Chapter Twenty-Two

Buffy absently flipped through the channels. Nothing seemed to catch her eye or hold her attention for more than a few seconds. Lord she was bored without Jack there. This was the first time he was gone on an extended mission and she didn't have one of her own. She was fine as long was she was at the SGC, but the moment she was home, she was lost.

Home.

Her brow furrowed slightly at her use of the word, even just in her thoughts. When had Jack's house become her home, too? The decision to stay here wasn't wholly a conscious one. At first it was a matter of convenience, and then she had just… stayed. She realized she didn't want to move out and since Jack hadn't given her any hint otherwise, she assumed he felt the same.

Was this an indication of deeper feelings? For both of them? Or was it just that they were comfortable together? And if that was the case, was it a bad thing?

She groaned at all of the sudden questions running through her head. This was not how she wanted to spend her evening. All she wanted to do was lose herself in a movie for a few hours and then go to bed. She forced her attention back to the TV, but before she had a chance to resume her search, there was a knock at the door.

Buffy frowned as she got up to answer it. The only people who ever came over were SG-1 and she had just spoken to Giles the night before so it couldn't be the Scoobies. Cautiously she cracked open the door and blinked in surprise.

"Open up, Summers!" Dave commanded. "It's cold out here!"

"What are you doing here?" She asked, opening the door all the way. Again she was surprised by her entire team standing on the doorstep.

"I know you won't invite us in because it's after dark, but can ya stand aside so we can come in?" Dave teased.

"Yeah, sure," she said, still in shock. She stepped aside and they came in carrying pizza and soda – even diet coke for her.

Jeff shut the door for her. "We thought you might like some company," he said with a small shrug.

"Really?" She asked, touched by the lengths the team would go to for her. It was hard to believe that these same guys had intimidated her in the beginning and that she had worried about fitting in.

"Buffy, you and Jack keep cards around here?" Simon asked from the kitchen.

"Yeah, top drawer of the cabinet in the dining room," she said, following her team. Dave and Simon had obviously been busy. Glasses were already pulled out and paper plates were sitting next to the five pizzas and two orders of cheesy bread. "Planning on feeding an army?" She dryly asked.

"No, just us," Dave said in all seriousness.

She raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment further. The next several minutes were spent filling her plate and getting situated in the dining room. She wasn't sure how they knew she needed this, but she wasn't going to question it.

"Please tell me you know how to play poker," Simon said, shuffling the deck.

"Let me get my cheat sheet," she said, going to the cabinet, carrying a slice of pizza in one hand.

"Cheat sheet?" Jeff asked.

"Yeah, tells me what beats what. I can never remember," she said sheepishly.

"Got another one?" he eagerly asked.

"Sure," she said, handing him one of the copies.

"Great! I do okay with poker, but I'm better at spades," he admitted, looking the paper over.

"Oh, I love spades," Buffy said, sitting back down. "Could we play that later?"

"Maybe," Dave said slowly.

"He's not very good at it," Jeff said in a conspiratorial tone.

Buffy's eyes twinkled with suppressed mirth. "Really? What a shame."

Dave sent her a glare that had no heat and all it did was cause her to giggle. "Watch yourself, Summers."

XXXXXXXXX

Daniel moved to stand next to Jack. They spent several long minutes staring out the window at the bustling city below. Daniel couldn't help but wonder if Earth would ever take on this 'futuristic' look – the flying cars and holographic billboards.

Without looking at Jack, he asked, "Was it me, or did that seem to be too easy?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, a small frown marring his face.

"Our two governments have been in talks for over a year, and in just two days we were able to broker a deal."

"Maybe the diplomats loosened them up for us," Jack suggested.

Daniel sent him a withering look. "Jack, you're not really known for your patience, even when things are going our way."

"Think Warrick had something to do with it?" Jack asked, his eyes following the traffic below them.

"I doubt it. He doesn't seem to have much influence in politics, although he may have said something."

"It's still a good thing, though. They're giving us one of those ion-things."

"Ion drive," Daniel absently corrected. 

"All Carter has to do is win the race and we can go home," Jack said, his satisfaction with how things were progressing clearly evident.

"That anxious?" Daniel asked, smiling at his friend.

"Maybe."

"Because we've been here for so long and Buffy's by herself?" Daniel shrewdly asked.

Jack sighed. "Partly."

Daniel grinned. "You miss her."

"What do you expect? Of course I do, she'd my girlfriend."

"Alright, Jack, I'm not going to tease you about it… too much."

"Watch it," Jack warned, turning his head to look at his friend. "I've got some stuff on you, too."

Daniel paused at Jack's look. He thought he knew everything Jack had on him, but apparently he had missed something. He waited to see if there was more but Jack didn't elaborate. The twinkle in Jack's eyes died and he looked back to the city. "What's wrong?"

"Buffy and I haven't gone on a date since our first one," Jack admitted. "And we know how well that one went."

"Oh, I don't know. Seemed like things were going well when Thor beamed you onboard."

"Ha, ha, Daniel. We've been dating for over a month  - two weeks of which were spent offworld fighting alien vampires - and I've only taken her on one proper date. And to top it off, I don't even know where people go for dates these days. It's been a while since I've had to do this."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Daniel said, placing a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "You always do."

XXXXXXXXX

"You know this really wasn't necessary," Buffy said as Jack helped her out of the passenger side of his truck.

"I know," he said with a charming smile. "I wanted to and you deserve it." He was pleased by the faint blush that painted Buffy's cheeks.

"Still, I'm perfectly happy with spending my nights home alone with my…"

Her pause caused Jack to frown. "What?"
"I'm not sure what to call you."

"Huh?"

"Well, normally I'd say you're my boyfriend, but you're definitely not a boy."

"Are you saying I'm a girl?" He teased.

"No, you're a man, not a boy, so boyfriend doesn't really apply to you. And significant other implies a much deeper relationship than what we currently have - not that we aren't super good, bestest friends," she hastily added. "But I always thought of it implying years spent together in that way."

Jack couldn't help but find Buffy's pout endearing as she tried to work it out in her head.

"I could just call you what my grandmother called my boyfriends," she said suddenly.

"And what was that?"

"My beau."

"Your beau. I kinda like that," Jack said.

"Then it's settled," she said, linking her arm with his. "So what movie are we going to see?"

"I've already picked it out," he informed her.

"Let me guess, it has all sorts of things exploding in it?" she shrewdly asked.

"You better believe it. And there might be a love story in there somewhere, I just can't guarantee it."

"You know me so well," she said with a laugh as they entered the cinema.

XXXXXXXX

Buffy sighed as she adjusted her sunglasses to look out over the vast expanse of plains before them. Most likely this was destined to be yet another boring trip through the gate.

"Fielding bets," Jeff said, his red hair bright under the sun.

"I'm going with a buried cache of weapons," Dave said, his eyes scanning the area.

"Hardly likely," Buffy snorted.

"Hey! You never know," he said with a grin.

"I can't go with my usual," Jeff said with a pout. "We already know that there are ruins threes miles from here."

"Yeah, but you could always say what we'll find in those ruins," Buffy happily pointed out to him.

"Alright, I say we'll find… an Ancient repository of knowledge in the ruins."

"One of those things on the wall that Jack got his head stuck in a few years ago?" Dave asked.

"Yes, one of those," Jeff answered before turning to his other male teammate. "Simon?"

"I'll go with trees."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "We're in the middle of a huge plain that probably goes on for hundreds of miles."

"I still go with trees."

"Smart ass," Dave said.

"And Buffy," Jeff said, guiding them back on topic.

"I think we're going to find a civilization hiding in plain sight."

"Hiding in plain sight?" Dave asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah. I think that it's just as likely as your hidden cache of weapons," she said cheekily.

"It's your bet," Dave said with a shrug. "Let's move out, people. We've got a ways to walk."

Buffy adjusted her pack as she took the right flank. "It's a good thing I'm used to walking everywhere, otherwise this would have gotten really old, really fast."

"You have your driver's license," Jeff said in confusion.

"That actually came much later in life. Me and driving was kind of like oil and water, and mom definitely wasn't keen on me driving because of it. It wasn't until we moved to Cleveland that I even got my license."

"Wow, a high school girl without a license or a car. That's a novelty these days," Dave said with a smirk.

"You just wait until your kids are old enough to drive," Simon teased.

"Look who's talking, you've got one on the way yourself," Dave shot back.

Simon couldn't help but puff up with pride. "I do at that."

"How's Marci doing?" Buffy asked.

"She's great, the baby's healthy. So far it's shaping up to be a normal pregnancy."

"How far along is she?" Jeff asked.

"Six months. She's showing and she's gorgeous."

"I wish I had my camera for that awestruck look," Buffy giggled.

Simon looked slightly affronted. "Hey! Can I help it that I think my pregnant wife is gorgeous?"

"Yeah, that'll wear off after two or three kids," Dave informed him. "Don't get me wrong, Sharon is a gorgeous woman, but I could do without all of the hormone mood swings."

"What's the matter? Is little Davey afraid of his big bad wife?" Buffy joked.

"You haven't met her yet," Dave said ominously. "Which reminds me, she wants you and Jack to come over for dinner sometime soon."

"I'll tell Jack," she said with a smile. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Figures," Dave muttered, knowing perfectly well that she'd catch it with her sensitive hearing.

Buffy laughed as they continued their way through the waist high grass.

A few hours later, Buffy stood staring at one of the few remaining walls that was still standing with Jeff. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

He looked down at her in confusion. "For what?"

"I don't think you are going to win this bet," She said.

"And how would you know that?"

"I'm not an expert, but I have seen enough of the Ancient writing to know that this isn't it. And no Ancient writing means not an Ancient ruin, which probably means no Ancient thingamajig," she said with a shrug. Peering closely at the wall, she asked, "Any idea what this is?"

Jeff shook his head. "I've never seen it before. Dr. Jackson will be excited though," he said with a grin.

"Probably. You lovable geeks are all ali-" she stopped.

He froze next to her, recognizing that Buffy was sensing something. Her eyes searched the crumbled ruins around them and stopped when she saw movement.

"There," she whispered, pointing at a pile of stone. They crouched down and silently moved closer.

"Bless the chicken," Jeff said. "It's a little girl."

Buffy, used to Jeff's quirky sayings, barely spared him a glance and concentrated on their unexpected visitor. The girl looked to be barely more than eight and had a mess of long brown curls. She was calmly walking through the ruins. She stopped next to something they couldn't see and gave it her full attention.

Jeff looked at Buffy in surprise as she handed him her P-90. "What's this for?"

"I'm going to go talk to her," she explained, taking her pack and vest off as well.

"Are you nuts? You can't remove all of that," he said, his voice rising slightly in panic.

"Jeff, it's just a little girl and I don't want frighten her with all of this. I can't gain her trust if she's scared of me at first glance."

"This could be a trap," Jeff argued.

"It's just a little girl."

"But it could be a trap, hence the innocent little girl to lure you in."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm not sensing anything. I would know if there was something unnatural around."

"Unnatural doesn't mean anything. The people themselves could be evil. Jaffa and demons aren't the only evil out there."

"Believe me, I know," Buffy said. "I've seen too much of what normal humans can do to not believe that, but I think this is going to be okay."

"But Dave won't li-"

"He's not here right now, I am. I'm going," she interrupted, setting her stuff on the ground. She slowly stood and made her way over to the little girl.

Jeff remained tense as he watched Buffy crouch down to talk to the girl. From where he was hiding, he could see the girl hand Buffy something and the slayer put it in her mouth. "I hope that wasn't poisonous," he muttered.

He could see Buffy digging around in her pants pockets, probably for the ever-present candy bar she carried. It had only taken a few times of her eating the MREs to get Buffy to start bringing her own snacks to supplement them out in the field, and the chocolate bar was always part of her kit.

The little girl smiled up a Buffy as she chewed happily on the candy. Buffy pointed over at him and the girl waved. He hesitantly waved back. Buffy said a few more words to the girl and then walked back over to him.

"She said her people live in the ground under the ruins, literally calling it the Underworld. They only come up to 'visit' the Overworld, but can't stay. Something about the snake demons getting them if they do," she informed him.

"Probably the goa'uld," Jeff said.

"That's what I'm thinking. Kayla has offered to take us to meet her people in the Underworld," Buffy explained, reaching for her radio. "Hey Dave! You guys owe me dinner," she said with a grin.