Notes: Once again, this is unbeta'd; all mistakes are mine.

Monday

Sam shuffled into her kitchen early the next morning to find Teal'c and Janet already up and about, the delectable fumes of fresh coffee wafting out to meet her, coiling up through the air to meet her nose. "'Morning," she greeted with a small, tired smile, closing her eyes for a moment and inhaling deeply. "Looks like it's going to be a long work day today, huh?" Hell, if fumes alone could rejuvenate her even a little, she should request an intravenous from Janet full of the stuff.

"Good morning," Janet said. "I already called General Hammond; he's giving us a bit of an extension...we don't have to be in until this afternoon."

"What a saint," Sam mumbled.

"Did you not rest well, MajorCarter?" Teal'c asked, setting a mug of coffee on the counter in front of her. Sam eagerly closed her hands around it as though ceramic held the key to the multiverse.

"Not too bad," she admitted, "but I kept waking myself up...worried," she explained with a small shrug.

"Welcome to the club," Janet toasted her. "Teal'c didn't sleep longer than a few minutes, and I've been up since 0530."

"Did you check on them?" Sam asked, having peeked in the guest room herself as she came down the hallway.

"Sleeping like babies as of...oh, twenty minutes ago," Janet reported. "Dead to the world, the pair of them."

"Well, not anymore," a quiet, sleep-roughened voice piped up from behind them. The trio gathered in the kitchen turned as one, their attention drawn to the end of the hall where Jack stood, hair sticking up on end, holding Daniel, who was fairly plastered to the colonel's chest, head tucked under Jack's chin. "Hey," he greeted, as though unsure of his welcome among their little impromptu party.

"O'Neill," Teal'c greeted with considerably more warmth than he had the day before, inclining his head to his brother in arms and moving to the cupboard for another clean coffee mug.

"Good morning sir," Sam and Janet said dutifully, and Janet overcame her nerves first while Sam hovered--quite uselessly, she decided. Janet approached O'Neill and studied Daniel without touching him quite yet. "Daniel?" she coaxed quietly. "You want to look at me for a minute, honey?"

The light head shook negatively and one hand untwined itself from Jack's neck to pull as much of the Colonel's t-shirt to cover his face as possible. "Hey now," Jack said. "Look at the Doc; come on." Daniel mumbled something into Jack's shirt. "What's that?" Jack asked, dipping his ear closer to Daniel.

"She pinched me witha needle," Daniel pouted. "Don' wanna."

"No more needles honey; I promise," Janet assured him, her dark eyes flinty when she made eye contact with Jack, who flinched involuntarily. Sam silently applauded her friend; she could cow just about anyone when she put her mind to it, and right now Sam felt that her CO quite deserved it. When Daniel finally turned his head and pulled the t-shirt away from his face enough to see Janet face-on, she did a quick check of his pupils' responsiveness and his pulse, and then smoothed the rumpled hair away from his forehead. "How do you feel this morning?" she asked him. He hitched one shoulder in a little shrug, and Jack gave him a little squeeze. He squeezed back, unabashed, and answered Janet with a tiny smile.

"Okay," he whispered. Janet returned the smile with one of her own.

"Good, because we have a big day today," she informed him, infusing as much enthusiasm into her tone as she could manage.

Daniel's eyes went wide. "What're we doin'?" he asked.

"Well, we're going to work." Sam finally found an opening to place some input of her own. "You're going to spend the day with a few other kids at the mountain."

Daniel didn't like that plan at all, and he pressed close to Jack again. "Don' wanna," he sulked. "Wanna come with you."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Sam said, coming up herself and, with a look that asked and received immediate permission from Jack, who looked all too ready to make amends as soon as possible, took Daniel into her own arms. The boy resisted for a moment, then yielded to Sam and hung quietly from her arms. "You can't come in to work with us, but it'll only be for a few hours, and there are quite a few other kids there for you to play with. I'll be finished before you know it." 'That, and we seem to have some more...unusual issues to work out,' she added silently. Unusual, even for them. Daniel glanced between her and Jack, seeming to pick up on the tension between them. The Colonel cleared his throat.

"Hey buddy, how about you take Teal'c and Janet back to your room and show them all the great new toys Sam bought you?" Jack bribed.

Teal'c picked up on the Colonel's line of thought and straightened from where he was leaning against the refrigerator. "I would very much like to see this 'Gameboy' O'Neill is so fond of, DanielJackson," he said, and Daniel immediately slithered from Sam's grasp and raced over to the Jaffa to seize his hand.

"I'll show you, Teal'c!" he said brightly, hauling on Janet as he went. "You c'n come too, Doctor Janet, but 'member, no needles," he said firmly. Janet gave into a helpless laugh and pretended to have to run to keep up.

"Right, right," she said, "you have my word."

---

When Sam was left alone in the kitchen with the Colonel, the awkwardness left over from their argument returned full force without their companions around to deflect it. She secretly wished Teal'c had stayed behind to referee. Or protect her from her own discomfiture. Either one. "Uh, more coffee?" she offered lamely, already moving for the coffeemaker.

"Sure," Jack said quietly. He perched himself on one of the stools at the counter, setting down his only half-empty mug and running a hand through his dishevelled hair, the look that said he would rather be anywhere but there returning to his face. Sam watched him out of the corner of her eye as she prepared a new pot of coffee; his gaze kept stealing toward Daniel's room, and she half-expected him to join Teal'c and Janet in their exploration of Daniel's toys.

"Sugar?" she asked. Yep, definite deer-in-the-headlights look there, she thought as the dark eyes blinked back to her in apparent surprise.

"Huh? Oh, sure. Yeah. Thanks."

Sam placed his mug in front of him, deciding to put him out of his misery. "I appreciate what you did last night," she said stiffly. "I can tell Daniel does too."

Jack looked relieved that she wasn't going to chew him out again, and dipped his head in a bit of an uncomfortable acknowledgement. "Like you said, it was the least I could do," he said quietly. "I...look Carter, I'm sorry about how I snapped at my place, especially in front of Daniel, but you have to understand that the reason I didn't want him around was so that nothing like that would happen."

"What; out of sight, out of mind?" Sam regretted the jab the moment it left her mouth; the Colonel was trying to explain himself, but she just couldn't stop the remark from escaping.

Jack shook his head slowly. "Not really...I knew the minute that alien told us this was permanent that I was going to have a lot of thinking to do--and you know how much I hate that," he said with a weak smile. "I wanted to work through everything and anything that popped into my head when it came to Daniel as...a kid, and I felt that if I didn't have him or anyone else right in front of me, pressuring me for a decision that I really couldn't make at the moment, then I could take my own time on it and really assess the whole situation. Then you showed up Saturday morning to just drop him off, and...I guess I just sort of snapped."

"I'm sorry I did that," Sam said sincerely, "but at the time Teal'c and I thought it was a good--"

"I knew it," Jack said with a soft snort of laughter. "I knew there was more than you in on it," he explained to her questioning look.

Sam smiled. "Yeah," she admitted. "It was sort of a group effort; everyone we thought you could think of to call to bail you out was given an alibi for the day, just in case." She was silent for a long moment, and then shrugged. "On the bright side, it did get some roadblocks out of the way."

"And nearly cost a little boy his mental stability," Jack said quietly, and with more than a little regret, and even more self-disgust.

"Kids get like that...I think," Sam said, and then chuckled slightly. "I guess you know more about that than I do." She realized what she said too late, and smacked her forehead. "I'm sorry."

Jack smiled tightly. "Nah, it's all right. You are right; kids can get pretty upset, but I don't ever remember Charlie getting so worked up; enough to make himself sick? Not since he was colicky as a baby. Nope, this was my fault here, and no matter how much of an asshole I might be sometimes, and despite what it may seem like, I don't get my kicks out of emotionally abusing children...even if that child is Daniel, the arguably biggest pain in the ass of all time," he said drolly."

Sam laughed at that, relieved that he wasn't taking her...for lack of a more polite term...bitchiness personally. They lapsed into silence for a few long minutes, the quiet broken only once by Daniel's laughter from down the hall. Sam and Jack both smiled slightly and exchanged looks. "He was asking for you last night, before you came over," Sam admitted. Jack winced. "I'm not trying to...you know, lay more blame on you or anything, but he was. Even when he was out of his mind with tears, he only wanted you. That's why I let Teal'c at you..." She made a face. "Not that I'd have been able to stop him. I hoped he would--"

"'Kick my ass clear to next week?" Jack suggested.

"Something like that," Sam admitted with a blush. "To be honest with you, I was out of my league last night. I had no idea what to do with Daniel when he started crying that badly; I just knuckled under and called Janet, Teal'c...I probably would have called you myself if I hadn't been pissed off with you."

"He asked me if he could come home with me," Jack blurted out, in an admission of his own. Sam froze. "When he woke up at around midnight," Jack elaborated, "he asked me if he could come home with me."

"What did you say?" Sam found herself demanding through a tight throat. Why was she getting angry? It wasn't as though the Colonel coached Daniel to ask him...

Jack shrugged. "What could I say? I told him to go back to sleep and reminded him that he's happy here with you."

Sam pondered that, finally sighing and slumping onto the stool to the Colonel's right. "What are we going to do?" she wondered aloud.

Jack shook his head slowly. "I'm not going to just tear him away from you, Carter...that's not fair."

"To me? Or to Daniel?"

"To both of you. When I have all this shit worked out in my head and I decide that maybe I should have taken Daniel with me the minute we got back from the planet, I can't expect for him to just change hands automatically, not after everything you've done for him the past week or so, and everything I...haven't."

"Look," Sam said firmly, "lets--let's not worry about me here, okay? I'll do whatever is best for Daniel, and if he wants to go with you, I'm not going to force him to stay against his will."

"It appears quite a few people don't think that him coming to stay with me is the best thing for him." Jack pointedly tipped his head in the direction of Daniel's room, where Janet's voice floated out, laughingly telling Daniel to teach Teal'c how to make something or other fly.

Sam glanced away briefly. "Look...sir, you know Janet...she adopted Cassie, and she's been hounding me to get on the maternal train for years. She wants me to have what she's had, and she's all for the whole miniature Daniel idea to get me into motherhood. Kind of...none of the muss and fuss that usually comes along with new babies."

"So...what? She thinks you've been living vicariously through her? Sorry," he said quickly at Sam's glare. She shook her head slightly.

"Janet's under the impression that I'm lonely," she admitted with a thin smile. Jack raised an eyebrow, his meaning clearly read. "Are you?" She shrugged at his unspoken question. "I'd like kids of my own someday, if that's what you're...asking," she said, "and I'd certainly like someone to come home to--if not now, at least when I'm too old to prattle," she added with a small grin. She shrugged, the confession floodgates opened now. "My brother's trying to set me up with a friend of his from Denver," she informed her CO while studying her hands on the countertop, "but I really don't want to drag some innocent civilian into..." she fluttered her fingers about her "...this."

"You should anyway," Jack said, "at least for the kick of doing something other than playing with the various doohickies in your lab."

"Wow, what a turnaround of a life I'll have then," Sam mused. "A single mom, obsessed with a booty call with quite possibly the most top-secret job in the world." She sighed. "We really shouldn't be joking about this; this is serious. If what you're saying is true and Daniel really would rather live with you, we'll have to bring in some outside help--a lawyer or something--"

"What do we need lawyers for?" Jack asked, flabbergasted. "It's not like we're fighting here. I've already told you what I'll do; or rather, won't do."

"But sir, it's really not about us--we're involved, but the main player here is Daniel. We have to think about what's best for him, and what he wants. I know I sound like a broken record, but I want him to have some kind of say in where he...grows up. There's bound to be some custody caseworkers that have high enough clearance to at least talk to us, or talk to Daniel at least."

"I know Reynolds and his wife had to hire some fancy lawyer fella to handle their divorce; they needed to make sure that the kids were staying with a parent with whom they would do the least amount of damage should they come across any classified material or some bull like that," Jack said absently, then wrinkled his nose. "I don't like the idea of bringing in that kind of help, Carter."

"We should at least talk to General Hammond first," Sam amended, hoping he would agree with her, "see if he knows someone with high enough clearance...set up a meeting between the guy and Daniel, or ," she said loudly, cutting off Jack's protest, "we could get the General to talk to Daniel himself. If we ask Daniel straight-out who he wants to live with, he won't be able to choose on the spot like that, and it's not fair of us to put him in that position. If he's talking to someone not so close to him, but someone trustworthy, he might be a little more forthcoming with his feelings."

"Maybe..." Jack muttered. He still didn't sound convinced, Sam noted. It seemed that Jack O'Neill had a problem with anyone in the least bit involved in the profession of psychology or psychiatry. Or was he pushing against her plans to sort the potential mess out for another reason...?

"Sir," she said aloud, "I have to ask...would you take Daniel in, if it was decided that you were the one he wanted to be with?" At the straightforward question, the Colonel glanced up at her, the shellshocked expression back in place.

Jack stared placidly at Carter. What could he say? "No Carter, I wouldn't want another kid in my home." The words were on the tip of his tongue; he could say no, and Carter could have Daniel all to herself. It was the fair thing to do, judging by how well she was doing in the parenting department...but the more time Jack spent with Daniel, the more he let himself around the boy, the more Daniel grew on him. He hadn't been lying when he'd told Daniel he loved him; he'd loved the man--they'd been best friends--and this incarnation was proving equally as irresistible. In truth, he would be more than happy to take Daniel in and give him a home; to have another life in his house, the energy, the trials of having a child...Jack would trade anything for it. The painfully brief time he'd had with Charlie were the most blessed years of his life.

Sam saw his hesitation in answering, and read his response in his eyes. He would take Daniel in, in a heartbeat. She nodded slowly, numbly. "Then we don't really have a choice but to call in the big guns, do we?" she said to no one in particular.

=====
=====

The scientist side of Sam noticed a direct correlation between their proximity to the daycare on level two and Daniel's proximity to her leg. As she knocked on the brightly decorated door, the entryway covered with drawings and childish scribbles of "Welcome" on colored construction paper, Daniel wrapped both arms around her left leg and tried to push his way behind her as much as he could. "Remember, this is only for a couple of hours, sweetie," she said, pitching her voice in the most soothing tone she could manage. "It's...almost one o'clock now, and I won't be any later than five. I promise."

Daniel nodded a little against her leg, but didn't move an inch otherwise, and only made himself into an even more play-doh-like mold when the door opened to reveal a short, plump older woman with her arms full of a wriggling little toddler. "Well hello there," she said, her voice musical kind. She placed the toddler down and the little one, true to the description of his age bracket, toddled away when the woman put a juice box into his chubby little hand. She smiled widely at Sam before crouching in front of Daniel, who was peeking with one wide eye from behind her. "Hello there, darling," she said. "You must be Daniel; we heard you were coming today. You can just call me Dora. How are you doing today?"

Sam tried not to wince as little fingernails dug deeply into her thigh, and as unobtrusively as possible, attempted to pull Daniel's death grip off her leg before she wound up losing it to gangrene and loss of circulation. "Say hello, Daniel," she cajoled.

"H-hello." The greeting was whispered and lost in the fabric of Sam's jeans. Dora chuckled warmly.

"I know you're shy right now, Daniel, but there are quite a few children here your age who I know would love to meet you. I told them you were coming, and they asked me to invite you over to the Block Corner."

Sam noticed the grip on her leg loosened marginally, and Daniel eased back a little. "Blocks?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of his fear. "Like for building?"

"That's right," Dora said, enthusiastic but inviting, keeping her tone soft enough so as not to scare him away. "More blocks than I think you can imagine! Sam told me you love pyramids; maybe you could build me one this afternoon?"

"C'n I build a pyramid, Sam?" he asked tentatively. Sam picked him up with a smile.

"You betcha," she encouraged. "You'll have to build one so I can see just how they look. I've never seen one up close before."

Dora stepped back from the open door to let Sam enter. "They're right over there," she said, pointing to where two little girls and another boy were building various, unrecognizable structures out of the brightly colored wooden blocks. "Want Sam to take you over to have a look?"

Daniel wriggled in Sam's arms and she didn't hesitate in putting him down. "Thassokay," he said quickly. "I wanna build a pyramid right now!"

Sam and Dora exchanged relieved smiles, and Sam started walking backwards for the door. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, all right Daniel?" she called. He paused in his delving for the best blocks to look up at her with wide, wounded eyes that quickly cleared, and he nodded.

"'Kay Sam! Love you!" he called.

Happy that Daniel was going to be all right but feeling inexplicably stung that he hadn't come over for a hug, Sam shook it off ruefully, reminding herself parents were dealing with the 'growing up' stage of kids all the time, and there really wasn't any reason for Daniel, who was pretty much at the prime 'playing age', to hang around--and hang off--her all day. "I'll see you later," she said to Dora. "Thanks a lot."

"He'll be fine, Major. Have a good afternoon," the older woman said amiably. When the daycare door closed behind her, Sam shook her head with a slight smile. One challenge down, one more to go.

=====
=====

"Major Carter, I got your message. Good afternoon, the both of you; have a seat." Sam paused in the doorway to General Hammond's office, a little surprised at the gusto with which the man was ushering her and Colonel O'Neill into his office, eager to start their meeting. "Major...come on in," he repeated, and she realized she'd been staring at him a little too long. Blushing slightly, Sam hurried in after O'Neill and sat down in one of the chairs opposite General Hammond's desk. "Now," the General said, clasping his hands in front of him and splitting his gaze between Sam and O'Neill, "what's all this about? Forgive me Major, but you weren't exactly forthcoming with all the details over the phone."

"Yes sir, I'm sorry about that, but I didn't want to worry Daniel by talking about him behind his back when he was in listening distance...Colonel O'Neill and I were talking this morning--"

"Be advised, General, I'm willing to step back on this one; I'm not here to step on any toes for once," O'Neill interjected. Hammond looked curious, but Sam plunged on, determined not to let the Colonel's uncharacteristic, sudden generosity deter her.

"As I was saying, sir, Colonel O'Neill and I were talking this morning, and it's become apparent that each of us are both willing to be Daniel's permanent guardian."

Hammond focussed mainly on Colonel O'Neill, his curiosity giving way to relief. "Is that so?" he asked. He turned back to Sam, who he clearly labelled as the carrier of the conversation. "So where do I fit in here, Major?"

"Well sir, last night Daniel expressed a desire to go home with the Colonel; he was very upset and Colonel O'Neill isn't certain whether the request was genuine or simply a product of Daniel's distress...the point is, Daniel is obviously attached to both of us, but only one of us can logically be the permanent guardian he needs. We would both like that responsibility, but don't want to put Daniel in a position in which he would have to make the decision to do what he would certainly see as betraying one of us, and choose one over the other."

"So you want me to speak with him?" the General surmised. Sam nodded, a relieved smile breaking free. At least he was on the same page; that was a plus. Hammond looked thoughtful for a long moment before drawing out a light sigh. "I will speak with him, Major, but if I may make a suggestion...?"

"Of course, sir. Any outside insight..."

"I know a man; he works for the state but has been granted clearance in a number of cases regarding child custody. His name is Adam Carey; he's a child psychologist and a judge in custody cases. He's worked with a few officers on base, as a matter of fact, and from what I know, they've all had positive experiences with him. He's very good with children, and I think Daniel would like him. I could call him in, and he would certainly conduct an interview with Daniel, and likely yourself and Colonel O'Neill. He wouldn't have the final say in a decision of where Daniel would go, but he may provide some helpful guidance."

Sam looked to Colonel O'Neill, who returned her questioning gaze, alternating his between the General and her. He finally nodded, a little resignedly. "It's better than lawyers, I guess," he admitted. "But this wouldn't get out to...you know, the usual suspects? The last thing I want is for Daniel to be brought to the attention of the NID and Kinsey."

Hammond shook his head firmly. "Carey has been working with us for years, Colonel; he's well trusted and well-liked. We've never had any problems with him, and he will be made well aware of the fragility of the situation before he's allowed anywhere near Doct--Daniel."

O'Neill nodded. "All right then," he said. "When does the shrink come in?" Hammond smiled wryly. "I'll give him a call this afternoon," he promised, "and most of the time Doctor Carey is very flexible in his scheduling. I assume the two of you would like this worked out sooner rather than later?"

"I think that's a given, sir," Sam said with an apologetic smile.

"Very well, then. I'll let him in on the importance of this, and I'll let you know when he can come in."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now, I believe--you most of all, Colonel--the two of you have paperwork to be done?" he said. "I think I've given you enough free time, don't you agree?"

Colonel O'Neill whispered a half-hearted "D'oh" as he rose, shaking the kinks out of his knees. Sam followed him a bit more slowly, turning at the door to smile gratefully at the General. "Thank you, sir."

"No need for that, Major," Hammond said. "Anyone on this base would just about give the shirt off their backs for Doctor Jackson. That hasn't changed, even if his...outward appearance has."

=====

"Janet."

"Hey Sam." Computer-bound, Janet nonchalantly clicked open another window as her friend entered the office, deliberately typing in Sergeant Siler's latest test results. "What's up? Daniel settle in at the daycare okay?"

"Oh yeah, he was fine when I left. A little shy, you know, but once he saw the load of blocks they had in there, he just couldn't stay away. I'm just taking a little detour before I go pick him up."

"Ah."

"What, uh..." Janet didn't even realize Sam was so close to her until the other Major leaned in slightly and pointed at the screen. "'DivorceNet'?" she scoffed. "Janet, what...wait a minute." Sam pried Janet's hand from the mouse and clicked the minimized window open, revealing a list of articles regarding 'Military Divorce'. "'Military Divorce'?" she read, incredulous. "Janet, what are you doing?" she demanded, instantly on alert.

Janet forced a noncommital smile. "Nothing, Sam--I'm just reading up on a few things."

"Yeah, well unless you're deciding to revisit your marriage--which I thought, since you always make it crystal clear to whoever asks, was long over--I know you're up to something, now spill."

Janet sighed and whirled her chair to face Sam. "Fine. I'm just looking at some options in Colorado regarding child custody--"

"After a divorce?" Sam finished the sentence as a question. "Let's rewind here, Janet. First of all, Colonel O'Neill and I weren't married in the first place. Second of all, what law in any state in any country will cover this?"

"We have to start somewhere," Janet disagreed.

"Janet, you're blowing this way out of proportion. We don't need lawyers, for God's sake! The Colonel and I just spoke to General Hammond a few hours ago, and he told us that he knows a great kiddie psychologist who can help us out."

"I didn't say 'lawyers' at any point in this conversation. All I'm saying is that we should know where the courts stand on child custody in case this should--in all unliklihood--escalate to the level of a judge. And look here," she said eagerly, trying to draw Sam's attention away from her innocent meddling, "at this. 'Attachment Theory'. Belief that a child may not develop the ability to trust a caregiver if they don't have a single, steady caregiver, a stable presence. Something you've been."

Sam squinted at the screen. "It also says that a child can form attachments with more than one caregiver. 'Divorce Dictionary'? Janet, give me a break."

"Hey, I happen to know that this site can work wonders. Besides, since you've been Daniel's primary caregiver since this entire thing started and you can be considered a 'mother'...you have an excellent chance of retaining custody."

"Janet, I already told you that I'm not going to force Daniel to stay where he doesn't want to stay, and I'm certainly not going to fight the Colonel for him."

"Sam, I don't want to sound negative, but no judge in the world listens solely to the wishes of a five year old child. Kids are fickle; Daniel could decide one minute he wants to stay with the Colonel, but you know how easy it is to coerce a child. Offer him...I don't know, ice cream or something, and he'll be your best friend 'til the end of time."

Sam sighed heavily. "Janet..."

"Sam, you're the de facto parent, and you're just as capable as providing adequate care for Daniel as Colonel O'Neill. One of you is away just as often as the other, home at the same times..."

"And let's not forget that the Colonel has a lot more experience with full-time parenting than I do," Sam interjected. "Say, his ten-odd years to my...oh, hey, look at that--none!"

"Which means absolutely...well, maybe not absolutely...but it isn't important," Janet encouraged.

Sam stepped back from the computer, physically removing herself from the website. "I'm late," she said wearily, rubbing her forehead, massaging the encroaching headache with the pads of her fingers. "I've gotta go pick Daniel up. I'll talk to you later on, Janet."

"Okay..."

"And turn off that damn website, will you? There's no point in reading up on all of that, because we're going to solve this little dilemma the..not-so old-fashioned way."

"Fine." Janet waited until Sam had left the office, and her fingers clacked over the keyboard, reopening the DivorceNet website. 'Sometimes things can't be worked out without some form of legal system, Sam, and if you love that boy half as much as I know you do, you're going to thank me when you have every loophole figured out.'

=====

"Do it again, Jack! Do it again!"

"Arrrggggh, do I have to? You're killin' me here."

Sam felt one corner of her mouth lift into a slight smile at the sound of Daniel's high-pitched, delighted giggle, and she peeked into the daycare room to see Colonel O'Neill standing in front of the little boy, hands behind his back and standing at attention. She watched curiously as Daniel bounced in his seat a little, pointing to where he presumed Jack's hands were. "C'mon, Jack! Do iiiiiit!"

The Colonel sighed dramatically. "Fiiine," he said. "But this is the last time, because all the magic is starting to run out."

Daniel's eyes were huge. "Magic?" he whispered.

The colonel nodded solemnly. "Of course, magic. How do you think someone can do this? It's impossible without magic."

"Show me show me!" Daniel chirped. Jack grinned, and Sam stifled a laugh as both hands were thrust forward, and the Colonel started juggling what he had in his hands--crayons, a mini globe...he sent the items twirling around Daniel's head, expertly tossing them behind his own back and up and over, grabbing and tossing, the items seeming to bounce with minds of their own. Daniel shrieked with unrestrained laughter as each item was finally allowed to drop, each landing neatly in the small shoebox at Daniel's side. Daniel applauded enthusiastically. "Show me how to do that! Show me!" he begged.

"Oh, I'll teach you it sometime," Jack promised, "but it'll take a long time for you to get that good at it, and Car--Sam is coming to get you soon."

That was her cue--

"Ohh..."

Sam paused, her hand stretched out slightly to push the door open. "What's wrong?" she heard the Colonel ask.

"I wanted to play some more," Daniel admitted in a whisper.

"Sam'll play with you when you get home; didn't you tell me she bought you Hungry Hungry Hippos the other day?"

"I wanna play with you," Daniel said.

"Ah..." Sam watched as the Colonel sat beside Daniel, hands clasped in front of him. Daniel studied him closely, carefully mimicking Jack's posture exactly. "Well, I'll tell you what I can do for you...I'll talk to Sam, and if you want, you can ask her too, and maybe this weekend you can come over and we'll have another afternoon. How does that sound?"

"How long from now's the weekend?" Daniel asked, latching onto that invitation like a lifeline.

"Hm. This is Monday, so there's Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday will probably be the day," Jack said. "So five more nights, counting tonight."

"Five sleeps?" Daniel sought confirmation.

"Five sleeps."

"That's a long, long time," Daniel said, biting his lower lip. Sam watched the Colonel gently pull the lip out from under the upper teeth with his own thumb and ruffle Daniel's hair.

"I'll see you during the day when you're here. I'll come visit you like I did today."

"Okay...Jack?"

"Yes, sir?"

"On Saturday can we go get ice cream again?"

"You bet we can. What's a Saturday without ice cream?"

"But we don' hafto go to the park again, right?" Daniel pleaded. "I don' wanna go to the park again." Sam didn't miss the pained look that crossed the Colonel's face at the urgent, heartfelt request, but he visibly schooled his expression for Daniel.

"We don't have to do anything you don't want to do," he promised quietly.

"'Kay."

That was her cue, and this time Sam took it. "Hey you two," she said brightly as she pushed the door open the rest of the way and headed inside. Daniel glanced at Jack before hopping from his perch and running to her, flinging his arms around her legs in a tight hug.

"Hi Sam!" he said. "You gotta see my pyramid! Lookit, here it is over here!" Sam found herself dragged over to the Block Corner, where a nearly perfect pyramid, nearly the same height as Daniel himself, stood, made up of red, blue and black blocks. "Dora helped some," he admitted, "but I did most of it all by myself! I drawed something for you too; it's in the bag Dora lended me! It has the same boy from my t-shirt on it; remember, Sam? Remember the boy you said was a Pharaoh but wasn't really? Dora said I'm a real good painter and I painted a picture for you'n'Jack'n'Teal'c..."

Sam leaned over to pick him up, grateful when he cuddled into her without hesitation. "That sounds lovely," she said. "I can't wait to see mine."

Colonel O'Neill stood up, smiling slightly, and gave Daniel's hair a quick ruffle as he passed. "I have some more work to do," he said by way of excusing himself. "'Night Carter."

"Good night sir."

"See you tomorrow, Danny."

Sam had to tighten her grip on Daniel as he reached out and snagged Jack's shirt sleeve, refusing to relinquish his grip until Jack gave him a little squeeze before he left. "Bye-bye Jack. You'll ask Sam for me, right?"

The Colonel slapped himself on the forehead as if he'd forgotten, and he tweaked Daniel's nose. "Oh right! Listen, Sam," he said, "Daniel and I were talking, and if it's all right with you, could he spend the afternoon at my place on Saturday? We thought we'd take a man's day off, go get some ice cream, watch some cartoons..."

Sam fought the grin trying to escape. "A 'man's day', huh?" she echoed. "I think we can let that happen. I can't come, can I?" she teased Daniel.

"You're not a man, Sam!" Daniel admonished. "Yer a lady!"

"That's one word for her," Colonel O'Neill muttered, and Sam glared at him.

"Nice to be teaching a gentleman," she snarked.

"Easy." O'Neill grinned. "So...about noon on Saturday? That all right with the two of you?"

"Fine with me," Sam said agreeably, but it seemed Daniel had other ideas, looking beseechingly between Sam and Jack.

"C'n I come earlier?"

=====

Janet stepped into General Hammond's office, a frown on her face, and the General looked up from his work to wave her inside. "Doctor Fraiser, what can I do for you?"

Taking the seat her CO offered her, Janet determinedly set her jaw and clasped her hands in her lap. "General, I can't help but offer my own two sense in the discussion over what is going to be done with Daniel's custody case. Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill are both keen on taking Daniel on, as Major Carter has told you already I'm sure..."

"What's your point, Doctor?" Hammond asked, not at all unkindly.

"General, forgive my bluntness, but I think you should speak with Colonel O'Neill."

"Doctor, I know you mean well, but I think you're too close to the situation," Hammond said gently.

"With all due respect, sir, I think we're all too close to this. I mean, this is Doctor Jackson."

Not wanting to dance around the subject any longer, Hammond put his foot down. "Doctor Fraiser, explain to me what you want me to speak with Colonel O'Neill about."

Janet hesitated, uncertain how to put it. "Tell him to go away"? "I think, sir...that Daniel is better off with Sam--Major Carter."

The General smiled slightly. "Is this a maternal instinct decision?" he asked. "Doctor Fraiser, we can't force Daniel to stay with someone if--"

"He is very happy with Major Carter, General."

"I'm sure he is," Hammond agreed, hand up to quell Janet's impending protest, "but, and I'll stress the fact that Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill have already placed this point before me, a five year old will not choose between two potential guardians he loves equally. A home is a home, and he won't want to upset that balance. It's a safe haven; if we know Doctor Jackson at all, he will not want to jeopardize it."

"I suppose not," Janet conceded, "but how do we know Colonel O'Neill won't get tired of him after the guilt of his initial reaction wears off?"

Hammond studied Janet closely. "Doctor, how long have you known Colonel O'Neill?" Nearly seven years, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"He's disagreed with Doctor Jackson's decisions on numerous occasions, has he not?"

Impatient of Hammond's intended drawn-out lesson, Janet sighed. "Yes sir, but--"

"But this is different. I know, Doctor, but this is still Jack O'Neill we're talking about, and when he and Doctor Jackson reconcile over a disagreement, more often than not the disagreements have been left behind."

"As far as we know," Janet murmured.

"Point taken."

"General, are you suggesting that we advise Major Carter to hand custody of Daniel over to Colonel O'Neill?"

"No, Doctor," Hammond said firmly. "They are adults, and they'll work out whatever needs to be worked out. I'm asking you not to base your decision on personal bias."

"'Personal bias', sir?"

"You and Major Carter are good friends, have nearly shared custody of Cassandra. To want Major Carter to experience a child of her own..."

Janet was already shaking her head as General Hammond was talking. "That's not what this is about, sir," she said. "This is about the fairness to Sam herself, not about my wishes for a friend. Sir, you better than nearly anyone are familiar with the relationship between Sam and her father, and also her brother; it hasn't been that long since she and her brother actually began rebuilding their relationship."

"Yes..."

"As it is, Sam rarely gets to see her niece and nephew or her brother, General Carter is incommunicado even more than usual lately...I just don't want to see her lose someone else she cares about, General," Janet admitted.

"Doctor, if it is decided that Colonel O'Neill would get custody of Daniel, Major Carter wouldn't be 'losing' him."

"Sam will tell you otherwise, General, but she needed this," Janet informed him. "The week she's had Daniel, she's been more at ease than I've seen her in a long time. Daniel has filled a gap in her life..."

"Doctor." General Hammond held up a hand, stopping her tirade. He offered her a small, tired smile. "As much as we want to help them, this is something they have to figure out on their own, with a little help when, and only when, they ask for it. Neither of us can impose our opinions or wishes on them. I know you don't want to hear it, Doctor, but we have to let this work itself out. Now," he said, standing and putting an end to the meeting, "if you'll excuse me, I have a phone call to make. Was there anything else?"

Janet remained where she was for a minute, scrutinizing him, before slowly standing. "No sir; that was all."

Hammond nodded decisively. "Dismissed, Doctor."

---

When Fraiser left, regrettably disgruntled but hopefully understanding, Hammond reached for his phone and looked up the number he hadn't had to call in nearly a year, the number he hoped would settle many of the problems his people were facing. He sat back in his leather-backed chair, receiver hooked between his ear and right shoulder, waiting patiently for Carey to pick up.

**Hello, Doctor Adam Carey's office.**

"Good afternoon; this is General George Hammond at Cheyenne Mountain. I'd like to speak with Doctor Carey, please."

**Just one moment, General.**

"Thank you." The line went eerily quiet as he was placed on hold for a brief moment, and then the click of someone picking up was heard, and a warm, familiar voice greeted him.

**General Hammond, long time no see. What can I do for you?**

"It's a long story, Doctor. What do you say to a quick meeting; this afternoon or this evening would be best, but whenever you can fit it into your schedule..." **How about O'Malley's; seven this evening? I'm afraid that's the best I can do, sir.**

"That'll be fine, Doctor."

**Is there anything wrong?**

"Not exactly...but I'm sure you'll want to be sitting down for this one, Doctor. See you then."

=====

=====

Tuesday

Jack found himself in a room he rarely did; but on those occasions when he did find himself there, it was usually when he needed straightforward, frank advice. Teal'c sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, eyes closed as though he were kel'no'reeming, though Jack knew better. Since giving up his symbiote and picking up tretonin, Teal'c had been out of sync with himself for a few weeks before falling back into the patterns he was used to--with Daniel's help, Jack knew. The events on Erebus had firmly reconnected Daniel and Teal'c in the old rhythms of their somewhat unheralded friendship, and the Jaffa had taken the archaeologist's advice when it came to keeping up kel'no'reem. Teal'c was listening, though. He just had that look about him, the one that said 'stoically attentive'--if anyone happened to ask Jack to describe the look, they'd be out of luck, but Jack knew it had to exist.

"So that's the story, T," he said, perched out of compassion for his knees on Teal'c's neatly made bed. He hunched forward, hands clasped and shoulders up around his ears, feeling like he was in confession and waiting for the priest's judgement. "People are probably looking at me, disgusted that I should want to take Daniel home with me after treating him like shit, but--"

"To whom do you refer, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, his eyes opening for the first time since Jack had entered the room. Jack blinked at him mildly.

"Well, Fraiser, for one," he said, "and I thought you were..."

"I have done no such thing, O'Neill," Teal'c assured him. "I was most disturbed by your behaviour toward DanielJackson, and feel nothing but relief that you have at last come to your senses. I cannot speak for DoctorFraiser, though I suspect she merely felt the same as I."

Jack smiled wryly. "So what if this shrink decides I'm the supposedly 'best' one for Daniel? Are you still gonna be so solicitous? I mean, Carter's been doing a hell of a job."

"Indeed she has," Teal'c agreed with a nod, "and you would, as well. I have seen you both on and off-base, O'Neill, and though I never had the opportunity to meet your son I am certain that you were an exceptional role model."

A little uncomfortable with such open compliments from Teal'c, Jack averted his gaze and shrugged slightly. "Uh...thanks Teal'c," he said, "but--"

"The unfortunate circumstances surrounding your family does not mark the kind of father you are, nor will it, I am certain, affect your judgement in caring for young Daniel," Teal'c said gently. "I, as well as MajorCarter and DoctorFraiser, have seen your instincts as a father carried over to DanielJackson, even before this transformation. It is second nature to you. The fact that DanielJackson has fixated on you more than MajorCarter or myself is not surprising to me in the least. He trusts you with his life, and for good reason." Jack met Teal'c's serene gaze with a searching one of his own, and, finding nothing but sincerity in his companion's eyes, finally nodded.

"Thanks Teal'c."

=====

Sam's cell phone buzzed in her pocket as she lurched out of the elevator on level 19, heading for Bill Lee's lab with her arms full of laptop and research. With a groan, Sam picked up the pace, skirting two slow-moving SFs with a mumbled apology, and skidded to a halt just inside the lab, dumping her armload onto the nearest bench. "Don't hang up, don't hang up," she pleaded, plunging her hand into the pocket and closing her fingers around the offending device. "Hello!" The greeting sounded more like a flustered order than a civil greeting, and she winced when the voice on the other end spoke up.

**Good morning, Major,** General Hammond said. **Am I interrupting something?**

"Oh! Uh, no, sir; I'm sorry about that; I was in a hurry and wanted to get the phone before--"

**I understand Major,** Hammond cut her off, his voice warm with amusement. **Where are you right now?**

"Uh...level 19, sir," she said, "Bill Lee's--wait. No...level 19; I have no idea which lab I'm in." It was true; Sam realized that instead of the semi-familiar interior of Lee's lab, she was surrounded by...rocks. Lots of rocks. Balinsky?

**It doesn't matter, Major; I called the doctor I told you about, and he'd like to meet with both yourself and Colonel O'Neill as soon as you can get away. Are you busy at the moment?**

"No sir; I can just drop this stuff off and be up there in about ten minutes."

**Excellent. Ten minutes, Major.**

Belly fluttering nervously, Sam picked up her gear again and headed blindly out the door. "Wooph!" Glancing up to see what barricade had placed itself in her way, Sam blushed as she realized she'd run straight into Cameron Balinsky. "Major...?" the geologist asked warily, peeking over her shoulder as though he expected to find the place ransacked.

"Sorry Cameron," Sam said hurriedly. "Phone rang, I was in the wrong lab; meant to go to Bill's." She offered a weak chuckle and edged past him, pushing herself nearly into a run by the time she'd reached Lee's lab. "Morning Bill," she nearly shouted; the eccentric man was wearing headphones again, and Sam didn't have time to stick around to find out if they were sound-blocking or just music phones--one never knew with Bill.

The scientist jumped, badly startled, and tore the headphones from his head. "Major, why are you yelling?" he asked wearily. Sam rolled her eyes and dumped everything next to him. Bill peered owlishly at the pile of texts and the laptop over the rims of his glasses. "Why..."

But Sam was already moving, halfway into the hall by the time Bill realized she wasn't beside him anymore. "Back later, Bill--have to go right now; no time to explain!"

Bill Lee scratched his head and shook it slowly, carefully pushing the pile of materials out of the way of his latest acquisition. "Okay," he said quietly by way of acknowledgement, slipping his headphones back over his ears, already deeply immersed in his work again.

=====

"You wanted to see me...sir?" Jack paused at the top of the stairs, taking in the unknown guest sitting to Hammond's right and directly across from Carter at the long briefing room table. Hammond hadn't given him the details of why the impromptu meeting was being called, and now he knew why.

Shrink alert.

"Have a seat, Colonel," Hammond invited. "This," he gestured to the man sitting beside him, "is Doctor Adam Carey; he's a child psychologist and judge."

"Part-time," Carey said with a sheepish smile. He stood and held out a hand to Jack. "I specialize in custody cases among military families. Nice to meet you, Colonel O'Neill."

Jack accepted the hand briefly and settled himself next to Carter. "Carey." He was leery of the guy, and didn't bother to hide it, and the doctor seemed to pick up on his feelings, offering up what was meant to be a reassuring smile but to Jack looked more like a condescending one.

"Don't worry, Colonel; I'm not here against anyone. I'm simply here to lend a hand where I might."

"Well you combine two of my favourite kinds of people, so of course I believe you," Jack said with mock relief. To his credit though, Carey didn't waver.

"I assure you, Colonel, I have every bit of interest in young Daniel Jackson's well-being as any of you, and while I may not know him, I do know all children deserve the best. I hope I can provide some helpful insight on how to give that to him."

Jack leaned forward slightly, palms flat on the smooth, polished surface of the table. "Tell me, Carey; just how high does your clearance go?" Hammond stared at him but didn't respond to Jack's borderline threatening tone. Hell, if this guy was going to 'help' them, he'd sure as hell have all the facts, and not a lame cover story they so often had to make up.

Carey smiled disarmingly. "I've been granted the highest clearance required to deal with your dilemma over Doctor Jackson." The reference to Daniel--the adult Daniel--wasn't lost on Jack and, though still uncertain, he relaxed fractionally, sitting back with a curt nod. He could feel Hammond's gaze linger on him and he met it briefly. The General nodded slowly and gestured to Carey. "Go ahead, Doctor."

"Thank you." Carey picked up and placed a leather briefcase in front of him and deftly snapped it open, pulling out a few files and various papers. "All right, now--Colonel, I understand that both you and Major Carter desire to be the guardians of young Mr. Jackson, am I correct?"

Jack held up a hand, not liking the way Carey said 'you'. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but... "I told Carter that if--"

"Please, Colonel, just yes or no. General Hammond has informed me that Daniel has expressed desire to live with you. Would you be willing to give him that permanent home, or are we all just wasting our time having this discussion at all?"

Jack was well aware of Carter watching him side-on, and he studiously avoided her gaze. "Yes," he said quietly, honestly. "I would be more than happy to take him in."

"All right; great." Carey fiddled with a folder, one Jack realized as his own. The psychologist flipped it open and scanned the first page, eyes lifting to Jack. "Now, Colonel, it says here you are divorced; you had one child, a son--"

"Everyone here knows about that," Jack interrupted, not wanting Charlie or the accident to be brought into this as a bargaining chip. "It's in my file so you know it's correct; can we just leave it at that?"

Carey read the rest of the page and nodded, face full of deep sympathy; Jack rolled his eyes. "Sure, Colonel," he said. "But I was only going to ask if you're certain you'd be willing to bring another child into your home--"

"What, you think I'd let the same thing happen to Daniel?" Jack snapped. "Do I look brain-dead to you, Carey?"

"Colonel O'Neill," Hammond reprimanded sharply.

"It's all right, General," Carey assured him. "No, Colonel, you don't. You strike me as an intelligent man who loves this child very much. I only ask the question because I have to; I may primarily deal with child psychology, but I know that adults often have problems of their own when it comes to adopting a child after losing their own. Is that going to be an issue with you?"

Jack met Carey's eyes resolutely. "No," he said flatly. "Charlie's death was an accident, but it won't adversely affect the way I would look after Daniel." He was glad he'd spoken with Teal'c before Hammond called; it was nice to actually have something relatively confident to say about himself. "My son's death will always be a wound, but I've come to terms with it as best I can."

Carey smiled at him again, and this time Jack wasn't put off; there was nothing false about this one; just genuine admiration and acceptance. "Thank you, Colonel." He turned to Carter then, and Jack relaxed a bit, sitting back. "Major Carter, I ran into a friend of yours on the way up to the briefing room--"

"Janet," Carter said with a quiet groan, and Carey chuckled as Jack bristled slightly.

"Don't worry, Major; I asked Doctor Fraiser for her thoughts, and all she said was that both of you are exceptional individuals and Daniel would be in very good hands with either one of you." Jack sat up in surprise; that didn't exactly sound like the Fraiser he'd run into at Carter's house on Sunday. Someone must have beaten her over the head with the Brass Knuckles of Common Sense. "I would like the opportunity to speak with..." he glanced at a note at his side. "Teal'c, as well. From what I've heard about him, I'm sure he'll be an invaluable source of unbiased advice."

Carter smiled. "Teal'c may not say much, Doctor."

Feeling the need to lighten the mood a little, Jack swivelled his chair a few degrees to face her. "Are you kidding, Carter?" he asked. "Teal's idolizes us. Bring your big notebook, Doc; you'll be there all day."

Carey chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind, Colonel. Now, Major. As I've already made clear to Colonel O'Neill, I don't want you to see my questions as any kind of interrogation. I only ask them because I need to have all the facts."

Carter nodded. "Of course."

"Okay. So, when Daniel was first found on the planet, what happened?"

"Uh--well, we--that is, Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and myself--arrived planet-side and found the boy we realized was Daniel playing with a young alien woman; Rannia. He seemed very happy, but quickly abandoned his game with her when he spotted us. Daniel ran for the Colonel--"

"Sorry to interrupt," Carey said, "but I just want to clarify--Daniel remembered the three of you?"

"Not...not exactly," Carter hedged. "He knew who we were because apparently Rannia told him who his friends were; showed him what we looked like.."

"We're pretty sure they had at least some form of telepathy," Jack couldn't help put in, trying to explain away the ready-to-question look on Carey's face. Carter nodded at him gratefully.

"Right. We can't really explain it, but she obviously got her point across because Daniel was very much at ease with the Colonel, and Teal'c and I--though to a bit of a lesser extent than the Colonel."

"Do you think this Rannia conditioned Daniel to respond so strongly to Colonel O'Neill?" Carey asked.

"I very much doubt it," Carter said firmly. "If, as we suspect, Rannia and her people were telepathic, she could very well have simply read Daniel's existing thoughts and feelings before the transformation. Daniel and the Colonel have always had a strong bond," she elaborated, "and I think Rannia was probably just mirroring in her teaching of Daniel after the transformation what she saw in him initially."

"Got it. But when you returned to Earth, Daniel showed no uncertainty about going home with you when you offered?" Carey asked. Jack cringed.

"Well--" Carter hesitated only for a second, obviously trying to be tactful. "He was...he was disappointed that the Colonel wasn't going to be the one to take him home," she admitted, "but he accepted my offer, and he'd been staying with me for nearly a week without complaint; he seemed perfectly happy, until Sunday morning."

"The day after he spent the day with Colonel O'Neill," Carey said; it wasn't a question.

"Right. I think up until that point, Daniel had been holding out the hope that Colonel O'Neill would still come and take him to live at his house." Jack refused to look at Carter; he knew she was only relaying the facts, but it still stung to hear his shortcomings over the past week laid out in black and white to a complete stranger. "When it was, at the time, anyway, apparent that the Colonel didn't really have any intention of..adopting him, I suppose...Daniel just..."

"He snapped," Jack said quietly, eyes on the table. "I wanted to work everything out in my head before I went and made any huge decision, and I did it completely selfishly. I pushed Daniel all the way out of the picture and he just lost it." He looked up at Carey, making sure all his conviction showed in his eyes. "I've disappointed a kid before, Doc," he said evenly. "I've been called off on missions I couldn't tell my family about the day before a promised vacation, I've missed my son learning to ride a bike, his first day of school, and God knows how many hockey and baseball games he was counting on my to be there. And even though I'd disappointed Charlie hundreds of times and he'd been mad at me everytime it happened, nothing compared to what I walked in on on Sunday. I want to--have to--make it up to Daniel; not for my sake, but for his, and at this point, if he asks me for something, I don't think there's any way I'm going to say no. I want to do what I should have done but was too blind to do when this whole thing started. I want to give him a home; give him what he needs." It was the first time Jack had overlooked his reluctance to hurt Carter's feelings and just come right out and said what he wanted, and it felt pretty good. Pretty shitty too, when he caught sight of the tight-lipped look Carter couldn't completely suppress, but he had been asked to be honest, and now he was. Carey didn't appear judgemental at all, but just nodded and carefully replaced his papers into their folders, and the folders back into his briefcase.

"All right," he said. "I think that's about it for this morning; I'd like to speak with Daniel, if that's all right. If not this afternoon, I can come back tomorrow...or whenever you're ready."

"The daycare is going to McDonald's for lunch today," Carter said quietly, "but they should be back around one o'clock or so. How about if I bring him up anytime after that?"

Carey smiled. "That would be great. Just bring him here; we'll probably talk somewhere he's at least a bit comfortable--maybe General Hammond's office?"

"That would be fine," the General said.

"Good. Now, if you and Colonel O'Neill don't have any other questions..." Carey left the invitation open, and Jack took it as a dismissal. He stood up, knocking slightly on the table as he rose.

"That's about it for me," he said, and turned to Carter. "I'll, uh...see you later then."

Carter nodded, not looking entirely happy but, Jack noted with relief, she didn't seem ready to tear his head off, which had to be a plus. He nodded back, and quickly made his escape down the stairs.

=====
=====

"Sam, why do I hafto talk to the man?" Daniel asked plaintively, his hold on Sam's hand growing incrementally tighter the closer the pair got to General Hammond's office.

Frowning slightly, Sam tried to think of the most tactful way to put it. "Well," she said, stopping and picking him up to set him on the edge of the briefing room table, "you know you're special, right?" She was infinitely glad right now for the fact that Rannia had explained to Daniel--at least a little--that he was different from other five year olds, and that Daniel was as intuitive as ever and could pick up on the fact himself.

That intuitive little boy was nodding vigorously now, legs swinging absently from the edge of the table, a small, proud smile on his face. "Yup."

Sam returned the smile and placed a hand on each knee, patting in time to his swings. "Okay. Now, you might not really understand some of the things General Hammond wants us to do, but everything we're doing is just to keep you safe."

Daniel's small hand covered one of hers, patting reassuringly in a strikingly adult-like gesture. "'Sokay Sam," he said wisely. "You'n'Jack'n'Teal'c keep all the bad guys away." Sam's heart twisted with affection and she couldn't resist planting a kiss on top of Daniel's head.

"That's true, but there are other things to keep you safe from besides 'bad guys'," she said carefully, not wanting to get into the number of people who would sell their souls to get their hands on this version of Daniel if word reached them of his transformation. She veered in another, more familial direction instead. "There are lots of simpler things we have to do to keep you safe, and one of those things is to set you up in a permanent home; a place where you can live and grow up." 'All over again,' her mind supplied. Daniel's eyebrows drew together in a small frown and she smoothed the little line on his forehead away with her thumb, wishing she could smooth the confusion completely away from his features.

"I live with you," he pointed out, chin clenching slightly in a visible effort to keep it from trembling. "D'you want me anymore?"

"Of course I want you," she said softly, hugging him to her until he squeaked with a little giggle, "but...remember the other night; the night Col--Jack came over to the house?" Daniel scrunched up his face in thought and nodded. "You were very upset that night, weren't you?" Sam continued, gauging his reaction. Daniel ducked his head a bit and murmured an ashamed 'yes'. Sam squeezed him again. "Don't be embarrassed or sorry," she chastised gently. "I understand why you were so upset, but do you remember what happened? You wouldn't let me near you, and you couldn't settle until Jack got there."

"You hadda call Doctor Janet," Daniel said painfully. "She hadda poke me with a needle."

"I know, and I'm sorry," Sam said, smoothing his hair. "But I was a little scared--a lot scared that you were going to make yourself very sick." She watched him for a long moment before venturing on again. "Do you mind if I ask you why you think you got so upset? Just so I can understand where you're coming from," she added quickly when Daniel glanced up at her warily.

At her reassurance, Daniel tucked his chin to his chest and mumbled his response into his shirt. Sam wordlessly lifted his chin and he huffed a little sigh. "Scared," he said, the timbre of his voice even younger with the monosyllabic response.

"What were you scared of?" Sam kept her own voice equally soft, encouraging.

"Jack didn' want me," he said, holding her eyes firmly with his own now. "I wanted Jack."

Sam nodded. "That's what I thought," she said with a little smile. "And you felt a lot better when Jack got there?"

Daniel nodded a little more enthusiastically. "He gave me a big, big hug," he said, eyes shining. "He was sad too--did you know he was sad?" Sam nodded, remembering the haunted, lost look in Colonel O'Neill's eyes when he showed up at her house, knowing what he'd inadvertently caused to happen. "He said 'sorry' and he said the park-boy was wrong; he likes me a whole lot."

Sam hadn't caught the story of the 'park-boy', but decided it was better left for another time, with another storyteller. She stared into the earnest face, tears threatening in the face of such heartfelt, renewed trust in his hero, and glanced over her shoulder where their audience was waiting in General Hammond's office. "So because of the other night, General Hammond just wants you to talk to a man--he's sort of like a doctor; but no needles! He'll ask you some questions, and you answer them any way you want to...politely, of course," she added as an afterthought, smiling. "I want you to be completely honest with him, okay? He'll ask you those simple questions, and we can decide what to do from there."

Daniel squeezed one eye shut and tilted his head to study her, finally nodding. "'Slong's there's no needles," he said decisively.

"No needles." Sam held two fingers up in a salute. "Scout's honor." She lifted Daniel off the edge of the table and set him on the floor, reclaiming his little hand in hers.

"Sam, what's a Scout?" he asked just as they reached the door of Hammond's office. She chuckled.

"I'll have to explain that later on, all right? Doctor Carey wants to talk to you now."

The doctor, a middle-aged man with thinning black hair and warm hazel eyes, stood from where he was sitting across from General Hammond and stepped up to Daniel, crouched in front of him and held out his hand. "Hi there; you must be Daniel. I'm Dr. Carey, but you can just call me Adam, if you like."

Daniel looked up at Sam to receive her encouraging nod before accepting Dr. Carey's outstretched hand. "I'm not really little," he announced, sounding more confident than he had only moments ago. "I'm s'posed to be big, but an..." he glanced around conspiratorially, "an alien made me small."

Carey's eyes crinkled at the corners with amusement, but he schooled his features to retain his solemn expression. "Yes, I know. General Hammond told me all about it; do you think you could still answer some of my questions?"

Daniel cocked his head and studied the doctor. "Only if you have secured clearing," he said authoritatively, just like he'd heard Sam say when she was talking to General Hammond the other day.

Sitting behind his desk, Hammond stifled his chuckle and Carey smiled; Sam was relieved to see that he was talking to Daniel, not at him or around him. "I have just enough 'clearing' to talk to you, Daniel--or is there something else I should call you?"

Daniel looked pensive, and something must have struck him, because he grinned broadly. "I'm Doctor Jackson," he said proudly. Sam rolled her eyes and nudged him with her knee. He looked mildly reproachful, but shook his head slowly. "You c'n call me Daniel," he said, though he didn't seem to like it.

"Very well then. Shall we get started?" Carey stood up as General Hammond did, and the General motioned for Sam to precede him out the door. "We'll talk in here, Daniel," Carey continued. "I think General Hammond is going to let you sit in his seat."

Daniel looked up at Hammond with wide, incredulous eyes, and the General let a hand tousle the light hair. "Go ahead, son."

"Don't touch anything," Sam warned, "those are the General's things and you don't want to hurt anything."

"I won't!" Daniel said, already clambering up onto the leather, twirly chair, then paused, sending Sam a look of trepidation. "Are you gonna be there when we're done, Sam?" he asked.

Sam nodded. "I have a bit of work to do, but I'll be back before you're ready to go."

He still looked unconvinced. "Is Jack gonna be here?"

Sam felt a pang of something--jealousy? she asked herself incredulously--but shook it off. "I'll find him and get him to come back too," she promised. That seemed to satisfy Daniel, and he grinned, concentrating on getting the chair to spin around with him in it. "I'll see you later," she said inanely, and Daniel waved at her dizzily from his perch on the chair.

"After you, Major," General Hammond said.

---

"Okay Daniel; what do you say we get started?"

Daniel obediently stopped spinning in the chair when Doctor Carey spoke to him, more out of his remembrance to heed Sam's warnings than any desire to please the doctor he'd only just met. He clambered to his knees on the chair, as Dr. Carey wasn't exactly visible over the table. As he rose up a little higher, he caught the doctor's amused smile. "What do you say we get you something that'll help you see me a bit better?" he suggested, and stood to retrieve a couple of thick books from Gen'ral Hammond's shelf.

"I'm not s'posed to touch Gen'ral Hammond's things," Daniel objected. "Might break 'em."

Doctor Carey rapped on the cover of the top book in his arms, a low hollow sound reaching Daniel's ears. "Oh, I don't think you're going to hurt the books just by sitting on them," he assured Daniel. "Want to hop down for just a second?" Still uncertain, Daniel nonetheless did as he was told, and Doctor Carey carefully set the books down on the chair before lifting Daniel up to sit on them. Daniel's legs were bare aside from his thin shorts, and the books were cold against his skin. He fidgeted a moment, a bit put out that the books weren't nearly as comfortable as the soft cushion of the seat of the chair, but didn't complain and sat quietly as Doctor Carey resumed his own seat. "Okay Daniel; I'm going to start with a few basic questions."

"'Kay."

"Okay. How old are you?"

"I'm five."

"Five! That means you'll be starting school this September, doesn't it?"

Daniel had to remind himself not to chew the tip of his finger, steadfastly curling his hand into a fist at his side. "Idano. Hafto ask Jack."

"Jack? Is that Colonel O'Neill?" Carey asked.

"Uh-hum."

"Why would Jack know when you're starting school? You live with Major--Sam, don't you?"

"Uh-huhhh," Daniel drawled, "but Jack knows ev'rything. He knowed to come to Sam's house on..." he counted carefully on his fingers "...on three sleeps ago."

"Sunday night?" Daniel nodded. "Yes, Sam told me you were very upset on Sunday. Can you tell me why?"

"I just telled Sam," he pointed out, the words muffled from around his finger. Embarrassed, Daniel quickly pulled his finger away from his mouth and clutched it with his other hand.

"Would you mind telling me? I didn't hear what you and Sam were talking about before you came in."

"I was sad 'cause there was a boy at the park that said Jack didn' love me 'cause he's only a babysitter an'then Jack told a man I didn' belong with him'n'then he got mad at Sam'n'me an' we went home 'cause he didn' want us at his house."

"Why was Jack mad?" Carey asked carefully.

"'Cause he misses Big Me," Daniel said as if it should be obvious, but a smile grew on his face; he wanted to prove to the man that Jack did want him there; he'd said so. "But Jack came to Sam's when I was crying an' he was sad too'n'he gave me a big hug'n'said he loved me'n'ev'rything. And I'm goin' to his house on Saturday an' we're gonna watch 'Indiana Jones'." Okay, so he didn't know for sure that he and Jack were going to watch 'Indiana Jones', but Jack would definitely want to watch it with him when Daniel explained how cool the movies were.

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Carey said, smiling. "I like those movies too. You must love Jack a lot, huh?"

"Yup," Daniel said enthusiastically. "Rana told me he's my best friend and he is."

"And...Rannia is one of the people you were staying with when you became..."

"They helped me; they made me little."

"Okay. And did you remember Jack when he, Sam and Teal'c came to get you on Rannia's planet?"

"I knowed who they were...I knowed Jack was my best friend ever, and Sam'n'Teal'c were my best friends too, but Jack picked me up..." he trailed off, not knowing where to go from there. Doctor Carey leaned forward a little, nodding encouragingly.

"How did you feel when Jack picked you up?" he asked.

Daniel blinked. How did he feel? He never really noticed. "Ummm..." The finger found it's way to his mouth again and he nibbled on the tip of it, thinking, and kicked his feet gently against the books until he remembered he wasn't supposed to be hurting General Hammond's things and made himself stop. "Jack loves me," he finally said, decisively.

Doctor Carey smiled again, the smile that made his eyes crinkle up and made him look like he was going to start laughing. "It sounds like he does. Do you feel...safe when Jack picks you up?"

Safe? Safe. That was it! "Uh-huh. Yup," Daniel said eagerly. "Jack squeezes me real tight, like he did when I was sad, an' I feel all warm,;n'I'm not lost."

Dr. Carey picked up on that last thing and scribbled something on his notepad. "What do you mean by 'lost'?" he wanted to know.

"I don't 'member anything," Daniel said sadly. "When Rana'n'everyone helped me I couldn't 'member anything. Sometimes Idano who people are that I knowed when I was big, and it's scary. But I 'member Jack and he helps."

"That's very good of him," Dr. Carey said approvingly. "And what about Sam? Do you feel safe with her?"

"Yeah-huh," Daniel said, and hesitated. It was different with Sam. Sam loved him and he loved her a lot, but when he got nervous or scared--which was a lot more often than he'd let on--he longed for Jack. Jack, who had picked him up on Rannia's planet without a second thought and let him cuddle in close, who'd held onto him until it was time to go and then kept him close all through the bowels of the SGC, and stayed with him 'til he fell asleep in the infirmary. He'd missed Jack immediately when he'd woken up and found Sam and Teal'c at his side, and when Sam asked him if he wanted to go home with her a big part of him wanted to jump off the bed and find Jack. He hadn't cared how long Jack took to do his work; Daniel would have waited for him. If they were best friends Jack would let him come to his house, but Jack was busy and Sam had really seemed to want him to go with her...so Daniel had said yes. He hadn't wanted to make Sam sad; she and Teal'c had obviously missed him while he'd been gone, and now he had his own room at Sam's house, with his own toys and lots of clothes with funny cartoon characters on them, but he still felt deliriously happy when Jack was around, and he could plaster himself at the man's side until Sam came to get him or until Jack had to go to his own house, at which point Daniel would feel sad again until he pushed it aside and went with Sam again. Daniel tapped his finger against his lip, pulling it between the finger and thumb as he thought.

"Daniel?" He looked up; Doctor Carey was leaning forward in his chair, voice gentle. "If I asked you a very important question, would you be able to answer it for me?"

"Umm...maybe."

"Well how about I ask you, and then you decide, okay?" Doctor Carey asked with a smile. Daniel nodded slowly. "Okay. If I asked you right now who you would want to live with, Sam or Jack, would you be able to tell me who?"

Unconsciously, Daniel glanced out toward the briefing room, but found only the empty room. Sam was still working, and Gen'ral Hammond must have had to do important Gen'ral business. "I...Idano," he said softly. Suddenly he wanted to go, to find Jack or Sam, and not answer the man's questions anymore.

"Will you think for me?" Doctor Carey pressed gently. "I wouldn't ask unless it was very, very important."

"Don' have a favourite," Daniel said defiantly.

"I know; I know you love Jack and Sam very much. But Sam explained to you why we're having this meeting, didn't she? So we could decide on a permanent home for you? We don't want to make that choice for you; we all want you to have what you want." Daniel sighed and pinched his lip harder, his other hand tapping an absent, incessant rhythm on the hard cover of the book beneath him. Doctor Carey was quiet for a long time before he finally nodded, smiling reassuringly at him. "That's okay," he said honestly. "Jack and Sam didn't want to make you choose between them; they didn't want you to feel badly about making that choice."

"Jack..." Daniel stopped himself as Doctor Carey's surprised gaze flickered up to him from his notes. "Jack wants me?" he asked.

Doctor Carey's expression softened further and he nodded. "Yes, he does. He and Sam would both like to give you a place to live. I spoke to Jack myself yesterday morning, and he very much wants to take you home."

Home with Jack? It was what he'd wanted from the start; a dream come true! But how could he just leave Sam?

"O..okay," he said finally. "I'll pick. But they won' get mad at me?"

"No; not at all," Doctor Carey assured him. "They want to know what you want. They don't want to make all these choices for you if that isn't what you want." Okay, he could do that. Just tell the man what he wanted, and everything would be okay. Jack and Sam would still love him, and he would have a home he got to pick. "Take your time," Doctor Carey told him.

Good. He could take his time.

'Cause he'd need it.

=====

=====

Sam was waiting in the briefing room with Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond when Doctor Carey allowed Daniel to precede him from the office a few hours later. They hadn't been able to hear much more than occasional mutterings between the two as the meeting had been going on, and Sam couldn't help but be curious at what was taking so long--how many questions could Carey possibly have for Daniel? She was a little worried on Daniel's behalf, so when he came out of General Hammond's office looking eerily subdued, she crouched down and opened her arms, relieved when Daniel walked right into them and hung on as if his life depended on it. "Hey sweetie; are you okay?" He nodded against her neck and, as Sam stood, wrapped his legs around her waist. "How did it go?"

"'Kay." She felt the word rather than heard it, and Daniel pressed his face closer in the hollow of her neck.

"Daniel did very well," Doctor Carey said, his normally animated tone quiet and calm. "He makes it quite clear that he looks up to everything you are, everything you represent." Carey offered Sam and the colonel a soft smile. "If you give me a day or two I could...or I could give you my preliminary thoughts if you'd rather hear something rather than nothing for a couple of days," he amended when everyone in the room fixed sharp glances on him.

"I think I'd like to hear what you've got so far," Colonel O'Neill cut in, and Daniel seemed to realize he was there for the first time, pulling back from Sam a little to reach for him. The Colonel took him immediately, one arm bracing Daniel beneath his seat and the other alternating between rubbing his back and sliding up through Daniel's soft hair. "How about you?" he asked the occupant of his arms. Sam saw Daniel nod, and General Hammond gestured them over to the table.

"Fair enough," he said.

"General, how about calling Teal'c and Fraiser up here?" the Colonel suggested. "I'm guessing they'll want to know what's going on as much as we do."

Sam cocked her head slightly, scrutinizing O'Neill, but his expression gave away nothing. She was surprised, to say the least; the way Janet had unequivocally sided with her on this matter hadn't exactly provided for the warmest exchanges between Janet and Jack, and Sam hadn't expected him to want her present for any of the 'arguments'. Teal'c was another story; he'd reacted as anyone would have expected him to. Sam wouldn't have been surprised at all if he'd shown her the same hostility he'd presented to the Colonel if their positions had been reversed. He was unbiased; operating simply to keep the team together and running smoothly.

The General seemed to be having the same doubts about O'Neill's request but nodded, heading over to his office to call up their missing companions. "Why don't you sit over here, Daniel?" Doctor Carey asked. He'd gone back to the office and returned with a pile of books, which he stacked in one of the chairs near the General's usual seat at the table. "This way you can see everything that's going on."

Daniel appeared uncertain, but with a reassuring squeeze from the Colonel smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay." He allowed Jack to situate him on top of the books, and the Colonel gave into a cheeky grin and spun him slowly in the chair, being careful not to disturb his perch. Daniel giggled and grabbed dizzily for Jack with one hand whenever he passed, hanging on to the books so he wouldn't fall with the other. Sam watched the pair at play with a soft smile, the knot in her stomach releasing its grip minutely. She'd been all for Daniel making the decision on his own, and if he had she had no doubt that whatever he'd chosen had been right for him.

=====

"Jack!" Daniel's attempt at a covert whisper cut off Jack's words.

Jack looked up from the folder he was reading from, finding the small boy leaning forward as far as he could, hands cupped around his mouth as he attempted to get Jack's attention. Jack tried not to let Daniel distract him; the kid was sitting between Hammond and Doctor Carey, and after his less-than-stellar behaviour the past week or so, Jack felt that he really had to WOW them if he would be the one to take Daniel in.

Daniel was elated that he had been allowed to stay for the meeting; the few times he'd been in the SGC and not the daycare since he was shrunk, he'd been confined to Carter's office or lab with her, or pawned off on an off-duty officer if she, Jack, Janet or Teal'c were unable to watch him for short periods of time. Despite his excitement, he was aware that something important was going on today; thus his attempt at 'grown-up behaviour'. He'd sat uncharacteristically still for the past half hour, listening to the calm closing discussions between Carey, Carter, himself and General Hammond. Teal'c and Fraiser had accepted the offer to sit in, though neither attempted to place themselves in the conversation. They each sat at the extreme end of the table so as not to be a distraction, and if one were to watch them closely they would get the impression that the CMO and Jaffa were watching a tennis match.

Jack held up one hand. "In a minute, Daniel," he said quietly. The five-year-old incarnation of his best friend sighed heavily and sat back with a grimace at Carey, eyebrows lowered in a very Daniel-like expression, unwrapping the little bit of chocolate bar he had left--a chocolate bar, admittedly, that Jack himself had bribed him with. Hammond had returned from calling Teal'c and Fraiser with the news they would be about ten minutes, and Daniel had gotten a little...impatient.

//

"Jaaack."

"Daaaaniel."

Daniel kicked his feet gently against the books until Jack stilled them. "Didn't Sam tell you not to hurt General Hammond's things?" Jack asked gently. Daniel blushed a little and nodded.

"Sorry. I'm boooorrreeedd," he whined, even before Jack could get a "don't worry about it" in edgewise. "I wanna go plaaayy."

"I thought you wanted to stay for the meeting?"

"Yeeeah, but Janet'n'Teal'c're takin' a loonnng time. This is boorring. I'm hungry."

"Hungry, huh?" Jack glanced around covertly and checked his watch. He had time. "Hang in there just a minute, okay? I'll be right back. General?"

"Go ahead, Jack." The General smiled at Daniel, who furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Where ya goin'?"

Jack palmed the top of his head and lowered his head so he could whisper in Daniel's ear. "It's a secret." He stalked out of the briefing room with exaggerated determination, heading directly for level 18.

//

Jack sighed inwardly and found his place in his notes. Thank God Daniel still had his chocolate stash. He snuck a covert glance at the pack rat in question and found him munching quietly, though his eyes were now locked on Jack again.

Safe.

He cleared his throat gently, and Daniel apparently took that as a sign that he was finished speaking about whatever boring stuff the grownups just had to use up so much time to talk about. "Jack!" he called down the table, more loudly this time, little bits of chocolate spraying onto the table. Before anyone could say a word, Daniel flushed from his ears to his neckline and slumped backwards a bit. Jack glanced at General Hammond for permission and received it in the form of a short, amused nod. Whatever Daniel had to say, Jack had a feeling he couldn't hold it in for the amount of time this meeting was bound to go on. He rose as Hammond lifted Daniel from his seat, and he led the boy to the other side of the room. Daniel peered up at him, still red, eyes wide with discomfiture. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Jack crouched in front of him with a slight smile, not even registering the five gazes aimed his way. "Don't worry about it," he said equally as quietly. "What's wrong?"

Daniel glanced toward the table and leaned closer to Jack, cupping his hands around Jack's ear. "I really, really, really hafto pee. I tried to hold it, really, but..."

"Say no more," Jack said with a quiet chuckle. He stood, taking Daniel's hand in his own. "If we can be excused for a minute, General...we have some...manly business to attend to."

Hammond kept a straight face, but Jack could read the laughter in his eyes. "Go ahead, Colonel. We'll take a short recess until you and Daniel return."

=====

Jack ushered Daniel into the nearest stall and closed the door over. "All right, go for it. I'll be right out here." He stepped back and leaned against the sinks, instinctively attuned to any sounds of distress that might arise in there. Daniel was quiet, the only sound being the rustle as he dropped his pants. Jack saw the little feet shuffle a bit on the floor, turn...the weight shifted from one to the other, the feet turned again...Jack frowned. What was he doing? "Hey, you okay in there?"

"Um--" Daniel's voice was high, as though he were trying very hard to keep it under control. "Um--I can't...can't get up," he whispered in a rush.

Oh. OH! 'Shit. Stupid, O'Neill.' "Crap. I'm coming in, okay?"

"Uh-huh."

Jack carefully pulled the stall door open, finding Daniel, red as a beet, shifting from foot to foot, distress evident. "Sorry about that, buddy; I kinda...forgot."

"'Kay. Jack, I really gotta pee."

Jack chuckled and lifted Daniel onto the admittedly high-up toilet seat, keeping his hands around his waist just in case the seat was a bit too wide for a five-year-old. The last thing he needed was for Daniel to take a plunge into a toilet. "This all right?"

"Uh-huh," Daniel sighed in relief. He grinned up at Jack briefly, and then ducked his head, one hand creeping up to Jack's sleeve to absently pick at a loose thread near the cuff. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Doctor Carey asked me to pick 'tween you'n'Sam."

Jack froze, but swallowed. "Really?" he asked, keeping his voice as casual as possible. A heart-to-heart over a toilet bowl. He could do better, but he'd take what he could get. "Were you okay with that?"

"I didn' know who to pick," Daniel admitted.

"Yeah," Jack said softly, "I thought as much. I knew it would be a little too tough for you to decide."

"I did, though."

"You did?" Admittedly, that wasn't what Jack had expected to hear. Part of him wanted to ask who Daniel had chosen, but if neither Carey nor Daniel had come out and said it already, Jack assumed it was to be kept secret. Daniel nodded, pulling a little harder at the thread. He dared a glance up to Jack's face and obviously found what he was looking for, because he sighed deeply and returned his attention to the thread he was gradually worrying away from the sleeve.

"Love you, Jack."

God damn it. Jack's throat was tight, and he couldn't even pull away to hide the embarrassingly sappy tears that were threatening, unless he wanted Daniel to fall in the toilet bowl. So instead, he dove in, clearing his throat and pressing a kiss to Daniel's forehead, nuzzling into his hair. "I love you too, buddy."

"Jack?"

"Yeah." Jack coughed against the lump that was forming there.

"I'm done peeing. C'n I get my pants back on now? It's cold."

That startled a laugh out of Jack. Leave it to Daniel to break the awkward--well, awkward for Jack, obviously not for Daniel--moment with something so utterly honest. "Yahsureyabetcha." He lifted Daniel down to the floor and allowed him to readjust his pants, then couldn't resist scooping him up and holding him as he washed his hands and hugging him against his chest as they left the bathroom.

=====
=====

Everyone looked up as Jack and Daniel returned, and Jack felt as though they were seeing right into his soul. He wished he'd remembered to look in the mirror and make sure it didn't look like he'd nearly started bawling like a baby over a toilet seat. "Okay; sorry about that, folks. Emergency over."

Carey smiled. "Not a problem, Colonel," he said, watching as Jack settled Daniel back atop the books, "we were just discussing where to leave this off. Do you have anything more you'd like to add? Major Carter feels she's made any points she wanted to make..."

Jack quickly returned to his seat, scanning the notes for anything else he'd wanted to say. Despite his earlier preparation, his intention to say every last word he'd scrawled down, everything now seemed repetitive, redundant. Daniel's candour in the washroom had effectively thrown the blinders on whatever else he'd wanted to say. "No; I think that's about it."

"Okay." Carey turned to Daniel. "Daniel, would you mind stepping out with Dr. Fraiser and Teal'c for a moment?" Daniel's head immediately whipped around, seeking out Jack, and Jack gave him a nod and a reassuring smile. Daniel's mouth settled briefly into a mutinous line, a small frown furrowing his forehead, and glared around the table as if to demand they explain the injustice of making him sit there for hours, quietly, only to send him away before the verdict was thrown into the open. Slowly though, he finally nodded, still visibly unhappy with their request.

"I guesso," he breathed. Teal'c helped him off the chair, and Jack watched Carey stifle an amused grin at the wistful glances Daniel kept shooting over his shoulder back at the foursome left in the meeting.

"I can only guess that he's at least as curious as ever?" Carey guessed when Fraiser and Teal'c had taken Daniel out of earshot. Jack grinned wryly, a look he exchanged with Carter.

"You have no idea," they said together. Hammond chuckled.

Carey cleared his throat. "First of all, I guess I should ask if either of you mind that I've kept General Hammond here?"

"No; not at all," Carter said. Jack shook his head; he didn't care if they paraded the entire facility through. 'Just get on with it, Doc.'

With a satisfied nod, Carey spread the relevant papers out in front of him again. "Good!" His demeanour changed to one of solemnity and he leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table in front of him. "Let me first say that I see no reason why either one of you couldn't provide care for Daniel; seeing you in whatever limited interaction I've witnessed and his responses when I interviewed him on his own, I know you would both do him a world of good. In a perfect world, you would both make extraordinary parents for him."

Jack and Carter each nodded slightly in acknowledgement--on edge with anxiety over what the verdict would be, and each privately amused at the not-so-subtle jab at military rules and regulations. In some ways it was a shame that circumstances landed them in an environment where any 'fraternizing' would result in strict penalties for each of them, but Jack knew that he and Carter had long since made peace with their mutual 'puppylove' tendencies. Now, Jack just wanted the meeting over and done with, and he gave Carey a pointed look, telling him as much.

His faith that the good doctor would read the look accurately was well-placed. Carey nodded silently. "From my conversation with Daniel, it's apparent that his temporary alien guardian instilled in him trust in each of you--and Teal'c as well, of course. In any custody case in daily court, a judge would normally award the mother custody of any children, particularly pre-teens, unless she is deemed unfit." Jack shifted unconsciously in his seat, darting a quick glance at Carter. "But there's a bit of a paradox here," Carey continued, "and that is that many times, judges look ahead to the teen years, when young male children, they feel, require a full-time father figure to keep discipline and the like. That's nothing at all against you, Major, and it's a belief a bit outdated, in my opinion. You two know better than anyone that this situation is far from usual, but were the two of you lobbying for custody of Daniel under said normal circumstances, I would likely award custody of the child to the father, should he be deemed an appropriate guardian. And," Carey said with a smile, "since we're sitting here, I think we can safely say that that is the case.

"I do want to make it clear that I would base the decision not out of bias, but after taking into account the factors that have been presented to me over the past few days, and by Daniel himself."

So...that was it? After all the build-up, all the tension and the strain, Jack couldn't help but think it was a strangely anticlimactic decision. He, Carter and Hammond let go of the breaths they'd been holding through Carey's entire speech, and his own head felt like it was going to fly off his shoulders; it felt so light, everything felt so surreal. Carey studied their reactions closely, and Jack found himself looking to Carter briefly. She was nodding slightly, eyes dry, but Jack could tell...

"Now, this was made clear to me and I want to remind the two of you, that this isn't a final decision at all," Carey said gently. "Ultimately, the choice will come down to the two of you and what you decide will be best for Daniel. Do...do you have any questions, any comments...?"

Jack shook his head. Everything was clear, crystal clear, and had been made clear in the bathroom when Daniel had confided in him. Carter turned her seat to face him and he met her gaze, surprised to find her face free of any anger, or disappointment. She smiled at him and nodded, this one different. A nod of acknowledgement, of acceptance. They'd be okay; they'd agreed to take the decision to this level, and they'd been given an answer. Things might be different for a while between them, but as usual, Jack sensed they'd be all right.

In the meantime, Jack had to prepare for a new housemate for the first time in almost eight years.

=====

=====

Epilogue

Jack shook his head slowly in disbelief. It still boggled his mind how this could so obviously be Daniel--the 'Daniel-isms' followed the little guy around like flies on...well that wasn't a very five-year-old-friendly analogy, he chastised himself. But then, oh boy, then there were times like this, times when there would have been no way in hell he ever would have guessed that this was Doctor Daniel Jackson, triple PhD. Doctor Daniel Jackson, triple PhD would never willingly allow Carter to dress him--let alone dress him in a baby-blue Bob the Builder t-shirt and gym pants. Leaning against the kitchen table, Jack tilted his head to get a look at Daniel's sneakers.

Light-up sneakers.

Light-up sneakers with some smiling, possessed-looking yellow sponge-thing emblazoned on one side, and something that looked like Gumby with a bad sunburn on the other.

Daniel didn't seem to mind--didn't seem to notice--his getup; the kid...his kid, Jack reminded himself, unable to smother the ridiculous smile that snuck out when he thought about that...was just smiling up at Carter, the two of them giggling in geeky fanaticism over some joke Cameron Balinsky told her the day before--a joke, no doubt, that Carter had been waiting all day just to tell Daniel. Science jokes. What fun. Jack twisted his wrist to glance at his watch and sighed. Ten o'clock. "All right kids," he said, "it's getting late, so I guess we'll see you tomorrow, or...Monday, huh?" Daniel had spent the entire day with Jack; their promised 'man's day', but a day that promised to be the first of many. Daniel had wanted to spend the rest of the week at Carter's house when the decision for Jack to be permanent caregiver had been made. Jack knew Daniel felt badly for choosing between them, but there had been a significant increase in...kiddie-ness--('Is that even a word?' Jack wondered--in Daniel's behavior since he found out where he'd be living. He was happy, bouncy...not a lot of the adult Daniel remained in him now; the occasional flashes, the gestures, facial expressions that just screamed 'Daniel' to Jack would pop up, whether expectedly or unexpectedly...but through and through, head to toe, inside and out, Daniel was a child.

Carter gave Jack a good-natured stinkeye at his absent dismissal and Daniel...well, Daniel never lost that big grin. "I guess so, sir," Carter said with a mock, put-upon sigh. She glanced down at Daniel. "You ready to go?" Jack's spare room was being done over for Daniel and, partially out of convenience for keeping the room and the small house clear of undue clutter while the renovations were being made and partially in response to Daniel's request for his extended stay with Carter, all his gear was mostly still at her house. There it--and Daniel--would remain until Monday, when Jack would pick Daniel up from daycare and their living arrangement would begin.

Daniel was scraping at the doorjamb with one fingernail, studying it as closely as his adult self would one of his rocks--'artifacts', Jack corrected himself automatically. Daniel heaved a tiny little sigh and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, making the little red lights in the backs and around the sides of his shoes light up, before casting a look up at Jack through those thick, blond eyelashes. 'Damn it.' Jack groaned, though half of him was pitifully amused and warmed by the beseeching gesture. He recognized the look. "Jack....?" Daniel began quietly, his eyes briefly flickering up to Carter's face before settling back on Jack's.

"Yeah?" 'Be strong, O'Neill; get your practice. Don't give into the kiddie charm...'

"Um--" The little guy nervously chewed his lip, and Carter gave him a nearly imperceptible nudge. "Can--c'n I sleep over?" he whispered in a rush. "'Cause, 'cause I had fun today'n'I thought you had fun today'n'I was wonderin' maybe--'cause Sam bought them a-and Teal'c'n'her already watched them, but you didn' see them 'cause you weren't there, but I could tell you all what happens'n'help you understand 'em in case you don't but you prob'ly do 'cause you're bigger'n me an' prob'ly as smart as Sam--well maybe not as smart as Sam 'cause Sam's smartest ever, but I could help you 'cause I know lots about arch-archaeology 'n' some things are kinda complic--comp-li-cated--but they're 'Indiana Jones' 'n' they're really good, an' maybe since you hafto work on Monday 'n' Sam said you have to go to bed early on Sunday night, d'you wanna watch them with me tonight? I know we're gonna have my stuff here by Monday but maybe tonight we could watch the movies and...Idano, just..." Daniel trailed off, red-faced both from not breathing through his rant and embarrassment at apparently going off on a tangent. Jack blinked once, twice. All that had come out of that little mouth? 'Are you kidding me?' He inconspicuously looked at Carter, who shrugged and smiled at him. For a brief moment, he wondered if maybe, just maybe, the old Daniel was still in there, raring to go.

And then he looked back down, and he saw Daniel looking back at him--not the little five year old who needed the permanent home and longed for reassurance and unconditional love, but Daniel, all wise eyes and full-blown pout...and he nodded. "Sure," he said before he could even think. Right then and there, he knew that he wasn't giving up a thing--his and Daniel's friendship had taken some odd twists throughout the years, and an absurdly pleasant peace of mind fell over him as he realized that this Daniel and the 'old' Daniel had always been intertwined. There had been the different physical manifestation, but all in all..."I think that'll be okay," Jack said, meeting Daniel's eyes square on. "It'll be fine--that is, if you don't mind watching those movies again." In all honesty, Jack had seen the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy about a hundred times, with this very company in fact, but there was just something about the big blue eyes pouring out all that pesky love and faith, and something about the thought that by Monday this little guy would be sharing this house with him for years, at least until he took off for college--again...

He couldn't say no. Not just because Carter-of-the-potential-Death would rip him limb-from-limb if he refused Daniel something this early in their newfound permanence, but he was looking forward to spending time with the little munchkin more than he'd looked forward to anything in a long time. That delighted grin broke across Daniel's face and Jack found himself almost cut off at the knees as Daniel's arms went vice-like around his legs. The blond head was tossed back and Jack stared down into a full grateful Daniel beam. "Thank you, thank you Jack!" he squealed. "If you get tired, though, I'll just go to Sam's house--I don' want you to feel old in the morning!"

"Carter?" Jack asked politely. His 2IC stifled a snort of laughter and mumbled something that sounded like a rather insincere "sorry sir". Daniel, meanwhile, meandered back over to where Carter had laid his backpack, and picked it up.

"Jack, d'you want me to send this home with Sam? I don' wanna take up too much room, and I c'n just wear this all night or somethin'." He indicated his Bob the Builder outfit, and made to hand the backpack to Sam. Jack shook himself mentally--yeah, like he'd make the kid stay over for the first time with only one thing to wear.

"No, that's all right, Daniel--why don't you go throw that in my room--the spare room's being painted for some reason--and bring the movies back out; we'll put them in when C--Sam leaves."

Daniel was off like a shot. "'Kay!"

"Carter, what have you been telling him?" Jack asked suspiciously when Daniel was out of earshot. To his surprise, his 2IC was controlling rather unladylike laughter, face reddened with her efforts.

"He asked me why he needs an early bedtime on Sunday night," she wheezed past bubbling laughter. "I told him you go to bed early on Sundays too, because if you go to bed too late you're like an old bear in the morning."

"Major..." Jack warned, not liking how unrepentant Carter sounded in relaying that little tidbit of information.

Carter shrugged and turned, heading down the hall where Jack's bedroom was suspiciously quiet. "Daniel?"

"Wha'?"

"You okay?"

Sneakered feet thumped back down the hallway, and Daniel appeared in the kitchen door again, trotting up to Jack, beaming. "Yup," he answered, more to Jack than Carter. "Put my bag in the closet, 'kay Jack? It's still all clean in there; don' worry!"

A tiny, cold dagger plunged into Jack's heart; it looked like he still had some of that reassuring to do. "That's okay, buddy," he said, a little sadly. "It doesn't matter; we can clean up any mess later on--or tomorrow, okay?"

Daniel looked a little surprised, and studied Jack a little closer, gaze flickering between him and Carter. He must have sensed that, on some level or another, something very significant had passed in the time since he'd taken his bag down the hall. "'Swrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Carter said smoothly. "Nothing at all, sweetie." She swept in for a kiss, and hugged Daniel tight. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Sleep tight."

"I will! Love you, Sam!"

"I love you too. 'Night, Colonel."

"Good night, Sam." Carter gave him a long appraising look and a soft smile, then nodded and was gone.

=====

"Look, Jack!"

Perched on his bed, Jack watched bemusedly as Daniel rummaged through his bag and finally resurfaced holding a brownish box triumphantly over his head. Daniel clambered up on the bed beside Jack and showed him; the box had a picture of Indiana Jones wielding his trademark bullwhip above his head. Inside were four separate DVD cases--the three films and, Jack saw, a bonus DVD of bonus features. "Nice," he said approvingly. Daniel beamed at him.

"This one's my fave-rit," he reported, sliding the case for 'The Temple of Doom' out of the box and holding it up. "Shorty's funny; d'you think so, Jack?"

Jack grinned. Short Round had always reminded him of Daniel; argumentative, stubborn, gutsy to a tee. He wasn't at all surprised Daniel should find a kindred spirit in the little con artist. "Yeah, he's a hoot--" He remembered he wasn't supposed to have seen the movies then, and settled for, "I bet he and Indy make a good team."

"Yup." Daniel dumped the other three DVDs onto the bedspread. "Jus' like you'n'me'n'Sam'n'Teal'c, right?"

"He looks up to everything you are, everything you represent." Jack had to admit, it seemed like Carey had been spot on--and not just about him; Daniel seemed to have such a reverence for his former teammates, who he now identified only as his family. Jack had some hefty expectations to fill. "You know it, kiddo." He gathered up the DVDs and stood, tilting his head in the direction of the bedroom door. "C'mon; you want to start these up now?"

---

Daniel, who apparently decided that Jack couldn't find his way to the living room without assistance, latched onto his hand and hauled him down the hallway, prattling on about his favourite Indy movie, why it was his favourite, some of his favourite quotes, which parts scared him, and which parts he loved--it turned out he loved the scene in the beginning of 'The Last Crusade' when Indy's dad made him count in Greek. "He's just like Nick in that part," Daniel told Jack with a little smile. Jack forced a smile back at him, though his blood was boiling; obviously Nick hadn't quite shown his true colours until later on in Daniel's life. He settled for trailing Daniel to the living room, his hand released when Daniel saw the afghan Jack had used to improvise his bed when Daniel had gotten sick after his double breakfast disaster. The cover was in its usual haphazard place at the end of the couch, balled up carelessly, and Daniel picked it up and started to fold it. "Hey," Jack said, stepping forward to relieve him of the afghan, "never mind that; it's okay."

"'Sall messy," Daniel objected.

"No it's not--really." Jack tossed it back on the couch cushions and put the DVDs up by the TV and DVD player, hitting the power button and laying 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' in place inside the machine. "Tell you what," he said, handing Daniel the remote. "Why don't you start up the movie, and I'll grab us some popcorn. You can work the DVD player, right?"

Daniel nodded eagerly, already holding the remote, two-handed, pointed at the set. "Yup! Teal'c showed me! Hey Jack?"

Jack paused, one foot on the bottom step. "Yeah?"

He received a shy glance from his new housemate. "D'you have dill pickle popcorn stuff?"

A slow smile spread across his face. "I think I just might. Be back in a second."

In the kitchen, Jack quickly stuffed a bag of popcorn into the microwave and opened the cupboard to retrieve the big, tin bowl he'd bought a few years ago for occasions just like this one. It was only a few days after Daniel's appendix had burst, and the younger man was convalescing at Jack's place. Daniel had complained bitterly that Jack had no decent bowls to put popcorn in, so Jack had gone out and bought the biggest bowl he could find--"bowl-verkill" Daniel had called it with a laugh when the bowl made its debut a few nights later when Carter and Teal'c dropped by for a full-SG-1 team night.

Jack smiled at the memory and set the bowl down, tearing open the bag and dumping the popcorn inside when the microwave went off. The old appliance, a little senile and overboard in the eager-to-please department, merrily and repeatedly chimed while Jack grabbed two cans of Pepsi from the fridge to bring with him back to the living room. When he brought the supplies back out, he found Daniel making a face when the microwave beeped three more times in rapid succession, its signal that the contents were sufficiently cooked. "What's wrong?" Jack asked.

In an eerily--but amusing--mirror of the adult Daniel's reaction the same night as the bowl complaint, a deeper frown notched this Daniel's brow. "The mike-erwave is annoying," he said with disdain.

Smothering a smile at the d�j� vu, Jack held up a finger, the universal gesture for 'just a minute'. "Hang on; I'll take care of that."

Less than a minute later the problem was solved as he efficiently pulled the plug from the wall behind the microwave. "That should do it," he called as the unmistakable 'Raiders' theme rose to meet him from below. Jack hurried back and settled back in his place on the couch, eyeing Daniel, who had curled up at the opposite end with the popcorn a little more than an arm's length away from him on the cushions, well within Jack's reach. "Hey," Jack coaxed. "C'mere." Daniel glanced at him uncertainly, but Jack held out an arm, and after only another moment's hesitation, he slid off the couch, trotted to Jack and climbed up to snuggle in at his side. Jack grabbed the afghan--which Daniel had, in Jack's brief absence, folded and laid carefully on the back of the couch--and spread it over the both of them, before grabbing the bowl of popcorn and settling it on his lap where it was easily accessible. "See?" he said. "Now we're set."

"Mmm," Daniel hummed a little with satisfaction. "Hey Jack?"

Jack grinned to himself--he had the feeling he'd be hearing that a lot. "Mm-hmm?"

"C'n you maybe take me to the mall someday?"

"Why?" On the TV screen, Indy painstakingly removed the idol from its pedestal and quickly replaced it with his decoy.

"'Cause...um...Sam...she bought me lots'n'lotsa clothes'n'stuff, but..."

"But what?" Jack prodded gently.

"I don' really like Bob the Builder or Spongebob Squarepants," Daniel admitted quietly.

"Really?" Jack didn't have to feign his surprise. The kid hadn't put up much of a snit when Carter had bought the cartoonish gear. "Why not?"

"Idano...they're kinda... babyish." Daniel lowered his voice to a whisper, as though he expected Carter to pounce on him in a fit of rage. "But I didn' wanna tell Sam; she'd be sad."

"She wouldn't be sad, buddy. Remember what I told you about asking for things, whether the answer's yes or no? It's the same with this kind of stuff. We don't know what you want if you don't tell us. We can manage a few different things than Builder Bob and Squarebob Spongepants, but we can keep that stuff if you want to."

Daniel shook with quiet giggles at Jack's deliberate faux pas, and when Jack draped his arm around Daniel's impossibly small back, he tucked his head in under Jack's arm. As Indy escaped the pissed off natives and was flown to safety, Jack allowed himself a smile. This wasn't bad at all--in fact, it felt pretty damn good.

=====

Back to Part 5
THE END

On to Part One of 'One Is Enough'!