Title: A Little Gift

Author: CJ aka WritinginCT

Fandom: Stargate SG-1

Pairing: Jack/Daniel

Rating: Teen – PG13

Warnings: Slash, Romance, Humor

Disclaimer: I don't own the recognizable characters I'm just inspired by them. Hopefully they've had fun playing in my sandbox.

Comments: A friend of Daniel's is leaving the SGC and gives Jack & Daniel a little gift.

Feedback: Love it? Hate it? Want to offer me a book deal to write original fiction? Email me!

Notes: This fic is a Jack/Daniel relationship storyline along with an OFC/OMC relationship storyline. Because the folks at the SGC know that life is too short not to be with the one you love. First chapter is more mission based than the rest of them will be, I just needed setup some of the characters. Feedback feeds the plot fairy – so if you love it or hate it –please let me know!

A Little Gift
One Year Ago

Roslyn picked up the phone in her office surprised to hear Daniel on the other end asking her to pull some cross reference data on three past missions and his translations of the artifacts that had been recovered. "How soon can you have it in the briefing room, Ros?"

"Ten minutes, Daniel. Fifteen if you want a more thorough job. Do you need anything from your office?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. There is a packet of rubbings on the third shelf tucked near that volume of Greek mythology you gave me."

"Got it. I'll be there as soon as I can."

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Twelve minutes later Roslyn quietly entered the briefing room with the packet of rubbings in hand along with copious printouts. She was very surprised to see not only General Hammond and the members of SG-1 and SG-3 but several others. There was an Air Force officer that was currently speaking that she didn't know along with a three men that were dressed, well, oddly.

Daniel saw her and quietly waved her over. He turned in his chair to face her and took the packet of rubbings and the printouts. Looking at the pile of stuff she had printed out he realized that she had dug deeper and brought more than he asked her for. It was the reason she was his favorite research assistant. She had a knack of anticipating what additional information was going to be needed and providing it up front. Given that she had figured out why he was looking at the three particular missions based on the extra material she brought, he decided that she deserved a little public credit. He indicated to her that she should sit in the empty chair next to him.

Roslyn gave him a raised eyebrow in question as she sat down but he had already buried himself in the data she had brought. She took the opportunity to listen to the Major and try and catch up on the gist of the meeting. Daniel slid his briefing materials over to her so she could catch up; she kept her ears open as she perused the file.

The Tok'ra had captured one of Baal's operatives, near death. The spy had been carrying what appeared to be a list of random Stargate address symbols. They were not complete gate addresses and there was a peculiar odd looking symbol displayed prominently that added to the confusion. Overall the information seemed useless. The spy, out of his head with fever, was babbling incoherently but kept raving about finding the "one".

Roslyn was totally engrossed in trying to listen, read, and process all at the same time and did not realize that she was being watched. Well not so much as watched, but admired from across the table.

The mission reports Daniel had requested had all documented other occurrences of the odd looking symbol. Roslyn had taken things a step further by providing Daniel with other reports of missions that fit the profile.

Something was niggling at her. One of the reasons she made such a great research analyst was the fact that she had a near photographic memory and amazing recall. And the odd symbol from the briefing notes was familiar. She had seen its shape before.

Daniel looked at Roslyn, who to most at the meeting probably looked like she had zoned out in boredom, but he knew that look. He knew that she was mentally sorting through the filing cabinets of information in her brain looking for something. Her recall ability was almost as good as his so it wasn't surprising when she looked up at him suddenly with a wide grin.

"Roslyn?" he said quietly.

"I may have something. Excuse me for a moment." She said quickly and left the room, leaving Daniel to make her excuses.

A few minutes later an ecstatic Roslyn rushed back into the briefing with information in hand. She had a hushed conversation with Daniel and soon he wore a smile that matched hers. He addressed the meeting, "I think Roslyn has something. Roslyn, you explain."

She was going to kill Daniel. He knew that she despised speaking in front of people. Her stomach would clench and breathing became optional. But she also knew that he wanted her to get credit for her own work, knowing that in her past that unscrupulous academics had claimed her work as their own. So she took a deep breath to center herself and started.

"Looking at the unknown symbol I realized that I had seen its shape before, but not as a symbol. About a year and a half ago we visited Fratari, a dry, arid planet." She went on to explain that they found that the Fratarian people to be a society of nomadic desert dwellers. She was looking round the room as she spoke trying to avoid making eye contact. She could keep talking if she did. She did find herself looking at General Hammond though, and he gave her a quick smile of encouragement. He also knew how much she hated public speaking.

"The Fratarian have several unusual rock formations in the desert that form the basis of their directional system. They plot everything based on them. This particular formation," she said holding up a photograph that showed a rock formation in the shape of the mystery symbol, "the Fratarian call ptegu, meaning 'the starting point' which is also their word for 'one'." She made the mistake of looking directly across the table into the face of the man sitting there and promptly forgot to breath.

He was a large, solid man. His short hair was jet black and framed a face with strong, almost etched in stone features. His eyes though, were what stole her breath. Clear, crystal blue pools that she almost felt like she could fall into. They locked with hers and would not let go. An amused, gentle smile crossed his face and Roslyn broke the gaze and looked down, blushing.

Seeing her discomfort, but wrongly assuming it was from the public speaking, Daniel picked up where she left off, "This all fits together too well to be coincidence. Another trip to Fratari to explore this formation to see what we can find is probably in order. We're on good terms with the Fratarian tribes so there shouldn't be an issue."

Everyone suddenly seemed to want to speak at once and General Hammond cleared his voice loudly to get everyone's attention. He decided to table further discussion until the following morning, allowing the Tok'ra the opportunity to contact their leadership as well as allowing Daniel to put together information on the planet for everyone. He stood to adjourn the meeting, "I would just like to say thank you on the record to Roslyn Sanfield, one of our best analysts. I think without her help we could have been debating all of this for days. Thank you Miss Sanfield."

She smiled at General Hammond and the moment they adjourned she stood and said quietly to Daniel, "I'll be in my office if you need me. I'll start pulling what you need."

"Thanks, Roslyn. I'll stop by in a while."

As she left the room she chanced a quick glance at the man that had sat across from her and was surprised to see him watching her. She gave him a shy little smile and dropped her gaze as she left the room.

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Roslyn had been in her office for a couple of hours pulling together all the data that would be pertinent to Fratari when Daniel and Jack arrived.

"Colonel, Daniel." She said in greeting and she laughed as the two men started placing food items on the desk in front of her. A sandwich, an apple, a couple of granola bars, and a large cup of her favorite Earl Grey tea all magically appeared.

"We figured you would skip lunch again." Daniel teased.

"I would never do that, and I don't know anyone else around here that does either." She teased back.

"Ha! The two of you would forget to breathe if it interrupted you gawking at some old thing." Jack interjected. And a stream of teasing started between Jack and Daniel.

Roslyn enjoyed the interaction between the two men. There was a sense of easy companionship and genuine affection between them that was difficult to find these days. She often wondered if there was more to their relationship than friendship, but given the Colonel's position it was not prudent to ponder. She had known Daniel a long time and hoped though that maybe he had finally found someone to love him unconditionally, there was not a better man to be found.

The playful bantering between the men was interrupted by the ringing of Roslyn's phone. She was asked to stop by General Hammond's office as soon as possible. Hanging up she raised an eyebrow at the two men standing in front of her, "I don't suppose either of you know why I am being called to General Hammond's office do you?"

Jack wisecracked, "Maybe he's going to name you Chief-Geek-In-Charge. Oh wait, that's Daniel's title."

"Jack." Daniel said flatly.

"What did I say now?" Jack chuckled.

"Seriously Ros, he was in with the Tok'ra when we left. I don't know what he wants. Maybe he just wants to say thank you again. Never think he doesn't know about your contributions. Today was just one of many."

"Speaking of earlier Daniel, remind me to kill you later. You know I hate public speaking."

"You're getting better at it."

"I don't want to be better at it Daniel."

She evicted the pair of men from her office, telling them to go hassle Sam, and headed for the General's office.

Roslyn was admitted into his office immediately and wasn't sure if she should be relieved or not to see that he was alone.

"Please sit down Miss Sanfield."

"Thank you General." She sat in the chair across from him a bit nervously, feeling a little like she was an errant schoolgirl that was called to the principal's office. Had she been too forward with her information earlier? Did she commit some diplomatic faux pas that she wasn't aware of?

"I asked to speak with you for two reasons. One, we are hosting dinner reception here tonight for the Tok'ra delegation and your presence was specifically requested by a member of the delegation. So although I can't order you to attend, your attendance would help to maintain our good relations with the Tok'ra and I would ask you to take that into consideration before giving me your answer."

Roslyn was confused. She hadn't even spoken with any of the delegation. Why would they request that she attend a dinner party? She looked down at her clothing. Her simple pair of khaki pants and a white pull over shirt was not appropriate dinner attire. "I would be honored to attend, Sir. Although I'll admit that I am a little confused as to why the Tok'ra would request me. And I'll just need to run home and change into something more appropriate, Sir."

"That shouldn't be a problem. If I had to hazard a guess Miss Sanfield, I would say that you more than impressed the Tok'ra earlier today. The other item I wanted to discuss with you involves the mission back to Fratari. I would like to offer you the opportunity to accompany SG-1."

"Go through the gate, Sir? Me?" she asked with a huge smile on her face. She had only ever told Daniel that she longed to go off-world, and had never thought it would come to pass.

"Yes. I will inform Colonel O'Neill and I am sure that he will want to speak with you about his off-world expectations and you will have to visit the infirmary to be cleared to go by Doctor Fraiser."

"I don't know what to say General Hammond. This is a tremendous opportunity and I am honored. Thank you."

"You've earned it. Now if you will excuse me I have a dinner reception to oversee. Take all the time you need this afternoon to go home. I will see you this evening."

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Roslyn made her way down the hall of the SGC with the unusual sound of her high heels clicking against the floor. She always dressed very casually for work, and even when she needed to dress for meetings her clothing was business like and conservative. She leaned towards plain, non-descript colors normally so her appearance was making people take a second look as she walked by. She had decided to wear a beautiful wrap-around dress made from a wonderful dark chartreuse green silk. She knew the color was good on her. It almost matched her eyes perfectly and set off her long, curly, raven hair nicely.

She headed for Daniel's office hoping to catch him there so she wouldn't have to walk into the dinner alone. She knocked and heard some odd muffled thumps and voices. It took a long moment before Daniel opened the door. He was flushed and his shirt was untucked and slightly rumpled. "Sorry Roslyn I was getting changed."

As the door swung open behind him she could see Colonel O'Neill sitting at Daniel's desk in his dress uniform. He too seemed a little flustered. "Colonel." She said in greeting with a little tilt of her head.

She thought it was odd that he didn't stand right away to greet her. He was normally a perfect gentleman when it came to things like that. Then something in her brain clicked. And it took all of her self control not to smile as she realized that she most likely had interrupted something. And she would be willing to bet a month's pay that Jack couldn't stand up without embarrassing himself right now. Dress blues don't hide a thing.

Not wanting to embarrass the two men she controlled her mirth and said, "I'll just head to my office and let you finish getting ready. Will you swing by and get me on your way through so I don't have to walk in by myself?"

Daniel just nodded quickly and she turned and headed towards her office.

He closed the door and let out a huge breath. "That was too close, Jack."

"You're telling me. Refresh my memory, isn't this why we said no fooling around on base?" Jack stood up and made a production out of adjusting himself.

Daniel crossed the room into Jack's personal space and grinned wickedly, "Yeah, but you know what your dress blues do to me."

"Actually I think it's more what my dress blues make you do to me considering I was the one being molested. You don't think Roslyn heard anything do you?"

"No. And even if she did, she's wouldn't say anything." He stepped back and finished dressing.

"You're right, she wouldn't. She's a good egg, Danny. Tell me again why she is still single?"

"I guess she just hasn't met the right person yet, Jack. She's got the same problem Sam has. They are both brilliant, attractive, and interesting women. But they terrify most men. And don't forget how hard it is to date civilians without telling them what we do for a living. I know Roslyn has tried going out with a couple of the officers and at least one of the Marines but she just didn't click with any of them."

"Hey, what about Davis? He's a good guy and no issue with clearance there."

"I was actually thinking the same thing. Let's make sure they get introduced tonight. It might be the one useful thing the cocktail hour produces."

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