Title: Incentive
Author: MegTDJ
Category: Angst/drama; romance
Rating: M (Mature)
Pairing: Daniel/Janet established relationship
Spoilers: Set in season 6, in an AU where Meridian never happened.
Warnings: Mature subject matter
Summary: When the life of someone Daniel loves is in danger, how far will he go to save them? (Sequel to Disappearing Act)
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.

Author's notes: I'm trying really hard not to offer a major disclaimer on this fic (because Kerri told me not to :P), but I feel as though I do need to say something. So, um... I guess I'll just ask that you please forgive any glaring errors in the science of this fic. Research isn't exactly my forte, but I did my best!

Many thanks to Kerri, Misty, Julie, Mara, and anybody I've forgotten that helped me out with various aspects of this fic. It was pretty tough to write in places, so I needed all the help I could get!

Incentive

Chapter 1

"Chak. Da. Minal kara."

"Please, just let me go. Please!"

Daniel jerked awake and bolted upright in the bed. He gasped for breath as he tried to regain his bearings. He wasn't in that place... he was home. He was safe in bed. Nothing to be afraid of.

"Another bad dream?"

Daniel sank back down onto his pillows and wiped the sweat from his face with his hand. "Yeah," he said. "Is it just me, or are the nightmares always worse after we make love?"

Janet smiled sympathetically and snuggled up against his side. "It'll get better," she said as she started stroking his chest. "It's only been six months. It's probably just that you're still uncomfortable being naked and... feeling vulnerable. When it comes right down to it, you were more or less raped, Daniel. It makes sense that..."

"Can we not talk about that, please?" Daniel said. He shivered and snaked his arm around his wife to draw her closer. No matter how much time passed, he knew he would never be able to think about that place without feeling a chill.

"I'm sorry," she said. She kissed his chest and wrapped her arm securely around his middle. "Just don't worry about it, okay? You're doing great. Dr. Mackenzie has cleared you, you're back at work... you've got your sexy muscles back," she added playfully as she ran her hand over his chest and stomach.

"Oh, I get it," Daniel teased. "You just married me for my body."

Janet lifted her head to smile at him. "You'd better believe it," she said, and kissed him sweetly on the lips.

Daniel laughed as she laid her head back down on his chest. "Then I guess we're even," he said.

Janet pinched him hard, making him yelp. "Smart ass," she said. "Go back to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am." Daniel sighed contentedly and rested his cheek against the top of her head.

Within moments, Janet's breathing became deep and even as she drifted off to sleep. Daniel just lay there listening to her, soaking up the feeling of peace and security she always gave him. That was a feeling he still needed desperately, even though he'd been home safe and sound for weeks. The fear that it was all just a dream or a reprieve - that one day he would wake up back in that place again, or that the disease would return in full force - was always at the back of his mind.

Part of him was constantly trying to forget and move on with his life, but another part was always whispering to him in the dead of night that they were still watching him... waiting for him. That nothing was ever going to be alright again. Whenever these thoughts threatened to take control of him, he would reach out for Janet, and she was always there with words of comfort and logic or even just the silent assurance of her presence. He honestly didn't think he could have made it through the past few months without her.

Daniel lay awake for the next couple of hours lost in thought, gently stroking Janet's hair from time to time as she slept. It took him completely by surprise when the alarm clock went off.

Janet grunted and rolled away from him as Daniel reached over to shut it off.

Daniel smiled and moved to wrap his arm around her. "Good morning, Sunshine," he whispered into her ear, exulting in the fact that he'd been the one to say it to her for a change. "Rise and shine."

Janet gave him a sleepy grin and cracked one eye open. "Since when are you so awake at this hour?" she asked.

"Since I've been lying awake for two hours watching you sleep," Daniel said.

Janet's face fell and her expression became one of concern. "Daniel, you should have been sleeping," she said. "Are you feeling alright?"

Daniel shrugged off her worries. "I'm fine," he said. "Just couldn't sleep."

"Will you be okay to go to work?" she asked as she sat up and pulled the sheets up to her neck to protect against the cool of the spring morning.

"Yeah, of course," Daniel said. He turned away from her to get out of bed and grab his robe so that she wouldn't see his true feelings on the matter. The truth was, he still got a little creeped out every time the off-world activation alarm sounded, and it was starting to make him dread going to work. He was trying to keep this little issue to himself, as he knew he'd just be sent back to Dr. Mackenzie if anyone found out. It wasn't easy.

Thankfully, his avoidance technique seemed to work, as Janet didn't call him on it. "Do you want to take the first shower?" she asked mid-yawn.

"Sure," he said. "You look like you need to wake up a bit more before you actually stand."

Janet made a face at him and turned over onto her side to hug her pillow. "Don't use up all the hot water."

Daniel made a face back at her, even though she was no longer looking at him, and headed into the bathroom.

It didn't take long for Daniel to do his morning ablutions, and then he handed the bathroom over to Janet while he got dressed in the bedroom. It felt very strange to be doing things in that order when Janet had always been the first one in the house to get up. Unless she'd worked late, in which case she would be the last by a few hours. He'd become somewhat of a stickler for routine since his ordeal, so he wasn't completely comfortable with it.

The shower had long turned off by the time he was ready to go downstairs for breakfast, but as Janet hadn't emerged from the bathroom yet, Daniel thought he should poke his head in and tell her. He was just pushing the door open when he heard Janet mutter, "Oh, God."

"What is it?" he asked, concerned that she might have hurt herself.

Janet looked over at him in surprise and dropped whatever she'd been holding in her hands into a drawer. "Nothing," she said. "It's nothing."

Daniel studied her closely, not sure what to make of her brush off. "Didn't sound like nothing," he said. "What's up?"

"I, uh..." Janet sighed and shook her head. "I forgot to take a pill yesterday, that's all," she said, pulling the package back out of the drawer and holding it up with a sheepish smile.

Daniel stared at her for a moment, stunned. His mind started whirring, trying to process what she'd just told him, but his body completely froze. She couldn't have said what he thought she'd just said. Not in that nonchalant tone. Not with that casual smile on her face. He just couldn't believe it. "That's... that's all?" he repeated once his voice returned to him. "Janet..."

"It's no big deal, Daniel," Janet said quickly. "Honestly. Women miss a pill here and there all the time."

"But you might be pregnant." The words that had been echoing through his mind finally made it out of his mouth, making the possibility seem all the more real and all the more frightening.

Still, Janet's nonchalance didn't fade. "It's highly unlikely..." she said.

"But you might be," Daniel insisted, unable to prevent his anger at her attitude from creeping into his tone.

Janet stared at him in what seemed to be surprise at his reaction. "Yes..." she said carefully. "I might be..."

Daniel felt all colour drain from his face. "Well... can you do something?" he asked anxiously. "The morning-after pill or... something?"

"Daniel, calm down, it's okay..."

"No, it's not okay!" Daniel snapped. "It's only been a few hours, you... you can do something, right?"

Janet sighed and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. "I'd... I'd rather... rather not do that," she said hesitantly.

"What? Why?"

Janet shook her head and raised her hands in a helpless gesture. Then she looked down at the vanity as she seemed to be trying to come up with something to say.

Not that she needed words. Daniel could tell by the look on her face what she was thinking, though part of him didn't want to believe it. "You want this, don't you?" he asked in almost a whisper. "My God, you want to get pregnant, don't you?"

Janet gave him a pleading look. "Would it really be such a terrible thing?" she asked.

Daniel's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Yes!" he cried. "It would! I have a genetic disease, Janet. Genetic, meaning passed on through genes."

"We don't know that you would pass it on, Daniel."

"Well, we sure as hell don't know that I wouldn't!"

"Would you please stop yelling at me?" Janet said, her voice finally rising to match his own angry tone. "Think about what you're saying here, Daniel. Laying aside the possible side effects of the so-called "morning-after pill" for me, what if the process has already started? What if there's already a little piece of you and me merging together to make a new life? You told me you were devastated by Sha're's miscarriage, yet just because our child might be born sick, you just want to throw it away like garbage?"

"I don't believe this," Daniel said, throwing his hands in the air and turning to leave the room.

Janet followed him into the bedroom and grasped his arm to make him look at her. "Look, I'm sorry... okay?" she said, her voice lowered but shaking a little with emotion. "I'm very sorry. I just don't want to go using something like that every time I miss a pill, or a condom breaks, or for any number of..."

"I should have had a vasectomy," Daniel muttered, cutting her off mid-sentence.

Janet softened at this and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. "I think we both know why you couldn't," she said.

Daniel knew she meant well, but this mention of his much-hated vulnerability was a kick in the teeth that he didn't need right then. He yanked his arm away from her. "Which is why we agreed that you would take care of it," he said with a pointed glare.

Janet looked like she'd been slapped. "Daniel... I doubt very much that I'm pregnant," she said.

Daniel glared at her for a moment longer, but he figured that saying anything more now would just make matters worse. He turned his back on her and walked out of the bedroom.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Janet stared at Daniel open-mouthed as he walked away from her. It wasn't until she heard him stomp down the stairs that it fully sank in - they'd just had a fight.

She knew it shouldn't take her so much by surprise, but whereas her first marriage had been one fight after another, it had never been that way with Daniel. Sure, they'd only been together for a few months, and he'd been either sick or missing for quite a few of them, but they'd been happy. This must have just been a one-time thing. This wasn't a foretaste of things to come.

Was it?

She sank down onto the bed and shook her head sharply. Daniel was just scared, she reminded herself. That's all it was. People get angry when they're afraid. Once she could make him realize there was nothing to be afraid of, he'd calm down. She knew he would.

'Unless I really am pregnant.'

This niggling doubt crept its way into her mind and refused to be pushed to the side. Of course she wasn't pregnant. She'd missed a pill here and there over the years and nothing had ever come of it. During her first marriage, she'd even quit the pill for a few months in the hopes that she'd become pregnant. Nothing. The odds were so remote they might as well have been talking about winning the lottery.

But some part of her knew it was still possible. That annoying little voice kept telling her that Daniel was right - she should do something about it before it was too late. She just couldn't face that. Not if it meant terminating the life of the only baby she may ever have.

This thought made her realize that Daniel had definitely been right about one thing - part of her was hoping she really was pregnant.

She knew this would be her last opportunity - thirty-eight years old, and not getting any younger - and even though the risk of their baby being born ill was a significant one, somehow she was willing to take that chance. She couldn't live with herself if she nipped its life in the bud just because it might have a disease that they knew for a fact was possible to manage, if not cure. Especially not now, when Cassie was about to turn seventeen and was seriously looking into which college she was going to attend next year. She loved being a mother, and while she'd resigned herself to not overtly seeking motherhood out, if a child fell into her lap, could she really turn it away?

Her troubled thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the open door, and she looked up to see Cassie hesitantly poke her head around the doorframe.

"Mom?"

"What is it, sweetheart?" Janet said, trying to sound casual as she stood up and went over to the dresser.

"Is everything okay?" Cassie asked. "I heard you guys fighting."

Janet turned to the girl in dismay. She hadn't even thought about their voices carrying into the next room. From the look of concern on Cassie's face, their argument must have sounded pretty bad. "I'm sorry, Cassie," she said. "It was nothing, really. We didn't mean for you to hear that."

"Is... is Daniel okay?" Cassie asked hesitantly.

Janet smiled and went over to her daughter to lay a soft hand on her shoulder. "He's fine," she assured her. "Couples fight sometimes, that's all. Did... you hear what we were fighting about?"

Cassie shook her head. "I just heard your voices. Daniel sounded pretty freaked out."

Janet sighed, partly with relief and partly from sadness at remembering the look on Daniel's face while they argued. He really had been freaked out. "Well... don't worry about it, okay?" Janet said with forced cheerfulness. "Go and get ready for school. I'll come downstairs in a minute."

"Okay." Cassie kissed her on the cheek and then left the room.

With another sigh, Janet went back to getting ready for work. At best, it would be a week before she knew for certain whether she was pregnant or not, so there was no sense in worrying about it any longer. It wouldn't change anything, and she had more important things to do anyway.

She just hoped Daniel would come to the same conclusion.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

To be continued...