The first scene is mirrored in More Than Friends: Chapter 26 and is a set up of Heroes.
It was becoming far too much of a regular occurrence that Nicola found herself sitting at her desk and not working. Things used to be so different and now she feared that too many things had changed. During her Academy days, Nicola had decided who she was and how she was going to be and ever since that point, Nicola had not changed. Ever since one of her earliest postings, Nicola had maintained a distance from other military personnel – whether of equal, greater or lesser rank. Joining Stargate Command and SG-1 had been her undoing, she recognised that now. She had viewed Daniel as something different and she never should have. That had been her first mistake – allowing herself to form a friendship with the archaeologist. Ever since then, things had become more and more tangled.
Laughing ruefully at herself, Nicola knew that it had nothing to do with her friendship with Daniel. Everything had changed the moment that she had taken her final breath, ready for the death that would come. She had been ready for the peace it would hold. It was ironic that it was since that moment that her friendship with Daniel had almost vanished in his other obsessions and she had become increasingly friendly with others from the base. Her final breath had been her downfall and now Nicola actually felt dependent on people, she actually craved the comforting words of people from work and it distracted her just as much as the fears of Anubis and Osiris did.
Breaking her distracted train of thought by breezing into the shared lab, Daniel smiled at her as he dropped a load of files onto his own desk. Before she could even think of smiling back Daniel had begun to leaf through the folders and speaking at ten to the dozen. Maybe everything would have been different had Daniel not become so consumed with Sarah and healing her, and maybe that was why Nicola felt so angry and upset about it because through his desire to help Sarah, Daniel had missed the pain that Nicola had been trying to deal with.
She was still trying to deal with the pain and the changes.
"What do you think about the proposal?" The silence came from out of the blue and Nicola blinked at Daniel, realising that the silence was aimed at her.
"Sorry?"
"The proposal of the film crew coming to interview everyone. What do you think about it?"
"Now you want my opinion on something?" Nicola grumbled pettily, mainly because she really did not care about a film crew that she was going to do her utmost to avoid at all costs, but also because she had been lost in her own self-pitying thoughts before his arrival.
"They're going to want to interview everyone." Daniel commented as if he had barely heard her words let alone her snippy tone.
"Uh huh."
"I still think it'd be better to be off world and avoid the whole thing." As per normal, Daniel was too wrapped up in his own thoughts, making him oblivious to anyone else. "SG-11's off-world at the moment, aren't they?"
Looking back up from the blurred paperwork in front of her, Nicola's rapidly blinking eyes met his again. "Yeah, umm, yeah, I think they are." There was no think about it. Nicola knew that the team were off world because she was now a regular visitor of the bar that the other members of Stargate Command frequented. There was a routine involved whenever a team was heading off world and on their return, it had all become part of Nicola's new dependency.
"You and Major Lorne seem quite friendly."
"Sorry?" The last time anyone had enquired about her friendship, Nicola had blushed, but this time she did not.
"I've noticed you spending a lot of time with him. With everyone actually." They continued looking at each other in silence as Nicola wondered what on earth she was supposed to say as there was no actual question. "So, how about the film crew then?" Putting down her paperwork, Nicola abandoned any chance of getting some work done and instead tried to have a conversation with her long lost friend.
SG – SG – SG
"Hey, Janet," Sam called as she entered the infirmary. Looking up from her paperwork, Janet smiled and put the file aside.
"Thanks for coming, close the door."
"This must be serious." There was a laugh in Sam's voice, but neither woman actually laughed and the smiles were plastered on their faces. Taking a seat on the opposite side of the doctor's desk, Sam asked, "What can I do for you?"
"This has been a tough year, Sam, especially for you."
"I know, I lived it. I don't understand…"
"I'm worried about you, as a friend and as a doctor. You've been through so much. How are you coping?"
"As well as I always do. It's part of the job."
"It isn't just the job, Sam. I mean, it doesn't help, but there've been so many changes in your personal and work life. It's sure to take its toll."
"I was taken by Osiris and forced to do, I don't know what because no one will tell me and I just spent days hiding from a Super Soldier who wanted to kill me. The only thing that's been keeping me going is the fact that I get to go home to Jack and Daniella."
"It's still a lot of changes."
"And I've adapted."
"Have you still got separate rooms?"
Sam bristled and Janet knew that she had touched a nerve. This conversation had been brewing for months, especially after discovering Sam seemingly comatose and with secretly hidden vials in a drawer. In her own secret actions, Janet had immediately performed extra tests on the most recent blood sample that Sam had provided post-mission; there had been nothing out of the ordinary. "Just because we're taking things slowly, it doesn't mean that I'm not coping with things."
Biting her tongue, Janet stopped herself from making any comment that would give away the fact that she had briefly spoken to Jack about Sam on a few occasions. If Sam was already feeling alienated from her team, or if she was about to feel under attack from Janet, there was no way that Jack should get brought into it. Instead, Janet replied, "It's time we spoke about the vials I found in your drawer."
"The drawer you had no right to go through?" There was Sam on the offensive.
"I understand you feeling upset."
"Upset?" Sam asked. "I'm still missing two weeks of my life and untold evil acts to all the members of my team, that I consider some of my closest friends and family. Daniella seems to cry around me all of the time. It's almost like she hates me. Jack's tried to tell me that it's just a phase, but I can't help worrying it's because I was missing for so long and now work longer hours. But I can't work less because I need to find out what happened to me. I need to find Anubis and learn his plan." Sam paused to take a deep breath. "And then, I get trapped off world with an alien purpose-built soldier whose only aim was to hunt me down like a wild animal it wanted to feed upon."
"Maybe more than upset then?" Smiling, Janet hoped to show Sam that she was in fact on her side and that she was not trying to attack her. "Can you see though," she asked slowly and carefully, "why I'm concerned about the vials? What were they for?"
Looking down at her tangled hands, Sam took a long moment before responding. "Please don't take any offence, Janet, but I've been running my own tests on me and Daniella."
"Excuse me?"
"Everyone's been keeping what happened with Osiris from me. General Hammond classified all of the mission reports and files so that I can't even read them. I randomly had a moment where I worried that everyone was keeping everything from me."
"You got so paranoid that you believed I'd keep anything I learnt about you and Daniella from you?"
"Only for a moment. Long enough that I got the vials and took one sample from us both." Janet was sure that she knew her friend well enough to believe her and any doubt now could only serve to increase her paranoia.
Nodding, Janet spoke, "I would never keep anything about Daniella from you and Jack's only keeping some things from you because he thinks he's protecting you. Aside from that, we're all being honest with you and you have to be honest with us." Biting her lip, Sam nodded. Clearly there was still something bothering her. "As for Daniella, children do go through phases and she probably does realise that you're not around as much, but for the most part she's just being fussy. She'll grow out of it. She doesn't not like you, I promise."
"I hope so."
"Trust me. Until she becomes a teenager anyway, then she will hate you."
"Cassie?"
"I have a teenager who doesn't want to go to university as she wants to see the world first, but I think her education is more important."
"Maybe she does need to see the world."
"Have you already spoken to her about this?" Both women grinned. "I just… it's a big world out there. I've only had a few years with her, I'm not ready to let her go." Sam had Jack and Daniella now, Daniel was too consumed with his work and caring for Sarah so in truth, Janet was not ready to be so alone.