"Hey... someone's been messing with my camera..."
Major Quinn looked over as Ben Crane ran his hands along his camera – which wasn't where he'd left it. As the cameraman recalled, he'd left it on the floor, and now it was on the desk. He hadn't wanted to really stop any longer in Major O'Neill's lab than he had to, since he didn't know if it was a place Colonel O'Neill hung out when she wasn't there, but after he and Quinn had eaten their lunch, he'd been pretty much desperate enough to go get it.
"Maybe they just wanted to be helpful, and picked it up off the floor..." Quinn said. "Might have been a janitor."
"The tape's missing!" Ben frowned, looking around, and wondering who'd steal a tape. "Damn it..."
"Are you sure it was there?" Quinn asked.
"Of course I'm sure." The younger man scowled at the Air Force officer. "I don't leave my shit just lying around you know?"
"You left the camera..."
"Well, yeah... but that was different." He ran his fingers through his short blonde hair. "I really need to find that tape, Major. We need to get security or someone looking for it."
A low growl interrupted any response Quinn might have come up with, and both men looked over at the door. Standing there were Teal'c and Jack. The yellow lab's head was low and he was watching them suspiciously. He didn't know these two and he was fairly certain neither belonged in the lab they were in, and they certainly weren't supposed to be snooping! He knew who belonged and who didn't, after all.
"May I inquire as to what you are doing?" Teal'c asked politely, although he had a fair idea now that he'd looked in the room. He'd heard voices as he'd passed the lab, and had gone to investigate, but now that he saw the cameraman looking at his camera, and obviously searching for something else – a tape, perhaps – he knew why they were there.
The cameraman froze, looking first up at Teal'c, and then down at the yellow lab beside the Jaffa. This dog wasn't as large as the black one, but it looked ready to tear him up at any moment. Of course, he might have been a little overly sensitive to it...
"Uh..."
"We came to get Ben's camera, Teal'c," Major Quinn supplied, before the cameraman could get anything else out. "He left it here when Major O'Neill passed out."
"I see." Teal'c looked down at Jack, and rested his hand on his lab's head. "Jack. Down."
It was a command that told the lab that everything was all right, and Jack's head came up and he lost the suspicious look in his brown eyes.
"His name's Jack?" Ben asked, so surprised that the dog had such a common name that he'd asked the question without thinking. After all, the Jaffa was an alien. He hardly expected its dog to have such a normal name.
"Is there a problem with that name?" Teal'c asked, just a little dangerously. Of course, Teal'c's voice was so deep and his manner so threatening without him intending it to be that he could have been asking directions to the park and it would have come out sounding dangerous as well.
"No..." The cameraman paled – again – and shook his head. "It's a great name."
"He is named after Colonel O'Neill."
"Ah."
That figures.
"Um, Teal'c?" Quinn interrupted. "I don't suppose you've seen anyone in here messing with this camera?"
"You should find Colonel O'Neill. He is the one to ask."
Since Ben would rather go find Satan himself than actively seek out either O'Neill, but especially the Colonel, he simply nodded.
"Um... thanks... we'd better go find Emmett..."
He picked up his camera and inched out of the door, around Jack and the Jaffa. Without waiting for Quinn, he headed down the hall. He could wait at the elevator, or someplace equally safe.
"Is he always in such a nervous state?" Teal'c asked Major Quinn.
The Major grinned.
"He's afraid of Colonel O'Neill."
"O'Neill has the tape he is looking for."
"Then we'll wait for him to bring it back," Quinn said, smiling. "I'm sure he's not going to want to go looking for it. Maybe Bregman can get it back from him."
"Perhaps."
"I'd better get going, before he gets himself into trouble."
"Indeed."
Teal'c watched as Quinn walked down the hall to join Crane, and then took another look around the lab, just to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Finding it to be satisfactory, he left, and went to get that workout.
OOOOOOOOO
"This place gives me the creeps," Ben complained as Quinn joined him at the elevator. They were going to head to the infirmary and see if Bregman was still there – although Ben had no intention of going in. He'd let Quinn look.
"Why's that?" The Major was almost enjoying the cameraman's discomfort – the guy had come into the base puffed up about being allowed to be there, and had been almost immediately put on the defensive – which was all to the better as far as Quinn was concerned.
"Everyone hates me."
"No they don't."
"O'Neill does..."
Quinn shrugged.
"Maybe."
"Oh, there's no 'maybe' to-"
They were interrupted when the elevator door opened, and Emmett walked out. The interviewer had a smile on his face and an odd look in his eyes, which Ben noticed immediately.
"What's with you?" He asked.
"I love this place."
