Athors note: I had to do some actual research for this story (aren't I impressive?) The book that I haveDaniel translating below came from The Witches' Goddess, by Janet & Stewart Farrar.

Warnings: Some language.

Previously:

When he finished the story, not mentioning that he was pretty sure he knew how to make that weapon a reality, he looked up at the base commander. "Please sir. I have to go. Ella needs me now and she might know something that can help us. If this has anything to do with Alex's disappearance, we need to know right now."

Daniel let Cameron drive to Ella's house. His mind was too full for safe driving. Although he had no idea how, Ella's husband was involved in the creation of a weapon of such destruction that there was no defense against it. More than that, it was a weapon that had only ever existed in Daniel's head. He had never given anyone details about it until tonight out of fear that someone would try to make it. And anyway, as far as he knew, Earth's current level of technology could not manufacture it. So why was there a sketch of it, presumably in Alex's handwriting, lying under the missing physicist's car?

"And where the hell is Alex?" Daniel muttered out loud.

"What's that Jackson?" Cameron glanced over from the driver's seat.

"Sorry, just thinking out loud." Daniel removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Cam glanced over at his friend and teammate. Daniel looked tired and deeply worried. Cam had been given only a brief amount of information from Gen. Landry. He was to help Daniel find out what had happened to one Dr. Alexander Portmanoy, a physicist who happened to be married to Daniel's best friend. The missing doctor was working on a weapon for someone who was not the United States military. Cam knew that there was some sort of Goa'uld technology in the weapon. It was Cam's job to be an objective investigator. "So, I am finally going to meet your friend Ella."

"Hmm?" Daniel pulled himself out of his dark ponderings. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Too bad I couldn't have met her before this."

"Mitchell, if I had had my way, no one in SGC would have ever met her," Daniel replied.

"Why's that? Afraid that she would give away all of your secrets?"

Cameron's tone was teasing, but Daniel was not in the mood. "Every member of SG1 has lost someone they loved or cared for because of their involvement in the program. Every single one of us, in one way or the other. I have had two women who loved and trusted me implanted by the Goa'uld. I thought I could keep Ella safe from all of this." There was no anger in Daniel's voice and the absence made his words all the sadder. He just sounded resigned to the fact that he had failed someone else.

Not for the first time, Daniel had made Cameron feel very foolish. "I'm sorry. We'll find your missing friend and make sure that Elladoesn't get hurt."

"Sounds good." Other than directions, Daniel was silent for the remainder of the ride.

Ella still lived in the small house that she had purchased before Daniel had ascended. As they approached the front door, Daniel saw that the hallway light was on. The rest of the house was dark. She lived in a quiet, residential neighborhood. As it was almost eleven, Daniel was fairly sure that her neighbors would be asleep. He wondered if Ella was.

"Ella, it's me." He knocked on the door.

After a few moments, the tall red head opened her door. Though she was holding herself straight and wasn't crying, there was something in her eyes that gave her pain away. Fear was cracking through her façade.

"You got my message?" She asked her best friend.

"Yes. How are you holding up?" She gave a small shrug that tore at Daniel's heart. He remembered how hard it was to answer questions like that after Sha're had gone missing. He pulled Ella into his arms. At first she tensed, as if his touch hurt, then she relaxed, briefly, into the hug. He was shocked at how cold her hands were. "Ella, you're freezing."

"I know," she said.

He put his arm around her and walked towards the living room in the back of the house. "Cam, can you put some water on to boil? Kitchen's over there and there's a kettle on the stove."

"Sure thing." Cam went into the tidy kitchen, filled the kettle and set it to boil. Poking around a little more, he found chamomile tea bags, honey, and some mugs. "Jackson, you want some coffee?" He went to the doorway and looked out.

Ella and Daniel were seated on the couch. There was a soft throwaround the woman's shoulder's and she had her arms around Daniel's midsection. Despite the desolation radiating from her, Ella managed a slight smirk. "You know he does."

"I'll get it started." Cam disappeared back into the kitchen.

Ella disentangled herself from her friend. "Alex is missing," she told him plaintively.

"I know," Daniel replied. "Do the police have any leads?"

"Fuck, Daniel, the police don't even think he's missing." She leaned her head forward into her hands and looked at him sideways. "They just think they have a hysterical wife who's husband runs around on her. But that's not Alex. I know that's not what's happening." She sighed deeply. "The only reason that they even agreed to come out here was because I used Jack O'Neill's name. I hope that's okay. I would have name-dropped God if I thought it would have helped."

"Actually, it's good that you got the military involved in this."

She sat up straight. "Why?"

"Ella, what was Alex working on, right now?" Daniel knew that this would involve some careful stepping. Ella distrusted everything involved with the Cheyenne Mountain Base. Sometimes that included Daniel.

"Well, aside from his usual school stuff, Alex just signed on to another government contract. Weapons research, although it seemed to be fairly theoretical."

Theoretical? "What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"Well, of course he couldn't tell me anything, but he did say that he couldn't see this coming to anything. It was too much, too advanced."

"Do you know anything else about it?" He prodded at her

"Do you know anything else?" Her walls were slamming in place and she was getting irritated.

"Okay, you've told me that Alex has done other contracts involving weapons research for the military, right?"

"Yes."

"And you've told me that neither of you like him doing weapons and he only does it for the money, right."

Slight pause. "Yes. Daniel, as you probably know, the majority of all scientists in America work in weapons research."

"And you've told me that Alex has done at least two other contracts like this in the past two years, right?"

Her voice got dangerously calm. "Are you interrogating me, Daniel?"

Daniel looked at her, knowing how this last comment would sit with her. "Ella, there is no record of Alex ever working for the United States military on any weapons project, ever."

"That's not true." She was on her feet.

Daniel stayed seated. "Yes, it is."

"My husband wouldn't lie to me."

"He may not know that he is."

At that moment, Cameron came out of the kitchen carrying a tray filled with coffee and tea. The wall of tension he stepped into rocked him on his heels. "Coffee? Tea, anyone?"

The other two people in the room ignored him. Ella spoke again, "Please explain what you just said."

Daniel tried. "I wouldn't lie to you about this. Whoever Alex is working for, it isn't us."

"Then who is he working for?"

There was the big question. "I don't know."

"Ma'am, does your husband ever work from home?" Cameron asked.

Ella spun to face him. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, ma'am." Cameron put the tray down and held out his hand in greeting. She didn't take it.

"I'm sorry. Ella, this is Cameron Mitchell. He took Jack's place. Cam, Ella. Ella, does Alex keep any of his work here?" Daniel asked her.

"Probably…" She gave Cam a doubtful glance.

"Ella, you trusted Jack. You can trust Cameron." Daniel assured her.

"He's not Jack, Daniel." She shot back.

Cam muttered. "If I had a dime…"

"Then trust me," Daniel replied.

She took a steadying breath. "Okay. Come on." She grabbed her mug of tea and led the men to the office in the front of the house. It felt so wrong to let anyone poke around Alex's desk but it had to be done. "The safe is under his desk. That's where he keeps everything." She knelt down and worked the combination that she was not supposed to know. "There's not a lot here and most of it looks like computer gibberish. He probably had most of it with him when – when he went to work."

Daniel started to dig through the hand-written notes. Cameron turned to Ella with another thought. "Ms. McPherson, do you have any records of how your husband was paid for these jobs?"

She thought for a moment. "Um, yeah. I might be able to pull stuff down from our records on-line. I think our bank scans checks and stuff like that." She booted up the computer and logged on. This work was making her feel good, even though she was digging through her husband's classified information. She knew the safe combination, but she had never looked in it before. She just liked knowing that she could get into it. Her eyes flew over the columns of numbers in her bank records. "Okay, here. It looks like he did direct deposit for the last two jobs. I don't think he has been paid for this one yet."

"Do you mind printing that out?" Cam asked.

Engrossed in his own reading, Daniel did not hear what Cam and Ella were talking about. Ella had been right, there wasn't much left. However, what was there…Daniel was looking at a more detailed drawing of the same creation that had been on the napkin. This sketch had measurements. Paper-clipped to the sketch were several pages of notes. One looked like technical schematics. As that was a language that Daniel absolutely did not speak, he would need to have Sam look it over. The second looked like an ancient Teutonic language that Daniel had not come across in years. The third was unmistakably Goa'uld. The symbols that were written in the over-precise handwriting of someone who did not know what he was saying, Daniel could read, "…sometimes we choose our gods and sometimes they choose us…" Daniel passed the schematic notes to Ella. "Is that Alex's handwriting?"

She glanced up from her printouts. "Yeah, that's his. What is it?"

"Technical schematics. I'll have Samantha Carter look it over. I think that you need to come with us tonight. You'll be safer at my place."

"I can't leave here. Alex might call. He might come home, Daniel."

"I don't think so." Daniel had to make her understand. "I don't think you're safe here."

She pushed back from the computer screen. "Why? What's in those notes? Technical schematics you would have expected to find. Why are you so freaked?"

He knew she wasn't going to like this. "I can't tell you what it is. I just need you come with me."

"No. I am not going anywhere with you. You need to tell me what you know."

"I can't."

And there it was. The block that always stood in the middle of their friendship. As children, they had told each other everything. As adults, Daniel had to keep his secrets. Ella tried to understand, but it always hurt.

"Get out," she finally said.

Daniel blinked. "What?"

"Get out of my house. Take what you need to find Alex, but leave." She walked toward the office door.

"Wait a minute, Ella." He ran after her and grabbed her arm.

She shook him off. "No, Daniel. My husband is missing. I get that you have your secrets and that there are things that you can't tell me. But this Alex, my Alex. For all I know, whatever you are not telling me could be the thing that keeps him from coming home to me. Do what you have to do, but get the hell out of my house!" She walked across the hall and slammed her bedroom door closed.

He went to follow but Cameron stopped him. "Let her go, Jackson."

"But -"

"She's angry and scared. She needs someone to blame and right now, that's going to be you. Give her some time."

Daniel did not want to go. He wanted to know that Ella was safe in his house tonight. But he knew that it would require dragging Ella out by her hair with the mood she was in. As soon as they got to the car, he would call the police to watch the house. Cam and he could just sit in the car until they showed up.

The pair pulled papers together and exited. On the small porch, Daniel paused and tried to clear his head.

"So, Jackson, what did you find in there?" Cam turned and saw that his companion's attention was elsewhere.

Most of Ella's neighbors and their guests parked in driveways. The road was narrow and while street parking was allowed, most people agreed that it was a sure way to get a dent. The compact, non-descript gray van did not seem to be aware of that concern. Daniel was positive that the van had not been there when they first arrived at the house.

"Let's get to the car," he replied. Once they were seated he gave instructions. "Drive past that van and turn right. About half a block down, there is an alley that connects to Ella's backyard. She's coming with us."

TBC