CHAPTER TWO

The scream of a horse in pain was still ringing in my ears as I hurried to where I'd heard the cry, horses moving out of my way at a mental command from me. There was only one horse left between me and the natives when I saw what had been done. One of the horses had been shot. It lay still on the ground, an arrow in its neck, and the man who shot it was lifting his bow to shoot another horse.

"No!" I screamed. I shattered the bow and threw the guy back twenty feet. I turned toward the other natives just in time to see several of them fire at me.

In the instant before the arrows would have hit me, my mind instinctively reacted, shattering them in midair. Fury burning inside my brain, I focused my power on the natives' bows. Every one exploded into bits. Judging by the cries of pain, I think I might have also broken a few hands.

For a second, anger over the death of the horse and what these people had done to my friends made me want to do more than just break a few hands, but the part of me that knew it would be wrong to seek revenge took control.

At that moment, the gate activated. I heard Sam calling my name frantically.

The horses cleared a path for me, and I ran back to the DHD. Sam was on my radio.

"Stargate Command, this is Major Carter. Come in," she said into it.

"Major Carter!" called General Hammond's voice. "What's your situation?"

"We've escaped, sir, thanks to Daniel, but we don't have a G.D.O., and the MALP is out of commission. We need you to open the iris, General. I'm not sure how long we'll be able to hold off the natives, even with the, uh, help we have."

"We're opening the iris now, Major. Come on through."

We made it all the way to the platform with the horses shielding us from the natives. As we ran up the steps, I ordered the horses to go back to their corral after we were gone, wishing them a final goodbye and a thank you. And then we were running though the event horizon.

Both Jack and General Hammond were in the gate room when we came out the other side. By the expression on Jack's face when he looked at me, I knew that I was in for it. But, at that moment, I really didn't care. Sam and Teal'c were safe, and we'd all made it home.

"Are there any injuries?" the general asked.

"Nothing severe, sir," answered SG-17's leader. "They gave us guys a beating or two, but it wasn't bad."

"All right, all of you go to the infirmary, except for you, Daniel. Colonel O'Neill and I wish to speak to you."

Uh oh. Yeah, I was going to get it all right.

As the others left, I went with Jack and General Hammond to the general's office.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Jack shouted the second the door was closed.

"I didn't have a choice!" I shouted back. "You wouldn't let me help rescue them!"

"And so you decide to go running off to do it all by yourself? You could have been killed, Daniel, or did that thought not enter your brain?"

"I don't care! If I didn't go, then Sam and Teal'c might have been killed, and it would have been my fault because I didn't do anything to save them!"

That shut Jack up. He just stared at me after that. It was the general who spoke next.

"Daniel, though I understand why you felt the need to help your teammates, what you did was very foolish. You were one lone sixteen-year-old boy against hundreds of natives."

"No, I wasn't alone."

"What do you mean?"

"I had help from the animals."

"Please explain."

"I can talk to them," I said. "Well, no, not really talk to them, not with words, and I can't understand what they say to me, but I can sort of communicate with them. It's hard to explain."

Jack frowned at me. "Daniel, when did you find out you could do that?"

"After we got back from Idaho."

"You didn't tell us."

"I was afraid that if the people in charge knew, they wouldn't let me go off base after I turned eighteen."

Jack and General Hammond shared a long look.

"All right, Daniel," the general said. "We're not done with this conversation, but, right now, you need to get over to the infirmary for a checkup."

"I'm okay. My head doesn't even hurt from all the times I used my telekinesis."

"Nevertheless, it's standard procedure for everyone coming back from a mission to receive an exam."

I didn't think it would be a good idea to let them see me smile at that remark about a mission, so I hurried up and left.

My first mission. Well, okay, not really. It was just my first mission since being downsized, the first one in my memory. It also wasn't an official mission . . . or approved. But it was still a mission, one that was a success. We were all safe and back home.

But then I thought about the horse that got shot. It died protecting me, just like the three other dogs with Rambo that attacked the men who kidnapped me. The difference was that I didn't ask the dogs to protect me. They did it on their own. Those horses were there because I told them to be there. That horse would still be alive if I hadn't.

The exam included an MRI, which I was told was done to make sure I didn't have a symbiote in me. I wondered why they thought that was necessary even on missions that had nothing to do with the Goa'uld.

Janet asked me a lot of questions about how much I used my telekinesis and whether or not I got even the smallest of headaches while everything was going on. I could tell that she wasn't happy with me either, and I wondered if I'd be subjected to a round of "vitamin shots" as punishment. I apologized to her about the sleeping pills.

At the debriefing, Sam, Teal'c and SG-17 talked about the meeting with the natives and how it suddenly turned bad.

"Do you know what the Istriall is that they were talking about?" I asked.

"No, they never said," Sam replied. "Whatever it was, it must have been pretty valuable to them."

"I wonder if someone decided to steal it because they figured that everyone would think you guys took it."

"That's possible. The people who questioned us didn't want to believe that we had nothing to do with it going missing." Sam smiled slightly. "Ironically, I was wishing that you were with us to talk to them. You might have been able to convince them that we didn't take the thing. You were pretty good at things like that."

That made me wonder if I could have just gone through on a diplomatic mission instead, through the natives probably wouldn't have been interested in listening to a sixteen-year-old.

Once the others got done telling their story, it was my turn. I could tell that everyone was surprised about all the things I did, especially the stuff about the animals. Sam asked a couple of questions to get more details about how my communication with the animals works.

"It sounds like some form of telepathy," she said, "though I have no idea why it only works with animals."

"Are we sure it only works with animals?" Jack asked. "Daniel's never actually tried with people."

Sam shrugged. "I suppose he could give it a try."

I tried to talk to Jack the same way that I do to the animals, but it didn't work.

"It may have to do with the differences in the human brain," Sam said. "Or perhaps animals are simply more receptive to telepathic communication. Regardless, it really is amazing."

We continued the debriefing. When I got to the part about how I used the horses to get us all out of the village and to the gate, I saw Jack smile.

"Well, that's certainly a unique method of escape," he said.

I thought again about the horse that was killed, and my gaze dropped to the table.

"Daniel, what's wrong?" Sam asked.

"They killed one of the horses."

"What?"

"A native shot one of the horses. He was going to shoot another one, but I stopped him. Then I destroyed all the bows."

I felt Sam's hand lay over mine. "Oh, Daniel. I'm sorry. I know how much that must be upsetting you."

"I should have broken all their bows when we first got there. Then everything would have been fine."

"Daniel, give yourself a break," Jack told me. "You're sixteen years old and have no memory of doing anything like this. You couldn't be expected to think of everything."

General Hammond nodded. "Well, I think that's enough for tonight. We all need to get some rest." He looked at Sam, Teal'c and SG-17. "Since I'm guessing that none of you got any sleep, I want you to take tomorrow off and relax. That goes for you, too, Daniel. No working tomorrow. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." I said. Now that it was all over, I was really getting tired.

I went straight to my quarters. I didn't even bother getting dressed for bed. I just stripped down to my boxer shorts and collapsed on the bed.

I woke up nine hours later, my stomach rumbling. After taking a shower and getting dressed, I went to the commissary for some lunch.

Throughout the meal, people kept staring at me. I bet that everyone was talking about me, the crazy kid who went running off by himself on a foolishly dangerous mission. Yeah, I could just imagine what they were saying.

That's when I saw Airman Seagate. I hadn't expected to see him so soon, thinking that his shift wouldn't be starting until later. I immediately lost my appetite. I knew I had to go apologize, but I didn't know what I was going to say.

Gathering up my courage, I went over to his table. He looked up at me.

"I'm . . . I'm sorry I drugged you," I said. "I only did it because I had no choice."

I was expecting him to yell at me or, at the very least, give me a lecture. Instead, he laughed. Totally surprised, I stared at him.

"So, what did you put in my coffee?" he asked.

"Uh . . . some pills I got from Janet. She thought they were for me. I told her I didn't think I'd be able to sleep. I sort of . . . gave you a little more than she told me to take."

"Well, whatever they were, they sure did work. I haven't slept like that in years." He got a big smile. "You'll have to excuse me, though, if, the next time you offer me a cup of coffee, I turn it down."

I smiled, too. "I can understand that." My smile went away. "I need to apologize to the guys who were in the control room and gate room, too. I really didn't want to do those things, but there was no other way I could get through the gate."

"I'm sure they all understand, Daniel. You were looking out for your team, just like an SG team member should."

After finishing my lunch, I went to my office to write my report. I knew that I always wrote a report after a mission when I was an adult, so I figured that I should this time, too. General Hammond and his superiors would probably want to have all the details on what I did on the planet. I didn't really know what the correct way to write a mission report was, and I didn't have access to any of the reports I wrote when I was an adult, so I'd just have to do the best I could.

"Hammond told you not to work today," said a voice from the doorway. I looked up as Jack came into the room.

"I'm not working. I'm writing my report."

"You're not required to write a report, Daniel."

"I know. I just thought that General Hammond might like to have one."

Jack rolled one of the chairs up to my desk and sat on it. I wondered if I was going to get the lecture that I'd known I would get sooner or later.

"You do realize that what you did was utterly foolhardy, don't you?" Jack said. "I'd put the stupidity level all the way at the top of the scale."

Jack's words really stung. "I didn't think I had any other choice. I was afraid that something terrible would happen to Sam and Teal'c if they weren't rescued right away."

"And what about something terrible happening to you, Daniel? In all your planning, did you not consider that even once? And what about how Sam and Teal'c would feel about it? Did you honestly believe that they would want you to put your own life at risk for them?"

"No, I know they wouldn't, but . . . but I had to go. I could just do nothing."

Jack sighed and shook his head. "You are exactly the same as you were before. This hasn't changed you one bit."

I stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"You did stuff like this all the time when you were an adult, risking your neck to help people, even people you didn't know from Adam." He tugged at a lock of his hair. "You see this? You did that. There was nary a grey hair on my head before SG-1 was formed, and I had to deal with your complete disregard for your own safety. I'd hoped that growing up with a new set of childhood experiences would change things, but I see it didn't. I'd also hoped that this facet of your personality didn't form until you were an adult, but I now think you were born with it."

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling ashamed that I'd made Jack worry so often.

Jack's eyes caught mine. "Daniel, do you have any idea how scared I was when I found out what you did? During every minute you were gone, every single minute, thoughts were running through my mind about you being killed."

My gaze dropped to the desktop. I was feeling worse by the second. I hadn't really thought about how worried Jack and everyone else here would be.

"I haven't told you about Charlie."

I looked at Jack. There was something in his voice that I'd never heard before. "Who's Charlie?"

"My son."

What? Jack had a son? "You have a son?"

"No, not . . . anymore."

Oh no.

"When Charlie was ten years old, he accidentally killed himself with my gun."

Oh, God. No one ever told me about this. Nobody ever even gave me a clue.

"I lost my son, Daniel, and it nearly sent me over the brink. I was so close to the edge. You know what brought me back? You."

"Me?"

"Yeah. It was on the very first mission through the gate. We didn't know anything about the Goa'uld, and the mission went south. Most of my men were killed. We'd have all been goners if we hadn't gotten help from some of the locals. I was all set to die, go out in a blaze of glory and end my misery. You know what you said to me? I still remember every word like it was yesterday. You said, 'I don't wanna die. Your men don't wanna die. And these people here don't wanna die. It's a shame you're in such a hurry to.' I couldn't get those words out of my head. They made me realize how pointless throwing my life away would be. They gave me a kick in the pants and the will to keep fighting."

Jack looked at me in the eyes. "I know what it's like to lose a son, Daniel. If I'd lost you, too. . . ." He didn't continue, and his eyes fell away from mine.

My throat felt tight, and my eyes were burning with tears. I realized now how irresponsible I'd been, not just with my own safety, but also with the feelings of the people who cared about me. If I'd been killed, Jack and everyone else would have had to live with the grief of my death.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, turning away from Jack. "I was just so afraid that Sam and Teal'c were going to die."

"I know you were, Daniel. We all understand that. But you have to remember that you have people who care about you very much, people who would grieve for the rest of their lives if you were to die."

I quickly wiped away the tear that fell down my face. I didn't want Jack to see me cry. I wasn't a little kid anymore.

I felt Jack's arm go around my shoulders, then, suddenly, he was hugging me. I hugged him back. He gave me a smile when we separated.

"I've been thinking that it's time we begin your training," he said.

"Training?"

"Yeah. Teaching you the military hand signals, survival techniques, stuff like that. Teal'c has been teaching you some Jaffa martial arts since you were ten, but I think it's time that we expanded your training to include what we guys in the U.S. Military learn. No weapons training, though. We'll wait on that until you're eighteen, which will be in less than a week."

I stared at Jack, wondering what the reason for this was. "Why do you want to do that?"

"So that, when you go on your next mission, you'll be more prepared. It isn't going to be all that long before that happens, you know. I talked to Hammond about this a while back, and he agreed that there was no reason to wait until you were your original age before we let you join SG-1 on missions."

I started getting excited. "Really? I was afraid I'd have to wait until after I started remembering being on missions."

"Nope. After all, when you joined SG-1, the only experience you'd had was that first mission, and you had no experience at all when you went on it. You're already going to be a lot more prepared this first time than you were that first time since you know what's out there. So, I see no reason why you can't join us on missions once you're twenty-two or twenty-three."

"Wow. I can't wait."

"Yeah, that's how I thought you'd feel. I'm glad you're happy about that because, now, we come to what your punishment is going to be."

My happy mood instantly vanished. I was really hoping that I'd get out of this without some kind of punishment.

"It wasn't easy trying to come up with one," Jack told me. "Obviously, we can't ground you. You're not allowed to go anywhere anyway, you don't watch much TV, and you don't talk on the phone or do any of the other usual things that teenagers do, so taking away any privileges like that would be useless. So, we're going to take away another privilege. No translations for the rest of the week and weekend. I think it's incredibly weird that not allowing you to work would be considered a punishment, but you're a strange kid."

My heart sank. I wouldn't be allowed to do any translations at all? "But what if something really important comes up that only I can translate, like something in a dialect of Ancient that nobody else here knows?"

"If we decide that it's something that can't wait, then we'll give it to you, but I don't foresee that happening. You're getting off easy, Daniel. I also wanted to ban you from your office, but Carter said that would make it harder for you to do your schoolwork. Oh, by the way, you can expect a lecture from her, too. She's also seriously ticked off that you pulled that stunt. You're lucky that she went home today. Otherwise, she might have already given you a piece of her mind."

I sighed. "Yeah, and I'm probably going to be tortured by Janet during my next physical."

"Could be." Jack got to his feet. "Well, I'll let you get back to writing that report. Run off a copy for me, too, okay?"

"Okay."

I got my report finished and gave it to General Hammond, then I took Jack's copy to him. I'd already emailed one to Sam. I also made one for Teal'c and took it to his quarters.

"So, are you mad at me, too?" I asked him.

"I am not. However, I am not pleased by the choice you made to go against the wishes of General Hammond and place your life at risk."

"But you told me that your son started helping Master Bra'tac try to convince Jaffa to rebel against the Goa'uld when he was around my age."

"That is true, but Rya'c had already received a great deal of training and was prepared for the dangers he would face."

"So, you're saying that if I'd gotten the same kind of training, what I did would have been okay?"

"No, Daniel Jackson. You were told by General Hammond that he could not allow you to go through the gate on a rescue mission, yet you chose to ignore this and disobey him. That showed disrespect toward his wisdom and his leadership."

I was horrified by what he'd said. "No! I respect General Hammond more than almost anybody!"

"Yet you chose to disregard his statement that you were too young to join a rescue mission, believing that you were correct, and he was not."

"No, I-I didn't think. . . . I mean, I thought. . . ." What was I thinking when I decided to go to the planet? I was thinking that General Hammond was too hung up on my age and was disregarding the fact that my paranormal abilities could give a rescue team a big advantage. I was being disrespectful.

Feeling utterly ashamed, I left Teal'c's office without another word and went to my quarters, where I really thought about the things that Jack, Sam, Teal'c and General Hammond had said about what I did.

When we all made it back home safely, I'd felt so good that my plan had succeeded, and I'd managed to rescue my teammates and SG-17, but the truth was that what I did was foolish and reckless, inconsiderate of the feelings of others, and probably not even necessary. Sam, Teal'c and the others probably would have been fine even if I hadn't gone. The natives probably would have just kept them locked up and not done anything to really hurt them. When the rescue team arrived in the Tel'tak, they could have easily gotten in, pulled everyone out, then been on their way without any problems. Instead, I came charging in and nearly got myself and everyone else killed. If it hadn't been for those horses, we wouldn't have made it out.

Was I this stupid and foolhardy when I was a real member of SG-1? How many times did I put the lives of my teammates at risk by pulling some stupid stunt? Jack said that I did things like this all the time when I was an adult. Maybe this was one of the reasons why he and I argued a lot. Maybe SG-1 would be better off if I never went on a mission again.

When a knock came on my door, I ignored it. I didn't want to talk to anyone. Dinnertime came and went, and, still, I stayed in my quarters, feeling sadder, and stupider, and more of a detriment to my team by the hour.

In the morning, I'd tell Jack that he didn't have to bother training me for anything, because I wasn't going to be a member of SG-1 anymore. Then no one would have to worry about me doing something stupid and dangerous ever again.

I hadn't been on base very long the next morning when Carter, Teal'c and I received a summons to General Hammond's office. When I got there, Teal'c and Carter were already there, and there was a frown on Hammond's face.

"Is there a problem, sir?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so." He handed me a folded piece of paper. "I found this on my desk when I came in this morning. It's from Daniel."

I read the letter, feeling my heart sink to a location down near my feet.

"Crap," I cursed.

"What is it, Colonel?" Carter asked.

"It's a request to be removed from SG-1."

"What?"

"He thinks it's the best thing for the team, that he's a detriment to it. He thinks that we'll be better off without him, Carter."

I saw her eyes fill with distress. "But how can he possibly feel that way after all the times that we told him how valuable he was to the team and to the program?"

I tossed the letter onto the desk, suddenly angry again, this time at myself. I thought about what I'd said to Daniel yesterday. I told him that he'd been stupid and foolish, that he'd failed to consider the feelings of others. Not one word of praise had passed my lips over the courage he'd shown, his willingness to risk everything to save his team, his intelligence in devising a successful plan, and his ability to carry it out and remain calm in the face of danger.

After reading his report, I was amazed at how well Daniel handled himself. Sixteen years old, and he'd managed to single-handedly pull off a mission that a lot of twenty-year veterans could not have done better. And he'd done it all without taking a single life. The same probably couldn't have been said if a team had been sent to the planet in a Tel'tak. The ship wouldn't have had beaming technology, and the rings would have been of no use, which meant that the team would have had to land the ship and go in on foot to get the prisoners. Could they have made it all the way to the jail and back without having to take out any natives? Probably not.

The fact was that Daniel pulled off a highly successful mission that incurred no human casualties on either side, yet I was so fixated on the fact that he did something that could have gotten him killed that I didn't give him the credit he was due.

I told the others what I was thinking and saw realization dawn in Carter's eyes.

"We never even thanked him," she said, sounding upset.

"I fear that I, too, did not express admiration for the feat Daniel Jackson accomplished," Teal'c admitted. He told us what he said to Daniel yesterday, and I knew it was probably the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. As an adult, Daniel's self-image was never all that high, and we'd succeeded in crushing any pride he had in what he managed to accomplish. Couple that with his age and the emotional extremes that teenagers often experience, and was it any wonder that Daniel reacted as he did?

"We need to do something," Carter declared.

"Yeah, we do," I agreed. "Come on. Let's go talk to him."

I felt absolutely horrible. Daniel had managed to pull off a daring rescue that may have saved mine, Teal'c's and SG-17's lives, yet did we give him even one word of thanks? No. We were so hung up on the fact that he'd gone off and done something incredibly dangerous that all any of us thought of doing was telling him why he shouldn't have done it.

Daniel has always put the welfare of others above his own. He is the most selfless, self-sacrificing and compassionate person I've ever met. They're among the qualities that I most admire in him, yet when he once again exhibited those very qualities by going to that planet alone to rescue us, I got mad. Would I still have been that mad if he'd been an adult? No. Oh, I wouldn't have been happy that he'd put himself at such great risk, but I'd also have been grateful and admired what he'd managed to do. It was because of his age that I reacted like I did.

No, it was more than just that. Daniel being turned into a child had made me feel more protective of him. I'd always respected the adult Daniel's strength, his capacity to survive against all odds. Even though he was a civilian, I hadn't felt the need to protect him from all threats. I'd felt confident that he could handle himself well in a crisis. As time went on, and he became more proficient in the use of weapons, in being a "soldier," I'd gotten to the point where the fact that he was not a military man made no difference to how I acted toward him on missions. He was a teammate, equally as capable in a battle situation as Teal'c, the colonel and myself. I trusted him to have my back no matter what.

During the past weeks, I'd watched Daniel age from a small child, when he truly needed our protection, but he wasn't a little child anymore. He was only a few days away from being a legal adult and had already shown that he could stand up to a test of his courage and fortitude and come out a winner. I had to put aside the image of the child and show him the same respect and confidence in his abilities that I did when he was an adult. Daniel deserved nothing less.

Daniel wasn't in his office, and knocks on the door of his quarters went unanswered. The colonel wanted to use his keycard to override the lock, but I said that wouldn't be right.

"Daniel, if you're in there, please answer," I pleaded through the door instead. "We need to talk to you." There was no reply.

"I do not believe that Daniel Jackson is there," Teal'c stated.

"Then where is he?" asked the colonel. He went to a phone and called the checkpoints.

"How long ago?" he questioned a moment after calling the one that was at the door leading to the mountaintop. He then let out a low curse. I could faintly hear the man on the other end say something. "No, I'll be right up," the colonel said to him. "I'm sure it's fine."

"What's wrong?" I asked after the colonel hung up.

"Daniel left the mountain early this morning, barely after dawn. Someone else was on duty at the checkpoint then, and the guy who's there now didn't take note of the time that the checkout sheet said Daniel left."

I started to get worried. "Dawn? But that's three hours ago."

"Yeah, and it's not exactly warm out there. Come on. We need to find him."

A short while later, we were on the mountaintop, looking for our missing teammate. A search of the usual places yielded no sign of him. Fortunately, at this time of year, not many of the personnel came up there for a stroll, so Teal'c was able to find Daniel's trail. We followed it deep into the forest. We all grew concerned when it became evident that Daniel was traveling steadily downhill. He wouldn't actually descend the mountain and go away somewhere, would he?

That question was answered after we'd been on his trail for half an hour. We all stopped at the sight ahead of us. Daniel was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and he wasn't alone. A doe and fawn lay beside him. Several rabbits, squirrels and a few other small creatures were congregated all around him. Amazingly, there was also a fox, which was sitting in his lap like a dog and seemed to be paying no attention to animals that it would usually be hunting as prey. The nearest tree was covered in birds, and several more were perched on his knees and shoulders. With the exception of the birds in the trees, every one of the animals was touching him in some way, as if trying to bring some measure of comfort.

As incredible as the sight was, what struck me most was Daniel himself. He sat with head bowed, shoulders drooping. And he was crying. I couldn't see his tears, but I could hear his occasional sniffle. It tore me apart.

Just then, the animals became aware of our presence. The birds scattered, and some of the smaller animals ran off. Daniel looked up. Seeing us, he quickly turned his face away and wiped his cheeks.

By the time we'd reached him, all the animals were gone, the little fox on his lap being the last to leave after it bravely growled at us for several seconds.

Daniel said nothing as we all joined him on the ground.

"Daniel, we're so sorry," I said.

"You can't leave the team, Daniel," Colonel O'Neill told him. "We need you."

"No, you don't," Daniel whispered. "SG-1 is better off without me. I take stupid risks and put everyone in danger. If I hadn't gone to that planet, everybody would have been rescued in the Tel'tak without anyone's life being put in danger."

"What makes you think that? Do you think that the ship could have just swooped in, snatched everybody up, then flown off without firing a shot? Well, think again. The team would have had to land the ship and gone in on foot. Chances are that they'd have met resistance. And they couldn't have gotten everyone out of that jail the way you did. They'd have had to attack the guards and breach the front entrance. Once they were in there, they'd have been in danger of being trapped."

"And, by then, one or more of us may have been dead," I said. "There's something that we didn't reveal in the debriefing. The last time that the village leader talked to us, he made some threats. He said that, if we didn't talk, in the morning, it would be more than just beatings that we'd receive, and he made it clear that being a woman would not save me any longer."

"He intended to torture us," Teal'c said.

"You saved us from that, Daniel. You may have even saved our lives. When they couldn't get anything out of us, the natives might have killed one or more of us."

The colonel spoke up. "Daniel, what you did may have been irresponsible when it came to your own safety, but it was also very courageous. Every member of an SG team is expected to put the lives of their teammates ahead of their own, and that's what you did. On top of that, you managed to pull off a mission that not another person in the SGC could have done. You set out to do something, and you accomplished it with intelligence, courage and some pretty impressive tactics."

Daniel shook his head. "You're just saying that to make me feel better. You don't have to lie to me. I know I screwed up. What you guys said to me before was right."

It really upset me that Daniel thought we were lying to him. A denial was on my lips, but Colonel O'Neill beat me to the punch.

"Hey. You get one thing straight, Daniel," he said. "Since you were turned into a kid, not once have any of us lied to you about anything. We are not saying this just to make you feel better. We're saying it because it's the truth, and it's something we should have said yesterday."

"We messed up, Daniel," I told him. "We were so focused on the thought of what might have happened to you if things had gone wrong that we failed to even say thank you."

"For my part, I failed to extend to you the same respect and honor I would have shown if you had performed a similar feat when you were an adult," Teal'c stated. "Many times, you have defied the will of others to do what you believed to be right, and, each time, you accomplished things that helped bring success to a mission that might otherwise have ended in defeat or the deaths of many. I have always felt great respect toward you because of these things, yet I did not show you respect this time because your youth and my emotions altered my perceptions. And for that I am deeply sorry, Daniel Jackson."

"We're all very proud of you for what you succeeded in doing, Daniel," the colonel said. "We don't want you to leave SG-1. Without you, it just wouldn't be the great team that it is."

At last, Daniel lifted his head and looked at us, tears swimming in his eyes. That was the last straw for me. I sprang forward and engulfed him in a big hug.

"You are an amazing, wonderful person, Daniel," I whispered, "and don't you ever think otherwise."

"Come on," the colonel said after the hug ended. "I'm getting cold, and my butt's starting to hurt sitting on this hard ground. Let's go back inside and have a nice cup of hot cocoa before we start Daniel on his training. He'll be going with us on missions before we know it, and the more we can teach him before then, the better it will be." He stared closely at Daniel. "Right, Daniel?"

Daniel hesitated before replying. "Right, Jack," he then said, two little words that made me breathe a silent sigh of relief and probably did the same for Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill.

We all got up and started making our way back up the mountain.

"By the way, Daniel," I said. "I never asked you where you learned to ride a horse so well. I was pretty impressed."

"Oh, I started learning in Egypt when I was six. I learned to ride camels, too. The grandparents of one of my foster mothers had a ranch, and we went there several times, so I got to ride a lot."

"Yet another talent to add to your long and varied list," the colonel remarked. "Just don't ever try to get me up on one of those things. I had no choice but to ride on one of our missions, and that was enough for me. I'm lucky I didn't break my neck."

That comment made Daniel smile. "Well, how about some riding lessons, Jack? You never know when it might come in handy again on a mission."

I decided to get in on the fun. "He's right, sir. I know I was sure glad that I'd had some lessons when I was trying hard not to fall off the back of that horse."

"No thank you," the colonel responded emphatically. "Don't get me wrong. I like horses just fine . . . from a distance. Though I may act like a horse's ass on occasion, this ass of mine will never again be placed upon anything of an equine nature."

"If you say so, Jack," Daniel said with the tiniest of smirks, "but you don't know what you're missing."

"You know, Daniel. I think I can live with that."

As I entered the gym for my first hand-to-hand combat training session, I looked around at the other people there. They all smiled at me, and a couple guys even gave me a half-salute. Colonel Dixon of SG-13 paused as he passed by me.

"You are one gutsy kid, Jackson," he said. "You'd make a hell of a Marine."

I blinked in surprise and watched him leave, recognizing that, coming from him, that was probably the highest of compliments.

Smiling, I turned back around and walked up to Jack, who stood waiting for me on the mat. He studied my face closely with narrowed eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"That peach fuzz is getting pretty thick."

I touched my cheek. I turned seventeen today, and my whiskers were getting pretty long. I should have started shaving a while ago, but I'd been putting it off. Though, in the beginning, it wouldn't be quite as often, once my facial hair growth reached full speed, to remain even remotely clean-shaven I'd have to shave two to three times an hour, a thought that made me shudder. How would I get anything else done? All my time would be spent shaving. I was seriously considering letting myself grow a beard.

Janet told me that I could try a depilatory cream or gel, which contains a chemical that dissolves the hair shaft. It would allow me to go up to four hours between shaves. I'd need to be checked for an allergic reaction first, though. She was going to talk to some dermatologists to find out which products were the safest and most gentle to the skin.

"Yeah, I'm putting off shaving for as long as I can," I said.

Jack smiled. "Well, I can certainly understand that." I saw something in his expression change.

"What?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing."

"I think it is."

Jack let out a sigh. "I was just thinking about how fast the time has gone. Less than two months ago, you were four. Now, you're a man."

"Well, not quite."

"Daniel, you may not be a legal adult yet, but, in a lot of ways, you're already a man. I may not have thought about it that way before, but it wasn't a child who went alone to that planet and faced overwhelming odds to save the people he cared about."

I ducked my head. Jack's words made me feel good. His opinion of me was very important, more important than anyone else's. I wanted him to be proud of me. It had really hurt when I thought that he, Sam and Teal'c didn't feel that way.

Since yesterday, my teammates hadn't missed an opportunity to show me that they are very proud of me and respect the person I am. Sam has begun teaching me all the various hand signals used by the military, as well as Morse code and other things she believes I should know. Teal'c has stepped up my training in Jaffa martial arts techniques, saying that we would begin basic training with a staff in a couple of days. He's told me more than once that I'm doing very well.

And, now, I was here, ready to receive my first lesson in military hand-to-hand combat.

"So, you ready for your first lesson?" Jack asked. "I'll warn you now that your ass is going to be sore from all the times I plant it on the mat."

I grinned. "I think I can handle that, Jack."

Jack nodded. "Good. Then let's get started."

I stepped forward, thinking that, sore ass or not, I was exactly where I wanted to be: a member of SG-1.

THE END . . . until Part 12.