Okay kids...here's the second chapter of "Dancing Through The Gate"... read and review please!
"Excuse me?" an incredulous Nick Kosovich asked faintly, not believing his ears.
"The Air Force needs your help, Dr. Kosovich... it's a matter of national and perhaps even world security."
Nick froze in the middle of pacing the upstairs dance floor of his workshop/dance studio he ran with Lena. "And you're calling ME because there's no one else?"
"We're calling you, Dr. Kosovich, because you were reccommended to me by a member of my staff."
"And just who would that be?" Nick asked, a suspicion growing stronger by the second in his mind.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill."
"I KNEW it!" Nick muttered.
"Will you at least come and take a look at a preliminary briefing of the problem? You will have the chance to accept or decline." the general pressed.
"All right, but my wife will need to come as well... if I decided something without her, my butt will be toast!"
General Hammond chuckled. "I'm married myself, Doctor... I understand completely."
They exchanged goodbyes and Nick hung up the phone, looking as though he had been hit by a semi. Lena came up to start making lunch and saw Nick just standing there with a stunned look on his face.
"Nick, what's wrong? Who was that?" she asked, concerned.
He turned to her, still looking like he'd been smacked with some heavy news. "That was General George Hammond from Cheyanne Mountain Colorado... apparently they have a problem that they want my help with..."
"What on earth would the Air Force want with you?" Lena scoffed.
Nick gave her a hurt look before going on. "Jonathan reccommended me... so I don't know if this is some kind of practical joke to get back at us for placing all of those bets on them or if they're actually serious and they really need my help..."
She shrugged. "I don't know..."
He sighed. "They want me to come out so I can get a "preliminary briefing" on their little issue and decide if I want to do it or not. I told them I was bringing you as well and they were fine with that..."
"When do they want you there?" Lena asked, wondering how much time she would have to pack.
"Tomorrow." Nick answered.
She took out the phone book and handed a spoon to him. "Go start stirring the noodles and I'll start notifying everyone that lessons are cancelled."
He brushed a quick kiss on her cheek before heading into the kitchen and she looked after him fondly. They were comfortable with each other, settling into a nice routine that had nothing unexpected in it.
Picking up the phone, Lena took care of business.
The next day, Nick and Lena were on a plane headed to Denver International Airport in Colorado wondering if there was going to be a huge joke awaiting them when they disembarked.
A familiar pair of faces were there to greet them, complete with dress blues and the Kosovichs could immediately tell from the expressions that Jack and Sam wore (not to mention clothes) that the request for Nick's presence was no joke.
"Can you even give me a hint as to why you'd need me?" Nick asked, more than puzzled.
"Sorry Nick..." Jack replied apologetically. "You'll get briefed when we reach Cheyanne Mountain." More than this, neither of them would say. Nick and Lena exchanged nervous glances and Nick wondered what on earth he was getting himself into.
They were checked by the security guards upon entering the complex, then taken into the elevator and down to the corridor leading to the briefing room. Upon entering the room, both of their jaws dropped open...the blast doors had not been lowered and they got quite an eyeful of the stargate before Jack bellowed for Walter to "get the damned blast doors down."
Nick whirled around as Jack came back into the room. "What in the bloody heck was that!" he demanded.
"Look Nick, General Hammond will explain everything..." Sam started soothingly.
He held up a hand. "No, YOU look... I've been told that someone will explain things to me for the past 3 and a half hours...I just want to know WHAT in the world that freakin' thing outside the window is! And for that matter, what on earth does...whatever that thing is... have anything to remotely do with me?" Nick cried tersely, more than slightly at the end of his rope.
"Dr. Kosovich, hopefully I can answer some of those questions." a voice said from behind him. Nick turned to find General Hammond, looking slightly amused. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting... the president called."
Nick's jaw dropped slightly, then he closed it abruptly. "I assume that you are General Hammond?" he asked loftily.
"Yes, I am...and I take it that this is your lovely wife?" the general asked suavely as he bowed over Lena's hand.
"I think I like this guy." she said happily.
Nick groaned and smacked his forehead with his palm.
Everyone settled down, and General Hammond handed Nick a folder. "Inside this folder there are several documents explaining what the "thing" outside the blast doors is, and also, why you were asked to come here."
They sat in silence for a moment as Nick quickly scanned the notes and his eyes widened. "This..."stargate" is used to travel to other planets!" he squawked.
"Yeah, it is. We do it every day...it's a steady job, the hours are terrible but after the first hundred thousand light years or so, you get used to it." Jack answered flippantly, watching the dancer closely.
Shaking his head in amazement and giving Jack a look, Nick flipped the page and froze. "You found a race of beings that only communicate only through dance!" he asked, his brown eyes shining.
Jack exchanged a knowing look with Sam before he replied, "Yeah we did, and we figured that you would be the man to call."
Nick looked at Lena, pleading in his gaze. She sighed, knowing that her husband loved a good puzzle and he wouldn't be able to walk away from one that involved music and dance. "Okay Nick... you can do it. We'll have Tony and Inna take over the studio for us...but we've got Blackpool in a month."
He nodded, and smiled in satisfaction. Here was something that would challenge him and allow him to use his ethno degree for the first time in a while. Lena noticed his smile and hoped that this wouldn't be a decision both of them would end up regretting...
General Hammond looked over at Daniel who was practically jumping out of his seat. "You may show them the tape, Dr. Jackson."
Daniel took the remote in one hand and pushed play. The tape was at the part where their young visitor came out and Nick watched in fascination as the boy made his movements.
"This is amazing! I can see influences from over 6 different cultures!" he said excitedly.
"I told you he was the right guy for this." Jack said to General Hammond smugly.
Nick looked around. "Does somebody have a pencil and notebook so I can take notes?"
He was handed these items by a beaming Daniel and Nick Kosovich turned his attention back to the tape. Daniel left the remote at his elbow so he could rewind and slow down parts if he needed to.
Two hours later, Jack went back to check on Nick only to find that the ethnomusicologist had filled the notebook Daniel had given him and was proceeding to write notes on his own leg with a Sharpie. Jack quickly called down to Daniel and got him to bring a couple more notebooks for Nick. Those were soon filled as well and General Hammond was amazed at the speed that Nick Kosovich could pick something apart and reduce it to its barest elements. Nick finally stopped when his hand cramped so badly that he couldn't hold the pencil anymore.
"Remind me to get youa pencilwith the squishy grip." Jack teased as he guided the man to the infirmary so he could be introduced to the resident needle weilder.
As soon as he entered, Dr. Janet Frasier surpressed a desire to giggle. Cassie was going through a ballroom dance stage and thought Nick was pretty handsome. She certainly had printed enough pictures of both him and Lena off the internet to make Janet know who they were. She was pleasantly surprised, finding Nick to be a charming, unassuming man with a wicked sense of humor.
"Ummm Nick, may I ask a small favor?" she began.
"Certainly, Janet! As long as its not something illegal or something Lena will kill me for." he replied cheekily.
Janet chuckled. "No, nothing like that... you see, my daughter Cassie loves ballroom dance... she watches all the competitions on PBS and more specifically, she watches you and Lena...you guys are her favorite couple..."
Nick could sense there was more than that and guessed at what Janet wasn't saying. "And I suppose she has a crush on me?" he asked lightly.
She grinned. "You could say that..."
"That's nothing new... say, if you could bring her here, I'd be willing to give her a quick fox trot lesson." he offered. He loved teaching children to dance, especially if they watched the competitions and so on.
"She'd love that! I need to go get her from school, so I'll let you know a time."
Nick looked at his watch. "If she doesn't have too much homework, maybe we could do it today..."
Janet gave him a look. "When I tell her I met Nicholas Kosovich, it's not going to matter HOW much homework she has! I'll bring her in a few minutes."
He waved to her and was occupied with reading over some of his notes when he heard a small gasp from behind him. He turned around, smiling to find Janet with a girl of about 17-18 who was looking at him in something akin to awe.
"G'day." he said gently.
"Hi..." she replied breathlessly.
He rose to his feet and reached his hand out to her. "Nick Kosovich."
She took his hand automatically and replied, "Cassie Frasier."
"Nice to meet you, Cassie... your mother tells me you like ballroom dance." he pressed, trying to get her to relax a little.
A smile lit the young girl's face. "Yeah, I like it a lot..."
"Well, I'm taking a break from some work I was doing and I was wondering if you would allow me the honor of giving you a fox trot lesson." Nick said, bowing to her. Cassie looked about ready to pass out but regained herself quickly and responded coolly, "That would be nice, Mr. Kosovich."
Nick tucked her arm in his like they were about to take to a professional dance floor and smiled down at her. "It's Nick."
"Okay Nick..." she said dreamily.
He winked at Janet over his shoulder who was trying so hard not to start cracking up. Nick was a sweet guy... he didn't have to do that for Cassie and Janet knew this experience was something that her daughter would treasure for a long time.
Nick guided Cassie to a small rec room where Lena was practicing their Blackpool dance. She stopped when the door opened and Cassie simply stared at her.
"Lena, this is Cassie Frasier, Janet's daughter... she's really into ballroom." Nick said gently, giving her a look that communicated everything he couldn't say.
She smiled at the girl, remembering when she was young and had gotten to meet one of her favorite dancers. "Hello Cassie, it's nice to meet you."
"You too." Cassie said politely, trying hard to be adult about this.
"I thought perhaps we could teach Cassie a little fox trot since she's here."
Lena nodded. "Fox trot isn't too bad. We'll show you what a basic box looks like, Cassie."
Cassie sat on the floor and watched them, her jaw slightly agape. "I'll NEVER be able to do that!" she said admiringly when they finished.
"Never say never Cassie... I know a pretty good pro dancer who didn't even start until he was in his 20's." Nick admonished lightly.
"Who?"
"Jonathan Roberts." the dancer replied.
"From Dancing With The Stars!" Cassie cried.
Nick nodded. "As long as you work hard at it, you can do whatever you want to do, be it dancing, being a doctor, or being a scientist, no matter what age you are."
She considered his words for a moment and almost squealed with joy when Lena said, "Okay, you take my place with Nick and we'll walk you through the box."
Lena stood beside Cassie so she could look down and see where her feet were supposed to go. She got it down pretty well in only a couple tries and both of the Kosovichs were impressed. They were able to even teach her some bronze level moves and Nick knew that Cassie showed great promise as a dancer. She had good instincts and knew how to let the man lead without being too passive, even if the footwork wasn't there 100 percent of the time.
For the last few minutes, Lena turned on a fox trot, took out her camcorder, and taped Nick dancing with Cassie. She was glowing and looked so content.
Nick escorted her back to the lab and was more than happy to pose for a few pictures with her. He had an arm around her for the first one, then he got into ballroom hold with both of them looking at the camera. Then, Nick enthusiastically re-enacted the final pose of the fox trot he did with Charlotte Jorgensen and Janet thought Cassie was going to faint. The last one was of Nick sitting in a chair with Cassie on his right leg. They were both making goofy faces and Janet almost dropped the camera from laughing so hard.
While Cassie was saying goodbye to Lena, Nick looked at Janet. "I'm not saying this to blow smoke, but Cassie shows a lot of promise as a dancer. A friend of mine has a studio here and he owes me a few... rather large favors. I think I can squeeze 3 years of lessons out of him for Cassie."
"You'd do that?" Janet asked.
Nick nodded shyly. "She's a great kid and I think that she could be very good at this... besides, I could tell that she was really enjoying it... she's got the ballroom attitude of "dance because you love it". I'll call Ben and let him know."
Janet hugged him and Nick turned crimson. Lena saw this and chuckled, knowing that her husband never understood why people reacted the way they did when he offered to help a child get lessons. He doesn't even know how good hearted he is... she thought.
The Frasiers left with Cassie promising to send Nick copies of the pictures and Jack came to take them to the mess hall for dinner.
"I see you met Cassie." Jack said, a grin on his face.
"Yes, we did... she shows a lot of promise as a ballroom dancer." Nick replied seriously.
"She certainly watches a lot of competitions and so on... I heard Janet say she's going to buy stock in Sony so she get some money back for all the tapes Cassie makes." Jack chuckled.
"We make tapes too...it always helps to watch yourself so you can get a different view of what you're doing..." Lena told him.
"Did you tape Ballroom Bootcamp?" Jack asked casually.
Nick grinned very evilly. "Yes, and we can even make a copy of it... for a price..."
