Spoilers: Seasons 1-4 of Angel; All of BtVS (including 'Chosen'); Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1
Rating: R
Pairings: Wes/Fred; Sam/Jack; Daniel/Buffy (Eventually...plus others to come)
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, situations or dialogue found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, or Stargate SG-1. This is purely a work of fiction and no intent to defame or gain profit from this enterprise is intended.
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The next morning, Jack was on his way to get a cup of coffee by way of Carter's lab when Daniel ran smack into him.
"Ow." Jack rubbed his right shoulder.
Daniel bent down to pick up the papers he'd dropped. "Sorry, Jack."
"What the hell happened to you?" To say Daniel looked rumpled was a bit of an understatement. His hair was sticking up, he was wearing his glasses instead of his contact lenses, his boots were untied, as if he'd just pulled them on, his T-shirt was completely untucked and his uniform jacket was on inside out. Jack figured that it could have been worse–at least the archaeologist had his pants on. "Have you slept?"
"Uh, no." Jack grunted, grabbed the lapel of Daniel's jacket, and pulled Daniel along behind him into his office. Daniel sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk while Jack took a seat behind it, not above using every tactical at his advantage when dealing with Daniel, especially when he was low on sleep.
"How long?"
"What's today?" Daniel looked more than a little sheepish, let out a yawn, and rubbed his eyes.
"For crying out loud, Daniel! It's Tuesday. 0830."
Daniel cheered and grinned at Jack. "That's not so bad, then. It's only been 36 hours. Hardly a record. Nothing to worry about."
O'Neill closed his eyes and began massaging his temples. After a minute, he opened his eyes and sighed. Sometimes being in charge truly sucked. "I thought we talked about this, Daniel. I can't keep you on an off-world team if you don't take care of yourself. Doc Fraiser may not be around to keep you in line anymore, but I'm not going to let you put yourself and your team in danger because you're too stubborn to fall asleep when your body tells you to."
Daniel's mouth quirked up at the corner and he shrugged. "Sorry, Jack. I got distracted. Besides, SG-1 doesn't have an off-world mission scheduled until next Monday. I'll have plenty of time to catch up on my sleep over the weekend."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, because the aliens are always very careful to make sure that they don't interrupt your weekends off."
"Uh, yeah." Daniel yawned again and then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I did want to talk to you. In, y'know, your General 'I'm in charge of the SGC' capacity."
"Shoot."
"I want to hire someone new for my department. How do I do that?"
O'Neill smirked. Only Daniel would still have this question after eight years. "Why don't you just do what you usually do--go off-world and bring someone back with you?"
Daniel blushed. "Last time I did that, General Hammond gave me a stern lecture on how kidnapping citizens from other planets to work on cataloging archeological finds was not 'standard Air Force hiring procedure.' Then he mumbled something about job postings and paperwork and salary pay grades and relocation bonuses and...well...I stopped paying attention."
"I'll walk you through it. There's forms to fill out. Who're you hiring?"
"I want to hire the woman who sent me the dissertation proposal. Dawn Summers." Daniel waved a piece of paper at him.
"What do you want to hire her to do?"
"Eventually, if everything works out, I want her to be my 'second' in the linguistics department. No one I've found so far knows enough non-Romance languages and ancient languages to be left alone and unsupervised. There are tons of things here she can translate while she's learning Goa'uld, and with her skills, I doubt it'll be long before she's fluent. Besides, even if I don't put her in charge, the SGC needs all the good linguists it can get, Jack. You know as well as I do that most of the Academy cadets we get are physicists, not linguists. I think she'll be a real asset. I want to train her for an off-world team."
"Why her?" He couldn't wait to see this woman's resume. She had to be something special to impress Daniel like this.
Daniel referred to the paper in his hand–presumably it was Ms. Summers's resume. "She's got a degree from Oxford in mythology and ancient languages and is fluent in at least seven other modern languages. English, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Hebrew, and Arabic. She's also got conversational Mandarin. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone who speaks that many languages?"
"Other than you, you mean?"
Daniel gave a brief rude hand gesture of acknowledgment before he continued, "Not to mention being fluent–fluent, Jack!–in Ancient Sumerian, and Latin, and Ancient Greek, and..."
Great, Jack thought. A female Daniel. He began rooting through his desk drawers for an aspirin and made a mental note to requisition the infirmary for more painkillers. It looked like he'd need them. "Any idea what she looks like, how old she is, anything like that?"
Daniel shrugged. "Uh, no, actually. Most dissertation proposals don't include pictures. She graduated from Oxford in 2007, but that could mean just about anything–she could be an older or returning student. Why, does it matter?"
O'Neill gave a mental groan and rubbed his temples again. An older, ivy-tower female version of Daniel. For consideration as a new off-world team member. And wasn't her project about some woman who defeated the bad guys throughout all of history? Oy. Probably not a great idea to let her near Carter, either. Yeah, this job just wasn't getting any easier. He valiantly resisted the urge to repeatedly slam his head into the top of his desk.
"If we're sending her out there, it does." He waved vaguely in the direction of the Stargate. "She's got to be able to keep up with the team and she's got to learn how to handle weapons. She's going to have to at least meet the same physical standards as the rest of the off-world personnel or we won't get hiring approval. Besides, I'm not sending her out there if there's a chance doing so will get someone killed, I don't care how brilliant she is. Are we clear, Daniel?"
Daniel nodded reluctantly in agreement and stifled yet another yawn. Brilliant linguists' ideas of physical fitness didn't always mesh with those of the Air Force or the needs of the SGC. They'd see what they were dealing with when Ms. Summers showed up.
Jack interrupted Daniel's thoughts. "Any idea if she'd even be interested in the job?"
Daniel shot a grin at his friend. "Jack, it's going to other planets and saving the world on a regular basis...who would turn that down?"
Jack grinned in return. "Anyone with common sense? Besides, doesn't this paragon of linguistitude already have a thing?"
"Linguistitude?" Daniel shook his head in disbelief. Some days he wasn't sure Jack spoke one language fluently.
"Did you or did you not know what I meant?"
"Um..."
"So who cares whether it's a real word? Anyway, moving on..."
Daniel shook his head again, this time as if clearing it. "Well, yeah...she's got a project, but that's at least a lifetime's worth of translating. She can do that when she's older...and when the future of humanity doesn't hang in the balance."
O'Neill rolled his eyes. Sometimes Daniel was just so...Daniel. "Daniel, did you consider the possibility that she might actually want to spend her lifetime doing her lifetime's worth of translating?"
"But...it's saving the world, Jack. Repeatedly."
Jack waved his hand at Daniel. "Yadda yadda. Ooh, and at great personal cost, usually. Don't forget the great personal cost and sacrifices. Look, call her, invite her here for an interview, and we'll see what happens. Deal?"
"Deal." Daniel rose and walked out of the office. Jack's voice stopped him before he got to the hallway.
"And Daniel?"
"Yes?"
"If you don't sleep for the next eight hours, I'm putting you on administrative leave for a week with orders not to let you into the building. Clear?"
"Yes, dad." Daniel turned in the hallway and headed in the direction of his office. He had a phone call to make.