Chapter Two

In only a few weeks, Nicole had visited SG1 several times, each time grating a little more on the nerves of the human members of the team. Teal'c seemed not to be affected by her presence at all and even shared many conversations with the woman. Slowly Jack, Sam, and Daniel began to realize that Nicole's obsession with them was not going to go away anytime soon, so they too became amicable whenever she decided to observe on their missions – and observe was all she ever did. They knew she wouldn't interfere, and they didn't ask her to.

It was a gorgeous fall day in Chicago. The sunlight streaming happily through the trees into the graveyard, blissfully unaware of the grief in the group of mourners who stood crestfallen at the memorial service for a man who was once very close to Daniel. Daniel himself waited until the last of the mourners withdrew from the casket and said his final good-byes to his former mentor.

The fountain sprayed high into the air behind them as Daniel and a woman with blonde curly hair walked along the grass, discussing the great man who had just died. They also mentioned a man's name that to Nicole was unrecognizable, but she knew he was the one who had left angrily not long before. They also mentioned the end of a relationship – one the Q could only assume was their own. She kept herself invisible and listened as Daniel tried to say as little as possible about the Stargate program. She couldn't help but feel a strange twinge of jealousy as she witnessed how the pair before her interacted.

She waited until the archeologist employed by the SGC was alone, standing amidst rows of ancient artifacts lining shelf upon shelf in the basement of a museum. He was holding a jar, one that had a human head and ancient symbols engraved upon it. It was just as Daniel was reaching for his cell phone that she decided to appear right behind him.

"Hello, Nicole." The noise generated by the flash was apparently quite familiar to him by now.

"You must feel quite at home in this place," she commented, her eyes traveling to the ancient artifacts surrounding them. When he merely grunted in response and didn't even turn around, she folded her arms over her chest and watched as he began to dial his phone. "Who's the girl?" she asked.

He finally turned, cell phone placed by his ear. "Sarah? She's a friend," he told Nicole as he listened to the ringing on the other end of his phone.

"So I could see."

He shook his head. "Then why'd you ask?" he muttered, an held up his index finger, signaling Nicole to wait. "Hi, Sam, it's me," he said into the phone.

"Tell her I say hi," Nicole muttered before she disappeared.

Several hours later, the archeologist was once again alone, pondering the mystery that had been placed before him. He held up a paper, one that held the translation of the Gou'ld symbols he had found on the jar he had been studying. Calling Teal'c had apparently been a bad idea since it stirred anger in Jack, but at least he had gotten the final translation that he needed. Now if he could only figure out what it meant.

"So who died?" a voice from behind him asked, causing him to jump a little. He must have been so absorbed in what he was doing that he hadn't heard anyone else enter the room.

Turning in his chair, he realized how unobservant he must have been – it was the Q who had left him alone in the basement earlier. Shaking his head, he turned back to the translation and sighed loudly. "Dr. David Jordan, my former professor and friend."

"I'm sorry," she replied, moving to sit beside him in an empty chair. "Was he like a father to you?"

Daniel shot her a sideways glance, trying to figure out why she had asked the question, his expression one of confusion. Raking a hand over his hair, he nodded and answered quietly, "Yeah, he was."

She nodded and leaned onto the table before them, not noticing the papers she pushed out of her way with her clasped hands. "I lost my parents."

His eyebrows shot up before his gaze returned to the paper before him. "Me, too," he responded, "when I was very young."

"I didn't know. . ."

"Of course you didn't. Now if you don't mind, I have work to do."

Sighing, she stood up, but froze for a moment, staring down at him silently, as if memorizing his features. Just when he was about to comment, two new arrivals entered the room. The balding older man dressed in his Air Force uniform and the Air Force major in BDUs beside him stopped short when they spotted the red haired woman standing next to Daniel. Nicole's gaze drifted to Sam and General Hammond, and she sighed deeply. "Don't worry, I was just leaving. I didn't realize how much you all abhor my presence. I won't come around uninvited anymore."

"Nicole –" Daniel began, instantly regretting how he had brushed her off earlier, but she was gone before he could finish the thought. He glanced over at Sam and General Hammond, motioning them to come over and check out his research.

Sam laid a comforting hand on Daniel's shoulder and commented lightly, "You can't make everyone happy."

He shook his head. "No, but we could have been a little nicer to her."

The next day, after the surprising discovery of a dead Gou'ld symbiote in the jar Daniel had been researching, General Hammond ordered Daniel, Sam, and Janet Frazier to Egypt in search of the person they assumed had been taken as host to the Gou'ld Osiris. Just as the small doctor placed her over night bag in the car that would take the three of them to Peterson Air Force Base, Daniel pulled Sam aside.

"I have this nagging feeling that we should do something drastic here," he told her seriously.

"We're going to Egypt. How much more drastic can we get?" The blonde stole a look at Janet, who was gesturing for them to hurry up.

Daniel sucked in a deep breath and replied slowly, "I think we should call Nicole and ask her to come with us."

Surprise flashed through Sam's blue eyes, and she backed up a step. "Are you insane? Twenty hours in a plane with her? I know you feel badly about how she left, but come on, Daniel, you can't be serious."

"I'm not insane, Sam, think about it. She cares about us far more than those stupid guidelines those elders set out for her to follow. I hate to admit it, but I've felt a lot safer every time she's come along with us on a mission. She won't let any of us die, I just know it."

"So your suggestion is we use her?"

He shook his head. "It's a win-win situation, Sam. We complete our mission and she gets to hang out with us, which she obviously loves to do. Come on, humor me this once."

"This once?" Sam replied, a smile touching her face as she shook her head slowly. "I can't believe I'm actually going to agree to this. You are insane, though, you have to know that."

So Nicole spent the next twenty hours cooped up with Sam, Daniel, and Janet in an Air Force special issue aircraft. The seats were comfortable and couch-like and even the Q didn't flash out at any time due to boredom. Surprisingly, she and Janet hit it off rather well, Nicole asking a lot of questions about Cassie, drawing the usually reserved doctor out of her shell quite effectively. By the time they reached Cairo, Sam and Daniel were wondering what had happened to the woman they had gotten to know over the past several weeks.

But their journey was far from over. The four of them climbed into an open jeep, the same color as the rusty sand beneath it and set out for the pyramid where the ancient artifacts had originally been discovered. Daniel drove, unsurprisingly knowing his way over the tough terrain, for he had worked in Egypt for many years before joining the Stargate program. Janet rode shotgun, her own red hair shining in the sunlight from underneath her sand colored hat. Sam and Nicole rode in the back with no seatbelts, Sam's head also covered with a hat for her fair hair would have invited the sun to burn her scalp most effectively. But whereas the others wore hats and light colored clothing to ward off the sun, Nicole sat unaffected by the light and heat, not bothering with any of those precautions.

About an hour into their journey, Sam offered her canteen to the quiet woman across from her. Nicole smiled but shook her head no, waving away the nourishment. "I don't need it, so save it for those of you who do," she answered. "But thanks for the thought."

Sam nodded and proceeded to take a few sips from the bottle before she stowed it carefully in her pack as the vehicle bumped along the uneven terrain. Glancing up once again, she shouted over the noise of the truck to the Q seated across from her, "We don't hate you!"

"There's no need to yell, Major. I can hear you quite well," Nicole replied in a normal tone and to her surprise, Sam heard it perfectly.

She nodded, realizing the Q was using her ability to shut out the noise of the truck. Then it struck her how strange it was to hear Nicole call her "Major." Shaking her head, she remarked, "You've never called me that before."

"I thought you might appreciate it, since we're not exactly friends," Nicole replied, her gaze fixed on the approaching horizon.

Not exactly sure how to respond to this, Sam was quiet for a moment, knowing they still had a bit of a journey ahead of them. The Air Force major knew she should probably make a decision about how she felt about the Q before their trip ended or it could be a rather uncomfortable one for the both of them. Finally making up her mind, Sam replied carefully, "We could be friends."

Nicole laughed a little, finally turning to look at the woman across the truck from her and folding her arms over her chest in a defensive stance. "Really?" she asked, sounding rather doubtful.

Sam shrugged. "Maybe if you didn't try so hard."

"Try so hard do to what exactly?"

"Impress us."

At that remark, Nicole's gaze turned and fixed on Daniel, who was completely oblivious to the conversation going on behind him and the stare of a certain red haired woman. "You really are smart," the Q whispered gently, her eyes studying the face of the driver. "Not smarter than me, I'd guess, but then again, you don't have the advantages I have, either." Sam smiled at this, but didn't respond. "I was trying to deny it, but spending time with you and the rest of SG1 has made me long for a normal life again. It never occurred to me that my freedom as Q comes at a huge cost – the fact that I'll never be close to anyone again."

"You're not close with anyone?"

"My sister, but she's gone just as crazy as the rest of the Qs, thinking that we're better than any other species. She can't understand why I prefer to spend time with humans."

"If you spend so much time with humans, there must be someone you've become close to."

Nicole shook her head sadly and moved her gaze regrettably from the driver to Sam, the Q leaning against the poles that separated her from Janet in the front seat. "Nope, can't ever stick around long enough to form any kind of attachment. I guess that's why I try so hard."

Sam nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. But Nicole, what would happen if the elders found out you were spending time with us? Would it really be that bad?"

The red haired woman's eyes grew wide as she nodded vigorously. "My stepfather spent too much time with humans, even changed the course of human history once. His punishment was to live among them for an indefinite period of time as one of them. They tortured him. . ." she shuddered. "He's always warned us to stay away from your species, but I can't help it. I'm more like you than I am any Q I've ever met."

"Have you ever considered that maybe you should be human? Weren't you born that way?"

Nicole shook her head. "We would have died if we remained human. My stepfather did us an enormous favor by changing us into Qs."

They didn't have time to finish the conversation for at that moment they arrived at their destination. Daniel pulled the truck into the tire tracks left by the blue truck already outside the pyramid, but after a few seconds left them and parked above the blue on a sand dune. Sam reached for some weapons, dispersing them among the rest of her team, but Nicole merely waved her off when the blonde woman attempted to hand her one. The Air Force major nodded silently and jumped off the vehicle, quickly making her way to one side of the entrance where she wouldn't be seen, gun drawn. She glanced back at Daniel who had followed at a distance, nodded at the tranquilizer gun in his hand and moved to the other side of the door, gun pointed inside, ready for anything. Daniel took Sam's previous spot and set to work loading a dart into his gun. Sam motioned to Janet, who joined her coworkers swiftly. Nicole watched all of this and followed once the three of them were inside, her green eyes only losing sight of Daniel's white shirt for a moment.

Daniel and Sam's large flashlights bounced off the walls as the four of them traveled down a flight of stairs. Once at the bottom, they recognized the sight of a man lying motionless on the floor. Nicole situated herself against a wall, watching as the situation before her unfolded.

The archeologist of SG1 lay down his gun next to the motionless man on the floor and informed the women, "It's Steven."

Sam ran to him, placing a gentle hand on his neck and noticing the dried blood on his face. "I'm not sensing anything," she told the others. "He's not Goa'uld."

She stood up, giving Janet room to look over the injured man. When her fingers touched his neck in an effort to find a pulse, the man's eyes snapped open, and he took a deep painful breath.

"Steven," Daniel said to the man.

"He's bleeding internally," Janet told him.

"Steven, it's me," the archeologist member of SG1 stated.

"Daniel," Steven replied with difficulty.

Nicole watched from a short distance, her usual position as observer not wavering as her vision took in the pacing astrophysicist, the worried doctor, her patient, and Daniel. "What happened?" Daniel asked his former colleague.

"I took the amulet," Steven explained. "It's over ten thousand years old. Your theory was right all along. I'm sorry." Nicole's nose crinkled at this. She didn't know what theory the injured man was referring to. She made a mental note to ask Daniel later.

Steven grimaced in pain and Janet's hands expertly moved over his back and side within mere moments as she instructed him, "Just take it easy, okay? I need you to hold still."

"It's okay, she's a friend," Daniel told Steven. "What about the jar?"

"Huh?" was the only response.

"The Osiris jar. Did you open it?"

"No."

Confusion flickered across Daniel's face, and he glanced momentarily at Janet before returning his eyes to the man lying prone on the floor. "Why did you come here?"

"I figured out the amulet was a key. There's a hidden chamber. I wanted to make the discovery."

"Daniel, we have to get him out of here," Janet interrupted.

There was one last question Daniel wanted to ask. "Steven, who did this to you?" The man on the floor closed his eyes and didn't reply. Daniel looked up at Janet and Sam, who were both in the process of preparing to move the injured man.

The Q standing near the stairs heard the footsteps first and quickly moved a few inches to be as out of the way as possible. Soon, while the three SGC personnel's attention was still on the wounded man, a familiar face came into view, rays from the sun behind her accentuating her curly blonde hair and pristinely white outfit. Her eyes glowed an orange-bronze color as she answered Daniel's question, "I did."

Sam was up in an instant, her gun trained at the Goa'uld within seconds. Janet and Daniel weren't too far behind her, Daniel lifting his eyes to see his ex-girlfriend. "Sarah?" he asked, most likely hoping he was wrong.

The Goa'uld's attention, however, switched to the two women she could see – Nicole had long since made herself invisible to everyone except Daniel, Sam, and Janet. The Goa'uld raised her hand to which she had attached the ribbon device, and activated the object with her mind, throwing Sam and Janet against the back wall, effectively incapacitating them.

Seeing this, Daniel shot a tranquilizer dart at the woman, but it was easily deflated by the device strapped to Sarah's hand. The archeologist quickly dropped the gun and tried to unlatch the firearm attached to his belt. He wasn't fast enough. Osiris whipped off her hood and closed the distance between them, swatting the gun aside just as he had managed to retrieve it. In one swift motion, she disarmed him with her left hand and with her right wrapped her fingers around his neck securely.

"Daniel!" Nicole screamed and rushed to his side, although she knew there was nothing she could do to help.

"Daniel Jackson. You seem to know much of the Goa'uld, much more than any other human I have encountered since my awakening. Now, tell me, where is the Stargate?" The Goa'uld glared down at the archeologist whose air supply was getting rather low.

She loosened her grip a little so he could answer. "I don't know what you're talking about," Daniel replied. His eyes flickered to Nicole, silently begging her to do something. He was only answered by a pained expression covering her face.

The answer he gave was obviously not the one the Goa'uld had wanted or expected. Her face contorted with rage, and she threw him to the floor forcefully. "Insolence," she whispered angrily, turning and walking a few steps away as Daniel grabbed at his throat and took a few deep gasping breaths. The Q beside him laid a hand on his back but otherwise felt completely helpless.

"This temple was once filled with worshipers," Osiris lamented aloud.

"Yeah, well, times change," Daniel retorted. "We don't worship false gods anymore."

"You have come far, it's true," the Goa'uld replied with her hands on her hips, "Bu you are still weak. Even now you are torn between your desire to kill me and your concern for my host. She who freed me from my long sleep." She walked closer and asked quietly, "Where is my queen?"

"Um . . . she was trapped like you. We have the jar."

"Where is it?"

"I'm not going to tell you."

"You are mistaken," Osiris muttered in a cold voice before lifting her hand and focusing the ribbon device's energy squarely on Daniel's head.

The archeologist grimaced in pain, letting out a small whisper, barely audible over the whir of the ribbon device, "Nicole, help me."

The Q stepped back in alarm. "I . . . I . . . can't," she answered, her voice breaking on the last word. "I'm sorry."

Mustering all the strength he could, Daniel pulled out another tranquilizer dart and stabbed it into Osiris' side. She staggered back, the link broken. "What is this? What have you done?" She pulled out the dart and retorted angrily, "You will pay for this impudence." And using the ribbon device, she called a ship out of hiding and stepped into the ring transport area.

Daniel glanced up at Nicole. "Please, stop her. Don't let her leave."

"I can't interfere with the normal flow of time!" Nicole insisted.

"Consider it a favor to me," he implored.

She shook her head no. "Do you have any idea what the elders will do to me?"

"Make no mistake," Osiris told Daniel, interrupting whatever he may have said next, "Osiris will return and the rivers will run red with blood." At this, the ring transport activated.

It was at this point Sam woke up and grabbed her gun, aiming between the rings but her shots merely ricocheted off of them. Shaking her head, she made her way over to Daniel as Janet pulled herself off the floor. Sam placed a comforting hand on Daniel's back and asked, "Are you all right?"

He sat up and answered in the lightest tone he could rally, "Oh, yeah, I think I'm getting used to that thing."

"Where's Osiris," Janet asked as she staggered over to check on Steven.

"Gone," Sam replied, her gaze returning to the spot where the Goa'uld had disappeared.

"Steven?" Daniel asked, holding his head as if that would make the pain go away.

"I think if we get him out of here right now, he'll make it," Janet replied.

Sam stole a look sideways at Daniel, who seemed to be in a lot of pain and suddenly thought of something. "Where's Nicole?" she asked, glancing around the darkened room. "Did she help at all?"

"No," the archeologist of SG1 answered, bitterness creeping into his voice. "No, apparently she was more concerned with what the elders would do to her than even the prospect of me dying. It was a bad idea to bring her."

"Well, bad idea or not," the doctor said in a commanding tone, "We need to get out of here now. Help me with him." She motioned to Steven and both of her colleagues moved to help.