One Week Later
"Please explain why your people turn once a year from the worship of three gods to the worship of the undead tree," Teal'c says.
Shelby stares at him in horror, "Everything 'bout that sentence was wrong."
He tilts his head back to her, "Could you please be more specific in your correction of my errors?"
"Ok, well we don't worship the tree, which is definitely dead. And we don't worship three gods either, we worship one God with three personalities."
"If you do not worship the tree, why do you put them in the center of your houses?"
"Well, usually people don't put them in the center of the house. But our apartment is tiny, and so that was the only place for it."
"But I do not understand the purpose of the tree."
"I don't know, it's just something that people do," Shelby says with a shrug, "I could probably look it up on the internet."
"I will do this after you have fallen asleep." The fact that Teal'c did not sleep and Shelby did had caused their marriage to be a little out of the ordinary. After their 'mating', as Teal'c still insisted on calling it, Teal'c would cuddle Shelby for a while. After she fell asleep, he would get up and do a few hours of kel'no'reeming on a mat on the floor. Then he would get up and leave the room so that his nocturnal activities didn't wake her up.
"Ok, well, we have to decorate the tree now," Shelby says, holding up a box of lights.
"This tree needs accessories?" he asks confused.
"Yeah. Lights and ornaments," she says, smiling.
"What is the purpose of this?"
"It makes it pretty," she says, handing him the lights.
"I remain confused," Teal'c says, staring at the evergreen.
-0-0-0-
"Mommy, can I ask you a question?" Emma asks Sam when she catches her alone.
"Of course," Emma says.
"Daddy is stuck off world, but he isn't dead, right?" she asks.
"You're exactly right."
"I painted him a picture and wrote him a letter. Can you get it to him?" Emma asks, holding the paper up to Sam with a hopeful look in her eyes.
Sam seriously considers lying to the kid. She isn't sure what makes her tell the truth in the end. But she does. "Honey, we can't give your Dad anything, and he can't get anything to us. The last time we tried to contact him, it almost destroyed the world. Remember when I couldn't come home for weeks? That was because we were trying to reach your father. There is no way that I could get this to him. I'm so sorry."
"Is there Christmas on other planets?" Emma asks.
"I suppose there could be, if people who celebrated Christmas went to another planet, they would bring the Christmas with them."
"My Daddy celebrated Christmas," Emma says.
Sam is not about to point out the fact that the years which have passed since her father first went missing has only been a couple of seconds for her him. "Yes, he did."
"Does Santa Claus go to other planets?"
"I don't see why not. He is magical, after all."
"Then I'm going to ask Santa not to get me anything this year. Instead he can just bring my Daddy something real nice. I know that he usually doesn't bring presents to grown-ups, but I figure that's just 'cause there are too many of them. If he didn't have to bring me a present, it would even out, wouldn't it?"
"That sounds like a deal that Santa would take," Sam assures the girl.
"Ok, I'm going to go write him a letter. I hope he brings my Daddy something super-special."
As soon as the girl is out of the room Sam looks up at the ceiling, and says, "Boyd, you've got a pretty extraordinary girl there, I hope you realize that."
-0-0-0-
"Hey, Daniel, can I give you your present now?" Cassie asks one night when her mother has gone to work for a medical emergency.
"Why don't you wait a couple of weeks for Christmas to actually be here?" he asks.
"Well, because your present is too good for me to give to you in front of Mom. You know she is always sensitive, thinking that I like you more than I like her. And with the way she's been lately… I just don't want to push it. Don't worry, I got you a decoy present for when Christmas actually comes along, so she won't know I gave this too you earlier."
"You know honey, you don't actually have to get us anything. We're the parents."
"I know, but I'm a teenager. I'm not a little kid anymore."
Daniel unwraps the package that Cassie has handed him, and it reveals a leather bound notebook. He's seen it in her backpack, and on the desk of her bedroom more than once. He'd always assumed it was her dairy, but here was no way that a teenage girl would be giving her diary to her father.
He opens it up, and sees a sketch of the outfit that Cassie had been wearing when they found her. He flips through a couple pages of text before seeing a map.
"This is about Hanka," he states.
"Yeah. Maybe it's weird? I mean, this is part of my old life. Part of the family that I was in before that."
"I told you from the beginning, honey, you don't have to let go of your old life. It's good to remember where you came from, and remember your first family."
"But I started this when I first lived here. I am the only Hankan left. I wanted to write it all down, before I forgot it. I've finished it now. There is everything from fashion, to politics, to culture. It's not very organized, I'm afraid; I just wrote things down as I thought of them. But I thought, with you being an anthropologist…" she trails off, feeling foolish. This isn't really a Christmas present. This is a bunch of random thoughts jumbled on a piece of paper.
"I am unbelievably honored that you gave this too me. This history, it's a part of you," Daniel says. It makes a warm feeling spread through Cassie's chest, and makes her feel a whole lot more important than she had a moment ago. "This belongs with all of my mission journals, I think. I'd love to read through it, and ask you some questions if I need to."
Cassie grins, "Of course."
Daniel flips through it taking in a bit more detail. He grins, "This is very good. With a little polish, it would be publishable; that is, of course, if everything inside of it wasn't classified."
Cassie giggles, "I'm sure that's not true."
"I'm serious, honey. You are quite the little anthropologist," he says, pulling his daughter into a hug.
The Next Day
Hammond gave his premier team two weeks off for the Christmas holidays this year. They decided to celebrate the first day with this together at O'Malley's before heading off in separate directions to spend time with their families.
The Jacksons' new baby is, of course, the hit of the party. He is passed around and cooed at by everyone present, including a few airmen who just happened to be at the restaurant that night, and who are not strictly members of the party.
When Teal'c gets a chance to hold him the infant, he grins at him, holding him close to his chest. He says, "Infant, I am glad that you could join us at this gathering."
"You don't talk to him like that," Jack says with an eye roll, "You're supposed to be all 'goochy, goochy, goo'," he says, tickling the baby's stomach as he speaks.
"I have read that a failure to use adult language with an infant will impede their language development," Teal'c replies.
"And where exactly didya hear that?" Shelby asks, laughing at him.
"I learned this fact in a periodical intended for reading by parents," Teal'c says.
"You read a parenting magazine?" Shelby asks in shock.
"Why?" Jack asks. He's never even read a parenting magazine, and he is actually the father of three children. Leave it to Teal'c to make everyone else look grossly unqualified.
"I was endeavoring to increase the quality of the interactions between the kin of Shelby and myself," he says.
"What did he say?" Cassie asks, never having quite mastered the language of Teal'c.
"He did it for my sisters," Shelby says, looking at her husband with love in her eyes, "They stay with us sometimes, and he wants to be better with them. Even though he is already really good with them."
"Wow, you're going to make a great father," Cassie says.
"I already possess a son," Teal'c says.
"Right, but when you and Shelby start popping them out, you're going to be a great hands-on father," Jack says.
"Shelby and I have decided to forgo reproduction," Teal'c says, giving the child one more glance before passing it on to the next pair of arms waiting eagerly for his reception.
The room falls into an uncomfortable silence, which makes Shelby fidget in her chair. It's not that she was really that comfortable before. She's closer in age to Cassie than anyone else here. Even though she works at the same place as them, she's never been though the Stargate, or to war. She is used to being the oldest in those she is around, if not in years, in experience. When she was in school, she had always done more, and seen more horrors than other people her age.
But here… she was still a child, and she knew it.
"I don't mean to pry, but does this decision have anything to do with him being a Jaffa? Because, if so, it shouldn't be a concern. From what I can tell, when two Jaffa mate, their children are actually human until after the prim'ta ceremony," Janet says.
Daniel rubs his wife's back, and nods his head agreeing with her assessment.
"That is not the reason that we have decided to forgo reproduction," Teal'c says.
"We're a little bit more worried about my genetics than we are about his," Shelby says not looking at those around her.
Teal'c looks at his wife, and is overcome with her emotions. Empathy. It's not something that it's beneficial for a warrior to have. If you are empathetic in battle, you are going to be less likely to make a shot that might save your life.
But empathy is something that is necessary for a husband to have. Perhaps the reason that his first marriage was no more than a business partnership was his inability to feel what his wife was feeling.
"We will now leave this conversational topic, and go to another," Teal'c informs the group.
Shelby looks up at him in grateful surprise.
"Little Emma got an A on her report card," Sam says, bouncing the little girl on her lap. The girl beams up at her mother with a proud face when she hears her mother bragging about her.
"I got all As on mine," Ty says, glaring at his mother.
"And we are proud of all of our children," Jack says, catching his son and pulling him onto his lap.
Ty looks slightly pacified, but he still glares at Emma.
"Hey, mom, can I go play pool?" Cassie asks, noticing right away that some college students have walked over the pool table.
Her mother knows the reason behind the decision. She's noticed that her daughter has developed an interest in boys in the last couple of months. Her husband is still blissfully ignorant of this interest, and she wants to keep it that way for as long as she can. She knows that he is likely to overreact to the news.
So Janet is about to say no to her daughter's request. But Daniel says, "Yeah, just stay within eyesight."
Once Cassie has gone over to play, she starts to flirt with the boys. Jack notices right away, and meets Janet's eyes.
"Hey, Ty, can you go supervise Cassie?" he asks the child on his lap.
Ty laughs, "Daddy, older people are supposed to supervise younger people, and Cassie is much older than me."
"Yeah, but right now Cassie needs a big brother. But she doesn't have a big brother, and her little brother is much too little for the job," he says, giving a glance to the baby, "So I guess she's going to have to settle for a friend."
"What should I stop her from doing?" Ty asks. In his world, supervision usually involves being told that whatever he is doing is extremely dangerous.
"Oh, just going over there and talking to her should do the trick," Jack says.
"Can I help?" Emma asks cheerfully.
"I don't see why not," Jack says, offering the girl a smile.
"Me, too!" Hannah says, running ahead of her siblings.
"Cassie's allowed to talk to boys," Janet says with a smirk at her friend's antics.
"Oh, no, she isn't! Where are the boys?" Daniel says, jerking his head around.
The group laughs as Janet puts a hand on her husband's arm to calm him.
"My daughter is talking to boys," Daniel says in a stunned voice.
"She's growing up," Janet says.
"Our kids are never going to do that, are they?" Jack asks Sam playfully.
"Oh, yeah. Someday, all of our kids might be talking to boys," Sam says. She's known that this is a possibility for some time. And she wants to guage his reaction to this idea.
Jack shakes his head, "Sure they will, but not until they're thirty."
The group laughs again.
"So how has married life been treating you?" Sam asks Shelby.
"It's good," she smiles at her husband.
"Shelby is still incredibly busy with her scholarly endeavors and her work," Teal'c says, "I will be glad when her current term of studies ends, and we have more time to spend with one another."
Shelby takes his hand on top of the table, and grins at him. "In a couple of months, we're going to be done with this college thing forever."
"I know the infirmary will look forward to having you full time. You already do the work of several nurses," Janet says.
Teal'c's chest swells with pride for his wife's accomplishments.
"So what are you going to do over the break? Are you going to spend some time with Shelby's family?" Jack asks Teal'c.
"Actually, I'm going to be meeting Ry'ac," Shelby says.
"Your first trip to an alien planet?" Jack asks.
Shelby nods her head.
"Take bug spray," Jack teases, looking at Teal'c.
"Do not consume any cake," Teal'c shoots back, looking at Jack.
"That can end in unwanted marriages," Sam teases her husband.
"So can foot-washing," Jack says, looking at Daniel.
"That wedding actually turned out pretty good for me," Daniel shoots back. His wife grabs his hand in support. He takes her hand up to his mouth, and kisses it, "Not that I'm not incredibly grateful for my current wife."
"I like that you still love Sha're," Janet says.
"I've got some more advice for your off-world travels," Jack grins, "Don't save any princes."
"No regrets," Daniel says, pointing his finger at him.
"Do not climb into any sarcophagi," Teal'c retorts.
"That I do regret," Daniel says.
"Don't touch any cavemen," Janet warns with her eyebrows raised.
"Noted," Shelby says with a smile.
"You'll do great," Jack says with a big smile.
"I am a little nervous, I'm not very good with kids."
"Ah… Ry'ac will love ya," Jack says.
"I hope so."
"He will be required to do so," Teal'c says, hating to see his wife nervous.
"No, Teal'c, you have to let this thing between me and your son just happen naturally. You can't try to force him to like me."
Teal'c stares at her.
"Please," she says.
"He will like you all the same," Teal'c says, putting a hand on his shoulder.