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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The house hunting that morning was more productive than the day before.  A couple of the places were pretty good, though not ideal.  Megan had an appointment with another client late that morning, but said that she could resume the search with him afterwards.

Daniel made arrangements with the owners to see the inside of the two occupied houses that he and Danny looked at on Saturday.  Unfortunately, neither house would work out.

As he ate lunch, Daniel decided to call and see if Danny was doing okay.

"How's the search going?" Hammond asked.

"We've found a couple that might work out, but nothing that I'm completely happy with.  This was a whole lot easier when I was looking for a place for just me."

"Yes, everything becomes more complicated when you have a family."

"How is Danny doing?"

General Hammond looked over at the three children, who were eating their sandwiches and talking about recent movies they'd seen.  Actually, the two girls were the ones doing most of the talking, with Danny asking an occasional question.

"He's doing well.  We had a bit of an incident earlier, but it's all cleared up."

"Do I need to come back?"

"No, no.  Everything's fine, Daniel.  You take care of what you need to do.  I bet Danny would like to say hello, though.  I'll put him on the phone."  Hammond turned back to the dining room.  "Danny?  Your father's on the phone.  Would you like to speak with him?"

The boy immediately got off the chair and came running up to the general, who handed the phone to him.

"Dan . . . Dad?"

"Hey, Danny.  How are you doing?"

"I'm okay.  Did you find a house?"

"Maybe.  I'm going to look at a few more this afternoon.  Will you be okay staying there for a few more hours?"

"Yes," Danny replied even though he wished that Daniel would come back sooner.

"Are you having fun with Kayla and Tessa?"

"Uh huh."

"That's good.  Okay, I have to go now, but if you need to talk to me or really want to come home, you have General Hammond give me a call.  All right?"

"All right.  Bye."

"Bye."

Daniel hung up and finished his lunch.  At one o'clock, he met with Megan again, and they went to the next house on the list.  As soon as they pulled up in front of it, Daniel felt the breath halt in his lungs for a moment.  He sat staring at it for several seconds.

"Daniel?  Are you all right?"

The archeologist blinked and turned to Megan, who was out of the car and looking at him through the open window.

"Oh.  Yes.  Yes, I'm all right."

Daniel got out of the car and walked with the woman up the walkway.

"Now, this is an older home, built back in the sixties," the realtor explained, "but all the plumbing and wiring is up to code, and there is no asbestos.  The place has been completely repainted as well, so you also wouldn't have to worry about lead paint."

Daniel was only listening to her with a portion of his mind as his eyes kept scanning the house.  The woman unlocked the door and led him inside.

"The previous owners have done some renovations, but I think they managed to retain the original charm of the house.  There are some wonderful features that you won't find in the newer homes."

The layout inside was somewhat different from his memory, which Daniel had expected, but, even so, the feeling of deja vu was still strong.  He noted that all three bedrooms were a good size and had plenty of closet space.  The living room and kitchen were also nice.  But it was when they stepped into the backyard that the feeling of deja vu really kicked in with a vengeance.  The entire back side of the house had a covered, ground-level veranda with a concrete floor.  Daniel could picture in his mind lawn chairs and tables, a barbeque grill off to the side.  Beyond the veranda was a large fenced yard with a big shade tree right in the middle, perfect for climbing.

"Daniel?" Megan inquired.

The archeologist gave himself a little shake and looked at her.  "What?"

"I'm sorry.  You spaced off again there for a moment.  Is everything all right?"

"Yes.  I think we found it."

The woman smiled.  "We have?"

Daniel looked around.  "Yes.  I need to bring Danny here, though, make sure it's all right with him.  Can I do that later this afternoon?"

"I'm afraid that I have another client then.  I'll tell you what.  I don't normally do this, but how about if I give you the key, and you can show the house to Danny yourself?  All I ask is that you return the key to the office before it closes.  Would that be all right?"

"Yes, that would be fine.  Thank you."

"Would you like to take a look at any other homes?  I still have a couple of hours."

"Um, okay."

The two of them looked at three more houses, but Daniel couldn't get that other one out of his mind.

Before they parted, Megan gave Daniel the key to the house he wanted to show Danny.

"If you decide you want the house, call me on my cell any time," she said.  "The owners are eager to sell, so I'm sure we can work out terms and a price that will please everyone."

"Thanks.  I'll let you know as soon as I can."

Daniel headed straight over to General Hammond's house.  When he got there, the three children were playing with Legos in the living room.  Danny had constructed what looked a little like an ancient Egyptian temple.

"So, which Egyptian god is that one for?" Daniel asked, grinning.

Hearing his voice, Danny quickly turned around.  Seeing Daniel, he scrambled to his feet and ran over.  Daniel scooped him up and gave him a big hug.

"Mmm.  I missed you," he said.

"I missed you, too," Danny responded.  "Did you find a house?"

"Yes, Danny, I think I did.  But I want you to come look at it.  It's going to be both of ours, so I want you to be happy with it, too.  How would you like to go there now?"

Danny gave him a nod.

"Go say goodbye to Kayla and Tessa, then."

Daniel let the boy down and watched him run back over to the two girls.  He turned to Hammond.

"Thank you for watching him.  I really appreciate it."

"It was my pleasure, Daniel.  Danny is a wonderful child, and Tessa and Kayla have enjoyed playing with him.  We would all be delighted to do this with him again."

"Thanks.  I might take you up on that."

His goodbye to the girls having been said, Danny came back over.  General Hammond bent down, and the boy gave him a long, tight hug.

"I love you, Uncle General George," Danny whispered.

A trace of tears in his eyes, George Hammond hugged the boy even tighter.  "And I love you, Danny, just like you're my own grandson."

"Do you have any real grandsons?"

"No, I don't.  Kayla and Tessa are the only grandchildren I have, at least so far."

Danny was silent for a while.  "Could I be your pretend grandson?  Then I could call you Grandpa.  My real grandpa didn't like to be called that.  He wanted to be called Nick."

It took a lot to make Major General George Hammond cry, but that almost did it.  He glanced up at Daniel to see a lot of emotion in the younger man's eyes.

"I would be honored and very happy to be your pretend grandfather, Danny," he said a little roughly.  "And I would love for you to call me Grandpa."

Danny smiled up at him.  "Grandpa."

Hammond also smiled.  "Now, you'd better get going so that you can see that house your dad wants you to look at."

"When can I see you again?"

"I don't know yet, Danny.  We'll have to see how things work out."

On the road, Daniel glanced at Danny.  "Did you have fun?"

"Uh huh, but Kayla and Tessa don't know very much about the Egyptians or mythology."

Daniel smiled.  "Well, a lot of the things Mom and Dad taught me weren't things that the average grade school kid learned."

"When I told them I could speak six languages and write Hieratic, hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform, Kayla thought I was making it up."

The archeologist smiled again.  "What did you do to convince her?"

"I said things in all the languages I know how to speak, and I wrote things in all the others."

Daniel gave a little laugh.  "I bet that surprised them."

"Yeah."  Danny lapsed into silence.  He was afraid to tell Daniel that he messed up, but he knew that he should.  He decided to wait until later.

When they arrived at the house, Danny stared at it much the same way Daniel had.

"It looks like my house," he said softly, "where I lived with Mom and Dad when we weren't on a dig."

"I know."  The moment Daniel had seen it, he'd been flooded with memories of the house his parents had owned.  He had not spent a lot of time in that house since they were so often out on digs, but the memories he had of it were good ones.

They went inside, where Danny started pointing out all the differences between this house and the one in his memory.  And then they went into the backyard.

"Wow.  It's just the way our house was, with the big porch, and the tree, and everything!" Danny exclaimed excitedly.

"Well, there are some differences, but it is a lot like it, from what I remember.  I think the yard is a little smaller."

"It looks bigger to me," Danny stated.

Daniel smiled.  "You may be right.  I'm a lot bigger now, so things look smaller."

As Danny explored the yard, Daniel went back out the front door, looking around.  It was a quiet neighborhood, far enough from the congestion of the city to be peaceful, but close enough to be convenient for shopping.  There was a school eight blocks away, so, if Daniel decided to put Danny in public school, he wouldn't have far to go.  Best of all, there appeared to be lots of kids in the neighborhood that were around Danny's age.  He could see them playing in the streets and in their yards.  Daniel would have a bit farther to drive to work, but that was a fair trade-off for all the advantages living here would bring.

Danny came up beside him.  He looked down at the boy.

"So, what do you think?  Would you like to live here?"

Danny looked back in the house, then nodded.  "I like it.  It gives me good memories of Mom and Dad."

Daniel smiled.  "Me too."

"When can we move in?"

"Well, first, I have to buy it."

"Does it cost a lot?"

"Yes, quite a bit, though I'm sure not nearly as much as a lot of other houses."

Danny now looked worried.  "Will you have enough money?  I have some in my piggy bank that I could give you."  He then frowned.  "Oh.  That's right.  I don't really have that money.  It was yours when you were a little kid."

Daniel gave him a hug.  "Thank you anyway for offering to give it to me, Danny.  That was very generous of you.  I don't have enough to pay for the whole house, but I can borrow what I don't have from the bank."

"Then we can move in?"

"Well, it might take a while.  There is a lot of paperwork and other things to do first.  I don't know exactly how long it will take.  This is the first time I've bought a house."

"I wish we could move in today."

"Me too.  But we just have to be patient."

Danny was so excited about the house that he had to call General Hammond as soon as they got home.  Daniel smiled as he listened to the boy telling the general all about the place, calling the man Grandpa.  In that moment, Daniel felt happier than he had since the day Apophis took Sha're.  Only one thing could make it better.  He wondered how Sam would like the house.

Trying not to let that thought dampen his mood, Daniel got on his cell phone and called Megan.  The woman was delighted that he wanted the house and told him to come to the office in the morning so that they could get things started.

That's when he thought of something else.  After ending the call, he went over to Danny, who was still on the phone with Hammond.

"Danny, I need to talk to him.  Could I have the phone?"  The boy handed him the receiver.  "General Hammond, I just thought of something.  Is everything set in regards to Danny, the marriage, divorce, and birth records?  I'm going to need to get a loan for the house, and the bank may check on my history."

"Yes, Daniel.  That's all been dealt with, as well as the falsified records regarding his mother.  As you requested, her first name was recorded as Claire.  The people taking care of everything went with the maiden name of Maxwell."

"Thank you.  I wanted to give her the same first name as my mother since that's the one Danny is used, and it would be less likely that he'd make a mistake and give the wrong name."

"We'll have copies of Danny's fake birth certificate, as well as all the other papers, well before you'll be needing them.  I'll call the ones in charge of this first thing in the morning and hurry the papers along."

"Thank you, sir."

"George."

"Sorry.  Old habits die hard."  Daniel smiled.  "Will I still be calling you 'sir' when we're on duty?"

Hammond also smiled.  "Well, I don't know.  Now that Danny's calling me 'Grandpa', it wouldn't seem quite right to have you keep calling me 'sir'.  You're practically a part of the family now.  However, for the sake of propriety, I'd say that we should probably stick to 'sir' while on duty."

After hanging up, Daniel turned his attention to deciding what they'd have for dinner.  Looking in the refrigerator, he decided that, to celebrate finding a house, they should go out to eat.  He sat on the couch with Danny and the phone book so that they could pick a restaurant together.  As he and Danny looked through the phone book together, it was no surprise that the boy gravitated toward the restaurants with the colorful display ads.

"What's that one?" he asked, pointing at a large half-page display ad.

"Oh, you wouldn't like that one, Danny.  That's one of those fancy Italian restaurants, the kind you go to for romantic dinners."

Danny gazed at the ad with greater interest.  "It is?  Have you ever gone there?"

"No, I never had a reason to."

They finally managed to choose a restaurant, but Danny's mind was no longer on dinner.  An idea had begun to form in his mind, one that he hoped would lead to three people living in their new house.

Later that night, as Daniel tucked Danny into bed, the little boy decided that he needed to confess his mistake.

"Will you be mad at me if I tell you that I messed up?" he asked, not meeting Daniel's eyes.

"Messed up?  How?"

Danny told him about what happened with Tessa and Kayla.  "I'm sorry I messed up."

"It's okay, Danny.  I understand why you did.  I figured that you might mess up a little sometimes.  It's going to take a while for you to get used to referring to me as your dad when we're around people who don't know the truth."

"Then you're not mad?"

Daniel gave him a smile.  "No, I'm not mad.  In fact, I'm very proud of you."

"You are?  How come?"

"Because you told me about this.  I bet you were afraid to, weren't you."

"Kind of," Danny admitted.

"Yet you did the right thing by being honest and telling me.  That was a good and brave thing to do.  Never be afraid to tell me something, Danny, because I'll be more disappointed in you if you don't tell me than in whatever it is that you did."

"Okay."


The next day, Daniel got his introduction into the not so wonderful process of buying a house.  Of course, the first order of business was getting financing.  That turned out not to be a big problem, though, not with the hefty down payment Daniel was providing, his good credit record, and his quite generous salary.  The only problem in that regard was his record showing that he was listed as deceased during the time he was living on Abydos.  Apparently, the fact that the military listed him as MIA for the year he was ascended wasn't in his credit history.  Daniel was just glad that paperwork hadn't been filed on his presumed death when Nem kidnapped him on Oannes and made Jack, Sam and Teal'c believe he was dead.  He probably had General Hammond to thank for that.  Because of the fact that a young Hammond had met all of SG-1, including Daniel, back in 1969 when they time traveled back there, the general had reason to believe that Daniel wasn't really dead since the time traveling hadn't happened yet.

Danny did very well during the time that Daniel had to spend at the various places, though he was obviously bored.  What Daniel found amusing – and somewhat embarrassing – is that the boy seemed like a magnet to nearly every female around.  He lost count of how many women commented on how beautiful, cute, sweet, adorable, well-mannered, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, Danny was.  The boy had scored quite a collection of lollipops and other candies, which was probably one of the reasons why he wasn't complaining about having to sit around so much.

What was even more embarrassing was how many women showed an interest in Daniel when they found out that he was a single father.  He hadn't been hit on this many times throughout his entire life.  What was it about women and single dads?  Maybe they thought that if a guy was responsible enough to care for a child all by himself, he was good husband material.  He would really be glad when all this was in the past.

That evening, Daniel decided that he didn't want to put Danny through another day like that and called Janet.  Though the doctor couldn't watch Danny, Cassie was available to babysit.  Deciding that Danny should meet the eighteen-year-old first, Daniel had her come over after dinner.

The girl greeted Daniel with a big hug.  "How come I don't get to see you more?" she scolded.

"Sorry, Cass.  You know how the job can be."

Cassie frowned.  "You spend too much time working.  That's what Jack says.  You're just like Sam in that way."

Daniel smiled.  "Guilty as charged, though that will be changing now that I have Danny."

The teenager looked at the boy, who was watching her from where he sat on the floor.  She went toward him with a smile and sat on the floor beside him.

"Hi.  My name's Cassie.  I'm Janet's daughter."

"You're older than I thought," Danny commented.

"I'm eighteen."

The two of them talked for a while longer, then Cassie excused herself to use the bathroom.

Danny came over to where Daniel was sitting on the couch.  "Does Cassie know the secret about me?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yes, she does.  Janet told her."

"She knows I'm top secret?"

"Uh huh.  Actually, Cassie is top secret, too."

Danny's eyes widened a little.  "She is?"

"Yes, because she was born on another planet."

That made the boy's gaze grow even bigger.  "She's an alien like Teal'c?"

"Not exactly.  She's human, from one of the worlds that were populated by people from Earth."

"Oh.  How long has she lived on Earth?"

"Since she was twelve."

"How come she's living here instead of where she came from?  And how come Janet's her mom?  Is Janet from another planet, too?"

"No, she's from Earth.  You see, there was a . . . plague on Cassie's homeworld, which killed everyone except her."

"Everybody?  Her mom and dad, too?"

"Yes."

"Then she's an orphan, like me."

"Yes, she is, but Janet adopted her so that she'd have a mom."

When Cassie came out of the bathroom, she was surprised with a hug from Danny.

"I'm sorry your mom and dad died," he said.

Cassie met Daniel's eyes for a moment, then gazed down at the boy.  "Thank you, Danny.  I'm sorry about your mom and dad, too."

"Mine really died a long time ago."

"Yes, I know."

"What was your planet like?"

Cassie spent the next half-hour telling Danny about the world she was born on, the ways that it was different from Earth and the ways it was the same.  Not all that many years ago, it would have been hard for her to talk about it, but the years had dulled the pain, made it bearable to think about her family and friends and how they died.

Cassie had not known about the death of Daniel's parents until Janet told her when explaining about Danny.  When she found out, she realized that she had a lot in common with this little boy and with the man whose DNA had created him.  They shared the pain of witnessing the deaths of their family, something that would forever have an impact on their lives.

By the time Cassie left, she and Danny had become friends, the tragic loss in their lives and the secret of their origins creating a bond between them.

Daniel walked the teen out to her car.

"He is soooo adorable, Daniel," Cassie said.  "I always figured that you were a cute kid."

Embarrassed, Daniel dipped his head.

"What time do you need me tomorrow?"

"My first appointment is at ten.  How long can you stay?"

"I'm all yours for the whole day," Cassie replied.

"Thanks.  That will give me a chance to take care of some other things between appointments."

"I think it's a really great thing that you're doing, Daniel.  Not many single guys would be willing to take on the responsibility of caring for a child all by themselves, if they didn't have to."  She lifted her finger.  "And don't say you had to do this.  You could have let somebody else take Danny.  Mom told me that Jack offered to do it."

"Technically, no, I didn't have to do it, and, yes, Jack offered, but I knew that I was the best one to do it because of what Danny's going through."

Cassie gave him a hug around the neck and a kiss on the cheek.  "You are such a cool guy, Daniel.  Too bad you're too old for me."

Shocked by the teenager's comment, Daniel could do nothing but gape at her as, with a girlish laugh and a little bat of her eyelashes, she got in her car and drove away.

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