ANOTHER QUESTION

Catching a flicker of light from the corner of his eye as he adjusted the strap on the mobile remote, Col. Jack O'Neill looked up at the gate in time to see the 'active' surface of it come into being without its normal whirlpool burst. Quickly he glanced up at the control room, seeing and hearing nothing unusual there.

"Whoa!" he breathed, standing and walking toward the ramp. As he did a familiar translucent blue infiltrated the quicksilver of the portal, coagulated, and separated much more quickly than he remembered Daniel reporting it doing the first time. Singer's soft tinkling started immediately, saying very clearly that she was happy to see him.

"Heads up, people," he shouted, barely turning his head to see the staff on the other side of the glass jump. That was all the attention he would spare, because Singer began moving.

Like a slow motion movie of an explosion being run backwards, Singer gathered together the wide-flung garments of herself and compressed into human shape. When she had the general form, there was a ripple of movement just under her 'skin', and colors other than blue blossomed from within her. Within moments a human girl nearly Jack's height, dressed in the style of turn of the century England, was standing in front of him. From the highly polished MaryJanes on her feet, to the snowy white pinafore covering a gray frock, to the ribbon holding back her hip-long hair, the only other-worldly part of Singer left was the cobalt blue of her loose curls and eyes, and the blankness of her lightly freckled face.

Lips parting, she lilted, "O'Neilllllll - can D'nellllll come out 'n pllllay?

"Your English has improved," Jack praised without thinking. He winced dramatically; of all the stupid things to say....

"Thank you," she answered solemnly. "Llllalt shared. I like this language. It twists and twirlllls."

From over the intercom Sam said, "And I like the way you speak it, Singer. You make it sound so pretty." For O'Neill she added, "Hammond and rest of the team are on the way. It's the same as before; she's not showing on any of our instrumentation."

"Gotcha," Jack called back. Suddenly suspicious, he tilted his head a little and asked, "Singer, did Lalt give you permission to visit?"

"Yes." Singer held up her hands, apparently catching sight of them for the first time since her transformation. Her trills of harp and chimes laughed out as she wiggled her fingers, then she tucked them in the pockets on her pinafore. "I asked to learn if D'nlll was welllll."

With heavy mechanical groans the blast door opened, and the linguist came in, closely followed by Teal'c.

"D'nelll!" she laughed, and bounced a few feet in their direction. "T'll'c! Hellllo!"

Even Teal'c almost smiled at her enthusiasm, but Jack held up a warning hand to her. "Watch it!"

She froze in place, then hunkered down so that her skirt covered her feet, pulling herself into as small a lump as possible. "Won't hurt," she said calmly, all traces of music gone from her voice.

Keeping a cautious distance, Daniel stepped past Jack to squat in front of her. "We know you wouldn't hurt us on purpose, Singer," he assured her, smiling. "But accidents happen. Okay?"

She lifted her empty face up and told him, copying his tone almost exactly. "No, no accidents. I willl stay *alllll* here," she touched her face with both hands. "None of me willlll leave to disturb balance. Lllalt shared that with me, and I can do it by myself now. See?"

Moving with exaggerated slowness, as if to communicate that way she was sure of her promise, Singer stretch out and patted the MALF. Half expecting an explosion, Jack didn't hide his flinch, noting that Teal'c barely reined his in. "A machine's one thing..." he started.

"Harder. People don't reach back the way things do," she insisted. On hands and knees, moving awkwardly because of her skirt and the apparent unfamiliarity of the action, she crept over to Daniel and offered her hand. "*Never* hurt you again, D'lllll."

Ignoring Jack's fractional shake of 'no,' and Tealc's hand descending on his shoulder, Daniel reached out to her. "Daniel," Sam's voice echoed through the gateroom from the speakers, "I don't think..."

"Lalt wouldn't have let her come back, I think, if having her would put us in any danger. And he did say he would look for a safe way for us to communicate." Daniel told his team mates absently. There was no opportunity for any other protest; he enclosed Singer's slender fingers in his. His best, sweetest smile danced onto his lips. "It *tickles,* like when she healed me, Jack. But not as strong."

Despite himself, Jack drifted closer, studying where they touched. "Oooookay. Tickles." He settled beside her on the other side, holding out his hand, palm up. "Let's see if that trick works for everybody."

More Singer merriment tumbled through the room, and she sat crossed legged, then lightly rested her free hand on his. "Wow!" Jack fell on his backside at the same time Daniel laughed out loud.

"Singer, did you do that on purpose; make it tingle more?" he asked as soon as he stopped.

"No," she answered, "O'Neilll and D'nlll balance. Good! Does Teallll'c?"

At the mention of his name the big Jaffa joined the three of them on the floor, finishing a loose circle. It looked to Jack as if he were raising his arms automatically to take him and Daniel by the hand. Jack caught Teal'c's eye, shook his head once and let go himself. "What say we leave that for another time, people. I think we've established that she isn't a danger."

"Good!" Singer put her hands back in her pockets, and asked Jack very seriously, "Can D'nlll play now?"

"I don't see why not," Jack agreed grudgingly, "That is, if Daniel has no objections."

"None what so ever." Daniel made a show of making himself comfortable on the floor. "Do you have a particular game in mind, Singer?" he smiled.

She knelt up, so that the pair of them were practically nose-to-nose and asked, "Why does your face move?" With delicate taps she touched his lips and cheeks. "When you're not talking?"

"Smile. It's called a smile, Singer and it's another way for humans to talk to each other."

"Smile," she repeated thoughtfully, the musical notes creeping back into her language. "That's what a smile is. It means nice?"

"Or happy. Or I like you."

Jack tuned out the language lesson and stood, motioning to Teal'c to follow him. "Carter," he called up to the control room, "Do we have any teams scheduled incoming or outgoing besides our mission at 0900?"

"None, sir."

General Hammond added, taking his turn at the comm, "There's no reason not to let Dr. Jackson continue his lesson there in the embarkation room, Col. O'Neill, and I believe we should scrub the trip to PPX271 for the time being. In the meantime, I'd like the rest of SG1 to join me in Briefing One."

"On our way," Jack said, loudly enough for the room mike's to pick up. On the way out he added for Teal'c's ears only, "Trust Daniel to find an alien whose idea of having fun is learning a new language!"

Once in the briefing room he lounged back in his chair, describing to the others what he had seen in the gate room.

Standing at its head, pacing a few steps back and forth, Hammond summed up, "So like before, the gate activates without drawing power from us or alerting our instruments, the silver 'opened' face appears, and Singer floats *off* of it? Captain Carter, are your people already running tests comparing this visit to the last?"

"Yes, sir." The scientist looked at the papers in front of her, "Preliminary results are the same. We've come up with a few more variables to run through, but to be truthful, sir, I'm not expecting any significant data from them."

"Speculation then?" Hammond stopped in front of his chair and drummed his fingers on the back of it.

"After speaking with Dr. Fraser, we believe that Singer and her people are visible and audible to us by using some method of directly stimulating our nerves. Or perhaps even the brain cells for sound and sight themselves." Sam rested her head on her palm for a second. "We don't know *how* that's accomplished. Very likely it's done with the same energy they're composed of, since her people seem to have an absolutely uncanny control of it. Remember she said that Daniel's burn was from part of her being in him and she had to call it back. If they can control their personal energy so precisely, it's not such a great leap to guess that they could control *other* forms of it as well, such as the power created by the formation of a worm hole."

"My God, no wonder Lalt thought that we were too primitive to have diplomatic relations with." Hammond finally sat down, leaning back in his own seat. "Talking to us must be like trying to communicate with a dog."

"More like a lizard," Carter corrected softly, then dropped her eyes at her commanding officer's annoyed glare.

"What better envoy, then, than a child?" Teal'c put in quietly. "They are far more adaptable than most adults, and their simpler understanding of their own language and culture could make establishing common grounds far easier to accomplish."

"Why let her come by herself?" Jack asked. "You're telling me that a parent is just going to let his kid go running off to play with the nice lizards without keeping an eye on her?"

"Perhaps he is, " Hammond put in. "We have no way of knowing what they are or are not capable of. For all we know, Lalt is hovering on the other side of the gate, waiting for us to make a mistake."

"More likely it's a cultural thing," Sam argued, sitting up straighter to face Hammond better. "He may not believe that'd we'd harm a child. After all, from his point of view we had ample opportunity the first time. Or he could assume that we'd take responsibility for her without his asking, simply *because* she is a child, and we did before."

In a completely different tone of voice she said, "I can't believe this; I'm sounding like Daniel!"

"Scary, Carter, scary," O'Neill grinned.

Sensing that that the meeting had accomplished all that it could, Hammond ordered, "I do *not* want to be left with nothing but a multitude of un-answered questions when Singer leaves this time, people."

"4317 at last count," Jack put in, not quite talking to his commander.

Flashing him a mildly reprimanding look, Hammond continued as if uninterrupted. "Captain Carter, I want you to speak with Dr. Fraiser to determine tests that could be performed on our guest directly." At Sam's half formed protest, he held up a hand. "Non-invasive tests, Carter, and non-invasive *only.*"

Catching Jack's eye, the General went on. "Make sure that she and Dr. Jackson are under observation at all times, and please request that he ask her how long she'll be with us, if her father will be coming after her - you know the kind of information I'm looking for here, Colonel."

"Any thing else?" Hammond paused, then nodded. "Dismissed." As SG-1 stood to leave, he stepped into place next to O'Neill and added privately, "As a parent, Jack, there's one thing that occurred to me that I didn't want to bring up officially, because I don't want the brass looking over our shoulders here bending it out of shape when they read the report."

"The same idea I had, sir? That the one time I'd let my child go somewhere by herself is because I was sending her to safety." The other members of Jack's team exchanged quick glances with each other.

"Exactly. I shudder to think what kind of enemy would be powerful enough to frighten Lalt into hiding his daughter. There's only one thing that bothers me more; what if it's powerful enough to find her?"

Leaving them with that very unpleasant thought, Hammond left for his office.

****

It wasn't until later than evening that the four members of the team met again, this time in Daniel's workshop. At the far end of it Singer sat floating in the middle of a space hastily cleared for her, still in her human shape. She hovered as if in an invisible bubble, several feet above the floor, in the midst of a cloud of marbles, 'crystal balls' and various glass objects, all of which somehow managed not to collide as they floated with her. Talking softly to herself in her own language, it sounded as if she were singing while she examined each item closely in turn.

"We talked for nearly seven hours," Daniel told the others quietly, not wanting to disturb her, "mostly me giving her explanations for words she doesn't understand. I know that Lalt said she was about five, human equivalent, but that's a *long* time for any child to focus. It could be a marker of intelligence, I guess, since she also never needed to be told anything twice. And by the time she started to get distracted, she was using passable human facial expressions."

Jack watched the linguist roam around his office as he spoke, picking things up and putting them down again, occasionally taking a second to make a notation in the notebook he was carrying. Not sure what to make of Daniel's behavior, he told Sam, "Think you and Fraiser could add some child development type stuff to what you're planning?"

"I don't know what that would prove," Carter answered doubtfully, worried eyes on Daniel as well.

"Neither do I, but at the very least the results would be interesting." O'Neill shot back.

As if he didn't hear the by-play, patently ignoring the stares of his friends, he meandered over to Singer saying, "I remembered how fascinated she was by glass, so when it was plain we both needed a break, I brought these out. Wait'll you see this, guys." He reached into the invisible sphere and plucked out a fragile wine goblet. "By the way, Sam, you might want to see if you can get her to do her floaty thing while you've got her hooked up. It feels to me like there's no gravity around her, starting about three feet away."

With no warning he smashed the glass onto one of the heavy crystal balls, causing Singer to look up and giggle in guitar arpeggios. Her hands lo5e shape and glowed, and she cupped the drifting fragments, tittering all the while. The shards melted, flowed, joined with each other like mercury, and became a whole, undamaged wine glass again.

She took her hands away, and said, "Silly! Do again, Daniel?"

"In a minute, sweetheart," he told her, sharing her grin for a second.

"Now that's a trick restaurant owners *everywhere* would love," Jack said dryly. "Did you learn anything useful, Dr. Jackson?" The last words came out sharper than he intended, and he mentally bit his tongue. Giving a tiny shrug to the hard look Teal'c slanted him, Jack let the question stand.

Daniel either didn't notice or didn't care; he restlessly took out a marble from Singer's field, held it up to the light, then tossed it back toward her. It slowed as it approached, came to a stop, then went back to the place it'd been originally. Already moving around the room restlessly, he said, "Because we concentrated on English, what I've learned about her is only inferred, open to interpretation. For instance, I asked her when her father was coming for her. After explaining the differences between mother, father, girl, boy, etc, she told me I should call Lalt her parent.

"The distinction in her mind between parent and father was lost when I discovered she has an extremely vague concept of time." Coming to a complete stop of front of Teal'c, he asked, sounding confused, "Teal'c you're a parent - when does 'later' start to *mean* something to a child?" He twisted his head to look at his commanding officer. "Jack, you know?"

Before either of them could answer, he threw himself into his chair, stretched back, and told the ceiling. "Comparing her to a human child may not prove anything, but it would at least give us a baseline. If I can get even the vaguest idea of what she should be able to do, then maybe I can extrapolate. If she's old enough to understand time, but *doesn't*, it could mean that her people have a very South Seas, laid-back, unhurried life style."

Sitting up, he asked the room at large, "Are you planning on staying here a while? Good, I'll go talk to Fraiser right now." With no more than that Daniel was gone, leaving his three team mates staring at each other in concern.

"You know," Jack started, consideringly, "Daniel's always been a *tad* on the hyper side, but *that* was ridiculous."

"It was also distressingly familiar, O'Neill," Teal'c told him. "His behavior is not unlike yours during Singer's last sojourn with us."

"I did *not* babble!"

"No, sir," Sam agreed. "You fidgeted. Constantly."

"And I don't fidget, either." Despite his protest, Jack remembered clearly the ants that had seemed to have invaded his nervous system. Without meaning to, he glanced at his lover, recalling as well the solution they had discovered for it. "That was attributed to me getting a lighter dose of Singer's burn, but today she touched *both* of us, and I'm fine." A split second later he added, "Aren't I?"

Hiding a smirk, Sam lowered her head, but agreed, "Yes of course." Teal'c merely raised both eyebrows, making Jack roll his eyes.

A burst of laughter from Singer caught the attention of the adults in the room. She and all her glass toys sank to the ground, and she semi-glided, semi-walked over to Teal'c, raising her hand toward his face.

"Eyebrows smile?" she asked, without a trace of the slight accent she'd had earlier in the day.

Wearing the softest expression he'd seen on the huge man, Jack watched Teal'c lower his head so that the child could trace his eyebrows. Stifling a protest - she'd been around all day without a single boom or flash - he waited for her verdict.

"Not a smile, Singer," Teal'c told her. "A question, sometimes. Or a negation of another's statement. Now I believe you should retrieve your playthings and place them where they belong."

Still petting over the lines and wrinkles of his forehead, "Will you move them for me again? Then I'll put my toys up."

Obligingly, Teal'c did as he was asked, not losing a whit of dignity, nor his serene smile when she tried to imitate him - with very little success. Still trying, she went back to her things as promised and began to gather them together, using her apron as a container.

"I feel like telling her to be careful," Sam muttered, "but even if she broke something, she wouldn't get cut and could put it back together again as good as new."

"I'm with you," Jack told her, but reached out to tap Teal'c lightly. "No reaction?"

"The sensation was most peculiar - 'tickle' is not very precise. And the larva within me found it most pleasing."

"Well, Daniel's had more exposure to her than any of us," Sam volunteered. "Could it be accumulative?"

Wearily Jack motioned to her to stay behind, summoned Teal'c with a nod, and headed for the door and Fraser's office. "Question #4318," he called over his shoulder.

***

On one level of his mind, Daniel knew that something was wrong with him. His entire life he had *always* been able to work, no matter what other stresses he was dealing with. But he stared at the page of the reference book Fraiser had recommended, unable to string the words together in any sensible fashion. Doggedly he'd been trying for hours - long after Teal'c and Jack had headed off for bed - needing desperately to immerse himself in the comfortable world of research.

Tonight the gate to that refuge was stubbornly locked, and he finally gave up, letting his restless body have its way. After a quick check on Singer, who was floating again under Sam's watchful eye, he simply wandered the many corridors of the base, not paying the slightest attention to any one or anything in them. Thoughts in many different languages knocked around randomly in his head, and he didn't really look closely at them, either. Sometimes they were memories; sometimes trivial bits of information; sometimes really useless questions, like *why* did a military base have to have gray walls?

Eventually he wound up at the door to Teal'c's room, and stood there for long minutes staring at it stupidly. He had no particular reason for being here, or for wanting to go in, other than a vague, unformed desire for company. Admitting to himself that it might help, and that he always found the Jaffa's solid presence relaxing, Daniel impulsively opened the door.

And just as quickly shut it.

Listening through the sound of his suddenly pounding heart, he waited to make sure the occupants hadn't noticed the momentary intrusion, resting his forehead on the door and trying to regulate his breathing. When it was obvious they hadn't - the noises from inside made it plain - he staggered away to find a corner to hide in.

It didn't take long, and he shrank into the shadows, releasing his control and beginning to pant. In the darkness he saw again what his glimpse had etched on his brain: Jack and Teal'c making love.

The massive Jaffa had been kneeling behind O'Neill, his dark skin highlighted by the play of candle light and the tanned contours of the man half-kneeling, half-sitting on his lap, thighs splayed wide. Jack had had his head back, resting on Teal'c's shoulder, kissing him hungrily, trusting the strong arm thrown across his chest to hold him up. One hand had loosely cupped Teal'c's neck, the other he had hooked onto the muscled forearm crossing his chest. The two of them had been slowly moving in the most basic of all human rhythms, a large hand on Jack's erection pumping in counterpoint.

It had been the most beautiful thing he'd seen, and his entire body *vibrated* with the need to go back and peek again. Automatically he adjusted the begging hard-on crowding his pants, thinking that it wanted much more than a peek. What, exactly, he didn't know. His notion of what men did to each other was strictly theoretical and until a few minutes ago, he had never considered that he might desire any of it.

Unbidden his body surged; one thing it knew quite well was what it felt like to be held between those two solid men. He'd had the pleasure of sleeping nestled between them for nearly three days. It had seemed every time he'd awakened while he'd finished healing from Singer's touch, they were there beside him, sleeping themselves or talking quietly. Barely able to stay awake long enough to see to personal needs and eat, he'd willingly depended on them to take care of him.

Looking back, even knowing they were lovers, he couldn't see anything in that time that spoke of sex or hidden love. Maybe they were just friends that shared an occasional physical relationship - "fuck buddies," he'd heard it called. For Teal'c, he could see that. His culture was very casual about sex between same sex partners. But Jack? If nothing else, even discounting his military back ground, the older man had always struck him as being very private and reserved. Not the type for casual sex.

Wearily Daniel leaned on a wall, wanting to dismiss the complications of knowing about his friends and longing for the simplicity of his marriage, his life with Sha'uri. They had been innocents together, and she had been content with the warm affection and pleasant love life they'd had. She would have been as bewildered by this screeching lust as he was.

Unconsciously he pressed harder into the cold metal, almost punishing his body for its demands. If he didn't get this under control now, there was no way he would be able to face the pair of them. His team mates were too much a part of him, too much the family he'd always needed to let himself become estranged from them because he couldn't see Jack or Teal'c without remembering how beautiful they'd been in their loving.

When the shudders in his disobedient body were from cold instead of want, he levered himself back, and mechanically began putting one foot in front of the other. By now Sam would be wanting to go to bed, he decided abstractly. Time for more 'play' with Singer.

He found them in the corridor outside of his shop where Carter was trying to teach the child how to use her legs properly for walking. Both of them were giggling, and he couldn't help but smile and the mixture of music and laughter. Joining the impromptu lesson, he spent the rest of the night, long after Sam had to call it quits, helping Singer learn to command her new shape, grateful for the distraction.

By the time the others had gotten up for the day and rejoined them, Singer was running up and down the hallways of the base like any other excitable child.

"I don't know, maybe we should get her to calm down a little," Jack said, a hint of worry in his voice.

Studiously avoiding looked at his C.O., Daniel asked, "Why? If I'm understanding her correctly, learning to use another shape without having a parent 'share' it with you is like one of our children learning to jump rope or ride a bike. Cause for celebration."

"I don't know..." Sam added her concerns. "An over-stimulated human gets cranky; we don't have any idea what will happen with Singer, but I'm worried it might mean her control could slip."

"Good point," Daniel said grudgingly. He whistled a fragment of melody that he had picked up from Singer as meaning, "Hey!" and opened his arms for her to run into. She did so, hugged him once, then took his hand to walk beside them as he started for the doctor's office.

"Besides, Fraiser should be waiting for us. Are you guys going to hang around for the testing, or do you have other plans?" He tried to keep the naked curiosity from his voice, but the odd look Teal'c slanted at him told him he hadn't quite succeeded.

"Got paper work," Jack told him flatly, letting Daniel know that he had picked up on it, too.

"And I will be instructing self-defense classes until mid-day," Teal'c intoned.

By this time Sam was catching onto the weird vibes in her friends, and was studying each of them in turn. "I'll be helping Janet, of course," she put in, using a pinch of sarcasm.

To avoid any further conversation with his team mates, Daniel spoke to Singer. "Would you like to try a new game?"

Absorbed in the way their linked hands swung as they walked, Singer voiced a simple line of melody, lovely enough to let Daniel feel like smiling again. "English, Singer," he corrected gently.

"If you want to, Daniel," she repeated. She looked up, her own smile widening at his. "But I think you should take Teal'c and Jack and go become balanced again."

Jaw dropping, he blinked at her owlishly, aware that the rest of SG-1 was showing similar expression. "B..b... b. balanced?" he forced out. "What do..."

Beside him he heard Jack mutter, "From the mouths of babes," at the same time Carter said, "Guess she knows who's cranky and needs a nap."

Before Daniel could correct Carter on her misconception of what 'balanced' meant to Singer, they arrived outside Dr. Fraser's office. As they approached the door, two men stumbled out, grappling with each other and shouting furiously. Behind them two MP's and the good doctor herself spilled through, all of them trying to break up the fight.

The MP's grabbed the one on the top, pulled him away, and before any of SG-1 could react to help, the bottom man drove his fist into his opponent's nose. It broke with a loud crunch, and droplets of blood were scattered as its owner shook his head wildly, howling in pain.

At the first sight of the altercation Singer had shrunk close to Daniel's side, almost behind him. But when a drop of blood landed on her face, she voiced a cacophony of crashing metal and glass, turned, and ran.

Without thinking Daniel took off after her, trying to call out reassurances, but she abandoned the slowness of feet for her floating glide, and soon out-distanced him. Breath huffing in and out, he had to stop, hands braced on knees, muttering, "I'm too tired for this."

As soon as he felt able, he took up the chase again, distantly wondering where the others were. Fairly sure she'd head for home instinctively, he aimed himself at the embarkation room, arriving just as Hammond stepped through its door wearing a startled look. "Dr. Jackson, do you know anything about..."

"Singer?" he gasped, making it a question on her whereabouts.

"Cowering under the ramp to the gate." Hammond answered.

"Damn... she got...got a scare.... saw a fight .... some airmen. I ... I...don't think ... seen violence before." Too worried to make a better explanation, he made his way to her hiding spot, still trying to catch his breath.

He found her tucked into the corner where the ramp, the floor, and the supports for the gate met. All color except her natural calico of shifting dark blues gone, she knelt motionlessly, hands in her lap, head down, face hidden by her cloud of hair. Her stillness frightened him for some obscure reason, and he cautiously stroked her locks back. "Singer?" He whistled 'hey', then added, "I know you're scared, sweetheart, but it's okay. Honest, nothing is going to happen to you. Me and Jack and Sam and Teal'c, even Hammond, we'll *all* take care of you."

Keeping up the crooning promises, he got as close to her as he could, still lightly smoothing her hair. It clung and lifted around them, but she didn't move or acknowledge him in any way. Not sure what else he could do, he acted on human impulse and kept touching her, but began to sing to her quietly as well, hoping his feeble music would help.

Sam crawled in beside them, looking as worried as Daniel felt. "The Colonel and Teal'c stayed behind to help with those idiots," she told him. "You two were out of sight so fast, I lost you, but decided she'd head back here. Did you stop her from going through the gate?"

"Hammond says she ducked under here right away," he said absently. "I don't understand why she didn't leave, especially if she's this upset."

Looking the almost statue-like figure over thoughtfully, Sam agreed, "That's right; she compresses when she's scared or worried or whatever." Tentatively she covered Singer's hand with her own. "Hey, no tickle!"

Snatching his hand back, Daniel studied it for a second, then went back to trying to soothe her. "I hadn't even noticed! She must have withdrawn into herself completely."

"Maybe it's like when a human freezes up when they're terrified." Sam guessed. 'She didn't go through the gate because she couldn't expand to her normal state."

"Too scared to run," Daniel murmured. Shaking his head, he added louder, "Then we try to calm her as best we can, like we would any other child. I think she trusts us; we just need to give her time."

"I'll tell Hammond and the others, then come back and help," Sam told him, already retreating.

"Thanks, Sam." He went back to singing, mentally reviewing the few phrases of her words he'd learned to recognize and wondering if he could coax them out of a keyboard.

****

Her condition remained unchanged all day, and SG-1 took turns sitting with her, talking or singing until their voices gave out and they had to take a break. Between shifts, Daniel went to his lab and transcribed the conversations he'd had with her, depending on his nearly eidetic memory to recall them correctly. After asking Sam to do the same, he compared the transcripts, not even knowing what he hoped to find in Singer's language lessons.

The deep need to complete his task and the mild physical activity that came from writing combined to keep him at his desk, though every inch of his skin was practically crawling with the need to be up and moving about. It wasn't until the faint tremors in his hands began to interfere with his typing that he had to give up. First he tried a long, hot shower, hoping it would drain away his odd tension, but all it did was make him feel like a prune. Resigned, he took his tape recorder with him to dictate more notes and walked. Before long, even that bit of concentration was beyond him, and he rambled the corridors endlessly, mind racing more and more.

Once again he found himself in front of Teal'c's door, but this time he knew what he wanted from the Jaffa. Wanted, but didn't know if he could or should. He hesitated a long time, arguing with his upbringing that declared he was heterosexual, with his body that didn't care about anything but finding some relief for the craving that made him ache.

In the end, hormones won, barely, and he knocked once, half hoping Jack was already in there so that Teal'c would have to turn him away. Then the door opened wide, and the massive, beautiful man filled the doorway, looking as surprised as the Jaffa ever did. "DanielJackson - it is late. Is there a problem?"

"No, no, " Daniel stuttered. "Ahh... Could.. could I come in please?"

"Of course." Teal'c stepped aside, and Daniel crossed the threshold, feeling as if he were jumping off a cliff.

Once in, he reached back to lock the door, mumbling, "I know it's not your custom, but you should make a habit of this, Teal'c."

"It would be disrespectful to the other warriors with whom I share this complex," Teal'c answered, eyebrow up.

"Does Jack know that?" Daniel asked. At the Jaffa's slight shake of no, he added, "I think you should tell him. Trust me."

Dismissing his friend's mildly bewildered air, Daniel stood there, staring at him and trying to decide what to do next. Typically, Teal'c waited patiently to be told why his rest had been interrupted, but for the life of him, Daniel could not find the words. In the end, he abandoned the attempt, took off his glasses, and simply stretched up on tiptoe and kissed the Jaffa.

The lush fullness of Teal'c lips was incendiary, and Daniel wrapped his arms around the column of the other man's neck, pressing closer. In the back of his mind, he decided leaning on the vast wall the Jaffa called a chest felt pretty good, too, but the strong arms encircling him were even better. Then thinking departed in favor of feeling, and there was *so* much to feel. Hot body, hotter mouth, velvet/satin under his hands as he absently kneaded the muscles of Teal'c's neck - none of it strange when all of it should have been.

To his dismay, he actually whimpered when Teal'c lifted his head, ending their kiss. "No....."

"Wait, Daniel, wait." Teal'c lightly traced a line on the smaller man from the back of one ear, down the throat to play with the top button on Daniel's fatigue shirt.

Unwillingly Daniel backed off a few inches and tried to focus on the big man's face. "You don't.."

"I do. Very much so," the rich, dark voice all but purred, "but I do not have permission to do so."

"Oh!" Daniel jerked farther away, his hands leaving hastily to tug at his clothes as if that would allow him to pull some composure together. Trying to dismiss the needy shivering in his bones, he added, "Dray'ac. I'm sorry."

"You misunderstand me. My wife will not feel threatened by my choosing an companion-in-arms, as you well know. She knows her place in my life is secure. But I am uncertain enough of Tahree custom to know if O'Neill will object." Gently but irresistibly Teal'c steered Daniel toward the door, opened it, then pushed him through. "You must ask for his permission if you wish to continue."

The door was shut firmly in Daniel's face, leaving him wondering a split second later if he had hallucinated going through it in the first place. Only the soft throb of his swollen lips and the absolutely indestructible hard-on complaining at him confirmed that he had, indeed, just been kissed senseless.

Slowly, very slowly he turned to leave for his office, but wasn't all surprised when his feet stopped in front of Jack's on-base quarters a few hundred feet from Teal'c's room, instead. Even more hesitantly he raised his fist to knock, not at all sure if he was going to be able to look his friend in the face without turning purple with embarrassment. Hanging his head so he wouldn't have to deal with it, he waited restlessly for Jack to appear, which he did, sounding more than a little aggravated by being disturbed. He'd obviously been getting ready for bed; he was bare from the waist up and shoeless.

"Ah... sorry.." He turned to leave, but a strong hand closed over his biceps and dragged him inside.

"Are you all right?" Jack asked shortly. "You look like you just opened a bottle and a shady-looking genie came out to grant you three wishes."

"After some of the places we've been," Daniel said automatically, "and people we've met, that would be almost ordinary, Jack."

He laughed, but agreed, "You're right, I can't imagine what it would take now to put that shocked and bewildered expression on your face. Wanna tell me?"

Still not able to look up, Daniel found he could answer that as long as he didn't *think* about the words. "Teal'c did it."

"Teal'c?"

"Yeah, Teal'c."

"What'd he do, Daniel, try to put Junior in your bed?" Jack asked, annoyance beginning to show in his words.

"No, himself." Gulping a room full of air, Daniel made himself say in the dead silence that followed that announcement, "And I want him to be there. But he... but he... he, well, he says you have to okay it 'cause..." He stopped. Teal'c hadn't *said* why Jack had to say it was okay, though until that second he had thought it was because he didn't want Jack to be jealous that Teal'c had taken another man.

"I see." Jack's voice became guarded, and Daniel knew that if he found the courage to look up, he'd see that neutral, don't-know-a-thing face the soldier used when hiding his thoughts. "He's the reason behind this?"

A single finger traced his lips, making them throb, then hooked into the open collar of his shirt. Involuntarily he licked where that touch had begun, and Jack took a hand full of his hair and pulled his head back. "Is he, Daniel?"

"Yes," Daniel whispered, feeling his eyes widen as he met Jack's Though he'd been right about how bland his friend's expression was, there was a nearly feral gleam in the hazel gaze that burned him as much as Teal'c's kiss had moments ago.

"Looks like he did a good job of kissing you, then. Can you still taste him?"

"Yes," he whispered much softer.

"I think I'll check that for myself," Jack growled, and covered Daniel's mouth with his own. Without hesitation he plunged past the barrier of lips, ferociously driving his tongue deep. Matching need raced through Daniel, overwhelming his surprise, and he met each oral thrust with winding caresses of his own tongue, trying to anchor that small probe inside himself.

Jack's free hand wandered over his face, throat, and under his shirt, inflaming every bit of flesh it touched. Wanting to return some of that fire, Daniel slipped his own fingers over the bare chest, finding the light dusting of hair on it almost unbearably erotic. By accident he found a small, flat nipple, and almost came in his pants when that furtive contact made Jack arch and moan hoarsely.

This time when he was released, he didn't whimper: there was no breath for it. He staggered on legs that refused to re-solidify, lurching backwards, reaching for Jack. Before Daniel could gather his wits, his shirt was closed over his nakedness, and he was shoved out of the room and told, with a swat, to get back to Teal'c.

The momentum from the swat was all that he had to use to keep moving despite his jittering nerves, but somehow he got back to the Jaffa's quarters. Almost before his fist hit the door, it was opened and he was guided firmly through. "Good," Teal'c did purr. "O'Neill gave his permission." With no other warning than that, he took Daniel's lips as if he'd never left in the first place.

Instinctively Daniel went with the encompassing embrace, letting Teal'c hold him up because he had no mind left to do for it himself. A hard ridge of flesh burned into his abdomen, and he couldn't help but rub on it, wanting to hear Teal'c moan like Jack had.

The sound the Jaffa made was more of a swallowed sigh, but he tore his mouth away to nibble his way back to an earlobe. "What is your pleasure, Daniel?"

The wash of humid breath into his ear and down his neck made him shiver uncontrollably, making him excruciatingly aware of just how far gone he was. Without thinking about it, he had started humping a wide thigh, hardly able to straddle it. "Oh, oh, oh... Can I.. ah... I want..." Not knowing how to ask, he gave an extra hard thrust hoping that would do it for him.

"You wish to take me?" At Daniel's dazed nod, Teal'c peeled him off, setting him on his feet at arm's length, to his complete and utter amazement. "I am very willing, DanielJackson, but I do not have the necessary supplies. I believe O'Neill can provide them for us; will you ask?"

Before Daniel could recover from the shock of that, he was on the other side of the door and moving back down the hallway, leaning heavily on the wall to stay upright. This time he didn't knock; he just fell through the door, landing in Jack's arms. "What're you doing back here?" the soldier growled, hanging onto him anyway.

"Teal'c..." Daniel blurted, "We need something?"

"Ah." Instead of letting him go, like he expected, Jack lazily delved into the gaping shirt and teased the sweaty skin there. "Aren't you moving kinda fast, Danny boy, letting him top you already?"

"T..top?" Blinking as understanding came, Daniel tried to clarify, finding words hard to organize when jolts of feeling kept scattering them. "Um, I think ... oh! Think I'm, I'm topping."

Plainly surprised, Jack stopped his caresses and gave him a hard look. "You're taking him? Have you *ever* done that at all, Daniel? Even with a woman?"

Finding that he could feel *more* humiliated that he already had so far was an unpleasant sting to Daniel's mind, but his need over rode it enough for him to admit. "No. I, ah, I mean, Sha'uri and I, that is..."

Releasing him completely, Jack went to his foot locker and pulled out a bottle of massage oil, but didn't offer it to the other man. Instead he hesitated, fiddling the cap on and off, looking at Daniel uncertainly. "Danny, if you don't know what you're doing, you can really hurt your partner during anal intercourse. I know Teal'c will guide you through it, but, damn it, I can see the wet spot on your pants where you're leaking, you need it so bad. How're you going to stay in control well enough to be careful?"

"Damn." Daniel closed his eyes, trying to marshal his intellect and think, shutting off the clamor from his hard-on. "Damn." From somewhere he found strength enough to breathe in and out slowly, once, then twice. "You're right. It was stupid of me to think I could do this. I'll..."

Jumping in before he could finish the thought, Jack interrupted, "Whoa, whoa. You're not going to walk away and leave him hanging are you? I can't believe you'd do that to Teal'c." Jack eased closer, as if afraid he would bolt - and Daniel thought he very well might. When they were chest to chest, the older man backed him into the wall. "Are you sure *you* can't bottom for *him*?"

"I don't know," Daniel answered honestly, the words so husky he hardly understood them himself. "I didn't think to offer."

"It can be good, Danny." Jack bent his head so they were close enough that Daniel could feel the soft puffs of exhalation from him. They locked eyes, generating some emotion between them he didn't understand. "Soooo good," the taller man promised silkily.

A hand flipped open the top button of Daniel's pants, then snaked around his waist to dip into the back and into his cleft. The fingertips were slick with oil and slipped easily into his hidden recesses, making his gasp and stiffen. But held by the nameless look in Jack's gaze, Daniel stayed still for the invasion, spreading his legs reflexively to allow more access. A tentative stroke over his pucker sent a blaze of unbelievable sensation straight through his groin, tightening his balls with the need to come.

Throwing back his head, finally freeing himself from Jack's dark eyes, he scrabbled for a hold on the wall, half-afraid of falling, not able to find one. Then he was penetrated and all that mattered was keeping those clever fingers in him. Daniel clung to the broad shoulders, lifting one leg to curl around the trim hip, both to give his seducer better access and to grind their cocks together.

Maddeningly, less than a thrust away from his finish, Jack backed off, shoving the forgotten bottle of oil at him. "Open him like that," Jack told him, and Daniel was savagely pleased at the raw hunger in the soldier's voice. "When he's loose, oil yourself good, and then you take him, but do it slow enough to let Teal'c get use to you before you start pumping, okay?"

Mutely, thinking he might never be able to get another word past the hurt and confusion blocking his tongue, Daniel nodded and left of his own accord. Nearly running back to Teal'c, he tried to forget what Jack had just done to him, and succeeded when he tumbled into the Jaffa's quarters.

***

Teal'c had spent the time waiting for him by lighting his candles and putting blankets on his meditation mat. He had also stripped and was kneeling, eyes closed, only his impressive erection indicating what was on his mind.

It was so close to the same pose he'd been in when Daniel had seen him making love to Jack, all he could do was throw himself at the gleaming body. Finding a nipple to latch onto by pure luck, he huddled up against Teal'c's powerful form, rubbing himself erratically onto him. Somehow he fumbled open the bottle and spilled out the oil, actually getting a puddle of it in his palm.

A huge hand cradled the back of his head, holding Daniel to his suckling, and the chest under his face heaved as he cautiously coated the swollen male member nudging against him. "Daniel," Teal'c groaned, "I believe that...."

"Jack opened me for you," Daniel mumbled, reluctant to move from his tidbit. "And I want it," he admitted. "Please?"

The shaft in his hands hardened, throbbed, then Teal'c lunged up hard into his grip, crying out a negative in his own language. Semen spurted, hitting Daniel on the chest and face, then bubbled out over his fists, mixing with the oil, and the glide of the big man's cock through his fingers took on a sensual, unbearably erotic feel. Making approving noises for Teal'c, he answered an animal urge and reached down to jack himself off.

His wrist was caught, and he yanked at it uselessly in protest, but Teal'c only captured the other one, and used them to lift Daniel up until they were face to face. "Forgive me, Daniel. I had not expected such a honor and I found your willingness overwhelming."

"I'll forgive you if you'll let me finish," Daniel grumbled half-heartedly, straining at his living bonds. "Please, Teal'c! I'm so close!"

Standing, taking Daniel with him effortlessly, the Jaffa gave a single shake 'no' of his head. "I will not dishonor you by failing so completely that you must be satisfied with less than you wanted. O'Neill is our brother-in-arms; he will fulfill my obligation to you." Staring at him in outrage and denied hunger, Daniel wondered for a split second what was behind those enigmatic eyes, but lost his thought as his lover stood, taking him with him.

Before he could so much as sputter a protest, he was out in the hallway again. For a second he couldn't move; then he was pounding on the wall with both fists, silently screaming in frustration and pent up energy. Not caring if anybody came by or what they would think of a nearly undressed, semen spattered, and blatantly aroused man abusing the complex structure, he kept up his blows until his fists hurt. Only then did he try to decide what to do next.

Sucking at his bruised flesh, he looked first at Teal'c's door, down the corridor toward Jack's, then back toward his own room. Try to persuade the Jaffa to try again? Take a chance that O'Neill would *finish* what he started? Or just say 'screw 'em' and see what relief he could give himself? There was no question he *had* to take care of himself; every millimeter of him was screeching to do something, *anything.*

The distant sound of men's voice broke his indecision; without conscious thought he raced for Jack's quarters. Crashing through the door, he intended to simply throw himself onto the nearest bed and demand for relief. But he forgot to take into account the reflexes of the seasoned warrior on the other side, and found himself pinned to a wall instead.

They blinked at each other, the same emotional field building as before. But this time Jack destroyed it quickly, snapping, "What the *devil* are you doing back here? Teal'c bored with you so quickly? Or did you wear him out that fast?" Grappling for words, Daniel didn't have a chance to answer. The other man leaned in close, tone changing completely and murmured, "That it, Daniel? Is Teal'c's come oozing out of you? And it wasn't enough, you need more?"

Jack wedged a knee between the smaller man's thighs, forcing them to part. The lust that had hid behind his righteous anger surged forward, and Daniel helplessly tried to ride the long leg pressed so intimately onto him. "Now *that*," Jack whispered, "doesn't feel as if you're finished at all." For the first time he seemed to notice the liquid dotting Daniel. With a thumb he smoothed a blob of it into the nub closest to it, making the nipple tighten and ache. Delicately the older man lapped at another splash on a rough chin, chuckling deep inside himself as he did. "My mistake. Got carried away lubing him up, mmmmm?"

"Made me come back here," Daniel complained, tilting his head for Jack's convenience, anyway. "Told me you'd take care of me."

"Always, Danny," Jack breathed, then claimed his lips for a brief, blazing kiss.

Daniel gave himself up to it whole-heartedly, deliberately forgetting everything but the consuming heat on his mouth and in his cock. The heat moved, and he protested with a small sound he didn't recognize, but the fiery touch only drifted down his body, lapping and burning its way to his crotch. When it scorched him there, he pried up lids he didn't remember dropping to see Jack on his knees in front of him, peeking up at him through his lashes.

The inferno in those lust-hazed eyes matched the mouth on him, and he suddenly lost the ability to stand. He puddled so abruptly that he caught Jack off-guard and knocked him over, creating a tangle of limbs that resolved itself with Daniel's face buried in Jack's lap.

Of all the surprises he'd had during this bewildering night, discovering that he loved the smell, the bitter taste of the dampness soaked up from the rigid shaft, was the most startling. Pushing his reaction to the back of his mind to be dealt with later, much much later, he undid the zipper to free his lover's hard-on. From above him he heard a yelp, then felt a hand on his shoulder as Jack tried to push him away. Not willing to quit, at the end of his patience, Daniel didn't pay any attention to unspoken request to stop.

With a broad sweep he gathered up all the flavor from the ruddy cap, delighting in how much stronger it was direct from the source.

"Oh, God! Daniel!" Jack shouted, hips jerking up to bump against him in silent begging.

A tiny smile tugged him, but he suppressed it - and his smugness at getting the upper hand over the colonel at last - and gingerly tried to suck in as much of Jack's rod as possible. Having never been on either end of a blow job, all he could do was pay close attention to what his lover seemed to like.

Giving the task so much of his concentration let his own screeching arousal recede to the background, and he explored the spongy crown with his tongue, then traced the vein that began just under it. Under his hands he felt the Jack's corded thighs quiver, suppressing the urge to thrust, he realized gratefully, and began to mimic the motion for the groaning man.

Jack shouted again, a warning Daniel recognized a second too late. As best he could he swallowed, momentarily queasy at the texture but not finding any of the rest of it objectionable. When the last drop was gone, he let himself be urged away, giving the softening shaft a last lick as he did. Adjusting himself to lay beside the taller man, Daniel his face in the curve of Jack's shoulder and neck, resisting the need to remind him of his own lack of release.

They rested together for only as long as it took O'Neill to stop panting. "Daniel," he murmured. "Thank you."

The words were unexpectedly tender, loving, and much of the anger that had been mixed with Daniel's hunger evaporated. "I liked it," he admitted. "A lot, see?" Gently he bumped his erection into Jack, then couldn't quit rocking into him.

"Allow me, then," Jack answered, and scooted down until he could nuzzle at Daniel's need. Hastily his lover undid buttons and zippers, moving fabric down and out of the way to finally free Daniel's cock. That single act was almost too much for him, and he arched up, a groan working its way out.

It had hardly left his lips before Jack swallowed him to the root, forcing out another groan, then a scream as he spilled his seed into the eager throat. Erratically he pumped into the wet suction, scrabbling at Jack's shoulders for a grip, lost in the intensity of his climax. Taking forever, but never long enough he knew, Daniel used his lover's mouth ruthlessly, not losing his hard-on even when the last of his semen was gone. His mind cleared a little, but only enough for him to whimper, "Sorry, so sorry Jack... gotta keep going... oh, God..."

For an answer Jack tunneled a hand under Daniel's balls and probed at his opening. "YES!" He bore down on the finger entering him, taking it hungrily. "Oh, oh..." Instinct made him thrust up, then he shoved back down, getting another finger inside for his reward. The combination of sensations was better than anything he could have ever imagined, but it still wasn't all he needed. Recklessly spreading himself as wide as he could with his pants bunched at his shins, he begged, "More, Jack, please... please, oh God, Please!!!"

Feeling as much as hearing the raw growl from his lover, Daniel suffered the loss of all contact from Jack, and tried to turn over to present his ass to him.

"No. No, Daniel," Jack husked, dragging their clothes back into place. "I can't; you didn't come to me first. You don't owe this to me, you owe it to Teal'c."

Stubbornly hanging onto him, Daniel ordered angrily, "Don't do this to me again, Jack. Don't do this."

"I have to." Half wrestling, the solider stood, bringing his struggling lover with him.

"No you don't. And I'm not going to put up with it."

"Danny! Don't argue with me on this! I'm begging with you here!" Jack hustled him out into the corridor, then half-dragged, half-carried him to Teal'c's quarters.

Daniel kept up his protests, quietly because he didn't want to take the chance of being noticed, and dug in his heels just before the determined soldier could push him inside. Distracted by his efforts, he nearly missed the look Jack and Teal'c shared, catching only a glimpse of sorrowed understanding on the Jaffa's face. Before he could question what he saw, he was lifted effortlessly and taken to the make-shift bed on the mat.

"Teal'c, put me down! Damn it, I'm perfectly capable of making up my own mind what I want!" Daniel demanded.

Depositing him gently, Teal'c countered, "You have changed your mind then, DanielJackson? You no longer desire me?"

Caught off-guard by the solemn, almost sad question, Daniel sputtered. "Of course.. I mean, yes... you're very desirable Teal'c... but I want to..."

"Then I have offended you in some way?" Teal'c intoned, sounding even more grieved.

"No! No... Teal'c I just... Oh, hell!" With that Daniel gave up fighting both himself and his friends, and wound around the big man, drawing him down onto the mat with him. "Just don't stop, please? I can't take any more. Please?"

"I will not," Teal'c whispered against his lips, licking at them once tenderly. "I give you my word."

Kissing him with all he had, Daniel forced his way inside the welcoming mouth, groaning at the velvet caress and tart flavor. Distantly thinking that if Teal'c's taste was unique here, it would be equally wonderful elsewhere, he abandoned that simple task and worked his way down the long line of muscles to the tower jutting from the Jaffa's groin.

Without hesitation he gulped it down, taking as much of it into himself as he could. Using what he had picked up from Jack earlier, he traced just under the head, causing his lover to buck up, nearly making him choke. He pulled back, but Teal'c laid a broad, heavy hand on his head, almost in benediction. "Good, Daniel... so good."

That was all the encouragement Daniel needed. Absently noting the difference between Teal'c's cock and O'Neill's and attributing it to Jack's circumcision, he sucked eagerly, finding his lover's rhythm from the minute involuntary lifts of his hips. He was so taken with his love-making that he was unaware of the change in position until Teal'c's mouth engulfed him. With a garbled shout he began fucking frantically, his own demand for relief overriding everything else.

Maintaining their sixty-nine without conscious thought, he sought his own finish with the single-minded focus of a man who'd been denied too long. Teal'c dealt with his nearly violent thrusts easily, and, as if sensing that Daniel had been held at the same insane level of arousal for too long, he burrowed a hand into the crevasse between the younger man's cheeks and entered him with two fingers.

The longer, broader digits filled him, stretched him gloriously, and sank in deeper than Jack had been able to manage in their earlier haste. A finger tip brushed over a node buried the tight channel, and Daniel screamed around the cock he was working, unable to keep sucking.

Between the ecstatic reaction and the vibrations from it around his manhood, Teal'c tumbled over the edge his lover had been rushing them toward. With a muffled shout he spent himself into Daniel's throat, automatically continuing his careful loving of the shaft and opening of his lover.

Daniel drank him urgently, managing to hold off his own coming until Teal'c was done, then pulled away to bury his face in the crease between balls and thigh. "Harder!" he ordered impatiently. "God, Teal'c! Shove them in me, *hard*!"

He obliged, finding the hidden gland again. This time Daniel's scream was accompanied by his seed. Plunging in and out of the Jaffa's throat almost inhumanly fast, he came and came, shouting wordlessly with each spurt. Then the last shock of ecstasy was done, fading into unforgettable memory, and Daniel barely had time to mumble a soft 'Oh my God," before plummeting into sleep.

***

By the time Jack cautiously opened the door to Teal'c's room and stuck his head around it, his lover had cleaned up Daniel and wrapped him comfortably in both his blankets and arms.

"He okay?" Jack asked quietly.

"Merely sleeping, O'Neill. The same deep, profound slumber I recall from when we previously shared a bed," the Jaffa answered in the same low tones. "I do not think we can awaken him by speaking."

"Good, cause I want to know why you kept sending him to me!" The combination of frustration, anger and pain in his voice sent Teal'c's eyebrow up, but Jack didn't care.

"I know he holds your heart, O'Neill, even if he does not." Smoothing a stray lock of hair away from Daniel's forehead, eyes on the younger man, Teal'c went on. "I do not understand why you did not accept his wish to be with you."

"Well, yeah," Jack said uncertainly, and came into the room, closing and locking the door behind him. He set aside the clothing and boots he carried, looking down on them as he spoke. "I can't deny what I feel for him, not to you Teal'c, but, look, it's not as though Daniel had a lot of choice here, did he? Whatever this energy is that Singer gives off that hits human libido so hard, he had an extreme dose of it, and if it weren't for Sha’uri’s memory, he would have been hitting on a woman, right? But being with a man wasn't *exactly* being unfaithful, and he went to you because he knew you were safe, so to speak."

"Safe?" Teal'c questioned, making room for Jack on the other side of himself and lifting the blanket.

Hesitantly taking the unspoken invitation, Jack slid under the covers and curled up on the Jaffa's free side. "Yeah, safe. Your culture is okay with gay sex, and you're married. And you had offered once already.

"If you hadn't made him come to my room, he'd never think of me that way. And even then it was only because he looked so incredibly well-kissed and fuckable I couldn't resist at least tasting him." Hiding in the curve of his lover's neck, he mumbled, "I'm sorry, Teal'c. Shouldn't have done that."

"I do not regret that you did. Our Daniel is too much alone." Teal'c kissed the top of Jack's head and the colonel nuzzled at the broad chest in return. "I do not wish this to be the only time we share with him. Are you able to have only this much of his heart, Jack O'Neill?"

"I'll take what I can get." Jack sighed reluctantly. "Pretty pathetic, huh?"

"Merely human." Teal'c assured him.

That made Jack smile, almost against his wishes, and he finally let go of his grip of wakefulness. After a jaw-cracking yawn, he asked sleepily, "Think he'll be too freaked by finding me here in the morning?"

"I believe..."

Teal'c was interrupted by the blare of emergency claxons, and the complex-wide intercom whistling into static-filled life. "All personnel ... intruder in the Gate room. This is not a drill; take assigned stations. SG-1, please report."

"FUCK!" Jack exploded, swiftly untangling himself and lurching to his feet. Dressing hurriedly, he watched Teal'c gently set Daniel aside in order to stand and begin pulling his own clothes on. "Lalt must have finally come for Singer."

"Lalt?" Daniel mumbled, nearly indistinctly. "Is he making that god-awful noise?"

"Go back to sleep, Daniel," the colonel ordered. "You're nearly incoherent with exhaustion."

"Oh, shut up, Jack." the linguist said mildly, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Singer's condition is as much my responsibility as yours, and while I may not be much, I'm the closest thing we have to an expert on her culture. We both know that could make a crucial difference if Lalt gets mad."

Much as he wanted to, Jack couldn't argue with that and his lips thinned with the suppressed words he wanted to shout at his... lover? Instead he snapped, "Looking like that?" He waved in the general direction of Daniel's rumpled, sex-stained, exhausted appearance, then peeled off his own t-shirt. "Here, at least put this one. It'll be loose but not too noticeably so."

Looking down at himself in muddled confusion, Daniel blushed and stripped off his uniform shirt, taking Jack's without looking at him directly. "The pants will pass, I think," he mumbled.

An uncomfortable silence fell over them as they rapidly finished dressing and ran from the room. For the life of him Jack couldn't think of a thing to say to either of his team mates to ease it, and was grateful that their rush prevented any attempt to do so.

The three of them skidded into the hallway outside of the gateroom in time to hear Lalt's bass rumble, "... my errant child?"

Hammond answered him, "Errant? I was under the impression from Colonel O'Neill that Singer had your permission to visit us, Lalt."

Nodding both to his commander and to the alien as they ran in, they caught up to Sam as she fell into place near the General. "That's right, sir," Jack told Hammond. "I asked her if it was okay for her to be here and she told me that, uh..." He paused fractionally to recall her exact words as best as possible, "she had asked to see if Daniel was well."

Lalt, again wearing the appearance of an elderly, turn of the century gentleman, gave a very human sounding sigh. "I did indeed promise her that we would check in on her new friend - and, unfortunately, I *did not* specify that I be with her. At her age, my people are very literal minded. Again, I must apologize, General Hammond."

"There's no need," the officer said graciously. "I have to admit she's a delight to listen to and a very welcome change of pace around here."

"Never the less, it was very naughty of her to slip away from her Nanny again like that, and she should know after her last visit how vulnerable your kind are to us," Lalt returned as genially.

"Oh, she was very careful to keep her energy contained," Sam put in reassuringly. "She never lost control once. I don't know if that's unusual for her age but you can be very proud of her."

Though Lalt had always used human expressions, Jack had the impression that the surprise he showed at that statement was not intentional. When he spoke, slowly, his voice nearly all deep cathedral bells, Jack was sure of it. "My child contained herself completely? That is not possible. It is the natural function of our existence to expand even as it is for your body to generate excess heat."

The humans in the room traded startled and worried looks, but it was Jack who spoke for them. "Maybe someone should have told Singer that. If she had any problems doing it, we didn't see them."

"She restricted herself," Lalt repeated, sounding like a recording being slowed down.

Not knowing what else to do, the team looked at each other again. "She said you shared with her how to do it," Daniel volunteered.

"When you were injured? I merely showed her how to recall what had escaped into you, and to control her... aura while she repaired an organic." Lalt began to lose his shape, fading at the edges, making Jack think that he was agitated, even upset.

"Looks like she took the lesson a level farther than you intended." Jack told him. "Sounds like a bright child to me."

"Where is she?" Lalt asked abruptly, backing away as he lost more definition.

It was Daniel who stepped up, showing no fear of the tenuous streamers emanating from their guest. "She saw something that I think really bothered her, and she ran and hid. It's my fault; I should have made sure that she had very limited contact with the people on the base."

"What happened to her?" The floor vibrated with Lalt's words, sending unpleasant scrawls up Jack's spine.

Without thinking he stepped behind Daniel to back him, even as Teal'c and Sam flanked them, but didn't have a chance to speak as his lover answered the question. "Two men who had been hurt fighting were at our medical center while Singer was there. They starting fighting all over again, and one of them injured the other in front of her. She's never seen anyone deliberately hurt before, has she?"

"Noooooo. Wheeeeerree?"

"She's under the ramp." Daniel answered. He started to lead the way, but before he could move, Lalt shot straight up into the air, taking on his amorphous state. In a blink he was filtering into the space under the gate, becoming ominously quiet as he did.

Hammond motioned every one closer to the door, and nodded at the control crew to be ready to drop the observation shields and seal the gate room if necessary. The SG1 team and its general, with the notable exception of Daniel, braced for a fight, waiting tensely.

Within a few seconds Lalt lifted back out again, carrying Singer, gently molding himself around her statue-like form. To Jack's vast relief, the alien gave every indication of being amused. An church organ chuckle punctuated by silver chimes rippled over his skin, making him relax against his will. It sounded vaguely familiar, but before he could question that out loud, the memory of his wife laughing in just that way at something his son had done clicked into place.

Lalt had been frightened for his child, and angry at her - but amused, too in what was apparently the universal way of all parents. "She grows," their guest explained indulgently as he drifted close again.

"Grows?" Sam questioned.

"Your kind has a single template that you follow from birth to death. You are born, you grown in mind and body in a pre-ordained pattern at a pre-ordained time."

"Toddler, childhood, puberty, young adult," Sam supplied.

"Yes. For us, each is unique. In your terms, one child may learn to speak in complete sentences before she can crawl and another may never speak at all until she is completely mature. When we reach another - growth spurt? - we do this. Collapse in on ourselves to reorder all of us at once in our newness."

He paused, taking on a human face in the midst of his shifting midnight blues, and let it show his confusion. "Though I cannot comprehend how she succeeded in doing so, Singer must have used her imminent collapse to withhold herself from you. This should not be possible."

"Told you she was a bright girl." Jack said smugly.

Lalt's reply to that wasn't understandable, though the pain in it was very clear. Backing away toward the gate he said formally to the general, completely ignoring O'Neill, "I am truly, truly in your debt, Hammond. Not only for watching over this little runaway, but for being willing to take responsibility for her well being while she was with you."

Unhappy with Lalt's dismissal of Daniel's involvement, Jack grumbled, "Hey," but was stopped from saying more by a glance from his CO. He subsided with a grimace, watching the gate's active surface appear.

"I would like to show that appreciation, after the custom of your people, but do not know what would be appropriate. Will you permit me a duration to consider the matter?" Lalt finished as he soaked into the quicksilver.

"Of course." Hammond replied. "And please don't feel obligated to do anything. Your friendship, if you wished to offer it, would more than suffice."

Loud enough for Lalt to hear, not caring if the General disapproved, Jack murmured, "You might also consider why your child keeps running away from her Nanny. Around here, that usually means something is *wrong* somewhere."

With only a lingering semblance of a face left on the surface of the gate, Lalt rang out a single solitary note of dismay, then vanished completely.

Turning to deal with his commander, Jack put on his best bland face and quipped, "Nice not only to get the last word, but to leave *him* with the questions for a change."

Daniel and Sam laughed, and Teal'c showed the trace of a smile he used for such occasions. Leaning on the Jaffa, Daniel shook his head, and O'Neill knew that his team would be okay, that they were already adapting to what had happened, like always. "Maybe," mumbled to himself, leading the way of the gate room, "We've already been given what we needed, Lalt."

"What was that, Colonel?" Sam asked.

"Nothing, Carter, nothing. Just wondering if we were at question #4318 or 4319."

Finis