Vala turned to me as Daniel finished his lecture. "I see why he appeals to you." I raised an eyebrow, asking for an explanation the remark. "He is long winded. I would have slept through it had Cam not been kicking the back of my chair."
I nodded and smiled. I put my pencil down, and studied my notepad, almost as full of notes as Vala's of doodles. I watched as Daniel took his seat and Colonel Gibbins got up and address the SG-teams that were assembled. I wrote a quick note to Daniel and passed it to him.
He chuckled softly and wrote something back. I turned and grinned at him, glad to have my best friend back. It was still another hour before the briefing concluded, and I was busy chatting with Daniel to notice a few of the men in suits standing by. Daniel's gaze shifted and caused me to look where he was looking.
"Colonel Carter," one of the men started. "I'm sorry for not letting you mount a rescue mission earlier. We had to evaluate the threat first, and it got in the way of rescuing one of your teammates."
I looked at him. "You know, it all worked out in the end. We found Daniel, we got him back, still with no help from your office, I might add, and we have intel that we otherwise wouldn't have had." I glanced at my watch before fixing my gaze once more on the man. "Now if you'd excuse me, my teammate and I have a lunch date to catch up on."
Daniel looped his arm in mine as we left the men standing in the hall, other SG members scooting around them. I smiled up at Daniel as the elevators closed.
"You mean it?"
"Yes."
I smiled broader; Daniel was going to take me on a date – a real date – and we would talk, about everything like always. But at the end of my note, Daniel had said the most important topic of all was the one that I had always wanted to discuss but was too afraid to approach: US.
And that alone made the nightmares and losing Daniel all worth it.