A/N since this story was written a couple of years ago, and it's all done, I'm just going to post them. It really loses something in the waiting, I think.

Jack followed Anna as she walked down the hall. He knew this place better than anyone, except maybe Siler. She would have crept to the basement without being seen, if Jack hadn't been watching her. She was headed to the old files. What, exactly she wanted from old mission reports he had no idea. But she entered to room- why?- and stayed. For three hours. What was she doing? He was going to keep this to himself, for now. He couldn't trust the others. The might be working with her. He sat after she left, thinking of possible reasons. As the day grew longer, he grew drowsy. Drifting off to sleep, he wondered what he was doing in the lower levels.

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Daniel had dozed off in his office, but knew he'd have to go home eventually. They had 3 days of down-time. He had an urge to see how Anna was doing. He saw he office door was closed, so he gave a quick knock and walked in. She stuffed some papers under a folder with a start.

"Working for vacation?" He asked with a smile. "I thought that was just something we scientists did."

"If O'Neill wants information, he'll have to do better than sending you." She turned away, but not before he saw a shadow pass over her eyes. "You can flash your pretty blue eyes all you want, I'm not discussing it."

"Uh, actually, I'd be the last person Jack would send for that. He's not too happy with me...Pretty blue...? Never mind." He grimaced. "Look, we can't work together if we don't ... I mean, we have to trust each other and know we can trust each other."

She whirled around, finally giving him a glimpse of the person underneath the facade. Her face filled with bitterness. "Doctor Jackson, I'm the last person you want to trust."

"What?"

"I'm very sorry Dr. Jackson. I think you should go. I," she paused for a moment. "prefer not to socialize with people I work with."

"Uh, ok. Well, sorry to bother you." Daniel was a bit miffed, but he still saw that darkness in her eyes. Not dark as in evil, but dark as in absence of light. She turned and walked to the doorway. He followed.

"Maj- Anna?" He walked through, but stopped just in the hall. "I don't know what your story is, but we're good people here. If you need something..."

She stiffened, but didn't look at him. "Get the hell out of my office." The words were vicious, but he heard the slight catch in her voice.

"Um, no, I think I'll stay." He stood in the doorway, waiting. "I can't leave until I know you're alright."

She gave a bitter laugh. "Well, I guess you'll be here awhile." Flipping the lights, she turned and locked her door. Her hands tightened into fists and she looked at him with something wild and frantic in her eyes. Was she going to hit him? No, she just wanted to. Hm.

"You know it wouldn't solve anything? I mean, you know, violence."

"Dr. Jackson, you'd be surprised by the things violence can solve." She stood in front of him. "I just want to do my job and be left alone."

"Why do you act like that? Like nothing matters to you?"

"Because it doesn't." She met his eyes without flinching.

With sudden clarity, Daniel knew. It all made sense. The way she stayed aloof from everyone,the secrecy about her past. She was trying to hide from something- or hide something from everyone. "It's okay, you know, to be afraid of something."

He could almost see her resolve fading, he saw a tremor in her body, but then she stiffened. Suddenly, she turned back to him. "You don't know anything." There was something desperate in her voice, and he decided not to push.

"If you need someone, well, I'm not great at doing the talking thing, but I am good at listening... So."

He almost thought she might give in, but she just narrowed her eyes and said, "No."

...meanwhile

Jack sat in his chair, baiting his hook. That he would never catch a fish was a given, but he had to relax. He felt an almost overwhelming impulse to go back to Colorado Springs and check on Daniel. No, he needed to go back. His breathing hitched. Something could have happened to Daniel. Anything could have happened to Daniel. He knocked the chair over in his hurry to get to his truck. He didn't pack anything, didn't lock anything. He drove down towards the highway, his mind focused on saving Daniel. Trouble, Baker, Daniel. Rolling around in his head. Suddenly, he jammed the brakes. What was he doing? He let his head drop to the steering wheel. What was wrong with him?

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Something had made Jack even more tense and angry. He figured it was the marine. Daniel couldn't understand just what it was about her that had made Jack take such an instant dislike to her. Not that anyone understood what was going on with him.

Gathered in the briefing room, they got all the information on the next planet. Jack barely paid any attention to Carter, since the bottom line was that there seemed to be no life around the gate. No life, no weapons for fighting the Goau'ld. There were some buildings left there, though, so I guess we'll mosey on in and dig in the dirt for a while. They were scheduled to leave in four hours.

As the others gathered papers, he realized they were done. He followed slowly. Without even thinking about it, he went to Daniel's office. He had to reason some things out, but needed a devil's advocate. Still, he hesitated, somehow knowing this was the wrong thing to do. "Hey. Wanted to throw some things at you."

Daniel looked at him over his glasses. "What?"

"Well, I asked around about Major Baker-"

"Jack!"

"Daniel."

"That is so wrong." Daniel pushed up his glasses. "An invasion of privacy."

"Oh, listen to me. She was black ops, Daniel. Into stuff that was rougher than my stuff, even." Jack watched Daniel's eyebrows climb before dropping and his face scrunched up into that look that said 'thinking'. "I don't know what it was, but I got the impression my friends didn't want involved in even telling me what they know. Do you know what that means, Danny-boy? It means she's bad. Worse than me."

"Jack... You aren't that bad." Was all Daniel said. He still had that look, and Jack wondered what he was thinking.

"Daniel, you aren't getting the point!" Switching direction, he jabbed a finger at the archaeologist "Do you know why they call her the 'Mechanical Marine'? Because she was an killer and so damn good at her job that she was like a machine. She didn't have any compassion, Daniel, no hesitation when she was ordered to kill. That makes for a big problem. I don't want her watching my back." I think she did something to me, he wanted to add, but the words wouldn't come. They'd lock him up for sure, since he'd already had Janet do blood tests. They were normal. When she'd asked why, he'd made a comment about not feeling quite right. He still wasn't right.

Daniel sighed. "Jack, do you trust me?"

"What? This isn't about you, Daniel. This is about our whole team's safety."

"Jack, do you trust me?" He repeated it softer this time, trying to tell Jack that it was important. "Because if you do, if you trust me at all, listen to me. I don't believe that." Seeing Jack's expression of his use of her first name, he closed his eyes. Jack wouldn't listen. Once he got an idea in his head, there was no prying it loose.

"Anna? First names already? Oh, she went for the weak link!"

Jack wasn't paying attention, so didn't see Daniel's hurt and anger. "Wait a minute! I'm not weak, Jack! I may not be a soldier, but that doesn't make me some kind of fool. I know what I know, and you have to just trust me for once."

"That's just it, Daniel! I can't. Not about this. The safety of the whole team is more important. And face it, you have the universe's worst track record with women."

Unfortunately, he hit a nerve, and the pain in his friend's eyes told him that Daniel had immediately thought of the wrong woman. "I can't believe you'd say that to me."

"Well, I didn't mean it that way, just that you always see good in people- even where there isn't any." Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "I won't watch you get hurt again. Take my advice and stay away from her."

"I can't do that. Everyone deserves a friend."

"Fine! Don't come crying on my shoulder when she goes nuts."

"Nuts?"

"You know what I mean."

"I have work to do." Daniel was good and mad.

"Daniel.."

"No, Jack. If you can't give her the benefit of the doubt, you could at least listen to me. But you won't. You aren't willing to. And I don't want to have an argument with you. So just leave."

Jack didn't know what to say, so he went. Their friendship had just taken another hit. He knew it was his fault, especially after the NID thing, but just knew there was something off ... His bloodwork had been normal, his last psych eval fine, he repeated to himself. It had to be Baker. He didn't want Daniel hurt again. It was his job to look out for him, though he hadn't done a very good job so far... Like Kawalsky. Don't go there.

He needed to find out more about Major Baker. He had one more call he could make. Maybourne. His last resort. Gah! He was reduced to calling in favors from on-the-run criminals! But Harry knew things, he knew who was after who. He left a message for him, and waited for the return call. It came just half an hour later.

"Hello, Jack."

"Harry." Jack sat for a second. "I wanted to find out some things about someone who worked on the dark side."

"NID?"

"No, black ops. I'll give you a name. Major Anna Baker, marines." Jack heard a hiss from the other man. "What? You know her?"

"Jack, I'm telling you this as a friend." Yeah, right, Jack thought. "Stay away from her. Far away. I can't talk about it, but trust me on this."

"What? Harry, I need to know. Someone assigned her to SG-1"

"That's too bad."

"Is she a threat to the SGC? Was she one of yours?" God, if she was NID he was going to kill her.

There was silence on the other end, then he said, "If she's at the SGC, then yes, there's danger. Maybe not the kind you're expecting. You might want to make yourself scarce, Jack. They only send her out for something ugly. Whatever she's there for, stay out of her way. Or they'll get you, too. They may already have." Click.

Jack stared at the silent phone. What the hell? He was more confused now than before.