Daniel and Adrienne #23: Normality

It was 2 a.m. when Daniel couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.  He hated to stop, having made so much progress already in the database, but there was no way he could stay awake. He had sent Adrienne to bed a little over an hour ago after she stood from her desk and offered to get them coffee for the third time, her night owl tendencies too dying off in the monotony of translation and she had reluctantly gone to bed only on the promise that he was shutting down the lab after her. Honestly, he had had every intention of doing so until he had reached the section concerning Asgard interaction with ancient earth cultures, cultures other than the Vikings, cultures much older than the Vikings.  He had been going through the database in order, wondering where this section would be and there it was, smack dab in front of him at 1:15 a.m., a full hour after Adrienne had gone to bed, but now it was 2, and Daniel had caught himself reading the same line four times.  Continuing at this juncture would be pointless.  He marked his place in the system, cleaned up his desk and shut down the rest of the lab, pulling the door closed behind him. 

The halls of the SGC were quiet, only a skeleton crew working the graveyard shift, and not a soul was to be found in the hallways, only slight commotion coming from the commissary.  Nights like this he was even more thankful Sam had granted both he and Adrienne on base quarters so they could work late into the night, especially since both of them seemed to function so much better after eight p.m. and there were fewer chances of interruption.  He was also thankful Sam had hired him a fellow workaholic, a kindred spirit that would work herself to death as quickly as he would.  A kindred spirit who’d become his best friend.  He should probably thank Sam for that as well.  

Reaching the door to his room,  Daniel punched in the key code, waiting impatiently for the green light allowing him to enter.  It was pitch black inside as the door swung open, but he didn’t bother with the light, making his way around the room based on memory. Silently counting the steps over to his hamper, he stripped down to his boxers, tossed his clothes inside, setting his glasses on his dresser and turning to make his way to the bed.  He felt for the head board and pulled back the blanket, crawling inside, his body aching for sleep.  He wasn’t alone.  

Daniel froze in time, in a panic, wondering how she had gotten in here. Since the beach trip, Vala was back to pursuing him full tilt, moving beyond innuendos to all out advances including showing up at his quarters late one night in a silk robe and silk robe only.  Adrienne found that insanely amusing, vowing to install spy cameras in his room, pointed at his face just to be able to see his reaction. But now, now there was no slamming the door in her face, now there was virtually no escape. She was here in his bed.  He should have listened to Adrienne.  He should have changed his passcode to something less predictable.  DAJ1965 was easy, even if Vala didn’t know his middle name, it would only take her 26 tries to get it right. In an effort to remain as quiet as possible, Daniel began to inch his way out of bed, planning to throw on some sweats and head down to the VIP room to avoid causing a scene.  

“There’s no heat on my level Indy, so I just came here.  I don’t have the new code to the VIP room yet,” Adrienne said from the bed, Adrienne said. Thank god, Daniel thought, breathing a sigh of relief and sitting back down leaning onto the pillow beside her.  

“No heat?” he asked, trying to see her in the darkness. Adrienne had huddled herself over to the concrete wall, as normal, and he could tell she was wearing a t-shirt and running shorts. He hadn’t checked for any reason other than to assure himself that it was alright, it was just Adrienne and she was just here to sleep.  Adrienne would keep her hands to herself, well, to an extent, she really didn’t mean to grab on to him when she slept, but she didn’t mean anything by it and he had done the same to her. It was nothing, despite Jack’s insistence otherwise.  

“Yea; they sent an email at about six warning those of us with off base quarters to go home or see Walter about an alternate assignment until it’s repaired. I didn’t check my email,” she replied, not turning over.  She hadn’t checked her email because he had them working so hard tonight and for a moment he felt bad; it was his fault that she was here, smashed into his bunk with him.  When he didn’t answer, he felt movement and could see her outline, that she had sat up and was looking at him.  

“If you give me the VIP code, I can head down there; I was barely asleep,” she offered.  but Daniel shook his head, a futile gesture in the darkness.  

“No, just stay here, it’s not like we haven’t done this before,” he answered, sliding down into the bed and rolling over, turning his back to her.  The base would talk, they always did, but he just didn’t care anymore. She was his best friend, and he wasn’t going to oust her at two in the morning after her losing her own room was essentially his fault. He felt her lean over him, kissing his cheek, and then the bed shake as she was turning herself back over to her left side.  

“Night Daniel,” she whispered into the darkness. 

“Night Adrienne,” he answered back and fell asleep. 

It was nice to not be awoken by sirens or other alarms for once.  Daniel opened his eyes and peeked over at his alarm clock, squinting to see that it was almost 9, later than he usually liked to get up, but considering what time he had made it to bed, he wasn’t going to beat himself up over it. He just wanted to get breakfast and get back to work; it wasn’t every day you discovered that the Asgard did a lot more than influence the Vikings.  Sitting up, Daniel pulled back the blanket, looking over to his side where his assistant was sleeping peacefully, tucked quietly under his blanket, her back to him, still facing the wall. It was Saturday, a Saturday off, and technically she shouldn’t be working at all, so he decided to leave her sleeping.  He got up quietly, reaching back over to make sure that she was covered, even pausing to tuck the fabric underneath her back, and made his way to the shower.  

He was just about finished when he heard the door open and saw a figure enter the bathroom, but he didn’t flinch; he knew who it was. It used to bother him, he used to worry that she would act like Vala, try to weasel her way into his room, his bed, his shower, but he had learned with Adrienne that wasn’t the case, so he just leaned into the stream to rinse the shampoo from his hair. 

“Hey Indy, shug, sorry to bother you, but I have a ton of things I have to get done, is it alright if I bail on you today?” Adrienne asked.  Yeah, this is what Jack was talking about, the woman is in the bathroom with you after spending the night with you Jackson. Oh, this all just looks so normal, and it wasn’t, he knew, but it was alright. Acceptable? It was something, it was the way they were, and Jack could think what he would. 

“Yeah, Ad, I wasn’t expecting you to work this Saturday anyway, that’s fine,” he answered, shutting off the water without thinking.   He realized his mistake when a towel was shoved into the stall, the curtain still closed, as if she had anticipated his forgetfulness.  Not normal, dammit Jack, he swore internally, his stomach in knots at the thought. Quickly he reached out, ripping the towel from her hand and began to dry off behind the safety of the curtain.  

“Well, I know I said I’d help you get through that section, so I’ll hurry and get back as soon as possible. The big issue will be getting the car inspected, but after that the rest of the things are run in and run out.  No big deal at all,” she explained.  

“Don’t rush, just get back when you can,” he assured her, much too quickly, a tone in his voice that he knew she would be able to read. Clearing his throat to distract her, he wrapped the towel around himself, stepping out carefully to discover that she was still there, sitting on his bathroom counter cross legged. Oh how Jack would love this, he thought, his heart starting to beat a little faster. Why was he feeling like this? It was just Adrienne and she was like... 

“You’re a liar Indy,” Adrienne accused, interrupting his thought, “you found something good and you just don’t want to share...” she trailed, waiting for him to answer.  Ok, so maybe he did want her to go do her errands, whatever she had to do to allow him to relish in this find alone for just a short while.  Not that he didn’t want to share it with her, he did, but for something like this he wanted to get all of the facts and information before he presented it to her because he liked to wait, to see the excitement in her eyes. And he liked to impress her.  He wasn’t sure why, but he did.  His nerves quelling, he tapped her lightly on the shoulder for her to hop down from the counter so he could brush his teeth and she did, standing and leaning against the wall, smiling at him.  Unable to contain it any longer, he relented.

“Ok, yes, I found something good. Really good, but I don’t want to take you away from your very important state inspection,” he teased.  She knew him too well, she’d read it in his voice the moment she stepped in this bathroom.  Not normal.  Your best friend, hell your assistant shouldn’t know you that well. And cue the nerves.

“Daniel Anthony you rat bastard,” Adrienne swore at him, “you’re holding out on me! I can get the bug inspected late; what did you find?” she pushed but Daniel didn’t answer, just started to brush his teeth hoping his facial expression didn’t give anything away when Adrienne reached over and grabbed the toothbrush from his grasp. 

“Hey, what gives?” Daniel asked, laughing and glaring over at her, trying not to choke on toothpaste.  

“Spill Indy,” Adrienne demanded, shaking the toothbrush in front of his face. Daniel was trying not to laugh as she taunted him with it awaiting his answer. Not normal. 

“I’ll tell you, just give me that back,” he replied, although he was sure that what really came out of his mouth was something along the lines of ‘all well woo, ust ev me dat ack.’ Giggling, Adrienne reached the toothbrush forward as if she was going to hand it over, but pulling back right as he extended his arm, sending him staggering forward, his towel slipping down his hip slightly. His heart stop as he pulled it up quickly, I almost, he thought, right in front of her, but if she noticed she wasn’t going to say anything, setting the toothbrush on the counter cutting her eyes at him playfully.  

“Fine, you be that way. I’m going to go to my quarters, shower, get decent and meet you in the lab.  Do not, Daniel, I repeat, do not start without me, whatever your big secret is,” she ordered.  Relieved that she was leaving, Daniel just smiled and continued brushing his teeth, watching her dart out of his bathroom.  

Adrienne quite literally ran into Vala in the hallway. Surprised, she caught Adrienne by the shoulders and pushed her back, holding her upright so she wouldn’t fall. 

“Dammit Addy, what in the hell’s the hurry?” she asked, confused as to why Adrienne was running around base on a Saturday morning like a mad woman.  Vala remembered they had planned to get together tonight after Adrienne had run her errands but she had no idea what Adrienne was doing here instead of taking care of those very errands.  Adrienne responded without thinking.  

“Gotta get back to my quarters, grab my things, shower, get dressed and get to the lab, sorry,” Adrienne apologized, grabbing her friend’s shoulders this time to move her aside as Vala looked at her puzzled.  

“Wait, you’re heading to your quarters? From where?” Vala inquired, reaching for Adrienne’s arm to halt her retreat. She stared at her friend trying to figure out where Adrienne, up this early, without a gym bag was coming from when suddenly her eyes widened, looking back in the direction from which she had come. 

“Wait, you slept with Daniel!?!” Vala exclaimed.  Adrienne, not thinking, since this wasn’t the first time they had crashed together in his room, just nodded not realizing that this was something she had never mentioned to Vala. She just assumed that everyone knew, that they were friends and just spent the night at one another’s places, whether those places be their apartment or their quarters. Vala, apparently, wasn’t privy to this knowledge, Adrienne discovered as her friend’s jaw dropped and she looked like she was going to explode.    

“Dammit Vala, slept as in unconscious, not sexually.  The heat on my floor is busted, so I just crashed with Daniel.  It’s no big deal, we do this all the time. I’m just going to get my duffle, shower in the locker room and get to work but I might have to take a rain check for tonight though,” Adrienne hastily explained but Vala didn’t buy it.  She chased Adrienne down as she began to scurry off, grabbing her friends wrist to halt her escape. 

“Addy, in the same bed, you slept in the same bed?” she asked as Adrienne pulled away from her grasp, scowling at her.

“Yes Vala, the same bed, do you think I’d sleep on the floor?” Adrienne retorted, but Vala raced around her, blocking her advance, holding her hands in front of her. 

“What?” Adrienne asked, exasperated, “why are you following me?” Having her friend’s undivided attention, Vala crossed her arms across her chest, jealously creeping across her face. 

“I thought the beach was just a joke,” she said and Adrienne shook her head. 

“Yes, Vala, it was.  We’re not together; we just like to mess with you. A lot.  Now, I really need to get going,” Adrienne replied, ducking around her friend, headed back for her original destination. Sighing Vala gave up, so Adrienne darted away without another word, running faster than she had when she had first come racing down the hall. Vala waited just a moment, processing the entire conversation when it suddenly hit her, what had happened and Adrienne’s casual attitude toward it. She scoffed, shouting after her.

“That’s not normal Addy! Not normal!” she screamed, her words a combination of confusion and jealously. What was going on with the two of them? Adrienne didn’t acknowledge the remark, didn’t even so much as wave over her head or even give her the finger, just kept heading for her quarters. 

Daniel watched the clock.  Adrienne had left his quarters over and hour and a half ago and he was doing just as she requested: waiting.  Why was he waiting? He really wanted to get started on this and she wouldn’t be so mad, would she? Maybe he could just start and then make it up to her later, and honestly once she saw this she wouldn’t probably forgive and forget quickly. Why did he care so much? Why was he putting so much thought into this? Maybe Jack was right...

“Back!” Adrienne shouted as she dashed into the lab.  Saved from another second of self-analysis, Daniel stood at his desk, hurriedly tapping the keys to his computer, whirring the machine back to life. On the screen popped the same symbol he had seen the night before, a symbol that would send Adrienne into a full spiral of joy.  Trying not to smile too much, he stepped back slightly, but not too far, forcing her to peer over his shoulder. 

“The freakin’ star of David!!” Adrienne just about screamed in the lab shoving Daniel’s out of her way, leering into the screen, squealing and babbling in Cajun incoherently, her overall demeanor changing from happiness to unadulterated excitement.  This was the best find of the database so far, and it explained a lot in the course of human history, giving the Hebrews in fact a reason to be considered the chosen people because they were.  They were who the Asgard protected first from the Go’ould, not the Vikings as they all had believed for so long, in fact, Daniel started to wonder if Thor knew Moses, wishing the kind alien was still around to ask just that. He was about to speak, ask her what she thought of it, but Adrienne was ahead of him, moving him out of her way by his shoulders again before rushing back over to her desk.  

“My lineage! Where is my lineage!!” she was shouting.  While Daniel had studied Egypt and the cultures similar, Adrienne had done her studies on the Near East, in particular  the areas of Greece, Rome, and Macedonia and one couldn’t study those civilizations without an understanding of the Hebrew people, who lived quietly in all three. Sort of quiet since it seemed that very few hundred years their presence would cause a stir. Daniel laughed at the thought, hanging back quietly until you are ready to cause a stir; no wonder Adrienne loved these people.  He turned to tease her about that very fact when he felt her jerk him around to face her, shoving the iPad into his face.  

“Dear God Daniel, dear god,” she said, making him smile again.  She only called him Daniel when it was something serious, normally it was Indy this, Indy that.  Yeah, he thought to himself, it was worth the wait and he got lost in her dark eyes for a moment, soft, thoughtful orbs shining in an expression of complete glee, before her continued babbling made him blink, adjusting his glasses on his face.   

“I was wrong.  Wrong wrong wrong wrong.  Every time I got to this weird j-word I kept translating it Jord, for the Norse, but I was wrong!  Its Jocod.... it’s Jacob!! Holy shit!!  How could I be so dammed coo yon!!” she exclaimed and there goes the Cajun, Daniel thought, further evidence as to how perfect this all was. As the words poured out of her mouth he couldn’t help but notice how cute she looked right now, inspired, excited, and ready to explore further. It was too much, her enthusiasm was contagious, and suddenly he had an overwhelming urge to...

“Stop!” he said out loud and Adrienne froze in mid babble, glancing over at him strangely, wondering what she had done wrong.  Trying to quickly cover his tracks, Daniel shook his hands in front of himself and stepped closer to his desk and away from his assistant.  He really needed to stop listening to Jack; he had him thinking all sorts of insane thoughts and that was not normal.  

“You ok Indy?” Adrienne asked carefully.  Back to Indy, good, he thought, Indy is always safer. Safer than what? Daniel, what is going on with you? 

“Yeah, no, I was talking to myself.  Continue,” he answered quickly and stepped aside as his assistant barreled past him again, crawling into his desk chair, getting into some strange yoga like position, speaking rapidly as she did so.   

“Ok, so according to this, the Exodus was led by Mose, out of Egypt which coincides perfectly with when traditional Egyptian religion returned to the empire, meaning that the Asgard must have struck a deal with the Go’ould. Daniel!!” Adrienne was nearly standing in the chair and shouting, “Do you know what this means!?!”  He couldn’t help but smile, she looked like she was just going to burst with happiness; he really loved to see her like this, insane stomach flutterings or not. Leaning over to the screen again, Adrienne squinted, rereading, getting into her own geek zone, which is what she called it Daniel did the same thing when she leapt up again, shouting and fell over the chair.  Reacting on instinct, Daniel caught her in his arms just before she hit the floor.  

“Ad,” Daniel fussed as he held her, assisting her back to her feet, but not letting go once she was upright, “calm down.”  Adrienne stood there a moment, his arms around her shaking her head vigorously.  

“Daniel, you don’t understand, there’s a planet, there’s a planet code right there! There was a real Exodus, there was -” Adrienne began to explain when they both heard a throat clearing behind them.  

“Am I interrupting something?” Jack asked as he entered the lab, striding in confidently, out of uniform completely, wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  After all, it was Saturday and suddenly, it hit Daniel; he remembered a conversation just the other day when he had to go through some things with Jack before a big meeting.  He had agreed to go out with Jack and Teal’c for a baseball game and beers, like the old days and today was that day. Not that Daniel particularly liked either, but after Jack had been riding him hard about his friendship with Adrienne, he had agreed to keep the peace and to hopefully get Jack to shut up about this ‘being in love with Adrienne’ nonsense.  Of course, as Daniel’s luck would have it, he’d forgotten, and was in the lab, holding Adrienne tightly in his arms.  It was just going to be that kind of day. Daniel let go of his assistant quickly and looked back at their visitor.  

“Jack, Adrienne and I have stumbled upon something pretty fantastic here so I think I’m going to have to bail on you guys,” Daniel dove right into the explanation wanting to rip this off like a bandaid, let Jack get mad, yell, make a crude joke and move on. Smirking already, his old friend walked casually over to the computer and peered at the computer screen.  

“Uh huh, what’s so fantastic that you are getting out of spending time with the guys and are just forced to spend time with your sweetheart here,” Jack answered and Daniel felt the embarrassment flood his face, not only at the statement, but at the fact that Jack apparently didn’t seem to care who knew his opinion of he and Adrienne, including Adrienne. Flushing, Daniel avoided eye contact with both.  

“A planet,” Adrienne answered for him, not responding to Jack’s accusation. Relieved, Daniel walked to stand beside the general, scanning the screen, looking for what Adrienne had found.  He read over the lines he had read the night before and there it was, a dialing sequence.  He just couldn’t believe it. They hadn’t come up a sequence this way, in this fashion, in forever.  Unaware that he was now touching the screen, Jack smacking his hand away breaking his gaze as the looked over himself, his own brown eyes scanning the lines. Jack might not be able to read Asgard, Ancient or anything else he deemed as gibberish but he knew dialing sequences and this was a dialing sequence.  

“When can we leave?” Adrienne asked excitedly.  Jack turned, looking over her like she was insane, which based on that remark Daniel was starting to question her sanity as well, scowling at her.

“Uh, after the MALP and a survey Dr. Perky; how long have you worked here?” Jack retorted, standing upright and crossing his arms, the scowl now making his way across his face.  That was a face Daniel was familiar with, he had spent many of his first few years here on the receiving end of it, might as well let Adrienne experience it too.  Unconvinced, Adrienne walked back over to the screen, pointing at the text there in front of the two men. 

“General, with all due respect, the Asgard have laid out the entire history of this planet here, right after the planet code.  If they were under Asgard protection then they were under Asgard monitoring.  It’s not as if we are walking in blind,” she argued, but Daniel could see Adrienne trying to read out of the corner of her eye just to make sure.  Shaking his head, his annoyance appearing to begin to borderline anger, Jack stepped back from the desk, continuing to glare at the archaeological assistant as she stood, waiting for a reply. 

“With all due respect Dr. Rowan, we have a procedure here, that we’re going to follow because while you don’t seem to care whether or not you get your head blasted off, I care if the rest of the team does. Let your boss here order up a MALP and send the code up to Walter and we can go from there. In the meantime, you two can resume whatever you two were doing,” Jack replied and began to exit the lab, pausing at the doorway to glance back at Daniel.  

“Don’t think you’re out of this my friend. It’s my personal responsibility to make sure that you don’t have your man card revoked. Trust me, cute stuff over there will appreciate it,” Jack stated as he pointed to Adrienne, apparently she was ‘cute stuff’, glaring back at Daniel. Without a further word he left, leaving the Daniel and Adrienne alone in the lab once more. Standing back from the desk Adrienne looked at Daniel, finally sinking in what had been said.  

“He just won’t let up will he? Oh, and just to let you know Vala caught me leaving this morning, so let the rumors begin,” she said and walked back over to the screen. Daniel let out a sigh and leaned over to read with her. 

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to work harder to get you to agree to go out with Dex,” he joked.  

“Shut up Daniel,” she replied and leaned back against him.   Not normal, Daniel thought to himself, but didn’t push her away.

*****

Jack must have worked some magic, because it was shortly after noon when Daniel got a call that a MALP was being sent through to the coordinates on the database.  Either magic, or Jack trying to rush the entire process to get his Saturday activities back on track but Adrienne didn’t care one way or the other.  Sam herself had called the lab informing Daniel that he could head down to the observation room if he wanted live visuals, but Adrienne was ahead of him, dashing out of the lab the instant the phone rang and by the time he arrived himself, she was already sitting in the chair beside Walter, taking notes feverishly onto one of her electronic devices.  

“Ok, wait, wait, over there, head over to that ridge. Thanks, yeah, see that.  It looks like an altar.  Walter can you zoom in on that please,” Adrienne requested, politely as she could while retaining her composure, Sam, Daniel noticed, having joined her. 

“Addy, that looks early Christian, maybe Hebrew,”  the general noted, Adrienne waving herself for a heat that wasn’t there. 

“It is, or, we think it is. Sam I’m so excited I want to drag out my thesis, dissertation presentation and turn the entire lab into a Biblical timeline, if this is, it’s just huge,” she couldn’t hold back her excitement anymore by the end of her explanation, nearly standing on her chair for a second time. Sam smiled; this had been exactly why she had hired her, the Adrienne sitting before her was acting just like Daniel used to, eager and ready to explore the unknown, the Daniel she missed seeing, a part of her knowing that the many years in the program had taken their toll on his joyous spirit, but this woman, this person sitting in the chair beside her, she just might be the key to bringing back the friend she longed to see again. At the thought of Daniel, Sam glanced up as she noticed Daniel entering the observation room, smiling as he walked over to her chair.  As Sam moved away from behind Adrienne, Daniel slipped into her place and put his hands on the back of her chair, leaning over to bring his face beside hers. Sam heard him say something in French, probably in jest, she caught a few words here and there, and Adrienne laughed, pointing at the screen.  Daniel just nodded and stood, looking back over at Sam.     

“There’re signs of civilization, and the MALP is giving clean air quality readings. I think they’re just scared of a giant robot rolling around,” he explained as Adrienne continued her chuckle, glancing up at him as she did. 

“I think we should change all MALP greeting videos to Sam; I’d be scared too if your face was the first alien face I encountered,” Adrienne teased, and Sam watched Daniel stand with that classic frown on his face, placing his hand lightly over hers and push her playfully, like she was his little sister.  Exactly what I hoped for, Sam thought, controlling a smile before she answered.  

“If everything is clear and you guys are confident, we can send a team through. I’m assuming that you want SG-1?” she asked, knowing that of course they would want their own team to go, even if it meant begging everyone to join them on their day off.  Nodding in agreement, Daniel looked down at his assistant, laughing once more.  

“You go break it to Vala,” he ordered and Adrienne rolled her eyes.  

“Fine, you get everyone else. And if we camp, I call dibs with you.  I not gonna listen to her insanity and whining the entire trip,” Adrienne replied as she stood and headed out of the observation room, Sam watching her go, allowing a huge smile to creep across her face.  

“What?” Daniel asked, catching her grin out of the corner of her eye as he checked over the MALP readings once more.  

“Nothing,” Sam replied as Daniel’s faced dropped instantly.  

“We’re not sleeping together,” Daniel answered the question he assumed that she had but Sam looked surprised.  

“What?” she asked confused, “why would I think that?” Daniel relaxed slightly at her tone, peering up at her. 

“Because Jack and Vala are convinced,” he explained and Sam was laughing as the first name crossed his lips. 

“Consider the sources; I’m just glad that you two have become such good friends, that’s all,” Sam responded as she turned to head for her office to begin the pre-mission tasks.  Smiling again, Daniel followed her with his eyes to the door of her office and spoke before she left the room.  

“I am too,” he admitted, unsure if she heard, turning his attention back to the MALP information.  

******

As Adrienne had expected, Vala had a lot to say about going on a mission, especially on a day that she had plans to go shopping and other silly things Adrienne honestly could not believe that she had agreed to do. What Adrienne hadn’t expected, on the other hand, was Vala’s change in tune about their little conversation this morning, fully expecting some all out jealous rage to be directed at her but instead she just looked over her shoulder as she packed, all the while Adrienne was sitting at her desk mixing fingernail polish colors in an effort to achieve the most disgusting brown possible.

“He’s made you boring,” Vala said, stuffing a spare pair of undergarments into her pack.  Adrienne just rolled her eyes and poured some orange onto her pallet.  

“He has not made me boring,” she replied, moving onto some emerald green that Adrienne thought would look really nice on her friend, stirring the mixture carefully with a pen.  

“He has,” Vala insisted as she reached into another part of her closet, “you used to be wild and fun and crazy and now you just work all of the time.”  Adrienne stopped stirring and looked up.  She didn’t just work all of the time, she did a lot of things for fun; she ran, she trained, she .... she worked all of the time.  

“I go to the movies and stuff,” Adrienne argued, now grabbing a yellow that smelled worse than the rest when she opened it.  Standing from the closet and zipping the bag in her hands, Vala turned to face Adrienne, not bothering with shutting the door behind her.  

‘With him, you go to the movies with him. That’s why I was excited about tonight.  I thought you had forgotten the rest of us existed,” she stated, moving onto her bed where Adrienne knew she stored her weapons underneath in a pretty pink suitcase. Her friend knelt to the ground, Adrienne still trying to formulate her protest.  

“I haven’t forgotten about anything, it’s just that, I don’t know, he just understands me like no one else has before.  I’ve never had a friend like him,” Adrienne continued, refraining from using the term best friend, which she knew Vala would jump on as a new reason for torment. 

“Um hmm,” was the response from under the bed.  The suitcase made a loud scratching sound on the floor as it was dragged out onto the tiles, Vala sitting upright to dig around in it.  She clicked it open and began to root through her items, Adrienne seeing an opportunity to change the topic of conversation.  

“Why don’t you keep your gun in lock-up like everyone else?” she asked, hoping the question would have the intended effect. The large gun popped up before its owner, a trophy of her ultimate conquest, being a part of something. Vala smiled at Adrienne, who was listlessly stirring away at the now drying pile of putrid brown nail polish.  

“Because I don’t trust anyone but me with my gun,” she answered plainly, examining the weapon, carefully laying it beside Adrienne on her desk as she kept digging. Adrienne reached for the red polish and saw the gun, jumping up from her chair in fright at the weapon’s presence. 

“Cooh Vala, what the hell!!” Adrienne shouted, knocking the table with her hip and spilling nail polish all over the floor.  Vala turned around, a large knife in hand, making a face at her friend.  

“Calm down Addy; I don’t understand your issue with guns anyway,” she responded, and stood, closing the suitcase with her foot and shoving it back underneath the bed.  Embarrassed and slightly annoyed, Adrienne walked over to the bathroom to get some toilet paper to clean up her mess, not answering her friend.  Vala just picked up the bottles from the floor, screwed the caps on and set them back onto the desk, removing the P-90 from the surface and packing it away in her bag.  Zipping up her pack and tossing it over her shoulder, the tall alien woman continued to the bathroom to help her friend clean up the make-up explosion but Adrienne rushed past her, dripping water all over the floor as she went and knelt under the table. Sighing, Vala hung back and let her take care of it.  

“I think he’s in love with you,” she stated, finding the words difficult to say and even harder to admit as Adrienne just groaned from the floor.  

“Not this again,” she whined, scrubbing away at the mess.  Vala reached over to the wall to grab the small trash can and walked it calmly over to Adrienne, a part of her torn up over what she was about to admit. 

“What do you mean again? I said you guys were different and that you should bed him, if for no other reason because he needs it and I want details.  But, I think he loves you, you know that mushy shit that you people base all of your television shows on,” Vala explained, hoping that in her jest Adrienne would understand. Things had happened between she and Daniel, things she thought might be the beginnings of what Teal’c had told her in confidence had happened on the Odyssey, but they hadn’t, it was as if in this reality, this correct reality, it wasn’t meant to be, and the look that she had always hoped she’d see on his face, that twinkle in his eye, she saw every day now, when he looked at Adrienne. In fact, part of the reason why she couldn’t stand going down to the lab anymore, always asking Addy to meet her for lunch, was that it tore her up inside to see someone she cared about so much completely in love with another woman. Another nice woman. Another great woman. Another woman who was so perfect for him that she couldn’t argue otherwise. Another woman who was her friend. Disregarding again Vala’s accusations and wild ideas, Adrienne wiped the floor once more and tossed the tissue into the can, which her friend promptly returned to the wall.  She stood and adjusted her uniform, looking back at Vala.  

“Ready?” she asked.  

“Will you at least entertain the notion that I may be right?” she asked, and that you are lucky and an idiot, she added silently in her head.

“Nope,” Adrienne answered and opened the door, grabbing her own pack from beside it and heading for the gate room.  

Adrienne felt a pull at her pack and breath at her ear, which didn’t startle her since she had been expecting it for a while now. Stopping her stride through the vast field of brown grains and she let the rest of the team move ahead of them, toward the coordinates that MALP was sending at its stopping point, a faint blip on Cam’s transmitter. 

“Did you see any people Ad, on the videos?” Daniel whispered quietly, starting to wonder if he had jumped into her excitement a little too quickly.  Yes, the MALP videos had shown signs of civilization, but no actual people, and Daniel had just trusted Adrienne like always.  Usually, that was a perfectly acceptable course of action, although once in a while she let her excitement get the best of her, but it had been a long time since a mistake like that.  A long time.  Adrienne turned to face him.  

“I thought I did Indy, I mean I saw movement in the trees, too tall for an animal and there was a humanoid heat signature.  I really didn’t rush through this, I swear,” she assured him, her face however telling a different story.  Adrienne still felt bad about Cam getting shot a few months back and his lingering pain, pain he thought he hid from her, was a constant reminder of her errors and the last thing she wanted was to have a repeat of that, including disappointing Daniel.  Gazing at him sorrowfully, a look on her face that he hated to see, he reached out and squeezed her arm, rubbing his hand up and down the limb in a comforting fashion. 

“Alright Ad, I believe you. Then let’s catch up,” he decided not to push the issue further, indicating with his head that they needed to rejoin their friends.

Cam stopped the group nearly an hour later, pointing to a ridge on the horizon, glancing back at his team, tired and sunburnt, as this planet seemed to have a brighter and stronger sun than they had expected.  When he had agreed to go on this mission he was under the impression by Daniel’s description that this was a no-brainer, that the Asgard database had done all of the preliminary research for them but now, Cam was beginning to think that Daniel had agreed to this just because he had a thing for Adrienne.  If that was the case, this was not a conversation he wanted to have with Sam. Their partnership was getting, for lack of a better word, a tad abnormal.  As each and every member of SG-1 came to a halt in front of their leader, Cam took a quick scan of the two ringleaders of the expedition to see if they could offer any counsel but Adrienne looked concerned, as did Daniel. Rather than bring that up in front of everyone, Cameron just spoke to the group as a whole.  

“According to the MALP feed, it came to a rest about a half a mile in that direction,” Cam said and indicated due west with his finger, “Considering the distance from the gate, I recommend that we make it to the MALP, set up camp and continue in the morning.”  At his mention of the word camp, Vala let out a groan.  

“Thanks Addy,” she hissed sarcastically. Feeling bad, Adrienne didn’t comment.  Accepting silence, other than Vala, as his answer, Cameron continued on toward the source of the signal.  It didn’t take the group very long to make it to the ridge, the machine resting right on the edge shining in the sunset.  Adrienne was at least relieved that they found the MALP and therefore the altar in the distance, but was still disturbed by the fact there were no people to be seen anywhere.  They had passed signs of human habitation, recent garbage and even a well, but no signs of any actual people.  Desperate to not be wrong, and to find Hebrew people, Adrienne looked back at Daniel and pulled him aside. 

“Let’s walk on, let them make camp.  An altar was at the high point, there should be a village below,” she whispered quietly.  Considering her request, Daniel glanced back up at the group, Cam already barking orders to get camp set and Vala beginning to complain on cue but he didn’t answer her verbally, he just nodded and walked over to their team leader.  

“Cam, we’re going to head on to where the village is most likely located,” Daniel informed him. Cam looked back up at him surprised, primarily because Daniel and Adrienne were still insisting that this planet was inhabited when they hadn’t seen a soul.  but he didn’t want to argue with his friend, just gave him a silent ok and turned to help the team set up camp.  

For Adrienne’s sake Daniel hoped there was a village at the base of the other side of the ridge. She had a few lucky breaks since the incident a few months back in which she had sent him into Lucian fire, but there was a chance that in her excitement and insistence that she had overlooked something and that this would all backfire and lead them right into danger.  Adrienne must have been thinking the same as she was walking ahead of him without comment, tapping away at her iPad and gazing into the distance.  Hoping she didn’t see the worried expression on his face, Daniel continued behind her in silence.  After a while longer, with Adrienne having proceeded further ahead and out of his sight, Daniel was about to radio her to stop and come back so they could return to camp when he heard a shout in the distance and without hesitation took off in the direction of her voice.

When Daniel arrived at the source of the screams he froze, looking around himself in shock.  They shouldn’t have come through so quickly; they should have sent a second MALP.  In front of him, sitting on the ground cradling a small child, was Adrienne, tears in her eyes, and behind her a village, the sick wandering around aimlessly and the dead laying on the ground unattended. 

“We did this,” Adrienne accused, sucking back in tears.  The boy in her arms looked up at her and then Daniel and said something faintly, in Hebrew which Adrienne answered something to the effect of he is my friend and glanced back at Daniel.  

“They’ve been so isolated, so hidden; why else would this happen?” Adrienne asked all the while Daniel shaking his head hoping that she wouldn’t blame herself. The MALP had been sent only 20 hours before, nothing he knew, nothing could have come through on it considering the great sanitization measures that they took and nothing would have taken hold so quickly.  Besides, that meant they would have seen people on the earlier images, people that would have come in contact with the MALP and taken the illness to their village, but the video had shown not one soul who could have transported any virus. 

“It’s something else Ad, something entirely different.  Trust me. But we need to take some precautions. Do you have any of that crazy health mess of yours in your pack?” he asked, hoping that in her haste this morning she had packed as normal.  Adrienne sucked in tears and whispered to the little boy that she would be right back and lifted him from her lap, moving to set him in the grass but  Daniel shook his head and crawled forward, taking the child from her.  Her pack was a few feet away, looking as though it had been thrown in a rush to tend to their frail patent and Daniel let her rummage through, hoping that a task would calm her nerves, gazing down at the boy.  

“Where’s your mother?” he asked in broken Hebrew. The boy winced in pain as though it hurt to talk but tried to answer.  

“Sick. Everyone is sick. We thought Gabriel was coming back when we saw the machine, we thought it was our end,” the boy said.  That made sense, that was consistent, the Asgard would not have been as free with their technology or the display thereof as the Go’ould and most certainly would not have shown the people any kind of robot.  If the people were sick already and then saw something as intimidating as a MALP coming through the gate, it probably would have indicated that the end was near.  He just hoped they didn’t mistaken his voice as the mouthpiece of Yahweh.  Maybe Adrienne was right; maybe Sam should be in those videos.  

“What’s your name?” Daniel asked the boy, trying to comfort him, moving a stray hair from the child’s head as he coughed. With just that light touch Daniel could tell he was running a high fever despite his pallid complexion. 

“Enoch,” the boy choked out as Daniel felt hands on his shoulders, turning to face his assistant.   

“I’ve got C, Zinc and B in shot form, which do you prefer?” Adrienne asked, kneeling down behind him.  

“Do you have enough for everyone?” he answered with a question himself, hoping that the response was yes for the team at least and maybe enough for little Enoch here.  

“Yeah, but this isn’t antibiotic or antiviral Indy, this is just a boost for what we’ve already got,” Adrienne explained knowing full well that he didn’t need the explanation, she was just placating herself and easing her own fears that were beginning to creep into her head.  She had been exposed. They had been exposed.  And this was her idea.  Reading his mind, Daniel reached his arm out to her, unable to reach but hoping she understood.

“Then all of the above.  Start with the shot, roll up my sleeve,” he ordered.  Adrienne did as asked, pulling off the cap of the syringe with her mouth and cleaning his arm with an alcohol swab and stuck him, flinching more than he did, tossing the used needle into a small bag in her lap.  She repeated the procedure on herself and the boy, before switching the box of vitamin B for two small containers of pills, shaking two of each into her hand and holding them up for Daniel, who just opened his mouth so she could toss them in.  

“It’s gonna make you pee like crazy, especially the C,” she warned.  Daniel swallowed and reached to pull the little boy into his lap higher, shrugging.  

“I think I can live with some excess peeing. Now, go back and get Cameron, have him send someone to the gate to get ahold on one of the docs and figure out what this is,” Daniel requested but Adrienne just stayed kneeling beside him popping pills into her mouth and downing them dry.  

“Ad, go,” he ordered.  Adrienne made a face at him, one of concern but stood, pausing to scold.   

“Don’t you go doing anything heroic Indy; I’ve got too much invested in this friendship,” she requested, trying to keep it light.  

“I won’t, now go!” Daniel repeated, watching her turn and sprint up the hill.  

“Daniel!!” he heard Vala shouting from the ridge, Daniel turning from where he was examining a young teenaged girl seated close to a well, his eyes quickly darting to the boy, Enoch, who had been asleep for a while on Daniel’s pack, which he had managed to turn into a pillow to lay the boy down so he could investigate.  The village seemed to be the furtherest in a complex system, joined by Romanesque roads, this one serving as home to the head priests, the altar and a few families who lived in service of the church.  Upon obtaining this knowledge from Enoch, Daniel had visited the priests’ home, where a frail rabbi was by himself trying to tend to two young acolytes, one throwing up violently onto the dirt floor of the hut.  The priest explained to him that the sickness had arrived two weeks ago, not yesterday, and had spread through like a pestilence.  So far, there had been only three deaths, but at the rate of dehydration it looked as though that was going to start claiming even more victims and soon.  The symptoms ranged from vomiting and fever, to strange rashes, too many to sort through and Daniel felt like he was in some TV medical drama and not in a village of sick people; he needed Carolyn and the others to come back.  However, as glad as he was to see his friend hiking down the hill, he was also concerned that she was alone and Adrienne was nowhere in sight. He needed to talk to her, she needed to know that this wasn’t her fault and he needed to know she was alright. 

“Vala, over here!” Daniel shouted, waving her to where he had set up a place to work, near where Enoch was sleeping, helping the girl stand so she could return to the arms of her waiting mother.  Hearing him, she moved into a light jog in his direction, speaking as she ran. 

“Sent Muscles back to call the doc, Cam says Cassie and Carolyn are on duty so someone should be able to gate right over,” Vala informed him, rubbing her bicep.  

“Addy poked the hell out of me in a goddam hurry to get back here to you,” Vala explained, stressing you as sarcastically as she could but Daniel was puzzled.  

“What do you mean hurry back here to me?” Daniel asked, assuming Adrienne had stayed behind with Cam and that is why Vala was here in her stead. Why she would have stayed back he didn’t know, but she hadn’t come back here, he hadn’t heard from her in at least an hour, if not longer, but he had lost track of time. Confused, Vala cut her eyes at him, shaking her head.  

“She came, apologizing, babbling about screwing up, stuck us with needles, drugged us and went running back to you.  Wouldn’t even stick around to wait for Teal’c to get to the gate and radio back.  She’s not here?” Vala asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach, memories of a slavers ship, a cage flooding her mind.  

“No,” Daniel said, the same panic starting to creep up inside of him, “she’s not here,” Daniel answered slowly, starting to walk away from the village and the boy, looking out into the horizon.  

“Ad!!! Addy!!! ADRIENNE!!!!” Daniel was screaming full force in every direction, repeating her name, his eyes darting around under his glasses as he spun around frantically scanning their surroundings for his assistant. Vala stood back and watched at first, somewhat stunned by his reaction, but then joined in the screaming, adding obscenities and other stupid nicknames the girls used between themselves.  After a full five minutes of shouting, the two looked at each other, confused.  

“Daniel don’t panic,” Vala said gently, reading the look in his eyes.  Adrienne had become the center of his universe, she knew, any doubt she had otherwise erased instantly as she thought she actually saw a tear glistening in his blue eyes, fearing that he would go into a complete meltdown. He shook his head in response.  

“I’m not panicking, I’m not panicking.  We just need to find Adrienne,” he said simply and walked over to his pack to try his radio.  He had sent Adrienne back in person rather than just radio to keep her safe, let her leave before she was exposed further but that was an idiotic idea, he knew now, and he hoped she had her radio on.  He squeezed the button and spoke.  

“Ad, if you’re in radio contact can you hear me?” he asked, looking back at Vala who had her radio in hand as well, cued to the same signal, awaiting a response.  Nothing.  Daniel glanced back over at her.  

“Look, you stay here with the boy, I’m going to go look for her,” he ordered, pointing back to the area he created.  

“Daniel, you shouldn’t go by yourself, listen to me, wait until they get here and then we can look together,” Vala started but Daniel shot a glare in her direction, one that meant he was not to be questioned.  

“Vala, I don’t think I need to stress to you the importance of starting to look right now,” Daniel hissed between his teeth.  It didn’t phase her.  

“Fine, then I’m going with you,” she stated strongly. Daniel shot his finger over at the boy laying on his pack.  

“We can’t leave him!” he shouted, worried already at how long Adrienne could have been gone.  What if that ship was ..... what if they couldn’t find her.....what if she... He pushed the thought aside as a voice came over the radio.  

“Jackson, you there?” Cam’s voice came in clear over the radio.  Daniel pushed the button, his face disappointed at the voice on the other end and answered.  

“Yeah, we’re here,” he replied, trying to feel out the situation before he alarmed Cameron.  

“Just heard back from T, dialed home and called for reinforcements. It’s gonna be a few hours still,” the colonel informed them.  Good, Daniel thought to himself, gives me time to find Addy, now it’s time to alarm Cam.  

“Cam, Ad’s missing,” he said as emotionless as he could.  There was silence on the end of the radio.  

“Gone where?” Cam asked. 

“I don’t know Cam, but I’m going to go find her,” Daniel informed him.  The response back was fast, panic on his end of the radio as well.

“Alright, if she never made it back to you then I’ll radio back to T, head your direction and we can meet in the middle.  Hopefully we’ll find her in between.  Have Vala stay in the village to wait in case the docs beat us all back,” Cam ordered, switching right back into leader mode.  Hearing a huff behind him, Daniel turned to see Vala rolling her eyes in annoyance at her instructions and he gave her an ‘I told you’ face before clicking the button to answer Cam. 

“Sounds good, I’ll keep you posted,” Daniel answered, calmer than before, a plan of to distract him from the real problem, that Adrienne was gone. He was turning to instruct Vala to stay as Cam had ordered, pleased to see that she was already making her way back to the village.  

“I’m going, I’m going, but you’d better find her. I’m not kidding.  She balances this little boy party out,” Vala demanded, in her own way showing concern for the loss of her friend.  Daniel simply nodded and made his way for camp.  

There was no sign of her by the time he saw Cam popping up on the other side of a field.  His hopes shot up for just a moment when he saw a shadow, indistinct, a runner’s build, but it was the wrong runner, and he was alone, that feeling of fear and desperation rocketing his insides again. Solemn looks on their faces, the teammates approached each other, avoiding eye contact as they shook their heads at the ground.   

“Anything?” Daniel asked first, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it himself. 

“Nothing, you?” he replied.  Daniel gestured in the negative noting that Cam didn’t appeared panicked as he felt, replying on his military training and formulating their next plan.  

“Ok, let’s assume that she wouldn’t have gone toward the ravine, so let’s head west toward the desert,” Cameron suggested, Daniel having nothing else to do other than agree.  Trudging on toward the sand and scanning the ground, Daniel followed behind the team leader, looking for any sign of his assistant, all the while trying to hold himself together.  He couldn’t imagine something having happened to Adrienne, he just didn’t know what he would do. Trying to focus on the task at hand, forcing a thousand horrible scenarios out of his head, Daniel lifted his gaze to the horizon, looking for any sign of his friend, the best friend he had ever had, squinting into the sunshine.  

When they made it to the edge of the desert, Cam looked back over at Daniel, an expression on his face that Daniel could easily read, an expression that confirmed his worst fears, that she had been taken, just like Vala.  Feeling sick suddenly, Daniel fought the urge to lean over and throw up all over the sand, his left hand starting to shake, which promptly with his right. 

“We should double back, radio Vala on the way.  Teal’c has probably come back through and we can go ahead and call in a team to investigate,” Cam said as Daniel scanned the ground one more time.  Picking his nails unknowingly, he was about to protest, to offer to stay back just in case she showed up, scan the area again when he looked down seeing something strange on the grown, something out of place lying on a small greenish desert plant, kneeling quickly to the ground to see it was just piece of fabric lying there, a piece of fabric that just looked out of place here at the edge of civilization, with no signs of nearby inhabitants.  Picking it up, noting the strange linen like qualities to its texture, Daniel brought it closer to his face to examine it, puzzled by it’s presence here on the brink of nothing. His eyes widened. 

“She was here,” Daniel exclaimed, looking up at Cam, excitement in his voice, a stark contrast to the panic the colonel had noted earlier. 

“Man, how in the hell do you know that?” he asked curious, kneeling beside him. His hands wild, like he was on the verge of a classic Daniel babble, the archaeologist handed the piece of linen over to Cameron, pointing at it as he took it.  

“That’s her lotion,” he was finally able to spit out, indicating that Cameron smell the fabric.  He did and noticed a scent, smelled like vanilla and something else he couldn’t pin down, and he shrugged, handing it back to Daniel, a strange look on his face.

“Ok, so it smells a little girlie, but seriously, it could be from any woman. No matter the civilization, women like perfume,” the colonel answered but Daniel was already shaking his head.  

“No, it’s hers, it’s Cherry Vanilla. Trust me, she stinks up my room with it,” Daniel answered and stood, changing direction, looking left and right for any sign of something else, another fragment of her absence. Remaining on the ground, Cam looked up at Daniel like he was insane, watching his friend scan the ground and nearby vegetation, going so far as to start smelling a medium sized bush a few feet away.

“Daniel, you realize how that sounds, right?” Cam asked, cautiously, unsure as to what else he could say.  A clue yes, but really? Her lotion?

“I know, it’s a stretch, but it’s something.  Let’s walk this way,” Daniel replied, oblivious, turning to walk the edge of the desert. Cam stood and followed him, still mystified at the remark. Stinks his room up with it? Knows that it’s Cherry Vanilla? Sad part was, Cam was thinking to himself, the man had no idea at all, no idea.  He decided not to push it and followed behind, hoping that oblivious or not, Dr. Jackson might be on to something. 

Sure enough, a few steps further was another piece of fabric.  Breadcrumbs? Cameron thought, but we would never be so lucky. Rushing ahead, Daniel grabbed the swatch, bringing it to his face again and looking over his shoulder at Cam.  

“Cherry Vanilla,” he stated and shoved the strip into his tack vest, walking on.  

“I didn’t doubt you man,” Cam answered and followed, “not for a second did I doubt you...” 

But that was the last of the strips. Even Cameron had been hopeful Adrienne was leaving them a trail, but to no avail, there wasn’t another sign of another person or anything a person might have left in sight. Apparently reading his mind, Daniel stopped and grabbed his radio.  

“Vala?” he called back to where they had left their teammate in the hopes that Addy had made her way back to the village. Clicking the radio off, he awaited her response, slowly chewing his bottom lip but there was nothing, no static, nothing.  Puzzled, Daniel looked over at Cameron, who was already steps ahead of him, calling Vala’s name into the radio.  His response was the same, peering over at Daniel who was shrugging, having no idea why the radio wouldn’t work when there was a shout in the distance, from the small hills that were gently building in their path. 

“Cam! Indy! It’s about damn time!!” Daniel’s heart leapt in his chest as he looked up and saw his assistant, in one piece and completely unharmed running toward him.  She wasn’t wearing her pack or jacket, as she tore down the hill in t-shirt and tac vest, yelling as she ran. 

“I’ve been radioing you guys for hours; what took so long?!? I ran into a group of villagers that aren’t infected and finally convinced their leader to come talk to Carolyn and let her run some blood work to compare to the infected people,” Adrienne explained indicating with her finger behind her as a gentleman, maybe in his late fifties was walking behind her briskly.  Daniel shook his head.  

“Ad, we never got a call.  Why did you walk off? Anything could have happened to you!” Daniel began to scold, but the relief in his voice was evident, the worry sliding off of his tongue with his words. However Adrienne didn’t seem to notice, glancing back over her should at the tall graying man in maroon robes rushing towards her. 

“Because I radioed you and there was no static, no indication that you didn’t get the message and when you didn’t answer I figured you were dealing with Enoch and would come when you could.  Which you did,” Adrienne retorted. Oh yeah, Cam thought, he came, running, with bells on, but again decided to stay out of their argument as he watched Adrienne’s face change from frustration to confusion.  

“Wait, this is off the beaten trail. If you didn’t get my coordinates, how did you guys find me?” she asked.  Daniel opened his mouth to answer when Cam shot a glare at him daring him to speak. He wasn’t about to sit here and watch Daniel fumble his way around ‘I know what your lotion smells like’ to see Adrienne stand in confusion as to what to say.  Let them deal with this uncomfortable situation when they were not on a mission because frankly, he was getting tired of their ‘not normal’. 

“We found these little cloth pieces and were thinking breadcrumbs,” he answered, pulling out the latest strip, hanging partially from Daniel’s pocket.  Adrienne nodded her head in recognition.  

“Yeah, yeah, it’s hot, they let me wipe down with those. Must’ve fallen out of my pack.  That was lucky.  Alright, can we head back to the village, or rather, their village.  I want you guys to hear this one for yourselves,” she requested, not bothering to ask for any more information.  Her friends agreed non-verbally and followed her as she turned to follow the man as he excitedly moved on, leading them back to their village. 

 *******

“It’s all here, in Leviticus 11,” Adrienne declared at they arrived at the encampment, producing her iPad from where she had left it on the table.  

“Dietary restrictions,” Daniel replied while Adrienne nodded.  

“Exactly, but that’s where I get stuck. For one, even the NSRV doesn’t claim to get all of the names right and a lot of these Hebrew words are describing animals that we just can’t understand in the modern world, animals that are probably extinct, or at least that variation of animal,”  she replied.  Cameron stepped forward, pleased that they were both reading something in English for once and scanned the page.  

“So, somebody ate the wrong damn critter is what you’re saying Addy,”  he clarified and Adrienne nodded.  

“That’s how AIDS started, chowing on monkey brains in Africa,” she said and shook her head, continuing, “Their ‘leader’ here Aaron, which I find extremely ironic by the way Indy, has agreed to let blood for us to test when the med team gets here, but we still need...” 

“To determine which animals to cross test, which means we are in for...” Daniel interrupted only to be interrupted by Adrienne once more. 

“A ridic amount of Bible reading, yeah shug,” she answered, all the while Cam shaking his head at the two of them; they were so blind.  Ignoring their creepy sentence completing exchange, Cam began to plan the best course of action that would keep the illness contained to one area and his team safe.  

“Alright, so, if this disease works like AIDS, I’m assuming that general contact is not going to make any of us sick,” Cam asked, hoping one of the two of the history geeks would have some idea as to what they were really dealing with. Adrienne shrugged and looked over at Daniel.  

“I wish I could answer that, but honestly, I think the only assumption we can make at this point is that there is an illness, caused by something in the environment here and not us and we might or might not contract it ourselves,” he replied.  Adrienne reached over for his arm.  

“Always the positive thinker you are my friend,” she joked.  Cam sighed, not in the mood for another Adrienne Star Wars reference, for once, and scanned the encampment. It was small, much smaller than the village and seemed to only house a few dozen or so people.  According to Adrienne these people had left the main sect due to a dispute concerning the interpretation of the Torah, which apparently for them was not just a religious text, but a guidebook left by the Asgard to keep them safe.  His friends had explained that the rules laid out in the five books, in particular Leviticus as it was called on Earth, set forth guidelines for everything from dress to food to weekly schedule.  Adrienne had explained that many of these guidelines, or at least it was believed on Earth, were set out to insure the health and prosperity of the Hebrew people and prevent things like the outbreak of disease.  With the demise of the Asgard civilization and lack on communication with the gods, the people of this planet had grown desperate after three failed harvest years and started to break the rules.  The people that Adrienne had found had chosen not to participate and maintain kosher, leaving the village to live on their own. Now those that hadn’t were paying for it.  

Daniel was looking at Adrienne, as if he hoped she would have a better plan, but she was just standing there, iPad in hand shaking it at him.  Not seeming to have any choice, he took the contraption from her hand and the two of them sat side by side on the ground, beginning to read, as if Cameron wasn’t standing right there waiting for some kind of information.

“I guess I’ll go get a radio signal and call the others,” Cam stated.  Neither of them responded, so Cam turned to trek back to their own camp in order to meet Teal’c and the medical team, leaving behind the two co-workers, friends, whatever the hell you could call the abnormal little camaraderie they had going on, to babble about in a foreign language trying to determine what exactly was going on and, Cam guessed, which animals could have caused such a problem.  

Two hours later, Cam had yet to return, and Daniel and Adrienne were still sitting on the 

ground, flipping through Adrienne’s virtual version of Leviticus.  His eyes aching from staring at that tiny screen for so long, Daniel reaching underneath of his glasses to rub his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose.

“So, we are down to rock badgers, hares and bats,” he said confirming their list. Adrienne nodded slowly and leaned back on the rock behind them, Daniel joining her, equally exhausted. 

“Yuck, yuck and yuck,” she replied, laughing at herself, “we eat strange shit in the bayou, but dems bebettes we’d never eat, well ‘cept for the rabbit.  That’s not so bad actually,” Adrienne finished and leaned her head over onto his shoulder and he rested his right on top of hers, instantly, without thinking, tossing his arm onto her leg.  

“Sorry shug, I did it again,” Adrienne apologized, happy that he hadn’t yelled at her for being so foolish and rushing into this.  She felt him shake his head on hers but not move it away.  

“Actually, you didn’t do bad at all.  We walked into a situation where people needed help and that’s what I’m used to doing, more so than what we have been doing lately,”  he answered, grabbing her hand, squeezing it and then standing up again. Reaching behind himself he pulled Adrienne to her feet as well and returned her gadget to open palms.  

“Well Ad, let’s go see if we can get some freshly killed bebettes,” Daniel informed her, hoping she would pick up on his word choice and she did smiling.

“You suck at cajun shug; I shall need to amend this,” Adrienne replied and walked ahead to find Aaron, the village leader.  

Vala walked back with Cam, Teal’c and Carolyn, along with an assortment of medical staff and equipment.  Quick blood work done on Cam at the SG encampment had determined that Adrienne was correct in the disease acting through the consumption of exposed food and was not airborne, so now it was just a matter of getting back to the villagers that had chosen to separate themselves and running some more blood tests on not only the villagers but what they could have possibly eaten.  Cameron had explained to the group about Aaron agreeing to tests and Carolyn was pleased not to have to beg someone to see reason.  Still a good distance away, Vala pulled Cam from the group, interested in how in the world they were able to find Adrienne.  

“You didn’t say how you found her; thank the gods it wasn’t those slavers,” Vala whispered out of hearing distance of the group. Cam had neglected to mention to anyone that Adrienne had wandered off and Vala didn’t want to get her friend into any trouble.  Cam was shaking his head the moment Vala began her inquiry.  

“You don’t even want to know, it just adds fuel to the fire,” he answered, knowing she would ask and just rolling his eyes, looking to the sky.  

“I’m not following you,” she replied. Cam looked around to make sure no one else was listening and moved his head closer to hers.  

“We found some Hebrew hankies or something on the ground, been dropped.  Daniel picked it up and said it that is smelled like Adrienne, her lotion or something,” he replied. and Vala shook her head, a look of both shock and satisfaction on her face.   

“I knew they were sleeping together!!” she explained and Cam quickly clamped his hand over her mouth.  

“They are not sleeping together, in fact, he seemed totally damn lost as to why I thought it was strange that he knew that,” he hissed under his breath, Vala shaking her head underneath his hand.  She pushed him away and looked to see they were being left, grabbing his arm and pulling him along.  

“They did last night, the night before, whatever time it is at this point, she was leaving his room,” Vala accused. 

“So what? She’s crashed in my room before too when she, Dex, T and I have thrown back a few too many,” he answered, pulling his arm away to walk on.  Adrienne wasn’t that kind of girl, that was one of the reasons why Cam respected her so much; he knew Adrienne would need to be in a real relationship and wouldn’t just hop into the sack with someone.  Especially Daniel.  

“In your bed?” Vala continued and Cam made a face.  

“Yeah and I’m on the floor,” he answered like that was a stupid question.  Vala just smirked at his response.  

“Daniel isn’t....” she left her argument at that and dashed to catch up.  Stunned for a moment, Cameron stopped, dumbfounded and at a loss for words. That’s just not normal, he thought. Hearing his name shouted by Teal’c, he broke his trance and jogged ahead to join the group.  

Adrienne and Daniel were standing side by side at a large butcher’s table when the team arrived.  Carolyn made a face of disgust, similar to the one Adrienne had made herself just hours before, at the display in front of her.  It was a large table that bore a strong resemblance to a cutting board, made of some sort of tree akin to cyprus.  Spread out onto it were three freshly killed and partially butchered animals, a hare, rock badger and a bat.  The smell was putrid as the raw bleeding meat sat in the heat of the desert climate awaiting its examination.  The doctor looked up at her colleagues questioning as she began to pop on gloves to examine the mess in front of her.  

“I see you’ve narrowed down my specimens,” she said, rhetorically, reaching back for her bag and gear.  

“These seem to be the only things they ate that appear in Leviticus,” Daniel answered. 

“And are nasty enough to carry disease,” Carolyn countered and began to set some small strips of paper coupled with various pieces of alien technology in order to test the blood pouring out of the innards of the various animals.  While she worked, barking orders at her staff members to complete various auxiliary tasks, the two archaeologists stepped back to Cam, Vala and Teal’c.  

“So, what do we do once she figures out what animal?” Vala asked, leaning across Teal’c to talk to the pair.  Daniel looked back at the small medical spread in front of them, seeing one of the nurses now taking a blood sample from Aaron.  

“Honestly, I’m not sure.  We might be able to determine what creature, but unless it’s a virus that we’re familiar with, we might not be able to find a cure,” he answered her honestly and turned to look at Adrienne, standing to his left at the edge of the group.  

“Ad, please tell me that you didn’t eat anything here or elsewhere,” he asked quietly, in an effort to not embarrass her or panic the group.  She stood on her tiptoes to give her reply.  

“Uh, no, gross shit is not part of the runner’s diet,” she answered smiling. Instantly, Daniel felt better and turned his attention to the table, watching with the rest of the group.  

It was maddening waiting. While Daniel was relieved Adrienne had not eaten anything to be polite, the thought almost driving him into another panic, until the doctor could give him a better idea of what exactly was going on, he wasn’t going to feel any better.  He toyed with the thought of sending Adrienne to fill Sam in with what was going on, but decided not to, for fear of giving Jack something else to throw up in his face.  Dammit, what is wrong with me? he thought to himself.  He glanced to his side, his assistant chewing away on that tongue ring of hers instead of her nails like normal, making that awful clicking noise that drove him batty but he didn’t stop her, just reached his arm behind her, rubbing her back quickly until she looked up at him.  He didn’t need to ask her if she was alright, she seemed better already with their contact. He pulled his hand away quickly.  This is what Jack is talking about.....

“Bats, it’s the bats,” Carolyn announced interrupting his train of thought.  Daniel snapped back to reality and felt hopeful, the tone in the doctor’s voice not her usual, as Adrienne liked to refer to it, grumpiness.  She nodded, peeled her gloves off and stepped away from the table, looking quite thankful to be rid of the gutted vermin in front of her.  

“Bats, and it looks like Hendra virus,” she declared, motioning for her assistants to begin cleaning up themselves. Cam gestured confusion with his hands.  

“And that is...” he led, hating when the science geeks talk science and expected them to know it.  Next time we have to fix some engine I’m going to speak engineer and see how they like it, he vowed internally, approaching the table.  

“Nasty damn virus, no vaccine for it yet, but we can treat it with fluids, vitamin boosters, antibiotics for related infections and give the body time to fight it itself. I need to go back for more supplies and we’ll probably need to leave a team here for at least a week to run a clinic to get everyone back on their feet,” she explained.  Cam nodded, not happy that there was no quick cure but at least happy to be able to help.  He looked back at his team and then the doctor.  

“Alright, so we’ll head back to inform Sam and get things going in that end. That is if you want to stay,” he asked cautiously.

“Yes, I’d like to work with the virus more, but I need some supplies back on Earth. And Cassie, I want Cassie.  This will be good for her,” Carolyn concluded, putting her bag back together. As Vala and Teal’c started out for the encampment, every intention of tearing it down, Adrienne stepped forward, hoping that she could make a request.  

“Dr. Lam, can I stay? I mean, if it’s not communicable, it’s safe right.  I’d like to help and research more if possible,” Adrienne asked sweetly, running the past few weeks in her brain in an effort to remember if the doc had yelled at her in recent weeks for behaving badly or recklessly.  She thought she was in the clear, especially since Ronon had taken care of when she had busted her hip bone good last week when they were fighting.  Emotionlessly, Carolyn Lam just shrugged. 

“I don’t see why not, as long as people from your part of the world don’t like bats I think you’re safe,” she answered.  Ok, small knock on us swamp folk, but Adrienne decided to leave it.  She was about to turn and ask Daniel if it was alright with him when she felt a tap on her arm and looked back at the doctor.  

“Plus I’m going to need a translator since I don’t speak this language and we can start by telling them to stop eating the damn bats and anything else on the list that “God” told them not to eat,” she requested, making air quotes as she said God.  Adrienne smiled and shouted over to Aaron, who had been sitting anxiously waiting for some information.   As he approached, Adrienne took her opportunity to ask Daniel for permission. 

“Indy, can I stay?” she asked quickly, walking backwards away from him to meet the village leader. Daniel had been standing with the rest of the team, most likely talking about striking camp and heading back, so he looked up at Adrienne surprised at her request.  

“You want to stay?” he clarified, excusing himself from the group and walking to talk with her. She stopped, held out a finger for Aaron asking him to wait just one moment longer, assuring him everything was going to be alright and turned to face her friend. 

“Yea, if that’s ok with you,” Adrienne said, Daniel glancing around himself carefully. It seemed that Dr. Lam had contained the disease, or at least knew how to contain it, and Teal’c had marked off the point where radio contact ended. It was safe enough, he guessed, to stay and explore, but he wasn’t about to leave her alone. 

“Fine, we’ll stay,” he answered and turned to inform Cam of his decision. Adrienne smiled instantly at fine, but looked at him strangely when she realized he had said we.  She was shocked, but in a very pleasant way, nerves and happiness colliding inside of her.  What is wrong with me? she fussed at herself. 

“We?” she asked in clarification, making sure that she as hearing him correctly but Daniel already nodded emphatically.  

“Yes Ad, we.  This was my find. You were in bed, remember?” he asked.  

Yeah, your bed, she wanted to tease instantly but was suddenly embarrassed by that realization.  Christ, that looks bad, she thought; Vala is right, this is not normal. 

“Ok, ok, we will stay,” she smiled, happily emphasizes the word we, and turned to explain to Aaron the situation.  

“She’s asking him to stay,” Vala whispered back to her teammates.  

“What else ValaMalDoran?” Teal’c questioned but Vala elbowed him.  

“Wait a damn second, it’s lip reading not mind reading.  Wait, he said yes WE’LL stay.  Ha!! See Cam, they’re banging,” Vala informed their trio.  

“No, they’re not but it’s still freaky weird.  I have no idea what to make of them,” Cam agreed. Seeing something in the distance, Vala shushed the group again.  

“Look at her face; she wasn’t expecting that.  And..... she agrees, of fuckin course,” Vala read Adrienne’s response and grabbed Teal’c’s arm pulling him away and signaling for Cam to join them. Teal’c glanced down at her strangely, confused as to why she was dragging him away while part of the group was still working. 

“ValaMalDoran, where are you taking me?” Teal’c asked, pulled his arm away but continuing to follow.  

“We’re gonna strike camp,” she answered, heading over the ridge.  

“They’re staying Vala, we can’t strike camp,” Cam corrected as he caught up to them.  Vala was laughing evilly. 

“They don’t need all of that.  I’m going to leave up what they need,” she replied.  

“How do you know what they need?” Cam asked, hoping to avoid a repeat of the LCD light incident; Adrienne would go crazy if Vala broke any more of her gear. but Vala just kept laughing.  

“One tent Mitchell. They only need one tent,” she said and ran ahead, leaving the boys behind.