Surprise Package

by Ladiosabri

Post SGU the SGC has been moved to the Pentagon with some changes in command. Daniel seems to be the one member left behind as things evolve, but his life is about to turn in a way he never expected. (WARNING - Original Character) *Sides stories now available - see my profile*

37. Chapter 36 - The Fan

**Author's Note**

There are two versions of this story. This version in the main storyline will fade to stars during intimate scenes between Daniel & Adrienne. The mature version can be found under the erotic storyline under my profile. For readers new to the saga, you might want to start a the beginning and please be warned that my erotic versions are very loving in nature as I want Daniel to get the happily ever after he deserved with someone that would love and respect him and vice versa.

I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.

He heard the music blasting as he turned the corner and remembered their dinner conversation, how Vala declared they should party all night to switch over to the reverse schedule before the mission. It was an important mission, and they needed to reverse their body clocks. The objective was to try and track down Anubis and this secret army, an army that their spies kept reporting was growing at an alarming rate, with no one really knowing why or what he was up to. The coordinates they had acquired from their undercover mission with Vala proved to be a location in deep space, almost to the edge of the galaxy, not near any known Stargate.

They had spent much of the past week racing around the SGC, Teyla hooked up to various machines in Rodney's lab to jog her memory as to anything she might have seen during her brief captivity, Adrienne and Vala questioned extensively, their clothes taken for DNA samples as well, making Daniel very glad that Vala had interrupted he and Adrienne's in cell rendezvous.

That would have been some DNA he'd have preferred not to explain...

Vala had also managed to grab one of the weapons from their attackers before Daniel beamed them back to the ship, the strange bastardized gun under full scrutiny by the weapons department. It was still going to take a couple of days and a crazy amount of meetings but once they had a better idea as to what needed to be done, a team would be sent aboard the Daedalus but to do what Daniel wasn't exactly sure, and to be honest, he wasn't exactly sure he even wanted to be included on the mission.

As the SGC's lead archaeologist approached the entrance to the lab, the music just grew louder and louder and he grew angrier and angrier. Vala had become much less annoying with Adrienne around to balance her out, making her tone down her more extreme behaviors, but it seemed that she had gotten bored with behaving and was back to her old tricks, most likely in some kind of passive aggressive retaliation and payment for keeping their secret. As he drew nearer, however, he recognized the music, and knew instantly who was to blame.

"Oh come on Ad..." he whispered. He should have known; music wasn't Vala's thing, it was Adrienne's and to confirm this, he heard a pause, the next track starting, one he had heard many many many times before.

"FLO-RIDA!" he heard her voice shouting in approval, the song being about some sort of wild child, so very appropriate for the lovely cajun woman that was dancing around his lab, that had become the most important person in his life.

Dammit, he thought, it was so much easier to be angry when it was Vala.

He walked through the doorway to see Adrienne wearing only those tight damn short running shorts and an equally as form-fitting Reebok t-shirt.

Why did she have to do this to him?

Sometimes it felt as if she took every tight article of clothing that she ever owned and pulled it out just to wear around him and torture him.

Damn woman had created a monster.

Much to his dismay, although he knew the colonel meant nothing by it, Cam was dancing right behind her, hands on her hips while Vala and Ronon were dancing over by his desk. He was going to have to reconsider this Adrienne is really not a virus thing; it seemed that her insanity was contagious.

"Indy!" she yelled, abandoning Cam, racing over to him, grabbing the files from his hands and setting them on top of her computer. Already moving to the music, she grabbed his hips pulling him over to her and started to dance.

"Ad, you know I can't dance," he argued, but was already laughing at her determination to make him have fun, to get her to fulfill this silly little fantasy of hers.

"Indy, anyone can dance, I've told you a million times, trust me, just follow," she put his hand on her waist, her arms on his shoulder and began to move. Shaking his head, Daniel followed her to the center of the room where she had pushed the tables against the chalkboard to make room for a dance floor.

"Jackson, you stole my partner!" Cam yelled across the room a huge smile on his face, making Daniel feel somewhat at ease. He knew and Daniel didn't even care anymore: he only cared that the colonel seemed to disapprove of their relationship, thinking it would change the team but lately he had started to see reason, that Daniel and Adrienne could continue to work together without their relationship interfering and the last mission was just further proof of that.

"Then get your sexy ass over here, I can handle two even if Addy can't!" Vala shouted from around Ronon, who seemed to be disappointed at her offer.

He knew too now, Adrienne felt like he ought to know and had pulled him aside the other week to tell him. Daniel didn't care about that either, in fact, it seemed that the Sateadan had set his sights on a new target, one that really shouldn't have surprised him, but it did.

"Sorry Mitchell, but I think you got dumped," Daniel joked, as he kept dancing, closely but poorly, with his assistant, his more than assistant, someone who was just his.

God he loved this woman.

"You're trouble," he said to her once the others were laughing and dancing at the other side of the room.

"Me? This was Vala's idea. I just had the tunes and the speaker," she winked.

"I distinctly remember telling you a long time ago that my lab was not to be turned into a disco tech," he joked, but didn't stop dancing with her, laughing loudly as she reached to fix his hips yet again, desperately trying to get him to follow her and the beat.

"I didn't. This is more of a hip hop club," she smiled, throwing her arms around his neck and leaning up to kiss him.

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE!"

Daniel spun Adrienne around to see the doorway and there stood General Jack O'Neill in all of his four star glory, wearing full dress uniform his face bearing an expression that Daniel didn't want to see, especially given that those brown eyes of his were glaring at Daniel's hands as they were tightly clasping Adrienne's waist.

Before Daniel could say a word in their defense he saw that he was flanked by two men in dress suits that he didn't know, but they looked serious. Dropping his hands, he didn't need to tell Adrienne to shut off the music, she was already reaching onto her desk for the remote and had hit stop, stepping away from him quickly. Confident that the men behind him could not see, Jack gave Daniel a clear "I can't believe this is going on RIGHT now" look, his eyes darting between both archaeologists, nearly shaking with anger.

"Sorry, eh Jack, I mean general, we have to stay up all night so we were just trying to pump ourselves up a bit to make it through," Daniel answered, trying to remain calm, reading the look in his friend's face, the look that said he knew exactly what was going on and he didn't need to walk into anything more intimate to figure that out.

Opening his mouth to speak, Jack stopped as Vala waltzed up, throwing her arm around Daniel, facing O'Neill and his guests.

"Sorry boys, this is my fault. Just trying to stay awake to switch to the night shift. Goodnight lover," she declared, kissing Daniel square on the mouth, him fighting her off as always, strutting out of the room. Adrienne turned her head and tried not to laugh, appreciating her friend's act since Jack still seemed to be staring at Adrienne like she had done something wrong, while Cam and Ronon scurried out behind her.

"Dr. Jackson, this is Dr. Peterson the IOA liaison at area 51 and Mr. Lordes from the UN," Jack introduced, the tone in his voice indicating that he was still not happy, Vala taking the blame or not.

Adrienne tensed; she would owe Daniel later... big time...like take over for at least five sucky meetings big time.

"They're here to see the progress that you and Dr. Rowan have made on the Asgard database," Jack continued, Adrienne leaping up seeing the opportunity to make it up to him.

While the rest of the team had been stuck on Anubis, Daniel had made sure to keep Adrienne moving forward on the database whenever she could, if not for any other reason but to prove how valuable she was should they be caught. So far it was still a lot of history, but there had been a few new gate addresses here and there, those discoveries thrilling to both archaeologists.

Nodding excitedly, she ducked between the tables and over to the chalkboard, flipping it onto the white side she had installed a few months back and locked it in place while she heard Daniel continue to bumble through an explanation of their little dance party as he pushed the tables back into position. Adrienne excused herself in front of them, getting a dirty look from Jack in the process and then grabbed a chair, climbing on top of it and pulling a chord hanging from the ceiling.

Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw what she was doing and tried not to give her the satisfaction of a smile. She was a clever woman for sure and had a very specific talent for pulling shit out of her ass, good shit, shit that got them kudos from the people with the pocketbooks. While he'd never admit it aloud, he kinda liked her, even though he was fairly certain that she had pulled Daniel into her web of insanity, most likely sans pants.

There was a dash of rushing cajun past him, and he watched her hit the button on the machine, a light filling the room, pointing over at the white board.

"Gentlemen, if you would like to take a seat, I've tried to keep up with the amazing things that Dr. Jackson has been able to accomplish down here, so I only have a portion prepared for you right now, but I'm happy to show you what I have been able to put into a presentation," she hopped down and hurried over to her desk, grabbing her iPad and tapping her fingers around quickly on the screen. A series of images with notes and equations appeared on the whiteboard and Adrienne began to present, starting with the other Earth civilizations that had interaction with the Asgard and the list of recommended planets to explore, each gate address carefully catalogued and organized using her system Daniel was quick to note.

Smiling, Daniel just stepped back and let her do her thing, trusting her completely, counting himself lucky yet again that he managed to end up with someone so brilliant. Clearing his throat, Jack stepped back to join him, needing to talk to him about a few things, a few very important things, well one very important thing, that was giving a presentation in tight black running shorts to his bosses...

"Look, I'm glad you have rejoined the human race, I am, but you need to rein her in a bit, keep it quiet," Jack whispered.

"Jack, she was just trying to keep everybody awake and moving. We're on reverse days for at least two weeks, maybe more if we are the group shipped out to find Anubis. And what do you mean rejoin the human race?" Daniel stood back and crossed his arms, annoyed by the assumption.

Just because he didn't feel the need to sleep his way around the base, not that Jack had but he seemed to have felt for years that Daniel should, didn't mean that there was anything wrong with the way he had lived before.

"Come on, you and her aren't?" Jack asked, trying, yet again, to get Daniel to admit what Jack knew to be true. Men don't do things that they hate, like dance, to music that they hate, like rap, with their grubby paws all over a woman if they aren't getting any.

That just went against nature.

"No Jack, we've been over this," Daniel replied. It really wasn't that Daniel cared anymore who knew, but as the head honcho Jack might have to make some decisions that Daniel didn't want made and he didn't want to put his friend in that position or have someone at the IOA level ship the love of his life across the country.

"Daniel, we know you sleep at her place and vice versa," Jack said, sharing the one tidbit of information that Sam had leaked. Jack didn't know they were having damn adult slumber parties and had just about choked on his beer when his wife informed him of that. That was a clear indicator that his good buddy was up to no good; who in the hell sleeps at their assistant's place almost every weekend and isn't getting laid.

"On the sofa. We're just good friends," Daniel argued, standing his ground, lying through his teeth.

Damn Adrienne, he thought; she's right; she's made me an expert liar.

Jack scowled, knowing Daniel well enough to know that he was full of shit, but wasn't going to get into a shouting match while his lover tried to save their faces with the assholes he had to babysit this evening.

"Fine, I take that back. You're an idiot," Jack shook his head and changed his expression to one of false politeness as he made his way back to their guests.

Adrienne was just wrapping up her presentation and the men looked to be in a considerably better mood, much to Daniel's relief. A long list of new planets to explore, any of which could provide money, bombs, whatever the hell else they wanted to hear was enough to please them, keep them out of his hair for a while longer.

Standing from where he had been sitting in the back of the room, Daniel thanked them, shaking their hands and they left the lab, Jack following close behind, not bothering to look back at his friend. Daniel waited until the coast was clear before turning back to Adrienne, a look of his own plastered across his face.

"I don't know if I should thank you or fuss at you," he walked over to her, hands crossed in front of him.

"I was just trying to have fun; I really didn't think that we'd have company," she said as she slipped over to the door of the lab and closed it, shutting it tight to engage the lock. She sauntered back over to him and pushed him back against the center table, slipping her arms around his waist and bringing her lips to his neck.

"We're breaking our rule..." he said but grabbed her face to look into her eyes, relenting and letting himself slip into their kiss. As she backed up smiling at him, running her hands sweetly down his arms, she noticed that he wasn't.

"Did Jack say something to upset you? Are those guys gonna put us back on the Ori junk? That isn't getting us anywhere, Vala's intelligence has gotten us further than playing with that damn corpse has," Adrienne argued, backing up a bit further but not letting go of him.

She never wanted to let go of him.

"I think he's figured us out," Daniel responded honestly, terror in his voice. The truth of the matter was that sooner or later they were going to have to face this if they wanted to have a real relationship and Daniel wanted a real relationship.

He was fairly certain that Adrienne did too.

"Uh oh, and?" Adrienne asked, now letting go, worried, fears of being shipped off to some other facility racing through her head and to make it worse, Daniel's face still looked concerned.

"He was kinda hard to read. You know how he is. He welcomed me back to humanity and when I denied it, he called me an idiot," Daniel answered, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Wait? Adrienne thought, an idiot?

Smiling, she approached him again, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest.

"You are an idiot sometimes," she laughed, "that's probably why I love you so much. If Jack doesn't care, I think we're in the clear." He didn't answer at first, just hugged her tighter and kissed her head.

"I hope you're right. Pretty soon one of us is going to look at the other the wrong way and we're gonna be in Sam's office doing a lot of explaining," he said.

A lot of explaining, he thought, two months' worth of explaining.

Daniel had envisioned the conversation in his head a million times as he and Adrienne cuddled in bed, Adrienne fast asleep while he lay there, worried.

Sam, I have something to tell you.

Sure Daniel, what's up?

Adrienne and I are together. Like a couple together. I'm in love with Adrienne.

That's great Daniel; I'm so happy for you guys. You're fired.

He had a million other versions too, ones that included her being fired, her being sent to Area 51, the reconstructed Gamma site, the Delta site and one nightmare where she was betrothed to Ronon to gain the trust of what was left of the Saetadan people, people that they couldn't even have contact with until Atlantis was fully operational once more.

They were all stupid scenarios of course, but he still worried that if this all blew up on the wrong day, any one of those would come true.

"Sha? You in there?" Adrienne asked as she walked over to him in a very seductive fashion, her hips swaying lightly in those running shorts, those god damn running shorts, why in the hell was she wearing those running shorts?

"I guess you are," she teased, unfastening his belt and making quick work of the top button. Well, he thought, if Jack is going to catch me I might as well go down in a blaze of glory, and reached for the back of her shorts, beginning to tug them to the ground.

"Honey, I'm home!" Jack shouted as he entered the front door of his home for the first time in two weeks, having been stuck on base dealing with the endless stream of bullshit caused by Vala's latest little expedition, which in his humble opinion, had gotten them nowhere. Sam stuck her head out of the kitchen in complete shock as Jack walked over to the closet, opening the door and hanging his coat inside.

"I must be dreaming, who are you and what have you done with my overworked husband?" she asked as she exited the kitchen, glass of white wine in hand. It was nearly two in the morning, but she just couldn't sleep knowing that during this, with SG-1 all on the night shift, Woolsey had his paws all over her things and all over this latest mission.

Shrugging, Jack tossed his briefcase onto his old recliner and walked up to her, removing the glass from her hand, setting it on the coffee table and hugging his wife tightly.

She was right, he hadn't been home often enough; he missed home, and he missed her.

"Meetings done. I shut that snotty Weasley man up, let Daniel's little pet flash some fancy slide show at his buddies and bam over," Jack replied, kissing Sam gently and backing up. He was just starting to unbutton his uniform jacket as Sam shook her head at him.

"His name is Woolsey, not Weasley," she corrected reaching down for her glass of wine. Laughing, Jack tossed his jacket over to the recliner as well and walked into the kitchen in search of food. The last thing he had eaten was a stale pack of crackers at his desk at god knows what hour and he was starving.

"Have you looked at that man?" Jack asked over his shoulder as he made his way to the fridge, "I think I'm pretty close to the mark. But it wasn't just him anyway, it was that little UN liaison weasel. Two different weasels," he clarified as his wife giggled, following him, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"There's take out on the top shelf, but it's cold," she replied, having ordered enough for him, as always, in the hopes that he might come home tonight.

She understood his job as he understood hers, but they had waited so long and there was a part of Sam that still wanted that fairy tale ending, even if it meant they kept insane work hours.

This was why she started implementing mandatory leave and vacations, because it wasn't until she was on the other end of things that she finally understood how important family was, even if it was just a family of two.

On the top shelf, as promised, Jack found the chinese box and smiled.

"This is why I love you; a woman not afraid of some good Mushu Pork," Jack said as he stood, closing the fridge door and grabbing some chopsticks from the counter. He snapped his fingers, opening the fridge door once more, securing himself a beer, coming to plop down at the table, Sam smiling the entire time just glad to have a meal with him even though she had enjoyed her own hours before.

"So, how did it go?" she asked and took a sip of her wine. Not that she wanted to talk about work, but she could never resist her husband's recap of a meeting; it made reading the report the next day much more entertaining.

"Just like I said it would. They're halting that stupid Destiny crap until we hit the three year mark. It's like they are all living in a Sci-Fi movie or something. Even if we gate over there, we have no idea what in the hell we're gating into. We just need to wait. In the meantime, between the Anubis mess and that cloning crap of Rodney's, we have plenty of things to worry about, but nonetheless they still wanted to go down to nerdville and see what in the hell Daniel and his girlfriend have been up to," Jack said, shoving a chopstick full of meat and noodles into his face.

Sam was pleased. She hated to not handle things like this herself, but sometimes, like when they gave her the brush off for being a woman, she liked to remind the powers that be that she was married to the most powerful man in the department.

"Thank you, now I just hope that keeps Woolsey out of my office," she said sincerely, a part of her still wondering if Hammond or even Landry had to deal with as much garbage. She knew Jack had when he was in charge for a brief spell, but Jack also enjoyed toying with people like Woolsey and other bureaucrats and Sam just didn't have the patience for ignorance like her husband did.

Taking a few more bites and a swig of beer, Jack swallowed quickly, pointing the chopsticks at her, having something else to say.

Sam looked at him strangely, wondering what else could have possibly gone on in that meeting, one that she was very thankful to have avoided so she waited for him to compose himself, sipping her wine.

"I think Daniel's banging Dr. Perky," Jack said finally and Sam fell forward, spraying wine into her hand as she shot it up to her face. Trying to compose herself, she swallowed what bit was left in her mouth, grabbing for a napkin to wipe her face.

"What?" Sam asked as the wine dribbled down her chin, one hand wiping herself frantically while the other was signaling for Jack to keep talking.

"I think that Daniel is sleeping with his assistant," Jack restated, in a more adult fashion, well as adult as her husband was going to be about such things and Sam shook her head, knowing that he wasn't understanding her question.

"I heard what you said Jack, I want to know what makes you think that," she inquired.

"The way they act together. They're all," he paused for a moment, searching for the correct word, "chummy." Sam laughed.

'They've become pretty good friends, that's all," Sam answered, starting to drink her wine again.

She was slightly disappointed inside; she had kind of hoped they were together, quietly of course, she couldn't risk them out in the open, but she couldn't find any evidence of the sort.

Sure, Adrienne was a bit more touchy with Daniel now, but no more than she was with Cameron, Teal'c or Vala for that matter.

Daniel was very protective of her as well, overly protective it seemed at times, but other than the night at her house so many months ago where Adrienne had declared loudly and drunkenly her love for Daniel, she hadn't really said anything else and neither had he.

In fact, Sam had started to give up.

"Yeah, but they speak all in codes and look at each other like no one else is there," he said, digging for more meat in the pile of noodles as Sam nodded.

"They've been doing that for a while. They switch languages and whatnot so no one else knows what they're saying. I agree, that's a bit nerve racking," she admitted.

Sam had been in large group meetings when the two of them would get into a heated argument in French, switch to Spanish, over to Ancient and then top it off in Goa'uld. It was confusing and sometimes if one or both of them stormed out between the team she could get a gist of what they were saying but sometimes not. It was as if the two archaeologists had created a language all of their own that no one else spoke and at times it was indeed very annoying.

"No, no, I've heard their weird little French and Spanish crap. I mean in code. It's English, but in code. As they were leaving Daniel said something to her about Bon Bons or something and she said ocho, which I know is Spanish for eight and then he starts talking about the damn weather tomorrow. It made no damn sense, but Dr. Perky knew what he was talking about and left smiling. I think they were deciding a hook up point," Jack finished off the beer and stood to get another, glancing behind him to see his wife's response.

"Adrienne, honey, her name is Adrienne and that's not evidence of anything other than their geekiness. Which shouldn't bother you because you married a geek yourself," Sam smiled, teasing.

Maybe he was right, maybe it was a hook-up point, she thought, deciding that she needed to do some more fishing first thing tomorrow morning.

Jack, disregarding her joke, kept talking.

"I know her name Sam and again, I think I've hit the mark with that one pretty good too. But answer me this, what about his sudden social life? Other than movie night and what, two dinners with Vala, that man hasn't left his hole in years for anything fun. Anything. Now all of a sudden, he's out every single day that he's not working, a lecture here, dinner there and ever damn time it's with her! Sam, I caught him in the lab practically dry humping her, or trying to, to that damn rap music of hers! And he's ... happy," Jack continued, emphasizing the word happy with disdain in his voice.

Sam couldn't help but laugh at his last reason; Jack was right but, really, god forbid Daniel was happy. After everything the man had been through, happy was definitely what he deserved.

"And what if they were?" Sam asked, awaiting his response, never having broached the topic with him before. Frowning, Jack opened the fridge door and took out another beer, twisting the cap and returning to the table, sitting down.

"I don't know, is he supposed to be scoring with his assistant? I know they're civilians, but isn't that just a little too close to home?" Jack asked, turning it back on her. Sure, he had teased Daniel about it, the woman was a cute little thing and the two of them seemed way too close, but he really wasn't so sure that hooking up with one's assistant, much less one's teammate was such a good idea. After all, he and Sam had waited but they weren't civilians.

Would they have waited were it not for years of military training and regulations telling them they had to? What were the regulations for people like Daniel and Adrienne?

Sam leaned forward a bit on the table, pushing the wine glass aside.

"If they are, no one knows and obviously it's not interfering with their work so leave them alone. We can cross that bridge when we get there," Sam replied, wondering what she really would do if they were together.

What would Woolsey say?

He had been trying to do away with Adrienne's position since day one.

Jack, however, didn't respond, just drank his beer, starting to think to himself that maybe he was just hoping that Daniel finally found someone that made him happy.

The magnifier slammed onto the floor, it's glass shattering into a million pieces across the lab, the noise from its impact on the floor echoing throughout the room. Adrienne's heart stopped at the sound and she looked back at Daniel, panicked, who had stopped his lips moving down her neck, his eyes wide at the floor.

"You did that," she said quickly, realizing that it might not have been the wisest idea to let him throw her up on the table, as fun as it seemed at the time.

"No, you started it. You locked the door and waltzed over here with one thing on your mind," he accused, pulling back from her, his face red with embarrassment as he pulled away, suddenly unable to believe he had let them get carried away like that, at work no less.

Damn tight running shorts, he thought, damn Adrienne.

"No, you slammed me up onto the table with one thing on your mind," she replied, slipping back over to her desk.

"I said let's go back to my quarters, you obviously didn't want to wait," he teased, not really mad about the magnifier but still regretting this little indiscretion.

This wasn't like him, what had Adrienne done to him, but then she smiled, that smile she only gave to him.

She changed my life is what she did, he thought, she brought me back from the brink.

"Sorry, ok, fine, my fault," she said, laughing, returning to the scene of the crime to help him pick up the mess. Kneeling beside him though, another thought popped into her head.

"What are you gonna say happened?" she asked, worried. They had really crossed a line here, a line they should have known better than to cross, given it was in this exact same fashion that Vala found out and they were just damn lucky that she hadn't slipped or blackmailed them for that matter. The last thing Adrienne wanted was for Woolsey to finally have an excuse to ship her to Area 51 or to fire her.

The all-important Daniel Jackson or not, she wasn't supposed to be sleeping with her boss, period and she was fairly certain that having intimate contact on a mission, well, two missions now, and in the lab was a fireable offense.

"That I was having my way with my assistant on my desk and she knocked it over," he teased, trying to be funny, seeing the worry in her eyes, the same worry that was ripping through him at the exact moment.

They needed to cool it, at least here, and fast.

Forcing a laugh, Adrienne shoved him playfully and he shook his head, having finally come up with a real excuse.

"That I was trying to use it, but it's gotten so old that the clamp broke. I was pushing down on it to get a closer look and it popped up and fell over, end of story. I've been asking for a new one of these for a while now so I guess I owe you a thank you," he said, leaning up to kiss her lightly. She returned the gesture and backed up, sitting on her heels, smiling again.

"In that case, you're welcome," she replied, hoping it was that easy and stood, returning to pack her things as Daniel went to grab the broom from the corner of the lab. Her items shoved away, she looked over her shoulder as Daniel was pouring the last of the pieces from the dust pan into the large metal trashcan.

"Wanna do something? Clothed?" she asked, blushing.

"Yes, and away from here. I'd rather not think about SG finances or bureaucratic idiots for the rest of the night," Daniel replied, tossing the larger magnifier pieces in the garbage. He grabbed his bag from his desk chair and slipped it over his shoulder, walking over to Adrienne and slipping his arm around her waist, stealing a kiss and unlocking the door.

"Come on Indy, I've got an idea," she said.

"Where to?" he asked as she walked out of the door pulling him along.

"I was thinking a late night movie at the IMAX, the one downtown that's open all night. It's probably something stupid, but we can sit in the back and make fun of it," she replied, letting go of his hand the minute they entered the hall as it was time for the work face.

Slightly disappointed to not be heading to have a more intimate evening in his quarters, Daniel followed along, hoping she wasn't dragging him to another zombie movie.

It was worse than a zombie movie; it was awful, some stupid teenage vampire love story with crappy cliché music written by wanna be punk rockers. They were, however, mostly alone in the theatre so they sat in the back, speaking French, making fun of the entire first half of the film when Adrienne finally leaned over onto his shoulder, Daniel instantly slipping his arm around her.

"Are you tired?" he whispered, taking a peek at his watch to see how much longer they had to force themselves to stay awake, knowing that Adrienne could fall asleep at any moment.

"Not really, just thinking about what Jack said earlier," she whispered back.

"About my being an idiot?" he teased, kissing her temple lightly.

"About us being together. If that's really what he said it certainly doesn't sound like he's that concerned if we are," she replied.

"Excuse me for saying this, but Jack just wants me to 'get laid'; I think that he would have an entirely different position if he knew how serious we were," Daniel answered.

"So we're serious?" Adrienne asked, taken aback by the statement.

Granted she knew that they weren't just having a good time and she loved him more than she had ever loved someone else before, but she hadn't really thought to the future, past their day to day secret keeping. She had used the word serious before and she thought that didn't scare her with Daniel, but to hear him actually say it, just out of the blue, made her heart race.

He's serious...

How serious is serious...

Could he be thinking...

She began to pull away slowly, Daniel looking over at her strangely.

"Of course. I mean, we have our nights, but we're pretty much living together now; I would say that's serious," he explained, sounding a little hurt.

Was there something she wasn't telling him?

Adrienne was quiet for a while, still in shock because with his words he made it all real.

This wasn't a quick I love you, a declaration of forever in a moment of passion, Daniel wanted a future with her, a 'this is it for me' kind of future.

Giving Adrienne a moment, as he could see she needed it, Daniel sat back to try to figure out why that stupid girl on the screen thought that having her vampire boyfriend break into her house while she was at school to get her car keys was not creepy.

"Daniel, sha?" she whispered again.

"What's wrong ja-wer?" he replied, hoping she didn't want to discuss how serious they were any further. It made him nervous, made him think that he had jumped to conclusions, made him think that he was the only one in this relationship that was thinking forever.

He had thought she was, wasn't she?

"I think we need to tell Sam," she said quietly.

"Why?" he asked looking over at her, those not the words he expected to hear from her mouth.

"Because if this is serious, like you said it is, I think we have to disclose that to our boss," Adrienne declared.

"Ok, if you want me to I will. This is serious. I do love you and you're right," he answered, deciding that she had a point.

They were going to need to face the consequences of their actions if he wanted this to lead anywhere like it had in his mind, to a future that he hadn't even discussed with Adrienne.

Smiling in the dark, she cuddled closer to him using his touch to calm her fears.

They were back at the base at 4 a.m., and only other members of SG-1 that seemed to be up.

Over pretending, Adrienne just headed to Daniel's room with him, openly holding his hand and Vala, who was apparently up as well, made some crude joke about them spending their next four hours enjoying one another. Adrienne tried not to laugh, because a part of her wanted to do exactly that. Daniel yelled at Vala and made her go away, but they did go straight to his room, just like Vala teased.

They actually worked on some things for a few hours and then, since they were both on the first day of the switch, finding they couldn't focus, played multilingual Scrabble for a while which ended in a draw, a long, loud draw filled with screaming and hysterical laughter.

Finally, it was late enough, or early, depending on the definition, so they went to bed, wrapping up together in a tangle of arms, legs, blankets and slow kisses.

"Archaeology," Daniel answered the phone.

"Why are you answering your phone?"

It was Jack on the other line so Daniel answered a smartass question with a smartass remark.

"Because I was standing beside it," he replied, rolling his eyes and wondering why Jack wasn't at home with his wife at ten at night when neither of them were confined to reverse schedule.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Jack continued.

"Adrienne stepped out," Daniel answered, forgetting himself for a moment, "and she's not my girlfriend," he added quickly, half tempted to admit it right there.

No, you're not lying Daniel, she's not your girlfriend. She's your soulmate. See, no lie.

"Sure, listen, leave her a little love note to tell her you're gone for the night; I need you on something," Jack requested, Daniel making a noise into the receiver.

"Is it more blowout from that meeting? Jack, I've got things that I'm trying to get accomplished down here, which is hard enough as it is on this backwards mess that Woolsey calls a schedule," Daniel protested, hoping that he could at least get a new magnifier ordered and start to sort out and assign the next section of database.

"No, it's geeky mess from area 51 I need you to look at. Get your ass up here," Jack ordered, hanging up the line. Knowing he would just be fighting a losing battle, Daniel walked over to Adrienne's desk to leave her a note so she could at least get started on their work for the week.

Adrienne got back to the lab, wanting to just lock the door and throw herself into Daniel's arms, but he wasn't there. Instead there was a note on her computer.

Up with bigshots. Go through tag 56932 database and make calendar.

Fang. On. 6, just in case.

He didn't need to sign the note, the code was enough, but Adrienne was disappointed that she would have to wait so long to see him. Looking at the clock, 11 p.m. on this stupid shift, six in the morning was an eternity.

She sighed, cueing up the database to his requested tag and began to plan out their attack plan for this section, hoping the time would fly.

Sam was sitting in her office just about to go home and end her semi-normal day shift when the red phone rang and her heart started to race, like it always did when that phone rang; she could only imagine what was wrong.

Reaching for the phone, she brought it to her ear cautiously, hoping that an attack from Anubis or worse was not the news to be relayed by the other side.

"O'Neill," she answered professionally.

"I never get tired of hearing that," Jack said on the other line and Sam softened her tone a bit thankful that if bad news was to come, it was to come from him.

"Jack, why are you calling the emergency phone?" she asked, not really wanting to know. Jack had way too much fun with his power despite his years of military behavior and more than anything liked to play with said power. She secretly thought it was hysterical, but would never admit it to him and now more than ever hoped that he was calling for one of those more idiotic reasons.

"Because I'm going to try to get Daniel to admit that he's doing the horizontal mambo with his little girl, and I need a good way to make him admit it," Jack explained, as if using government resources to satisfy his curiosity was perfectly normal.

Sam made a noise into the phone.

"I said to leave them alone," she stated, knowing full well that not only hadn't he listened to her last night, but that he had no intention of listening to her now.

"I take it you're not gonna help then?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

"No honey, I'm not," she replied, "I'm going home. My shift today is done. Good night."

"Dammit, you're no fun," he said and hung up, just as Daniel was knocking at his door.

Jack stood, adjusting his jacket, trying to look official and not like he was snooping before walking over to open the door.

"Took you long enough," Jack said in greeting.

"You do realize I'm on the bottom floor and, I had to leave Adrienne a list of things to do in my absence," Daniel rolled his eyes at his friend and Jack smiled.

He could comment now, of course he had to leave a note for Adrienne, probably a note that said where they were meeting for their next whoopie session, but it was best he wait.

"Alright, so Rodney has sent this crap over and says it's time sensitive so I need you to read it and tell me what it says," Jack ordered as he walked Daniel over to a table.

Making a face the moment he noticed that this had nothing to do with Anubis or anything else Daniel had been working on these past few weeks, Daniel rolled his eyes at the complete waste of time in front of him before glaring back at Jack.

"You could have sent this down to the lab where Adrienne and I could have finished it in about half the time it took for me to come up here, sit here alone, do it and then head back down," Daniel said, pulling out the chair and removing a legal pad from his messenger bag.

Not responding, Daniel did as he had asked, Jack smiling as his friend sat, taking the bait.

"There you are, talking about your little sweetheart again," Jack began his taunt carefully, "You know you got along just fine for years without her."

"Yea, I did," Daniel said, "but I get along better now with her," he replied coolly, starting to read and write things down on the pad.

Biding his time, Jack decided to back off for a while and let him work, planning to try a different angle later. He'd gotten Daniel up here, alone and cornered, which was phase one of his plan but at this point Jack was still waiting to start on phase two.

About an hour into the task, as he himself went through stack after stack of mission reports, Jack had an idea. Trying to act casual, he stood from his desk, glancing over at his friend, who hadn't made so much as a sound or sent one text message to the chickadee downstairs.

"Hey, I'm going to go get some coffee or something, do you want anything?" Jack asked, walking over to the desk now noting that Daniel was working furiously, obviously in a hurry to get out of there.

I bet I know why, Jack thought, he's trying to get back downstairs to her.

"No, I'm good," Daniel muttered, not looking up, flipping to the next page in the stack.

Perfect, Jack thought to himself and headed down the hall to the elevators that would take him to his wife's part of the Pentagon.

"Good evening Dr. Perky!" Jack shouted as he got into the lab. Adrienne had her headphones on looking at a calendar layout when he shouted and just about fell into the floor with shock, ripping off her headphones, peering back at him.

"General you scared me to death!" she shouted, putting her hand over her chest.

"What happened to that karate stuff of yours? Aren't you supposed to kick my ass or something?" he asked, making a face at her reaction.

"I try not to as much, it's usually Daniel that jumps out and tries to scare me," she said.

"And we wouldn't want to punch our loverboy, would we?" Jack said quietly.

"Sir?" Adrienne asked, trying to act innocent.

This week was just getting better and better; who else was going to find out?! But wait, maybe Daniel had talked to Sam, should she answer accordingly, but she froze not knowing at all what she should do.

"Nevermind. I need your Ancient/Goa'uld/ translating doohickey," he said.

"It's not a doohickey, I mean, it's not a separate tool or anything, it's an iPad app I created, right over here, would you like me to show you how to use it?" Adrienne asked as she rushed over to her desk to get the iPad. Grabbing the tablet, she hurried back over to Jack, opening the case and tapping around the screen.

"Here's the icon," she said hoping to be helpful to one of the many people around here who after all of this time still didn't seem impressed with her, "just tap here. What are you trying to translate?" she asked curious as to why he was not only down here but asking for her help.

"English to Space Worm," he replied. Trying not to make a face at his word choice, Adrienne selected the right option, turning the screen to show him where to enter the text.

"Just type here, and hit enter like a normal keyboard. Sir, can I ask why you need to do this; since Daniel is indisposed I would be more than happy to help you with whatever," she offered, determined to get to the bottom of his strange behavior.

"Nope, gotta do this myself. I'm gonna use Daniel's computer over here, so you just carry on with whatever you were doing," he replied, shooing her away with his hand and walking over to Daniel's desk.

Still confused, and not wanting to annoy the big boss, especially if Daniel was going to go public with their status, Adrienne just shrugged and put her headphones back on, determined to be finished before six and not to worry about Jack O'Neill's unexpected visit.

About thirty minutes later Jack returned to his office but Daniel didn't even notice, still enthralled in his task, not even giving his old friend as much as a wave.

Jack's phone was ringing, so he took the call, having to put off his scheming for a while longer and it was important, of course, meaning he would have to put his little plan on hold until he took care of real work. He was annoyed; if Sam had agreed to help she could be down here filling in for him, but no, she had to be a stick in the mud and make him be the one to figure out whether or not Daniel was finally recognizing that females actually existed.

Frowning at the occupied archaeologist, Jack stepped out for the stupid meeting, who in the hell met at one in the morning other than Robert Idiot Woolsey, running around the Pentagon for a few hours, returning back by two thirty, hating this stupid schedule more by the minute.

When he finally stepped across the threshold to his office, Daniel was still there, foregoing food even though he knew his friend surely hadn't eaten.

Perfect, Jack thought, not only is he still here but he's already proving my point by skipping lunch, he's rushing to get back to Dr. Perky because heaven forbid the woman eat a meal alone.

Running his plan through his head, Jack opened his email slowly, cutting his eyes over at Daniel.

"Asshole!" he shouted aloud and that, as he had hoped, got Daniel's attention.

"What now?" he asked without turning around, knowing full well that it was going to be more work for him and not Jack. Smiling, the general hit print, grabbing the document from the printer and stood, walking it over to Daniel.

"More bullshit from Rodney; it says you need to do this first," Jack explained as he hastily handed Daniel the sheet of paper. Frowning, he took it and scanned the document, quickly glaring back at Jack.

"Goa'uld text usually don't begin with the words TOP SECRET," Daniel stated sternly.

"Probably some of Rodney's smartassness, just do that first, alright," Jack said and went back to his desk as Daniel turned to the document, beginning to start the translation.

"Really Jack? Really?" he said moments later.

"What, does it say something important?" Jack asked, trying to hide his excitement.

"Besides the fact the wording is horrendous and sounds like an uneducated buffoon it reads 'I know you are knocking boots with Dr. Excited' which I am sure you meant to read Dr. Perky," Daniel said, rolling his eyes.

"Well?" Jack asked.

"Well what?" Daniel replied.

"Are you?" Jack continued and Daniel stood from the table.

"This just says the same thing over and over, like every other machine Rodney thinks he can't translate. Send it back, I'm going to do some real work," he said standing from the table and heading for the door, Jack grabbing his arm and pulling him back.

"Look, I get it ok. I won't say a word. Are you and Dr. Perky a thing?" Jack asked more sincerely, Daniel biting his lip and pulling away.

"Yeah."

"Like having a good time kind of thing or I need to prepare for backlash kind of thing?" Jack push further, watching Daniel's face, somewhat taken aback. They really did, he thought, he really hooked up with his assistant.

"Option two."

"How serious are we talking Daniel?" he now inquired, his mind already racing for solutions. His old friend, his friend for so long finally looked up at him, with a look in his eyes that Jack hadn't seen in years...

"Serious enough where I need you and everyone else to cool it so I don't lose her. Serious enough where it would be great if you could find out any and all loop holes in the dating one's subordinate regulation. Serious enough where," he paused, taking a breath, "where I'm filing formal paperwork in the morning with Sam."

Ok, yeah, Jack thought, that's serious and Robert Woolsey just might hit the ceiling. He hadn't been keen on an assistant anyway and this would just add fuel to the fire.

"Is she worth it?" Jack asked the only other thing on his mind, that if this were to completely collapse in on him was it all worth it. He really hadn't taken the time to get to know Adrienne, Sam seemed to like her but was really too busy to know her either, this woman who had apparently stolen the heart of one of his dearest friends.

"More than anything," Daniel answered without hesitation, Jack nodding in reply.

"Ok, I'll see what I can do," the general muttered, patting his old friend on the shoulder before turning to head back to his desk. Daniel didn't say another word, just shoved his hands into his pockets and left the office, leaving Jack with piles and piles of more useless bullshit. Turning to his screen he started to check email when he paused, opening a different folder instead.

Pentagon Personnel Regulations and Code of Conduct

Adrienne noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and after her little episode with Jack earlier in the evening was paying better attention but it was Daniel so she slipped her headphones to her neck smiling.

"Well, I'm glad that didn't take all night. I'm just about finished with the calendar. What did the boys upstairs need?" she asked, looking back at what she had been writing.

"Jack needed to act like an ass, that's all," Daniel replied, not wanting to tell Adrienne it looked like their little secret was going to blow up in their faces very soon. She didn't need to worry about that but he needed to come up with something good, and fast, and before someone that signed his paycheck was down here escorting the love of his life from the premises.

"Jack?" she said, "Huh, that's odd. He came down here about an hour after I got your note wanting to use my iPad and your computer. He was translating something," she said, confused.

"Uh huh, he sure was," Daniel walked over to his own computer to see where Jack had left the iPad, English translating still reading 'I know you are knocking boots with Dr. Perky' and erased the message, walking the iPad over to Adrienne.

"Don't let him play with that. Think of it like Vala and your surfboard. Same idea," he instructed, handing it to her and she laughed, not questioning, tucking it back into its case.

"Ad?" Daniel opened his big mouth, again, before he could think, her perfect dark eyes glancing up at him.

"You ok sha?" she asked, reading his face, dammit why could she read him so well.

"Jack knows," he spat out, coming to the conclusion that the rest of the conversation and how exactly Jack got it out of him could and should be omitted.

"And?"

"And he was fine, you were right," Daniel replied.

"Told you. I really think we're worrying about nothing. Fang on still or not?" Adrienne asked like nothing had happened.

She's right, Daniel thought, this is going to be just fine, peeking up at the clock. He'd lost track of time, seeing it was nearly four in the morning and they would still need to stay up until eight to maintain the schedule.

"Yeah, I need to eat but we can go back to my room," he answered, not even bothering with their code, starting to look at her layout, nodding his head in approval.

"Nice work," he told her, reaching to take the calendar over to his desk.

"Do you expect anything less?" Adrienne smiled right back at him. Chucking, he peered around the corner to see if there was anyone in the hall. There wasn't, so he leaned down quickly, taking her into his arms and kissing her passionately right in the middle of lab, in the clear path of the doorway, kissing her long and slow, his fingers in her hair and his body pressed close to hers.

"What was that for?" she asked as he pulled away, breathless, barely able to choke that out.

"A preview," Daniel replied, folding the calendar on her desk before splaying out his hands, inviting her to lead the way to the commissary.

Sam was just making coffee when she heard the door open, pleased to maybe get a five minute conversation with her husband before they would switch places, yet again, working through this awful spell. It was six, not too bad to be honest, and despite the insanity going on at the base, the round the clock meetings and operations, she could now be thankful for two days in a row of getting to spend actual time with her husband.

Standing back from the counter, she tapped the start button on the machine, walking out into the living room to meet him.

"There anymore of that chinese food left?" Jack asked, trudging past her into the kitchen, making a bee line for the fridge.

"No, you finished that off yesterday," she said, following him, trying to figure out what he could eat since this was his dinner and not breakfast, "How was your day?" she continued.

"Normal, busy, stupid, shit that could have been done at four in the afternoon," Jack answered, pulling out the essential ingredients for a sandwich. Sam, noticing he was making himself something to eat, went and sat at the table, her coffee still in the process of brewing.

"Daniel caved," Jack continued and Sam laughed.

"I told you to leave them alone," Sam said, repeating her new mantra.

"Well, I was right, sorta. They're not just screwing though, they're together. Daniel wants me to help him find a way to keep her around. He said he's coming to see you this morning, but he might have meant his morning," Jack said as he spread some mayo onto the bread.

"After everything Adrienne went through to get this job, and the way Woolsey is always looking for a reason to cut her, I understand them keeping tight lipped," Sam said as she stood, the machine clicking to a finish and her body ordering her to caffeinate it as soon as possible.

Pouring herself a cup, she could feel eyes on her and glanced back, noticing Jack looking at her.

"So, wait, you thought they were too!" he said, stopping his sandwich construction and Sam just nodded her head.

"Yes, honey, I was pretty sure," Sam finally admitted, "Or was hoping that they were," His eyes wide, Jack abandoned his food quest and walked over to his wife, pointing the knife in her direction.

"Samantha Carter O'Neill, you foxy little minx, you know something..." Jack said and Sam smiled at her husband coyly.

"I don't know anything. I just know the signs. After all, we played that game for a while ourselves," Sam replied, waiting for Jack's answer and he shook his head.

"Well, when we get this straight and I make sure Woolsey isn't going to ship her off, I plan on rubbing it in his face. A lot," Jack turned and headed back for the counter. Sam just smiled.

She was right and she'd already worked out what she would tell Woolsey.

Without Daniel, he wouldn't even have a job at all. That in and of itself should give him more leeway than others, especially since if they were together it was not effecting their work in any way that she could see.

The alarm buzzed and Adrienne looked over at the clock and sighed. It was 8 p.m. time to wake up, again.

She hated reverse schedules.

Not that she was any better in the morning but she just hated how everything just seemed to be messed up. The alarm went off again and Adrienne crawled over Daniel's bare back to reach it but he beat her to it, his left hand thrown over the small black device.

"You know I've moved it out of your reach to save it from your fastball," Daniel said, shrugging her back over to her side, rolling over to face her.

"This is also why you're late every day. There is this nice little invention called snooze, that allows you to wake up slowly. Normal people don't just launch alarm clocks across the room," he made a face at her so she turned, burying her face in the pillow.

"However, by no longer allowing me to launch my alarm across the room you are having a significant negative economic impact on the alarm clock industry," she turned her head only so much as to allow her lips freedom to giggle. Daniel laughed as well, but not entirely at the joke, more so at the dark red mark on her shoulder, a red mark he remembering making last night, accidentally, as he had gotten a bit carried away.

"Let's not get up," she said, trying to slide into his arms.

"Let's not get caught," he replied, but he didn't want get up either, her love mark making him remember last night, remembering how...

What had she done to him?

"Lay back," she instructed from her knees, evidently having gotten into that position at some point. He paused, unsure as to what to do; they'd just woken up...

"Just lay back," she repeated, bringing her tongue ring to her teeth, revealing her intention instantly, causing his heart to race.

"No, Ad, don't, you don't have to, I don't want you to, I don't expect," he started to stammer, ashamed, worried, pulling away. This wasn't something she should be doing, she didn't need to do this to make him happy; he loved her even before they had laid a hand on one another and she needed to know that...

They had been taking it too far lately.

This was getting out of control...

He sat up slightly, protesting, pushing her away and she sat back on her heels, appearing confused and nervous.

"Sha, I'm sorry, is there something I need to know?" Adrienne asked, worried and curious herself, never having seen this reaction from him before, but Daniel was shaking his head, waving his hands.

"You're not my slave, you're not here for that, we are not together for that, it's just, I meant what I said about serious, I mean I want," he stammered some more but Adrienne just giggled, pushing her hair out of her face and leaning forward again.

"I want to, trust me, you'll like it," she promised, no longer moving slowly...

They laid there for a little while longer before getting ready for work, Daniel relishing in their physical intimacy yet again, until Adrienne stood from his bed, wiggling out from his grasp. Chills ran down her back, the room being much colder than their shared warmth. and she fought every urge she had to just stay in bed, wrapped in his arms.

Composing herself, she tiptoed to the bathroom to take a shower, feeling he might need a bit to recover.

Adrienne heard him open the door just as she was finishing.

"Ad, did you see my journal of the Atlantis lab work?" he asked, his voice a clear indicator that he had not totally recovered from their previous encounter. Had she not been so close to finishing up she would have invited him to join her, still a little aroused herself, but she was fairly certain that he wouldn't be ready for anything else for a while.

"Not recently, last I saw it you had it at your desk in the lab, did you bring it here?" she replied, pausing at her own response, remembering their conversation from yesterday, the nice memory of pleasuring him this morning leaving her thoughts. Wow, we really are serious, she thought, we sound like a damn married couple.

Is that where he's going with this?

Oh my god...

"I have no idea; did I mention I hate this schedule," he said, sighing, and she laughed from the shower.

Ok, if we're this serious then there were some things that needed to be straightened out, especially if he's thinking...

"When are you going to meet with Sam?" she asked bluntly, laying it out.

"For what?" Daniel responded, his mind still on the lost journal and the surprising wake-up he had just moments before. She didn't have to do that, but she seemed to want to and that was by far the most amazing experience that he had ever had, second only to actually making love to her.

Adrienne stuck her hand out of the curtain as she shut off the water, stretching for her towel which was just out of reach, her hand flailing cutely for the fabric, trying to stay hidden in the warmth of the shower, so he stepped forward and collected it, handing it to her with a smile.

"Thank you sha," she chattered out through gritted teeth, drying off and wrapping it around herself, stepping out into the cold again shaking. He wanted to take her into his arms the moment he saw the goosebumps on her shoulders, but she scooted by him, heading back into the room, digging through the bottom drawer of the dresser where he was letting her keep things here at well, smiling as she pulled out some clothes and began to get dressed.

"You said that since Jack doesn't care that we're going to tell her, now that we know neither of us are going to get fired," she said.

"Oh," Daniel answered, "that meeting."

Adrienne made a face and it wasn't a happy one.

It's not that he hadn't planned on telling her, he just hadn't figured out what to say yet that didn't end in a scenario where his entire world came crashing down all around him.

Then again, Jack has probably already told her...

Dammit...

"Yes, Daniel, that meeting, aren't we going to start taking the next step," she said and he sighed.

He was so scared to tell Sam, to admit everything publicly, terrified that they would separate he and Adrienne.

Ad, I can't lose you, you are everything to me, he wanted to say but couldn't, his lack of response sending Adrienne into a rage.

"What in da hell Daniel!? Wha 'tah we doing 'ere? 'Ow 'ard is it ta march up ta Sam, one of yo best amis, and tell 'er? Dit on verite! Please tell me dat yo nah voila merde ahd dat dis is fo real. Dat I'm nah makin' a cooyon ah myself!" Adrienne screamed at him, the anger in her voice rising, her speech nearly unintelligible.

What was happening?

Where did this come from?

"It is Adrienne, it is. I love you. I'm just..." but he couldn't finish, the look on her face was terrifying him far worse than anything Sam could say, this was the look of his world tumbling down, this was the look of Adrienne, pulling herself from him, looking for an escape. Instead, he walked to embrace her, trying to show her that he loved her, that he meant what he said, that this was really it for him.

Oh my god, he thought, stopping in his tracks, she is it for me, this is it.

I want to spend the rest of my life with her...

She shoved him away, clearly unable to read his thoughts and as angry as ever.

"No, pic kee toi Daniel Jackson; fuck you! I'm nah 'ere fa yah amusement. I'm nah in da sac wit yah fa da fun of it. I'm NOT VALA MAL DORAN!" she kept screaming and Daniel was completely lost.

Didn't he just say to her last night that they were serious, that she was all he wanted.

What was going on?

"Ja-wer, I know, you're not, please, calm down," he tried to approach her again but she was shaking her head and out of nowhere, lashed out, slapping him across the face.

Hurt and surprised, Daniel backed away slowly.

"I 'ave work ta do ya damn cooyon, ya kno ahr jobs!? Ya let me kno what ya decide. If ya want me ahnd ah real relationship, I'll be in da lab. If nah, I'm sho Vala's still game," she stormed out of his room, half dressed, slamming the door behind her.

Daniel didn't chase her; what would he say?

There was no way that she would understand what he was going through.

True, there was a part of him that was terrified of the repercussions of allowing their relationship to unfold and become public, but he realized walking through the halls of the SGC that it was something more.

Admitting that he and Adrienne were in love publicly made it real and real was something he could easily lose.

He had lost real before but if he continued to stand here like an idiot he was going to lose it again. Instead of going to the lab to try to reason with her, he went to the one place he knew he could go.

He went to see Teal'c.

"DanielJackon," Teal'c greeted him as Daniel slowly pushed in the partially open door, "I was just preparing to complete my meditation."

Regardless of night schedule or day, Teal'c was a creature of habit and it was 10 p.m., the time he liked to set aside to meditate when he could and Daniel was thankful that tonight was not an exception.

"I was hoping so, may I join you?" he asked the Jaffa, who was sitting in the floor, shirtless and crossed legged, surrounded by candles.

"Of course," Teal'c indicated the floor beside him and moved some candles to allow Daniel to sit down which he did, crossing his legs as his friend had done and closing his eyes.

"It has been a long time since we have shared a meditation," Teal'c noted, once he saw that Daniel had taken his seat and was comfortable.

"Yes, I'm sorry my friend, I've been distracted," Daniel apologized, realizing that he indeed hadn't spent time with Teal'c or anyone else for that matter, not in a long while.

"With AdrienneRowan," Teal'c said without expression and Daniel's heart started to race.

"Yes, with, well, no, what do you mean with Adrienne?" he panicked, sure that Teal'c didn't mean anything by it, but isn't that why he was here in the first place, to talk to Teal'c to get advice to figure out what he should do?

"You are in love with AdrienneRowan and you spend your free time with her. You have no need to meditate to have your peace because you have your peace with her," Teal'c answered simply.

Sighing, Daniel opened his eyes and glanced over at his friend, who was already looking at him, with a serious but kind expression.

There was no hiding it any further.

"How did you know?" he asked, giving in, the list of knows quickly growing longer than the list of don'ts.

"AdrienneRowan has loved you since you saved her from the nomads. She refused to leave you when Kasuf haunted you. You tore the flesh from your palms to extract her from the cave when the team went to meet the Tok'ra. I have loved DanielJackson; I know how it appears," he said.

Daniel looked ahead and realized, realized that Teal'c was right; it was obvious to everyone. Cameron and Vala didn't have to say a word and Jack had figured it all out god knows how long ago.

Adrienne was right, this was ridiculous, he just needed to go and talk to Sam, tell her everything, tell her that Adrienne was all he ever wanted and he was going to fight like hell to keep her.

Without a word, he stood, exiting the room, the big warrior remaining on the floor, smiling slightly as Daniel left.

He didn't hesitate when he arrived at Sam's door, but knocked since it was closed. On the elevator ride to the bottom floor from the housing wing he almost changed his mind, those fears and worst case scenarios playing out in his head over and over, but he forced the thoughts away, intent on making this right.

"Come in," she shouted, to both his relief and regret, so he turned the knob and headed on in slowly, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Hey, Sam, you got a minute?" he asked, peering into her office where she looked up from her desk at him over a large piles of files and memos quickly glancing at her clock. She appeared to be busy, which made Daniel feel even worse for bothering her with something so foolish especially since she was trying to keep the entire planet safe along with a host of others and he was here to discuss the fact that he was dating his assistant, that he was sleeping with his assistant, that he wanted to marry his assistant.

Oh my god, he thought, his heart racing again, I want to marry Adrienne.

He started to change his mind, his latest revelation rocking him to his core.

I want to marry Adrienne.

"I have a pre-mission briefing with SG-17 in about 20 minutes..." she said, trailing her voice as she glanced up at him once more, her expression changing. She knew him too well, they had been friends too long and the look on her face broke him.

It was now or never, he told himself.

"This shouldn't take long," he answered quietly and she closed the folder, indicating that he take the seat in front of her, which he did, finding himself unable to form the words.

"Are you alright?" she asked, concern washing across her face and Daniel took a breath, nodding.

"Yea, I just needed to come here to talk to you about a personal matter," he started.

Ok Daniel, you can do this, she's not going to scream and yell, it's time to do this, he coached himself.

Sam furrowed her brow and leaned forward on the desk.

"Personal? Is everything ok with Adrienne?" she asked. Shocked, Daniel made a face, turning his head slightly.

Her too?

"Why are you asking me about Adrienne?" he questioned, starting to think this entire charade had been completely in vain because apparently, for Sam, a personal matter for him automatically meant Adrienne.

"You just have this look on your face like you two had a major fight or something. You guys didn't split up did you?" Sam asked concerned.

Oh, see, Sam didn't know, he must have misunderstood.

"You mean did she quit again? No she didn't quit-" he started but Sam cut him off.

"No, I mean did you two break up?" Sam clarified. His jaw dropping, this really had all been in vain, Daniel just sat in the chair, a look of shock on his face and unable to hold back anymore, Sam started to laugh.

"I thought so, but I just needed that look to verify. You two are really really bad at hiding it. Worse than Jack and I. I mean, since when do you shut off the lab cameras, and at random times during the day? Did you really think it was some big secret? Did you think I didn't know why you begged your way into Vala's undercover mission?" Sam asked, figuring that maybe if she disclosed a little of what she suspected that Daniel would open up, let her know how much of a blow back to expect.

"Well, you didn't call me down to do any kind of sign anything saying that I'm dating a co-worker, I'm sure there is something like that we have to declare," he said, deciding to avoid the Woolsey/IOA issue for now.

"Daniel, I'm married to the head of Homeworld Command and he's been convinced for about a month now and he doesn't care; you're fine," she smiled, hoping she wasn't lying to him, but the way that they had conducted themselves so far, she had a pretty good case for keeping them together, "you guys are ok, right?" Sam added quickly. fearing that her original concern had not been the reason for his visit.

"I hope so, I have one more stop to make, enjoy your briefing," Daniel replied and scurried up from the seat, dashing out of the room, throwing the door closed behind him.

Sam looked at the door as he left.

"I wish Mr. Request a Cot could see himself now," she chuckled and opened the folder again to continue preparing for her meeting.

Adrienne wasn't in the lab working like she said she would be and she wasn't in his quarters, which he had highly doubted, but checked anyway. She wasn't in her quarters either, so Daniel hiked to the last place he knew she would be, the gym and there she was, running on the treadmill today instead of the track.

She must still be really mad at him; the treadmill always meant serious mileage. He walked over, seeing that she had on her headphones and he waved in front of her face so she would acknowledge his presence.

Adrienne didn't speak, but she pulled the headphones to her neck and kept running.

"Can we talk?" he asked, making sure to keep his tone apologetic. Adrienne didn't reply at first, looking at the treadmill's screen and mouthing to herself before finally glancing back at him.

"In two miles we can," she answered curtly. Daniel took a breath and tried to retain his composure.

"Can two miles wait?" he continued, as politely as possible.

"No, because when I set out to do something and decide I'm going to do it and say that I am going to do it, I do it, because some things are too serious to play around with," she stated, her voice shaking, not from the exertion of the exercise but from the sadness in her voice.

She needed this, she needed him to be her strength because for as strong as she was in everything else after everything that had happened to her, after living the life her family criticized her for living, she needed him as much as he needed her.

"Adrienne, ok, you keep running, just hear me out," he requested hoping that she was reading his face, that he was sincere.

"Fine," she answered, choking back emotion.

"I talked to Sam," he started and her eyes widened a bit, but she kept running, her focus still somewhat on the treadmill's monitor.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yea and apparently she already knows. Everybody knows," he said, relieved to hear the admission come out of his mouth. However, to his surprise, Adrienne didn't seem pleased, that odd mixed expression of anger and worry still on her face.

"So, you didn't tell her?" she asked, still pounding away at the treadmill. He had hoped that she would stop once she heard that, but she hadn't, so Daniel reminded himself that running was her release.

"I didn't need to, didn't you hear me, she knows..." Daniel answered.

"That's not telling her," Adrienne looked down at the treadmill to check her mileage and kept running.

"Ok, so I still have to tell her what exactly? I'm trying to make you happy here," he was starting to get annoyed and stopped caring about whether or not she could hear a tone in his voice. Adrienne's head shot up and she hopped the straddle the treadmill, finally pausing her run, as the machine continued to pedal on.

"This isn't about making me happy Daniel, this is about whether or not you're adult enough to have an adult relationship, one in which you can say without shying away like a pimply faced teen that you love me and that we're together. For some reason, you can't do that," Adrienne continued, whispering so no one would hear. This argument was going to spawn enough base gossip as it was and she wasn't trying to embarrass him, he just needed to know that if they were going to do this, if she was going to risk it all, she needed to know that he was prepared to make the same sacrifices.

"What is wrong with you?!" he shouted, loud enough to elicit some stares from a few nearby people.

Hurt, Adrienne just cut her eyes, glancing back at the machine.

"You might want to keep your voice down Dr. Jackson. People might notice you caring about me, which apparently is something you're not ready for," she hopped back onto the belt and kept running.

Frustrated with her more than he had ever been, or at least since they had gotten together, Daniel stormed out of the gym.

"Walter," he asked about five minutes later as he marched into the observation deck, still obviously angry, "do we have any teams coming in?" Walter shook his head, trying to judge what was going on.

"Not for a few hours, why sir?" he answered.

Adrienne saw the warning lights flash and pulled her headphones back to her neck, but didn't stop the treadmill. It could just be something routine, but she didn't feel like checking the calendar on her iPod to see what it was, so she listened while she continued to run since she only had one mile left.

"Attention all personnel," she heard Walter's voice over the intercom and waited for the news, butterflies in her stomach as always when such announcements were made, but he didn't announce anything further. That was odd, she thought, and kept running.

"Hi everyone, it's Dr. Daniel Jackson and I just needed to take a moment to clear something up. I apologize for taking this time from your day. Many of you are aware of the addition of my assistant Dr. Adrienne Rowan to our staff almost two years ago and the great things she has done not only as a member of the archaeological staff but as the most recent addition to SG-1," that familiar voice spoke over the loudspeaker.

The other crew members in the gym started to clap and Adrienne felt her stomach drop.

What in the hell was he doing?

"However, what only some of you may know is that Dr. Rowan and I are romantically involved and have been for some months now. Apparently, I need to make this public knowledge as soon as possible if I wish for this relationship to continue. So, if Adrienne hasn't taken off those damn headphones yet, can someone go and yank them off of her head. I'll wait a second, just to be sure," he continued and as promised, there was a pause and the entire gym was looking at her, the whole night shift crew which she had never realized was so large staring right at her.

She wanted to die, right then and there, but just couldn't leave with the entire room staring at her.

What was he going to do?

"Thank you. Adrienne, I LOVE YOU! Everyone, I am in love with Dr. Rowan and we are together. I love her more than anyone else in my entire life and I want to be with her. Does that work for you Ad? Do you understand now that I'm serious?" Daniel's voice blared across the gym, echoing off of the walls. Her heart racing, her chest tight, Adrienne slipped, having to jump to avoid falling off the treadmill, landing on her leg funny and falling to her butt anyway.

When she looked up she saw Vala reaching down to help her up, her face in a complete state of shock.

"That my dear," she said, "was impressive." Adrienne took her hand and stood, adjusting her running shorts and wiping a stray hair from her face.

"What, almost breaking my neck?" she asked, her face flushing in embarrassment.

"No," Vala pointed at the loudspeaker, her face actually sincere, "that." As if on cue, the entire gym started making childish kissing noises all except Vala who looked genuinely worried as Adrienne's face turned a hundred shades of red.

"I hate that man," she spat as she stormed to find him, racing out the gym heading in the direction of the observation room muttering to herself the entire way.

"Such gawh damn tchew. I bet 'ee dinks 'ee's so cute, like I'm gonna go rushin' up into 'is ahms, 'Oh Daniel, I love ya so much, ya 'ave declared ya love fah me', well if 'ee dinks dis be adult behavior den I've got news fah 'im, he can embrasse moi techew," she turned the corner and ran smack into him.

"You're a PIG," she screamed, even as he was catching her and helping her not fall to the floor. Reaching for her face he gently grabbed her chin and brought her gaze to meet his.

"No, I wanted to prove a point to you. How STUPID was that? Was THAT what you wanted? Do you want me to scream it again?" he had started slowly and calmly but by the end was almost yelling already.

At first, Adrienne wanted to scream out and smack him across the face again but he backed up, reading her mind and looked at her, his arms crossed.

Instead of screaming, or crying for that matter, she just started to laugh.

"Finally!" he said, "A reaction I know how to handle," He uncrossed his arms giving her a silent invitation and she slipped into them, hugging him tightly, right in the middle of the hall, passersby stopping to glance and whisper. She looked up at him, gazing into his eyes, feeling awful about everything. He should have gone to Sam as promised, but she had also overreacted.

He tended to bring that out in her.

"I'm just not used to having, well, this," she apologized in her way and Daniel held her tighter, kissing her head lightly.

"And you think I am? You know my history," he replied as he backed away, but Adrienne didn't let go.

"I love you too," she said quietly. Grinning from ear to ear, Daniel pushed her back from him.

"What was that Ad, I don't think I heard you..." he teased and Adrienne rolled her eye and stepped back, clearing her throat.

"I SAID DR. JACKSON I LOVE YOU TOO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as he began to laugh hysterically.

"I can be equally as embarrassing," she told him, winking.

"Of that I have no doubt," he replied, leaning down to kiss her softly. They kissed gently and slowly in the hallway, no longer caring who saw and who knew.

"I can't show my face in the gym again thanks to you Indy," she said to him as they broke away.

"Trust me, we'll be old news tomorrow," he put his arm around her and started to lead her to his room and Adrienne pulled away, stopping and staring at him strangely.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To shower," he answered. Adrienne cocked her head and rolled her eyes.

Really?

A shower?

That was where his mind was after all of this?

Evidently reading her mind, Daniel started to laugh again.

"Now you need to stop thinking like Vala. You stink, and I can't take you out dancing if you stink," he replied.

"I hate you Daniel," she said, her face softening, shaking her head at him. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, pulling her along, hoping that he remembered the name of the club she was always talking about.

"I hate you too," he replied, deciding that Adrienne was far more important than anything else he had planned, ever.

"General O'Neill," Robert Woolsey peered around the door to Jack's office glad that he was here. With the reverse schedules, it was hard to know whether or not Jack was going to be working the same time as he or as his wife, but it seemed that tonight he had lucked out, thankfully, because he really didn't want to be discussing this with anyone else.

"What do you want Woolsey? I actually have work to do other than attend poorly planned midnight meetings," Jack hissed from his desk, his head aching already at the mere suggestion of another meeting.

"General, we need to have a conversation about Drs. Rowan and Jackson, and their, um, relationship," Woolsey began, treading lightly since he knew that he was talking about one of Jack's closest friends, someone he thought of as family more than a work colleague.

"Yep, heard the announcement, he's all in love, that's next on the list I can assure you. Let me handle that, they've done nothing wrong, it seems they have been together for a while now and no one has been the wiser," Jack replied, not looking up from the mess strewn across his desk.

Taking a breath, Woolsey cleared his throat and stepped closer, holding up a small plastic case in his hand.

"Not exactly General, there's something you need to see," he started, Jack's eyes finally making contact with his own, curious as Robert handed him a DVD.