Spoilers for "The Light"
One Week Later
Becky Lynn lifts up her sister's shirt to blow a raspberry on her belly. Her sister giggles in glee while pushing her away at the same time. Teal'c is sitting on the floor next to the girls, absorbing the contents of the morning paper. Becky turns to Teal'c and lifts his shirt to blow on his belly. Instead, she just stops and stares.
"What's wrong with your belly?" she asks.
Tammy turns to look at it too, "Did you have surgery?"
Teal'c looks to her wife, hoping she is going to be able to come up with one heck of a cover story.
"It's a tribal marking," Shelby says.
"Why did you let them cut your stomach up?" Becky Lynn asks, concerned.
"It would greatly increase my lifespan," Teal'c replies.
"Superstitious nonsense," Tammy mutters.
"Did it hurt?" Becky Lynn asks.
"Indeed," Teal'c says.
"More than this?" Tammy asks, touching the insignia on his head.
"The insignia in molten gold caused more pain," Teal'c says, after considering.
"How come your insides don't fall out?" Becky Lynn asks.
"This opening is a pouch that is disconnected from my internal organs," Teal'c explains.
"Do you carry anything in it?" Tammy asks.
"No," Shelby says quickly, not giving her husband a chance to screw up that answer. She really doesn't want her sister's to be traumatized by the knowledge of what her husband actually carries in her belly.
"Do you want to carry my dolly in it like a kangaroo?" Becky Lynn asks.
"I would not," Teal'c replies.
"What does it mean?" Becky Lynn asks, touching his forehead emblem.
"It is a symbol from my country," he replies, talking without giving any information.
"A symbol for what?" Tammy asks.
"My previous employment involved the service of an evil dictator, this is his symbol," he replies.
"But you don't serve the bad man anymore?" Becky Lynn asks.
Teal'c shakes his head.
"Is it real gold?" Tammy asks.
"Indeed," Teal'c says.
"You should take it off your head and sell it, then," Becky Lynn offers.
"That would hurt too much," Shelby says, sitting on the floor with her family.
"Don't do it then," Becky Lynn says, shaking her head quickly.
"Listen girls, you can't tell anyone about Teal'c's belly hole," Shelby says.
"'Kay. Teal'c, can we play horsey?" Becky Lynn asks.
He goes onto his hands and knees, and Becky Lynn climbs on.
One Week Later
"I have brought you a graduation gift," Teal'c says as Shelby walks out of her graduation.
"Ok," Shelby says warily.
"It's a car," he says.
"A car, you bought me a car?" she says.
"Indeed," he says.
"But we're going to share it, right?" she asks.
"We will be working at the same place," he says. "Sharing transportation should not be difficult."
"Well, thank you," she says.
Teal'c pauses, "I have an apology to make."
"Ok…" she says warily.
"I was unable to stop your graduation party from occurring," he reports.
"Teal'c…." she whines.
"I did, however, manage to stop Jack from ordering the clowns and a house of bounce," he says.
"Well, thank you for that. Where is this party?"
"We secured a room at a restaurant."
"Well, let's drive my new car there."
-0-0-0-
"Nurse!" Jack says as soon as he sees her coming.
"I haven't taken my test yet, Jack, I'm not actually a nurse."
"Congratulations," Daniel says, stepping forward to give her a hug.
"I'm going to love having you be able to do nursing tasks at work," Janet says.
"Kids, come congratulate your Auntie Shelby," Jack says. And the next second she is completely surrounded by kids, two of whom were her own sisters.
"Shelby," her mother, says coming up behind the kids.
"Ah… hi, mom," she says awkwardly. Somehow she hadn't expected her mother to be here.
"I'm proud of you, Shel," she says with emotion in her voice.
"Thanks, mom," Shelby says. She searches back in her mind trying to figure out if her mother has ever said that to her before. She decides that she hasn't.
"I can't believe you graduated, you're the first one in our family that ever graduated," Becky Lynn states dramatically.
"But I'm not going to be the last. You're going to graduate from college too," Shelby says.
"What am I going to be?" Becky Lynn asks.
"Whatever you want to be. It's a great big universe," Shelby says.
One Week Later
"Where is Daniel?" Olivia asks.
"He's stuck at work for a bit," Janet says, trying to give a disarming smile.
"What? What happened?" Cassie asks, panicked.
"He's fine," Janet assures her eldest daughter, putting a hand on her arm.
"But he's in Canada, right?" Cassie asks.
"Yeah, he's traveling for business," she says, mostly for Olivia's benefit. Then for Cassie's, she says, "But he's in a really safe part of Canada. He's stuck there, but he's fine."
"How long is he going to be gone for?" Olivia asks.
"Probably a month," Janet says.
"A month?" Olivia says.
"I don't suppose we can call him, can we?" Cassie asks softly.
Right now Janet realizes that Olivia not knowing about the Stargate sucks a lot more than she originally thought. It means that Olivia can't talk to her father, even when Cassie, who knows about what her Dad really does for a living, can.
"No, honey, but you can send an e-mail," Janet says.
"But he's just at work, he didn't like leave for good or something, did he?" Olivia asks.
"Nope, he'd never do that," Janet says, wiping tendrils of hair from her face.
-0-0-0-
"Mom, do you have a minute?" Cassie asks, coming into her mother's room later that night.
Janet has just finished feeding Will, and is holding him while he sleeps. "Sure, honey, just let me put your brother down," she says. She leaves the room to lay the baby down in the crib. A few minutes later, she returns, and sits down on the bed next to her daughter.
"Can you tell me what really happened to Dad?"
"Of course, hon, he went to another planet. There was this light source there, and something else… we're really not quite sure what, that made them addicted to the planet. For a while, it looked like he might have to stay. But now we figured out a way to get him out safely. They just need to turn it down slowly. He's going to be fine."
"You're not telling me everything," Cassie says, examining her mother's face noticing deep concern hiding in the corners.
"Let's just stick with the headlines," she says sadly.
"Mom, I'm not a little kid anymore."
"Oh, Cass, the very fact that you think that proves how little you still are."
Cassie makes a face at her.
"Honey, the withdrawal got pretty bad. I thought… I might lose him. And there was nothing that I could do about it. But he pulled through."
"You saved him, didn't you?" Cassie asks with a smile.
"This time, it was Colonel O'Neill that saved him," Janet says, putting her arm the girl. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Cassie says, nodding her head. She figures that if she shows any emotion, her mother is going to be a lot less willing to share things in the future.
"That's great, but I'm less than ok. I miss my husband."
"A month," Cassie says despondently.
"That's shorter than forever."
"It is," Cassie says sadly.
The Next Day
Olivia is standing on a chair, reaching to put away a dish.
"Honey, you don't have to do this," Janet says, coming up behind her to help her put it away.
Olivia turns toward her mother, still standing on the chair. "Did Daniel leave because of me?"
"Of course not, honey; he's just gone on business."
"But when people leave on business, they know they're going in advance. No-one leaves on a surprise business trip," Olivia says.
Janet picks the girl up by the armpits, and lifts her onto the floor, "You do when you are in Daniel's line of work."
"What does he do, anyway?" Olivia asks.
Janet isn't quite sure how to answer the question. With the rest of SG-1, it's easy. They are in the Air Force, or are scientists, or are doctors. But Daniel doesn't actually do the things he was trained for.
"He does a lot of things. He went to school to be an anthropologist, and an archeologist, and a linguist. But mostly he works as a translator and a diplomat."
"I don't know what any of those words mean. Can you just tell me what he does when he goes to work every day?"
"Well, he takes things that are written in a different language, and he puts them into a language that everyone can understand. And a lot of the time, he helps people get along with each other."
"So he's off helping people make friends?" Olivia asks.
"Well, not exactly. He was helping people make friends, and then he got stuck."
"How did he get stuck?"
"Ah… that's complicated."
"Like in quicksand?"
"No," Janet says, trying to keep it as short as she can, because that would make her less likely to have to lie.
"Cassie looks worried."
"She's fine now."
"But Cassie knows what you guys really do."
"Yeah, she does."
"Right, it's ok," Olivia says quickly.
"Honey, the only reason that Cassie knows what we do for a living is that we met her while we were doing it. This has nothing to do with her being adopted already."
"But if I was really your daughter, I could know?" she asks.
Janet sighs, "Honey, I don't know for sure. You'd certainly have to sign some non-disclosure documents. And I'm not sure if they'd clear you to know, you're young still."