A Little Pleasant Distraction

As the weeks progressed at the SGC, Merlin found himself settling in well. He had no plans to find a place of his own, as of yet, content to stay with his grandfather as he had been away for much longer than he had originally felt. Surprisingly, he had even managed to steer clear of the Colonel as much as humanly possible. It didn't help matters that he was reporting to the man, but he was able to put on his stoical face and stand it through.

What was beginning to irk him though was that there was too much paperwork and absolulely no flying. Eventually, he would have to go fly both the Eagle and Nighthawk to keep his flight status valid on both, but that wasn't to come up for awhile.

His 'team', which he found a stange distinction for a group of fighter pilots, was now dubbed SG-A, for air. Hammond had originally conceived it as SG-A1, since there would be more than just one air 'team' eventually, but Merlin had respectfully put an end to that with a comment that their mascot could be a bottle of steak sauce. Hammond had said under his breath something about 'one would have been enough'. Merlin had yet to figure out what that was about.

It was eight at night and he was sitting in the local coffee shop, which he had frequented when he was younger. It was warm and small and never full, with large, cushy chairs of various dark colors spread out over the wood floors. His laptop was buzzing and sending out a slightly blue glow as he searched for other instances of writings like that of the Asgard on the internet, wondering if anyone else had stumbled across it. Since he didn't have much to do, he was working on this as a topic for his dissertation in his free time. Daniel was more than eager to help. Daniel was more than eager just to have someone to talk to about artifacts.

His hazel eyes were fatigued now; he had been sitting there for about two hours without resting his eyes at all, and he had never been one to sit and stare at a computer all day. Sitting back in his chair, he surveyed the surroundings. There were only a few other people around to survey. In a corner nearby there was someone that caught his attention. She had dark brown hair and blue eyes made all the more stunning by milky colored skin. At the moment, she was too engrossed in reading a rather large book to notice that he was staring at her.

He squinted his eyes to try and read the title of the book, tilting his head sideways as far as his neck would allow it to go.

His eyebrowed frowned for a moment before jumping up in surprise. He knew that book, and he knew it very well. Five years ago he had helped Daniel write a chapter for the book, which was a compilation of archeological work on Egypt.

Merlin looked back at his computer screen and then down at his coffee cup. With a new sense of purpose he picked up the coffee cup and walked over to her table.

She looked up at him with an expression that might be read as slight annoyance or skepticism. It was very likely that she was approached by men quite frequently.

"Sorry," he said, with a lopsided grin, "but I couldn't help but notice what you are reading. I am quite familiar with that book, I did graduate work in anthropology and archeology."

The look faded from her face and she smiled.

"I'm working on my Masters in history," she said, "specializing in ancient civilizations."

"May I join you," he asked.

She gestured to the chair and smiled again, her blue eyes looking him over.

"I'm Alina."

He nodded, "Charlie or CJ."

"So, you said that you did graduate work...Do you have your degree?"

He shrugged, "I have my Masters and all of my classwork for my Ph.D aside from some more field work and my dissertation."

"What do you do now," she asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"I'm an Air Force officer."

Her mouth dropped open a little bit, but then closed right away.

He wondered if perhaps she had a bad experience in the past by her reaction.

"A fighter pilot," he finished.

She smiled at this and relaxed, feeling much more at ease with his company.

Charlie stored the reaction away in his mental 'to do' file for analyzation later that night. There was certainly something more to her not liking an Air Force officer, but finding an Air Force pilot acceptable.

"What are you drinking, Alina? Could I get you a refill, I'm heading for one myself?"

"Oh, sure, it was a Chai tea. Thank you."

She watched his back retreat to the counter, smiling gently after him. While she would not generally go within thirty feet of anyone in the Air Force for a potential date, he was incredibly cute, seemingly nice, and was a pilot – as safe as she could get within the military.

When he came back, he set her glass down in front of her and flopped back down into the black leather chair next to her.

"So, Charlie, have you always lived in Colorado Springs, you have a little bit of an accent?"

He swallowed and said, "I've lived loads of places actually, did you want the five cent answer or the dollar answer?"

She chuckled, "I'll get to know more with the dollar answer."

"Well, I was born in Chicago, Illinois, but I don't really remember any of that. I spent most of my childhood here." He hesitated for a few moments, pursing his lips, before he finally continued. "When I was around eleven, my mom passed away, and my dad packed me off to military school in Texas, of all places. I think the farther away from him, the better, but anyway...That probably more than you wanted to know. That's where I got the accent anyway."

"Actually no, where else have you been?" She said, honestly curious.

"I went to school in Texas for awhile for Undergraduate, then Chicago again for awhile for my Graduate work... Then Egypt...Then Arizona...Then Florida...Then the Middle East...Then back here."

"Wow, you don't get tied down, do you?"

He smiled softly, "We'll I just got reassigned to here, so I'll be here for quite awhile. I'm on some sort of command track, so they aren't likely to move me for years."

"Well that's good." She twirled a finger around a lock of soft, brown hair.

"Is it," he said, quirking an eyebrow.

She blushed at being caught saying such an eager statement. It definitely wasn't like her.

Charlie rescued her from it graciously, "Sounds like you might be from Texas or somewhere too?"

"A little obvious isn't it," she said, looking down slightly. "'tho I haven't lived there for a few years."

"I don't mind the accent," he said, lowering his head to meet her eyes. "Afterall, I've got a slight Texas drawl too. Let everyone else think it's strange. You should hear me when I get angry, then I really sound like a Texan."

She looked up and couldn't help but laugh, as he had said the last half in the deepest Texas drawl he could manage.

After the best night Merlin had in awhile, talking about ancient history with an attractive young woman, he had to walk out of his door in the morning shaking his head roughly.

His 'team' had given him the names of the person they would like to be partnered with so that they could begin training in the pairs they would fly in. There were now seven pilots other than him and eight WSOs. Generally he wouldn't care who wanted to partner up with whom, especially since this group was highly skilled and qualified. He didn't have to worry about babysitting anyone. However, if there was one thing he was not going to stand for, it was any form of discrimination on his 'team'. Everyone under him was male, save for one female WSO. Not one pilot had picked her as their first or second choice.

The real kicker was that she was the most experienced WSO they had. She had come straight out of Iraq as well and had flown the no fly zone before Iraq.

Merlin slammed the door of his Nissan Xterra and tried to prepare mentally for the ass chewing he was about to deliver.

A/N

Thanks to Chris T. , Wes Janson, cal, Scifi Fan Gillian, and Maxennce for the reviews and support. Sorry it has been so long. It's been an interesting summer for me ;-). Hopefully, I will be updating more frequently now. Reviews always make me update faster!

Also, if anyone has any Alina theories I'd love to hear them. What do you think will happen?

Thanks, Julie