"Daniel." Jack drawled from the door.
"Jack," answered Daniel without missing a beat, looking for all the world like he had been expecting the other man. He continued to concentrate on the parchment laid out in front of him.
Jack sauntered up to Daniel nonchalantly, idly picking up an object on Daniel's desk and begin to examine it minutely. A minute or two went by in a silence occasionally broken by Daniel's scribbling in his notebook.
"So, what have you been up to?" Jack put the object down with more care than was warranted; obviously the ordeal from the last time he handled one of the off-world artifacts still clear in his mind. "Recently."
Daniel finally looked up from his work, eying Jack and trying to gauge just how much the man knew. Daniel really had meant to tell him, really, but it didn't seem important enough to go out of his way to let Jack know. Then again, Jack had always been nosy.
"Work." Daniel tried the evasive route. He was feeling a tad contrary to being interrupted. If he wanted to know that badly, he'll let Jack work for the information.
"Ah." Quiet resumed.
Daniel knew Jack knew that something was up, but the deceptively patient man didn't have all the facts to back up this assertion. Normally Daniel would have been more forthcoming with his answers; a quality of the archaeologist Jack kept complaining about, but once in a while it was fun to mess with Jack and see how much annoyance the colonel would take before snapping.
Giving another glance to the colonel, he decided he will have his fun next time -- there was just too much backlog of work to wade through to continue with this charade. Just as Daniel was about to elaborate on his day, Jack interrupted. "I heard you missed the briefing with SG-11 this afternoon."
"Ah, yes, I was held up." Daniel said cryptically. Then again, work could wait.
"Held up?" prompted Jack.
"Well, technically, not me personally..." Daniel said evasively.
"Do tell." Jack leaned against the desk, settling down and making himself comfortable as if he meant to stay for a while.
"I couldn't make the meeting. I have already informed General Hammond of the circumstances, he said it was perfectly understandable."
"So he told me. What he went out of his way to not tell me was why." Jack was suspicious. A suspicious Jack was a Jack no one wanted to be around.
"Hey Daniel." Carter entered the lab without preamble. She gave a quick nod and smile to Jack. "Colonel. Are you guys ready to head out?"
"Just about, Sam. I still have a few translations to work through." It was a blatant lie, but his teammates hated it when he stay overnight to finish cataloging the never ending flow of artifacts or typing up cultural assessments that came his way. A little white lie went a long way in keeping the peace between them. If they didn't accidentally find out like last time.
"Carter, did Daniel mention what he was doing this afternoon? Apparently it was important enough that he missed the briefing with SG-11, and set their departure back by a day."
Sam arched a brow at that, then glanced over to Daniel, who shrugged with a funny grin that was more like a grimace. "No, sir. I just know that there was a delay. I was in the control room when they dialed P2X-779 to offer an apology and rescheduled the meeting to tomorrow." Now she was curious.
"Look, it wasn't like I missed it on purpose. Believe me, I would much rather have been there than-"
"Than what?" Jack was getting more aggressive with his questions.
"I told you, I was held up. Well, tech-"
"Yes, yes," Jack waved a hand dismissively, "technically not you. So what happened? A traffic jam?"
"No..." Daniel almost gave in to the urge to squirm under the collective gaze of his friends.
Teal'c chose this moment to make his appearance with a short bow and an inclination of his head by way of salutation. "Daniel Jackson, I apologize for not having arrived sooner. The person you entrusted the message to failed to accomplish his given task upon learning I was in the act of Kel'no'rem." Teal'c somehow managed to fail to note that practically the whole complex still tread in fear when he was around. For an airman to interrupt his meditation would require an act of courage comparable to that of facing a lion alone in a cage. Although in that scenario, while painful, you knew it'd be quick and to the point.
"It's all right, Teal'c. You know that in our culture it's rude to barge in on someone when they're busy." Teal'c still seem unconvinced.
"Anyway, it could have waited. But now that you're here-"
"Are you trying to avoid the issue here, Daniel?" Jack was starting to grow impatient. At least, he was starting to let it show.
"What issue? Look, I was delayed, I apologized, and I will personally be going with SG-11 to smooth over the whole thing tomorrow." Jack's look of annoyance switched to displeasure when this new piece of information turned up. The colonel hated loaning his people out to other teams; it inevitably ended up with him rescuing his wayward colleagues.
Shouldn't have said that, thought Daniel, but too late. "I'd only be there for ten minutes, top. I'm not even going to be out of sight of the 'Gate."
"Come on, Daniel. You've been evading the question for ten minutes now. Tell us what happened!" Sam's eyes held a hint of amusement, which she carefully masked with a look of curiosity. She now also sensed that there was more to Daniel being late than he let on.
"Okay.. okay. The bank I happened to find myself in was in the process of.. being robbed." Daniel muttered the last two words, then turn to Teal'c quickly. "So, the reason I wanted you over was because of this phrase here..." he pointed to a particular passage on the parchment.
"Whoa! What?" Jack exploded, his eyes could almost be described as popping out, though none who value the full use of their extremities would ever use that description in his presence.
Daniel gave his teammates a sheepish grin and shrug. It sounded so mundane compared to some of the adventures they underwent almost on a weekly basis. "It was no big deal, the whole thing was over in two minutes. No one even got hurt. It was actually quite.. silly." Well, perhaps silly wasn't the right word, but it was the only one he could think of to describe the event. What a great linguist he turned out to be.
Jack seemed to be trying to find the right words himself to express the conflicting emotions battling to get out. Concern, anger, disbelieve, and, curiously enough, amusement. Daniel, who went gallivanting around the galaxy with the front line unit of the SGC, facing incredible odds against an enemy superior in every way that counts, found himself in trouble on Earth not two blocks away. So to speak.
"Wow, so what was it like?" Sam leaned forward eagerly, her whole demeanor showed a disturbingly intense interest for the tale.
"Carter. What was it like?" Jack looked incredulously at her.
She answered defensively, "I've never known anyone who got robbed before."
Teal'c tried to get a word in edgewise. "I've seen this play out in many news and television programs." He raised an eyebrow at Sam and continued, "this event appears to happen more frequently than your behavior would suggest."
"Well, yes, but now we get to hear a first hand account!" Sam was still staring at Daniel with a look that put him in mind of predators cornering their prey.
"Actually, like I said, nothing happened. This guy came in dressed as a..." Daniel trailed off as he look for a suitable word. "Well, the official report stated he was dressed as a kangaroo, but I didn't see it myself."
Silence greeted this. Daniel took that as his cue to continue. "So he--"
"A kangaroo?" Jack interrupted, his expression clearly questioning the state of Daniel's mind.
"Like I said, I didn't see it myself, it look sort of like a cross between a rat and--"
"Daniel. Why was he in a... kangaroo costume?" Jack asked.
"He was drunk. He was at this party earlier and apparently had a few too many. Then he decided he needed money for more beer but didn't have his wallet on him, obviously. You see where I'm going with this?"
The other three look at each other; there was a certain twisted logic to this.
"Then what happened?" Sam asked.
"He walked up to the teller, demanded money, then.. er.. got scared away."
"By what means was this accomplished?" Teal'c wondered briefly if Daniel had anything to do with getting rid of the man. While Daniel would never profess himself to being a warrior, the Jaffa had seen plenty of instances where a man would pale in terror by just an angry glare from the archaeologist. That fact was aptly demonstrated recently when a colleague in his department reorganized Daniel's filing system under the pretense of clearing up the lab. Without first consulting him.
"My cellphone rang." At his friends' pointed looks, he elaborated, "He was so out of it, he thought it was the alarm. All this took about two minutes. Half the patrons there didn't even know there was a robbery attempt until he started yelling in the revolving doors."
"Daniel, this is one of the weirdest stories you've ever told. I am only asking this question out of a morbid sense of curiosity, but was there a reason why he was yelling by the doors?" Jack asked.
"No, not by. In. He was stuck in it. He was in such a rush to get away he just ran straight for those doors, then his tail got stuck. It was funny, in a sad way. The silent alarm actually was on, so the police arrived within another minute. They arrested the guy, took our statements, which was really the reason why I missed the briefing. Then we were free to go."
The group was silent for a moment as they went over the strange tale of Daniel Jackson's adventure. Teal'c was the first to speak. "I do not believe this could have happened to anyone else but you, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel look offended, "Hey, what is that suppose to mean?"
"I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it." Sam offered to avoid any long drawn out argument.
Jack was uncharacteristically silent as he assessed Daniel. Finally, he shook his head. "I'm going home."
"What? What's that suppose to mean?"
"Daniel." Sam stepped in again. "Didn't you say you wanted Teal'c for something?"