Jonas

Once again my jump back to my home world was delayed thanks to issues with the gate Kelowna side. I was in the control room watching over the gate before Sgt. Harriman joined us for his shift change. I had volunteered to cover Sgt. Joiner's so she could be home recovering from a bout of food poisoning and honestly I was counting down the minutes until I could retire back at my suite. I had forgotten how boring the gate room was when nothing was going on around me.

"Yes, yes, I wouldn't want to meet them anyway," I heard Eleanor's voice coming into the room with another pair of footsteps.

"They are not to be viewed as beings worthy of your time." Teal'c replied to her, lip curled in disgust.

"I'm not interested in them, per say." She sighed placing a plate down in front of me from a collection of concoctions the mess hall provided and a coffee. "I'm more looking to see if the deity they claim to be matches that of the cultures who claim them. Amaterasu for example, is she going to be in a kimono? One would expect finery, yes?"

"One should not care about the clothing of false gods." He grunted in response. I shoveled forkfuls of pork rice in my mouth refusing to engage in the conversation. "Daniel Jackson has asked I walk you up here and hand you over to Jonas Quinn."

"I don't need a babysitter Teal'c, thank you."

"I am not sitting on babies. I am an acting escort."

"What did you do?" I narrowed my eyes at her mid forkful and she shrugged.

"I get excited. I'm easily excitable." She scrunched her face in admission and continued. "I may have said that I was going to find a way to observe the system lords during their council today so that I could add their interactions into my database. It was just an idea. He's worried about my safety."

"Daniel Jackson is wise, and does not want you put in any harm. Again." Teal'c turned to me sternly, "I trust you can monitor Eleanor Owens?"

"She's an adult." I shrugged. "She'll be fine." I took another drink from my coffee. "She can hang out with me anyway. They're supposed to what? Be here in a few minutes? We can watch them from up here."

"I'll be fine." She sighed leaning against the panel as a red light started flashing. She lifted her hand in a panic and gulped. "Sorry, I uh, I won't touch anything. I'll just sit in the chairs and watch." She cowered over to a free chair and pulled her laptop out. "See, just tip tapping away. No harm. Thank you Teal'c."

"You can tell Daniel that Princess over here is safe and being well kept." I shoveled another forkful in and grinned at the massive giant of a man. He gave a curt nod and walked out. After I finished my plate I turned back and looked over at Eleanor who was lost at work.

"You know the system lords are not really anyone to be messed with." I said plainly and she let out a deep sigh.

"I didn't want to interview them. I feel like a profile though would be helpful when other civilizations that we may come across who were once a dominion of the said system lord are met. Let's say we came to Kelowna for the first time and we had a small profile of what to expect from your civilization thanks to similarities in our own customs. Not everyone can have a little pocket Jackson, but they can have this to help guide them." She saw the slight twitch in my eye thinking back to the first encounter on my planet. My country alone was not a kind one, but now mine and the two others on my planet were working together to form one true unit. I wondered how much Daniel, anyone, had told her about that week. About how we watched him die from saving those who framed him for his own death. How I owed him my own life even, and how he never brought it up again, never held it against our friendship that in the most painful way I watched as his body killed itself from the inside out by radiation poisoning. Thankfully the gate began spinning with the incoming of the system lords and I didn't have to continue dwelling on past events. I set the alarms as SG-1, General Hammond, and a new woman I had not met yet stepped out alongside them.

"Who is that?" I pointed at the tall angular woman in a charcoal pantsuit and chin length brunette hair.

"Dr. Elizabeth Weir," she rolled up to view the gate room and I saw Daniel look up at her and make a motion pointing from his eyes to hers and she waved coyly before he turned back to the gate. "She's lovely. Stern, doesn't take any bs, she would be a good ambassador for your home. She's a negotiator of sorts."

The system lords stepped out one at a time and I watched as Eleanor scribbled away at a notepad ogling over each one of them. Camulus came out first, his body oiled and a leather breastplate molded to his chest made him appear to be more muscular for intimidation than actual strength. Yu was next, with floor length silks in red and golds swirling around him, he was the only system lord accompanied by his first prime that trailed behind standing almost a foot above him. Amaterasu was last and I turned to see Eleanor's eyes widen. The woman was wearing a gown that trailed behind her in hand painted details of blues and whites. A tight boned leather bodice framed her ribcage into the perfect hourglass and her neck was stacked in layers of chained golds and silvers all adorned in glittering gems and jewels no doubt mined in labor camps all over her planetary span.

"The masterful work of their clothes, each one having echos of Earth's own cultural spaces while still keeping their own Goa'uld similarities. Fantastic." She said quietly to herself.

"It's made by slave labor," I muttered.

"Yes, and that's revolting. However, I'm allowed to be in awe of the craftsmanship that the laborers have and wonder what they would make on their own time when not being held captive." She amended. "Also, if you notice the details on Amaterasu gown you can see it's finally woven, with such detail, care to garment. The craftsmanship is impeccable. I appreciate the artist, not their living conditions."

"What are we looking at?" Sgt. Harriman whispered from behind us as he approached for his shift change.

"The system lords are here," she scribbled back down on her notepad while I watched Daniel down below introduce each one to the new Dr. Weir. "We're talking about how much work and detail went into their obvious peacocking of clothing for this meeting."

"Like the Met Gala for Galactic war criminals." He pulled up his own chair and looked down at them.

"Very nice Walter, I'm impressed." She gave him a look and went back to her quick sketches.

"My step-daughter and I have watched it the past three Mays together." He nodded.

"We're not impressed by the system lords," Jonas clarified.

"No, I wouldn't want to waste my breath. However," she pointed out the headpiece Yu dawned. "That's similar to a type of guan, or a ceremonial hat that a Chinese leader would wear. Culturally the same here on earth. See? Important."

"Hats," I rolled my eyes, "very important." We continued watching as they moved to a more private location to continue talks. Sgt. Harriman and I changed shifts and Eleanor collected her notes to follow me out the door.

"Jonas, you and I were the only cool kids not invited to the meeting. So I say, we sneak out early and eat our way in chips and queso. We both know it's going to be a long evening for them." I clutched his chest and grinned.

"Finally, someone on this team who understands me."

"Let's go get Janet. She and I can split a pitcher of margaritas and we'll call it a party." She grinned and turned back to Sgt. Harriman. "We're going to Rosa's, what should I bring back for you?"

"Don't worry about me," he swat away shyly and she gave him a motherly look.

"Listen here, you have a long shift ahead of you alone in here. Enchiladas with chicken or beef? Tacos maybe?"

"Beef enchiladas please, sauce on the side." He gave in and she wrapped her arm around mine as we took off.

Jack

I ran my tongue across the front of my teeth taking a moment to process how the past five hours of debating had worked. The meeting with the IOA last week was torcherous, but this was a whole new level of infuriating. This Dr. Weir was highly recommended by Daniel, the president had hand picked her, and it still was not over. We had called it quits for the night, and we were expected to continue on with talks in the morning. Daniel nervously looked around the room in the corner, Hammond sat at his desk, soon to be my desk, disgruntled, and Weir was going over her tactics on a palm pilot.

"Daniel, you have to come in tomorrow." I finally broke the silence.

"I have plans, Jack." His voice hissed between teeth. "You know how time sensitive they are." I knew he was getting married tomorrow, I was the only one that knew. He was going to run off and get married in the middle of this debate and leave for a week-long escapade in the alps while I dealt with this mess. He had this planned before the system lords' last minute call for a merger of forces against Anubis, but Anubis was his big battle as well. Earth's battle.

"Your plane leaves in three days," I hated that I was asking this of him, but I didn't know Dr. Weir like I knew Daniel. "You can do your other appointment the day before."

"No I cannot," he snapped back. "The office has to be open to file the paperwork."

"What are we arguing about here?" Hammond asked impassively and I felt Daniel's eyes harden on me.

"I have leave scheduled that cannot be changed." Daniel replied calmly but I could feel the tension between us growing. "I'm getting married tomorrow."

"Look Daniel, all I'm asking for is a couple hours to make sure this gets sorted out." I asked keeping my own feelings as tamped as I could.

"Go on son, we have it from here." Hammond assured Daniel and he looked back at me, my own frustration plain on my face.

"I can handle this Colonel." Dr. Weir looked up from her device.

"Can you? Five hours ago I would have believed you, but here we are." I snapped back. I truly did want for Daniel to have this time, to have this for them, but there were things that concerned me over our past few hours. "What about these planets they claimed Anubis has taken out?"

"Quite honestly, it didn't seem like they were aware of the moons and stars we have been recording, and it's not really his MO to take out planets without a reason. He would make an example of it. I don't believe Anubis is behind this." Daniel cooled and crossed his arms over his chest. "But, I can spare a couple hours in the afternoon. When we're done." He looked at me cooly and I mouthed a thanks back.

"Settled then, when you're done with your appointment, we'll see you for a few hours to wrap up the finalities. If Dr. Weir does what she says and gets this resolved before then I'll call you and you won't even have to come in." I mustered a smile and he responded with a grimace. Hammond dismissed us as we all walked our separate paths out. "I'm sorry about all this," I forced out as I walked alongside him back to his office. "I'm not doing this on purpose I just, I don't have much faith in this Weir."

"You don't like new people Jack," he muttered back as we wound around hallways. "You're going to have to learn to get over that." He looked over at the empty office across the hall from his own and opened his door. The lights had been dimmed and Eleanor was curled into a ball on the small loveseat in the back of the room. "You see Jack, I told that woman waiting for me, that by the end of the day tomorrow I would be her husband. We are going to go on a nice relaxing trip away where we will unwind and for once act as if we are completely boring normal people, and nothing will get in the way of that." He walked in gently waking her and I saw the tenderness in every action he took. He offered to scoop her into his arms and carry her out but she yawned and stood to her feet. He kissed her gently on the forehead and took her hand in his. I continued down the hallway to the elevator hoping to catch the lift up before they came out, alone.