Daniel tapped his fingers on the steering wheel in rhythm with the windshield wipers. Struggling valiantly to keep the car windows clear, they weren't really keeping up with the job. The rain was coming down hard and visibility was poor. He had to drive slower than he'd wanted in order to keep control of the car on the rain-slicked streets. The flashes of lightning overhead did little to soothe his nerves as he drove into the night. He thought nervously of the lecture he would get from Jack if the other man ever learned that he had absent-mindedly left one of his journals at a public library. What was he thinking, taking them to a public place like that?
Actually, he knew what he'd been thinking. He was thinking that he needed to get off the base sometime. He'd been thinking that he needed to see some faces besides Jack and Sam and Teal'c. They were his family and he cared for them, but sometimes he just needed to see the rest of humanity to remember what they were fighting for.
Since he'd lost Sha're, he had begun to wonder why he continued with the team, why he continued going through the gate. It all seemed so pointless at times. Sometimes it seemed that no matter how hard they tried, they could never completely win - the enemy was just too big.
Rose helped to remind him with her sweet smile and merry laughter. It was at the library that he remembered they were fighting for all of humanity. When he was telling stories to the children, he remembered that it was their future that he was working so hard to save. That's why he'd taken the journals to the library to work on.
But to leave one of them there… Of course, he could try to lay the blame for that one at Jack's door. After all, it had been Jack's urgent page that had caused him to pack everything up and exit the library in such a rush that he didn't notice the journal stuck in amongst the pages of the book he had been using as a reference. Then they'd been off-world for a week and he hadn't thought of the book again until he'd heard the librarians' voice on his answering machine. He had heard fear in her voice. Had she read it? What would he do if she had? What a mess!
A flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder that sounded overhead brought his mind back to his driving. He was relieved to see the library at the end of the block. The lights were still on; he'd made it before it had closed. He would just get the journal and Jack need never know about the disaster that had been so narrowly avoided.
Rose sat at the desk and watched the clock tick inexorably to closing time. She clutched the little book tightly, listening to the rain pound on the skylight. Her world had changed in the matter of an hour. It had been safe and secure; her only worries were paying her bills and taking her cat to the vet. Now, suddenly, the world was a strange and frightening place populated by Gou'ald and government conspiracies.
She kept hoping that Doctor Jackson would appear and take the book from her. That somehow when he did, he would also take from her the weight of the knowledge that she now possessed. It was a heavy knowledge of alien invasion and a fight for the safety of her very planet. She didn't think she was strong enough to bear it.
It never occurred to her that what she had read might have been fiction, the fancies of an over-imaginative mind that had nothing better to do than spin tales of alien invasion. No, the words had been imbued with an air of authority and weight, and she knew Daniel Jackson. She had been listening to his stories for years now. Suddenly they took on a new light. She had thought he told them as if he had been there. Now she knew that somehow he had.
'Where was he now?' She wondered. On some far-distant planet fighting an alien menace, keeping the earth safe? He could be dead for all she knew. As part of a top-secret government organization, she would probably never even find out about it if he were.
She jumped as the thunder rumbled outside. The lights in the library flickered. Why in the world had she read the journal? It was so far out of the ordinary for her. But when it had fallen open in her hands, the allure of reading the innermost thoughts of the personable archeologist proved to be more than she could resist. She hadn't even thought twice. Now she knew things that she was certain that she shouldn't have done it. But it was too late now.
She looked nervously around the library. What had once seemed a safe refuge was now a dark and shadowy place. She knew it was illogical to fear that somehow the alien menace was in her library, but there you were - she imagined she could see eyes glowing in the shadows now.
She had told Daniel in her message that she would take the journal home with her, but she didn't think that was particularly safe either. She looked around trying to search out a place where she could safely put the book until she decided what to do with it.
Finally, time came, closing time and no Daniel Jackson. She'd kept hoping somehow that he would appear and take the cursed book from her, relieve her of any responsibility for it, vain hope that it was. She had hidden it away. It was all she could do until morning. If she didn't hear from him by tomorrow, she would just have to go to the Cheyenne Mountain base where she now knew he worked and hand it over to the general mentioned in his writings, whatever the consequences for the either of them.
Reaching under the counter, she flicked the switches that would turn out the majority of lights in the building; all that was left on were the main lights around the circulation desk. She pulled out the keys and went to the door to turn the lock so she could finally go home. She paused at the door before turning the key, looking through the glass out at the rain-soaked world.
Through the sheets of rain that spattered against the door, she saw headlights pull into the lot and park in front of the door. It was a no-parking zone, but who was going to care on a night like tonight? She watched as someone got out and dashed up the steps. Was it...? Her heart jumped with fear as she thought of all she'd read.
Then she saw, yes, it was in fact Daniel Jackson. The handsome man stepped into the library, dripping wet and looking tired. It was all she could do to not throw her arms around him in relief. But she didn't, she restrained herself and just smiled at him.
"Daniel, I'm so glad to see you."
"Yes, well, I'm sorry to be dripping all over your floor, it's ugly out there." He replied.
"Yes, yes, it is. It's been raining all day. I've nearly lost power three times tonight. It'll be a relief to go home." God, she was babbling, "I see you got my message."
Daniel shook himself, trying not to drip too much, but it was a lost cause. Just running from the car to the door he was soaked. "I just missed your call, I'd just gotten in." He looked at her trying to decide if she'd read the journal. He couldn't tell. When she ducked her head and wouldn't meet his eyes he knew, yes...
Rose avoided his eyes guiltily, "I'm sorry to make you come out on a night like this. I just thought you would want to know where it was." She moved to get it from its hiding place, "I mean it's been here for a week now and I just thought you would be looking for it everywhere..." Yes, she was definitely babbling and she didn't know how to stop. She'd ruined her friendship with him, such as you could have with someone you only saw for an hour or two, once or twice a month, and she didn't know how to fix it.
"Rose," Daniel's voice stopped her mid-babble and she turned to him. He was looking at her with compassion and, was that amusement? "You read it didn't you?"
Before she could answer, the door that she'd neglected to lock when Daniel had come in opened again, this time to admit three very large men. It was hard to really see what they looked like bundled as they were in raincoats, but she could see they were tall and muscular, not your normal library types at all. The man in front had hard, cold eyes and a mouth set in a perpetual frown, he carried an umbrella and wore black gloves. A shiver went through Rose. No, these didn't look like her usual patrons. Daniel moved to stand at her side and, she thought, regarded them with as much suspicion as she did. Still, she tried to maintain appearances.
"The library is closed for the evening. Is there anything I can help you gentlemen with?"
The first man, the one with the umbrella, shook it out and folded it up, neatly and meticulously. Leaning it casually against the door, he nodded at his companions. They took off their raincoats to reveal black suits that did nothing to conceal the bulging muscles underneath. One of the men turned to lock the door behind them with the key that Rose had left in the lock. Daniel shifted slightly so that he was now standing between her and the intruders. The first man, obviously the leader smiled slightly before he spoke.
"Doctor Jackson, I presume?" Daniel felt a small thrill of fear go through him that the man knew his name. This was not good. He cursed himself silently, why hadn't he called Jack and told him where he was going? Well because Jack would have yelled at him.
In the larger scheme of things there were worse things than being lectured. Like being locked in a library with three dangerous looking men. He suspected they were all here on the same errand. Stay calm, he told himself, remember the things that Jack had told him about 'situations.'
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don't know yours." He said it as calmly as he could manage. The man just smiled a little wider.
"Why would you, Daniel? I can call you Daniel, can't I? I feel like I you know you after I've been listening to your phone conversations for so long now."
"My phone conversations? You've been listening...?" Instantly Daniel was angry at this intrusion into his privacy, but he was also aware of Rose's fear at his back. As much as he might want to strike out at this smug stranger, he had to keep her safety in mind. "How long have you been tapping my phone?" Keep the man talking; try to figure out the next step, that was always Jack's strategy.
"Long enough to know that your life is so much more boring than mine, at least when you're on Earth. Outside of that, I don't know, why don't you tell us about your adventures through the Stargate, Daniel?" The other two men were now moving to surround them, one to either side of them. Daniel felt Rose touch him lightly on the arm, steadying him, letting him know that she was there and all right. Good girl.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." His mind clicked onto the cover story for his involvement with military. He didn't think they'd buy it, but it might gain them some time to figure something out. "I'm a civilian archeologist working with the military..."
"Yadda, yadda, yadda, Daniel, yes, I know all that. Cool story, doesn't fool anyone, you know. Even your landlord wonders where you are all the time. Now, shall we get down to business?" He looked them over, "This is a library, and we've come to get a book. Give us the book we want and we'll leave you and your librarian friend alone and alive. Sounds simple, don't you think?"
"Funny, you don't look like the bookish type to me," the words fell out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Unless of course, there were lots of pictures."
"Very funny, Daniel. I see that hanging out with Jack O'Neill has helped you sharpen your wit."
It frightened Daniel even more that this stranger knew about his friends and his life. The smug man patted Daniel's cheek once, a nice friendly pat, but then he slapped it again. Hard. Daniel's head jerked back and his teeth clicked together painfully. Rocked back from the force of the blow, he felt Rose steady him with her hand on his back. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"Now, let's try this again," the other man continued in a reasonable tone. "Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
Daniel felt Rose moving. Before he could stop her, she stepped around him, saying in a bright tone, "This is a library, sir. And while it is past closing, we've always prided ourselves on our commitment to customer service. If you'll just tell me what book it is you're looking for, I'm sure I can find it and get you on your way."
She was so much the officious librarian, Daniel almost laughed, but then he saw the look on the burly man's face and the laugh died.
"Okay," Burly said, his tone acquiring a dangerous tone. They were playing with him and he obviously didn't like it. "The time for games is over."
"Games?" Rose turned as if to move away, "I'm sure we have a complete..." One of Burly's cohorts stepped in her way to block her path. He turned her back to the man in charge. She was caught between the two with Burly standing in front of her and backed up into the other man.
Burly's voice was rising to a dangerous level, "You'll find I don't have much patience ever, especially tonight. Now, I said the time for games is over. I want the journal and I want it now. If I get it now with a minimum amount of fuss, I might not be inclined to hurt you too badly. But for every minute that passes, starting now," he looked down at his watch, "I'm going to let my friends break one of your bones. Oh, and look, I have two friends; and there are two of you. How convenient."
Daniel looked over at Rose, trying silently to plead for understanding and forgiveness. His journal couldn't be given to these men. She just returned his gaze with an inscrutable smile.
"Journal? Why didn't you say so, of course I have the journal." Before Daniel could stop her, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small cloth-bound book. She looked over at him. He read something in her eyes, but what? She held it out and Burly reached for it. Before he could take it she said, "Fetch," and threw the book into the shadowy area where the lights were already out over the shelved books. In the split second when the three men's attention was diverted she grabbed Daniel's hand, pulling him after her in the opposite direction.
One of the big men tried to grab them, but Daniel was ready with a move that Jack had taught him once, flinging an elbow up into the man's face. The other man was so surprised that he fell backwards. Jack would be so proud.
Rose and Daniel took advantage of the confusion, disappearing into shelves of books as sounds of yelling erupted behind them.
To be continued...