A/N: Sorry about the huge delay, dear, sweet readers (both of you). I've been stuck down a plot hole that wasn't even anywhere near here. I'm just going to have to cover it up and hope no one falls into it. But that's way later! Now, on to the current ongoings.

Chapter 18

Daniel had as usual stationed himself in Noli's office and was watching her silently stare into her teacup. A small twitch of worry stirred in him. She had hardly spoken a word all morning, and there was nothing coming out of the speakers - an unfamiliar silence had set over the office. This wasn't like his Noli. Wasn't like Noli, he corrected himself and drew breath to speak.

Noli was watching the tea blossom in her cup slowly unfold, trying to direct her concentration at this one thing. If she could first focus her thoughts on her tea, maybe she could then focus them on her work once she looked up again. As of now, they were fluttering inside her head like a bucket of panicking butterflies. Suddenly she was interrupted by a voice.

"Um... Noli?"

"Yeah." Noli automatically looked up, immediatly wishing she hadn't. Because there they were, staring straight into hers, those eyes that she had found herself drowning in the day before. Blue as the heavens, radiating warmth and concern. She suddenly got the feeling that Daniel wasn't looking at her, but right into her, that maybe he could see what was going on inside her head. She looked down again.

"You alright?"

"Sure, why?" Noli steadied her eyes on the screen to her left, carefully avoiding any further contact with Daniel's marvellous eyes. Or face, arms and any other parts that were showing above the desk, just to be safe.

"You seem a little distracted." Daniel leaned closer over the desk and squinted his eyes. He was clearly concerned, and clearly wouldn't let her off the hook without an explanation. Noli had to give him something.

"Yeah, I've... got cramps."

She could just bite her tongue off. Of everything she could have come up with - an unsolvable problem with the technical equipment she was working on, or a simple headache for God's sake - her brain went for the most unglamorous of all. Although, the answer seemed to satisfy Daniel, who leaned back with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"Oh."

Noli risked a quick look and a yeah-but-what-are-you-gonna-do smile at him and stood up.

"I'm gonna go find painkillers", she stated and walked out, straining not to move too fast. She didn't want it to look like she was fleeing.

She fled to Jack's room. He was leaning over his desk, his head propped up with one hand and a piece of paper in the other, looking absent-minded.

"What?! I'm working!" he exclaimed as her knock abrubtly brought him back to reality.

"You are not..." Noli slipped into the office and closed the door behind her. Jack blinked and sat up, frowning down at his paper work.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Nothing... I just needed a break." Noli collapsed into a chair.

"You and me both sister", Jack muttered and rubbed his face. He then folded his arms on his stack of important papers and looked at Noli. "So how's it going? With.. stuff." He made a small gesture to indicate the arrray of technical mumbo-jumbo she and Sam were always working on.

"It's alright. We're making progress." She knew that's all he wanted to know and skipped the details that always made him stare blankly at her. She looked thoughtfully at the ceiling and then added:
"I'm just finding it hard to concentrate right now, you know... Like my brain is all over the place. It's trying to make me think about irrelevant things."

Jack nodded.

"I can relate."

Just how much he could relate he wasn't going to say. Sometimes it took all of his aquired discipline to keep his mind on the matters at hand instead of trailing off into the forbidden area that was his second in command.

Noli noticed the change in Jack's eyes. There was a lot more going on inside that head, not to mention that heart, than he thought he was letting on. But she didn't like putting people on the spot - especially since it felt like Jack might have very good reasons not to reveal what seemed to pain him sometimes. That is, as an officer he should not be questioned. As a person, she would love to have a good heart-to-heart with him sometime. But the two roles, she suspected, could not be separated. Perhaps that's exactly where the problem lies, she thought to herself.

They sat quiet for a while. It was comfortable, just being in the silent company of a friend. Jack enjoyed people he didn't have to make small-talk with.

"You know what you do?" he finally said. Noli looked up.

"What?"

"Just let it be. Don't fight your brain, you'll never win. Especially not you. Just.. accept what's in it and relax about it." He waved a hand in her brain's general direction.

Noli looked at Jack. He was absolutely right.

"It's like when you get a song you don't like stuck in your head", she answered with a slow rock to her chair. "Your brain thinks it's important because you react to it, and so it won't let it go. Not until you give up and listen to it."

"Right." Jack looked a bit tired. He'd just given a piece of advice he was pretty sure he couldn't follow himself. Sealing off that part of his mind was safer than opening up to it and seeing if it would go away if he indulged in it. He had a feeling it wouldn't. Whatever was spinning around in Noli's head he was sure it wasn't as bad.

"Listen", he added, "I've got all this paperwork to get through..."

Noli took the hint and got up. "Absolutely. I'll see you later, pumpkin."

Pumpkin, Jack thought to himself as Noli left. I wonder what that would sound like coming from... shut up, Jack.

Noli went back to her office feeling a great deal calmer. It was nothing. Her friend had beautiful eyes, what about it? She could admit that. She could admire them without putting any more meaning into it.

When she stepped into the room Daniel had gone. She sank into her chair and activated her sleeping screen, thinking she'd finally get something done today. Then she noticed the cup sitting in front of her wasn't the one she had left. It was a new one, steam still rising from it. She leaned down and inhaled the scent of camomile. Daniel, you darling, she thought. He had actually gone and made her a cup of camomile tea, to help relieve her big fat lie of an alleged discomfort. A fuzzy ball of warmth spread in her chest. He's so considerate. She lifted the cup to her lips with a chuckle and got to work.

A/N: No, I don't think Jack was actually doing paper work either.