Page 39

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Sam pushed open the door to Daniel's office.
He hadn't been in his or Martouf's quarters, so this was the obvious next step.
Janet raised her eyebrows at the view.
Daniel and Martouf were leaning over his desk, arguing.
"Jolinar, you are being difficult."
"I have no intention of telling these Tau'ri anything."
Martouf ran a hand over his face, his usual calm completely gone.
"Why? They are our allies now. True, they do not always think before they act, but they have true courage. Perhaps if they knew more of the war they have entered, they would not be so hasty."
"Or they would simply get more opportunities to act stupidly..."
Sam stood in the doorway, completely agreeing with Janet's indignation.
Too bad Jolinar was in Daniel.
She just couldn't bring herself to deck his gorgeous face.
Janet laughed and nudged Sam forward.
Jolinar, her eyes flashing in anger, turned to Sam.
"Which are you?"
Sam just raised her eyebrows.
"The one who wants to talk to Daniel."
Jolinar's head dipped briefly and Daniel gave Sam a tired, sheepish smile, his eyes twinkling a bit.
"Sam, you're awake. How's Janet?"
Sam smiled and scooted into Daniel's chair before he could sit down in it.
He gave her a mock glare and put up about twenty books so he'd have room to sit on his desk.
"Rude wench, isn't she?"
Daniel choked on a laugh at the glare Sam sent her father, lounging against the doorframe.
Jacob just grinned at her and then looked at Martouf.
"You okay?"
Martouf shook his head.
"Jolinar refuses to simply give us the information. She said it is too important to trust to the ears of the Tau'ri. She is allowing her memories of the way she was treated before the Ashrak tortured her to influence her instead of seeing things from their perspective."
"Can you honestly blame me?"
Sam looked at Daniel's face, contorted in bitterness.
"He would not have gotten me if they had let me go."
Jacob sighed.
"They couldn't..."
"I know. Daniel has supplied me with his complete memories of the encounter. I now have Samantha and Daniel's versions of it. I have seen the Tau'ri prove they are primitive from three completely different perspectives. I see no reason to change my mind. There is no place we can talk about this without the Tau'ri hearing it."
Sam cocked her head a bit.
"Sure there is."
Jolinar's haughty look annoyed Janet, but she didn't stop Sam.
It was a good plan.
"Janet's office is completely sound-proofed. There is recording equipment in there, but it's manually operated from inside the office. Is it all Tau'ri you want this hidden from or just Tau'ri like Maybourne?"
Jolinar sighed, her anger draining a bit.
"Mostly Maybourne. How do you intend to keep him from finding out all that has happened? I refuse to hand him, and others you cannot control, information that could destroy the Tok'ra and some of our allies."
Sam smiled a bit.
"Then we just get you into Janet's office and no one but us can hear. Naturally, Janet & I'll be in with you, but that's okay, right?"
Jolinar nodded a bit, than Daniel took over, giving Sam a very suspicious look.
Sam widened her eyes a bit and looked as innocent as possible.
He just snorted under his breath.
Everyone looked up as an airman paused in Daniel's doorway.
"Sir, I've brought a wrist brace for Dr. Fraiser and I'm to tell you the General wishes to speak with you and Mr. Martouf, sir."
Daniel popped up and took the brace from the airman's outstretched hand.
Jacob and Martouf shared a brief smile at the salutation.
The first time it had happened, Jacob had explained to Martouf that since most Tau'ri have two names, it felt odd not to use a salutation since not using one implied a familiarity strangers didn't have.
Martouf had smiled and tolerated it since.
He was no stranger to odd customs.
Martouf & Jacob started toward the door.
"Come back when you are finished."
Martouf turned to his wife, aware of her uneasiness.
"We will."
Jolinar nodded and the two men left.
Daniel took over and shut the door.
"Okay. Out with it. Why do you want Jolinar in your...Janet's office?"
Sam grinned.
"Well, it's either come up with a legit, non-orders-violating reason to go in, or else pick the lock."
Daniel's eyebrows raised in curiosity and then he grinned.
"They won't let Janet even enter her office? Isn't that a bit extreme?"
"Quite frankly, yes."
Daniel chuckled as he gently helped Sam into the wrist brace so she didn't have to move more than was necessary.
"You look almost as tired as the Colonel...what is it?"
Daniel's face had twisted into a guilty grimace.
"Jack hates me."
Sam's expression was rather disbelieving.
"I doubt that. He probably just got upset about something."
Daniel snorted loudly.
"Umm...yeah. That's one way to put it."
"Daniel...tell me."
Daniel sat down on his desk, miserable.
"You know that card I sent Maybourne?"
Sam laughed at the way Janet sat up, listening intently, and remembered they'd never clued Janet in on what Daniel had done.
She quickly ran through an abbreviated version of it for Janet who practically burst with laughter and then apologized to Daniel who was sitting quietly.
"Not a problem. Jolinar and I do it, too."
"Makes sense."
Daniel smiled tightly.
"She knows I sent it and apparently Maybourne's decided to take her up on my offer."
"Uh oh."
"Yeah. So since she's like...allergic to men or something...I'm serious. You should've seen the look on her face when she was talking about anything remotely relationship-wise."
"Daniel, the thought of being with Maybourne would make anyone, even someone as psycho as Corvores, sick."
Daniel grinned and continued.
"Anyway, she's decided to blackmail Jack, me, and the General."
"You're kidding."
He got up and started pacing, suddenly unable to keep still.
"Jack's got to pretend to be involved with her and do these stupid things or else she'll get the General in trouble."
Sam felt herself shrink and drop into a big easychair.
*Can't you give me some warning?*
*Sorry.*
Sam and Janet both held still until the brief dizziness passed.
Then Janet nailed Daniel for all the details, making him swear he'd left nothing out.
Janet sighed.
"Well, at least we know what finally pushed the Colonel over the edge. He's been going on empty and this must've been too big a shock to his system."
Daniel slumped a bit and Janet gave him a hug, careful to keep her injured wrist from touching him.
"Daniel, it's okay. We'll just ride it out."
"You didn't see Jack's face. Not only did Corvores humiliate him, but I laughed at him...I didn't know she was serious, but I do know Jack's going to make me pay."
Janet stepped back.
"Okay, here's the plan. You avoid the Colonel since all he really needs to do is get some real sleep and food, and I'll help you by dogging his steps."
Daniel grinned at her.
"Not self-serving at all, are you?"
His grin widened at her shock.
"Don't worry. Jack doesn't have a clue."
Janet relaxed a bit, ignoring Sam's guffaws.
Daniel looked at her closely.
"How are you and Sam really doing?"
Janet sighed again, this time taking the desk when she sat down.
"Other than the dizziness when we switch..."
"Dizziness?"
"Yeah, whenever I take over or shrink Sam and drop her into a chair or something..."
Daniel just stared at her.
Janet cocked her head.
"I take it that's a bit different than what you and Jolinar do?"
"Oh yeah...definitely. You two sound like you're much more visual than we are. I feel her when she moves mentally, but I don't see her except when we flash memories or thoughts to each other. Then it's visual. Otherwise, we hear each other, but that's it."
Janet furrowed her brow.
"You think it's that way with other Tok'ra?"
"Other than me having complete control, Jolinar hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary with it..."
Daniel chuckled.
"Jolinar thinks it's because you're an alien. Your weird mind is just asserting itself again."
Janet snorted and then went still when she realized Sam wasn't laughing, but was nodding.
*Trying to say something?*
"Hmm? Oh...don't get upset. I'm not insulting you. I definitely think you're not completely human, though."
*What?*
Daniel watched the emotions playing across Janet's face, guessing Sam hadn't told her about their suspicions.
He started to talk to Jolinar, but she had put her wall up again.
He knew he could simply remove it, but he was trying very hard to not abuse his power.
Then, he remembered.
"Oh. Janet...about my eyes."
Janet looked up, confusion still reigning a bit.
"What? What about them?"
"I don't need my glasses at all now. I don't just have moments where I don't need them, it's all the time now."
Janet immediately started examining him.
He squirmed.
"Uh uh...nope. You're not allowed to do that and I fully intend to take advantage. You can look, but you can't touch."
Janet's expression contained both amusement and frustration.
"Daniel..."
Daniel looked up, wary as a new tone entered her voice.
Suddenly her fingers caught his ribs and he went down laughing as she tickled him.
He twisted every way he could as she deliberately found every spot.
It was worse since Sam now knew each of those spots, too.
He'd never be safe.
All coherent thought left as she found the spot just above his right hip.
He yelled breathlessly and clamped his hand around her waist in a desperate attempt to end the torture and pushed.
He pushed a bit harder than he meant to and she went sprawling on the ground a couple feet away, laughing as hard as he was.
Daniel looked up, wiping the tears from his eyes and saw Bre standing in the doorway, her eyes wide in shock.
It just made him laugh harder, his sides hurting as he leaned over and pulled Janet to her feet...sort of.
He wrapped his arm around her as her knees shook a bit.
"That was really stupid."
Janet looked into his eyes.
"I know. Even I do bonehead things sometimes."
Daniel sighed with exasperation.
"Do you need ice on that now or is it going to just fall off from the abuse you just gave it.?"
Janet looked down at her wrist, ignoring Sam's laughing thesaurical discourse on the word bonehead and making it clear Janet could stay in charge and deal with the pain.
Bre cleared her throat, trying to keep from laughing.
The Grapevine was going to absolutely die when she passed this on.
Dr. J & Dr. Fraiser in his office...it didn't matter that it was obviously a tickle fight.
That was enough to pass on, but they'd be married with seven kids by the time the rumor got back to them.
That was half the fun.
She couldn't tear her eyes away from Dr. J's twinkling eyes or the way his hair fell in them as he helped Dr. Fraiser up.
She barely heard anything the doctor said, listening too intently to the smooth timbre of his voice.
If anything had been a Kodak moment...
Bre sighed to herself as both doctors looked at her, suddenly aware they weren't alone.
"I'm sorry, but you asked to have this when I was finished?"
Dr. J looked at her for a moment and then grinned.
She melted and almost dropped the statue she'd been holding.
"Thank, Bre. That was fast. You had the full translation entered into the computer?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes, doctor. In fact, I got Dr. Stevener to sketch the entire room since the camera just can't get the effect his sketches do."
Dr. J looked up at her, stunned.
"That's great. Thanks. How in the world did you convince him to do that? He won't do anything for me."
Bre blushed.
"I told him there was a rumor you could draw it better and he just sat down and did it. He then informed me I was to show him any attempt you made to show it up."
Dr. J just laughed.
"Oh well, he's never liked me."
Bre knew Dr. Fraiser & The Colonel were together, so she wasn't at all sure how to present the tickle fight to decent advantage, unless...
"Dr. Fraiser, do mind me asking if it's true Capt. Carter's inside you like a Tok'ra?"
Dr. Fraiser did a double take and then smiled.
"Yes, she's in here. Are you okay with that?"
Bre was fine with it and said so.
More than fine, actually, since anything that involved Dr. J and the recently un-deceased Capt. Carter would fly with the wind.
Everyone would enjoy hearing about a tryst between them.
Gossip was so much fun.
Bre looked at her watch and mentally backed up a few minutes.
The listening device would've picked up the laughter easily and that could be completely misconstrued and would also lend credence to her rumor.
Perfect.
Bre beamed at the office occupants, getting smiles in return.
Dr. J handed her a couple folders.
"If you'll run these to the astrophysics lab for me, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and if you can convince Nurse Morhs to give me the results from the latest blood test she swore was just oh so important, I'd appreciate it."
Bre commiserated.
"Absolutely. It's almost as if the SGC is having some sort of secret blood drive or something. Umm...just give me a call if you want anything else, okay?"
Dr. J glanced back up from the book he'd buried his nose in.
"Don't worry, I will. Thanks, Bre."
Bre winked at him and ducked out.
Today was a good day.
Janet and Sam totally lost control as they leaned against the now shut door.
Janet slid to the floor laughing, her pants still a bit twisted around her ankles from her earlier foray with Daniel.
Daniel just looked at them.
"Be nice. She's learned a lot since she designated herself my personal assistant."
Janet just laughed harder.
Daniel gave up.
He was aware a few women had crushes on him.
He just ignored it since there was nothing he could do about it.
He'd gotten to the point where it didn't really make an impact and he really hoped Bre hadn't heard Janet.
Janet finally calmed down.
"Oh, by the way, how did you get those chocolates into the General's office?"
Daniel started.
"How'd you know it was me?"
Janet crowed.
"I have Sam inside me and neither of us did it. I wasn't sure it was you, but now that you confirm it..."
Daniel groaned.
"It's not that difficult for me to get in anywhere. I just ask someone to open the door and they do."
Janet shot him an extremely incredulous look.
"You're kidding."
Daniel grinned.
"Nope. I just went to Sam's quarters, took a couple bags out of her private stash, walked right up to the General's office as if I'd been summoned whenever I knew he was somewhere else, and re-filled the bowl."
*He looks so pleased with himself.*
*Yes, he does.*
*Let me have control so I can kick him.*
*Now, Sam, he was just...*
*He broke into my quarters and stole my chocolate!*
*Gee...and you broke into his quarters and replaced his coffee with mud as I recall.*
*He wasn't sleeping.*
*You're not the one that had to pump his stomach and deal with his severe withdrawal to the point that I was tempted to set up a coffee IV just to shut him up.*
Sam laughed.
*What a lovely bedside manner you have.*
*My mind, my rules.*
Sam sputtered a laugh.
*And such a mature viewpoint to match.*
Daniel watched Janet carefully, keeping the desk between them, just in case Sam decided to inflict bodily harm.
As long as it wasn't until after he'd left the base that she found out he'd moved her entire stash to Jack's quarters, he'd be okay.
Jack would be the one to die when she found out he'd eaten most of them and gave the rest to Teal'c.
Sam never stayed mad at him when Jack did something worse.
"What are we doing for Cassie?"
Janet stopped, her eyes lighting up and they jumped into possible ways to celebrate her daughter coming home.

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