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George couldn't help it.
Even though she was now married and had a baby, he was still in love with her.
He'd managed to avoid the wedding, by claiming that he had a funeral back home in Texas to attend instead. Both she and her fiancé had understood, and she had offered a sympathetic smile.
Her smile still made his heart do funny things.
"And this is your Grandpa George…" George looked to see Jack O'Neill waltzing into the briefing room, a baby in his arms. A baby called Autumn Paige Dakota Jackson to be exact. George hadn't met her before, having invented the excuse of his granddaughter's birthday party to avoid her christening, and declined all further invitations to be social at the Jacksons. As much as he loved the idea of socialising with Janet outside of work, the idea of watching her play happy families with another man was just too much for him to cope with.
George blinked and then looked again, wondering just what his second-in-command was doing with the baby in the middle of the country's most secure and top-secret military facility.
"Colonel?" he asked, questioningly.
"Ah, Daniel and Janet wanted some alone time, so I was left holding the baby – literally, as it happens," Jack explained. "I came in to pick up some things, and thought I'd give her a tour while we were here."
George didn't want to think about why the little girl's parents wanted some alone time. If in nine months time it meant that Autumn had a little brother or sister, he was clearly going to have to make sure that Jack had more things to do so he didn't have enough time to baby-sit.
"Jack, what does "Top-Secret" mean to you?" he asked, ignoring the baby's brown eyes, which reminded him so much of his beloved doctor. Looking Jack in the eyes, he almost did a double take when the man's brown eyes also started to remind him of Janet.
"Don't tell anyone, which, at eight months, I don't think she will be doing anytime soon," Jack remarked. "Although Janet said something about her first word earlier. She said that it sounded scarily like 'coffee'."
Coffee brown would be a good adjective for Janet's eyes, George realised, before turning his attention back to the subject at hand. "I would suggest that you don't make a habit of it," he warned and Jack nodded. "Although why you're here, Colonel, how did they persuade you to baby-sit?"
He was always on the lookout for other sitters for his granddaughters, just so his daughter wouldn't take so much of his free time up. Now that Andy had come to the end of his term, he kept asking George if he wanted to go golfing and George had lost count of the times he'd had to say no because he was looking after Tessa and Kayla. All the missed opportunities to talk about Janet on the fourth tee didn't bare thinking about.
Jack groaned. "Out of the infirmary, Janet's had me twisted around her little finger for the last thirty-odd years," he replied. "And Autumn loves her Uncle Jack, doesn't she?" Autumn gurgled happily in response.
George looked at them strangely. Thirty-odd years? He was no math genius, but that was surely most of Janet's lifetime (which was just over half of his, but that was a bit of math he never thought about. Ever). "Son, what do you mean by 'thirty-odd' years? How old was Doctor Fraiser when she first had you 'twisted around her little finger' as you so colourfully put it?"
"Two weeks," Jack replied, looking slightly embarrassed. "As soon as I held her in my arms, that was it. Pretty much like this little missy here, although it was more like two hours for you, eh? Just like your mom… you can't help the Jackson genes."
Amen to that, George thought. He could only hope that the poor kid took after her mother in all and every respect.
"And you were holding her at two weeks because…"
Jack looked surprised. "She's my cousin," he said simply. "My mom's her dad's older sister."
The light bulb went on above George's head. That explained why the colonel's eyes had suddenly started to remind him of his favourite medical officer. It also meant that he owed Jacob Carter an apology, as he'd mentioned the eye colour to George briefly in passing a few months ago. George had laughed it off, telling Jacob that it was time he got laid, which had just descended into an ugly mess of who had had sex last. (George had won that, simply on the fact that his wife had died more recently. And the fact that before he had joined the Tok'ra, Jacob had been dying of cancer himself and hadn't really been in any condition to have sex.)
George tried not to snort when he realised that chances were high that Jacob would have grandchildren with similar brown eyes (Everyone on base knew that it was only a matter of time before Jack and Sam got together, and George had even laid an anonymous bet that they were sleeping together already.) He couldn't wait until Jacob's next visit to inform him of this latest development.
It also made the familiarity between the pair of them make much more sense. Indeed, at one of the inaugural 'Janet Fraiser Appreciator's Society' (pre-name, when they were simply known as the 'We Love Janet' club) meetings, someone had suggested inviting Jack into the club, believing that he and Janet had once been an item. George was suddenly very glad that idea had been vetoed…
"Well, sir, if you'll excuse us, I'm just going to show her the infirmary where mommy works and where daddy spends most of his time," Jack smirked. "It's probably where she was conceived, not that mommy or daddy will confirm that. They just go bright red, don't they, Autumn honey?"
George shuddered at the mental images that conquered up. "You're dismissed," he told Jack curtly, wondering if anyone would notice if he disappeared for about half an hour to take a shower.
Actually, make that an hour he decided, when he was actually standing under the shower ten minutes later. The hot water was almost scalding as he covered himself with soap again and again, feeling oh so dirty after the nasty thoughts that Jack O'Neill had put in his head. However, he quickly switched the dial down to cold when the Daniel Jackson figure disappeared, leaving only the vision of the petite doctor behind in his head.
Groaning as he left the shower and quickly redressed, he headed back up to his office. He needed to try and come up with a new excuse for Jacob to be able to come and visit.
There was only one type of memo which George liked to find on his desk, and they were the ones signed "J. Fraiser." They'd realised the problem of her taking his name before they were married, and although she hyphenated to 'Fraiser-Jackson' outside of work, nothing had changed within in the SGC. (Although for a while there had been several 'Daniel Fraiser' nametags floating around, which had amused the few personnel not involved in his wife's secret Appreciation Society)
The memo that he'd received that morning was one of his favourite. He was under orders to report to the infirmary to be placed under the careful ministrations of the CMO that afternoon while she administered his yearly physical (which was apparently going to have to be twice-yearly now he was getting… wiser)
And the best thing about it was that for once, Doctor Jackson had managed to return from his latest mission unharmed, so he wouldn't be in the next bed, watching his wife's every move.
It was a rude surprise for George when he made it down to the infirmary and found Sergeant Siler already in one bed, his eyes clearly drawn to a certain lower part of the petite doctor's anatomy as she fussed around a patient in another bed.
"Son, what happened?" he asked.
"Light bulb accident," Siler replied simply. George resisted the desire to sigh. Siler had so many more opportunities to end up in the infirmary under Janet's tender care than he did. Although how Siler had actually had an accident involving light bulbs, he didn't want to know.
Was Siler even responsible for light bulbs in the SGC?
He pulled himself up onto the next bed, taking care not to block Siler's view. He didn't want to suffer the wrath of him and his wrench.
Janet turned from her patient, and George realised with horror that it was in fact Doctor Jackson.
What the hell had he managed to do to himself between SG-1's debriefing and now?!
George briefly wondered just how many of the archaeologist's injuries were psychosomatic.
"General, I won't be a minute," Janet assured him with a quick smile, heading off to talk to one of her nurses.
Thankfully her husband was so absorbed watching her go that he didn't notice the other two men in the infirmary also had their eyes on her.
"So, Doctor Jackson, what happened?" George asked as soon as Janet disappeared around the corner and the sound of her heels tapping on the floor faded away.
Jackson blushed. "I, uh…" he stammered. "I dropped one of my artefacts on my toe."
George just looked at him. He had never heard of Doctor Jackson dropping one of his artefacts before, they were like his children.
Or at least they had been until the arrival of Autumn Paige Dakota.
Jackson was looking uncomfortable under the scrutiny. "I got distracted for a moment." His almost unnoticeable glance in the direction Janet had disappeared in left George in no doubt as to the cause of that distraction and he tried not to think any more about that.
He lay back on the hard infirmary bed and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the two beds either side of him were empty. He half sat up, rather embarrassed that he had just fallen asleep.
Janet was in the corner, talking in a low voice to one of her staff. Seeing that he was awake, she sent off the young woman with a pile of folders.
George watched, his mouth suddenly going dry as he watched her saunter across the infirmary. There was something almost seductive in her movements, and he was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open.
He knew his mouth had dropped open when she stripped off her white lab coat, and threw it across the infirmary floor. She pulled up her skirt as she climbed onto his bed and straddled him.
George suddenly realised that he'd forgotten to breathe, but knew that if he died now, then he'd die a very happy man indeed. His one gripe would be not being able to boast about it to the rest of the Society.
"What seems to be the problem, General?" she asked in a husky voice. He gulped.
"General?"
He was shaking.
"General?"
George opened his eyes to find large, concerned brown eyes looking down at him. "General, are you alright, sir?" Janet asked him.
George half sat up, looking around him. Siler and Jackson were both looking at him curiously. His mouth still felt dry, and he just gaped up at the diminutive doctor.
"You fell asleep, sir," Janet grinned slightly.
George tried not to groan out loud. Damn it, it had all been a dream.
George didn't want to think about how he had ended up there. He supposed that he should have come up with another excuse to avoid this gathering, but it had been sprung on him so unexpectedly that he couldn't think of one in time. He couldn't even use his daughter and granddaughters as an excuse, as Jack had invited them too.
Which is how he was sitting in Jack O'Neill's back yard, a beer in hand, trying to avoid looking at the happy Jackson family. Which was very difficult, as they seemed to be spread across the yard. Janet was all but sitting in her husband's lap, laughing with Sam, while Autumn Paige Dakota was being passed around from person to person, chortling and giggling at the attention. His daughter currently had her as she laughed with one of Janet's nurses, who was actually her next-door neighbour. It seemed as though Jack had invited everyone in the SGC around to his place for his Fourth of July barbeque.
At least he had Jacob here to suffer and gossip with him.
"Any closer and she'll be on his lap," Jacob muttered, before taking a drink of his orange juice and scowling. "No beer… no coffee… no sex. If I'd have known that before agreeing to take the symbiont, then I'd have given it a second thought."
George watched in amusement as Jacob's hand raised itself and smacked Jacob. "Probably not the best thing to say when the symbiont in you knows what you're saying," he said, taking a swig of his beer. He supposed that he shouldn't be drinking it in front of his friend, further rubbing salt into the wound, but there was no way he was getting through this afternoon completely sober.
Although he would have to make sure that he didn't overdo it on the drink, because that could be embarrassing. As long as he didn't end up confessing his love to a married woman half his age everything would be fine.
"Ahh, no." Jacob returned his attention to where Janet had just turned to kiss her husband sweetly on the lips. "Oh, for crying out loud. Do they have to do that in public? There are kids around."
"I'm not looking in that direction," George informed his friend.
"I can't help it," Jacob protested. "You get to see her more often than I do. I can't help looking at her, even if he's there too. It's magnetic."
"It's just her smile," George smiled happily.
"Her laugh…"
"The way she bites her lip when she's nervous."
"Her eyes." Both George and Jacob looked around to see Paul Davis standing behind them. Jacob almost did a double take as he was so used to seeing the younger man with a gavel and a badge of office hanging around his neck.
"Paul, didn't know you were coming," George greeted, shaking his hand. Paul pulled up a nearby chair.
The SGC liaison grinned sheepishly. "When the colonel invited me, I couldn't say no," he said, his gaze moving across the yard to the giggling doctor. "Even if he was going to be here with her."
"Unfortunately, they sealed that with the whole "death do them part," Jacob remarked gloomily.
George snorted. "Well, at the rate Doctor Jackson dies," he began, laughing. Both Paul and Jacob sniggered.
"What the hell is he doing?" Jacob asked, his attention briefly distracted from Janet. He was now looking at where Jack was climbing on top of a rather unsteady chair, and tried not to shudder at the news George had broken to him the previous night. He really hadn't wanted to know that Janet and Jack were related.
"May I have your attention please." Jack quietened down the full yard, casting a couple of glances at the other human members of his team. "I'd like to say thank you to everyone for coming," he said. "The food will be ready soon, and any food poisoning is not my fault." There was a small ripple of laughter from his guests. "Y'all know who to see if you need to, if you can pull her away from her family that is."
"You'll have to go through me first," her husband called out, and all bar the members of her Appreciation Society scattered throughout the crowd laughed.
"And on that note, I believe Doctors Jacksons have something to say." Jack moved out of the way next to Sam, who was standing to the side holding Autumn.
With her husband's arm wrapped protectively around her waist, Janet beamed at the gathered crowd, resting her head against his shoulder. It was the academic doctor who spoke up.
"Janet and I are delighted to announce that in another six months, Autumn's going to have a little brother or sister," he said.
That was the last thing George remembered before he made the ground's acquaintance.