CHAPTER TEN
That evening, as Sam took the boy up onto the mountaintop to stargaze, Daniel discussed the situation with his other two teammates in the VIP room.
"Maybe he heard somebody talking about the gate," Jack suggested hopefully.
"Oh, come on, Jack. You know that's not it. He knows that the Stargate is round. He couldn't know that unless he saw it or somebody told him."
Jack sighed. "Okay, you're right. The little squirt is reading your mind."
"I was hoping that I was wrong. There hadn't been any other incidents after those first two."
"What do you intend to do, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c inquired.
"We're going to have to tell him about the program. Sooner or later, he's going to pull something else from my thoughts about a mission or the Goa'uld. We knew that we'd probably have to tell him eventually."
"And what about what he is?" Jack asked.
Daniel got to his feet. "I was hoping that I'd have a few more days, give him more time to heal. He had another nightmare last night. It wasn't nearly as bad, and I was able to quiet him, but. . . ."
"Daniel, chances are that Danny's going to keep having at least some nightmares for months."
"Yeah, I know." Daniel retook his seat on the bed. "When I see him laughing and smiling, I want to think that he's fine, but I know that's not true. He's definitely better, a lot better, but I'm afraid that something will happen to set him back, like that flashback did for a while."
"You can't keep babying him, Daniel," Jack told him. "You can't keep sheltering him from everything."
Daniel drew in a deep breath. "No, I can't. All right. If we get the general's permission, I'll tell Danny everything tomorrow."
When Sam came into the room with Danny a while later, Daniel was alone. The major could tell from the look in his eyes that something was wrong.
Danny was half-asleep, it being past his bed time, and the two adults got him ready for bed and tucked in. Daniel gazed down at him with a sad look.
"Daniel, what's wrong?" Sam asked.
"I'm going to tell him tomorrow, Sam. Everything."
"What?" Sam sat down. "Why?"
Daniel gave her a rundown of his conversation with Jack and Teal'c. "I can't put it off any longer. The danger is too great that he's going to pick up something from my mind that I can't explain away. In the morning, I need to tell General Hammond what's going on. I guess Janet should know, too."
"We'll help you tell him, Daniel," Sam said earnestly. "We can help explain the whole thing."
"No, this is something I have to do alone, Sam, at least when I tell him what he is. I need to . . . I need to make him understand that he's no less a person, that he's real, and special, and . . . and unique. And that we love him regardless of what he is."
Sam's hand rested on his. "You'll do fine, Daniel. I know you will. Everything will be okay."
The archeologist looked into Sam's eyes. "Are we going to be okay?"
The major's hand slipped away from his, which sent a little spear of pain through Daniel's heart.
"Yes, Daniel, we're going to be fine," Sam told him.
"Are you sure? I'm sorry, Sam. I'm sorry that I did it." Daniel's gaze dropped to his hands. "I know that you've been avoiding me because of it."
"No," Sam instantly denied. Then she paused. "Okay, I was for a while. I did come to see you and Danny late this morning, but . . . I knocked, and nobody answered." Okay, that was true. She did knock.
"I was taking a nap, didn't get much sleep last night."
Sam leaned forward in her chair. "Daniel, you weren't the only participant in what happened last night. I kissed you, too. You certainly didn't force me. I could have stopped it at any time. So, please don't apologize." Deciding to be brave for Daniel's sake, she smiled. "Besides, I enjoyed it."
Surprised blue eyes met hers. "You did?"
"You're kidding, right? Of course I enjoyed it. You are one hell of a kisser, Doctor Jackson."
Daniel blushed brightly. Then he smiled. "So are you."
Sam returned the smile, her cheeks coloring faintly. "Thank you."
They both became serious again.
"So, what do we do now?" Daniel asked. "Follow our original plan of forgetting all about this and going on like nothing happened?"
"That's what we should do."
Daniel sighed. "Yes, I guess it is." Why did he have to feel so sad about doing what was right?
Feeling terribly sad all of a sudden, Sam got to her feet. "Everything will work out, Daniel."
Daniel couldn't even muster up a nod. "Good night, Sam."
Sam wished him back a good night, then left. She went to the locker room and changed into her civvies. A while later, she was at home, eating chocolate ice cream in front of the TV, not even paying attention to what was on. She finally turned the TV off and put the bowl down. Moments later, a single tear slipped down her cheek, a tear for what she knew she wanted but could not have.
The meeting with Hammond and Janet took place at eight a.m. Jack was there with Daniel. Sam and Teal'c were watching Danny.
"You told me that you have some news about Danny, Doctor Jackson," the general said.
"Yes, sir. Several days ago, something happened that led me to believe that Danny and I, uh, share a kind of psychic connection."
"What?" Janet said, shocked.
"Please explain," Hammond requested, also surprised.
Daniel told them about the incidents with the drawing of the Goa'uld and sensing when Danny was startled.
"Daniel, I agree that those incidents were puzzling," Janet said, "but there could be other explanations."
"I know that I had no hard evidence, which is why I didn't say anything to the two of you," Daniel said. "But, now, there can be no doubt of it." He told them about what happened at lunch yesterday. "There is no way that he could know about the Stargate other than that he got it from my mind."
Hammond and Janet were both silent for a few seconds. The doctor was the one who spoke first.
"There have been studies that appear to prove a psychic connection between some identical twins. Given that, such a connection between clones is feasible."
Daniel nodded, recalling that he'd said the same thing to his teammates. He turned to Hammond. "Sir, because of this, I think that I need to tell Danny right away about the program and about what he is."
"Daniel, telling him about the program is one thing," Janet responded, "but I'm not sure that he's ready yet for the shock of knowing who he is."
"And what if he finds out from a stray thought of mine? I think about it a lot, Janet. We're lucky it hasn't happened already. I don't want to do it so soon either, but I think we have no choice."
The doctor sighed. "I suppose you're right."
Daniel turned back to Hammond. "Sir, we knew that Danny would have to know about the program eventually. If we didn't tell him, we'd have had to make up a story about him being cloned here on Earth, and that's no longer an option. He's already gotten an image of a Goa'uld and the Stargate from my mind. What's next?"
The general nodded. "You're right, Doctor Jackson. All right, you have my permission to tell Danny as much as you need to. Obviously, details about missions cannot be revealed, although you will have to tell him about Cedarna."
"Yes, sir."
As Daniel and Jack waited for the elevator after the meeting was over, the colonel put a hand on his friend's shoulder. He felt the tension in the muscles.
"It'll be okay, Daniel," he said. "We're talking about a little version of you here. If he's got half the toughness you do, he'll be fine."
When Daniel and Jack walked into Daniel's quarters, Sam and Teal'c met the archeologist's eyes. He gave them a slight nod. They both got to her feet.
"Daniel?" Sam inquired, asking with that one word if he was sure he didn't want any of them to stay.
"I'll see you later, Sam," he responded. "Thanks."
"Call us if you need us," Jack said.
The door closed quietly. Daniel went up to the bed, where Danny was drawing, and sat down.
"Danny, there's something we need to talk about."
The boy looked up at him. "Is it about Sam?"
"No, it's not about Sam." Daniel took the drawing things and set them aside. "It's about this place. I told you that it was a military base, but I didn't tell you what we do here. There's something I want to show you."
Daniel fetched his laptop and logged onto the off-world photo archive on the base's server. He brought up a particular photo.
"That is a Stargate, Danny."
The boy gazed at the gigantic ring. "That's cool."
"Yes, it is." Daniel set the laptop on the night stand. "Danny, when I said that the Stargate is a gate, it was the truth, but it isn't any ordinary gate, it's a gate that goes to other planets."
Danny's eyes widened hugely. "It is?"
"Yes. That picture on the screen, it was taken on another planet. There are thousands and thousands of Stargates all over the galaxy, and in other galaxies, too. We travel to those planets through the gate we have here."
"Wow," Danny said in awe. "Do you go to other planets?"
"Yes, I do. I've been to so many that it would take a long time for me to count them all."
"Wow," Danny said again, which made Daniel smile a little. The smile faded as he thought of what he had to tell the boy next.
"Danny, there's something else I have to tell you. But, before I do, I want you to really understand that I love you, that Sam, Jack, Teal'c, General Hammond, Janet and a lot of other people here love you. You do know that, right?"
Danny nodded, wondering what this was about.
"A while ago, we went to a planet called Cedarna. We found out that, because of a bad chemical in the water, the people living there couldn't have very many babies. Their population was getting smaller and smaller because there weren't enough children to take the place of the people who died from old age, illness and accidents. We then found out that they had a machine that they were using to try to help them. Do you know what a clone is?"
Danny shook his head.
"Well, you see there is something inside each person that's called DNA. The DNA has all the information about that person's body, such as what they look like. No two people have the same DNA, except in the case of identical twins. You know what that is, right?"
"Uh huh. They're brothers or sisters that look just like each other."
"That's right, because they have the same DNA. There is a special way that DNA can be used. You can take a little bit of a person, like some of their skin or blood, and, with the DNA in it, you can make a duplicate of that person, a copy."
Danny's eyes widened again. "You can?"
"Yes. That duplicate, which is called a clone, will physically be everything that the original person is, the same eyes, the same ears, the same everything. And, if you give that clone the original person's memories, it'll be as if they're exactly like that person. You wouldn't be able to tell them apart."
Daniel braced himself for the next words. "On Cedarna, the people were making clones. Those clones were made to grow up really fast, but they weren't growing up all the way. They were still children when the Cedarnans took them out of the cloning machine. What we didn't know is that the Cedarnans used some of my blood to make a clone of me." He met the boy's eyes. "Danny, that clone is you."
Danny went utterly silent, eyes wide. "I-I'm a copy of you?" he finally said.
"You're a clone of me, Danny," Daniel corrected, not liking the word 'copy'. "All these memories you have of your mom and dad, of the places you've seen, the things you've done, they're my memories of my childhood. My mom and dad were Claire and Melburn Jackson, who died thirty years ago when I was eight years old."
Tears started filling Danny's eyes, and his respiration increased. "I-I-I'm not really me?"
Daniel grabbed the boy's hands. "Yes, you are, Danny. You're really you. You are Daniel Jackson, just like I am. You are a real person, as real me. It's just that all those memories you have of before you woke up here are not really yours."
Danny began crying in earnest. "But I remember Mommy holding me and Daddy kissing me. Mommy sung me lullabies in all different languages, and Daddy taught me chess, and-and-and they taught me all about Egypt, and the pharaohs, and the Egyptian g-gods. They were my mommy and daddy, my mommy and daddy, not yours!"
Daniel closed his eyes tightly, feeling sick. Danny was sobbing, wrapped in a self-hug. Oh, God. This was even worse than he'd feared. He had to do something or he might lose Danny forever.
Daniel gathered the boy in his arms and laid down on the bed with him. "Danny, listen to me. You remember how I said that a clone was like the person they were made from? Physically, that clone is that person. They're the same. Yes, Claire and Melburn were your parents, just like they were mine. A part of Mom and a part of Dad were used to create me, and, because you are me, in a way, those parts were used to create you, too." Daniel lifted Danny's tear-washed eyes to his. "You are me, Danny, and they were our mom and dad."
Danny was still crying, but he was no longer sobbing. Daniel held onto him in silence, praying that he'd gotten through to the boy.
The minutes ticked by as Danny slowly grew silent. Daniel kept hold of him, waiting for some sign from the child in his arms.
It was a full ten minutes before Danny stirred. He sniffled loudly.
"Danny?" Daniel inquired hesitantly.
"T-they were still my mom and dad?" the boy whispered tremulously.
"Yes, they were. Because you're me, they were your parents, too."
"But I was made by a machine." The statement was spoken in a stronger voice.
Daniel realized how awful that sounded. "Well, sort of. The machine took my DNA and caused you to grow from it, but it didn't put you together piece by piece or anything like that. You grew and developed inside the machine sort of like a baby grows and develops inside his mom's tummy."
"I was never in Mom's tummy." That was spoken sadly.
Daniel didn't know what he could say to that, so he said the only thing he could think of saying. "Danny, you need to believe me when I say that you being a clone doesn't make a difference to us in how much we love you. It doesn't matter that you grew inside a machine instead of a mother's tummy. We love you regardless. And . . . and if Mom and Dad were alive today, I know that they would love you, too."
"They would?"
"Absolutely. Do you believe me?"
Danny nodded. "Will I grow up to be just like you?"
"You'll grow up to look just like me, and you may be a lot like me in other ways, but, no, you won't be just like me in every way."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll have a different life than what I did, different experiences. That will change how you feel about some things and how you act. You'll develop different like and dislikes. Some things that I love, you may hate, and the other way around. You'll learn different things in school. You'll have different memories; you already do. All the things you remember happening since we brought you here are different from what happened to me after Mom and Dad died. Remember what I said to you about my life after they died, how I didn't have anybody to love me?"
Danny nodded.
"Well, that was true. I was all alone. I was sent to live with people I didn't know. They took care of me for a while, then someone else took over from them. But that's not the life you're going to have, and it will make a difference in who you grow up to be."
"What about Grandpa Nick? Why didn't he take care of you?"
Daniel sighed. "Nick was busy going all over the world, and he didn't have time to take care of a little boy."
Danny thought about that. "I only remember seeing him three times. He made me call him Nick instead of Grandpa. Mom said it was because being called Grandpa made him feel old."
Daniel nodded. "I remember that. Mom said that it was okay to call him Grandpa when he couldn't hear me."
Danny lifted his head and looked up at him. "You remember everything I do?"
"About the accident and everything that happened before? Not all of it. It's been a long time for me, Danny, so I've forgotten things."
"Can I tell you things you forgot?" Danny asked hesitantly.
Daniel smiled at him. "Sure. I'd like that."
Danny's gaze dropped to a button on Daniel's BDU shirt. "Mom and Dad really died a whole thirty years ago?"
"Almost. The anniversary is coming up in a few months."
"Did they get buried in a cemetery?"
"Yes, they did. Their graves are in New York. Maybe, someday, I can take you there."
"We're not in New York?"
"Oh. No, I forgot to tell you. We're in Colorado."
There was a brief moment of silence. "Were you really sad when Mom and Dad died?"
Daniel drew the boy closer. "Yes, I was very sad."
Danny looked at him. "Are you still sad?"
"Sometimes. I sometimes wish that they were here, that they could see me now, know what I've done with my life. They would be so excited about the Stargate. They'd have wanted to go to those other worlds, explore the ruins I've seen, meet some of the cultures I have. The first time I went through the Stargate, I decided to stay with the people we met. I was with them for over a year, Earth time. That's where I met my wife. I found a chamber there, an archeological wonder that any archeologist would do anything to explore. When I found it, I thought about Mom and Dad, the look that would have been in their eyes if they could have seen it. I wished that they were there with me."
Danny saw the sadness in Daniel's eyes. He wrapped his arms around the man's waist. "Don't be sad, Daniel."
Daniel pulled the boy tight against him, pressing a kiss on the golden hair. He sat up with the boy.
"Are you feeling better?"
Danny nodded, though it was a subdued nod.
"Do you have any other questions?"
The boy thought for a while. "The people that made me did it because they wanted more kids?"
"Yes."
"But you took me."
"Yes, because I knew it was better if I took care of you. But don't worry about the Cedarnans, Danny. We found a way to help them so that they can have more children."
"That's good." There was a pause. "Are there other clones?"
Daniel wondered if he should tell Danny about Jack's clone. Probably not, at least not yet. "Um, there's only one other clone here on Earth, but there are probably quite a few on Cedarna and on other planets." Daniel looked into the boy's eyes. "You are a special and unique person, Danny. You may have been made from me, but that's just this stuff." He gently poked the boy's arm. He then brushed a finger over Danny's forehead. "What you are inside there," he placed a fingertip over the child's chest, "and in your heart isn't exactly like anyone else in the universe."
Danny had a few more questions about the whole thing, which Daniel answered as well as he could. Now that the initial shock and trauma were past, the boy appeared to be adjusting well to the truth of his identity, though Daniel was not going to make the mistake of assuming that everything would be fine from now on.
"Can you tell me more about the Stargate?" Danny asked after a while, which pleased Daniel. His curiosity about other things was a good sign.
"Well, I can tell you some things, but not everything." Daniel looked down at him. "Danny, the Stargate is a secret. Most people on Earth don't know about it, and they don't know that we can travel to other planets or that there are people on those planets. It's okay to talk about those things here, but not in other places where there are people, like when I take you into town." Daniel looked straight into the boy's eyes. "It is very, very important that you keep this secret."
Danny saw the intensity in Daniel's look. "What would happen if I didn't?"
"Well, most people would probably think you were just making it up, but if somebody didn't, it could cause a whole lot of trouble, for me and everybody else here, and also for the president."
"Of the United States?"
"Yes. If the whole world found out, a lot of people could get scared."
"Why?" Danny asked.
"Because there are dangerous things out in the galaxy. People here don't know about them, so they're not afraid of them. But, if they knew, it could scare them."
"What kinds of dangerous things?"
"We can talk about that later. So, do you swear not to tell anyone."
Danny gave him a nod. "I won't tell anybody. I promise."
Daniel gave the boy a quick hug. "Would you like me to call Sam, Jack and Teal'c and ask them to come here or would you like to just be here alone with me for a while?"
"They can come."
It turned out that Daniel's teammates were all in Sam's lab, hoping he would call them. They were on their way to Daniel's quarters as soon as the archeologist told them they could come.
Sam knelt by the bed before Danny. She smiled gently up into his eyes and brushed her hand through his hair.
"Are you okay?" she asked. Danny gave her a nod. She rose up a little and pulled him into a tight hug. "I love you, Danny."
The boy wrapped his arms around her neck. "I love you, too."
There were tears sparkling in Sam's eyes as she drew back.
Danny looked up at Jack. "I'm a clone, Uncle Jack."
The colonel came forward and sat on the bed, putting a gentle arm around the child. "I know, Danny. But, hey, some of our best friends are clones."
"They are?"
"Yep. You see, there are these little grey aliens called the Asgard, who have great big heads and great big eyes, but little teeny tiny behinds. They don't make babies like we do, so they clone themselves instead. Every one of them is a clone, and they're some of our very best friends. They've helped us lots of times when we needed it."
"Really? That's cool."
"Uh huh. You're gonna love Thor when you meet him."
"Thor? That's the Norse god of thunder."
"That's right," Daniel responded. "You see, for many thousands of years, aliens visited Earth, and some of them pretended to be the gods from our mythology."
Danny's eyes widened in excitement. "The Egyptian gods, too?"
The eyes of the four adults met.
"Um, yes, the Egyptian gods, too," Daniel replied.
"You mean like Isis, and Ra, and Horus, and all the others?"
"Maybe not all of them, but quite a few, as well as gods from a lot of other mythologies."
"Wow."
"Oh, yeah. It's pretty exciting, all right," Jack said, trying to keep his sarcasm in check.
"So, there are lots of different aliens?"
"Yes, there are," Sam replied. "We've seen and met many different ones. Some, like the Asgard, have become our friends."
"I'd like to meet an alien."
Daniel, Sam and Jack all looked at Teal'c. The Jaffa nodded his head in assent, knowing what they were asking.
"Well, Danny, as it turns out, you already have," Jack told the boy.
"I have?"
"Uh huh, right there." The colonel pointed at Teal'c.
Danny's eyes got huge. "You're an alien?"
"Indeed I am, young Daniel Jackson. I come from a world called Chulak."
This time, Danny was so wowed that he couldn't even say the word.
"Would you like to see the Stargate?" Daniel asked.
The boy's head nodded so fast that it looked in danger of bobbing right off his neck.
SG-1 took Danny down to Level 28. As the blast door opened and the boy got his first look at the Stargate, his mouth dropped open. Wide eyes filled with wonder, he walked up to the ramp with his adult companions.
"How does it work?" he asked.
Three heads turned to Sam, handing that explanation over to her.
"Remember, Carter. He may be Daniel, but he's still only eight," Jack said. "Try not to make his head explode."
"I'll try not to, sir."
Sam gave Danny a very simple explanation of how the Stargate could take people to other planets. The boy asked dozens of questions that the major tried her best to answer in a way he'd understand.
"Can you turn it on?" Danny asked after the explanations were finished.
"Well, it costs a lot of money every time we turn it on, so we usually don't do it unless we have a good reason," Sam replied. "But we're going to be going on another mission day after tomorrow, and I bet that General Hammond wouldn't mind if you watched."
Concerned about the sound causing another flashback, Daniel said. "It's a really loud sound, Danny, so you might have to plug your ears."
For the rest of the day, Danny peppered SG-1 with questions about the Stargate, the planets they'd been to, and the people and aliens they'd met. Though they did tell Danny about the Goa'uld, they sugar-coated it a lot so that the boy wouldn't be frightened. He was fascinated by the news that aliens had taken people from the ancient civilizations of Earth to populate other planets.
Danny finally conked out at around nine o'clock, and Daniel put him to bed.
"Well, he seems to be handling the news pretty well," Jack said.
Daniel sat on the edge of the bed. "He didn't at first, Jack. God, I think that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, to tell him that and then watch him start falling apart right in front of my eyes." He told them what happened. "I was so focused on the clone aspect, on being concerned that he'd think he was a freak or not a real person that I didn't even consider that what would upset him most was that I seemed to be telling him that his parents weren't really his. And I should have realized that, approached things differently."
Sam sat beside him and rubbed his arm. "Daniel, you can't be expected to think of everything. What matters is that he's doing okay now."
"Like I said, he's a tough kid," Jack reiterated.
"Now that young Daniel Jackson knows the truth, will you be taking him to your home?" Teal'c asked.
"I suppose so, although I'll need to start hunting for a new place soon. I guess Danny should have a say in where we move since it'll be his house, too."
"Three bedrooms," Jack said.
Daniel looked at him. "Why three?"
"Because you should have a guest room, and if you ever need someone to watch Danny overnight, there's the option of them watching him at your place instead of taking him to theirs."
"Good point."
"Are you going to rent again?" Sam asked.
"You should buy," Jack stated. "Now that you've got a child, you need permanence. If you buy, you won't have to worry about having to move because the landlord hiked up the rent or something like that."
Daniel considered Jack's words. When he returned to human form and went looking for a place to live, he could have purchased a house instead of renting. He had a good income and plenty enough in the bank for a sizable down payment. But he'd chosen to rent instead, the uncertainty of his life making him hesitant to make that kind of investment. But having Danny did make everything different.
Daniel glanced at Sam, thinking about what it would be like if the house was being shared with her, if they had children together, little brothers and sisters for. . . . Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell was he doing? He and Sam share a kiss, and, now, he's thinking about having kids with her?
Daniel was getting scared. This was getting out of control. He had to stop this, stop thinking about Sam like that. They couldn't be together. That's all there was to it. She was his friend and teammate, and that's all she'd ever be.
A touch on his arm broke through Daniel's thoughts.
"Hey. Where'd you go?" Sam asked, smiling.
"What? Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking about everything."
"Well, you do have a lot to think about," Jack responded. Once again, Daniel's life was going through major changes. "Becoming an instant father wouldn't be easy for anyone."
"We'll be going on the mission to Cedarna day after tomorrow," the archeologist said. "I'll wait until after that to take Danny home."
Daniel knew that the day he took Danny home would be another big step on the new path that his life had taken. Only time would tell what things lay ahead on that path.
