Timeline: SG1: post-01x17 "Solitudes", and after BtVS: 05x22 "The Gift".
Disclaimer: Nothing copyrighted belongs to yours truly.
Author's Note: Written for Day 15 of the 2024 August Fic-A-Day.

Lunch at Stargate Command was not what Buffy had hoped for, it could've been worse, but at least there was coffee. There were also three out of four members of SG-1, all of whom had questions she either couldn't or wouldn't answer.

So in the tried and true manner of testing people's manners, she piled her tray with a lot of food and began eating her way through it all. She genuinely was hungry, Slayer metabolism demanded a lot of nourishment, and her recent trip to the Antarctic had left her without many of the meals she should've gotten. Then there had been phone calls, an interrogation/meeting/questioning where they weren't even served the nectar of the gods.

Buffy managed to get through about half of her mountain of food before Daniel decided to continue their conversation. "How did you or someone else manage to create a Stargate? Where did they intend to go?"

She very carefully did not sigh and instead focused on chewing and swallowing the food before replying. "No one made a Stargate, Daniel. I didn't even know they existed until Captain Carter told me that's what I came flying out of before landing on the floor of the ice cave."

"You must've done something. You can't have teleported from California and somehow exited through a highly advanced object."

"Obviously not. I don't know what to tell you. It's classified, and there is no reason for any of you to know. Bad things happen when military people find out. Very, very bad things." She saw both the Captain and Daniel open their mouth to ask more questions and she quickly interjected, "Don't ask about that either. It's classified as well, and you don't want those people to start digging into your classified project. Because that's what's going to happen if you do, and you don't want that."

It was bad enough that the people behind the Initiative knew about demons and the supernatural, it could quickly become catastrophic if they found out about life on other planets, and that the military controlled the operation.

Captain Carter was frowning at her now, "You've been involved in a military project? How? How did you get clearance if you're still in school?"

Buffy very deliberately put food in her mouth and chewed slowly to buy herself extra time to think. She should not have said that. Telling them she had tangled with the armed forces before had been a slip-up, and now she couldn't take it back.

"Looong story, also classified. Actually, it's all classified," she replied once she had swallowed. "Please stop asking me questions I'm not allowed to answer. I'm sure there are other more interesting things to talk about. Like," and she cast around wildly for a change in topic, "How's Colonel O'Neill?"

Carter and Daniel weren't happy with her, but Daniel allowed the topic to change. "He's much better and will make a full recovery. Dr. Fraiser says he'll be back on active duty again soon."

The rest of the lunch was silent and increasingly awkward as they still had a lot of questions, but had silently decided to honor her request at least for the time being.