Archive of Our Own

Janet pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a slow breath. The numbers were starting to swim together in a haze of bad bad worse, SG1’s latest labs painting a septic picture that didn’t make sense. They all claimed to feel fine- better than fine, they were in peak condition, the best they had ever felt. They should have been wrecks- cortisol through the roof, heart rate and blood pressure spiking intermittently, kidney and liver numbers climbing to near irreparable levels. Whatever the armbands were doing, their bodies simply could not keep up.

Not that any of them were interested in hearing it- whether the armbands were releasing some other hormone to mask the effects or it was purely their own hubris, Jack, Sam, and Daniel had all brushed off her concerns. It wasn’t as though she’d been their doctor for three years and knew exactly what their bodies could take. At least General Hammond was taking her seriously, for what it was worth, and seemed just as suspicious of Anise as she was. But if SG1 kept up their characteristic stubborn streak, Hammond wouldn’t be able to keep them under control much longer. SG1 had cowered like scared puppies when he raised his voice after their night on the town, but there was no way they’d stay contrite for long.

A sharp jab in her ribcage stirred Janet from her spiral, and she winced and rubbed her belly. Her baby kicked her again, or elbowed, and Janet hissed and tried to stretch the direction the baby seemed to be lying.

“Cut that out,” she grumbled. “You’re getting too big for all that kicking.” She got one more jab in response and Janet sighed. “Don’t you start acting like your father,” she said, thinking of the incredulous look Daniel had given her when she had suggested that maybe the magic armbands weren’t all they appeared. “Have you been watching? Daddy, Uncle Jack, and Aunt Sam have been showing you how not to behave, so don’t you get any ideas.” There was a nudge closer to her pelvis, and Janet rubbed the spot.

It was bizarre to think about sometimes, despite all of Janet’s objective medical knowledge. There was a person growing in there, a little creature formed from her and Daniel’s DNA. Even leaving out the whole conceived-on-another-planet-from-an-arranged-marriage aspect, Janet still had trouble wrapping her head around it. After her divorce, and taking in Cassie, she had all but given up on ever experiencing pregnancy, and the accidental nature of it didn’t help her comprehension of the situation.

Daniel helped, when he wasn’t being a jerk. Cassie’s enthusiasm for talking to her belly helped, and the soft, blue-green nursery SG1 had put together a few months ago definitely solidified the reality that a baby would be here soon. But somehow, all the little nudges and pokes made it seem far away. Her baby lived inside her, had been there for almost eight months. Imagining her outside, in the bright, dangerous world, was too alien an idea for Janet to consider most days.

Janet sighed, pushed her chair back, and used her desk to haul herself to her feet. “What do you think?” She rested her hands on her belly and started her waddle towards the door. “I think we need something salty, how about some fries?” She earned herself another kick to the liver that stole her breath and she had to stop for a moment. “Ooh, got it. Calm down. You’re going to be the death of me.” 

Patting her belly absentmindedly and mulling over her choices of condiments, she pulled her office door open and jumped. “Daniel!” She laid a hand over her pounding heart. He loomed over her in the doorway, eyes dark and stormy. “You startled me- are you all right?”

Wordlessly, Daniel shook his head. He wasn’t a threatening figure- even in his egotistical, overconfident state, he would never hurt her- but he was radiating an energy that made Janet take a step back as he entered and shut the door behind him. His broody face was somewhere between desperate and furious, like he was starving to death and had been denied access to a sprawling buffet.

Janet backed into her desk with a squeak. “Are you- um, what’s wrong?” The intensity of his gaze made her mouth go dry, and she took comfort in the solidity of the desk behind her. “Do you need something?”

Still uncharacteristically silent, he nodded. He stalked forward, not once taking his eyes off her. They roamed over her body- her face, her belly, her legs- a hot trace up and down until she felt completely exposed. Which was ridiculous in the several layers of her uniform and white coat, but still. She had never felt more naked, and he had seen her with no layers on whatsoever.

“Daniel?” Without warning, he grabbed her arms in a crushing grip and crashed his mouth to hers. He swallowed the startled noise she made, chasing it down her throat until she couldn’t breathe. It was angry and hard and starving, it wasn’t Daniel, it stirred something deep in her belly that felt delicious and completely wrong. 

“What are you- Daniel-” She turned her head and he latched onto the closest skin he could reach, kissing and biting down her neck until her knees quaked. Janet pushed on his chest but she could have been pushing a mountain, he didn’t even seem to have felt it. “Stop it- stop it-” 

A low, keening noise ripped out of his throat and he pressed his face to her neck, winding his hands under her coat to push it off her shoulders. “You don’t understand.”

“Then explain.” Janet wove her hand through his hair to yank him back, and knew she had only made matters worse when he fixed her with a heated stare. “What happened? Why are you acting like this?”

“It’s not that anything happened, I just-” He reached for her top but Janet swatted him away, and he gave her a blistering look that coiled at the base of her spine. “You’re- I can’t- I just- need you- is that so wrong?” Her grip in his hair loosened and he returned to her neck with a vengeance, taking advantage of her slipping resolve to rip her coat off and eagerly scramble for the zipper on her maternity frock.

“Daniel-” She didn’t- couldn’t- push him away again, her head fell back as he attacked every bare inch of skin he could find. “Your hormones are all over the place- the armbands- this isn’t really you, you don’t really want this-” Daniel actually laughed out loud at that, the sound almost despairing.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” His hands trailed down to her belly, gentler than they had been so far. “I feel like I’m going to die if I can’t touch you.”

“You’re-” Janet’s breath hitched and Daniel lingered over her bounding pulse, breathing ragged. “You’re proving my point. This isn’t like you, you only feel this way because-”

“Because of you.” His voice rumbled through her, shooting straight to her core. “Because you’re mine.” He pressed another kiss to her lips, hard enough to bruise. 

Janet locked her knees, summoned all her strength, and shoved him away. He looked at her like she was a Greek goddess, or a five-star meal, awestruck and eager and so, so hungry. His hair was mussed, his lips swollen, and his eyes glazed, and Janet ached. 

“Janet.” His voice was ragged with want. “Please.”

Janet swallowed, fighting for any crumb of decorum, anything to break the mood. “I’m huge.” Truly, there was nothing about her at the moment that should have warranted that level of lust in Daniel’s eyes.

“You’re gorgeous.” Daniel flexed his hands and stepped forward again. “I did that.” He locked his eyes on her belly. “That’s mine. You’re mine, and everyone can see it, and I need you.” 

Janet took a hitching breath, hands clenched on her desk. “You’re mine, too, mister.” Daniel’s face split in a predatory grin, a face she never could have imagined him making.

“Well, that’s a given.” He took another step forward, reaching for her, but she laid a shaking hand on his chest. For the space of two breaths, they both held completely still.

“Lock the door.” Daniel blinked, and faster than she could track, darted away to obey. Then his mouth was on her, and his hands were hoisting her onto the desk, and Janet finally let herself fall apart.

“Now, get yourselves down to the infirmary and get checked out.” Daniel grimaced, caught between urges to tear the base apart to find his wife and hiding his face from her for the foreseeable future. He had left her all but passed out on the couch in her office, fully intending to return after the mission and continue as long as her body could withstand it. He had kissed her and promised to be back soon, and she had just given him a dazed look before reaching a trembling hand towards her clothes. Getting her into her uniform wasn’t nearly as fun as getting her out of it, much as he enjoyed kissing every last inch of skin before he reluctantly covered it. At least, he had consoled himself, he would get to take it all off again soon.

Now, clear of the heady thrill the armband had given him, he knew he’d be lucky if he ever got to touch her again. Besides pushing and begging her into it, he could have snapped her in half without trying. And he had known it, but couldn’t bring himself to care. All he had been able to focus on was his own desperate need.

Daniel trudged after Sam and Jack like a man going to the gallows, knowing he wouldn’t be able to speak to Janet until she finished their examinations. General Hammond strode along behind them, feeling ominously like a collie that would bite their heels if they took one step out of line. 

Sam and Jack made their way into the infirmary with the appropriate amount of contrition, but Hammond snagged Daniel’s arm before he could follow. 

“General?”

“As soon as you’re cleared, report to my office,” Hammond ordered gravely, and walked away before Daniel could ask why. He entered the infirmary and sat through his exam with a mounting sense of doom, especially when he noticed it would just be Dr. Warner doing all three of their examinations.

What if Janet had gone to Hammond as soon as they ran through the stargate? What if she had seen it as more than Daniel being pushy? She knew their strength as well as they did, had seen them all destroy lab equipment unintentionally. What if she had felt unsafe? If she had forced herself to lay still, not to scream, terrified of what he could do to her- 

Daniel wanted to throw himself through the wrong end of a wormhole as he wracked his brains for any hint of a memory that Janet had been afraid, hadn’t wanted it as much as he did. She was pregnant, he could have hurt her, could have hurt the baby-

“All good, Dr. Jackson.” Daniel blinked, broken from his spiral. Dr. Warner raised his eyebrows, and Daniel imagined he saw judgment in his eyes.

“Don’t- don’t we normally have to wait for bloodwork?” he asked. Surely he hadn’t been stewing in his self-hatred for hours. Dr. Warner shook his head, face carefully neutral.

“Not this time. Report to General Hammond.”

“But-”

“Hey! How come he gets to leave, and we’re stuck here?” Jack demanded, and Daniel paled at the implications. If they had all been released, he could at least hope that Hammond was just eager to ream them out for their misdeeds. But no Janet, plus Daniel being summoned to Hammond…

Daniel didn’t remember walking to Hammond’s office, he just found himself there before he could blink. He knocked once and didn’t wait for an answer. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Hammond thanked someone and hung up his phone. He nodded and gestured towards the chair in front of his desk, a deep crease between his eyebrows. “Sit down, son.”

“General, what’s this about?” Daniel stayed on his feet, gripping the back of the chair. “Where’s Janet?” Dr. Fraiser, he always called her Dr. Fraiser on base, this was her place of work and he respected that-

“Shortly after you left, Dr. Fraiser came down with some pretty serious symptoms. Dr. Warner checked her into the infirmary and started running some tests, but he was forced to send her out to the Air Force Academy hospital.”

“Why? What happened?” Daniel’s heart leaped to his throat, fingers digging into the chair.

“She started having contractions, and Dr. Warner was not comfortable managing a high risk labor in Cheyenne Mountain.”

“High risk?” She was fine- had been fine, the baby was fine, they had been told not to anticipate any issues. She was technically on the older side to be having her first baby, but-

“I just got off the phone with Dr. Warner, and he tells me that he sees signs of the armband virus in Dr. Fraiser’s initial tests.” Daniel’s heart flopped over before violently plunging to his stomach.

After a few shaky steps, Daniel finally collapsed into the chair. “This is all my fault.”

Hammond’s voice softened. “I highly doubt that, son. But now is not the time to worry about blame, right now your wife is in labor and I have a car waiting on the surface to escort you to her.”

Daniel shot to his feet. Even if she blamed him, even if she hated him forever and never trusted him again, he had to at least lay eyes on her. He needed to hear a doctor- preferably an expert in the subject- tell him she would be okay, and the baby would be okay, and nothing was wrong with either of them.

Except, of course, for the virus he had given her that would spin every system in her body into overdrive. And she had no armband to time out before it killed her.

“Thank you, sir,” he said numbly, and ran out the door.

“Excuse me, my wife, Janet Fraiser- I’m her husband, I was told she was here?” An unflappable-looking nurse took Daniel’s arm and briskly escorted him down the hall, paying no heed to his babble.

“I’ll take you to see her, sir, but I need you to change first,” she said, not unkindly, and shoved blue scrubs into his hands. Daniel’s hands shook violently and slowed him down by at least two minutes, and he cursed under his breath as he yanked the pants on so aggressively he thought they would tear. The nurse didn’t address his foul, frantic mood, instead whisking him down another hallway as soon as he reappeared in the appropriate dress.

“Right in here, sir.” She opened the door and squeezed his arm. “She’s got an excellent team, sir. You just focus on being with her.”

It was probably meant to be calming, but Daniel could only see it as ominous. He gave her a tight nod and walked into the room, only to freeze in the doorway. 

It was a huge, glaringly white room, bustling with people in identical blue scrubs. Shiny equipment lined the walls, and staff brushed by each other in synchronized ease. 

At first, he couldn’t see Janet in the center of it all. She was drowning in blue drapes with a surgical cap on her head, barely a speck in the business of the room.

“Janet?” She craned her neck and he could have fallen to his knees at the relieved smile on her face. He remembered how to walk and raced to her side, placing himself where the nurses directed.

“I’m glad you made it,” Janet said with a sleepy smile, eyes glazed. Daniel took her hand and kissed her forehead through his mask, eyes widening at the heat radiating off her skin.

“Janet, I’m so sorry. I had no idea I could-”

“I know.” Janet wriggled her fingers out of his to stroke his cheek. “I didn’t, either. I should have thought-”

“Don’t.” Daniel took her hand and kissed her palm. “It’s not your fault. You were just trying to help me.” He leaned his forehead down to hers, clutching her hand to keep it on his face. “I’m sorry.”

“Hello, can I presume you’re the man we’ve been waiting for?” One of the gowned men on the other side of the drape poked his head up, face unreadable under his mask. Daniel sat up and stared at him in open terror. “I’m Dr. Eisenberg. I know there’s a lot happening very quickly, and I promise I’ll answer any questions you have once mom and baby are stable.” Daniel nodded mutely. “Right now it looks like Janet caught some kind of infection that’s triggered early labor and given baby some distress. We’re about to do a c-section, so mom and baby can both get the care they need. Understand?”

Daniel understood nothing, but he nodded again. The doctor ducked back behind the drape and started giving orders, reporting every move he made and requesting updates on Janet and the baby’s vitals every few minutes. Daniel tried to follow along but it was mostly gibberish to him, all he could do was rely on the calmness in the doctor’s voice.

“Daniel?” Daniel snapped his attention to Janet’s face and found her eyes drifting closed. 

“It’s all right,” he said, entirely unconvincingly. A nurse patted his shoulder as she brushed by for more supplies. Someone called something about Janet’s blood pressure, but Daniel couldn’t listen.

Janet raised her hand and brushed it against Daniel’s cheek. He took it in both of his, holding on for dear life. “It’s not your fault.” Daniel started to shake his head, but she flexed her fingers in his. “Look at me. I don’t blame you.” Daniel met her eyes and couldn’t imagine ever not blaming himself. But he nodded.

“All right- here she is, at-” The doctor squinted at the clock. “Sixteen forty-seven.” For a few, heartstopping seconds, there was a flurry of activity and a slight uptick in voices. Then came a thin, gurgly cry, and Janet’s eyes flew open.

“Daniel.” With evident relief, the doctor held a red, slippery, furious baby up over the drape. “Daniel, look at her,” Janet said in a hushed voice. Daniel couldn’t make a sound, all he could see was the squirmy little creature as she made her displeasure known.

“We’ll get her to you in just a few seconds, momma,” a nurse promised as she bundled the baby away and the doctor returned to Janet’s stomach.

“Janet, she’s perfect.” Dimly, Daniel became aware his cheeks were wet, and when he finally tore his eyes from the baby he found Janet in a similar condition. A nurse pressed a handful of tissues into Daniel’s hand, and Daniel dabbed Janet’s face. “I love you.” Janet gave him a sleepy smile.

“Here she is, say hi to mommy and daddy.” A nurse carried the baby around the drape, clearly beaming under her mask. She was clean and dry and wrapped in a blanket, red-faced and wailing. The nurse held her face directly up to Janet’s, cheek to cheek, and even half-asleep, Janet’s smile was more brilliant and blinding than Daniel had ever seen.

“Hello,” Janet said, sounding stunned. The baby whimpered and took a few more hitching breaths before nuzzling her face towards Janet’s. Janet kissed her little cheek, and Daniel could have stayed frozen in that exact moment forever.

“BP is dropping,” someone reported beyond the drape, in a controlled tone that meant someone with a lot of experience knew things were about to go very badly. Daniel recognized that tone, was used to it being about him. But it didn’t belong here, with this perfect, round-cheeked baby and Janet’s dazzling smile.

“Get me two units of blood,” another voice called, and though nothing else was said, for what seemed like a long time everyone in the room moved very quickly. Nurses darted in and out with supplies and medications, two of them read information rapidly to each other before starting an infusion of blood. Daniel watched it flow into Janet’s veins and honed in on it, saw nothing else but Janet getting better, the bustling team fixing her and sending her home with their perfect baby.

“Janet.” Janet’s eyebrows twitched, but she didn’t open her eyes. The nurse holding the baby stayed stubbornly in place, keeping the baby’s face pressed against Janet’s. The doctor gave Daniel a hard look. “I’ve stopped all the bleeding, but your blood pressure is still dangerously low. I think at this point we have to intubate and stabilize you in the ICU.” Daniel just blinked at him, but Janet nodded. It seemed to take the last of her strength- her eyes rolled back into her skull and her head lolled to the side, and before Daniel could open his mouth to scream another man in scrubs appeared at his elbow. 

“Excuse me, sir.” Within seconds Daniel found himself several feet away, watching in detached horror as the man held a mask over Janet's face and breathed a few puffs of something into her lungs. Seconds later, he had a tube down her throat and announced to the room that he had the airway.

“Hello, sir, are you the father?” Daniel jumped and whirled around. He met the kind eyes of yet another nurse in a brightly colored scrub cap. He nodded, knowing that was the correct answer though he could barely comprehend the truth of it. 

Father. Of a baby. With Cassie he’d had to earn it, had to learn from his mistakes and grow into the role in her life. This one had just been dropped into their laps, no instruction manual, no take backs. Daniel gulped. 

“And this is your wife?” Daniel nodded again. That one made more sense, even though he could barely see Janet in the crush of people. A hospital bed had been wheeled in next to the operating table, and once the man with the tube in Janet’s throat gave the go ahead, the whole team slid Janet from the metal table to the bed. 

“All right, I’m Lindsey, I’m the charge nurse down here today. Sounds like your wife needs a bit more support than we can give her, so she’s heading to the ICU.” Daniel nodded a third time. It seemed to be all he could do. 

“Your baby looks wonderful, but the NICU team wants to look her over.” Finally Daniel stirred enough to give her a lost, fearful look. Lindsey’s eyes crinkled at the corners and her shoulders were completely relaxed, there wasn’t a hint of stress coming off her. “She’s a little small, so they want to make sure she can maintain her temperature.”

The nurse that had been holding the baby for Janet- the last moments they would have together for who knew how long- placed the baby in an isolette. “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll get little miss settled into the NICU?” she asked. Daniel blinked at her, then looked at Lindsey. He felt strangely unmoored, like if he made the wrong move he would float away and never come back. 

Lindsey laid a hand on his arm. “That sounds like a good idea. They’ll need some time to get your wife settled upstairs. Once you see where your baby is staying, someone can walk you up to the ICU waiting room.” Grateful to be given instructions, Daniel nodded and trailed after the NICU team as they wheeled his baby down the hall. 

Janet hadn’t even gotten to hold her. 

Checking his baby into the NICU, oddly enough, grounded Daniel in something useful. He couldn’t give a name, but in the middle of giving his and Janet’s information, he felt himself settling back to earth. 

“All right Daniel, thank you. Are you ready to head upstairs?” Daniel looked longingly at his daughter, already hooked up to all sorts of monitors and glowing under a heat lamp. The NICU nurse- Meghan, she had told him on the ride over- had strapped little goggles to her face with painstaking gentleness. Bizarrely, she looked like she was tanning, but Daniel couldn’t summon a laugh. 

“Actually-” Daniel cleared his throat. “Is there a phone I can use?”

Meghan couldn’t leave the baby, but the directions she gave were extremely thorough, and even in his hazy state Daniel found the ICU waiting room sooner than he thought he would. He realized as he patted his pockets for change that he was still in scrubs, and in fact had no idea where his clothes were. The woman at the front desk had a stern look that reminded him of General Hammond on a bad day and made him feel like a worthless little spider as he shuffled up to her. 

Once she determined he wasn’t a very lost member of staff, the woman- Terry, he managed to make out on her badge- let him use her phone to make one call, and only if she dialed the number for him. 

“Major Carter.”

“Sam?” Terry clicked away at her keyboard and Daniel resisted the urge to duck out of her line of sight. 

“Daniel? Hey, where are you?” 

“And how did you escape?” Jack shouted in the background, and Daniel ignored him. He wound the cord in his fingers so tightly he shifted the cradle of the phone, and Terry shot him a look that could cut glass. 

“I’m- um-” Daniel ripped his glasses off and rubbed his face, the last few hours- hours? Had it really been that long since he’d left Hammond’s office?- swirling together in his mind. “Listen, can you do me a favor?”

“Of course. But what’s going on? Are you okay?” Daniel almost laughed at the idea of anything being okay ever again. 

“Can you pick up Cassie and bring her to the Air Force Academy Hospital?”

In the short silence following his request, Daniel could picture Sam’s face going pale and dropping from confusion to alarm. “What happened?”

“It’s- um- it’ll be easier to explain here-”

“Is it the baby? Daniel, you’ve got to give me something.” Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, leaning his elbows on the desk. Terry’s keyboard stopped clicking.

“She had the baby.”

“Well isn’t that a good thing?” Sam asked, then called, “Janet had the baby!” Daniel ignored Jack’s cheer- it made his eyes burn in a way he couldn’t afford at the moment.

“She’s sick,” he grated out, voice catching.

“Who’s sick? The baby? It is too soon, isn’t it-?”

“The baby’s fine.” He thought of her little heat lamp, the eagle-eyed nurse who hadn’t let her out of her sight since the second of her birth. “She’s small, but she’ll be okay. Janet’s sick.”

“I don’t understand.” Terry, evidently, thought she was pushing her luck, because she slowly started typing again. Daniel would have preferred the silent eavesdropping over the slow, irregular tapping grinding into his patience. “Did something go wrong with the birth?”

“No- well, yes- but only because-” Daniel swallowed, and the words had to fight their way out. “I made her sick.”

“What do you mean?” Sam wouldn’t be Sam if she didn’t burrow after more information, uncovering answer after answer only to find more questions. But at that moment, Daniel couldn’t care less about satisfying her curiosity.

“I can’t explain over the phone. Will you just please pick up Cassie?” he pleaded, and knew he had scared her when she didn’t press on with her interrogation.

“Of course,” she said in a small voice, and Daniel forced himself to remember that while he worried about his wife, Sam was worrying about her best friend. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Thank you.” Without waiting for any more questions, Daniel hung up the phone. Terry watched him openly, one eyebrow raised over her glasses. Daniel straightened and cleared his throat, acutely aware of the flimsy, overlarge scrubs he was still wearing. “Could I please go back and see my wife? Janet Fraiser, they just brought her up.”

“I’ll call back and check, one moment please.”

Daniel drummed his fingers on the desk as Terry made her call. By the time she pushed a button under her desk and waved him through, ordering him to room 270, he was all but pounding the desk.

Counting off room numbers was unnecessary, Daniel just honed in on the hub of people on the other end of the c-shaped unit. A nurse brushed by him as he approached, holding a bag of blood, and as she entered the room a man whose badge said “RT” exited, calling back to page him if they needed anything. 

The room itself was not as frantic as it initially seemed- people were moving quickly, but with poise and purpose, more a well-oiled machine than a scramble. One nurse focused intently on an IV pump, muttering numbers under her breath and glancing up at the monitor. The nurse who had passed Daniel started priming the blood, asking about vitals and labs and nodding as she received answers that sounded like random numbers to Daniel.

Daniel hovered in the doorway, unsure if he should risk throwing a wrench in their concentration. Without glancing his direction, the nurses read off Janet’s information to each other, started the blood, and glanced at the monitor again.

“You should probably-”

“Yeah, looks like we need a little more.” One nurse- the younger of the two, with glasses and a long dark ponytail- fiddled with the IV pump for a moment. As she pushed her buttons, brow furrowed in concentration, Daniel cleared his throat.

“Excuse me.” The second nurse- shorter, with a blond, fraying braid- turned to him with a look of polite interest. She took in his scrubs in a second, and frowned as she examined his face. Daniel swallowed. “I’m Janet’s husband. I don’t mean to interrupt, but could someone tell me what’s going on?”

He finally looked at her, but he couldn’t keep his eyes on her for long before looking back at the nurses. There was a tube in her mouth, distorting her face in a way he’d almost grown accustomed to with Jack, Sam, and Teal’c, but somehow couldn’t stand to see on Janet. Someone had tucked a blanket up to her chest, but both arms were laying over the blanket, IVs snaking out of her elbows and forearms. A blood pressure cuff peeked out from under the sleeve of her hospital gown, and a tangle of wires ran from somewhere under her gown all the way to the monitor on the wall. The surgical cap from her c-section was still clinging to one half of her head, though most of her hair had spilled out.

In the few seconds Daniel watched her, her eyebrows bunched together and her whole chest jerked with an awful, wet, grinding sound. The younger nurse darted to her side and took her hand. “It’s all right, Janet.” She plucked the cap off her head and threw it away before smoothing Janet’s hair. “You’re in the ICU, we’re taking care of you. It’s okay.” Janet tossed her head, eyes still screwed shut. Without letting go of her hand, the nurse turned and reprogrammed another IV pump. 

“I’m turning up your sedation, so you’ll be more comfortable,” she said calmly, and Daniel wondered if she actually expected Janet to hear or if it was for his benefit.

Whatever she did seemed to work- in less than a minute Janet’s face smoothed out. Daniel locked his eyes on the older nurse, not caring how his voice shook when he asked, “What, um-?” He cleared his throat, and jumped when Janet jerked again. Neither nurse seemed alarmed- the younger one just patted Janet’s hand and told her everything was okay in a soothing voice.

“What was that?” Daniel finally managed to ask, and the blonde nurse frowned in thought for a moment before she understood.

“Oh, she’s just coughing,” she said, not unkindly. “It’s not comfortable to have that tube down your throat.” Daniel grimaced, all too familiar with the feeling. “That’s why we’re sedating her for now, so the vent can do the work for her and give her body some rest.”

Slowly, Daniel nodded, and after steeling himself turned back to Janet. She did look more comfortable now, but her mouth was gaping around the tube and her face was unnaturally slack. She didn’t look like Janet. 

“Is it helping?” he asked helplessly, knowing the exasperated look Janet would throw him if it were Jack or Sam or Teal’c in the bed. She had barely been up here for an hour, there was no way to know what was coming next. “I’m sorry, I know it’s too soon, I just-” He gestured in Janet’s direction and then rubbed the back of his neck, hardly knowing where to start- the ventilator and its great bellows as it forced air into Janet’s lungs, the array of IV pumps, the monitor and its numbers and waveforms that meant nothing to Daniel. The room seemed too small for it all, though Daniel knew that every piece of equipment was a vital part of keeping Janet alive.

“Would you like to sit down?” The blonde nurse pointed Daniel towards a chair beside the window, and dragged it up beside Janet’s bed before all but pushing him into it. Daniel collapsed, not realizing how wobbly his knees had been until they weren’t supporting him anymore.

Now that her patient was comfortable, the younger nurse finally turned to Daniel. Without the stern look of concentration on her face, she barely looked old enough to be out of high school.

“I’m Amanda,” she said, shoulders back and chin out in the picture of confidence. She slapped on a bright smile. “I’ll be Janet’s nurse for the next few hours. Did you have any specific questions?”

Daniel shook his head, then sat in silence through words like “sepsis” and “shock” and “vasopressors.” From his stints at his team’s bedsides, he knew those words translated to “very sick,” but he didn’t comprehend much beyond that. Amanda patiently explained every medication running through Janet’s IVs- the sedation, the blood pressure support, the hydration, the antibiotics- and Daniel tried to act like he was retaining any of it. He mostly just stared at Janet’s hand laying limp on her sheets, trying to work up the nerve to take it.

“Is it all right if I bring more visitors back?” he asked eventually, cutting off Amanda’s explanation of the definition and usefulness of a mean arterial pressure. She blinked and promptly switched gears.

“We normally allow two at a time,” she said, and though her voice was even, it took on a firm quality. “Only because the room is so full.” Her hands clenched slightly around Janet’s bedrail, as if she were bracing for Daniel to argue, but he just nodded.

“Okay. I’ll be back.” He stood, but couldn’t initially force his feet away from Janet’s bed. Instead he looked down at her, a tiny form swallowed in blankets and wires. After a long moment he cautiously touched her arm, then walked out of the room.

He had no desire to linger in the hall, but as he approached the door to the unit and picked up raised voices, he sped up his steps until he all but burst through the door.

Terry, barricaded behind her desk, raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Jack, who looked ready to spontaneously combust.

“Daniel!” Jack folded his arms, then stuck them in his pockets, then yanked his hands free to gesture at Terry. Frantic energy sparked off him and his face was grim. “Will you please tell this-” Terry tilted her chin down very slightly, and Jack cut himself off and lowered his voice. “-lovely person to let us back?”

“It’s two at a time, Jack.” Jack flapped his arms furiously, but Daniel brushed by him without another word. Cassie stood stiff and pale under Sam’s arm, eyes huge as he opened his arms. She launched herself forward and he bundled her against his chest. He stroked her hair as she trembled. 

“She’s alive,” he said quietly, before anything else, and Cassie let out a ragged breath. “Come here.” Daniel led her to one of the chairs and Sam followed, stationing herself on Cassie’s other side and laying a hand on her back. Jack threw himself into a chair for a few seconds before he stood back up and started to pace. Teal’c watched him with one eyebrow cocked. 

“What happened?” Cassie demanded, hands shaking in Daniel’s. “She was fine this morning.”

“She wasn’t sick this morning.” He couldn’t tell the full story in the ICU waiting room- though something told him Terry wouldn’t crack even under a full NID interrogation. “But we all- except Murray- we’ve been dealing with a…” Daniel pushed his glasses up his face. “…unique virus. We didn’t think we could pass it on, but I made her sick.”

“I still don’t see how that’s possible,” Sam cut in, face soft with sympathy. “It shouldn’t have been able to pass human-to-human, what makes you think that’s what’s going on?” Daniel shot a glance at Terry, who was supremely unconcerned as she clicked away at her keyboard. 

“Warner ran some tests before he sent her over,” he said under his breath. “She has it.”

“But how could you have-?” Sam froze. She raised her eyebrows at him, jaw slack. Daniel’s cheeks burned, which was enough of a confirmation for Sam to snap her mouth shut and move on. “But none of us felt sick at first.”

“Well, we had some help.” Daniel flexed his hand, hoping no one needed him to spell out his armband theory.  They hadn’t gotten to the point of fully understanding the technology, but it made sense that the armbands served as a modulator for the virus, titrating it to effect and masking the adverse effects. With nothing to slow it down, the virus was running rampant in Janet’s system. “We were this sick, we just couldn’t feel it.”

“We weren’t eight months pregnant,” Jack piped up, swinging his arms back and forth as he paced around with long strides. If not for Cassie, Daniel would have been right with him, and exasperating as Jack’s restlessness was, it also let off a little pressure valve in Daniel’s chest. 

“Okay, but you guys are fine. So she’ll be fine, right?” Daniel wanted to nod, gather her in his arms, and assure her that everything would be fine. But he was long out of the habit of making promises he couldn’t keep. 

“There were… other factors involved for us,” Sam murmured, rubbing Cassie’s back. 

“But she’s here.” Cassie’s hands tightened in Daniel’s. “They’ll make her better.” Her eyes bore into his, desperate for confirmation, and Daniel looked down at their hands. Hers were still small compared to his, but gone were the days his hands completely swallowed hers. She had outgrown Janet already, to Janet’s fond consternation.  

“She has a lot of smart people doing everything they can,” he said after a too-long pause, and Cassie’s mouth tightened. “They’re- um-” Amanda had made it sound so simple, but the words tangled in Daniel’s mouth. “They’re helping her breathe, and supporting her blood pressure, and keeping her asleep right now.” Cassie’s shoulders fell. 

“So I can’t see her?”

“We can go see her, if you want,” Daniel said in a rush. “She can’t talk to you, but she’ll know you’re there.” The image flashed through his mind- Sam in a delirious haze after exposure to some alien toxin, how she couldn’t tell them her own name but had calmed at the sound of Janet’s voice. “But if you don’t want to, that’s okay. It’s-” He cleared his throat. “There’s a tube in her throat, to help her breathe. It’s- um- it’s not very nice to see. She’d understand if you don’t want to.” Cassie shook her head before Daniel finished speaking. 

“No, I want to, please can I go see her? Just for a minute?” Daniel searched her face and nodded. 

“Okay.” 

Terry opened the door with an intense glare at Jack, daring him to try to rush her territory. With a dark grumble, Jack flopped into the seat next to Sam. Daniel kept an arm around Cassie as he led her to Janet’s room, and she shrank against him as staff bustled in and out of rooms. As they passed the nurses’ station the central monitor trilled an alarm and one nurse glanced at the screen, rolled her eyes, and called out that room 267 had taken his monitors off again. 

Amanda was still in Janet’s room, collecting blood from one of her IVs. She filled several tubes before she turned and jumped at the sight of them in the doorway.  

“Oh, I didn’t see you.” Her eyes flicked to Cassie and she smiled. “Hello.”

“This is Cassie, our daughter.” Cassie’s wide eyes locked on Janet and she tucked closer to Daniel. He rubbed her arm.

“I’m Amanda, I’m your mom’s nurse.” Amanda tilted her head towards Janet’s bed. “You can hold her hand, if you want.”

Daniel squeezed her arm. “Do you want to?” After a gulp, Cassie nodded. She ducked out from under Daniel’s arm and shuffled around the bed, staring at Janet’s hand like it was a bear trap. Hands in his pockets, Daniel ambled up behind her with determined ease. 

Amanda pulled out a marker and started marking the tubes, and Cassie’s eyes shot to her. “What are those?”

“Lab work. The doctor ordered a few more tests just to make sure we’re not missing anything.” She pocketed her marker and gathered her tubes, but before she left she focused on Cassie with intentional softness. “Do you have any questions for me?” Cassie glanced at Janet and clenched her jaw. She shook her head. “All right, I’ll get these sent off. Let me know if you need anything.” Amanda slipped out of the room, and Cassie took a tiny step closer to Janet’s bed. With great trepidation, she laid a hand over Janet’s. When nothing alarmed or exploded, she wrapped Janet’s hand in an iron grip. 

“Please don’t die,” she said in a tiny voice. Janet didn’t so much as twitch, her face limp and impassive as the ventilator pushed air into her lungs. Daniel wrapped his arm around Cassie’s shoulders, and they watched her breathe together. 

“Hey.” Daniel blinked and looked up to find Amanda in the doorway with a man in navy scrubs. Amanda smiled. “This is Matt, he’s taking over for the night. I’m just going to give him report.” Cassie curled back into Daniel’s chest, eyes locked on Janet’s face. 

“We’re actually heading out.” Daniel squeezed Cassie’s shoulder, and she nodded. “Thank you.” Amanda’s face softened. 

“Of course.”

Daniel kissed his fingers and touched the back of Janet’s hand, and with Cassie tucked under his arm, slipped past Matt and Amanda. As they left Amanda began her report, voice crisp and professionally impersonal. 

“This is Janet, thirty-eight year old female, came in today for an emergency cesarean…”

Almost before they were fully out the doors, Sam bundled Cassie back into her arms. She swept Cassie’s hair off her face and kissed her head. A weight lifted off Daniel’s shoulders at the sight- when he inevitably fell apart, at least Cassie would be taken care of. 

“Hey,” Sam said gently, “how about we swing by my house and pick up a few things, and then sleepover at your house?”

“Can’t I stay here?” Cassie turned to Daniel, tear-stained and desperate. “Please?” It made his heart ache, but Daniel shook his head. 

“Go home and get some sleep, okay? I’ll stay here with them.” He tried to crack a smile, but it felt strange on his face. “And tomorrow you can meet your baby sister.”

Cassie blinked at him, and Daniel realized he hadn’t said a word about the c-section or the baby in his whole explanation. He wouldn’t be surprised if Cassie had completely missed the fact that Janet wasn’t pregnant anymore in all the beeping and confusion of Janet’s hospital room. 

“The baby’s alive?” Cassie asked after a long silence, and Daniel’s heart cracked. His smile was more genuine this time. 

“Yes.”

Sam looked down at Cassie, stricken. “Oh honey, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you thought-” She turned to Daniel. “The baby’s fine, right?”

“She’s a little small, but she’s absolutely fine,” Daniel promised, thinking of the vigilant, stone-faced staff who had made him scrub his hands for several minutes before allowing him anywhere near their babies. “I’ll take you to see her tomorrow, okay?” Cassie frowned, deep in thought. She was almost Janet’s height, now, but she still fit tucked under Sam’s chin. 

“You promise you won’t let anything happen to them?” Daniel nodded, and opened his arms. She curled into his chest, arms tight around his middle. 

“I promise.” Daniel kissed her head, praying to anyone who’d listen that for once, this would be a promise he could keep. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Sam swept Cassie out shortly after, all but carrying her for how closely she was holding her. After sharing a look with Jack, Teal’c trailed after them. Jack clapped Daniel on the back and dropped a plastic bag in his hands. “Your clothes,” he explained when Daniel gave him a blank look. He jerked his head at Terry’s empty desk. “Her highness called down for them before she left.”

“That was nice of her.” Daniel did a cursory sweep through the bag- clothes, wallet, cellphone. Jack gave him a disbelieving look. 

“Right. So, how do you wanna play this?” Daniel frowned, and Jack raised his eyebrows. “You wanna start up here with Janet and I’ll stay with the kid? Swap in a few hours?”

Daniel stared at him for several seconds. A sarcastic answer rose to his tongue, but underneath that lurked the impending adrenaline crash. All the terror of the last several hours, mixed with the piercing love and awe of watching his daughter come into the world, rose up in his chest and wrapped around his throat. 

“Hey.” Jack’s forced nonchalance faded into concern. “You okay?”

Daniel didn’t bother answering. He yanked Jack into a hug and buried his face in Jack’s shoulder. His eyes burned but he held the tears back- he didn’t want to cry when Janet and the baby were alive and breathing and receiving the best care they could have. Jack laid one hand on Daniel’s head and patted his back with the other, head on a swivel as if monitoring for threats. 

“It’s all right.” Somehow, when Jack said it, Daniel could almost believe it. “It’s gonna be okay.”

It took every drop of stubbornness Daniel could summon, but he did manage to get Jack to go home. Much as he appreciated the offer, it was probably best not to aggravate the ICU and NICU staff on the first night. 

After shift change, Daniel made his way back down to the NICU. The staff offered him a cot next to his daughter, but after a few minutes staring into her incubator Daniel knew he couldn’t stay. That was his baby, but she didn’t know him, she’d spent the first several hours of her life being cared for and comforted by a nurse. He couldn’t hold her, couldn’t soothe her, couldn’t talk to her. All he could do was watch her scrunched little face and imagine he could make out Janet’s nose, and count her wrinkly fingers over and over as she stretched. 

The night shift nurse told him in a calm, gentle voice that fit the dark room that the baby was doing very well and could probably transition to a regular bassinet in the morning. She asked him again if she had a name, but Daniel shook his head. 

“I need to ask my wife,” he said, and the nurse nodded, squeezed his arm, and stepped away. Daniel laid his hand on the incubator and hoped against reason that his daughter could feel him there, somehow, hoped she knew that she was loved. 

He thanked the nurse and went back upstairs. 

There was no cot for him in the ICU, and not much rest either between the small, uncomfortable chair and the nurse’s frequent assessments. Matt apologized for waking him every time but Daniel waved him off, making sure Matt had a clear path to Janet’s pumps and ventilator. He’d done enough all-nighters next to his team in the infirmary to understand that this was the nurse’s domain, and he was lucky to be in it. 

Matt kept his face carefully neutral, but by the time the sun peeked through the curtains, Daniel knew Janet had gotten worse. Every once in a while Matt would stride in, stare at Janet’s monitor, and adjust one of her pumps before slipping out again. Occasionally it would be a different nurse, and they would whisper that they’d let Matt know about Janet’s blood pressure before disappearing again. 

Once shift change rolled around again, Daniel had to force himself to leave the room. Anxious as he was to hear report, his own stays in the infirmary had taught that shift report was probably the worst time to interrupt. He knew himself well enough to know he wouldn’t be able to keep quiet, so when Matt came in with Amanda at seven a.m., Daniel excused himself to the coffee shop across the street. 

The NICU had better news for him, and guilt squeezed Daniel’s heart when he couldn’t summon more relief. Meghan was back for day shift, and told him with a bright smile that his baby had graduated to the less acute half of the NICU. “If she keeps going this direction, she should be stable enough to go home tomorrow.”

She obviously expected a smile, but Daniel’s heart dropped to his stomach. The baby might be ready for home, but home was not ready for her. Sure the nursery was ready, but they didn’t have anything to feed her, there was no car seat in his car- he wasn’t sure they owned diapers small enough for her. 

Meghan laid her hand on his arm. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” she said, and Daniel nodded. “I know you must be anxious to get upstairs, but would you like to hold her?” Daniel froze. He blinked at Meghan, then looked down at his baby. 

She was swaddled in a hospital blanket with a miniature hat on her head covered with butterflies. Her eyes were squeezed shut in a scowl and now Daniel was sure he wasn’t imagining it- she definitely had Janet’s nose. 

“Yes, please.”

With careful, practiced hands, Meghan reached into the bassinet and scooped the baby to her chest. She nodded at a chair and Daniel dropped into it, staring at the bundle in her arms. A tangle of wires snaked out of the end of the blanket, and Meghan expertly arranged them over her arm to transfer the baby into Daniel’s arms. 

Daniel didn’t move, didn’t dare to breathe. Her head nestled into the crook of his elbow and the end of the swaddle barely reached Daniel’s hand. Secure as she was, he still supported her back with his other hand, terrified she would somehow slip from his arms. 

She turned her head, disturbed by all the movement, and Daniel’s eyes widened. But after a moment she yawned, revealing impossibly small gums and a tiny pink tongue, and settled back to sleep. 

“You can take a breath, Dad,” Meghan whispered, and grinned. “You can lean back, too.” Under her gentle direction, Daniel relaxed into the chair, freezing with every sigh or twitch from the baby. 

“She’s-” Twenty-three languages and he couldn’t find the words, couldn’t describe the overwhelming, petrifying perfection bundled up in his arms. “She’s okay, right?”

“She’s perfect,” Meghan promised, and Daniel finally breathed. 

“She’s beautiful.” His eyes darted over the baby’s face, and slowly, tentatively, he shifted his elbow and kissed her forehead. She scrunched up her face and as Daniel watched, enraptured, she cracked her eyes open. “Hello,” Daniel breathed. “I’m-” He swallowed. “I’m your dad. It’s nice to meet you, officially.” 

Meghan hovered for a minute, but when the baby didn’t start to cry she touched Daniel’s shoulder. “I’m going to check on my other patients, are you two okay for a few minutes?” Daniel’s eyes shot to hers, alarmed, but she nodded at the monitor. “All her vitals are right there, if anything changes I’ll know right away.” She gave Daniel an encouraging smile. “I’ll let you two get acquainted, just call if you need anything.”

With that, she left him alone with the baby, which would have been a huge dereliction of duty, Daniel thought, if it hadn’t been his baby. He was supposed to know what to do with this thing, how to feed and change her and keep her safe. At least Cassie could dig around the pantry, without Daniel and Janet this little creature was completely helpless. And Janet was indisposed, so that left Daniel alone in the ring. Daniel swallowed, the enormity of his responsibility curling into claws around his throat. 

“I’ll tell you a secret,” Daniel started, forcing his blurring vision to focus in on her face. She blinked up at him, frowning as if she were trying to place him. “I have no idea what I’m doing. And it’s not your fault, but I was supposed to have a lot more time to get ready.” A month hadn’t seemed that long while they were waiting for her arrival, but now it felt like an eternity. 

“Your mom’s sick, and it’s my fault, and I’m sorry she’s not here with you.” Her eyes were blue, but darker than his. Janet had explained they would start out blue no matter what, and that they wouldn’t know the true color for a few months. Looking down at her little face- the cheeks were Janet, too, and the shape of her face- Daniel hoped they darkened to Janet’s warm brown. 

“But I know she loves you, and she’s gonna be so happy when she gets to meet you.” Daniel tightened the arm supporting her and cautiously shifted the other hand to touch her cheek. “I love you, too, come to think of it.” She blinked, then yawned again. “Yeah, I’m tired too. How about you get some sleep, and in a few hours I’ll bring your sister to meet you. She’s gonna love you, too.”

Daniel didn’t look at the clock; it could have been hours before Meghan reappeared with a Polaroid hanging around her neck. “Would you like a picture?” she asked, holding up the camera. 

“Yes, please.” Daniel tucked the baby more securely to his chest and smiled for the camera, hoping it reached his eyes. All he could think of was Janet with a tube in her mouth, struggling to live, when she should have been the one getting her picture taken. 

“Perfect.” Daniel blinked in the flash. Meghan scribbled something on the developing photo and handed it over. “You still doing okay?” 

Daniel looked back down at the baby and nodded. It would be time for rounds soon and he wanted to be upstairs, but he took a deep breath and told himself it would be okay for a few more minutes. 

After a moment he glanced down at the photo and found he looked slightly terrified, but still happy. His lips twitched at the label Meghan had written across the bottom. 

Baby’s first cuddle with Daddy.

Janet’s doctor used bigger words than Amanda, but the concept was basically the same. Janet had some sort of infection, and her body’s overreaction to it was slowly destroying her organs one by one. The doctor- an older man with a few specks of a mustache- sat next to Daniel to answer his questions, and spoke in an easy, gentle tone, but overall left him with no new information. As he reconvened with the rest of the ICU team outside Janet’s room, Amanda made a quiet request for more medication to raise Janet’s blood pressure. The doctor gave her a short nod without so much as a murmur, and Amanda all but ran away to grab it.

Daniel threaded his fingers through Janet’s as Amanda primed and hung more medication without a glance in his direction. She programmed yet another pump, pressed start, and stepped back to stare at the monitor. The marginal bump in Janet’s blood pressure made her grimace, but she nodded and muttered something along the lines of “good enough” before slipping out of the room. Daniel kissed the back of Janet’s hand and tried to let it all wash over him.

There was no hopeful turn upstairs; the only good moments the rest of the day were with Cassie. After interrogating Amanda- a night of sleep seemed to have loosened her tongue- Cassie allowed herself to be bundled down to the NICU. She scrubbed her arms up to her elbows, following exactly the diagrams taped over the sink. Daniel almost tripped over her on the way into the NICU, she molded herself so closely to him. 

With infinite patience, Meghan adjusted the stiff and silent Cassie into the correct position in the chair. She scooped the baby out of the bassinet, and after one more check with Cassie, carefully arranged her in her arms. Cassie didn’t move a muscle for several seconds, staring down at her sister with wide, unblinking eyes. 

“She’s, uh- she’s cute, right?” Daniel said into the excruciating silence. Meghan smiled and slipped away. After another long pause, Cassie nodded. 

“Yeah.” Stiffly, she adjusted one hand to touch the baby’s face. “Is she supposed to be this small?”

Daniel perched on the arm of the chair, peering down into the baby’s face. “She’s on the small side, but that’s just because she’s early.” He squeezed Cassie’s shoulder. “She’s okay.” Cassie nodded again, a tiny crease between her eyebrows. 

“What’s her name?”

“I-” Daniel cleared his throat. “I don’t know yet. I need to ask your mom.”

Cassie didn’t have a response to that. The baby frowned and squirmed and Cassie looked up at Daniel in a panic. Daniel swallowed down his own jump of anxiety and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Bounce her.” He nudged Cassie’s arm, and reluctantly she started a barely perceptible rocking motion. The baby’s face smoothed out. “There you go.”

There was a flash, and they both jumped. Meghan winced. “Sorry, just me.” The baby grunted and screwed up her face again, and Cassie leaned away as if she were going to explode. “It’s time for a bottle,” Meghan said, and held up a tiny bottle of formula. “Want to see if she’s interested?” Cassie honed in on the bottle and stayed silent for a moment. She nodded. 

It took a few tries for the baby to latch on. Meghan coaxed Cassie into relaxing her arm, coaching her into softening just enough for the baby to settle into a rhythm. The baby made small snuffling noises as she fed, and after a few minutes she opened her eyes. She blinked up at Cassie, who stared down at her, transfixed. 

“Hi,” she squeaked, and Daniel kissed her head. 

Once Cassie and the baby settled, Meghan slipped away again, but not before pressing a photo into Daniel’s hand. In it, he and Cassie stared down at the baby with tiny smiles while she slept peacefully in Cassie’s arms. Daniel nodded his thanks and slid it into his pocket. 

Sam, Jack, and Teal’c were still in the waiting room when Cassie and Daniel left the NICU. Jack was sprawled across two chairs, drumming his hands on his legs, while Teal’c sat ramrod-straight across from him. Sam bounced on her heels, and Daniel caught Meghan narrowing her eyes at her through the window. 

“Cassie and I are gonna go see Janet,” Daniel announced, and Cassie slid her hand into his. He jerked his head back towards the NICU. “I told them you’re all family, if you want to go see the baby.”

“Are you sure you don’t want company upstairs?” Sam asked, eyes wide with concern, but Daniel shook his head. 

“Just give us a little while. Call me if you want to swap out.” Sam nodded and squeezed his arm. 

“You, too.”

“Well, Teal’c,” Jack said, and slapped both his knees. “Looks like you and I aren’t needed at the moment.” He fixed Daniel with an uncharacteristically serious look. “Call if you need anything. You, too,” he added with a nod at Sam, who had vigorously begun the handwashing process. 

“I won’t be long, if you want to see the baby,” Sam said, but Jack raised his eyebrows. 

“Carter, if you willingly leave that unit in less than two hours, I’ll owe you a beer.” Sam smirked and didn’t deny it. 

“You already owe me two, sir.”

“What, are you counting?” Sam didn’t answer, focused on scrubbing between her fingers, and Jack rolled his eyes. “Add it to the tab.”

“Yes, sir.” 

Daniel thought he probably should have been annoyed at their antics, but it lifted some of the weight from his chest to hear them banter like normal. 

It settled right back down around his heart as soon as they stepped foot on the ICU. Amanda gave them an automatic smile when she found them in Janet’s room, but otherwise concerned herself with Janet’s pumps. Cassie latched onto Daniel hand, wide eyes on Janet’s monitor, darting over numbers neither of them could understand.

“She’s getting worse, isn’t she?” she said in a small voice, and Daniel wrapped an arm around her shoulders,

“We’re- uh-” Amanda grimaced at the monitor and adjusted a pump. “We’re still playing catch up with her blood pressure. It’s- um-” She turned to face them with a smile Daniel recognized- things were bad, and she did not have time to explain. “It’s important for our organs to get enough oxygen, but if our blood pressure is too low, not enough blood gets where it needs to be.” Cassie clung to Daniel and he regretted bringing her up. She had already watched one mother die, she didn’t need the memories of this mother on death’s door. Determined as Daniel was that Janet would not die in this hospital, Cassie obviously had trouble believing it, and he couldn’t blame her.

Amanda turned back to the monitor, frowned, and poked her head out the door. “Can I have supplies for labs?” she called, and returned to Janet’s bedside. She squeezed Janet’s swollen hands and grimaced at the tautness of her skin. “Poor thing,” she said under her breath, and darted to the door when another nurse came in with supplies. “Thanks, I just don’t like that rhythm. She started throwing lots of ectopy.” 

Daniel didn’t pretend to understand their conversation, he just pressed Cassie close and watched Janet’s face as Amanda drew her labs. The other nurse frowned at the monitor and looked over the pumps.

“And you’re already on vaso?”

“Yeah, we just added it-” The monitor shrieked, and Amanda’s nostrils flared. “We need help in here!” she bellowed, and without another word she pounced on Janet’s chest. The other nurse ran out the door and returned with a crash cart and a crush of people, all talking over each other and slipping into roles around Janet’s bed. A man in gray disconnected the ventilator and started bagging, the nurse who had brought the cart ripped a syringe out of the top drawer, and on Amanda’s word half the team helped turn Janet on her side to get a backboard and defibrillator pad on her back.

Daniel swept Cassie back and she buried her face in his chest, sobbing. He couldn’t tear his eyes away- Amanda’s ponytail swung over Janet’s chest, someone yelled “Epi’s in!” and the ICU doctor strode in, taking everything in in a glance.

“Charging!” A high-pitched whine filled the room. “Clear!” Amanda cleared off, and everyone took a step away from the bed. With the push of a button, Janet’s entire body jerked. A tall man tapped Amanda’s shoulder and slid in beside Janet’s bed. “Resume CPR!” The tall man took Amanda’s place, and with his first few compressions a terrible pop-pop-pop rang in Daniel’s ears.

“All right, what happened?” the doctor asked Amanda in an even voice, and Amanda was panting when she answered.

“I’ve been turning up the levo even after the vaso, she was throwing lots of ectopy so I came in to get labs but she went into v-fib. One epi and one shock so far.” The doctor nodded and thanked her quietly before stepping up to the foot of the bed.

“Hello, sir, are you family?” An older nurse stepped directly in front of Daniel and Cassie, almost obscuring Janet from view. Daniel nodded numbly, trying to follow along with what the doctor was saying, but there was an odd ringing in his ears drowning out almost everything else. “Would you like to step out to the hallway?” Part of him was furious at the very suggestion, but all it took was a gentle pressure on his arm and he trailed after her, desperate for any kind of direction. Cassie stumbled after him, trembling.

“Pulse check!” A hush fell over the room. “Still v-fib- charging!”

“All right, are you the husband?” the nurse asked once they made it through the door. The contrast was like emerging from boiling water into cool, clear air- without the crowd of people and throng of voices Daniel could breathe again. He nodded, and the nurse’s face softened as she turned to Cassie. “And are you the daughter?” Cassie just pressed her face to Daniel’s chest and begged him to make it stop, and the nurse didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m Lori, I’m one of the nurses here today. It looks like your wife’s heart went into an irregular rhythm, and they’re in there working on getting back into a normal one.”

“What would-?” Daniel cleared his throat. “What would cause that? Would it be her infection?” The alien virus he’d given her in his selfish idiocy, the disease with no treatment besides waiting for it to decide it was done. Lori nodded.

“It could, if she’s sick enough her heart could have become irritated.”

“Lori?” Amanda thrust the tubes of blood she had collected into Lori’s hands. “Could you send these, please?”

“Sure.” Lori laid her hand on Daniel’s arm. “I’ll be right back. Unless there’s anyone you’d like me to call?”

Daniel shook his head. “No. No, we’ll, um- we’ll be in the waiting room. I don’t-” He stared back into Janet’s room and the writhing mass of people climbing over each other to complete their tasks, all with the same grim determination on their faces. Cassie shuddered with sobs. “I shouldn’t-”

“It’s okay.” Lori smiled at him, and the ringing in his ears dimmed just slightly. “We’ll be out to get you.” When she dies.

No, Daniel told himself firmly. When they get her back.

He had seen this whole song and dance- had had it done on him, though of course he didn’t remember- but the violence and chaos of the scene had never hit him as hard before. Janet’s ribs had cracked, her heart had been electrocuted, air was being forced into her lungs and blood was being driven through her body, all by someone else’s hands. Sweat broke out on Daniel’s lip as he all but carried Cassie out the unit doors, but he managed to stay upright until they made it to the chairs. Cassie collapsed into his lap, arms tight around his neck, and Daniel clung to her as if any moment she could be ripped from him, too.

Through his streaming tears, a blurry tissue box came into view. He blinked, and Terry set the box on the chair next to him. She patted his shoulder and returned to her desk. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut and rocked Cassie back and forth, crushing her to his chest. Even with Cassie’s wails in his ear, he could still hear the pop-pop-pop of Janet’s ribs.

“Daniel?” Sam skidded into the room, gasping for breath. She paled and swayed at the sight of them. “They called overhead- but it can’t-”

“Sam?” Cassie’s voice cracked and Sam was by her side in an instant, smoothing her hair off her face and pressing kisses to her forehead. “Sam, she’s dead.”

“No.” Daniel took a deep, hitching breath. “They’re coding her, but-”

“So she’s still fighting.” Sam framed Cassie's face and wiped the tears from her cheeks with shaking hands. “It’s not over until they come tell us it’s over, okay? Your mom’s not going anywhere without a fight.” She laid a hand on Daniel’s back. “Do you want me to go find out what’s going on?” Cassie darted a hand out and grabbed Sam’s wrist in an iron grip. Sam sank in her chair. “Okay.” She leaned her forehead to Cassie’s temple, wrapping her arms around both of them. “Okay.”

Every breath felt like a lifetime, each draft through the room could have been the doors swinging open, each click of Terry’s keyboard was a footstep down the hall. Sam murmured promises in Cassie’s ear, gripping Daniel’s shoulder like a lifeline. Daniel felt Cassie’s heart pounding against his chest and for a while, he had to live in a world where he had killed her mother.

When the doctor finally emerged from the unit Sam leaped from her chair, but Daniel kept Cassie securely in his arms.

“Doctor?” Sam asked, a frantic edge to her voice.

“She’s alive,” he said without preamble. Sam let out half a laugh and Daniel’s head fell back against the wall. Alive alive alive- he savored it. Sam kissed Cassie’s head and then Daniel’s, then collapsed back into her chair. The doctor shoved the tissues to the side and sat in the opposite chair, fixing Daniel with a serious look. “I suspect, because of her low blood pressures, her body isn’t able to filter out toxins as it should, and that’s besides whatever damage the disease itself is doing to her body. With your permission, we’d like to place a large central line and start continuous dialysis to clean her blood. There is of course a risk for bleeding-” 

“Do it.” Daniel didn’t care to hear the rest; if there was even a slim chance it would help Janet he had no reservations. The doctor nodded, but didn’t stand right away. His face and posture softened slightly. He glanced at Cassie, but she kept her face buried in Daniel’s neck.

“Do you have any questions for me?” he asked gently. Daniel shook his head. “All right. The line placement is a sterile procedure, they’re going to need a little while, okay?” He handed over the box of tissues and got to his feet, white coat unbunching around his knees. Daniel took the box with a forced smile, but couldn’t force out the words to thank him before he swept away.

His white coat billowed behind him and of course Daniel thought of Janet, the first blur of white as he opened his eyes that told him he was safely home after whatever trouble he had gotten himself into. She had been so miffed over not being able to close her coat over her belly anymore, even though, as Daniel had pointed out, it wasn’t meant to be closed in the first place. That had earned him a glare and a lecture about maternity uniforms, through which he had elected to keep his mouth shut.

“Sam?” Cassie’s voice stirred Daniel from his thoughts, and he turned to find Sam sitting with her head in her hands, racked with silent sobs. Cassie wriggled out of Daniel’s lap and frowned down at her. “He said she’s-” She hiccupped, and wiped her face. “-alive.” Sam nodded and wiped her face but it was no use- tears streamed down her red cheeks.

“I know, I’m just-” She sniffed, and Daniel handed over the tissue box. “I’m relieved. I’m just so, so-” She scrubbed her face, descending into more sobs. “-so happy-” Cassie tilted her head and gave Sam a serious look beyond her years. Sam seemed so small with her long limbs curled up on herself, shaking and sniffling and generally disheveled. Daniel rubbed her back as his own tears dried. He understood her turmoil; they had all seen each other in this state, but it was never supposed to be Janet. Janet was the one who fixed them, who forced their hearts to beat with her bare hands. She wasn’t supposed to be breakable. 

After blinking down at Sam for a moment, Cassie opened her arms and drew her in for a hug, tucking her head to her chest. Sam clung to her, fingers curling into claws in Cassie’s jacket, and Cassie laid her cheek on Sam’s hair.

Cassie held Sam until she cried herself out, and by the time Sam leaned back and scrubbed her face, three water bottles had appeared next to the tissue box. Daniel gave Terry a questioning look but she professionally ignored him, supremely concerned with her keyboard.

“I’m sorry.” Sam squeezed Cassie’s hand and gave her a watery smile. “That’s supposed to be my job.” Cassie dropped into the seat next to Sam and leaned her head on her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she said simply, and Sam left it there.

“Hey, did you guys have lunch?” Sam asked, forcing some cheer into her tone. Daniel and Cassie shook their heads, and Sam kissed Cassie’s forehead before nudging her. “Well then, let’s go check out the cafeteria. Janet would kill me if she found out I wasn’t keeping you fed.”

“You don’t have to take care of us,” Daniel said, quietly, because it wasn’t exactly true. Sam would always take care of Cassie, but she didn’t need to add worry about him to everything else. Sam slanted a smile.

“I know.”

It took several minutes of cajoling, but Sam managed to drag them down to the cafeteria. They split off to find food and Sam ducked away with her phone, waving Daniel off when he asked about it. The hospital’s chicken tenders sat like rocks in Daniel’s stomach, but Cassie perked up slightly once her belly was full. Or that could have just been Jack, who showed up a few minutes after Sam’s call with Teal’c in tow. Jack threw himself into one of the hard, uncomfortable chairs, draping his long limbs everywhere, and Cassie grinned.

“Hey, campers,” he said, and stole one of Daniel’s fries. Daniel cracked a smile and pushed his whole plate Jack’s direction. Teal’c pulled up a fifth chair that looked like it would collapse underneath him, and accepted an apple slice from Sam with a raised eyebrow. 

Incapable of sitting still for too long, Sam dragged Cassie off to the gift shop shortly after on a flower-finding mission. Jack watched them go and stuffed a fry in his mouth.

“Are you well, DanielJackson?” Teal’c asked, and picked up a carrot stick that disappeared in his massive hand. Daniel shrugged, exhaustion settling over his bones like a weighted blanket.

“No.” He forced a smile, and found it was easier than he expected. “Better now that you guys are here. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, considering I’ve never gotten beat up, blown up, or killed nearly as many times in my life as I have since I met you.” Jack gave him a sarcastic smile, nose wrinkling.

“Then with you we shall remain,” Teal’c declared in that solemn way of his. Jack nudged Daniel with his boot, his own way of repeating the sentiment. Daniel thought of his baby in the NICU and his wife on life support, then looked at the friends that had rallied around him. He thought of Sam and how she had barely left Cassie’s side the whole time, and he knew that no matter what happened, they would have a family around them.

It didn’t make him feel better, exactly, but maybe the tiniest bit lighter.

Daniel spent the second night down in the NICU. He couldn’t bear another night of the nurse’s face growing more grim with every hour. He and Cassie had checked on Janet again before Sam took Cassie home, and listened in silence as Amanda explained the purpose of the giant green machine parked behind the head of Janet’s bed pumping her blood in and out of her. Amanda had explained it was dialysis and would clean her blood, and Daniel hadn’t needed to know anymore. He and Cassie had each pressed a kiss to Janet’s hot, sweaty forehead before Cassie’s knees had started to tremble and he had swept her out. She had hugged him for a long time before leaving with Sam, and Daniel’s eyes had been burning as he had watched her walk away.

No force on Earth could have forced Jack away from the hospital, and Daniel didn’t bother fighting it this time. Besides, Teal’c had promised, and if Teal’c was staying, Jack was just part of a package deal. After a few more minutes at Janet’s bedside- to touch her hand, watch her chest rise and fall, ground himself in the reality that she was still alive- Daniel had swapped out with Jack. Jack treated it as seriously as night watch on a hostile planet- arms crossed and eyes peeled, he could have been scanning the sky for Goa’uld gliders. 

On his way down to the NICU, Daniel had passed Teal’c in the ICU waiting room, poised and ready to take Jack’s place in a few hours. Even as acquainted as he was with their combined lack of medical expertise, knowing they were up there gave Daniel a modicum of peace. At least this way, she wouldn’t be alone.

It was like his heart was split into three pieces, all of them out of reach of the other. Daniel couldn’t be with Janet and with his baby, and to be with either of them he had to leave Cassie. But as they always did, SG1 swooped in where he had failed and filled in the gaps, managing the situation as parts of a whole. So instead Janet was with Jack, who Daniel knew would never allow any harm to come to her, and would call him the instant anything happened. And Cassie was with Sam, surrounded by love as she ever was even with Daniel and Janet absent. And Daniel got to be with his baby in a dark, warm pocket of the hospital where he could almost pretend nothing was wrong.

He got no more sleep than Jack or Teal’c- the nurse was in every two hours at minimum to check the baby’s diaper, and she rarely went longer than that without needing a bottle. Daniel insisted on doing the diaper changes and bottles himself, despite the nurse’s reassurance that this was her job and he needed his sleep. Only after Daniel stood and started to fold up his cot to stand beside the bassinet all night did the nurse show him how to change his daughter’s diaper. It should not have been as much of a logistical nightmare as it was, but somehow the baby managed to kick her little legs hard enough to free herself from Daniel’s hands and her diaper all at once, and he was certain the nurse was holding back laughter as she patiently demonstrated the correct technique. By the third diaper change Daniel could do it without her help, and by the fifth he got out the supplies as soon as the baby started to squirm in discomfort.

Somewhere between the sixth diaper change and the fourth bottle, the sun started to peek through the curtains. Daniel scrubbed his face and tried to remember if he had slept at all. The spaces between closing his eyes after getting the baby settled and opening them to her cries felt like minutes, but in the complete darkness, he couldn’t be sure. Meghan squeezed his shoulder when she came in for shift report, and as Daniel made his exit he heard her tell the night shift nurse, with great fondness, that he looked rough. 

Daniel winced when he found she was right, and he washed his face in the hospital bathroom and did his best to tame his hair. His two-day-old stubble wasn’t going anywhere. Jack and Teal’c didn’t look much better when he found them in the ICU waiting room with matching haggard expressions.

“Well don’t you look the first-time dad,” Jack said, grunting as he sat forward. “Kid keep you up all night?”

“More or less,” Daniel admitted. “How’s Janet?”

“DoctorFraiser requires more medication to remain stable,” Teal’c said bluntly, and Jack gave him a dirty look.

“We don’t know that, it could have been some antiviral thing they were trying out,” he said in a sullen tone that indicated he didn’t believe what he was saying. Teal’c cocked an eyebrow.

“It is epinephrine,” he said, and Jack waved him off.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“It’s purpose is to force stronger contraction of the heart-”

“Yes, I know, okay?” Jack ground out, and gave Daniel a sidelong look. Daniel took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“So you’re telling me she’s worse?” he asked, and Jack sighed.

“I don’t know, Daniel,” he said, and shrugged helplessly. “You’d have to ask back there.”

The nurse- it was Lori this morning, though she told him Amanda would be back the next day- didn’t explicitly say that Janet was worse, but she didn’t seem terribly optimistic, either.

“They did have to add a third pressor overnight,” she said with a grimace. “So we are supporting her blood pressure quite a bit. But,” she hurried to add, “that’s a common side effect with CRRT.” Daniel blinked at her, and she gestured at the dialysis machine. “Just because of how it works, it takes blood out of her body. And your blood pressure doesn’t like losing blood.” As she spoke, Daniel tracked the huge, dark red tubes cycling Janet’s blood to the machine and back again.

“So it’s- you’re saying it’s making her worse?” he asked, but she shook her head.

“No, we expect that, and we added medication to correct it. The CRRT is doing its job exactly as it should. Her labs were- well, they were on a steep downward spiral before, and now at least they’ve plateaued,” Lori said. “So we’re at least keeping up with the disease, even if we haven’t beaten it just yet.”

Despite Janet’s appearance- the extra IV pumps, her puffy hands, feet, and eyes, her pallor- Daniel chose to take Lori at her word. He pulled his chair up to Janet’s side and wound through her lines and monitors to take her hand. Someone had braided her hair and it draped over her shoulder, opposite the two huge tubes snaking out of her neck. Lori floundered for a moment, stepping towards the door before turning back to face him.

“Amanda told me you have a baby daughter downstairs?” she asked tentatively, and smiled when Daniel nodded. “How’s she doing?”

“She’s good.” Daniel gave her a tired smile. “We just need Janet.” Lori’s face softened, and she nodded.

“We’re fighting for her,” she promised, and slipped out of the room. Daniel lifted Janet’s hand to his lips and held it there, praying that it would be enough.

When Daniel made his way down to the NICU after ICU rounds- it was a new doctor, but the same information- Daniel found the baby wasn’t just good, she was perfect.

“Ready for discharge,” the NICU doctor told him with a bright smile, and whisked away before he could respond. He caught the edge of Meghan rolling her eyes before she bumped a chair behind his knees.

“Go ahead and sit,” she said, physically shoving him down until his locked knees bent. She scooped the baby from the bassinet and placed her in his arms, and he tightened his grip instinctively. Meghan raised her eyebrows and waited until he blinked and focused on her.

“No one is kicking her out,” she started firmly, and Daniel let out a slow breath. “We want to make sure everyone is ready before sending baby anywhere.”

“I’m not,” Daniel said immediately. “We’re not- my wife-”

“We know,” Meghan interrupted, not unkindly. “And there’s a bed for her in the regular nursery.” Daniel’s frozen heart gave a feeble squeeze of something between relief and terror. Meghan shifted. “That being said, there are four laboring mothers on the floor right now, and two scheduled c-sections.”

Daniel stared up at her. His baby yawned, fingers stretching and curling. “So…?”

“So, the nursery is going to be pretty crowded by the end of the day.” She gave him an apologetic smile. “Pretty noisy.” Daniel swallowed.

“You think I should take her home.”

“I think you should do what you think is best for your family,” Meghan said smoothly. “If you’re not ready to take her home because of everything else going on, we will make room and keep her safe and healthy until you’re ready.” That sounded too good to be true and incredibly tempting, but also ignited a flicker of guilt. It didn’t settle right to shove his baby at the nurses and bolt, only taking responsibility when he felt up for it.

The baby yawned again, and opened her eyes. She peered up at him as if she understood his dilemma, and was only waiting for his decision. Daniel gulped.

“Is it okay if I- if I consult my-?” Friends? Family? Team seemed to sum it up better than anything.

Meghan didn’t need to hear the rest; she just nodded. “Of course. Let me know.”

“Thank you.”

Daniel didn’t leave right away, though it was late enough that Sam and Cassie had probably found Jack and Teal’c and were waiting outside. He gazed down at his daughter, rocking her lightly as she stretched and squirmed until she was comfortable. “What do you think?” he asked, and ran a finger over her downy head. “Think we’re ready?” He imagined the look she gave him was incredulous, and he chuckled. “That’s what I thought you’d say. Okay.” He pressed his lips to her cheek and inhaled the sweet smell of her skin. “Okay.”

True to his expectations, Cassie and the rest of SG1 were loitering in the NICU waiting room. Teal’c was perfectly still in his chair, unblinking, and Daniel suspected he had fallen asleep with his eyes open, a sight which had given him nightmares more than once. Jack was dozing off next to him while Cassie and Sam paced. Cassie lit up at the sight of him, but Sam stopped in her tracks.

“Daniel?” Jack snapped awake at the concern in her tone, and rubbed his eyes before heaving to his feet. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Daniel said, and pulled Cassie to his side when her face fell. “Nothing’s wrong, it’s just-” He took a deep breath. “The baby is getting discharged today.”

For a second, none of them did more than blink. Then a wide, relieved grin spread across Sam’s face. “Good!” She tilted her head. “That’s great, isn’t it?”

“You ready for that?” Jack asked, and Daniel shrugged.

“As ready as I can be, I guess,” he said. “Though it would probably be best if I had a car seat in my car. And food for her. And diapers small enough…”

“Whoa whoa who, slow down.” Jack raised his hands, and the tiredness fell away from his shoulders as he was presented with an achievable goal. “All right, Carter, you and Cassie stay here. Teal’c-” Teal’c took a sharp breath and blinked. “Head upstairs, call us if anything changes.” Teal’c nodded, rose from his seat with an almost insulting amount of grace, and strode away. Jack grabbed Daniel’s shoulder. “You and I will go get everything ready.”

“You should swing by the mountain while you’re at it, sir,” Sam called, already deep into the handwashing process. Jack nodded, but Daniel frowned.

“The mountain? What for?” Jack tilted his head, affronted.

“To give Warner some blood.” Jack ducked closer, though the waiting room was otherwise empty. “He’s been working on a cure this whole time. You didn’t think the rest of the SGC gave up on her while you’ve been holed up in here, did you?” Daniel tried to answer, but he couldn’t make a noise past the lump in his throat.

Once Sam was scrubbed and dried, Cassie stepped up to the sink to join her, but Daniel slipped back inside the NICU before they were ready and flagged Meghan down. She swayed over to him, someone else’s baby in the crook of her arm.

“We’re taking her home,” Daniel said, and she smiled. “Can we have a few hours, though? There are just a few things-” Meghan waved him off.

“You’re fine. We’ll have everything ready for you,” she said, and Daniel nodded his thanks and turned to go. But he stopped in his tracks, warring with himself for a long moment before he turned back around.

“Meghan?” She patted the baby’s bottom as he started to fuss, and gave Daniel an expectant look. He wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. “I’ll, uh- I’ll have her name, then, too.” Meghan’s smile widened.

“I’ll have the paperwork ready when you get back.”

Though his behavior was generally on par with a grumpy thirteen year old, Jack could be extremely efficient when he wanted to. He shuttled Daniel to the mountain, the store, and then home without a single wasted second. 

“All right,” he barked, surveying Daniel and Janet’s room. “Bassinet. Here?” He dragged it out of the corner where it had been stuffed for ease of passage and situated it next to the bed. Daniel nodded numbly and didn’t say a word as Jack swiped all the detritus off the top of the dresser, dug the extra changing pad out of the closet, and organized a makeshift changing station. “Diapers.” Jack smacked the items as he spoke. “Wipes.” He opened a drawer. “Onesies. Good?” Daniel nodded again and Jack rubbed his hands together. “All right. Car seat.”

It took all their combined intellect, but together they managed to install the seat in Daniel’s car. Jack jerked violently on it and nodded, satisfied, when it didn’t budge. “All right, looking good. Anything else?”

Daniel stared at the seat, imagined strapping his baby in it, taking her away from the hospital and expert nurses and Janet. Jack slapped him on the back so hard it jostled his glasses. “Let’s go get your girl.”

“I can’t do this, Jack.” Jack stopped in his tracks and sighed, obviously hoping to avoid an emotional conversation. “Not without Janet.”

“Listen. This is fatherhood, okay? You step up when they need you to.” He laid a steadying hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “We’ll be here, all right? You know we’ll help you out.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jack smacked his back again and walked away, all set to drive Daniel back to the hospital. “Hey, Jack?”

With a great sigh, Jack turned around again. “What, Daniel?” Daniel pressed his lips together over a smile. 

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

“Finally.”

The baby disappeared in the carrier, curled up in her little pink onesie and generally miffed at the world. She squirmed and stretched as Daniel attempted to strap her in, and he was ready to give up and just carry her out when Cassie stepped in. She tucked the baby’s tiny arms through the straps and buckled them shut, smirking when the baby gave her a stink eye. 

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Daniel asked, and Sam ruffled Cassie’s hair. She shrugged, bashful. 

“I’ve been watching videos,” she mumbled, and scurried away to Jack before Daniel could question her further. 

When Daniel carried his baby into the sun, she blinked at the first breeze on her skin. Sam darted ahead to open the door while Jack threw all the supplies Meghan had pressed into their hands into the trunk. It took everything in Daniel not to look back, just for a second. 

Daniel and Cassie had gone up to see Janet, to kiss her head, tell her they loved her, and promise to be back soon. It tore Daniel in half to leave her there, but he knew what she’d tell him to do if she were awake. So with a heavy heart, Daniel loaded his girls into the car and drove away, hospital shrinking in the rear view mirror. 

As soon as they got home the baby needed a diaper and a bottle, and Cassie shyly asked Daniel to help her do it. “I want to help,” she said when Daniel asked if she was sure. “Please?”

Once the baby was fresh and fed, Cassie cradled her against her chest with the lighthandedness of a bomb technician and carried her up the stairs. Daniel left Sam organizing bottles in the kitchen to follow. 

He found them, not in the nursery as he’d expected, but in his and Janet’s bedroom. Cassie had laid the baby on Janet’s pillow and arranged herself in a protective cocoon around her, one hand on her belly as she watched her little chest rise and fall. Daniel briefly wished for a camera, then knocked on the door. 

“Hey.” He moseyed in, hands in his pockets. “You okay?” Cassie’s eyes flicked to him, then back to the baby. She nodded. 

“Mm-hm.” Daniel tilted his head and sat at the foot of the bed, within lunging distance if necessary. 

“What are you doing?”

“Did you know babies know their moms by smell?” Cassie rubbed the baby’s tummy. “It was in a book Sam got for me.”

“No, I didn’t know that.” Daniel watched Cassie watch the baby and a fierce, crushing, unfamiliar feeling rose in his chest. He knew in a second that nothing could ever be allowed to touch either of them as long as he was alive and for a moment he felt impossibly inadequate. These two lives were his to protect, and though he had already known he loved Cassie with his whole heart, the mix of fear and love he could only classify as paternal took his breath away. 

Such a vast amount of love came with that much more to lose, but as he watched them together, Daniel knew he wouldn’t give them up for anything. 

“It’s kind of- I don’t know, maybe it’s stupid.” Cassie curled into a tighter ball, face pressed to Janet’s pillow. “But it’s kind of like Mom’s holding her.” She sighed. “Not really, though.”

Daniel laid his hand on her ankle- the only part of her he could reach. “She’d be really proud of you.” Cassie burrowed further into Janet’s pillow, refusing to meet his eyes. Daniel squeezed her ankle and let go. “I am, too.”

Daniel locked his eyes on the baby, willing to let the subject rest. They were all tired and raw, and if Cassie needed to curl up on her mother’s side of the bed, he wasn’t going to move her. He had given up on her responding when he heard a quiet, “Thanks, Daniel.”

The third night came with as much sleep for Daniel as the second, which was to say, very little, if any. 

Daniel had shared enough tents with Sam to be used to her snoring, but there was something incongruous about hearing it while he was lying in his own bed that made it impossible to ignore. And Cassie, like her mother, was a little human space heater, but Daniel could hardly strip down to nothing the way he could when it was Janet in the bed. But even with Cassie in Janet’s spot and Sam on the floor while Jack and Teal’c puttered around downstairs, Daniel couldn’t manage to feel stifled. It should have been him and Janet waking to the baby’s snuffles and cries, taking turns with diapers and feeds. Instead, he got Sam’s muffled cursing when she whacked her knee for the umpteenth time finding her way to the bassinet in the dark, and Cassie’s grumbling that her sister was cute but they were going to have to have a conversation about the smells. And of course, Jack and Teal’c clomping up and down the stairs delivering warm bottles whenever they called down for one. 

It was around two a.m., when Daniel was trying to tempt the baby to latch onto the bottle she’d been crying for, that hot tears burned behind his eyes out of nowhere. More than anything he wanted to hear Janet’s voice, to feel her hands on his face and know that everything would be okay. Despite Jack’s warnings and Daniel’s general knowledge of babies, he had been looking forward to this part. This was supposed to be when they went from “expectant” to “parents,” from wondering what their child would be like to getting to know her in person. It was fundamentally wrong that he was doing this without her.

He almost picked up the phone and called the hospital right then, just to hear a nurse tell him his wife was still alive and there was still hope. But the baby finally latched on and started to feed, and Daniel let out a slow breath. Whatever was happening at the hospital, Janet was under the care and supervision of nurses with combined decades of experience. Here, in his home, his baby had him to rely on. He closed his eyes and pictured Janet’s sleepy smile, how she would watch him feed their baby with contentment and wonder.

“It won’t always be like this,” he whispered in the dark, stroking his baby’s soft head. She frowned up at him, sucking noisily on her bottle. “When your mom comes home, everything will be better.” The baby gave him a side-eye, as if to remind him the hands that had held her tonight were the only hands she had ever known. Daniel lifted her- she fit so easily, an entire life in his two hands- and kissed her head. She squirmed, protesting the interruption to her dinner. Daniel readjusted the bottle and she settled, perfectly content and completely unaware of what she was missing.

Daniel was almost jealous.

No matter how much Cassie begged to go with him, Daniel stood firm. At least for the first visit of the day, he would go alone, and there was no negotiating the subject.

“She’s been my mom longer than she’s been your wife,” Cassie bit out, red-faced and seething. “You’ve been together for, like, two minutes.” Daniel clenched his jaw and didn’t rise to the bait, reminding himself firmly that they were all running on fumes. The baby slept in Teal’c’s arms, oblivious to the turmoil around her.

What he really wanted was time by himself to digest whatever bad news they had for him this morning. He and Cassie had broken down together before, but now more than ever it was his job to be strong for her. A few minutes at Janet’s bedside, with no other witnesses, would have to be enough to get him through the day.

Sam and Jack gave each other a look and moved as one, as they always did. “Hey,” Sam interjected, drying her hands from washing the last of the dishes. “Why don’t we take Junior on a walk? He looks like he could use some fresh air.”

The dog’s ears flicked at the sound of his name, but otherwise he stayed right where he was- firmly settled in his dog bed, watching the baby warily and startling whenever she twitched. Cassie huffed, clearly deciding between giving in and continuing to argue just for the heck of it. After a moment she stomped over to the door, where Jack was waiting with the leash. Sam squeezed Daniel’s arm and strode after her, pausing only to let Jack help her into her jacket.

“Are you two sure you’re okay?” Daniel asked, and gave the baby a fretful look. Jack waved him off and plopped down next to Teal’c, reaching for the remote.

“We are equal to this task, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said smoothly. The baby drowned in his arms, half the size of his bulging biceps.

“Yeah, clean ‘em, feed ‘em, rock ‘em- what else is there to it?” Jack kicked back on the couch as Daniel pulled on his jacket, still frowning worriedly at his baby.

“She’ll probably want another bottle soon, there are clean ones drying on the rack. And-”

“Daniel.” The casual tone was gone, and the look Jack fixed him with was oddly serious. “We got this. Go.” Daniel blinked, startled by the certainty in Jack’s voice. Belatedly, he remembered he was leaving his baby with the only members of his team who had actually raised babies before.

Jack settled back against the couch, scrolling through channels and absentmindedly grabbing the baby’s tiny foot with his other hand. Teal’c bounced her softly, and Daniel left feeling lighter than he had a few minutes ago.

The drive to the hospital seemed impossibly short, and as he trudged up to the ICU his heart dropped further into his feet with every step. People bustled around him, doctors and nurses and dietary staff and other visitors, some carrying balloons and flowers. One woman had a drawn look on her face Daniel imagined matched his own, and a young man sat in the hotel lobby with a bouquet of flowers, leg bouncing. A high-pitched whine rang in Daniel’s ears, expanding until it nearly drowned out every other noise.

Terry opened the door for him without a word, but she did give him a small smile he didn’t think to interpret. The ICU hummed along with its usual controlled chaos, staff nodding and smiling briefly as he walked by. Amanda was nowhere to be seen, and Daniel hoped that meant she was in the room and could give him an update without him having to drag her away from whatever other tasks she needed to do.

The ringing swelled in his ears and his breath caught in his throat, stomach turning in knots. He could see her before he walked through the door, pale and clammy, swollen, mouth gaping around the life-sustaining, awful tube he’d come to hate-

He halted in the doorway.

“Janet.” She startled at his voice, a gigantic cup of water in her hands. Daniel stood frozen, half-convinced he’d hit his head on the way in or was hallucinating from a lack of sleep. There was no tube, no lines, no giant dialysis machine looming in the corner. The pumps stood empty and inactive beside the bed. Amanda whirled to face him, a faintly flabbergasted look on her face.

Janet smiled at him, radiant with her frizzy braid and hospital gown, and darkness gathered around the edges of Daniel’s vision. “I was wondering when you’d get here. Amanda said it was usually around now.”

“Yeah, well-” Daniel’s heart strained painfully in his chest, but his voice came out easily, if a little too fast. “I know not to interrupt shift change, and the doctor usually rounds at about ten-” Janet laid her cup on her bedside table, and Daniel’s feet unstuck from the floor. He crossed the room in two long strides and hauled Janet into his arms, perched awkwardly on the bed.

“Ribs- her ribs-” Amanda squawked, but Janet wrapped her arms around him when he tried to pull away, overflowing with apologies.

“It’s okay,” she said, winding her arms around his shoulders. “I’m fine.”

“But you-” Daniel took her face in his hands, eyes darting over her. There were dark circles under her eyes but they were no longer puffy, her skin was still pale but not the flushed red or deathly gray she had been ranging between. She laid her hands on his arms and they were still a little swollen, but not nearly to the extent they had been less than twenty-four hours ago. “How?”

“We have no idea,” Amanda said, as if she needed to get it off her chest. “There is no explanation, but in the middle of the night last night, the virus just sort of-” She struggled for a moment, searching for the appropriate medical term “-stopped. Her fever broke, her blood pressure came up- Matt was able to turn off all her vasopressors in less than two hours.” The awe in her voice told Daniel that was not something anyone should have expected in a million years. “The CRRT went down anyway- it got clogged- but her labs have continued to improve, and this morning they were perfect.”

“What about the tube?” Daniel asked, and ran his thumb over the corner of Janet’s mouth. She smiled at him, content in his hands. Amanda threw up her hands.

“We paused sedation, just for daily wake up, and she did fantastic. The doctor came to see her first thing, and after a few hours weaning, we were able to extubate with no issues.” Her voice bordered on ecstatic, and Janet’s lips pressed together in thinly veiled amusement. Daniel forgot, sometimes, that the medical miracles Janet pulled off weekly were not commonplace. He wondered how many patients Amanda had had as sick as Janet that had gotten better at all.

“I do try to be a good patient,” Janet said lightly, and her voice was hoarse.

“You’re a terrible patient,” Daniel said, and Janet grinned. Some of Amanda’s excitement faded and she pursed her lips.

“I’m discovering that,” she said. “Maybe you can talk her into not trying to get discharged today.” Daniel gave Janet an incredulous look, and she shrugged.

“The virus is gone,” she said, almost flippantly. Daniel stroked his thumbs over her cheeks and she softened under his hands.

“We can’t be sure of that,” Amanda protested immediately, as if they’d already had this conversation. “We can’t be sure of anything with this, it’s completely unprecedented.” Janet’s lips thinned as she bit her tongue.

Of course it wasn’t unprecedented, Daniel himself was living proof. But Amanda wasn’t to know that, and he doubted greatly that anyone in the hospital had been given clearance to the whole story. Janet’s shoulders straightened into the CMO of the SGC, a woman who gave orders and expected them followed to the letter. But showing uncharacteristic restraint, she stayed silent.

“Right now, though, it looks like our biggest problem is pain.” Daniel’s eyes flew to Amanda, alarmed, and she raised her hands to placate him. “I’ve got enough painkillers on standby to tranquilize a horse. I would love it if you could get her to take some.”

“The lidocaine patches are fine,” Janet said severely, and Amanda huffed, looking more like Cassie than an adult professional. “I don’t want narcotics, I want to go home.”

“And that’s very noble, but how much will your family appreciate it if you’re writhing around after your recent c-section and broken ribs?” Janet just tutted and Amanda rolled her eyes, but there was a hint of a fond smile on her face. 

Daniel ran a finger over her eyebrow and swept her hair over her ear. “Can you breathe?” he asked, and she grimaced at her own frequent question thrown back at her. If the pain was under control enough that they could take deep breaths, she would let them refuse medication. 

“Yes,” she promised, and Daniel raised his eyebrows. 

“Do you promise to take something if you can’t? Or do I have to repeat your whole spiel about pneumonia?”

“I promise,” she said, and turned to Amanda and repeated louder, “I promise.” Amanda snorted. 

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” She looked up the monitor and shook her head, begrudgingly impressed. “Can I do anything for you right now?”

Janet held up her full water cup. “I’m good right now, thank you.” Amanda nodded and stepped toward the door. 

“Amanda!” Daniel said, jumping to his feet. “What’s the policy on kids visiting?” Cassie, of course, had already been in several times, but Amanda seemed to know what he meant. She gave him a huge grin. 

“I think we can work something out.”

“Thank you.” She left the room, pulling the curtain as she went, and Daniel yanked his phone out of his pocket. 

“Daniel?” Janet reached for him and he instantly returned to her side, tangling his hand with hers. 

“Hey, Sam? Can you bring the girls to the hospital?” In the brief pause that followed, Janet’s smile went from wide to blinding. 

“What happened?” Never had he heard Sam’s voice so full of dread, and Daniel rushed to correct himself. 

“Nothing bad! It’s good, everything’s good- can you just bring them?” She still sounded wary but she agreed, and Daniel thanked her profusely before hanging up. 

“I missed you,” Janet said quietly, running her fingers up and down his arm. Daniel’s heart leapt to his throat, and he cupped her cheek again. She leaned into his touch. 

Daniel could barely force the words out, but he managed to say, “I missed you, too.” Janet’s eyes shone with tears, but she blinked them away. 

“How is Cassie?” she asked, and if it weren’t for her scratchy voice she could have been calling home from a long day under the mountain. 

“Pretty upset,” Daniel admitted, and her face fell. “But she’s been great, you’d be so proud of her.”

“And-” Janet swallowed. “The baby? The last I remember she was going to the NICU.” Longing and fear wrapped up in her face and in her hands clenched around his. Daniel kissed her knuckles. 

“She’s perfect. She looks just like you.” Janet gave him a watery smile. 

“She’s healthy?”

“Ten fingers, ten toes, and very healthy lungs,” he reported, and smiled. “We confirmed that for ourselves last night.”

“And she’s home?” Daniel nodded and squeezed her hands. 

“She’s home, with half the population of Colorado.” Janet tilted her head and the sun caught in her hair, and for a second Daniel was mesmerized. Until he was looking into them, Daniel hadn’t realized how terrified he’d been of never seeing her brown eyes again. Janet raised her eyebrows and he cleared his throat. “The team stayed over to help.”

“That sounds like an adventure.” Daniel shrugged. 

“They were actually pretty fantastic. I don’t know how we would have gotten through without them.” Janet laid her hand on his face, running her fingers over his pronounced stubble. Daniel took her hand and kissed her palm. 

“That tickles.” Janet scrunched her nose, and Daniel grinned and kissed her hand again. She laughed, low and hoarse, and it caught in Daniel’s chest. 

“Janet.” He pressed her hand to his chest. “I’m so sorry.” She grimaced. 

“Daniel-”

“No, I- I never should have forced you into- this is all my fault.” He gestured around the hospital room, the empty pumps and nonfunctioning ventilator. 

“You did no such thing.” Janet grabbed his face and forced him to look into her eyes. “You didn’t force anything, I promise.”

“But-”

“I promise.” She raised her eyebrows, watching to see if he believed her. “I’m your wife, and occasionally your doctor.” She cracked a grin. “Far be it from me to fail to see to my patient’s needs.” Her eyes took on an impish gleam as she pressed back a smile. Daniel shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling. 

“You’re in a good mood for a woman who died two days ago.” Her face shuttered slightly, and she brushed her fingers through his hair with a contemplative look. 

“Being alive will do that to a person.” She frowned at a spot somewhere past his left ear, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Daniel shifted closer and cautiously drew her into his arms, mindful of every movement. She took a sharp breath and he froze, but she gingerly adjusted herself and buried her face in his shoulder. Her fingers dug into his back and Daniel engulfed her, tucking her away from the hospital and the world.

“I’m sorry we didn’t listen to you about the armbands,” Daniel said quietly, and Janet heaved a dramatic sigh.

“Trust me, that will be addressed very soon.” She nuzzled into his neck. Daniel migrated one hand to the back of her head. Her hospital gown wasn’t tied below her neck, revealing her bare back, and Daniel trailed his other hand up and down her spine. “Just not right this second.”

It wasn’t like her to run out of questions so quickly, and it took a monumental effort for Daniel not to fill the silence. She sagged against him in what he hoped was a comfortable position, arms wrapping more tightly around his middle. Her hands were their regular cool now, not the icy cold they had been, even with her raging fever. She felt like Janet, looked like Janet, sounded like Janet. Even though she had been here for the last three days, she had been completely absent to the point she could have been on the other side of the planet. But she was here now, here and real and improving, and Daniel buried his nose in her hair. It smelled like the hospital soap, but Daniel had never been graced by a sweeter scent.

By the time Sam called to tell him they were in the waiting room, Daniel was half-convinced Janet had fallen asleep on his shoulder. But she jerked at his ringtone and flinched at the sudden movement, taking a few quick, shallow breaths until the pain receded. Daniel thanked Sam, hung up, and gave Janet a shrewd look. “Can you breathe?” Janet rolled her eyes and took a pointed, deep breath.

“I’m fine.” Daniel narrowed his eyes at her. She gave him a stubborn glare, and more incapable than usual of denying her anything, Daniel conceded. 

“Okay.” He pushed off the bed, careful not to jostle her. “I’ll go get them.” Her frown melted into a dazzling smile, and Daniel blinked down at her, momentarily stunned. Of course he knew, but sometimes it knocked the breath from his lungs all over again just how radiant she was.

He cradled her face and leaned down for a swift kiss, swallowing the surprised noise she made. “Don’t go anywhere,” he said, aiming for severe and ending on nervous. Janet nodded, gave him a sweet peck, and shoved him towards the door.

Sam stood in the waiting room with a baby carrier and a vibrating Cassie. They both pounced as soon as the doors swung open.

“What happened?” Cassie demanded. “What’s wrong?” Sam’s wide blue eyes burned with aching hope, and Daniel smiled.

“Nothing’s wrong. She’s better.” Cassie blinked, slack-jawed.

“The virus resolved?” Sam glanced at Terry and leaned closer. “Like with us?” Daniel nodded, bouncing on his heels and reaching for the baby carrier.

“Like it never happened.” Sam’s grin could have rivaled the sun in its brilliance, and Daniel almost laughed out loud out of sheer joy. He nestled the handle of the baby carrier in the crook of his elbow and turned to Cassie. “Ready?” Still wide-eyed and silent, Cassie nodded. As soon as Terry deigned to let them through, Cassie was off like a shot. “Watch her ribs!” Daniel called, and doubted she was paying him any mind. The baby frowned up at him from her nest, swallowed up in the thin blanket draped over her.

The best he could manage with the carrier was a brisk walk, so by the time he made it back to Janet’s room, Cassie was wrapped so tightly in Janet’s arms she looked like she’d need to be surgically removed. Janet stroked her hair and murmured in her ear, making apologies and promises that ran together until Daniel couldn’t decipher them. He hovered in the doorway, enjoying the sight and letting one more thick chain burst off his heart. Cassie would not lose another mother.

Daniel shifted the baby carrier in his elbow, perfectly content just to watch, but Janet’s eyes flicked his direction at the movement. Her fingers clenched on Cassie’s shoulders before she slowly broke away, kissing Cassie’s forehead as she went. Temporarily, Daniel bypassed the bed and instead crossed the room to the visitor chair, the only clean surface available to him. He unbuckled the baby’s straps and lifted her out of her seat, supporting her head when she tried to loll back. 

“Here, Mom.” Cassie snagged a pillow from behind Janet’s back and arranged it on her lap. She fluffed it several times, until Janet could rest her elbows on it. “You’re not supposed to lift her.”

Janet’s eyebrows shot up, but she just pressed back a smile and allowed Cassie to situate the pillow to her specifications. Once she was in no danger of twitching a single muscle, Daniel held out the baby and, holding his breath, transferred her into Janet’s eager arms. 

For the first few seconds, none of them breathed. Janet looked down at the baby with detached surprise, as if she expected to wake up any moment. Cassie hovered, molded to Janet’s side, and sat poised as if to catch both of them if Janet fell over. 

With delicate movements, Daniel perched on Janet’s other side, waiting for his heart to burst. This was how it was supposed to be, all his girls together and safe where he could wrap his arms around them and never let go. 

The baby sighed, and Janet’s stunned face cracked into a small smile that widened until it was nearly blinding. Love soared in Daniel’s heart and he took a measured breath to keep from keeling over with the force of it. Janet holding a baby- his baby- with Cassie cuddled up beside her was something out of his wildest dreams, especially now after her harrowing hospital course. Without so many factors falling perfectly into place- Warner recognizing the risk, the swift, decisive c-section, the skill and care of all the nurses and doctors- this moment would have been impossible. Daniel would have been holed up at home, caring for a newborn and a desolate Cassie and his own shattered heart. He would take this- capped IVs poking out of Janet’s arms, the shapeless blue gown, and creaking hospital bed- over the alternative any day. 

Daniel kissed Janet’s temple and laid his hand on the baby’s head, stroking her impossibly soft forehead. She had a fuzzy smattering of light brown hair, which Cassie had informed him would probably fade before it started growing in for real. She blinked her dark blue eyes, studying Janet’s unfamiliar face. 

“Hello,” Janet whispered, and swallowed the hitch in her voice. “What, um-” She cleared her throat. “What did you name her?”

Daniel hesitated, even though he had picked the name they had agreed on weeks ago. He had hated filling out the birth certificate without Janet, had agonized over every letter as though it were a national spelling bee. Meghan had patiently walked him through it, and when it was finally done, had smiled and told him it was beautiful. 

“Andromeda Claire Jackson.” The name swelled into the space, and Daniel’s heart rate kicked up as he waited for her reaction. It had been his idea and it had taken Janet some time to decide she loved it, though the kiss she had given him for thinking of it had gone a long way towards affirming their choice. “We can change it to Fraiser, though,” Daniel stuttered. “Or Fraiser-Jackson, I know we talked about-” About what it would mean for them as a family, for Janet as her mother and Cassie as her sister. Both were still Fraisers, mostly because the paperwork involved in changing the assumed name of an adopted alien child would have been horrendous, and Janet hadn’t wanted to leave her the only Fraiser. Daniel didn’t care what they were called, as long as they were his. 

Though hearing Cassie’s friends mistakenly call Janet “Mrs. Jackson” had proven to be ego-boosting, at the least. 

“Daniel.” Janet cut off his spiral and traced her finger over the baby’s brow. “It’s perfect.” Tension drained from Daniel’s chest at her warm voice. He had agonized over it probably more than it deserved, Jack’s raised eyebrows sticking in his mind. He hadn’t sat through the whole explanation- its connection to Cassie, despite Andromeda and Cassandra having nothing to do with each other in myth, and the stars that had brought Daniel and Janet together. It had made Sam go misty-eyed, and Cassie had flushed and buried her face in her hands. 

Teal’c persisted in calling her “the child,” or, when she was being particularly shrill, “your offspring.” Sam just called her “babe.” Jack, of course, had to make his own way. 

“Jack’s already calling her Andy.” Janet rolled her eyes, though there was laughter in her face. 

“Of course he is.” She stroked the baby’s hand and blinked when she flexed her little fingers. Andy latched onto Janet’s finger and gave her an almost cross look when she tried to move her hand. “You don’t look like an Andy,” Janet said, tilting her head and scrutinizing her. “But I guess Andromeda is a mouthful, especially for someone so tiny.”

Andy stretched her whole body, still latched onto Janet’s finger. Cassie scooted closer and grabbed her foot, a move she had already learned from Jack, and Daniel kissed Janet’s head. She leaned into his touch, eyes still locked on their baby. 

“She’ll grow into it.”