Chapter Six - Nicole

Irritation grew in twenty-one-year-old Nicole Jackson, and before she had a chance to process it, she reached out an arm and slugged Jacob O'Neill.

The blond boy-man rubbed his arm and glared at Nicole. "Hey!"

"It's your fault we're here. Which means I can blame you that I'm all hot and sticky."

Jacob rolled his eyes. "It's not like I did it on purpose. Trust me, if I could, I'd will us all to Alaska right about now."

Trevor's ear twitched, and the man turned a serious look back at Jacob. "Since we don't actually know what's going on with that car, maybe we shouldn't think about going anywhere other than Washington, D.C. Or better yet, your parents' garage so we don't accidentally start an accident."

Nicole snickered as Jacob stuck his tongue out at her. She just turned away from him, refusing to allow him to further complicate her life.

"Real mature, Jake. Seriously, how are you going to get us out of here?" Poor Grace's face was red and sweaty, the curls in her hair flattening with the moisture.

The dress was a wreck now, too, with tiny granules of sand wedged in the luxurious velvet. Maybe it was because her mother had once been a career thief, but Nicole wouldn't be caught dead in a dress like that. Not because she didn't have the figure for it, but because she believed in being prepared for the unexpected. Half the stories she'd heard about her mother's life off-world had involved stealing away in a cargo ship with a stranger. In fact, that was how her parents had met. When her mother had stolen the Prometheus.

It would be years before Nicole was willing to settle down and get married (if ever), but until then, she didn't want anything to keep her from being free enough to jump into a cargo ship and have an adventure.

Jacob looked at his older sister and threw his hands up in surrender. "Don't look at me. I'm not sure how we got here in the first place."

There was a sound across the sand, and Trevor raised a hand to stop the group. Undoubtedly it was a military signal. Her dad, maybe even her mom, would know what it meant. Unfortunately, no one but Trevor was military in this group.

"What?" Jacob looked behind him at the chains Trevor had rigged up to make it look like the men were towing the car manually while Jacob moved it telekinetically. It was a pretty smart idea, if Nicole had to be honest. It would save them from having to do more than explain what the car was. Assuming the Air Force captain was right about them having traveled through time. If he wasn't, it might well be the end of all their problems.

Trevor's voice was quiet but harsh. "Stop talking."

Jacob stopped speaking instantly.

Another hand signal. Then, because no one crouched like him, Trevor groaned. "Get down."

"But my—"

Trevor glared at Grace. "Now."

"Yes, sir." Grace harrumphed, then flattened herself against the sand over the ridge.

The sun had started going down by now, and Nicole was grateful. Well, partly grateful. Now, she wanted to jump back into the backseat and grab her sari. She had a feeling it was going to get cold fast.

Nicole's eyes widened as she stared over the ridge. An archaeological dig. She'd been fairly sure her father would drag her to one of these one day, but to see it up close took her breath away. She always rolled her eyes when her dad got sentimental about his days on digs in Egypt. Now, she could see what had appealed to him.

The energy was incredible. Dozens of people, mostly Middle-Eastern men if she was reading the scene right, were in varying stages of cataloging artifacts.

There was a cry in Arabic, and someone waved a hand to attract the attention of the white man in the ivory suit. "Professor!"

With an agility and speed Nicole wouldn't have expected of the man in a three-piece suit who'd stood watch with his hands against his waistcoat just a moment ago, the man darted across the scene. Behind him trailed a little girl, dressed in a white dress and straw hat with flowers around the rim.

"Oh no."

Nicole turned to Trevor, who had turned deathly pale. "What do you mean oh no?"

Grace stiffened from beside him. "I know this place."

Jacob whipped his head around. "How do you know this place?"

Grace turned to Trevor, her hand gripping his arm. "You're right. I don't know if I can explain, but it's all right here. That's Catherine Langford. Her father found the stargate. In Giza. 1928. We're a couple days early, but—"

Trevor just stared at her. "A couple days early?"

Jacob's brow furrowed. "What do you mean he's right? He never said anything!"

There was a cry aimed in their direction, and Trevor scooted further down in an effort to hide from whatever search party might have been sent to them. All three of the other travelers followed his lead.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Nicole whispered.

Trevor stared at the three of them as if he couldn't believe they didn't see what he saw. "They're about to find the stargate. If we breathe funny, this could change everything we ever knew."

Jacob's face showed his extreme skepticism. A look that was an odd mixture of both his parents' similar expressions. "That sounds a little extreme, don't you think?"

"The Butterfly Effect? Ray Bradbury's Sound of Thunder?" Trevor glared at Jacob. "Do you read at all?"

Grace smacked Trevor's chest with the back of her hand. "Hey! In case you haven't noticed, we're new to time travel."

Trevor's whisper was harsh. "And you think I'm an expert?"

Jacob peeked his head over the edge of the sand dune. "Look, new to time travel or not, we can't wear these clothes in there. But it looks like I'm the only one who's not going to stand out quite as much as the rest of you. Maybe I should go get us something to change into."

Grace's expression seemed to be a cross between pleading and dismayed. "Where would we change?"

Jacob waved at the car. "The three of us can stand watch if you want."

Grace closed her eyes as if trying to put the indignity out of her mind. Trevor wrapped an arm around Grace's shoulders, though the woman tried to keep from crying out at the way his uniform brushed against her burnt shoulders. "We do need to find something we can use to blend in better. Something you can move in better."

Grace gritted her teeth. "You don't have to tell me twice."

Despite her gruff tone, it seemed telling to Nicole that Grace didn't immediately dismiss Trevor's embrace. Maybe this was just one of those cases Shakespeare had talked about where the lady protested too much.

Trevor's critical eye turned to Nicole. "Look, I don't think we should split up all the way. I'll stay with Grace, but Nicole, I want you to go with Jacob. My guess is that if anyone sees you, they're going to think you're in your undergarments, so they might take pity on you."

"How am I supposed to explain that I lost my clothes?"

Trevor shrugged. "I can't do all the work, Nicole. You might have to come up with a creative solution to that problem."

Jacob just offered her a toothy grin. "Ruffians, Nic. All you gotta say is ruffians, and they'll be all over helping you."

Twenty years of being Jacob's de facto playmate when the SG-1 team reunited made Nicole immune to his charm. She just let her hair down so that it dusted her shoulders. "Well, if I'm gonna play a PG version of Lady Godiva, I might as well go all the way."

She'd already started toward what seemed to be the residential side of the camp before she turned and looked over her shoulder. "Hey, Ben Kenobi, you coming or what?"

She couldn't fight the smirk that played on her lips when Jacob instantly started muttering something about having outgrown his Star Wars obsession when he was ten. From what Nicole had seen of his action figure collection, it wasn't true, of course, but it pleased her that she could still get a rise out of him after growing up with him.

She'd been dreading the idea of going to Washington just to hear stuffy politicians tell watered down stories of the tales her mother had told her before bed. As much as everyone else seemed to wish they hadn't traveled back in time, Nicole was actually looking forward to the adventure. It was going to be a hell of a lot more interesting than going to the White House.

She took another look over her shoulder at Jacob as he scrambled ever closer to her. Better still, every time Captain Knight-In-Shining-Armor back there wanted a minute alone with Grace, Nicole was going to get another chance to mess with Jake O'Neill's head.

Oh, this was shaping up to be her best vacation ever.