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"Go on in and get us a table, Chief."
"You got it, Jim." The young man jumped out of the truck and jogged to the entrance of the diner as his partner, friend, and Sentinel, Jim Ellison, parked the truck. He pushed open the double doors and stopped at the 'Please Wait to be Seated' sign, looking around to try and spot an employee in the crowded place.
A woman walked over and added her pile of menus to the ones on the shelf. "Name?" she asked, pulling a pen from behind her ear.
"Sandburg."
"How many in your party?"
"Two."
"Smoking or non-smoking?"
"Non."
"Okay," she said. She finished scribbling and looked up at him, forcing a smile to her face. "That will be about 20 minutes. We're kind of busy."
Blair smiled back. "I noticed. It's no problem, we're in no hurry."
The hostess nodded at him and then turned her attention to the large group of people milling by the door. "Katrick, party of 4," she said, watching as the family made their way up to her.
Blair watched her lead the family to their table. "Hey, Chief, got us a table?" Jim asked as he approached Blair.
"It'll be about 20 minutes or so," he said.
Jim shrugged. "That's fine."
"That's what I told her," Blair said. "I'm gonna hit the restrooms, man." Jim nodded and Blair walked through the diner, dodging customers and waitresses as he made his way to the back of the building where he had spotted the wooden sign marked 'Restrooms'. He finished his business and started to thread his way back to the waiting area. Along the way, he had to stop to let the hostess seat two men in their booth. He couldn't help overhearing their conversation. Really. He couldn't.
"Jack, I'm telling you, the artifacts-"
"Daniel, I know about the artifacts. Trust me, I know, you've told me a million times. Can we just sit down and have lunch now?" he asked, sliding into the booth.
"But Jack, they had those South American artifacts labeled all wrong!" South America? Blair wondered if it had anything to do with the exhibit at the Jameson museum. "I mean, I'm no expert," the man - Daniel - continued as he sat opposite Jack, "but whoever labeled those things had no idea what they were doing."
"Daniel, what does it matter?" Jack asked, sounding tired of the conversation.
Daniel looked at Jack and then shook his head. "You should have let me talk to the curator."
"We are on vacation, Daniel. I went with you to go see your rocks-"
"Artifacts," Daniel corrected.
"-but I draw the line at watching you argue with the museum brass."
"Jack-"
Jack waved his hand to cut him off and finally noticed Blair, who was still standing next to their booth. "Can we help you?"
Blair blushed. "Oh. Sorry about that, I couldn't help overhearing you talking about the exhibit and since I'm planning on stopping there later, I couldn't help listening." He turned to Daniel. "They mislabeled the pieces?"
Daniel blinked and just looked at Blair for a moment, surprised that someone actually wanted to hear about it. "Yes, they did. Mostly, it was problems with what artifacts were used for what ceremonies, but they got a couple of the tribes mixed up, too."
Jack shook his head as Daniel went off into full lecture mode. He tuned him out and focused on the menu in front of him. Let the eavesdropper listen to Daniel for a while. A fit punishment for his crime.
After a minute or so, Jack glanced up and realized that the eavesdropper did not look like people normally did when they were exposed to Dr. Daniel Jackson's patented lecture mode - guaranteed to put you to sleep in 20 minutes or less. This guy was awake and was actually talking as fast as, if not faster, than Daniel was. A waitress bumped into him, and he turned to apologize, pausing in conversation with Daniel for a minute. Jack was sure that he would leave after that, but instead Daniel slid over and the man joined them in the booth. They resumed their conversation without missing a beat. Who the hell was this guy? Daniel's long lost twin or something?
Another man came up to their table. Apparently the hostess had forgotten to mention that this table doubled as grand central station. He saw Jack looking at him and smiled impatiently, then looked at Daniel's new friend. "Sandburg, what are you doing?"
"Jim!" he said, jumping and turning to look at the newcomer. "Oh, hey, Jim, this is... um..." he turned back to Daniel, looking lost.
Jack shook his head, giving in and smiling. "Jack O'Neill," he said, holding out his hand.
"Jim Ellison," he replied, shaking O'Neill's hand. "Your guest is Blair Sandburg." Jim looked down at Blair.
"Uh, yeah, sorry about that..." Blair said, shrugging apologetically at Jack.
Jack shook his head and waved him off. "Don't worry about it. At least I didn't have to listen to Daniel complain about those rocks."
"Artifacts, Jack." He smiled and shook Jim's hand. "Hi, Daniel Jackson. And it was as much my fault as it was Blair's. It's not often I get to talk to someone who knows anthropology."
Jim nodded. The conversation faded away as the introductions finished. Blair glanced at Daniel, then back at Jim. Jack saw the look Blair gave his friend and noted another similarity between him and Daniel. They both had the puppy-dog look down pat. He looked over at Daniel and almost groaned when he saw he was getting the same look as Jim. He shook his head. Might as well give in now, he would sooner or later. "Why don't you two join us for lunch?" Jack said, posing the question to both of them, but looking at Jim. He already knew Blair wanted to stay.
"That's great of you to offer, Jack," Blair said before Jim could even think about opening his mouth. "We'd love to, right Jim?" He looked back to Jim.
Jim sighed. "Sure, why not?" he said. Jack slid over and Jim sat down next to him.
"Thanks, Jim," Blair said, happily resuming his conversation with Daniel.
Jack shook his head. "And they're off." He saw Jim grin and Jack pushed his menu towards him. "Here, you can look at this one."
"Thanks, Jack," Jim said, glancing over the menu. It looked like pretty standard fare, burgers, sandwiches, and a few dinner entrees. He set down the menu and pushed it in front of Blair.
"Decided already, then?" Jack asked.
Jim nodded, meeting Jack's steady gaze. "I decided before we got here. I've been dying for a hamburger all day." He leaned back, turning slightly towards Jack, with one elbow resting on the top of the booth. "So what do you do for a living, Jack?"
"I'm a colonel with the air force," he said, twisting toward Jim, resting his back against the wall. "And you?"
"I'm a detective with the Cascade PD, in Washington," Jim said. "Sandburg's my partner."
Jack nodded. "You up here on vacation?"
"Yep. Going camping for a week."
"Us too."
"So where are you two from?" Jim asked, keeping one ear on Daniel and Blair's conversation. He couldn't follow it at all, but that didn't stop him from listening. He half-suspected that Jack was doing the same thing.
"Colorado Springs. We weren't planning on taking a vacation, but we were chased away from work," Jack said, grimacing as he remembered Janet's lecture.
"You and Daniel work together, then?" Jim asked.
Jack nodded. Definitely a detective. "Yep, Danny's a consultant for the air force. We've worked together about 4 years now."
"An anthropologist working for the air force," Jim said.
"Daniel's got his Ph.D. in linguistics and archeology, too," Jack said. "Besides, your anthropologist is a police officer."
Jim stiffened, then forced himself to relax. "It's a long story," he said.
Jack raised his eyebrows. And not an entirely happy story, by the looks of it. "Daniel's a long story too. Just one more thing they have in common."
"Like they need another," Jim said, shaking his head.
A waitress came up to their table. "Hi, I'm Carol, I'll be your waitress. Can I get you guys something to drink?"
"Yeah, I'll have an iced tea," Jim said.
"Root beer," Jack added.
Carol looked at Blair and Daniel, still chatting away. Jack smiled at their waitress, then kicked Daniel under the table.
"Ow! Jack, what...?" Daniel looked at Jack, who nodded at the waitress. He blushed.
"Can I get you something to drink?" Carol repeated, smiling.
"Coffee, please," Daniel said.
"Iced tea," Blair said, finally noticing and picking up the menu sitting in front of him. Carol scribbled their drink order on her pad and walked away.
"So you think you two can take a few seconds to decide what you want to eat?" Jim asked, smiling at his partner.
Jack smirked. "A few seconds to breathe wouldn't hurt, either."
Blair shook his head at them. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. At least some of us know how to have an intelligent conversation."
Jim raised his eyebrows and looked at Jack. "You know, I think we've just been insulted."
"I think you're right, Jim."
Daniel reached over to his coat, lying on the seat next to him and rummaged around in the coat pocket.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "What are you looking for?"
"A pen and paper," Daniel said without looking up. "I have to mark this down. Jack O'Neill actually picking up on a subtle insult." He looked up at Jack and grinned. Blair laughed.
Jack balled up his napkin and threw it at Daniel. "Very funny. What makes you think-" He broke off when Carol approached with their drinks.
"Iced tea, iced tea, root beer, and coffee," she said, setting the drinks down in front of their respective owners. "Did you need any creamer?" she asked Daniel.
"No thanks, I take it black," he said. Daniel looked over at Blair and studied him as Carol walked away. "You know, I’m sure I know you from somewhere. Where did you study?"
Blair grew quiet, Jim tensed, and Jack wondered what the hell Daniel had just gotten himself into. Daniel, of course, was oblivious. For a moment, Jack was sure Blair was going to brush off the question, but he answered.
"At Rainier University, in Cascade," Blair said, staring at the menu.
"Rainier..." Daniel repeated. Jack could see the wheels turning in Daniel’s head, and for once, wished they would stop. Whatever had happened with Rainier, it looked like a wrong response from Daniel could make Jim very upset, and Jack really had no desire to be sitting next to him if that happened. "Wait, I remember. The sentinel research, right?"
Jack glanced at Jim. Yikes. //I wonder if I should tell him Daniel’s immune to that glare?// Jack thought it over, then decided he’d tell him later. If Jim was still talking to them later. Daniel, naturally, was still talking. "The university decided to publish a thesis for you or something." Daniel smiled. "You must have really ticked some people off for them to screw you over like that."
Blair relaxed, smiling back. "Yeah, well, I have a habit of ticking people off. It seems to be one of my talents."
Jack breathed a sigh of relief as Jim relaxed next to him. Situation defused.
"It doesn’t take much in our field, though," Daniel said. "If you don’t publish, you’re screwed. If you don’t agree with everyone else, you’re screwed."
Jack raised an eyebrow. He was surprised Daniel still felt that strongly about the academic life after all this time.
Jim looked at Daniel. "You had problems too?" he asked.
"Yeah... I had a theory in archeology that went against the norm," Daniel said, smiling wryly. "Most people didn’t like that very much."
"So you cut off all ties to academia?" Blair asked.
"Yeah," Daniel said. He took a sip of coffee. "It just got to be too much. Too many closed minds, too much politics, too many people only in it for the fame..."
"Or keeping the ones with money happy," Blair added.
"Exactly," Daniel said. "With the air force, I don't have to worry about sucking up to someone to get my next grant so I can continue eating."
"Oh, yeah," Blair said. "There's no beating a steady paycheck."
Carol walked up again. "Are you ready to order?"
They all looked each other and then Jim answered. "Yeah, I think so. I'll have a hamburger, well-done, with fries."
She scribbled down the order and looked at Jack. "I'll have the same."
She looked at Daniel next. "Grilled chicken sandwich, please."
"Fries with that?" She asked.
"Yeah, fries are good," Daniel answered.
"Turkey sandwich for me," Blair said when it was his turn. "With fries."
"Okay, got it," she said. "I'll get those in right away." She collected their menus and smiled at them once more before leaving.
"So, you guys up here on vacation?" Blair asked.
"Yeah, we're going camping," Daniel said. "A week, up in the forest."
"Cool, so are we."
Jim looked at Jack. "Well, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu. What about you, Jack?"
Jack smiled. "It does sound vaguely familiar."
Daniel frowned at them. "What?"
Blair looked at Jim and Jack for a minute, and then rolled his eyes. "Don't mind them, they apparently went over our plans while we were discussing more interesting things."
"Interesting to you, maybe," Jim said.
Blair ignored him. "We were thinking of taking the Ellwood trail up, spending a few days hiking, some fishing, maybe."
Jack saw Daniel's eyes light up and jumped in before Daniel could say anything. "No. Daniel, no." Daniel looked innocently at him. "Oh, don't even give me that look."
Blair grinned. "Let me guess, you guys are going to take the Ellwood trail too?" Daniel nodded.
"Sandburg," Jim said, seeing where this was going. "Lunch is one thing, but the whole week?" He glanced at Jim and Daniel. "No offense."
"Oh, come on, Jim, it'll be fun," Blair said.
"Yeah, Jack, I won't annoy you with all my talk about the artifacts," Daniel said.
"And you two can talk about army stuff," Blair said. "I'll bet Jack was in covert ops too."
"How'd you know that?" Jack asked.
Jim sighed. "You can't exactly talk about covert ops, Chief. That's why they're called covert."
"Just think about it, guys," Daniel said. "If it doesn't work out, we can always split up."
Jack and Jim shared a look. Jack sighed. "Oh, all right, we'll think about it."
"Great!" Blair exclaimed. He shared a grin with Daniel and then started up their conversation again.
Jack shook his head. "Why are they acting like we just agreed to this idea?"
"Because we pretty much have?" Jim said with a small smile.
Jack glanced at him and, after a moment, returned his smile. "That must be it." He looked back at Blair and Daniel. "A week, huh?" He glanced at Jim. "Think they'll run out of things to talk about by the end of the week?"
Jim stifled a laugh. "Somehow, I doubt it."
Jack nodded. "You're probably right." He paused for a minute, watching Blair and Daniel. "Think we'll last a week with them without going nuts?" Jim laughed outright at that. Blair and Daniel stopped talking and looked at them in confusion. Jack grinned. It would be an interesting week.
********
The End.
© January 19, 2001
The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp.
The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters
who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names,
titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television,
Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd.
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This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and
solely meant for entertainment.
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