Author's Notes: Sorry. I'm still working on the longer chapters thing. still haven't been very successful. I'll get there, hopefully. I'm nothing if not potential. ;)
Daniel stood, hands in his pockets, next to one of the jeeps, waiting for the rest of the team to be ready. Dr. LaVoie was packing away her own gear in the other jeep; Kurt Pendry was running the ten yards between the jeep and the inn back and forth, exchanging things in and out of his own bag, literally bouncing with excitement; Otto appeared to be haggling with the owner of the lodging, waving his arms around and looking quite animated at that. Daniel took note of the people who were missing just as Elena emerged with her own bag. He came forward to help the older woman, taking her belongings and setting them in the jeep with his own. Kurt came bounding over as Daniel was securing the bag.
"Uh, Dr. Bailey isn't coming with us?" Daniel called out.
"No." Pendry replied, removing yet another item from the other jeep. "He's decided to stay on a few days. He'll join us before." he paused, out of breath from trying desperately to cram something much too large into a space that was much too small, ultimately giving up, if only momentarily, ". too long. He tries to mask it, but he's just as intrigued as the rest of us. One look in his eyes tells you that."
"In the mean time, we'll be able to work in peace." Elena added as Pendry resumed his feeble attempt at packing.
Kurt looked over toward her. "Such words, Elena!"
"He's a rabble rouser." She replied calmly. "I have no problem telling you or him that; he knows how I feel about him and the trouble he brings." Elena continued, voice growing in volume and pitch "He's an egoist: thinks only of himself." The tirade had seemed to accomplish what Daniel's patient waiting hadn't: everyone had now stopped whatever they were doing and had gathered around the jeep. "Why, the last time we all worked together, he nearly killed Daniel! Pulling him into that stupid, empty tomb! And he was just a boy at the time!"
"As if he isn't a boy now." Otto muttered, beginning a cacophony of voice, all overlapping and intermingling, that Daniel could only frown at.
"He's thirty-nine." Defended Kurt.
"He was twenty-one!" Shrilled Elena.
"He's not twenty-one." Otto replied.
"He does look very young." Bernadette joined in.
"He shouldn't have been in there!"
"He's got what, something like eighty-five degrees now?"
"He looks much younger than he is."
"Bailey and his hubris putting Daniel in such a position!"
"He couldn't do that by twenty-one. it's not possible."
"No. No. No." Kurt raised his voice, effectively quashing the conversation. "He was twenty-one at the time he went into Mentu's tomb, which I'll remind you ended up not being Mentu's tomb so much as a big, empty, unstable hole, and he was curious, Elena. He would've gone in with or without Bailey. If anything, it's a good thing Harrison was there - he pulled Daniel out, didn't he? And Otto, he's thirty-nine now, but, Bernadette, he does look much younger." he finished, rather self-satisfied.
There was a brief pause before Daniel jumped in. "You guys know I'm standing right here, right?" His words sent everyone back in motion, as he himself stood motionless, arms wrapped tightly around his body.
"Of course, Daniel." Kurt threw whatever remaining objects he had haphazardly in the back of the jeep.
"Okay." The younger man nodded. "Just making sure I hadn't gone... out of phase, or something." he mumbled, shaking his head and staring at the ground.
"What was that, dear?" Elena questioned, tone back to its usual level.
Daniel's head shot back up. "Nothing. Are we going?"
"Oh." Elena put a hand to her heart, looking nostalgically at Daniel. "'Are we going.' So like a child."
Daniel did his best to give the woman what he thought looked like an ingratiating smile, which ended up looking more like a grimace. Sighing, he dropped his arms, grabbed onto the vehicle's roll bars, and climbed into the seat behind her.