Chapter 3
Janet stood outside the back door of her house, watching the snow gleaming dully in the swiftly darkening twilight. The sky was a distinct shade of blue that heralded the oncoming night, fading into a dusky green across the mountains to where the sun had long since disappeared.
She folded her arms across her chest and glanced back down at the snow. Despite the light covering, the weather wasn't nearly as cold as she had been expecting. There was a light crispness to the air that made her skin tingle and come alive rather than making her freeze, the faintest hint of a breeze that brought the evening air to life and made the hairs on the back of her neck curl with pleasure. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. These were the nights that made sitting inside the act of a criminal, the nights that made the child inside her soul press her nose up against the window-pane, frosting the glass with her breath and dreaming of reindeer bells and snowball fights.
She loved nights like this.
"Earth to Doctor Fraiser!"
She jumped like a startled cat, turning swiftly to see Daniel jog up the steps to join her on the veranda. He flashed her a smile. "I did ring the bell but when no-one answered, I figured you'd be out here."
"You, Doctor Jackson, are late," she said, her severe tone belied by her grin. She turned, walking into the kitchen and he followed her without prompting. After all these years, they didn't need to give each other permission to enter the other's house; their friendship was far to secure for such formalities.
"I know, I had to swing by the Mountain on my way here. Forgive me?"
"I'll think about it," she turned, giving him a critical stare then suddenly placed her hands on his chest and gave him light shove down into a seat. "Stay there," she ordered and disappeared into another room before he could respond.
Blinking in surprise, he tugged off his glasses and cleaned away the steam that had built up from stepping into the warm house then made himself comfortable in the chair while he waited.
He had just placed his glasses back on his nose when she returned with a medical bag. His eyebrows lifted as she parked herself on the table in front of him and pulled off his glasses.
"Hey..." he began but his protest was cut off when she leaned in close to his face, placing her fingers against his eyelids to study his eyes intently. She felt his muscles tense and a shiver ripple through his body. "Your hands are cold," he complained in a tone of voice that suggested he wasn't entirely sure whether to be confused, annoyed or amused by her sudden descent into medical mode.
Instead of responding, she flashed a penlight across both of his eyes, studying the pupil response. "Hm," she said, turning away for a second to put the penlight down on the table behind her.
"Okay, aren't we supposed to be avoiding work tonight?" he asked, shifting his weight so he could climb back to his feet.
She returned her attention to him and pushed him back down with a frown. "You missed your last appointment in the infirmary yesterday, Daniel. I'm not going to ignore that. How are the new meds working?" her small hands investigated his neck with careful professionalism and she felt him shiver again.
"This lot seem to be working," he admitted patiently. "At least, I've stopped sneezing and I can breathe again without coughing all the time."
Janet nodded "Good. Your glands have definitely come down," she added, apparently satisfied by what she was finding.
"Great," he grabbed her hands and drew them away from his neck, pinning them together between his own. "Then please stop prodding me. In case you missed it the first time - your hands are freezing!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby," she laughed. "It's not even cold out there."
"Uh, Janet, you did notice the snow outside, right?"
She grinned and wriggled her hands free of his grip so she could tug the coat he was wearing. "This isn't exactly arctic gear, Daniel," she observed in amusement. "So you can't be that cold either."
He started to respond then stopped, gazing at her with one of those unfathomable ultra-blue stares that she couldn't interpret. Suddenly, he rose from his chair and walked over to the window, looking out of it in silence. Janet hesitated. She was a little unsettled by his sudden mood change, unsure of how to interpret it. "Daniel?"
He turned back to her, eyes twinkling with sly humour. "What do you think about having a picnic?" he asked her, his tone quite bland and off-hand.
She stared at him. "A picnic?"
"Yes."
"Tonight?"
"Yeah."
She stared out of the window. "In the snow?"
His eyes were now gleaming. "You're the one who said it's not cold out," he observed, quite reasonably.
"Are you mad?" Janet exclaimed, gazing at him incredulously.
He laughed at her but his tone was absolutely serious. "What do you think?"
"Daniel, we'll freeze!"
"No we won't," he said with quiet confidence. "I have a secret weapon. All we need is to put some food together, grab some blankets - and my secret weapon - and we're all set."
She eyed him suspiciously. "And what secret weapon would that be?"
"That's classified, I'm afraid," he replied impudently. He watched her for a few moments, his stare unwavering. "So? Shall we?"
She stared right back at him but his eyes had locked onto hers, a mixture of laughter, determination and challenge dancing at the back of his gaze. "You're actually serious, aren't you?" she said at last. "You really don't care if we catch our deaths out there."
He chuckled. "We won't. I have a secret weapon, remember."
"Um..." she hesitated, her mind buzzing. It was the silliest idea she had ever heard. It was the middle of February. There was snow on the ground. Although this particular day had been surprisingly warm, most of the month's temperatures had been barely above freezing - she didn't want to think about what the temperature would fall to now that it was night.
And yet...
And yet, it was the kind of weather she loved. And it was Daniel who was asking. Daniel. Who, while admittedly capable of the craziest stunts, never willingly put his friends in danger. Whatever madcap scheme was running through his head, she knew, deep down, that he would give it up if she really didn't want to do it, or if it really did become too uncomfortably cold. She eyed him and he grinned broadly in response. Dammit, she grumbled to herself. He's too damn sure of himself.
The trouble was, she realised, he had good reason to be. She wasn't putting up much of a fight. The idea was insane, the kind of insanity that appealed to her, and she'd already observed to herself that this was a night that should not be spent indoors. At last, she sighed. "Alright, but this secret weapon of yours better be worth it," she threatened him.
Another grin, this time rather smug, and she decided that for the moment, she would content herself with hating him. "It will be," he assured her. "We'll have to swing by my place to pick it up though, if that's okay."
She had been turning around to investigate her refrigerator to see what food she had available but turned back in surprise at his words. "Your place? We're not doing this in the garden?"
He laughed at her surprise. "Oh, Janet, no," he chuckled. "I've got somewhere else in mind."
"Well... where?!" she demanded incredulously. She glanced out of the window again. It was already dark. Where on earth could they go at this time of night?
"You'll see," he replied impishly. "Now, how about we decide what food to take with us?"
In the end, Janet decided for some small measure of sanity amongst the craziness, and, after double-checking how many clean thermos flasks she had available, made up one flask of hot coffee and one flask of hot soup. Her one major indulgence, however, was to take along a small chocolate cake she had made especially for tonight - although this definitely wasn't how she had planned on eating it.
For some reason, Daniel found this particular demand incredibly funny but, frustratingly, she couldn't make him explain why.
It was gone six o'clock when they finally left in his car, threading their way through the streets back to his place. He didn't speak much during the trip, except to playfully divert all attempts to find out what he was collecting and where they were actually going. Once they reached his home, he didn't linger long, returning with a binliner that clearly contained... something. Much to her annoyance, and his obvious amusement, he refused to clarify what it was and packed it into the trunk where she couldn't peek at it.
"You're the most annoying man in the world," she muttered at him as they left. Although she was well aware of just how badly he could tease both Jack and Sam - and even Teal'c - she hadn't really noticed him invest the same degree of effort into teasing her before. Until now.
Contemplating revenge, she discovered, was an excellent way of passing the time.
The destination became obvious once Janet realised that Daniel was driving up to Cheyenne Mountain. He didn't turn into the military complex but kept driving a little way further, turning up a dirt track that led to a small campsite. It was a place military personnel had used before and Janet knew that even some aliens had been allowed access to it on occasion, when given limited exposure to the terrestrial surface of the Tau'ri world.
Feeling a distinct sense of relief that she knew the terrain even at night, she helped Daniel unpack the equipment and carry it beyond the campsite. When he finally came to a stop, all Janet could do was blink and stare.
It was a small clearing that ran a little way downhill to eventually spill over a cliff edge. Signs of a reusable firepit in the ground suggested that people had used this place in the past, understandably so when Janet observed how the trees that crowned the cliffside sheltered the clearing from the wind. The ground had even escaped most of the snow.
It was the view, however, that struck Janet the hardest. She could see all the way down the mountainside and, it seemed, for miles beyond. In the distance, the lights of the city twinkled gently against a backdrop of deep blues, purples and greens, nighttime shadows created by the rocks and bushes that faded into the dull gleam of the snow that blanketed the land. She glanced up at a dark cloudless sky, to see stars were already begin to twinkle slowly into existence before turning her attention to snowy landscape that stretched out below her. There was something strangely unreal about this moment, something intangible - even ethereal - lingering in the air. She could feel goosebumps shiver into life along her arms and a odd tingle running down the length of her spine, finally coming to rest at the tips of her toes. Her scalp prickled gently and she felt butterflies begin stirring in the pit of her stomach.
Suddenly aware her mouth was hanging open, she clamped it shut and glanced out of the corner of her eye to see what Daniel was doing. She wasn't entirely surprised to find him standing nearby watching her with a steady, but unreadable, gaze.
"So?" he asked lightly when he realised she was looking at him. "What do you think?"
Janet's eyes narrowed at his nonchalance. Two could play at that game. She sniffed." It'll do for now," the doctor dismissively turned her back on him but his only response to her aloofness was a soft chuckle that made her smile.