"Ad," he shook her gently, whispering quietly into her ear, hoping not to rouse her too quickly.

"Not now Eric; humans have to sleep," she rolled over in bed, pushing him away forcefully, shoving her head underneath the pillow.

Note to self, Adrienne doesn't wake easily.

"Ad," he whispered a bit louder, hoping this time it would work, that she would wake up and get out of here since he needed her up and moving, sooner than later if this was going to work.

Maybe this hadn't been a good idea.

"Just go to Fangtasia; I'll be there after I nap," she replied, smacking at the air now, huddling further over to the corner of the bed, pressing her body against the cold concrete wall.

"Adrienne, I need you to wake up and stop dreaming about vampires," Daniel pleaded, raising his voice a touch in order to wake her but not startle her. He wasn't afraid of scaring her; he was afraid of getting punched, he knew how hard she hit and Adrienne took her sleep, took health in general seriously, very seriously, very very seriously. Rolling over, Adrienne opened her eyes slightly, barely looking at him, startled for a moment before realizing that it was Daniel staring right at her.

"Is your name Alexander Skarsgard?" she asked curtly, hoping her voice conveyed what her eyes could not.

"No Ad, it's me; you're just dreaming about Swedish men," Daniel answered, standing closer to the edge of the bed, since now that she was awake, there was no fear of him getting socked, or so he hoped. Growling, Adrienne rolled back over to her side glaring at him viciously.

"Then get the hell out of my bedroom Daniel," she said as she pulled the blanket over her head. Daniel figured this was the reaction he might get barging in here in the middle of the night, but he needed her to get up now and this couldn't wait until morning.

"Adrienne, I just need you to come and take a look at something. Then you can go right back to sleep. I promise," Daniel lied, deftly. It would take a bit longer than a moment and she wasn't going to be happy, but this needed to be done and there was no better time than the present, regardless of the hour. Grumbling, she rolled back over to face him and turned on her bedside lamp, cutting her eyes at him.

"I have a rule about being seen without makeup Daniel. I also have a rule about being called into work at," she looked at her clock, "three a.m. Oh, and a rule about having men in my bedroom uninvited. Right now you're breaking all three." Daniel made a face at her. Times like these he wondered if she was really that difficult or if Vala had been having an influence on her but either way, she was going to get up, and she was going to get up now.

"Do you think I'd come all the way down here and drag you out of bed if it wasn't important?" he retorted but Adrienne rolled her eyes.

"I don't hear sirens," she spat, sitting up, still complaining but she was coming. Pulling back the blanket, Adrienne stepped out of bed wearing only a tank top and underwear, throwing her cover disgustedly behind her. Taken aback by her choice of bedtime attire, Daniel turned away quickly, clearing his throat. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him hiding his face with his hand, noticing his discomfort, stopping mid stride to scowl at him.

"Ya such a cooyon sometimes Indy, dis be more dan my racing suit covers. Did ya dink I slept in uniform?" she laughed, somewhat appreciating his chivalry, trudging over to her dresser and pulling some yoga pants out of the drawer. Despite her temptation, she decided not to mention to him that if he were to awaken Vala at three a.m. in her underwear that he would be getting a decidedly different reaction.

Reluctantly, Adrienne pulled the pants up to her hips and walked over to slide on her slippers, receiving a raised eyebrow and a frown in return as he stood by her footwear.

"Dammit Indy, you're lyin' ta me. I know dat look, dat look dat says slippas are not enough," Adrienne sighed and slipped back out of them, walking over to grab her combat boots, foregoing socks and turning toward the bathroom.

"Adrienne, this is urgent, can you please hurry?" Daniel tried not to plead but was getting slightly annoyed. She didn't acknowledge him with a response, brushing her teeth, door open, seemingly doing it as loud and slow as she could, slamming the brush into the cup, and storming back into the room, make-up bag in hand. Shoving Daniel out of the way as she walked right past him, Adrienne opened the door, heading straight for the elevators.

When she arrived it was a disaster, as if Daniel's spreading disease had far surpassed his desk, invading hers in the process. Files were everywhere, stacked on tables, in piles on the floor, strewn on top of the cabinets and she counted at least three cups of coffee in various stages of completion positioned around the room, including one precariously close to the edge of the stack of papers on her desk and her spare hard drive. She scanned the room from side to side before looking at him, her eyes wide and her mouth dropped open.

"What have you done?!" Adrienne asked in disbelief, taking her eyes off of him again to gaze upon the literal eruption of paper laid out in front of her. The lab had been organized before she was hired, albeit loosely, as Daniel had an odd system of spreading that deviated drastically from how meticulous his dig sites were but one of Adrienne's first self-appointed tasks when she was hired was to create a system that everyone who needed the lab could use in an attempt to reign in his massive desk disorganization.

This wasn't her system.

This wasn't any system.

This was shrapnel from the bomb known as Daniel.

"I told you I needed you," he replied, lifting his leg to carefully step into a six inch by six inch square in order to walk over to his desk. She followed, stepping over three opened boxes, contents stacked in piles beside them, almost stumbling over the third, as the folders were stacked on top of the box so high she couldn't lift her leg over the tower. About halfway to the desk she paused, grumbling under her breath once more, turning and walking, dodging really, her way to the large file cabinet in the corner of the room.

"Ad?" Daniel questioned, "Come on I need you to look at this; what are you doing?" He stopped his trek across the mess to look over his shoulder, hearing her nearly knocking over the papers from the other side of the room. Frowning, again, Adrienne held up a finger, grabbing a nearby chair and hopping up on it, digging into the large puke green cabinet hanging on the wall. She pulled out a black box, slamming the cabinet door closed behind her, hopping down and waltzing over to her desk, glaring over at him.

The dagger glare, he thought to himself, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"It's a coffee maker. I bought it last week. Whatever da 'ell ya done dragged me out ah bed fo looks like it's gonna require me ta be coherent," she explained as she started to open the box, shortly and rudely, making it quite clear that she wasn't happy with him at the moment, but she was here nonetheless.

Knowing he had won, Daniel smiled and continued to his computer, grabbing the laptop and holding it like a serving tray as he walked it over to her, peeking to see if she had witnessed his silly little performance. She hadn't, much to his disappointment, continuing to slam around the pieces of the coffee machine on to the surface of her desk to piece everything together. He gave up trying to have fun with her in the middle of the night and set the computer on top of her own closed laptop while she started the assemble the source of her fix.

"Alright, these images came in from our last check-in to P3X-888," Daniel began, cueing up the machine, his finger guiding her eyes to the images on the screen. She barely looked up, still fumbling with the pieces, her eyes tired and hardly open.

"The Unas," she nodded as she opened a pack of filters, popping one into the top, shaking the bag of coffee before opening that as well, clumsily. This was no joke; his assistant really couldn't function without caffeine and sleep. Good to know, in fact, he started to debate whether or not to ask Carolyn for some sort of injection to keep handy if he ever needed her up for an emergency but decided against it. Still partially ignoring him, as she successfully ripped the top seam of the pouch, after a moment's struggle in which she shooed away his help, she paused, gauging the amount and pointed at the growing pile to see if she had filled it acceptably. Daniel nodded in the affirmative.

"Yes, well, I was unable to go on this past check-in, remember?" Daniel continued as he opened a file of images.

"Yea, I remember da bahbin," Adrienne teased, recalling his pouting, a smile finally on her face, bumping him with her hip, "Go on."

"Well, the team that did go through found these," he replied, turning the computer so Adrienne could see the images. Looking this time, her eyes widened, quickly darting over to Daniel.

"Go to bed!" Adrienne exclaimed, it being too early in the morning for her to contain her upbringing, and maybe too early for Daniel as well, as he scrunched his face looking thoroughly confused.

"Addy, I just got you OUT of bed," Daniel said. Smile gone, she glared at him, again.

"It's 3 a.m. shug, ya lucky Imma speakin' English, or at least Cajun," she responded peering closer to the screen. Catching her in her zone, just liked she teased he would do, Daniel reached over for the pot and walked to the sink, filling it with water as Adrienne suddenly seemed to be absorbed in the images, having forgotten her coffee making. Returning to her desk, carefully, why had he made this mess, Daniel set the machine on the side table, away from the electronics, pouring in the water and hitting start.

She would thank him later, he was sure.

"Is this?" Adrienne asked, not bothering to finish her question because she knew he would know exactly what she was talking about.

Wow, that was a creepy thought.

"Yep, Goa'uld, but NEW writings. It looks like we might have some of our friends trying to regroup after all," he said and Adrienne shook her head, peeling her eyes from the screen to glance back to him.

"Ok, so what do you need me to do? Can I shower before we suit up to leave?" she asked, the switch flipping, the switch that had made him not kill her back when she used to drive him crazy, the "work-mode" switch.

Coffee or not, she was fired up and ready to go, no questions, no complaint.

He really did like having an assistant; he really liked have her.

Now for the next part of the plan.

"No, you're not leaving. Sam wants to send me and Teal'c alone on this one to see Chaka and figure out what's going on. I need you to hold down the fort," he answered.

" 'Old down da fort? My eye!" she exclaimed, giving him the exact reaction he had anticipated, or so he hoped. He really needed to print out a list of cajun expressions for later if he ever hoped to communicate with her in the middle of the night, sans java.

"Ad, it's no big deal, you've done it before. You know how boring it is in here, hell you spend most of your day listening to rap music or trying to find new ways to torture me. I'll be back in three days, tops," he explained to his clearly disappointed assistant who let out a sigh, rolling her eyes and shoving her hands to her hips. He knew she was going to agree, he could count on her like no one else, he was just waiting for the words to exit her mouth.

"Alright, alright, I got it covered, you know I've got it covered. When are you leaving?" she asked instead, changing her tune.

Too easy, he thought, it's just too easy to exploit her sense of duty.

"Uh," Daniel replied, glancing at his watch, "in about 5 minutes."

"Five minutes! Ya rat bastard, why dinna wake me up soona, let's get ya ta da gate room," she began to shove him with urgency as he tried not to laugh, wanting his video camera to film her in the middle of the night, dark circles, thick accent, trying to make coffee, hell trying to open the bag of coffee, using a variety of Cajun expressions.

It would be the best blackmail later...

"No gate travel; we're trying to slip in quiet. We're taking the Odyssey," Daniel replied, pointing upward, indicating his real method of transport. Adrienne stopped shoving him, backing up quickly for fear of getting sucked in to the beam, barking some orders of her own.

"Ok, well, be careful ahn make shore ta check-" she was going to say check in with her but the beam came and zapped Daniel into space before she could finish, blinding her in the process. Blinking and rubbing her face, Adrienne stepped back, looking at the lab, again taking in the damage.

"Dat man owes me big time. Dinna out on him big time," Adrienne said out loud to the empty room, sighing before leaning down to begin the clean-up.

Daniel stood back from the camera, watching his assistant try to reorganize the lab as her coffee brewed, Sam behind him shaking her head.

"Daniel, I don't think she's ready, it's only been what, six months? And even if she is ready, every other SG member gets a written test and an interview before being assigned to a team, and that's when they haven't been working for us. If she's ready for a team placement, then she's ready and I will promote her. Why are you insisting on treating her differently?" Sam asked, crossing her arms, making a face at her friend, hoping that they were not back to feuding incessantly. She thought that they were over that, way over that, but standing here as Daniel evilly eyeballed the screen, watching poor Adrienne curse and swear her way around their workspace, she wasn't so sure.

"I want to be sure I'm right about her and an interview isn't going to tell us anything. If Adrienne gets wind for a millisecond that we're considering her as the fifth, you'd better believe that she'd prepare a three hour PowerPoint presentation with music that she has preselected for various psychological reasons in order to argue why she is the best candidate for the job. Oh and a list of possible questions and answers that we might ask if she allowed us to speak. That woman's too smart to be tested normally, way too smart," Daniel crossed his arms, thinking to himself it was also fun to torture her; he would finally get an opportunity to dish back out some of the harassment he had endured in their short friendship, or at the very least, a little payback for endless hours of bad rap music pouring from her headphones. He watched as she stopped cleaning, for now, making herself a cup of coffee and scanning the room in that Adrienne way that she did, eyes darting, brain calculating, planning, until finally she began to make a few faces, mouthing profanities in various romance languages. Daniel smiled, containing his laughter, Sam smirking and shaking her head.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked.

"Just a bit," he answered honestly, somewhat, he was enjoying this a lot, shoving his hands into his pockets and allowing himself to laugh.

"How long before you throw a monkey wrench into everything?" Sam now inquired, wanting to hear the full layout of Daniel's scheme, such as it was. Poor Adrienne, the general thought, this wasn't about making her a member of SG-1, this was Daniel's sad attempt at a prank.

"Well, she left the lab at midnight, and knowing her, she read some crazy novel until at least one to ease herself to sleep. She's working on maybe two hours now, if she's lucky. I want to get her good and sleep deprived and then throw it at her," he replied, smiling, leaning forward to peer into the screen, rubbing his chin with his hand.

He really was enjoying this.

"Fine, but I'm not gonna fire or punish her when she pommels you into the ground after this is all over. Adrienne doesn't like to be messed with," Sam warned, memories of foot races, elevator fights and gym bouts gone wrong flashing through her head.

"I can handle Adrienne," Daniel assured her calmly, pulling out the metal chair and taking a seat in front of the camera.

By 9 a.m. Adrienne was brewing a second pot of coffee, her mere two hours of sleep getting the best of her. The lab had been straightened for the most part, only a few loose files here and there, so she decided to rest for a moment, sitting down watching the brown liquid drip slowly into its glass case. There just never seemed to be enough coffee in the world, especially when Daniel gave her tasks like these, never enough, but she sat there, waiting, vowing to stand once she was properly caffeinated.

As for Daniel, he had gone to bed hours ago, having seen Adrienne clean obsessively before, not needing to observe that; that wasn't what this little test was about anyway. Unaware that she was being watched, at this point only by a curious Walter at least, Adrienne just poured herself another cup and paused, her eyes brightening before she frantically dashed to her quarters.

At 1 p.m. Daniel trudged back into Sam's office, having slept in her bunk adjacent to her office so that Adrienne wouldn't find him, because knowing his luck, she'd decide there was something in his room she had to borrow and catch him huddled under the covers. He laughed at the thought, of her barging into his room, unannounced and how strange it was that it really didn't bother him that much anymore. Cracking his neck before slipping on his glasses, he peered over to the monitor, surprised to see Vala sitting at the screen.

"So this is her test? This is your master plan to test to see if she is really ready join us?" Vala asked as Daniel came in and sat down beside her, peering at the screen before shaking his head.

"Yeah, why?" he answered, rubbing his eyes, having missed some crust and putting his glasses back on. He didn't want to be discussing this with her, this was between he and Adrienne and he and Adrienne alone. Vala would just get wild ideas.

"Because I can't tell if she's passing or failing," Vala chuckled, a grin breaking out across her face as she pointed at the screen. Puzzled, Daniel pushed his glasses further up his nose, leaning in and there was Adrienne, in the lab, dancing around like a fool, file folders in one hand and one of his artifacts in the other. As if that wasn't enough the whiteboard was playing an episode of True Blood, close captioned, in French of course, Alexander Skarsgard's half naked body strutting across the screen.

Daniel's jaw dropped.

What in the world was going in on there?

Fast as his hand could move, he shoved Vala aside, reaching over to turn up the volume.

"Biggie biggie biggie can't you see; sometimes your words just hypnotize me..." the iPod speaker blared, Daniel now seeing the stereo from her quarters sitting at his desk, the fabric covering vibrating to the beat as Adrienne sang along, dancing low to the floor.

Daniel was staring at the screen in complete shock. What in the world was she doing? And how in the hell could she do that? He was debating whether or not to check in with her from his "mission", just to see what excuse she would have for music blaring when he saw a figure come around the corner. It was Sergeant Satterfield, one of his "admirers" as Adrienne liked to call her.

He smiled at this pleasant turn of events.

Have fun dealing with this one Adrienne, he thought, knowing she hated when Satterfield came down to the lab almost as much as she used to be annoyed by Vala. Sitting back in his chair, Daniel smiled brightly, chuckling a bit, to see how exactly his "Robin" would handle this intrusion. Her face remaining calm, too calm, maybe she wasn't going to react, Adrienne reached into her pocket, pulling out her hand and pointing a small remote over her shoulder to shut off her music.

"Where's Dr. Jackson?" Satterfield questioned, looking over at his empty desk, well nearly empty, everything from earlier cleared away save Adrienne's speaker dock.

"Off world, is there something I can help you with?" Adrienne answered professionally. Satterfield looked disappointed, Adrienne rolling her eyes slightly, making Daniel smile as he glanced over at Vala in satisfaction.

"Oh, I just needed him to look at something," she replied quietly.

"Well, I'm more than happy to take a look at it for you; or if you would like to leave it I can have him look at it upon his return," Adrienne held out her hand, a jovial expression on her face, not one sarcastic tone or mannerism. Breathing out, Satterfield looked disappointed, gazing over at his desk again before stuffing the folder into Adrienne's waiting hand.

"I'd like to have him look at it," Satterfield responded, stressing the word him.

"No problem," his assistant answered, that diplomatic smile of hers plastered across her face, taking the file and walking it over to his desk, tucking it neatly into his "in" box.

Satterfield left without another word.

"I swear fo Gah, I 've got ta be da only woman ahn dis damn base dat dinks sleepin' wit dat man is nah a life priority," Adrienne said aloud to no one in particular, marching back over to her desk.

Vala spit coffee all over the screen, leaning forward in her chair laughing hysterically. Screwing up his nose, Daniel reached out for the screen and shut off the volume, glaring over at Vala as she stood to get a paper towel and wipe off the monitor, still giggling uncontrollably.

"I'm glad that you find her amusing," Daniel glared at Vala, not finding Adrienne's comment the least bit amusing. No one on this base, well other than the doubled over laughter factory standing beside him, was trying to sleep with him; Adrienne just liked to exaggerate.

And tease.

Damn Adrienne.

Regaining her composure, Vala breathed in and just smiled back at him.

"I love her, for so many reasons," Vala choked out, taking the wet towels from his hand, tossing them in the trash as she walked out the door, chuckling with every step. Trying to ignore her, Daniel looked back at the screen to see that Adrienne had cranked the music back up and was dancing around like before, not a care in the world.

"You just wait Miss Perfect," Daniel said, tapping a pen on the screen, "you just wait."

At about 5 p.m. he saw Ronon pop his head around the corner. Scoffing, Daniel leaned forward turning the volume back up. Adrienne could laugh all she wanted about Daniel's little female fan club, but Dex took it to the next level of flirtation. He was very interested in Adrienne, much to Daniel's amusement, so much so that he loved to try to eavesdrop on their ridiculous conversations. Ronon, who himself was a prisoner of the Wraith for years was somehow, in his tall tales, the hero of the entire Pegasus galaxy, all the while Adrienne would just sit there, smiling, laughing and later insist to Daniel that he was just her buddy. If every woman on base was trying to sleep with Daniel, at least they weren't hovering like flies to honey, flies that no matter how much work needed to be done, sometimes he couldn't shoo away.

"Hey Addy, where've you been all day?" Ronon asked, plopping himself down into Daniel's chair like he belonged there. The archaeologist rolled his eyes, but leaned forward to get a better look when he saw Ronon reach into his side pocket and hand Adrienne a bottle.

"Working. Daniel's off world for a few so I get to play the boss," she answered, taking the water and leaning to kiss him on the cheek. Oh please, Daniel thought, I catch heat for speaking to a friendly female while she and Dex are gonna share water?!

He made another mental note for harassment later.

"Nice, how's it going?" Ronon continued, smiling at the peck.

"Fantastic. I mean, he's my friend and all, and I adore him, I do, but really? He makes this sound like this is so frikkin hard. Yeah, I bet it's hard when you have to spend so much time trying to fight off every bimbo on the base," Adrienne said, sitting on the edge of her desk, drinking her gift. Daniel made a face at her response, a little hurt by the assumption, he thought they'd cleared up any old feelings like that, but it looked like Ronon was going to ask for him.

"It's not that bad, what are you jealous?" Ronon joked, nudging her thigh with his foot. Swallowing and shaking her head, Adrienne held up her hand a moment before answering.

"No, I'm not jealous. It's just that, well, they don't know him, ya know? He's just, well, he just deserves better..." Adrienne paused, looking down at the bottle before bringing the cool clear plastic back to her lips.

"Wow," Daniel whispered from the observation room, not even aware that he had spoken. Had she really said that? That he deserved better? That "they" didn't know him? He should have been angry, she had essentially told Ronon that Daniel whined about the complexity of his work but he couldn't stop thinking about her words.

...he just deserves better...

Glancing back at the screen, bringing himself back to reality, he caught Ronon as he shrugged, standing from the chair and grabbing her shoulder.

"Well, it's about dinner time. Didn't know if you wanted to join us?" he asked, Adrienne's expression changing instantly at the invite.

"I was planning on going for a run first," she said, her dark eyes dancing over the hands of the clock, calculating the time in her head.

Nuh uh, Daniel thought, forgetting in a flash what she had just said about him, she is NOT going to sit there, flirt, talk about how easy his job was and then go running.

NOT happening.

He stood from his seat.

"I'll wait for you; but I think the others are going to head down now," Ronon added. Oh no, Daniel frowned, and she was not going to get a dinner date with Ronon either, in fact, it seemed as though none of this was going as planned. Adrienne had run the lab before alone, well, with Vala's help and Sam checking in on her twice a day, but there was no way in the world she was going to make it all look so easy, make it look like he wasn't even needed at all.

"Sam!" Daniel shouted over his shoulder to where the general was sitting in her main office on the phone. She put up her finger making an agitated face, her lips pulled tight as she responded to whomever was on the other end of the line. Knowing by that face that it was probably Woolsey, Daniel shut up, slinking back down into the chair watching his assistant and her admirer talk, no flirt, they were definitely flirting, in his lab. He had wanted her to shine, sure, and do well on this test, he had really grown quite fond of her, but he did want for her to encounter a few hiccups. He wanted something that proved she could handle the stress, because handling stressful situations was exactly what she needed to be able to do if she was going to be a full member of SG-1, a full member who could be sent on missions without him or without his help at all.

Apparently she could, much better than he.

Daniel was racking his brain trying to figure out if he should begin his little operation sooner when he felt Sam touch his shoulder, peering over his to chuckle at the screen.

"She's doing pretty well," Sam said.

"Yeah," Daniel responded.

"You seem disappointed," Sam offered, pulling out the chair beside him to sit down.

"Not disappointed per se," Daniel explained, "I was kind of hoping that she would admit that she couldn't do it all by herself or at least made it look like I was needed. But no; she's got everything under control." I want her to need me, he thought, I want us to need each other, isn't that what this working relationship was supposed to be about?

"See, I told you she was a good choice. One day you'll admit that you're glad I hired her. Maybe you're right; I think she's ready. Are you ready to start your last little trial?" Sam inquired, smiling, her eyes on the clock, Daniel following her gaze.

"It's early, but I guess we can," he replied. Still smiling as she stood, as if she knew exactly what was going to happen, Sam marched back through the open door of her office, grabbing the phone receiver, a pointedly different expression on her face than before.

"It's General O'Neill. Yes, we're ready. Only M floor. Lock the lab doors as well," Sam instructed, hanging up the phone to walk back and rejoin Daniel, who sat back, his fingers resting lightly on his chin as the tiny black and white monitor showed Adrienne bidding Ronon farewell, turning on her heels toward her locker to get her running gear. He watched her carefully as he saw the flash of the sirens on M level, the power go out, her head jerking back in the direction of the hallway, fear in her eyes, the infrared cameras making her gaze appear animal like, caught in sheer terror.

"Alright Ad, let's see if you can do this," Daniel said as he sat forward, taking a deep breath. You can do it, he thought, prove me right, he coached silently as Adrienne ran over to the door arriving mere moments before it closed in her face, the emergency locks activating. Slamming the door with her fists, a few choice swear words that this time Daniel could make out crossing her lips, in a fit of something, panic, rage, he couldn't tell which, she turned around and marched her way in the darkness over to the phone.

"O'Neill," Sam answered the very instant it rang in the observation room.

"Sam?" he heard from the other end, surprise in her voice. She must not have planned on Sam answering herself.

"Addy, thank god, are you ok?" Sam answered. She sounded concerned, that was a nice touch, good acting on Sam's part. It was too much, Daniel was just too curious, and he stood, walking to the phone, leaning his head to the receiver.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?" Adrienne inquired, her voice echoing forced calm.

"Nothing too bad. Just had a generator blow. Looks like you're going to be trapped for a while, while we investigate. Sorry Adrienne, I'm afraid that you might be stuck in the dark for a few hours," Sam responded. The cajun sighed, Daniel could see her actions mirroring her voice as he peeked back over to the monitor. For the first time all day she didn't seem as confident, which was good, it was what he was looking for, that balance between talent and humility.

"Sure Sam, no worries. Is there anything I can do?" she asked, her spirits still seeming to be high, somewhat. Daniel knew that wouldn't last for long; for reasons Adrienne had yet to tell him, she didn't like being confined alone in dark places, not that being alone in a dark place was ever really pleasant but Adrienne just seemed to like them less than others. It was yet another reason he was watching this all so closely; if she wasn't going to tell him what exactly was the cause of her anxiety he needed to know if she could work through it. Pushing his glasses up his face, Daniel walked back over to the monitor, wrapping his arms around his waist.

"Just wait it out; I'll keep you posted," Sam replied to his assistant who thanked her and hung up the phone, scurrying back over to her desk for that blasted iPad, he could tell by the sudden glow in her hands. Returning to Daniel's side, Sam took a step forward when the ground under her feet shook lightly.

"Nice touch, how did you do that?" he asked, his face brightening, pointing to the floor. The general didn't look as pleased, straightening her jacket and surveying their sparse surroundings here in the observation room, noting that the clock had tilted ever so slightly.

"I didn't," she replied as the base shook again, more aggressively, Daniel grabbing the desk to brace himself. An attack being her first thought, Sam ran over to Walter's desk, Daniel following, his heart racing, images of what was done at Cheyenne happening all over again. Appearing equally as panicked at the main board, Walter ran his fingers all over the surface, across a multitude of lights and flashes.

"Walter, what's going on?" she asked, examining the board for herself. Red dots signaling emergencies were appearing everywhere and on every level, yet aerial scans showed no indication of anything in the atmosphere.

"Not sure ma'am," he replied, "but it seems that shutting off the power to M level caused a chain reaction of sorts. I'm not sure if it's sabotage or government wiring, but we have small electrical fires and blackouts reported all over the base." The room shook again, catching the general off guard, sending her to the floor, Daniel catching her arm before she made contact. Grabbing the back of Walter's chair, Sam regained her stance, leaning forward to examine the data for a second time.

"Well that doesn't explain the shaking!" she insisted, holding onto the chair as the tremors started yet again, now lasting even longer. The movement subsided, but before she could check the board for any further damage, she heard a ringing from the office, a ring that she didn't ever want to hear.

The red phone.

Her heart racing as fast as her feet to make it to the office, she picked it up breathing out as she did.

"O'Neill."

"Hey hun, you guys feelin' any movement down there?" It was Jack and he seemed to know more than he was saying, more awaiting her response than asking a question.

"Yes Jack, a lot of movement. What's going on?" she asked mouthing to Daniel it was Jack as the room shook again, Daniel grabbing the nearest chair on his approach as Sam braced herself on her desk.

"Well, we were running a little test up here, in our lab, and it looks like the geeks have caused a bit of a problem," he said, trying to stay calm.

"A bit of a problem? Jack, my entire base is shaking!" Sam raised her voice as Daniel tried to ascertain what was going on, frustrated to be on just one end of the conversation.

"We're on it, well, Rodney says he's on it, but you need to clear out and bring your people up to the gate room just in case you guys need to evacuate. You have a light staff today, right?" he asked, and he was indeed correct. They did have a light staff today which was precisely the reason Daniel and Sam had scheduled Adrienne's test for when they did, the base was at minimal. It should be fairly simple to get everyone to this level and evacuated if needed, that was, everyone except for Adrienne, who was locked in the lab, unable to escape.

"Jack, we've got a problem here and I need to call you back," Sam said quickly, hanging up the receiver and turning to Daniel.

"What's wrong?" he asked as the room shook once more, but this time they were both holding on and prepared.

"Explosion upstairs, a real one. Jack wants everyone in the gate room in case we need to evacuate," Sam said. Daniel nodded, his hands up, trying to figure out what he could do to help.

"Ok, do an all call, I'm sure everyone can be down here fairly quickly," he responded, but Sam was shaking her head before he even finished.

"No, Daniel, you don't understand. Not everyone can. With the power fluctuations Walter was showing us, there's no way to open the door to your lab," Sam replied, tapering her words, concerned about his reaction.

A wave of understanding flowing over him, Daniel's eyes widened and he dashed over to the monitor where Adrienne was looking right into the camera, clicking on the volume.

"Daniel, I know you can hear me! Ok, this is cute. Is this a test or something? Do you guys initiate people into your little frat? You know if you're gonna go with that whole cut the power thing you need to make sure that the little red light on the camera doesn't continue to blink, it's kind of a dead giveaway," Adrienne shouted, her hands on her hips scowling at the lens. She had a point about the camera, but refocusing, Daniel clicked the mic, calming his voice before he spoke.

"Adrienne, listen, yes this was a test, we want you on the team, but it's not a test anymore. There's a real emergency. I need you to go get the crowbar out of the supply closet and try to pry open the door," he explained slowly and clearly, hoping she would listen, but she just shook her head, not believing a word he was saying.

"Nice try, but I know how this goes. I need to prove to you that I can think outside the box. Just stop distracting me and let me figure this out," she replied, shooing him away as if he was standing right there beside her and not peering into a tiny grainy screen. Squinting, he could see her milling around, her face in deep concentration mode as she searched the lab, looking for something, for what he couldn't be sure. She was walking, scanning, thinking when the base shook again, sending Adrienne to the floor and Daniel's stomach to his throat.

"Ad I'm not kidding around. This is a real emergency and I just need you to tell me if you can pry the door open," Daniel tried to relay more concern into his voice, hoping that she was alright as she dragged herself to her knees, still shaking her head. The lights around Sam and Daniel flashed and he could hear the general behind him doing an all call ordering all personnel to report to the gate room, an all call that without power Adrienne wouldn't hear. Desperate, he watched her move around the screen, observing the room carefully trying to solve the imaginary task she thought he had set for her, something that wasn't even there, that she had only convinced herself was.

"Ad, listen, please listen. There's no puzzle. There was, there was going to be in phases, but we have to prepare to evacuate to the Gamma site and I can't get to you, so you have got to get to us. Please listen to me Adrienne. Do you understand?" Daniel tried again, pleading, his voice cracking.

Surely she would believe him, he wasn't that good of an liar, he was shocked she hadn't seen through his ruse already, but Adrienne was so goddam over analytical that his heart was racing in fear, fearful that she would die trying to solve a puzzle that wasn't there. The shaking grew stronger and the red phone rang again, Daniel knowing in his heart the message on the other end. Her face sullen, Sam reached over and answered.

"Sam, start dialing the Gamma site. We're gonna have to release some gas to get this thing to stop and we're not taking any chances," it was Jack, ordering the evacuation.

"Jack, Dr. Rowan's stuck in the lab," she replied as she was frantically signaling to Walter to begin dialing. He did as instructed, a look of concern on his face as well for the fate of Daniel's assistant, who had never been anything to him but kind and pleasant.

"Of course she is. The one damn person in the galaxy that's as much trouble as Daniel and we have to hire her," Jack shouted into the phone, "Well, get her out of there."

"We can't Jack," her answer was slow, deliberate, "we're running a test and between that and the safety protocols there's no way in or out," That had been her first thought when she realized that her newest staff member was trapped; she realized that her own safety protocols concerning transport and other beaming capabilities meant that Adrienne, unregistered in the ship's databases couldn't be transported aboard. One of her first orders of business had been to initiate DNA based beaming restriction on the larger ships to avoid a Prometheus type situation, using the fleet of puddle jumpers for emergency evacuations.

Puddle jumpers that were also locked down and inaccessible.

It meant that Dr. Adrienne Rowan's luck had run out.

There was a pause on the other line, broken when Sam heard her husband breath in deeply.

"Sam, honey, I know that she's your friend, but if you don't get the rest of those folks out of there you're gonna lose more than an archaeological assistant," he stated plainly, waiting quietly on the other end for his wife to reply, but she didn't, silence on the other line. Sam understood, knowing that which personnel to save and which she couldn't was part of being in charge, friend or not. Fighting back tears, she hung up the phone, gazing slowly at Daniel.

"We've got to go," she said, admitting it to herself that she needed to get the rest of her staff out of there.

"What?! I'm not leaving her!" Daniel shouted, standing from his seat pointing back at the monitor, Adrienne's image frantically dashing around the screen.

"Jack said that they're about to release a toxic gas, he didn't give any more details, but Rodney's involved so I'm not taking any chances. We've got to go!" Sam's voice was urgent but clear yet Daniel didn't move, his head shaking and lips pursing.

"Sam, I can't just let Adrienne die!" he shouted, a look of panic in his face. She had become more than his assistant; she was his friend, he couldn't just save himself and let her die. She was such a wonderful person, so intelligent, so kind and caring; he couldn't imagine the lab anymore without her.

She couldn't die like this.

She deserved better.

"Daniel, there's no way to get her out. She stands a chance if you tell her to get into the bathroom of the lab, block the lower part of the door and cover her face. She's low enough in the base where the gas might not reach her, much," Sam explained, ordering Walter from his chair, urging the observation personnel forward. Opening the door to the stairwell, she paused, glancing back once more.

"I'm so sorry Daniel," she said, choking on her words and turning, running down the metal stairs. Refocusing, Daniel looked back at the screen, standing to dash out of the side door, hoping there was a crowbar or something on the way. He opened the side door, the base shaking again, lights flickering, the entire hallway dropping to pitch black. He was going to go anyway, pry her out of there in the dark, he was going to save her but there was a smell, slight but clear.

It was the gas.

Sam was right; Adrienne had only one chance.

Racing back to the monitor, Daniel grabbed the microphone, bringing it to his mouth, wishing that his tone would convey the face he would be making at her, faces he now noticed she could read so well.

"Adrienne Margaret Rowan, you listen to me right now. This is not a test anymore. They're making us leave, they're making ME leave. We're going to the Gamma Site. Rodney had to release a gas, a potentially lethal gas, and if you have a hope of surviving you need to barricade yourself in the bathroom, shove anything cloth that you can get at the base of the door and cover your face. Jack knows you're in there and they'll come for you as soon as it is clear. Are you hearing me Ad?" Daniel tried to stress his words so that she would know he was serious. Looking up into the camera, scared, the normally boisterous and rambunctious cajun nodded, her lips mouthing yes but Daniel heard nothing. The camera mic must have broken, but at least she could still hear him. He swallowed, fighting back emotion to speak to her one last time.

"Ok, you can do this Ad. I know you can. Do what I said, please, go get in the bathroom," Daniel paused for a moment, not wanting to leave, but that smell was getting stronger, the lights in the observation room now flicking.

"Good luck," he choked into the mic, shutting it off and turning away, a sick feeling in his stomach. Trying not to throw up, and resisting the urge to go dashing down the hallways to his lab in the darkness and the gas, he raced down the stairs just in time to make it through the closing wormhole.

Daniel sat on a tree stump looking out into the distance, the deep orange sun just barely peeking up over the sloping green mountains of P3Y-229. He hadn't slept in forty eight hours but he didn't care; he just couldn't stop thinking about Adrienne.

He'd left her.

He'd let her down.

And now she was gone.

Hearing leaves crunching behind him, he glanced back to see Vala coming to join him, her face equally as withdrawn and her mood subdued. No spring in her step, she sat down softly on the ground beside him, laying her head over onto his leg.

"I liked her, a lot," Vala said, reaching down to squeeze his calf. Daniel didn't move, didn't look down, just continued to gaze out into the sunset.

"I did too," Daniel replied, trying to not let his emotions get the best of him, having forced himself to sit in silence for hours for fear of what else he might do. Sam had tried to talk to him, but to no avail; he just wasn't ready to talk about it.

"You did everything you could," Vala assured him but Daniel just nodded. No he hadn't, he'd gone through the gate, he'd left her behind. Thinking about it again almost made him sick, which had been painful this morning on an empty stomach, given that Daniel had eaten about as much as he had slept.

They sat there like that for a long while, watching the wildlife outside while the rest of the staff was down below, trying to make contact with command. Sam said it would take a few days to clear out the gas before Jack could dial them and gate everyone back safely.

A few days before Daniel knew if Adrienne had done as he asked, forced herself into the bathroom, and survived.

It had been two.

In his heart he knew she was gone.

They had plenty of supplies in the much larger and rebuilt Gamma site, enough to get them through their wait, and thankfully everyone had made it through.

Almost everyone.

Daniel felt a choke in his throat, trying not to allow himself to lose it sitting right here. He'd been able to hold it together up until this point but that willpower was fading fast as time passed by. Sensing that he just wanted to be alone, she could tell as he started to scoot away from her, wrapping his arms around his waist, Vala picked up her head and stood, gazing down at her dear friend.

"I'm hungry, do you want something?" she offered, hoping he would eat. She knew he'd been sick, she'd heard him when she went to check on him this morning, painful heaving from the other side of the door. Daniel shook his head no, as she expected, but Vala rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn't carry on like this.

"Well, I'm gonna eat and then I'm gonna bring something back. And you're gonna eat it. Understood?" she said putting her hands onto her hips. She hadn't seen him like this in a while, but then again they hadn't lost someone that was one of them, or as close to being one of them as Adrienne was. In all honestly, Vala hadn't realized how good of friends that they had become, she knew that they were spending more time together, socially, but it was more than that...

Daniel seemed completely heartbroken.

She had never really understood it when Cam said that it was hardest seeing your friends suffer, but watching him, like this, was more than she could bear. Lacking the energy to argue, he nodded weakly, enough of a yes to allow Vala to leave, heading back of in the direction of the main door. He didn't watch as she slipped through the side entrance, carefully hidden in the side of the cave, just refocused on the wisps of white as they blanketed the horizon.

His thoughtless trance was broken, when he heard leaves crunching behind him and looked at his watch noting barely twenty minutes had passed. Fast dinner he thought, wondering what Vala brought him, and whether or not he could actually choke it down. He started to turn when he felt hands over his eyes, holding his glasses tight to his face and froze, not wanting to fight with Vala but not in the mood either for anything Vala-like that she might do.

"Did I pass?" the female voice in his ear asked, a female voice that was not the one that promised him dinner. Flipping around Daniel stared dumbfounded, as Dr. Adrienne Rowan, the craziest, most unique individual he had ever had forced upon him, was grinning happily at him, a self-satisfied look on her face, her hands planted firmly onto her hips as she righted herself.

Alive, she's alive.

No other thoughts running through his head other than the realization that she was standing right here, in front of him, he rushed her, grabbing her tightly and hugging her, holding her firmly to his chest, his arms completely enveloping her.

She was alive.

He could only squeeze harder.

"Coo shug, let go, I can't breathe!" Adrienne whined as she started to pull away from his tight and encompassing embrace and he pulled away quickly as well, slightly embarrassed as he realized that she probably couldn't take in a single breath the way he was holding her. Straightening her uniform again and making a face at him, she repeated herself.

"Did I pass?" she asked again, confused, her cheeks red, stammering a touch he noticed, "because for about fifteen minutes I was certain that you were gonna storm in the lab door and inform me I was to remain a desk jockey till the end of my days."

"How did you get out of there?" he asked in disbelief not bothering with her desk jockey joke, she hadn't been that in a while, watching her go into professor mode.

"It was good Indy, shug and I'm not sucking up when I say you are a sheer genius. See, you cut main power but not secondary, leaving the Wi-Fi on. So, I used my laptop, you know, battery powered, to hack into the mainframe, messaged the Odyssey and requested to board. However, they informed me that since I had never beamed aboard or registered to beam aboard that they had no DNA signature to lock onto me, one of Sam's safety protocols I know, and there were no jumpers nearby for a blind beam. That was good Daniel, I would have never thought of that one. But they had beamed you, so I went to your locker and got your leather jacket since your coffee cups were on their way to the incinerator. That had enough Daniel DNA for them to pick up and whoosh! I was aboard. Radioed base and Jack told me to take the Odyssey to the Gamma site. I figured I passed," she explained.

Daniel, however, looked at her flabbergasted by her entire explanation. How in the world this woman's brain operated like that he would never understand but was at this moment very thankful that it did.

"Ad, it wasn't a test. That part wasn't a test, there was a gas leak. We evacuated, you could have really died," Daniel, spoke clearly, the last word so very quiet as it crossed his lips. He watched as Adrienne's face grew pale, her hands together to pick at her jagged nails, biting at her lip ring.

"You're kidding, right?" she said, hopeful, watching his face like she now did.

"Not in the least," he answered. Allowing her fingernails a momentary reprieve, Adrienne pulled her hands apart, sitting on the stump, her eyes wide.

"Tonnerre mes chiens" she whispered, shaking her head and taking a breath.

"I agree," Daniel answered although he had no idea what "Thunder my Dogs" meant. But if it was cajun for holy shit, yeah, he agreed. He sat down beside her, on the ground as Vala had before, this time letting her look off into the distance, reaching across his body without thinking to rest his palm on her shin.

Adrienne was late, again. She knew that Sam hadn't made her decision yet and it was stuff like her lateness that was stalling said decision, but there were some things that she just couldn't help.

Being Cajun was one of them.

Hoping to stay in Daniel's good graces, although he had been very sweet and protective of her since the evacuating incident, she decided to swing by the mess and grab Daniel a coffee to blame her lateness on kindness. Fixing it like he liked it, one cream two sugars, not enough cream in her humble opinion and too much sugar and grabbing him an apple for good measure, she headed down to the lab.

Strangely, the door was shut when she arrived, although not latched and locked. Between the coffees, her backpack and the apple she had no hands to open it. Using her heel to push down the door handle, she turned around and backed herself up to the door donkey kicking it open.

"Indy, I'm sorry, I had to wait in line for coffee since you've hidden my machine from me in your mess," she was saying as she felt the door open up behind her butt, pushing it all the way with her backside so she could enter. She started to walked in backwards, still slightly bent over, her back to Daniel, hopefully not providing too tempting of a target for torment when she heard shuffling behind her.

"That's not the end we put the patch on Addy," she heard a voice say, Cam's voice, and she turned around quickly, her cheeks flushed. Standing in the lab was the entire team, Daniel, Teal'c, Cam and Vala with Sam in official uniform holding a patch, a team patch, the number of which made Adrienne's heart stop. Everyone was smiling, especially Cameron, who grabbed the patch from Sam's hand and walked over to her, laughing as he approached.

"Can you put that crap down, no one falls for it, we know you're just late. I need to stick this on your arm," Cameron ordered, shaking the thick slab of patch in between his fingers. A deer in headlights, Adrienne put the coffees down slowly onto her desk, laying the apple beside them, dropping the backpack to the floor.

"That's it girl right over here," Cam motioned to her, "left foot, right foot."

"She doesn't know left from right," Vala spoke up and Daniel started to laugh, Adrienne further red in the face, taking in a deep breath, willing herself forward. Unsatisfied by her slow advance, Cam marched over, slapping the Velcro backed patch onto the empty spot on the arm of her uniform, stepping back, arms across his chest, smiling.

"Welcome to the club, blah blah, now you have two bosses me and Jackson, so you have to take orders from both of us. Good times. Anyone else like to say anything?" Cameron looked at the others, using his eyes to goad them to speak.

"Nice job," said Sam, stepping forward and squeezing her arm.

"Nice to have someone else to make the boys look bad with me. I will need to meet with you regularly to coach you on putting them in their place," Vala added, winking at her, a devilish smile on her face.

"We are honored to have you AdrienneRowan," Teal'c said while Daniel just smiled, not adding anything much to Adrienne's disappointment. Cameron looked at everyone one last time, thinking Daniel might speak, but when he didn't, just turned back to face their newest member once more.

"Ok, ceremony over, I've got cadets to scream at, let's go," Cam ordered, pointing at the lab door, the team filing out after him. An expression of sheer disbelief across her face, Adrienne just kept staring over at her arm, not moving, not sitting, not speaking. Still quiet, Daniel walked over to the desk and grabbed his coffee and the apple, walking up behind Adrienne.

"I'm proud of you Ad; you did great. I knew you could," he said, wrapping the arm with the apple around her, giving her a half of a hug. Looking up at him slowly, their eyes locked, and she swore she could see the blue of his quivering slightly.

"Thanks," she sputtered out, her heart racing, lost in the moment as he gazed back down at her. Breaking the stare, Daniel, cleared his throat, and returned to his desk, sitting down and getting to work, back at it on the database. He started to type again and paused, looking over at her once more.

"Your father would have been very proud," he added, taking a casual sip of coffee. Nodding, Adrienne turned quickly to hide the tear that was escaping from her eye, opening her laptop to begin her day. While everything booted up she reached for her arm, running her finger along the patch and smiled.

It was nice to finally belong.