New Fic: P is for Parenting (PG)
In honour of Gen Fic Day, and because I suffer from a surprising amount of masochism, I signed up for sg-fignewton's Janet Alphabet Soup. Yay for 26 new fics about Janet! Go check them out!
P is for Parenting
Season 4. PG: Bit of naughty language. Thanks to amaranthtraces for the as always excellent beta.
“You’re going to be late!” Janet calls from the front door.
Cassandra finally stomps her way down the stairs, wearing something not quite as wildly inappropriate as the last outfit. She’s on the cordless phone. Again. “I don’t think he meant it like that, but that’s how it came out when he...I know!”
It's sometimes both a blessing and a curse how well she's adapted to life on Earth.
“Cassandra!” Janet calls again, for what probably isn’t the hundredth time, though it certainly feels like it.
“Gotta go. My mother,” Cassandra says, like Janet’s some sort of chronic and incurable disease. She hits the end button with her thumb and sighs melodramatically. “What do you care anyway? You’re not even going.”
“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.”
“Don’t break your promises and maybe I won’t have to.”
Janet sighs. Science Fair Day. She loved them as a kid but completely hates them as a parent, especially the ones she has to miss. “I promised to try. I want to be there, Cassandra, but there has to be a physician on base and my replacement is too sick to work.” Damn Greene and her bronchitis, anyway.
Cassandra rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”
Janet clenches her fingers into her purse and vows to call her mother and apologize for all the crap she pulled at this age. “You’re going to do great. Sam thinks it’s fantastic and she would know.”
Cassandra makes a face at the floor and then glances at Janet out of the corner of her eye. “You’ll pick us up from the mall afterwards though, right?”
“I’ll be there.”
XXXXXXXX
“You still need me to let Max out tonight?”
Janet looks up from her report on Lieutenant Nguyen’s shoulder dislocation to see Colonel O’Neill leaning around her doorframe. “Yes, please.”
He hovers for a moment longer. “I can take him home with me for the night if you want. Just in case?”
She can hear the hope in his voice and smiles ruefully. She’s the only one with legal rights as far as Cassandra’s concerned, and she and her ex never had kids, thank God, yet somehow Janet still finds herself enmeshed in the occasional custody battle. Though as far as canine custody is concerned, she’d happily relinquish her ‘rights’ entirely. Except Cassandra would kill her, and Colonel O’Neill’s off-world too often to properly care for a dog. “That’s fine, Colonel.”
“Great.” He starts to grin but then smothers it. “You owe me one.”
She’s careful not to let him see her rolling her eyes. “Yes, sir.”
XXXXXXXX
“No. I said no and I meant no.”
Janet massages her temple as Cassandra rants a bit more on the unfairness of life in general and of Janet in particular. It’s not swaying Janet’s mind, though it is annoying her.
“Cassandra. You need to concentrate on getting through the last round of judging. You’ll have a whole hour with your friends afterwards before I pick you up. That’ll have to do. Front entrance, 6 sharp.” She pauses for moment, recovering her temper. “You’ll do fine, honey. Good luck.”
It isn’t until she’s hanging up her phone that she realizes she’s not alone. Teal’c is watching from the doorway, his hands clasped behind him. “You okay, Teal’c? Do you need me?”
“I do not. Major Griff required assistance to the infirmary following a training mishap. His injury is minor; a nurse is seeing to him.” His head tilts to the side. “You are troubled.”
Janet sighs. “I thought I’d get better at being a mom as time passed, but I don’t seem to be getting the hang of it.”
“It is a difficult time in Cassandra Fraiser’s life.”
Janet nods, unsure what else to say.
“Parenting an adolescent is often...trying.” His voice holds a note of sympathy more personal than someone just being nice, reminding Janet that Teal’c’s a parent, too.
“You find Rya’c trying?”
A small smile turns up the corners of his mouth. “The Jaffa are a proud, independent people. Many are also wise. Difficulties arise when the former attributes are present before the latter.”
Very true, and not just for Jaffa. “Any advice?”
“I have read of a king in the history of Earth who was given a ring bearing the inscription ‘This too shall pass’.” Teal’c’s smile fades as his eyebrow rises. “I remain hopeful the assessment is accurate.”
Janet can’t help but smile at his discomfort. “Indeed.”
XXXXXXXX
Janet’s packing up her things when Daniel comes in looking for a prescription for his allergy meds. A glance at the clock tells her she’s running late, but she humours him and writes one anyway.
“In a hurry?” he asks, glancing down at the script she gives him. “It’s even less legible than usual.”
“I’m sure the pharmacist can translate it, Daniel, even if you can’t.” She has to chuckle at the squinted glare he throws her. “I have to pick Cassandra up at the mall. We had an argument this morning and she’s not going to be pleased if I keep her-”
The lights flicker about a second before the base alarm sounds. A few seconds after that, there’s a call for a med team to get to Major Carter’s lab, stat. Janet grabs her recently-discarded lab coat and heads out, pleased to see Jeffries and Singh and a gurney already halfway to the elevator. Janet heads for the stairs, barely noticing that Daniel’s on her heels.
The lab is a mess. There’s some sort of device on the floor by the bench, scorch marks radiating from its shattered remains. Sam is cradling her right hand to her chest, but it’s the young airman she’s kneeling over that demands Janet’s immediate attention. He’s unconscious and Sam’s frantically feeling for a pulse she obviously can’t find.
Janet nudges her out of the way. “What happened?” She replaces Sam’s hand with her own on his neck, confirming that there’s no detectable pulse.
“The device short-circuited and zapped us. Bosworth took the brunt of it.”
Singh hands her the defibrillator before she asks. Janet and her team spend the next several minutes getting Bosworth’s heart out of V-fib and into a sinus rhythm. Once he’s secured on the gurney, her team heads off ahead of her. Janet orders Sam to the infirmary, too. From the looks of things, she’s fried her hand pretty nicely, but Janet won’t have time to find out how badly until she’s sure Bosworth is stabilized.
Time. “Shit. Cassie.”
“I’ll get her, Janet,” Daniel says. “You worry about Sam and the airman.”
She’d forgotten he was there. Janet spares a quick thought that poor Daniel has no idea what he’s volunteered for, but she has no choice but to accept and no chance to explain before she’s running out the door behind her team.
XXXXXXXX
Janet’s exhausted by the time she gets home. Doctor Schwartz arrived to relieve her no more than ten minutes after the accident, but Janet was forced to stay when Bosworth coded twice more before they finally stabilized him. Janet’s hopeful he’ll make a full recovery.
She lets herself in-realizing she actually does owe Colonel O’Neill one when there’s no overeager dog waiting to be tripped over-and finds Daniel lying flat on his back, knees bent to fit his too-tall frame onto her too-short couch, one arm flung over his eyes. His laptop’s on the coffee table, rows of hieroglyphs walking like Egyptians across pixelated pyramids. She’s debating whether to wake him or just fetch him a blanket when he groans, “You didn’t tell me they were evil.”
She snorts. “They’re teenagers. Of course they’re evil.”
“You also didn’t tell me I had to drive four of them home.” He’s still hiding under his arm.
“Was it that bad?”
The arm finally moves and he blinks incredulously up at her.
“It was that bad,” she deduces.
Daniel shudders slightly as he sits up and plants his feet on the floor. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think one of them spent the whole drive hitting on me.”
Ah. Janet had forgotten Rose was going to be one of the girls along for the ride. No wonder Daniel is in such a state. “She probably did.”
His chin drops to his chest, and he shudders again, not-so-slightly this time. He’s quick to recover, though, and he looks back up at her. “Is Sam okay?”
Janet nods and sinks down beside him, her exhaustion catching up with her again. “Just a couple of second-degree burns. It’ll hurt for a few days, but there’s no permanent damage.” She smiles at his sigh of relief. “Airman Bosworth wasn’t so lucky, but I think he’ll be okay, too.”
He nods. “Good.” He watches the Egyptians dance across his screensaver before standing up and snapping the laptop closed. “Cassie won her division.”
Janet blinks at the non-sequitur before putting it together. Maternal pride fills her. “She did? That’s great!”
Daniel smiles. “Remember that when you’re driving her to Denver for State finals next month.”
Crap. She’ll have to book the time off now. And put Greene in a bubble so she doesn’t catch anything else. “I’ll make Sam come with me. Serve her right for indiscriminately sharing her textbooks.”
“I wondered where Cass got the idea for ‘Euclidean Solutions in Quantum Gravity’,” Daniel says as he packs his laptop into its case. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to have a physicist on your hands.”
Janet grunts acknowledgement. Her exhaustion is catching up with her. She lets her head sink back to rest on the couch.
“There’s leftover Chinese in the fridge, if you’re hungry,” Daniel says from the vicinity of the entranceway.
Janet hears the bolt turn and the door open before she works up the energy to say, “Daniel? Thanks.”
“Anytime,” he replies, and the door clicks shut behind him.
XXXXXXXX
Janet manages to eat some almond guy ding and two spring rolls before admitting defeat and heading for her bedroom. She’s just collapsing into bed when there’s a light tap on her door.
“Mom?” Janet turns the bedside lamp back on as Cassandra comes in and sits down on the edge of the bed.
Janet can see her picking at the comforter. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick you up like I promised.”
“Daniel said there was an accident in Sam’s lab. He didn’t seem too concerned about her, but...”
“You were worried?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s fine, Cassie. Everyone will be fine.”
Cassandra nods; the tension leaves her shoulders. “I’m glad.”
“Me too.” Janet smiles. “I hear you won.”
“Yeah. Whoda thunk?”
“Oh, I dunno. Me,” Janet says, counting on her fingers. “Sam. Daniel. Colonel O’Neill. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Teal’c, if he knew what a science fair was...”
Cassandra finally returns the smile. “Thanks, Mom.”
Janet shrugs. “I’m still sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“It’s okay. Daniel was kind of a hit with my friends.”
“With Rose especially, I hear.”
Cassandra starts to giggle. “Oh, God. You should have seen them. Rose was prattling and batting her eyelashes and sighing everywhere, and Daniel just had that look...” Even in the dim light Janet can see Cassandra furrow her brow and squint sideways at her in a near-perfect impersonation. She has to laugh.
“We okay?” Janet asks, once they settle back down.
She nods. “Yeah. Assuming you can make it to Denver.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Well, that’s not quite true. She might have to miss it for the world, or at least to save some of the people who save the world. But between Cassie’s resilience and Janet’s surprising amount of back-up, they’ll muddle their way through.
END
In other news, I need to get off my butt and make myself a nice Janet icon.
P is for Parenting
Season 4. PG: Bit of naughty language. Thanks to amaranthtraces for the as always excellent beta.
“You’re going to be late!” Janet calls from the front door.
Cassandra finally stomps her way down the stairs, wearing something not quite as wildly inappropriate as the last outfit. She’s on the cordless phone. Again. “I don’t think he meant it like that, but that’s how it came out when he...I know!”
It's sometimes both a blessing and a curse how well she's adapted to life on Earth.
“Cassandra!” Janet calls again, for what probably isn’t the hundredth time, though it certainly feels like it.
“Gotta go. My mother,” Cassandra says, like Janet’s some sort of chronic and incurable disease. She hits the end button with her thumb and sighs melodramatically. “What do you care anyway? You’re not even going.”
“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.”
“Don’t break your promises and maybe I won’t have to.”
Janet sighs. Science Fair Day. She loved them as a kid but completely hates them as a parent, especially the ones she has to miss. “I promised to try. I want to be there, Cassandra, but there has to be a physician on base and my replacement is too sick to work.” Damn Greene and her bronchitis, anyway.
Cassandra rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”
Janet clenches her fingers into her purse and vows to call her mother and apologize for all the crap she pulled at this age. “You’re going to do great. Sam thinks it’s fantastic and she would know.”
Cassandra makes a face at the floor and then glances at Janet out of the corner of her eye. “You’ll pick us up from the mall afterwards though, right?”
“I’ll be there.”
XXXXXXXX
“You still need me to let Max out tonight?”
Janet looks up from her report on Lieutenant Nguyen’s shoulder dislocation to see Colonel O’Neill leaning around her doorframe. “Yes, please.”
He hovers for a moment longer. “I can take him home with me for the night if you want. Just in case?”
She can hear the hope in his voice and smiles ruefully. She’s the only one with legal rights as far as Cassandra’s concerned, and she and her ex never had kids, thank God, yet somehow Janet still finds herself enmeshed in the occasional custody battle. Though as far as canine custody is concerned, she’d happily relinquish her ‘rights’ entirely. Except Cassandra would kill her, and Colonel O’Neill’s off-world too often to properly care for a dog. “That’s fine, Colonel.”
“Great.” He starts to grin but then smothers it. “You owe me one.”
She’s careful not to let him see her rolling her eyes. “Yes, sir.”
XXXXXXXX
“No. I said no and I meant no.”
Janet massages her temple as Cassandra rants a bit more on the unfairness of life in general and of Janet in particular. It’s not swaying Janet’s mind, though it is annoying her.
“Cassandra. You need to concentrate on getting through the last round of judging. You’ll have a whole hour with your friends afterwards before I pick you up. That’ll have to do. Front entrance, 6 sharp.” She pauses for moment, recovering her temper. “You’ll do fine, honey. Good luck.”
It isn’t until she’s hanging up her phone that she realizes she’s not alone. Teal’c is watching from the doorway, his hands clasped behind him. “You okay, Teal’c? Do you need me?”
“I do not. Major Griff required assistance to the infirmary following a training mishap. His injury is minor; a nurse is seeing to him.” His head tilts to the side. “You are troubled.”
Janet sighs. “I thought I’d get better at being a mom as time passed, but I don’t seem to be getting the hang of it.”
“It is a difficult time in Cassandra Fraiser’s life.”
Janet nods, unsure what else to say.
“Parenting an adolescent is often...trying.” His voice holds a note of sympathy more personal than someone just being nice, reminding Janet that Teal’c’s a parent, too.
“You find Rya’c trying?”
A small smile turns up the corners of his mouth. “The Jaffa are a proud, independent people. Many are also wise. Difficulties arise when the former attributes are present before the latter.”
Very true, and not just for Jaffa. “Any advice?”
“I have read of a king in the history of Earth who was given a ring bearing the inscription ‘This too shall pass’.” Teal’c’s smile fades as his eyebrow rises. “I remain hopeful the assessment is accurate.”
Janet can’t help but smile at his discomfort. “Indeed.”
XXXXXXXX
Janet’s packing up her things when Daniel comes in looking for a prescription for his allergy meds. A glance at the clock tells her she’s running late, but she humours him and writes one anyway.
“In a hurry?” he asks, glancing down at the script she gives him. “It’s even less legible than usual.”
“I’m sure the pharmacist can translate it, Daniel, even if you can’t.” She has to chuckle at the squinted glare he throws her. “I have to pick Cassandra up at the mall. We had an argument this morning and she’s not going to be pleased if I keep her-”
The lights flicker about a second before the base alarm sounds. A few seconds after that, there’s a call for a med team to get to Major Carter’s lab, stat. Janet grabs her recently-discarded lab coat and heads out, pleased to see Jeffries and Singh and a gurney already halfway to the elevator. Janet heads for the stairs, barely noticing that Daniel’s on her heels.
The lab is a mess. There’s some sort of device on the floor by the bench, scorch marks radiating from its shattered remains. Sam is cradling her right hand to her chest, but it’s the young airman she’s kneeling over that demands Janet’s immediate attention. He’s unconscious and Sam’s frantically feeling for a pulse she obviously can’t find.
Janet nudges her out of the way. “What happened?” She replaces Sam’s hand with her own on his neck, confirming that there’s no detectable pulse.
“The device short-circuited and zapped us. Bosworth took the brunt of it.”
Singh hands her the defibrillator before she asks. Janet and her team spend the next several minutes getting Bosworth’s heart out of V-fib and into a sinus rhythm. Once he’s secured on the gurney, her team heads off ahead of her. Janet orders Sam to the infirmary, too. From the looks of things, she’s fried her hand pretty nicely, but Janet won’t have time to find out how badly until she’s sure Bosworth is stabilized.
Time. “Shit. Cassie.”
“I’ll get her, Janet,” Daniel says. “You worry about Sam and the airman.”
She’d forgotten he was there. Janet spares a quick thought that poor Daniel has no idea what he’s volunteered for, but she has no choice but to accept and no chance to explain before she’s running out the door behind her team.
XXXXXXXX
Janet’s exhausted by the time she gets home. Doctor Schwartz arrived to relieve her no more than ten minutes after the accident, but Janet was forced to stay when Bosworth coded twice more before they finally stabilized him. Janet’s hopeful he’ll make a full recovery.
She lets herself in-realizing she actually does owe Colonel O’Neill one when there’s no overeager dog waiting to be tripped over-and finds Daniel lying flat on his back, knees bent to fit his too-tall frame onto her too-short couch, one arm flung over his eyes. His laptop’s on the coffee table, rows of hieroglyphs walking like Egyptians across pixelated pyramids. She’s debating whether to wake him or just fetch him a blanket when he groans, “You didn’t tell me they were evil.”
She snorts. “They’re teenagers. Of course they’re evil.”
“You also didn’t tell me I had to drive four of them home.” He’s still hiding under his arm.
“Was it that bad?”
The arm finally moves and he blinks incredulously up at her.
“It was that bad,” she deduces.
Daniel shudders slightly as he sits up and plants his feet on the floor. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think one of them spent the whole drive hitting on me.”
Ah. Janet had forgotten Rose was going to be one of the girls along for the ride. No wonder Daniel is in such a state. “She probably did.”
His chin drops to his chest, and he shudders again, not-so-slightly this time. He’s quick to recover, though, and he looks back up at her. “Is Sam okay?”
Janet nods and sinks down beside him, her exhaustion catching up with her again. “Just a couple of second-degree burns. It’ll hurt for a few days, but there’s no permanent damage.” She smiles at his sigh of relief. “Airman Bosworth wasn’t so lucky, but I think he’ll be okay, too.”
He nods. “Good.” He watches the Egyptians dance across his screensaver before standing up and snapping the laptop closed. “Cassie won her division.”
Janet blinks at the non-sequitur before putting it together. Maternal pride fills her. “She did? That’s great!”
Daniel smiles. “Remember that when you’re driving her to Denver for State finals next month.”
Crap. She’ll have to book the time off now. And put Greene in a bubble so she doesn’t catch anything else. “I’ll make Sam come with me. Serve her right for indiscriminately sharing her textbooks.”
“I wondered where Cass got the idea for ‘Euclidean Solutions in Quantum Gravity’,” Daniel says as he packs his laptop into its case. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to have a physicist on your hands.”
Janet grunts acknowledgement. Her exhaustion is catching up with her. She lets her head sink back to rest on the couch.
“There’s leftover Chinese in the fridge, if you’re hungry,” Daniel says from the vicinity of the entranceway.
Janet hears the bolt turn and the door open before she works up the energy to say, “Daniel? Thanks.”
“Anytime,” he replies, and the door clicks shut behind him.
XXXXXXXX
Janet manages to eat some almond guy ding and two spring rolls before admitting defeat and heading for her bedroom. She’s just collapsing into bed when there’s a light tap on her door.
“Mom?” Janet turns the bedside lamp back on as Cassandra comes in and sits down on the edge of the bed.
Janet can see her picking at the comforter. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick you up like I promised.”
“Daniel said there was an accident in Sam’s lab. He didn’t seem too concerned about her, but...”
“You were worried?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s fine, Cassie. Everyone will be fine.”
Cassandra nods; the tension leaves her shoulders. “I’m glad.”
“Me too.” Janet smiles. “I hear you won.”
“Yeah. Whoda thunk?”
“Oh, I dunno. Me,” Janet says, counting on her fingers. “Sam. Daniel. Colonel O’Neill. Mr. Fitzpatrick. Teal’c, if he knew what a science fair was...”
Cassandra finally returns the smile. “Thanks, Mom.”
Janet shrugs. “I’m still sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“It’s okay. Daniel was kind of a hit with my friends.”
“With Rose especially, I hear.”
Cassandra starts to giggle. “Oh, God. You should have seen them. Rose was prattling and batting her eyelashes and sighing everywhere, and Daniel just had that look...” Even in the dim light Janet can see Cassandra furrow her brow and squint sideways at her in a near-perfect impersonation. She has to laugh.
“We okay?” Janet asks, once they settle back down.
She nods. “Yeah. Assuming you can make it to Denver.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Well, that’s not quite true. She might have to miss it for the world, or at least to save some of the people who save the world. But between Cassie’s resilience and Janet’s surprising amount of back-up, they’ll muddle their way through.
END
In other news, I need to get off my butt and make myself a nice Janet icon.