Two months later, Doctor Daniel Jackson was humming when Colonel Jack O'Neill entered his office. Jack stopped and frowned at this un-Daniel-like sound from Daniel.

"Daniel?" he said, slowly. "Whatchadoin?"

"Hmm?" Daniel looked up momentarily from a piece of paper he was holding. "Oh, hi, Jack."

"Hello." Jack walked toward Daniel's desk with a half-smile prancing around his lips, with his eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. He tilted his head back slightly and looked down at his friend. "Daniel?" He repeated. "Whatchadoin'?"

"Hmm?" Daniel looked up again. He smiled, and flushed. "Oh, nothing, just reading a note that was left on my door this morning." He put it down and Jack quickly picked it up.

Daniel,

I'm making fried chicken Saturday. Hope to see you Sunday, 2 or 3. We're flexible.

Liz

P.S. Chase asks if you can bring a dinosaur bone. I told him you weren't a paleontologist, but you know Chase.

Jack's eyes narrowed and a smile started to tug at his lips as he put the note down. "Who are 'Liz' and 'Chase'?"

"They're my neighbors. Liz is a secretary at Peterson and Chase is her four-year-old son."

At this point, Teal'C entered the room. "Hello, DanielJackson. O'Neill, General Hammond wishes me to inform you that our briefing has been rescheduled for 1400 hours."

Jack looked at Teal'C and nodded. "Sweet. Now, Daniel can finish telling me about the new girlfriend."

Teal'C's eyebrows rose and he looked, with renewed interest, at Daniel.

"What? No. She's not –" he paused, flustered, and glared at Jack, who was enjoying Daniel's discomfort entirely too much. "She's my neighbor. We go on picnics whenever she makes fried chicken and I'm 'in town'. I play with her kid at the park."

Teal'C nodded. Jack looked amused.

"There's never been anything romantic at all between Liz and I. We're friends. Really. I like her and her son. They're nice people."

"Nice," Jack nodded. He looked at Teal'C and grinned.

Teal'C said. "Indeed." in a very solemn tone.

"Seriously," Daniel insisted.

Jack nodded again, more emphatically. "Okay." He sounded truly convinced.

Samantha Carter came into the office. "Hey, sir, the briefing's been – "

"We know," Jack said.

"What's going on?" She looked around the room, suspiciously.

"Daniel's got a girlfriend," Jack said.

"Jack!" Daniel shouted.

"That's great, Daniel!" Sam smiled widely. "What's her name? Who is she?"

"Name's Liz; she's a secretary," Jack supplied.

Daniel leaned down and began to hit his head against the lab table.

"Apparently, she 'makes fried chicken'." Teal'C added.

Samantha looked back at Daniel as he groaned. She frowned as she thought she heard her friend mutter, "Just kill me now."

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Daniel awoke to the sounds of music from next door. He grinned as he recognized the sound of "Homesick" from Liz's favorite Travis Tritt album and reached for his glasses. He pulled on a pair of shorts and a shrugged on his button-down shirt from the day before and walked to the balcony. After giving his eyes a minute to adjust to the light, he opened the sliding glass door and walked out.

"Hey, Liz," He said.

She was sitting on her balcony with a book and a cup of coffee. She was wearing jeans, a well-worn Billy Joel concert T-shirt and sunglasses. As usual, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her feet were bare. When she looked up, he thought he saw her eyebrows go up and something happen with her cheeks. It took a moment for her to put the coffee cup back down and stand. "Hold on!"

She moved inside to turn down the music and came out with another cup of coffee. She handed him the coffee. "Sorry about the music again. You should slip a note under the door when you've come home late and will be sleeping in."

He accepted the coffee and leaned against the wall that they shared. "It's okay. I have to work today. It's just that I have a late meeting, so I didn't set my alarm."

Liz nodded. She looked up at him and seemed to really scrutinize his face.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

For a second, she didn't say or do anything. Then she laughed quietly. "Aside from a half naked man standing next door? Absolutely nothing." She walked back to the chair, picked up her cup from the table next to it and sipped from her own coffee, her back to him.

Daniel frowned. "Half-naked?" He looked down to see that he hadn't buttoned the shirt and the soft breeze was blowing it open. He also hadn't exactly secured the button of his shorts, though, at least, the zipper was up. "Oh, jeez, sorry, Liz." He put the coffee down and began to make himself more presentable.

She laughed more openly this time. "Hey, no complaints from here."

Eager to change the subject, Daniel asked. "Where's Chase this morning?"

"He's stayed the night with a school friend. I've known the parents for a long time and thought it would be nice for him."

"Just for him?"

Liz turned to face him again and grinned. "Okay, for me, too. It is the first time I've been by myself in almost 4 years. Not that I'm complaining, but it was really nice to take a bath with out someone barging in every two minutes."

Daniel smiled and nodded. "And now you're reading?"

"Yeah," she picked up Angels & Demons and handed it to him. "It's fiction, about a plot to destroy the Catholic Church with science. It's pretty interesting. Fast-paced and keeps you guessing. I'm almost done."

Daniel read the back of it and nodded, handing it back.

Liz put the book back down. "It takes place mostly in Rome, so I'm sitting here trying to remember things I saw when I went there. The author's very descriptive with his landmarks and works by Galileo and Raphael."

He smiled. "You'll have to loan it to me when you're done."

She nodded. "Sure."

They talked across the balcony and drank coffee together, until Daniel finished his, then he looked inside to the clock. "I'd better start getting ready for work."

She nodded. "I have to go pick up Chase. He'll be upset that he didn't get to see you."

Daniel smiled. "Tell him I'll be home tomorrow and I brought him something."

Liz frowned, good-naturedly. "Dr. Jackson, you're spoiling my son rotten."

His smile widened to involve his entire face. "My pleasure."

She laughed. "Oh, get on with you."

He turned to walk inside, when she called him back.

"Yes?"

"Are you in town this weekend?" she asked.

"As far as I know, I'll find out for sure this afternoon."

She nodded. "I'm planning our picnic for Saturday this week, if you want to go."

He nodded. "I'll let you know."

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Daniel shut down his computer and closed his journal. He looked around his office and decided to clean the mess when he came back to work in the morning. He was picking up his jacket when the phone rang. "I'm not answering you," he told it. It rang again. "Nope. Not doing it." It rang again and he sighed, walking over to it. As it rang a fourth time, he picked it up.

"Dr. Jackson," he answered.

"Dr. Jackson, listen carefully."

Daniel frowned. This voice sounded very Goa'uld-ish. Daniel knew it was probably voice-altering technology like what was shown in movies, but it concerned him as if it had been Apophis himself speaking. "Who is this?"

"We have your son. If you want to see him alive again, you will follow our instructions carefully."

"My son? I don't have a son," Daniel protested. "Who is this?"

"Then perhaps we should just dispose of the boy now."

"No! Wait. I don't know who you have, but don't hurt him. What do you want?"

"We will call your home in 90 minutes with instructions. You will not want to involve the police. Wait for our call."

Daniel frowned as the phone went dead. He tried to think how these people could think he had a child and who the boy could be. Then it hit him.

"Daniel, you ready?" Jack asked from the door. He and Teal'C were ready for dinner, which is where the three of them were supposed to be going.

"Uh, Jack, something's come up. I have to go home." He moved quickly out of his office and headed for the elevator.

Jack exchanged looks with Teal'C, who raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong, Daniel?" Jack asked, following close behind.

"I just got a call from someone saying that they have my son."

Teal'C frowned. "You do not have a son, DanielJackson."

"No, but Liz does."

"Liz, the girlfriend?" Jack asked. At Daniel's look, he amended. "Uh, the neighbor?"

"Yes. Someone must have seen us at the park together and assumed – " Daniel swore softly in a language Jack didn't understand. Teal'C's eyebrows rose high enough to tell Jack that he understood the linguist. When the elevator opened, he moved in, with Jack and Teal'C close behind him.

Jack picked up the phone inside the elevator and asked to be connected to Samantha Carter. "Sam, yeah, change of plans. We're headed to Daniel's. See if you can get one of those phone-tracing doohickeys from Siler and meet us there. We may have a situation."

Daniel gave Jack a grateful look.

Yeah," he paused. "And bring a couple of zats, will ya?" Jack looked over at Daniel and Teal'C. "Just in case."

The three men climbed into Jack's pick up truck, where Jack pulled a 9 mm SIG-Sauer P226 from under his front seat and tucked it into his waistband under his jacket. Again, he said. "Just in case."

When they arrived at Daniel's condo building twenty minutes later, Daniel was out almost before the truck was in park. He ran into the building and punched the elevator button. By the time, Jack and Teal'C entered the lobby, Daniel had decided to forsake the elevator for the emergency stairs.

Teal'C paused to look at Jack.

"After you, big guy," Jack said, with a sigh.

Teal'C followed Daniel at an easy pace and reached the top seemingly without effort. Jack, on the other hand, was cursing his knees and muttering something about a 130 year old being in better shape.

They followed Daniel to the door before his, where he knocked impatiently.

The door flew open. A woman with tousled red hair, an angry red mark on her cheek and a cut lip looked frantically at Daniel.

"Oh, Daniel! Somebody took Chase!"

Daniel looked at her with a pained look. "I know." He took her in his arms.

She sank into him. "What am I going to do…wait!" She pushed away, looking up at his face. "How do you know?"

"I got a phone call at my office saying that someone had my son. I was hoping I was wrong, but I thought it might be Chase."

"You got a phone call?" she cried. "What did they say? Is he okay? Where is he? What do they want?"

Daniel grabbed her shoulders to offer her his strength. "They just told me to be by my home phone in 90 minutes," he checked his watch. "That's an hour from now."

"Who would want to kidnap my son, Daniel?" She paused and her eyes narrowed. "Why would someone want to kidnap your son? And how do they have your phone number?"

Daniel shook his head. "I don't know." He looked past her into her apartment and saw two uniformed police officers watching the whole exchange. "The caller said not to involve the police." Daniel looked over to Jack, who had a strange look on his face. "What do you think, Jack?"

Liz looked to Teal'C and Jack and gasped. She stepped past Daniel with barely contained fury on her face. "Yes, Jack, what do you think?"

Before he could answer, she turned on her heel and walked inside. Daniel looked askance at Jack – who was recovering from a look of surprise, then back to Liz as she explained to the police that Daniel had received a call and the military was now involved. Daniel frowned as she curtly referred to him as "Dr. Jackson" and "my neighbor" and he noticed the acid in her voice as she referred to "the military".

Sam arrived, carrying a case. "What's up, sir?"

"Daniel, let Sam have your keys," Jack said, placing his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Sam, set up in Daniel's place with his phone. We're waiting for a phone call. Teal'C will fill you in."

Sam and Teal'C nodded and walked next door.

Daniel looked at Jack, pain and confusion written all over his face. "I don't understand, Jack. What just happened? Do you know each other?"

Jack frowned and shook his head. "It's complicated. Let's just concentrate on getting her boy back."