Because of the rain, they opted to go someplace in doors, and since none of them were Seattle natives they simply ended up doing the regular tourist things; which in this case included visiting an aquarium and then going to the Museum of Flight – which Teal'c found fascinating – and Daniel found more or less boring. Jack and Sam ran Teal'c through the various histories of human flight, showing him each consecutive design, and Daniel began to wish that he was back at the hotel learning more about Quidditch, or anything besides airplanes. Even flying brooms was more interesting than what he was doing now, and he was half tempted to ask Teal'c to loan him one of those books to occupy himself. Only the fact that he was pretty sure Jack would have killed him with a look stopped him, and instead he ended up wandering off from the other three
He found himself in another section of the museum, idly looking at displays and wondering how much longer the others were going to insist on sticking around, when he came around a corner and was promptly knocked to the ground.
"Sorry about that!"
Strong hands pulled him to his feet.
"My fault," Daniel said, quickly, certain that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going and had crashed into someone. He looked up at the person he'd hit, and the next words died on his lips. The guy standing in front of him was literally the largest person he'd ever seen – okay, aside from those giants that his grandfather was hanging out with. Shaggy and absolutely huge, he was a bear of a man, and Daniel couldn't help staring.
Luckily, the guy didn't take any offense. Probably, Daniel decided, he was used to people looking at him.
"You okay?"
Daniel nodded.
"Um… yeah. Thanks."
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention ter where I was going."
Daniel smiled, ironically.
"I wasn't, either. No harm done."
"This place is pretty interesting, eh?"
"Um…"
Before he could say anything that at least would make him sound like he was interested in where he was, the man stuck his hand out.
"I'm Rubeus."
Daniel took the offered hand, and found his immediately engulfed. Still distracted by the sheer size of the guy – which was saying something considering that he was friends with Teal'c – he nodded a greeting.
"Daniel."
"Are you a pilot, Daniel?" Rubeus asked him, curiously.
"Um… no. You?"
Of course, as big as he was, Daniel pretty much knew that answer long before Rubeus shook his head with a grin on his hairy face.
"'fraid not." He gestured to the small one-seater plane that was displayed next to where they were standing. "Could you imagine me tryin' to get in the cockpit o that contraption?" He asked, good-naturedly.
Daniel smiled, and shook his head.
"I guess not."
"Nah, I like ter fly, but not like that – although Professor Mc- that is… this friend of mine… told me I'd like this place. And she was right."
"You're here with someone?"
He was curious if the friend was just as big.
"Nah, she's gone. But I'm supposed ter be meeting her at the hotel soon, so I'd better get going before she comes looking for me. She wouldn't like that."
"No. I can relate." Boy, could he ever! He held out his hand once more. "It was good to… meet you, Rubeus."
"We'll bump into each other again sometime, maybe, Daniel."
Daniel smiled, and watched bemused as the large man disappeared into the next room. A moment later there was a loud crack from that room, and Daniel, thinking that something had fallen on the big guy, headed for the door. When he entered the room, though, it was empty. Even odder, Daniel couldn't find an exit.
"What in the world…"
"Daniel!"
He started, guiltily, and looked around. Jack had come up behind him, scowling.
"What are you doing?"
Daniel looked back into the room, and then at Jack once more.
"I was… um… talking to… this guy… and he… disappeared…"
"Yeah?" Jack sounded annoyed, but just looked resigned. "Why do I know exactly how that feels? Oh, yeah… because it happens to me all the time."
"Sorry."
"We're done here, unless you want to stick around and look for your invisible friend?"
"He wasn't invisible, Jack… he was huge…"
"Uh huh. Let's go. We're going to take Teal'c to the Space Needle."
"What?"
O'Neill shrugged, annoyed.
"He saw a thing on the wall about it and asked to go."
"And you said yes?"
Jack scowled.
"It's not like I have a whole hell of a lot of other things to do, Daniel. It's that or go back to the hotel and hang out with the weirdoes."
Good point.
Daniel took another look into the room, and then followed Jack back to the others, who had been waiting at the exit while Jack had gone off looking for the archeologist. There was a bus waiting for them – a city bus that shouldn't have waited, except that the driver had been beguiled by Sam's warm smile and had promised to wait.
"Where were you?" Sam asked.
Before Daniel could say anything, Jack spoke up.
"Don't ask, Carter… you don't want to know the answer."
Jack walked past the two of them and headed for the bus, followed by Teal'c, and Sam looked at Daniel with a mixture of curiosity and sympathy.
"So you going to tell me?"
Daniel shook his head, feeling a headache forming behind his right eye.
"You'd never believe it," he said, shaking his head and heading for the bus as well – with another look behind him before he did. "I don't even believe it…"
