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All I Want
Part 2 of 4
Synopsis:  Daniel gets down-sized, Jack takes him in.  But when Jack insists the adoption be as "normal" as possible, they're both in for a few surprises!  Response for holiday 'fic challenge on the DJsSG-1Lverse list.

Chapter 7

Jack sat upright in bed, heart pounding with an unnamable fear.  It wasn't as though he'd been having a nightmare, as his dreams had been of better times, before his own carelessness left a loaded gun where an eleven year-old boy could find it.  That then reminded him that he needed to secure the weapons he kept in this house, even though inside that surprisingly small body of Daniel's was a forty year-old man who knew very well how to handle firearms properly.

Well, thirty-nine year-old man, actually, and thirty-eight if you didn't count the year he spent on a higher plane of existence.  Then again, he was less than a month old if you started counting from his most-recent descension, and only days if you started with his down-sizing.  As Jack's thoughts stilled, he heard a faint sound from down the hall.

Cursing and throwing back the covers, he leapt out of bed and threw open the guest room door.  Dwarfed by the double bed, the little boy was thrashing back and forth under a tangled sheet, muttering in Ancient and soaked in sweat.  Unsure whether the dream was the result of recent events on Madeira, an earlier memory, or something new entirely, Jack raised a hand to shake Daniel awake—

And promptly found himself lying against the chest of drawers near the door, staring at the ceiling and wondering how a thirty-five pound kid could toss him across the room.  As soon as the shock wore off, he was on his feet again, intending to lunge for the bed so he could pin the now-wildly thrashing Daniel and hopefully interrupt the nightmare's grip.  Before he'd taken a step though, a flying book clipped him in the side of the head, and he had to duck to avoid another.

In any other situation, the realization that books were defending Daniel would have been hysterical, but as the chest of drawers began to rattle its way off the floor, Jack made the decision to use whatever means necessary to awaken the miniaturized and apparently telekinetic archaeologist.

"Daniel!  Wake up, kid, wake up!" he shouted, diving under the dancing ring of books to scoop up the tiny, trembling body.  He grasped him by the shoulders and gave him a slight shake before pulling him close and holding him tightly.

The strangled gasps abruptly stopped, and the flying objects fell to the carpet with muffled thumps.  "Jack?"

"It's me, Daniel.  You're safe."  He began rubbing soothing circles on Daniel's back.

A small sob escaped.  "I'm sorry."

"It was a nightmare, kiddo... you don't have to be sorry at all."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Tell me what?"

"The Replicator that looked like Sam.  What she did to me."

Jack froze.  He'd suspected there was far more to Daniel's experience as a prisoner of the Replicators than the younger man-turned-boy had been telling, but so far there'd been no evidence, no sign that—

He berated himself for his stupidity.  Of course something bad had happened.  Human-form Replicators didn't just have friendly chats with their victims, after all, they preferred sticking their hands in people's heads and screwing with their minds.  He and Sam had been joking all weekend about the down-sized Daniel being version 3.5, with an unspoken acknowledgement that version 3.0 had descended into Jack's office a week after his disappearance.

Descension, as far as he knew, first required death and ascension.  Who was to say Daniel's death hadn't been the quiet and relatively painless result of the disruptor wave technology on Dakara destroying the ship aboard which he was captured, but something more sinister entirely?

"I'm listening," he said softly, and held Daniel even tighter to his chest.

Hesitantly at first but speaking more steadily with each sentence, the pint-sized linguist began to relate his experience aboard the Replicator ship, beginning from the moment he was captured.  Though his voice was muffled by his face being pressed into Jack's t-shirt, the little guy didn't let up until he'd finished every last detail of his kidnapping and murder by the Replicator.  By that time, Jack's shirt was soaked with tears and Daniel was seated in his lap, skinny arms wrapped around Jack's torso and holding on tightly.

"I'm sorry, too," Jack whispered when he was finished.  "I'm sorry we didn't go looking for you when you were captured, didn't really think about how you got back to the SGC, and I'm really really sorry I left you alone on Maidiera's moon.  You'd think I'd know better by now, huh?"

There was no reply.  Jack looked down to see that Daniel had fallen asleep, though his grip on Jack's ribcage had loosened only slightly.  At first he made to disentangle the down-sized archaeologist, but just as quickly decided against it.  If Daniel had another nightmare tonight, Jack wanted to be right there to stop it before it got to the book-throwing stage again.

Oh, boy, and wouldn't that be an interesting conversation in the morning?

Twisting around so that he was lying against the pillows and Daniel was asleep atop his chest, Jack went to sleep stroking the fine strands of blond hair.

Chapter 8

Daniel scrunched up his nose, wondering what in the world he could be smelling.  While not particularly pleasant scents by themselves—sweat, body odor, and the faintest traces of fresh-cut wood—the combination of the three smelled...

"Well, I'm sure you don't smell much like a bed of roses yourself, squirt."

Daniel's eyes flew open in surprise, looking up the length of the body his face was pressed against to see the amused expression on Jack's face.  "You smell safe," he blurted.

"Safe?"

"Um, yeah."  Despite his embarrassment, he realized he still hadn't made any moves to roll away from Jack's side.

"Safe's a good smell, then.  But I still could use a shower, and I think you need one, too."

"Bath," Daniel corrected automatically.

"Bath?"

"Yeah.  I mean, I'm a kid right now... I should enjoy it while it lasts, right?"

Jack laughed, ruffling his hair affectionately.  "Sure, kiddo."  His cheerful expression fell away.  "We need to talk about last night."

Daniel squirmed away and sat up.  Unconsciously, he drew his knees up to his chest and hugged them.  "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For having a nightmare and making you get out of bed and sleep in here all night."

Jack sat up and pushed back against the headboard.  Then, to Daniel's utter surprise, he picked him up and put him on his lap.  "First off," he began, "you had nightmares as a grown-up, too.  I never had a problem coming to wake you up from those, either, and I still don't.  Secondly, you didn't make me get out of bed.  If I hadn't wanted to come down here and wake you up from your nightmare, I wouldn't have.  And thirdly, I didn't have to sleep in here all night, I could probably have tucked you back under the covers and gone back to bed, but the thing I really wanted to talk about is why I stayed."

"What?"

Jack pointed, and Daniel followed his finger to see the emptied bookshelves, then the books strewn across the floor.  "Huh?" he asked intelligently.

"Apparently version 3.5 comes with a few surprises."

Daniel frowned.  "I was sleepwalking?"

"Nope."  The finger moved on to point at the chest of drawers, sitting at an angle from the wall.  "I think you're a bit scrawny to be moving that around while sleepwalking, and I know I didn't imagine all those books circling the wagons around their owner.  Now, either they've suddenly developed the ability to fly or you're telekinetic."

"Telekinetic?" he repeated dumbly.

"Yep.  Looks like some of Oma's tricks have rubbed off on you."

"Oma's gone."

"So you told me last night.  I'm afraid the hardbound that beaned me upside the head last night was you."

"I'm sor—"

"Now, how can you be sorry for something you didn't even know you did?  Unless you meant to wallop me with a book."

Daniel took a deep breath.  "How could this happen?  Do you think the machine did this?"

Jack shrugged.  "For all I know, you could have come back with these abilities in version 3.0, just never had a witness to any of your nightmares."

"I haven't had any nightmares since I came back.  Too many other things going on."

Jack sighed.  "You mean you haven't been sleeping.  You've always had nightmares."

He was right, Daniel realized.  Except for the amount of time he's spent... well, dead, and then the full day he was unconscious in the infirmary, he'd not slept more than an hour at a time since his descension, even while at Jack's house.  "No wonder I was so tired."

"Uh-huh.  Unfortunately, this now means you and I have to shower and head back to base.  Doctor Lam would kick both our tails if I don't report the flying book incident.  She'll probably have to put you through some more tests, though."

Daniel nodded, clutching Jack's t-shirt in a hand that looked too-small even to him.  "You'll stay with me?"

"You betcha.  George is covering for me until we get you settled in, so I don't plan on going anywhere near that comfy chair in the general's office until my leave's up."

Feeling an intense gratitude which threatened to turn into tears, Daniel nodded again.  "I hate being this... this..."

"Vulnerable?"

"I was going to say 'clingy', but that works."

"You're a kid, Daniel.  Grown-up memories or not, you look like a kid and your brain's been rewired to think like a kid.  To be honest, I don't how the adult version of you could always be so closed off all the time.  For a guy who was great at getting other people to talk about their emotions, you're a tough nut to crack when it comes to your own."

"Not anymore.  One nightmare and I turn into a sobbing wreck."

"Yeah, but you're my sobbing wreck," Jack chuckled, tousling his hair and causing Daniel to wiggle off his lap to get away from him.  "Now, what say you and I put these books back where they belong?  Unless you can put them back the same way you got them down, that is."

Daniel stared hard at one of the books on the floor, but nothing happened, not even a twitch of a page.  "I guess not," he answered, simultaneously disappointed and relieved.

"Oh, well.  Guess we do it the old fashioned way, huh?"  Swinging his feet to the floor, Jack yawned and stretched.  "Books, shower, breakfast, then the mountain.  What do you think we should do the rest of the afternoon, kiddo?"

He swung his own feet over the edge of the bed, dismayed to see that his toes came nowhere near the floor.  "Maybe I can work on some stuff in my office while you meet Sara for coffee?"

Jack paused mid-stretch and stared at him.  After a second, he shrugged.  "Maybe.  But since I know I didn't tell you that, the list of new and improved features for version 3.5 is definitely going to include telepathy."

Chapter 9

"Well, there's definitely some heightened activity in areas of the brain normally dormant," Doctor Lam began, clutching her clipboard to her chest.

Jack's eyebrows rose.  "So is that the cause of the possessed toy brigade or a symptom of it?"

Daniel thumped him on the arm.  "They were books, not toys."

"Whatever.  Cause or symptom?"

The new base CMO frowned.  "Both and neither... more like an indication of the changes that are occurring in his brain.  Now while I can't say for certain what the cause of the increased brain activity is, it appears to be manifesting itself as the witnessed telepathic and telekinetic episodes."

"Episodes," Jack repeated, half to himself.  Daniel hadn't been able to repeat the levitating book trick, and had scored only average on the telepathy card game Lam insisted they try.  "So what triggers these 'episodes'?"

Lam gave him a look that reminded him of the stern glares Fraiser used to level at him.  It worked almost as well for this tiny doctor as it had her predecessor, leaving Jack in fear of sharp, pointy needles in his near future.  "Well, if I had to guess, General, I'd say it was caused by emotional stress."

"The nightmare," Daniel suggested.

"Quite likely.  My first suggestion is therapy—"

"No," the stubborn archaeologist vetoed immediately.  "Find me a psychiatrist who has experience helping people cope with their own murder and I'll happily talk to him."

The diminutive Doctor Lam tried the glare on Daniel, but since he'd never been affected by even Fraiser's efforts, he wasn't fazed in the slightest.  "I was going to say, that while my first suggestion would normally be therapy, that isn't the case with your... history."

"You mean the fact that the last time a psychiatrist got his hands on him, he nearly wound up a permanent guest of the happy house?"  Jack joked lightly.  "But seriously, Doc, I think telling me about it last night probably helped.  I think it'd help even more if he talked to Sam, since it was her face the Replicator wore."

"And her memories, too," Daniel shuddered.  "But as Jack pointed out this morning, I've always had nightmares, ever since I was a little kid the first time.  We got lucky last night, what if I hurt someone the next time I have a bad dream?"

"Actually, Doc, that's not a bad idea."

She looked confused.  "What's not?"

The general gave Daniel a long look, then turned back to the doctor.  "Getting Daniel a therapist."

"Jack..."

"Daniel, getting your emotions under control has got to be one of our top priorities," he replied.  "Last night's little humdinger was because you didn't tell anyone what happened to you when you were an adult, and I know there are a lot more bad dreams where that one came from.  But I hesitate to get you to start pouring your heart out to a shrink if you're going to send all his books flying the first time things get... rough."  The down-sized archaeologist stared down at his hands, not even denying the charge.

Lam sighed and tucked a strand of dark hair behind one ear.  "Well, if I knew anyone who specialized in the training of paranormal abilities, I'd recommend him.  The point is, this is an entirely new area for me, for pretty much anyone."

"Not entirely," Jack corrected.  "There's Nirrti's freak show, but they're all back to normal, now, and blew up all the toys when they were finished.  Oh, and let's not forget Daniel's buddies, the Ancients."

"Oh, let's forget the Ancients," Daniel retorted.  "They've always been so helpful, you know."

"Smartass," Jack grinned.

"Takes one to know one."  Interesting, wasn't it, how quickly he bounced back from being upset?

"Cassandra Fraiser?" Lam suggested.

"Nerdy fixed her back to normal," the general replied.  "Besides, her stuff was magnets, not telekinesis."

"Electromagnetism," Daniel corrected.

"I was close."

"'Close' only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

"That's my line!"

"Not any more," the little imp smirked.

He really had to give Lam credit for patience, since Janet would already have made them both shut up.  Then again, she was still new to the base and thus had never experienced a full-blown "O'Neill-Jacksonism", as he'd once heard a nurse describe it.

"General," Lam finally interrupted, "weren't there telekinetic aliens who could also render people and objects invisible?"

If he hadn't been friends with her Air Force General father, he might've kissed her.  "The Nox!"

Daniel frowned.  "We lost our line of communication to the Nox when the Goa'uld destroyed Tollana."

Jack waved his hand dismissively.  "So we get the Asgard to send 'em a message, since they used to be allies, right?  Or we could take the Prometheus there ourselves 'cause we still have the 'Gate coordinates."

The pint-sized linguist nodded hesitantly.  "If the Nox are willing to help—"

Jack rolled his eyes.  "Daniel, you had Lya wrapped around your finger as a grown-up.  She'll probably find you completely irresistible as a squirt."

Chapter 10

"Jack, it's your office... you don't have to knock to come in."

Jack grinned at the bald-headed general.  "Old habits die hard when I see you sitting at the desk, Gen—George.  Actually, I much prefer to be on this side of the desk, with you on that side."

George Hammond chuckled.  "You do know I'm thinking of retiring and handing the Homeworld Security office to you?"

"What are you trying to do, kill me?  As though pushing papers around here's not bad enough, you want to stick me with the bean counters in Washington?"

"There's no one better for the job, Jack," Hammond reminded him, "especially now that you have Doctor Jackson to look after.  How's our boy doing?"

Jack scrubbed his hand through his hair and slumped in the nearest chair.  "That nightmare last night gave us both a good scare, and I as much as I hate clichés, I think it's only the tip of the iceberg.  Daniel's had some pretty bad crap handed to him over the years, and some of the worst of it has been in the last month.  We'll eventually get it written into a report, but did you know that the Replicator killed him before the disruptor wave wrecked her ship?"

Hammond's expression changed very little, but there was a slight tightening of his jaw.  "I assume that's what last night's incident was about?"

"Yeah.  The little guy insisted on talking it over with Carter, since the blasted thing looked like her, so I dropped him off at her lab on my way down.  The line wasn't secure this morning, so I couldn't tell you over the phone that the real reason I took him to Doc Lam was 'cause we had a little flying book incident.  Daniel's apparently telekinetic—"

"Good Lord—"

"—and maybe just a slight bit telepathic."

"My goodness, Jack!  What did Doctor Lam say?"

Jack shrugged.  "I'm sure the files well be on your—er, my... the desk within the hour.  The gist of it is, Daniel's scans are showing extra activity in the noggin, but he wasn't able to make anything move with just his mind.  Scored average on the 'what card am I holding' test, too."  He quickly explained the paranormal activities of the previous night and that morning, then their suspicions about stress being the trigger.

"None of us can say for sure if he gained these abilities with version 3.0 or 3.5, but unless he gets some control over them, nightmares a re going to be interesting adventures for a while," he finished.  "I never thought I'd hope there was a ghost in my house, but spooks were pretty well ruled out when the books stopped flying when he woke up.  Daniel and I are hoping the Nox will be able to help him with both his abilities and his emotions.  I gave Walter a message for Thor to pass along."

Hammond looked stunned.  "Should he stay on-base until then?  If he has no conscious control—"

He grimaced and twiddled his thumbs absent-mindedly.  "I'd rather he didn't.  The reason I insisted Daniel come live with me in the first place is that he is a kid.  Now, he may have a grown-up's memories and experiences, but he's a lot more... open.  He needs sunshine and fresh air and somebody to tell him he doesn't have to be so serious all the time."

"Other than his size, he seems normal enough to me," Hammond began.

"That's because he's a little scared of showing people he's not still the same."  He took a deep breath.  "That machine took away more than just his physical age, George, it stripped him down to a much younger emotional age.  Big Daniel wasn't big on touching people.  Little Daniel likes hugs.  He also used to be pretty particular about choosing clothes and such in neutral colors, but now he likes bright, happy colors.  Big Daniel read the Sunday newspaper during The Simpsons, Little Daniel fights me for the funnies and laughs at Bart and Homer."

"Jack, I don't quite know what to say," Hammond admitted.  "Doc—Daniel's always been so private, it's hard to imagine him so... child-like, is the only word I can think of."

Jack sighed.  "Yeah.  It's taking quite a bit of getting used to for both of us."

Hammond nodded.  "I understand the two of you got a visit from a state social worker yesterday.  Now, I had Colonel Carter drop a few hints when she took the paperwork in Friday that the whole process needs to go as fast and smoothly as possible, and that we'd be willing to take the case to higher authorities if necessary."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Jack smiled.  "At least not from Daniel's new social worker: Sara Basham O'Neill."

"Your ex-wife?"

"Got it in one.  I think the Jackson charm's pretty well got her won-over, and I know the little imp's positively delighted she's got his case.  He practically ordered me to ask her out for coffee."

There was a knock at the door, and Sergeant Harriman leaned into the room.  "Sirs, Thor relayed our message but has yet to receive a reply from the Nox.  He broke orbit of Maidiera just a few minutes ago to travel to the Nox homeworld to find out what's happened."

"How long 'til we hear back?" Hammond asked.

"He said he'll be there in just under three hours."

"Thank you, Walter," Jack dismissed, turning back to the other general.  "In the meantime, I have a phone call to make."

Hammond glanced at the clock on the wall.  "If you make it fast, son, you may be able to invite the social worker to lunch."

Jack grinned.  "Excellent strategy, sir."

Chapter 11

For the first few days, Daniel grumbled good-naturedly about feeling like a walking Ancient-English-Maidieran dictionary, to which Jack always responded that he was a walking battery: just plug him into the device, light it up, switch it off, and move on to the next.  Teal'c decided that his contributions to the efforts would be minimal and requested permission to travel to Dakara to help his fellow Jaffa with the construction of their new government.

The single greatest challenge in helping the Maidierans translate the computer interfaces lay in Daniel's limited technical expertise.  Fortunately, the Old Tongue and Ancient were not so greatly diverged that the scientists couldn't help Carter and Daniel make educated guesses at the meaning of a word or phrase.  Ancient terminology was also very straight-forward or literal, such as astria porta, which directly translated to "star gate", or Jack's personal favorite, the small, hand-held dentemondo, or "dental cleaner" which was essentially a battery-powered toothbrush.

Then there was the machine in another lab which Jack immediately called an "Ancient tanning bed" for its clam-shell construction.  Upon discovering the experiment log within the database referenced it as a renovus cuvicum, Daniel immediately forbade anyone to touch it.  The name translated indirectly as a "chamber or bed of reviving or repair", and he speculated it was one of the first steps between the Tel'chak device used to reanimate dead tissue and the Goa'uld sarcophagus.  While the notes indicated the machine was inoperable, it saw use in only a few short days.

*      *      *

"Have I mentioned I always liked your hair long?"

Sara smiled, resisting the urge to finger the locks kept blond by the magic of Revlon.  "Only twice since we sat down."

"Right.  Well, I do, you know."

"Charmer.  So how'd you find someone to watch Daniel so quickly?"

Jack grinned back at her, looking for all the world like a Cheshire cat.  "Would you believe the little guy practically ordered me to call you this morning?  Told me he'd be just fine spending the day with Sam since he wanted to talk to her about Big Daniel."

"Sam?  Daniel mentioned her yesterday, along with somebody named Murray."

"Colonel Carter, his—or rather Big Daniel's team leader and intellectual twin."  He shook his head.  "Those two have been known—were known to drive me absolutely nuts with their high-speed geek conversations.  Murray is a really really big guy who took Big Daniel's safety seriously, and has now sworn to protect Little Daniel.  His name's not actually Murray, but it's a lot easier to say than his real name, so we call him that or 'T'."

"Foreign?" Sara asked, dipping a few fries into her ketchup.

"Yeah, definitely not from around here," Jack nodded.

She swallowed her mouthful.  "Okay, I got it now.  Sam's a blonde, Murray's a big black guy, and Daniel wore glasses?"

Jack hooked-guppy expression was remarkably reminiscent of the look on his face when he first opened his front door the day before.  "How... oh, right... I had pictures of them at my house."

She shrugged.  "That and I remember them from the hospital."

"Hospital?"

"The hospital where I apparently hallucinated them, two different versions of you, and an imaginary kid who looked an awful lot like Charlie," she replied, nibbling on another fry.

Now he looked like somebody kicked him.  "Oh.  That."

"Yeah.  That."  Sara let him squirm a few seconds longer before adding, "I don't expect any answers, Jack, especially not after all this time.  That was over eight years ago, you know."

"Yeah," he agreed.  "To paraphrase a good friend of mine, 'that was a lot of brown hair ago'.  But... uh... you know, you're right about which ones they are.  Were.  Whatever."

"So that was Sam who met the two of you at the mall?"

"You saw that too?"

"Of course, Jack, I was secretly stalking you," she teased.

He lightly smacked his cheek with one hand before using the open palm to prop his chin up on the table.  The effect was of comical bewilderment, and she found herself smiling.  "Dang, the kids were teasing me about being out of shape just a few weeks ago... now you're telling me all my spec-ops honed senses have gone to pot?"

Her sarcastic reply was cut short by the sudden ring of a cell phone.  Jack had just taken another bite of his sandwich, so he peered at the number on the face as he chewed, swallowed hard, and answered the call with a food-muffled "O'Neill".

Sara couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but it was not a call her ex-husband had been expecting.  "Already?" he gaped.  "No, no, I'm still at lunch.  Yeah.  Really?  Crap, I'll head back right away.  Don't tell Daniel."

"Duty calls?" she sighed when he hung up.

"Emergency back at the base," Jack confirmed, digging for his wallet and dropping enough bills on the table to cover their meal and a generous tip.  As he shrugged into his jacket, he asked, "Can we do this again?  Soon?"

She nodded absently.  "Sure, Jack.  Just give me a call."

With a puff of cold air from the front door, he was gone from the deli, backing his truck out of the parking lot so quickly his tires barked on the pavement.  Appetite gone, Sara wadded up her napkin and threw it on the table, reaching for her coat and purse.  Enjoyable and enlightening as the lunch had been with regard to his former teammates, it only served to remind her that Jack O'Neill lived two lives, and his personal life always took a back seat to his military secrets.

"Don't tell Daniel," he'd said before he hung up, and she felt the illusion she'd created about Jack and Daniel's new life together fade away like wisps of smoke.

With that many secrets, what sort of life could Jack give the boy?

Chapter 12

There was something afoot on-base, and Daniel wanted to know what.  When he'd finished his confession to Sam about her evil duplicate's actions, the pair had hugged each other tightly until he'd squeaked.  For a moment, they'd both forgotten he wasn't stronger than her anymore, and broke away in surprise.  Then they shared a laugh about it until the phone rang.

Her smile was gone when she hung up the phone.  "Nothing, Daniel, just an update on something offworld," she hedged when he asked her about the call.

And people thought he was a lousy liar.  Instead of pressing the issue, though, he changed the topic, asking her about the data packet sent back from Atlantis when they'd dialed in with the Maidieran ZPM to report the successful repulsion of the Wraith attack.  The lively discussion which followed reminded him of some of his and Sam's earliest brainstorms, and he completely forgot about the phone call for nearly half an hour.

Blame it on his newly-shortened attention span, but Daniel got bored of the conversation long before he would have as an adult.  Looking around the room to find something else to do, he caught sight of the phone and remembered the reason he'd switched topics in the first place.  He felt a brief pang of guilt as he deliberately distracted Sam with a question about Atlantis' defense shields, then slipped out the lab door while she searched through the data packet to find the answer.

Moving as quickly and quietly as his little legs would carry him, he headed to the elevator.  Earlier, he'd picked up his access card from the belongings left in the care of the infirmary after his down-sizing, and if he stood on the tips of his toes, he could swipe the card through the reader on the elevator.  The doors opened on an empty lift, so he stepped inside and pushed the button for the twenty-seventh floor.

The sergeant waiting for the elevator on that level looked surprised to see a kid exiting the compartment, so Daniel grinned and waved.  "Hi, Siler!  Just going to ask Hammond if Jack's gotten back to base yet," he offered casually, walking down the corridor like he belonged there.

Which, of course, he did, and he defied anyone to tell him otherwise.

Jack's office was empty of either general and so was the briefing room.  Passing the big table, he made his way to the staircase down to the Control Room and was surprised by the rapid activity taking place in it and the 'Gate room just beyond the window.

"Daniel!" a voice exclaimed, and he looked up to see Jack striding across the room toward him.  "How did you get down here?"

"I took the elevator," he answered matter-of-factly.

"I meant why are you down here?  Carter was supposed to—"

"General O'Neill!" Sergeant Harriman interrupted.  "Colonel Carter says—oh, wait."  He turned back to the phone in his hand.  "He's down here, ma'am."

"Sam was supposed to keep me in her office?" Daniel asked.  "What's going on that you don't want me to know about?"

Just then, Hammond came up the stairs, in deep discussion with the trailing Colonel Reynolds.  Daniel didn't hear all that was said, as the last word he heard was "Replicators".

For a moment, Daniel was standing once again in that weird amalgamation the Replicator version of Sam had created of his homes on Vis Uban and Abydos.  He was powerful, in control, and could feel every one of the trillions of mechanical demons straining against his command to do that which they'd been programmed: feed, learn, multiply, spread.  They were not normally driven by a singular conscience, but by a common purpose, and that had made his struggle to keep them immobilized all the greater.

Their mistress had sent her minions in spider-shaped ships to advanced worlds her template had known unreachable by Stargate: the ruins of Tollana, Harlan's factory, Euronda, Bedrosia and Optrica, Hebridan, the Gadmeer's new planet... and the Nox homeworld.  Because she was modeled after Sam in memory and emotion, the Replicator shared Sam's frustration with the incredible, almost magical powers of the Nox.

If Sam found anything unexplainable by science to be annoying, then the evil android found it intolerable.  And anything which she couldn't possess or understand, she destroyed.

Like Daniel.

"Come on, Danny!  Talk to me, kiddo.  Please."

Daniel was startled from the memory, blinking through unwelcome tears to find himself back at the SGC.  Jack had dropped to one knee in front of him, carefully cupping his hands on Daniel's lower jaw and cheeks, thumbs tenderly stroking those treacherous tears away.  The look in his eyes was of deep concern, bordering on fear.  Daniel wondered briefly what brave, stubborn Jack was so afraid of, then realized the fear was for him.  Jack was afraid for him.

"Thor can use the disruptor technology on his ship to destroy the Replicators," he blurted.

"Daniel?"

"The Replicators on the Nox world.  The total knowledge the Replicators possess is limited by their numbers, and the ones on the Nox world are among only a few thousand in this galaxy not destroyed when the rest of them were.  They don't have the knowledge to combat the disruptor technology any more, so Thor can destroy them to save the Nox."

Jack's eyes were wide with surprise.  "How did you—"

"I remember, Jack.  I remember being in control of them, trying to get them all to just stop, but it was like... trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose: it works for a short time, but soon there's just too much and the smoke...  I remember..."

"Do you know why these weren't destroyed when the others were?" General Hammond asked, leaning over Jack's shoulder to look down at him concernedly.

Daniel choked on the moisture running down his cheeks and wrapped his arms around himself to try to stop the shaking of his body.  "The Nox 'Gate was buried.  They dug it up to rescue the Tollan from Maybourne, but when Lya came to Skaara's Triad, she arrived in a Tollan ship."

"So... no 'Gate, no Destructo-Wave from Dakara," Jack summarized.  "Walter, get Thor back on the line and tell him to just use the disruptor on the bugs.  Then he can find out what happened to the Nox."

"You're sure that will work?" one of the scientists in the room blurted.

"Of course it will," Jack answered, turning to pin the scientist with a glare.  "Daniel said it would, didn't he?"  Suddenly, he rose to his feet, but before Daniel could mourn the loss of the comforting touch, he was scooped into Jack's arms and cradled against his body.

Daniel should have been embarrassed that he was being carried out of the Control Room by his best friend and commanding officer in full view of the assembled scientists and soldiers, but it felt surprisingly good instead.  Of their own volition, his arms crept around Jack's neck and held on tightly.

A quiet "it's all right, kiddo" was murmured into his ear, and the arms wrapped around him gave a little squeeze.  Then the voices and sounds of the SGC were miles away, because Daniel's face was pressed against Jack's collar, and Jack still smelled safe.

Chapter 13

Teal'c was surprised to find the VIP quarters so quiet and spartan, but when O'Neill looked up from the paperwork spread across the suite's small dining table to make a shushing gesture, he immediately understood the reason for the silence.  Looking tiny against the size of the bed was a bump in the covers, golden hair just barely visible over the top of the navy bedspread.  Over the gentle rumble of the SGC's environmental systems, he could hear the soft exhalations of the soundly sleeping child.

"I came as quickly as I could, O'Neill," he began quietly, crossing the room to stand beside his white-haired friend.

O'Neill put his ink pen down and rubbed his eyes.  "I know you did, T.  Did Hammond tell you why you were called?"

"He said only that there had been some change with Daniel Jackson.  I believed some ill had befallen him, but General Hammond assured me that was not the case."

"No, nothing really bad has happened to him this time... he's only re-lived some pretty terrible things."

"Maidiera," Teal'c guessed.

"No, we haven't gotten to that nightmare yet.  I'm afraid this has to do with his capture by the Replicators."

"I was informed the Nox had been attacked.  Did this trigger—"

"Actually, that was before we found out about the Nox.  The reason we asked Thor to contact them was 'cause Daniel's developed some unusual abilities and can't control them."

Teal'c cocked his head to one side.  "Abilities?"

"Yeah," O'Neill sighed.  "Telekinesis and a little telepathy.  He had a nightmare last night about the Replicators and books started flying around the room.  This morning, he told me to meet my ex-wife for coffee, which is something he couldn't possibly have overheard us talking about since Sara and I were outside in the driveway and he was in his room."

"You are seeing your wife again?"

"Well, sorta.  She's Danny's social worker."

"I see," Teal'c acknowledged, though he still had only a basic understanding of the Tau'ri rules for adoption.  On Chulak, if a child was in need of a home, he was immediately taken in by a family which desired to do so or raised by the temple.

"Anyway, once we realized he had no control over his, uh, talents, Doc Lam suggested we contact the Nox.  Thor did the honors for us but didn't get a response.  He went to their planet to find out why and found the place crawling with bugs."

"I was told Thor was able to destroy the Replicators using the disruptor technology you created."

"Yes, but only after Daniel freaked out in the Control Room and remembered some vital information about the bugs."

O'Neill had this terrible tendency to make one pull proverbial teeth to get any details from him.  "'Freaked out'?" he repeated, wishing the general would simply tell the story instead of making it a guessing game.

"Yeah.  It might have been another use of his new abilities or he might've overheard something in the Control Room.  You know how he puts two and two together and gets seventeen anyhow, so it might've just been one of his big leaps.  Either way, he remembered that the little buggers can hold only so much information.  By destroying nearly all of them in this galaxy, we crippled their little collective and made 'em vulnerable to the weapon again.  So Thor blew 'em all up, and now the Nox are rebuilding."

"That is good to hear.  Were the Nox casualties great?"

"Well, since they never attacked the bugs, none of them were hurt, but that was apparently a close thing."  He smirked.  "One of their Elders said the younger ones were about to go on the offensive just before Thor blew them all to Kingdom Come.  Can you imagine a Nox fighting back?"

The gentle, sweet-natured Nox were probably the most peace-loving beings Teal'c had ever met, but he found it no challenge to envision one of their people doing battle with evil.  After all, the gentlest, most peace-loving human Teal'c had ever met was once quite formidable in combat.  Now, of course, he was the size of a small child.

"Have they agreed to assist Daniel Jackson?"

O'Neill slumped in his chair.  "Yeah, but it will be a few days before they can spare anyone.  In the meantime, I'll be watching a telekinetic, telepathic, pint-sized doctor of multiple-ologies who suffers from violent nightmares and can't control his emotions let alone his abilities.  Poor little guy fell apart in the Control Room when he remembered the Replicators, so I brought him down here and let him cry himself to sleep.  I also had Siler's team clear the room of pretty much anything Daniel's mind could pick up and throw."

Teal'c felt the sudden need to sit down, and quickly claimed the table's other chair.  "I presume, then, that neither Thor nor the Maidierans have been able to make progress with the machine."

"Nope.  Thor's pretty well convinced it never worked right in the first place, and whichever Ancient scientist wrote the log entry on the thing was lying to cover his own sweet self.  Since the Ancients were even more advanced than the Asgard, probably the only way we'll have of fixing that machine or reversing what it did is finding the idiot who built it and kicking his glowy butt.  Assuming he's one of 'em who Ascended, anyway."

The bump on the bed stirred.  "You should call Sara, Jack."

O'Neill leapt to his feet and crossed the room to the boy's side.  "Did that this morning, Danny, just like you asked me to."

"Yeah, but now she's upset with you 'cause you took off in the middle of lunch."  The general's jaw dropped, but before he could formulate a reply, Daniel Jackson burrowed back under the covers and resumed his slumber.

"Oooo-kay," O'Neill began, exhaling heavily.  "Telepathic incident number two—or maybe it's number three."

"You were thinking of calling your wife?"

"Well, I am now.  It's just that the only thing I told him I was going to do this morning was meet Sara for coffee.  Lunch was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and I know I didn't tell him Hammond called me halfway through to tell me about the Replicators.  In fact, I insisted no one tell Daniel I was back, since he'd ask why, and I wasn't sure how he'd react to the bugs so soon after his nightmare.  Stubborn as he is, Danny distracted Carter, gave her the slip, and was down in the Control Room before she knew he was gone.  She feels like crap about it, too, especially since he'd just told her what her evil twin did to him."

Teal'c sighed inwardly, certain O'Neill was dragging out his explanations deliberately.  "What transpired?"

"Remember the liquid guy from Terminator 2?"

"Indeed."

"Sword-thing right through the chest."

The Jaffa winced sympathetically.  "Has he not experienced nightmares of this event before now?"

O'Neill shrugged.  "He said he hadn't been sleeping much since he descended again, so there's no way to know if the machine caused his current wackiness or not.  It's probably safer to keep him on base where he can't throw too many things around, but I want to take him back home where he'll be more comfortable.  What do you think I should do?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow.  "Whatever you believe is best for Daniel Jackson, of course.  Firstly, I believe you should do as he asks: call Sara O'Neill."

Chapter 14

Accompanied by Teal'c, the appointed ambassador to Maidiera, and the rest of the diplomatic delegation, Jack crossed back through the wormhole later that evening to find their soon-to-be allies in a frenzied panic.  Just minutes before the SGC's return, the lone transport remaining at the Ancient facility took off from the tertiary moon for deep space.  When no response was received from their hails, fighters scrambled from the defense outpost on the primary moon to intercept.  Before they could get close enough to disable the transport, a Goa'uld ha'tak appeared from the sensor-shadow of the system's largest gas giant and the shuttle disappeared into the ship's cargo bay.  Mothership and transport immediately disappeared into hyperspace.

*      *      *

"'Don't tell Daniel.'  Maybe it had to do with the kid's Christmas present."

Sara rolled her eyes.  "Sure, Jean, except for the fact that Jack admitted there was an 'emergency back at the base'.  The thing is, I was just getting used to the idea of him looking after that little boy by himself.  Jack was very tactile with Charlie, giving him hugs and picking him up and such, but always very respectful of his distance with other kids, no matter how well they liked him.  He seems to give Daniel every bit of attention and affection he ever gave our own son, but then he goes and pulls another of his spec-ops military stunts and rides off into the sunset."  She sighed.  "Good grief, I can't believe I'm telling you about one of my cases."

"You're telling me as a friend and Jack's ex-wife, so it's all right," the matronly schoolteacher answered, never taking her eyes or smile off the Tuesday evening shoppers.  She had been Charlie's sixth grade English teacher, and the two women had become close after he died. "Now, he is a general, so I'm sure it was important."

"I'm sure it was, too, but he can't keep leaving the boy in care of one of his subordinates while he goes and does whatever the heck it is they do under that mountain.  I don't believe for a moment it's not dangerous, especially when the whole reason that kid's an orphan now is because his dad—a civilian, I might add—went missing and was later declared dead.  Oh, and let's not forget that evacuation scare last month, or the chemical spill incident almost two years ago."

Jean shook her head.  "Us military wives know the score, Roy... need-to-know."

"Yes, well as Daniel's social worker, I need to know if Jack's actually going to be there for that little boy or not," Sara retorted, then quickly changed her scowl into a smile as a young lady approached the booth.

"Which one of you is Sara O'Neill?" the nervous young woman asked, relaxing once Sara waved her hand.  "I'm with the mall information office, there's a call for you from your husband."

"Ex-husband," Sara responded.

Jean made a great show of looking at her watch.  "Oh, my, would you look at the time?  Go ahead and take your break, dear, I've got you covered."

"Traitor," she muttered as she stood.  Once inside the mall office, the employee showed Sara into a small, plain room and indicated the phone resting atop a table tucked between the two upholstered chairs.

"I'll transfer the call in here, ma'am," she smiled, and vanished.

A tone sounded within seconds, and she snatched up the handset.  "This is Sara."

"Sara!"  Jack exclaimed over the phone.  "Hey, I tried you at the office, but a Miss Montgomery told me you were working Angel Tree stuff on Tuesday and Thursday evenings."

"Friday and Saturday mornings too, Jack, but you could have called my cell phone."

"I tried your cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail.  Listen, I'm sorry about taking off so quickly at lunch.  Can I make it up to you tomorrow?"

Well, this was new.  Jack had never apologized for being called away to duty in fifteen years of marriage.  "That depends on whether you find someone to watch Daniel or not."

"Nope, I'll bring the little guy with me.  Remember how you and I took Charlie to the arena to teach him how to skate?"

"Of course I do."  Then she started.  "Wait a minute, you want me to help you teach Daniel to skate?"

He laughed.  "Yeah, I figure the little guy could do with something fun to take his mind off... other stuff.  So what say you?  You're the one who knows all the fancy little twirls and stuff, I only know how to stop, go, and pass a puck."

"I haven't skated in nine years," she answered.  "And what's with this 'other stuff'?"

"Oh, yeah.  That."

"Jack," she warned, "don't lie to me if there's something I should know... both as Daniel's social worker and as someone who cares about him."

He sighed heavily.  "Danny had a really bad nightmare last night and scared the crap out of both of us.  I can't really go into details because... it had something to do with what his dad used to do.  We've asked for someone who can help him, but due to the nature of the project's classification, we have to get a specialist with the right clearance.  That's going to take a few days to get that person in, so he's feeling a little... um, vulnerable... especially after having had a—daymare?—today."

"You're telling me a five year-old boy knows about the secret things you people do under NORAD's noses?"

"Uh, well the project's how Big Daniel met Sha're—"

"Who?"

"Sherry.  That's the Americanized version of her name, but Daniel's wife's name was Sha're.  Anyway, you can say the project's how Little Daniel came to be."  He sounded terribly pleased with himself for some reason.  "That's the truth, Sara, I swear.  So, you gonna come with us?  Please?"

Sara never could resist Jack when he begged, and while she was sure she wasn't getting the whole story, she was reasonably certain he was being honest.  "On one condition."

"Name it.  If it is in my power to grant, that is."

Well, that ruled out asking him what the important project was.  "Before you hung up this morning, you told the person on the other end 'don't tell Daniel'.  If you're deliberately keeping secrets from that boy, I want to know... so what was that about?"

"Oh.  Well, I didn't want them to tell Daniel I was cutting short my lunch with you to deal with an off—uh, offsite emergency.  He's the one who made me call you, after all.  Actually, he found out anyway and made me call to apologize, so here I am.  Skating was my idea."

"Hmm," she replied, non-committal.  It seemed Little Daniel well and truly had Jack wrapped around his tiny fingers after all.

"Sara..." Jack whined at the silence.

She laughed.  "Sure, Jack.  But there'd better be hot chocolate."

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