Daniel and Adrienne #6: Truce

“Hey, you came!?!” Adrienne said startled from the door frame and stepped back to allow him in.  She honestly couldn’t believe that her boss was standing here, at the door of her apartment at almost nine at night on a Sunday, in jeans and a t-shirt.  He actually looked like a real person, which shocked her almost as much as his presence here at her home.  

“I was invited,” Daniel answered her tentatively, frowning at her in confusion. He had been invited, he thought, and with the two of them getting along so well this week he had decided to give it a chance. 

“Yeah, I just didn’t really think, ok, come in,” Adrienne said as she backed away from the door allowing Daniel to enter her apartment, his eyes taking in the sight in amazement. Her first floor dwelling was ornately decorated like some B-movie greek temple, with vines and grapes hung everywhere, including the walls. He wondered to himself how much she would have to pay in repairs when she moved out, considering the vines looked glued in place, including the ones that wove around a column he was very nearly certain did not come with the apartment. However, it was not tacky as one would expect, instead it was strangely elegant and 100% Adrienne. He looked over to the sofa to see Vala sitting there, glass of red wine in one hand and a remote in the other. 

“Hey handsome,” she said, a thin flirtatious grin sneaking across her face as she patted the seat beside her.  Not responding to her invitation, Daniel walked over to the dining room table, situated in the tiny space that was acting as her dining room and hung his leather jacket on the back of a chair, looking over at Adrienne who was standing in her small kitchen getting him a glass.  

“Who else is coming?” he asked, hoping that Adrienne had white wine as well as the red that Vala was drinking. 

“No one, it’s just me and Vala.  Every Sunday,”  Adrienne answered, handing him a glass and pointing to a bottle of red wine that was sitting the table. Damn, no white.  Without a further word she went and sat on the sofa, leaving Daniel to pour his own glass. Daniel looked over at the bottle of wine and at the two women, who were already discussing what had happened on last week’s episode a million thoughts running through his head. This was a mistake, he thought to himself, she had to have been kidding, and here he was showing up like an idiot.  The look on her face was enough to tell him that she had no intention of actually inviting him over, she was just trying to get him to stop teasing her about her extracurricular entertainment.  Vala was the one who had convinced him to come. 

“Daniel, are you going to sit down? I don’t want you milling around and blocking my view of hot swedish ass!” Vala fussed, Adrienne laughing as she brought the glass to her lips.  There was no getting out of this now. Daniel poured himself a glass, he was going to need it, and went and sat on the sofa between the two women, the open space that had been left to him.  It was going to be a long hour. The show began the title sequence and Adrienne leaned over, not taking her eyes off of the screen and holding her wine glass in front of her face. 

“Ok, I need to bring you up to speed so you don’t ask a million questions during,” she said.  

“What makes you think I would ask a million questions?” he retorted. 

“It’s your personality type,”  she answered and kept talking, “Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress who can read minds because she is one quarter fairy. But she can’t read vampire minds for some reason so she’s intrigued by them...” 

“Shhh...” Vala whispered, pointing frantically at last week’s recap.  

“You know what happened last week Vala, you were sitting right there,” Adrienne hissed, “Anyway, she dated one of them for a while, Bill Compton, but he was only dating her to gain power for himself it seems so now she’s single and everyone wants her to hook up with Eric Northman who is the vampire sheriff of Louisiana's area five.” 

“Are you kidding me?” Daniel responded, looking at his assistant completely confused.

“Absolutely not,” Adrienne answered him, deadly serious. “Now shush, I will try to help you follow it later if you need.” Daniel looked ahead as a very strange set of credits began to roll, with odd bayou music and strange morbid images. Adrienne pulled her legs onto the sofa, crossing her legs yoga style in front of her.  Vala, maybe, Daniel thought, she’s street smart, but not academically intelligent, and nothing with her every seems out of the realm of possibility, so this might be right up her alley.  But Adrienne? Daniel was starting to really question her intelligence now too.

“There he is!!” Vala bounced excitedly, “but wait, I thought you said he was naked in the books!?!” she looked over at Adrienne, disappointment in her face.  

“He is; I guess HBO only does sausage when it’s a prison show,” Adrienne answered, sipping her wine.  Sausage? this is a nightmare, Daniel thought, drinking some wine himself, a big swig of wine.

The rest of the show continued like this, Daniel totally lost as the girls talked across him and giggled about the clothed state of a tall blond vampire.  Both of them seemed to be completely enamored with the guy, practically drooling all over themselves, while he sat awkwardly trying to pretend he was not caught between a literal rock (stubborn Vala) and a hard place (offending Adrienne).  He was so uncomfortable but he couldn’t decide what would look worse, leaving or staying, opting finally to try to pretend he had fallen asleep.  Finally, he heard Vala whine something like ‘Come on...” and a loud music track play so he assumed the show was over.  Feeling someone beside him stand, he opened his eyes slightly to see that Vala was up and getting another bottle of wine.  

“So Daniel, what did you think?” she asked as she brought the bottle back over, setting him up for the fall. She knew he had been “asleep” and this was just her evil way of calling him out on it. Well played, Vala, well played. 

“Uh, great, thanks Vala for inviting me,” he replied, horribly sarcastic.  Adrienne didn’t say a word, just stood from her seat beside him, walking down the hall to what he assumed was the direction of her bedroom.  Once she was gone Daniel glared back at Vala, wanting an explanation. 

“I thought this was going to be a group event?” he asked her, keeping his voice down so that his assistant would not hear. 

“It was, just not the whole group.  Cam and Teal’c hate this show and Sam and Jack are probably watching some sporting event” Vala answered, a mischievous smile on her face. 

“So, you invited me to her apartment?” Daniel continued, the volume creeping up just slightly, How could she do this to him?  

“Yes, it’s no big deal.  She doesn’t hate you or anything,”  Vala answered, pouring herself yet another glass of wine like she had done absolutely nothing wrong, while Daniel was shaking his head at her, his mouth open.  Before he could say another word Adrienne reentered the living room with a small black box in her hand, waltzing directly up to him with that arrogant look on her face. 

“On the off chance that you came over here to actually watch the show and not just score with Vala, here’s season 1.  It will catch you up. Once you get through that I can bring you the rest of them if you want,” she handed the box to him, roughly, if you could call it that since she practically slammed it into his chest, and walked by him, turning into the kitchen.  

“Oh, I think she still hates me, at least outside of the lab anyway,” he answered, taking the box nonetheless and walking to get his coat.  He left without further comment.  

“Is he gone?” Adrienne asked, coming out of the kitchen the very instant Daniel closed the door behind him. Yeah, she’s been hiding in there, not wanting to face him after she and Vala’s girlfest over Eric Northman.   

“Yes, and you were so mean to him,” Vala fussed. 

“No I wasn’t.  I tried, but he just slept or ignored the whole program.  Did you even tell him what it was about; he actually acted like we were idiots for watching.  Look, I know you said you were done with him, but if you have changed your mind can you just invite him over to your place not mine,” Adrienne pleaded. Sure, she and Daniel were getting along great at work, but Adrienne wasn’t ready to have him hanging around socially, especially if it was going to put her into some strange middle position between he and Vala.  Drama like that was the very reason that Adrienne almost always had only male friends. 

“I don’t want him! It’s just awkward how you two just seem to tolerate one another.  You will have really good days and then come a group outing you do nothing but snipe at one another. I was just trying to fix that!” she stated, crossing her arms indignantly. 

“Well, I try. I try everyday.  He’s just not that into having an assistant and I’m not sure how I am ever going to get him over that. He is very cordial and civil at work. But I don’t know if it is ever going to be anything more,” Adrienne said, a sadness in her voice, as she sat on the sofa.  Sipping some more wine, Adrienne relaxed back onto the deep red cushions, clicking through the channel, trying to find something else for them to watch.

Daniel walked to his car annoyed and frustrated.  How could Vala have done that to him? That was the most awkward evening of his life and it wasn’t the first time one of the team members had tried something like this. Last week, Teal’c had invited Daniel to dinner, a dinner where Adrienne was seated right across from him, as if positiing her right there would force the two of them to talk. Then there was Sam, with her constant hints and comments about how much she liked Adrienne, how funny and intelligent Adrienne was, among other things. Why did everyone insist that he become friends with this woman!?! She was accomplished; he knew that and she did a good job, a great job, but he had nothing in common with her.  He might as well try to be friends with Rodney.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, he just never had anything to say to her.  Getting into his Jeep, e slammed the door behind him and drove off, trying to put the horrible night out of his mind.  

The next morning Adrienne was late as usual, but Daniel decided not to say anything.  She came in, went to the file cabinet, pulling out a variety of folders, setting them carefully onto the center table. He thought she was going to get down to work, so he started to get back to his own, but she looked over to him a friendly smile on her face. 

“Morning Daniel. They’re out of coffee in the mess for some unknown reason but I am happy to pass by Starbucks if ya’d like,” she offered. He was a bit annoyed by this; he had been getting his own coffee for weeks so she had no right to act otherwise but maybe she was just being nice, maybe this wasn’t just backlash from what he was going to now refer to as the “Uncomfortable Vampire Incident.” 

“You can go if you want to,” he decided was the best response giving her the benefit of the doubt. She stood again, walking over to the lockers and pulling out a jacket that she would leave there from time to time, slipping it over her shoulders as she glanced at him.   

“You want something?” she asked.  

“Yeah,” he answered, deciding that she really was being friendly, “surprise me,” he added, trying to at least give her some small indication that he trusted her judgement, even if it just was a cup of coffee. He stood, walking over to her, reaching for cash from his wallet when Adrienne grabbed his hand, shaking her head emphatically. 

“I got this,” she said plainly, shocking him with her offer.

“You sure?” he asked, making the tiniest bit of a face at her trying to judge her intentions but Adrienne just smiled.  

“Yeah, a student gave me a gift card that been wasting space in my wallet. I shall return,” she said, smiling and waving, heading back out of the door of the lab. That was nice, Daniel thought to himself, no longer trying to judge her intentions and accepting the offer for what it was a cup of coffee. He looked back at what he had been doing, yet another section of the database, clicking away at the keys on his laptop. 

An hour later she wasn’t back yet.  The nerve, he thought, using coffee as an excuse to escape work for an hour.  After hour two passed, however, he started to get worried. Granted, Adrienne operated on Cajun time, but she didn’t just vanish into thin air, especially when there was work to be done.  Something had to be wrong. He grabbed the phone receiver from his desk unit with one hand while scrolling through his contact to find her cell phone number with the other.  He entered the numbers carefully and say back, awaiting her answer.

“Hello?” her voice was clear, albeit reserved, without the same joviality as before.   

“Where are you?” he asked his tone harsh, just in case there was something amiss. He could hear her clear her throat on the other end of the line before she spoke.  

“There was an accident. I’m sorry. I should have called,”  she responded. Her voice was quiet, lacking that classic Adrienne spunk, and it took a moment before the words finally registered in Daniel’s head. 

“An accident? Are you ok?” he questioned, suddenly worried for her safety. He felt bad, why had he doubted her, Adrienne had never been anything more than the consummate professional, and now she was off base, getting him coffee and had been in an accident, possibly even injured. Horrible didn’t quite do how he was feeling justice. 

“Yea, the bug’s gonna need a new rear fender and maybe even an engine cover, but the guy wasn’t going that fast so I was lucky,” she was eerily calm and still quiet. Daniel listened to her talk about her car, suddenly realizing that she hadn’t answered his question.   

“Not the car Adrienne, I asked if you were alright,” he wanted to try to convey to her that he was not the ass of the year, that he did care about her well being.  She might hate him personally, but they worked together well and he didn’t want to see her harmed in anyway.  

“Yeah, my neck’s a little sore, but I am going to let Carson check me out when I get back,” she replied, touched by his concern.  

“So, can you drive you car back?” he was now truly concerned.  Not only had his assistant been in a car accident, but he had no idea as to whether or not she was medically sound or stranded for that matter.  

“No, the damage was too close to the engine for me to take the risk. I’ve called a tow truck and it should be here soon. Then I’ll call a cab, but your coffee is going to be cold,” she sounded almost like she was apologizing. For his coffee? He stood from his desk.  

“No, no, don’t call a cab, I’ll be right there, where are you?” he insisted, hearing her make a sound into the phone.

“Daniel, I lived alone a long time; you don’t need to come rushing down here, I can manage,”  she answered, but not with the answer he was going to accept.  

“I don’t need to come, I want to come. Stop being ridiculous, now where are you?” he asked again; he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. 

“I’m on St. Asaph, a block from the Starbucks,” she said, sighing and giving in. At least he didn’t sound like he was going to yell at her, he actually sounded concerned, so she figured she’d let him come and save the day.   

“Ok, be there soon,” he hung up, dialing the gate room to inform Walter he was leaving and dashed out to his car.  

Adrienne was sitting on the sidewalk watching the tow truck take away her baby; she worried about that car more than anything else in her life right now.  Looking down at Daniel’s coffee, hers long gone, she shrugged and started to drink it, desperate for the caffeine boost as a distraction to the worry that was running through her head, hoping the man that hit her had enough insurance to cover the repairs, since VWs as old as hers cost more to repair that most people realized.  She was finishing off his cup when heard him shout from down the sidewalk.  

“Adrienne! Hey, over here,” and here came Daniel just like he promised.  Surprisingly, he didn’t look angry or irritated, he actually looked worried, walking briskly in her direction.  Adrienne stood from the sidewalk and walked over to him.  

“Sorry,” she began by apologizing, “I drank your coffee.” Daniel was shaking his head and looking her over, trying to ascertain if she was truly alright or just playing tough. 

“I’ll live, where’d they take your car?” he asked, determining that she was uninjured as she had claimed.  Reaching into the side pocket of her BDU’s, Adrienne showed him a business card of some body shop in the area, one that he had never heard of. 

“I’ve got to call this place in the morning, get over there and see.  But my car is a ’68, pretty common year, so parts shouldn't be an issue,”  she said, shrugging. Daniel couldn’t get over how quickly her mood changed when talking about her car, she seemed so distraught.  

“I’m happy to take you over there too, it’s really no problem,” he said and pointed in the direction of where he had parked, hoping to offer some ease to her concerns. Together, they started down the sidewalk to where Daniel had been fortunate enough to find 30 minute parking that was available. 

“I appreciate that, thanks,” she said, taking a few steps toward his car before replying.  Daniel just smiled.  

“So, you drive a bug?” he asked, intrigued by her choice of transportation.

“Yeah, ’68, restored with and MP3 player and everything, modern tech gear, but yeah, a bug,”  she answered. Daniel smiled and stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, pointing at a forest green jeep and reaching into his pocket for the keys. 

“That suits you,” he replied.  

She chuckled a bit, “How so?”  

“Just spunky, I guess,” he responded as she laughed.  He unlocked and opened the door of his jeep for her, watching her as she got in just in case she stumbled or showed any other sign that she was feeling the results of the accident. 

“Well, this car doesn’t suit you,” she said, winking at him. Daniel shut the door on the passenger side and walked over to get in himself, wondering what exactly she meant by that. Opening his door, he pulled himself into the seat and put the key into the ignition. 

“Ok, so this car doesn’t suit me? Why not?” he asked, bewildered by the remark, but playing friendly. It looked like she was playing with him so he wanted to be nice but Adrienne just shrugged.

“I mean, I get the whole Jeep thing because you’re an archaeologist, but you are really more of a paper pusher now.  Do you even know what dirty is?” she teased. Daniel started the Jeep and began to work his way out of the space, cutting his eyes over at her. 

“Yes, I do.... in fact, until we got this Asgard mess dumped into our laps, I did a lot of off world digs. In fact, it is how I met Chaka,” he replied, driving down St. Asaph, heading back toward the Pentagon when he noticed that Adrienne was looking over at him confused. 

“Chaka?” she asked, seeking clarification. 

“He is the current leader of the Unas,” Daniel explained, Adrienne nodding her head in recognition. 

“Gotcha, the “Old Ones,” she answered, “forgot the name, sorry. This job has got a lot to memorize.” Daniel smiled in agreement as he turned the car into the parking lot of the Pentagon, pulling the car into his space and shutting it off, looking over at his assistant.  

“Well, let me know when you want a ride home,” he said, “and go down to Carson to get checked out. Neck pain is not something to be ignored.”  Adrienne looked a little confused.

“Wow, what’s with the sudden concern?” she asked.  

“I just want to make sure you’re alright.  A car accident is no small thing; I am honestly surprised that you are not in tears and hysterical,” he added. 

“Me, in tears? Daniel, it was a fender bender.  Shit happens,” she declared casually and hopped out of the jeep, shutting the door behind her.   

“Well, go see Carson.  Today,” he got out himself, shouting over the hood to her and hoping she would heed his advice. 

“I’m going now, but he’s just going to give me some pain killers and send me back home,” she replied, shouting over her should across the parking lot, her tone indicating that she might be reconsidering her visit to the infirmary.  

“And then I’ll take you,” he said, jogging to catch up and open the door for her. 

“When did you become so overprotective?” she smiled, noting the difference in his demeanor.  Feeing a need to explain, Daniel shut the door again, gazing down at her. 

“Look, Adrienne, I know I rode you pretty hard in the beginning and I have admitted that and apologized for that.  I think we work well together and I know you hate me, but it would be nice if we could at least be civil to one another outside of the lab. Who knows, we might get more done. But more than anything I need an ally down there,” he explained honestly all the while Adrienne was standing there, a strange expression on her face. 

“I don’t hate you,” she said quickly.  

“Then why are you always sniping at me?” he asked. 

“Because you get on my nerves.  You’re... neurotic,” she said.  She said it so casually, like he was some kind on maniac that she was forced to deal with.  He couldn’t help it; the comment just set him off.  

“Me!?! I’m neurotic!! Have you ever taken a second to look at yourself.  You hold up the entire cafeteria line counting carbohydrates and proteins, out loud while the rest of us normal people wait patiently for you to just shut up and get out of the way!!” he began to raise his voice, shouting out the first thing that he could think of that she did that drove him crazy. Why did she set him off so bad? He had never lashed out as someone like he lashed out at Adrienne, but despite his shouting and accusations,  Adrienne didn’t even respond, just shoved past him and opened the door, right into his face and stormed into the building.  

“I’m not finished!!” he shouted. 

“Well I am! You can take your spread out disorganized desk, your idiotic rules about ‘ooooo, let’s never fight, let’s sit in a big damn circle and sing Kum Bah FUCKIN Ya’ and shove it up your ass!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she walked backwards down the hall.  

“GODDAMMIT ADRIENNE!!” he screamed, but she just gave him the finger, turned and headed for the infirmary.  

“This is why I work alone,” Rodney McKay said from behind making Daniel turn surprised to see he was coming in from the parking lot as well.  

“Sorry you had to hear that,” Daniel was embarrassed, but not by his actions but by the impression that Rodney would get that he could not control his assistant and the fact he just had a witness to another public outburst, which he had promised not to do since the footrace incident.  He could just hear Sam yelling at him now.  

“However, if Sam were to assign me a woman that attractive, that intelligent and that spirited, I might reconsider.  That is, of course, if Jennifer and I weren’t....” he said, that goofy grin on his face. Not desiring to hear about yet another happy couple of the base,  Daniel just shook his head and headed for the lab.  Wanting to tune out the world, he put on headphones and began to go through some of the audio files in the database, making notes into a fresh journal, letting the work take him away.  He was well into two hours worth of recordings when he felt a tap at his shoulder and turned surprised to see that behind him was Adrienne, cup of coffee in hand.  She placed it on his desk as he took off his headphones,  pulling up a chair beside him and sitting down.  

“I’m sorry, for earlier.  I was still pretty wound up from the accident and I took it out on you. You didn’t deserve that, especially after coming to my rescue,” she said with a small smile on her face.  

“It’s alright, I was a bit of a jerk myself.  What did Carson say?” he asked. 

“He tried to give me some muscle relaxers, but that’s too chemical.  So, I am going to take off of running for a week, kick up the yoga and switch out milk for coconut water,” she answered as if this were a normal set of doctors orders.  Daniel started to laugh and Adrienne cracked up herself,  placing her head in her hands and beginning to laugh harder.  

“Ok fine! We’re both neurotic!! Both of us,” she was laughing strongly now.  

“Fair, as long as you admit it, I will too,” Daniel answered, smiling, that handsome smile that Adrienne had just noticed only a few weeks before.  She shook her head, trying to refocus, and made her way back to her desk not feeling like going home just yet.  Daniel didn’t seem to argue with her when she put on her headphones and cranked up her rap music, diving into her laptop screen like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

Robert Woolsey marched through the door at five on the dot and Adrienne could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t happy. She didn’t want either man to know that she was eavesdropping, so she simply turned her music down and left her headphones on, allowing her eyes to wander in their direction.

“Dr. Jackson, this report from PSK-9564 just arrived at my desk. Just arrived at my desk.  The mission that you and Dr. Rowan negotiated on.  The one where you decided it was a good idea to let two villages share access to the Stargate...” he slammed the folder onto Daniel’s desk, but the archaeologist seemed unmoved.  

“Yes Mr. Woolsey, it was a necessary part of the negotiation, and with a new treaty in place I don’t think we will need to worry about either tribe denying us future access,” Daniel sat back, pulling his own headphones to his neck and leaning back in his chair. 

“Apparently, so was an entire survey team with thousands of dollars worth of equipment!” Mr. Woolsey was obviously heated, “and farming supplies to the tune of a half a million dollars!!!” 

“All necessary in order to keep the peace and let us continue to have a presence on that planet.  We need to use planetary gates in the bridge this time, and this gate is key to that bridge,” Daniel answered, remaining calm.  

“Dr. Jackson,  I understand what you do for us, I do, but this is unacceptable. And since when do you know what we need to create a bridge system.  All you have been doing for months is sitting down here and reading through Asgard knowledge that has proven useless.  We are getting more use now out of Vala Mal Doran!” Woolsey crossed his armed and breathed in like he was going to say more, Daniel sitting at his desk, remaining calm and bracing for the worst. Instead, Adrienne pulled off her headphones. 

“Excuse me, Mr. Woolsey,” Adrienne spoke, both men turning to look at her. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think Mr. Woolsey is probably just misunderstanding. If you could let me see the file folder.....” she began, setting the headphones aside, walking over to Daniel’s desk and grabbed the file, opening it and looking at the report.  

“Yes, see, just what I thought,” she started as Daniel looked at her quizzically. She wanted to wink, give him a signal or something, but he was just going to have to trust her, “First, with gate access, it was a simple surveying mistake, see this word here, so technically were we not giving access, we were just fixing the existing boundary lines.  Good thing we did, a bloody dispute over a needed gate is the last thing we need,” she stated.  Woolsey started to speak, but Adrienne just help up a finger politely and continued. 

“As far as the surveying equipment is concerned, and this is my fault, sorry, newbie mistake, I forgot to add that there were geological indications that there could have been a naquada supply, so we had to conduct a survey,” Adrienne explained.  

“Dr. Rowan, they were planning on using this as farmland, isn’t naquada radioactive? Wouldn’t it have affected the soil in a way that the surface of the ground would be noticeably different?” Robert asked.  

“That is what we have seen, yes, but if you will recall radioactivity can also increase yield, or at least it does here on Earth, and with how fervently the Kakuni were holding on to this land, we thought it was worth investigating.  Again, I apologize for the omission and will rectify it immediately,” Adrienne continued.  

“And the equipment? I suppose you also have a clever excuse for the equipment as well?” Woolsey pushed, he crossed his arms.

“No, no excuses.  See, the Janci and the Kakuni both grow a type of rare but hearty potato plant.  If using the materials we give them can succeed in growing the potatoes in larger quantities, we can use them as seeders to help spread them to the planets that we are trying to wean off of Kasa.  Ergo, more allies for us,” Adrienne declared happily, shutting the folder and setting it back onto Daniel desk, right beside a still hand that was attached to a currently shocked face.   

“Well, Dr. Rowan, seems you have it all figured out.  I would appreciate if you would amend that report to reflect this new information,” Woolsey glared at her but unfazed, Adrienne nodded her head in agreement.

“Understood, I’ll begin immediately,” she replied, picking up the folder from Daniel’s desk once more and returning to her own.  Mr. Woolsey said goodbye to Daniel and saw himself out, clearly still unhappy about the result but not seeing anything that he could do about it.  

“I had that,” he told her once the coast was clear.  

“Uh huh,” she said from her screen, smiling, and not doing so sarcastically.  

“You lied to him,” Daniel continued, trying to clarify his position with his assistant. 

“Only a little,” she kept typing.  

“No, I think that was a pretty big lie,” Daniel said, “You better hope we don’t get caught.” 

“You don’t lie Dr. Jackson?” she winked.  

“I lie when I have to,” he answered.  

“So do I,” she kept typing, “anyway, the last thing’s not a lie.” 

“The Kasa replacement?  You didn’t mention anything to me about it,” he actually sounded offended.  

“I just thought of it, but it is a good idea.  So, I am mentioning it now,” she looked around her screen for something, probably searching for something about this good idea that had just come to her. 

Daniel sat for a second, trying to remember where he left off before Woolsey arrived but just got frustrated and decided to quit for the night. He was shutting down his computer, but doing so slowly as he saw Adrienne was still typing away.  Hearing the printer across the room start, Daniel saw Adrienne leap from the desk, as if nothing had happened to her today, no car accident, no argument, no Woolsey, taking the page from the printer and walking over to her desk, hole punching it and sticking it into the folder.  A look of pride on her face, she skipped over to his desk, gleefully presenting him with the amended version.   

“Here you go, fixed!” she stated, turning as he took the folder to walk back to her desk to get her coat, “Can I still get a ride home?” She asked for her shoulder once she put it on. 

“Sure, let me get my bag,” Daniel turned, folder in hand and smiled, walking over to his locker, grabbing his messenger bag following behind her,  Adrienne hitting the lights once he was close to the door.  He stopped at the door frame, looking back at her as she was reaching to pull the large slab behind them. 

“Thanks for having my back,” he said, quietly, and meant it, still touched by her actions today with Woolsey.  

“No problem,” she replied, “as long as you always remember to have mine. Kinda nice having someone to call when I get stranded at the coffee shop.” 

“I think I can live with that,” he answered, pulling the door closed behind them as they headed out to the Jeep.