It was peaceful.
It was just so peaceful and the reason was simple. My mini-archaeologist from hell was nowhere near me.
Doc Fraiser had promised Cassie a trip to the zoo for her birthday and Daniel had asked, surprisingly shyly, if he could tag along. Fraiser had instantly agreed and I had dropped him off earlier at the Doc’s house. I hung around for ten minutes so we could give Cassie our birthday present and, even if I do say so myself, the kid has two fantastic uncles in me and Danny. We got her a digital camera that she loved, Sam had already put the software on her computer for downloading the pictures and we promised her a trip to Disney, once Daniel was grown again, so she could use it.
I knew I was being horrible being so happy that he wasn’t there but it had been over three weeks with the constant chatter and worry about him getting trod on accidentally.
The alarms forced me out of my comfortable seat and the hell that is paperwork; I headed into the Gateroom as the Iris was rolling open.
“Carter?”
My second in command turned and grinned at me, “It’s my Dad.”
I grinned back. I liked Jacob but the thing that I was really looking forward to was the fact he didn’t know what happened to Daniel yet and I wanted to see his face.
Jacob walked quickly down the ramp and hugged his daughter before turning to me with a grin, “Jack.”
“Hi there, ‘Dad’,” I grinned back, “Social call or do the Tok’ra want us to risk our lives for very little back?”
Jacob gave me that look, the one that says ‘I have Selmak swearing at you in my head’ before he shrugged, “Just a short vacation.”
“Cool,” I started walking with him.
“So, where are the other two clowns?” Jacob asked with a smirk.
“T is beating a few new recruits to a pulp,” I replied, “Daniel’s at the zoo with Cassie and Janet.”
Jacob nodded and I caught Sam’s eye who grinned back at me, obviously getting that I really wanted to surprise Jacob with our mini-archaeologist from hell.
“We’re having a barbecue for Cassie tonight,” Sam took over for me, “Want to come, Dad?”
“Is Teal’c cooking?”
Sam and I both laughed.
“No,” Sam grinned, “He’s promised never to do it again until we get him cooking lessons.”
The sun was shining as we set up the barbecue; Teal’c was using his considerable warrior skills with a blade to chop the salad while Sam was fixing the drinks we’d bought and Jacob was sitting lounging in the sun.
I heard Janet’s car draw up and watched Jacob out the corner of my eye as I saw my kid come speeding towards me.
“Jack,” he beamed, throwing himself at me with glee, “You’ll never guess what I did?”
“What did you do?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“Adopted a monkey,” he grinned at me, “I named it Jack.”
“Funny,” I replied, I could see Jacob looking confused and leaned into the little blond head, “Go say hi to Jacob.”
Daniel’s head spun and he grinned as he saw Carter’s Dad staring at him; with a smirk that I had become all too familiar with, he wriggled so I’d put him down before strolling across the grass to Jacob.
“Hi, Jacob,” Daniel greeted him, “Hi, Selmac. Are you here for Cassie’s party?”
Jacob simply stared at this innocent little cherub; he could obviously see the resemblance to our fourth member but just couldn’t quite make the connection or wouldn’t.
“Daniel?” Jacob finally spoke.
“Yeah,” the little guy continued to grin sweetly at the poor confused man.
It was Sam who finally rescued him and explained what had happened.
Daniel sat on a chair at the picnic table, scoffing down his second burger as he swung his legs smiling as Jacob continued to stare at him.
“Something wrong, Jacob?” he asked with a grin.
“You’re...short,” Jacob managed to say, “How’s it working for you?”
Daniel laughed, it was a sound I’d heard frequently since he was shrunk and I was sure I’d probably not hear once Daniel was back to normal.
“It’s an interesting point of view,” Daniel replied, grinning at Jacob who I know adored Danny anyway at his usual height and age.
“Sam said you’ll be...” Jacob hesitated trying to phrase it right.
“Biggified,” Daniel laughed, throwing an amused look at me as I nearly fell off my seat at his use of my word for Thor’s procedure.
“Okay,” Jacob said unsure, “That’s happening soon?”
“Eight weeks,” Daniel told him with a nod, “Actually that’s just the first phase where I’ll be made ten then I’ll be twenty then thirty.”
Jacob nodded and fell into silence. I took pity on him and handed him another beer, he looked like he needed it.
*********************************************
You’d think being in charge of the five year old mini-archaeologist would be stressful enough but no, we had to add one more ingredient. Ladies and gentlemen, we got a dog.
In my defence it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t like I woke up and thought hey I needed an even bigger challenge.
We were out for a walk after breakfast the Sunday after Cassie’s party and as we passed one of the houses near the end of the block there was a lot of commotion going on. I looked down to find Danny had left my side and joined the throng of kids.
“Oh no,” I sighed, wondering what was going on.
“Jack,” Daniel yelled as he appeared at my side, “Puppies.”
“Puppies?” I asked, the feeling I get when a Jaffa is sneaking up on me arriving at the same time.
“Come on and see,” Daniel grabbed my arm and yanked me towards the rest of the crowd.
Lying in the centre of the circle was a golden haired Labrador, looking tired as about seven, possibly eight puppies all fought for their dinner. The owner stood looking down at the new brood with a smile on her face, I recognised her as Mrs Sanderson who I helped every so often when we crossed paths in the grocery store.
“You got your hands full there,” I noted to her when she saw me.
Mrs Sanderson gave an amused sigh, “Do you want one?”
At her question Daniel spun to me with hope in his eyes and I wanted to ask him how he expected to look after a dog when he was going on missions again but I couldn’t.
“One,” I told him.
Now personally I was going to take one of the ones who were fighting to get some food who I knew we’d probably have to wait a few weeks to take home but instead Danny found the runt of the litter. A tiny little bit of fur who was shoved out of the road by all his older brother and sisters that Daniel gravitated to instantly.
Because our puppy was the runt of the litter and couldn’t be fed by his mother it meant we had to hand rear the dog. So somehow I ended up preparing bottles as Daniel looked after the scrap of fur.
“So what are we going to call the little pipsqueak?” I asked as Daniel stroked his new dog as it sat in his lap.
“How about Pipsqueak?” Daniel suggested.
“You’re not serious?” I demanded, dropping onto the couch and flicking through the channels until I found a game to watch.
“Why not?” he grinned, “I like it. What do you think, Pip?”
The dog gave a small squeak which Daniel took as approval and so Pipsqueak, or Pip for short was so christened.
Oh boy.
Heliopolis Main Archive
A Stargate: SG-1 Fanfiction Site
Little Angel
by LE McMurrayKapitel Bemerkung:
Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.I’ve had this sitting half done for a while and finally managed to finish it.
It’s very short and not my favourite chapter, I’m also not too fussed for the title but hopefully I’ll be able to get to another chapter soon.
Enjoy
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