All That I Need by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Sam is in charge of Atlantis and Daniel goes to work with her for a while.
Spoilers: All seasons.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.
All That I Need
Chapter 3
"Have you seen Ronon?" Sheppard asked Sam as she entered the gateroom.
"Ronon? No, why?"
"Well you see, today it's our kind of Sunday-"
"I know. You already explained that to me."
"Well, yesterday I asked Ronon if he wanted to give golf another try-"
"And he accepted?"
"Not exactly. He didn't sound too excited, but he doesn't like football much either. He said he didn't understand why we spent so much time not playing, as he put it. I've been trying to explain to him that that's part of the game, but Ronon-"
"Ronon?" McKay interrupted this time as he entered the room. "He's with Jackson. They're playing basketball."
"What? Jackson organized a basketball game?"
"Not really. It was Major Lorne. He was sitting in the cafeteria with his basketball by his side, −as every other Sunday− when Jackson came in with Ronon and Teyla and asked him if there was a team. Lorne said that he usually played with the ball on his own and Jackson said that he routinely played with Cameron Mitchell and Teal'c every afternoon. And that's it. Now they're all playing."
"All who?" asked Sheppard with contempt in his voice, as Sam looked amused.
"Well, there's Lorne, Jackson, Ronon, Teyla, Zelenka-"
"Zelenka?"
"Yes, that little traitor now is good friends with Jackson," McKay replied and Sam had to turn to avoid being seen smiling.
"Who else?"
"The other team has Coffman, McNab, Sherman, Hansen, and Bryce."
"How did they get McNab or Bryce to play basketball?" Sheppard asked with real bewilderment.
"That's funny," McKay said. "They all volunteered. It looks like, lately, to be cool around here, you have to be part of what Jackson is doing."
"I have to see this for myself," Sheppard explained and left the room.
Sam went to her office and sat silently for a while. She was surprised at the effect Daniel was having on the Atlantis' population. She had never noticed that on Earth. It was fair to concede that the SGC was a far more military structure, but it still baffled her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Daniel was just being himself. He was not doing anything extraordinary. He had not changed his routine. He had just brought it to Atlantis.
It was true that he played basketball with Teal'c, Cameron, and Vala in the afternoons.
It was true that he had been trained to fight by all of them. They always joked about how Vala had beaten him up onboard the Prometheus, but the truth was that he had overpowered and captured her. Since the very beginning, right after Sha're had been captured, Daniel had allowed Jack, Sam, and Teal'c to teach him to fight. He wanted to be ready in case he needed those skills to save Sha're. Over the years he had become quite capable. He had the advantage that he was a tall and solid man and also that he was always willing to learn. Black ops, Jaffa, Sodan, Goa'uld, whatever they had to offer, he would take, and now he had Satedan and Athosian at his disposal. It was only logical.
It was also true that he kept a fairly rigid gym routine. Sam recalled once seeing him covered in sweat after a strenuous weight lifting session with Teal'c. She had smiled questioningly and he had simply said, "I'm getting old and our battles aren't getting easier." It was not a surprise that he had joined many of the soldiers stationed in Atlantis for their physical training and it was not a surprise either that those soldiers had started becoming his friends.
Finally, it was true, too, that he spoke many different languages and it was understandable that the non-English speaking scientists that were part of the international expedition to Atlantis would feel drawn to someone who could understand their native language and cared for their cultures as well.
As clearly as Sam had always been attracted to anything scientific, Daniel was attracted to anything social and that was a great advantage. She only wished she could do better herself; people in Atlantis were still not used to seeing her in Weir's place and she felt very isolated. She was more than a military officer −Sheppard was in charge of that− but she was sure that she was not seen that way, at least yet. Now that Daniel was here, she could share her fears with him, but there was still something that did not let her get as close to him as before. He had been in Atlantis for ten days and they had not had one personal conversation.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard McKay talking to Daniel in the gateroom. She decided to go see what Daniel was doing there.
"It just doesn't make sense," Rodney was saying with clear exasperation.
"Let me see…" Daniel approached McKay and looked at the same screen he was watching. "You're working on gravity's pull, right?"
McKay turned and looked at him surprised and then assented. "Yes."
Daniel looked at the paper where McKay had been scribbling something a moment before and then he said, "That symbol means isomorphic. That's the difference. I know that in English we have two meanings for the same symbol, but in Ancient this can only be isomorphic. For approximately equal you would use this one." He leaned over the desk and drew a symbol on the paper.
McKay looked over the paper and smiled. "That's it!" He turned and looked at Daniel. "You can read Lantian?"
"It's basically old Ancient. It's the same thing."
"He's understood Ancient since the day he came back from Ascension," Sam said from behind them.
"So, you don't need to translate this? You understand what it means right away?" McKay asked without paying attention to Sam.
Daniel nodded his head.
"You know, when I was on the path for ascension… Maybe you've heard, I had this accident with this weird device and my body was rigged for ascension… Anyway, I wrote these notes and I've been having extreme difficulty trying to understand what they mean. Maybe you could give me a hand."
"Sure."
Before Sam could react, McKay had taken Daniel by his arm and was leading him to his lab while talking animatedly. Sam spent a few more seconds looking at her friend as he walked away. She realized his hair was wet, probably due to a quick shower after the game. What was he doing there? Perhaps he had come to look for her. Who knew? Sam sighed and went back to her office.
