One Week Later
Daniel stands at the door to Janet's lab, crossing his arms across his stomach. "So, I got your e-mail that my results are in."
"Yeah," Janet says, shutting the door behind him, "Why don't you sit down?"
Daniel sits down, and immediately begins to fidget.
She smiles at him, "You are fine, Daniel."
He blinks at her, "You're sure?"
"Well, there is a slight mobility issue, but you can definitely have kids. It might be part of the reason why it took longer with Sha're, but probably wasn't the whole reason. Daniel, you can definitely have kids, given enough time."
Two Weeks Later
Major Boyd smiles as he watches his daughter, in a pink tutu, have a tea party with Sam and Ty. "It's nice for her to have some female influences. I mean, besides the nanny. Actually, Sam is a lot girlier than the nanny."
Jack laughs, "Well, that's a little ironic, because Ty is a lot girlier than Sam."
"You guys are great with kids," Major Boyd says a little mournfully.
"So are you," Jack defends.
"I'm not like you guys… I've seen you with them on the play dates; you get right in there, and join the game with them. I can't do that. I just… observe."
"You're a good dad," Jack assures the man before him.
"No, not really. If I was a good dad, I would quit my job. A single dad with no family support shouldn't work at such a dangerous job."
"The Stargate is quite addictive," Jack says.
"Listen, I want to ask you a question, and feel free to say no, but… I don't have any other options, and if anything ever happened to me…"
"You want us to take Emma," Jack says with a note of awe.
"I can understand, sir…" Boyd says.
"We'd be honored. I mean, I'd have to talk to my wife first, but we'd be honored. Of course, you're going to be fine, and never need us."
Boyd's eyes get wet, "I appreciate it."
"And now you and I are going to get in on this tea party," Jack says.
-0-0-0-
"Sam, we got asked a pretty important question today," Jack says as they climb into bed that night.
"Yeah?"
"Boyd asked us if we'd be willing to take Emma if anything ever happened to him."
"Us?" she asks with raised eyebrows.
He nods, "He said we're great parents."
Sam closes his eyes, "He doesn't know…"
"Oh, Sam, that wouldn't matter to him," Jack says.
"I'm not going to agree to take that man's baby girl unless he knows," she says.
"Ok, I'll talk to Boyd."
The Next Day
"So, is the secret out that I actually know where my office is?" Jack asks when Boyd appears before Jack's office.
"Only a few select people," he Major says with a smile. "So, did you get a chance to talk to Sam?"
"She was honored, but…" Jack starts to stay.
"Hey, man, you don't have to explain."
"No, she didn't say no, there is just something she wants you to know before we agree to this. When Ty was little, there was this thing with the nanny," Jack takes a deep breath, "The nanny was abusing and neglecting him. Sam was cleared of any wrongdoing, but she blames herself for not noticing. It's not going to happen again, Boyd. She doesn't let anyone watch Ty besides family."
"It wasn't her fault."
"I've been telling her that."
"I trust her with Emma. If I can't raise my daughter, there is no-one but the two of you that I would want to do that."
"Ok, then… start the paperwork."
"Really?"
"Yeah, man. But again, we're not going to need it."
One Week Later
"One more story, Daniel? About gods and demons?" Cassie pleads.
"Nice try, little one, but it was 'one more story' five stories ago," Janet says with a smile, "Bedtime."
"Night," Daniel says, kissing the girl's forehead.
"Another wine chat?" Janet asks when the girl's door is closed.
"I'd love it," Daniel says grinning at her.
"So, we've talked about our marriages, and our college experience, and my childhood, but it seems like something is missing."
Daniel doesn't say anything.
"Daniel, was your childhood that bad?"
"I've talked a lot about my childhood, Janet."
"Yeah, with Cassie. I think it might be an edited version."
"My childhood wasn't awful," Daniel says, taking a much longer than usual sip of wine.
"But it wasn't great, either, was it?" Janet asks softly.
"Before my parents died… it was great. I was on digs with my parents all the time. My mom taught me language after language. My dad he taught me the tools, the theories, the history. I memorized all of the pharaohs in history."
"Including Tut, even though other pharaohs erased him from history?"
"Look who's been reading up on their Egyptian myths."
"With this job? Kind of a necessity," Janet smiles.
"So it has nothing to do with me?" Daniel says teasingly.
"So, your parents were a lot like you, they sound fantastic," Janet says, choosing to ignore his previous comment.
"I never really thought about it that way before," Daniel says.
"You never thought about how your archeologist and linguist parents were like you?"
Daniel takes a deep breath, "I wasn't like them when they were alive. I was a little rebel. I would read anything that didn't have to do with history. That was a bit of a challenge, because we only had a few books in our tent. But I'd get them from anywhere. And I used to love math."
"Math?" Janet asks with her eyebrows raise.
"Yeah."
"I've seen your checkbook," Janet says.
"Yeah, well record-keeping isn't exactly my thing. Man, I wonder what would have happened if they'd never died. I might not even be an archeologist."
"Well, whatever archeology lost, mathematics would have gained."
"I don't think I would have been a good mathematician."
"Which implies you are a good archeologist," Janet says.
"I never said that," he protests, "Besides, I'm not actually an archeologist anymore."
"Do you miss it?" she asks pulling her feet up under her, and leaning against him gently.
"Sometimes, yeah. But mostly I miss things that I never really had. I miss the respect of my peers."
"They're idiots," Janet says, kissing his cheek. He catches the side of the cheek with his fingers, and turns her toward himself, and then he kisses her.
The Next Week
"Hey, bud, are you playing with GI Joes?" Jack asks, sliding down on the floor to sit next to his son. Jack immediately regrets the decision. He's going to have trouble getting up, with his very tight and growing midsection.
"Yep," his son says cheerily as he smashes the faces of the GI Joe's together.
Ok, that had to be a mistake, Jack thinks to himself.
Then Ty mashes the faces together again. This time he holds them together for a while, and makes a smacking sound with his lips.
"Ah… what are you doing?" Jack asks, wondering if he doesn't really want an answer.
"They're kissing, Dad," Ty says.
"Right, of course," Jack says. He told Sam that he would be ok if Ty were gay, but he's finding that that might have been a lie. "Why are they kissing?" he asks.
"Because they're in love," Ty says, as if his father were dense.
"Right of course," Jack says. "Ty, do you want us to buy you… Barbies?" Jack never thought he would make a suggestion like that. But maybe if his son had some females in the mix, he wouldn't have males kissing.
"No, Barbies are lame," Ty says.
"No argument from me," Jack says.
"You want to play?" Ty asks happily.
Jack really doesn't want to play kissing boys with his son, but he doesn't see another choice. "Sure," he says.
"Here, you can have the Mommy doll," Ty says, handing his father one of the GI Joes.
"This is Mommy?" Jack asks, looking at the small masculine figure.
"Yep, and Mommy and Daddy are done kissing now. They're going to go save the world," Ty informs him.
Jack smiles, "Well, that sounds like a good plan to me son, how do we begin?"
The Next Day
"Hey, Ty, I got you a present," Jack says the next day when he comes home from work.
"What is it, Daddy?" he says running into the room.
Jack hands the bag over, and Ty unceremoniously rips into it. "Daddy, they make Mommy dolls!"
"They certainly do, son," Jack says, smiling at his son.
"You found a doll of me?" Sam asks, coming over. She looks at the female GI Joe in her son's hand.
"They aren't exactly easy to find, but yeah, he's been using his GI Joe's to act our life story. I thought maybe we could get one of the right gender."
"Thanks, Daddy," the boy says, flinging his arms around his father.