And now back to your regularly schedule program! Here's just another tid-bit to tide you over for the next couple of days. When we last left our heroine, she was laid up on the couch lamenting Daniel's pitiful collection of amusements. Then we took a quick trip to the future in the last chapter to observe Cordelia having a bad day, but now we are back to the first days of their cohabitation, as Cordelia learns more about this man she moved in with. Thanks for your reviews and I'll try to write more soon!

Luckily for Cordelia, the next two weeks did indeed involve a trip to Blockbuster Video for more selections to waste/spend time watching while she healed. The days also included some form of a lecture from Daniel on whatever topic he was interested in at the moment, and Cordelia had, to her astonishment, actually learned stuff. She now knew several words in Latin, Greek, and Chinese. (As a Firefly fan she'd longed to understand the character's swearing, and she convinced Daniel to translate for her once she'd dug the DVDs out of her luggage. That is, Daniel had done the actual digging, but she'd ordered the pizza in return, so it was a fair trade from her perspective.) She also finally worked up the nerve to ask about the random artifacts scattered around the house. Evidently each one was not only valuable for itself and the history it represented, but also was connected to a particular dig or archeological expedition, and a special memory for Daniel.

"Also I'm too cheap to go down to Ikea and buy any kind of decorative thing, so I just bring home things from work to fill up space." He'd added at the end of his explanation.

Cordelia was quickly learning that Dr. Daniel Jackson was a complicated person. Living with the man for two weeks, she'd already noticed his often sarcastic sense of humor and his compassion. But she got a glimpse of a darkly serious side one day when he got a call on his cell phone in the early afternoon.

"Daniel Jackson." He'd been going through some ancient tomes he'd had Lieutenant Carter bring over the day before, and from her position on the couch Cordelia could see his brows drawn together. Clearly the work was not going well. As she, completely unintentionally, eavesdropped on the call, Cordelia had the feeling that the situation wasn't going to improve anytime soon.

"No, nothing we haven't already seen……..First of all, this isn't a completely secure line, secondly, that's not going to work…..Yes, I know, that's what Sam and I came up with….They're doing all they can, Mitchell. Look what they're doing for Daedelus…. Yeah…..What? No, what happened? …..Cooper's team? All of them?"

Cordelia felt a cold shiver run down her spine, and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch to stave off the goosebumps which had suddenly appeared on her arms. She felt nearly as cold as Daniel's next words-

"Vala was wrong. I should have killed her when I had the chance…." He hung up the phone abruptly and without even looking her way stood up and walked into his room.

The "snap" of the closing cell phone had made Cordelia jump slightly, but she quickly shut her eyes and feigned sleep when he stood up, although it wasn't necessary. He seemed to have forgotten her presence all together.

The next day Daniel had apologized for frightening her and being rude, and gave her an explanation about a terrorist organization they were trying to take down.

Cordelia nodded and accepted the explanation without question, though her mind screamed Why is an archeologist involved in anti-terrorism activities?? She never forgot, however, the tone of his voice during the end of that call, and mentally added "dangerous" to the epithets one could use for Daniel Jackson.

It was another phone call a few days later that introduced Cordelia to another member of Daniel's "family." From what she'd observed, (and asked Daniel) about his social life, his teammates, especially Sam, Teal'c and Jack, were his family. Back in the hospital, Cordelia's image of family had moms and dads and brothers and sisters and grandparents in it. When she'd asked Daniel about it back then, all she thought of was how sad and lonely it must be to have both parents dead, and then to lose your wife, too. She hadn't asked about grandparents, maybe because she'd figured that they must be dead by now too. But now that she'd lived with Daniel and gotten to know the people he worked and hung out with, she had begun to see that family was about much more than biology or legal recognition.

This time it was the land line that rang, interrupting a light lunch. It was light mostly because Daniel had forgotten to go shopping the day before, and Cordelia had had a bad day with the broken arm, and had spent that day in her room listening to music, so she forgot to remind him. Both of them were rather forgetful of the day to day necessities, evidently the independent responsibility Cordelia had mustered in the weeks before the accident had fled along with her sense of immortality.

Daniel hurriedly abandoned his ham sandwich and picked up the receiver. "Daniel Jackson."

Cordelia poked at the brown mush on her plate. It was the remains of the chili they'd had last night, and even then it had been only slightly more appetizing. Maybe it was Sam calling to say she'd be bringing pizza over later, Cordelia though hopefully.

"Cassie!"

The exclamation caught 'Delia off guard. Where had she heard or seen that name before?

"Yeah, that's right. When did you last talk to him? …..Really? Congratulations, Cass!"

From the sound of the conversation, whoever Cassie was, Daniel was certainly glad to hear from her...

TBC!