Sam looked at the instrument she held – the SGC had been alerted, and had sent supplies accordingly. Daniel had done some fast-talking and hard convincing, and General Hammond had also agreed to let the other archaeologists remain on site. Sam wondered a bit about the wisdom of the decision, as Daniel seemed to be taking leave of his sanity, bit by bit. They were all worried: Jack had begun to get irritated; Teal'c was ever-watchful, being especially wary around the openly hostile Harrison Bailey. Sam herself was unsure what to do with this version of Daniel. It was odd, because he wasn't himself, yet he was. She knew Colonel O'Neill attributed the odd behavior to Bailey's presence, but Sam wasn't sure that was entirely the case. She knew Daniel hadn't been sleeping well – she could see it in his physical bearing as well as in his eyes. Daniel's eyes were always so expressive; now they were filled with frustration and defeat and something else that Sam couldn't identify. She had seen something similar before: after Sha're had died, after Sarah had been taken, after his descension, when he learned Abydos had been destroyed... she knew he felt inadequate here, even if she couldn't understand why. In light of this knowledge, she continued to stare at the readout in front of her. Finally, Sam sighed and headed for the storeroom. She hated to disappoint Daniel, as she knew the information she had to deliver would. Entering the room, Sam found the archaeologist deep in thought, one of the smooth, grey stones in one hand, reading back and forth between his journal and a reference book. He looked up hopefully when he heard her approach.
Sam frowned. "Sorry, Daniel. I'm not getting any strange readings. Trace amounts of naquadah, but that's all." She continued her explanation: "It could be from the hand device you found."
Daniel stood and rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Yeah, I should've guessed." He closed his eyes, "Look, Sam, I can't explain it, but I know something's... off... here." He opened them again, a little bit of the hope regained. "Can you feel it?"
"I don't feel the presence –" Sam began regretfully, hating again that she couldn't affirm what he wanted to hear.
"No, no." Daniel waved her line of thought away impatiently. "I'm not talking about that. It's just – dammit!" he turned on a heel and angrily threw the stone – it clattered around, knocking things over, echoing loudly in the underground room.
"Daniel." Sam was worried: this kind of physical aggression was not at all a normal display for him.
"Yeah." Daniel kept his back to her.
"Are you okay?" Sam could hear the deep concern in her own voice.
"I'm fine." He replied curtly, still not facing her.
"Daniel –" Sam began.
"I'm fine, Sam." Daniel interrupted, finally turning around. "Look – let me know if you find anything, okay?" He walked to the tunnel.
"Where are you going?" Sam called after him.
"I'm going to see if Dr. Bailey has found anything." Daniel answered, not bothering to stop.
Author's Notes: So I established a timeline after all. It's after Daniel's descension... I thought it would create some interesting drama later on.