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I am a late comer on this ship, I know. I pretty much was turned onto Stargate when I was injured (for my own stupidity I assure you) and I took to the Netflix to find something to occupy myself. I discovered that one of my favorite movies of all time had been made into a TV show, so I started to watch. And fell in love. With Daniel Jackson. Madly. Not just Michael Shanks (although I am fairly certain that he is a Grecian God - oh dear lord....) but the character himself. Then came seasons 9 and 10 and I was just upset by the whole thing. I love Claudia Black and the scenes were fun, but really? Her? That is what they decided he would end up with? Ugh. I mean really, what would they talk about, ever? So, I made him someone. This is your warning. This is sorta a Mary Sue. Sorta because a Mary Sue is Ms. Perfect and while Adrienne seems perfect at first she is NOT. By a stretch. She needs someone like him as bad as he needed someone like her. This is their love story.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Daniel & Adrienne #43 - Bad Call


“I’m not responsible for the state that she’s in right now,” Vala defended as she stood at the open door of Daniel’s apartment seconds before the cajun woman staggered in behind her. Daniel was going to ask exactly what she was talking about when Adrienne stumbled right up to him pressing her lips to his own. 

“I want ya, righ naw, take off ya pants,” Adrienne begged, frantically reaching for the top of his jeans. It was so sudden, so unlike her, that he hesitated to shoo her away, only remembering her state and their visitor when he felt himself begin to throb in his pants. Reaching gently for her hands, Daniel moved from her urgent grasp, taking her carefully into his arms and away from her mission. 

“What did you do to her?” he asked, dumbfounded, having seen Adrienne a bit intoxicated before but never like this. Vala started to answer when he felt tugging at his pants a second time, the button undone before he could stop her, the zipper shortly after, reaching down quickly to cover himself before Vala could see, but she was already laughing shaking her head at his current predicament. 

“Addy tried to out drink me; that was her stupidity,” she stated leaning in the door jam watching one of her friends frantically try to undress the other. It was hysterical and she was half-tempted to take out her phone and start filming but, Daniel, on the other hand, didn’t seem as amused. 

“Ad, ja-wer, calm down, what’s wrong, stop, can we go get in the bed please, let Vala leave,” he tried to reason with her, having no intention whatsoever of being intimate with her in this state but trying to use her own plans to get her into the apartment and passed out as soon as possible. 

“No, I donna cah if she sees, it’s beautiful, yah blessed by da gods sha,” Adrienne insisted, pulling his jeans open again, so forcefully he had to literally smack her away as she grabbed, glancing up at Vala in a panic. 

“This isn’t alcohol Vala, this is insanity, can you help me?” Daniel tried a different approach, his lovely girlfriend strong, very strong and whatever she had been drinking was only making her stronger as he felt the fabric at his fly being ripped apart. Rolling her eyes, Vala walked over, grabbing Adrienne under her arms, pulling her back into her chest. 

“Get her feet,” she ordered, motioning for Daniel to lift Adrienne from the ground but he paused, one hand holding his pants up, the other reaching out to block a kick from Adrienne that hadn’t yet come his way. 

“Daniel, pick up your girlfriend’s feet. You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before and she’s too drunk to kick you, I made sure of that,” Vala repeated, using her head to point down at Adrienne’s feet, now devoid of the flats she had been wearing when she left his apartment earlier, the purple shoes in a path as though they had been fallen out off on her pursuit to his crotch. Frowning, he did as Vala asked, hoping his jeans stayed at his hips and reached to grab her calves, lifting her lower half into the air when he realized what Vala said. 

“Wait, what do you mean you made sure of that? I thought you said that she tried to outdrink you?” Daniel asked confused as he started to step backwards, leading them to his bedroom. 

“She did. Sorta. I just stopped. Same difference,” Vala replied, adjusting to pull Adrienne higher as she began to slip from her grasp. 

“Why? What in the hell happened?” Daniel continued, reaching the bedroom door and donkey kicking it open to continue their trek to the bed. 

“Oh yay, your bedroom, and here I am putting another woman into your bed. There is something very very wrong with this,” Vala joked, turning as she crossed the threshold to carry Adrienne to the correct side, how Daniel didn’t know, but just assumed it was because Vala knew about the door fear as well. 

“That’s not answering my question,” he replied, helping Vala lay his assistant on the bed, who apparently was not passed out like he had hoped. 

“Vala wud nah let me punch dat pue tan en da damn mouf,” Adrienne babbled, reaching again for Daniel’s groin as he tried to fight her off, his eyes pleading with Vala for help, Vala who was ignoring his dilemma completely. 

“Addy they’d have banned us from the bar for life and I happen to like that place,” Vala retorted, her face slightly angry, still to Daniel’s complete bewilderment. What was going on?

“Ad, why did you want to punch someone in the mouth?” he asked, holding her hands in his lap gently, bad idea Jackson, he thought, moving her hands to her side, holding them in place. 

“Because the asshole said that she’s sleeping her way into every perk your penis can offer, which I find interesting that it has perks at all,” Vala explained, smiling at her taunt at the end. Tempted to lash out at her for the comment, Daniel ignored her looking back to his girlfriend who had broken free from his grasp, her hands at his fly once again, tearing her way to said organ. 

“If dat wha evreebahdee dinks den I might as well get da most out ah it I can,” she argued, as Daniel shoved her away, looking up at Vala again. 

“Can you lock the door on your way out?” he asked. 

“Can you promise me that you are not actually going to bed her in that state?” Vala spat back. He should have been angry at the assumption, but instead was touched that Vala cared so much about Adrienne. 

“Of course I’m not,” Daniel started as Adrienne began to heave in his lap.

“I got da mal au couer,” she choked out, Daniel understanding just enough to know he needed to move, making it to the bathroom and dashing back with the trashcan, shoving it swiftly under the spew that emitted from her body. Holding Adrienne’s hair as she puked, Daniel glared back up at Vala. 

“Thank you for bringing her to me now good night Vala,” he said through gritted teeth. Grunting, Vala spun of her heels, storming out of the bedroom, a loud slam heard seconds later. Daniel let out a sigh, appreciating the gesture just not the method,  redirecting his attention to Adrienne once more, who was sitting up, wiping her face. 

“Canna get a towel?” she asked and Daniel nodded, leaping from the bed to race back to the bathroom, grabbing the one over the sink and rushing it back to her. Trying to smile, Adrienne wiped her face, tossing the towel onto the floor and curling over to her side.  

“Ad, let’s get you undressed,” Daniel said, turning her slightly, reaching for her jeans this time, undoing the button and zipper as she started to giggle. 

“Dat’s wha I be talkin’ about sha!” Adrienne declared as she sat up reaching for his own clothes, repeating her frantic performance at the door. Scowling, he pushed her back, holding her down with one hand, annoyance creeping across his face.

“Ad, Vala’s gone, stop with this act, just stop. You have not slept your way into anything, you know it, I know it, Sam knows it, everyone who matters knows it. Who cares what some peon says in a bar?” Daniel asked, warning with his head to stop, Adrienne evidently sober enough to understand, allowing him to pull the jeans from her hips and toss them over into his hamper. He stood, going to get her one of his t-shirts to sleep in, peering over his shoulder. 

“Do you want to talk about it? Do you want to tell me who said that to you?” he asked as Adrienne pulled her shirt over her head, tossing it to the floor, again not like her at all, and reached behind her back to unfasten the next article of clothing. He turned, not that he was embarrassed, he saw her like that now practically everyday, but she just seemed so out of sorts that he felt he owed her as much privacy as he could afford to give in her current condition. 

“Sum gah damn cadet ahn den wun ah his podnas say ‘Well she must nah be dat gud if he’s sent ‘er ‘oer ta McKay,” Adrienne continued from behind him, her voice cracking at the end. Sighing, this was going to be a long night, a long night where he would have to translate from cajun to English in between vomiting spells no less, Daniel opened the top drawer, securing a black t-shirt just as a bra landed on his head. 

“Gar I cahn trow tings a lah bedda wit a few en me!” she exclaimed from behind him, Daniel choosing not to turn around and have to fight her off again, which he knew would cause a massive argument, instead tossing the garment over his shoulder hoping it would land where it needed to land. There was a soft thunk of fabric hitting fabric and he gave her just a moment to pull the shirt over her head before turning around to face her. She was wiping her face, crawling under the covers, muttering to herself in that bayou slang she always swore she never slipped in to, so Daniel collected the trashcan and cleaned it out, bringing it out into the bedroom in case it was needed again. Curled up into a ball on her side, Adrienne lay in his bed, tears streaked across her face. 

“Evree wun dinks Imma slut,” she wept from her side, one extreme emotion now replaced by another. Shaking his head and shucking his own jeans to the floor, Daniel crawled in behind her, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly. 

“I’m so sorry, ja-wer, you know you’re not. It’s not like that, we’re not like that and if we could never make love again I wouldn’t care as long as I had you,” he whispered softly, meaning every word. It was how she made him feel inside that was what mattered, she was more than his lover, she was still his closet friend, his greatest ally and he could never imagine a life without her. 

“Ah luv ya Dahn-yell,” Adrienne whispered, letting herself fall back into his grasp, the effects of the evening finally at their last. 

“I love you too Adrienne,” he replied, deciding to just lay there and hold her even though he wasn’t tired. 

*****

It was the smell of coffee that awoke Adrienne, not because she had any particular craving, but because the smell was sickening, making her race to an upright position and scan the room frantically for the trashcan. Choking down the small amount of food she had eaten last night, coupled with the massive amount of tequila, Adrienne almost lost it right there in bed when she saw the small blue plastic container sitting at the corner of the footboard. She crawled quickly to the corner, reaching it just in time, erupting in an explosion of illness and tears. She cried more than she threw up, it hurt so bad, memories of the night before coming back:  the other personnel asking she and Vala to join them for dinner, the crude jokes, the innuendo and then the remark. Fortunately Vala had her back, quickly subduing Adrienne’s violent response and promptly telling the entire group off, using more foul words in that two minute lecture than had been used their entire meal, so foul that the manager had come and asked them to leave. Rather than take Adrienne home, as she was begging her friend to do, Vala took her to a seedy cantina, filling her with chips, salsa and cheap tequila, most of which she was staring at right now, and then brought her here for her to make a damn fool of herself in front of Daniel. Damn Vala.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her sweetly from the doorway, keeping his distance knowing that this morning she would be both sick and embarrassed. He wanted to give her space to recover. Nodding, she reached for the towel he had carefully laid on the bed, wiping her face before laying on her stomach. 

“Like a bonne a rienne,” she responded from the comforter, still not making eye contact. Laughing at the double meaning of the phrase, both that she was disgusting and a slut, Daniel walked over to the edge of the bed, sitting down and resting his hand cautiously onto her back. 

“Well you look like courtbullion,” he replied, smiling, hoping she would catch on. 

“That’s fish stew sha,” she muttered from her position. 

“I get credit for trying to learn your language don’t I?” he teased, rubbing lightly where his hand was resting. Giggling, Adrienne rolled over, grabbing his hand and holding it to her heart before bringing it to her lips kissing his fingers. 

“Sorry about my performance last night,” she apologized quietly, her face flushing again as Daniel wondered how much she remembered about said performance. 

“No apology necessary, that’s what I’m here for, to cry to and to forcibly undress,” he joked, getting another laugh in return and another kiss on his fingers. 

“Sorry about that too,” she answered as he shook his head. 

“Actually, that might be fun to play out just sans tequila,” he joked, looking over his shoulder at the clock as her cheeks flushed at his suggestion, “it’s almost ten, I told Sam you were dealing with some allergies and I didn’t want you driving in with medicine head, but we’d still better get going if you’re up to it,” he explained, standing from the bed. 

“Thanks, and I am, but can I get a shower?” she asked, standing behind him, feeling as though the leftover drink was seeping from her pores. 

“Yeah, but you’re lucky you decided to do this the night before my service,” he chided, knowing that were Adrienne reporting to Rodney today that it would be a different story, that Daniel would have to be making a far better excuse.  After the scene he apparently missed last night, one in which Adrienne had almost gotten into a bar brawl, he didn’t want to land back in Woolsey’s office, or worse Jack’s. 

When Jack returned from Atlantis, the call came, as Daniel had expected, first thing in the morning.  The general asked to speak to him and him alone, so Daniel left Adrienne a list of tasks not knowing where the meeting would take them or how long.

Nervous as if this was a first date, Daniel had knocked carefully at Jack’s door, standing outside waiting to be called in like a low level grunt, not at all like someone who with whom he had worked for years. 

“I know it’s you Daniel, just open the damn door!” Jack shouted from the other side but after all of these years of working together the archaeologist could never be sure as to what his tones really meant. Right now it sounded annoyed, but with Jack it could also be normal so taking a breath, Daniel turned the knob, stepping into the office thanking every god he had knowledge of that Jack and Jack alone was sitting there.  

“Take a seat,” the general ordered, deadly serious, a look on his face that Daniel wasn’t sure that he had ever seen before. Chewing his bottom lip nervously, Daniel pushed his glasses up his face, shoving his hands in his pockets before taking a seat, as requested, in the chair across from his friend, not saying a word, just waiting for the hell that was about to be unleashed. 

“So, you’re screwing your assistant,” Jack started in, glaring straight at him. 

“I’m dating my assistant,” Daniel corrected his voice even. Expecting that very correction, Jack leaned back into his chair, opening the top drawer to remove a plastic case from the desk, throwing it at Daniel. 

“This, my friend, is screwing. At work. On camera,” Jack explained as Daniel caught the case clumsily in his hands. Not bothering to open the box, Daniel knew what was inside, he held it up, shaking it at Jack.

“This, Jack, was a mistake, it happened once, it won’t happen again,” Daniel insisted, setting the DVD back onto the desk. There was no point in asking for it in order to destroy it, if Robert Woolsey had found it, which based on the circumstances Daniel was certain that he did, there were at least five copies of he and Adrienne’s indiscretion so removing one from the equation really wasn’t going to make much difference. Nodding slowly, Jack leaned forward on the desk, his expression changing. 

“It’s gonna take me some time to get things back to normal,” Jack continued, Daniel understanding without further explanation. 

“We know and we’re willing to do what we need to do until things can return to normal,” he answered, hoping Jack could see the sincerity in his eyes as his own deep brown looked different now, hurt even. What could Jack be upset about now?

“How long?” Jack asked, the question surprising Daniel who had expected to get yelled at, get screamed at but that was not what was happening right now. 

“Since when?” Daniel asked in clarification, not sure what exactly Jack wanted to know. 

“Since you started seeing her?” Jack replied, Daniel noting the words, no more “screwing” or anything related; he actually seems to want to know, in a caring way. 

“About four months, give or take,” Daniel answered after a pause, having to count. Wow, he thought, four months doesn’t seem that long at all, especially given that he was already planning on forever and reading his face, or at least that was what it felt like, Jack smiled. The man did know him too well. 

“I’d figured longer; you’ve had the look for longer,” the general answered, getting a shrug in reply so he continued, “Off the record, I think she’s perfect for you. You deserve this, you deserve to be happy with someone that seems to make you as happy as Adrienne does.” The shrug became a smile, Daniel bringing his gaze back up to Jack. 

“More than you can know; it’s like a dream, and I’m just afraid I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be gone,” the younger man answered honestly, fear apparent in his blue eyes. 

“It always feels like that, doesn’t get any better. I mean, have you looked at Sam? I’ve watched myself become a grouchy old man and she’s just perfect. Who’s to say one day she’s gonna decide she could do better, because she could, easily. But you can’t dwell on that, you’ve just gotta... listen to me. Sitting here, lecturing you like you’re some teenaged kid with no clue,” Jack stopped his speech, noting he was rambling, not unlike Daniel, who was sitting across from him, a slight grin still on his face. 

“No, I kind of don’t have a clue, this isn’t some fling from grad school or, well, anything else that I have experience with. There are some days that I really have no idea what I’m doing,” Daniel admitted and Jack nodded, noting the look in his friend’s eyes. He loved that woman, the crazy woman he could not believed his wife had hired, that punk rock younger alternate reality version of Daniel and his friend was right, he really didn’t seem to have any idea as to what he was doing. 

“Daniel, the door’s always open, figuratively speaking, not that I’m an expert but I do know what not to do. And I’ll see what I can do with Woolsey, smooth things over a bit,” he offered, returning the smile. 

“Thanks,” Daniel replied, standing, glancing over at his friend once more, before opening the door. 

“Daniel?” he heard called behind him and turned back around confused to see Jack grinning like a fool as he slipped the DVD back into his desk. 

“Told you so,” Jack winked, slamming the drawer shut. Daniel decided not to acknowledge that he had been right. 

“Do you care if I just wear yoga pants today sha, there aren’t any BDU’s in the drawer,” Adrienne asked from the floor, Daniel snapping back to reality realizing that she had finished showering and was trying to get dressed. It did make it that much easier, Jack seemed supportive, maybe everything would work itself out he thought as he watched her move around his apartment like it was her space as well.

“Sure, that’s fine, works with the allergy story,” he responded, pointing back behind him, “I’ll get you some coffee.” She smiled, standing with pants in hand and walked back over to the bed. 

“Thanks Indy,” she answered, blushing, still obviously embarrassed about everything, tossing her clothes on the bed. Daniel left her alone, letting her sort it all out in her head on her own, returning to the kitchen to make breakfast. 

*****

“Archaeology,” Adrienne answered, rather chipper she thought to herself for someone suffering from an allergy attack, remembering to tone it down for their next caller. 

“It’s me. How are you feeling?” Vala asked on the other line, a relief to Adrienne that she didn’t need to keep up her act as she could barely keep up her breakfast. 

“Like merde, hot merde spread on a cracker, but I’ll live,” the cajun said, glancing over to Daniel to give the thumbs up that it was alright. Nodding, he looked back down at the screen, continuing his task. 

“Well, I’d love to say that I’m just calling to chat and make fun of Glasses, but Sam wants everyone down here in about an hour to discuss our next meeting of the girls club. Everyone. Including Rat Face,” she explained, Adrienne cringing. As if Robert Woolsey didn’t seem to have it out for her in the first place, now that he’d caught them with their pants down, literally, he seemed to be an ever existing presence in their lives. 

“Ok, so what time do you need us down there?” Adrienne asked, reaching into her desk to grab her nerf gun to bring Daniel out of his trance since it seemed they were going to have to leave anyway. 

“I don’t know, I wasn’t told to call and tell you anything, I just wanted to warn you. Eavesdropping. I’m good at that,” she answered and hung up, leaving Adrienne staring at the receiver in confusion. Grunting, she placed the phone into it’s cradle and looked over at Daniel, firing off a round to the side of his head. 

“What now?” he called out, evidently not as enthralled as she had thought as he collected the dart tossing it back over to her casually.  

“That was Vala. Big meeting, Woolsey. IOA. Bullshit. She wanted to warn us in advance,” Adrienne responded, catching the neon projectile and tucking both it and her gun back into the desk. 

“Why do I get the feeling we’re going to start owing her big time?” Daniel joked from his desk. 

“Because she’s in the business of saving our asses lately,” Adrienne replied, getting back to her own section of the database before the real summoning was to occur. 

Which it did twenty minutes later. 

“Archaeology,” Adrienne answered again, this time making sure to sound slightly hoarse. 

“Hey Addy, it’s Sam. I hope you’re feeling better,” the general said, genuine concern in her voice. Clearing her throat before she continued, Adrienne snapped her fingers at Daniel this time, forgoing the gun, trying to get his attention. 

“Yea, a little better, thanks for asking. Must just have been something I got into,” Adrienne lied feeling bad for doing so because she was certain that Sam would not care if she was hungover or not, in fact she knew the general would be concerned; Daniel was just worried about Woolsey and she wanted to ease his fears. 

“We’ve finally gotten the results in from your intelligence mission. Meeting in 30 in the briefing room and I need both you and Daniel present,” Sam ordered politely. 

“Yes ma’am,” Adrienne replied, hanging up the phone for the second time to look over at Daniel, “30 minutes sha.” 

“Joy,” he replied, shaking his head at the screen.

*****

“Dr. Rowan, if you please,” Rodney began, having sent Adrienne a frantic message not five minutes after Sam called requesting a powerpoint presentation on the results of his findings thus far. They made no sense to Adrienne since he had her working on translating more silly machines that did silly things while he had analyzed all of the interesting stuff from her first intelligence mission with Vala, but she had prepared them nonetheless.

Without answering, Adrienne cued up the very basic show she had been able to throw together in less than twenty minutes, preparing to do her techy magic for boss number two as she peered around the room noting the personnel present. Seated around the table were Robert Woolsey, Sam, Cameron, John, Vala, Teyla and Daniel right beside her, as usual, work separation or not. Noticing how mixed the group really was that sat in front of her, Adrienne wondered where Teal’c was, or Ronon for that matter, the additions to the original mission curious. 

“As you all were aware from our last encounter with Anubis we were able to glean a few pieces of information such as coordinates and this weapon, a type of pulse pistol, that seems to be a hybrid of Go’ould and Ori technology,” he began, indicating a picture of the pistol on the screen. Glancing up Daniel noted that it did look like a Zat, stuck into the upright position, the naquada portion of the weapon replaced with something that looked more like a clip. 

“Our intelligence experts have concluded that these guns are being manufactured by traders in the black markets that are unofficially run by the Lucan alliance. Other than the fact that this is a hybrid weapon and further proof that the Anibus, or Inpu as the intelligence agents are calling him, there has been nothing else we have been able to glean from this bit of information,” Rodney continued, Adrienne trying not to roll her eyes. Then why am I showing it, she wanted to say, but watched his fingers as he guided her to continue with the presentation keeping her mouth shut. 

“However, and what has taken most of our analysis is the DNA collected from Vala’s clothing,” he added, walking over to point to a series of grids that Adrienne couldn’t read, more like didn’t care to read, but had just arranged them like Rodney had shouted over the phone. 

“What in the hell did you get off of my clothing other than guts?” Vala asked, pride in her face for blasting the man through, creating the very guts in question. Not acknowledging Vala, Rodney looked directly at Sam and Woolsey as he answered.  

“The man that Vala shot was not an Ori solider, he wasn’t a turned Jaffa, he wasn’t even totally human. He was a clone,” Rodney stated, crossing his arms with pride nodding for Adrienne to advance the presentation and the next slide, and a section of a human body that Adrienne hadn’t paid much attention to before flashed onto the screen and certain parts highlighted, naming sections of the brain. 

“Since when did you become a biologist?” John asked from the table, skeptical that someone with a degree in astrophysics suddenly had an interest in biological matters. 

“Since we can’t seem to find competent help in the field and Carson gets to spend his free time dealing on training accidents with new cadets,” Rodney shot back, returning his gaze to his superiors, giving Woolsey in particular a glare Adrienne was delighted that someone had the guts to give. 

“As I was saying,” he readdressed the persons he deemed in charge, “there are areas of the brain in which a significant amount of decay is being shown as you can see here,” he said as he pointed, Daniel and Sam leaning forward with some sort of understanding, “it seems that in order to have the heightened growth and senses that we can see here,” Rodney pointed to yet another part of the brain that Adrienne did not know, “he is sacrificing life span. Dr. Rowan, next slide please,” Rodney asked, surprising Adrienne with his manners. She advanced the slide, hearing the clearing of a throat in the back of the room. 

“Dr. McKay, why does any of this matter? If he is using an army of clones that are not going to live very long, isn’t that to our advantage?” Woolsey questioned, once again missing the entire point, the point that even Adrienne, who was terrible at science had gathered from the presentation so far. 

“Mr. Woolsey, Carson and I have been working on segments of the Asgard database provided by Dr. Rowan and Dr. Jackson, segments concerning Asgard cloning,” Rodney began to explain, angry to be questioned, walking over and ripping the iPad from Adrienne’s grasp, so much for polite, advancing to the final slide, showing two charts, one obviously showing greater growth in the numbers than the other. 

“This Mr. Woolsey is the rate of cloning in the Asgard. They were forced to grow bodies for years in order to provide each new consciousness with a properly functioning vessel, but a limited vessel which forced later generations to decrease in mental abilities,” he continued, stating something Adrienne had never heard before, in fact, she’d always thought what she read of Thor that he seemed very intelligent. 

“Anubis has figured out a way to solve the Asgard problem even though he has no way to implement it. We do,” Rodney ended, shoving the iPad back at Adrienne, who took it, breathing in deeply as she felt Daniel’s gentle hand clasp her leg. 

“Rodney,” Sam began, shaking her head as she spoke, “why do we care about cloning? I’m not about to let my base turn into a factory for producing people,” she argued, Rodney rolling her eyes. 

“Samantha I am not talking about people, yet,” he threw in quickly, “I am talking about plants, livestock, things we can trade to some of the lesser and hungry civilizations for naquada, gold, silver, trinium...” 

“I think that’s all we need to know general, when can we leave?” Woolsey interrupted, glancing over at Sam, his expression clear, because with the IOA, it was greed, not love, that conquered all. 

******

“Sha, did we have any plans for next weekend?” Adrienne asked from her desk as Daniel was digging through the file cabinet, trying to pull any information he could on other civilizations they had encountered that cloned, all of which he remembered had the practice blow up in their faces. Shrugging he turned around to her, shaking his head. 

“Not that I made, why?” he asked, wondering how, after that briefing, the room oozing with tension as Woolsey had stood, taking over the entire meeting to order Sam into a mission she clearly did not want to embark upon, Adrienne could be thinking about weekend plans. 

“Did you hear what was happening when we left? Sam’s concerned about saving the planet and Woolsey’s just seeing dollar signs. I want to take her out to dinner. A NICE dinner, me, not you, because you just left her in there with those bibittes,” Adrienne explained, cueing up her laptop. 

“Bibettes?” Daniel asked confused, cutting his eyes at his girlfriend. 

“Dickheads Indy, you left her with those dickheads,” Adrienne clarified and he shook his head at her, walking back over to his desk. 

“Then why don’t you just say that?” he teased, trying not to laugh. 

“Say what?” she asked innocently, but he caught her intent, grinning over at her. 

“Nice try ja-wer,” he replied, opening the folder and scanning its contents in contrast to his screen. Giggling, Adrienne sat down, getting back to work until she was told otherwise, letting him do the worrying for the both of them. I miss being in here with him so much, she thought, typing away at the next section. 

****

“Addy, pack up, you leave at 1900 hours,” Sam ordered as she came around the corner, her tone one of exasperation and her expression as Adrienne looked up no better. Pulling headphones from his head, light orchestral music seeping out of them, Daniel peered over at Sam before glancing down at his watch. 

“That’s only two hours Sam, I’m no where near a stopping point, and Rodney really needs to take a look at some of these back files before he starts worrying about cloning here,” he argued, pointing back at his screen, waving his hands around his desk. 

“You’re not going Daniel, it’s just Adrienne on this one,” Sam explained, her expression even worse. 

“What do you mean I’m not going? This is Anubis, not just a scouting mission, and I think as many people who have experience with him should be aboard,” Daniel arguing, standing, disregarding what he had been working on in an instant for Adrienne’s safety and the sheer illogical nature of the mission. 

“Mr. Woolsey doesn’t feel the same. He feels that we need to maintain the cover from before, the best we can, and it is going to be Addy, Cam, John and Rodney,” she replied, peeking back over her shoulder suspiciously before looking back at them. Confused, Daniel was about to ask why in the world that particular combination was being chosen, especially given that Ronon would be a better sell as a pirate when Sam rushed over in his direction. 

“Daniel I need you to get on that ship,” Sam hissed, under her breath, to her confused friend, who was shrugging as he walked to approach her. 

“If you need me on that ship why am I not on it? And what about Teyla and Vala? The original mission was the three women, with Vala in charge, why John and Cam, why not Dex?” he retorted, stepping forward to offer Sam a seat at the center table, but she refused, shaking her hand in front of her. 

“Mr. Woolsey and a few of the powers that be insisted that since Vala used her name and Teyla was captured for a few hours, the chances of Anubis’ men recognizing her are high, Adrienne is the only one that Anubis wouldn’t know,” Sam started, Daniel beginning to interrupt when Sam threw her finger up in front of her face.

“So, the plan from Vala, yes, I was able to get them to call her down there at least, was that Addy go back, as this Sorsha character and Cam is her new partner, John and Rodney crew. Go in, try to make the deal again, kidnap a solider and get the hell out of there,” Sam explained, crossing her arms, waiting for the question that was to come. 

“Then why not me? I was on the first mission as well,” Daniel asked, thinking that to swap Cam in now, in his place, made no sense, it made more sense that Adrienne would free her captive and declare mutiny, in fact, none of this made any sense at all. 

“Because Dr. Jackson the IOA does not feel that you and Dr. Rowan are able to handle this situation without prejudice and we feel a military presence is needed on this particular mission,” a voice said from the door, a voice both Adrienne and Daniel had hoped to avoid hearing for the rest of the day, Daniel especially, who glared at the man with a look sheer anger. 

“Because why? Because we’re together? You think that given a choice between Addy’s safety and stealing a human being for your personal gain Cameron wouldn’t choose Addy?” Daniel asked, refraining from adding, are you an idiot. 

“Colonel Mitchell would do what was necessary to ensure success on the mission as he has been ordered to do and I cannot be assured that you would do the same,” Woolsey retorted, standing away from Daniel, who Adrienne could tell was ready to explode, so she just stood there in silence, flattered that he was making such a fuss over her. 

“Cameron knows nothing about Anubis, none of them do, what happens if he tries something?” Daniel asked, keeping his cool, trying to throw a little reason into his argument instead of exploding about how he was using Cam’s loyalty to the United States military as an excuse to toss Adrienne to the wolves, or, in this case, the jackal. 

“Dr. Rowan is familiar enough with the files, she’s intelligent, she can manage,” Woolsey sneered, the compliment backhanded to say the least. Breathing in before he spoke, Daniel looked back at the bureaucrat once more, hoping to try one final time. 

“Mr. Woolsey, I am requesting permission to accompany the team on this mission as I have had the most dealings with Anubis and as the co-leader of SG-1 I feel it is imperative that I am part of any mission of which half of my team is a part of,” Daniel stated professionally. 

“Request denied Dr. Jackson, I’m not in the business of authorizing romantic getaways. Sleeping with a team member does not get you access to every mission she is on. You’ll just need to get it out of your system before she leaves, which doesn’t give the two of you that much time,” he spat, turning to leave the lab, Sam and Adrienne standing there in shock. 

“Get on that ship, I don’t care how and I didn’t tell you to,” Sam ordered Daniel the moment Woolsey was out of sight, her tone deadly serious. Not saying a word, he nodded, reaching behind himself for Adrienne’s hand. 

*****

Adrienne tossed and turned in the cot, wondering how in the hell pirates slept on this, thinking then to herself that must explain their rotten disposition. Rolling to her side, her back pointing at the door, making her nervous enough, Cam across the hall or not, Adrienne willed herself to slumber, knowing she had to play Sorsha tomorrow and play her well. She was just about asleep when she heard a click behind her, at the door, and her heart stopped, her mind raced and she reached under her pillow, sliding her k-bar from where she had stowed it hours before. Weapon in hand, she watched as the door opened slowly, a tall figure slipping into the tiny crack of light. 

“It’s me, put that damn knife down,” Daniel hissed, unable to see her in the darkness but knowing that without him she would have slept with a knife under her pillow, it was something she told him that she did away from home. Sighing, Adrienne did as requested, tossing the blade over to her backpack, no longer needing it, her apprehension of sleeping alone gone the moment he entered the room. 

“Took ya long enough sha, where were ya?” Adrienne asked, having not seen Daniel for at least twelve hours if not longer. Shortly after Sam had left the lab Daniel dashed off, leaving the disaster on his desk and lightly kissing her goodbye before racing down the hall, to where Adrienne had no idea. 

“Cam snuck me in a space walk suit, no one was the wiser,” Daniel explained, slipping off his boots as he approached the bed. Scooting over, Adrienne reached out, pleased that she wouldn’t have to sleep alone and he pulled off his pants, tossing his jacket aside, slipping right into the bed beside her. 

“We’re sad and pathetic and this is why Woolsey doesn’t want us on missions together,” Daniel teased, reaching his hand to her face and kissing her softly, feeling her melt into his arms, pulling him tighter into her own. 

“No, he’s just a nasty angry man that doesn’t want anyone to be happy,” Adrienne replied, burying herself into his chest. 

“I don’t like sleeping alone anymore,” she whispered into the darkness. 

“Me neither,” he responded, squeezing her tightly before letting himself fall asleep.

*****

“How in the hell did you get in here?” Rodney exclaimed as Daniel walked into the small eating area,  Adrienne trailing behind, exhausted and nervous. 

“Through the door,” Daniel answered smartly, avoiding eye contact and walking over to where Cam was preparing a sort of make shift breakfast of powdered eggs and coffee. Hoping to skirt the argument, Adrienne powered ahead to where her running buddy had a cup out in front of him, reading her mind. 

“I thought Mr. Woolsey was very clear that you were not to come along on missions with your girlfriend!!” Rodney spat and Daniel could read the suggestion in his voice. It wasn’t the fact that Daniel and Adrienne were together that was bothering him so, it was the fact that Rodney always felt threatening by Daniel and if Daniel was here, then he would have some stiff competition. 

“Rodney, I’m not getting into this with you. This isn’t about Adrienne, it’s about the fact that not one of you has had experience ealing with Anubis. Yes, I want to keep her safe, but I want to keep all of you from harm and if my knowledge can do that so be it. Unless of course you have a plan for if you come face to face with him in which case, I’m all ears,” Daniel retorted smugly, crossing his arms in front of him watching Rodney’s glare straight through him. 

“We’re not going to run into Anubis, Vala and I carefully planned every aspect of this mission. You want to come babysit Dr. Rowan, fine, but stay out of my way,” the scientists hissed back, turning to storm out of the room to where no one knew. The door closed with a loud smack, John rolling his eyes before peeking back at the group. 

“I’ll go deal with the big baby, Jackson glad to see you figured out a way on. Cam can brief you on the details; I’ll be back soon,” he explained, apology in his voice, trailing behind him comrade. Laughing, Cam reached out to give Daniel a cup of coffee as well, the three members of SG-1 sitting around the small cafeteria table with plates of what Adrienne believed had never seen eggs. 

“Suit not too bad?” Cam asked, shoving a forkful into his mouth as Daniel sipped his coffee, shaking his head. 

“Little hot, but I didn’t stay in there long. Thanks by the way,” Daniel added, his fork running slowly through the eggs, thinking to himself how much influence Adrienne really had on his eating since he was finding the presentation in front of him thoroughly disgusting. 

“Don’t mention it. Only Woolsey would be stupid enough to send us all the way the hell out here blind. No offense to you Addy, but I prefer to have someone on board with more experience than just folders,” Cam added, glancing over at Adrienne to make sure that he hadn’t offended her, which she made clear by a shake of her fork that he hadn’t. Swallowing, god these eggs were awful, damn Adrienne, Daniel washed down the mess with some coffee, before questioning him further. 

“So, what is this plan that Vala and Rodney have cooked up?” he asked, Adrienne shaking her head, oh great even she doesn’t like it, as he peered over in her direction, indicating exactly what he thought, that he had missed very little cramped into a smelly old spacesuit.

“Basically, we go back to Vala’s original coordinates. Addy here’s gonna tell them that she has something to trade, Vala suggested weapons but I’m not sold on that. Tell them that she betrayed Vala and wants in on the trade. After that, Vala says just like last time, except Addy needs to insist that they meet on a planet, somewhere public, a bar, Vala suggested some place she used to use. Addy negotiates while Rodney and Sheppard beam down, grab a goon and beam back,” Cam explained, but both Adrienne and Daniel could tell by the look on his face that he was not happy in the least about the plan. Forcing down another forkful of warm yellow mush, Daniel looked back up at Cameron, his own doubt evident. 

“That’s the big plan? Repeat last time with one change and hope for the best. I’d expect better from Vala,” he trailed at the end, leading Cam to answer. 

“Vala AND Rodney.  I think the latter more than the former,” the colonel agreed, peering over at Adrienne who had remained surprisingly quiet, picking at her eggs and practically ignoring her coffee, “Girl, how are you feeling about this?” 

What a question, Adrienne thought, one that she didn’t have an answer for. Sure, she knew she could handle it, despite Daniel’s constant teasing of her acting skills, she had gotten pretty good at pulling of ruses just like this, especially when put on the spot. On the other hand there was so much riding on this mission, so many people counting in her that if she screwed this up she wasn’t quite sure how she would be received or how she would be able to face her team or Sam for that matter. It would really look like she had slept her way to the top. She opened her mouth to answer when she felt a palm lay on the small of her back, rubbing lightly, and knew he was reaching out to give her physical reassurance rather than embarrass her with verbal cheerleading. Can’t we just go back to bed and cuddle, Adrienne thought for a split second, before laughing at her own absurd ideas, taking a sip of the disgusting instant coffee before answering. 

“I’m ok. I was there when Vala negotiated before, I’ve seen how she does it,” Adrienne began when a thought popped into her head, a blip of she and Vala’s brief private conversation in her quarters “but there is one thing we need to change.” 

Nodding, swallowing, apparently open to suggestions, Cam gestured with his hand for her to continue, which she did, taking a deep breath before she spoke. 

“Daniel needs to be my partner, not you Cam. If I’m playing the part I played before, it’s a bit more believable if I took my captive as my lover and overthrew Vala than just showed up here with another random man and according to Vala, we were pretty transparent,” Adrienne added the last part carefully, hoping it wasn’t taking it too far, Daniel already thinking to himself how much he loved this woman, this perfect woman who could read his mind and judging by the smile on Cam’s face, apparently his as well. 

“One step ahead of you girl, one step ahead.” 

*****

Rodney had the exact reaction that Daniel anticipated, a tantrum, insisting as Daniel had originally thought that he was there to usurp the mission. He wasn’t, in fact, more than anything the idea of the mission itself disgusted him because clone or not the person they were sent to steal was a human being and if the IOA was going to start sending teams to participate in kidnapping, Daniel at least wanted to make sure that they would be treated humanely. Once John had spoken to him, however, he did have to agree that using Daniel did make better cover, made Adrienne have to create less of a backstory and therefore give her less to lie about. That didn’t stop his pouting though, as he spent much on the next four days in transport, twice as long since they didn’t gate to Langara this time, hiding in the makeshift lab/quarters he had set up, leaving Daniel, Cam, John and Adrienne to entertain themselves, which they did, playing cards, talking, with poor Adrienne and Cam stir crazy since they were unable to work out. 

To be honest, it was kind of driving Adrienne just the tiniest bit insane as she realized that in the past few months she had become quite spoiled by her relationship with Daniel. It was nice to not be sleeping alone, the small bunks forcing them to sleep so impossibly close, holding onto one another tightly, but Adrienne did miss making love to him, however neither of them really wanted to cause anymore trouble than Daniel’s presence already was. Forcing herself to tow the line, Adrienne laid each night in his arms, trying not to think about rolling over and pecking her way up the side of his neck. 

It was a little past three p.m. earth time on the fourth day, Adrienne’s analog watch ticking the minutes by, when the call came in, interrupting she and Cam’s card game. She could not have been more pleased, she already owed him a six pack of beer and a racing technical so this game really needed to come to a close, and fast. 

“Dr. Rowan, Colonel Mitchell,” Rodney’s voice came over the loudspeaker, startling Adrienne so much that she dropped her cards onto the table, revealing her very poor hand, “We need you down to the bridge.” 

“Showtime girlie,” Cam said, tossing his own hand onto the table, three tens proudly displayed, “and now you owe me another six pack,” he added as he pointed to her hand, a pair of threes, a two, a king and a jack. 

“Why do I suck at the simplest things?” she bemoaned, sticking her tongue out at Cam, before heading out of the mess area, Cam laughing as he brought up the rear. 

When she tapped the button to enter the bridge she was surprised, although she shouldn’t have been, to hear Daniel and Rodney arguing over the plan, yet again, as John steered the ship to what looked like a collection of rusted vessels. She couldn’t help it, she should be taking things seriously right now, but she wanted to make a joke right about now about how this situation was anything but ‘shiny.” No Firefly jokes Addy, she told herself, walking straight up to Daniel and resting her hand on his shoulder, disregarding what anyone would think. He stopped shouting instantly, reaching to rest his hand over hers, pulling it down to the side but clasping it lightly. 

“Are you ready?” Daniel asked cutting Rodney off mid yell. 

“Is there a no option?” she replied, joking as she squeezed his hand and let go, looking ahead to Rodney who was still obviously fuming from whatever he and Daniel were arguing about now.

“No, Dr. Rowan, and we need for you to stop trying to be funny. Now, what you need to say is that you mutinied Vala, took over the ship and have some items of intrest- ,” Rodney began, a hand shoved into his face, a hand that Adrienne couldn’t believe that she had shoved there. 

“I’ve got this, no worries,” she responded cooly, reaching cautiously for the button, the very same button she had seen Vala strike before, clearing her throat as she did. 

“Someone better be able to tell me where that fucker Dagal is,” Adrienne practically growled into the speaker, every last man in the room looking at her in complete and utter shock, Daniel the most surprised, not at the swear, he had heard those sorts of words come out of her mouth many times before, generally directed at him, but at the manner in which she spoke. She was, believable, and could read his expression from a mile away, her finger releasing the cool metal circle. 

“We’ve had a few days, I’ve been practicing,” she shrugged, clearing her throat yet again and repeating the her request. 

“Code,” a response came back as calm and collected as Adrienne seemed to be. 

“I don’t need any fucking code. Dagal knows me and if he knows what’s best for him he’ll answer or he’ll get to meet the same fate as Vala,” Adrienne hissed back, Daniel covering his mouth to suppress a giggle. Lifting the button, she glanced back at him confused.

“Ja-wer, pirates don’t say things like “meet the same fate” he teased lightly, his arm smacked in return. 

“What do ya mean fate as Vala? What did ya do to her?” the voice over the cackling speaker was clear, it was Dagal, the memory of the voice matched to the greasy face giving Adrienne chills. It took her a moment longer to answer than she had anticipated, her in room practice sessions unable to prepare her for actually have to hear his voice once again. Swallowing, she leaned forward a bit closer. 

“Let’s just say I don’t like my property to be fucked with,” Adrienne replied, winking in the direction of Daniel, who instantly understood her meaning as did Dagal who was laughing loudly. 

“Tried to take that pretty boy from ya didn’t she Sorcha?? Well, I’ve no use for a pretty boy, but if you have shit worth selling, I might have a buyer, especially if you can guarantee you took care of Mal Doran. Her stunt last time hasn’t made you very popular here...” he responded, Daniel frowning at the console. 

“Pretty boy?” he questioned, Adrienne shaking her head and rolling her eyes at the things he would worry about sometimes, stupid things, like being called pretty boy. 

“I can, now you wanna deal or what?” the cajun asked, hoping to seal the deal, tapping the button quickly to add another detail, “but I’m not stupid. My men and I will meet you on the planet’s surface. I will not board another ship.” 

“Fair enough,” the voice laughed back, more chills, continuing with the transmission, “I’ll send coordinates. Table for two I assume, you don’t want to let your toy out of your sight?” 

“One hour. Longer and you miss your chance,” Adrienne spat in return, standing back and taking a breath, turning to face the group. 

“Ok, we’ve got an hour, let’s figure this shit out shall we?”

Glancing between themselves, the men nodded, Daniel’s face gleaming with pride. 

*****
“You really have weapons?” Daniel asked in amazement as Adrienne led him to the back cargo hold, prying open a wooden crate filled to the top with Go’ould weapons, very familiar Go’ould weapons.

“Are those?” he questioned, leaning down beside her to reach in, pulling out a few pieces with his hands, reexamining them. He hadn’t seen them in months, he knew they  were planted by Anubis to lure them in, but the weapons themselves proved to be nothing special and have been put into storage with the other less than useful items. Nodding without words, her pale hand reached in beside him, squeezing gently before pulling out a hand weapon, sliding it carefully onto her fingers, adjusting it as he has seen so many people do so before. It gave him chills seeing yet another woman that he cared about strap the contraption to her body, but he willed himself to control any outward negative reaction that he may be having seeing that Adrienne had a plan. 

“Yeah, they’re the ones we found with Sarah. Vala said since we really don’t need them to sell them,” Adrienne explained, wiggling her fingers into place. Daniel was puzzled; he wasn’t sure what Adrienne was doing with the thing, she couldn’t fire it, when she gently moved him away, reaching for a leather pouch strapped to her hip. Her fingers slid inside and she produced a long red rubber band and syringe, sitting back onto her heels. 

“What’s that?” Daniel asked, confused, having seen her shoot herself with vitamin B dozens of times but mystified as she wrapped the red strap around her bicep, pulling it tight with her teeth. He’d never seen her to that before, nor had he seen her flick the needle like she was doing and flick the vein in the crook of her arm. Stretching her fingers, she looked up at him with a slight smile, popping the cap off with her mouth and wordlessly sliding the point of the needle into her vein. She hissed in, puckering her lips to blow out slowly while her finger eased the plunger to the end. Sucking in air a final time, Adrienne slid the needle from her arm, reattaching the cap and tossing the trash aside into the far corner. 

“That’s Vala’s DNA, or it’s like a cocktail or something, you know me and hard science. Jen’s been working on it for a while, trying to make it so anyone can use the Go’ould weapons that are lying around,” Adrienne explained as she shivered. Concerned, Daniel reached out for her, pulling her close to his body, her reaction to whatever she had just injected in herself troubling. 

“I haven’t heard of that, Sam didn’t mention anything about it,” he stated, holding her tighter as her body convulsed violently for a few seconds. 

“She doesn’t know about it. Just started human trails, Jennifer really didn’t want to have to tell Sam anything she’d be forced to disclose to the IOA until we were sure it would work,” Adrienne answered, backing up from him and standing, shaking her hands in front of her and jumping up and down as if she were preparing for a race.  

“Has it worked so far in the trails?” he asked, fearful of Adrienne being the first person to use technology like this so soon after it had been released. Shrugging, she turned her back to him, pointing her hand to the corner of the room and closed her eyes. There was a moment of silence, penetrating quiet when her hand roared to life and a beam emitting from the palm of her hand, disintegrating the syringe into a pile of dust and smoke. 

“Trail one, success,” Adrienne replied, sheepishly, bolting for the door before he could start to yell, Daniel following behind her trying to suppress a yell.

*****

The coordinates were to a bar, as Vala had suggested, so very cliche Adrienne thought, just like one of her movies and she clung to those silly thoughts to keep her calm.  

“Anything else you can think of?” Daniel whispered, sitting beside her at the table, reading her face. 

“No sha, stop fishing, just let me handle this. Vala and I went through everything while you were playing hide and seek,” she joked back, her gaze to the door, looking for their host. 

“I hope you realize how mortally terrifying it is to hear you say that you and Vala have it taken care of,” he quipped, raising his eyebrows, trying to play it cool himself, his left hand reaching down for his leg, the weapon recovered by Vala in their last encounter with Anubis’ men strapped carefully to his leg. 

“Shut up Indy,” she replied, her eyes now at her nails, heavily picked, her index finger almost bleeding.  

“So she brings the toy with her,” a voice spoke from behind her, making her turn around quickly, not liking being taken off guard but slipping into the persona, the one Vala had begged her to practice. I can do this, Adrienne thought, Vala said I can do this. 

“He has multiple uses,” she responded naturally, her right hand slipping down, ready in an instant to grab Eric and blow the trader off of the planet, but he laughed, reaching for the table behind him to bring a chair to her side, very close to her, so much so that their knees were touching as he took his seat. 

“So, the ship,” Dagal started, disregarding Adrienne’s response, and she shook her head, her face cold, hard, like Daniel had never seen before. 

“I told you I have weapons and information. Vala was screwing you on the ship, it wouldn't fly, he had disabled it,” Adrienne answered cocking her head at Daniel. No longer as pleased by their meeting it seemed, Dagal leaned forward on the table, glaring strongly at Adrienne as if they were alone, as if her companion wasn’t even there.

“Inpu doesn’t want weapons. He has weapons,” the trader responded flatly, his glare piercing through Adrienne. She shrugged, wishing that she had brought a gun rather than Eric because this was turning very quickly into Han Solo versus Greedo. 

“So, you’re now in the business of serving Inpu?” Adrienne asked, sneering right back, hoping that Daniel could read her face when she was acting too, read the look that was saying “We might need to shoot this mother fucker love,” that she was trying to convey. 

“I serve no one, but I am in the business of going where the money is. He is where the money is, and his money is in ships, not in weapons,” Dagal argued, sitting back, feeling the anger radiating off of the woman. 

“Consider the weapons my gift, an offering to your boss man to start up this little business venture. What I really have is information,” Adrienne taunted, lingering on the last words. 

“Inpu has spies everywhere, what makes your information that much better?” he challenged, cutting his eyes at Daniel, who he was certain was the source of said information. 

“Because his name isn’t MadMartigan. And he isn’t Lucian. He’s Taur’i,” Adrienne replied quickly. 

Daniel almost dropped his gun.

*****

“They’re taking too long,” Rodney complained from the bridge watching John and Cam play cards on the console between them, “who in the hell decided that the archaeology department needed to suddenly become action heroes?” Throwing down his hand, full house, Cam shook his head at Rodney while reaching out for John to pay him again for his loss. 

“They’ve both done things like this before. Can’t you just chill the hell out?” Cam asked, taking the five from John and shoving it into his pocket. 

“Rodney doesn’t know the meaning of chill the hell out,” John answered, moving to shuffle again. Angry, his impatience growing, Rodney glared at them both, now pointing to the game started in front of him. 

“So you two are just fine sitting here waiting, hope that she doesn’t screw this up or start pretending this is Star Wars and play cards!?!” Rodney demanded, reaching to yank said cards from John’s hand to have his fingers smacked violently by Cameron, who was reaching to shuffle the deck himself.  

“Yep, and for the record if Addy starts choking giant mobsters with chains a la Princess Leia that would be pretty damn cool,” he joked, glancing up at John for approval which his gave with his own chuckle and nod.

“The biggest issue in this program is the lack of competent leadership,” Rodney spat a John, storming out of the bridge. 

“Where’s he going?” Cam asked, cocking his head at the door as he shuffled. 

“Probably to hide in his hole, that’s what he usually does,” John replied, taking a swig from his bottled water. 

“Just like Jackson pre-Addy,” Cam joked. 

“Pretty much,” John replied, reaching to take his cards. 

*****

The rings were on the bridge, but he didn’t plan on using those to head down to the surface. This ship wasn’t very big, but it had been big enough for the cargo hold to take a puddle jumper, a puddle jumper that John insisted on taking, wanting every possible escape he could get. He didn’t like this plan any more that Sam and he wasn’t about to sacrifice half of SG-1 as well as Atlantis head team for one damn mission, IOA mandated or not and fortunately for Rodney, this was exactly the kind of attitude that was going to work in his favor. 

“Let’s Jackson little girlfriend screw this up; I’m going to go down there myself, slap one of the bastards with a transmitter and viola, mission over, none of this spy game crap,” Rodney muttered to himself storming through the dark brown hallways leading past their quarters and to the cargo hold, the door a mere fifty feet in front of him. 

“This should have been the damn plan in the first place,” he added, coding himself into the hold marching straight for the control panel, ignoring the jumper completely. The screen was in Go’ould, he hated that stupid language, it was easier to make Jackson or Rowan read it, but he didn’t have a lot of choice right now so sighed, hoping for the best.  Scanning the keys he entered in the code, he waiting, tapping his foot impatiently, for the confirming lights and message. There was nothing and he was getting nervous; if he entered the code incorrectly too many times he would be locked out just like simple Earth coded systems. He had to hope he had translated this correctly. Just when he was about to panic, one try down and he had no idea how many to go, a message flashed across the screen letting him know that the bridge no longer had contact with the cargo hold. 

“Now Sheppard, let’s see how much attention you pay to your ship,” Rodney sneered waiting for his communicator or even the ship’s all call to begin to search for him, but there was nothing, just boring yet agonizing minutes of silence. Rodney glanced at his watch noting seven minutes have passed with no word from either colonel that he had left at the brdige.

“I’m not sure what’s more disturbing, you lack of concern or your faith in that woman,” he grumbled, tapping his pocket to check for the ring transponder as he proceeded to the back of the jumper, opening the airlock.  

******

“What do you mean Taur’i?” Dagal asked, his tone completely different now; he was intrigued just as Adrienne had planned. She probably should have explained this part to Daniel, but like the DNA, she was certain that he wouldn’t have approved, so she had kept him in the dark as much as possible.

“Taur’i, from Earth, home of the famed SGC, you know, Vala’s good buddies?” Adrienne smiled, trying to send Daniel messages with her eyes, messages that she had everything under control.  

“I get that, I want to know who he is,” Dagal clarified, his eyes not having left Daniel’s for a second, eyes that were tired and dry from wearing the contacts that Adrienne had forced him to wear.

“His name is Anthony, Anthony Davis. Lab rat, lower levels, but had some access to Dr. Jackson,” Adrienne lied, deftly, again surprising Daniel, relieving him at the same time as Dagal nodded, believing her story. This was going better than Daniel ever thought she could pull off; there was no flaw in her story, no hesitation in her speech.

“Ok, how did you get him to talk? Seems to me that I’d have a hard time not slitting the throat of any bitch who hit me with that staff like you did...” Dagal pushed, making Daniel’s heart race again. He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t come up with a good enough story himself, when Adrienne leaned back in her chair and started to laugh. 

“Let’s just say he’s got loose lips when at the height of pleasure,” Adrienne replied smoothly, peering over at him, warning him not to blush, not to argue, just go with the flow. 

“I think I made the best choice, given staying there or being here,” Daniel added, cutting his eyes over at Adrienne, hoping it was the right thing to say and it was, Adrienne smiling slyly at his response. Their Lucian friend however, remained silent, glancing back and forth between them trying to determine whether or not it was all a lie. Buy it, Daniel thought, can’t the way I look at her be enough?

“Weapons then,” he man agreed, both archaeologists breathing a sigh of relief, on the inside at least, “but how do we know they work? If they are Go’ould weapons I have no way of assuring Inpu they will work,” he asked and Adrienne just stood, smiling, pointing her hand toward the ground releasing a beam of red light onto the ground, blasting a deep hole into the floor of the bar, all eyes now on her and her performance, before looking back at him smiling. 

“Dagal my dear, don’t underestimate me like Vala did. It will only result in your death,” Adrienne warned, clenching her hand into a fist as the pirate smiled. 

*****
There was an open field, if you could call it that considering the disgusting space port has resulted in mostly desertification of the entire area, area that based on the trees in the distance should not be desert, that looked as good as any other place to touch down. He landed the jumper, poorly, he wasn’t too good at flying it even though he could, behind a collection of buildings, if you could call them that, engaging the cloaking device as he exited.  Checking his pockets a final time, he made his way for the collection of people milling around in the distance. 

It was hot here too, he thought, shame these idiots couldn’t take care of their own planet, but that was their problem right now his only concern was to find one of those clones, get him sent up to the ship and get them the hell out of there. Bringing his hand to his forehead, Rodney McKay gazed out into the distance, powering out into the crowd. 

*****

“Please tell me McKay didn’t just go and screw this all up,” Shepard plead the moment the rings appeared in front of him, Daniel and Adrienne taking shape in their line of sight. The rings disappeared back into the floor, Daniel looking up at them surprised. 

“What, was there something else supposed to happen that I missed, because at this point I’m still trying to figure out what happened to my assistant and who this woman his,” Daniel joked at Adrienne, who was flushing, shoving his arm back playfully. 

“He didn’t make it to you guys? He took a jumper down, we didn’t notice because he hacked into the alert system, and went down to the surface. Has been complaining for hours that you two took too long and that Adrienne was gonna blow our cover,” John explained, concern in his voice, peering over his shoulder at Cameron who now had concern of his own as did both Daniel and Adrienne, who were looking at each other stunned, shaking their heads. 

“No, we went down, met with Dagal, gave him the spiel and came back. We’re supposed to head back down to the surface in five hours,” the cajun stressed five hours, significantly less time than they had with Vala and she wanted them to be aware that they needed to be getting ready to make this all happen. Eyes meeting, the two men looked at one another then back at Daniel and Adrienne who had yet to move from the ring transport area. 

“You don’t think?” Cam asked, throwing his hands up at John, unable to believe that someone like Rodney, not Vala, but Rodney would do something this foolish. Why in the hell would he believe that he could do this himself?

“I don’t think, I know, we need to head down there,” John growled, stepping forward to move Adrienne and Daniel from their positions intent on going down their himself to recover the missing scientist when Adrienne stepped forward, stopping him, glancing back at Daniel. 

“No, let us go. Keep cover. I’ll call him incompetent, blame his fear, make him look space crazy or something. You guys stay just in case we need to get out of here fast,” Adrienne ordered, confidently, like she had done on the surface, Daniel smiling with pride. 

“Girl, you sure?” Cam questioned, Daniel already shaking his head. 

“Oh yeah, she’s got this covered,” he assured his teammates looking down at the love of his life. She’s got this covered and she looks so amazingly hot doing it, he couldn’t help but think, shaking his head and taking a breath to refocus on the situation at hand.  Stepping back, John just nodded, making his way to the control panel to send the pair back down, hoping that whatever Adrienne could come up with was good enough to repair the disaster that he was sure Rodney was creating.

*****

There were no lights in the room save for a faint orange glow of something electronic in the far left hand corner. Starting to sit up, Rodney discovered that he was bound, his hands tied tightly behind him, allowing him only the use of his feet to stand upright on the cold floor. He tried to stand, bracing himself on his elbows, slipping miserably to the floor. 

“Help him,” a voice ordered from behind him, startling him as he thought he was alone in some sort of cell. His last memory was being led by a woman to a group of soldiers and his feeble effort to talk to them, asking them if they had seen his captain, describing Addy the best he could remember, red leather breeches, a blue leather bodice shirt, pale skin, dark shoulder length hair, those crazy evil looking eyes of her but none of them knew what he was talking about, not a soul, and he started to back away when he realized what he was wearing:  BDU’s. Most of the soldiers must have been clones but one, one wasn’t, and before Rodney could yell for help, scream, make any kind of scene, the zat was pointed at him. His last memory was the stream of lightening heading in his direction. 

Hands swept under his arms, lifting him thankfully from the cold, although the grip was painful, making him hiss out in discomfort. His helpers tossed him forward so roughly he almost stumbled and went crashing down again, but caught himself just in time to hear the voice behind him speak again. 

“It seems the planet is crawling with Taur’i today. Miss Mal Doran’s murderer has a Taur’i lover and now you. Care to tell me what the sudden fascination in Lucian affairs is  it seems that Jack O’Neill is suffering from?” the voice continued, closer this time, so close that Rodney could feel warm breath at his neck making his hair stand on edge. He panicked, unsure as to what he could say; he didn’t know how this person knew Daniel was one of them unless Adrienne had told him, but why would she do that? Why would she just offer Daniel up when Anubis could be anywhere?

“Don’t bother answering Dr. McKay, it is still a lie when it is an omission,” his captor responded cooly. How did he know his name? 

And then it hit him. 

*****
“So what’s the plan?” Daniel asked as the rings lifted, Adrienne speeding ahead of him adjusting her fingers into Kara Kesh in a way that gave Daniel chills. She seemed way too comfortable with that device and each clench of her fist was an eerie parallel into a past life, one he cared not to repeat. Peeking over her shoulder, Adrienne checked to insure that they were alone before opening her palm, aiming her hand to the ground yet not one shot emanated from her fingers tips. 

“Dammit,” she swore, reaching for Daniel’s own vest, pulling him into a side alley way. 

“Block me,” she ordered, opening the leather pouch at her waist, collecting yet another syringe into her palm. 

“That didn’t last very long,” Daniel observed as she repeated her procedure from this morning quickly, no hesitation, a woman on a mission in every sense of the word, “How long was it supposed to last?” he added watching her glare at him as she pulled the red rubber strap tight with her teeth. 

“Right, guinea pig,” he reminded himself, not letting her answer, half tempted to scold her for allowing herself to be part of such an experiment but the look on her face was enough to tell him to keep his mouth shut. 

“Help me,” she requested now, fumbling with the objects that before she had handled with ease, the nerves causing her to tremble. Removing the needle gently from her hand, he slipped off the cap to the syringe, turning her arm and flicking her vein, taking this opportunity for scolding. 

“I don’t like this ja-wer,” he whispered, rubbing her arm tenderly before inserting the needle, “any of this,” he clarified. Hissing in as the cold fluid shot into her veins, Adrienne peered up at him with a scowl, somewhat playful and somewhat serious as she started to shake and convulse as she had done before.

“I’m sorry sha, it’s just for this. Trust me, I don’t like having Vala in me either. Let’s just let this do it’s magic, get that cooyon and get da hell outta here,” she assured him, lifting her arm to pinch the area taut. Reaching out to grab her hand and kiss it lightly, Daniel recapped the syringe carefully, tossing it back into her pack reaching out to hold her while the tremors rocketed through her body once more. Shaking subsiding,  Adrienne glanced back at him a final time, raising her eyebrows before marching confidentially out of the alley, motioning for Daniel to follow. 

*****
“I know who you are,” Rodney managed to choke out as the man, the creature, whatever he was paced in front of him, coming to a halt inches from his face sending terror deep into his soul.

“Good, then you know not to question me. Now Dr. McKay, I have no need for you and your life matters to me not, however I will let you live if you tell me what I need to know,” Anubis explained, backing away, allowing Rodney space to breath again. He wanted to speak his body was begging him to fall into the floor graveling, begging for his life and offering whatever the ancient being wanted, but he remembered his friends, he remembered Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, SG-1 and even his new part time assistant, who really wasn’t that bad. Saving his own ass wasn’t worth risking any of theirs. 

“I won’t tell you anything. I don’t care what you do to me,” Rodney said, his voice no where near as confident as he had imagined in his head. 

“An idiot like the rest of them,” his captor stated as Rodney began to feel the air around him squeeze his lungs.

******

“I’m looking for my navigator,” Adrienne hissed as she leaned over the bar to the man operating a large crystal machine pumping out a neon orange concoction that seemed to be as popular as beer. 

“And I’m looking for a woman to fuck me silly and cook me dinner, but you don’t see me walking around bitching about it,” the man answered, pivoting around to serve a drink to a nearby gentleman, another slimy Lucian trader. Angry, her request wasn’t even rude, not by the standards of these people, Adrienne composed herself, trying another tactic. 

“He’s about as tall as my friend hear, missing some hair, wearing green pants, black t-shirt, annoying,” she started to describe as the man continued to ignore her, serving up more drinks. Seeing that this was getting them nowhere, Daniel stepped forward to speak when he felt a hand push him back, her hand, her left hand, her right hand placed strategically on the counter. 

“I do not like being ignored,” Adrienne warned, a buzzing shaking the counter. Confused, the barkeep turned to see what was going on, his eyes widening and peering over her shoulder, Daniel saw that Adrienne was standing there, palm up, the small metallic circle in her hand glowing to life.  

“Haven’t seen him, but I know where people go when they vanish,” he answered, his tone changing instantly. Wow Ad, Daniel thought, you’re just full of surprises today. Her expression not changing, Adrienne closed her hand, retracting her arm to behind the counter. 

“Thank you,” she replied, leaning forward for her information.

*****

“Let’s start with what I know and I can gauge your reaction to see how close I am, how does that sound,” the voice reasoning with him almost sounded jovial, delighted to be here with him rather than threatening as it should. It was strangely relaxing to Rodney, who was determined not to give anything away, holding out for that hope that John would notice his absence, figure out what he had done and come racing to his rescue. How feminine McKay, he thought, breathing in and preparing not to answer. 

“I know that Dr. Jackson is still working with the SGC analyzing the Asgard knowledge, knowledge that was rightfully mine,” he began, pacing around Rodney in a circle, the scientist choosing not to answer. 

“See, simple, that’s a yes. Continuing. I know that you have changed your access codes to your allies, as I had hoped, cutting you off from many of your friends you had come to count on for so long,” he added, Rodney’s heart racing. How did he know that? Did he send those goons through on purpose, just to be killed? Was this all part of his plan, whatever it was? Did he know that since the Tok’ra had contacted them? Silence didn’t seem to be working for him, but he wasn’t sure what to say. 

“You know nothing about our allies,” Rodney feigned bravery, a laugh of disbelief in return, a face in his own, hot breath heating his nose. 

“I know everything I need to know and you are going to tell me the rest,” he threatened, the air squeezing again, but the silhouette in front of him didn’t move as he fell to his knees unable to breath, looking back at his captor, noting a green light at his wrist, a light with numbers....

*****

“At the risk of sounding like one of your movies, I have a bad feeling about this,” Daniel whispered to Adrienne as she continued to stride confidently through the back alleys, following the complicated directions given to her by the bar tender.  

“Me too, but do you want to leave Rodney?” Adrienne asked over her shoulder, pausing and closing her eyes, trying to summon up the scene in the bar once more to recall the specific directions, Daniel running right into her. 

“Watch out Indy,” she spat as he caught himself at her shoulders. 

“Sorry, you stopped right in front of me. Are we lost?” he asked, unsure as to what was going on. 

“Nope,” she answered, a song like quality to her response, trudging forward, Daniel shaking his head following behind. 

*****
The pressure in his chest was so great he was unsure if he really wanted to live anymore, the pain caused by trying to fight the pressure greater than any he had ever experienced before. He laid his head onto the cold damp floor, giving up, giving in, when the pressure was gone, the figure standing above him, straddling his waist with large boot clad feet. 

“Shall we continue Dr. McKay?” Anubis asked, not moving, not flinching, unafraid of Rodney in the least, but the doctor didn’t respond, just lay there quietly. 

“I just want to know why you are here. I know you have Dr. Jackson with you; I’m not ready to deal with him just yet, but he usually doesn’t hide. It’s not like him to not come and face me. Why are you here?” he continued, the air around Rodney’s chest pushing in again, caving in, that feeling of desperation returning. Would he stop? Would he stop if he just told half of the truth? 

“Clones,” Rodney choked out, the part of him that still desired to live overtaking the rest, and it worked, the sensation eased and he could breathe again. 

“So, that was Mal Doran on that ship. She must have taken a few pieces back on board. What do you know of my clones?” he asked, the pressure increasing before Rodney could answer. 

“Nothing, that’s why we are here. We wanted to take one to study,” Rodney lied, partially, not wanting to mention what he had discovered: the life span, the increased capabilities, that was why, that was why the air affected him so, why hadn’t this worked, why hadn’t he been able to get a clone and get out of here, if only Adrienne hadn’t taken so long, he shouldn’t have let them listen to Vala, it hurt, it hurt so badly...

“Of course, that is why Dr. Jackson and that woman were on the surface, negotiating with that man, as a distraction so you could come down here and capture one of my men, is that correct?” the questions turned, Rodney unsure how to answer, if he should answer, the squeeze choking his lungs, he wanted it to stop, the vein in his head throbbing...

“Yes, he and Dr. Rowan were going to sell some weapons to buy us time to take one of your men. She’s pretending to have killed Vala, taken her ship, her crew her cargo,” Rodney could no longer bear the pain, spilling out everything, willing to answer anything he asked. 

“Now we are getting somewhere....” Anubis chuckled, stepping away, that green indicator flashing brightly. 

*****

“I told you I had a bad feeling about this,” Daniel said, his eyes rolling under his glasses as he glanced over at Adrienne, who was backing up as well, her eyes focused on the clone Jaffa heading in her direction as Daniel tried to pretend there were none heading in his. 

“Can we argue about this later sha?” Adrienne hissed, scanning the room for an escape but seeing none, only the door in front of them, the one that she had picked the lock to enter, the one that she had been certain was unguarded which it was on the inside just not the out. Moments after Daniel and Adrienne had rushed into the room, the small door leading to where she was certain Rodney was being held in front of them, a throng of men has dashed in behind him, closing their only way out. 

“Who are you?” one of the men asked, the one in front, the one that looked like the one beside him, and the next one, and the next one, all with pale skin, black hair and black pupil-less eyes, clones without a doubt. 

“Sorry, we got lost,” Adrienne tried and failed to explain, the lead clone looking left and right at his companions before taking another step forward. 

“You both will come with me,” he directed, reaching out his hand to grab Adrienne’s wrist, a wrist she jerked back to her side, taking another staggered step toward the second door. Fear in her eyes she glanced at Daniel, finally out of confidence, this wasn’t a movie, this was it, she was going to be taken captive, taken by this Anubis, this evil man that Daniel had told her about so long ago, his face torn and broken and she had held him, this was going to be her fate and she would never have the chance to tell Daniel that she would, that given the choice she would take back everything she had ever said about forever just to spend it with him...

“Sorsha?” Daniel asked calmly from behind, bringing her out of her panic attack and back to reality. 

“Sorsha, if ERIC would just give me a sword, I’d win this war for Galladoorn,” Daniel stated, cool, collected from beside her.  What? Eric? Sword? Galladoorn? Why was he screwing up quotes from Willow? 

“Sorsha, I cannot believe that Eric would just leaving me hanging like this when I am right up here,” Daniel continued, when it clued in for her, what he meant. 

“All the way up in that crow’s rest?” she clarified, thankful that they were so used to speaking in code to hide their relationship that this was second nature. 

“Yep,” he responded, taking a quick scan of the room noting that there were two on his side, four on hers. We can do this, he thought, just have to move quickly. 

“HYAH!!” Adrienne shouted out, throwing her staff weapon into the air and dropping to her right knee sweeping the man closet to her with her left, firing the hand device at another advancing soldier. Glancing up she caught sight of Daniel catching her staff, activating it the moment it reached his fingers, the head opening as it cut through air, a beam of light blasting the man furthest to his right when she heard shuffling behind her. She turned, just in time to dodge a clumsily grab from a third man, hearing a zat activated to her right, so she leapt up, firing with her hand blindly to the source of the gun, hoping she’d hit her attacker and not Daniel, hook kicking the other with her left leg, heel to temple, sending him crashing to the ground. There was a thud, and Adrienne pivoted on her heels to see Daniel slamming a guard with the back of her weapon, knocking him unconscious to whirl the weapon behind him, oh dear god he looks so hot right now, and hold it to his side. 

“Zat any of them that are still alive,” he ordered, strength and command in his voice. Impressed, taken aback, floored, Adrienne did as he asked, grabbing the closest zat and marching up to him, grabbing him by the deep blue leather vest he was wearing and pulling him to her, pressing her lips forcefully to his. 

“Hotter than words can express sha,” she said breathless as she let go, making quick work of the unconscious men as Daniel stood there in shock, mouth open, tingles races from his head to his toes. 

*****

The commotion to his left brought him back, his head throbbing, his lungs no longer pumping air through his body as they should, only vaguely aware of what he had been saying. He remembered something about the database, the shield Adrienne had found, the findings from the clone DNA, and had answered a surprising number of questions about the wraith, what he knew of their cloning, the iratus bug, his memory was so cloudy he didn’t know what else, until he heard the blast and the voices. 

“There’s no getting out of here now, my reinforcements have arrived,” Rodney taunted, almost drunkenly, that was the best way to describe the cloudiness in his thoughts, his speech, he couldn’t think clearly, and then he heard the voices.  It wasn’t Shepard, it was Daniel and Adrienne, they found him, that stupid little girl of his found him and he started to laugh at the hilarity of the two archaeologists coming to his rescue. 

“Where’d your goons go? I’d get out of here if I were you, she can kick his ass on a good day, hell, she can kick just about anyone’s ass on a good day and if I’m reading your little gadget there right, you’re not in tip top shape are you?” Rodney sneered, mocking, pointing at the light he had seen before, the countdown, as the air was once again ejected from his lungs, but he fought, knowing he was making him angry, hoping it would buy his teammates, his friends, more time. 

“Just, keep, squeezing. I may be out of shape and eas, eas, easier to control but Jackson’s gir, girl, girlfriend, she’s, she’s unstop, op, able,” Rodney bragged, having never seen Adrienne fight but if this was all he had, a cheap Darth Vader like parlor trick in a weak body, one that had an expiration date less than two weeks away, he knew enough about her from Sheppard to know this was going to be a quick fight, but his plan backfired, as he felt his body being lifted from the ground, jerked by his shirt and brought nose to nose again with his captor, who was growling in his face. 

“What did you say?” he hissed, the pressure relaxing allowing Rodney to laugh, as the blood rushed back into his head, making it feel light, making him feel like he was floating. 

“Dr.Rowan, she’s tougher than Teyla, it’s over for you,” Rodney answered, his head flopping back behind him. 

The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the sensation of falling. 

*****

“He’s up!” John shouted, making Daniel leap from the chair, rushing over to the cafeteria table upon which he and Adrienne had laid Rodney after unloading him from the jumper. Fully expecting to have to fight Anubis, Daniel led the way through the small back door, his right arm shielding Adrienne protectively as they entered to find Rodney and Rodney alone, laying on the floor unconscious. 

“My head hurts,” the physicist whined, sitting up from the table, feeling a hand at his back, a small hand, a quick glance revealing that it was Dr. Rowan, his part time assistant, assisting him right now. 

“You slammed your head when you fell,” she said kindly, leaving her hand at his back. Pulling away and trying not to be rude at her gesture, he sat forward, resting his arms on his legs, looking out to his audience, Daniel, Cameron and John all sitting in front of him, looks over concern on each face.

“It was him, Anubis, he was on the planet,” Rodney started to explain, his voice cracking about half way through. There was another light touch and he turned to see Adrienne offering him a cup of water, which he took, slipping it slowly. 

“Thank you,” he replied, passing it back when he started to shiver violently, dropping the cup, water and all onto the floor.

“I’ll go get some meds and something to clean that up,” Adrienne declared, standing and walking out of the mess area, leaving the men alone. Swallowing again but holding still so he wouldn’t fall, Rodney gazed back at his friends. 

“The cloning’s not working; it’s worse than I thought,” he started, “there is a timer on his wrist and his current body is wearing down. He did this choking thing and.....” he stopped talking, the memories flooding back. Anubis might have been weak but it was just enough, Rodney had talked, he blabbed and blabbed and told everything, his stomach dropping at the realization. 

“And what?” Cam asked, confused, the look on Daniel’s face not much better than Rodney’s. 

“He did this choking thing and what Rodney?” Daniel repeated, leaning forward as Rodney began to suck in his cheeks, his eyes darting around the room. 

“I’m not strong like you are, I’m not. I talked, I couldn’t think, I told him everything,” he admitted, throwing his hands up, muttering to himself, rubbing his face with his hands. Reaching forward, John calmed his flailing arms, looking him right in the eyes. 

“Rodney, what did you tell him?” John asked carefully, fearful, blaming himself, knowing that he should have paid more attention to where Rodney had gone, that fact reiterated as he watched his friend shake his head. 

“The cloning, everything from the database, the Tok’ra, Vala, everything, I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was going to die until I heard you and Adrienne, that was what made me stop, he knew it was you out there Daniel,” Rodney started and began to laugh, “but I told him it wasn’t you he needed to worry about, it was your girlfriend,” he added, laughing some more. 

“What?” Daniel asked, leaning forward, his eyes wide. 

“Jackson, he’s weak, like I said besides that parlor trick he’s falling apart. I don’t care if he is the most power system lord to ever live, Rowan could tear him apart,” Rodney explained, pride swelling inside that she was his assistant now too, an ass-kicking assistant, but Daniel didn’t seem as pleased, his glare tearing right through him. 

“Rodney, what exactly did you say? Word for word,” Daniel hissed, his confused frown an evil glower.

“Dammit, I don’t remember, but I told him that your girlfriend was unstoppable,” Rodney answered shrugging, looking over at John, missing the millisecond opportunity he might have had to avoid Daniel’s fist slamming directly into his face. 

*****
Daniel had stormed out of the mess the minute Rodney had fallen back onto the table, letting John and Cameron deal with him while he went back to the bridge to think. 

Anubis knew about Addy. 

Sitting here, flying home, faster than the autopilot had set, Daniel ran every possible scenario through his head, how much did Rodney tell, how much did Anubis know, how much was he still able to hide. 

Anubis knew about Addy. 

He hadn’t sought her out, knowing that she would find him, as she always did, but then she didn’t, so he sat there staring out into space until John had relived him, promising to maintain current speed and ordering him to get some sleep. 

Anubis knew about Addy. 

Walking down the hall to their shared quarters he tried to remember what else Rodney had said. Anubis had a countdown of sorts, his body was failing, Rodney said he was weak and that is when he mentioned that Addy could take him and maybe Adrienne could take him in that state, she was special, she was magnificent, on that planet you would have never known that woman down there was just some community college professor just a short time ago. It made his heart race and his picked up his pace to rush to be with her, no longer wanting to be alone. 

Anubis knew about Addy.

She was lying in bed, laying on her side, it was late by Earth standards and she was still wearing her disguise, why, was it fear, laziness, waiting for him. Unsure, he shut the door behind him, approaching he bed and crawling in beside her. Sensing his arrival she rolled over and started to speak but he didn’t let her talk, placing his hand over her mouth as he kissed her bare shoulder, running his lips lightly over her skin, making her tingle all over. He wanted her, he needed to be close to her, he needed to forget all of the horrible thoughts that had crept up on his mind as he sat on the bridge watching the starts jet by. She wriggled in his grasp, trying to shoo him away until he finally moved his hand and let her speak. 

Anubis knew about Addy.

“We shouldn’t,” she whispered, a weak effort as he could tell by the movement in her hips that she didn’t really mean it. Not answering, Daniel pushed her onto her back, reaching for the leather lace to her top. 

“You’re right, we shouldn’t,” he answered, pulling the laces out of her bodice and tossing them on to the floor, releasing her bare breasts into the open leaving Daniel breathless, manic, like it was the first time. 

Anubis knew about Addy.

“Woolsey will be so mad,” she replied, so innocent, so unaware of his thoughts, his mixture of desire and sheer terror as she reached for the laces to his breeches, pulling them out more frantically that he was now undoing hers. 

“I’m sure he will,” Daniel hissed back as Adrienne reached into the front of his pants, pulling him out into her hand, stroking him lightly. He let her caress him for all of ten seconds when he ripped the rest of the laces free, tearing her pants to her ankles and forcing her onto her back. Smiling, she kicked the pants away, barely having time to spread her legs before he was on her, in her, forcing her back against the wall, his desires being fulfilled in one powerful thrust.

Anubis knew about Addy.

“Sha,” she panted out, trying to grab his shoulder but failing as he frantically pumped in and out of her, breathing heavily, his pace frenzied. He hadn’t meant to be so rough with her, he’d planned on coming back to their room and making love slowly and carefully like they did at home, but he had a need, an urgent need and he couldn’t hold back once he started. 

Anubis knew about Addy.

Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind, her initial gasp turing into rhythmic ‘yes Daniel’ that was driving him as wild as her state in front of him, the bodice still on and open, her breasts shaking with every push, her face in ecstasy. 

She could never get sick of this, dear god this man was so amazing, in every single way. When he led her to the bed she was thinking that he would make love to her slowly  as they usually did, but hoping he would change his mind. The way he had been down there, the signal, the fight, turned her on more than she would have ever expected and now here he was pumping into her with that same ferocity that he had shown on the planet and she wanted him like she had never wanted him before. 

“Harder,” she begged, not believing her own words, but he complied, acting in a way that she had never seen him before, a way that in the past would have scared her but it was him, so clearly him, that the act could be nothing but pleasurable. Reaching up a leg, she brought it up to rest it on his shoulder, making him stop his thrust and look down at her in surprise. 

“Really?” he asked, confused.

“Yeah,” she panted out, lifting her hips, arching her back to receive him again.

Looking down at her, holding her leg up on his shoulder while he slid in and out of her body, it was too much, it was too erotic, too arousing, it was like nothing they had done before, nothing he had ever done before and with one final powerful thrust he threw back his head, screaming out, unable to hold on any longer, Adrienne moaning herself, haphazardly grabbing for any part of his body she could reach, resigning herself to the hand on her hips, locking her fingers and squeezing. 

He came down from the climb before she had stop clenching him tightly inside of her, so he held on the best he could, thrusting into her with that little he had left, so very little as he was spent in a way he had never been with here, when he felt her let go, collapsing onto her. 

Anubis knew about Addy.

“You were loud. Again,” Adrienne teased, holding on to him tightly with one hand and running her fingers through his hair with the other. He laughed from her shoulder, rubbing his cheek against her skin, before pulling himself slowly off of her body and to the side. 

“Oh well,” he replied, having no better answer. He was fairly sure that Rodney had heard but he knew he wouldn’t say anything, after what had happened, after he had told...

Anubis knew about Addy. He knew about this. He knew.....

“Come here,” he requested, pulling her into the safety of his arms, the touch that had been so reluctant for so long easily floating into him. She nuzzled her way onto his chest, her legs reaching to intertwine with his, she wanted to be so close to him, closer than even sex made possible, and she reached for him with that urgency. There was fear in her grasp, had she heard he and Rodney’s conversation because she was holding onto him like he had never felt her before. 

Anubis knew about Addy. 

“Ja-wer, are you alright?” he whispered into the darkness, leaning to kiss her head and she nodded underneath of his lips. 

“I’m fine sha, just missed this, this closeness,” she whispered quietly. Understanding, as he had missed this too, he squeezed her tightly, holding her carefully in his arms. He had missed this, not the just the love making, but the actual intimacy of it all. Lying here a sudden quick thought popped into his head, he had to, before he lost her, before he lost everything. Sitting up, he brushed her hair from her face with his hand, gazing down into her mysterious brown eyes. 

“Adrienne, will you - “ he started to ask, unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth. He was going to ask her, there, in bed, on some disgusting pirate ship after they had fought their way out of, together, yet another dire situation. He couldn’t ask her, not like this, and he didn’t even know if she would say yes. What am I doing, he thought to himself, this is too soon, she doesn’t want this, I don’t even know what she wants; we never talk about anything other than the now. 

But Anubis knew about Addy. 

“What sha? Will I what?” she asked, her voice indicating that she had no idea what he was talking about. 

“You’re closet to my bag, I just wanted to get changed before bed, it’s chilly, will you pass me my pack,” he lied, the cold never bothered him, but it was the best he could think of and she seemed to believe him, slinking from his arms and pulling what was left of the vest off of her shoulders. She stood from the bed carefully and walked over to the corner securing their packs but stopping before approaching the bed. 

“I know they’re gross, but you want to grab a shower, since I am all about taking advantage of perks and whatnot,” she led, biting her lower lip, embarrassed by her suggestion. Smiling, he nodded, standing up, walking over to where her gym bag was, towels tucked inside. The showers were down the hall, but Rodney wouldn’t say a word, none of them would, and he just wanted to be closer to her for a little bit longer. 

******

“Come here,” he commanded from his seat, squinting his eyes at the bright light reflecting from the view screen emanating from the door behind him, making him take a mental note that he needed to make sure the next batch had a better tolerance for light, or at the very least his own vessel. Blue eyes glancing down at his wrist, rough ancient numbers clicked by on the small panel installed there, and he scanned quickly, confirming his math that this body had approximately 15 days left, exactly what that disgusting man had said. Those pathetic scientists from Galara were only help in the memory department, his soldiers much more cunning this round than last, but their alterations in overall genetics left much to be desired. He needed a real geneticist, he needed to hunt around and see if any of the lower lords had managed to survive and hidden into obscurity. 

“Yes sir,” the clone replied, heeding the request as the approached the chair quickly. Turning his head, he read the man’s counter, noting that this model had only seven days remaining. Perfect, he thought.  

“I need you to assemble a team. Go to Earth. You are not to take weapons. You are not to be noticed,” he instructed carefully, his left hand already sending instructions to to Amuro that their brains needed to be stroked out at day six, lest this plan go awry. 

“Yes sir,” it repeated, he couldn't call it a he, it was a thing, it lacked what he had, a soul, power, it was just a temporary flesh covered robot. 

“I want you to find out everything you know about Dr. Adrienne Rowan,” he ordered, making yet another note to Amuro, one he knew that he could do. 

Add a direct brain link to Solder 34502-x straight to me. 

“Yes, sir,” it answered again, like a trained dog, all that it really was, dashing out from the room and shutting the door behind it. Pleased, Anubis sat back in the chair, staring out towards the stars on the view screen. 

“You don’t know how easy you have just made all of this Dr. Jackson. You just don’t know.” 










2 comments:

  1. And the plot thickens.... ta ta ta taaaaa!!! LOL! I am enjoying this a lot!
    Solstice

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  2. I'm scared! Great chapter (wanna call it an episode!). You even made me feel sorry for Rodney; didn't think that was possible. Can't wait to see what happens.

    ReplyDelete