CHAPTER TWENTY
The next day, SG-1 and Danny headed off to Denver, where, among other things, they went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Everyone had a good time, including Jack, who didn't even once make noises about having to suffer through a lot of science and archeological stuff. Though not as exciting as the previous day, that Monday was full of great times for the child and four adults, and they all knew that they'd cherish the memories they took to bed with them.
On the day before the Fourth of July, Danny asked if he could spend the night at Jack's.
"If he says it's okay, I don't see why not," Daniel replied. "You know that the party is at his place tomorrow, right?"
"Uh huh. I can help him get all the stuff ready."
Daniel smiled. "I'm sure he'd really appreciate that."
Jack was delighted to have Danny spend the night. He suggested that he could take Danny home with him after work, which would save Daniel the effort of driving the boy over there later. Danny already had a change of clothes at Jack's place, the clothing Jack had packed for him when he was going to spend the night there after Daniel had his accident.
Jack and Danny had lots of fun together that night, much more fun than the last time Danny stayed with the colonel. The next morning, Jack was glad for the help the boy gave him. Preparations for the party got done a lot quicker.
There was a huge turnout for the party. The mood was light and fun, and everyone ate plenty of food, which might have had something to do with the fact that Teal'c made sure Jack didn't burn anything. Several times, the colonel insisted that the steaks weren't cooked enough, but a frown from the Jaffa resulted in them being taken off the grill.
After a while, somebody else took over the cooking so that Jack could eat. Plate in hand, the colonel stood on the porch and watched the crowd. Daniel and Sam were helping with some of the littler children, the archeologist carrying a girl of around three, who appeared to be holding a serious discussion with him. The sight made Jack smile.
Just then, Danny ran up to Jack.
"Uncle Jack, can we play with the water guns?"
"I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea, Danny. A lot of people might accidentally get wet, not to mention the food. So, are you having fun with the other kids?"
"Yeah, although I wish that Kayla and Tessa were here."
Hammond's granddaughters were celebrating Independence Day out of town with their parents, so they couldn't be at this party. But there were a lot of other children, some around Danny's age, so he'd found plenty of playmates.
It had been necessary to tell Danny that a lot of the people who would be at the party didn't know anything about the Stargate or that he was a clone, so he'd have to keep those things a secret. It appeared that, so far, there hadn't been any problems. Watching Danny play with the other children had been enjoyable, but it couldn't help but make Jack wonder if Daniel ever played like that after the death of his parents.
That thought made Jack recall the last Fourth of July party. For him, Sam and Teal'c, it had not been a happy day. None of them had felt like celebrating anything. But this year was different. Not only were they celebrating the independence of the United States, they were also celebrating the return of Daniel into their lives. In four days, there would be another celebration, one especially for the friend who had returned to them.
Danny ran off to continue playing with the other kids. A few minutes later, General Hammond joined Jack.
"The party has turned out well," the general observed.
"Yes, it has, a good turnout. My lawn may never recover."
"I understand you had a little helper for the preparations."
"I sure did. Danny was a big help, eager to give me a hand however he could. He's just like Daniel in that way. Daniel may not be good at always doing what I tell him to, but if someone needs help, he's right there, doing all he can." Jack's eyes searched for Daniel and found him in a conversation with Janet. "I can't tell you how glad I am that he's staying on the team."
"We're all glad of that, Jack, just as we're all glad that he's with us on this Independence Day." Hammond turned fully to the colonel. "I understand that you're going to have a little birthday party for Daniel."
"Yes, sir. Last July 8th was a really bad day for us, so we want to make this one extra special. I've already begun making arrangements. In fact, I was intending to talk to you about this."
"Oh?"
Jack smiled. "Yes. You see, I have a plan."
It was late in the afternoon before the party finally ended. Jack's teammates, Janet, Cassie and a few others stayed to help him with the clean-up. After the clean-up was finished and the others had gone home, SG-1 and Danny sat around the living room.
"So, did you have fun, Danny?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. Some of the kids were really nice. Tommy Hardwick invited me to sleep over his house."
"Really? That's cool."
Daniel smiled. "Yes, it is. Did he say when you could do this?"
"No, he said he had to ask his mom and dad first."
"Well, I'll have to talk to Captain Hardwick at work and see what he says."
"Thanks for hosting the party, sir." Sam said. "It really was a great party."
"Yes, it was. Which reminds me." Jack turned back to Daniel. "Though I was really looking forward to the singing waiters, I'm going to forgo it. I've made reservations at O'Malley's for their side room so that we can have some privacy."
The news brought another smile to Daniel's face. "We're not banned from there anymore?"
"Nope, the ban has been lifted. I pretty much swore on my life to the owner that we'd never again cause any trouble. I probably could have gotten it lifted sooner, but I never bothered trying until now."
Danny knew what a ban was and asked why they'd been banned from the restaurant.
"A few years ago, there was some trouble at O'Malley's that we were a part of, a big fight," Daniel replied. "The owner banned us from ever going there again."
"But, now, there's no more ban, so we can have some of their big, juicy steaks," Jack said with a grin.
"Sounds great, sir," Sam remarked.
The weekend passed quickly. SG-1 and Danny got together for lunch on Saturday and dinner on Sunday.
Monday was a busy day for everyone, particularly for Daniel, who was trying to get as much work done as possible while he could. He'd be taking several days off to deal with moving. Packing up the house would begin tonight. Fortunately, he hadn't accumulated a lot of possessions since returning from ascension. A great deal of the stuff he'd had before ascending was gotten rid of in one way or another.
Danny helped as much as he could in packing the boxes that evening. By the time Daniel went to bed that night, there was a pretty decent stack sitting by the door.
The following evening, Daniel and Danny walked in the front door of O'Malley's. When they got to the door for the side room, they found a sign on it that read, "If your name is Daniel Jackson, knock then wait ten seconds before entering."
"Jack, what have you got up your sleeve?" Daniel muttered as he followed the instructions. Ten seconds later, he and Danny stepped in the room – and came to a dead stop. Instead of just his teammates, the room was packed with people, who all exclaimed, "Happy Birthday!"
Mouth hanging open, Daniel looked around at all the familiar, smiling faces. All of them were people from the SGC, with three exceptions, two of which stunned the archeologist.
"Catherine? Jon?"
Catherine Langford and Jack's clone both came forward. The elderly woman gave him a hug.
"Jack told me they were going to have a special party for your birthday and invited me." She smiled down at Danny. "I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to meet this young man." Then she looked at Jon. "But I certainly wasn't expecting to meet this young man. That was quite a surprise. I had no idea you weren't the only person who was cloned."
Daniel turned his full attention to the teenager. "I sure wasn't expecting to see you here."
"Jack invited me. I guess he figured that I had as much right to celebrate this day as he did."
Daniel smiled. "I'm glad he did." He looked down at his own clone. "Danny, I'd like you to meet Catherine Langford. She is a very special friend of mine. If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have gotten into the Stargate Program."
Catherine bent over and met Danny's eyes. "I am very pleased to meet you, Danny. I'll have to tell you all about how I first met Daniel and got to know him."
Jack came up to them with a grin. "You should have seen the look on your face, Daniel. It was priceless. I'm sure glad Ferretti brought his camera."
Oh, wonderful. Daniel turned to the boy beside him. "Danny, remind me to steal Ferretti's camera and burn the film."
Jack grinned even more widely. "It's digital. The pictures will be circulating throughout the base by morning."
Daniel let out a groan.
The archeologist didn't have much time to think about the embarrassing photos before he was fully immersed in the party. Everyone was delighted to be celebrating the birthday of a friend who had come back to them, and the room was filled with laughter and animated conversation before and during the meal.
A while after the meal was over, Daniel was led to the birthday cake so that he could blow out the candles.
"Speech!" Ferretti yelled, which was echoed by a few others.
Daniel looked around at all the people there. "A year ago, I wasn't here with all of you. I didn't have my friends," he looked at his teammates, who were standing beside him, "or my family. I know that some of you missed me a great deal during that year. Though the circumstances of me leaving were beyond my control, I know in my heart that coming back to all of you was not, and it is something that I will never regret doing."
Everyone in the room applauded, more than one person a bit teary-eyed.
Daniel looked down at the cake. Closing his eyes, he made a wish with all his heart that Danny would have a long, happy life always filled with friends and loved ones, then he took a deep breath and blew out the candles.
By the time they got home from the party, it was way past Danny's bedtime, and the little boy was half asleep, though he still wanted to open the gifts he'd gotten. It turned out that, along with all the birthday presents for Daniel, there were quite a few for Danny as well. They were presently in Daniel's trunk, waiting to be brought in and opened. The archeologist told the boy that it would be much more fun opening them tomorrow, when they weren't so tired.
Once Danny was tucked into bed, Daniel returned to the living room. His teammates and Catherine were all there, having followed him back to his place so that they could talk.
"Thanks for the party, guys," Daniel said. "I sure wasn't expecting anything like that."
Sam smiled. "It was the colonel's idea. He decided that a dinner with just the five of us wasn't good enough."
Jack shrugged. "Well, I knew that we weren't the only people that were really happy to have Daniel back." He looked over at the mound of gifts on the table. "And you sure did make out like a bandit with the presents."
"I know," Daniel agreed. "I noticed that some of them are from people who weren't at the party. I'll have to thank them tomorrow."
"I thought you were taking tomorrow off because of escrow closing."
"I won't be signing the papers until one o'clock. I was planning on coming in to get a little more work done."
"What's this about escrow?" Catherine asked.
"Oh. I'm buying a house," Daniel replied. "This one is way too small for the two of us."
The woman nodded, then smiled. "That child is a pure delight, Daniel. I got the opportunity to chat with him a bit at the party. His knowledge of Egyptology is already quite impressive, and when he found out that I could speak German, he switched to that language and told me some jokes that a German man on a dig taught him. Don't worry. They were perfectly innocent."
Daniel also smiled. "Yes, I remember them. Hans was quite a character."
Catherine blinked. "Yes, of course you do." She laughed. "I actually forgot for a moment what Danny is, that all those experiences came from your memories. Your parents must have been very proud of you."
"They always told me they were. Their pride in me was one of the reasons why I was determined to be the best in archeology that I could be. I wanted to believe that they'd still be proud of me if they were here."
"I have no doubt that they would be, Daniel. I know that if I was your mother, I would be very proud of you."
"When do you have to go back home, Catherine?" Sam asked.
"Not until Saturday morning."
Daniel's expression turned regretful. "I wish I wasn't going to be busy with moving. I'd like to spend some time with you. I'd put off the packing, but my landlord is expecting me to be out of here by the middle of next week."
"I wouldn't expect you to put it off, Daniel. After all, you didn't know I was coming. But I'd be happy to help you move."
Daniel shook his head. "Catherine, I'm certainly not going to put you to work while you're visiting. That's out of the question."
"Are you going to have any other help?"
"We're all coming over as soon as we get off work on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday," Sam replied, "and we'll be helping the whole weekend."
The elderly woman turned back to Daniel. "Then it really sounds like you could use a hand until the weekend." Daniel was going to object again, but she didn't give him a chance. "Besides, it will give us a chance to talk. You don't expect me to just sit on the couch, doing nothing, while you run around packing boxes, do you?"
Daniel gave in. "All right, you win."
"Come on. Let's get those gifts inside," Jack said.
As the presents were put on the table, Daniel noticed that, instead of an individual gift from each of his teammates, there was a single one from all of them. He looked at them questioningly.
"We decided to pool our money and get you something special," Sam explained.
The box was very light, and Daniel wondered what was inside.
"Go ahead and open it," Jack told him. "I don't think Danny will mind."
Daniel unwrapped the box and opened it. He was surprised to see an envelope inside. He was even more surprised when the contents of the envelope proved to be airline tickets. His eyes widened.
"Egypt?"
"The last time you were there, you weren't able to enjoy it," Sam said, smiling. "We knew that you always wished you could go back there for fun, and we figured that Danny would love to go, too."
"The tickets are for November, which we understand is a nice time of year there," Jack told him. "You let us know where you want to go in the country and where you want to stay, and we'll make all the arrangements for hotels, car rentals, stuff like that. This vacation is on us. There's more in the envelope."
Daniel looked inside and saw that there was a folded piece of paper.
"That was a last minute contribution from Catherine."
Daniel unfolded the piece of paper and saw that it was a letter from Professor Harvard, a name Daniel recognized as a well-known figure in the archeological community. As he read the letter, his eyes got even wider.
"I still have a lot of friends in the community, Daniel," Catherine explained, "and many of them don't look down upon you and your theories. Professor Harvard is one of them. He will be in Egypt, overseeing a dig throughout October, November and December, and he would be delighted to have you and Danny spend a few days with them."
Daniel looked up at his friends, his eyes filled with emotion. "I . . . I don't know what to say."
"Thank you is more than enough, Daniel," Jack replied.
"Thank you," the archeologist said softly, yet fervently. "This is wonderful, and Danny's going to love it. We can visit some of the sites Mom and Dad worked on, and he can see how the digs have progressed in the past thirty years."
Jack wagged a finger at him. "Just remember, Daniel. Those tickets give you three weeks there. We want you back afterwards, so don't you get any ideas about staying."
Daniel smiled. "I won't, Jack. Though I will always love Egypt, I know where my home is."
Catherine carefully wrapped the artifact in newspapers and placed it in the box. She had decided that, while she was here, she might as well get busy on helping Daniel pack. At the moment, she was working on his collection of artifacts and art objects from across the globe. Catherine had volunteered to babysit Danny so that Daniel wouldn't have to take him to work, and the boy was presently helping her with the packing. He knew how to properly handle the fragile artifacts, so she didn't fear that he'd get careless and break something.
Catherine was finding it quite fascinating to watch this little boy, to see a glimpse into what Daniel was like as a young child. Danny was extraordinarily intelligent and soaked up any knowledge she gave him like a sponge. No wonder Daniel had been able to amass such a staggering amount of knowledge and had twenty-three spoken languages to his credit by the time Catherine met him.
"So, are you excited about the trip to Egypt?" she asked Danny, knowing that Daniel had told the boy about it.
He nodded energetically. "I can't wait till we go. I wish that Sam, Jack and Teal'c could go, too. Daniel said that Jack would be bored."
Catherine chuckled softly. "Yes, he probably would be at that."
Danny handed her a statue to wrap. "You said you'd tell me about how you met Daniel."
Catherine smiled. "Ah, yes. Well, the very first time I saw him, he was giving a lecture in Los Angeles. You see, Daniel believed that the pyramids were much older than everyone thought they were and that they were not built by the Egyptians, and he wanted to prove it to the archeological community. That's what the lecture was for."
"Did they believe him?"
"No, they didn't. In fact, they laughed at him and all walked out."
Danny frowned severely. "That wasn't nice."
"No, it wasn't. I felt very sorry for him, especially since I was pretty sure that he was right."
Danny's eyes lit with interest. "He was?"
"Yes. How much do you know about the Stargate, how it was found?"
"Daniel said it was dug up on the Giza Plateau in 1928."
"That's right. I was there when it happened."
Danny's eyes widened. "You were?"
"I was a little girl at the time, not much older than you. I was there with my father. I'll never forget the sight of the Stargate being lifted out of the desert sand. None of us knew what it was at the time."
"Wow."
Catherine smiled. "Ah, yes. Well, the very first time I saw him, he was giving a lecture in Los Angeles. You see, Daniel believed that the pyramids were much older than everyone thought they were and that they were not built by the Egyptians, and he wanted to prove it to the archeological community. That's what the lecture was for."
"Did they believe him?"
"No, they didn't. In fact, they laughed at him and all walked out."
Danny frowned severely. "That wasn't nice."
"No, it wasn't. I felt very sorry for him, especially since I was pretty sure that he was right."
Danny's eyes lit with interest. "He was?"
"Yes. How much do you know about the Stargate, how it was found?"
"Daniel said it was dug up on the Giza Plateau in 1928."
"That's right. I was there when it happened."
Danny's eyes widened. "You were?"
"I was a little girl at the time. I was there with my father. I'll never forget the sight of the Stargate being lifted out of the desert sand. None of us knew what it was back then."
"Wow."
Catherine smiled. "Many years later, when I was a young woman, I was involved with the project that was studying the Stargate, trying to get it to work. I wasn't directly a part of the project, but my father and my fiance were. The work was halted, though, after something happened."
"What?"
"Well, I was told that there was an accident, an explosion that destroyed the lab, and that Ernest, the man I was going to marry, had been killed. It wasn't until many, many years later that I found out that had been a lie. The team working on the Stargate had, quite by accident, gotten it to work. Ernest volunteered to go through the gate. None of them really understood how the gate worked, and it was a foolish decision. Immediately after Ernest went through, the gate shut down, and he never came back."
"Never?"
"Not until over fifty years later, when we found him on a planet where he had been living all alone all that time."
"He was all by himself for fifty years?"
"Yes," Catherine replied.
"He must have been really lonely."
"Yes, he was. He was so glad to see us when we arrived. Anyway, after Ernest disappeared, the project was shut down. It was eventually started back up again. Once we had a computer that could control the Stargate, we began trying to make it work, but, for two years, we failed. When the Stargate was found in Egypt, there was a coverstone over it. The coverstone had symbols on it that we couldn't translate. We didn't recognize them. The same symbols were on the Stargate itself."
"They're star constellations," Danny said. "That's what Daniel told me."
"Yes, we know that now, thanks to Daniel. But we didn't back then. We believed that, if we knew what those symbols were, it would help us figure out how to make the gate work. I decided that we needed somebody new on the project. I'd heard about Daniel. I knew about his theories on the pyramids. From tests that were run, we knew that the coverstone was far older than it should be, at least ten thousand years old. That and some other things we'd learned led me to believe that Daniel's theories on the pyramids were right and that he might be just the man we needed on the project."
"So, you brought him to see the Stargate?"
"Well, that was the plan, but, before we could tell Daniel about the Stargate, the military decided to make everything even more classified than it had been."
"I'm classified," Danny informed her, which earned a smile.
"Yes, I should imagine you are. Well, the military wouldn't let us tell Daniel about the Stargate because he didn't have clearance."
"Why didn't he have clearance if he was supposed to help you?"
"Because he was new on the project. I guess they weren't ready to trust him yet."
Danny frowned again. "But how could he figure out how the Stargate worked if he didn't even know about it?"
"That's a very good question. But you know what? He did figure it out."
"He did?"
"Yes, and he did it in only two weeks."
"But you said you'd tried for two years."
Catherine laughed. "That's right. Daniel proved to all of us how very smart he is. He figured out that the symbols were constellations, that their purpose was to chart a course to a certain point in space, and managed to identify the seventh symbol, which we hadn't been able to do. After he did that, the military gave permission for Daniel to see the Stargate."
"Cool."
"Yes. I was there when Daniel and Jack took their first trip through the gate."
"Jack was there, too?"
"Yes. Actually, he was the man who was brought in to take charge of the project for the military." Catherine's gaze grew distant with remembrance. "Jack was quite a bit different when I first met him. He wasn't the same man he is now."
"How come?"
Catherine studied the boy. "Do you know about Charlie?"
Danny shook his head. "Who's Charlie?"
"He was Jack's son. He was killed in an accident not long before Jack was put on the project."
Sadness filled Danny's eyes. "Jack's son died?"
"Yes, he did. I don't think he was much older than you when it happened. Jack was very sad. He didn't make jokes like he does now. He was very tough and serious and really not a very pleasant person. To be honest, I didn't like him very much. But, after he came back from that first mission through the gate, he gradually changed. He and I stayed in touch, and we became friends."
"Was Sam there when they went on the first mission?"
"No. She was part of the project, but she wasn't there at that time."
"When I'm an adult, I'm going to go through the Stargate," Danny stated.
Catherine ran a hand through his hair. "I have no doubt that you will."
When Daniel arrived home after signing the final papers at the title company, he was surprised to see a new pile of filled boxes sitting beside the door.
"Wow, it looks like you guys have been busy," he said to Danny and Catherine.
The boy came bounding up to him. "Did you get it?"
Daniel grinned and held up a ring of keys, jingling them. "It's all ours, Danny."
"Yay, yay!" Danny shouted, dancing around. "Let's go show Catherine our new house!"
"Sure, why not."
The three of them got into Daniel's car and drove over to the house. As the archeologist unlocked the door and stepped inside, he smiled. This was their house, his and Danny's.
As soon as they were through the door, Danny began Catherine's tour. Daniel remained in the living room, planning out where each piece of furniture would go. He joined the other two after a while. They were in the bedroom that had a window looking out onto the backyard.
"Can this be my room, Daniel?" Danny asked. "You said I could have either of the littler bedrooms, and I want this one."
"Sure. Do you want a different color for the walls? If we're going to do any painting, we need to get it done before we move the furniture in."
Danny looked around at the light blue walls. "No, I like blue."
"Great. Then we need to see about buying you some furniture. You can have my bed since I'll be getting another one, but we need to get some other things for you, like a dresser and a desk."
Danny smiled brightly. "I get to have my own desk?"
"Of course, so you have a place to study and do your homework." Daniel paused. "And you have to have a place to put your computer."
Danny was now actually beaming. "I'm going to have my very own computer?"
"Yep."
"Oh, wow!" Danny ran forward and hugged Daniel tightly. "Thank you!"
The archeologist smiled down at him lovingly. "You're very welcome. Okay, let's go show Catherine the backyard. Then we need to get back home and do some more packing."
"That's not home anymore," Danny stated. "This is home now."
"You're right, Danny. We'll call the other place our old home. How about that?"
"Okay."
By the time Daniel's teammates arrived that evening, he, Danny and Catherine had made pretty decent progress in the packing.
Everyone decided that the best thing to do first was to load up the stuff that was already packed and get it over to the new house.
Jack, Sam and Teal'c had only seen the outside of the house and the backyard up till now, so they also got a tour once they arrived, again conducted by Danny. The boy excitedly told them that he was going to have his own desk and computer.
"Excited about having a desk. That is simply not natural for an eight-year-old," Jack said. He looked at Daniel. "But then, I shouldn't be surprised considering where his genetic material came from. Oh, well, at least he's also got a great backyard to play in."
Jack had already expressed his approval of the backyard, stating that they'd have to have a housewarming barbeque out there as soon as Daniel was all moved in.
Once the stuff was all unloaded, everyone headed back over to the old place, Jack and Teal'c stopping to get dinner for everyone on the way.
The rest of the evening was spent packing and talking. With all of them there together, the time went by fast, and they got quite a bit done.
"You know, I think we're going to get you out if here well before the deadline, Daniel," Jack remarked, looking about. "You haven't had a chance to collect a bunch of junk yet. A lot of this stuff we're packing is what I kept after you ascended."
"Ascended?" Danny immediately inquired.
'Oh, crap,' was the thought that went through more than one mind.
Jack met Daniel's eyes, silently apologizing and cursing his big mouth.
Danny looked at all the adults, seeing the expressions on their faces. "What's wrong? Why are you all looking like that?"
Daniel approached the boy. "Danny, there are some things we didn't tell you about that year I was gone away, things that are very hard to explain."
"It's something really bad, isn't it."
"Yes, some of it's bad, which is one of the reasons why I didn't want to tell you. Um, this isn't the right time to talk about it. Let's wait until after all the moving is done and we're in our new house. Then I'll tell you about it."
"All right."
"Okay, it's past time for you to go to bed."
Once Danny was in bed, Daniel came back out to the others.
"Crap, Daniel. I'm really sorry," Jack apologized again. "It just slipped out."
"I know. It probably would have happened sooner or later anyway."
"How much are you going to tell him?" Sam asked, worried about how Danny would react.
"Well, obviously, I'm not going to go into the gory details about how I . . . how I died. And I'm going to have to keep the whole thing about ascension as simple as possible. I honestly don't know how much of it he'll understand."
The mood was more subdued for the remainder of the evening. Everyone left at 10:30, Jack, Teal'c and Sam saying they'd return at the same time tomorrow. Catherine would be arriving in the morning.
Daniel went into the bedroom to watch the sleeping boy. How was he going to tell Danny about the events that had branded such a deep mark on Daniel's soul, that had so completely changed his life? Somehow, he would have to find the words.
With a sigh, Daniel turned away and headed off to bed.
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