AN: As promised, the next chapter. Hope the story is staying interesting enough for you guys. Yes? Thanks again for all your reviews! Glad to know you're all still interested.
Chapter Three:
Daniel enters the locker room exhaustedly, followed closely by Jack and a very disgruntled SG-2. With a sigh, he opens his locker . . . and his breath catches in his throat.
"J'ck?" He manages to choke out, continuing to stare into his locker.
"Danny?" Jack asks, standing from the bench near his locker and starting towards the archaeologist.
Daniel, suddenly, turns to face the older man, his eyes wide with horror.
"I-It's gone!" He exclaims in a harsh whisper.
"Wh-" Jack barely has time to answer before the other man begins to pull things from his locker frantically.
"Whoa! Daniel, cut it out!" Jack yells as he and Ferretti grab his arms.
"Jack! It's gone!" Daniel says quickly, straining against their hold on him.
"Daniel, what's gone?" The colonel asks calmly. As quickly as the rampage had started, the young man stops and sinks to the floor in defeat.
"The ring, Jack," he whispers in a frustrated sigh. "The ring is gone."
"As in . . . the ring?" Jack asks, his eyebrows rising. Daniel can do no more than nod in his sullen state.
"Ring?" Charles questions timidly.
"For Kaara," Ferretti explains as Jack stands and heads towards the locker to search it himself. "His girlfriend . . . Who, in God's holy name, would steal a ring?"
"Oh, probably some sardonic bastard bent on ruining my life," Daniel shrugs pitifully, watching as Jack pulls various items out of his locker and sets them on the wooden bench behind him. "It was on the top shelf, Jack."
"Maybe it fell," Jack amends, trying not to think the worst.
"Jack, it's gone," Daniel shakes his head, burying it in his arms.
"Then . . . we'll get you a new one. The government spends a few billion dollars on the SGC every year. What's a couple thousand more?"
"We can't get a new one, Jack," Daniel replies, nearly in tears as his voice cracks.
"Sure you can! A trip down to the jeweler's, a little charge to the SGC bill, and you're set."
"No, Jack. I need that ring! Not a new one!"
Jack stares at the younger man in hard concentration. The urgency in the archaeologist's voice is like none he has ever heard before.
"Alright, Danny," he nods. "We'll find your ring. Don't worry."
0 o 0 o 0
"Oh my God! Mom, where did you get that ring?" Cassie exclaims, reaching across the table and snagging her mother's hand to ogle at the sparkling diamond on her finger.
"Ring?" Janet asks in confusion, looking down. Her eyes widen immediately.
"Oh shit!" She says, jumping up from her seat so fast that the chair falls backwards. "Shit, shit, shit!"
"Mom?" Cassie asks, standing as well with a confused expression.
"I have to take it back!" Janet dashes towards the coat closet. "I'll put it back before anyone knows." She stops, suddenly, glancing down at her watch.
"Shit! They'll be back by now! Oh God! Daniel must be so . . . Oh God!" She moans. Her hands hold her head in agony, but soon a thought comes to mind.
"Two days," she breathes quickly. "They're going off world again in two days. I'll put it back then! God, I am so screwed! He'll be so angry! Oh God!"
Janet continues to mumble as she rushes toward her bedroom, taking the ring and placing it on the top shelf of her dresser.
0 o 0 o 0
Cassie stares longingly at the beautiful, blue diamond ring on her mother's dresser.
She wouldn't miss it for one day, right? She asks herself. I mean, she's at work, and I get home before she does.
She reaches a tentative hand towards the irresistible opportunity.
One day, she tells herself, grabbing the ring and slipping it onto her forefinger. It's just one day. She'll never miss it.
With that, Cassie hurries out the door to her impatient carpool driver, who honks once again just to reiterate their growing boredom.
"I'm coming, Lizzy! Hold your horses!" She yells, slamming the door shut and running to the passenger side of her best friend's brand new, totally expensive, wish-I-had-it sports car.
"Jeez, Cass, what took you so long?" Elizabeth Waters complains.
"This," Cassie proudly, holding up her hand to display the ring.
"Holy shit! Where the hell did you get that?" Elizabeth asks, grabbing her friend's hand and staring wide-eyed at the sparkling, blue diamond. "Jesus! You can see yourself in that thing! It's huge!"
"It's my mom's," Cassie smiles excitedly. "I don't know where she got it, but it's so beautiful!"
"You're gonna let me wear it for a while too, right?" The other girl inquires.
"Sure," Cassie shrugs. "Later, though. I want Brad to see me with it."
Brad Dane. The most popular boy in school, and Cassie's latest crush.
"He's gonna freak!" Elizabeth laughs, throwing the car into reverse and skidding out of the driveway into the path of an on-coming car.
"Watch where you're going!" The driver shouts out of his window.
"Bite me, asshole!" Elizabeth yells before screeching off down the street.
0 o 0 o 0
"Lizz!" Cassie whispers harshly to her friend, who sits in the desk to her right. "I need that ring back!"
"What?" Elizabeth whispers back.
"Quiet!" The teacher yells from the front of the classroom. "People are still taking the test! You need to be quiet!"
Both girls roll their eyes.
I need the ring back, Cassie mouths to the other girl.
Elizabeth looks to the ring on her thumb and again at Cassie.
After school, she mouths back. Cassie nods reluctantly.
0 o 0 o 0
"Elizabeth, where did you get that ring?"
Elizabeth looks up from her homework at the dinner table towards her mother then to the ring that is still on her finger.
"Cassie," she shrugs, returning to the overly large history textbook.
"Cassie?" Mrs. Waters asks in surprise. "Since when does Cassie give such expensive gifts?"
"She just let me borrow it," the teen says in annoyance.
"She let you borrow something like that?"
"Mom, it's probably not even real. She borrowed it from her mom and she let me wear it at school. I'll give it back tomorrow. What're you freaking out about?"
"From her mother?" Mrs. Waters walks over to her daughter and towers over her, placing her hands on her hips. "And was her mother aware that she 'borrowed' it from her?"
"I don't know. What're you asking me for?" Elizabeth says moodily. "God! Do you mind? I'm trying to do homework."
"Elizabeth Joyce Waters, hand over that ring right now," Mrs. Waters demands, holding out her hand.
"Mom, I have to give it to Cass tomorrow!" The girl protests, grimacing at the use of her full name.
"Now," her mother says sternly.
Elizabeth rolls her eyes and pulls the ring from her thumb, placing it roughly in her mother's out-stretched hand. With a sigh, Mrs. Waters returns to the kitchen counter.
"What's Cassie's home number?"
"They aren't home. Her mom works late, so she hangs out at her Uncle Jack's," Elizabeth explains bluntly. "And before you ask, no, I don't have his number or her work number."
"Fine," Mrs. Waters says in a clipped tone, staring down at the ring. "Then I will be returning it tomorrow morning."
"Her mom works early," is all that the young girl says.
"Well, it's too expensive to keep in the house. I'll have to take it to work and keep it in the safe in my locker."
"Whatever."
The teen returns to her homework as Mrs. Waters places the ring in a small pocket on the inside of her purse.
AN: Questions? Comments? Vague disregard to any or all words written and established in the mind of one who has no sanity?
Later, Gators! Catch you on the flip side.