NEW - Yes, it took me 4 months to start the third chapter, and almost 6 months to complete it... are you going to complain about all the fic I wrote in the mean time? ;-D

Well here is our science twins, and they have a small problem - an experiment neigher seems to be able to finish. What does one do?

- Enjoy!

She was sitting at the table, pushing the mashed potatoes around. He momentarily stopped at the entrance and watched. She seemed so distant, and lost in her thoughts. Grabbing the tray he made his way through the line, keeping his eyes on the empty seat next to her.

At the desserts he hesitated, finally picking a triple chocolate pie and a blue jell-o; she would want one or the other. If dire straits were in order, she could have both. Sliding the tray off the rack, he smiled at the servers replacing the missing desserts and walked to where she sat hunched over.

"Hello," he said quietly. It looked like she was writing, and did not want to startle her. He knew that she was always engrossed in her work, like he was. It was a habit he seemed to work to his advantage at times.

"Hello," Sam replied, looking up at him. He slid next to her, amazed how her blue eyes never wavered from his. She looked at him and back to the pad of paper before her. "I was just thinking."

Daniel smiled gently. "As Jack would say, I would be surprised if you were not."

Sam matched his smile. "Ya that's me. Never stop."

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing."

"It is when it keeps you up all night."

Daniel paused as he took the contents off his tray. "Oh?"

"Yup, me and my active brain roaming the halls. I'm the present ghost that is haunting the SGC late, late at night," Sam said pushing the mashed potatoes again.

"Ah, well then I guess I am the ghost of the past," Daniel said, a light chuckle escaping his lips as he looked at Sam from behind his glasses. She was in thought once more, swirling the potatoes with the left over green beans. "Want to share?"

She looked up for a moment, once more making Daniel pause as he supped his coffee. They were so beautiful, so vast. He really could just dive in and lose himself. "It's just a recent discovery that I am struggling with."

"Hard to process data?" he supplied.

"Something like that," Sam said, giving a small sigh. "I'm not sure if the data matches what I am seeing."

"Oh a researchers worst nightmare. No wonder you are up all night," Daniel joked lightly. He was rewarded with a small smile, a smile that lit up her whole face.

"Something likes that." She fell silent once more. "I just don't know how to approach it. And I know, direct is usually the best, but I am afraid… it could skew the results. Or make my discovery seem less eye opening. I don't know; I'm just really confused."

"Well," Daniel started as he put his fork down. He could relate; he's final admitted to himself that he had fallen for the blonde, blue-eyed scientist, his best friend and teammate, had also thrown a kink in parts of his mind. He could not fully relax with out thinking how amazing she made him feel, how deep his love ran for her. "If it makes you feel better, I have been having some trouble myself."

"Soft data that won't compute?" Sam offered.

"Something like that." He dropped his eyes to his plate, not wanting to think of all the implications of that statement.

"So what do scientist do when we hit walls?" Sam said, abandoning the mashed potatoes. She eyed the cookie that sat beside her coffee and finally began picking at it.

"We go back to the drawing board. We re-analyze the data, come up with new hypotheses."

"But my data is not hard evidence, not in the physical way at least. I just…." She popped a crumb in her mouth. "I am just really attached to this one idea, but really have no clue how to go about validating it. It is driving me bonkers."

Daniel caught her glance and held it for a moment. "Hey let's stop mutilating our food and see if we can help each other. It sounds like we have a similar scientific problem we are facing."

Sam propped her head up and broke off another chocolate chunk from the cookie. "It does doesn't it? Okay, let's go."

They cleared the table and was soon heading out of the commissary, heading to the surface to walk around. As they walked past the guards, the two scientists were thinking about their separate problems, which, in reality, were one.

Ah before you berade me for stopping - again - be calm, cool, collected and know I was on a roll when I finished this chapter - meaning... more will come!

And always, R&R is nice, and fully appriciated!