"Dr. Jackson," Ducky looked up at Daniel, "would you care to assist me?"
Daniel's eyebrows jumped in surprise. He had been hanging out in the infirmary, watching Ducky prepare Colonel Havelock's body and asking questions here and there. The pathologist seemed willing enough to indulge his curiosity, but Daniel noted the tiniest irritation in the doctor's question.
"I, um," Daniel stammered. "Sure. I mean, if it's not a...problem...or anything..." Daniel wondered how he could be proficient in so many languages and yet had such difficulty expressing himself in his mother tongue.
"On the contrary," Ducky assured him, relieved that if Daniel was going to be hovering over his shoulder asking questions, at least he would be doing something useful. "My usual assistant was unable to accompany us on this trip, due of course to the security level. The boy's a good worker but he does need considerably more experience and, perhaps, an occasional dose of phosphaditylserine."
Daniel chuckled. "I know the type. Remind me to introduce you to Jay Felger sometime."
"Felger?" Ducky asked. "I once knew a -- pass me the scalpel, please -- Felger. Yes, Hans Felger. A German fellow I met in Tripoli, oh, many, many years ago. Rib cutters, please -- that's the pruning shears. Thank you. Where was I? Oh, yes, Hans. We met in Tripoli in the early '70s. He was quite the character, Hans. Had an enormous mustache that he waxed obsessively, and he was always chewing a cigar. Never lit it, just chewed it until it was nothing more than a stub. Enterotome."
"I'm sorry?" Daniel had been caught up in the story.
"Enterotome," Ducky requested again, pointing. "They're the strange-looking scissors."
"Ah," Daniel realized, picking up the disturbingly shaped instrument and handing it to Ducky. "So, what were you doing in Tripoli?"
Ducky glanced at him with a small, crooked grin but didn't answer. Daniel raised his eyebrows and blinked in surprise. This man had quite the background, apparently.
"Ever been to Egypt?" Daniel asked after a long silence, trying to make conversation.
"Oh, many times," Ducky answered casually. "In fact, on my last visit I encountered a most fascinating case that still puzzles me. An archaeologist had been found dead inside a pyramid -- something not altogether uncommon -- with no immediately apparent cause of death. Again, not terribly uncommon. Could you bring that scale over here, please? Thank you. However, during the autopsy, we discovered a small wound on the back of his neck that had not yet healed. It was nowhere near large enough for him to have bled out, so we investigated further and found that his spinal cord had been severely damaged just as it joined the brain stem."
Daniel gawked at the ME, who was continuing with the autopsy as if he'd said nothing odd. Clearing his throat, the archaeologist managed, "That's...unusual."
"Indeed. Perhaps the strangest part, though, was what the tox screen returned. There was an unidentified mineral present in trace amounts, and concentrated around the damaged area of the spine."
"Hmm," Daniel returned vaguely, for once in his life at a loss for words. Nervously, he tried to think of a way out of this conversation. Telling this team about the Stargate was one thing, but the goa'uld...where would he begin, for one thing?
"Would you mind taking this to Abby?" Ducky asked, oblivious to Daniel's inner struggle. "I believe she's in your Colonel Carter's laboratory."
"Um, sure," Daniel replied, grateful for the escape. Uncertainly, he took the jar Ducky was holding out and examined it. "What is it?"
"Stomach contents," Ducky answered easily, already back at work on the body.
"Oh," Daniel grimaced. "Of course."
--------------
"What is it you are attempting to accomplish, AbbySciuto?" Teal'c rumbled, curiously observing Abby at work.
"I'm trying to find an outlet for my stereo," she explained, frowning slightly as she searched the walls. "Oh, here's one!"
Suddenly, an extraordinarily loud noise burst from the small, black box. Teal'c raised both his eyebrows for a change, a sure sign that he was baffled by this strange Tau'ri custom -- or deafened.
Abby grinned as Teal'c cocked his head puzzledly. "You like it?" she bellowed over the sound.
"It is most intriguing," he replied vaguely. Her grin widened and she bobbed her head with the music as she began running various tests. Concentrating on the bullet rifling under her microscope, she missed his question the first time.
"What?" she called, adjusting the volume dial a fraction of a point. Teal'c detected no difference in the decibel level.
"Does not this noise interfere with your work?" he asked. He knew that DanielJackson liked to work in extreme quiet and while ColonelCarter occasionally played light, instrumental music, she, too, disliked loud distractions while she was working.
"No, it helps me concentrate," Abby answered, cranking it back up and singing along. Teal'c considered her response before raising an eyebrow again and moving his head ever so slightly with the beat of the drums -- the only distinguishable instrument in the mix.
"Teal'c!" Daniel yelled, making his way into the room with his hands over his ears. One hand, anyway. The other held a jar as far away from his body as possible. "What's going on?"
"AbbySciuto is examining the projectile extracted from the wall of the elevator," Teal'c explained, raising his voice but not screaming.
"I meant, what's all the noise?"
"It is music, DanielJackson," Teal'c answered with his usual that-should-be-obvious tone.
"Ah," Daniel nodded, knitting his eyebrows and shaking his head to clear it. "Music. Of course. Ms. Sciuto!" he called. When she didn't answer, he moved closer and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Aah!" she cried out, spinning around with impressive speed and raising her hands in an attack position.
"Aah!" Daniel echoed, raising his own hands in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry, I --"
"Ooh, stomach contents!" Abby crowed, reaching up to take the jar from his hand.
"AbbySciuto, do you believe ColonelHavelock may have swallowed something pertinent to his murder?" Teal'c asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"Maybe," she shrugged. "We have to check everything. You never know what might be a clue."
"I see. As when Jaffa investigate the ha'tak of a rival system lord, one can never be certain of what is a trap and what is only an illusion." Teal'c smiled, satisfied in his understanding.
"Exactly!" Abby nodded eagerly, catching his meaning if not the details of his analogy.
"Hey, Abby!" a new voice called, as Tony ducked into the room. "Oh hi, Dr. Jackson, Teal'c." They nodded in greeting. "Abby, Gibbs wants your progress on the bullet."
"I was just working on that," she said, putting down the jar of stomach contents and dashing to the computer. "The good news is, it was really easy to identify. The bad news is, you were right."
"That's a bad thing?" Tony joked.
"Why is that bad?" Daniel asked at the same time. They shared a look that, to Abby, appeared to be a mutual sizing-up.
"Tony guessed it was a nine-millimeter," Abby explained. "From what I've seen so far, every airman and marine in this mountain carries one."
"Oh," Daniel frowned. "That does make it difficult."
"Yeah," Abby agreed.
"How, then, will you identify this weapon?" Teal'c asked. Abby answered cheerfully, happy to have someone interested in her work.
"Well, once we get a suspect," she started, "we take their gun and fire a couple of bullets from it. Then we compare the rifling on those bullets to the rifling on the one we found in the elevator. Rifling is like a fingerprint; each weapon has a unique pattern."
"I see," Teal'c nodded. Watching her carefully place a sample of the stomach contents in a new machine, he asked, "What is the function of this device?"
"Abby's our resident genius," Tony bragged quietly to Daniel as Abby enthusiastically described her toys to Teal'c.
"Hmm," Daniel acknowledged, not wanting to be rude.
"I guess your Colonel Carter's pretty smart, too," Tony continued.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "That's, ah, a bit of an understatement."
"She attached?" Tony asked casually, pretending to watch Abby and Teal'c with great interest.
Daniel's forehead furrowed as he turned to take in this brash stranger. "Not...per se," he answered guardedly.
"Just wondering, man," Tony shrugged with a disarming grin. "But you gotta admit, she is pretty hot."
Daniel blinked rapidly and was reminded very strongly of the time he'd told Jack that he wouldn't let Jack anywhere near his sister, if he'd had one. Sam was probably the closest thing he had to a sister and while he knew she was good-looking, it was in a very cerebral, detached way. To hear another man say so with the tone Tony was using was...disturbing.
"I'd stay away from her if I were you," Daniel warned, keeping his tone friendly.
"Yeah, I heard she's got something going with the general," Tony replied, apparently unconcerned about that fact.
"It's not that," Daniel scowled. "She's got quite a few men here who think of her as a sister...including Teal'c." Daniel smiled with satisfaction at the look on Tony's face as the Italian glanced at the Jaffa's solid bulk.
-------------
"General, I need the members of Colonel Havelock's team isolated before I question them," Gibbs asserted brusquely. "And the airmen who found the body."
"Yah, sure, you betcha," Jack grinned. At Gibbs' less-than-amused expression, he sighed and rolled his eyes. "That is," he corrected, mock-cheerfully, "we certainly have enough isolation chambers for five men. The briefing room is available for interviews, offering a lovely view to the gateroom, and of course my own door is always open." Jack finished with a cheesy smile.
"Thanks," Gibbs said tersely.
"You're very welcome," Jack continued in his tour-guide voice. "Do you require anything else?"
"Coffee," Gibbs muttered.
"Ah," Jack sighed, back to his normal voice. "For that, you will have to see Daniel."