops there," the doctor explains.
"Like a sea horse," Sam says.
Jack stares at her.
"The female seahorse lays eggs in a pouch in the male sea horse's belly. The eggs develop there, and after the hatch they come out," she adds.
"We have a creature like that on our planet, although it is a mammal. That is where our scientists got the idea from. For many years, we implanted the eggs in the belly of the male. It is only within the last few decades that we discovered a method for it to happen more naturally. People like their babies to be born out of love, and not in a laboratory," the doctor explains.
Sam grabs Jack's hand at the word 'love'.
"Can we continue to come here for appointments? No-one on Earth is familiar with male pregnancies," Jack asks.
"Of course, you can schedule your next one at the front desk," the doctor says.
"Huh, just when you think you aren't in Kansas anymore, it turns out that you are."
A Week Later
"Sam, you know that I have a cabin in Minnesota, right?" Jack asked one night.
"Yeah, you talked about it a lot when you were in Iraq. It's always kind of been your 'real' home, hasn't it?"
"Yeah, when mom left dad, we ran out of money in this small town in Minnesota. This couple let us stay at this cabin they rented out. We couldn't pay for the first couple of months. It took mom years to pay them back for that. They died when I was at college, and they left it to me. They were the closest things I've ever had to grandparents," Jack says.
"Does your mom still live there?" Sam asks.
"No, it's way out in the country. Mom doesn't like to drive that much anymore, so she got a little apartment in town. But she still lives in the same town," Jack confesses.
"That's nice," Sam says.
"Would you ever want to go to my cabin?" Jack asks, looking incredibly self-conscious.
"Sure, I'd love to someday."
"How about next weekend?" Jack blurts.
"Next weekend? Isn't that kind of sudden? I mean, we'd have to look into getting time off of work, and I'd have to see if my dad could babysit. There is a lot of prep work that I would have to do," she says.
"Ah… Hammond gave us a go, and I was thinking of taking Dad and Ty along. Not that I wouldn't love to have a romantic weekend get away with you, but the cabin is kind of a family thing," Jack stammers.
"Wow, you did all the thinking for me," Sam says in a voice that is pretty ambiguous.
"It wasn't like I was making decisions for you. If you don't want to do it, we're not going. I was just…" Jack begins to defend himself.
"Jack, its fine. I'm just not used to other people… taking care of details for me. I've been a single mom, doing all the planning. I mean, dad helped out with the practical stuff, but…"
"Decisions have always been all you," Jack says.
"It's nice to have someone to share with," Sam says, leaning her head against him.
"So this is a 'yes' on cabin?" he asks.
She nods his head against her shoulder.
One Week Later
"Daddy, do we have to kill the worms?" Ty says, hiding his face in his father's shoulder to avoid seeing the worms wiggling around in a Styrofoam cup.
"That's part of fishing, little man," Jack says, "I'll put the worm on the hook for you."
Sam looks at her son, who looks like he's about ready to cry, "Jack, don't they make artificial worms?"
"Sure, but they don't work as well," Jack admits.
"Jack," Sam says in a way that draws his eyes to the little boy beside him.
"Right, it doesn't really matter if we catch anything or not. Why don't you go free the worms, little man?" Jack says, handing his son the cup. The kid runs over and dumps them in the dirt.
Mrs. O'Neill laughs, "I'm beginning to hope we don't catch anything. If he has that kind of a reaction to the worms, I can't imagine what he would do if we actually caught a fish."
Sam giggles, "Dad, how come you never took us fishing as kids?" she asks, turning to Jacob.
"You had a bad reaction to it," he says.
"No way, I never had a problem with dissecting animals in high school. I don't know why it would have been any different with fish," she protests.
Jacob laughs, "That's not what you had a reaction to. You were five. Mark was three. You had gone fishing with me several times, and not caught anything. Then the first time that Mark went fishing with me, he put his line in, and caught a huge fish. And that is when you melted down."
"I did not," Sam protests.
"Oh, you did," Jacob says with another laugh, "Mark felt so sorry for you that he tried to put the fish on your line."
"Note to self, never beat Carter at anything," Jack says.
"Shouldn't be a problem for you, Jack," Jacob teases.
Tyler runs back, "All the worms squirmed safe into the ground," he announces.
"Good, than we can get started fishing," Jack says.
-0-0-0-
"Well, I think that's about it for fishing today, we should get ready for supper," Mrs. O'Neill says.
"But Daddy, you said we could have fish for supper. But we haven't caught any fish," Ty whined.
"Huh, you're ok with killing fish, but not worms?" Jack asks confused.
"Wait, I caught something!" Sam exclaims, reeling it in hard, "Ty, come here and help me reel it in!"
Ty runs over, and he and his mother work together to land the fish.
"Well, Samantha, that is the biggest fish that's ever been caught in this lake," Jack announces.
"We get to have fish for supper?" Ty asks hopefully.
"Yep," Jack says, "As soon as someone helps me clean it."
"Daddy," Ty laughs, "It was in the water, it's already clean."
"He means cutting it open and taking the good eating parts away from all the gross parts," Jacob explains.
Ty looks at the fish critically. "I think all the parts might be gross," the boy announces.
"How about you and I go into the cabin, and get the rest of supper ready while we leave these guys to the fish?" Mrs. O'Neill asks lifting the boy up.
"Ok, Grandma, I knew you were wise," the boy announces, causing all of the grow-ups to laugh.
"I think I'll go with you guys," Jacob says, following them into the cabin.
"I'll do all the cutting," Jack offers, pulling the hook out of the fish's mouth.
"Jonathan O'Neill, is there anything about me that says squeamish girly-girl to you?" Sam asks.
"Besides the stunning figure? No, not really," he says back, handing her a pocket knife.
She carries the knife and fish over to a picnic table next to the house, "I don't remember ever having done this, so you are going to have to give me some instructions."
"Ok, your first incision should be along the lateral line of symmetry," he instructs.
She blinks at him.
"Right here," Jack says, running his finger along where the cut should go.
"Yeah, I knew what those words meant, I just didn't know that you did," she says with raised eyebrows.
He shrugs.
She shakes her head as she makes he cut, "You know, I've known for quite some time that you're not nearly as dumb as you like people to believe, but now I'm starting to wonder just exactly how smart you are."
"Not very," he teases as she scoops out the guts.
He picks the stomach off the table, "Check the stomach. If we know what the fish likes to eat, we can use better bait next time."
She slices it open, and gasps.
"What? Something cool? When I was a kid I once found a frog inside of one of these babies. Can you imagine? A fish eating a frog?"
"Jack, how?" Sam asks, looking at him.
"What?" Jack says, completely puzzled by her actions.
She draws out the ring. The same ring that Jack had thrown into the pond four years earlier. The ring that, apparently, this fish had swallowed.
"You must have caught this fish, feed him the ring, and then put him in the pond. This is… the most unique proposal ever!" Sam gushes.
Oh, God, proposal? Jack thinks in panic. He plasters a grin on his face. Marry her? Hell yeah, he wants to marry her. He just hadn't expected to. Well, at least now he understands what women feel like when they are proposed to when they aren't expecting it.
"But how could you have known I was going to catch the fish?" Sam asks, confused.
"Samantha, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" he asks, figuring at some point she's actually going to want words attached to the thing that she believes is a proposal.
She shakes her head.
No? She's saying no? Well, of course she is. It's crazy early for a proposal. Which is why he hadn't actually proposed.
"Jack, you didn't do it on purpose, did you? Is it even your ring?" Sam asks.
"Yeah, it is," he says.
"Ok, how did it get into the fish?" she asks.
Jack debates lying to her. But that doesn't seem like a good way to start a marriage, and he's just realized that he really does want to have a marriage with Sam, and soon.
"I had a buddy buy that for me during desert storm. If you hadn't gotten orders, I would have had them send it to me oversees," Jack admits.
"You were going to propose back then?" she asks.
He nods.
"I would have said yes," she says with absolute certainty.
"Even if you hadn't been pregnant?" he asks.
"Definately," she assures him. "So how did it end up in the lake?"
"I might have… ah, chucked it in there when I thought you were with some other guy," he says.
"You threw an engagement ring in the lake?" she laughs.
He nods.
"Look, I'm sorry about thinking this was a proposal. Can we just forget about the part where I embarrass myself, by saying yes?" she whispers.
"Technically, Samantha, it is a proposal. I did ask you to marry me," he points out.
"Yeah, only because I thought you had already proposed," she says with a laugh.
"Sam, I am unbelievably grateful to this fish. I really want to marry you," he says, looking in her eyes.
"Yeah?" she asks.
"Yeah," he says.
She lets out a soft giggle, before running into the house.
"Was that an answer, Carter?" he calls after her. She doesn't say anything, and so he runs after her.
Sam bursts into the house, and starts washing the ring frantically in the sink.
"What happened, did you cut yourself?" Jacob asks, running over to his daughter at the sink.
As soon as he gets close he sees the ring. "Well, son of a gun!" he exclaims, walking over to Jack and slapping him on the back. "Welcome to the family, son."
Mrs. O'Neill jumps up, and pulls Sam into a hug, "Oh, I'm so happy for you!"
"What is going on?" Ty asks indignantly.
Sam slips the ring onto her finger, and Jack grins at her. "Well, son I just gave your mother a special present. A ring, and when you give someone this kind of a ring it means that you are promising that you are going to marry them. That you love them, and that you are going to stay with them forever."
"That's good," Ty says.
"I think so," Jack says, grinning at Sam over the boys head.
"Daddy, can I have a ring, too?" Ty asks.
Jack laughs. "No, honey."
"Why not?" Ty asks.
"Because boys don't wear engagement rings."
Ty pulls his mother's hand down so he can look at her ring, "But it's pretty, Daddy."
"Yes, it is," Sam says, looking at it, and then meeting Jack's eyes.
"Daddy, don't you want to marry me?" Tyler asks worriedly.
Jack smiles at him, and picks him off the ground, "Honey, fathers don't marry their sons. But I am going to love you forever, and stay forever with you."
"But mom gets a pretty ring to prove you love her," Tyler protests.
"Well, how about I get you something to prove it to. Maybe a new fire truck or a baseball or something," Jack offers.
Ty stares at his father like he is dense, "Those don't sparkle, Daddy."
"No, I don't suppose they do," Jack says in a bemused voice.
"I think we should celebrate the engagement," Jacob interrupts.
Mrs. O'Neill smiles, "I agree. Why don't you and I take Ty out for pizza and ice cream, and then the three of us can have a camp out in the tent tonight?"
"Can we have a campfire with s'mores too?" Ty asks excitedly.
"Of course," Jacob says with a smile.
"You guys don't have to do that," Sam asks blushing.
"I know we don't have to, dear. But this way, you can go out and have a nice date with my son," Mrs. O'Neill says.