Daniel's Nemesis
"Five minutes, that's all" said Janet to Sam as they stood in the doorway of the infirmary talking in low whispers. "He's only just woken up."
Sam nodded. "Of course. How is he?" She glanced over at the bed where Daniel lay propped up on a couple of pillows. He looked better than he had done when she had last seen him, but he had an IV line connected to a cannula on the back of his hand and his breathing looked a little laboured. He had his glasses on, which was usually a good sign, but there were dark shadows under his eyes.
"He's fine" Janet smiled "we caught it in time – he needs a week of bedrest and then another couple of weeks of taking it easy, but he will be back to normal in no time."
"It might be hard to get Daniel to take it easy!" Sam observed. SG-1 had all been given leave he wouldn't be missing anything off world but the mystery of the items for Px8-112 was certain to be calling him back to his lab sooner rather than later.
"True!" Janet replied with a laugh "If necessary I'll tie him to the bed!"
"You do know that I can hear you don't you…" Daniel said loudly.
"We do now" said Janet. "Right, I'm off to prepare some vaccinations for SG-5 to take to P5-88. Remember no more than five minutes." She bustled out of the room. Sam, who had been leaning casually on the doorframe pushed herself upright and walked over to the bed.
"Hi Daniel" said Sam brightly. "Are you feeling better?" She looked at him with friendly concern and pulled up a chair close to the bed.
Daniel nodded. "Yes thanks." He paused, not quite sure how to phrase what he wanted to say. He wanted to thank her for interrupting the meeting the previous day, but equally he didn't want to sound too grateful. He was still sure he would have made it to the end ok and he was slightly peeved that the decision had been taken from him. In the end he stuttered "Thanks for – you know – "
"Ignoring you?" Sam interjected. "You don't always have your own best interests at heart Daniel!" She leant forward and patted his hand affectionately. "If I hadn't called time then Jack would have done – or Teal'c. We all know you too well." Daniel looked away, embarrassed and Sam took the hint and changed the subject. "I suppose you've heard that General Hammond has given us leave. Apparently after our diplomatic failure with Px8-112 he doesn't trust us to go off-world without you." She grinned. "It's not that I'm pleased that you are in excruciating pain or anything – but it is great to be able to get the chance to run some experiments here."
Daniel smiled back "Glad to have been of use." He was rather pleased to hear that he was indispensable.
"How is the pain?" Sam asked.
"No longer excruciating" Daniel replied "Let's talk about something else. Tell me about your experiments. What are you investigating?"
"I'm going to look at the rate of naquadah decay." Sam replied I've been wanting to run some tests for ages. It appears that naquadah decays at a rate that is strikingly different to Plutonium; the half-life is very different. I thought that if we can identify the precise reasons for the disparity then we would have a much greater understanding of how the power supply for the gate actually works."
"And then" Daniel added thoughtfully "It might be possible to explore alternative methods of powering the gate."
"Exactly!" said Sam. She was pleased that Daniel was taking an interest and impressed that he could think coherently and jump ahead so soon after anaesthetic and while still drugged up. Jack never made any attempt to follow any technical explanation. In fact, he was so anti-explanation that she thought he did it on purpose. It was as though he had a selective deafness for anything involving science. His eyes would glaze over and he would either hold up a hand to stop her or make some strangled noised to cut her off mid-flow. Daniel, on the other hand, was always interested in her work – and she in his. She had thought before what a rarity it was to work in a place in which archaeology and cutting edge – futuristic even – science were so closely inter-twined. The problem of that strange cylinder still sitting in the lab downstairs was a case in point.
When Janet poked her head around the door a few minutes later Daniel and Sam were still in animated discussion. Even though Daniel was nearly flat on his back it was obvious that the two were bouncing ideas to and fro. "Two minutes" Janet called out to Sam, holding up two fingers for emphasis "and that's all. I don't want you tiring out my patient."
Sam nodded "ok – I need to go in a minute anyway". She looked back at Daniel "You do look better. I'll pop by later and bring you some stuff. Perhaps we can have another puzzle over that cylinder" she looked at Daniel with a cheeky glint in her eye "provided you promise not to activate it this time."
Daniel gave a gentle chuckle, winced and vowed not to laugh again in the near future. He smiled at Sam; "bye, thanks". Sam gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder as she got up to leave. At the doorway she turned and gave him a wave and then hurried off down the corridor, keen to get started on her project.