Daniel of Abydos, part 2: making kidfic work

[fignewton]

Last week, I wrote about night_spear1287's marvelous Daniel of Abydos series, and why it works so well even for those who don't often read kidfic. The discussion centered on the moral question of allowing a minor to work at the SGC and eventually join SG-1, and how Nightspear handles the situation. The first post covered the first novel, Translations, which ends with The Serpent's Lair and the confirmation of Daniel's status on Earth. Let's continue with Diplomacy and Brotherhood, the second and third novels in the series. There are numerous spoilers and excerpts below, all with Nightspear's permission. Ellipses at the beginning of a paragraph indicate skipped prose or dialogue within the excerpt.

So, fifteen-year-old Daniel -- who still mostly lives on base, but often spends the night at Jack's house -- is now an official member of the SGC, but still relegated to on-world duties and the possibility of occasional off-world missions under SG team escorts. He is certainly not part of a team, although he is now eligible, under the right circumstances, to go off-world together with one. Robert Rothman is more concerned with Daniel earning his GED and convincing him to consider going to college and earn a degree, anyway.

Of course, on base - and even on-world - isn't always necessarily safe. But even when Daniel is exposed to on-world crises, Nightspear is always careful to keep the danger minimal and Daniel removed from the worst crises. For example, Jolinar-in-Sam confronts Cassie and Daniel at the hospital - and Daniel remains there, out of harm's way, until the ashrak is caught.

Daniel gets his first formal opportunity to go offworld with SG-2, with Ferretti in command, as a translator to a world they'd previously visited - the one that in canon is forever immortalized as the place where Sam "drank that stuff that made you take off..." In this AU, though, another team visited P3X-595, and Daniel is along for the follow-up. The excerpt here shows exactly what going off-world means for Daniel at this point:

Ferretti broke the brief silence by slapping the locker shut. "Okay. Here we go. Now, we made Rothman practice with a handgun before he came with us the first time, but if anything had gone wrong, we would've still protected him because he doesn't have combat training. Protocol will be similar for you, except that you won't be packing."

Daniel paused in looking through the vest to make sure it was the same he'd had to wear on previous off-world trips. "Packing what?"

Ferretti grinned now in amusement. "Heat, Daniel. You're not carrying a firearm."

"Wouldn't it make more sense just to teach me what you taught Robert?"

"He already had a general idea of how to hold and fire a handgun before we ever got to him, so I didn't actually do much except take him to the shooting range and make sure he knew which end was which. I don't think you'll get permission to carry a gun through the 'gate without proper training on safety and everything."

"I'm not going to carry anything, then?" Daniel asked as he examined the vest contents Ferretti had spread on a bench. On previous official trips, he had had no more than the archaeological tools he and Robert had brought, but all of SG-2's talk of 'just in case' was making him a little nervous to be walking in empty-handed. Maybe it was simply that first-contact teams had to be more concerned with 'just in case' than primary research teams were.

"No firearms," the major said. "It's against the law in this state, anyway, your age and all, without special permission. The people on the planet don't have long-range weapons; you'll have a bayonet, and if someone gets close enough to hit you, you'll be close enough to hit back."

Oh. Well. "You...don't really think..."

"Nothing'll happen," Ferretti assured him. "The people are very nice, and we'll be there to guard you. Besides," he added, "Colonel O'Neill would be pissed if you got hurt under my watch, and I don't want Colonel O'Neill pissed at me."

It wasn't the first time someone had said something to suggest Jack had authority over him, but he didn't argue. Now that he lived in Jack's home some of the time, and after he had spent so much of the last months with him and SG-1, it was close to the truth, in practice if not officially.

"Now," the major went on, gesturing, "you see anything unfamiliar here?"

Daniel passed an eye over the tactical vest again. "I know what these are," he said, pointing to what he recognized as field dressings, "but I don't have first aid training."

"You don't need to worry about that too much. Captain Casey's our medic, but we all bring supplies. Just--"

"--just in case," Daniel finished.

"Hey, you're catching on."

So Daniel does begin to go off-world on rare occasions, but only when the planet is deemed as safe as they can determine. He still trains, he still studies, and he still spends most of his time on base in his office.

The following excerpts are from one of my favorite chapters in Diplomacy, when Jack has to look a teenaged Daniel in the eye and, despite the shade of Charlie, teach him how to handle a gun.

"Ah...I want you to have a few firearms safety lessons before you step off-world again."

This would have been easier if he weren't staring down at Daniel's homework, of all things. Training a member of his team or a civilian consultant was one thing; training someone who was just now learning the capital of Colorado was another. Okay, so Teal'c probably hadn't known the capital of Colorado for a while, either, but that was different, and he had a gold tattoo melted into his skin to prove it.

He'd separate the two, that was all. Carter was a friend off-duty and a teammate and subordinate in the field, and they didn't have any problems with that. He'd just have to learn to do the same with Daniel. Simple. Right.

Besides, Jack had learned already that not knowing how to fire a weapon wouldn't save a child from being shot anyway.

He determinedly pushed that thought aside, too.

Daniel's head was tilted thoughtfully, and Jack was relieved to see he at least wasn't too excited about it. People too eager to play with weapons often ended up too careless. "Major Ferretti said I wasn't allowed to take firearms off-world."

"When you start going off-world, you're still not going to carry the same weapons that we do," Jack informed him. "You will be around them a lot more, though, so you need to understand basic safety and how they work. Teal'c and I will decide what you're allowed to carry off-world." When he saw Daniel's lips twitch in not-quite-concealed distaste, he reminded, "It's for your own protection."

"No, I know," Daniel said quickly. "I'm sorry. I'll do whatever it takes."

"This has nothing to do with trust in you as a person," Jack said, because it was true--even now, he had as much faith in Daniel's good intentions as he did in just about anyone's. That didn't mean he was willing to stake people's lives on Daniel's ability to assess a situation or on his accuracy, not yet. "But you'll be around us and possibly other friendlies, too. Think about that."

There were two surefire ways to make a person care about safety: make him fear for his own, or make him fear for his friends'. With Daniel, Jack was willing to do both.

"I wouldn't trust my shooting, either," Daniel agreed, completely sincere and not seeming at all offended. "I don't want to hit someone by accident."

"Or yourself," Jack couldn't stop himself from adding.

..."And next time we're at home, remind me to show you where I keep my personal gun, too."

"I didn't know you had one in your house," Daniel remarked, laying the pistol back down on the table.

It was several seconds before Jack answered, and when he did, the words were brisk. "Well, I do. It's in my room, so you've just never seen it."

"Oh. I wouldn't go into your room, Jack."

"If you're gonna be staying with me more, you need to know where stuff like that is. It's an accident waiting to happen otherwise, the way you prowl around when you're bored."

Daniel opened his mouth to say indignantly that he wouldn't prowl into Jack's personal things, but then he thought about those words again and decided to shut up.

Maybe it was an accident waiting to happen, and maybe it was an accident that already had. "Jack," he asked carefully, "did...I mean..." He hesitated another minute, then said, "Never mind." There was a time for questions, but, like Teal'c had told him more than once, there was a time for silence, too.

Jack heard it anyway. "That's how my son died, Daniel," he said flatly, gathering everything together efficiently. "So don't fool around."

Daniel swallowed. "Yes, sir." Jack gave him another odd look, and Daniel realized that, if he wasn't used to Jack's commanding voice, Jack probably wasn't used to using it on him, either. He dropped his gaze first, not sure whether he was excited to know he was slowly finding his way into the SGC chain of command or disturbed that his friends were increasingly becoming his commanders and co-workers.

Interestingly, the only times that Daniel really faces danger in Diplomacy is not through his work at the SGC, but in his other identity: as Danyel of Abydos, first when he returns home when the Abydons reopen the Stargate and ends up taking a very illegal side-trip to Cimmeria, and later when, as the representative of Kasuf's family, he travels off-world to find the answer to a possibly deadly problem. (I can't go into more detail without spoiling some major plot twists!) Even when Daniel goes off-world in these cases, however, he's not alone; he and Teal'c go to Abydos with SG-2 as backup, for example.

One of the more interesting twists to Nightspear's story is Daniel's status as official liaison between Earth and Abydos, in an alliance that includes an exchange of medical information, the re-opening of the naquadah mines, and the installation of an iris on the Abydon Stargate. In the following excerpt, Kasuf discusses Daniel's choices with him:

Daniel folded his arms against the chill of night. "Everyone seems so serious now. I was not here to see it happen."

"Abydos has been changing since the Rebellion," Kasuf countered. "You did not see it because you never knew what it was like before, when Ra was still our god."

"Life was very different then?" he asked, because he'd heard stories, of course, but hearing stories rather than experiencing it oneself always meant that there was a bias, and it was good to hear from as many sources as possible. Some people were unwilling to talk about what life was like before, and those who were willing were also often given to embellishment.

"What I remember best is how strict and ordered life was. We rose at the same time every morning, we went to the fields or to the mine at the same time, my wife ground the same flour every day. Freedom means more than losing our chains. You have known freedom all your life, Dan'yel. Even on Earth, I wish that you remain free."

"I am," Daniel assured him. "They are not using me against my will."

Kasuf looked at him sideways, though, and said, "Are you in danger with them?"

Daniel frowned. "My friends would never hurt me."

"But you are in danger because you help them."

"No. Perhaps, yes," he amended, watching the elder carefully. "But they are all in danger. They protect me. It is my choice, that I should be able to help them sometimes in return, even if it is not as safe. Even now, they do not let me go into danger."

"It is your choice?"

"Yes."

"You have changed," Kasuf said abruptly.

"Of course," Daniel said defensively. "You cannot expect that--"

"We do not expect you to remain unchanging," Kasuf told him sternly. "But you also cannot expect it of us."

"I know that."

"But you did not understand. There was a time," Kasuf said, in the tone of someone telling a story or a lesson, "after the Rebellion. We celebrated many days. When the celebration was over, many had forgotten how to live our strict lives, but we had never known anything else. You were a baby then, in those days when we had to learn again how to live. Everything we knew was destroyed with Ra. We have been changing for twenty years now. In the two years past, perhaps we have changed more, but so have you."

Daniel grimaced. "I hoped that Abydos would stay the same," he admitted, "even if everything else changed."

"It is good--we are the same people. We have grown careful but not untrusting, and we have also gained much knowledge. We were strong before, and we have grown stronger now. Is it not the same for you?"

Perhaps that was true. 'Just in case' felt like a habit now, and no longer just an irritating mantra. 'Careful' and 'cautious' could be good, he knew. "We have all changed," he acknowledged.

Kasuf inclined his head. "Only do not change so much that you forget who you are."

"No," he agreed. "Thank you. I wish I could stay longer."

"Why do you not?" Kasuf asked, but it wasn't in accusation so much as in curiosity.

Because if he stayed here at home too long, he might forget his other duties on Earth. And if he stayed away from home too long, he might forget that it was a duty to Abydos as well as to Earth and not just a chance to learn and explore. If he sank too far into either side, he might forget the other.

Daniel does interact with some of S2's canon episodes; he is intensely involved in The Fifth Race, for example, and while he is not the one trapped in Machello's body, he does get the chance to play musical bodies and argue with Machello for another person's life. There are other episodes, however, that he bypasses entirely - he does not meet the Tok'ra (or even Jacob Carter), and his exposure to the Reetou is entertainingly non-existent:

"Genetic engineering?" Robert repeated, not looking up from his work. "Why do you ask?"

Daniel shrugged. "You know that boy who came through the Stargate two days ago? I've heard he was...created. By genetic engineering. How does that work?"

"Uh, you're asking the wrong person," Robert said. "But I'm pretty sure it's beyond what we're capable of here on Earth, unless it's just... What exactly do you mean, 'created?'"

"I don't know; it's just rumor, and even SG-1 won't tell me what's going on. But I hear whoever did it wasn't very good at it either. His organs were made wrong or something."

..."They called the Tok'ra last night, and the Stargate's been opening and closing for hours."

Robert made a face at his computer screen. "You think they want to heal him by giving him a symbiote." His expression turned thoughtful, and he said, "Well, it would be a way of continual healing, without being driven crazy."

"That's what I thought at first," Daniel said, "but then, why would they put the base on alert?"

"Really?" Robert said, finally looking up. "We're on alert?"

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Uh, yes. Low level, but they're not letting noncombatants off at the lower two floors and...and the security teams, and..."

"Huh. I didn't notice."

...Daniel walked to the door and poked his head out to look around. The SFs were still there, one of them lowering his hand from his radio, but they looked more tense than usual. That might be only his imagination, though. "Excuse me?" he said, looking down the hall and almost expecting something terrible to come barreling toward him. "Do you know if...?"

"We've been advised that all levels below the twenty-first have been sealed off, Mr. Jackson," the airman told him.

"That's where the infirmary is," Robert said, a step behind Daniel.

"Yes, sir."

"So...it's sealed off, and we're just sitting here? What's going on? Why wasn't there a...a...an announcement or something?""

"That's all we've been told, sir," the airman said patiently.

"But everything above sublevel twenty-one is still normal?" Daniel clarified.

"That's correct."

Robert looked at Daniel. "Okay," he said, shrugging. "I wanted to look at something in the lab, anyway. Want to come?"

Daniel considered, then locked the office behind them. "Okay."

...They were in the lab, Robert examining some tooth marks on a fossil and Daniel describing a language for a report, when they heard, "So."

Both looked up briefly. "Oh, hi, Jack."

Jack's hands were securely in his pockets as he wandered around, peering at the artifacts and devices lining the benches. "Well, you'll be happy to know the Reetou are gone," he said.

Daniel looked up again. "The what?"

"Reetou," Jack repeated. "The invisible aliens who tried to destroy all of Earth just now."

"Is that what was happening?" Robert asked distractedly.

Jack's face went through several expressions before settling on disbelief. "That's it? There was a lockdown. There was...shooting, and Tok'ra rip-offs of Goa'uld toys. We were thinking of setting the self-destruct."

Now Robert looked up, too, alarmed. "Did you? Set the self-destruct?"

"No," Jack said slowly. "Because we killed the Reetou."

"Oh. Well, good."

Daniel shrugged apologetically at Jack as Robert bent over the fossil again. "We'll cower in the office next time," he said seriously. Jack rolled his eyes.

....Daniel nodded slowly. "I missed lunch," he offered. "You, uh... Do you...?"

"Wanna...?" Jack jabbed a thumb in the direction of the door.

"Sure." Daniel glanced back, but Robert had started muttering silently to himself, so he pulled off his glasses and followed Jack out.

"Not that way," Jack said, steering him toward another elevator shaft. "Carter blew that one up."

"Of course," Daniel said, deciding he really had to find out what had happened.

"You missed lunch?" Jack said conversationally.

"Yes," Daniel said. "I don't know if you heard, but there was a lockdown. We were cowering."

Serpent's Song twists just a little, to accommodate this younger Daniel. He doesn't accompany SG-1 off-world when they find Apophis, of course, and his interactions with Apophis on the base are treated much more warily:

Jack glanced up and froze, only vaguely hearing Hammond's response. Makepeace was observing through the control room window, but Daniel had edged in for a look, too, and as Jack watched, he pushed his glasses onto his face and squinted at them, his eyes flicking from SG-1 to the man on the gurney.

'Apophis?' Daniel mouthed incredulously, his eyes pinned on Jack. Jack looked over to see Fraiser's people dragging the Goa'uld away and nodded, some of the triumphant feeling dimming as he remembered just why it was that they hated Apophis so much.

'Stay there,' Jack mouthed back, pointing a finger for emphasis. Daniel crossed his arms.

"We'll debrief at 1100 hours," Hammond said, snapping Jack back to attention.

He checked his watch. That gave them just enough time to change and get dumped into the MRI, then, but not much else. "Yes, sir," Jack said, adding, "General, could we have the SFs make sure nonessential personnel stay out of the infirmary while the prisoner's in there?"

Hammond looked behind himself as well in time to see Daniel turn abruptly and walk determinedly out of the control room. He nodded to one of the security team. "Airman?"

"Yes, sir," the man said, then quickly left the room.

...On the monitor, Dr. Fraiser opened the door to step out of the isolation room, and Jack could glimpse a familiar, sullen figure just outside in the hallway.

"Daniel's planted himself right outside the isolation room," Jack told his team as the general called Rothman. "I walked past him on my way in and out, and he's still there. Wouldn't move. He's not really trying to get in, even. I don't know what he's waiting for."

"He is waiting for Apophis to die," Teal'c suggested matter-of-factly. "As are we."

...By the time SG-1, Rothman, and Hammond walked back into the briefing room with the Tok'ra Martouf in tow, Daniel was waiting there for them, his arms folded over his chest. "Apophis is awake again," he told them, his voice toneless and his whole bearing stiff and unmoving, completely still the way Jack sometimes wished he would just stand still and stop fidgeting for two minutes, kid, except that now, it was getting disconcerting.

"What were you doing in his room?" Jack demanded as the Tok'ra sat.

"I wasn't in his room. I was outside, as before, but I can still hear." Daniel's arms curled tighter. "He has been calling for his queen."

Ouch.

And Daniel should be mad now, or freaked, or vengeful or something, not standing still and speaking in English so careful it was like the way he'd been when he'd first arrived on Earth, before he'd decided it was okay to talk faster than other people could hear and understand.

..."Someone needs to say the words for him," Daniel said out of the blue.

Jack frowned. "What?"

"Funeral rites," Rothman said. "For the host."

Looking from one to the other, wondering if they thought he was insane or if he thought they were insane, Jack said, "There's not much time. Sokar means business."

"I don't need much time," Daniel said. "It won't take long. Nothing at all compared to how long that man has carried Apophis, Jack."

Suddenly, Jack felt the way he had in those first days of the Stargate Program, when Daniel had told Teal'c that it wasn't his fault, that the Jaffa were slaves to a false god, even as he had cringed from the man who had kidnapped him. "And you want to do that for him?"

"I have seen the rites performed on Abydos," Daniel said, folding his hands under his arms like he thought he could hide how nervous he was. "If he only has a short time left, I think we should make him as comfortable as we can. He has suffered enough."

Whether or not Daniel could say the words wasn't the issue. Whether he could do it to Apophis's face...

"I think we should," Rothman added.

Jack gave him an incredulous look, tilting his head a scant inch toward Daniel as he said, "Dr. Rothman, I don't think that's a good idea." Daniel had unfolded his arms and was focused intently on fiddling with his damn pen again and didn't seem to notice anything.

But Rothman was quite possibly an idiot, despite his degree that said otherwise, and said, "Colonel, I agree with Daniel on this."

Then Daniel chose that moment to look up at him, and saying 'no' to him right now would only mean 'I don't think you're strong enough for this,' and maybe Jack wasn't sure he was, but...

...Rothman stood and picked up an odd little statue, explaining, clearly for Jack's benefit, "This is a funerary statue." He lifted it, looking unsure whether to hold onto it or hand it over. "Look, I can do the rites for him, Daniel."

"I'll do it." Daniel reached out and took it, then hesitated. "Would you come with me, though?" he asked, not meeting Rothman's eyes. "Just in case...in case the Egyptian way is not the same as the Abydonian way. Or something."

"Yeah," the archaeologist said immediately. "Okay."

Jack decided Rothman was only a little bit of an idiot.

There is also an entire chapter of emotional fallout and repercussions to Apophis' death, including a breathlessly fantastic scene between Daniel and Teal'c. Because, as I mentioned in the first post, Nightspear absolutely shines when it comes to characterization.

By the end of the second novel -- which includes a fascinating version of Cold Lazarus, which is shifted to the end of S2 and involves Daniel more deeply, even as he is kept safe from spiking radiation levels -- Daniel has turned sixteen, earned his GED, and is ready to take the same training sessions that anyone who wishes to join an SG team must pass. The novelization of Stargate: the Movie suggests that Daniel was an emancipated minor at this age; it's no longer quite so alarming to consider him taking a more active role at the SGC, even if Jack and Hammond are still treating the situation with care.

For the first time, Daniel joins SG-1 on a mission - not as someone they're there to guard, but as someone who is part of the team - as he finally meets Jacob Carter and they try to take down Seth. There is a concerted effort to keep Daniel out of danger, although that works as well as anything ever does with SG-1! Considering his success, however, General Hammond finally makes a decision: to suggest that Daniel officially join SG-1.

The team and the general discuss it, and there's a lot of hesitation, but the final decision is to make Daniel a probationary member of SG-1, pending the psychological evaluations he never took and with the understanding that if a mission was military in nature, or obviously dangerous, he would not be permitted to participate.

"Do you think he can do it, Colonel?" Hammond said.

For the first time, Jack swallowed the reflexive 'No' and considered it.

Daniel might not know as many facts as people like Rothman, but if they found a world where they needed someone with lots of spare information stuffed in his head, they called the research teams in for follow-up. Daniel's mishmash of spotty education and scary intuition was, frankly, something an exploration team could use.

Moreover, Daniel knew them well: he trained and studied with Teal'c, he lived with Jack, he poked at Goa'uld artifacts with Carter, and he'd risked his life together with the entire team more than once. If they were going to have a social scientist forced on them, it might as well be someone they knew and liked, and they'd be able to protect him at the same time. SG-1 could protect Daniel better than almost anyone else.

"I'd be willing to try it," Jack finally said. "With certain conditions."

"I am in agreement," Teal'c said.

Carter hesitated but said. "I think he can do it, sir."

The general nodded. "Well, then at least I know you really do think he's ready." Then, while Jack was wondering if that had been an actual question or just a test, Hammond continued, "SG-1 has been participating in a mixture of exploration and combat-support missions, and I want to keep Mr. Jackson away from the latter. I'm willing to assign him to SG-1 for most missions except those known beforehand to be out of his skill range. That will leave him some time, during which he would be free to help with Dr. Rothman's other duties, since Dr. Rothman is more frequently off-world these days."

"Ye-es, sir," Jack said slowly. "Okay."

"I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea myself, Colonel," the general said, as if sensing his hesitation, "so tell me now if you think it's the wrong decision."

All of their military officers were good at their jobs, but they weren't all equally experienced with off-world dangers. No one here was more experienced than SG-1. Jack nodded. "Right. We'll take him, sir. At least for a period of time--"

"Like a training run," Carter suggested. "He can pick up more experience in first-contact with us, and we'll reevaluate after a few missions, sir, to see if it's a bad idea. Or if it seems like it would work better, he can always transfer to another team."

Finally, General Hammond said, "Remember--if he's on SG-1, he will be there as your teammate, not your little brother. I expect you to defend him out there, but if he proves a danger to you or himself or an impediment to your missions, he's off the roster."

"Yes, sir," Jack said.

"He'll have probationary status for four weeks," Hammond said. "After that, he will be held to the same standards as any SG team member. This includes the psychiatric evaluations that we all seem to have forgotten about, since he wasn't hired by the normal route."

"Oy," Jack said. "Are we gonna start worrying about his psychological fitness now?"

"Yes," Hammond said bluntly. "We should be more worried than ever about it starting now. He's seen a few battles, Colonel; he hasn't seen it all. Until he's of age by our laws to be deployed in combat, if I'm concerned about his psychological state at any time, I will ground him--for his own wellbeing--and he will speak with a counselor if I believe he needs it."

Jack grimaced--he hated psych evaluations in general--but it was probably wise. "Yes, sir."

..."Let me get this straight," Rothman said. "Daniel's getting first-line exploration approval?"

"Unless he screws up sometime soon," Jack said. Daniel raised his eyebrows indignantly.

"So that means," Rothman said, "that I ship out with SG-11 and Daniel ships out with SG-1, and when we're free and some other team needs a translator, I get to stay on base and make Daniel join them and do the grunt work. Which is nice, but..."

"Wait, grunt work?" Daniel repeated. "What's wrong with going into the field once in a while?"

"I don't often get shot at when I go into the field," Rothman said. "I bring back video footage and...and pottery shards."

"I've done that, too," Daniel said defensively. "And it's not like I don't shoot back if I need to."

Rothman turned a look onto Jack. "That doesn't seem serious to you, Colonel?"

"Robert..." Daniel started.

"You think I don't take the safety of my men seriously, Doctor?" Jack retorted. "Daniel's been trained, he's gonna get more training, and you can't name three people on this base more willing to die to keep him safe."

"Jack!" Daniel said.

"Not now, Daniel," Jack said.

"I beg your pardon?" he said. "This is about me! I've been doing fieldwork for over a year. In fact, Robert, so have you."

"You know the difference between exploration and first-line research?" Rothman said to Daniel.

"It's a...it's just a formal categorical... It's a fine line, and people cross it all the time--I've crossed it, and so have you," Daniel said, both of them ignoring Jack now.

"Research teams pick their planets first during the planning briefings," Rothman pointed out. "Exploration teams get the weird ones that someone needs to take but the research teams don't want to touch. And when there's danger, on my team, the people come first. On their team"--he pointed vaguely in Jack's direction--"the mission comes first."

"Earth still exists because SG-1 knows how to put the mission first," Daniel said quietly. "I'm here on this planet for the purpose of the mission, Robert. I joined the SGC to find my family, and I can't do that by only taking assignments that look less dangerous. Do you honestly think I don't know by now what the risks are?"

Rothman looked up at where Jack was standing, and Jack said, "We have Captain Carter, too, which means we do take research missions, and with Daniel, we might be taking more research and diplomacy. But you're right, Doctor--for us, sometimes the mission has to come first. If it makes you feel better, Daniel's life comes before ours--"

Daniel whipped around to face him. "Don't--"

"Don't argue," Jack said. "Remember that if you ever feel the urge to run into danger. You're there as a translator first, not a soldier. Anyway," he added to Rothman, "SG-1 has a former First Prime and two highly-trained military officers--we get called in for combat support quite a bit. Daniel will stay on base for those. It's not that much different from what he's done in the past."

"Think of it this way," Daniel said to Rothman. "Before, I could only take missions that looked safe. And now, I can take missions that are less certain, but I still can't take on that look unsafe. Right?" He waited for Jack to nod. "And, honestly, the uncertain ones are the ones when I'd be most useful."

..."SG-1 has the next four weeks to work with you," Jack told him. "You'll take your quals after that. If you pass, you'll be approved for general exploration with SG-1, and you can be assigned to other teams that are missing a translator if you don't have a mission with us. Also, you're restricted to a maximum number of missions in any given month." Daniel frowned, but Jack said firmly, "It's within a reasonable schedule; it just means you can't get overloaded with work and we can make you stop and take a break if we want. You can complain when you turn eighteen."

Actually, Daniel spends the entire novel trying -- and failing -- to have an ordinary, successful mission with SG-1. Their first mission is delayed by the events of Fair Game; this younger Daniel certainly doesn't take care of the "petty needs of the Goa'uld," but he does much of the behind-the-scenes research on the treaty, and bargains with Cronus face-to-face for a few fraught moments. Then comes Legacy -- beautifully redone here with loving attention paid to filling all the plotholes, and Daniel is taken off the team and granted recovery time afterwards, particularly when it takes him a long time to recognize that he needs it. Of course, he is not even considered as part of the team that goes to Netu to rescue Jacob, although I won't reveal the plot twists that allow him some kind of peripheral participation in that mission! He returns to SG-1 just in time to go through the Gate once before the Foothold aliens show up.

And then comes Pretense, and Daniel - or rather, Danyel of Abydos - gets to meet the Tollan for the first time. He and Kasuf serve as Skaara's Abydon archons, rather than Jack and Daniel as members of SG-1. And now we come to storylines that twist a little too far away from canon for me to explain without spoiling too much, so I'll only say that Daniel semi-retires, taking an indefinite leave of absence from the SGC to remain on Abydos... until Teal'c comes to tell him that Jack is trapped on Edora, and Daniel makes a decision that is based on his own choices, rather than the need for quests or revenge.

"Do you need me here?" Daniel asked.

"We certainly have a place for you," the general said. "You could resume your previous duties here. If you choose to stay on Abydos with your family instead, the SGC won't collapse, either."

"Then I'd like to stay, sir," Daniel said. "I think it was only a matter of time before I came back."

"Is this just until Colonel O'Neill's return?"

..."If you can use me, I think I can do more good here, at least until the Goa'uld are defeated."

"That might be a while," the general said. "Years, possibly not even in my lifetime. You'll have opportunities to go to Abydos, of course, but I need to be sure you know what you're committing to, so I'll ask again: are you sure?"

"Yes, sir," Daniel said firmly. "This is my choice." In a way, it was liberating to choose this as a job or a way of life instead of something he'd been thrown into. "I would just ask permission to check on Abydos first to collaborate with SG-11 and ask if they need my help there."

"You wouldn't mind being here while a mission is ongoing on Abydos?"

"Robert's the expert," Daniel said, "and if I'm working here, he's my boss--if he needs the help there, I can stay, or if he or you want me here, I can do that, too. Since he's going to be away and SG-1 is on stand-down...if you need an extra person, I'll do whatever I can."

There is still a large element of caution with how the team deals with Daniel -- for example, in Crystal Skull, Daniel isn't allowed to approach the skull directly, so it is Jack who is zapped into the next phase (and has some of the most hilarious lines ever). Daniel does finally get his successful mission in this AU's version of Small Victories, with a delightful, peaceful epilogue at Jack's cabin:

He must have dozed off for a while, because the next time he opened his eyes, the sun was higher in the sky, even though Jack didn't seem to have moved at all. Before he could sit up, his hand moved of its own volition and reached to one side to grab his equipment, which, of course wasn't there.

"What?" Jack said, watching him.

"What?" Daniel retorted, feeling stupid for thinking automatically they were on a mission when they weren't and were, in fact, on vacation.

"No, really, what were you thinking just then?"

With a short, embarrassed laugh, he admitted, "I was thinking I should test for the presence of naquadah in the soil. Also, I can't find my sidearm, and Jack is going to yell at me."

When he turned back, Jack had lowered his fishing rod and was staring at him, looking unhappy.

"Don't look at me like that," Daniel said, remorseful for having ruined Jack's mood.

"You're seeing it everywhere now," Jack said. "The job, the...everything."

"I like my job. My life is my job, Jack. And this place is beautiful, I see that, too," he said. "It was just a passing thought. I promise I won't actually collect mud to bring home."

Jack nodded, looking out over the water. "That's what I like about coming here. When else do we get to be outside like this without bringing guns and reactors and whatnot?"

"You did bring a gun," Daniel pointed out, because there was no way Jack was going somewhere and leaving himself and his team completely defenseless.

"But I don't have it on me at the moment. It's the thought that counts."

"Do you think Sam brought a reactor?"

"Wouldn't've made it through airport security," Jack said confidently. "And Teal'c searched her bag."

Flopping back again, Daniel said, "If you say so."

"Oh, by the way--happy seventeenth birthday."

"Yeah?" Daniel said. He checked his watch for the date. "Thanks." For once, he didn't care about the landmark or what it meant for his duties on base. He could figure that out later, when there weren't fish to ambush. He lay lazily for a while, then eyed the cooler under Jack's feet with some curiosity. "Have you noticed that alcoholic beverages are present in almost every society you've met? Fermented plants--it happens whether you mean for it to happen or not."

"Really."

"Mm-hm. In fact, I don't remember a time when I didn't drink the Abydonian equivalent of beer with just about every meal. Not until coming to the SGC, of course."

"You know," Jack said, not looking away from the surface of the lake, "most teenagers just ask if they can have a beer." Daniel opened his mouth. "No," Jack said.

The fourth and final novel of the series, Archeology, brings Daniel full circle: a coming of age in every sense of the word, recognition of how far he's come, and a very mature grief at who and what he's had to leave behind. It is also the longest, so I'll save it for a third entry. But don't wait for it; go start reading these wonderful stories right now! :)