Chapter Four


"It's… big." Deep under the Mountain, Hope stood at the base of the ramp with Daniel, staring up at the Gate, the rest of SG-1 arrayed behind her.

Daniel pointed to the inner ring. "You can see the thirty-nine symbols, constellations, really, that make up the Gate addresses. That ring spins, and the seven chevrons on the outer ring are used to lock the symbols in."

"And even thought these Goa'uld use the Stargate, they didn't make it?"

"No," answered Sam, stepping up beside Hope. "We're not sure who did. We, along with many others, just use it."

"Oh." The team waited a moment as she continued to stare.

"Ah, Hope?" Daniel peered at her. "It was a long trip, would you like to lie down? Or something?"

Blinking, Hope turned to him. "I'd like to compare my book to what you have, actually."

Jack, Sam, and Teal'c watched as Daniel and Hope walked out if the Gate room, already deep into a discussion of the possible meaning of a disputed set of Goa'uld markings.

"So she really slapped him?" Sam grinned, looking over at Jack.

"Oh yeah, hauled off and practically decked him." Jack rocked back on his heels. "She's a spitfire alright."

Teal'c, about to ask, closed his mouth as Jack shook his head. Instead he gazed out the door Hope and Daniel had just passed through. "Indeed."

~~~~~

"Hey Daniel." A few weeks later Jack's voice stopped Daniel as he walked past the older man's office; with an inquiring lift of his eyebrows he retraced his steps and walked into the small room.

Opening his mouth to find out what Jack wanted, Daniel was distracted by Jack stretching a familiar looking pink rubbery blob into a thin strand, then twirling it like a jump rope until it twisted back on itself, then starting all over again.

"Isn't that— ."

"Silly Putty, yeah."

Daniel watched as Jack went through the routine one more time, then shook his head slightly as if to jolt himself back on track. "Did you want something-- ?"

"How's Dr. Kylie coming along?" Abandoning the rope trick, Jack rolled the putty into a smooth ball and threw it at Daniel.

Absentmindedly catching it, he threw it back. "Hope? She's doing ok. Apart from the usual shock people get when confronted with interstellar, faster than light travel through a wormhole to other words inhabited mainly by transplanted humans and the occasional alien bent on controlling the galaxy. Why?"

"She getting those Goa'uld writings from Earth figured out?" Jack tossed the ball to him again.

"We're about halfway through." Daniel gave Jack a puzzled look before lobbing the pink blob to him. "Why?"

"Fitting in ok? Making friends?"

Giving an exasperated sigh, Daniel grabbed the putty out of the air as it flew by his head. "As far as I know. WHY?"

"Heard she's been seen a couple times with Johnson."

"Yeah." Daniel glanced down to the side, then looked up at Jack over his glasses again. "I heard that too," he answered tersely. "WHY?"

"Just wondering how she's doing," Jack reply guilelessly.

"Next time ask her yourself." Turning on his heel, Daniel left Jack, feeling irate but not knowing why.

~~~~~

"Have you finished with the Phoenician translation yet?" Striding into their cluttered office, Daniel went to stand at one of the large tables, glancing quickly over where Hope was working on her side of the enlarged room.

She glanced up, frowning slightly at his curt tone. "Nearly. It'll be done this afternoon."

"Are you having lunch with Captain Johnson again?"

"Yes—why?"

"Been seeing a lot of him, then, have you?" Daniel stared, unseeing, at the books before him.

"Not really." Hope, in turn, stared at Daniel, noting the tense set of his shoulders. "Why?"

"Just—be careful around these guys, alright? They don't seem to have much use for scientists."

"Wait a minute." Hope slid off her stool to come around the table and face Daniel. "Are you pulling a big brother act again and warning me off him?" She stared at him in disbelief. "You've got some nerve, Daniel Jackson! You gave up any right you had to care about what happens to me when you decided to stay on Abydos, becoming one with the natives, not even having the decency to let me know what happened to you, not even when you got back!"

"Hope, I explained, I'm sorry I didn't let you know… "

"Forget it Daniel, after two long, lonely years someone seems to like me. I've known him less than a month. It's not like I'm going to go out and marry him, for God's sake," she spat out meaningfully. And with that parting shot, Hope spun around and stormed out of their office.

Shocked, Daniel watched her go; dropping his eyes he stared in detached fascination as Silly Putty oozed out from between his clenched fingers.

~~~~~

"You and Daniel arguing?"

Hope looked up from a translation as Sam slid into the seat on the other side of the big table.

"It seems that's all we ever do." Pushing the notebook away, Hope sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm finding it hard to forgive him for taking off two years ago. I thought we were a team, working together on the Goa'uld language, trying to prove the pyramids were older than anyone thought at first. Then he up and disappears, and all the while he had discovered the truth. And he didn't even think to let me know. No 'Having fun, wish you were here. Oh, by the way, we were right!'."

"I know he's beating himself up over it," Sam assured her. "It was just when he got back all his energy was going toward finding Sha're—"

"That's just it," Hope interrupted. "How can I sit here and bitch about him forgetting me when his wife was taken over by the Goa'uld?"

Sam nodded. "Seems to me you both had it pretty harsh. The Colonel told me you were living in a rough part of town."

Shrugging, Hope reached for her coffee mug, then put it back as she realized all that was left was a cold sludge. "Daniel and I were considered crackpots to begin with, then when he vanished, people thought he gave up on our wild ideas. Didn't exactly help the cause. Almost all of what little funding we had was quickly yanked."

Hope shrugged again, giving Sam a too-brilliant smile. "But I'm here now, right?"

"We've only known him a year, but Daniel's pretty special to us too. I think he misses your friendship more than he realizes. So much has happened to him these past two years; you're the only constant he has. This… rift between you is eating away at him." Sam watched Hope as she fiddled with a pencil, shuffling papers aimlessly from one folder to the next. "Do you think you could ever forgive him?"

"I will-- I mean, I have, I just need to swallow my pride and admit it to him."

Satisfied, Sam let the subject drop. "Ready for your first trip through the Gate?"

"Yep. No. I don't know. Maybe?"

Sam nearly laughed at Hope's stricken face. "It's not that bad, really. You get used to it."

"Walter said it's like a roller coaster, but he's never been through, so how would he know? As long as it isn't like falling. I could never stand heights."

"It is like a roller coaster. Just don't eat anything before hand. I almost threw up my first ride."

Hope looked relieved. "That's what Colonel O'Neill said. About not eating," she quickly added, "not about you almost getting sick."

Sam grinned at her. "You'll be fine."

"Sure," she agreed unconvincingly. "Fine."