The Dan and Jan Archive

The Price of Christmas
by Allison

E-MAIL: d_jsammy@yahoo.com
STATUS: Complete
CATEGORY: D/J, Future, Christmas Fic
RATING: PG-13
SEASON: Beyond season 6
SPOILERS: If you didn't know that Daniel was dead, then I guess it spoils Meridian.
SUMMARY: A nice quiet Christmas at home.
DISCLAIMERS: All publicly recognizable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. I made no money off the production of this fan fiction and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
FEEDBACK: If you want to send, any and all feedback is most welcome
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to Becca and Kat for letting me bounce random ideas off of them (and believe me... those ideas were random), and to Kat especially for beta'ing for me. And my dad for giving me gift ideas. Also, seeing as I've never seen Meridian, I have taken some liberties as to when it happened. This fic was written in response to Ness challenge:
Your story must:
* include the dialogue, "Looks like I've been a VERY good girl this year.";
* contain two of the following: star, angel, reindeer, snow-man, snow-woman,santa, candy cane, tree, stocking, (and/or) elf;
* be POST "Meridian" (iow, be set in season six or future);
and
* have a Dan/Jan kiss.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

**^**^**^**^**

Janet sat curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace, staring at the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree. In jeans and a warm, bulky sweater, she pulled a blanket close around her. Mesmerized by the lights, she didn't register Daniel's presence until he joined her on the couch and handed her a glass of wine. Startled, and somewhat embarrassed that she didn't know he was there, she took the proffered glass in one hand and spread the blanket out in invitation. He moved closer, tucking the blanket around him, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she leaned into him.

Closing her eyes, Janet rested her head on his shoulder, basking in his closeness. Until four months ago, she had thought she would never be able to do this again. To feel this, to feel him, again. He had died, a year and a half before, of radiation poisoning in her infirmary. Well, he hadn't died, exactly, he'd ascended. He went to be with Oma Desala's people, and they hadn't heard from him again for a long time. Colonel O'Neill didn't tell anyone about seeing Daniel while he was a Goa'uld prisoner for months afterwards.

She could still remember Sam storming into her office one Monday, almost six months after O'Neill's return, ranting about some story O'Neill had told while she and Teal'c had been at his house for dinner, and apparently a lot drinking, that weekend. A story about how Daniel had just appeared in his cell, and continued to do so until he was safe in the infirmary. Janet had been unable to get a word in edgewise as Sam paced the small room, and then ran out when the klaxon sounded. For two weeks, Sam had barely spoken to her CO outside of work, and Janet found herself alternately angry with Jack for not telling anyone and at Daniel for not letting her know he was ok.

And then a miracle happened. In August, over a year after his "death," SG-1 literally stumbled across him as they were returning from P8X-249. He was just sitting next to the DHD, waiting for them to show up. He still hadn't said much about how he had a solid body again (which Janet had thoroughly tested, and deemed him fully human), other than Oma's people offered him a chance to go back home. Apparently, he wasn't following their rules very well, and had developed a habit of interfering in things that he shouldn't, as he had done with Jack. Finally, after a year, he was back, and he was himself. As far as he knew, he would not be able to ascend again, ever. Or maybe he could, but they didn't want him to. Either way, he wasn't certain himself; he had been told all that as he was being taken to P8X-249 and dropped off.

He was back though, and that was all that counted. And he still wanted to be with her. They had just started dating a few weeks before he died, and after having grieved for him for over a year, having him suddenly back in her life had left her unsure of what to do. He had spent his first two weeks back on Earth in the infirmary as she and Dr. Warner ran test after test on him, and she hadn't really known what to say to him. For the most part, she allowed herself to fade into the background. Not that she would have had much time alone with him anyway; the other three original members of SG-1 rarely left him alone anymore. Jack would spend hours forcing him to watch hockey games, and Sam would tell him about everything that had happened while he was. Teal'c stood watch over him when he slept, and was the one to stop the 18-hour Stanley Cup marathon when Jack got too into it. Even General Hammond came by at least three times a day, as did other base personnel. It was as though no one really believe he was back, and they were making sure he didn't disappear again if they blinked.

A few days after his release back into the real world, Janet had come home to find him sitting on her front porch waiting for her. He wanted to talk to her, alone, so she went inside, changed clothes, told Cassie to make something for dinner, and went back out to the porch. There, they talked for almost two hours, and then spent even more time just holding each other on the porch swing. They agreed to start over, something that wasn't very difficult to accomplish since they hadn't gotten very far to begin with. Over the next four months they spent more and more time together, out on dates, or having dinner at home with Cassie, or hanging with Sam, Jack, and Teal'c.

And here they were, on Christmas Eve, curled up together in front of a fire. Cassie was at a Christmas party with some friends from school, so they had the house to themselves. They'd had a nice, late dinner, lit by candlelight and the fire, and watched "Frosty the Snowman" on TV. Janet took a sip of her wine, then set the glass down on the side table and looked up at him. Daniel turned his head towards her, and smiled, looking embarrassed. "What are you looking at?" he asked lightly.

She treated him to a big smile. "You," she answered back. "You are very cute, have I ever told you that?"

He blushed red at that as she leaned up and pressed a light kiss to his lips. "And just what is so cute about me?"

"Your eyes," she said right off. "They're so beautiful, and expressive. I could stare at them for hours. You looked really good with glasses, too. And, you get this look on your face sometimes, when you are confused, or when Col. O'Neill is making less sense then usual, that is just so adorable it's all I can do to keep from kissing you right there, in front of everyone." He was even redder now, and she took pity on him.

"Thanks. I think," he stuttered out. "And just how long did you spend staring at me?"

"How many briefings have I sat through with SG-1? How often have you been in the infirmary?"

"That long, huh?" She nodded slightly, and he pulled her closer, moving his arm from her shoulders down to her waist as she turned towards him. "I guess it's a good thing that I find you absolutely breathtaking, then. Or I might not have gone there in the first place." He grinned at her as he said it, watching her turn pink.

He raised his free hand to her face and caressed her cheek. Lowering his head so that his lips barely touched hers, he whispered against them, "I came back for you," then kissed her. She tasted of the wine and dinner and herself. They stayed like that for several minutes, kissing and stroking and tasting each other. They pulled apart when the clock chimed the hour. "It's midnight," he murmured to her.

"Yes, it is." She shivered as his hand slid under her sweater and ran up her side.

"Did you still want to exchange gifts tonight?"

"Will it involve getting up off the couch?"

He chuckled. "I think so. But if we hurry it'll be like we never left." She made no move to get up. "Ok. How about, the quicker we get up, the quicker we get to open them?"

She pretended to think about it, and then she grinned like a little kid. "Ok." She got off the couch and went to the Christmas tree. She picked up two wrapped gifts and carried them back to the couch and waited for him to return. When he did, they sat cross-legged, facing each other. Somewhat impatiently, she handed him his gifts as soon as he sat down. "Merry Christmas, Daniel," she said.

He opened the smaller present first. Inside the box was a brochure for a weekend vacation at the Aspen Resort, with a sticky note that said February 13-17, 2003. He looked up at her questioningly, "Janet?"

"It's, um, well. truthfully we haven't. spent a whole lot of time alone since you've been back, since Cassie's here or we're with Sam and Teal'c and Col. O'Neill and I thought maybe we could just go away for a few days. Before you say no because of work, I asked General Hammond about your mission schedule and he said that you guys wouldn't be off world then, because of some conference Sam has that week and."

Daniel sat back and listened to her talk, then leaned over and kissed her, cutting her off mid-thought. He held the kiss for only a few seconds, before pulling back and smiling. "I think it's a wonderful idea. A wonderful Christmas present. One that I will be looking forward to for the next two months. Thank you." He set that box aside and turned to the other present. "Now, what's this?" He unwrapped it to find a photo album that appeared to be full of pictures. He looked through it, surprised to see pictures of him with SG-1, on other planets, even a couple picture of him and Shau're. There had to be at least a hundred photographs in there, and he realized that he was in every one of them. He turned back to the beginning and saw, written in Janet's handwriting, "Daniel Jackson, to all those who will never forget him. 1965-2001."

He looked back up at her, and was startled to see tears on her cheeks. He set the album aside and reached for her. She went willingly into his embrace. It took her a moment, but she wiped her eyes on her sleeve and picked up the album, settling back against him. "A couple weeks after you died," she started quietly, "Sam and I were in her office eating lunch, and Sgt. Siler came in with this box of photographs. This was one of those file boxes that accountants have, or something. He said that in their spare time, a lot of the personnel at the SGC had, with General Hammond's permission, gone through mission files and found pictures of you with your team or on another planet or whatever. As long as it had you in it, they made copies of them and brought us the originals. There were probably a thousand photographs in the damn thing.

"At first, we had no idea what to do with it, but Cassy gave us the idea of making some sort of scrapbook with the pictures, for the four of us, and the General, maybe a couple others. In the end we just decided on photo albums. We sorted through every single one of those pictures, choosing the ones we wanted. We had copies of them made on base, but obviously we were given authorization to take them home with us. Sam, Teal'c, Col. O'Neill, General Hammond, and I all have one. We knew we would never forget you, but it helped to have something tangible to hold onto; it helped us deal with the grief. I want you to have mine, so that you know how much you mean to all of us; how loved you are by all of us."

She smiled slyly as she added, "And it looks like I've been a VERY good girl this year, because you," she emphasized that with light kiss against his throat, "are back, and you still want to be with me." She looked up at him, and just as he had been a few moments before, was at a loss to see tears in his eyes. "Hey, I didn't tell you that to make you cry too," she murmured.

"I'm ok. I just didn't really realize until just now how much I missed all of you while I was gone. I mean, I missed everyone, but somehow, when I was ascended, at first it didn't really matter. It wasn't until after I saw Jack that it all started to change. I started breaking the rules, interfering when they didn't want me to. I wonder sometimes if that wasn't an unconscious effort on my part to force them to send me back. I guess it worked, though, because I'm here, right where I want to be." He was watching her as he spoke, and he could see that she was about to cry again, so he handed her her Christmas present.

"Here, Janet. Merry Christmas."

She took the small box from him and unwrapped it to find a velvet covered jewelry box. Opening it, she gasped, and she jerked her head up to stare at him for a moment before looking down again. Inside the box lay a necklace. It was a rose made of pale pink alexandrite and emeralds, with a diamond center, on a gold chain. "Daniel," she breathed out. "It's beautiful!" She lunged forward, pushing him back against the arm of the couch, and kissed him for all she was worth.

When they broke apart for need of air, Daniel grinned up at her as he asked, "I take it you like it?"

She swatted him across the chest as she leaned down for another kiss. "I love it, thank you," she whispered, as she sat up. He took the box from her and carefully took out the necklace. She turned away and lifted up her hair so he could put it on her. Once he did so, she turned back to face him.

"It looks as beautiful on you as I thought it would," he said with a touch of awe in his voice. They kissed again, and again, until they made their way upstairs, leaving behind a Christmas tree with an angel on top that, for a brief moment, smiled in the twinkling lights.

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