Daniel and Adrienne #2: Hurdles

“Adrienne, what in the hell’s making that clicking noise?” Daniel asked calmly, puzzled, across the room without looking up as he gazed straight at the manuscript on his desk.  He was trying; he was really making an effort to quell his annoyance and not to snap at her, although he was fairly certain that she was the cause of the noise. She saved them, he told himself, she’s not an idiot, repeating his new mantra over and over in his head giving her time to answer. She’s ridiculously smart and efficient, he recognized that, and her upkeep of the lab while he was recovering in the infirmary was impressive, but there were certain aspects of her personality that he just found, annoying. 

Having yet to receive an answer, he moved the magnifier aside, gazing to his left at the spare desk upon which Dr. Adrienne Rowan had taken up residence.  There she was, her dark brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail placed far too high, pieces of hair escaping across her head, wisping down her cheekbones. She was plugged into her iPod, face in deep concentration on the ally database that he had asked her to go through after so successfully contacting the Langarans. He knew instantly that she couldn’t hear him; the music was too loud, while he could not hear it through her new noise canceling headphones the bop in her shoulders was a clear indication that she was absorbed in something horrible, probably hip hop music. Not wanting to disturb her, or hear that music for that matter, Daniel adjusted his glasses, peering over at her carefully, trying to figure out the clicking noise himself when he noticed her chewing on something at the same rate as the clicking.  Pushing his spectacles further up his face, he leaned over in his chair, curious as to what she was chewing on, noting that whatever it was, it was shiny, metallic and in her mouth.  

“What in the world?” Daniel said loudly, standing from his desk, determined to figure out what his assistant was chewing on exactly and why. Granted, she had some pretty odd health habits, organic food, a crazily large assortment of vitamins that were kept in giant gym bag in her locker, and a regimented exercise schedule that made Cameron look like an amateur, but Daniel wasn’t aware of any health fad that involved chewing anything, much less anything metallic.  Then again, it wasn’t as if he followed that sort of news anyway, if so, he was fairly certain he would never eat fast food again.  He arrived at her desk, cautiously tapping her on the shoulder hoping not to startle her.   Pulling the headphones down swiftly to her neck, Adrienne glanced up at him inquisitively, not killing the music.  Hmmm, latino pop today, he thought, her taste in music never ceasing to amaze him. 

“Yes sir,” she said respectfully.  Ugh, he hated that; he told her last week to stop calling him sir. It made him feel like old, like he was her dad or something, but worse than that, it made him feel like Jack.  

“Daniel,” he corrected curtly, formulating his question before she could speak again, “What’s that clicking noise?” 

Hitting pause on her music, Adrienne listened carefully, those dark eyes of hers darting around the room searching for the source of this clicking he was asking about, even shutting off her music completely on the second pass. Shaking her head confused, she glanced back up at him, shrugging her shoulders.   

“I don’t hear anything Dr. Jackson,” she responded politely making Daniel roll his eyes. For all of the spunk and sass she had at the interview and the past ten weeks as an employee at the SGC, she was awfully docile here in the lab. It made him think she was up to something, but on the other hand she had never given him a reason to doubt her so far, so he quickly dismissed the thought. 

“My name is DANIEL, you know like you make me call you ADRIENNE. It was coming from over here and I saw you chewing on something.  What are you chewing on?” he asked equally as professional as she had addressed him, leaning forward to see if maybe she had just been chewing on the end of a pencil.  Instead of pencils her desk was nearly empty, home to just one purple ballpoint pen and that fancy tablet computer she was obsessed with, the one she had been insisting could make their job so much easier, but nothing else, so he directed his attention to her face, searching her person for the sound that had at this point disappeared.  

“Nothing, I was just sitting here reading over these files on the Nox you gave me to read.  They seem like great people; why aren’t we working with them any longer?” she inquired, brushing off his question.  Not satisfied with the response, Daniel made a face at her, shoving his hands in his pockets in frustration. 

“I swear, I’m not eating anything; am I not supposed to eat in here? Look, there’s nothing in my mouth,” she argued, opening her mouth wide and pointing inside.  Daniel didn’t need to search any further, right in that instant he discovered the cause of the clicking. 

“What is that?” he asked smartly, pointing to her mouth.  Confused, Adrienne swallowed, searching for a morsel of food that wasn’t there inside her closed mouth, when she figured it out, chucking lightly. Smiling, Dr. Adrienne Rowan stuck out her tongue proudly, revealing that it was pierced right in the center, a large silver ball shining in the florescent light of the lab. 

“A pierced tongue,” she replied, pulling the tongue back into her mouth still smiling. Daniel looked shocked; he really couldn’t believe that this woman had found yet another place to poke a hole in her body, but apparently she had. 

“When did you get that?” he asked, his tone moving from short to curious, wondering what other secrets she may have. His fearless assistant was turning out to be one of the most unique individuals that he had ever met.   

“Uh, 1998,” she answered, her tone short this time, as if she was preparing for a fight. He didn’t want that, but his curiosity was getting the best of him and the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could control them.   

“They let you teach with that?” he continued questioning, mystified, thinking he could ask her the same thing about her eyebrow, her lip, her nose and that disaster that she called a left ear.  She must have sensed his confusion, but misinterpreting it as hostility, pulled the headphones off of her neck, boring those Cajun eyes right into his. 

“Yes, for a long time. It’s inside my mouth, people don’t notice it unless I want them too,” Adrienne responded smartly.  

“Or unless you are playing with it loudly,” he retorted, equally as rude, and paused. “Does Sam know you have that? Did she know about the other ones before you came?”  That was a question that had been plaguing him for a while; had she been hiding them at the interview, when she first met Sam and waited until she had the job to replace them? No matter how much he racked his brain, he just couldn’t remember anything about her interview other than her telling him off in French, which still made him chuckle. 

“Yeah, she wanted to know if it hurt.  I was 18; I told her that I don’t remember, and as far as the others are concerned, yes, she knew about those as well, I don’t ever take them out,” Adrienne answered, defensively, with a hint of nervousness as Daniel stood there, his hands still shoved in his pockets glaring at her.   

“Am I not allowed to have a body piercings and work here? Does that bother you or something?” Adrienne asked, starting to get upset.  What a stupid thing to be concerned with, she thought to herself, especially since there were much more important things to worry about around here other than her jewelry selection, but at the same time she knew that there were some things that just set Daniel off and she was fearful that this was one of them. However, instead of maintaining his intimidating stance, he removed his hands from his pockets, waving them dismissively in front of himself. 

“No, they’re fine, I just find it odd,” he answered calmly, turning around and returning to his desk.  She looked over at him puzzled, following him with those eyes as he took his seat and moved the magnifier back over the manuscript, not saying another word.  Frustrated, she sighed from her seat.  

“Dr. Jackson, do I need to take it out?” she asked politely before he could delve too far into his task.  Daniel glanced over again, pausing for a brief instant since he couldn’t tell if she was being professional or nastily sarcastic; he just didn’t know this woman well enough and she was a tough read. Choosing not to snap, and assuming that she was still calling him doctor out of habit, Daniel smiled and shook his head.  

“Daniel, please, not Dr. Jackson, and no, just try not to make so much noise with it.  The clicking is distracting when I’m trying to concentrate,” he answered her politely as possible, hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong way. Thankfully, she simply nodded her head in the affirmative, pulling her headphones back to her ear and clicking around on her screen once more. Relieved, Daniel waited just one moment, noting that she was not chowing down on her mouth jewelry and smiled, leaning over to peer into the glass. 

Adrienne, pleased that a conversation that could have easily ended in a scolding hadn’t, flicked back on her Shakira playlist, and continued reading about Nox, a fascinating people that she would love to talk with him more about. She really wished he was a tad friendlier, she’d thought after he had gotten out of the infirmary that maybe he would talk to her more, but while he was nicer, he still tended to keep to himself. She was going through Daniel’s theories concerning the correlation between the Nox resurrection rituals and the use of the sarcophagus when a message signal binged on her headphones, halting the music. Closing the screen, she tabbed over to see who was trying to talk to her on chat. 

You coming to training?

It was from Vala, who had been elated once Adrienne had shown her this new method of communication, remarking that it was yet another way that they could make fun of him. Adrienne didn’t necessarily want to make fun of her boss, but he did drive her insane with his backwards version of organization and those ‘geek zones’ he slipped in to, so it was nice to have someone to vent to.  Glancing over at Daniel to make sure he was fully engrossed before she answered, Adrienne noted his posture, so close to the magnifier that he appeared to be smelling it. Geek zone. Cooly, she muted her music and shot off her answer. 

Not sure.  He seems more annoyed with me than usual today.  He discovered the tongue ring.....

Adrienne tapped enter quickly and tried to pretend she was still working as she awaited the reply, fingers crossed that Daniel wouldn’t be able to see the little chat box stowed away so covertly at the corner of the screen.  Apparently, Adrienne had learned over her conversations with her new friend, Daniel and Vala had a bit of a history and in some alternate timeline that was erased had even hooked up and stayed together for a lifetime.  She could never see that in a million years, the whole opposites attract thing being a myth of the movies and television in her opinion, but Teal’c swore it had happened, just as Vala had explained.  In addition, according to Vala since Daniel barely spoke to her if it wasn’t work related, once things were back to normal, or at least as normal as they could be around here, the two of them tried dating, with disastrous results.  Those details she had not been privy to, but it seemed that Vala still had a thing for him, big time, but that on his end it had either fizzled or that he just didn’t care one way or the other anymore.  As a result, he seemed to hate the idea of she and Adrienne being friendly, but Adrienne liked her; she was fun and they had a good time together.  For all of those reasons, and the simple fact that Adrienne was worried she was treading professional thin ice, she didn’t want him to catch her chatting with Vala instead of working.  The bing sounded in her headphones quietly, so Adrienne cut her eyes over at the screen. 

Ha! Tell him to screw himself.  He is just mad you have no desire to use it on him.  

Adrienne tried to contain her laughter as she read over her friend’s remark. Of course that would be her response, and tried to imagine for a moment Daniel doing anything other than working, especially something like that, but that image made her laugh even harder. It wasn’t that he wasn’t an attractive man, she was actually shocked with exactly how attractive he was, he just seemed to be one of those people who did nothing but work. Quickly, she peered out of the corner of her eye to see that Daniel hadn’t noticed her silent fits, being that he was still deeply engrossed in his magnifier. That she could imagine him kissing. Coast clear, she shot back her answer swiftly.

Don’t do that! You’re gonna get me in trouble.  When’s training? 

Tapping enter, Adrienne glanced covertly one more time at her boss who still working like the end of the world wouldn’t stop him. It probably wouldn’t, she thought. Before Adrienne could form a good joke in her head about just that, the reply from Vala popped up on the screen.  

Three. I’ll send Muscles to get you. Daniel won’t say no to him. Trust me. 

Adrienne was better at containing the laugher this time as she typed her response.  

Sounds good. One more thing; does Daniel train too?

She was genuinely curious, because to be honest, for someone that never seemed to leave his desk, he was in awfully good shape. Not that she had looked, ok had really looked, it was just hard to miss and she tended to notice little details like that in a person, especially one that consumed as much unhealthy food as Daniel.  That and she really didn’t want to hear his mouth while she was fighting, which was almost a guarantee since he seemed to weigh in on every last detail of her life, because she might just be forced to punch him in said mouth. That’d be her ticket out of her, clocking the illustrious Dr. Daniel Jackson in the face. It’d be funny though, she thought, especially since she knew he hadn’t read her file. Looking ahead at her work, resisting another chuckle, Adrienne saw the return message pop up on the screen. 

Yeah, but ignore him.  He fights Teal’c and Cam. 

That was surprising, Adrienne thought to herself, he fights Teal’c? She peeked over at him again, trying to see if he was built for fighting at all, but it was hard to see anything in those loose BDU pants and black jacket. Why was he wearing that damn thing inside,  she asked herself, and she’d really need to get him to stand to see anything worthwhile, which was never going to happen.  Dr. Jackson, I mean, Daniel, can you stand up and turn around so I can look you over? Yeah, never happening.   Still, it was quite interesting to think that Daniel, this man currently hunched over a giant glass orb and smelly old book muttering to himself in at least three languages, would even be able to stand up against the mighty Jaffa warrior and not faint dead away.  Stranger things, Adrienne thought to herself, stranger things, and redirected her focus to the chat box on the screen, entering a reply. 

Ok, as long as I don’t have to catch heat for breathing.  

The reply was fast this time, not giving Adrienne the opportunity to try to analyze her boss’s self defense capabilities.  

No worries Addy; I got you covered.  See you soon.  

Adrienne watched Vala’s online icon disappear from the screen before she could argue; it looked like she was going to training after all. Still somewhat worried about Daniel’s reaction, Adrienne willed herself to focus on the file and imagine interaction with people as amazing as the Nox, letting the time click away.  

*****

At three o’clock, just as promised, Teal’c entered the lab, shirtless and wearing some sort of loincloth that Adrienne had never seen him wear before. It looked Jaffa in style, similar to some other items he had shown her in his quarters, so she assumed that he took this training very seriously and was touched that he insisted she join his team in this exercise.  After all, she was just a lab rat, a fact she had heard Daniel mention to some of the other senior staff members on more than one occasion.

“DanielJackson, it is time for defensive training,” Teal’c announced, noting that unlike Adrienne, Daniel had yet to detach himself from his task. Clicking off the light on his desk and shutting the large book, Daniel nodded, standing from his desk, and beginning to straighten up, stacks books in an unorganized mess, his latest journal on top, his pens shoved over to the edge of the stack. Quietly walking over to the locker, Daniel didn’t verbally acknowledge Teal’c, nor did he speak to Adrienne for that matter, simply grabbed a gym bag from his locker and started to head for the direction of the door. Rather than follow Daniel, however, as he made his silent exit, Teal’c took the opportunity to make his move.  

“AdrienneRowan, gather your things as well,” he ordered calmly. Trying not to smile, the young woman leapt from her seat and scurried to her own locker, opening the door and pulling her neon yellow gym bag, Teal’c words and Adrienne’s movement stopping Daniel dead in his tracks.  

“Why is Adrienne going to training? She’s not ready for anything like that,” Daniel asked smartly, as he glared over his shoulder and back at his assistant. Uh oh, Adrienne thought, having worried that this would be his exact reaction, but Teal’c must have already prepared his answer, thankfully, taking a breath and crossing his arms across his chest.   

“AdrienneRowan has traveled off world once and will travel off world again.  She must be prepared since the likelihood that we will be attacked again is great,”  he answered calmly, giving Adrienne a half of smile, but the cajun chose to remain both silent and emotionless.  Shaking his head as he let out an audible sigh, Daniel stopped arguing and just left the lab, headed in the direction of the elevators. 

*****

Thirty minutes into the training, Adrienne sat along a side ring in the auxiliary gym watching Daniel and Cameron fight hand to hand, with careful attacks and rapid blocks, back and forth for at least two minutes without either of them really succeeding in landing a clear hit. She was actually impressed her nerdy boss could handle himself so well, and he really seemed to know what he was doing, taking some stances that she was familiar with due to her own training and appeared strong enough to stop some of Cam’s more forceful advances. 

“He’s tougher than he looks. First man in a while that took me down,” Vala leaned over, whispering in Adrienne’s ear.  The “lab rat” pulled back her head, confused, cutting her eyes over at her friend, who was sitting beside her on the floor, smiling and nodding. 

“Him?” Adrienne pointed, questioning as Vala continued her emphatic nod.  Impressed, she glanced back at the match unfolding in front of her, a whirlwind of thoughts in her head. Sure, she was a trained fighter, but that was only because her father wanted her to be able to defend herself, but Daniel? And Vala used to be a pirate or something damn near close, so not only could Daniel take Cam, who had military training, but Vala as well? Adrienne was a bit taken aback and leaned over to ask Vala where he had learned what little she had seen demonstrated before her when Teal’c stopped them from fighting, stepping between the two men and clasping their hands. She couldn’t tell who won, it didn’t appear that Teal’c was keeping track either, but both men just shook hands and returned to the sidelines, Cam sitting down beside Adrienne and Daniel to his left. 

“AdrienneRowan, you shall face ValaMalDoran,” Teal’c stated from the center of the ring, motioning with his hand for the women to join him as he continued, “There will be no weapons and no breaking of bones.”  Adrienne had started to stand when she heard the part about broken bones and froze, her head sheepishly looking back at the Jaffa to see if he was joking, but his face remained stoic. Seeing the expression on her friend’s face, Vala laughed loudly and leaned down, bringing their cheeks together. 

“I like you; I won’t break anything,” she declared in a whisper, winking quickly and standing to stretch.  

“Oh that’s comforting,” Adrienne said out loud to no one in particular, breathing deep as she straightened her back slowly, catching out of the corner of her eye Cam smiling. Daniel, on the other hand, seemed expressionless, much to her disappointment. Thanks for the support boss, she thought as she stood, surprised that she cared so much for his approval, grabbing the sparring gloves from beside her and slipping them on, making her way to the encircled area that Teal’c had indicated. 

“What are the rules?” she asked Teal’c as she stretched her neck, noting that her friend was doing the same. 

“Defeat your opponent,” he replied as Adrienne moved on to stretch her arms behind her back. Dropping her left arm to her side,  Adrienne made a face, whipping her head over to face him and shaking her hands in front of her.  

“No, I mean like head two points, chest one, first to five wins match, those kind of rules,” Adrienne explained, remembering the scoring of the karate tournaments she had participated in. Granted, she hadn’t seen Daniel or Cameron using any kind of points system but surely Teal’c had something in mind for her, being a beginner and all, but   the Jaffa just shook his head in the negative. 

“The only rule, AdrienneRowan, is to defeat your opponent,” Teal’c repeated as Vala approached Adrienne, hands up and ready for the match. Composing herself the best she could, Adrienne fixed her posture, placing her hands in front of her face and taking a deep stance.  Teal’c placed their hands together and pushed them down, just like Adrienne was used to, but what she didn’t expect as she looked up was to see a fist heading toward her face, in a sick slow motion that should have given her plenty of time to block the attack, but she just couldn’t. Quick as lightening to the observers from the sidelines, Vala Mal Doran slammed Dr. Adrienne Rowan directly on her left cheek bone, sending her backwards, grabbing her face and fighting to remain upright. 

“I told Teal’c she wasn’t ready for this,” Daniel whispered over to Cameron, who had a concerned look on his face, half paying attention to Daniel and the other half of his attention directed toward his new friend, who was still doubled over, holding her wound tightly. Ok, Cam thought, maybe that cool karate training she had been telling me about wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Reserving comment, Cameron looked ahead, hoping that Addy really hadn’t been hurt. 

It took about two seconds of pain before Adrienne was just pissed off.  She had fought men, large men, her dad had made sure she could defend herself, so she wasn’t scared of the thin beautiful alien woman standing in front of her, she was just angry as hell.    Adrienne could see Vala backing up swiftly and smoothly, like a cat, bringing her right leg up into a roundhouse kick out of the corner of her eye.  Falling to one knee, Adrienne thrust her left arm into the air firmly, catching Vala’s leg just in time, throwing her friends body to the side.  Vala staggered for a moment, trying to regain her balance as she kept her eyes on Adrienne, as she should, because, it was then that Adrienne woke up.  

Dark menacing eyes wide, the Cajun leapt to her feet, hands open like she liked to fight, crouched low, her face in a scowl and her eyes darting around her surroundings, just like she did in the lab when studying something new.  She ripped the gloves from her hands roughly, tossing them aside in annoyance of their previous restriction, glaring back at her friend as she brought her hands into fighting position.

“Ha! Here comes the karate bitch! Let’s see what you’ve got!” Vala shouted supportively, acting as if the punch and this reaction had been her intention, and as Daniel sat and watched he was starting to think that Vala had done just that. However, rather than lashing out at her, as he had expected,  Adrienne just stood there, waiting, not moving, her eyes no longer scanning rapidly, instead standing completely still, staring into Vala with that piercing glare of hers.  Seeing that she was going to have to get things started, Vala laughed loudly, crouched and charged her friend, reaching her leg forward to deliver a swift front kick, but rather than block or wildly attack, Adrienne simply stepped her left foot forward, shifting her hips and delivering a powerful side kick right into Vala’s torso, knocking her backward and onto her butt.  

“Shit!” Vala shouted from the ground, “she hits like a damn man.”  Not to be deterred, Vala did a back arch and leapt to her feet gracefully, determined to not be licked, retaking her stance and thrusting her hands up again. Adrienne, however, remained still, having calmly and quietly returned to her position from before. 

“Why are you just standing there Addy? Are you scared?” Vala taunted, trying to get her friend to attack once more, but Adrienne didn’t move, just continued to hold the stance and that powerful glare.  Frustrated, Vala shifted her weight, left, right and even bucked forward slightly in an attempt to get Adrienne to charge her, but Adrienne didn’t move, her body nor her eyes.   Grinning, Cameron leaned over to Daniel.  

“Holy shit man, she’s like fuckin’ Bruce Lee!!”  he whispered excitedly, not taking his eyes off of the women but Daniel didn’t answer, not knowing what to make of what was happening. He knew Adrienne was a black belt he just had no idea that she was any good, those stupid karate schools seemed to sell belts lately, but the look on her face said that she meant business, that she wasn’t going to lose. There was a growl of anger, presumably from Vala and Daniel could see Vala charging Adrienne again, this time without a tell so that both Daniel and Cam had no idea as to what she was going to do. Adrienne evidently did, diving swiftly to her knees as Vala kicked high, extending her right leg and sweeping her friend onto the floor.  Vala hit the ground with a loud uf and Adrienne was on her before she could get up, pinning her knee forcefully into Vala’s throat while guarding her lower body with her hand, held into a tight ridge. 

“Do you resign?” Adrienne asked cooly, her eyes digging into Vala’s, the years of training flooding her head and controlling her body.  

“On one condition,” Vala choked for air to answer, although she was smiling softly, proud of her friend. Seeing the change, Adrienne eased up a little, pulling away from her and sitting back on her feet. 

“What?” Adrienne asked curious. Laughing, Vala looked over at Teal’c. 

“Addy fights Daniel next,” she requested turning her newly freed head to glance back at where Daniel and Cameron were sitting.   

“I think that is a splendid idea indeed,”  Teal’c agreed easily, directing his attention to Daniel as well, who did not appear to be very happy at the suggestion.  Reaching out to tap Adrienne’s arm in order to resign the match,  Vala stood with the young archaeologist’s assistance, and slapped her on the back in congratulations, smiling brightly as she sauntered over to Daniel.  

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun to watch,” she leaned over as he was standing, whispering teasingly in his ear. Ignoring her with a shake of his head, Daniel walked over to where Teal’c and his assistant were standing, chatting about Adrienne's performance in the last bout.  

“I’m not fighting a woman,” he protested as he walked, loud enough that he hoped to get their attention, as Adrienne was showing Teal’c how she did the foot sweep in slow motion, going down to her knees once more and not paying the slightest bit of attention to him. 

“You fight me,” Vala argued from the sidelines, but Daniel ignored her just as his own protests were going unheeded.   

“DanielJackson, I would like to see how AdrienneRowan fares against a male opponent. It should not take long,” Teal’c glanced up, finally, indicating with his hand that Daniel take a position in the sparring ring. 

Ok, so he was listening, he just didn’t care.  

Fantastic. 

Groaning,  Daniel, walked back over to Cameron who, knowing full well that Teal’c wasn’t going to let him get out of this, was holding up his gloves. Daniel slipped them onto his fists, trying to ignore Vala as she laughed hysterically and Cam as he smirked, turning back quickly to face his assistant and their gigantic alien referee.  It wasn’t until he was almost in a position across from the shorter yet buff, yes buff he was just now noticing, woman before him, that Adrienne was standing perfectly still once more, her gaze at the ground, and seemed to be meditating at the red line.  

Creepy. 

“Don’t let her kick your ass too bad,” Cameron joked as Daniel rolled his eyes and faced his assistant, taking his usual fighting position, right foot back and fists in front of his face.  Snapping out of her trance, or whatever the hell she was doing, Adrienne took a similar stance, mirroring his, only without the gloves and open hands.  He almost argued for a moment, but decided against it, figuring that it would just be best to do as Teal’c asked, fight the woman, and end this entire fiasco. Just as before, Teal’c lined them up, placing Adrienne’s bare left hand over Daniel’s gloved right, glancing back and forth between the two before looking back to their audience, pushing down their hands to begin the match. 

And, just like before, Adrienne didn’t move. 

“Look Adrienne, things from karate movies aren’t gonna work on me. Just attack already,” Daniel said disgustingly, not in the mood for this fight nor her antics, but Adrienne didn’t flinch, not so much as a blink of the eye, although she was staring straight ahead at him, giving him that disturbing feeling that she was cutting into his soul.  

“Well, if this is how it’s gonna go, then I’m not moving either,” Daniel spat, holding his stance as well, his currently contact lens covered blue eyes moving to meet her deep brown orbs, yet Adrienne continued to remain completely still, just gazing back at him intently. Determined not to be intimidated by her game, Daniel clenched his muscles from head to toe and just glared back.   

“Christ,” Cameron shouted out from the sidelines, annoyed, “Somebody take a punch or something.” Vala nodded her head in agreement, looking to Teal’c throwing her hands into the air to get him to notice, but the Jaffa was just standing there, staring at Daniel and Adrienne, studying their body language and faces. Vala was unsure as to what exactly Teal’c was trying to prove since neither of them were moving, Adrienne just staring at Daniel, watching his eyes, but she knew him well enough to understand that he knew what he was doing, so she put down her hands and kept her mouth shut.

Daniel wasn’t certain how much longer he could hold the stance, between the pain that was rising up his thighs from standing still so long and the look in her eyes that was eerie, so strange in fact that he wanted to look away even though he knew he couldn’t, he knew that the moment he did something would happen, and she would strike.  Why was he so worried about this? Finally, and much to his relief, he saw her left leg wobble slightly and taking that as a sign of weakness he punched out as fast as he could, aiming at her chest.  

She knew it would work, he was getting tired, it was all over his face and when she saw the tremble in his bright blue eyes, she knew she had him.  His fist racing towards her, Adrienne simply stepped aside, delivering a hook kick to Daniel’s back, but he was bigger than Vala, she had mentally prepared herself for this and she knew that he wasn’t going to go down so easily.  Spinning like lightening, Adrienne turned her body, landing a roundhouse kick into his midsection but he caught her foot, much to her surprise, and held onto it tightly, smiling as if the entire match was over.  The flame inside of her just burned hotter, at his expression more than his grip, and using his grasp as leverage Adrienne launched herself upward, kicking the side of his face with her free leg,  probably harder than she should have, feeling bad the moment she did. Daniel let go of the weak hold he still had on her foot and grabbed his face, swearing under his breath as he bent over to breathe.  

“Hot damn woman, where did you learn to fight like that?” Adrienne heard Cam shouting from the sidelines. She had done it, she thought she could, but it made her feel that much better to best him especially when based on the look in his eyes it was clear that he thought the match was over, but she still felt bad as she saw out of the corner of his eye him clasping his cheek. He didn’t seem to want help though, so Adrienne began to walk over to answer Cam when she felt a forceful grab to her arm, fingers wrapping tightly, painfully, around her wrist, making her heart stop, fear rising in her chest. Willing herself to maintain control, this was not Red Oak, she spun to see that it was Daniel holding on to her, a look of sheer anger in his eyes.  

“Listen, Dr. Rowan, we’re not finished here,” he hissed at her, but barely had time to finish his sentence as Adrienne flipped herself around and rushed him, slamming his back to the floor and pinning her elbow into his throat, pressing down against his esophagus. Scowling, she brought her face to his, so close that their noses were almost touching as she glared into his eyes once more.  

“No one grabs me like that Dr. Jackson,” she said, “Do I make myself clear?” She pressed harder, cutting off just enough air to his body that she hoped he would get the message. Feeling that he was trying to nod, she released him, slamming him hard on the chest as she did, the closest she would allow herself to get to completely clocking him in the face. She stood, adjusting her workout clothes and sighed, realizing what she had done, that she’d lost control, this was her boss, it wasn’t...

Embarrassed by her actions, Adrienne walked over to Teal’c shamefully, bowing low before him, hoping to be forgiven for the scene she had just put on for her boss’s entire team. 

“I apologize for my behavior,” she said as she lifted her head before bowing low once more. 

“No AdrienneRowan, I apologize for not seeing your skills sooner.  I shall have RonanDex join you and I tomorrow for more appropriate training,” the Jaffa responded kindly.  Without another word, Adrienne bowed again and left the room, hoping to avoid the blowout she knew was to come. She would just text Vala later, see what names he had called her and how he was planning next on getting rid of her. Cameron, on the other hand, was laughing hysterically the moment she walked through the gym doors, holding his stomach as he looked at Daniel.  

“She is smarter and stronger.  You better watch out Daniel, Sam’s found your replacement!!” he joked from the floor, looking over at Vala, who was laughing so hard she was just convulsing silently.  Disgusted by both of them, by Teal’c’s insistence on this stupid fight and by Adrienne’s brutish behavior,  Daniel stormed out of the training room as well, leaving his glasses, gym bag, and other essentials behind. 

*****

When Adrienne returned to her quarters she was surprised to find Sam and Robert Woolsey waiting for her, primarily because she wanted to be alone and figure out how she was ever going to face Daniel again, but there they were; Sam trying to be professional Adrienne could tell and Woolsey dripping with all of the slime and fakeness that seemed to be a permanent part of his persona.  Adrienne composed herself and proceeded onward, hoping that her face wasn’t a blob of black and blue from Vala’s earlier blow, reaching slowly for her keypad.

“General O’Neill,” Adrienne said, remembering to not call Sam ‘Sam’ in front of Woolsey, “Can I help you with something?” 

“Dr. Rowan, we’ve processed your security clearance, as General O’Neill has requested and we’ve found some hiccups,” he began, trailing his voice some, the tone making Adrienne’s heart race.   

“Hiccups?” she asked, confused and terrified. If she wasn’t going to lose her job for nearly choking Daniel, she was evidently going to lose it for some hiccup that she didn’t even know about.  

“Yes, some issues with your work experience and home address.  Could we step inside your quarters and clear up these items?” Woolsey asked politely.  Not wanting to cause yet another scene, Adrienne silently nodded, not looking forward to having to re-explain the more embarrassing parts of her and her father’s life before she had gotten this job, before she found out that almost everything she had watched in the movies as a child was real.  

Before Samantha O’Neill changed her life.  

With a sweep of her arm, she invited them both into her quarters and prepared for the humiliation to come.  

*****

His lovely assistant wasn’t in the lab when Daniel returned from showering in his quarters, away from Cam’s smart ass remarks.  Not that he had really expected her to be, they were civil to one another but not friendly enough where she would voluntarily work late, especially after their sparring match in the gym this afternoon.   Rubbing the back of his head, still aching from where she had slammed him against the floor, Daniel reached into his desk drawer fishing around for the bottle of ibuprofen he had now learned to keep handy with Adrienne around.  As he opened the lid and shook a few pills into his hand, Daniel made a mental note to himself that he didn’t intend to forget.

Grab Vala and she’ll cave.  

Grab Adrienne you’ll get your ass beat. 

Damn that woman hit hard.  

He sighed, sitting down at his desk and resting his aching head in his hands.  

*****

Adrienne sat on her bed and watched carefully as Woolsey made notes in the file, her personnel file, which Adrienne wanted to see more than anything, wanted to see what government secrets they thought that she knew, all of which would have been a great surprise to her. 

“Why didn’t you tell us about that job?” he inquired harshly, as if she was hiding something, which she wasn’t, and responded in the like.  

“I only worked there for a year and it added nothing to my credentials for this job,” she answered honestly.  

“The job working for the Stargate program? ” Woolsey sneered viciously, a sigh escaping Adrienne before she could control it. She knew Woolsey hadn’t approved of her being hired, Daniel had said as much to her, and finding out about her past wasn’t going to change his opinion anytime soon.  

“No sir, the job I thought I was getting at the Smithsonian sir,” Adrienne replied, keeping her answers short and simple. She wasn’t a fool, she had worked for one government entity or another for most of her adult life and knew the game.  Woolsey made a noise under his breath and kept writing, not even looking her in the eye as he continued his line of questioning.   

“Alright, and about this address? This address you listed for years 2006-2009 is a house that was in foreclosure. Were you allowed to remain in the home?” he asked his tone cruel and cool. It’s all over, Adrienne thought to herself, between the afternoon workout and this, it was time for her to give up on the job of her dreams. Putting her head down and staring shamefully at the floor to her quarters, Adrienne quietly cleared her throat before she answered.   

“No, we lived in a motel.  It burned down last year.  The Red Oak Motel,” she whispered terrified. Forgetting the notes in his folder, Woolsey’s head shot up, his equally dark eyes glaring at her through his glasses. 

“A motel?” he repeated, Adrienne nodding slightly, her head still facing the floor.  Puzzled and starting to appear angry, Robert Woolsey shot a quick glance at Sam, his face speaking before he could. 

“I thought we had performed a thorough background check on this woman before allowing her into the facility,” he hissed, stressing the word before as he cocked his head over at the very quiet and subdued woman seated on the bed beside his chair. Scowling, Sam marched over to Woolsey, grabbing his arm and glancing sympathetically at Adrienne.  

“Dr. Rowan, if you will excuse us please,” Sam offered, pulling Robert over into the corner of the small room. 

“Samantha, I have no idea what your attachment is to this woman, but the SGC is not for saving lost causes. Every day I get a new tidbit of information about her that flashes every warning sign of unstable.  You couldn’t find a suitable assistant for Dr. Jackson among the staff? Or maybe someone with proper clearance?” Woolsey asked, not making the effort to hide his disdain. He had objected to Adrienne since Sam called him well over four months ago to request the background check, the background check on a community college professor, not another astrophysicist, an MD, but a community college professor, however Sam insisted that she was very accomplished and clean as a whistle.  Woolsey, having learned to listen to Sam based on their time together on Atlantis, had allowed the interview, which in itself would not give very much away about base operations. 

That was until Sam had apparently dashed after Dr. Rowan once Dr. Jackson and she had gotten into a shouting match, in French, during the interview, after which Sam proceeded to convince Adrienne to stay by showing her the stargate, without permission.  In essence, Samantha O’Neill had put him in an impossible situation, the archaeologist knew about the gate and the entire base operations, however, based on this, could lie as needed to get what she wanted, and Robert Woolsey wasn’t sure that he wanted her on this base, Sam’s assurances or not. 

“Robert, trust me on this one.  For starters have you read anything she’s published? Any of her papers? The woman’s brilliant.  She is witty, talented and she can fight better than half of my units if you speak to any of her martial arts instructors and, she has no attachments.  No one to call home to tell about what she has seen here.  She’s the kind of person that could absorb herself into her work and dedicate herself 100%,” Sam defended gently, knowing how to work Robert.  Adrienne did have an aunt and cousin back in New Orleans, but if Robert hadn’t found that out yet, Sam wasn’t about to mention something that the cajun had told her during friendly conversation. 

She’s also exactly like Daniel, Sam added silently to herself, but she didn’t need to tell him that she was looking for another Daniel, if for nothing else but to get him back on his game and out of this rut he had been in for so many months after the defeat of the Ori.  She had hoped that Adrienne would bring back the excitement she remembered him having so many years ago, the very excitement she had seen on the young woman’s deep brown eyes the day she had shown her the Stargate. She hoped that Adrienne would bring Daniel back to them, their Daniel, not this cold, hard, emotionless person he had become. 

“Brilliant or not, she lied to us,” Robert argued quieter this time, crossing his arms across his chest as he cut his eyes in the direction of Dr. Rowan, who was sitting quietly on her bunk, picking at her fingernails, but Sam was shaking her head already.

“Lying shows malicious intent Robert, she was obviously embarrassed.  And if you look at the rest of the information you’ll see that she went into debt due to medical bills.  Medical bills she couldn’t help,” Sam pointed out quickly, trying to stress the impact the medical bills had on Adrienne and her entire existence prior to the SGC.  She understood devotion to her father; she had allowed her own to become Tok’ra to live, to beat cancer.  Adrienne had never had that option, and honestly, Sam wasn’t sure that she could say she wouldn’t have done the same in the young woman’s position. 

“Samantha, I’m really giving you free reign on this and my superiors don’t like it.  They think Dr. Rowan is not only an unnecessary expense but a liability,” Robert stated his case calmly, Sam nodding in understanding. She could see his point, she could, but other than a bit of a hot temper, which only seemed to flare up at Daniel, Adrienne had proven herself nothing but professional and intelligent, body piercings or not. She silently chuckled to herself, knowing that Adrienne’s “art” was probably at the top of Robert’s list of issues with the young woman. Smiling at Robert, Sam placed her hand gently on his arm, squeezing it lightly. 

“Then I agree to assume responsibility for anything that might happen.  You haven’t seen her work; she amazing.  Trust me,” Sam assured once more, releasing his arm and walking back over to Adrienne. Woolsey sighed deeply and followed Sam back over to the bed, stepping to the side so he could address Dr. Jackson’s lab assistant. 

“That is all for now Dr. Rowan, unless there is something else you have neglected to tell us?” he asked, rudely, feeling Sam’s glare at the back of his head.  

“No sir, that’s all,” Adrienne replied and Woolsey turned to leave but Sam lingered for a sec, as if she wanted to tell Adrienne something.  She was just opening her mouth to speak when Adrienne heard a ringing sound coming from her friend’s direction and Sam reached for her phone, taking a brief moment to glance at the screen, make a face and answer it, waving goodbye to the nervous woman sitting on the bed. Adrienne hoped she saw her mouthing thanks as she scurried out of the small room, leaving her alone with her thoughts, thoughts of how, for some reason she couldn’t grasp, this seemed to be the one thing in her life that she just couldn’t get right. 

*****

“Are you sure?” Sam asked into the phone as the Colonel explained what he had found.  As much as Sam hated it, if this looked like an old Ori weapons store she would need to send Daniel to take a look.  Great, she thought to herself, let’s just improve his mood; he had already come to her office this morning asking to be taken off any missions for the next few weeks in order to catch up in the database after missing more time, yet again, in the infirmary, and she was certain that this would set him off. Stepping into the elevator and pushing B, Sam resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t be eating dinner with her husband tonight; she saw more of Jack before they were married. There was a jolt, and the elevator door opened, Sam stepping out, taking a left, and heading to Daniel’s lab.  

He was sitting at his desk, alone, as was his new usual, making Sam really wish he would just stop being so stubborn and start utilizing Adrienne, at least for delegating a few of the longer tasks to her. She knocked at the doorway as she entered, deciding that maybe she should add that to the list of things that they needed to discuss. 

“Hey, how soon can you be ready to meet up with SG-7?” she asked, not giving him a chance to brood over it, and, as expected, he looked up at her surprised.  

“About 15 minutes, if I have to, why?” he asked cooly, the argument forming in his head depending on the why.  

“Get packed.  They found something they just need you to look at and come right back.  I want to make sure that it’s not what I think it is. I’ll send Adrienne the details so she can download them to her tablet,” Sam knew Daniel preferred paper, but she didn’t have time to go print out pages and pages of information. That, and it would make him take Adrienne since he had refused to learn how to use the iPad and poor Adrienne needed something to get her mind off of Woolsey and her upsetting past.  

“Adrienne? You want me to take Adrienne? On another mission? For something simple?” Daniel inquired harshly, glaring up at her, not exactly the reaction she had expected. It was then she noticed a bruise forming high on his right cheekbone and saw him flinch painfully as he drew his face up into a scowl.

“Yes I want you to take Adrienne; Woolsey came down to give her the third degree. I don’t want her thinking about that garbage he was filling her with, I want her to focus on her work.  And what happened to you?” Sam inquired concerned, reaching out for his face trying to turn it into the light to see if he had any other injuries, especially since she was fairly certain that he did not have those large purple and blue splotches when he stopped by her office this morning.   Daniel shooed her hand away, jerking his head around to hide the wound, standing quickly as he did. 

“Adrienne happened to me,” he spat, marching directly to his locker and opening the door leaning forward to rummage through his things.  Standing back at his desk, Sam was thoroughly confused.  How did he get that bruise? Did she hit him? Why on Earth would Adrienne have hit Daniel? Before Sam had the opportunity to ask any of those questions Daniel was heading straight for her, bag tossed over his shoulder, the expression of displeasure on his face only accenting the stain making its way across his cheek. 

“She’s a bit upset with me right now. Can I take someone else?” Daniel asked, hoping to avoid further confrontation with his assistant and to not give her the satisfaction of seeing his face in its current condition coupled with being sent on yet another mission, but Sam simply shook her head. 

“I want you to take Adrienne. She needs to be involved in this and more involved in what you’re doing. Daniel, she can’t just sit in here or fetch you coffee. See if Vala is free as well, to back you guys up. Cam and Teal’c are busy with the cadets,” Sam ordered, as gently as possible considering that the sweet young Cajun woman whose job she had just saved was responsible for her friend’s mood and current condition.   In silence, and clearly displeased, Daniel tossed his black duffle into the floor beside his desk, reaching for the old white corded phone receiver. Sam tried to lean over so he could see her, smiling sweetly and waving goodbye, but Daniel just gave her a quick nod and glanced back at the buttons as she slipped out of the lab.  

“Fun,” he said to himself, “both of them.” He stood there, staring at the numbers in front of him, debating who to dial first.  

*****

The small archaic phone that sat on the desk in Adrienne’s room rang, so loudly, that she was startled from her trance, and she shook her head, taking her gaze from the empty pages of her composition book and tossing it aside, standing from the bed.  She was a wreck over her latest encounter with Woolsey, wondering if anything else would come back to bite her in the ass. Was there anything else she had neglected to mention? Was there anything that she could keep to herself in this job? She had tried listening to some music, popping some ear buds into her ears and blasting some intense gangsta rap, but that didn’t help, so she turned to her writing. It had been at least an hour, maybe more, but the pages in front of her were white, clean and empty .  Hopeful, Adrienne reached over to the phone, thinking maybe it was Teal’c wanting to discuss this further training or that handsome Ronan fellow.

“Hello?”  she answered, forcing her voice to sound pleasant and happy, since it would do no good in either case if she was the opposite.  

“Adrienne, it’s Daniel,” the voice on the other line said flatly  Great, she thought, time for my punishment, her heart racing the moment she heard his voice.  She hadn’t known him very long, she had no idea what he would do, how he would react after a situation like earlier this afternoon, but she broke into a cold sweat trying to imagine the possibilities, pondering how long it would take her to pack her things. 

“Yes s- “ she started to answer sir but then remembered this morning, not needing to add fuel to this fire. Pausing, she took a quick and hopefully silent breath and rephrased, “Yes Daniel, is there something I can help you with?” 

“I need you to be ready to go off world in about 15 minutes? Can you do that?”  Adrienne looked at herself.  She was still wearing her workout clothes but she really hadn’t gotten that sweaty during her two very short bouts, it would be a push, but she could take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator and since he still wanted her to work, she needed to be there, early, with bells on.  

“Yes, I can be,” she replied.  

“Good, meet me down in the gate room, geared up and ready,” he said and hung up the phone.  Adrienne glanced at the receiver for a moment, relieved and pushing aside thoughts of her desk items in a cardboard box, and hung the plastic into its cradle, rushing over to her closet.  

*****

When she arrived at the gate room Daniel was there waiting, Vala standing with him.  Taking a quick glance at her watch, she noted it had taken her twelve minutes to get down here, so technically she had three to spare, so he shouldn’t have been waiting long. Looking back up at Daniel, she came nose to nose with Vala, who had left his side to greet Adrienne, placing her hand on her arm, pulling her aside.  

“Watch out. He’s still embarrassed about this afternoon, and not too happy about that or this errand,” Vala warned quietly.  As she had dashed down the stairs, Adrienne had vowed to apologize and make amends with her boss, but seeing him here in the gate room now, intentionally avoiding eye contact with her like he was an indignant child rather than a grown man, Adrienne just made a face at her friend. 

“Then he can go to hell. No one grabs me like that, no one,” Adrienne hissed, marching right up to Daniel to confront him, but he beat her to it, peering up at her over his glasses, his eyes catching hers. Why did this man make her so crazy!?!?

“Sam said she sent the information to you via that computer of yours. Can you pull it up before we cross through, so we can have it ready to go over it on the way to the site?” he asked politely.  Pleased that Daniel didn’t seem to be holding grudge as Vala had warned, Adrienne nodded her head and cooled her own emotions, pulling her backpack from her shoulders and removing her iPad.  Allowing herself to slip into the comfortable world of work, Adrienne tapped around a bit, those eyes darting and scanning the icons, in seconds summoning up the file which began to read as soon as the text flashed on the screen.  

“PRT-934, no named classification, no known humanoid inhabitants.  Dig site manned by SG-7.  Ruins appear to be ancient in design, however lacking technology of the third era.  Village measures approximately 10 kilometers long and -” Adrienne spoke almost as quickly as her eyes were moving, spitting out statistics and background when Daniel cleared his throat, putting up his hand to halt her recitation.  

“Read it when we get there, it’ll give us something to do on the walk,” Daniel requested, looking over his shoulder to give Walter a thumbs up to dial the gate.  Laughing and glancing back at her friend, Vala waltzed up to Daniel,  threading her arm through his and pulling him through the newly formed wormhole, leaving Adrienne behind.  

“Oh this is going to be TONS of fun,” Adrienne said aloud and followed, mentally preparing herself for the rush of the ride through the gate.  

*****

Daniel was right, it was a long walk, a very long walk, not one structure or person in sight for miles, just grass, grass and more grass. Once they were across, their portal home closed behind them, he ordered Adrienne to start going back over the planet statistics, from the beginning, including what she had read in the gateroom.  Adrienne sighed deeply, but did as she was told, trying not to convey her tone of annoyance or curse him out in the process.  She started back with the planet designation, reading slowly in case he was just having her reread because he missed this back on Earth, but he didn’t say a word while she read, eventually making her look up to see if he was listening.  Daniel was walking ahead of his assistant, Vala taking the opportunity to hang all over him, holding onto his arm like a love-sick girlfriend, all the while Daniel continued to walk and say nothing nor do nothing to stop her.  Adrienne was disgusted, not only at his toleration of her behavior, but at her friend throwing herself that this man and right in front of her no less. Here she was, criticized for her piercings this morning, treated like an idiot in training, with Woolsey breathing down her neck over things that she couldn’t help while the two of them carried on like this on a mission.  Frustrated, Adrienne stopped, both reading and talking. 

“Go back to the part about the temple, read that again,” Daniel requested over his shoulder not even having the consideration to make eye contact with her, just soldiering on, Vala at his arm, staring at some gadget in his hand. He wasn’t even listening to her; why in the hell did he care if she read the passage about the temple again? Disgusted, insulted, why was she even here? Adrienne refused to move, standing in the tall grass, her arms and iPad crossed across her chest.  They got a few steps ahead when Daniel finally realized that Adrienne had stopped talking and turned around, still looking at the gadget in his hands, although finally pulling away from Vala.   

“Adrienne is there something wrong?” he asked, his eyes at the device and not her, making her blood boil. 

“Yeah,” Adrienne replied, no longer caring about her tone, “Are you listening to me? Because I’m not just reading for my health.  Or do you two need to get a room and get this out of your system before I proceed?” 

“What the hell Addy?” Vala shouted in shock, but stepped back from Daniel, realizing how this might have appeared to her friend.  Adrienne, on the other hand, like it was this morning in the gym all over again, didn’t move a muscle.  

“I’ll continue to read when you two can act like two professionals and not like a bunch of repressed teenagers,” Adrienne said, fear in her stomach.  Up until this point, she had been trying to play nice, but after this afternoon, nice was over. He wanted to be a jerk during training, fine, he wanted to let this woman who according to her he had no interest in lay all over him, fine, but she wasn’t going to be dismissed to set aside to be summoned when needed.  Vala could read things, any idiot could read things, why was he treating her like some intern, some idiot?

Frowning, as Adrienne was coming to learn was his customary facial expression, Daniel walked up to her,and reached for her tablet, rudely, very rudely, but Adrienne pulled back quickly, slipping into a defensive stance.  

“Don’t make me bust the other cheek,” she threatened, feeling a bit more confident in herself after this morning.  If she was going to get fired anyway, she was going out fighting, whether it be Daniel Jackson or Robert Woolsey.  

Flinching, Daniel stepped back swiftly, retracting his hands and slipping the carbon dating device Sam had given him into his pocket.  This woman was serious, he needed to learn that fast. With Adrienne, when it was time to play, it was time to play, but she meant business when it came to work. Trying to contain the smile starting to creep across his face, Daniel realized that while her methods weren’t exactly tactful, in a way, she was right, she was dead right, just like he himself would have been in the past. He nodded his head in agreement, moving back to walk beside her.  

“I apologize, please continue Dr. Rowan,” he said politely. Adrienne looked over at him, careful brown eyes examining his face, looking for a hint of sarcasm, but could find none and after a quick scan of Vala indicated the same, continued reading, picking back up at the temple passage.

*****

When they reached the village, broken and fallen as Adrienne had expected due to the reports from Sam, SG-7 was waiting for them, sitting on fold-out chairs right outside of a large stone building, on what looked to be a lunch break.  The gentleman closest to the entrance stood, setting a partially eaten apple onto a tac vest on the ground, wiping his hands on his pants and approaching them.  

“Dr. Jackson,” the man greeted, Adrienne scanning through the files on her computer to see if she could find the mission leader’s name, “thank you for coming.  I thought you ought to come inside and see this before we start to mark things off.”  

“No problem, I just hope that this’ll be a quick visit,” Daniel responded, the man turning to lead the trio to the temple. Adrienne had managed to find his name, Dr. Karn, in the mission report list, so at least she knew what to call him if she needed to, and glanced up to see she had been left by Daniel, Vala and about half of SG-7.  

“I should’ve made the other cheek match,” she spat under her breath, somewhat hurt yet again, tucking the tablet under her arm and following.  

The temple itself was quite large and looked rather out of place in the rustic village of thatched roof houses and dirt streets, what houses had retained their roofs anyway.  It appeared to be Egyptian in design, which was strange for Ancient architecture, standing tall and stone with clear square cut doorways.  Ancient architecture was more curved, or at least that was what Adrienne remembered from her reading, she had likened some of it to her studies of ancient Rome. Noting the stark differences, she ran to catch up to Daniel.  

“That doesn’t fit the ancient architecture m.o.,” she whispered, Daniel nodding instantly in agreement.  

“You’re right, it doesn’t.  Makes this all that much weirder,” he answered, still walking, but having slowed his pace to allow her to catch up. Adrienne was silently satisfied that she was correct and followed behind him, somewhat glad that she really hadn’t decorated the opposite cheek. He got socked, in the face, by a girl, she thought to herself, cut him some slack. 

There was a click followed by a flash of light, and the darker part of the temple that they had been entering suddenly filled with brightness, Adrienne gazing up in amazement at the sights around her.  

The walls were filled with what seemed to be standard Ancient text, basic stories outlining the growth and development of the village, but the sheer volume of the script was nothing like Adrienne had ever seen.  To her, written ancient looked Elvish, and she suddenly felt like Frodo on the quest to Mount Doom, even reaching for her neck instinctively at the thought.  Yes, these were things Daniel had told her to expect on a normal basis, but days like today she felt like she had just stepped out of that stuffy classroom on Morgan Hall and right into something she had read as a child, a storybook she never wanted to leave. 

Much to her dismay though, they didn’t linger in this room, as Dr. Karn continued to lead them into a much smaller chamber.  Once Adrienne ducked to enter, the smaller chamber only being accessible by what was at the most a four foot tall door, she could see why Sam had sent them.  The back of the wall read, clear as day, in long beautiful ancient script:

 Hallowed be the Ori 

Wide eyed, Adrienne elbowed Vala, who had come to a halt beside her and pointed her head at the inscription.  

“Yeah, creepy religious nut jobs led by creepy woman who kidnapped him. Creepy woman who was kinda my kid that kidnapped him,” Vala affirmed.  Trying not to be noticed by the cluster of men standing to her right talking, Adrienne glanced over at Daniel, a worry building up in her stomach at the mention of kidnap. She’d read that file too, he never really told her anything, but she couldn’t imagine that was something you’d want to revisit on any occasion, yet she chose not to speak, move or check on him, feeling that for now she needed to stand right here and wait until she was needed.  

Poor guy, she was definitely glad she didn’t bust the other cheek.  

“Alright, doctor, thanks, we’ll take it from here,” Daniel said, retrieving the device from earlier from his pocket and moving to scan the walls.  Gathering his men, Dr. Karn left to continue his meal, ducking under the doorway and leaving Dr. Jackson alone with the two women. 

“Did you bring paper?” Daniel asked, making sure that this time he made eye contact with his assistant. She smiled softly, the friendliness that they had been working toward over these weeks creeping back into her gaze as she answered.   

“Of course,” Adrienne replied kindly digging into her pack, producing a small pencil pouch, a Voltron pencil pouch Daniel noticed and a stack of legal pads. 

“I can help,” Vala volunteered quickly as she reached out for some supplies, “I can read some of this.”  That surprised Adrienne,  she knew Vala worked Lucian intelligence, but she wasn’t aware that Vala could reach ancient, so she just shrugged handing Vala over a pad of paper and a pen from the blue cartoon pouch.  Assigning each person a section of the room, Daniel politely thanked Adrienne for the pen and paper and proceeded to his area, making her regret her actions from earlier today even more.  Maybe Sam is right, she thought, maybe I haven’t been giving him a chance anymore than he has given me...

*****

It was an hour in and Adrienne’s back hurt, so much so that she let herself lean into the wall, trying to do some sort of stretch against the cool stone support. She hated being stationary for so long; she was antsy and wanted to run, or at the very least, get up and dance. Dropping the pad to the floor, Adrienne looked over at her coworkers and saw that Daniel seemed to be doing alright, just working away, that frown of his directed toward the wall this time instead of her, thankfully.  Vala, however, was laying on the ground, her head on her backpack, complaining.  

“Nothing but more whack jobs. Just looks like these whack jobs either left or were killed before they could join up with my lovely daughter’s forces,” Vala said from her resting position, “Let’s leave.”  

“We’ll leave when I’m sure that there’s no threat,” Daniel stated, clearly enunciating each word but not taking his gaze from his work, glancing down at the legal pad, jotting down something in haste.  

“Blue eyes, we blasted those fuckers into the cosmos, why are you still obsessing over this?” Vala continued to complain, to no avail, as now Daniel seemed to be ignoring her completely, looking over at Adrienne.  

“Anything on your end?” he asked, sounding genuinely interested in her response, like she was a colleague. She tried not to smile but it was hard not to.

“Just a lot of crap that sounds like the Old Testament,” she joked, but instead of getting a grin in return, Daniel just nodded.  Dammit, she thought, that was looking positive for a moment there. 

“Alright, there’s just one more thing to look at over here and then we can leave,” Daniel motioned for Adrienne to move her portable light over to the corner, Vala moaning and groaning all the while as she did.  Still pleased at the thought of finally being utilized, Adrienne set up her light and stretched once more before beginning to go through the text carefully as she had on the other side, her aching feet screaming for her to hurry so they could leave. She was only a few lines in when she heard a shift, as though rock was moving, sounding faintly from above. 

“Dr. Jackson?” she asked behind her, wondering if he had discovered something in the far section of the chamber that he was still working in. 

“DANIEL, my name is DANIEL,” he corrected, “what?” he asked, that annoyed tone back in his voice.  So much for nice. Taking a breath, Adrienne kept her smart comment to herself, trying to figure out what was going on.  

“Daniel, did you hear that?” she asked plainly, scanning the room herself as she asked.  

“Hear what?” he retorted rudely when the sound came again, along with a flurry of dust plummeting from the ceiling.  Daniel flipped his head around to where Vala was scurrying toward him, her hands in front of herself and her head shaking frantically. 

“I didn’t do it,” she said quickly, but was glancing back over her shoulder at something Adrienne could not see.    

“What in the hell did you touch?” he asked, shoving her back against the wall, pointing his finger in her face.  He can’t act like that, Adrienne thought to herself, rushing over to see what was going on, grabbing his shoulder and jerking him backwards.   

“Lay off Daniel, you can’t grab her like that either,” Adrienne hissed, her feet instinctively moving into a fighting position, not that she was intending to beat up her boss or anything, but the tone in his voice was enough for her training to kick in without warning.  Pulling from her grasp, Daniel whipped around to face her, that finger of his now directed at her.   

“Listen Adrienne, you’re the new kid in town. If you don’t like the way I do things then you need to go back to Louisiana,” he spat at her.  Adrienne started to rear back, a burning desire to punch him right in his arrogant face but she stopped, pushing her way past him, looking at Vala.  

“What did you touch mon ami?” Adrienne asked sweetly, knowing there was no way Vala had done anything intentional; for a wild and crazy as she was, she really was a good person.  She didn’t answer verbally at first, just slouched her shoulders slightly and turned, pointing to a lever in the farthest corner of the chamber near where she had been working. 

“I thought it opened that,” she said, indicating what looked like a window above, “I wanted some fresh air.”  Before either archaeologist could get over to the lever, that shifting noise sounded above them again and more dust fell onto their heads causing Daniel to step up to the two women, much less aggressively this time. 

“We need to get out of here, now,” he ordered and started to turn, indicating with his hand that they follow. The noise increased, and just like Adrienne had seen in dozens of movies as a kid, but here it was, happening for real, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it, the ceiling began to creep down in their direction. They raced for the door, but by the time they reached it, the opening was far too small for anyone to squeeze through, Adrienne thinking yet again how familiar this all was. 

“Dammit! “ Daniel swore aloud, whirling around to face Vala, screaming in her face, “This is why I don’t want to take you on anything. Every single damn time!!” This time, however, she did not shrink away as she had before.  

“Excuse me for not being so goddam picky and boring.  We could have left two hours ago but you’re insisting on going over every goddam letter.  What are you scared that my little baby girl is going come back and rape you!!” Vala screamed back, infuriating Daniel further, Adrienne could tell, as he stepped impossibly closer to her, just raging back in return. 

“No, it’s more like I’m hoping that crazy ass husband of yours and his little band of merry men don’t come trotting back here thinking that they’re gods or something.  Because turning oneself into a deity seems to be what goes on around here!!’ he shouted, his nose almost touching hers as he did.  

They stood there, fighting like this, using more swear words than Adrienne had ever heard used before in her life, and that included Mardi Gras, which in an of itself was just a free fall of everything immoral society has to offer. As they continued, Adrienne caught some movement out of the corner of her eye and gazed up at the ceiling as it started to slowly creep up on them.  

“I’m gonna die because they had a bad break-up.  My eye!” Adrienne said aloud and started to shine the flashlight in the area of the level, trying to make herself focus not on her screaming boss and friend but instead on avoiding becoming a pancake.  Her eyes were scanning, rapidly, each line of script, each small carved graphic, searching for something, anything to get them out of here, while her two coworkers were still screaming at one another right behind her.  Adrienne read and read, mouthing the words to herself in Ancient, realizing that there were so many words that she still didn’t know, letting her brain covert the oral speech to English, when she finally found what she needed, or so she hoped.  Reaching over for the level, she braced her feet again the wall, and leaning back, pulled the stone from its slot, causing her fall back and land sharply on her backside. This time, the screaming she heard was directed at her.  

“Adrienne, what in the hell are you doing!?”  Daniel was screaming at her now, powering over in her direction. Ignoring him, Adrienne crawled carefully up to her knees and scanned the text once more, nodding to herself as she read, praying to a god that she didn’t believe in that she hadn’t screwed this up.  Taking in a deep breath, she flipped the stone over, noting the different shape at the end and moved closer to the wall, bracing herself the best she could and shoved it back into the opening.  It took a few turns but it set, and Adrienne let out a huge breath of relief as she pushed it up and allowed herself to collapse back onto the floor.  A loud screeching sound rocketed through the temple, shaking even more rock and dust from above but then the ceiling began to rise once more, returning to its original place as slowly as it descended.  Adrienne sat back on her knees and looked at Daniel, pretending none of the screaming had occurred, just smiling professionally and cordially. 

“Would you like me to finish the far wall?” she asked simply as Daniel just stared at her.  

“How did you do that?” he inquired, completely confused, rushing over to the wall. 

“You said yourself there was no indication that this was recent, so I just assumed it was not a trap but instead some kind of sacrifice chamber or better yet a way to make the people think they saw a sacrifice.  People who use religion to control aren’t usually very smart. They wrote the directions on the wall,” Adrienne replied and pointed over to the lever, trying hard not to be arrogant, just to explain what she saw and what she had done. Frowning, Daniel knelt beside her as if he didn’t believe her, reading for a just moment before slumping his shoulders and peering over at her slowly.  

“Nice work Adrienne,” he said, surprised, his blue eyes scanning the wall again. 

“Thanks,” she answered, “the wall?”  Daniel shook his head.  

“No, Vala’s right, there’s nothing here, let’s just head back,”  Daniel stood, reaching out his hand to help Adrienne up.  She took it, cautiously and let him, pulling her palm away quickly and brushing off her pants once she was upright.  Vala was already packing up the lights, having had her say with him today, and deciding to leave well enough alone so Adrienne walked away to do the same, in silence. Once packed, they met with Dr. Karn warning him about the lever, but Daniel assured him that barring any further complications, they were free to continue the normal excavation.  

The sky was a blanket of pitch by the time they started for the gate, so Daniel clicked on a flashlight and led the group from the rear, illuminating their way.  Without anything to read to her boss, or any other tasks to complete,  Adrienne dug around in her backpack searching for her iPod and headphones, hoping to tune out any conversation that Daniel and Vala might choose to have on the way home. She was starting to pop them over her head when she felt a gentle hand stop her, making her turn slowly to see what he wanted.  

“Can I talk to you?” he asked, no tone in his voice this time, no nastiness, just simple honestly.  He looked upset so Adrienne stopped, not fearing getting yelled at anymore, the expression he was carrying made her fairly certain that he just wanted to talk.  He motioned for Vala to walk ahead of them, so she shrugged her shoulders and headed on, removing her own flashlight from her pocket to light the way.

“Listen, I really think I’ve given you the wrong impression of me.  I’m not the type of person that would ever, harm someone, ever,” he started while Adrienne just stood there and let him talk.  

“You’re new here and there are some things that maybe we do, maybe I do that you are not used to and are not what they may appear to be.  But if I’ve done anything to make you feel uncomfortable or threatened, I’m truly sorry,” he said and Adrienne nodded. Maybe she had misjudged him, maybe he was just an impulsive type of person when he was angry.

“And I’m sorry that I kicked you so hard, just don’t, just don’t grab me like that. I want you to understand that I’m not gonna to be treated like I’m a lesser person, like I’m someone you can just push around. Assistant or not, I am a competent professional”  she replied strongly, not wanting to fight anymore, not wanting anything more but respect. 

“That’s fair,” he answered quietly, turning without a further word pointing his flashlight into the darkness, making his way to the gate.  Somewhat satisfied, Adrienne popped on her headphones making sure the music was at full blast, and followed. 

*****

Sam was waiting for them in the gateroom when they arrived, her face riddled with concern. 

“Anything?” she asked, the moment the event horizon closed and the room dropped to relative silence.   

“Not a thing,” Daniel replied, stopping to talk with her for a second.  Just wanting this day to end, Adrienne dashed past them and ahead to her quarters, wanting to take a shower, head to sleep and forget anything ever happened.  Her foot tapped nervously on the floor of the elevator as she was whisked to her room, not to the beat of her music but to the beat of her heart, still racing, her nerves getting the best of her now that all of the excitement had died down. Why did he continue to act like she was a nuisance rather than a help, why did she care so much, everything about being here in DC, in this place was just so completely confusing, she just didn’t know where to begin to figure it all out. 

There was a bing, the doors sliding open, Adrienne not even letting them finish their advance, before she sped out dashing past other personnel in a mad sprint to her quarters, only to stop dead in her tracks upon seeing Teal’c, with Ronan, waiting outside of her door.  

“AdrienneRowan, I know you have just come back from a mission but RonanDex would like to spar,” Teal’c said slyly, his usually expressionless face hiding a hint of mischief.  He must have told Ronan about today’s training.  Her mood instantly changing, Adrienne shut off her music, looking at the two beautiful alien men standing in front of her and smiled brightly.  

“Just let me change,” she said coding herself into the room, hearing shouting as she turned the knob.  

“Addy’s gonna go all Bruce Lee on Dex!?! T why didn’t you call me?” Cameron yelled as he came jogging down the hall, looking as if he had just finished a run. Adrienne waved at him quickly and shut the door, racing over to her dresser to get workout clothes

“Go back to your hole and your beb,  Daniel,  I’ve got better fish to fry,”  Adrienne said under her breath, pulling the tank top over her head, hurrying to rejoin her friends outside. 

Daniel might hate her, but at least someone here didn’t. 

*beb = cajun for sweetheart