Chapter Ten

Louise woke the next morning as the skies were lightening and the sound of birds singing seemed to be all around her, although she couldn't for the world of her figure out what they would want to sing about at this time in the morning. Dragging herself out of bed knowing if she didn't get up now she'd only have Sam dragging her out of it when she came by to pick her up for the day at the base.

Grabbing some clean clothes, that would look smart but casual at the same time and her toiletries bag she left the bedroom and headed down the hall to the bathroom to what she hoped was a nice hot shower to wake her up.

Managing to get ready in record time Louise was happy to note that when she looked at the clock she discovered she would have enough time to make some breakfast before heading out for the day. Something she very rarely had a chance to do as she liked her late morning starts.

She quickly made herself a bacon sandwich, which was something quick and easy to make. Setting the bacon sandwich down on the kitchen table she was just pouring herself a glass of orange juice as the front door opened and Sam's voice came floating into the kitchen.

"Louise are you ready?"

"Yeah… I'm ready… you don't mind me eating in the car do you?"

Sam came into the kitchen and noticed Louise standing there with a full glass of orange, then she noticed the bacon sandwich on the table.

"It's ok… get your breakfast we have plenty of time don't worry…" taking a seat at the table to prove her point, Louise smiled grateful of the fact, then joined her and wasted no time in starting her sandwich.

Adam walked into the kitchen just then and smiled at Louise then took a seat next to Sam.

"Morning Adam… what brings you here… more importantly what brings you here at this time in the morning?"

Adam couldn't help the smile that graced his face at the comment and he was grateful to finally see her relaxing, even if it was only slightly more then she had been over the past few days. "Oh… I just thought I'd come by and keep Richie company… Mac's headed home for the moment and Joe's not due into town until at least tomorrow afternoon… at least this way we'll both get someone to annoy for the day…"

"Your right about you being annoying there old timer…" Richie tried to say but it seemed to get lost in a yawn at the end, which Sam couldn't help but laugh at. "But did you really have to come at this god dam hour?"

"Hey I got a lift so I'm not complaining" Adam smiled as Richie walked over to the fridge and got himself a glass of orange juice as well then moved over to the table taking a seat by Louise.

Richie reached over the table towards where Adam was sitting and picked up a paper Adam had brought with him and pulled it over to himself.

"Oww… god dam it" Richie jumped up at receiving a shock from Louise, just as he was bringing his hand back down to rest on his lap he caught her arm in the process.

"What's wrong" Adam asked, slight concern showing in his voice.

"Oh nothing really… I just got an electric shock… big one though…"

"Well I can honestly say I didn't feel a thing…" Louise smiled rising from her seat with her empty plate and empty glass in her hands, she walked over to the sink where she deposited them gently.

"Well… are you all set then?" Sam asked as she rose from her seat while smoothing down her clothes trying to hide her bump as much as possible.

"Yeah… I'm all set"

With that Louise and Sam quickly left the kitchen then the house leaving just the two immortals sat in silence.

"So how far down are we going?" Louise asked as she and Sam entered the second elevator within Cheyenne Mountain and watched the doors close. She'd heard NORAD was inside the mountain but she thought that was about it, thousands of wild thoughts were running through her head but she had the feeling that when she found out what was truly going on down here no amount of day dreaming could come close. Why else would they have to hide something this far down and yet they were still going further.

"We're going to the lowest level which is level 28, there you're going to get briefed on the project and sign a 'lot' of papers, but when you find out what's going on down here it's going to be worth it… Then I'm going to take you to the infirmary where you'll have some tests done… don't worry it's just standard procedure… and then you'll get the grand tour."

"Sounds like it's going to be a very busy day then… I wish I'd managed to get more sleep" Louise smiled although the thought of going back to the cabin and crawling back into bed was much more appealing than being stuck in a cement tin can so to speak.

"Don't worry you'll soon wake up when you reach Daniel's office as you'll instantly get hit by the coffee fumes…"

"He's never that bad…"

"Oh he's even worst than you're thinking."

"Well I'll only find out for myself when I meet him then won't I…"

Just then the elevator stopped on level 28, they both got out and Sam led the way down the hallway towards the briefing room.

They entered the briefing room and Louise was greeted by an extremely awake O'Neill, a geekish looking man who had about a dozen folders in front of him and a giant of a black man with a gold symbol on his forehead.

"Louise I'd like you to meet Doctor Daniel Jackson" Sam said indicating the geekish looking man then "and… Murray" she finished indicating the giant.

"Hey nice to meet you… Morning Jack"

"Good morning Louise have you settled in ok at Adam's cabin?"

"Yes thank you…"

"Take a seat Louise, I'm sure General Hammond won't be long…"

"Thanks Major but I'm here now… please be seated everyone and lets get started…" General Hammond indicated for Daniel to start off. As the meeting went on and the more information Louise was given she had the distinct impression that if there was any more her head was just going to roll off her shoulders and mess up the pristine briefing room.

"So what did you want me to come by for today then Richie?" Adam asked as he slouched on the sofa, beer in hand although it was still only 1100 hours.

"Errr… well I was just wondering if… well… are you sure that Louise is who she said she is?"

Adam gave Richie a puzzled look wondering what could be running through the younger man's mind to make him doubt something like that… "Yeah pretty much… I know she's Louise Robinson as I've done enough information checking to know that much, plus Joe showed me a picture of her… Why?… What makes you think she isn't who she says she is?"

"Well it's just yesterday afternoon… it was about half an hour after I arrived we'd just finished dinner and she said she wanted to go for a walk… I offered to go with her to make sure there were no problems or anything but she seemed to jump down my throat for even suggesting it…"

"Well maybe she just wanted some alone time…"

"Yeah that's what I thought too… so I let her go and then I followed her keeping my distance… giving her her alone time but at the same time making sure nothing happened…"

"Ok… so you followed her… then what happened…"

"She found her way to that lake about fifteen, twenty minutes walk from here… like I said I kept my distance just making sure she was ok…"

"Ok and…"

"Well someone else turned up… I was just about to go intervene, thinking it may have been one of the guys after her… but it wasn't, she knew him… and from the impression I was getting I think it may have been a bit more then just friendship…"

"So she had a close friend come out to keep an eyes on her as well… she probably just didn't want us to know about him… kind of another safety net in case we were unsuccessful in finding the guys after her…"

"Yeah maybe but…"

"But what Richie… what are you getting at?"

"He was an immortal Methos… I've seen him about a few times on my travels… never one to go out of his way to pick a fight but I have a feeling he's old..."

"Ok… so he's immortal"

"Yeah he's immortal and she knows about it… she also knew about me being immortal, you being immortal and Mac being immortal…"

"So he mentioned to her that we're immortals too… no big deal… it's not like she can do much about it…"

"No Methos… you're not getting it… he didn't tell her about us being immortal… 'she' knew by herself… 'she' was the one to tell him that she was been looked after by immortals…"

"But how?…"

"That's what I'm wanting to know… that's not all as well… she also knows about the watchers… and the fact that Joe's one of them…"

"But… Ok yeah so she's pre-immortal… but there's no way a pre-immortal can sense immortals… maybe she found some files of Joe's when she was with him some time… that could explain how she knows about Mac being an immortal… Joe's been his watcher for years… and you've been Mac's student so that could also explain about you…"

"What about you though… even the watchers, apart from Joe that is don't' know you're immortal… and it's not like you've been flaunting the fact that you are as well… for god sake you and Sam are having a kid… and that's meant to be impossible… So how does she know you're immortal?"

"I don't know… I think I should call Joe and see what he thinks… look into this guy that she met up with and see if he can shed any light on the reason that she knows about us being immortals… Hell the reason why she even knows about immortals in the first place may be a good place to start…"

"Yeah that's a good idea"

"Did you manage to catch that guys name?"

"Yeah all I got though was Kenver…"

"That's good enough…"

"Oh Adam I think he gave her the address of where he staying."

"Right" with that Adam rose from his seat and headed for the door then stopped in his tracks just as he was about to open the door. "Richie, you wouldn't mind giving me a lift back to Sam's would you…"

Richie couldn't hide the laughter as he rose to his feet and joined Adam at the front door… "Wondered when you were going to remember the little fact that you came with Sam this morning…"