Daniel & Adrienne #33 - A Trial Run

“Girl, why so glum? It’s a solo mission! I’d think you would be prancing around and rubbing it in Jackson’s face that they have finally started to replace him with a younger and more attractive model.”  Cam goaded her as they walked down the gate platform.  

“Come on Cam,” Adrienne argued, “You’ve seen Star Trek right?  This isn’t about me being the better choice.  I’m the Red Shirt Archaeologist.”  Laughing loudly at the reference, Cam pulled out his locater, running calculations to see how far ahead they needed to go.  

“Well, if we have to spend the day taking photos I would rather be here with you having fun than with him and his incoherent, trailing babble,”  Cam replied, teasing over his shoulder from the base of the ramp. Thinking to herself that her comrade here did have a point, Daniel did have a tendency to go into his own language which sometimes didn’t even make sense to her. She walked on behind him smiling, following the signal of the MALP. Fortunately, the ruins were only a slight distance away, ruins that she and Cam had been sent to explore, alone. Daniel had decided that this planet needed to be visited, at least by one small advance team, since the MALP images of the ruins seemed so similar to the time machine on P4X-639, just minus the crazy mad scientist trying to alter time.  Since the last machine had been destroyed, Daniel had been waiting for an opportunity like this.  Even though it wasn’t deemed high priority by the SGC, Sam owed Daniel for sending him on one of Rodney’s insane missions; one which resulted in the entire team plus the guys from Atlantis being zapping into his assistant’s fantasy land.  Letting him send Adrienne with back-up to take some photos really wasn’t asking much. If the images Adrienne brought back were what he was hoping they were, Daniel was planning to take the entire team there for a mission to study the machine closer. He was hoping that was the case, as it would finally give him a chance go over the things that they missed last time while Jack and Teal’c were stuck in a time loop.  Regardless, Adrienne was the lucky photographer. 

 Well, at least it was warm here, she thought, happily wiping the sweat from her brow, gazing into the jungle that lie ahead. 

The ruins were only a quarter mile from the gate, a distance easily covered, so much so the two runners jogged the entire way. They arrived in minutes, Adrienne firing up her camera and iPad, while Cam surveyed the area for visitors in the dense rainforest surrounding them. Adrienne couldn’t help but notice the stark difference in setting for this machine, were it indeed a time machine, in that P4X-639 was more desert in appearance. Making a note onto her iPad, Adrienne walked ahead to the large reddish stone table situated quite oddly in a clearing of large palm trees. 

Adrienne knew, Sam had told her on many occasions that she had been hired as Dr. Jackson’s assistant partially because her knowledge on computers and programming in addition to her expertise in ancient cultures. Once of the first things both Daniel and Sam had asked her to work on was an application which allowed her to scan an object and decipher it into a basic ancient translation so that they could survey areas more quickly before mounting an expedition.  It had saved them countless hours and made her more invaluable since Daniel had no idea how to use it.  She intended to keep it that way; the economy was too bad for her to invent herself out of a job and it gave her the added bonus of him needing her, and, well, now more than ever she liked him needing her around. 

Running the iPad carefully over the first column, Adrienne quickly discovered the basic story of this planet at least. There had been no apocalypse here, but it did seem that the previous inhabitants were aware of the last planet’s fate which she found to be quite interesting.  She made a note on the touch screen to mark that for Daniel, he liked when they found connections like that and it gave them an excuse to work on fun things and spend less time worrying about what Anubis might be up to. 

“Hey Cam!” she shouted over to where her comrade was standing beside a tree, peering into the more dense part of the forest. 

“Yeah,” he answered, not looking at her, his voice echoing against the wetness of the ground and vegetation. 

“Once I finish these scans I need you to come see if we can unhook this thing and find the power source,” Adrienne requested, her dark brown eyes moving on to a second column surrounding the table, lifting the scanner to read once more. 

“Sure thing. If he likes this, he really wants to bring the damn thing back?” the uncertainty in his voice clear and Adrienne started laughing thinking the same thing. 

“Yep, and if he thinks for a moment I am going to volunteer for that one then I think it’s safe to say that the man has lost his mind,” Adrienne joked, knowing that of course Daniel would want her there, he was practically attached to her hip. Because he was in love with her, and he had told her. Granted, he didn’t think she was awake at the time, but nevertheless she knew and she had finally decided that maybe it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. After all, she had kind of fallen in love with him too. 

“Whatever, enjoy your little toy over there, I’m gonna take a look around,” Cam announced, heading into the edge of the woods. 

“Don’t get eaten by a tiger babe!” Adrienne yelled after him. 

“Can’t, then who would you have to carry you off into the sunset?” Cam joked back. Flirt, she thought. She knew he was just kidding, they had been nothing but friends from the start but the very suggestion made her nervous. Daniel, she added silently, that’s who’d carry me off if I could have my wish. Taking a deep breath to refocus, Adrienne reached upward on the second column, continuing her scan. 

“Not a damn soul,”  Cam announced as he came back. 

“Which is just odd,” Adrienne answered, “I mean, there is no indication of any kind of disaster here.  The planet’s 100% habitable and the MALP registered life signs, so you should have at least seen a rat. There’s got to be something we’re missing.”  

“Maybe darlin’,” Cam said as he came and sat on a half of a column, the third column in fact, broken in two and lying on its side, “they just decided it was too hot for them.”  

“Midwestern baby,” she teased, “It feels great here.”  It was her common response, often joking with her teammates that they wouldn’t last five minutes in the Bayou. In fact, she had to buy a completely new wardrobe when she had moved to D.C. over a year ago because to her, fifty degrees might as well be ten below.  Whenever she could she kept the heat in the lab at seventy five degrees, much to Daniel’s disliking, but he didn’t change it back anymore, giving her yet another reason, a reason that this might work. Sure, he seemed to be willing to die for her, but he was good at that, the whole dying thing, but sitting in a hot lab for her comfort? That was love. Adrienne was just about to move on to another column, the third and remove Cam from his seat, when they heard a loud rustling behind them. Leaping up, the colonel turned quickly, pointing his P90 into the jungle, but as quickly as it began, the sound stopped.  

“You forgot about the monkeys,” Adrienne pointed out, remembering the life signs on  MALP videos were monkeys, small primates that had been crawling all over the machine. Daniel thought it was disgusting, but Adrienne thought they were kind of cute.   

“I hate monkeys,” Cam answered, putting his gun down, at his feet, “They’re like little furry smelly toddlers.”  

Adrienne laughed again, and moved onto the next column, kneeling onto the ground to try to hold the iPad sideways and take the scan. She had just about gotten the right angle on the tablet when a loud crash echoed in the forest behind them.  

“I think I’m gonna go check that out,”  Cam said, gun pointed once more into the brush as he approached slowly. 

“I think you’re paranoid. It’s an old jungle shug, probably just a dead tree,” Adrienne assured him, more concerned with exactly how she was going to scan this mess of a third column, growing more annoyed by this errand by the minute.  

“Girl, I have three years on you doing this, three. I think I’ve earned the right to be paranoid,” he defended and made his way over to the woods, slowly and stealthy like the well trained soldier he was. Adrienne just shrugged and continued her scans, laying down on the ground determined to let the machine do the work for her and not have to do this one by hand. Minutes passed and although she had plenty to scan, Adrienne grew secretly worried about how long Cameron was taking investigating one dead fallen  tree.  Suddenly she heard running in the woods and looked up expecting Cameron to come dashing out in an attempt to scare her, which she was not about to let happen. Tossing the iPad to the ground, Adrienne jumped to her feet, taking a deep fighting stance, planning to throw him over her shoulder, and teach him a lesson about messing with her.  The sound came closer, faster and the trees right in front of her shuffled, stopping abruptly before she could make out his face. 

“Bring it on Mitchell, I’ll take your ass down,”  Adrienne challenged, fists up and ready to fly. As soon as she spoke there was that shaking, the small cluster of trees positioned directly in front of her shaking violent, coming once again to a sudden halt. He was trying to scare her, she knew it, and she was going to make him feel it either now or later, depending on his next move.  

“Babe, you’re not going to trick me that easily.  Daniel tries to fake me out every time we train and I can still kick his ass. You boys are just gonna have to accept that Vala and I can tear you both apart,”  Adrienne shouted into the jungle, but now there was no sound, no motion.  He would have laughed by now, she knew him better. 

“Cam?”  she asked, peering forward, worry creeping up into her stomach. Uninhabited, Daniel had assured her, he said it was uninhabited.  

The trees shook again, violently, and out from the jungle lumbered a very large ape-like creature, moving slowing, turning its head in curiosity. It looked at her, as if there was more going on upstairs than the kinds of apes she was used to, the animals menacing red eyes appearing to be riddled with thought and question.  She had no idea what this creature was standing in front of her but it was large and orange like an orangutan, with the physical build of a gorilla. Frowning at her, the beast glared at her, lifting a large limb and pointing in the direction of the Stargate. 

“Uh,” it spoke, if you could call it speaking and it didn’t take a degree in linguistics to figure out what the ape was trying to tell her.  

“We’re not here to hurt you,” she spoke in English, slowly, very deliberately, internally laughing to herself knowing the ape most likely did not understand her, not matter how slow she spoke, “We are explorers.”  

“Uh,” it said more insistently, again pointing at the gate.  Stomping its foot powerfully to the ground, Adrienne quickly realized that advanced martial arts training or not, this beast could snap her in half and would snap her in half, in a heartbeat. 

“Ok, go, yes, but I want my friend first. FRIEND,” she said as he tried to demonstrate on her body what Cam looked like and that he was dressed like her, a small part of her once again thinking how hopeless this communication was. But if Daniel had figured out the Unas, maybe she could reason with an ape. Maybe. 

“UH!” it stomped again.  Adrienne was terrified, but she refused to leave Cameron behind.  Slowly walking backwards towards her pack, which she had set beside the main control table, Adrienne didn’t break eye contact from her new friend as she grabbed the staff quickly, slipping it onto her shoulder. The creature grunted, stomping again and started to approach her, so Adrienne backed up slowly, reaching for her staff weapon. The creature must have seen her reach, and understood the implication of her movement because it shouted and charged for her. Adrienne grasped the staff, pointing it at the beast and fired, but that did not stop its charge she realized, as it plowed into her full force and slammed her body on the table, a loud crack emanating from her spine.  The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before her, and she laid there, watching the beast bring it’s hand to her throat as the world went black. 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

It took her a second, in her haze she saw a giant ape charging her, grabbing her throat, lifting her into the air... 

“Motherfucker!” she screamed and dropped the coffee mug into the floor shattering it into a million pieces and covering Daniel in hot caffeinated beverage.

“What the- Adrienne, have you lost your mind?!?!” Daniel shouted, staring at his BDU’s in disbelief.  

Adrienne shook her head, bringing herself back to reality and staring at Daniel, coffee dripping from his pants.   

“Where did you find me?” she asked, reaching for some tissues to clean him off.  

“Excuse me?” Daniel asking, looking completely confused, as he took the tissue, wiping the liquid from his pants. Adrienne turned back to him, sitting in her chair, equally as lost.  

“I mean, I guess I shot it before it, well, never mind, wait, why am I not in the infirmary? I know I felt something...”  Adrienne trailing, the memory of the snap in her back, the pain, chilling her body. Ignoring the coffee Daniel noticed had also spilled all over her shirt and pants, Adrienne leapt up from her seat and started to feel around her midsection and back, a look of sheer horror in her face. 

“Ad, what are you talking about?” Daniel asked, leaning to her face and grabbing her chin, pulling her face to meet his gaze, trying to get her to focus as she babbled to herself, searching for wounds.  

“The ape. It attacked me, it threw me onto the table, my back, I felt, Indy, I felt and Cam he was...  Oh my God where is Cam!?” she exclaimed and turned to leave the lab running down the hall, coffee dripping from her pants onto the floor. 

“Cam?! Cameron?! Colonel Mitchell?!” she screamed, running full force to the infirmary.  Daniel took off after her, trying to catch up to his obviously panicked assistant, worried at her strange behavior. 

“Ad, slow down, Cam’s not in the infirmary, I’m assuming he’s still at breakfast, where we just came from,” Daniel shouted from behind.  

“Wait,” Adrienne stopped in her tracks, “Breakfast? How long have we been back?” she asked, turning to face him, cutting her eyes and furrowing her brow.  

“Back from where?” Daniel stopped beside her, catching her as she staggered slightly, getting even more coffee dripped onto him.   

“P4X-697” she answered, her voice going up at the end as if she was questioning that herself.  Daniel made a face at her, cocking his head and trying to figure out what she was talking about.

“You haven’t left yet.  You leave tonight, they’re 12 hours ahead remember?”  Daniel corrected.  Confused, Adrienne fumbled in her pockets, looking for something, anything with the time.  

“Here, are you looking for this, you left it in the commissary,”  Daniel said, handing her her iPhone, which he had tucked into his pocket.  

“Thanks,” she said, remembering that she had done the same thing this morning after she had shown Vala how to play Angry Birds.  She had left her iPhone, gone ahead to the lab so she could stop by the snack machine to get some mints before getting to work and had Daniel prance into the lab shaking it in front of her face demanding a reward, which he had taken in the form of chocolate covered coffee beans. Taking it from his hand without so much as a thank you she glanced at the screen and her jaw dropped, eyes widening in shock. 

“What’s going on Ad?”  Daniel asked, leaning over to see what she was looking at. 

“I need to talk to Teal’c, or Jack, now,”  she replied, turning around to head in the direction of the gym.  If this were this morning all over again, he was training SG-12, and if anyone could confirm what she was worried had happened, it would be him. 

“Well, he’s training SG-12 this morning in the gym and not in his quarters, wait, you’re heading to the gym, Ad, how did you know that? He told us after you left about the new recruits,”  Daniel starting stammering now, as he resumed his pursuit.

“I saw him when I went to run before supper.  He was still working with Lt. Garrison, the man cannot do a foot sweep to save his life,”  Adrienne answered plainly, still power walking to the gym.  Starting to catch on, Daniel stopped, grabbing her arm and pulling her to him.   

“Ad, have you lived this day before?” he inquired, finally putting the pieces together in his brain.  

“Point for Indy,” she answered smartly.

“Adrienne, I told you not to try and activate that machine!” Daniel raised his voice, regretting it instantly, not really meaning to yell at her, but only to express his concern.  There was no way that this was happening again and of all people, it had to happen to her. 

“I didn’t try and activate anything.  A very angry scary gorilla thing slammed me onto the table which apparently is how one turns the damn thing one,” she clarified frustrated.  

“A gorilla?” he asked.

“Yes, didn’t you hear me earlier?  Broken back, missing Cam?  Apparently the reason no people live there is because it’s inhabited by violent primates!”  she shouted back and Daniel let out a sigh.

“Right, ok, the gorilla, fine, let’s go,”  he picked up his pace and together they started running toward the gym.

“Christ girl,” Adrienne heard as she saw Cam turn the corner running in her direction, “I don’t know how you turned that thing on, but I was about yay close from getting my head bashed in by a purple monkey.”  Adrienne ran ahead of Daniel and threw her arms around Cameron, kissing his cheek.

“Thank god you’re ok.”  she said, relaxing her arms and stepping back, relieved. 

“Yeah, see, I wasn’t paranoid.”  he squeezed her arms, shaking his head as he looked at Daniel for support as he approached. Adrienne was a great team member, a great one, but sometimes Cam wondered how much of her actions were governed by things she had seen on TV.   

“No worries, I’’l never call you paranoid again,” Adrienne promised meekly. 

“You too?” Daniel asked, glancing back and forth between his two friends.

“Apparently, so I was coming to find you guys and see how in the hell we shut this thing off without getting my head bashed in by a rock,”  the colonel replied but Daniel threw up his hands, his own look of frustration spreading across his face. 

“Well, last time I “figured it out” it was with Teal’c’s help.  I think the best course of action is for you two go and explain it to him while I go try to find the file,”  Daniel suggested, not allowing for anymore conversation, dashing back to the lab, moving personnel out of his way by their shoulders as he raced on by. Adrienne didn’t need to be told twice, she’d read that file ages ago, bolting herself in the direction of their Jaffa comrade.  

“Why does Jackson look like he pissed himself, literally?”  Cam asked as soon as Daniel was out of earshot.  

“I spilt my coffee everywhere and used some choice words,” she replied, pointing to her  own uniform.  

“That’s my girl, not too professional to use a good expletive,”  Cam slapped her on the back, not slowing his advance or hers.

******

“SamanthaONeill,” Teal’c interjected, glumly, into the conversation that had been going on only about fifteen minutes before the Jaffa had to agree. He knew what was going on and this had happened before, “I believe that AdrienneRowan and ColonelMitchell are trapped in a repeating pattern just as O'Neill and I were.” Sam, on the other hand, didn’t seem so convinced.

“It appears that way Teal’c, but the last time the machine was activated in this fashion by a geomagnetic disturbance. Malaki was trying to go back in time before his wife died and the repeating day was just a side effect,” Sam countered, Daniel’s file in hand, studying the pieces of information that her husband was able to give her, including the scientific explanation in his own words: “Some rock magnet messed with the gate”

“Yes, and this occurred when the table was probably activated. What if the same problem caused by the electrical interference was duplicated when the primate forced AdrienneRowan onto the table,” Teal’c responded, “and how else would AdrienneRowan know the events of today before they happened?” 

“She’s all sorts of other fucked up now, why not add psychic?” Vala offered, chuckling as she did. 

“ValaMalDoran, I believe the same thing would have happened had the animal thrown ColonelMitchell onto the mechanism,” the warrior corrected, Vala already shaking her head. 

“It was a joke Muscles, a joke, so if Addy’s turned the damn thing on how do we turn it off?” she asked, looking back to Sam for answers as the general carefully scanning the worn file folder in front of her, reading her now husband’s messy script.  

Daniel’s translations on the machine prior to the mission seem to be pretty dead on, but there is no way of checking to see whether or not the thing works now. Recommend that he continue to work on the translation just in case we meet with any other wackadoodle again. 

Wackadoodle? She shook her head, unsure as to how Hammond let the man write missions reports.

“Honestly Sam, didn’t Jack say something about you trying to stop the incoming wormhole, interrupting the magnetic charge? He said that didn’t work. Maybe the key to the repeat is on the machine itself. After all, it was morning then too. I remember Jack saying something about wanting to stuff a waffle in my face,” Daniel stated, reaching his hand out carefully to silently request the folder from Sam. Nodding she passed it over and he opened it quickly, scanning his decade old notes. 

“I’m sensing a pattern here,” Vala spoke up, “this machine seems to like Daniel shoving something into his mouth.” Frowning, Daniel, looked up from the file, shooting a glare over at Vala, who seemed quite amused by the statement, as did his assistant. 

“She’s got a point Indy,” Adrienne added, holding back laughter, “ you always do seem to be eating or drinking something.”  Clearing his throat, Daniel directed his eyes to his hands, hoping she would follow, where he was tapping his legal pad lightly with his middle finger, a snicker on his face. Figuring out what he was saying, Adrienne’s eyes widened. 

“Oh shug, what have I done to you,” she whispered playfully, knowing she shouldn’t be joking at a time like this, hastily averting her gaze back at the general. 

“So, like last time, we’ve determined that this is only going back a few hours,” Sam started, Cam lifting his hand. 

“Eight, eight hours and twelve minutes,” he clarified, finger in the air, “trust me, I know the exact second that Donkey Kong tried to bust me open like a coconut.” 

“Eight hours, not even a half of day. That doesn’t give us a lot of time, Daniel, do you think you can shut it off?” Sam asked, watching as Daniel continued to pour over the folder. 

“Maybe, I think there’s a good chance, given what information I have, I mean, the machine didn’t work right in the first place if you will remember, the people were still wiped out, so maybe looping is all they can do. Maybe this is the machine they based their design on?” he stated, shutting the folder and passing it back to Sam, who was shaking her head, pushing it away. 

“We don’t have a lot of time people. Daniel, I need you and Adrienne to learn everything in that folder and Cam, you and Teal’c be prepared to defend against any possible hostiles. This is not going to happen again, not when we have other threats to deal with,
Sam said as she stood, the frustration in her face evident to them all. Definitely not the time to harass Daniel about crude gestures, Adrienne thought, waiting for him to stand before she did herself, following him quickly back to their workspace. 

******

It was about 3 hours away from when Adrienne had/would accidentally activate the machine, as they were stepping up to the platform, but she still felt the need to warn them all of what she knew was coming.   

“Be on the lookout. The one that got me was big and orange with red eyes and the one that got Cam was more violet in color.  The big orange one came right out of the forest and they’re strong.  Cam’s P90 didn’t stop them and neither did my staff weapon,”  she cautioned, although she wasn’t entirely sure about the last statement, seeing as how she was slammed into the table before she could see if the powerful beam of light from her favorite defensive tool worked our not.  Better to be safe than sorry though, she thought. 

Nodding, Vala held up the gun in her hand, “You don’t need to tell me twice,  I borrowed this from Roan just in case,” she declared proudly, shaking Ronan’s pulse pistol.  Adrienne tried to smile, hoping that might work, and followed her friends through the gate. 

The walk to the ruins was quick and lacking in conversation, Daniel powering ahead reading as he walked while Adrienne kept her hands on the iPad, tapping away at the images, enhancing, refocusing, looking for the connections that Daniel had pointed out in the lab. Although they were safely flanked by their three heavily armed teammates, she couldn’t help but feel nervous, every sound around her reminding her of the footsteps of the giant ape.  As the group approached the ruins, the jungle surrounding it beginning to thin, Adrienne froze and Cam slowed his pace.  Swallowing, she instinctively put her hand to her back, imaginary pain rocketing down her spinal column. 

“It’s ok,” Daniel said as he came behind her, wrapping his arm tenderly around her shoulder, “we’re all here this time and Vala is itching to shoot something.”  Adrienne nodded her head, appreciating the sentiment and reaching over to squeeze his hand. Giving her a quick clasp in return, he pulled away, walking straight to the table, ignoring the columns he had been so adamant that she photograph earlier. He stood there for a while, his head moving left and right as he scanned the table before starting to read over some things from the file.

“It’s a little different,” he explained over his shoulder, “but this should work.  Watch out everyone, it generates some pretty powerful electrical waves.”  He started to tap on the machine, Cam backing up the group at Daniel’s instructions.  Sighing, Adrienne felt useless, Daniel had insisted that she translate but stay back, reiterating his position with a look in his eyes that she now understood. Not wanting to worry him or force him to say anything that he wasn’t ready to say, not that she really was either, Adrienne stood back standing and waiting with the rest.  Time passed and Adrienne looked down at her iPad, her nerves overtaking her good sense. It was 7:45 p.m. Earth time. In about 15 minutes King Kong was going to break her spine in half.   

“Uh, Indy?” she called out to him. 

“Yeah, almost done,”  he responded, reading her mind. 

“15 minutes left before reset,”  she informed him, her heart racing, his eyes darting around looking for a large orange visitor.  With a nod, Daniel hit the last button and turned back around to the group.  

“Done,” he said, satisfied, a comforting smile across his face. No one in the group needed to be told twice as Adrienne and Cam directed them back to the gate, Adrienne lagging back to try to convince Daniel that they needed to forget this place ever existed. 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

Eyes wide, she promptly handed it back and left the lab, walking brisky towrd the gym.

“Ad?”  Daniel questioned as he followed her into the hallway. 

“CAM!!!” Adrienne shouted down the hall, ignoring Daniel and there was Cameron sprinting down the hall in her direction. 

“Now how many times have you told me, oh ‘Daniel is the smartest man I’ve ever known’! Then why the hell is it breakfast again?” Cam exclaimed, Adrienne stopping dead in her tracks, shoving her hands on her hips.  

“Seriously, did you expect it to work on the first try? When are we ever that lucky?” she retorted, having hoped herself that Daniel would have fixed everything but trying not to show her disappointment. Annoyed, Cam rolled his eyes. 

“Well, I’ll remember this the next time you’re drooling all over his brilliance.” Cam responded as Daniel caught up to them, looking back and forth between them. 

“Excuse me?” he asked, catching the tail end of the conversation.  Adrienne drools over my brillance, he thought, flattered and began to smile. 

“Shut up,” they said to him simultaneously before he could add anything further, Adrienne feeling bad the moment the word crossed her lips. 

“Look, you take Mr. Wonderful here to go get that file again and I’ll get T and Sam. Meet you in the lab in 20,” Cam ordered, going into leader mode, turning to go back in the direction of the gym.  

“Ad, are you going to let me know exactly what’s going on?” Daniel asked, giving her the look. It had been a while since she got ‘the look’, so long in fact she almost laughed; it was quite literally the opposite of him sort of giving her the finger this morning, yesterday morning, whatever. 

“Yeah,” she grabbed his arm and pulling him back to the lab, “I’ll explain shug, but we’ve some digging to do.”  

30 minutes later, everyone was situated in Daniel’s lab, listening to Adrienne and Cameron recount what had happened.  When they finished, Sam simply looked over at Daniel. 

“Well?” she asked.

“Well,” he answered, “without knowing the exact sequence it’ll be hard to reconfigure since our first try apparently didn’t work.  And, there is no Malikai this time to help us figure it out.” 

“We could go back and have Muscles slam Addy on the table at the same angle and see where she lands,” Vala offered. 

“Seriously Vala?” Adrienne said, shooting her a dirty look.  Vala just shrugged.

“I meant gently,”  she smiled. 

“No,” Daniel answered, “that really wouldn’t work either. The odds of her landing in the same spot twice are astronomical.” 

“Thanks Indy,” Adrienne said rolling her eyes and resting her head onto her hands.   

“Ad, I’m not suggesting that anyone slam you onto a table, even if I thought it would work.  What I am saying is that chances of figuring out what you hit are pretty slim.  We need to figure out another way,” Daniel replied, hoping that Adrienne understood that he would never let anything happen to her, that he would never let anyone or anything hurt her if he could; he’d made her that promise, even if she hadn’t been awake to hear it. Understanding that this time Daniel didn’t have a solution, everyone was silent for a while, trying think of a better solution.  Finally, it was Cameron spoke. 

“It’s a machine, right?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s a time machine. Similar to a fancy clock so to speak,” Daniel answered and Cam nodded, waving his hands for Daniel to hurry up and finish his response. 

“Let’s take it apart,” he suggested.  

“What?” Daniel looked at him incredulously, “take it apart?” 

“Yeah, you think the Air Force lets any idiot be a test pilot,” Cam looked over at Sam and smiled hoping she was following him and was pleased to discover that she was.

“Colonel Mitchell here has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering,” she smiled, informing the team of what at least one, if not two of them, didn’t know.  

“So, see,” he looked over at Adrienne, “I’m not just the dumb jock!”  

“I never said that you were,” Adrienne started but Daniel cut her off.  

“Look, engineering degree or no, you can’t just take it apart.  That thing is powered by naquada in a way we don’t know and if you take it apart - “ this time Sam cut him off.  

“Then you will never get to study it, got it. But Daniel, I can’t let this happen all over again either.  Last time we all lost three months....”  Sam insisted, trailing her words and 

Adrienne saw the two of them look at each other and then over at Teal’c.  Adrienne knew Daniel would give in to that argument, after all, of the entire team he was the one that had aged the least. Between losing time, and two ascensions among other things, he had lost years off of his life.  It might make him look physically younger and be biologically younger than the rest, but mentally it had taken his toll as there were parts of him and of his life that were essentially missing.  He never really talked about it openly, but every now and then, when it was just he and Adrienne he would make a comment or refer to one of his demises. Silently agreeing, Daniel simply nodded his head, making Adrienne regret instantly that she had chosen to sit by Cam.  

“Then it’s agreed. Cam, Teal’c, Vala and SG-3 will go to the planet and start taking the machine apart.  You all will need to send me images since I can’t leave the base, not now, not with everything else going on. Daniel, Adrienne, you two will go through whatever we have left of the translations from the first table.  Maybe there is something we have all overlooked and if you find anything report to me immediately. People, we have just 8 hours before we have to go through this all again. Let’s move,”  Sam laid out the plan, her speech sounding vaguely familiar to Adrienne. On the clock, the team members stood, quickly moving onto their tasks. 

Seven hours later, Adrienne slammed her head onto the table.  

“What?” she heard him ask from across the room. Frustrated and mentally exhausted, Adrienne lifted her head turning it in his direction, closing the folder and setting it back on the stack.  They had gone through everything, the original file from P4X-639, files of other planets with similar machines, files of planets that had ape-like creatures, everything.  

“Nothing.” she answered, “Quite literally NOTHING!! I feel so helpless!!” 

“I know, I know.  I’m turning up blank here myself,”  Daniel responded from his desk, removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.  His head ached and he couldn’t think straight any longer, and he knew they were running out of time.

“I hope Cam can pull this off,” Adrienne said, hopefully. Daniel returned his glasses to his face and nodded his head.  

“He did graduate pretty high in his class; he’s a smart guy,” he responded, Adrienne giggling lightly at his defense of his friend. 

“I never said he wasn’t,”  she retorted. 

“You just said I was smarter,” Daniel teased, remembering he never got to pick on her about that earlier.  

“Shut up,” Adrienne answered, balling up a nearby piece of paper and throwing it at him.  

“Did you mean it?” Daniel asked now, his tone less playful, his beautiful eyes sincere. He seemed to be searching, not for a compliment per se, but for assurance that she thought so highly of him. Why not? she thought to herself, why not be truthful? After all, if things did blow up in her face she would have only have to sit here for an hour before everything would just revert to this morning once again. 

“Yeah, I meant it,” she replied, redness forming in her cheeks. Daniel smiled, the same flush seemingly forming in his own and he nodded, quickly cutting his gaze to his computer. Do it Addy, just say it. 

“In fact, I think you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” she admitted softly, her heart racing in her chest. She started at him, awaiting his response, but he was just frozen, facing the computer not moving.

“Me too,” he answered quietly, not looking up from the screen. She wanted to tease him, ask him if by that he meant that he thought he was the most amazing person in the world as well, but she just couldn’t, as she watching him sitting there, so uncomfortable, gazing out into nothing. It made her feel horrible, if she was afraid of not being the person that he needed, afraid that because of her past she could never be fully committed to a relationship, physically at least, he was afraid of something more. She was about to suggest they go check in with Sam, take their mind off of this awkward conversation, when the incoming traveler siren went off and an announcement came over the loud speaker.  

“Incoming travelers. SG-1. Requesting Medical Back-up.”  

Without further discussion, Daniel and Adrienne ran to the gate room.  They heard the sound of the fabric of space time being torn in two as they ducked around the corner, a wave of water like energy blasting a column into the concrete room, slamming back quickly into the confines of the gate. There was a pause for a brief moment before Cam came tearing through, holding his arm in pain, SG-3 following close behind.   

“Where are Teal’c and Vala?” Daniel asked. 

“Coming,” Cam panted out, “We were ambushed by that damn orange monkey that went after Addy. Vala’s in pretty bad shape.” How bad is bad, Adrienne wondered, looking up toward the portal. 

Seconds later Teal’c came crashing through the gate, carrying a limp Vala in his arms.  There was blood everywhere and before Daniel and Adrienne could see if she was alright, Dr. Lam was running full force into the room with a stretcher and her team.  

“She doesn’t have a pulse,” Dr. Lam shouted as she jumped onto the stretcher Teal’c had laid her on beginning to do CPR.  No one tried to leave, everyone just stood in shocked  silence as Dr. Lam tried to bring Vala back, except for Adrienne, who could feel the tears starting to form as she watched one of her closest friends die right in front of her. 

“God dammit somebody bring me some paddles now!!!” Dr. Lam screamed, pumping frantically at her chest, and Adrienne heard the crack of a rib, turning away to bury her face into Daniel’s body, but not before her eyes caught Vala’s. They were distant, dead, gone and she thought her friend was opening her mouth to speak but when her lips parted all that came out was a rush of blood. 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

“Thank god for a reset,”  Adrienne sighed and handed Daniel the coffee back, reaching out and squeezing his arm for just a second and then letting go. Holding up her finger to indicate to him that she would be just one second, she stood and walked out of the door.  

“Cam!!” Adrienne shouted as she headed down the hall, but Cameron was already coming for her.  

“That damn orange monkey.  Do you now see why I hate monkeys?”  he shouted and Adrienne nodded quickly, seeing that by the look in Cam’s eyes Daniel had done just what she expected, followed.  Hoping to keep this brief and avoid the Daniel typical list of a bazillion question, she whipped around to face him as soon as she felt his presence at her shoulder. 

“Remember P4X-639.  Round two, Addy and Cam.  This is reset,” she looked at Cam to confirm, “three. You can’t decipher it, so Cam’s taking it apart.” 

“Taking it apart,” he asked, mouth gaping.  

“Already had this argument, you lose. Cam, did you get it apart?” Adrienne spat out and redirected her attention to Cameron who was nodding. 

“Barely, but I know how to get it apart now, so this time it’ll be faster.  But, I’m not liking Vala’s dying and everything to get this accomplished,” he noted.  Adrienne didn’t like that either, a wave of nausea hitting her at the memory. She didn’t want to go through that anymore than she wanted her friend to die. 

“Vala dying!?” Daniel asked, “What do you mean Vala dying? What are you talking about? Is Anubis on that planet? Are we going to be attacked?” 

“Shut up,” they both said to him again, Cam not wanting to explain and Adrienne unable.

“I’m going to get Sam and head back,”  Cam said, turning and heading to her office. Shaking her head, Adrienne gently grabbed his arm, pulling him back to her. 

“Let me come with you,” she insisted.  

“No, I can’t.  They forget and reset and I’m a combat veteran.  It’s too much for you Addy.  Trust me,”  he explained, care and concern in his voice, peeling her hand from his arm, squeezing her palm in his own and let go of her hand.  Adrienne nodded her head, understanding; he was right, despite everything she had seen in her time here, nothing could have prepared her for the mess that Teal’c had brought back in his arms. Alone, Cam ran to the elevators.  

“Can I talk now?” Daniel asked, startling Adrienne who for a moment had forgotten he was there.  

“Yeah, sorry Indy, we’re kinda on the clock,”  Adrienne apologized, shrugging.  

“I understand, what do we need to do?” he said sweetly, in that way he did when he was fully trusting in her.  One of the many ways he tore her up inside.  

“Nothing,” she responded, “We just have to wait.”  She turned and started walking for  the lab, racking her brain for anything else that they might have missed, that might need to be done when she paused, turning back to face him.  

“You ever seen ‘Lord of the Rings’?”  she asked, curious, an idea forming in her head.  

“No.....” he answered carefully. 

“Come on, that should take at least 8 hours,” Adrienne replied, smiling. She grabbed him by the arm and led him to her quarters.  

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

She put the coffee on the table and grabbed Daniel’s arm, starting to explain briefly, not letting go, relishing in the contact, part of her still trapped in the last cycle, the last wonderful cycle. Cameron was around the corner in moments.  

“How bad?” she asked, acknowledging him as soon as he entered the room. 

“I knew where the bastard was coming from this time. Set Ronan’s gun to kill and BOOM, down he goes,”  Cam answered. 

“And the table?” Adrienne continued, hoping her fearless leader had more luck than the last time and since she hadn’t heard another emergency siren calling Dr Lam’s squad down to revive anyone she at least knew that everyone was ok. Daniel had spent the past 8 hours trying to learn the Elven language, something Adrienne probably should have anticipated and didn’t, while Adrienne had spent them with her hand clamped over his mouth. At least until the end.. 

“Got it open fast, and inside.  But I’m gonna need Sam and Rodney both this time though, it’s got more bits than I expected. You have any success here?” Cam asked, hoping Adrienne had maybe discovered something in the massive array of folder’s and records in she and Daniel’s lab.

“I got Daniel to sit and watch the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy,”  she answered, instantly feeling awful at her complete inability to do anything to help.    

“You did?” Daniel asked, confused.  

“Yeah, and now we’re gonna watch Star Wars unless Cameron needs me,”  she said, despite how much she loved Star Wars, a huge part of her was hoping that Cam would need her.  She didn’t know if she could take Daniel trying to relate the saga to the fall of the Roman Empire and modern day politics.  She knew the references, but considering everything that was going on she really didn’t want to spend the time thinking, about the last reset.

“No, I think you’d better stick with your little movie plan.  Just cuz I got the orange fucker once doesn’t mean I’ll be successful twice,” Cam answered.  No help there, Adrienne nodded her head and reached up to hug him for luck and he backed away smiling.  

“Round two,” he said, trying to appear hopeful, taking off down the hallway.  

“I feel useless,” Daniel said.  

“Me too, that’s why I’ve been suggesting ridiculously long movie sagas; takes my mind off of it,”  she smiled, sympathizing. Granted, it gets me thinking about something else, but let’s just forget about that for now, after all, things did seem to go really well last reset, so well in fact that Adrienne was considering telling him everything.

“We already tried?”  he asked. 

“Yeah, but we can scrap this round and try again,” she suggested, another light going off in her head. If Daniel wanted to try again then Adrienne could spend the next eight hours in a lab and not in his arms, like she had on the last reset.

The last time, they had gone back to her quarters as suggested, Adrienne happily cueing up the film and climbing onto the bed with him when she got an insane idea.

“Scoot over,” Adrienne had ordered, pointing to the center of the bed. Turning his head, Daniel looked at her strangely over his glasses. 

“Then where are you going to sit?” he asked, however, rather than answering, Adrienne had just climbed onto the foot of the bed, grabbing his ankles and spreading his legs, crawling in between them.  At first he looked panicked at her, his eyes widening, the same terror she had seen in the lab creeping into his face. 

“Not Vala, ok, not Vala. I just wanna, I just, well, last reset was awful and I just wanted to..” Adrienne had stumbled over her words, feeling foolish, realizing that it was a terrible idea but Daniel had just smiled. 

“You can just say that you need me; we are friends,” he said sweetly, that twinkle in his eyes and that beam on his face. Returning the grin, Adrienne crawled forward and turned around, leaning back against his chest, relishing the feeling of being in his arms as they were wrapped so tightly around her. They had sat like that for most of the film, except when Adrienne had to shut him up as he argued with her possible origins of the Elvish language, cuddling, snuggling together on her bed . Time clicked by, faster than Adrienne had expected until her phone buzzed, a quick glance telling her that only 10 minutes remained. Reaching over to the nightstand, Adrienne shut the alarm off, pausing the movie. 

“Wait, do they die? Ad, why did you stop the movie?” Daniel sat forward, leaning around her shoulder. 

“It’s gonna reset, but now that I know you like it we can watch it again,” she offered, standing as though the reset was something she needed to prepare for. Daniel made a pouting face, again, playful, acting in a way she hadn’t seen him behave in a while, since she’d been pushing him away. This might work, she thought to herself, us, we might work. Peeking quickly at the clock she saw that eight minutes remained and in a burst of insanity rushed back into his arms, bringing her lips to his. 

“Ad, you in there? If there’s a chance someone comes back on this reset dead, I really don’t want to be here watching Darth Vader,”  he replied, adding quickly, “Don’t you agree?” 

“Yeah, that’s fair,” she answered, and made her way to the lab, heading straight for the file cabinets remembering exactly what to pull. Trying not to think of her last moments in that final reality, Daniel kissing her back, his fingers running through her hair....

Several hours later, Daniel looked up from the pages and pages of pictures and sighed.  

“Ad?” he called out, this time from the center table himself.  

“Yeah shug,” she answered, pinching the bridge of her nose, fighting off an intense migraine.

“90 minutes to reset.” he said.

“I know....” she sighed, adding a yawn to the mix.

“Do me a favor?” he requested. 

“What kinda of favor Indy?” she asked, but was fairly certain she knew what.  

“Remind me on the next round that this is pointless and that we just need to watch Star Wars,” he insisted, laying his head on the table, the ugh he uttered giving Adrienne the indication that he was feeling her pain.

“No problem,”  she smiled, “one good saga paralleling the ills of the Vietnam War with a sprinkling of the fall of the Roman empire it is.” Daniel laughed at her response.  

“You know Ad,” he started again, lifting his head from the table.  

“What shug?” she looked over at him wondering if she looked as tired as he did.  

“When this happened to Jack and Teal’c, I did remind them that as long as they knew everything would reset the very next day that they should have fun with it.  I mean, what else do you have to do?”  he ventured, smiling evilly. Turning her head curiously, Adrienne cut her eyes at him, wondering and let her thoughts wander for a second.  She would love to do a lot of crazy things, besides throwing herself into his arms again, things that were harmless and could never result in her heart breaking. There was a list of people on base that were so annoying and arrogant that she wanted to give them a piece of her mind, Woolsey and Satterfield at the top of that list. She had always wanted to fly a puddle jumper. There was that whole cornstarch guts experiment that she wanted to set up in Rodney’s lab, on a joking dare from Daniel. She could hijack the loudspeaker system and blast the entire base with 1990’s R&B. The possibilities were endless and Adrienne knew the look on her face was probably not the safest one to be giving her best friend. 

“Maybe I shouldn’t have pointed that out,”  he shook his head at her, “I probably don’t even want to know what you are thinking.” 

“Relax Indy,” she said, “despite your beliefs I’m actually pretty tame.” 

“Sure,” he teased, “it’s always the quiet ones. Don’t forget, I know you better than anyone.”  She smiled, because it was true, he did, and if he knew her so well then he should know what was on her mind. 

Leaning back in her desk chair, Adrienne wondered if Cam would actually figure it out on this round or if in just a short time she would be handing Daniel back his cup of coffee.  She tapped her pen on his desk, glancing over at Daniel, betting on the coffee. 

“How much time do we have?”  she asked and Daniel tapped the computer trackpad to cue up the clock.  

“An hour now,”  he answered.  Adrienne made a face. What crazy things could she accomplish in an hour? A sudden thought popped into her head and she stood from her desk, reaching for her phone. 

“Did you find something?” he asked, his mind still on the task at hand. 

“No, I didn’t,” she said as she walked over to him.  

“What’s wrong then?” he sat up in his chair peering over at her puzzled. Beaming, she leaned over into his face, looking him dead in the eye.  

“You think it’s gonna reset?” she asked. 

“At this point, yeah, we would have heard already if they figured out how to shut it off.” he answered. 

“Just checking,” she answered gleefully, pulling him to his feet. 

“Adrienne, what are you doing?” he asked, but stood, again trusting her.  She winked and held his shoulders in place before dashing over to the tall supply cabinets, popping her phone onto the speaker stand, and grabbing the remote from beside it before returning to her standing friend. 

“Then, for my first order of business, I’m gonna teach you how to dance,” she smiled and cued up the music. 

“Even though I won’t remember?” he asked, reached out his hands clumsily, switching them up and down repeating the motion a few confused times before Adrienne laughed grabbing them in her own. 

“At the very least, I’ll know if there is hope for the future,” she played, placing one of his hands on her hip and the other at her shoulder. 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

“Damn reset,” Adrienne said, the memories of trying to get Daniel to move his hips in a fashion that somewhat resembled dancing fresh in her head, a faded image of how much fun they were having, as if everything was ok, was normal, was perfect. It was like they were together.  Lifting her eyebrows, she smiled at him, standing and handed the coffee back to him, “You stay here, I’ll explain in a sec, just don’t go anywhere.”  

As Adrienne was walking out of the lab she heard Cameron running down the hallway.  

“Anything?” she asked. 

“Yeah, a lot. Believe it or not, for as obnoxious as Rodney is, he’s a pretty smart guy. How was Star Wars?”  he asked. 

“We didn’t watch it, Daniel wanted to try to help again” Adrienne answered. 

“And?” Cam implored. 

“Nada, big fat nada.  We’re back on Star Wars this round,” she said, remembering her promise to him the last reset.  

“Well, at least you tried.  But I think that it’s going to take a couple more sets to make this work, but it’s gonna work,”  he assured her, “Rodney has isolated the power source and it looks like it has gears similar to a clock, that is can be set back and then the power cut.”

“Take your time.”  she said, part of her still stuck in the last rotation. Part of her longing for more time with Daniel, time that could be erased if she slipped up and told him how she felt about him, time that could enjoy, living in the fantasy of being with the man of her dreams. 

“Ok....” Cam responded.

“No, I mean, do what you’ve got to do.  I’ll occupy myself,”  Adrienne tried to backpedal a bit, hoping Cam wasn’t getting the wrong idea, if anything, Adrienne just wanted Daniel to hold her, forever, and never let go. 

“Addy, what madness are you up to?” Cam asked her directly.  

“Nothing, just get to work Mitchell,” she said, heading back for the lab, playing it cool.  

“You care to explain?” Daniel asked as she rounded the corner. Tiring of having this conversation, the one thing about the repeats she was regretting, she gave him the 5 minute version.  

“Are you sure there is nothing we can do?” he asked the moment she finished her explanation, getting an eye roll is response.

“Positive. In fact, you told me to remind you that it was pointless to try and we should watch to Star Wars this round,” Adrienne insisted, although Daniel really couldn’t believe he had given up so easily. 

“Star Wars?” he inquired, suspicious. 

“Yeah, we did Lord of the Rings a few rounds ago.”  she replied. 

“ I see....”  he muttered.  

“You liked it,” she offered, “when you stopping talking and watched it.”

“So basically we just sit around and hope that Cameron and Rodney save the day?” he asked, once more for clarification.  

  

“Unfortunately. Wanna go watch?” she started to reach for his arm but he stopped her mid grab, looking deep into her in the eyes.   

“Ad, I really just can’t sit here and do nothing while they could be killed,”  he plead, the Daniel she knew, always worrying about others. Shaking her head, she walked up to him, resting a hand on each arm. 

“Listen, Daniel, I understand, I do.  This is my umpteenth rotation and I know that there’s nothing we can do. NOTHING. Except watch Star Wars and....”  she spoke too soon, he didn’t seem to be in as playful of a mood as he was earlier when he had mentioned the whole ‘do what you want’ scenario. 

“And what?” he asked. 

“Well.... remember what Jack and Teal’c did....” she lead and suddenly Daniel looked nervous.  Oh no, she thought, what is he thinking?

“Wait, what did we do?” he asked, fear creeping up into his voice.  

“It’s me shug, just me. We did crazy for us, I mean, last round I just taught you to dance, but I want to do something crazier,” she explained and his look of confusion changed to the look of curiosity from earlier.  

“Crazy how?” he inquired, peering at her over his glasses and she could see the smile inching across his lips, so she just grabbed his hand, pulling him to the door.

“Let’s go swipe a puddle jumper and find out,” she challenged, raising her eyebrows.  Daniel hesitated for only a second before squeezing her hand and letting go, heading behind her in the direction of the elevators. 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee. She took the coffee without a word.  

“Ad? Are you listening to me? Are you ok?” Daniel asked, waving his hand in her face, seeing that she had gone into the Addy-zone as he was now calling it.  

“Reset....” she trailed off and sat in her chair.  In her last memory of the set before she was leaping out of the puddle jumper, free-falling toward the Atlantic Ocean. It had been a rush like she had never felt before and time had slowed to a crawl just as she pulled the shoot.  She and Daniel had flown across the ocean, surprisingly fast, to the cliffs of England, somewhere she had never been before, and sat at the base of Stonehenge, leaning against the ancient rocks and talking. It would have been a dream first date, had it been a date. She had almost told him, at the cliffs, at Stonehenge, before she had leapt from the jumper, but she just couldn’t. 

“What’s a reset?” Daniel asked as he sat in front of her, breaking her trance.  Adrienne glanced up to explain just as Cameron came tearing into the room. 

“Just wanted to check in. I’ve just about got the thing switched off, but we’re gonna need Danny boy here in probably one more reset two at the latest,”  he ordered.  Adrienne gave him the thumbs up.  

“Gotcha,” she answered and Cameron turned to leave. 

“Cam?” Adrienne called back to him. 

“Yeah girl,” he stopped at the doorway. 

“Can you shut the door?”  she asked sheepishly. Giving her a funny look, Cam shut that lab door slowly.  

“What was that all about?” Daniel asked puzzled the moment the door clicked into place.Holding up her hands, Adrienne walked over to the center table, pulling up two chairs, pointing at them indicating that he sit.   

“Daniel, we need to talk...”

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

“Never thought I’d be so happy for a reset.” she shouted out loud and put the coffee on the table.  Her talk hadn’t gone so well. She started off awkwardly, skirting around the issue, which led to Daniel becoming frustrated and jumping to conclusions. He accused of her being afraid of nothing, thinking that she was trying to quit her job again, which lead to a huge fight about what she had no idea. She had stormed out of the lab heading to the gym to run, needing to burn off steam. Still shouting, as if the months of friendship had never had happened, Daniel followed, accusing her of having her priorities out of order and allowing things that she couldn’t control to dictate her life. She’d slapped him across the face, told him to go to hell and headed to the elevators, spending the rest of her day crying in her beetle in the parking lot of the SGC. It wasn’t exactly the I love you she had planned and she knew needed to try another approach. 

“Wha-” but before he could finish his sentence she had thrown her arms around his neck and was kissing him in the middle of the lab.  He didn’t pull away, just kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her back, sliding his hand up her neck, pulling her closer as he kissed her deeper.

“Alright girl, we need the language nerds now - what in the hell are you two doing?” Cam shouted out, “Is this how you have been passing your time?!?!” 

She pulled back from Daniel quickly, realizing what had happened, realizing that the door was open, adjusting her shirt as he pushed his glasses up his face.  Bad idea Ad, bad idea.  She hoped Cam wouldn't think the worst. 

“Passing time?” Daniel asked shoving his hands in his pockets, peering down at her nervously.   

“Um.... I’ll explain on the way...  Cam let’s go,” she answered quickly, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him out of the lab, leaving her confused friend and boss behind.  

Once on the planet, Cam and company had no problem dismantling the machine.  A surprisingly small door pried from the side of the machine, Cam crawled inside of it shouting out things to Sam and Rodney, angles, measurements, configurations of gears. They worked quickly and Adrienne was impressed how much Cam had remembered to direct him, it seemed based on his orders that he had completely memorized the entire internal mechanism of the machine. 

“Ok, Sam and I’ve figured out how to disconnect the main power source.  There seems to be a series of switches and we want to make sure we know what they say before we try this,” Cam said as he was crawling out.  Without question, taking that as his cue to work his translating magic, Daniel wriggled his way into the contraption, where Adrienne could here his muttering to himself inside, a series of words in ancient, pattern words that sounded like they reset the wheels to a default mode. 

“Ok, once you guys throw the switch, it should reset one more time.  We’ll all be back at 8:00 a.m. with Cam and Adrienne the only ones aware that they are going to repeat the day once more,” Daniel explained as he reappeared on the outside, climbing to his feet, and dusting off his pants.  Sam nodded her head, relief washing over her face.

“I need you both to come straight to my office as soon as this reset takes to be briefed and Cam you will need to make diagrams of this machine and what we did in case, god forbid, this ever happens again. I also want to send you back here with SG-3 to disconnect it from the power source, permanently, because this is not something we want Anubis to get a hold of,” she ordered.  She was right, they all knew, and as bad as Daniel wanted an opportunity to study the machine, they needed to make sure that technology this powerful didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Knowing now they had nothing to do but wait, Daniel walked over to Adrienne and Cam as Sam reentered the base of the machine, Rodney McKay in tow. 

“So about this passing of time?” he asked, smiling down at her. 

“Nothing, it was nothing,” she responded. 

“Does it have anything to do with this morning?”  he pushed, hoping her answer would be yes.  Then he would know for sure. Then, maybe he could tell her, talk to Sam, maybe he could try to make this work...

“No, that was, stupid, sorry. Impulsive.  We’ve been goofing off, like, well, like we haven’t in a while and I realized that I missed that. I missed you, we’ve been so busy, I’ve been distant since, and I just...”  Adrienne tried to answer, skirting the truth and Daniel smiled slightly.  

“Well, I know I won’t remember this, but I want you to know, me too. I’ve missed you too and if I have done anything wrong, anything to offend you and create this distance, I’m sorry. You mean a lot to me Ad, and I’m not quite sure how I managed so long without you,”  he admitted and reached over, squeezing her fingers gently.  She pulled back from him, just enough to slide her fingers through his and held his hand, in front of everyone, and no longer caring. 

Popping and whirring, the machine came to life, Sam and Rodney exiting its belly both giving the thumbs up. Cam glanced down at his watch, mouthing silently to himself, finally shouting out to the group, “Hang on everyone, we’re a go in three, two....” when Adrienne felt Daniel pulling her hand and she glanced over at him, a desperate look in his eyes. 

“Ad, it’s more than that, I have to tell you that I lo-” 

“Adrienne, it’s really important that you get images of all four columns, since it looks like they are drastically different from those on P4X-639,” Daniel instructed her as he handed her a cup of coffee.  

She looked up at him and smiled.  He had said it, or at least tried to say it, to her, not when she was asleep, in front of everyone. He knew she’d remember, he was too smart otherwise, and if he knew that she would remember, that could only mean one thing. That he wasn’t afraid, wasn’t concerned about the fact that he was her boss, the fact that he was older, the fact that while alike they were so different in so many way, the fact that she was tainted. So, if he wasn’t afraid, then why was she so afraid?

“Ad? Did you hear me?”  Daniel asked, waving his hand in her face, seeing she had gone into the Addy-zone, yet again, her default mode as of late. 

“Yeah, I did but I need to go talk to Sam, like now. We won’t be going on the mission today.” she told him as she took the coffee, grabbing some things from her desk. 

“Ok..... Adrienne, why are you acting so odd?” he asked. 

“I’ll explain later,” she said and walked over to him, leaning over to wrap her arms around his shoulders tightly, pulling him into a strong hug, kissing him softly on the cheek. 

“What was that for?” he stared at her quizzically as she pulled back, gazing up into his eyes.  She had been distant lately, even on their movie nights, and he had been wondering if he had done something to offend her, if he hadn’t been the friend she needed after she had opened up to him so much.

“Just because,”  she smiled, walking through the doorway, but when she got into the hallway, she paused turning back to face him. 

“Indy?” she asked, pulling up her courage from the bottom of her stomach.  

“Yeah?” he answered from his desk. 

“Since I know the mission is gonna be scrapped, I was planning on watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in my quarters, ice cream and wine, I’ll explain when I get back, I’ve had a stressful couple of days. You wanna come?”  she held her breath as soon as she asked, knowing he would say yes, but terrified at the prospect. 

“Sure, I’ve got some things around here to do but yeah. Can you believe I’ve never seen it before?” he said. Adrienne felt like her heart was going to leap from her chest, what would she do, what would she say? Would she be able to crawl into his arms again, let him hold her.  She took a quick breath, containing herself. 

“Yeah, I can.” she answered, laughing lightly, and headed for Sam’s office, hoping to get through her explanation quickly so she could enjoy her day with Daniel. Alone. And just maybe she would tell him, because this could work. He wanted this to work. She just hoped he would be patient and willing to give her the time she needed to be ready for him.