Chapter Three

DeLisle

"Dee, debriefing in 15 minutes.", I hear Major Moore calling from the hallway outside my lab. Dammit, I was in the middle of an experiment here… "Dee!" Argh. He's coming in. "Don't tell me you were working on that stuff again."

Without looking up from the chemical sample I reply: "As you can see, sir, yes, I was." The Major sits down and starts fiddling with one of my other samples. One that has a big, fat "Don't touch"-label on it. "Sir… if I were you, I'd put that one done as fast and as careful as I could because…" And with that the sample goes of and leaves behind a broken Petri dish, a lot of smoke and a flustered and coughing Major.

"Don't you dare say "I told you so." And that's an order." I try to hide my amusement and keep from snickering. At which I fail just slightly.

"Yes, sir."

"Anyway…", he stands up again, "finish what you're doing and come to the briefing room. And take Laura… Captain Greenspan with you, will you? She's down in her lab working on some bio-samples we brought back from the pre-last mission or so she told me. Anyway, you are both research-aholics, you know how to drag her out of the lab."

I just toss him a "Yes, sir." And start cleaning up what I had been working at. I jut hope the debriefing isn't taking more than one hour because if I'm not back by then and stirring the stuff I will have to prepare the whole compound again.

When I arrive at Laura… Captain Greenspan's lab, I see her sitting at her computer, analyzing pictures that look like those being shot by an electron microscope. Standing behind her, I tip her shoulder and say "Ma'am?" at which she jerks a little and turns around.

"Geez, Dee, you really gave me a scare here." I clear my throat. I should have known that she would be totally absorbed with her work, just as I am when I'm doing my explosives research.

"Sorry, Ma'am."

She wrinkles her nose. "And for heaven's sake, stop calling me "Ma'am." It's Laura, how often do I have to tell you that?"

I like that about her, trying to treat as if we were all equal. But she can try as much as she wants to, there just are some things you don't get to change, as I tell her: "I'm… Ma'am, I'm not really used to calling superior officers by their first names. It would violate the code of an USAF NCO because it would mean showing disrespect to a superior officer. I'd rather… stick with "Ma'am" and "Sir", if you please. Ma'am."

The Captain cocks her head to own side and scrunches her nose. That's normally a sign that she's thinking seriously about something. "Then I order you to call me Laura from now on. We've been on the same team for quite some time now, and you don't contribute less than me to its performance. So just stop hiding behind your NCO-training and start acting like the emancipated member you deserve to be. Agreed?" Argh. Why did she have to make that an order? She's using my own code of behavior against me. There's no way I can get out of this now.

"I… yes. Laura."

She grins a satisfied grin. "But you're not here to have a nice conversation about the right form of address, right?" Dammit, I'd almost had forgotten Moore's orders. I should really stop this tendency to get sidetracked when talking to the Cap… Laura.

"Errr, no. Major Moore ordered me to "drag you out of his lab" because we are both "research-aholics", as he put it, because he wanted us to come to debriefing." She nods.

"All right. Let me just save this data here and shut down the computer, then I'll come with you."

While she's busy saving her stuff and shutting down the equipment to sleep-mode, I get to observe her. She's a woman in her early thirties, late twenties maybe. I never got round to get her exact age yet. Her sandy-brown hair is kept short just so long as Air Force standards allow without having to pin it up, and she is constantly tucking it behind her ear or fiddling with it when she thinks no one is looking at her. But I do. A lot.

I know I shouldn't because she's a fellow officer and a superior at that, too and most presumably she's not seeing me as anything else than a team member. And, what is more important, never will see me as something more, also. She's one or those "one of the guys"-women who just get along very well with men and have no idea what they are doing to the men around them. I think it comes from growing up with her brothers since I got to find out from listening to one of those camp fire stories we share when we are sitting on a planet and have to stay for the night that she has three brothers, all older than she is.

Which means that she is, as far as I know, the only one of us that has any significant family ties left on earth. The Major never talks about anything like that, and Reece once briefly told us at a camp fire that she was an only child, with her parents having died two years ago or something. And me, I grew up at an orphanage and various foster homes and never got to know my real parents. End of story.

"You going to stand around here for another ten minutes, Dee?"

Shaken from my thoughts I briefly close my eyes and answer: "Of course not. The Major would hate it if I had you let wander the corridors on your own, without my protection." I smirk. I really should stop those stupid attempts and flirting because she doesn't even…

"Protection, Master Sergeant? Why, of course, you are right. A girl shouldn't be wandering the halls around her alone. After all, there could always be a Goa'uld or replicator jumping right out of the next door. So… lead on, big protector."

With she gives me a smile and a wink. All right. So much for "not noticing". I just hope she doesn't see the embarrassment creeping up into my face as we make our way to the briefing room.