Chapter One

Samantha Carter was absently walking down one of the gray hallways of the SGC—on her way to her quarters to work on one of her various projects that she was never able to fully finish—when she thought about taking some time off. General Hammond suggested a week's leave, considering she hadn't had one in a long while, and SG-1 had been running themselves ragged; mission after mission. The thought was comforting, and she set her mind on some vacation time. But an afterthought made her visit Daniel first. Just to see if he was busy. They could go get some food, go to a movie. Stuff that friends do that she hadn't done in forever. Daniel was always the perfect person for those kinds of things.

She came up to Daniel's office and opened the door to find loud music blaring from his CD player. The kind of music she actually hadn't expected him to be listening to. It sounded like punk rock, or whatever the kind of rock that kids listen to these days. Daniel was hunched over old papers sprawled out all over his desk and his foot was tapping to the bass.

Sam just stood there, waiting for Daniel to notice her. When he did, she smiled and waved a bit.

"Oh, hi," Daniel said, reaching to turn the music down. Sam raised an eyebrow. "Something Cassie gave me…" he explained.

"Sooo…whatcha doin'?" she asked, leaning against his desk with the palms of her hand.

"Oh…I was looking at something sg-7 brought back from…someplace…I cant remember," he said, absentmindedly, running his fingers over a line of indiscernible text on a piece of parchment.

"I see," Sam said, innocently. "What is it?"

"It's a, uh…tablet…that came with a few scrolls…can't tell what culture it's from though," he replied, still engrossed in his work. He picked up a piece of paper with a picture of the tablet and handed it to Sam.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Well…it looks like ancient but then it just…randomly changes to Asgard…and then some stuff I've never seen before…dunno why it does that…" Daniel explained.

"Cool," said Sam, putting the paper down. Daniel laughed. It sounded weird, hearing Sam say 'cool' about something that she wasn't the least bit interested in. She almost sounded like one of those little sisters carrying on normal conversation before asking for money.

"So, have you talked to Jack lately?" Sam asked, purposefully trying to get Daniel away from his work.

"No, not since he went home last week. He asked if I want to go up with him for a couple of days to fish," he replied, rolling his eyes.

Sam laughed.

"He dragged Teal'c along, too," Daniel replied, laughing as well.

"Poor Teal'c…" Sam laughed, sighing. "Well…I've got nothing to do…erm, no that's a lie. I've got plenty to do I just…don't want to do any of it."

Daniel laughed.

"So, I'm thinking of going home myself," she said.

"Jeez," Daniel sighed, not taking his eyes off his work. "First Jack, then Teal'c, now you? So you mean you'd rather go home and leave me here all alone?"

Sam Laughed. "Well, I haven't been home in a while. But there's almost no point, anyway. Every time I try to go home, something comes up and I just end up having to come back right after I left. It's really annoying. I was actually thinking that you and me could do something. You know, grab some food, catch a movie or…"

And before she could finish her full sentence, the big red light on the walls illuminated the room and Siler's familiar voice sounded through their ears: "Unscheduled off-world activation."

"See what I mean?!" Sam said, above all the noise.

They both laughed, and made their way to the Gate room.