Indistinguishable From Magic

This story actually started life as a short little chapter in my Sunshine and Shadow story arc. Then it got bigger… and bigger, until it was more about SG1 than Daniel and Jillian. Jillian is my OC and her whole story is in Sunshine and Shadow.

In spite of his impatience with the situation and his need to talk to Jillian about it as soon as possible, Daniel paused in the door of the lab just to look at her for a moment. No matter the immediate issue at any given time, Daniel was always a little thunderstruck when he hadn't seen her in a while.

Her features – full lips, and high cheekbones, delicate eyebrows, the line of her neck as it flowed into her jaw – were a conspiracy of loveliness. It stopped his heart. Every time.

He managed a certain amount of dignity as he walked across the room and joined her at the lab table. Jillian was bent over rows of artifacts, ranging from tiny bits of china to large hammered metal plates. Sheets of yellow lined paper were filled with her hand writing and her laptop screen was filled with columns and tables. She was also wearing her reading glasses – something he thought made her look brilliant and, if possible, even sexier.

He brushed her hair – currently a heavy braid the color of newly minted autumn leaves – out of the way and kissed her ear.

"Ciao, bella," he murmured in a voice lined in velvet.

Daniel felt a tender shiver run down her spine. He had rarely known anyone who could keep up with him linguistically. It was a blessing when there was no word or phrase in English to describe a particular thing; and that was often the case. He had also discovered that she found certain languages - especially Italian - unbearably erotic; and that was an incredible turn on for him.

"E questo un tentativo di seduzione?" she asked.

His fingers were still gentle on the back of her neck, making little swirls on her skin.

"Sta funzionando?"

Jillian turned and pushed her glasses up to rest on the top of her head. She put her hands on either side of his face. Emerald eyes – the only jewels she ever wore – glittered.

"Si," she whispered, right before her lips found his.

He reached for her hips, felt the curve of them fill his hands as he pulled her closer.

But as pleasant as this was and as often as he had fantasized about sweeping things off the table in the lab and taking Jillian in whatever way she would allow, it really wasn't the time or place; and never would be.

She knew it too. She pulled away, kissed the corner of his mouth one last time and asked,

"So what did you come down here for?"

"I need your help," he admitted, "I sent a file to your laptop."

Jillian carefully moved some of her notes and called her up email. The file was all of Daniel's data about P3C-328.

"This is SG1's next assignment," she said.

Daniel sighed and leaned one hip on the table.

"It was," he said," We've been drafted into helping the Enkarans instead."

Jillian heard the odd tone in his voice and knew Daniel was being torn. P3C-328 promised to be one of the 'Great Finds in the History of the SGC.' But the Enkarans had to be evacuated to another planet before they were wiped out as a race. Daniel was caught between his passion for history (coupled with his need to destroy the Goa'uld) and his deeply compassionate humanitarian soul. His forehead was creased, making a fine web of lines between his heavy brows.

Hammond had taken the choice from him, however, if SG1 had been drafted into service to the Enkarans.

"I've barely glanced at this, Daniel," Jillian said, "I thought you were going to cover it, and that you wanted someone working on cataloguing these around the clock."

"I was," he said, "and I do."

He paused when something on one of the yellow pages caught his eye. He pointed to it and grinned at her a little, "And you and I will probably have an argument over that particular hypothesis."

Jillian grinned back. There was very little she enjoyed more than a spirited archaeological debate with Daniel – except perhaps several spirited hours of love making. It was part of the joy. She loved disagreeing with Daniel as much as she did agreeing with him. But she was prepared to stand her ground on this one.

"Daniel, that's a geofact, not an artifact. It's natural, not a man made spear point; and that is a collar for a pet not a bracelet."

"It's inscribed with a name isn't it?" Daniel asked.

"It says qandi – Sugar. Does that sound like a pre-Islamic woman's name to you?"

Daniel took a deep breath, prepared to launch into the arguments then got instantly sidetracked as his lingual gift kicked in.

"No it doesn't. That's where we get the word candy isn't, it? I always knew it didn't have a Latin base…" He paused again and shook his head to clear it, "Okay, we can talk about all this later. But now SG8 is going to do the recon on P3C-328 and I asked them to take you. You're the only one I trust with this."

Jillian watched the MALP footage scroll across her screen. The familiar form of a pyramid rose like a stone volcano above the forest in the distance. It was coated in white. It's peaked was tipped in gold.

"I'm not an Egyptologist, Daniel," Jillian protested, weakly. But her eyes were riveted to the images. She was just as enchanted as he was, instantly distracted from ancient triangular rocks.

"You lived in Cairo. You did post graduate work at the Cairo University. You can read hieroglyphs as well as I can," Daniel pointed out. "Jill, it's just recon in the area of the Gate. I just need as much of it recorded as possible and you'll know what you're looking for."

She glanced at him.

"And look at the pillars in front of the DHD," Daniel went on. Long fingers traced the image on her screen without touching it.

The pillars bore the etchings of the Roman numerals one and two. They were topped by a distinctly Romanesque statue of a man's head, complete with flowing hair, long beard, crown of laurel leaves and piercing eyes.

Jillian lifted an elegant eyebrow quizzically.

"Definitely not Egyptian, though we know the Egyptian and Roman Empires co-existed," she observed. "The timeline of Earth seems to have little meaning out there." She sounded distracted, once again hungrily looking at the screen.

"So you'll go?" He asked, with a mix of confidence and hope.

Jillian managed to tear her gaze away from the laptop and immediately got ensnared by intense pale blue eyes.

"You know I can't deny you anything," she said, with a smile both hopeless and sultry. "When do we leave?"

"In an hour," Daniel said.

Now her eyes flew open.

"An hour! Daniel!" Jillian shut her laptop and looked frantically at the array of pictures and notes on the table, "You get to clean this up then. I have to go get ready."

She turned and had almost run out the door when she abruptly spun around and came back. Her arms went around his neck and she pulled him down into another passionate kiss.

"Be careful," she whispered.

"You too," he urged.

Daniel let go of her reluctantly. He felt better about P3C-328, though he hated asking her to go.

He also had no way of knowing that things were about to go very, very wrong.

(0)