#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 18
Dave Dixon had been in many situations during his military career which could best be described as 'ass clinchers': having to eject when his plane flamed-out during take-off only to have the wind catch his chute and send him back toward the burning wreckage was one; only learning that his very inebriated date for an Officer's Ball several years ago was actually a general's daughter after he returned her (safe and untouched) to her home was another; and, of course, fighting to hold his position on P3X-666 while being strafed by gliders, bombed by Alkesh and fending off a battalion of Jaffa as they waited for reinforcements to help rescue Senior Airman Wells was another - but none of it compared to the pucker factor he was currently feeling at the thought of telling his wife just exactly what it was he actually did everyday when she thought he was stuck deep inside a mountain busy overseeing security for a bunch of eggheads working on 'deep space telemetry.'
Or, worse, just exactly what had happened to Jason.
Given the circumstances - and the fact that Dave couldn't be there as often as needed to help remind his six year old son to keep his mouth shut about everything - the-powers-that-be had decided to read her in. Not surprising really, but it had taken them an unfortunate length of time to reach that conclusion - and even longer to go back through her security vetting to make sure they wanted to do it.
That length of time had her spitting mad!
The kids had been kidnapped around 1030 hours Sunday and rescued oh-dark Monday morning. It was now Tuesday morning. It was one thing to be told that your six year old son had been kidnapped along with another little boy up the street by his madman brother - it was another entirely to be told he'd been found safe and sound but that you couldn't see him because said madman had been working with classified materials!
The elevator on level eleven arrived and Dave suddenly sat straighter in his wheelchair. Kate Dixon had a temper to match the fiery color of her hair and he really didn't want it directed his way! Unfortunately, he was on his own here. Jack and Cam were both tied up with Landry in a meeting with the IOA and were unavailable to offer him much needed back-up.
The doors swung open to reveal the petite red head and her security escort. "Where is he?" she demanded without preamble as she stepped out of the lift.
Oh, joy!
"Hi, honey," Dave offered lamely. "Good to see you too."
* * *
"I don't think any of you are grasping the full picture here, gentlemen," Richard Woolsey decided unhappily.
"Oh, we see the big picture, Woolsey," Jack answered with a transitory smile that never quite reached his eyes as he played with a pencil and apparently resisted the urge to snap it in two. His fidgeting was getting on Richard's nerves. "It's you who can't seem to see the trees for the forest." He leaned back and folded his arms quite pleased with his own analogy.
At least the damn pencil twirling had stopped!
Did he mean 'forest for the trees?" Unfortunately, it didn't really work in the reverse. Richard didn't get whatever it was he was trying to allude to in any case and, frankly, didn't want to. He simply ignored it - and everyone else at the conference room table - as he leaned forward to pin his full angry glare on one Jack O'Neill, refusing to let the two star general intimidate him.
Intimidation was his job!
"We are dealing with a six year old here, Gen. O'Neill," he stated clearly. "A six year old who now possesses a rather frightening amount of information regarding a highly classified government project. Unfortunately, it would be a little difficult at this point to ask him to sign a non-disclosure agreement, let alone expect the courts of the United States to uphold it! Dr. Jackson, however, is another story entirely! What was he thinking when he told the boy about the Goa'uld; when he decided to convince Jason Dixon he was on a space ship rather than trapped in a far more terrestrial setting as he obviously believed? Dr. Jackson went out of his way to break the non-disclosure agreement he signed as an adult! And, although we cannot take him before any normal court to hold him accountable for his actions, the terms of that agreement are still binding. He is guilty of treason and therefore subject--"
"--You've got to be kidding me?--"
"--Oh, for cryin' out loud!--"
"--Treason? Are you crazy!--"
Woolsey carefully focused his attention on each man at the large table in turn. "You were the ones who argued he should be allowed to stay on at Stargate Command!" he pointed out with a glacial glare. "And that he should retain his full powers and privileges as head of the Linguistics and Archaeological Research Departments. You wanted him treated as an adult less than two weeks ago, but don't want him treated as one now. You can't have it both ways, gentlemen."
"This is ridiculous!" Mitchell sighed in exasperation as tossed his arms in the air and then sat back in his chair, shaking his head in disbelief.
"You expect us to lock a five year old up for treason and throw away the key?" Landry asked incredulously.
"No," Woolsey answered curtly, surprising them - but his glare did not thaw one degree. "I expect you to realize you have had a very serious security breech here. The IOA expects you to take tangible concrete steps to assure that the security of this base is properly safe guarded. A simple slap on the wrist or just telling the two little darlings they can't talk about it isn't going to be sufficient."
"Bullshit!" Jack slapped the table with both hands and leaned forward to offer the pencil pushing bureaucrat an arctic glare that made his own seem tropical by comparison. "You're trying to paint Daniel as an irresponsible child - but it won't work. He merely revealed what information he felt pertinent to safe-guard both his and Jason's lives. Lying to the boy about their situation - or allowing him to maintain a false impression of their situation - was potentially deadly."
"A charge of treason requires a willful and knowing endangerment of the security of the United States," Hank Landry interjected forcefully. "Dr. Jackson's primary concern was to protect both himself and Jason Dixon by informing him of the true nature of the danger they were in. To expect him to conceive and perpetrate a cover story under such conditions is absolutely ludicrous!"
"Jason's illusions would have been shattered in any case when they were beamed down and he realized they weren't on Earth," Jack added. "They were on a moon orbiting a planet the size of Jupiter - which was clearly visible when they arrived; how long do you think it would have taken him to figure it out?"
"You're missing my point gentlemen."
"No, Mr. Woolsey," Gen. Landry interrupted the man with an angry glare of his own. "I'm afraid, you're missing ours. What's done is done. Jason Dixon now knows about the Goa'uld and Stargate and that can't be undone. Dr. Jackson acted as he did in good faith and I will not have him punished for it. Neither of them is getting locked up for eternity just because a bunch of overly-paranoid bureaucrats say so! Even if they were to both leave here this instant and go straight to the nearest media outlet to shout their knowledge across the airwaves - do you honestly think anyone would believe them?" He leaned forward and asked quite seriously, "Are you really that much of an idiot?"
"The point, gentlemen, is not how old Dr. Jackson or Jason Dixon are, or who might or might not believe them if they were to talk - the point is the IOA is requiring a concrete plan of action to deal with the situation. Now, you can either send me back to them with absolutely nothing - in which case I assure you they are ready to play hardball, including yanking both children out of your control--"
"--Over my dead body!" Cam growled dangerously.
"--or you can give me something to mollify them and assure them you are taking this situation seriously."
"Of course we're taking it seriously, you paper-pushing twit!" Jack exclaimed, too fed up by the whole situation to care about the consequences of anything he might say. "They were kidnapped right out from under our noses! You really think we're going to shrug that off and just hope it never happens again?!"
"Prove it," Woolsey challenged him bluntly.
* * *
"We're supposed to be meeting your mom and dad for lunch as soon as she's finished filling out all the required forms and your father has a chance to fully brief her on the situation," Sam explained to the boy holding her left hand as they approached the elevator. Daniel was holding her right. She dropped it only long enough to signal the lift. It opened immediately and they stepped in. Turning, she pressed the floor she wanted as she finished answering Jason, "Then you get to go home."
"What about Danny?" Jason asked, frowning at his friend. He'd overheard some of the discussion between the other boy and his guardian about having to move back on base 'for a while.' Danny had not been happy. "When does he get to go home?"
"Not for a while, I'm afraid," she answered, not particularly happy about it either. "Not until we're sure Ba'al won't come back and try to steal him from us again."
"But tomorrow's Halloween!" Jason protested. "I know he doesn't want to go Trick or Treating, but Dad said we could invite him and Lt. Col. Mitchell over afterwards for pizza and a movie. He still hasn't seen 'Shrek,' you know!"
Sam fought to keep her smile contained and not laugh out-right at the boy's clearly plaintive tone. "I know," she offered seriously, although in point of fact she hadn't, "but he can't right now. You know that Ba'al taking you was an accident, right?"
Jason nodded.
"So there's no reason for him to want to take you again. You don't know anything he might want. But he took Danny on purpose and we're afraid he might do it again. You don't want that to happen, do you?"
Jason frowned and shook his head.
"Of course not," Sam interpreted. She glanced up as the elevator stopped, knowing that at least Daniel would have noticed she'd pushed the button for level 19, and not 22 where the Mess Hall was. "I just need to stop by Dr. Lee's lab for a second and check on an experiment he's been running. We've been trying to interface our computers with a device we found under--" She decided to censor herself at the last moment. "--we found and he finally got a positive result on one of the verification scans, but he's not sure what it means." She seriously doubted Jason had understood even half of what she'd just said and glanced down at Danny. He would have, 'though he probably didn't know what device she was talking about. "There's even a chance it might help with your 'little' problem." She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.
"What is Danny's problem?" Jason suddenly wanted to know. "That Ba'al guy said he wanted to help Danny with it, but he never said what it was. Are you okay, Danny? You're not dying of cancer or anything like that, are you?"
"No!" Danny and Sam both answered in unison.
Why was it little boys always came up with the worst and most gruesome scenarios in situations like this, Sam wondered? Her nephew, Alex, as exactly the same way! "Danny is not dying of cancer or anything else," she promised clearly. Danny's answer was simply a very expressive roll of his eyes even as both boys were forced to trot along beside her as they headed down the hall. She dropped both their hands as they came to a stop before Dr. Lee's door and she reached into her pocket to pull out her security card. "Now I want both of you to stay here and--"
Ah, crap.
She didn't have a lot of experience with kids - and Danny wasn't really a kid - but even she wasn't naive enough to expect a five and six year old boy to stay in one place for more than thirty seconds! Jason looked like he was already bored before she could even get the words out and Danny was obviously not going to want to play babysitter to the older boy. She really should have put off the stop until after Jason's mother had taken him home, but she was anxious to see if the device they'd discovered under Glastonbury, where they'd also discovered the Ancient communications device that had sent Daniel and Vala to the Ori galaxy six months ago, was actually a mini-Ancient database like she thought. If it was, then it was even possible it might hold the key to helping them figure out how to reverse Daniel's present condition.
The stop inside shouldn't take more than a minute. All she had to do was look at the latest test results, leave Bill a quick note telling him what she thought they might mean and what she thought he should do next. The kids could manage to stand still at least that long, couldn't they?
Not unless she kept her eye on them.
"Okay," she sighed reluctantly, knowing that leaving them unattended in the hall was out. Jack and Cam would have her head if the kids suddenly disappeared on her - and she didn't want to even think about what Kate Dixon's reaction would be! She offered the thought a small shudder. "But keep your hands in your pockets at all times and don't touch anything!" She frowned at them both until four little hands went into jean pockets and seated themselves there. "Now this should only take a minute, but I don't know what else Bill might be working on in here; some of it could be dangerous, so I really mean it: no touching! Understood?"
Damn, she thought, hesitating to swipe her card even as she received two earnest nods from the little boys. Did she really want to do this? Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of choice. There was some serious scuttlebutt flying around about wanting to send the device off to Area 51 if they didn't find something out about it real fast....
One minute, she promised herself. What could go wrong in one minute? She swiped her card and the lab door slid open.