Chapter Two

The next day, the red haired woman was clad in a blue work suit and lying flat on her back underneath the newest state of the art aircraft the United States Air Force had to offer. Muttering something, she pulled another tool from the box beside her and brought it up to the machine.

"You know that's tampering with government property and punishable by many months in prison," a voice reached her ears that she didn't quite recognize but knew she'd heard before. Pushing herself out from under the vehicle, she was met by a sparkling smile and blue eyes, belonging to a face she could definitely place. "Hi," he greeted her.

"Cameron, right?" she asked as she stood up and wiped her greasy hands on her pants. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He shrugged. "Just thought I'd come meet you personally. Yesterday was a zoo in the briefing room."

She nodded and slipped the wrench she had been using into a pocket. "Uh-huh. So you're not my new supervisor?"

"Supervisor? No, that would be the man over there." Cameron pointed toward a man on the other side of the hanger bay, walking away from them with a clipboard securely in his hands. "And he's not just your supervisor, but the supervisor to the entire engineering crew."

Nicole crossed her arms across her chest. "Thanks, genius. I think you know what I meant, though."

"Maybe." He smiled again, throwing up his hands. "Fine, don't trust me, but I wasn't sent up here to keep an eye on you if that's what you think." She rolled her eyes but remained silent. "So how are you finding your job?"

"Same as last time I did it."

"I didn't know you the last time you did it."

"I like it, thanks."

"Well, that's good. I hear you have other experience in engineering, but the files aren't too specific when it comes to you or your expertise."

Nicole laughed and replied, "That's because I'm a little complicated." She glanced toward the supervisor, who was heading in their direction. "Look, can I get back to work now?"

"Sure." She nodded curtly and resumed her previous position under the airplane. Instead of leaving as she had expected, the colonel squatted down next to her and continued their conversation, "So why are you a little complicated?"

The woman chuckled to herself as she pulled the tool back out of her pocket and resumed her work. "You don't give up easily, do you?"

This remark was rewarded by a dazzling smile on his part, dimples and all. "Nope."

She cocked her head slightly to look at him again. "Wait a minute. Mitchell . . . you wouldn't be that pilot that saved SG1's ass back in the Anubis battle, would you?"

"The one and the same."

"Wow, it was said you wouldn't walk again."

"Remember that thing you said about me not giving up easily?"

She smiled and nodded. "I'm impressed – and that's not easy."

"So are you going to answer my question?"

Sorting through the toolbox, she chose another tool and went back to work. "What question was that?"

Cameron snorted and shook his head, ready to pull the woman out from under the plane and strangle her, but something made him laugh instead. There was something about this woman that made him a little off balance. He found himself liking her off beat sense of humor and when she evaded his questions, it didn't frustrate him as he thought it should. Instead he found himself even more intrigued by the strange visitor.

"Why are you a little complicated?"

"For one, I think it would be a little hard for your small mind to comprehend my species."

"Small?"

"Don't be offended. I was born human, I have nothing but respect for your race."

"Born human, how does that work?"

"Exactly."

"But you're human now, right?"

"Yeah, so you see the dilemma of trying me trying to explain anything to you with my limited understanding in this state."

He shook his head, a little more confused than he'd like to admit. "Okay, so are you saying the files on you aren't very specific because not even you can completely explain about you?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." She smiled at the baffled expression his face had contorted. "Of course, I am also really smart for a human . . . they didn't tell you how old I am, did they?"

"No, I think I missed that in the files."

"That's because it's not in there. It's a little hard to understand."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm one hundred and twenty-four years old – in your human years."

"What? No, that's impossible."

"Not impossible. Just because I haven't aged physically doesn't mean I haven't aged mentally." Cameron lowered his head into his hands, already feeling a headache coming on. She laughed in response and continued, "I told you it was complicated."

"Wait a minute, if you're a hundred twenty-four, then you were born in –"

"2463."

"What?"

This time her laughter echoed off the walls of the hollow aircraft hanger, which caused quite a few workers to glance their way before continuing their own work. "What part 'able to manipulate time and space with only their minds and forces of their will' didn't you understand?"

"The part where you're super old and haven't even been born yet."

Nicole rolled her eyes. "Anyway, that's where my experience with engineering comes in – only it was twenty-fourth century engineering. General Hammond jumped on that experience, that's how I got this job before."

"No doubt that's why General Landry jumped on it, too."

"Yeah," she replied in a distracted tone of voice, "So why are you trying to keep me from my work?"

"I'm not keeping you from your work. I can see you doing your work right in front of me."

"Yes, but my attention is split. I'd work faster if you weren't yammering on over there."

"Point taken." Cameron stood to go. "Nice talking with you. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Nicole answered, smiling a little to herself.

Sam ran her fingers through her hair and sighed loudly to herself. Picking up her coffee, she raised it to her lips without breaking eye contact with the glowing computer screen before her.

Just then, a soft knock on her door frame caused her concentration to break. Finally moving away from the screen, she looked up to see the familiar and comforting face of her friend, Daniel Jackson, staring back at her. "Busy?" he asked, his tone making it clear he didn't care what the answer would be.

She shook her head. "Not really. Come on in." She pushed a box out off of the stool next to her, making room for him to sit.

"Still haven't quite moved in yet, huh?"

"Nope. Been a little busy, what with former g'ould system lords on earth and the Ori practically at our doorstep. What's on your mind?"

"You have to ask?"

Sam sighed again and closed her laptop. Turning to her friend, her expression one of remorse and regret, she replied slowly, "I'm sorry for not telling your before about Nicole. I just thought that if you didn't know, somehow it might be better."

He shook his head and waved off the apology. "No, you were right not to tell me. I was just taken off-guard, that's all."

"If you're not upset, then why are you here?"

Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. When he replaced them, he explained, "I'm trying to understand what's going on here. Why is she back?"

"Apparently she broke some more rules and this is her punishment."

"Sending her here? How's that?"

Sam shrugged. "She's human again, for one."

"Oh, and not by choice this time?"

"No. For twelve months she has to live like us again."

"And this is punishment to her?"

Again his response was a shrug. "According to the elders."

Daniel nodded, leaning against the desk and letting his head slip into his hand supported by his elbow. For a few minutes, neither one spoke, they just sat there staring at the walls. Finally, the archeologist broke the silence, "I'm over her, you know."

Sam's eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"Doesn't mean I forgive her."

"Daniel, there really isn't anything to forgive. I've told you before. She was abiding by your wishes."

"Wishes I don't remember."

"Doesn't matter. I would have done the same thing."

"You weren't there."

"No, I wasn't. So maybe I shouldn't be in the middle of it."

A little taken aback, he pulled back, his appalled staring congruent with his expression. Finally, he shook his head and jumped off the stool. "I wasn't the one who put you in the middle of it."

"Daniel," Sam started, reaching out for him.

Backing away from her touch, he shook his head and responded, "It's okay, Sam. I'm not angry with you." She let her arm fall and nodded. "I just want to be alone now, okay?" Nodding, she watched as he left the room.

There was no blue jell-o in the commissary. Samantha Carter, brilliant mind that she was, could not wrap her mind around the thought of no blue jell-o for lunch. However, seeing no way around the situation, the Air Force Lt. Colonel settled with red and turned to find a seat in the already crowded room.

As her eyes scanned the faces, her gaze came to rest on two faces she quite well at a table not too far from her position. Surprised, she made her way to the table where a man and a woman sat, the two clearly in the middle of a conversation, and the woman was laughing quite hard at something the man had just said.

"Hi," Sam greeted the two when she reached the table, not quite sure what their response would be.

They both smiled wider and Cameron pulled out the chair next to him. "Sam! Join us!" he invited. Sam sat down, her eyes glued on the red haired woman across the table. "I was just telling Nicole about some of the crazy things my grandmother did when I was going up. Turns out her parents were Christians, too."

"Really?" Sam asked, genuinely curious. "Christianity is still around in the twenty-fourth century?" she probed, intentionally asking the question to gauge her team leader's response.

Again catching her off-guard, Cameron didn't seem surprised, as if he already knew that particular fact of Nicole's background. "Yeah, it's still around, but not quite as prevalent as it is today," Nicole answered, poking her own jell-o with a spoon. "You actually eat this stuff?" she asked cautiously. Even after spending a year and a half on Earth previously, she had never gotten used to the idea of gelatinous food.

Sam laughed and nodded. "It's better when it's blue," she replied as she ate a spoonful of her own. "So I see you two are getting to know each other," she commented.

Nicole shrugged and picked up her sandwich instead of trying the jell-o. "He got me to take some jell-o, if that's what you mean."

"You said you were going to try it!" Cameron insisted.

She scowled in response. "I said I'd think about trying it. Nothing more."

"You two seem to be getting along quite well," Sam pointed out before she spooned more jell-o into her mouth.

"You sound surprised," Nicole replied, putting down the sandwich. "I don't see why. Cameron's a nice guy, stubbornness aside."

"Hey!" the man objected. "I happen to think stubbornness is a good quality in a person."

The red head shook her head. "Yeah, but so is knowing when to quit."

"I know when to quit."

"Hardly."

"Do you two want to be alone? I could find another table," Sam asked, a smile playing at her lips.

"No," Nicole replied quickly. "I was leaving anyway. Have to get back to work." Picking up her tray, she stood to go. "Thanks for lunch, Cameron. See you later, Sam."

After she had left the room, Cameron noticed something. "She barely touched her food."

Sam nodded and took another bite of her lunch. "It'll take her a while to get used to eating for nourishment again. After that, you won't be able to get her to stop eating."

"High metabolism, huh?"

The blonde blew out her breath in a huff of jealousy. "Yeah." Quickly changing the subject, Sam cocked her head in the direction of her team leader. "So, anything you'd care to tell me?"

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, quickly shoving a forkful of food into his own mouth, hoping that would discourage the woman from asking any more questions.

Unfortunately that strategy failed him. "About a certain red haired, formerly powerful being who just left the room?"

"Why would you ask that?"

Sam shrugged and took another bite herself. "It just seemed like there's more to this new friendship than meets the eye."

Cameron shook his head. "I'm really not sure what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh, sure you don't," she replied sarcastically, purposely not looking at him when she said it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound the crunching of their food as they chewed. Finally he could stand it no longer. Putting his fork down, he turned to her and asked resignedly, "Okay, what do you know?"

"About?" she asked, pretending she didn't know what he was talking about.

"About Nicole. Tell me everything you know."

Placing down her spoon, she turned in her own chair to face him and replied in a very serious tone, "Why?"

"You really want me to say it?" She nodded. "Fine. I like her. I would like to get to know her better, maybe ask her out on a date, then go from there."

"No," Sam replied, turning back to her food.

"No? Why not?"

"I'm not going to help you date Daniel's ex-girlfriend."

"Daniel's ex-girlfriend?" Cameron repeated, obviously not expecting this response.

Sam nodded and asked, "Don't tell me you missed the show in the briefing room yesterday."

"You mean how Daniel responded to seeing her? Yeah, I caught that, but I didn't think . . . I didn't guess that."

"Apparently."

"You think he'd kill me if I tried to date her?"

She shrugged. "You never can tell with Daniel, but if I were you, I'd talk to Daniel before I talked to Nicole."