Any Day In November
Any Day In November
by Zorb
Summary: Claire and Melburn Jackson died in a freak accident in 1974.or did they? What happens when SG-1 finds Daniel's parents on a planet across the galaxy, and hardly a day older than when they - well, didn't die?
Category: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Mystery
Episode Related: Stargate - The Movie, 101 Children of the Gods, 204 The Gamekeeper, 310 Forever in a Day, 521 Meridian, 701 Fallen, 703 Fragile Balance, 715 Chimera
Season: Season 7
Pairing: Team, other pairing
Rating: 13+
Warnings: adult themes, minor language, none
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Archived on: 2004-12-26
Again last night I had that strange dream where everything was exactly how it seemed...
Don't wake me, I plan on sleeping in (Now we can swim any day in November) - The Postal Service, "Sleeping In"
*
"Okay, careful with that coverstone."
"Yes, Doctor Jackson."
Eight year old Daniel Jackson perked upon hearing his father's voice. He couldn't wait to show his parents his new discovery - actual dinosaur bones, found right outside the New York Museum of Art's front door! Of course, he couldn't be absolutely certain of the species, or if they were really dinosaur bones, but he had a sample in his pocket. Dad would surely be able to solve the mystery with him. He hurried through the museum as fast as he could without incurring the docents' reproaches.
"Jake, it's swinging a bit."
"It's okay, it's fine, we'll be fine, careful."
Around the corner, he could see the sandy monoliths his parents had spent so long uncovering, deciphering, and packing up for careful shipment to the museum. His own fossil wasn't nearly as large, but Mom always said big things came in small packages. The work crew bustled around the dusty exhibition room, some on the floor, and some on steel ladders above, carefully lowering the crown jewel of the find into place.
"A little more level, bring it down."
"More level."
Daniel stopped a few yards from the site, not wanting to interrupt his parents' focus, but he couldn't help but fidget. This was so important - why couldn't they just hurry up?
He watched the gently swaying coverstone above his parents' heads, his eyes following the chain in interest to see how it was held up. The unit swayed slightly - shifted a notch - and suddenly, with a horrible cracking noise, the chain snapped.
And Daniel's world came crashing down like the stone, with a scream and a crash and a flash of green light-
Thirty-eight year old Daniel Jackson sat up in bed, heart racing, drenched in sweat.
A nightmare.
He flicked on the nightstand light and swung his legs to the floor, leaning on his knees and rubbing his sleep-numb face in his hands. The motion helped him ignore their trembling. Of all the things to lose sleep over, why that particular nightmare, and why now? Not since the Gamekeeper had forced him to relive those horrible events had it been so vivid. Lately, his nightmares had consisted of things like dying from radiation poisoning while simultaneously being tortured by Honduran rebels, who somewhat resembled, of all people, Martha Stewart.
Curious as to how long he had to lie awake in bed, he glanced at the bedside clock - which also showed the date in addition to the time.
Oh. So that was why.
Daniel flopped backwards on the bed. "Thirty years ago - you'd think I'd be over it by now," he mumbled to the crook of his elbow.
At least there were only two more hours till his alarm went off.
*
Daniel was nursing his third cup of coffee when the alert came. "Unscheduled off-world activation," a.k.a., Drop whatever you're doing and get to the gate room if you're anyone important. Daniel wasn't at all sure about that last part, but the rest of SG-1 always went, so he did, too.
The rest of the team was there when he arrived. "Radio transmission, from Jonas," Sam explained in response to his questioning look.
"This is Jonas Quinn, calling Stargate Command," the voice came over the intercom. "Anyone home?"
Jack rolled his eyes, but everyone else grinned. In his brief time at the SGC, Jonas had made quite a few friends. Daniel was almost sorry he hadn't gotten to work with the Kelownan more. Almost.
General Hammond leaned into the microphone. "It's good to hear from you, Mr. Quinn. How are things on Langara?"
"Fine, last I checked, but I'm not actually on the planet right now."
"Oh?"
"The Langaran governing council decided exploring the universe would be a unifying, not to mention profitable, effort to invest in. Our own version of the SGC, sort of. And, well, as the person with the most experience in gate travel on the planet..."
"You're in charge," Jack cut in. "Congratulations. Thought you'd give us a ring while you're out there?"
Daniel covered his amusement at Jonas's audible fluster with a sip of coffee. "Uh, thanks, Colonel. Uh, but that's not what I was calling about."
"Pray tell."
"Actually, it's something you need to see. Or rather, someone - is Doctor Jackson around?"
"I'm here," Daniel piped up, interest piqued.
"Good. I'm sending an image transmission now, and from what they're claiming, you're the only one who can confirm it."
Hammond's brow creased. "Who exactly are `they'?"
But when the image resolved on the monitor, no further explanation was needed. Daniel stared at the figures on the screen in astonishment, before finding the voice to answer:
"They're my parents."
*
Sam couldn't help but glance worriedly at Daniel where he sat next to her at the briefing room table. The archaeologist was gripping his mug as if it were his last hold on reality, which might not be too far from the truth, all things considered. His eyes were fixed on the table in front of him, and the arm that wasn't melded to the mug was wrapped around his chest.
She had a sudden flash of a younger, less worldly Daniel, dressed in clothes far too young for him, long hair flopping in his eyes as he crouched in the museum-that-wasn't while she tried to explain time travel theory to him. It was the Gamekeeper all over, but this time, it was no game.
Sam had vaguely recognized the man and woman on the monitor, but she hadn't placed them until Daniel spoke. What concerned her more at the time was the way his face had drained of color, and she'd had to stop herself from snatching his coffee mug away from his slackened grip. Somewhere between his declaration and their adjournment to the briefing room, he'd closed off again.
She wasn't the only one surreptitiously observing Daniel. The Colonel's eyes kept darting across the table, and General Hammond, when he entered, shifted his gaze briefly towards the man beside her. Even Teal'c was looking at his friend with concern.
"Well?" Hammond began.
No one else answered, so Sam broke the silence. "Well...from what I remember from PJ7-989, sir, it's them."
"Or someone who looks like them," Daniel spoke up, softly.
"Doctor Jackson?" Hammond prompted.
"My parents died thirty years ago. How can they be on a different planet?"
"Ah, but stranger things have happened," Colonel O'Neill remarked. Daniel finally lifted his head to stare blankly at him. "Too clich?"
"Sir, Daniel's right," Sam broke in, bringing the conversation back around. "We have nothing other than a vague visual to confirm that these people are - uh, who they say they are. They could be - well, anyone. We can speculate all we want, but we can't know for sure without physically testing them."
"Permission to pay Jonas's expedition a visit, sir?" the Colonel asked.
Hammond nodded. "Granted. Talk to Doctor Fraiser, take whatever equipment you need to determine their true identity. Dismissed. Doctor Jackson, a word?"
Sam hung back as the Colonel and Teal'c filed down the hall to gear up. It wasn't eavesdropping, per se - more like concerned interest.
So maybe Pete was having an effect on her.
"Doctor Jackson, SG-11 is leaving for P2J-971 in an hour. You mentioned wanting a closer look at the ruins there; if you'd like to join them..."
"Is that a suggestion or an order?"
Sam winced.
"It's up to you, son."
"I appreciate the thought, sir, but I'll be fine. Besides, who better to know if they're impostors than me, right?"
Sam scurried down the hall so that Daniel wouldn't catch her lurking. She was relieved he'd be joining them, but she was afraid of the undertone she'd heard in his voice - it was all too like pre-ascension Daniel, and that was a place she never wanted to go again. Determining to keep a close eye on him, she headed to the infirmary to speak to Janet about genetic testing supplies.
*
Somewhere in his first fifty trips through the Stargate, Daniel had stopped noticing when a planet had trees, and noticed instead when it didn't. Jonas's planet - he hadn't caught their designation for it - had its Stargate on a wide beach, depositing its travelers facing the calm, deep blue body of water. It reminded him a little of Nem's planet, minus the noxious geysers. And minus Nem. Jonas was waiting for them with a broad grin.
"Colonel, Sam, Teal'c, Daniel - it's good to see all of you again."
"Jonas," Jack greeted him. "Tell me, is there anything on your planet you don't do?"
"Cook," Jonas replied easily. (At this, a strange grin grew on Teal'c's face; Daniel tried not to stare.) "The other two of my teammates are with them, just over the hill." He pointed up the beach and began leading SG-1 away from the gate.
"Just two?" Jack asked.
"One from each nation. Our esteemed leaders wouldn't have it any other way."
"Ah, yes, the ever-diplomatic Langarans. I remember them well." The sand made for rough going in their combat boots, and the warm sun made Daniel wish he'd worn his hat. His scalp itched beneath the bandana. "By the way, nice haircut."
Jonas's hand flew to his short again coif. "Uh, thanks. Anyway, the program's actually going well, all things considered. It's mostly the open-minded people who are joining, anyway, and I'm betting the ones who aren't will get a nice wake up call once they see what's out here."
Daniel tuned out the rest of the casual conversation as they continued, feeling like he was intruding on a reunion in which he had no part, despite the mission's purpose. He tried not to think about where they were going. Maybe he should have gone with SG-11 instead...
His racing thoughts were interrupted by a touch on his elbow. "Hey," Sam said softly. "You okay?"
The other three continued their conversation, oblivious to the exchange. "Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just, ah..."
"I know. Hang in there, all right?" He smiled briefly, and she squeezed his shoulder.
They crested the ridge and looked down on the gently sloping valley before them. Trees here, Daniel noticed. And there, beside the trees, a small structure, with three people milling outside of it. They were still too distant to make out features.
"We were only on our second mission out," Jonas explained. "On a first glance, there seemed to be no reason for the Ancients to have put a Stargate here - there's no evidence of a major civilization ever having existed. We were exploring farther out, when we encountered a husband and wife, whose names I immediately recognized from reading reports back on Earth." They were level with what Daniel could now see was a small cabin, approaching through the grove of oak-like trees. Jonas continued, "The age discrepancy threw me off, but what they know...the level of detail...frankly, it's eerie. But they sure were happy to see other human beings, let me tell you."
"Well, it has been thirty years," Daniel remarked.
Jonas gave him an odd glance over his shoulder. "That's just the thing, though."
But before he could go on, a booming voice rang out, sending Daniel back thirty years, a life, a reality away. "Jonas! Welcome back!" A tall, dark-haired man, dressed in homespun robes, rose from his crouch by the outdoor hearth to greet the party.
Daniel couldn't breathe. Standing beside two uniformed Langarans was someone he thought he'd lost forever - looking not a day older than the day he'd been lost.
"Melburn," Jonas greeted with a nod.
"You've brought friends?"
"Yes. They're from Earth." Melburn Jackson's eyes lit up and he scanned the group, squinting slightly. Lost his glasses again, Daniel thought. His father had been the quintessential absent-minded scholar. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Teal'c...and this-"
"Mel? Are they back?" came another voice from within the cabin, and it was all Daniel could do to stay upright as a woman emerged into the sunlight. There was a long pause as Daniel stepped forward to the front of the group, eyes locked on the woman who stood beside her husband. She searched his face through her own intact lenses and gasped.
"Danny?"
He didn't trust himself to speak, nodding slightly instead.
"Oh, God," Claire Jackson whispered faintly, catching her husband's arm. "Mel, it's our Danny."
Melburn, for his part, bore a shell-shocked, slack-jawed expression identical to Daniel's. "Then it's true. It has been that long."
"My baby," Claire went on, tears welling up in her eyes. She reached out to Daniel, but before she could make contact, Jack spoke up.
"Carter?"
Sam jumped. "Right! Ah, I'm really sorry, but I need to run some tests, first. I'm sure you'll understand." She stepped forward with the medical kit, mouthing another sorry at Daniel. The elder Jacksons - for despite his cerebral knowledge that it was impossible, Daniel was inexplicably certain that it was them - looked pained, but stepped back as Sam unpacked. Daniel didn't move. He only peripherally noticed Jonas moving off to speak to his teammates, Teal'c circling the perimeter, and Jack torn between joining him and staying with the Jacksons.
As Sam drew blood samples from them, the Jacksons gazed at one another in wonder. Daniel finally broke the silence with what they were all thinking. "What do you say to someone you thought was dead thirty years ago?"
"One year, actually," said Melburn. "It's only been one year for us."
He shot a glance at Sam, who looked back with wide, startled eyes, shaking her head. She didn't know then, either. Yet.
"When Jonas Quinn came through the - Stargate," his mother continued, "and said it was 2004 back on Earth, we didn't believe him at first."
"Didn't believe he wasn't human, for that matter," added his father.
Claire nodded. "But the more he told us, about Earth and the Stargate and the universe...well, we could've believed the Egyptian gods were aliens at that point."
Sam froze. Daniel shot a look at Jonas, who looked sheepish. "I, uh, didn't get to that part yet."
His father's brow furrowed. "Danny?"
Daniel shook his head. "Long story, I'll tell you later. So you just...appeared here?"
Melburn took up the story. "Yes. One minute, we were in the museum, beneath the coverstone-"
"The falling coverstone," Claire interrupted.
He nodded. "The falling coverstone. But it never landed on us, because the next we knew, we were here."
"And you've been here just a year."
Claire continued, "We knew we weren't anywhere on Earth, because the stars were different. And we suspected the Stargate had something to do with travel, but we never managed to get it to do more than light up. We were more focused on survival than archaeology to spend much time on it."
"Hear that, Daniel?" Jack spoke up. The rest of the group had gravitated back to the Jacksons as they told their tale. "You should take a hint from your parents sometime. That is, if..." He glanced at Sam, who nodded.
"As far as I can tell, sir, they are Daniel's parents. Of course, we'll need to run some more detailed tests back at the SGC, but I see no reason why we shouldn't bring them back with us."
"All right, then let's move out," said Jack. "Grab anything you want to take with you," he told the elder Jacksons.
"Just a few things," Claire said, heading back to the cabin entrance. "Daniel? Will you help me?"
"Of course," he said, following her inside the small structure.
He barely had time to look around at the one-room interior, with its small table, storage units, and fur-covered mattress, before Claire turned and enveloped him in the best bear hug of his life. His arms went around her instinctively as she buried her face in his shoulder. She'd been much taller the last time, from his perspective.
"God, my Danny," she whispered into him, choking back a sob.
"Mom." She only squeezed tighter, and Daniel had to fight back tears of his own.
"Daniel?" Jack's voice called from outside.
Claire pulled back and took his face in her hands, rubbing her thumbs over his cheeks. "You're all grown up. We missed so much...we missed you so much..."
"Not as much as I missed you," he replied with a wry grin. "Come on, let's get your things. Jack gets antsy."
"It's not much," she said, moving to one of the wooden boxes. "Just what personal things we had on us when we..." She waved her hand vaguely.
"Whatevered. Yeah, I know how you feel." He shook his head at her questioning look. "Another long story. Don't worry, we'll figure out what happened to you when we get back."
"And you'll tell us all these long stories of yours," she teased, lifting a small bundle from the box. "That's what's left of our clothes, and your dad's wallet and glasses that he broke after the first month here. He let me use the glass for a cutting edge, but he wouldn't let go of the frames."
Daniel put the bundle in his backpack and smiled. "Guess I got my pack rat tendencies from him."
"Daniel!"
"Coming, Jack," he called back, giving his mother one more squeeze before leading her back outside.
Sam had repacked her kit and the others had doused the embers in the hearth while they were gone. "Teal'c, point," Jack said simply, falling back to the rear.
Melburn clapped a hand on Daniel's shoulder as they moved out. Daniel smiled and opened a vest pocket, pulling out a spare pair of glasses. "Try these. Don't know if it's the right prescription, but they should help."
His father slid the lenses on, blinking at the sudden clarity. "Well," he remarked. "That's..."
"Different," they said together.
Claire's hand was linked with Daniel's other arm. "You always had your father's eyes." Her own were sparkling.
When they reached the gate, the Langarans went through to their home world first, Jonas promising to have his government inform the SGC of their operations. As Sam dialed Earth, his mother's grip tightened, and his father eyed the spinning ring cautiously. They both jumped as the wormhole connected.
"Don't worry," Daniel told them. "All you have to do is walk through."
"Easy for you to say," said Claire, but neither of them protested as Daniel led them to the event horizon.
"On three?" he suggested. Together, the Jackson family counted and stepped through the gate as one.
*
As Sam emerged from the inter-dimensional wormhole, she noticed an unusual level of activity in the gate room, including a full medical team and an array of SFs, as well as General Hammond. "It's all right, sir. Everyone's fine."
Hammond nodded. "I understand, Major, but we've been fooled before."
"Sir, with all due respect, I really don't think this is nece-"
Before she could finish, the reunited Jackson family landed on the ramp, Claire and Melburn stumbling, but quickly steadied by their son. Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c weren't far behind. As the wormhole closed, all of them looked around at the sea of people with various degrees of stun. Daniel's was tense, his parents' was trepidatious marvel, the Colonel's was annoyance, and Teal'c's - okay, so not everyone was surprised.
Hammond took charge, ordering the SFs to stand down, and then turning back to the new arrivals. "Doctors Jackson, welcome to Stargate Command. I'm General Hammond, leader of this facility. This is Doctor Fraiser; she'd like to take you to the infirmary for an examination, just to make sure you're all right."
"And that we are who we say we are," Melburn remarked keenly.
"Only a precaution, Doctor."
"Of course."
"Welcome to Earth," Hammond concluded, nodding at Fraiser. "SG-1, I'd like to debrief immediately while the doctor conducts her tests."
Daniel spoke up. "General, if you don't mind, I'd like to stay with them. Sam was with me the whole time, she knows everything I do." At Sam's nod, the General acquiesced, and Daniel hurried off after his parents and Janet.
With a brief detour to shed their equipment, the remaining members of SG-1 and Hammond reconvened in the briefing room. "Does someone want to explain to me how two people who died three decades ago have suddenly reappeared across the galaxy?"
"Excellent question, sir," said the Colonel. "Carter?"
"Actually, sir, I don't know."
"You don't?"
"No, sir. I mean, I could make a thousand guesses, but they'd be shots in the dark."
Hammond sighed. "Why don't you start at the beginning, Colonel?"
O'Neill launched into a description of their mission, from Jonas's greeting to meeting the Jacksons. He turned it over to Sam for the Jacksons' story, and she related their tale. "It's amazing, General. They came to the planet with absolutely nothing, but we found them with all the basic comforts. They had to make everything themselves - thread, nails, soap..."
The General's forehead wrinkled. "I find that hard to believe, for people who were raised in modern society."
"They're Daniel's parents, sir," the Colonel pointed out.
"Point taken."
Teal'c spoke up. "Does not Daniel Jackson and his parents' profession call for a certain knowledge of primitive cultures' practices?"
"Right, see, even Teal'c agrees," O'Neill said.
Carter continued, "I know it sounds like fantasy, sir, but the simple blood tests I conducted revealed that they are human, and there's a high percentage likelihood that they are Claire and Melburn Jackson. I don't expect Doctor Fraiser to find anything different."
"I'm eagerly awaiting the doctor's report. In the meantime, tell me about this planet they were on. They were the only humans there?"
"Yes, sir," Sam continued. "And that's another strange thing - actually, it's what Jonas was investigating. Why put a Stargate on a planet with no people?"
"Teal'c, have you ever heard of something like this before?"
"I have not. This world appears to be ideal for colonization, having ample resources and lacking major predators."
"It's not in the Abydos cartouche," Sam pointed out. "That could explain why the Goa'uld left it alone."
"Still doesn't tell us why the gate's there in the first place," the Colonel countered.
"And there was no hint as to how the Jacksons got there?"
"None, sir." Sam shook her head. "It has to be some form of time travel, given their ages, but obviously nothing like what we've encountered before. The Stargate was in a hangar in D.C. when the Jacksons - er, didn't die."
Hammond frowned. "We'll debrief the Jacksons when the doctor releases them, but I want all available resources working on this puzzle. I don't need to tell you people what the implications could be here."
"No, sir, you certainly don't," said the Colonel.
"Dismissed."
The teammates filed out of the room and headed to the elevator. Once inside, Sam pressed a familiar number. No one pressed another.
O'Neill spoke up. "Going...?"
"To the infirmary, sir."
"Indeed," Teal'c finished.
*
Melburn Jackson groaned. "How much more of my blood does that woman intend to siphon out?"
"Mel," Claire admonished.
"I've been scanned, pricked, and prodded more in the past hour than in the rest of my life put together. I don't even know what half these machines do," he remarked, waving a hand around at the very twenty-first century facility. The other hand absently picked at the starched hospital scrubs they'd been given to change into after having a chance to shower while Janet processed her tests.
Daniel grinned. "Yeah, you'll have some catching up to do. Things have changed a lot in the past thirty years."
"They certainly have," muttered his father as a nurse with a tablet computer passed by.
"Anyway, I think she's almost done. I can't think of a test I've been through that she hasn't put you guys through yet."
"Let me guess," said Claire, perched on the bed next to her husband's, "another long story?"
He chuckled. "Not so much. Everyone who goes off-world gets put through the wringer, just some of us more often than others." Someone had come to take his equipment, minus his parents' belongings, away - when had that happened? Daniel rubbed his forehead in thought and realized he was still wearing his bandanna. No need for that now; he untied it and ran his fingers through his hair to get it in some semblance of order.
He looked up to find both parents staring at him. "What?"
"Your hair," Claire said softly.
Daniel was still lost. He threw his father a questioning look.
"It's short," said Melburn curtly.
"Oh. Uh, yeah, I only cut it a few years ago. Kept it like usual for most of my life, but with this job..." He shrugged, feeling like a chastised ten year old.
"Of course."
"Of course, Danny," his mother said hurriedly. "Don't be upset. It's just hard to adjust to seeing you all grown up. To us, you're only nine years old."
He closed his eyes briefly. "I'm not upset. It's just hair."
"Of course," said Melburn again. Daniel couldn't read the non-expression on his father's face, but he didn't like it.
Fortunately, the uncomfortable silence was interrupted by SG-1's entrance. "Jacksons! How's things?" Jack greeted them.
Claire smiled. "Daniel says we're almost done."
"Excellent." Jack's impression was lost on the culturally lagging pair, but that didn't faze him. "I say we bust you two out of here for a nice steak dinner. On Daniel."
"Jack."
"Daniel?" The Colonel was the picture of innocence.
"Turn around."
Jack obeyed, and came face to face with five feet, four inches (in heels) of irked medical expert. "Why, Doc, you're looking-"
"Too late, Colonel," Fraiser interrupted him. "I heard you trying to steal my patients."
"Steal is such a harsh term."
"What did you learn, Janet?" Sam broke in.
At that, the diminutive doctor dropped her tough front and smiled. "That everything matches the records. I am one hundred percent certain that these are the very same Doctors Jackson who were on the planet Earth thirty years ago."
"And they're okay?" Daniel pressed.
"Aside from slight malnutrition, and probably a few more scars, they're fine."
"Yes." Jack punched the air. "So. O'Malley's?"
"Colonel, I don't think you realize the emotional trauma they've been through. They're nowhere near ready for an evening out yet-"
"Steak sounds delicious," Melburn interrupted, hopping off the bed. "Although a change of clothes would be appreciated."
Claire glanced at Doctor Fraiser. "Is it all right? We'd really like to get back out into the world."
The doctor sighed. "Yes, it's fine. Just don't overdo it on the processed foods; your systems aren't accustomed to them. Colonel," she said sharply, "have them back at a decent hour, all right?"
"Yes, ma'am," Jack said with a mock salute. As Janet walked to the wall phone, Jack sized up Melburn. "Come on, I think I've got some spare clothes that'll fit you."
"And you can wear some of mine," Sam told Claire. "They might be a little big..."
"I'll make do," Claire assured her.
Daniel hung slightly back as the group headed out the door. Sam and Claire paused when they realized he wasn't following. "Danny?" his mother asked.
"I'm coming," he assured them. "I'll meet you at the elevator." The women nodded, Sam shooting him a piercing look before leading Claire off.
Finally alone, Daniel leaned back against the bedside, removing his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose, eyes squeezed shut.
"Daniel?" Janet's voice broke his reverie. He looked up. "Everything all right?"
"Yeah," he said. "It's been a very...strange day."
"A bit much to take in at once, huh?" She smiled sympathetically. "Well, it's nothing compared to what they'll have to learn."
"No kidding," he agreed. "I don't even know where to start."
Janet paused and took a deep breath. "I can't pretend to know what you're going through. But my advice? Take this as an opportunity. Not many people get a second chance with their deceased parents." With a pat on the shoulder, she walked away.
Steak suddenly sounded really good.
*
Daniel met them, as promised, at the elevator, and he seemed to Sam to be in much better spirits. On the ride to the surface, both elder Jacksons stared at the decreasing number count. "Mountain in Colorado Springs," Daniel said. It took Sam a second to catch up with what Daniel had immediately picked up on - his parents' total ignorance about when and where they were. Which reminded her of something.
"How much have you been told about what it is we do here?"
"Very little," Claire answered. "We know that you travel to different planets through the Stargate."
"Armed and ready," Melburn added. "Beyond that, all we've heard is that it's a long story."
"Er, yeah, sorry about that," Daniel said. "There wasn't a good time to talk about it. And now that we're going out in public, we actually can't talk about it." Both his parents' eyebrows shot up. "Yeah, I know. I'll give you a quick summary in the car, we can flesh it out later."
The Colonel's truck was the only one of their vehicles large enough to hold the sixsome, and even then, Sam perched uncomfortably on the makeshift middle front seat between O'Neill and Teal'c. The Jacksons piled into the back, the elder two sparing only a brief look at the modern vehicles in the garage. Sam was curious as to how Daniel would pack almost a decade of history in the short drive into town.
"In 1928, a dig in Egypt uncovered what we now know as the Stargate beneath a coverstone inscribed with unknown pictographs. Early research into its function was abandoned after they mistakenly believed the first traveler had died, and the artifact was forgotten until about ten years ago, when the Air Force picked it up again. Through combined military and civilian efforts, its true function was eventually discovered, but it took another year before anyone on Earth realized how far the gate network extended."
Sam exchanged a glance with the teammates beside her, neither of whom failed to notice Daniel's gross omissions, principally related to his own role in those events. Sam couldn't imagine that his parents would miss the gaps, either. But that information would lead to very personal information, and that wasn't hers to reveal.
"That was when what we currently know as the Stargate Program initiated, and that was also when we realized that humans weren't the only ones out there," Daniel continued. "This is going to sound crazy, but Mom, you guessed right when you said the Egyptian gods were aliens."
"Come again?" Melburn said, mystified.
"Like I said," his son replied apologetically. "They're called the Goa'uld, and they're actually a parasitic race that takes human hosts, invading and controlling their bodies. They adopt the personae of various Earth deities and historical figures. And I can tell you without hesitation that they are the very embodiment of evil." He paused to let the information sink in. "Unfortunately, by sticking our noses out into the universe, we let them know of our existence and even became a threat to them, which is why a primary purpose of the program is to find or develop technologies to defend ourselves against them. But it's also about exploring so-called alien cultures, and in doing so, exploring our own history, which is where I come in."
Sam was itching to jump in, and she knew Daniel probably wanted to launch into his own description of all that they'd discovered. But both of them knew now was not the time, not while the Jacksons were still trying to understand that their life's work's foundations had been totally overthrown.
"The things you must have seen..." Melburn finally said.
"Yeah," Daniel replied.
"And the general public doesn't know about this?"
"Nope," O'Neill jumped in, having practiced uncharacteristic restraint in not speaking before. "And we'd like to keep it that way."
"Daniel?" Clare asked.
"I know, it's contrary to everything we do, but can you imagine the public's reaction to something of this magnitude? If they knew how big the threat really was..."
"So your job is classified," his father said.
"Yeah."
"Unpublished."
"Yeah."
The solemn silence that followed was almost comical.
"You must have a thousand questions," Sam said at last.
"Try a million," Claire said. "I don't even know where to begin."
"Begin with the cover story," Jack said as he pulled into the restaurant's parking lot.
"We're doing experiments in deep space radar telemetry," Sam told the Jacksons.
Melburn snorted. "That's the best they could come up with?"
Sam laughed as she hopped out of the car. "Funny, my dad said almost the same thing."
"So you can tell your families, then," Claire said.
"Not exactly," Sam replied. "Dad's got a rather special role in all this-"
"Which will have to be explained later," O'Neill said as they mounted the steps. "For now, steak." He paused at the door and turned around. "Daniel, no picking bar fights this time, all right? I just got us back in the owner's good graces."
Daniel's mother stared at her son, who rolled his eyes. "You'll have to get used to Jack's unique sense of humor."
"I tell no lies," the Colonel declared, holding the door open for the party.
"Just omit significant details."
"Hey, you're not exactly one to talk, mister `that's where I come in'."
"Jack."
"Daniel."
Sam shook her head and gave their number to the hostess. It was still early, so they were seated quickly - well away from the bar and pool table. Sam wondered if that was luck or if all employees were trained to recognize their faces.
Claire shook her head after their waitress left with their drink orders. "This all still feels so unreal," she remarked. "Even after the past year of our lives."
"It gets easier," O'Neill assured her.
"I hope so. Well, if we can't talk about that, I'd like to know more about my son's colleagues." Turning to Teal'c, she said, "I don't remember you having a rank. Are you another cultural expert, then?"
Daniel coughed mid-drink, spitting his mouthful of water over his plate. As his father thumped him on the back, his mother continued to watch the Jaffa, who raised an eyebrow. "My origins fall under the same classification of which we spoke before, Doctor Jackson," he said.
"Call me Claire," she said faintly, the implication sinking in. He inclined his fedora-topped head in acknowledgment.
Melburn, meanwhile, was staring at the television mounted high on the wall. "Amazing."
The Colonel followed his gaze. "Amazing is right. That should have been a foul. They don't make hockey referees like they used to."
Daniel leaned over to mock whisper to his father. "There's an entire channel devoted to history programs."
Melburn's head whipped around. "A history channel?" Sam stifled a snicker behind her menu, attracting Claire's attention.
"How about you, Major? What's your role in all this?"
"It's Sam, and I'm an astrophysicist."
"Brilliant astrophysicist," Daniel amended, causing her to blush in spite of herself.
"Military and science," Melburn noted. "Quite a load to take on." She shrugged.
"Jack," the Colonel jumped in before Claire could ask, "Colonel. I like fishing."
"And you've all been working together for the past - how many years?"
"Seven," said Teal'c, at the same time O'Neill said, "Eight," and Sam said, "Six."
"More or less," Daniel concluded, eagerly accepting his beer from the server. Apparently, he'd needed a little something extra after the shocks of the day. Sam couldn't blame him. They gave their orders and their menus to the waitress.
"I'm curious," Sam started, "you didn't ask what Daniel's field was. Did he tell you in the infirmary?"
Claire laughed. "Oh, we didn't need to ask."
"Daniel was always going into the family profession," Melburn said with pride.
"Well, except for three months when he was five," Claire remarked.
"Mo-om," Daniel groaned.
O'Neill grinned wickedly. "Oh? Do tell." Daniel mumbled something incoherent, but Sam was certain it wasn't very polite.
"Ah yes, the three months when Danny was determined to become a gypsy fortune teller."
This time, Sam couldn't hold back her laughter, and neither could her CO, who looked like the cat that ate the canary. And she'd never noticed how frightening a highly amused Teal'c could be. "I'm sorry, Daniel," she apologized, attempting to regain control. "It's just - the image-"
"Yeah. Thanks for sharing, Dad. Can we change the subject now?" His face was pink beneath the glare.
"Danny, I have thirty years of paternal humiliation to make up for. I'm afraid you'll just have to suffer, young man," Melburn lectured.
"Not that much younger than you," he muttered in reply.
"Nice to know some relationships are independent of age," the Colonel put in.
Fortunately for Daniel, the rest of the evening passed with minimal embarrassment. They managed to avoid classified subjects with oblique discussion of current events and less sensitive personal stories. The one dark moment came when Claire suddenly exclaimed, "I can't believe I haven't asked yet - how's my father?"
The chatter came to a screeching halt. Sam dropped her fork. Daniel was the only unaffected one - at least to the unknowing eye. But Sam saw the barricades go up in his eyes and the set of his jaw. "Classified," he said simply, spearing another morsel of food.
"Damn, Daniel," said Melburn, "is everything in your life classified?"
"Pretty much. Excuse me." Daniel pushed back from the table.
"Where you going?" O'Neill asked lightly.
"The restroom, Jack. I'll be right back."
Melburn watched his son's retreating back in concern. "Should I go after him?"
"Nah, give him space," said the Colonel. "Look, go easy on the guy, all right? He's been through a lot."
"What do you mean?" Claire asked in concern.
Sam leaned forward. "Daniel hasn't had the easiest time of things. He's been better recently, but I got to see firsthand the impact your deaths had on him. To have everything connected with that brought back to the surface..." She shook her head.
"We lost him, too."
"With all due respect, it's not the same when you're a kid, no matter how precocious." She sighed. "He just needs time. Seeing you alive again was one of his deepest desires."
"And we'll get you all the reading materials you want back on the base," O'Neill added.
When Daniel returned to the table, he had recovered, and they finished the meal pleasantly. Contrary to his earlier statement, O'Neill paid and dropped all of them off back at the mountain.
"Come on, my car's this way," Daniel started.
"Don't be silly, Danny, we couldn't impose," said his mother.
"Impose? No, you're my parents, it's fine, it's not imposing."
"Some other time, Daniel," Melburn replied. "Your General Hammond informed us they'd be providing us with a VIP suite for as long as we need."
"You're sure?" Daniel frowned.
"We'll be fine. You go home and get some rest, and we'll see you in the morning," Claire assured him.
Daniel sighed. "All right. I'll take you down there and get you settled." His parents renewed their protests, and Sam was almost worried she'd actually get to see what Daniel arguing with himself looked like when Teal'c broke in.
"I will escort your parents to their rooms, Daniel Jackson."
The archaeologist grumbled, but acquiesced. "You're absolutely sure this is what you want?" he asked a final time.
"Yes, Daniel. Good night." Claire hugged her son, as did Melburn, and Teal'c led them off. Daniel was still, staring into space.
Sam had backed off a bit during their farewells, but she hesitated before going to her car. "Earth to Daniel." He jumped slightly. "Whoa, there. You going to be all right?"
He gave a half-smile. "Yeah, don't worry about me. Good night, Sam."
"Night."
They separated to their respective cars. Sam wasn't ready to drop her Daniel-watch just yet, but she had a feeling he was telling the truth. Tomorrow, they'd begin the task of figuring out just how two ordinary archaeologists had traveled thirty years and uncountable light years - without any physical means of doing so.
*
The combined forces of SG-1, General Hammond, Doctor Fraiser, and the elder Jacksons met in the briefing room at eight the next morning. Daniel, after a mostly sleepless night, had met his parents at their room when he arrived on base and taken them to the commissary for breakfast. They both looked uncomfortable in their Air Force fatigues, but much better for a night's sleep in a real bed. Hammond nodded at Daniel. "Doctor Jackson, please begin."
Daniel rose, lowering the projector screen and dimming the lights slightly. In the time he hadn't spent sleeping, he'd managed to throw together what was sure to be the most surreal presentation he'd ever given. "In mid-1974, my parents and I were at the New York Museum of Art, setting up an exhibition of their finds in Luxor, Egypt." He showed shots of the completed exhibition, taken, of course, after the accident. "They were lowering the coverstone into place, when the chain snapped and-" he paused, swallowing, commanding himself to maintain control, "and, uh, they were crushed." He kept his eyes on the screen as he showed shots of the coroner's reports, not wanting to see his parents' eyes as he talked about their "deaths". "We buried their bodies just outside the city, I went into foster care, and that was that, or so I thought."
Hammond turned to his father. "Doctor Melburn Jackson, would you like to continue?"
"Certainly. It was exactly as Daniel said, up to the chain snapping. I grabbed Claire, and I saw the stone falling, but it never hit. When I opened my eyes, we were lying in that valley."
"Opened your eyes?" asked Fraiser. "You were unconscious?"
"I don't think so," said Claire. "I wasn't groggy or anything. It felt like I'd only closed them for a moment."
"That doesn't necessarily indicate continuity of time," Hammond pointed out. "We've had a number of strange experiences with time travel here, and most of the time, people don't even notice."
Sam shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. If they traveled in time, their bodies wouldn't have been left to bury. Daniel, you're absolutely sure-"
"Positive," he said from across the table. No one had paid attention to the eight year old in shock as they dug through the ancient rubble.
Sam gave a small shudder, then resumed. "Even if there was something going on, they can't have been in two places at once."
"Technically, they weren't, right?" Jack put in. "They ended up on that planet only a year ago."
"Their bodies show no physical evidence of the accident," said Janet. "Everything matches. I can't explain it, sir."
The General looked exasperated. "Does anyone have any theories at all?" He was answered with silence.
"Sir," Sam finally spoke up, "I think we should check out the coverstone."
"Why's that?"
"They've been enlightening in the past," Daniel added wryly.
"It's the only thing I can think of that would have been a mechanism, without a gate," she said, a wary glance thrown at Jack's incredulous look.
"A rock?"
"Colonel, I know it sounds farfetched, but that's all we've got to go on."
"Maybe there's some writing on it that they didn't know to look for at the time," Daniel added his support, giving his parents an apologetic smile.
"Where is the coverstone now?" Hammond asked. Everyone looked at Daniel.
"It should be in the museum's storage facility. The exhibit only stayed up for five years, but I never heard of it being moved or sold." He didn't miss his father's humph of indignation.
The General nodded. "Have it sent here for analysis. In the meantime, I suggest you get the Jacksons caught up on what it is we do here. I've authorized them for full security clearance. Dismissed." He pushed a stack of files over to Daniel as they all rose.
Daniel turned to his parents. "Let's go to my office; you can read over this stuff there, and I can call the museum."
Three hours later, his parents had nearly finished going through the pile of reports and summaries, with more than a few stops to question Daniel about some mission or other. Daniel was ostensibly working on a translation for another SG team, but he found himself spending more time watching the couple in front of him than working. If you ignored the concrete walls and the computer terminal in the background, he could have been back in 1974, his parents reviewing a paper for journal submission, patiently answering their son's eager questions. This time, though, it was the other way around.
Once they'd gotten through the general history of the program, they started in on mission summaries. Almost immediately, they ran into an issue to which Daniel had become so accustomed that it no longer fazed him.
"You died?!" Claire nearly shrieked.
"Oh! Yeah, um, a number of times, actually," he replied. "Which one's that?"
She checked the folder and said faintly, "Abydos."
The first one. "Ah. Right. Yeah, don't worry, Ra's sarcophagus took care of that one." Oh, how he wished he'd been videotaping this moment for posterity, or at least to show Jack, Sam, and Teal'c later. "Seriously, I'm fine. Although I should probably warn you that you'll see several more such incidences as you go through the reports." He was enjoying their expressions far too much, although he was starting to be concerned about their eyes drying out.
Melburn recovered first, blinking behind the borrowed glasses and shaking his head. "Danny...could that be what happened to us? Could we have died and then been...resurrected...by one of these sarcophagi?"
Daniel shook his head. "Doubt it. For one, you know when you've been in one of those things. And then there's the fact that you don't remember being - er -"
"Hit, right," said his father.
Daniel sighed. "Yeah. Of course, so much about this makes no sense, so we'll keep it on the table." He looked at Claire, who was still staring at him. "Mom? You okay?"
"No." She held up a hand when he got up. "No, stay. I think I need to read the rest of this first."
He nodded warily, exchanging a glance with his father, and sat down again. That had been the most emotional outburst from them, though it certainly hadn't ended the discussion (Nicholas Ballard's role - or non-role - in Daniel's life was one memorable conversation). He knew the reports they were reading were more like the highlights given to new officials who needed more than a cursory overview of the program, but they left out a lot of details.
All three Jacksons were absorbed in their reading when a knock on the doorframe made them jump. "Sorry to disturb you. I just wanted to see if you were up for lunch?" said Sam.
*
The sight of the entire Jackson family gathered in Daniel's office, surrounded by books and artifacts, hunched over with heads buried in their reading, made Sam want to laugh and cry at the same time. She could've watched them for hours, but her stomach growled, reminding her why she'd come.
The way they jumped simultaneously at her knock on the doorframe dashed all thoughts of tears. "Sorry to disturb you," she apologized. "I just wanted to see if you were up for lunch?"
Daniel glanced at the clock. "Wow, I had no idea what time it was. Yeah, we could use a break," he said, confirmed by his parents' nods. Sam led the way.
In the commissary, Daniel's parents peppered her with questions about the reports they'd been reading, particularly her experience as Jolinar's temporary host. It was like fielding questions from two eager, intellectually excited Daniels at once, and twice as hard to keep up. She could barely get a bite of her sandwich in between answers. Across the table, Daniel was smirking. No wonder; he'd probably been playing this game all morning. She gave him a withering look, but his amusement only increased.
Well, two could play at that game.
"So Claire," she started immediately after rounding off a question, leaving no time for another, "tell me about Daniel as a kid. You must have loads of great stories." She flashed an innocent grin in his direction, certain that he would catch the evil smile lurking beneath it.
Daniel, however, remained cool as he dipped his French fry in ketchup. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Oh? Why not?"
"I have your father's gate address and I'm not afraid to use it." He popped the fry in his mouth and chewed, smug smile growing.
The not so little brat had a point.
Claire, however, just laughed and patted her son's arm. "Oh, Danny, don't be like that. Sam, I have plenty of stories, which I would be happy to share sometime when he's not around."
"Remind me never to leave the two of you alone," he grumbled in reply.
"Oh! That reminds me," Sam said, "I'd be happy to take the two of you clothes shopping after work. The coverstone will get here this afternoon, but the initial tests I need to do can run on their own overnight."
"That'd be great," Claire said, replying for her husband as well. "I think General Hammond mentioned something about the government setting us up with an account. That is - if Danny will let us out of his sight?" she teased.
"I'll drive," he said pointedly.
"What, no hot date to go to?" Melburn joined in.
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Definitely not."
Claire looked as though a light bulb had gone on in her head. "Oh, that's true, isn't it? I'm supposed to be nagging you about getting married and settling down at this point, aren't I?" His lack of response didn't faze her. "Come on, Danny, catch us up. Who's the woman in your life and where can I find her?"
Daniel abruptly got up from the table. "I'm going back to work. See you later, Sam." He deposited his tray on the cart by the door and was gone before anyone could say anything.
This time, Melburn didn't ask. "I'll talk to him." He squeezed his wife's hand and followed his son out the door.
Claire was left, confused and looking to Sam for answers. "What did I say?"
Sam did not want to be having this conversation, but it looked as if she had no choice. "Claire...how much did Daniel tell you about his personal involvement in the program?"
"I know that he deciphered the Stargate in the first place, and he's in charge of the cultural studies department. And of course, all the times he died or was out of phase or presumed insane..."
Sam licked her lips. "Did he say anything about...Sha're?"
Claire paused, racking her brain. "Can you write that out for me?" Sam did so, on a paper napkin. "Oh, yes, the reports mentioned her, I think. She was a host to that Goa'uld queen, right? What does she have to do with my Danny?"
Dammit. The vagueness of official summaries was both a blessing and a curse. Sam was angrier at Daniel for not explaining this rather important detail earlier, but she couldn't avoid it now. "Claire, Sha're was Daniel's wife. He met her on the first trip to Abydos, and she was why he stayed. When we came back a year later, she was taken by Apophis to be the host for his queen, Amonet. Daniel joined SG-1 to look for her...she died four years ago."
God, it sounded so simple, condensed like that.
Claire gazed off towards the door. "And after that..."
"After that, he wasn't the same. We didn't notice, it was so gradual, but he withdrew from us, from his work." She sighed. "Daniel is...one of the things we all love about him is his depth of feeling. It keeps us human, you know? Unfortunately, it also means he tends to get hurt the worst by things like this." Sam shook her head. "He's been better since his descension - you know about that, right?" Claire nodded. "I think coming to terms with his life and seeing it anew helped him get over her once and for all. He'll always love her, but saying her name in front of him doesn't cause him to throw up barricades anymore." Or not usually, she added to herself.
Her companion was silent for a moment. Sam couldn't imagine what she was going through right now. To miss thirty years of your child's life...of your life...
When she spoke, Sam was startled. "Your Doctor Fraiser explained to me all the different types of birth control women have these days - oh, the seventies were hardly the Dark Ages, but the accuracy now is amazing. We didn't have that on the planet."
Oh god. Sam wanted to be anywhere but here. Fortunately, there was no one seated nearby, and Claire was speaking softly.
"We were very careful. We knew we couldn't in good conscience bring a child into the world when we barely knew the world, ourselves. And we missed our baby boy. But after a year there, we had settled in, had everything we needed - well, you saw - and we'd just decided to start our family again. Actually, we had been thinking of it before the accident. We thought we'd get the exhibit set up and then stay in the States for more than six months at a time, give Daniel a normal childhood, maybe a little brother or sister. We weren't as young as we had been, but we were healthy."
Sam didn't know what to say, but the other woman wasn't finished.
"And then Jonas Quinn came through the Stargate, telling us that we hadn't lost our son after all. Just the majority of his life. And then...there he was." She closed her eyes, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose in a gesture familiar to Sam, who moved to the other side of the table and put her arm around Claire's shoulders.
"I don't know how to be a mother to a thirty-eight year old, Sam. I don't know how to reconcile the little boy of my memory with the man nearly my age but vastly older in experience."
Sam was still at a loss, but she had to try. "Claire, I don't know you very well, but I do know Daniel. He's a great advocate of talking things out, as long as he's not the one to do the talking. Don't let him - don't let him shut down, push you away. We made that mistake and almost lost him for good."
And as soon as she had the chance, Sam promised herself, she would make sure Daniel wouldn't even try.
*
Daniel fled the mess as fast as he could without attracting undue attention, although most of the base would probably just assume he was focused on an archaeological puzzle, anyway.
It was too much. Emotional overload. His dead parents, resurrected and right before him, chatting with his friends and teasing him about his relationships, or lack thereof. In the realm of weird things that had happened to him since joining the Stargate program, this had to take the cake.
He'd barely sat down again at his desk and gazed uncomprehendingly at the textbook before him when he sensed rather than saw someone enter the room. He had a good idea of who it was, confirmed when his father sat down across from him. He didn't look up.
It was clear that stubbornness was an inherited trait from the anticipatory silence stretching between them. Daniel, though, had a book to focus on, while Melburn just had the top of his son's head. He finally broke. "What was that about, Danny?"
"Daniel, Dad. No one calls me Danny anymore, except Jack when he wants to be annoying."
"Fine, Daniel. You want to explain why you were rude to your mother and me?"
"Oh, please. I'm not eight years old, the parenting act doesn't work anymore."
"The last time I saw you, you were eight years old! Daniel, I don't know what else to do. I don't know you anymore."
Daniel finally raised his head, closing his eyes to compose himself. "You have no idea, do you?" His father waited. "You can't possibly imagine what I went through when I lost the two of you. It was the end of my world. You had each other, but I was completely alone."
"And that's why you betrayed everything I taught you? You blamed us for not being there?"
His eyes snapped open. "What?"
"Jumping in bed with the military. Never thought a son of mine would do that."
"Oh, for crying out - Dad, you know what we do here. The Air Force is the only reason this program exists. If I want to be a part of the most amazing archaeological find of the millennium, I have to play by their rules. Most of the time," he added.
"I saw the gun you carried. I saw the ease with which you passed it off while we were being examined."
"You had a gun on digs, too."
"For defense. And I never needed it. I'm assuming you're quite familiar with firing them?" Daniel nodded. "At people." He nodded again, and his father's eyes creased with pain. "Then you're not the boy I knew anymore."
"God, Dad, listen to yourself. Of course I'm not, because a lot happens in three decades. I didn't go skipping merrily off to the Pentagon after getting my degree, they came after me. My career was a mess, reputation ruined, no family to speak of...I went with them because I had no other choice but starvation, and I stayed because I would've been crazy not to."
"I can't accept that, Daniel. Yesterday, I heard you describe the Goa'uld as pure evil. I can't understand what could have changed you so much that you could believe something like that." They were both standing now, and if not exactly yelling, anyone in the corridor could have made out "forceful voices."
"They took my wife, Dad. They took Sha're, and they made her one of them. And now she's dead." Melburn froze, speechless, but Daniel didn't give him time to recover. "So if you can look past your petty grudge for just a minute and understand even a modicum of what my life has been, then maybe you'll realize that I have damn good reasons for everything I've done, and no regrets."
For the second time that day, Daniel stormed out of a room.
"Daniel!" his father called after him.
He paused at the door. "I'll be fine. Just - I just need to take a walk. I'll be back in an hour."
Without looking behind him, he headed down the corridor, with no direction in mind but away. Unfortunately, his momentum was interrupted when he had to stop short to avoid colliding with one Jack O'Neill.
"Whoa, there, tiger! Where's the invasion?"
"Not in the mood, Jack." But Daniel's attempt to walk around him was blocked with an arm to the wall.
"Jack."
"Daniel."
"Let me through."
"I'm thinking...no." Daniel sighed. Jack eyed him carefully. "Let's take a walk."
"That's what I was trying to do," Daniel muttered, but followed Jack to the elevator anyway.
"So," Jack said casually once they reached the surface. "How's Mom and Dad?"
"Fine," Daniel said, matching his tone.
Jack gave him a sidelong look.
Daniel sighed again. "Jack, what do you want me to say? Life's great, I have my family back, it's all I've ever wanted, this fixes everything?"
"That'd be nice," Jack said. "But I'm not expecting it."
They'd walked to the escape hatch above the stairwell. Reasonably certain that there'd be no use for it in the next fifteen minutes, they sat down on the raised concrete.
"How are they taking the whole..." Jack waved his hand vaguely.
"What? The aliens, the dying, the hallucinations, the body-switching, the fighting, space ships, the glowing, the time travel, the military," he rattled off.
"Yes. That," Jack replied.
"Oh, about as well as can be expected," Daniel said. "Shock. Denial. Anger. Confusion. Historical lag."
"Ah."
Daniel said nothing.
"And...how are you taking the whole..."
"Resurrection thing?" He sighed. "Not as well as I thought I was," he admitted.
Jack waited. Daniel could almost see him counting the seconds.
"I think I'm making up for all the parental angst I missed out on," he added.
"Ouch."
"Yeah." Another pause. "They just don't understand that I'm not the kid they knew thirty years ago."
"One year ago."
"No...whatever their experience was, thirty years have passed," Daniel corrected him.
"But to them, it's one, and that's what's important," Jack insisted. He turned to Daniel, looking unusually serious. "I'm going to speak now as a parent. Not your parent, but someone who knows what it's like to lose a child."
Daniel shook his head, staring at the ground. "It's not the same thing. They didn't just lose me, they lost their whole world."
"Daniel, when you lose a child, you are losing your whole world." The sincerity in Jack's voice brought Daniel's head up. Their eyes met unguarded for a moment, then both men returned their gazes to the ground.
A few minutes passed; Daniel leaned back on his hands. "My father and I got into an argument."
"What about?" Jack was back to normal now, no sign of his ever having bared his soul now visible, which was really better all around.
"My job, of all things." He chuckled.
Jack looked incredulous. "How could he possibly be disappointed in your zillion degrees?"
"It's not the profession, it's the employer." He looked at Jack knowingly.
The Colonel shifted uncomfortably. "Why?" he said, aware that he wouldn't like the answer.
"Did I ever tell you my grandfather was a Marine?" Daniel asked.
"Nick?"
"The other one."
"No, this you failed to mention."
"Well, he was. Colonel Robert Jackson. Died in combat before I was born, but he and Dad never got along because Robert could never accept Dad's archaeology as a valid interest and profession. He all but disowned him when my parents got married. In addition to being a pacifist, excepting situations that required self-defense, Dad has a long-standing grudge against any and all military, and he was sure to make it known as far back as I can remember. So the fact that I'm now on Air Force payroll..."
"Doesn't sit too well with him, does it?" Jack finished.
"No."
"And what did you say to that?"
"Oh, I gave him the reasons for it. Or I think I did, anyway. There was a lot tied up in that, ah, discussion."
"Discussion?"
"Animated discussion."
Jack hesitated before continuing. "You know I hate having to ask this, but should I be concerned?" He placed special emphasis on the last word.
Daniel laughed. "That he'll run off and tell all the media? No, he's not like that. I think he'll understand if he thinks about it. I just needed to get away from them for a while." He glanced at Jack. "Thanks, by the way."
"No sweat." They rose and began walking back to the main entrance. "Hey, why don't you come over tonight? Hockey and beer."
"Thanks, but I can't. Sam's taking my parents shopping, and I'm the chauffeur." He glared at Jack as his friend bent double with laughter. "Gee, Jack, that's so helpful."
"Sorry," Jack said, not looking sorry in the least as he regained himself. "Carter leading a team of archaeologists from the seventies through the mall. That'd be a sight to see."
"You're welcome to come along," Daniel offered with a smirk.
Jack blanched. "No, no, think I'll pass. Hockey, you see." They rode the elevator back down into the mountain, Jack exiting a few levels above Daniel's office. "You kids have fun tonight," he said with a smirk as he walked away.
As the doors slid closed, Daniel could only mutter, "Yeah, sure, you betcha," but with a small smile.
*
As interested as she was in preparing a lab for the coverstone's imminent arrival, Sam's mind was one level away. Upon escorting Claire back to Daniel's office, they'd found only Melburn, slumped on a stool, elbows propped on the table before him, hands running over his bent head. The two of them had raced over, but it soon became apparent that Melburn's distress wasn't physical. The name Sha're came out then, and Sam quickly excused herself to let Claire explain, giving them her phone extension just in case.
That was an hour ago, and having neither heard from them, nor been able to find Daniel for a firm lecture, she'd retreated to her work. It would take some time for the stone to be packed and transported properly on both ends, which gave her the opportunity to design the perfect setting for it.
They'd decided to use a special containment lab. Sam didn't anticipate any hazardous effects, but there were so many unknowns in this mystery that she wasn't taking chances. She was outfitting the place with both advanced scanners and conventional desk and shelves so that both Daniel and she would be able to work there. With any luck, their combined efforts and brainpower would solve the puzzle.
Sergeant Siler arrived then with a cartload of equipment, and she put aside her thoughts of the current Jackson family drama in order to set things up. When next she looked at her watch, it was four o'clock and the wall phone was ringing. "Carter," she answered.
"The delivery's arrived, ma'am," said the unknown voice on the other end. "They're taking it down the freight elevator now."
"Thanks," she said. "Notify Doctor Jackson, too, please."
"Yes, ma'am."
As she finished clearing away the remaining clutter, the familiar sound of boots running on concrete alerted her to Daniel's arrival, barely breathing any harder than usual as he dashed into the room. His face fell slightly when he looked around. Claire and Melburn weren't far behind, panting harder than their son.
"We beat it here," Daniel told them with a raise of his eyebrows.
"Good thing we ran all the way, then," remarked Melburn, leaning on the wall.
Daniel just smiled, which Sam took to mean they'd made up, in whatever way they needed to for now. She had no chance to ask, because the squeaking wheels in the hallway announced Siler's return. He wheeled the elevated dolly into the room, setting the brakes in the center of the room. At Sam's direction, and amid Daniel's frequent cautions and corrections, he and his team went to work removing the crate and packing material. Claire and Melburn stood silently at the side of the room, he with one arm around her and the other holding her hand.
Finally, they were down to one last layer of packing. Sam lifted the corner carefully and let it fall to the side, revealing the long-awaited coverstone...in all its inconspicuous, sand-colored glory.
Well, she hadn't been expecting a Rosetta stone, after all.
The gasp behind her drew her whirling around. "Daniel!" she cried, simultaneously with his parents.
Sam rushed to her teammate, who looked as if he'd been struck with a sudden migraine headache. Shoulders raised, head bent, he felt for the wall's support with eyes squeezed shut. Then, just as quickly as the moment had come, he straightened and regained himself.
"Daniel?" she asked, an arm on his bicep.
"Sorry," he said, shaking his head as if to clear it. "I don't know what came over me." He eyed the stone sidelong. "I saw..."
"Saw?" she prompted.
He shook his head again, this time in reassurance. "Not like that. More like dj vu, or something. Which makes sense, considering."
"Maybe you should have Janet check it out, just in case."
"Sam, I'm fine. I'll be fine."
Claire stepped forward. "I think the infirmary sounds like an excellent idea."
"Mom, I swear, I'm fine." Daniel sighed in exasperation. "I should be here for this."
"No buts, mister," Claire continued. "It's not going anywhere."
Daniel looked to Sam for help, but she ignored the pleading eyes. "She's right, Daniel. Look, I won't do anything major, just get the deep scans started. You can't do anything while I'm running those, anyway."
With his mother still glaring at him, Daniel seemed to know he was beaten. "Fine," he said. "But call me if anything-"
"I will," she promised, and Daniel finally allowed Claire to lead him out of the room. Sam turned back to the stone, eager to begin uncovering its secrets, when the sound of pounding boots rang out again. She whirled around, prepared to give Daniel a piece of her mind, but instead of two archaeologists skidding into the room, it was Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c.
The Colonel took one look at her expression. "What'd we miss?"
*
"This is stupid."
"Are you always this difficult a patient?" Claire asked, exasperated.
"When he wants to be," commented Janet as she jotted down numbers from a display.
"Just like his father."
Daniel rolled his eyes, swinging his legs where they dangled over the side of the infirmary bed. His mother stood just out of kicking range, arms folded across her body. "I had a headache, it went away, end of story. I need to go back to work."
Janet sighed. "Daniel, I will say this once more, and that's final. You of all people should know that we can't take seemingly innocuous symptoms lightly here. Now, you've had a traumatic couple of days-"
"-so've everyone else-"
"-and we don't know what we're dealing with here. So no, I don't apologize for doing the full work-up on you..."
He raised his eyebrows at her.
She sighed. "Despite the fact that everything checks out normally."
"Great!" Daniel hopped off the bed and grabbed his jacket. A noise at the entrance turned his head; Sam entered the infirmary, frowning, with his father and Jack trailing behind her. "You didn't start without me?" he asked.
"What? Oh, no," Sam said, shaking her head, "only what I said I'd do. Are you okay?"
"Like I told you before, I'm perfectly fine," he answered, shrugging on the jacket.
"Good," she said, smiling nervously. "Are we...still on for tonight?"
Daniel ignored Jack's amusement; the colonel knew perfectly well what Sam meant. He glanced quickly between his parents. "If you two still want to..."
Claire nodded, and Melburn said, "Yes, that'd be much appreciated."
Sam relaxed visibly, though he could still detect tension in her smile. "How about we go now? The scans'll take a while, and there's nothing we can do in the meantime." Everyone agreed, and she turned to Jack, who was lurking to the side, fiddling with the defibrillator. "Sir? You coming?"
Startled, he dropped the paddle and scrambled to catch it as it swung on its cord. "What? No, thanks, I have, ah, very important colonel...things." He finally hooked the paddle back in place and straightened up.
"Come on," said Daniel, leading the group out.
"Ah!" said Doctor Fraiser. "Claire, Sam - you keep an eye on him and tell me of any other incidents immediately."
Daniel and his father groaned simultaneously; Sam and Claire nodded. "Sure thing, Janet," said the astrophysicist.
As they filed out of the room, Daniel heard Janet's voice say, "As for you, Colonel, what did I say about touching sensitive equipment?" and Jack's respond, "Aw, Doc, you ruin all my fun."
Although Daniel felt Jack's idea of fun generally left something to be desired, he couldn't help but wonder whether his evening would be any better, as he escorted his parents and Sam to his Jeep. Sam directed him to her chosen shopping mall from the backseat, and she and Claire spent the drive composing a list of what they needed to get. As they pulled into the parking lot, he exchanged a long-suffering glance with his father, who merely shrugged and rolled his eyes.
Three hours and several failed attempts by Claire to get Daniel to try things on later, the four of them sank into chairs at the food court, groaning at the uncomfortable plastic but grateful to get off their feet. They were surrounded by shopping bags of all shapes and sizes. Daniel couldn't remember half of what was in them; he wasn't paying attention to his parents' choices so much as their bewilderment when it came to modern styles (not to mention prices). For two people so accustomed to living and working in different cultures, they'd sure been astonished when Daniel told them that yes, that was how low most teenaged boys wore their jeans today, and no, the stud on that girl's eyebrow was not medical.
I guess it's different when it's your own culture that seems foreign, he thought. In the end, Sam had helped them choose generic items with, as she termed it, "retro flair." Daniel was just thankful she hadn't tried to recreate SG-1's own brush with styles from the past.
Of course, clothes weren't the only marvels they encountered. The first time Daniel and Sam realized his parents weren't following them was after they'd just passed the T-Mobile stand. They'd doubled back to find the two archaeologists listening in stunned fascination to a salesman's phone pitch. The poor guy looked thrilled to have such a rapt audience, though he must have been amazed at their ignorance. Later, Daniel and Sam had been on the verge of calling Teal'c to help them drag Claire and Melburn out of the Apple store, after making the mistake of letting them play with an iBook. It took Sam's promise to get them a computer in their room on the base and a brief, discreet explanation of the Internet to get them out of there.
They decided on stir-fry as the safest option for their ravenous stomachs. Friday evening at Colorado Springs's largest mall wasn't the easiest time for short lines and low stress, but Daniel figured they might as well get used to modern American culture and consumerism sooner rather than later.
Not two minutes into their meal, Sam started and pulled buzzing evidence of that modern culture from her pocket. "Excuse me, I need to take this," she said after looking at the phone's screen, sliding out of her chair and walking to the rail overlooking the floor below.
Claire watched her go, then looked back at her son. "Sam's quite the young woman," she commented.
Daniel smiled. "Yeah, we're lucky to have her around. She's probably smarter than the rest of the SGC combined."
"Maybe the two of you - together - are," Claire remarked. Melburn snorted but looked at his son expectantly.
Daniel paused, soda straw his mouth. "What?"
"Is there something you'd like to tell us about your and Sam's relationship?" Claire asked, questioning look mirrored by her husband.
Daniel choked on his drink for the second time since his parents had reappeared in his life. "Wh-wh-what?" he finally managed between coughs. "No! No, we're just friends, I swear. She's actually seeing someone - judging by the look on her face, she's talking to him right now," he commented, hoping to direct their attention away so he could regain his dignity. Sam noticed all of them turning to face her and waved, goofy smile never faltering.
"Pity," his father muttered as they turned back around, earning a glare but ending the conversation.
Sam returned to them a few minutes later. "How's Pete?" Daniel asked pointedly, and was rewarded by her blush.
"Great," she answered, "although he's disappointed that I won't be coming to Denver this weekend. Oh, I also called the base, they'll have a computer set up and waiting for you when you get back." Melburn and Claire both perked up at this news.
Before too much longer, Daniel was dropping them back off at the SGC, commandeering an airman to help his parents carry their bags back to their suite. They again refused his offers of hospitality and help, his mother admonishing him to go home and get some rest.
Sam, riding shotgun, hadn't moved from her seat when Daniel climbed back in. "Want a ride to your car?" he asked.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you." Her earlier grin had faded, replaced by a line between her eyebrows.
"Oookay..." he answered. "Sounds like I'll want to park for this one." He pulled into an empty slot, shut off the engine, and looked at her expectantly. "So?"
"What happened earlier, Daniel?"
"What? The headache? It was just a headache, I get them all the time, you know that."
She shook her head. "No, I mean before that. The mess hall."
"Oh."
"When I brought Claire back to your office, Melburn told us you'd had a fight. He was...well, shell-shocked."
Daniel grimaced. "Yeah, I guess he would be."
"So?" she insisted. "What happened?"
He shrugged. "Like he said, we argued, so I went for a walk. When I came back, they were both there, and we apologized and went back to work."
She waited a moment until it was clear he wasn't going to say more. "That's it?"
"Sam, you don't understand."
She fixed him with a hard look. "Daniel. When my brother calls and asks how Dad is, I have to lie to him because it would take too long to open a wormhole to the Tok'ra base."
"You're right. I'm sorry." He sighed, burying his face in his palms. "When did our lives get so screwed up?"
She smiled. "The day someone realized that symbols represented constellations."
"Oh, sure, blame me," he said wryly.
"Look, Daniel," she continued after a moment, "I know it must be weird to suddenly have parents the same age as you..."
"Actually, I think they're more disturbed by that than I am," he remarked. "They look just like they did when I lost them, whereas I suddenly look thirty years older."
"I didn't think of that," she admitted. "But that's not the point. Just because appearances aren't what they should be, doesn't mean you can shut them out of your personal life." She paused. "Daniel, I should not have been the one to tell your mother about Sha're."
He closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat. She was right, of course - they both knew it. "I'm sorry you had to do that."
"It's all right. Just promise me you'll talk to them, okay? Don't put me or anyone else in that position again."
"I promise."
She opened the door. "I'll see you in the morning, all right?"
"G'night," he replied as she hopped out.
When Daniel arrived back home, he found one message on the answering machine, which consisted of Jack and Teal'c informing him about a sale at Sears. "Twenty percent off all Levi's jeans, Daniel!" Jack exclaimed, echoed by the muffled television. "Better hop on over, they're going fast!" The Jaffa's odd, booming laughter carried through the background noise.
Shaking his head, he booted up his PC to do a quick e-mail check before bed. Amidst the spam and section reports, there was a new message from an unfamiliar hotmail address:
Hello, Danny! It's Mom and Dad! (Your mother insisted on Danny, sorry.) The people here had the computer all ready for us when we got to our room. It's not like the ones at the store, though - it has a name! Dell, it says on the top. How interesting! Is it Swedish? Well, they helped us get this email address and told us what yours was, but they left before we could ask about Sam's. Could you please let her know that we appreciate her help today very much? Thanks - and we love you!!!
The text was an array of colors; he could only imagine their wonder at the different options and was briefly thankful they hadn't experimented with fonts. He forwarded the note to Sam, with the added message: Look what you've started. He then replied to the original, letting them know he'd passed it on and welcoming them to the twenty-first century.
He collapsed into bed that night, exhausted from a busy and emotional day, expecting to sleep like the dead.
*
Eight year old Daniel Jackson hurried through the museum as fast as he could without incurring the docents' reproaches.
"Jake, it's swinging a bit."
"It's okay, it's fine, we'll be fine, careful."
Around the corner, he could see the sandy monoliths and the work crew carefully lowering the crown jewel of the find into place.
"A little more level, bring it down."
"More level."
He watched the gently swaying coverstone, his eyes following the chain in interest to see how it was held up. The unit swayed slightly - shifted a notch - and suddenly, with a horrible cracking noise, the chain snapped.
And Daniel's world came crashing down like the stone with a scream and a crash and a flash of light-
*
Sam and Teal'c were working their way through their pancakes the next morning when Daniel stumbled, bleary-eyed, into the commissary. Sam waved him over, and after a brief detour for coffee, he fell into the seat across from her, took a sip, and let his head drop onto the table. She grabbed her own mug before it could tip over. She was accustomed to Daniel's daily caffeine-induced morph from incoherency to eloquence, but this was taking things to an extreme.
"Daniel? What's wrong? Are you okay?" This was all too reminiscent of his mess hall napping just a few weeks earlier.
"Nightmares," he mumbled.
"I'll call Janet."
"No!" His head shot up, and he winced. "No, not like...that. These are real ones, everything's accurate."
"Plural?"
"Yeah." He rubbed his face and took a sip of coffee. "No."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Indeed."
"It's the same dream, just...over and over."
"For how long?" Sam pressed.
"Ah, three nights ago. Only happened once then. And the second night, I barely slept enough to dream at all, but when I did, it happened again. And last night..." He shook his head gingerly.
"Three nights ago - that's the night before we found your parents," Sam realized, exchanging a look with Teal'c.
The coffee seemed to be kicking in now, and Daniel was gradually sitting up straighter and looking more alert. "Eh, it makes sense, actually. The dream's about the day they died, or rather, didn't die. The day we found them was the anniversary of the non-deaths." Ouch. She hadn't known that. He smiled slightly at her expression. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a stress reaction. I'll be fine."
"How are your parents this morning, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
"Hm? Oh, they're fine. I dropped by before coming here."
"Why did they not join you for breakfast?"
At that, Daniel smirked. "They're surfing the web."
Teal'c angled his head, and Sam's eyes widened. "That'll - er - catch them up quickly."
"Brings a whole new meaning to `parental controls'," Daniel added. "What'd you find out about the stone?" Yep, he was waking up now.
"Not much," she said. "The scans revealed a perfectly ordinary natural composition. No lurking naquadah core, no hidden chambers, nothing."
"Damn."
"I'm sorry."
"Not your fault." The coffee had worked its magic; Daniel had now evolved into full alertness and was glancing around the room. "Seen Jack yet?"
Sam shook her head, but Teal'c answered, "I passed by O'Neill's office on my way to breakfast. I wished to invite him to join me, but he was engaged in a phone call."
"Wow. Actually using his office. I'm impressed," Daniel commented, looking to Sam for a reaction, but she was barely focusing on his words.
"Daniel..." she started. "These dreams - are you reliving the event, exactly how it happened?"
"Yes..." He eyed her suspiciously.
"What we saw on the Gamekeeper's planet, right?"
"Yes..."
"Watching the same event over and over with no power to ultimately control it."
"Ye- well, I guess it's not exactly like that," he amended. "I'm definitely a kid in them, and I'm not just watching, I'm doing what I actually did that day. I'm not able to change my actions during it, and it always ends with the stone falling."
"Maybe we can do that, too."
"Explain, Major Carter."
"Part of the reason we're having such a hard time figuring this thing out is that we're studying a specific event in the past with only Daniel's memory and a few photographs taken after the fact to go on."
Realization began to dawn on Daniel's face. "So if we could replay it over and over and look at it from an objective point of view..."
Sam nodded. "Exactly."
Teal'c frowned. "Are you suggesting we attempt to travel in time again?"
"We don't need to, Teal'c. We can visit the past without leaving the present."
"The Gamekeeper," Daniel concluded.
"The Gamekeeper."
*
Daniel ran his fingers gently along the coverstone's surface. The lab was quiet; the humming of sensors and monitors blended into the usual base white noise, and he was alone. As he'd gone to gear up, he realized he hadn't yet seen the artifact since it was first unpacked, so he finished dressing quickly and made use of the time left before their departure.
The stone was large and unbroken by cracks and fissures, even after time and travel. Though it left a faint dusty sheen on his fingertips, it was free of sand and detritus - any signs that it had once been buried underground.
He placed his palm flat on it. The humming of an ancient creation was different than that of the technology surrounding him, he thought. It wasn't so much a visible effect, explained by motors and circuits and whatnot, as it was a vibrating of the soul.
Daniel wasn't a spiritual man, but like most of his colleagues, he was a tactile one. The need to grasp and touch pieces of the past was what drove them; the physical contact was their personal link to that past. He'd always thought it a shame that museums kept their treasures barricaded away from visiting fingers. Seeing was believing; touching was knowing.
As his hand passed over the shorter end, he felt a brief series of indentations. Curious, he paused and stepped around the stone's corner to see the source. The vertical and diagonal lines were small, no more than a quarter inch high, but they immediately struck a note with Daniel. Asgard runes. Just another secret from Earth's hidden past. Funny how his own past kept intersecting with his present.
"Hello?"
He heard Jack come into the room but didn't move from his position, continuing to trace the runes. "Hello."
Jack came over next to the stone. "SG-1 plus two is ready to ship out - that is, if you'd care to join us?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec."
"How about now?" Jack bent over sideways to follow Daniel's transfixed gaze. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Nothing." Daniel straightened, narrowly missing butting heads with his friend.
Jack unbent and jerked his head towards the door. "Then let's go."
He led the way to the embarkation room, where the rest of the team, plus Daniel's parents, were geared up and waiting as the gate spun to its final chevrons.
"The Gamekeeper's ready and waiting for us," Sam reported as they stepped up to the ramp's base. "Looks like keeping up relations with him was a good idea after all."
"As long as his people have picked away those flowers," Daniel commented as he stepped over to stand beside his father. "By the way, those runes on your coverstone are Asgard."
Melburn blinked at him. "What runes?"
The wormhole vortex swooshed out at that moment, and Jack called, "Move out!" so Daniel had no time to answer before they marched up the ramp and into the wormhole, but it wasn't as if the symbols would go anywhere while they were gone.
The six emerged onto the verdant planet, whose skyline was still dominated by the greenhouse dome, and whose landscape was still, unfortunately, covered in bright flowers. "Rats," he muttered under his breath.
Melburn sneezed. Claire sneezed. Daniel sneezed.
Jack smirked. "Dj vu. Times three," he added. Daniel could get no more than a dirty look in before the Gamekeeper in all his outlandish glory reached them.
"Welcome, welcome," he greeted the party, rubbing his palms together. He still wore his headdress, which Daniel had always thought of as "mock-Trojan", and his stiff smile was stretched impossibly wide. "Lovely to see you all once again," he said with a short bow.
Daniel doubted that, and it was clear Jack did, too, in his reply. "Thanks. Shall we?" He indicated the dome with his weapon.
The Gamekeeper got the message. "Yes, right this way, please!" He took off down the path, the rest of the group following more calmly in his wake.
"Interesting character," remarked Claire neutrally.
"Oh yeah, sure," said Jack. "He's just pretending to be a manipulative control freak."
Melburn smirked appreciatively; both Jacksons had been briefed on SG-1's prior experience on the planet.
"He's actually been quite helpful, sir," Sam pointed out. "He was the closest thing these people had to a leader when they came outside, but he's been very cooperative with the other SG personnel who've come through."
Jack made no response as they caught up to the Gamekeeper, who was waiting at the dome's entrance. "Yes, yes, here we are," he said, pressing the panel to let them inside. "Everything is as you requested."
As they filed inside, they could see six modified chairs open and waiting in a row. Though he knew it was safe this time, Daniel's stomach still did a small flip at the sight. He could see his teammates felt the same way.
Jack kicked one of the chairs lightly. "How do we tell these things where to take us?"
"I have instructed the system to center on the one with the most focused thoughts," explained the Gamekeeper. "The rest of you will merely need to empty your minds."
"Piece of cake," said Jack. He ignored the looks the rest of his team shot him. "All right. Hop in, kids. And...think dumb." He set the example, settling into the chair at the end, and the rest of the group followed suit. Daniel's parents clenched each other's hands.
"If you have need of anything, simply summon me," said the Gamekeeper. He pressed something on the opposite wall, the tubes shot out of the chairs, and Daniel frantically thought of a day thirty years ago before his world went dark.
*
"Okay, careful with that coverstone."
"Yes, Dr. Jackson."
Sam found herself once again in the recreated New York Museum of Art, though this time, she kept her own clothes, as did her five companions. They'd specifically asked the Gamekeeper that they not be an active part of the simulation, merely observers, as his people had been to them. SG-1, having been in the environment before, looked unperturbed, but Daniel's parents were looking around wide-eyed, still holding hands in virtual reality. Then they froze, transfixed at the sight of their not-so-much-younger selves standing within the pillars.
Daniel placed a hand on his mother's shoulder, startling her out of her reverie. "Welcome back," he said softly.
"Daniel," the Colonel spoke up, "how long will this-"
"Not long now," Daniel interrupted, as the sound of rapid footfalls around the corner drew everyone's attention from the soon to be grim scene before them. And then an element of the scene Sam had completely forgotten would be there appeared - an eight year old version of Daniel Jackson, floppy hair and too-big glasses making him immediately known to all. He was clutching his fist tightly and his cheeks were flushed from excitement and the outdoors, but he halted at the entrance upon seeing his parents' concentration.
Teal'c's eyebrow nearly crawled off his head and took flight. The Colonel looked torn between smart-ass remarks. Daniel just sighed and rolled his eyes. As for Sam, it was all she could do to maintain her composure, and she didn't think she was doing such a great job at that. The little guy was just too darn cute!
Little Danny was fidgeting, apparently aware that he wasn't to come closer while his parents were working, but about to burst with the need to share whatever was in that fist. Sam was so engrossed in watching him that she didn't see Claire and Melburn approach the boy, drawn almost magnetically. Daniel, however, caught them, stepping between his parents and his younger self.
"He's not there, Mom. He's just a memory." The boy in question took no notice of the extra figures in the room. He bounced from foot to foot, glasses slipping a little further down his nose with each hop.
"He's just like I remember..."
Sam was starting to think bringing the Jacksons had been a very bad idea.
"A little more level, bring it down."
"More level."
"O'Neill," spoke Teal'c, drawing everyone's attention back to the scene unfolding.
The coverstone, looking slightly cleaner and brighter than the one currently sitting at the SGC, swayed back and forth. Sam followed the chain with her eyes; the weak link glared at her like a siren. But that wasn't the problem they were here to solve, so she shifted her eyes to focus on the virtual Jacksons, watching, waiting.
They were calling out to their crew, eyes focused on the stone above their heads. It shifted, and then, with a terrible crack, the chain snapped, there was a scream, and the stone crashed down at ten meters per second - an instant, and yet, to the little boy in the doorway, it must have been an eternity.
The scream, silenced so quickly, echoed in Sam's mind as the virtual crew swarmed around the dust cloud, digging their way through the rubble with frantic shouts. Though she'd seen the scene before - over, and over before - it was harder now that she'd gotten to know the people beneath the stone as something other than Daniel's parents. Speaking of whom...
She turned back to the group. Claire's face was buried in Melburn's shoulder, and his own eyes were squeezed shut, nose in his wife's hair. Daniel was hovering near them, dancing between reaching out and pulling back. The Colonel and Teal'c were watching the unearthing efforts with forced stoicism, but their pained eyes betrayed them.
In the sea of activity, Little Danny stood frozen at the entrance, big blue eyes like saucers behind his glasses, mouth dropped slightly open in shock. His grip had loosened; grass, sticks, and a rock littered the floor beneath his hand.
Sam blinked rapidly. This was all fake, she reminded herself, remnants of a thirty year old tragedy. She cleared her throat. "I didn't notice anything, sir, but it happened so fast..."
O'Neill shook himself out of his trance. "Right. Hey! Gamekeeper!" he called out.
The summons was answered with the familiar spiral and appearance. "How can I assist you?"
"We want a do-over."
The Gamekeeper nodded. "Certainly." He raised his hands, but Sam stopped him.
"Wait! Is there any way to slow the simulation down?"
"Of course. Is that what you wish?"
Sam blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah. It all happens so fast, we can't really tell anything about what happened."
"What else can we do with it?" Daniel piped up.
"Daniel..." the Colonel started.
"Pause, rewind, all those VCR functions?" he continued, ignoring his friend.
The Gamekeeper handed Sam, who was closer, a silver elliptical disc. It was unmarked, save for the line running its length. "This will give you complete control over the simulation," he instructed. "It is beginning again now." Then, with the spiral, he disappeared.
"Carter, can you work that thing?"
Sam examined the control, which now glowed at the leftmost end of the line. "It seems to be a simple chronological meter, sir. Tactile interface - I'm guessing I can just direct the speed and -"
"Carter! Can you work that thing?"
She sighed. "Yes, sir." Daniel shot her a sympathetic smile before returning to monitor his parents.
"Good," the Colonel remarked. "Listen up, folks. We're probably going to have to watch the tape a few times. Anyone who doesn't want to is welcome to head to the exit." He pointed towards the spiral-marked door.
Melburn inhaled deeply. "No, we're staying." Daniel looked like he wanted to protest, but Sam noticed he wasn't making any moves towards the exit, either.
The Colonel nodded. "All right. Major." He gestured towards her.
Sam touched the glowing dot, which had progressed somewhat down the line, and the scene froze. So far, so good. She slid her finger slowly down the line, and the virtual characters around her accelerated, their movements almost robotic in the just slightly faster than life speed. She sped them up; Little Danny appeared and the stone swayed. She removed her finger from the device, and the scene returned to real time.
SG-1 and the Jacksons focused on the archaeologists' virtual counterparts. Now that Sam looked more closely, she could see minute differences; their hair was shorter, their faces less lined, and Melburn had his own thick-rimmed glasses. The intensity in their work, however - their confidence in command - that was the same. She immediately recognized it, for how often had she seen it in Daniel, too?
Her finger hovered over the glowing dot, and at the telltale crack, she jammed it to a stop. The coverstone froze, just beginning its descent. She'd captured the immobile archaeologists beneath it the moment before they fully realized their peril; Melburn was in mid-reach for his wife, whose mouth was just dropping open to scream.
Sam inched the dot forward as slowly as she could manage. The creeping descent of the stone was unreal. Just think of it as a game, she told herself. Nothing more than a simulation. You are in control. Slowly, the stone dropped lower and lower, and they could actually see it impact on the pair and push them to the ground, though the falling pillars obscured the final frames.
When it was over, she looked up at the silent group again. The Colonel finally spoke up. "Anyone notice anything this time?"
"No, sir," she responded with a sigh.
Melburn shook his head. "It doesn't make sense. I have no memory of the stone's impact, and yet there's clear continuity."
"The flash." Everyone's eyes turned to Daniel, who was standing behind his frozen counterpart.
"As in Gordon?" asked O'Neill.
"No, as in the flash of light." Daniel looked around at them. "You didn't - you didn't see it?" They continued to stare blankly. "I thought it was just the dream, just my subconscious's metaphor for the event, but I distinctly saw it this time."
"Daniel, what are you talking about?" asked Sam.
"The nightmare always ends with a flash of light as the stone hits them, and then I wake up. I didn't see it on the first run, but it was there on the second, slowed down just like everything else." His eyes darted between them. "Didn't anyone see it?"
"That would be a no," said O'Neill.
Sam stepped forward. "Daniel, are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine. Maybe it has to do with where you're standing, maybe it's in my dream because I did see it as a child because I was standing..." He beckoned to Sam, who came to stand beside him. He grasped her arms and maneuvered her into position behind Little Danny. "Right here. Now play it back again, just the falling stone, and watch." He took a step back but kept his eyes on her.
With a quick glance at the Colonel, who just shrugged, Sam reset the dot to its pre-fall position and set it to run slowly. The line of sight he'd placed her in provided a direct view through the pillars, allowing her to see more depth behind them than she had before. She didn't really expect anything, but you never knew...
The stone recommenced its low-g tumble to the floor. The scene got easier to watch every time, at least for Sam. Closer, closer...
"Holy Hannah!" She nearly dropped the control device in her astonishment.
"You saw it." Daniel eyed her intently.
"It's impossible to miss!" She turned to the others. "There is definitely a light source. It appears just before the stone impacts. Whatever happened...it has to have something to do with it."
"Time traveling light bulbs?" O'Neill asked skeptically.
Claire shook her head. "I don't remember a light."
"You were a little busy at the time," Daniel remarked. "No, seriously, whatever happened to you could've obscured your vision in the split second before the flash."
"I need to watch it again," Sam said, resetting the controls. "Damn it, I wish I could take readings in here."
"I want to see it," said Claire, coming over to Sam, Melburn on her heels.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Okay...we can test out how broadly it spreads. Here, Daniel, stand on the other side of them, and tell me if you can see it." She stood at the other end of the row, with the elder Jacksons behind their still-frozen younger son, and played the scene again. This time, she caught only a brief flicker, but the two beside her gasped.
Daniel shook his head. "I couldn't see it here."
"Neither could I, but that doesn't matter." She would kill to get her hands on a spectrometer right now.
"So you can explain what happened to us now?" Melburn asked her.
She hesitated. "Well...no, I can't." Their faces fell. "But now we have something to go from, where we had nothing before. It's a start."
"Don't worry," Daniel told them. "If anyone can do it, it's Sam."
"Thanks, but without getting the specs, I'm not about to perform miracles."
O'Neill cocked his head to the side. "We'll see about that. Gamekeeper!" he called out. The Gamekeeper spiraled in once more. "Get this woman whatever she needs."
"Sir, we won't be able to take it with us-"
"So memorize it!" The Colonel rolled his eyes. "How you people tie your shoes without me, I'll never know."
*
Too many hours later (in Daniel's opinion), they finally emerged from the dome into the sunlight and pollen. Jack's idea had actually worked quite well; they'd each memorized a subset of Sam's readings and offloaded them onto her notepad as soon as they disconnected. The astrophysicist was now describing, in great detail, the various analyses she wanted to perform, while Jack and Teal'c feigned interest.
Daniel suddenly remembered - "Gah, I forgot!"
"Forgot what?" Jack piped up, interrupting a cross-looking Sam mid-word.
"Ah, nothing, I was just going to look more closely at the runes on the stone." He shook his head. "Forget it, I can do it back on Earth.
"Daniel, I told you, there are no runes on our coverstone," Melburn said.
He narrowed his eyes. "I just saw them this morning. So did Jack."
"So did I, actually, when I was looking over the scans," Sam added.
Claire shook her head. "Are you sure you got the right stone?"
"Positive," Daniel replied. "It's been at the museum ever since."
"I went over every inch of that coverstone," Melburn insisted. "It was completely unmarked. Daniel, I know my find."
"I know you do." Daniel frowned in thought.
Sam sighed. "None of this adds up! The stone's normal, except that it somehow developed Asgard runes, you were crushed beneath it, but you're here and your bodies haven't moved from their coffins-"
"Wait, what?" Daniel interrupted her.
"You didn't hear?"
Jack cleared his throat. "Ah, yes, forgot to tell you. Melburn mentioned his sarcophagus theory to me, so I...made a few phone calls."
"And had the bodies exhumed," Daniel completed. Jack averted his eyes.
They approached the DHD and Sam began dialing. "I keep going back to that flash," Daniel mused. "It's the clearest anomaly we can pinpoint."
"Along with our duplicate bodies," Melburn added wryly.
"Like clones."
Everyone's heads whipped around to face Jack. Sam's hand froze above the center of the DHD. "Sir?"
Jack started, looking around as surprised at being the focal point. "Like clones, I said."
"Asgard runes," Daniel murmured.
"And their beaming technology emits light," Sam continued, sharing a wide-eyed look of realization with him.
"Wait, wait," said Claire. "Are you saying my husband and I are - copies?"
"Or the bodies that were buried thirty years ago are," Sam suggested, mitigating the elder Jacksons' growing distress. She finally laid her hand upon the red bulb, causing the wormhole to connect. The vortex billowed out at them.
Jack cocked his head to the side. "I'll make a few phone calls."
*
While Colonel O'Neill headed once again to his office after their return and debriefing, the four scientists made a beeline for the elevator. They stopped by Daniel's office to pick up his file of photographs from the original expedition and then headed to the lab where the coverstone was housed. Sam kept an eye on Daniel, but he didn't show any unusual distress at the sight.
Claire and Melburn went right to the stone, eyes searching. Sam joined them. "They're over here," she said, walking around the back and pointing out the runes.
The two wore identical semi-slack-jawed expressions, familiar to Sam from having seen it so often on their son. "Incredible," murmured Claire.
Daniel joined them, holding up a photograph of the corresponding side of the stone. "Definitely not there before."
"What do the runes say?" Sam asked.
"Unfortunately, nothing," he answered. "It looks more like a serial number, a tag of some sort."
"So whoever did this was possibly planning to return?"
"Could be." He shrugged. "We didn't know to ask for this sort of thing last time, so I really have no idea if it's standard procedure or a special case."
"Let me get this straight," said Melburn. He was leaning against a counter now, glasses in one hand, rubbing the bridge of his nose with the other. "If I remember correctly, the - Asgard - kidnap humans and temporarily replace them with clones, thus prompting abduction stories, right?"
"It's not so much the Asgard as one Asgard in particular," Daniel corrected.
"Loki," Sam supplied.
"Figures," Melburn answered.
"Yeah," said Daniel. "Anyway, he was out of business for years when the other Asgard figured out what he was up to, but several months ago, he showed up again and switched out Jack."
"Yes, I remember reading that," said Claire. "But the clones are dysfunctional, aren't they? So we can't be the fakes, or we wouldn't have lasted this long."
Sam exchanged a look with Daniel before speaking. "Not necessarily. The Colonel's clone was a fluke. Plus, Loki, if that's who it was, had your bodies in stasis for a much longer time than he usually takes people. It's possible that he was able to correct the problem. We just don't know enough."
Footsteps announced O'Neill's entrance. "Hey, kids. The mortuary in New York is sending samples of - er, something. In the meantime, Doc Fraiser wants you two for some more tests," he said, pointing at the elder Jacksons.
Melburn sighed, but stood up and headed to the door with his wife. Sam watched them go and addressed her CO. "Sir, there's almost no doubt that the Asgard were involved in this somehow. We should contact them."
The Colonel nodded. "I'll make a phone call, shall I?" Spinning on his heel, he followed the Jacksons out.
Daniel was the only one left in the room with her. He was still beside the coverstone, holding the photograph, but his gaze was miles away. "Daniel?" she started hesitantly.
The archaeologist was quiet for a moment. "After all that, it might not even be them," he finally said softly.
Sam wanted to reach out and pull him into a bear hug, but she held back. "I don't know what to say."
He held up his free hand, shaking his head and smiling slightly. "It's okay. We'll find out soon enough, right?" And with that, he gathered up the photographs, leaving Sam to shut off the lights.
*
Hours later, they still hadn't heard back from the Asgard, and Janet hadn't completed her examination of whatever it was New York sent them. Daniel was going out of his mind. He'd given up pacing his office and had moved to the darkened observation room above the medical lab where his parents - or what passed for them - were awaiting results. From what he'd heard, they'd protested the need for isolation, but the doctor wasn't taking chances, now that their origins were in doubt. The Asgard were benevolent, but Loki was a special case.
"Claire" and "Melburn" seemed to be taking things in stride, or at least did a good job of projecting that appearance. They'd requested a few of the books from Daniel's office and were whiling the time away with them. Daniel only wished he could have such peace of mind.
He felt a quiet presence come up beside him and flicked his eyes quickly over. "Hey, Teal'c," he greeted, returning his gaze to the bright room before him.
"Daniel Jackson," the Jaffa responded. "There has been no news?"
"Not a word," he grumbled. They stood in silence for a few moments.
"Have you given any thought to what will happen afterwards if your parents are deemed safe?"
Daniel let out a short laugh. "Safe? Teal'c, they might not even be my parents."
Teal'c cocked his head to the side. "Prior to the realization that they might be Asgard clones, was there a doubt in your mind that these two were not who they claimed to be?"
"No, but now that I've had that realization, there's no way I can just forget it and go back to pretending."
"Whoever these people are, they possess the genes of Claire and Melburn Jackson, as well as all of their memories. They believe themselves to be the real Doctors Jackson. Even if their bodies are not the originals, are they not, for all intents and purposes, your parents?"
Daniel didn't respond.
"I once told Colonel O'Neill that I considered him to be my brother. I took to understand then that humans share the same belief that family need not rest on blood relationship."
"It takes time to build that kind of relationship, Teal'c." Daniel sighed. "But-"
General Hammond's voice over the intercom cut him off. "Doctor Jackson, please report to the briefing room."
Daniel looked at Teal'c. "Showtime."
"Indeed."
*
Though they hadn't been summoned, the rest of SG-1 showed up at the cherry red table as well, Sam observed with an inward grin. The General didn't bat an eye.
"We've just received word from Thor. He's on his way to explain things in person, and should be here any-"
A familiar flash of light illuminated the room, and the Asgard commander appeared in his chair at the opposite end of the table.
"Minute," Colonel O'Neill finished cheerfully for him.
"Sir, I have the results from the..." Doctor Fraiser marched into the room but trailed off as she caught sight of the newcomer. Behind her, the presumed Claire and Melburn Jackson openly gaped.
"Greetings," said the alien, inclining his oversized head towards the group.
"Greetings, Thor," said Hammond. He nodded towards the group frozen at the door. "Folks, take a seat. I have a feeling you're going to need it."
Janet had recovered enough to quickly take the empty seat next to Sam, placing her manila folder on the table before her. The other two moved more slowly, their eyes never leaving Thor. They settled in seats beside Daniel, and Sam didn't miss the way her friend stiffened directly across from her. She hoped for all their sakes that Thor would have the answers they wanted.
Thor continued, "When I received Colonel O'Neill's message, I immediately sought out Loki. As you know, Loki performed cloning experiments on humans without our knowledge, until a few of your decades ago, when he was caught and reprimanded by the High Council. When our attention turned to the war with the Replicators, he lapsed back into his former habits, until with your help, he was once again caught and punished."
"Yeah, what is Asgard punishment, exactly?" O'Neill put in.
Sam had to admit, she'd wondered about that. But Thor simply turned to the Colonel and remarked, "The High Council has its ways," effectively shutting all of them up.
He resumed his explanation. "As I said, I contacted Loki, who told me a most curious story of what you would call a `lucky coincidence.' Thirty years ago, when Loki was still conducting his first wave of experiments on Earth, his method of operation was to choose a subject, prepare their clones in advance by observing them during the day, and switch them during the night. He selected a married couple for his next subjects."
"My parents," Daniel said.
"Precisely," Thor replied. "However, all did not go as expected. As he watched them, Loki realized the pair were in danger, but he also saw an opportunity. Should the other humans think them perished, he would be able to keep his subjects long past the usual clone's life span. So he prepared the unfinished clones, and when the coverstone fell, obscuring them almost entirely from view - or so he thought - he made the switch."
"So that means that the people who were crushed by the coverstone were clones," said Daniel, brow furrowing.
"That's exactly what I was coming to tell you all," added Janet. "General, I just completed the tests on the materials from New York. I found the same anomaly we found in Colonel O'Neill's young clone."
"Then what we thought was time travel was actually the effects of a prolonged stasis," Sam jumped in.
"Correct, Major Carter," said Thor. "Loki looked forward to performing long-term studies on the Jacksons. However, only ten years later, his experiments were put to a stop. Before he was apprehended, he was able to place some of his materials and equipment in a secret cache, including his stasis pods."
"But there was no equipment like that on our planet," Melburn said.
"That is because the cache was elsewhere. When Loki resumed his experiments, he returned to it and retrieved his store. He kept the equipment, but he was no longer interested in studying what appeared to be ordinary humans, so he instead deposited them, awakened and unharmed, on a planet the Asgard had previously catalogued as safe, an emergency escape habitat, before moving back to Earth to examine individuals with the particular gene of interest to his research."
"And I think we all know the story from there," O'Neill concluded.
General Hammond leaned forward. "Just to be perfectly clear, Commander Thor, are you confirming that these people are the real, original Melburn and Claire Jackson?"
"They are."
The tension in the room evaporated rapidly, leaving Sam lightheaded and grinning. Claire and Melburn were squeezing one another's hands together, and Daniel...
...Daniel looked like an eight year old who'd just been granted his deepest Christmas wish. She was once again watching the little boy in the museum, the young man in the cartouche room, the teammate at Heliopolis. Slack-jawed and wide-eyed, he turned as if stunned from Thor to the couple beside him.
Sam had to bite her lip to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes.
"Thank you very much, Commander Thor," General Hammond said, smiling like the proud patriarch he was.
"It was my pleasure. I must return to my ship now."
The Colonel lifted a hand in farewell. "Drop by anytime, buddy!"
With a flash of light, the Asgard departed. The Jacksons, oblivious to this exchange, looked like the only thing holding them back was respect for the location and its other occupants.
"Ah, sir?" said O'Neill.
The General nodded. "I hear you, Colonel. You're all dismissed - and congratulations to all the Doctors Jackson."
Daniel finally broke into the grin that threatened to consume his face as they all rose, and his family, reunited after thirty years, finally embraced.
"This, folks," commented O'Neill to Sam and Teal'c, "this is one of the good days."
*
Daniel wasn't sure how long they stood like that, but when he finally pulled back from his parents, the three of them were alone in the briefing room. As his mother - his mother - wiped at her eyes, he smiled at them both. "We should probably talk." Though he had apologized briefly after his explosion the previous day, they hadn't really discussed their argument, and since the realization that they might be clones, tension between Daniel and his parents had been high.
His mother nodded, and his father said, "Your office?"
They made the journey in comfortable silence and settled on stools around one of the less cluttered counters. "So," said Daniel.
"So," said Claire.
"Daniel, I owe you an apology," Melburn started.
"No, I should apologize to you," Daniel answered. "You guys went through a lot, and I was being completely selfish."
His mother put her hand over his. "Oh, Daniel..."
Her husband interrupted. "I'm as much to blame as you." Daniel shook his head, but Melburn continued. "Hear me out, all right? It was wrong of us to expect you not to have changed, particularly knowing what you do here. It was wrong of us to expect you to just accept us back into your life as if nothing had changed."
"What? No, no, it wasn't," Daniel protested. "I mean, yes, there's a certain adjustment period to go through, but you're my parents. Of course I want you in my life. God, I can't even imagine what this must be like for you. I missed a year when I ascended, but you missed thirty of them. I should have been more considerate of that, and I apologize."
"Oh, this is ridiculous," said Claire. "We're all clearly very sorry and very forgiving, so let's just let bygones be bygones and move on. Start over."
"Or pick up from where we left off," said Daniel wryly.
"Right, where were we? Oh, yes. We'd just left you orphaned and apparently without any relatives willing to take you in," she said bitterly. "I cannot believe my father would just refuse like that." Her husband put an arm around her shoulders, and she clasped his hand.
Daniel chuckled. "Don't be so hard on Nick. It was hard for me at the time, yes, but he's making up for it. I hope."
"So," said his father, "what happens to us now?"
Daniel looked at his parents' faces, shining with love for each other and for him. "Actually, I don't know." He smiled. "But I'm sure we'll come up with something."
Epilogue
"So what's this I hear about two new archaeologists in your department?"
Daniel looked up from the extraterrestrial text he was examining to see a grinning Sam framed in his office doorway. He returned the smile and leaned back in his chair. "So you heard, huh?"
Sam strode in and placed her elbows on the counter opposite him. "Colonel O'Neill just told me."
"Yeah, well, they can't exactly return to their old lives; their `deaths' were widely known in the academic community, and too many people are still working who know their faces, so they can't assume new names. Actually, it was their idea. I'm just glad General Hammond agreed."
"I can't see why he wouldn't. Your parents have serious survival skills, Daniel. When we were shopping? That wasn't me leading them around, that was your mother!"
He laughed. "That's years of experience packing for expeditions talking."
"Well, whatever it is, I think they're getting ready to ship out on their first mission. You weren't going to let them go without saying goodbye, were you?"
He jumped up from his seat. "Is it that time already? I promised I'd be there." With Sam on his heels, he took off for the elevator.
The gateroom was its usual hub of activity, with the four members of the newly compiled SG-21 preparing to embark as the gate began its dialing sequence.
"Daniel!" exclaimed Claire as she shouldered her pack. "We were afraid you wouldn't make it in time."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He frowned at his parents. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
"Simple scientific mission, Daniel," said Melburn. "The planet's already been checked out by one of the military teams; they're letting us use this as training, team-bonding or something ridiculous like that," he scoffed, but smiling as he did so.
Daniel relaxed, somewhat. "Okay. Just...be careful."
"We will," said his father. "Any last words of advice?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel caught Jack entering the room. "Yeah, actually." With an impish grin, he leaned forward, saying in a mock whisper, "Let the guys with the guns feel like they're in charge, and you can get away with murder."
The wormhole vortex swirled outward, and Daniel stepped back. "Have fun."
With a wave and a smile, his parents followed their teammates through the event horizon, and the wormhole disengaged.
Daniel stood staring at where it had been. He felt a familiar hand clap his shoulder.
"Gotta let `em grow up sometime, Danny boy," said Jack.
Daniel glanced at him. "You do realize that not even my parents call me that anymore." They turned and began walking towards the exit.
"You think I'm going to let a couple of whipper-snappers like them tell me what to do?"
"I always knew you were an old codger at heart, Jack."
"Damn- wait, who are you calling old?"
*
The End.
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