A week Later
"I refuse to wear a bathing suit," Jack says with a pout.
"Why not?" she asks.
"Classified."
"Oh, come on, no one is going to think you're pregnant. Jack, this is the swimsuit I brought along," Sam says, holding up a tiny bikini, "And the only way you're going to get me to shed my fake baby belly and put this on is if you don some trunks."
"Well, alright then," he says, grabbing his swim trunks and going to the bathroom, singing, "Itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka-dot bikini".
Sam makes a quick change. Jack comes out of the bathroom, and looks at himself in the mirror. Sam comes up behind him, and wraps her arms around his stomach.
He pulls away.
"What's wrong now?" Sam whispers.
"It's just weird, you know," Jack whispers.
"I know. I remember when I was pregnant with Ty, I couldn't believe that there was a human inside of me. That I was capable of creating a human being. It's got to be much stranger for you. I mean, I knew my body could do that since I was young."
He shrugs.
"Jack, talk to me," she says, moving her hand up to her chest.
"It's nothing," he says quickly.
"But it is something, please share with me."
"I don't have a right to complain. I mean, you did this without me. And here I am, married to you. Getting support from someone who has already done this. Maybe those guys on that planet are right, that we can't really be equal until we share everything. But I can't help but wish that it was you instead of me," there are tears in his eyes as he ends this speech, and he really hopes that she is going to blame this on the hormones.
"So do I," she whispers, moving around him so they are facing each other.
"What?" he asks.
"I wish it was me, too. It's ok for you to be pissed about this. No one asked your permission on this. They altered your body so that you could have a baby without asking you. You have a right to be angry about this."
"You didn't really choose to have Ty either."
"I know, Ty was an accident. But this goes way beyond having an accident. If I woke up one morning with male reproductive organs, I wouldn't be entirely pleased."
"I know, Sam, but I don't even have to do labor. When this baby leaves me, it's not even going to hurt. How dare I wish pain on you?"
"You know, Jack, I don't think I've been fair to you. I've had these blinders on when it comes to pregnancy. I've been remembering all the things that I loved about it. You know… the connection that I felt to the baby. And the way that I had the right to eat whatever kind of food that I wanted. But I don't think I've been talking to you enough about the things I hated. I think part of the reason for that was I didn't want you to feel bad about not being there for me with Ty. But all it has done is made you feel like a bad father for hating the stuff that every pregnant person hates. I hated that I got tired so much faster than I did before I got pregnant. I hated the fact that I had to pee all the time. I hated the fact that I felt like an alien invader had taken over my body and my emotions."
"It is a little Goa'uld-like, now that I think about it," Jack says.
Sam glares.
He throws up his hands, and giggles, "Sorry, our baby is nothing like a Goa'uld."
"You got that right," Sam says.
"About that having to pee thing," he whispers.
The Next Day
Janet walks into Daniel's office, doing a pretty good impression of his insecure self-hug. "Dr. Jackson, may I have a word with you?" she asks.
Daniel looks up from his artifact with a wide grin on his face before he sees her facial expression. "Sure. Is Cassie ok?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You seem to have a lot of interest in my daughter." The accusation in her eyes is beyond a doubt.
His mouth drops, and his stomach sinks at her words. He debates fleeing the room without saying another word. Then he could go somewhere to scream or to cry, he wasn't exactly sure which one he was more likely to do right now. But instead he decides to do something uncharacteristic for him, stand up for himself.
His voice is icy and even as he says, "I had these two foster sisters when I was a kid. Their dad did that to them, when they were, little maybe eight and six. It destroyed them. You have to know that if ANYONE tried to do that to Cassie I would kill them with my bare hands. I am not attracted to little girls, Janet."
"Well, what am I supposed to think?" Janet accuses, "You seem to have no interest in me until I adopt a little girl. Then suddenly you're over at my place all the time, cuddling her in bed, and she's calling you in the middle of the night."
"She's scared, Janet. She's scared just like I was when I was her age. I'm trying to help her through this! And I liked you before you got Cassie. It's just… I didn't see it going anywhere until…"
"Until what?" Janet asks, searching his eyes.
"You left your husband because he didn't want to have kids. I couldn't give you kids. I thought maybe after you had a kid, it wouldn't have mattered as much," Daniel blurts out.
"Wait, what do you mean you can't have kids? I'm your doctor, and there is nothing in your file about infertility."
"Yeah, well it wouldn't be. There is nothing official. I mean, I've never been tested or anything."
"But you were married for a year," Janet says understanding.
"I already broke one woman's heart by not being able to give her the baby that she wanted. I was not about to do that again."
"Daniel, most couples do have a baby after a year of trying. But there could be a million other reasons that it didn't happen for you. I mean, it could have been Sha're. Or it could have been the fact that you were from different planets. Thousands of years' worth of totally separate evolution could have made you guys incompatible. I can arrange for you to have a test."
Daniel shifts on his feet, "I don't exactly have a reason to. I mean… I'm not planning on having any kids right now."
Janet smiles, "I know, but you are making life decisions based on what might be faulty information. If you find out you can't, you're going to be fine. There are lots of ways to have a baby. And if you were really listening to me talk about my husband, you'd know the fact that he made decisions about our lives without including me. Kind of like you just did."
Daniel hangs his head with a quick smirk.
"I'm kind of hoping that you are able to have a baby, because a little kid with your genes would be pretty amazing. But I love my daughter, and if she's the only kid I ever have, I am going to be deliriously happy," Janet adds.
Daniel blushes.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Janet presses.
"It's ok," Daniel says dismissively.
"No, it's really not. You let people off way to easily when they are cruel to you," she observes.
"I'm used to it," he confesses.
Janet smiles at him, "So, I'm going to make you an appointment with a friend of mine who works with fertility. And if you wanted to come over for supper with Cassie and I tonight, you could."
"I'd really like that," he says with a bashful smile.
Janet is almost out of the room before she returns for a little bit more honesty. "Ah… I have to be honest with you. I think what I said before… which is completely out of line. It might have been partly caused by the fact that I've been a little bit jealous of you."
"What?" Daniel asks.
"You're so good with her. You always do the right thing, and you say the right thing."
He laughs, "Janet, I've been watching you, and wishing that I could have had someone like you after my parents died. You are an amazing mother."
Janet bites her lips to keep the tears from coming.
"As long as you are loving her, that is all that she is going to need."
That Night
"Daniel!" Cassie says, flinging her arms around him as soon as he comes through the door.
He bends down on the floor with one knee, "Hey, little one, how are you?"
"Great! I painted a picture in school. I'll get it for you!" she exclaims, running out of the room.
Janet shakes her head at her retreating daughter, "I don't understand. I mean, some days she's withdrawn and crying. Other days she's cheerful, like nothing bad has ever happened to her."
"Yeah, that's pretty typical with kids. They don't grieve like adults," Daniel says.
"I really appreciate having someone here who has actually lived through this to help me out," Janet admits.
Just then Cassie comes back, waving a piece of artwork from her school, and both of the adults focus on her.
-0-0-0-
Daniel pokes his head under the bed again, "Nice and safe down here. Not so much as a dust bunny," he proclaims. "You ready for bed, little one?"
"Daniel, are you and Mom divorced?" Cassie asks.
He blinks at her in surprise, "No, what made you ask that?"
"My friend Crystal's parents are divorced. She lives with her mom, and her dad comes to visit her sometimes. That's kind of like mom and you."
Daniel smiles, "Well, honey, divorce means that you used to be married, and you stopped being married. Your mother and I have never been married," he pauses, "Well, I guess that's not quite true. Your mother and I have never been married to each other."
"Oh, that's too bad," Cassie pouts.
"Why is that?" he asks, sitting down on her bed.
"'Cause if you and mom were divorced, then you would be my dad. And the judge would make you see me all the time."
Daniel laughs a little, "Well, sweetie, no-one has to make me see you. I might not be your dad, but I'm going to keep coming around. Do you think you'd mind too much if I just stayed your Daniel for a while?"
Cassie shakes her head, "But maybe if I'm really good, you'll be my dad someday?"
He sighs. He remembers well that uncertain aching longing for family. "You don't have to be good to have a daddy, honey. Whether or not you have a father has nothing to do with whether or not you are a good girl. You are always a good girl."
Cassie nods, but still looks sad.
And then Daniel does something he knows is just a little bit unwise. "Ok, kid, how about this. How about I become your dad, right now?"
Cassie's eyes light up, and she grins.
"The catch is, you have to keep calling me Daniel."
"Can you live with us now?" Cassie asks.
"No, but I'll keep seeing you," he says.
"Ok," she says cheerfully.
"'Night," he says, kissing her on the forehead.
"I love you, Daniel," Cassie says quickly.
Daniel pauses in shock. When was the last time that someone said that to him? Daniel thinks back desperately. Sha're said it, of course, but that had been in a different language. Sara had never said it. His foster parents had said a lot of kind things, but he can't remember any of them actually confessing their love for him. He is pretty sure that the last time anyone has told him that they loved him was his own parents.
"I love you, too," he says with tears in his eyes.
He steps out into the hallway, and is surprised to see Janet standing there. "I'm sorry, that was probably out of line."
"She needed that," Janet whispers leading him away from her daughter's door, "If you were serious in what you said in there, you can have a permanent job as her father, no matter what happens with us."
Tears come to his eyes again, "Thank you," he whispers.
"You want a glass of wine?" she asks.
He smiles and nods bashfully.
"So, Daniel, I've heard some pretty wacky rumors about some theories you had before you joined us."
"God, what did they say?" Daniel says with his cheeks going red.
"Did you really say that the pyramids were landing pads for alien space crafts? I mean, you're not wrong, I just can't figure out how you would have reached that conclusion?"
Daniel rolls his eyes, "I didn't say that. A heckler at a conference said that, right before they all walked out. People have misquoted me on that at lot, to add to the public mockery."
"Ouch, what did you say?"
"That the Egyptian pyramids, language, and culture is a lot older than we thought it was. And that it came from somewhere else," Daniel says, getting the glasses while Janet gets a bottle of wine out of the fridge.
"Not really that far away from alien spaceships, my dear," Janet says.
"Well, thank you for that," he teases, "Where is your corkscrew?"
She reaches over him to get one out of a drawer. "Hey, you were right about the aliens."
"I was thinking more like a human culture that wasn't big on monuments, actually," Daniel says, taking the screw driver away from her to open the bottle.
"So how did you know about the really old language?" she asks seriously.
"My mom was a linguist. She was the one who traced the transition from pictographic to phonetic Egyptian hieroglyphics. I watched her do it. And when I was an adult, looking at the Latin, the earliest hieroglyphics, even Babylonian cuneiform… I saw the same patterns she saw."
"Daniel… you are WAY too modest. You credit someone else every single time that you accomplish something."
"I do not," he says, handing her a wine glass.
"Daniel, repeat after me; 'I am awesome'."
He giggles.
"I am so not kidding."
"Janet, please," he says, shaking his head.
"I am awesome."
"Yes, you are."
"Say it, grave robber."
"Archeologist, grave robber, just a difference in time."
"You're not changing the subject on me. Say that you are amazing."
"I am just a normal guy."
"No, Daniel. You are a guy who knows dozens of languages. You're the guy who figured out the Stargate in a week when no-one else could figure it out in years. You're the guy who wrote a really amazing paper on the cross-pollination of ancient cultures that should have rocked the academic world. And you have just about every women on base, few though they are, salivating over you. You, sir, are amazing."
He blushes.
"I'm not going to give up until you say it," she grins at him as she takes her glass of wine over to the couch.
He sits on the other side of the couch, "You are deluded enough to think I'm awesome."
"I'll accept that for now," Janet says, moving closer to him on the couch, "I'm going to get you to say it someday."
"So, I gather you read my article, from what you said earlier?" he asks.
"Ah… yeah, after Hathor, I wondered what was out there that you wrote. I read them all."
"All?" he asks, glancing at her in shock.
She nods her head.
"God, you didn't find the one the published when I was fourteen, did you?"
"The one about King Tut, yeah?"
"I blame my peers, they should never have published that paper," Daniel says.
"It was good, sort of medical, right up my alley.'
"It was adolescent, and cliché. It was about King Tut, for God's sake."
"I don't know, your theory about the chariot race death was pretty interesting," Janet says.
"You are a suck up."
"You need to learn how to take a compliment."
"This is really good wine, it reminds me of the summer I spent in France."
"That's giving a compliment, not taking one."