“Daniel,” I called as I made pancakes, “Come get breakfast. We’re due at the base soon.”
I could hear unintelligible murmuring coming from the hall just before the little guy appeared. His long blond hair all over the place, his eyes barely open and he was shuffling along still wearing the Spiderman Pyjamas that Carter bought for him. I won’t tell you his response to her present but I’ve made sure anytime I buy him any clothing it’s plain. The only reason he’s wearing them is we only have two pairs and the other is dirty.
Daniel refuses to buy too much while he’s in this incarnation because he will be bigger in the next two months and anything we get for him now will be donated to a local children’s home. Daniel was pretty vehement about this. He almost refused to buy anything but we persuaded him he had to.
I placed a plate of pancakes in front of him watching as he poured a large glob of syrup on the side of the plate before meticulously cutting the pancake into small pieces and soaking the piece in it before munching. What’s even more amazing was his eyes were barely half-open during this.
It’s a scene I’ve witnessed many times but never like this. Daniel, when he’s his normal size, can also chug down a mug or two of coffee at the same time before he even shows signs of actually being fully conscious.
Despite the fact he’s only half-conscious, Daniel can still get dressed faster than anyone I know. He’s spent a long time being self-sufficient, since he was eight years old to be exact, and it shows even like this. We got all our stuff together and headed to the car, Daniel jumped in the back quite happily and made sure he was secure before he pulled out his book – the third Harry Potter book he’s on now. Despite seeing the movies with Teal’c, who loves them for some reason, Daniel decided to read the books and the only reason he’s not further on with them is he keeps getting caught on work and the occasional urge to draw with crayons. I have a great picture in my office that he drew of the four of us, I’m getting it framed. Daniel doesn’t know I’ve got it but I managed to steal it before it got slammed in the trash with everything he draws. Danny, as an adult is a talented artist but his childlike motor skills at the moment have robbed him of the finesse he usually has.
I know both Carter and Frasier are both hoping for an opportunity to steal one too.
“Morning,” Daniel grinned at everyone we passed as I carried him through the corridors, again.
“Good morning, Dr Jackson,” was actually the response he received apart from those who call him Daniel.
He was still happily bouncing away in my arms, chattering away without thought of the fact I wasn’t listening at all. We were there for a few hours then we had to go shopping for Cassie’s birthday present, something I was dreading after our last little shopping expedition. I keep expecting psycho lady to pop up and demand an apology from Daniel again but so far she’s not appeared.
We went first to Daniel’s office so he could get what he needed for the morning then we headed up to my office – I was amazed to find I actually had one. Anyway, Daniel settled in the small desk Carter had set up for him that can be upsized for when he’s ten and I started going through the paperwork.
Unfortunately all too quickly Daniel got bored and started fidgeting in his seat. He stops his own work and pulls out his book, after ten minutes which I’m sure is a record he decides to draw. I watch him out of the corner of my eye and feel my heart break just a little as I see him draw a woman with deep black hair and dark brown eyes but even that wasn’t finished and he tossed every drawing in the trash before turning to me.
“Can we go yet?” he demanded.
I checked the clock, an hour and a half, better than the last few days.
“I still have stuff to do,” I tell him, receiving the ‘not again’ roll of the eyes, “Why don’t you go an...visit Carter for a while.”
“Because,” he folded his arms across his chest, the expression was almost annoyed but he couldn’t manage it completely as he still looks so cute, “I can’t walk around the base without someone with me.”
That was true; it was one of Hammond’s first orders when this happened. It was purely for Daniel’s safety as he’d probably be trampled anytime we had an emergency and the defence teams went running through the halls.
I didn’t want to traipse all the way to Carter’s lab and back but then Danny was in the annoying mode where I wanted to tie him up and gag him – something I know Hammond and Fraiser would frown upon so when Silar wandered past I knew I had my scapegoat.
“Sir?” our fixer of all things asked when I called him back.
“Silar,” I grinned and I could see the worry on his face, “Could you take Daniel down to Carter’s lab for me?”
The little terror turned to Silar and gave him a big grin, all angelic eyes and sweet smile making Silar grin back.
“No problem, sir,” our Mr Fix-it told me, “Coming, Dr Jackson?”
Daniel gave me a quick smile and wave before he trotted out after Silar, leaving me in peace.
*********************************************
I finally finished all my paperwork and without the voice of doom from the desk telling me how bored he was. I picked up all his junk and packed it so we could head for lunch before another dreaded shopping trip but I couldn’t resist checking out his drawings.
There was one of Thor, which wasn’t too badly rumpled – maybe ironing it would fix it and I could frame it for the little grey guy? Another picture was of the Stargate and the four of us ready to go through it, finally there was a picture of Sha’re. Not as good as the one he draws in every journal during his watch while offworld but still not bad.
I replace the ones he wants rid of except the Thor one which I hide in my desk and head to rescue Carter.
As I walked through the corridors towards Carter’s lab I listened for anything that meant she needed rescued but there’s nothing. I ended up standing in the doorway watching Daniel sitting on a stool, swinging his legs back and forward as he drinks a glass of milk. Sam was next to him and they were sitting discussing something I’m not even going to try and guess what. It was such a natural picture I couldn’t help but smile. Big or small they can always talk together easily.
“Hey,” I finally interrupted, cause quite frankly I’m hungry, “Are you ready, Daniel?”
He placed the glass gently on the table and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, there’s a five year olds trait if I ever saw one, before he hopped off his stool and waved goodbye to Carter. Carter who I know is dying just to give him a big hug and kiss him like he is the kid he looks like.
Once he’d said his goodbyes Daniel walked to me and held up his arms expectantly. What’s strange is that in the few weeks this has become the complete norm for me to walk through the corridors with Daniel at one shoulder, the little cherub talking in my ear. The image of having one in each ear, the devil and the angel hits me and I muffle a laugh.
Lunch.
I must have some kind of brain tumour or something to have made me think that this was a good idea. We stopped off at the new restaurant on the way to the mall, The Waterfall Cafe, a Mom and Pop operation that appeared only a few weeks ago it has a play area for kids and from what I’ve heard pretty good food, so we agreed this would be our stop for lunch. There were lots of kids running around and I winced at the noise.
An annoyingly chirpy waitress showed us to a table in the corner and cooed over how cute Daniel was as she got him a special chair that meant he could reach the table without stretching.
“She’s nice,” he noted once she’d given us the menus and taken our drinks order.
“She’s both too old and too young for you,” I grinned at him over the top of my menu as he rolled his eyes at me.
“I’m married, Jack,” he reminded me with a long suffering sigh, both the words and that sigh coming out of the small rosebud mouth just didn’t seem right.
I quickly changed the subject, “So, what do you want to eat?”
Daniel shrugged, his mouth twisted slightly in thought, “I don’t think I like the children’s menu.”
“Then pick something off the normal one,” I told him, “And we’ll get them to pack the leftovers.”
That mollifies him and he starts studying the normal menu intently. The waitress arrives back and smiles at the cuteness of Daniel pouring over the menu.
“So,” she says with a slight southern twang, her nametag reads Crystal, “What can I get you two handsome gents?”
Daniel ordered the Special Chicken Wrap with fries; Crystal warned that it was extremely spicy but Daniel just grinned at her.
“I know,” he said with his bright blue eyes wide and innocent.
“And what about you?” she turned to me.
My order is blander, a ham and cheese toasted wrap with fries but still sounds pretty good since I had breakfast at almost 5 am – thanks to Daniel who fell asleep on the toilet floor. Apparently he got up in the middle of the night to use the toilet and dropped the toy he sleeps with, a large gorilla called Louie that is almost half his size, he knelt to get him and somehow ended up fast asleep curled around it. I got up and found him, the confusion and worry he’d done something to himself woke me up completely. I put him into his bed and he didn’t get up for another two hours while I was bouncing about cleaning my house at the 06:00 because I wasn’t getting back to sleep.
“Jack,” Daniel interrupts my thoughts, “I’m going to the play area for a bit. I’ll be back when the food comes.”
“Sure,” I shrug.
It still astonishes me how much he loves doing kid things, I think he’s trying to get in practice for when he has one of his own once we get Sha’re back. I sit and sip at my iced tea as I think about how long he’s going to be like this. Only another eight and a half weeks and he’s going to be ten, that’ll probably bring a whole new load of challenges.
“You’re not my dad,” a voice yells loud enough to get over the noise of the restaurant, “I want my dad.”
The voice I recognise instantly as Daniel means I’m on my feet and headed towards the play area but my kid’s not there. Panic fills me and I spin to see a man in a black suit trying to make off with Daniel, who is fighting furiously, through the back door.
“Hey,” I yell, “Let him go.”
The potential abductor glances up at me and I see horror fill his eyes, then pain as Daniel, taking advantage of the distraction, bites the man’s hand before head butting him in the crotch. Black Suit’s knees buckle and Daniel runs over to me. I scoop him up in my arms and I can hear someone calling the cops but I’m too busy making sure Daniel hasn’t been harmed.
Black Suit taking advantage of the fact I was ignoring him tried to run, Crystal slammed a tray into his face and knocked him to the ground.
“Thanks,” I smiled at her.
She nodded at me grimly as a few of the kitchen staff kept a hold of the would be kidnapper. I followed them as they moved him to a back room.
“The police are on their way,” Crystal told me.
I shook my head and placed Daniel down; he wrapped an arm around my leg to let me know he was still there as I pulled out my cell and dialled quickly. This was no random abduction attempt. It looked like Cassie was getting money for her birthday this year.
“It appears NID has heard about Dr Jackson’s new state,” Hammond told us as we sat in the briefing room.
Daniel frowned as he munched on his lunch; we’d brought it back with us once I had got Black Suit in custody. Carter had almost smothered Daniel when she hugged him, Teal’c simply wanted ten minutes in the room alone with our almost kidnapper.
“What do we do?” I demanded, waving away Carter as she steals some more of my fries.
“The usual, Jack,” he replied perfectly calm, something I was not.
“Do I have to stay in the base?” Daniel spoke up, around a mouthful of food.
Hammond smiled slightly at him, “No, son. We will however have the house watched by our people until such time as you are your adult self again.”
Daniel chewed his lip for a moment before turning back to the General, “Are you sure they’ll stop coming after me once I’m big again?”
“We’re sure,” Carter answered, “They want a five year old Daniel Jackson they believe they can mould. What they obviously don’t know is you have all your adult memories.”
“And,” I jumped in, “If they think they can suppress those, Thor has you tagged remember. He can find you no matter where you are.”
Daniel nodded, “Great. Can we go shopping for Cassie’s present now?”
I smiled as I saw the trust Daniel had in us, so complete – he knew we would protect him no matter what.
“Let’s go,” I told him passing Carter the last of my fries as my little angel wandered to my side.
I was going to enjoy every moment with this Daniel, then I was going to enjoy every moment of the ten year old version once he was with me and then, I was going to appreciate my friend for being himself.
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Little Angel
by LE McMurrayKapitel Bemerkung:
Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.Enjoy
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