Daniel & Adrienne #26 - GIfts

He was supposed to return at 1700 hours. Having left about a week ago, 6 days three hours to be exact, she knew, she had written it down, Daniel was due back any moment. Adrienne walked down to the gate room, clipboard in hand, prepared to work through the evening, a small stack of files, folders and photographs awaiting them on the center table. Loudly, the sound slamming her head in reminder, almost there, almost there, almost there, the clock in the blue-gray room clicked by the minutes 1657, 1658, 1659, 1700 and her heart skipped in beat in anticipation. Lifting her glance to the iris, Adrienne waited for the lights to flash, the sirens to sound, the small device in her pocket to vibrate with Daniel’s call sign, letting her know that he had come home. But there was nothing.  

Ok, she thought to herself, this is Daniel we are talking about, he probably got to talking.  After all, he had been trying to get back to visit the Unas colony for months, and he was probably somewhat unhappy about leaving his unusual friends, friends that he felt his other responsibilities forced him to neglect. On the other hand,  she knew he wouldn’t be too late, especially since tomorrow evening representatives from the Department of Defense would be coming, a meeting that Sam expected that he attend. 

1730, thirty full minutes passing and she hadn’t even noticed. Taking a deep breath, Adrienne tried not to be worried, busying herself with checking over his schedule yet again. He was to be debriefed and examined immediately after his arrival, the original plan for the evening being that pile in the lab.  Tomorrow morning at 0900 he was to meet with Dr. McKay about some more translations that would hopefully get the ZPM’s fully operational since leads on any new devices had dried up for the time being.  Fortunately, the meeting with the DOD officials wasn’t until 1500, so as long as Rodney didn’t try to solve all of the problems of the universe in one meeting, he should actually get some time to relax. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  She’d worked hard this past week to keep the lab in running order and to make sure that his schedule was not overwhelming when he arrived home. He counted on her to take care of things like this, and she was proud to be that person he counted on. 

1800. Small worry growing to concern, Adrienne trudged her way up to the observation room to check with Walter because if anyone knew of a possible delay, it would be Walter.  

“Good evening Dr. Rowan.” She guessed that she was that predictable since he greeted her before she was even totally in the room.  

“Hi Walter.  Did you get any messages from Dr. Jackson? Any reason for the delay?” 

He looked back at her unconcerned, “No, but with some of the planets anything can happen, weather especially.  He’ll be here soon.” 

Adrienne nodded and took a seat close to a computer, putting in her access code to log in and check email. Still trying to kill time, the young assistant checked email, the news, and even entertainment gossip despite the fact she had no idea who any of those reality TV stars were until she came to the of activities which could somewhat amuse her on the internet.  She looked up at the clock again. 1915.  

“Walter?” she asked, unable to contain her worry. 

“Yes ma’am,” he answered kindly.  He knew that Drs. Rowan and Jackson were very close, but she hadn’t been here long enough to understand that there needed to be a lot more going on before worry began. It was sweet, and he decided to do what he could to make her feel better.  Turning his head from the screen, he gave Adrienne his full attention.  

“Shouldn’t we send someone through? It’s been almost two and a half hours,” Adrienne’s question showed deep concern.  If he had been out with any other member team she would have felt confident that even if he managed to get himself into trouble, which he excelled at, he would have very capable people around him to help, even if those capable people were not her,  but he had insisted on making this visit alone, despite her protests and now he was late.  Walter smiled confidentially at her, trying to convey security in his answer. 

“No ma’am. General O’Neill has a 12 hour policy for situations just like this. At,” he checked his watch, how charmingly old school, “ 0500 if he has not returned, we will send SG-1 through to investigate.” 

Adrienne groaned aloud, not at Walter, but at the situation.  She understood that Sam made the rules she did for things like weather or dialing errors since in the past many a SG team had been sent storming through the gate with guns blazing only to find something silly like a snow storm had caused the delay.  Politely thanking Walter, she stood to make her way to Sam’s office, hoping to reason with her.  

As she reached her door, the sounds of beeps of the observation room still behind her, Adrienne lightly knocked, peeking around the partially open portal.  

“Hey Addy, come on in,” Sam said as she looked over her shoulder from where she was standing at the bookshelf, every last inch of it filled volume after volume about physics, astronomy, space, things that Adrienne would never dream of understanding, things that made Sam, more than anyone else she had ever met, the most qualified person to run the SGC. 

“Hey Sam, you got a sec?” Adrienne asked, not wanting to dive right in and beg for her to send someone after him.  Everyone thought they were together anyway and now that Adrienne realized that she wanted to be with him more than anything else she needed to be even more cautious. Not only was she reasonably sure that Daniel thought of her as his little sister, but falling in love with one’s boss didn’t necessarily float well in the work place.  She needed to play it cool.  

“Sure,” she turned around, “is there something wrong?” 

“Yeah, um, Daniel’s not back yet.” Adrienne answered, trying not to convey too much worry in her voice. 

“You’re right; I didn’t hear the sirens.  What time is it?” Sam asked however, Adrienne did not hear the concern in her voice like she was feeling in the pit of her stomach. Why wasn’t she worried? Didn’t she want Daniel back too? Now.....

“1930 now, he’s over two hours late.” Adrienne tried to stress the words two hours so Sam would understand that two hours, in Daniel time, is huge. Hell, he barely let her get away with being late fifteen minutes, which, in New Orleans, might as well have been early.   

Sam made a face at Adrienne and sat down at her desk, pointing to the chair opposite. Sam wasn’t a fool, she knew Adrienne worried about him, looked out for him, had really become his closest friend, so she felt the need to calm her nerves.

“It’s really only two hours, and I know he is normally very punctual, but two hours is nothing at all, especially when dealing with the Unas. While I’m sure he expects you waiting with schedule and clipboard in hand, he is late.  If I were you I’d head back to my quarters, relax and let him deal with his own lateness,” she replied, smiling playfully, almost as if she was enjoying throwing a monkey wrench into his plans. Normally, Adrienne would be right there with her, right there to torment her best friend relentlessly, but this wasn’t like him, this was too much, he was never this late. Adrienne composed herself before answering.  

“Are you sure?” she implored, wondering how exactly Sam expected her to relax with Daniel having just vanished.  

“Yes, I’ll even make your excuses. Take the night off,”  Sam persuaded.  Realizing she wasn’t going to win here either, Adrienne stood from the chair, in silence for a second and then nodded, heading to her quarters.  Without so much as a hello to her fellow personnel, she made her way to the elevators, riding thanksfully alone, and tridging her way past even more people as she arrived at her door, entering her personal code. The green light flash, and she turned the knob to enter, tossing the clipboard and schedule onto the desk carelessly. Knowing sleep would never be an option, not this early, not this worked up, she walked over to the bathroom, drawing a hot bubble bath and grabbing a cheesy vampire novel.  She slipped out of her uniform and into the hot soapy water and a world full of hot vampires and a sleazy waitress.  As her eyes scanned the page, her fantasy world of Bon Temp taking over her thought, she laughed silently to herself remembering the first time that Daniel had asked what she was reading and how   she had explained both the show and the novels. He had laughed at her for days, in fact, he still laughed at her about it. Jerk, she thought and that feeling in the pit of her stomach returned. Unable to even let Eric sweep her away, Adrienne reached for her cell phone off of the toilet.  9 p.m., 2100 hours.  He was now four hours late.  Trying to focus on Sam’s reassuring words, telling herself he just got caught up with Chaka, she let herself sink further into the water and into the story. 

Adrienne washed once the bath was cold and toweled off, throwing on some yoga pants and a t-shirt.  She checked the clock, obsessively at this point, to find it was 2215.   Trying to distract herself, she decided to find something to do, threw on some socks and trudged over to grab her computer from her desk. There wasn’t going be any sleep until she knew he was back, that was a given, so Adrienne tossed her computer over to the bed and got in, cueing up Netflix to find a movie to settle on something she always got outvoted on on movie night. In an effort to completely absorb herself in the film, she put on some noise canceling headphones and waited for the bloodshed to begin.  

Just as the zombie was being ripped to pieces by a screaming woman and some guy with an axe she felt a strong grip on her left shoulder. Instinctively, she screamed out and swung her left arm behind herself, feeling the back of her hand hit something hard, like person hard. Leaping from the bed, she turned to get into a defensive stance, her hands brought into fists in front of her face. 

“What the hell Adrienne!?!?” Daniel shouted out, grabbing his stomach. It took him speaking for her to notice that it was Daniel and not some zombie-like creature after her and upon doing so, she relaxed back onto the bed. 

“Christ, Indy, you scared the hell of me! Where have you been!?!”  Adrienne shouted out both angry and relieved.  

“If you didn’t watch that zombie crap maybe you wouldn’t be startled so easily.  There was a problem with the DHD and I had to dial Langara to get home. You gave me that idea. Jonas kept me for dinner.  It’s no big deal,” Daniel answered, in that snotty tone he used to take with her, angering her and hurting her feelings.  

“No BIG DEAL?!?! Do you know that I waited down there for almost THREE hours?!?!”  Adrienne lowered her voice a bit but still tried to convey her anger, just not the hurt.  He couldn’t know that just yet. Daniel looked down at the floor and pushed he glasses up his nose, crossing and uncrossing his arms like he did when he was on the spot.  

“Yeah, Sam told me, in no uncertain terms.  That’s why I came down here, I wanted to apologize and to see if we are ready for Rodney at 9 and the DOD at 5?” he said, making the apology quickly and then changing the subject in true Daniel fashion.  

She looked at her computer to see it was 2300 hours, glaring back at him as she shook her head. 

“Are you kidding me? It is 11:00 o’clock at night, you have been MISSING for SIX hours and you come down here to get me to WORK?! Have you completely lost your mind?!?”  she demanded, her worry turning back to anger.  Did he not care at all about how she felt? How worried she was? He looked down at the floor again and crossed his arms.  

“Ok, bad idea,” he muttered. Unsure as to what else he could say, Daniel stood in silence, shoving his hands into his pockets, waiting for her to respond but Adrienne was too angry to give him the satisfaction. Finally, he caved. 

“Well, I did get you something form P3X-888,” he said, looking up sheepishly.  She paused, wondering what in the world he could have possibly brought her from that planet, but it was a nice gesture.  Closing the lid to the computer, she scooted over on the bed to let him sit down and he came and sat down at the foot of the bed, reaching into his vest pocket and pulling out a small leather bag.

“Here,” he said as he handed it over to her, “I saw this in one of the market places that Unas have set up around the mining settlement.  Chaka said it was a good choice.” 

Adrienne crossed her legs yoga style on the bed and opened the small bag peering at the contents. Inside was a small, woven, hemp-like cord with a charm on the end, which she quickly shook out into the palm of her hand. She put the charm up to her bedside lamp and saw that it was a small piece of wood with a carving of a tree on it and smiled, reminded of a very prevalent symbol with which she was very familiar.  

“You don’t like it?” he asked, showing the first real concern he had shown all night. 

“No, I love it, it’s actually quite beautiful. It just reminds me of something, that’s all,” she answered quietly, knowing exactly what it reminded her of and being silently shocked that he didn’t recognize it.  

“Ok, now you have to tell me, because apparently I’ve completely missed something,”   he asked, starting to smile a bit himself as if he was in on the joke.  

“Look, you have to come over here to the light. You can barely see it, but, well just come and look,”  Adrienne explained and motioned for him to scoot over.  He started to move up, but was restricted by the heavy gear vest.  Pausing for a moment he unhooked it and tossed it to the floor, moving closer beside her once the obstruction was gone. His face furrowed into a confused frown, his thinking frown, he brought his face close to hers as they both examined the small trinket under the tiny beside lamp.  It took only a moment for him to realize his error and he could actually feel the redness growing in his face.  

“Oh wow....” was all he said. In her hands she held an Unas trinket, carefully carved with the same symbol tattooed on her hip, the Hebrew symbol for soulmate.  

“I’m guessing that wasn’t intentional,” she ventured, sitting back from the light to fold her hands in her lap.  

“Um, well, uh, I guess I see why Chaka was so pleased I selected it,” he fumbled as he sat back from the light as well, not moving away from her but breaking their earlier closeness. The symbol of a tree, two intertwined trees was almost universally recognized as the symbol for soulmate, and he, the supposed expert on all things symbolic had completely missed it. 

“Really? I bet that was an interesting conversation,”  Adrienne teased. 

“Yeah, I told him I needed to get my assistant a gift and I told him about you.  Then, well, he was very pleased with my choice,”  Daniel replied, pulling his glasses off and rubbing his eyes with his fingers.  

“I take it you mentioned I was a woman,”  Adrienne guessed, knowing the Unas and the importance of their mating rituals. 

“I guess, I thought he knew that already, but I just told him a little about you and well, you don’t have to keep it, I just was thinking about you and wanted to get you something,” Daniel said, starting to move away.  Adrienne paused for a moment, realizing how much of a jerk she was sounding like and reached over to put her hand on his knee.  

“No, I’m sorry, I really do like it. It was really sweet of you,” she assured him. Glancing down at the present, Adrienne found the primitive clasp holding it, but the small claw-like attachment was kinda chunky and stubborn and she struggled to get it undone.

“Here,” he said, “let me.” Reaching over to her lap, he took the necklace from her fingers, easily unhooking the impossible catch. He leaned over to her and she bent her neck forward so he could hook it behind her head, lifting her head so he could see the result.  

“It looks nice on you,” he said quietly.  Adrienne got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom wanting to see for herself, her heart racing since not only had he given her a gift, but the image on it and his reaction to the beautiful carving as it lay against her throat.  Clicking on the light, she peered into the mirror, examining the piece under the florescent light. The intricate carvings of flowing branches and tiny leaves on the charm were so beautiful and it seemed like coal or something had been rubbed into the carving itself to make the black lines shine brilliantly. Chaka was right; it was a good choice.  She turned to shut out the light and was again startled by Daniel standing right beside me, waiting at the doorframe. 

“See,” he joked, “it’s all those zombies. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I wanted to see your honest reaction.  Do you really like it?” Adrienne started to laugh, guessing that she was pretty jumpy tonight, but it wasn’t the zombies, it was the fear of losing him, that their final goodbye in the gateroom had been a joke about the Unas being kin to various creatures in Jabba’s palace. That it hadn’t been I love you, which she wanted more than anything to say to him right now. 

“Yes, actually, I really do love it.  Thank you,” she whispered looking up into his eyes. His gorgeous eyes, eyes that made her want to melt onto the floor, eyes that made her want to lead him to her bed and undress him slowly. 

“Does it make up for the asinine assumption that you would work on anything at 11 p.m.?”  he stretched. 

“Yes” she smiled again, she couldn’t say no to him, not before and especially not now.  

“How about disappearing for six hours and not calling?” he shrugged.  He really did seem upset that he had worried her so, so much, in fact, Adrienne’s heart began to race and she wanted to tell him right there, yes, I was worried sick because I love you you moron, now sweep me into your arms and make me forget you were gone.

“Fine,” she answered, rolling her eyes.

“You were really worried?”  he asked, doubt in his voice.  Looking down at the floor and Adrienne pushed past him and back into the room but heard him chasing behind her. He grabbed her arm to stop her, making her freeze in place, her heart racing. 

“Yes, yes I was worried.  VERY worried.  Going through the gate with the team is one thing, going through alone is another. And then, you were late, unusually late. Yeah, I was worried,” she spat out, trying not to cry and pulled her wrist from his grasp.  

“The Unas are my friends, everything was fine.  Honestly, I would have sent some kind of message back if I was able to dial out, but I was just concerned about getting home as fast as possible without offending any of our allies,”  he explained and shoved his hands in his pockets once more.  Adrienne sighed.

 “I understand,” she said and she did, she would have done the same in his face, but that didn’t stop her worry and she was sure her face conveyed otherwise.  

“It’s nice to know someone actually cares if I make it home,”  he said softly. 

“Daniel, a LOT of people care if you make it back home,” she replied curtly, blowing off his comment to return and sit on the bed.  She pulled off her socks, fully expecting him to go and for her to be able to finally get some sleep, to be able to wake up and deal with Rodney bright and early in the morning.  However, instead of leaving, he came and sat right back on the bed, beside her, so close they were touching. 

“What?” she asked, trying to figure out what he was doing.  

“I AM sorry.  I tried to get back as quickly as I could,”  he apologized again, looking distressed. 

“I would hope so, the DOD is not just something you can brush off.” Adrienne answered honestly, her heart racing and hoping she was correctly reading what he was implying.  

“No, it’s not just that,” he replied, even quieter and looked down at his lap, fiddling with his hands, “it was unusual being there alone.” 

“I told you to take the team,” she replied, not wanting to give herself away any further, but her heart, her mind, her body, ready to explode, wanting him to say what she wanted to hear so badly. 

“Not the team,” Daniel paused and he looked up at her, raising his eyebrows, “I missed you.”  Adrienne looked up to meet his eyes, her stomach queasy and her heart pounding.  She was at a loss for words.

“I did miss you,” he said again.  

“Good, I’d hate to be alone in that,”  she answered and set her hand on his thigh. 

“You mean a lot to me; more than you should.” he said to her softly, bringing his hand to her face. 

“I know how you feel,”  she whispered and touched the hand on her face closing the gap between them, closing her eyes as well until she felt lips, soft, full lips on her own, kissing her gently before opening his mouth to part hers with his tongue. He was so tender and careful, and tasted of something spicy, something he must have eaten on the Unas homeworld. He pulled away, resting his forehead against hers, pecking her lightly before speaking. 

“I love you Adrienne,” he confessed, his eyes full of fear, fear that she wanted to take away. 

“Daniel, I love you too, so very much,” she replied, leaning forward, embracing him, their cheeks touching gently as she felt a tear escape from her eye in elation, that he did love her, that maybe he had known subconsciously when he bought her gift exactly what he was doing. Backing away, Daniel reached to wipe the moisture from her face, running his thumb across her cheekbone before bringing his lips to hers a second time, kissing her with abandon. 

“I love you, it feels so good to say that, I love you,” he muttered frantically, kissing her like a madman, repeating it over and over as he kissed her lips, her cheeks and her jawline. She giggled, his late day lack of a shave tickling her cheek as he moved, making her turn his head to bring their lips together once more. 

“Make love to me Daniel,” she requested quietly and shifting her weight, Adrienne reached out for his shoulders as he began to comply, kissing her deeply. Leaning back onto the bed, she pulled him on top of her and he took her cue, running his hands down her arms as he began to kiss down her neck and across her collarbone. She arched her back, wanting him, desiring him, and felt that his hands had moved further downward, to the waist band of her yoga pants, slipping inside.....

*FLASH*  

Adrienne awoke to a bright light and a face full of computer keys. As she lifted her head, she felt a sharp pain in her neck forcing her to turn her head left and right to try to work out the pain when another bright flashing light shone in her face.  

“HA!,” Daniel laughed from behind the camera, “Miss Perfect has fallen asleep at her desk. And looks like she slept all night,” he was peering right in her face, laughing hysterically, “Ad, you actually have the enter key imprinted onto you cheek,” he reached out to run his finger across her check as she smacked it away scowling at him.

“I now have undeniable evidence that you are fallible as well!” he declared, satisfied, before marching back over to his desk. 

Reality setting in, Adrienne sat up quickly and reached for her neck to discover that there was nothing there. No, it couldn’t have been just a dream, why was it a dream, she had just been there with him, in her bed, about to make love to him. Could she have forgotten? How could she have forgotten that, in fact, she could still feel his lips pressed to her own. She sighed, making one more hopeful attempt. 

“How are the Unas?” she asked.  

“That’s an odd question coming from you, don’t they ‘freak you out,” he said, “We’re not scheduled for another visit for two months.  Why do you ask?” 

“No reason,” she replied disappointed.  

“Ok....” he was sensing there was something else and decided not to push the issue.

“How’d you sleep? I just love the feeling of cold keyboard on my face in the morning,” he joked, looking up from his computer screen with a sly smile on his face. 

“Actually, I had a really wonderful dream.....”  she answered and stood, excusing herself from the lab to walk down to her quarters, hoping he didn’t see the tears forming in her eyes.