Jack stayed for the night, played with the kids, was amazed that David was suddenly able to eat a few foods he had been allergic to all his life, and, unknown to Megan, he paid a few overdue bills he found sitting on the kitchen table. He called Michael, wanting to know the terms of the divorce, because it didn’t look to him as though Andrew was sending any money for the support of his children. In fact, it didn’t look like there was much money at all coming in. A straight talk with Katie told him that they ate with the grandparents quite often. She was a little embarrassed, but she needed a few girl things from the store. Jack and Katie went to the store, stocked up the cupboards and whatever else was needed, and he made sure the kids had lunch money for the month. Michael had no idea things were so bad, and promised to do what he could to help. He was an ass about his own daughter while in a fog of grief, but he refused to allow his grandchildren to suffer. Jack collected all the bills and split them with Michael, keeping the larger share, the rent, to deal with, knowing Michael’s stipend wasn’t much; whatever Jack needed to do, Megan and the kids would not be on welfare.
Daniel and Sam were incredulous that Andrew hadn’t even sent child support. A few phone calls told Jack that Andrew couldn’t be found. Daniel told him that it was typical NPD behavior; narcissists didn’t like kids, could hide it well, fake it well, but didn’t like kids. They felt kids were the narcissists and hated them for it. They also couldn’t deal with females because of the higher emotional quotient. NPDs couldn’t deal with emotions. Andrew probably felt he was not responsible for the kids. Both Sam and Daniel insisted on taking a greater share of their own household bills so that Jack could concentrate on Megan and the kids. Jack called Cousin Joey and had him find a couple of female cousins to play house-helper at Megan’s. Joey would make sure Megan and the kids were taken care of. He complained that Megan took after Jack; she never lets anyone know when she needs help.
Things were quiet and back to normal for a couple of weeks until Daniel was called to school.
“Dr. Jackson, thank you for coming in.”
Principal Herbert greeted him as he entered the office.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“Stacy is fine,” she assured him, ushering him into her office. “A sixth grade boy… well… exposed himself to Stacy. We’ve called his mother, he’s been suspended, but you do need to know about it.”
“And Stacy is alright?” he asked, ready to run out and find her.
“She’s fine, in fact…. she gave the boy a pretty good slug,” he was told. “Technically, I’m supposed to suspend her, too, for fighting.”
“For defending herself?!” Daniel questioned in disbelief, hands on his hips. “Where is she?”
Principal Herbert had Stacy brought into her office. She glared defiantly at the principal as she took her father’s hand.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she insisted.
“I know, baby, just tell me what happened,” Daniel said, sitting down.
“We were all playing outside for recess, and he pulled the front of his shorts down,” she told him. “I punched him.”
Daniel wanted to applaud.
“Yes, but what did you say first?” Herbert prompted her. “You said something to him, he responded, and then you punched him. Fill in the blanks, Stacy.”
“Oh. I told him not to worry, it’ll get bigger some day, and then he tried to hit me so I hit him first.”
Daniel fought hard to hold back his laughter. Playing with Teal’c and the Anunnaki children was beginning to show; those kids didn’t hold back when it came to expressing themselves, and the warriors only egged them on. Daniel had been concerned that the children weren’t being socialized properly, so he had long since suggested sending them down for play dates with SGC children. The children were a bit wild and, in many ways, emotionally stunted, not from any negligence or abuse on the part of the warriors, but the mere fact that they were stuck on a ship without a proper social growth outlet, to say nothing of the shock of finding themselves a thousand or so years ahead in time from where they were and their families all dead.
“Mrs. Herbert, if you suspend my daughter, I will bring it to the board,” he warned her. “If she is still suspended, I’ll be calling my lawyer. The appropriate punishment goes to that boy, along with counseling. Seems to me, Stacy was defending herself and she shouldn’t be punished for that. That boy has a few issues, if he’s exposing himself to ten-year-old girls, and if I were you, I’d be wanting to know where it’s coming from.”
“Honey, if anything like that happens again, just walk away and tell an adult,” he told Stacy. “Hitting is a very last resort.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
When he reported in, both Jack and Sam wanted to know if she broke the boy’s nose.
In the morning, Daniel had to go off-world for a couple of days. Jack scowled, Stacy pouted, and Sam kept burying her face in his pillow. Enki showed up at Jack’s office a few hours later and didn’t say anything as he poked at Jack’s head, looking intently into his eyes. Enki gave an approving nod of satisfaction, patted Jack’s cheek, and beamed out. Mrs. Clark looked at Jack.
“Don’t ask,” he said wearily. She nodded.
Shara was in Cassie’s office picking through the applicants with her to choose fifty to invite to the cotillion. Once the warriors understood that it was a party, they were all for it. It seemed that the Anunnaki loved a good party. Cassie had to explain to them that it was for socializing and getting to know the young ladies and for them to get to know the warriors. No romping on the lawn, no getting shit-faced. The children would be at a children’s party with several Kid Tree parents, so the warriors didn’t need to worry about the kids. The warriors felt that the humans were a little uptight about the ‘no romping on the lawn’ rule.
Jack and Sam thought they had their contract idea down when Shara found Jack writing his at his desk. The English language took a moment to filter through his brain, “That isn’t what Daniel was talking about,” he told Jack. “These are more like modern vows, not a consort contract.”
“I’m marrying him, not buying him,” Jack said.
“It’s a contract. You need to state physical things,” Shara insisted. “You are bringing to the union all of yourself, whatever properties you grant him, like your house and your land, if you grant him access to your monies, his position if there are children with Sam, inheritance, you promise to take care of his health and well-being. Things like that.”
“That’s a little cold,” Jack told him, tilting his chair back.
“Warm him up later.” He sat with Jack and helped him write the contract. When they were done, Jack emailed it to Sam. She called, surprised that it wasn’t what she thought, which was writing vows, but she’d make hers along the same lines.
“Rings,” Jack said thoughtfully. “I don’t think Daniel would like something modern, so where do I get ancient or old looking rings?”
“Here,” Shara said. He pulled a small pouch from his waist band. “Daniel was admiring these.” He spilled several rings, jewels, and other decorations onto the blotter on Jack’s desk. He picked out several rings. “These especially he was admiring. He kept putting this one on his own finger.” He handed Jack a ring he pulled from the small pile. “If you’d like, I offer freely three rings. Or one, if that’s all you are using.”
“Shara, these look expensive,” Jack protested. How many thousands of years old could they be? And where did they originally come from?
“Maybe to you; to me, they are merely trinkets,” Shara assured him. Jack called Sam, turned on the video feed on his monitor, and showed her the various rings. They’ll take the one Daniel liked. Did they want to wear a second ring? Sam said she did, they could use their right hand, too, and so Jack and Sam looked through the bands until they each found one they liked. Jack hung up and looked at Shara.
“I can’t just take these,” he said. “What can I offer for them?”
<
br /> “Jack, you are helping us to find mothers for our race; there is no greater thing you can offer us.”
Daniel approved of their contracts when he returned to the planet. Jack was hoping the green spots would leave Daniel’s body by the time the ceremony came around. Dr. Lam assured him Daniel was not contagious when Jack and Sam went to the infirmary to visit him. Daniel had an allergic reaction to a bug bite, they were told. No eggs had been laid, she was only keeping him because of unknowns but so far, Daniel was doing well and the spots were fading.
When he was off the video conference, he heard his admin giggling like no grandmother type woman should be giggling. He stuck his head out the door.
“What are you doing?” he asked. Nate was leaning across Mrs. Clark’s desk, holding a rose out to her.
“Trying to bribe my way into God’s office,” he told Jack.
Mrs. Clark took the rose. “And I was just about to accept his bribe,” she impudently informed her boss.
“Get in here,” Jack told him, holding the door open. “What’s up?” Jack asked when he shut the door. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” His younger self was sliding his way through school with a 4.0, so it was the socializing and learning how to be a modern teenager that was keeping him in school.
Nate reached into his pocket and took something out, tossing it onto the desk. Jack picked it up. It was a small, two-inch dart enclosed in a sealed zip-lock bag.
“Someone shot that at me,” Nate told him, the teenager gone, and the inner adult coming out. Jack looked quickly at him and touched his intercom.
“Major, would you come in here?” Jack sat down, looking at the bag. “One time is coincidence, twice is not,” he told Nate. His younger self nodded, not happy with the situation. Davis came in and paused, seeing Nate. Jack gestured toward the bag and told him what was going on. Davis took the bag and would carry it himself down to the labs.
“Any other unusual happenings I should know about?” Jack asked.
“That was my first thought, so I tried to remember everything over the past two weeks,” he told Jack. “There’s a report waiting for you in your inbox. That’s as complete a report as I can get right down to pee breaks. If I remember anything else, I’ll update it. I’m not remembering anything out of the ordinary, though.”
“Is your jeep here?” Jack asked. Nate told him the parking space number. Jack called security and told them to take the jeep to the garage and have forensics go over it with a fine-toothed comb. He called Cassie in. She, too, was surprised to see Nate.
“Honey, where’s your car?” Jack asked her as she kissed Nate’s cheek. She told him and he had security take her car, also. Nate told her what happened. Jack questioned her but she didn’t feel as though there had been anything unusual happening around her lately, either. Jack called Nick. Yes, he was in town and would go over to Nate and Cassie’s house. Davis had recently complained that Jack was turning his boyfriend into an honest citizen. Nate puffed and slumped into a chair.
“Don’t get comfy,” Jack told him. “I want you both to the infirmary for a complete work-up and I want your clothing checked.” He called security again and had someone come up to his office as an escort. More forensics would meet them in the infirmary. Both Cassie and Nate’s ID warranted the ‘special’ forensics team which was cleared for a Level 8 ID. No one wanted to know what warranted a Level 8 ID, considering the general was the only person who issued a Level 8.
Four hours later, Jack was told they were clean. Cassie’s car was cleared, but Nate’s jeep had several locators attached. If one dropped off or was found, whoever put them there was hoping that the others would still be in place. The assumption was that Nate was the target, since nothing was found with Cassandra. Nate refused to be sent off-world; if someone was after him, they should draw the person out, not hide. Jack reluctantly agreed.
Daniel was home a week later, all cleared of spots. He kissed his daughter, took a long, hot shower, thankful for the hot pounding water on his sore muscles, and shuffled tiredly into the bedroom. He hated lying around in the infirmary. He fluffed his hair with the towel, dried off, made one more bodily inspection for stray spots, and dragged his pajamas on before collapsing into bed. Jack was staring at him.
“What?” Daniel grunted into the pillow.
“Nothing,” Jack shrugged. “I just can’t get over the fact that I find a man beautiful.”
Daniel opened one eye and peered at him for a moment. “Not,” he muttered.
“Are,” Jack said.
“Jack, you need your glasses checked.”
Jack took his glasses off, put the book down, and turned toward Daniel, pressing his mouth to the back of the damp neck as he ran a hand across the strong, tanned back and over Daniel’s ass.
“Daniel, you turn me on,” Jack told him. “I can’t get enough of watching you. All you have to do is walk and I stop and stare. You taste good, you look good, and you smell good. You make my mouth water.” He pulled the sheet up. “Look, I get a hard-on just looking at you.”
Daniel peered into the sheet, amused. “How many times did you and Sam have sex while I was gone?”
“That isn’t the point,” Jack said primly, folding the sheet into place.
Daniel chuckled and leaned over, brushing Jack’s mouth with his.
In the morning, Jack had green polka-dots from head to toe.
Chapter 24
“You just spent a week in here with an alien virus and it didn’t occur to you to use a condom on your first night home?”
Daniel and Jack stood in front of Dr. Lam with their heads hung. Two men from SG-7 were snickering from their beds across the room where they were recovering from staff blasts.
“He started it,” Daniel accused, pointing at Jack.
“Did not!”
“Did!”
“Not!”
“He told me I was beautiful,” Daniel informed Dr. Lam. She looked from one to the other, one inscrutable eyebrow raised.
“He came out of the shower and paraded in front of me,” Jack defended himself. “You’ve seen his naked ass; I mean, come on!”
“I did not parade!”
“Boys!” Dr. Lam silenced them and pointed to the beds.
“Please tell me Col. Carter was NOT at home,” Lam asked, pulling the curtain across for some semblance of privacy.
“No, ma’am,” they said, starting to undress and get into scrubs.
“She’s in Nevada,” Jack said. When they called Sam, she howled in laughter. Daniel sent her an image via the cell phone and she howled even louder.
Stacy was being examined by a nurse across the room. She was spot-free, but they weren’t taking chances.
“Am I going to find anything inside of you other than the obvious?” Lam asked Jack. He sighed, hating the whole finger in the ass part of it. Daniel took a swab, ran it around the inside of his mouth, and handed it to her, slightly pink-faced. She didn’t say anything as she bottled it for analysis.
“Oh, and maybe some lube,” Daniel muttered. He told her the brand. She nodded and wrote it down.
Gen. Landry came by to see for himself. He also laughed at seeing Jack’s spots.
“I thought you cleared Dr. Jackson?” he asked his daughter.
“I did,” she said. “I didn’t check seminal fluid, though. My mistake.” She handed Jack and Daniel each a sterile cup.
“Those are not for urine,” she informed them. Both men dragged pillows over their faces as Landry left, plugging his ears with his fingers. “And you may NOT help each other.”
The alien virus did show up in the seminal fluid, so both men were confined to the infirmary until Dr. Lam decided what to do with them. Sam came home and took over Stacy-watch. Some wise-ass kept leaving the men pamphlets on STD’s and childish drawings about cooties. Various personnel visited often and felt it their sworn duty to tell all the STD stories they could think of. At least Daniel had a little respite when the commander of Atl
antis, Dr. Weir, stopped in for a visit. She stood at the bed, looking at him and then over at Jack.
“Don’t say it,” Jack begged her. “We’ve heard all the jokes.”
“I wouldn’t dream of teasing you, General,” she assured him, a twinkle in her eyes. “I only came to offer candy to Daniel.” She picked up a box that she had set on the floor. It was filled with various alien artifacts from the Pegasus galaxy.
“Marry me,” Daniel said, almost salivating as he pawed through the box.
“Too late,” Jack said. “Did you come all this way just to entertain Daniel?” he asked her.
“No, actually I have a few personal things I needed to take care of, and I have a shopping list from my people,” she said. “You would not believe how our library and DVD collection has grown. Even our alien allies are enjoying the movies, once we got them to understand what a movie was. At first, they were convinced those were images of real life on Earth and wondered how we survived for so long.”
Daniel glanced up. “I’m still wondering about that, too.”
Since the virus was only present in Daniel’s seminal fluid and not his blood or saliva, Dr. Lam allowed him to go home three days later. When Jack’s blood was cleared a week later, and the virus only in his seminal fluid, he was also sent home. They were forbidden to engage in sexual activity until she cleared them, however, and they were to present themselves three times a week for testing until she DID clear them. Jack needed clearer instructions: were they forbidden to have sex with each other? Yes. What about with a condom? No sex. No S.E.X, no nookie, no hankie-pankie, no hiding the salami, no pigs in a blanket, no rolling in the hay. Jack carefully considered her. How about watching each other? Alright, but use a condom. Can he kiss them? Yes, the virus was gone from their saliva. Jack could live with Dr. Lam’s response. For a short, SHORT, time.
If nothing else, it gave them time to plan their handfasting. Davis listened to the men as they sat in the living room discussing the contract. Sam watched from the kitchen doorway and kept looking back at Davis.
The Anunnaki Unification, Book 2: A Staraget SG-1 Fan Fiction Story Page 3