Spoilers for Legacy
"Did you hear that?" Daniel asks.
"I don't hear anything," Cassie says, turning back to her homework.
"They're calling to me," Daniel says, standing up and opening the glass bookshelf. Through his eyes, he sees a Stargate's event horizon.
Through Cassie's eyes, she sees a lot of old books. "Mom…" Cassie says with a warning voice.
"Can't you see it?" Daniel says in confusion, turning to his daughter.
A hand reaches out of the closet to grab Daniels' hand, and he starts to scream for help.
-0-0-0-
Daniel opens his eyes to see Janet looking at him from her seat next to her infirmary bed.
"What happened?" she asks.
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
"I don't know. My Gran swears she saw her sister after she had died."
"I never did, there has to be another explanation."
"Who did you see?"
"The Goa'ulds that were dead in the chamber."
"In our bookshelf?"
Daniel nods his head.
She reaches over to grab and squeeze his hand. "So, is this the first time you've ever hung out in the infirmary when you weren't working?"
"It is, and I hope it's the last time. I don't want my husband to get in the habit of getting hurt."
"The clumsy archeologist, you've got to be kidding. So can I get out of here now?"
"Not yet."
"What do you mean, 'not yet'?" he says, his stomach twisting, knowing already where this is going.
"Daniel," Janet says slowly.
"They think I'm nuts, don't they?"
Janet just looks down at the bed, and doesn't say anything.
"What about you, do you think I'm nuts?" Daniel asks.
"Well, honey, you've got to be a little bit crazy in order to have married me," Janet teases.
The Next Day
"How are you feeling, honey?" Janet says, walking into the VIP room her husband is staying in and giving him a quick peck on the lips.
"I'm fine. Did McKenzie tell you that they think I'm schizophrenic?"
Janet nods her head.
"You know that's a genetic disease right?" he asks, looking toward her stomach.
"Daniel, they think that this was caused by travel through the gate. It's not likely that this is something that you are going to pass on to our kid."
"Janet, there are things that I never told you. Things I should have told you a long time ago. Certainly before we started to try for a baby."
"Daniel, what are you talking about? There is nothing you ever could have said that would have made me change my mind about having a baby with you."
His face crumbles, "Janet, I'm not the first person in my family to have mental illness."
"I didn't even know you had family besides… you know, your parents," Janet says softly.
"I didn't want you to know, I was selfish. My Grandpa, Nick. He saw giant aliens in Belize, and he's in a mental hospital right now."
"That's why he couldn't take you after your parents died?"
"No, he wasn't in the hospital when my parents died. He just didn't want me," Daniel says, looking down.
"Hey, Daniel," she says, forcing his eyes back onto her, "It doesn't matter who didn't want you before. Everyone wants you know."
"Even though I'm damaged goods?"
"You're not damaged, you're perfect," Janet says, running a hand across his face and under his chin.
He stares at her in horror, "Oh, God!"
"What's wrong?" Janet asks calmingly.
"Nothing," Daniel says, looking away from her.
She looks into his eyes expectantly, trying to figure out what he needs.
He makes a grab for the air over her shoulder.
"Daniel?" she asks, taking a step back from him.
"There is a Goa'uld. I can't let it go into you! I can't lose you!" he screams.
"Daniel! There is nothing there!" Janet shouts.
Two Days Later
Was this what it was like for Nick? Just a big empty room, and waiting, but waiting for nothing?
And the things that he'd seen. The things that weren't real, they had felt so real. And if they weren't real, could he ever believe anything ever again?
"Daniel are you ok?" Janet says, rushing into the room.
"I'm fine. You should stay with Cassie."
"She's fine, the O'Neills have her. I'm worried about you," she says, walking up and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he says sadly.
"For what?" she asks.
"For being such a head case," he says with a nervous laugh.
"This is not your fault, Daniel."
"It doesn't change the fact that I am not there for you," he says.
Her lip quivers, "Daniel, you're going to get better, you're going to come home."
"No," he says shaking his head, "They're not going to let me leave," he puts a hand on her stomach, "And our baby is never going to know his dad."
"Daniel, don't say that."
He grabs her by the elbows, and breaths with more panicked breath, "They're coming."
"No, honey, no-one is coming, it's just me and you here, and you're safe."
"They're coming," he says with a pained expression, he knows that what he is saying doesn't make any sense, but he is thinking it so hard that he can't stop himself from saying it.
Daniel looks over Janet's shoulder, and says, "I told you, it's right there." And then he begins the laugh. It was a laugh she had heard when he was high from the sarcophagus, or when he had two glasses of wine instead of one.
It wasn't the laugh of a crazy person. It was the laugh her Daniel made when chemicals were messing with his brain.
They did have him on a lot of drugs… she wondered.
And then the orderlies came in, and whisked him away.
Two Days Later
"You don't have to walk on eggshells around me anymore. I'm better now," Daniel tells Janet when she arrives to see him.
"I heard, do you know why?"
"You believe me?" he asks in surprise.
"Of course I do."
"Why?" he asks with a raised eyebrow, "I mean, I'm glad you do. I'm just not sure why you would believe me."
"I know my husband, and I know when my husband isn't himself. It was chemicals, Daniel. I knew that."
Daniel smiles at her, "I really love you, you know that, right?"
She smiles at him and nods.
"So you can spring me from here, doctor?" he asks.
"I can sure try."
One Day Later
"Daniel, I wanted to come visit you, but Mom wouldn't let me," Cassie pouts as Daniel comes through the door.
"Your mom made the right call. I wasn't really in a state to see my daughter," he says.
"You're ok now?" Cassie asks.
"I am," he says, holding out his hands to her.
She runs into his arms, sobbing.
His arms stay out for a couple of seconds before they wrap around her in a tight hug.
"I thought I might not ever see you again," she whispers.
"Not going to happen. I plan on sticking around for a long time, babe."
Cassie pulls away, her eyes red from the tears.
"We're forever, this family," he tells her with a smile.
Two Weeks Later
When Daniel rounds the corner into the infirmary for his post-mission check-up, he was surprised to see his wife lying in an infirmary bed.
"Since when do you take naps on hospital beds while on duty?" he teases.
Then he sees her face, and he stops joking. "No," he says.
"Daniel," she says, holding out her hands to him.
"No," he says, crossing his arms in front of his body.
"Honey," she says softly, standing up.
He rushes across the room and strong-arms her into sitting back down.
"Daniel, I can get up."
"You lost the baby, didn't you?"
"I did, honey. I'm so sorry."
Daniel leans his forehead against hers in silent agony. "When can you come home?"
"I'm fine to go home now. I was just waiting for you."
"No, you need to take care of yourself."
"Daniel, I am. I really don't even think that I need bed rest, but I'm giving it to myself anyway. Some people who lost a baby this early wouldn't even know they'd been pregnant."
"Janet," he says.
"I know," she says, crying.
He picks her up in a fireman's hold and starts toward the door.
"Daniel Jackson, put me down this second!" she demands.
"You're on bed rest, aren't you?" he says, confused but obeying because of the intensity of her voice.
"I can walk to the car, and if I couldn't, we have wheelchairs. You will never pull a stunt like that ever again."
And she sees his eyes brimming with tears.
"You can carry me again, if it would help," Janet whispers.
-0-0-0-
"Daniel, why are you picking me up? I thought mom was going to come get me," Cassie says as she slips into her step-father's car later that day.
Daniel doesn't answer, and that make Cassie's stomach fall into the floor. When you've never had a tragedy, your mind doesn't go there first. It rebels against the idea of bad things happening, it shields your innocence for as long as it can, even if it is only a couple of extra seconds.
But once you've had tragedy, your mind doesn't protect you anymore. It is forever looking for the bad, expecting the bad. Seeing it where only good exists.
So she sees Daniel's face, and she knows.
"What happened to mom?"
"Your mother is fine," Daniel assures her.
"The baby?"
He looks away.
Cassie crumbles like a rag doll into the seat, and starts bawling.
He's shocked; he hadn't expected her to take it this hard. She took the death of her entire world with more grace that he'd taken the death of his parents. But this, this was raw grief, and in the face of it his own grief becomes more painful.
"I'm sorry," she manages to stammer out.
"Sorry? What are you sorry for?" Daniel asks in genuine confusion.
"When you first told me that you were going to have a baby, I didn't want you to have a baby. But I didn't want that baby to die. I swear I didn't mean to kill it."
Daniel pulls the girl close to his heart, "Oh, Cassie, love, this is not your fault."
"Why?" she asks, looking at him.
"I don't know, honey; no one does. These things just happen sometimes. Actually, these things happen quite a lot when it is very early in the pregnancy. It's not because you did something wrong. It's not because your mother or I did something wrong. It just happened."
"I think it happened because of me, because bad things always happen because of me."
"No, Cassie."
"I'm cursed. My whole planet died, but I survived, and I wasn't meant to survive."
"You were, Cassie. And I've had a lot of people die, too. But they didn't die, because of me, or my luck. They died for reasons, individual reasons that had nothing to do with me."