Daniel and Adrienne #12: Moving Up

“Ad,” he shook her gently, whispering quietly into her ear, hoping not to arouse her too quickly.  

“Not now Eric; humans have to sleep,” she rolled over in the bed, pushing him away forcefully, shoving her head underneath the pillow.  

“Ad,” he whispered a bit louder, hoping this time it would work, that she would wake up and get out of here since he needed her up and moving, sooner than later.  

“Just go to Fangtasia; I’ll be there after I nap,” she replied, smacking at the air now, huddling further over to the corner of the bed, pressing her body against the cold concrete wall.   

“Adrienne, I need you to wake up and stop dreaming about vampires,”  Daniel pleaded raising his voice a touch in order to wake her but not startle her. He wasn’t afraid of scaring her; he was afraid of getting punched, he knew how hard she hit and Adrienne took her sleep very seriously, very very seriously. Rolling over, Adrienne opened her eyes slightly, barely looking at him. 

“Is your name Alexander Skarsgard?” she asked curtly, hoping her voice conveyed what her eyes could not.  

“No Ad, it’s me; you’re just dreaming about Swedish men,”  Daniel answered, standing closer to the edge of the bed, since now that she was awake, there was no fear of him getting socked, or so he hoped. Growling, Adrienne rolled back over to her side.  

“Then get the hell out of my bedroom Daniel,” she said as she pulled the blanket over her head.  Daniel figured this was the reaction he might get but he needed her to get up now and this couldn’t wait until morning.  

“Adrienne, I just need you to come and take a look at something.  Then you can go right back to sleep. I promise,” Daniel lied deftly.  It would take a bit longer than a moment and she wasn’t going to be happy, but this needed to be done and there was no better time than he present, regardless of the hour. Grumbling, she rolled back over to face him and turned on her bedside lamp, cutting her eyes at him.  

“I have a rule about being seen without makeup Daniel. I also have a rule about working at,” she looked at her clock, “3 a.m.  Oh, and a rule about having men in my bedroom uninvited.  Right now you are breaking all three.” Daniel made a face at her.  Times like these he wondered if she was really that difficult or if Vala had been having and influence on her but either was, she was going to get up, and she was going to get up now. 

“Do you think I’d come all the way down here and drag you out of bed if it wasn’t important?” he retorted. Adrienne rolled her eyes.  

“I don’t hear sirens,” she spat, sitting up and still complaining but she was coming.  Pulling back the blanket, Adrienne stepped out of bed wearing only a tank top and underwear, throwing the blanket disgustedly behind her. Taken aback by her choice of bedtime attire, Daniel turned away quickly, clearing his throat.  Adrienne noticed his discomfort, stopping mid stride to scowl at him. 

“You are so stupid sometimes Indy, this is more than my racing suit covers.  Did you think I slept in uniform?” she laughed, somewhat appreciating his chivalry, trudging over to her dresser and pulling some yoga pants out of the drawer. Despite her temptation, she decided not to mention to him that if he were to awaken Vala at three a.m. in her underwear that he would be getting a decidedly different reaction. Reluctantly, Adrienne pulled the pants up to her hips and walked over to slide on her slippers, receiving a raised eyebrow and a frown in return.   

“Dammit Indy, you’re lying to me.  I know that look, that look that says slippers are not enough,”  Adrienne sighed and slipped back out of them, walking over to grab her combat boots, foregoing socks and turning toward the bathroom.  

“Adrienne, this is urgent, can you please hurry?” Daniel tried not to plea but was getting slightly annoyed.  She didn’t acknowledge him with response, just brushed her teeth, door open, seemingly doing it as loud and slow as she could, slamming the brush into the cup, and stormed back into the room make-up bag in hand, shoving Daniel out of the way as she walked right past him, opened her door and headed straight for the elevators. 

When she arrived it was a disaster, as if Daniel’s spreading disease had far surpassed his desk, invading hers in the process.  Files were everywhere, stacked on tables, in piles on the floor, strewn on top of the cabinets and she counted at least three cups of coffee in various stages of completion positioned around the room, including one precariously close to the edge of the stack of papers on her desk and her spare flash drive.  She scanned the room from side to side before looking at him, her eyes wide and her mouth dropped open.  

“What have you done?!” Adrienne asked in disbelief, taking her eyes off of him again to gaze upon the literal eruption of paper laid out in front of her. The lab had been organized before she was hired, albeit loosely, as Daniel had an odd system of spreading that deviated drastically from how meticulous his dig sites were but one of Adrienne’s first self-appointed tasks when she was hired was to create a system that everyone who needed the lab could use in an attempt to reign in his massive desk disorganization.  This was not her system.  This was not any system. This was shrapnel from the bomb known as Daniel. 

“I told you I needed you,” he replied, lifting his leg to carefully step into a six inch by six inch square in order to walked over to his desk.  She followed, stepping over three opened boxes, contents stacked in piles beside them, almost stumbling over the third, as the folders were stacked on top of the box so high that she couldn’t life her leg over it. About halfway to the desk and stopped, grumbling under her breath once more,  turning and walking, dodging really, her way to the large file cabinet in the corner of the room.  

“Ad?” Daniel questioned, “Come on I need you to look at this; what are you doing?”  He stopped his trek across the mess to look over his shoulder, hearing her nearly knocking over the papers from across the room. Frowning, again, Adrienne held up a finger, grabbing a nearby chair and hopping up on it, digging into the large puke green cabinet hanging on the wall.  She pulled out a black box, slamming the cabinet door closed behind her, hopping down and waltzing over to her desk, glaring over at him.  The dagger glare, he thought to himself, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. 

“It’s a coffee maker. I bought it last week.  Whatever the hell you have dragged me out of bed for looks like it’s going to require me to be coherent,” she explained as she started to open the box, explained shortly and rudely, making his quite clear that she was not happy with him at the moment, but she was here nonetheless. Knowing he had won, Daniel smiled and continued to his computer, grabbing the laptop and holding it like a serving tray walking it over to her, peeking to see if she got had witnessed his little performance, but she hadn’t, continuing to slam around the pieces of the coffee machine on to the surface to place everything together.  He gave up trying to be silly with her in the middle of the night and set the computer onto her desk, on top of her own closed laptop while she started the assemble the source of her fix.  

“Alright, these images came in from our last check-in to P3X-888,” Daniel began, cueing up the machine, his finger guiding her eyes to the images on the screen. She barely looked up. 

“The Unas,” she nodded and opened a pack of filters, popping one into the top, shaking the bag of coffee before opening that as well. This was no joke, his assistant really could not function without caffeine and sleep.  Good to know, in fact, he started to debate whether or not to ask Carolyn for some sort of injection to keep handy if he ever needed her up for an emergency but decided against it. Still partially ignoring him, as she successfully ripped the top seam of the pouch, after a moment’s struggle in which she shooed away his help, she paused, gauging the amount and pointed at the growing pile to see if she had filled it acceptably.  Daniel nodded in the affirmative.  

“Yes, well, I was unable to go on this past check-in, if you will remember?” Daniel continued as he opened a file of images.  

“Yeah, I remember the pouting,” Adrienne teased, finally a smile on her face, bumping him with her hip,” Go on.” 

“Well, the team that did go through found these,” he turned the computer so Adrienne could see the images.  Looking this time, her eyes widened, quickly darting over to Daniel. 

“Go to bed!” Adrienne exclaimed, it being too early in the morning for her to contain her upbringing, and maybe too early for Daniel as well, as he scrunched his face looking thoroughly confused.  

“Addy, I just got you OUT of bed,” Daniel said.  Smile gone, she glared at him, again

“It’s 3 a.m. shug, you lucky I’m speaking English, or at least Cajun,” she responded peering closer to the screen. Daniel reached over for the pot and walked to the sink, filling it with water as Adrienne suddenly seemed to be absorbed in the images and had forgotten her coffee making.  Returning to her desk, carefully, why had he made this mess, Daniel set the machine on the side table, away from the electronics poured in the water and hit start.  She would thank him later, he was sure.  

“Is this?” Adrienne asked.  

“Yep, Go’ould, but NEW writings.  It looks like we might have some of our friends trying to regroup after all,” he said and Adrienne shook her head, peeling her eyes from teh screen and looking back to him. 

“Ok, so what do you need me to do? Can I shower before we suit up to leave?” she asked, the switch flipping, the switch that had made him not kill her back when she used to drive him crazy, the work-mode switch.  Coffee or not, she was fired up and ready to go, no questions, no complaint. 

“No, you’re not leaving.  Sam wants to send me and Teal’c alone on this one to see Chaka and figure out what is going on.  I need you to hold down the fort,” he answered. 

“Hold down the fort? My eye!” she exclaimed, giving him the exact reaction he had anticipated or so he thought.  He needed to print out a list of cajun expressions for later if he ever hoped to communicate with her in the middle of the night, sans java. 

“Ad, it’s no big deal, you’ve done it before. You know how boring it is in here, hell you spend most of your day listening to rap music or trying to find new ways to torture me. I’ll be back in three days, tops,” he explained.  Adrienne let out a sigh, rolling her eyes and shoving her hands to her hips. He knew she was going to agree, he was just waiting for the words to exit her mouth. 

“Alright, alright, I got it covered, you know I’ve got it covered. When are you leaving?” she asked instead, changing her tune. Too easy, he thought, it’s just too easy to exploit her sense of duty.  

“Uh,” Daniel replied, glancing at his watch, “in about 5 minutes.” 

“Five minutes! You rat bastard, why didn’t you wake me up sooner, let’s get you to the gate room,” she began to shove him with urgency as he tried not to laugh, wanting his video camera to film her in the middle of the night, dark circles, with her thick accent, trying to make coffee, hell trying to open the bag of coffee, and using a variety of Cajun expressions. It would be the best blackmail later...

“No gate travel; we’re trying to slip in quiet.  We’re taking the Odyssey,” Daniel replied, pointing upward, indicating his real method of transport.  Adrienne stopped shoving him, backing up quickly for fear of getting sucked in to the beam, barking some orders of her own. 

“Ok, well, be careful and make sure to check- “ she was going to say check in with her but the beam came and zapped Daniel into space, before she could finish, blinding her in the process.  Blinking and rubbing her face, Adrienne stepped back, looking at the lab, taking in the damage.   

“That man owes me big time. Dinner out on his dime big time,” Adrienne said out loud to the empty room, sighing before leaning down to begin the clean-up. 

Daniel stood back from the camera, watching his assistant try to reorganize the lab as her coffee brewed, Sam behind him shaking her head.  

“Daniel, I don’t think she’s ready, it’s only been what, six months? And besides, she is one of us, not alien.  Every other SG member gets a written test and an interview before being assigned to a team.  Why are you insisting on treating her different?” Sam crossed her arms, making a face at her friend, hoping that they were not back to feuding incessantly. She thought that they were over that, way over that, but standing here as Daniel evilly eyeballed the screen, watching poor Adrienne curse and swear her way around their workspace, she wasn’t so sure.  

“I want to be sure and an interview isn’t going to tell us anything.  If Adrienne gets wind for a millisecond that we are considering her as the fifth, you’d better believe that she’d prepare a three hour powerpoint presentation with music that she has preselected for various psychological reasons in order to argue why she is the best candidate for the job, with a list of possible questions and answers that we might ask if she allowed us to speak. That woman is too smart to be tested normally, way too smart,” Daniel crossed his arms, thinking to himself it was also fun to torture her, he would finally get an opportunity to dish back out some of the harassment he had endured in their short friendship, or at the very least, a little payback for endless hours of bad rap music pouring from her headphones.  He watched as she stopped cleaning, for now, making herself a cup of coffee and scanning the room in that Adrienne way that she did, eyes dart, brain calculating, planning, until finally she began to make a few faces and he could see her mouthing profanities in various romance languages. Daniel smiled, containing his laughter, Sam smirking and shaking her head.  

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked.  

“Just a bit,” he answered honestly, shoving his hands into his pockets allowing himself to laugh.  

“How long before you throw a monkey wrench into everything?” Sam now asked, wanting to hear the full layout of Daniel’s scheme, such as it was.  Poor Adrienne.  

“Well, she left the lab at midnight, and knowing her, she read some crazy novel until at least one to ease herself to sleep.  She’s working on maybe two hours now, if she’s lucky.  I want to get her good and sleep deprived and then throw it at her,” Daniel replied, smiling, leaning forward to peer into the screen, rubbing his chin with his hand.  He really was enjoying this.  

“Fine, but I’m not going to fire or punish her when she pommels you into the ground after this is all over.  Adrienne doesn’t like to be messed with,” Sam warned, memories of foot races, elevator fights and gym ‘bout gone wrong flashing through her head. 

“I can handle Adrienne,” Daniel assured he calmly, pulling out the metal chair and taking a seat in front of the camera. Sam, however, was not so sure. 

By 9 a.m. Adrienne was brewing a second pot of coffee, her mere two hours of sleep getting the best of her. The lab had been straightened for the most part, only a few loose files here and here, so Adrienne decided to rest for a moment, sitting down watching the brown liquid drip slowly into its glass case. There just never seemed to be enough coffee in the world, especially when Daniel gave her tasks like these, never enough, but she sat there, waiting, vowing to stand once she was properly caffeinated. 

As for Daniel, he had gone to bed hours ago, having seen Adrienne clean, obsessively, before and not needing to observe that, that wasn’t what this little test was about anyway. Unaware that she was being watched, by at this point a curious Walter at least, Adrienne just poured herself another cup and then stopped, her eyes brightening and dashed to her quarters.  

At 1 p.m. Daniel trudged back into Sam’s office, having slept in her bunk adjacent to her office so that Adrienne would not find him, because knowing his luck, she’d decide there was something in his room she had to borrow and catch him huddled under the covers.  He laughed at the thought, of her barging into his room, unannounced and how strange it was that it really didn’t bother him that much anymore. Cracking his neck before slipping on his glasses, he peered over to the monitor, surprised to see Vala sitting at the screen.  

“So this is her SG-1 test?” Vala asked as Daniel came in and sat down.  

“Yeah, why?”  he said, rubbing his eyes, having missed some crust and putting his glasses back on.  

“Because I can’t tell if she’s passing or failing,”  Vala said, a grin breaking out across her face as she pointed at the screen.  There was Adrienne, in the lab, dancing around like a fool, file folders in one hand and one of his artifacts in the other while the whiteboard was playing an episode of True Blood, close captioned, in French of course, Alexander Skarsgard’s half naked body strutting across the screen. Daniel’s jaw dropped, what in the world was going in on there?? Fast as his hand could move, he shoved Vala aside, reaching over to turn up the volume. 

“Biggie biggie biggie can’t you see; sometimes your words just hypnotize me...”  the iPod speaker blared, Daniel now seeing her stereo from her quarters sitting at his desk, the fabric covering vibrating to the beat as Adrienne sang along, dancing low to the floor.  Daniel was staring at the screen in complete shock.  What in the world was she doing? And how in the hell could she do that? He was debating whether or not to check in with her from his “mission”, just to see what excuse she would have for music blaring when he called, when he saw a figure come around the corner.  It was Sergeant Satterfield, one of his admirers as Adrienne liked to call her.  He smiled at this pleasant turn of events.  Have fun dealing with this one Adrienne, he thought to himself; she hated when Satterfield came down to the lab almost as much as she used to be annoyed by Vala. Sitting back in his chair, Daniel smiled brightly, chuckling a bit, to see how exactly his “Robin” would handle this intrusion.  Reaching into her pocket, Adrienne pointed a small remote over her shoulder to shut off her music and walked to approach her guest.  

“Where’s Dr. Jackson?” Satterfield questioned, looking over at his empty desk, well nearly empty, everything from earlier cleared away save Adrienne’s speaker dock. 

“Off world, is there something I can help you with?” Adrienne answered professionally.  Satterfield looked disappointed, at the response Adrienne rolled her eyes slightly, making Daniel smile glancing over at Vala in satisfaction. 

“Oh, I just needed him to look at something,” she replied quietly.  

“Well, I am more than happy to take a look at it for you; or if you would like to leave it I can have him look at it upon his return,” Adrienne held out her hand, a jovial expression on her face, not one sarcastic tone or mannerism. Satterfield made another face of disappointment, gazing over at his desk again before stuffing the folder into Adrienne’s waiting hand.  

“I’d like to have himlook at it,” Satterfield responded, stressing the word him.  

“No problem,” Adrienne put on that diplomatic smile of hers and walked it over to his desk, tucking it neatly into his “in” box.  Satterfield left without another word.  

“I swear for God, I ‘ve got to be the only woman on this damn base that thinks sleeping with that man is not a life priority,” Adrienne said aloud to no one in particular.  Vala spit coffee all over the screen, leaning forward in her chair laughing hysterically.  Screwing up his nose, Daniel reached out for the screen ad shut off the volume, glaring over at Vala she stood to get a paper towel and wipe off the screen, still giggling uncontrollably.  

“I’m glad that you find her amusing,” Daniel glared at Vala, not finding Adrienne’s comment the least bit amusing. No one on this base, well other than the doubled over laughter factory standing beside him, was trying to sleep with him; Adrienne just like to exaggerate. Regaining her composure, Vala breathed in and just smiled back at him.  

“I love her; she cracks me up,” Vala, taking the wet towels from his hand, tossing them in the trash as she walked out the door, chuckling with every step.  Trying to ignore her, Daniel looked back at the screen to see that Adrienne had cranked the music back up and was dancing around like before, not a care in the world.  

“You just wait Miss Perfect,” Daniel said and kept watching.  

At about 5 p.m. he saw Ronan pop his head around the corner.  Scoffing, Daniel leaned forward turning the volume back up.  Adrienne could laugh all she wanted about Daniel’s little female fan club, but Dex took it to the next level of flirtation. He was very interested in Adrienne, much to Daniel’s amusement, so much so that he loved to try to eavesdrop on their ridiculous conversations, where Ronan, who himself was a prisoner of the wraith for years was somehow the hero of the entire Pegasus galaxy, all the while Adrienne would just sit there, smiling, laughing and later insist to Daniel that he was just her buddy. Him and Cameron.  If every woman on base was trying to sleep with Daniel, at least they weren’t hovering like flies to honey, flies that no matter how much work needed to be done, sometimes he could not shoo away.

“Hey Addy, where’ve you been all day?” Ronan asked, plopping himself down into his chair like he belonged there.  Daniel rolled his eyes, but leaned forward to get a better look at it, when he saw Ronan reach into his side pocket and hand Adrienne a bottle.  

“Working.  Daniel’s off world for a few so I get to play the boss,” she answered, taking the water and leaning to kiss him on the cheek. Oh please, Daniel thought, I catch heat for speaking to a friendly female while she and Dex are going to share water?? He made another mental note for harassment later. 

“Nice, how’s it going?” Ronan continued, smiling at the peck 

“Fantastic.  I mean, he’s my friend and all and I adore him, I do, but really? He makes this sound like this is so frikkin hard.  Yeah, I bet it’s hard when you have to spend so much time trying to fight off every bimbo on the base,” Adrienne said, sitting on the edge of her desk and drinking her gift.  Daniel made a face at her response, a little hurt by the asumption; he thought they’d cleared up any old feelings like that.  

“It’s not that bad, what are you jealous?” Ronan joked, nudging her thigh with his foot. Swallowing and shaking her head, Adrienne held up her hand a moment before answering. 

“No, I’m not jealous. It’s just that, well, they don’t know him, ya know? He just deserves better...” Adrienne paused, looking down at the bottle before bringing the cool clear plastic back to her lips.  

“Wow,” Daniel whispered from the observation room, not even aware that he had spoken. Had she really said that? That he deserved better? Glancing back at the screen , bringing himself back to reality, he caught Ronan as he shrugged, standing from the chair and grabbing her shoulder. 

“Well, it’s about dinner time.  Didn’t know if you wanted to join us?” he asked, Adrienne’s expression changing instantly at the invite. 

“I was planning on going for a run first,” she said, her dark eyes dancing over the hands of the clock, calculating the time in her head. Nuh uh, Daniel thought forgetting in a flash what she had just said about him, she is NOT going to sit there, flirt, talk about how easy his job was and then go running.  NOT happening.  He stood from his seat.  

“I’ll wait for you; but I think the others are going to head down now,” Ronan added.  Oh no, Daniel frowned, and she was not going to get a dinner date with Ronan either, in fact, it seemed as though none of this was not going as planned.  Adrienne had run the lab before alone, well, with Vala’s help and Sam checking in on her twice a day, but there is no way in the world she was going to make it all look so easy, make it look like he wasn’t even needed at al.

“Sam!!” Daniel shouted over his shoulder to where Sam was sitting in her main office on the phone.  She put up her finger making an agitated face, her lips pulled tight as she responded to whomever was on the other end of the line. Knowing that face it was probably Woolsey, Daniel thought, slinking back down into the chair watching his assistant and her admirer talk, no flirt, they were definitely, in his lab.  He had wanted her to shine, sure, and do well on this test, he had really grown quite fond of her, but he did want for her to encounter at least have a few hiccups, something that proved she could handle the stress, because handling stressful situations was exactly what she needed to be able to do if she was going to be a full member of SG-1, a full member who could be sent on missions without him without his help at all. Apparently she could, much better than he.  Daniel was racking his brain trying to figure out if he should begin his little operation sooner when he felt Sam touch his shoulder, peering over his to chuckle at the screen. 

“She’s doing pretty well,” Sam said.  

“Yeah,” Daniel responded.  

“You seem disappointed,” Sam offered, pulling out the chair beside him to sit down.  

“Not disappointed per se,” Daniel explained, “I was kind of hoping that she would admit that she couldn’t do it all by herself or at least made it look like I was needed.  But no; she’s got everything under control.”  Sam just smiled.  

“See, I told you she was a good choice.  One day you’ll admit that you’re glad I hired her. Maybe you’re right; I think she’s ready.  Are you ready to start your last little trial?” Sam inquired, looking at the clock, Daniel’s eyes following her gaze. 

“It’s early, but I guess we can,” he replied. Smiling as she stood, as if she knew exactly what was going to happen, Sam marched back through the open door of her office, grabbing the phone receiver, a pointedly different expression on her face than before. 

“It’s General O’Neill. Yes, we’re ready.  Only M floor.  Lock the lab doors as well,” Sam instructed, hanging up the phone to walk back and rejoin Daniel, who sat back, his fingers resting lightly on his chin as the tiny black and white monitor showed Adrienne bidding Ronan farewell, turning on her heels toward her locker to get her running gear.  He watched her carefully as he saw the flash of the sirens on M level, the power go out, her head jerking back in the direction of the hallway, fear in her eyes, the infrared cameras making her gaze more sinister. 

“Alright Ad, let’s see if you can do this,” Daniel sat forward, taking a deep breath. You can do it, he thought, prove me right, he coached silently as Adrienne ran over to the door arriving mere moments before it closed in her face, the emergency locks activating.  Slamming the door with her fists, a few choice swear words, that this time Daniel could make out, crossing her lips, in a fit of something, panic, rage, Daniel couldn’t tell, she turned around and marched her way in the darkness over to the phone.  

“O’Neill,” Sam answered.  

“Sam?” Adrienne was surprised that Sam was answering the phone herself.  

“Addy, thank god you are ok?” Sam answered.  She sounded concerned, that was a nice touch, good acting on Sam’s part.  Adrienne was growing nervous.  

“Yeah, I’m fine.  What happened?” Adrienne inquired, trying to remain calm and collected.  

“Nothing too bad.  Just had a generator blow.  Looks like you’re going to be trapped for a while while we investigate.  Sorry Ad, I’m afraid that you might be stuck in the dark for a few hours,” Sam responded.  Adrienne sighed, Daniel could see her face on the screen, and for the first time all day, did not seem as confident as before. 

“Sure Sam, no worries. Is there anything I can do?” she asked her spirits still seeming to be high, somewhat.  Daniel knew that wouldn’t last for long; for reasons Adrienne had yet to tell him, she did not like being confined in small dark places, not that a small dark place was ever really pleasant but Adrienne just seemed to like them less than others.

“Just wait it out; I’ll keep you posted,”  Sam replied.  Adrienne thanked her and hung up the phone, walking back over to her desk for that blasted iPad, he could tell by the sudden glow in her hands.  Returning to Daniel’s side, Sam took a step forward when the ground under her feet shook lightly, Daniel’s face brightening.  

“Nice touch, how did you do that?” he asked, pointing to the floor, his finger circling.  The general didn’t look as pleased, straightening her jacker and surveying their sparse surroundings here in the observation room, noting that the clock had tilted ever so slightly.  

“I didn’t,” she replied as the the base shook again, more aggressively, Daniel grabbing the desk to brace himself. An attack being her first thought, Sam ran over to the observation room, Daniel standing, following, his heart racing, images of what as done at Cheyenne happening all over again.  Appearing equally as panicked, Walter was at the main board, looking over a series of lights and flashes.  

“Walter, what’s going on?”  she asked, examining the board for herself.  Red dots, signaling emergencies were appearing everywhere and on every level, yet aerial scans showed no indication of anything in the atmosphere.  

“Not sure ma’am,” he replied, “but it seems that shutting off the power to M level caused a chain reaction of sorts.  I’m not sure if it’s sabotage or government wiring, but we have small electrical fires and blackouts reported all over the base.”  The room shook again, catching the general off guard and toppling to the floor, Daniel catching her before she made contact. Grabbing the back of Walter’s chair, Sam regained her stand, leaning forward to examine the data for a second time.  

“Well that doesn’t explain the shaking!” she insisted, holding on the chair as the tremors started for yet another time. The movement subsided, but before she could check the board for any further damage, she heard a ringing from the office, a ring that didn’t ever want to hear. The red phone. Her heart racing as fast as her feet to make it to the office, she picked it up breathing out as she did.  She raced to pick it up.  

“O’Neill.”   

“Hey hun, you guys feeling any moving down there?” it was Jack and he seemed to know more than he was saying, more awaiting her response than asking a question. 

“Yes Jack, a lot of moving, a lot.  What’s going on?”  she asked mouthing to Daniel it was Jack as the room shook again, Daniel grabbing the nearest chair on his approach as Sam braced herself on her desk. 

“Well, we were running a little test up here, in our lab, and it looks like the geeks have caused a bit of a problem,” he said, trying to stay clam.  

“A bit of a problem? Jack, my entire base is shaking!!” Sam raised her voice as Daniel tired to ascertain what was going on, frustrated to be on just one end of the conversation. 

“We’re on it, well, Rodney says he’s on it, but you need to clear out and bring your people up to the gate room just in case you guys need to evacuate.  You have a light staff today, right?” he asked, and he was right. They did have a light staff today which was precisely the reason Daniel and Sam had scheduled Adrienne’s test for when they did, the base was at minimal. It should be fairly simple to get everyone to this level to this level and evacuated if needed, that was, everyone except for Adrienne, who was locked in the lab, unable to escape. 

“Jack, we’ve got a problem here and I need to call you back,” Sam hung up the receiver.  

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked as the room shook once more.  This time they were both holding on and prepared.  

“Explosion upstairs, a real one.  Jack wants everyone in the gate room in case we need to evacuate,”  Sam said.  Daniel nodded, his hands up, trying to figrue out hat he could do to help.

“Ok, do an all call, I’m sure everyone can be down here fairly quickly,” he responded, but Sam was shaking her head before he even finished. 

“No, Daniel, you don’t understand.  Not everyone can.  With the power fluctuations Walter was showing us, there’s no way to open the door to your lab,” Sam replied.  A wave of understanding, flowing over him, Daniel’s eyes widened and he dashed over to the monitor where Adrienne was looking right into the camera, clicking on the volume.  

“Daniel, I know you can hear me? Ok, this is cute.  Is this my test or something? Don’t you guys initiate people into your little frat? You know if you are going to go with that whole cut the power thing you need to make sure that the little red light on the camera doesn’t continue to blink, it’s kind of a dead giveaway,” Adrienne had her hands on her hips scowling at the lens.  Daniel clicked the mic, calming his voice before he spoke.  

“Adrienne, listen, yes this was your test, but not anymore.  There is a real emergency.  I need you to go get the crowbar out of the supply closet and try to pry open the door,” Daniel explained hoping she would listen, but she just shook her head, not believing a word he was saying.  

“Nice try, but I know how this goes.  I need to prove to you that I can think outside the box.  Just stop distracting me and let me figure this out,” she replied, shooing him away as if he was standing right there beside her and not peering into a tiny grainy screen. Squinting he could see her milling around, her face in deep concentration mode as she searched the lab, looking for something. The base shook again, sending Adrienne to the floor and Daniel’s stomach to his throat.  

“Ad I’m not kidding around.  This is a real emergency and I just need you to tell me if you can pry the door open,” Daniel tried to relay some more concern into his voice, hoping that she was alright as she dragged herself to her knees, still shaking her head.  The lights around Sam and Daniel flashed and he could hear Sam behind him doing and all call to all personnel to report to the gate room, an all call that without power Adrienne wouldn’t hear.  Desperate, he watched her move around the screen, observing the room carefully trying to solve the imaginary task she thought he had set for her, something that wasn’t even there that she had only convinced herself was. 

“Ad, listen, please listen.  There is no puzzle.  There was, there was going to be in phases, but we have to prepare to evacuate to the Gamma site and I can’t get to you, so you have got to get to us. Please listen to me Adrienne. Do you understand?” Daniel tried again, pleading, his voice cracking. Surely she would believe him, he wasn’t that good of an actor, but Adrienne was so goddam over analytical that his heart was racing in fear, fearful that she would die trying to solve a puzzle that wasn’t there.  The shaking grew stronger and the red phone rang again, Daniel knowing in his heart the message on the other end. Her face sullen, Sam reached over and answered. 

“Sam, start dialing the Gamma site.  We’re gonna have to release some gas to get this thing to stop and we’re not taking any chances,” it was Jack, ordering the evacuation. 

“Jack, Dr. Rowan is stuck in the lab,” Sam replied as she was frantically signaling to Walter to begin dialing.  He did as instructed, a look of concern on his face as well for the fate of Daniel’s assistant, who had never been anything to him but kind and pleasant.  

“Of course she is.  The one damn person in the galaxy that is as much trouble is Daniel and we have to hire her,” Jack shouted into the phone, “Well, get her out of there.”  

“We can’t Jack,” Sam said, “we were running a test and between that and the safety protocols there is no way in or out.”  There was a pause one the other line, broken when Sam heard her husband breath in deeply.

“Sam, honey, I know that she’s your friend, but if you don’t get the rest of those folks out of there you are going to lose more than an archaeological assistant,” he stated plainly.  Sam understood, knowing that which personnel to save and which she couldn’t was part of being in charge. Fighting back tears, she hung up the phone, looking at Daniel.  

“We’ve got to go,” she said.  

“What?! I’m not leaving her!” Daniel shouted, standing from his seat pointing back at the monitor, Adrienne’s image frantically dashing around the screen.  

“Jack said that they are about to release a gas or something, he didn’t give details, but it could kill us; we’ve got to go!!” Sam’s voice was urgent but clear.  

“Sam, I can’t just let Adrienne die!!” Daniel had a look of panic in his face.  She had become more than his assistant; she was his friend, he couldn’t just save himself and let her die.  He refused to let her die. 

“Daniel, there’s no way to get her out.  She stands a chance if you tell her to get into the bathroom of the lab, block the lower part of the door and cover her face.  She’s low enough in the base where the gas might not reach her, much,” Sam explained, ordering Walter from his chair, urging the observation personnel forward. OPening the down to her the stairwell, she paused, glancing back once more.  

“I’m sorry Daniel,” she said, choking on her words and turned, running down the metal stairs. Refocusing, Daniel looked back at the screen, bringing the microphone to his mouth.  

“Adrienne Margaret Rowan, you listen to me right now.  This is not a test anymore. They are making us leave, they are making me leave. We are going to the Gamma Site. Rodney had to release a gas, a potentially lethal gas, and if you have a hope of surviving you need to barricade yourself in the bathroom, shove anything cloth that you can get at the base of the door and cover your face.  Jack knows you’re in there and they will come for you as soon as it is clear.  Am I clear?”  Daniel tried to stress his words so that she would know he was serious.  Looking up into the camera scared, the normally boisterous and rambunctious cajun nodded, her lips mouthing yes but Daniel heard nothing.  The camera mic must have broken, but at least he still had audio. 

“Ok, you can do this Ad.  Do what I said, please,” Daniel paused for a moment and then added,  “Good luck,” shutting off the mic, turning away, a sick feeling in his stomach.  Trying not to throw up, and resisting the urge to go dashing down the hallways to his lab, he raced down the stairs just in time to make it through the wormhole.  

Daniel sat on a tree stump looking out into the distance, the deep orange sun just barely peeking up over the sloping green mountains of P3Y-229.  He hadn’t slept in forty eight hours but he didn’t care he just couldn’t stop thinking about Adrienne. Hearing leaves crunching behind him, he glanced back to see Vala coming to join him, her face equally as withdrawn and her mood subdued.  No spring in her step, she sat down softly on the ground beside him, laying her head over onto his leg. 

“I liked her, a lot,” Vala said, reaching down to squeeze his calf. Daniel didn’t move, didn’t look down, just continued to gaze out into the sunset. 

“I did too,” Daniel replied, trying to not let his emotions get the best of him, having forced himself to sit in silence for hours for fear of what else him might do. Sam had tried to talk to him, to no avail; he just wasn’t ready to talk about it. 

“You did everything you could,” Vala assured him but Daniel just nodded. No he hadn’t, he’d gone through the gate, he’d left her behind. Thinking about it again almost made him sick, which had been painful this morning on an empty stomach, given that Daniel had eaten about as much as he had slept.  They sat there like that for a long while, watching the wildlife outside while the rest of the staff was down below, trying to make contact with command. Sam said it would take a few days to clear out the gas before Jack could dial them and gate everyone back safely. A few days before Daniel knew if Adrienne had done as he asked, forced herself into the bathroom, and survived.  It had been two.  They had plenty of supplies in the much larger and rebuilt Gamma site, enough to get them through their wait, and thankfully everyone had made it through. Almost everyone.  Daniel felt a choke in his throat, trying not to allow himself to lose it sitting right here. Sensing that he just wanted to be alone, Vala picked up her head and stood.  

“I’m hungry, would you like something?” she offered, hoping he would eat. She knew he had been sick, she heard him when she went to check on him this morning, heaving on the other side of the door.  Daniel shook his head no, as she expected, but Vala rolled her eyes.  

“Well, I’m going to eat and then I’m going to bring something back. And you are going to eat it.  Understood?” she said putting her hands onto her hips.  She hadn’t seen him like this in a while, but then again they hadn’t lost someone that was one of them, or as close to being one of them as Adrienne was.  Vala hadn’t realized how good of friends that they had become, she knew that they were spending more time together, socially, but it was more than that, Daniel seemed completely heartbroken. She had never really understood it when Cam said that it was hardest seeing your friends suffer, but watching him, like this, was more than she could bear. Lacking the energy to argue, he nodded weakly, enough of a yes to allow Vala to leave, heading back of in the direction of the main door. He didn’t watch as she slipped through the side door, carefully hidden in the side of the cave, just refocused on the wisps of white as they blanketed the horizon. 

His thoughtless trance was broken, when he heard leaves crunching behind him and looked at his watch. Fast dinner he thought, wondering what Vala brought him, and whether or not he could actually choke it down. He started to turn when he felt hands over his eyes, holding his glasses tight to his face and froze, not wanting to fight with Vala but not in the mood either for anything Vala-like that she might do.  

“Did I pass?” the female voice in his ear asked, a female voice that was not the one that promised him dinner.  Flipping around Daniel stared dumbfounded, as Dr. Adrienne Rowan, the craziest, most unique individual he had ever had forced upon him, was grinning happily at him, a self-satisfied look on her face, her hands planted firmly onto her hips. Alive, she’s alive.  No more thoughts running through his head, he rushed her, grabbing her tightly and hugging her so hard that she started to pull away from his tight and encompassing embrace. 

“Wow let go, I can’t breathe!!” Adrienne whined, and he pulled away quickly, slightly embarrassed and realized that she probably couldn’t.  Straightening her uniform again and making a face at him, she repeated herself.  

“Well, did I pass?” she asked again, “because for about fifteen minutes I was certain that you were going to storm in the lab door and inform me I was to remain a desk jockey till the end of my days.” 

“How did you get out of there?”  he asked in disbelief.  

“I solved the puzzle.  See, you cut main power but not secondary, leaving the WiFi on.  So, I used my laptop, you know, battery powered, to hack into the mainframe, messaged the Odyssey and requested to board.  However, they informed me that since I had never beamed aboard or registered to beam aboard that they had no DNA signature to lock onto me.  That was good Daniel, I would have never thought of that one,  But they had beamed you, so I went to your locker and got your leather jacket. That had enough Daniel DNA for them to pick up and woosh! I was aboard.  Radioed base and Jack told me to take the Odyssey to the Gamma site.  I figured I passed,”  she explained.  Daniel looked at her flabbergasted by her entire explanation.

“Ad, it wasn’t a test. That part wasn’t a test. You could have really died,” Daniel tried to make her understand, watching as Adrienne’s face grew pale. 

“You’re kidding, right?” she said.  

“Not in the least,” he answered giving her his most serious face.  Adrienne sat on the stump.  

“Tonnerre mes chiens” she said. 

“I agree,” Daniel answered, although he had no idea what “Thunder my Dogs” meant.  But if it was cajun for holy shit, yeah, he agreed.  He sat down beside her, this time letting her look off into the distance.  

Adrienne was late, again.  She knew that Sam hadn’t made her decision yet and it was stuff like her lateness that was stalling said decision, but there were some things that she just couldn’t help.  Hoping to stay in Daniel’s good graces, although he had been very sweet and protective of her since the evacuating incident, she decided to swing by the mess and grab Daniel a coffee to blame her lateness on kindness.  Fixing it like he liked it, one cream two sugars, not enough cream in her humble opinion and too much sugar, grabbing him an apple for good measure, she headed down to the lab.  Strangely the door was shut when she arrived, although not latched and locked and between the coffees, her backpack and the apple she had no hands to opened it.  Using her heel to push down the door handle, she turned around and backed herself up to the door donkey kicking it open. 

“Indy, I’m sorry, I had to wait in line for coffee since you’ve hidden my machine from me in your mess,” she was saying as she felt the door open up behind her butt, pushing it all the way with her backside so she could enter.  She started to walked in backwards, still slightly bent over, her back to Daniel, hopefully not providing too tempting of a target. 

“That’s not the end we put the patch on Addy,” she heard Cam say and she turned around quickly, her cheeks flushed. Standing in the lab was the entire team, Daniel, Teal’c, Cam and Vala with Sam in official uniform holding a patch, a team patch, the number of which made Adrienne’s heart stop.  Everyone was smiling, especially Cameron, who grabbed the patch from Sam’s hand and walked over to her, laughing as he approached.   

“Can you put that crap down, no one falls for it, we know you’re just late.  I need to stick this on your arm,” Cameron ordered, shaking the thick slab of patch in between his fingers.  A deer in headlights, Adrienne put the coffees down slowly onto her desk, laying the apple beside them, dropping the backpack to the floor. 

“That’s it girl right over here,” Cam motioned to her, “left foot, right foot.” 

“She doesn’t know left from right,” Vala spoke up and Daniel started to laugh, Adrienne further red in the face, taking in a deep breath, willing herself forward.  Unsatisfied by slow advance, Cam marched over to her, slapped the Velco backed patch onto the empty spot on the arm of her uniform, stepping back, arms across his chest, smiling.  

“Welcome to the club, blah blah, now you have two bosses me and Jackson, so you have to take orders from both of us. Good times. Anyone else like to say anything?”  Cameron looked at the others, using his eyes to goad them to speak. 

“Nice job,” said Sam, stepping forward and squeezing her arm. 

“Nice to have someone else to make the boys look bad with me. I will need to meet with you regularly to coach you on putting them in their place,”  Vala added, winking at her, a devilish smile on her face. 

“We are honored to have you AdrienneRowan,” Teal’c said while Daniel just smiled.  Cameron looked at everyone, thinking Daniel might speak, but when he didn’t, just turned back to face their newest member once more. 

“Ok, ceremony over, I’ve got cadets to scream at, let’s go,” Cam ordered, pointing at the lab door, the team filing out after him.  An expression of sheer disbelief, Adrienne just kept staring over at her arm.  Still quiet, Daniel walked over to the desk and grabbed his coffee and the apple, walking up behind Adrienne. 

“I’m proud of you Ad; you did great. I knew you could,” he said and wrapped the arm with the apple around her, giving her a half of a hug.  Looking up at him slowly, their eyes locked, and she swore she could see the blue quiver just slightly. 

“Thanks,” she said. Breaking the stare, Daniel, cleared his throat, and returned to his desk sitting down and starting to work, back at it on the database.  He started to type again and paused, looking over at her once more.  

“Your father would have been proud,” he added, taking a casual sip of coffee. Nodding,  Adrienne turned quickly to hide the tear that was escaping from her eye, opening her laptop to begin her day. While everything booted up she reached for her arm, running her finger along the patch and smiled.