With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

-Eric Hoffer

"Hiya Daniel!" Jack O'Neill hollered as he entered the briefing room, "What did you want to tell me?"

"Well, Adriana woke up again, and she said some odd things." Daniel said standing next to the table.

"She did... did she?" Questioned Jack. He sat down at the head of the table; Daniel sat down next to him.

"Yeah, like, seeming to know what we we're thinking."

"Did you figure out who she was?"

"Not more then we knew before, other then she is a foster child."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Did she say anything about the aliens she was err… talking about earlier."

"Well, no. But she did say some things that lead me to think that it's come up other times. In foster homes…" He trailed off remembering how hard it had been moving around, never allowed to develop a true bond with any one family, or the trust that is so needed as a child.

"So... we should check in with social services to see who she is... if someone on base might have met her. What did you say about her knowing what you we're thinking?"

"Nothing specific, but mentioned things Lam or I we're thinking."

"Okay…I would like to talk to her before we do anything more. Do you know if she's awake?"

"The answer is no." Lam said she walked into the room and set the stack of folders she was carrying down on the table. "These are the reports you wanted sir. Anyways, I gave her some pain medication, one of its side effects is sedation, and she's pretty much out of it right now."

"When will I be able to talk to her?" the General questioned.

"Next time she wakes up, without flipping out to the point of injuring herself, I'll page you down to the infirmary."

"And that will be when? An hour, a day, a week or more?

"Can't say for sure, but should be within a two day time frame."

"Okay, let me know when. Anything else you needed to talk to me about?"

"No, not really, but it might do her some good to get off base, fresh air. Once she is recovered that is. If I'm right in thinking she's been abused, being in a small room with strange people would scare her a bit."

"I agree sir." Lam stated in response to Daniel theory. "She does have some signs of having been abused, and that would help explain the condition she arrived in.

Jack nodded. "We'll think about that once I've talk to her. Dismissed.

Adriana groaned slightly as she began to come back to consciousness.

"Hey there sleepy head. How you feeling?" Lam soft voice filled the room. She was moving about checking her vitals and jotting them down in her chart.

Adriana just blinked impassively at her. "Is it one blink for yes, two for no?"

Adriana glared, not amused. "One glare for yes two for no?" Adriana glared harder still. "Is that my cue to shut the hell up?" Lam tried to get a smiled out of the girl. Adriana sighed and rolled over to face the wall still.

"I've got someone who wants to talk to you." Adriana rolled back over and raised her eyebrow at that. "The general of this base."

Jack poked his head though the door. "Ah, I hear my name… wonderful name… isn't it?"

"Sure sir." Lam responded raising the back of the bed as Adriana tried to sit up.

"Did you page Daniel and Sam yet?"

"Not yet, but I can if you would like."

"Sure." Jack walked over to the girl's bed side and lam walked over to the phone on the wall and requested Daniel and Sam to come down.

"What should I call you?" Jack asked. "Daniel said your name is Kaylee, but he still calls you Adriana- Ana actually. But I could call you something completely-" Jack was interrupted by the young girl's subdued voice.

"Adriana.. Ana I don't care,"

Daniel and Sam walked into the room. "Hey there. Feeling better?" Daniel questioned as he walked to her bedside, Adriana nodded. "Good, maybe we can get out of here sometime soon on good behavior.

Adriana looked around at the other people in the room with pleading eyes, she hated being locked up, she felt like a prisoner.

"I want to run a few more tests first, and let her recover a bit more. Maybe in three or four days if the tests come back negative. I'll be back in a minute" Lam said as she turned towards the door with a clipboard in her hand.

Adriana nodded slowly. Her beautiful obsidian eyes drifted back to Jack; observing him fiddling with a piece of rubber tubing that he must have picked up.

Daniel watched the girl's brow furrow in confusion. 'Probably wondering why an Air Force General is acting like a kid', he thought as he laughed quietly.

Jack looked up from the tubing when he heard Daniel's chuckle. It was then that he noticed that Adriana was staring at him. The General raised his eyebrow questioningly, looking into her dark eyes. She quickly broke the eye contact, inhaling stiffly.

"er.. so Adriana, Daniel said you live in a foster home. We were going to contact Social Services to let them know you were okay. But Daniel here seemed to think it would be better if we didn't. Is there someone you would like us to contact for you?" Sam asked, straight and to the point, as usual.

The girl shook her head, still intrigued by Jack. "Are you sure?" Adriana's attention finally shifted to Sam, "I'm sure."

"Okay, but we are going to have to contact Social Services as soon as you get better," Sam told the girl. Adriana bit her lip slightly and turned towards Daniel.

"You understand. You know what it's like… what it's like to not be wanted," She paused for a second, "That's why you work- no, live here. Because they want you," she motioned distractedly towards Jack and Sam.

"You also know that false hope is better than none at all. If you told Social Services about me, they probably wouldn't care. It's better not to know that no one cares, and think they do, than to know for sure that no one cares."

To say Daniel was astonished would be an understatement. He hadn't actually thought much about why he told Jack not to contact anyone. It just felt like the right thing to do. It was strangely relieving to have his random urges explained so logically.

Carolyn Lam was returning to the base's young visitor's room when she heard the girl's words, "You know what it's like… What it's like to not be wanted…" the doctor stopped short.

Wasn't it against nature for one so young to be so wise, so hard, so broken? What had this girl been through?

Adriana looked up when she heard a noise from the doorway. Everyone else in the room followed her gaze to Dr. Lam, who was just entering the room.

"General, Did you get thin information you needed?" She asked.

"Oh, no," O'neill turned his attention to the figure on the bed, "Adriana, do you believe in aliens?"

Author's Note/Rant: I apologize for the long wait, and the short chapter. My excuses won't help any, but I'll give them anyway.

I was out of town for a week, and then I had to catch up on all the missed school work. And the end of the quarter was last week. I'm also taking the stupid SAT I & II and the AP Calculus test all within a month or two. Gklfh;rekgnsaj! I'm only a frikkin sophomore! 15 years old. Why do I have to do this now! cough

And, of course, Tori hasn't been able to write much. But YAY! She wrote the first bit of this chapter. Applause

Thank you for the reviews, they definitely made my day.

Unfortunately, the next update won't be until after my AP test which is in the beginning of May (in two weeks)

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Thank You

-Lauren.