oOo
Jack felt unutterably weary. He'd thought he'd experienced exhaustion before but this was a bone-deep tiredness that sapped all his energy, leaving coherent thought just out of his reach. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes but his exhaustion made him worry that he'd fall too deeply asleep and not wake up when Daniel did.
He leaned toward the child in the bed, his hand brushing over the newly-healed marks on Daniel's face, relieved to feel the skin cool beneath his touch with no sign of the fever that had ravaged Daniel's body over the past few days. Daniel stirred beneath his hand and Jack held his breath, wanting nothing more than for the child to wake up so Jack could see for himself that what the doctors had said was true – that Daniel really was better, that the transplant from Nick had worked – but knowing too that the boy needed the rest that this healing sleep was giving him.
Daniel had been so ill following the chemotherapy treatment to rid his own bone marrow of the leukemic cells that Jack had wondered whether the cure wasn't worse than the disease. Wilson had reassured him that the nausea and lethargy were a normal side effect of the treatment and when Daniel developed mouth ulcers that made him reluctant to eat or drink, leaving him looking once again a shadow of his former self, House had come up with a drug called Kepivance that helped enormously.
It had been four long weeks since then and in that time Daniel had been kept in an iso room to prevent him getting an opportunistic infection. As much as Jack had longed to be able to simply hold Daniel's hand without the barrier of the gloves, he'd known it was an essential part of the treatment and he and Daniel had borne it stoically for the most part. Carter had even come up with an ingenious way that Daniel could use his laptop by placing it outside the room in a container with gloves that reached into the box from Daniel's side like the ones the SGC used to handle items brought back from other planets that might be contagious or dangerous. It had taken Daniel's small fingers a while to get used to manipulating the keys with the bulky gloves on but eventually he'd found a way and once he did, Jack had begin to see the old Daniel come to life again.
Nick had been allowed to visit once the doctors were sure Daniel was on the road to recovery. He'd been up and around fairly quickly thanks to the doctors using a drug called Filgastim that apparently made the harvesting of the blood cells Daniel needed, much easier and less intrusive. He'd told Jack he still felt a little tired and achy which was a side effect of the drug but he'd brightened up as he looked down on the boy in the bed.
"Thank you," Jack said softly, giving Nick's shoulder a brief squeeze.
"I was happy to do it," Nick said. "I hope he can get out of here soon. Nothing worse than being cooped up in a glass box." He shuddered a little as he spoke and Jack turned an enquiring eye toward Gil Grissom who was waiting outside the iso room. Gil shrugged and Jack promised to find out the story behind that remark sometime soon.
Once Nick had left, Jack had sat down next to Daniel and just watched him sleep. He yawned and ran a hand over his aching eyes.
"Jack?" The voice was little more than a whisper but it jolted Jack awake nonetheless.
"Hey." He leaned forward and ruffled his fingers through Daniel's long hair. "You need a haircut," he said mock-chidingly.
Daniel gave him a tired smile. "Still trying to make a marine out of me, Jack?" he asked.
"Sure. You were a pretty good marine, anyway," Jack said. "How ya feeling?"
"A bit tired but I don't itch all over anymore. It worked, didn't it? I'm better?"
"Yep, the docs all say you're gonna be fine. You'll need to continue having blood tests done regularly over the next little while but they're pretty sure the transplant from Nick worked."
"I need to see him, say thank you…" Daniel yawned.
"He knows, Daniel. He's been in once already and I'm pretty sure he'll be back again tomorrow."
Daniel yawned again and closed his eyes. "We should have a party," he said, "when I get out of here. For Nick and Gil, and Jim and Blair, and the docs…"
"We will," Jack promised.
oOo
"What are you doing?"
Daniel turned from the open fridge, a beer held aloft in his hand, and looked up at his friend. "Getting a beer. Want one?"
"What? Uh uh, no way," Jack replied firmly, plucking the bottle from Daniel's fingers and placing it on the shelf. He maneuvered himself between the fridge and the boy. "No beer."
"Aw, come on, Jack, I just want to celebrate being out of the infirmary. Don't be a spoilsport."
"Daniel, please, don't give me a hard time over this. I'm stretching things letting you have coffee. No way am I going to sit by and watch a five year old drink beer."
"Fine. You were the one who said I should learn to like beer, when I came back from Abydos." Daniel spun away from the fridge and stormed over to the kitchen table, pulling out a chair so hard, it rocked dangerously and would have fallen if Jack hadn't moved quickly to grab and steady it.
"Hey, you were an adult then... physically, at least," Jack said. "Settle down, all right?" he added warningly as Daniel climbed onto the chair and stood on it, glaring at him.
Daniel set his jaw against the sudden burn of tears. "I still am mentally, and I just want to celebrate being better my way," he said mutinously, hating the tremble of his chin, the pout he could feel on his mouth.
"I understand that," Jack replied more quietly, sitting down in the chair next to him. He pulled Daniel down to sit then reached out a hesitant hand and patted his shoulder. "But whether you like it or not, you can't. Things aren't-"
"I get it, okay," Daniel snapped, shrugging off the hand and squirming so he was sitting sideways on the seat, away from Jack's sympathetic gaze. "I know things aren't the same now. I'm not the same now," he muttered, the half-sob sneaking into his voice and catching him unaware. "I see that every day when I get up, every time I have a shower, every time I take a goddamn leak-"
There was a snort from behind him and he took a quick look round to see Jack schooling his face into empathy again. "It's not funny," he growled in as deep a tone as his five year old voice could muster.
"I'm not laughing at you, I swear," Jack said, his big hands settling again on Daniel's shoulders, massaging gently. "It's just every time you say something in that tone of voice, I'm reminded that this is really you, that you're still Dr. Daniel Jackson."
Daniel shook his head. "Not really," he muttered.
Jack grasped him round the waist and turned him so they were facing each other again. "Yes, really," he said, "where it counts, here," he tapped Daniel's head gently with his finger, "and," his hand rested over Daniel's heart, "here."
Daniel nodded and gave him a tremulous smile. "I think you're the only one who sees it most of the time though," he said.
"No, Sam, and Teal'c, and General Hammond do too. They just don't spend as much time with you as I do so it's harder for them to make the connection sometimes," Jack replied.
"Janet doesn't," Daniel said morosely, remembering being in the infirmary just the day before when Doc Fraiser had given him a hug, right in front of everybody.
"Janet's a natural mom," Jack said. "And you like it, admit it."
"Well, yeah, I guess it doesn't bother me too much as long as it's just Janet doing that kind of stuff."
"See, it's not all bad, is it?" Jack leaned back in the chair. "And Blair treats you like an adult pretty much, doesn't he?"
Daniel gave a nod, smiling a little now. "Blair's cool. He always treated me that way, even when he did think I was a kid."
"So how do you want to celebrate being home," Jack asked, "excluding the beer?" he added quickly, raising a finger as Daniel opened his mouth.
"I don't know. Hey, we could have a party like you said we could when I was in the infirmary, get some steaks and make salads and stuff. Oh, and some of those sparkler things. Haven't played with one of those since I was a kid..." Daniel grinned ruefully. "Well, not since the last time I was a kid, anyway. We need to call Nick, and Gil, and Jim and Blair. Oh and Jimmy and Greg and even Dr. Cuddy cos she let them come when I was sick, and-"
"Whoa, slow it down, buddy." Jack grasped Daniel's chin in his hand and looked into his eyes. "So, which Daniel is this? The Dr. Jackson Daniel or the Daniel Daniel who sometimes likes doing kid things?"
Daniel smiled broadly. "It's just me, Jack. The Daniel who sometimes wants to be a little of both."
"Okay, just checking. I mean, it's okay then to invite Cassie to bring some friends and maybe ask Dr. Lee if he wants to come and bring his kids too, right?"
"Sure, Jack, that'd be great."
oOo
It had been a good idea, Jack decided, looking around at the crowd of people who'd turned up for Daniel's welcome home party. The living room was full of friends sitting around chatting, some on chairs, others lounging casually on the floor. Others had spilled out into the backyard, standing around the barbecue where General Hammond held court, a grilling fork gesticulating in one hand as he regaled his audience with a tale from his early Air Force days. A few of the SFs that Daniel considered special friends were clustered around the bar, talking and nibbling on the nuts and chips Daniel had helped Jack put there.
A high-pitched squeal made him turn sharply and he sidestepped just in time to avoid being mowed down by Tessa, General Hammond's granddaughter, who was being pursued by Josh Lee. Jack watched, trying not to laugh out loud as Josh grabbed Tessa and pecked her quickly on the cheek before yelling, "You're it!" and dashing off again, with Tessa in hot pursuit.
"So they still play kiss chasey these days," a voice said from behind him and he looked around to find Gil Grissom standing there, a smile on his face as he watched the kids rampaging through the backyard.
"Apparently so," Jack replied.
"So how is Daniel doing... really?" Grissom asked.
"How does it look like he's doing?" Jack pointed across the lawn to where Daniel was being pushed on a swing by Nick, Gil's CSI colleague from Las Vegas.
"He looks good," Gil said. "I always knew there was more to Daniel than meets the eye though."
"You got that right." Jack patted Grissom on the shoulder. "Wanna mingle with me? I've never been over-fond of these shindigs. Hey, you seen Jim yet?"
"We ran into each other at the buffet table," Grissom replied. "Let's go. We can shore each other up. I generally only come to these things for the food."
"And this one you came to for Daniel."
"And for Nick." Grissom nodded towards where Daniel was now sitting on Nick's lap on the swing as Teal'c stood behind them, his huge arm muscles bunching as he pushed them both on the swing. "Nick really needed to see that for himself, see that Daniel was okay." He placed a companionable arm around Jack's shoulder as they walked toward the barbecue. "That Teal'c's an interesting guy. You sure you can't tell me more about him?"
"I could..."
"But then he'd have to shoot you."
Jack and Gil turned and found Greg House limping up behind them, his cane tapping on the gravelly path.
"Hiding out?" House asked as he joined them.
"Yeah, kinda." Jack grinned at him. "Yeah, I know, rumor has it that I'm an absolute party animal but I'm really quite shy."
Grissom snorted and House laughed outright.
"So," House said, "where do you hide the good stuff?"
"Ah," came another voice from behind them, "if you gentlemen will follow me, I'll take you right to it."
"Jim. We wondered where you'd got to." Jack turned around and waited for Ellison to catch up to them.
"Where's your shadow?" House asked.
"Sandburg?" Jim shrugged. "Last time I saw him he was chatting up Doctor Fraiser and Sam simultaneously with some moral support from Dr. Wilson."
"Ah, the resiliency of youth." Jack smiled at them.
"Someone mentioned good stuff," Jim said. "Follow me, gents, and I'll take you to Jack's secret stash."
"Not much of a secret if you know where it is," House muttered but he followed along anyway while Jim tapped a finger to his nose and winked in response to Jack's inquiring eyebrow raise.
Jim opened the door of the small shed that abutted the back fence of Jack's backyard then strode inside and stood for a minute as if contemplating its contents. Then he walked unerringly over to the workbench under the window and pulled out a wooden box with a carved lid. Lifting the lid, he reached inside then stood up, a bottle of single malt Scotch held aloft victoriously in one hand.
"Glasses?" Gil asked.
"Oh for heavens sake, just pass the bottle here," House replied. He took the bottle, unscrewed the lid and took a deep swallow, smacking his lips appreciatively as he passed the bottle to Jack. "I don't have cooties," he said as Jack looked at the bottle suspiciously.
Jack shrugged, wiped the mouth of the bottle with his sleeve anyway then took a drink and passed the bottle onto Gil.
Jack looked around at the circle of friends, some old, some new, and couldn't help but give thanks to whatever deity still held him in some regard for bringing them to him. They'd been there at every turn, whenever he and Daniel had needed them. Regardless of whether Daniel could ever be returned to his adult self, Jack decided, this had been a special time. He and Daniel had weathered storms that had sometimes seemed undefeatable, yet here they still were, together, whole, more or less unharmed. He stood up and walked over to the door of the shed, pushing it open and looking out into the gathering night, across the yard to where Daniel sat on a bar stool, Teal'c behind him, Carter and Janet either side of him, Blair, Nick and Jimmy behind them – a closed, protective circle of friends. A hand grasped his shoulder and Jack turned around and saw Jim standing there, with Gil and Greg behind him.
"Good times, Jack," Jim said.
"Yeah, great times," Gil agreed.
House snorted, swallowed down another mouthful of scotch and handed the bottle over to Jack. "Drink up, Jack," he said. "You now have a perfectly healthy five year old to raise. Good luck! You'll need it."
Jack laughed, took the drink, and put the bottle on the floor then he headed out, across the yard to find Daniel.
The End!