Daddy's Little Girl -- SG-1 - Part the Seven (Of Seven)
Title: Daddy's Little Girl
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: General Team fic, and original characters (with a hint of DJ/Teal'c)
Disclaimer: Ain't mine, don't own um...just like playing with them...especially that Danny Boy...
Summary: An ancient initiatory ritual leads DJ and Daniel into a state of trance where they witness important scenes from the ancient past, and confront a group of the Ascended over what they have learned.
Part the One, Part the Two, Part the Three, Part the Four, Part the Five, and Part the Six
The afternoon went by quickly, with Teal’c following DJ’s limping progress as she and Daniel moved through the circle’s outer ring, scrutinizing each pillar and lintel before moving inward. The two Colonels followed, manning the video camera and the digital.
“Its twice the size of Stonehenge.” DJ murmured, running a hand over the smooth surface of the black stone altar at the northern edge of the inner circle. Most of the stone in the space was the same pale stone everything else seemed to be made of, but the altar and the cross pieces that marked the ritual entrance were a smoother black rock. The center of the altar and various other places in the circle were decorated with flowers and branches from sacred trees.
“Have you ever seen a summer solstice ritual at Stonehenge?” DJ asked Daniel as she went to the path that wound an intricate pattern through the circle.
“No, you?”
She nodded and accepted Teal’c’s arm for support. “Yes, it was…remarkable.”
“Do you think that’s what we’ll see tonight?” Sam asked.
DJ shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Their culture has evolved a great deal from what it was when they left Earth. It’s safe to say their ritual has probably evolved too…and probably differently than it might have on Earth.” She squinted at the sun moving slowly toward setting. “We should know soon though.”
The lonely sound of a single horn floated to them as if on cue and as one the five of them turned to see a procession beginning to move their way from the road above them. Daniel ushered them all out of the circle, to wait as they had been instructed beside the path leading in.
Torch bearers led the procession, nine strong, clad in flowing white robes and hoods that hid their faces. As the neared the entrance to the ring, drums began to sound, guiding the torch bearers into the circle on strong beats. The drummers came behind them, carrying large bowled drums on leather straps, their song moving from the simple marching rhythm into an ever more complicated pattern that was picked up by the dancing maidens behind them.
The girls were all dressed in flowing yellow and gold, their hair free to the wind and dressed with flowers as the spun and danced, following the drummers and torch bearers around the outer ring. As the last of the maidens entered the ring and took her place, the drumming stopped abruptly and the horn blasted again, this time closer. Daniel could just see him on the rise a short way away.
A corps of men and women dressed as clerics of some sort, in shades of green paused before the entrance, holding boughs of greeneries. They took positions along the path, bowing to each other three times before the horn sounded again. A man and a woman, priest and priestess, Daniel realized, joined hands and passed through the waving greenery and into the circle, and the drums began again. Two clerics came and escorted Daniel into the group of villagers now following, passed the gauntlet and into the circle. He was vaguely aware of DJ and the others being likewise invited in to the throng as the beat grew frenzied and they moved along the prescribed pattern that made little sense to him.
As they moved around, the altar grew more and more full as the celebrants deposited offerings on it. The sun sank lower, setting red and bloody against the horizon as Daniel found himself suddenly in front of the cave entrance with DJ beside him.
It was dark and compelling and Daniel’s heart was pounding as the priestess took him by the hand and led him toward it. The incline was steep and he felt himself slipping as he tried to follow. The black swallowed him as they went, the final step down seeming to cut off all sight of the swarming villagers behind them. She stopped him. Words were whispered. He felt someone beside him as the priestess moved in front of him. His forehead was anointed with a pungent oil that felt warm against his skin. Pressure on his shoulders convinced him first to kneel, then to sit on the cold stone floor.
Sharp red light pierced the dark directly in front of him. Daniel felt cool air on his cheek, suddenly flush and warm. A wave of vertigo swept over him and he tried to breath through it. The drums echoed in the cavern, thrumming into his body.
There was a hand now, on his head and his body lost all contact with his surroundings, he was falling, reaching out….and a white light blinded him, caught him, turned him around…until he was standing in a room, not unlike the treasure room they had found in Glastonbury. DJ was beside him. “Merlin,” he whispered, as a man swept into the room in long, dark robes.
DJ’s hand found his and he glance aside at her. Wide eyes swept the room before meeting his. “Leave it, Arthur.” Merlin was saying as another man in similar robes was putting things into a bag.
“We won’t have time, Merlin, Oma-“
“Oma worries too much. Take this.” Merlin held out his hand and Daniel saw the flash of a pendant. “Get it to Saraswati. Meet me in Camelot.”
“What are you going to do?”
Merlin stopped and smiled, lifting something in his arms. “Arthur’s Mantle.” DJ breathed.
“I have a few more things to record, just in case. Go Arthur. I’ll see you in Camelot in a few days.”
Arthur left and Merlin set the mantle down, shaking his head. The room seemed to pulse and Merlin looked angry. “Not yet, Oma, not yet.”
The room spun and shifted around them and suddenly they were standing in the library, beside a roaring fire, Merlin once more bustling about. “No, Brion, I need to go. Arthur needs me. You have everything you need here.”
A young man in pale blue tunic and bare feet put a hand on Merlin’s arm. “They will come here too Merlin.”
Merlin shook his head. “We will keep them busy elsewhere, Brion. You will be safe. Do as you can until the memories leave you. Record everything.” He stopped his packing of books and devices to touch the younger man’s shoulder. “One of us will come for you when it is time to rejoin us.”
The room shifted again and they were standing on a green plain, open to the horizon and all around them Ancients began to appear. “Hello Daniel.”
Daniel had to blink a little from the lights as they settle into human form in order to recognize Oma as she stepped forward. Her smile was sad. “Oma?”
“Anubis is well in hand, do not worry. I thought a familiar face might offer you comfort.”
“What is this about Oma?” Daniel asked, impatient now that they had come this far.
“There is a growing schism among our people, Daniel. It has lain dormant for a very long time, and recent events has awakened the will of those of us who remember.”
“Remember what?”
Colleen stepped up beside Oma, and Daniel felt DJ’s hand tighten in his. “We remember what happened when we abandoned the people of our home to the Ori,” she said, though she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “We once tried to protect them, but we were rejected because they thought the Ori would teach them to become like us, and we would not. Some of us continued to seek a solution to the problem, a way to deal with the Ori and save the people they enslaved, but the others vowed non-interference because of the rejection.”
“Merlin and the others.” Daniel said.
“They were the focal point, yes.” Oma agreed. “The numbers of us were small, but we were determined. Merlin and Arthur devised a system to keep the research hidden, even from those of us who supported them. Then, they both simply disappeared.”
“And so you sent Mom to Earth to find out what happened.” DJ said, her eyes moving to Daniel, then Colleen.
Colleen smiled softly. “I was not alone. There were others, on Earth and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the limitations once we retake human form have prevented us from making much progress…and if they are still out there, and still working on something, they may not know that the threat has found us.”
Daniel exhaled slowly and tried to push his thoughts through the sludge of information he had assimilated in the last 48 hours. “The Merlin who has returned here seems to be a different man each time. Or maybe, he retakes human form each time…why then the apprentice.”
“Maybe they trade places.” DJ said absently, letting go of his hand to pace a little.
“What?”
She turned to face him and he could almost see the ideas swimming in her eyes. “There are seven of them, yes?” She looked to Oma and Colleen for confirmation. When they both nodded, she continued. “What if, the apprentice is Prometheus, or Enki? Merlin returns, still Ascended or newly re-Ascended, and brings with him the newly re-humanized Prometheus. They work together for a time, trading the knowledge each of them has regained, then Merlin leaves. When the apprentice has done all that he can, he too Ascends, leaves taking everything he has learned and goes to one of the others.”
“That might explain the journals.” Daniel agreed.
“Clever way to hide too.” Oma said.
“Doesn’t help us find him though.” DJ said. “We don’t have any gate addresses or any indication of where he went when he left here last.”
“We have the journals though…and the Mantle…if we can ever figure it out.” Daniel sighed in frustration.
“We must end this, Oma,” one of the others said suddenly. “They have human bodies that need them.”
Oma nodded. “It has been far longer than you might think. We must let you return to your bodies now. Remember, you are not alone in this battle, Daniel.”
DJ returned to stand next to him, putting her hand back in his. She smiled at him and looked to her mother. “Thank you for pushing me to find him,” she said softly. Daniel could already see his field of vision growing dark and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
There was a sense of falling, then an unsettling sensation of settling into his body. He sat up with a start, his eyes blinking in the dark of the cave, seeking something. DJ’s hand found his as she too sat up. A cup was pressed to his lips. “Drink. It will help ground you.” A strong wine that tasted vaguely of cherries flowed into his mouth and he swallowed instinctively.
A few minutes later, hands were helping him to his feet and up the steep incline. He emerged into bright sunlight that was momentarily blinding. The stone circle was empty but for the two guardians at the mouth of the cave, who parted to let him and his escort pass, and his friends, who rushed over as he emerged, squinting into the late morning glare.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked instantly and he nodded, although a little shaky.
“How long?”
“More than 12 hours.”
DJ groaned as the light hit her eyes and Teal’c was quick to put a supporting hand under her arm. “I don’t feel so good,” she said.
“So?” Mitchell asked.
“Long story, lots to tell. Not here.”
“We’re due back at Stargate Command in a few hours.” Mitchell said.
“Good. We should say our goodbyes.” Daniel looked up to the road leading into the circle where the Chancellor and his wife waited for them. His legs were still a little wobbly as he made his way to them and the rest of them followed.
“I trust you found what you can here seeking,” he said as they stopped near him.
“I think we might have.” Daniel said.
“I am pleased.”
“We’ll be leaving now, but we may find a need to return…if that would be okay.”
The Chancellor smiled. “You are welcome here anytime, Dr. Jackson. I believe that Merlin would want it that way.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Chancellor.”
Daniel nodded to Mitchell who took point, already talking into the radio to let SG-4 know that they were on their way. Sam fell in behind him and Daniel watched as Teal’c lifted DJ to spare her ankle the long walk back to the gate. It would be a long debriefing when they got back, and not the least of his worries was whether DJ would choose to stay.
There was a lot to do when they got back to Earth, hot showers and clean clothes, the requisite check up with Dr. Lamm, reports to write, and the formal debriefing…but that was just the beginning. There were pictures of book pages to sort through, some to translate, the puzzle they presented to be figured out. There was the Mantle, still waiting to be unraveled. For DJ there was a hard decision to make. For Daniel there was the waiting for that decision, knowing it was out of his hands.
DJ stayed in the infirmary longer than the others, having her ankle looked at, freshly wrapped and a set of crutches found for her. When Dr. Lamm finally told her she could go, she didn’t head immediately for Daniel’s office. Instead she went to Landry’s, where she knocked on the door. “Come.”
She fumbled a little with the door, but managed to open it and maneuver in on the crutches. She smiled weakly. “A moment of your time, General?”
“Please.” He stood and gestured to a seat. DJ closed the door and hobbled over before easing herself into the chair. She was quiet for a long moment before she looked up.
“I have to say, I’ve never had a job offer quite like this one before.” She inhaled sharply. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know I haven’t made a decision. I came here…I was hoping you could help me sort through…” She sighed heavily and deflated in her chair, lifting the injured leg up over the arm and rubbing at her forehead. “There’s just so much…I mean the whole other worlds and aliens thing is enough, but then there’s Ascended beings and my mother…and hell, my father who were Ascended and now one of them is again…and there’s Merlin and Arthur and who knows what else out there…and somehow, I don’t stick out like the proverbial sore thumb here…and I doubt I’m going to have that much fun in Glastonbury…but…” She paused, biting her lip. “There’s a lot of but too.”
Landry looked at her and waited. When she didn’t start rambling again, he folded his hands and looked at her. “There are always going to be parts of this job, any job for that matter, that give us pause, whether it’s the hours or the danger or the boredom.”
She looked up at him. “I doubt I’d have to worry about boredom here.”
He smiled. “No, probably not.”
She was back to biting her lip. “I did sign a contract with the museum.”
“I’ve already looked into it. With a little nudging from the right Washington offices, they’d let you out of it.”
She nodded distractedly. “Would I get my own office?”
“Certainly, and a room on base that you could bunk in as necessary.”
“And field work? I wouldn’t be stuck in an office all the time?”
Landry stood and came around the desk. “I believe there’s an opening on SG-4.”
She stood, pulling herself up on her crutches. “I’m not saying yes…yet.” She hobbled toward the door. “And thanks, for letting me ramble.”
“Anytime Dr., anytime.”
DJ knocked on the door and waited as she heard someone moving around inside. After a moment, Teal’c opened the door, seeming surprised to see her. “Can I come in?”
Teal’c stepped aside wordlessly and DJ moved into the room, sitting gingerly on the bed. “I wanted to…talk, before I make any decisions. I…Can you come here?”
Teal’c had stood not far from the door, but crossed the space to sit beside DJ on the bed. She pulled her right leg up and turned to face him. “I like you,” she blurted out, then closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m so not good with this sort of thing.”
Teal’c smile was soft. “I am fond of you as well, DJ.”
She nodded. “I thought you might be. So, we should talk.”
“About what?”
She sighed. “General Landry has offered me a position on SG-4, permanently.”
“You would be a most welcome addition to any team.”
“Thank you, but not the point.” She licked her lips and refocused her attention. “Will we…are we…ah, hell, this isn’t working.” She exhaled her frustration and made at least one decision, acting on it before she could change her mind, DJ leaned over and kissed him. At first it was tentative, then more aggressive as he didn’t push her away. He didn’t exactly kiss her back either, not before she opened her mouth slightly and captured his lower lip, letting her tongue glaze its soft surface, then she felt his hand on her waist and his tongue on her lip as his mouth opened as well.
She was breathless when she finally pulled away, and she couldn’t help but notice that his hand remained on her hip. “Much better than talking,” she whispered with a grin.
“I concur.” He kissed her then, softly, slowly, as if exploring what it felt like to taste her lips.
“So, if I decide to stay…” DJ said a few minutes later, “…is this going to get complicated?”
“Most certainly.” Teal’c responded.
She smiled and kissed the hand she was holding. He moved the hand to caress her cheek. DJ closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, at least until a short knock and Col. Mitchell’s voice interrupted. “Teal’c, you ready?”
“Colonel Mitchell and I are going to see a movie this evening. Something with explosions.” He raised an eyebrow and she laughed.
“Of course, because he doesn’t get enough of them in his real life.” She stood and he followed, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s keep this…whatever this is going to be…to ourselves for now, okay?”
He inclined his head in agreement, then stepped away and opened the door. “I am ready, Colonel Mitchell.”
Teal’c left the door open and reached for the cowboy hat on the table. DJ took the opportunity to limp out into the hallway. “Haven’t you dragged Jackson out of here yet?” Mitchell asked with a grin.
“You know how he is, just one more thing to do…but I’m on my way to insist he take me home so I can get off this ankle.”
“I’m going to have to keep my eye on you too, aren’t I?”
She smiled. “Well, I am my father’s daughter, Colonel.”
“Does that mean you’re staying?”
She stopped and looked at him, then at Teal’c as he emerged from the room. “I haven’t really decided yet, actually.”
“Fair enough. For what it’s worth, I think you’d be good for him.”
DJ nodded, and turned to make her way to Daniel’s office, though not before she saw the sly look on Teal’c’s face. Mitchell meant Daniel, of course, but DJ couldn’t help but smile too as she heard Mitchell ask Teal’c what the look was for.
“I’m going to miss you.” Daniel said as they sat in his car at the airport.
“I’ll be back in two weeks.” DJ grinned, shaking her head. She would miss him too.
“I know.” He chuckled and squeezed her hand. It had been eighteen days since she had walked into his life, but it felt like so much more. He wondered what it might have been like to watch her grow up, to have been a part of her life. At least he had her now, and while it terrified him that she was joining SG-4, which meant going through the gate without him, he was thrilled that they would get to work together.
“I have something for you,” she said suddenly, pulling her hand back and reaching for her bag on the floor at her feet. Out of it came a box wrapped in white paper. “Don’t open until you get home though, okay? I don’t want this getting all sappy.” The tear at the corner of her eye betrayed how sappy it was already getting.
“Can’t have that.” Daniel agreed.
“No.” She handed him the box then reached over to hug him and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” She opened the car door and left him then. He watched her go until she melted into the crowd beyond the glass doors. It seemed odd that this moment made him feel more like a father than any of the rest in the last few weeks.
He set the box on the seat she had left empty and drove home. The house felt empty without her and he sighed as he dropped his keys on the table inside the door. He sat on the couch and fingered the box, then carefully opened it. Inside, under the clouds of tissue paper a white porcelain picture frame looked up at him, three places for pictures filled with images of his daughter.
The first was one of her at 8 or 9, missing four of her front teeth, grinning wide with her tongue poking through the whole where the teeth should have been. The second she was older, maybe 14 or 15, in a formal gown the same color as her eyes, her brown hair swept up and held by something sparkly. The last was one that Sam or Mitchell must have take while they were off planet, though he couldn’t remember it. They two of them were together, leaning against a standing stone, looking down at a book in her hands.
He ran his thumb over the picture and smiled through sudden tears. It seemed impossible, but there she was. He looked up and spotted the picture of his parents, with their smiles and the empty place beside it. Crossing the room, Daniel set the new frame up beside the old, his fingers lingering over the decidedly pink block letters along the bottom of the frame. Eighteen days ago he had been so unsure, and now he smiled as he felt the ease with which she had fit into his life, how she had become his daughter…and the frame made it real with it’s feminine declaration that she was “Daddy’s Little Girl.”
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: General Team fic, and original characters (with a hint of DJ/Teal'c)
Disclaimer: Ain't mine, don't own um...just like playing with them...especially that Danny Boy...
Summary: An ancient initiatory ritual leads DJ and Daniel into a state of trance where they witness important scenes from the ancient past, and confront a group of the Ascended over what they have learned.
Part the One, Part the Two, Part the Three, Part the Four, Part the Five, and Part the Six
The afternoon went by quickly, with Teal’c following DJ’s limping progress as she and Daniel moved through the circle’s outer ring, scrutinizing each pillar and lintel before moving inward. The two Colonels followed, manning the video camera and the digital.
“Its twice the size of Stonehenge.” DJ murmured, running a hand over the smooth surface of the black stone altar at the northern edge of the inner circle. Most of the stone in the space was the same pale stone everything else seemed to be made of, but the altar and the cross pieces that marked the ritual entrance were a smoother black rock. The center of the altar and various other places in the circle were decorated with flowers and branches from sacred trees.
“Have you ever seen a summer solstice ritual at Stonehenge?” DJ asked Daniel as she went to the path that wound an intricate pattern through the circle.
“No, you?”
She nodded and accepted Teal’c’s arm for support. “Yes, it was…remarkable.”
“Do you think that’s what we’ll see tonight?” Sam asked.
DJ shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Their culture has evolved a great deal from what it was when they left Earth. It’s safe to say their ritual has probably evolved too…and probably differently than it might have on Earth.” She squinted at the sun moving slowly toward setting. “We should know soon though.”
The lonely sound of a single horn floated to them as if on cue and as one the five of them turned to see a procession beginning to move their way from the road above them. Daniel ushered them all out of the circle, to wait as they had been instructed beside the path leading in.
Torch bearers led the procession, nine strong, clad in flowing white robes and hoods that hid their faces. As the neared the entrance to the ring, drums began to sound, guiding the torch bearers into the circle on strong beats. The drummers came behind them, carrying large bowled drums on leather straps, their song moving from the simple marching rhythm into an ever more complicated pattern that was picked up by the dancing maidens behind them.
The girls were all dressed in flowing yellow and gold, their hair free to the wind and dressed with flowers as the spun and danced, following the drummers and torch bearers around the outer ring. As the last of the maidens entered the ring and took her place, the drumming stopped abruptly and the horn blasted again, this time closer. Daniel could just see him on the rise a short way away.
A corps of men and women dressed as clerics of some sort, in shades of green paused before the entrance, holding boughs of greeneries. They took positions along the path, bowing to each other three times before the horn sounded again. A man and a woman, priest and priestess, Daniel realized, joined hands and passed through the waving greenery and into the circle, and the drums began again. Two clerics came and escorted Daniel into the group of villagers now following, passed the gauntlet and into the circle. He was vaguely aware of DJ and the others being likewise invited in to the throng as the beat grew frenzied and they moved along the prescribed pattern that made little sense to him.
As they moved around, the altar grew more and more full as the celebrants deposited offerings on it. The sun sank lower, setting red and bloody against the horizon as Daniel found himself suddenly in front of the cave entrance with DJ beside him.
It was dark and compelling and Daniel’s heart was pounding as the priestess took him by the hand and led him toward it. The incline was steep and he felt himself slipping as he tried to follow. The black swallowed him as they went, the final step down seeming to cut off all sight of the swarming villagers behind them. She stopped him. Words were whispered. He felt someone beside him as the priestess moved in front of him. His forehead was anointed with a pungent oil that felt warm against his skin. Pressure on his shoulders convinced him first to kneel, then to sit on the cold stone floor.
Sharp red light pierced the dark directly in front of him. Daniel felt cool air on his cheek, suddenly flush and warm. A wave of vertigo swept over him and he tried to breath through it. The drums echoed in the cavern, thrumming into his body.
There was a hand now, on his head and his body lost all contact with his surroundings, he was falling, reaching out….and a white light blinded him, caught him, turned him around…until he was standing in a room, not unlike the treasure room they had found in Glastonbury. DJ was beside him. “Merlin,” he whispered, as a man swept into the room in long, dark robes.
DJ’s hand found his and he glance aside at her. Wide eyes swept the room before meeting his. “Leave it, Arthur.” Merlin was saying as another man in similar robes was putting things into a bag.
“We won’t have time, Merlin, Oma-“
“Oma worries too much. Take this.” Merlin held out his hand and Daniel saw the flash of a pendant. “Get it to Saraswati. Meet me in Camelot.”
“What are you going to do?”
Merlin stopped and smiled, lifting something in his arms. “Arthur’s Mantle.” DJ breathed.
“I have a few more things to record, just in case. Go Arthur. I’ll see you in Camelot in a few days.”
Arthur left and Merlin set the mantle down, shaking his head. The room seemed to pulse and Merlin looked angry. “Not yet, Oma, not yet.”
The room spun and shifted around them and suddenly they were standing in the library, beside a roaring fire, Merlin once more bustling about. “No, Brion, I need to go. Arthur needs me. You have everything you need here.”
A young man in pale blue tunic and bare feet put a hand on Merlin’s arm. “They will come here too Merlin.”
Merlin shook his head. “We will keep them busy elsewhere, Brion. You will be safe. Do as you can until the memories leave you. Record everything.” He stopped his packing of books and devices to touch the younger man’s shoulder. “One of us will come for you when it is time to rejoin us.”
The room shifted again and they were standing on a green plain, open to the horizon and all around them Ancients began to appear. “Hello Daniel.”
Daniel had to blink a little from the lights as they settle into human form in order to recognize Oma as she stepped forward. Her smile was sad. “Oma?”
“Anubis is well in hand, do not worry. I thought a familiar face might offer you comfort.”
“What is this about Oma?” Daniel asked, impatient now that they had come this far.
“There is a growing schism among our people, Daniel. It has lain dormant for a very long time, and recent events has awakened the will of those of us who remember.”
“Remember what?”
Colleen stepped up beside Oma, and Daniel felt DJ’s hand tighten in his. “We remember what happened when we abandoned the people of our home to the Ori,” she said, though she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “We once tried to protect them, but we were rejected because they thought the Ori would teach them to become like us, and we would not. Some of us continued to seek a solution to the problem, a way to deal with the Ori and save the people they enslaved, but the others vowed non-interference because of the rejection.”
“Merlin and the others.” Daniel said.
“They were the focal point, yes.” Oma agreed. “The numbers of us were small, but we were determined. Merlin and Arthur devised a system to keep the research hidden, even from those of us who supported them. Then, they both simply disappeared.”
“And so you sent Mom to Earth to find out what happened.” DJ said, her eyes moving to Daniel, then Colleen.
Colleen smiled softly. “I was not alone. There were others, on Earth and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the limitations once we retake human form have prevented us from making much progress…and if they are still out there, and still working on something, they may not know that the threat has found us.”
Daniel exhaled slowly and tried to push his thoughts through the sludge of information he had assimilated in the last 48 hours. “The Merlin who has returned here seems to be a different man each time. Or maybe, he retakes human form each time…why then the apprentice.”
“Maybe they trade places.” DJ said absently, letting go of his hand to pace a little.
“What?”
She turned to face him and he could almost see the ideas swimming in her eyes. “There are seven of them, yes?” She looked to Oma and Colleen for confirmation. When they both nodded, she continued. “What if, the apprentice is Prometheus, or Enki? Merlin returns, still Ascended or newly re-Ascended, and brings with him the newly re-humanized Prometheus. They work together for a time, trading the knowledge each of them has regained, then Merlin leaves. When the apprentice has done all that he can, he too Ascends, leaves taking everything he has learned and goes to one of the others.”
“That might explain the journals.” Daniel agreed.
“Clever way to hide too.” Oma said.
“Doesn’t help us find him though.” DJ said. “We don’t have any gate addresses or any indication of where he went when he left here last.”
“We have the journals though…and the Mantle…if we can ever figure it out.” Daniel sighed in frustration.
“We must end this, Oma,” one of the others said suddenly. “They have human bodies that need them.”
Oma nodded. “It has been far longer than you might think. We must let you return to your bodies now. Remember, you are not alone in this battle, Daniel.”
DJ returned to stand next to him, putting her hand back in his. She smiled at him and looked to her mother. “Thank you for pushing me to find him,” she said softly. Daniel could already see his field of vision growing dark and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
There was a sense of falling, then an unsettling sensation of settling into his body. He sat up with a start, his eyes blinking in the dark of the cave, seeking something. DJ’s hand found his as she too sat up. A cup was pressed to his lips. “Drink. It will help ground you.” A strong wine that tasted vaguely of cherries flowed into his mouth and he swallowed instinctively.
A few minutes later, hands were helping him to his feet and up the steep incline. He emerged into bright sunlight that was momentarily blinding. The stone circle was empty but for the two guardians at the mouth of the cave, who parted to let him and his escort pass, and his friends, who rushed over as he emerged, squinting into the late morning glare.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked instantly and he nodded, although a little shaky.
“How long?”
“More than 12 hours.”
DJ groaned as the light hit her eyes and Teal’c was quick to put a supporting hand under her arm. “I don’t feel so good,” she said.
“So?” Mitchell asked.
“Long story, lots to tell. Not here.”
“We’re due back at Stargate Command in a few hours.” Mitchell said.
“Good. We should say our goodbyes.” Daniel looked up to the road leading into the circle where the Chancellor and his wife waited for them. His legs were still a little wobbly as he made his way to them and the rest of them followed.
“I trust you found what you can here seeking,” he said as they stopped near him.
“I think we might have.” Daniel said.
“I am pleased.”
“We’ll be leaving now, but we may find a need to return…if that would be okay.”
The Chancellor smiled. “You are welcome here anytime, Dr. Jackson. I believe that Merlin would want it that way.”
“Thank you for your hospitality, Chancellor.”
Daniel nodded to Mitchell who took point, already talking into the radio to let SG-4 know that they were on their way. Sam fell in behind him and Daniel watched as Teal’c lifted DJ to spare her ankle the long walk back to the gate. It would be a long debriefing when they got back, and not the least of his worries was whether DJ would choose to stay.
There was a lot to do when they got back to Earth, hot showers and clean clothes, the requisite check up with Dr. Lamm, reports to write, and the formal debriefing…but that was just the beginning. There were pictures of book pages to sort through, some to translate, the puzzle they presented to be figured out. There was the Mantle, still waiting to be unraveled. For DJ there was a hard decision to make. For Daniel there was the waiting for that decision, knowing it was out of his hands.
DJ stayed in the infirmary longer than the others, having her ankle looked at, freshly wrapped and a set of crutches found for her. When Dr. Lamm finally told her she could go, she didn’t head immediately for Daniel’s office. Instead she went to Landry’s, where she knocked on the door. “Come.”
She fumbled a little with the door, but managed to open it and maneuver in on the crutches. She smiled weakly. “A moment of your time, General?”
“Please.” He stood and gestured to a seat. DJ closed the door and hobbled over before easing herself into the chair. She was quiet for a long moment before she looked up.
“I have to say, I’ve never had a job offer quite like this one before.” She inhaled sharply. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know I haven’t made a decision. I came here…I was hoping you could help me sort through…” She sighed heavily and deflated in her chair, lifting the injured leg up over the arm and rubbing at her forehead. “There’s just so much…I mean the whole other worlds and aliens thing is enough, but then there’s Ascended beings and my mother…and hell, my father who were Ascended and now one of them is again…and there’s Merlin and Arthur and who knows what else out there…and somehow, I don’t stick out like the proverbial sore thumb here…and I doubt I’m going to have that much fun in Glastonbury…but…” She paused, biting her lip. “There’s a lot of but too.”
Landry looked at her and waited. When she didn’t start rambling again, he folded his hands and looked at her. “There are always going to be parts of this job, any job for that matter, that give us pause, whether it’s the hours or the danger or the boredom.”
She looked up at him. “I doubt I’d have to worry about boredom here.”
He smiled. “No, probably not.”
She was back to biting her lip. “I did sign a contract with the museum.”
“I’ve already looked into it. With a little nudging from the right Washington offices, they’d let you out of it.”
She nodded distractedly. “Would I get my own office?”
“Certainly, and a room on base that you could bunk in as necessary.”
“And field work? I wouldn’t be stuck in an office all the time?”
Landry stood and came around the desk. “I believe there’s an opening on SG-4.”
She stood, pulling herself up on her crutches. “I’m not saying yes…yet.” She hobbled toward the door. “And thanks, for letting me ramble.”
“Anytime Dr., anytime.”
DJ knocked on the door and waited as she heard someone moving around inside. After a moment, Teal’c opened the door, seeming surprised to see her. “Can I come in?”
Teal’c stepped aside wordlessly and DJ moved into the room, sitting gingerly on the bed. “I wanted to…talk, before I make any decisions. I…Can you come here?”
Teal’c had stood not far from the door, but crossed the space to sit beside DJ on the bed. She pulled her right leg up and turned to face him. “I like you,” she blurted out, then closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m so not good with this sort of thing.”
Teal’c smile was soft. “I am fond of you as well, DJ.”
She nodded. “I thought you might be. So, we should talk.”
“About what?”
She sighed. “General Landry has offered me a position on SG-4, permanently.”
“You would be a most welcome addition to any team.”
“Thank you, but not the point.” She licked her lips and refocused her attention. “Will we…are we…ah, hell, this isn’t working.” She exhaled her frustration and made at least one decision, acting on it before she could change her mind, DJ leaned over and kissed him. At first it was tentative, then more aggressive as he didn’t push her away. He didn’t exactly kiss her back either, not before she opened her mouth slightly and captured his lower lip, letting her tongue glaze its soft surface, then she felt his hand on her waist and his tongue on her lip as his mouth opened as well.
She was breathless when she finally pulled away, and she couldn’t help but notice that his hand remained on her hip. “Much better than talking,” she whispered with a grin.
“I concur.” He kissed her then, softly, slowly, as if exploring what it felt like to taste her lips.
“So, if I decide to stay…” DJ said a few minutes later, “…is this going to get complicated?”
“Most certainly.” Teal’c responded.
She smiled and kissed the hand she was holding. He moved the hand to caress her cheek. DJ closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, at least until a short knock and Col. Mitchell’s voice interrupted. “Teal’c, you ready?”
“Colonel Mitchell and I are going to see a movie this evening. Something with explosions.” He raised an eyebrow and she laughed.
“Of course, because he doesn’t get enough of them in his real life.” She stood and he followed, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s keep this…whatever this is going to be…to ourselves for now, okay?”
He inclined his head in agreement, then stepped away and opened the door. “I am ready, Colonel Mitchell.”
Teal’c left the door open and reached for the cowboy hat on the table. DJ took the opportunity to limp out into the hallway. “Haven’t you dragged Jackson out of here yet?” Mitchell asked with a grin.
“You know how he is, just one more thing to do…but I’m on my way to insist he take me home so I can get off this ankle.”
“I’m going to have to keep my eye on you too, aren’t I?”
She smiled. “Well, I am my father’s daughter, Colonel.”
“Does that mean you’re staying?”
She stopped and looked at him, then at Teal’c as he emerged from the room. “I haven’t really decided yet, actually.”
“Fair enough. For what it’s worth, I think you’d be good for him.”
DJ nodded, and turned to make her way to Daniel’s office, though not before she saw the sly look on Teal’c’s face. Mitchell meant Daniel, of course, but DJ couldn’t help but smile too as she heard Mitchell ask Teal’c what the look was for.
“I’m going to miss you.” Daniel said as they sat in his car at the airport.
“I’ll be back in two weeks.” DJ grinned, shaking her head. She would miss him too.
“I know.” He chuckled and squeezed her hand. It had been eighteen days since she had walked into his life, but it felt like so much more. He wondered what it might have been like to watch her grow up, to have been a part of her life. At least he had her now, and while it terrified him that she was joining SG-4, which meant going through the gate without him, he was thrilled that they would get to work together.
“I have something for you,” she said suddenly, pulling her hand back and reaching for her bag on the floor at her feet. Out of it came a box wrapped in white paper. “Don’t open until you get home though, okay? I don’t want this getting all sappy.” The tear at the corner of her eye betrayed how sappy it was already getting.
“Can’t have that.” Daniel agreed.
“No.” She handed him the box then reached over to hug him and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” She opened the car door and left him then. He watched her go until she melted into the crowd beyond the glass doors. It seemed odd that this moment made him feel more like a father than any of the rest in the last few weeks.
He set the box on the seat she had left empty and drove home. The house felt empty without her and he sighed as he dropped his keys on the table inside the door. He sat on the couch and fingered the box, then carefully opened it. Inside, under the clouds of tissue paper a white porcelain picture frame looked up at him, three places for pictures filled with images of his daughter.
The first was one of her at 8 or 9, missing four of her front teeth, grinning wide with her tongue poking through the whole where the teeth should have been. The second she was older, maybe 14 or 15, in a formal gown the same color as her eyes, her brown hair swept up and held by something sparkly. The last was one that Sam or Mitchell must have take while they were off planet, though he couldn’t remember it. They two of them were together, leaning against a standing stone, looking down at a book in her hands.
He ran his thumb over the picture and smiled through sudden tears. It seemed impossible, but there she was. He looked up and spotted the picture of his parents, with their smiles and the empty place beside it. Crossing the room, Daniel set the new frame up beside the old, his fingers lingering over the decidedly pink block letters along the bottom of the frame. Eighteen days ago he had been so unsure, and now he smiled as he felt the ease with which she had fit into his life, how she had become his daughter…and the frame made it real with it’s feminine declaration that she was “Daddy’s Little Girl.”