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A Vision From Next Door

CHAPTER TWO

The next day Annika had just finished grocery shopping when she passed a pet shop on the way back to her car. Two sets of mournful eyes stared back at her. She glanced at the sign. ‘Free to a good home’. A half hour later she was settling in her two new puppies into their new home. They were of no particular breed, a mixture of grey and white fluff that still tripped over their own paws. Over the next few days she was still trying to decide on names that fit their personalities.

The smaller one with a dark grey patch over his eye, seemed to take his new life very seriously. He explored every inch of her house before deciding he liked the study the best. More often than not Annika would find him curled up next to her computer, seeming to take comfort in the soft whirring and clicks the machine made as it worked. Once the other puppy had playfully pushed him into a puddle of water he’d been carefully examining. He shot an angry glance at his tormentor and Annika had burst out laughing. He looked at her in confusion as though to say, ‘What’s so funny?’ It made her laugh even harder. Obviously he didn’t have a sense of humor. As she dried him off he tried to maintain a show of dignity.

The name ‘Thor’ suddenly popped into her head. Wasn’t he an ancient god of some kind? She shrugged. It sounded like a good name. "Do you like that name, Thor?" He gave a dignified little tail wag, (well as dignified as a twelve week puppy could give,) and then went back inside to sleep by the computer.

The other puppy had a devilish streak. She was constantly finding things to rip to shreds and twice had somehow gotten onto her work table and eaten some of her icing figures left out to dry. Other times she was nice as pie, usually when Annika had something she wanted, and would use those big eyes to wheedle her way into getting said item.

It was at one of those times when she was set on getting the chocolate cookie Annika was eating, that the name ‘Hathor’ came to her. Another god or rather goddess? Egyptian, she thought, even though she had no idea where that information came from. Something to do with bewitching those around her…Annika gave a start as she realized she was already sharing the cookie with the puppy. "That settles it. I dub thee Hathor."

The dog gave a little yip in agreement.

Happy to have named her newest family members, she brewed herself a cup of coffee and started on her next icing sculpture.

A A A

Daniel tried to pay attention to their surroundings, looking for any sign of danger, Goa’uld or otherwise, but was having trouble keeping on task. Visions of his neighbor kept swimming before his eyes. He’d lost count of how many times he’d tripped on rocks and roots that weren’t really hidden. He hoped the others hadn’t noticed.

After the third such trip in an hour Jack muttered a curse. "Alright, Daniel, what’s going on? You’ve been off with the fairies since we got here."

"Actually, sir, he was like this during the briefing too," Carter piped up.

Daniel scowled. "Was not. I was paying attention then."

"You are incorrect, Daniel Jackson." Teal’c appeared from behind a tree. "Twice General Hammond had to repeat his question to you to get an answer."

"Right!" Jack clapped his hands together. "Now that we’ve determined our resident archaeologist has been distracted for the last three days, I ask again, Daniel, what’s going on?"

Daniel flushed in embarrassment. Damn, I didn’t think I’d been that bad. "Uh…well…it’s just that I keep seeing visions of my neighbor. I can’t get her out of my head."

There was a moment of silence from the others.

"Is she not too mature in years for you, Daniel Jackson?" Teal’c asked in his deadpan voice.

"Yeah, Daniel, I’m all for ya’ going for an older woman," Jack interjected, "but what is she…seventy?…eighty?"

He frowned in confusion. "What?" Annika wasn’t elderly… Then realization hit and he gave a snort of laughter. "No, not Joyce, my other neighbor. She moved in a couple of months ago."

"Aaahh." Jack was smirking. "Bit of a knock out, huh?"

Daniel called up a mental picture of Annika. She had curves in all the right places, more so on top than the type he normally went for, not that he was complaining about that. He’d never seen hair quite that color of red before, kind of a deep rust, it looked as smooth as silk. She wasn’t beautiful in the traditional sense, but her face lit up whenever she smiled. And her eyes…it was her violet eyes that caught his attention. They were old eyes, like she’d seen more than she should have. Eyes, excluding the color, which were similar to the ones he looked at in the mirror everyday. He knew why his were the way they were, but he desperately wanted to know why she had such soul searching eyes.

"Ah…Hello?" Jack was waving his hand in front of Daniel’s face. "Jack to Space Monkey! Come back to P3X-752."

Daniel shook his head to clear his vision, flushing even more. "Uh, what was the question?"

Jack rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Never mind."

He glanced at Sam and Teal’c who were both trying unsuccessfully not to grin. "Oh, okay, I admit it. I’m infatuated." He stomped off into the trees and promptly tripped on an exposed tree root. "‘Not one word from any of you!" he growled without turning around.

He could hear his teammates laughing while they resumed their scouting positions.

Daniel endured three more days of good-natured teasing before all hell broke loose and his infatuation was temporarily forgotten. They’d come across a group of Jaffa and spent two more days playing hide and seek, trying to get to the Stargate. They had almost made it, but as Sam was entering the dial up sequence they were ambushed.

Daniel dove through the wormhole just as he felt a searing burn on his side from a staff blast. Damn it, why am I always the one to get shot? Do I have a target attached to me or something?

Back in the SGC infirmary Doctor Fraiser was patching him up. The injury wasn’t as bad as first thought; he wouldn’t even need stitches. He winced as the antiseptic cream stung his raw flesh.

"Sorry, Daniel."

"Just think of your neighbor to distract you," Jack quipped from the bed next to him, then yelped as a nurse applied antiseptic to his own wounded leg.

Well at least I wasn’t the only one this time, Daniel thought as his bandage was tied off.

"What’s this?" Janet asked with a quirk of her eyebrow.

"Daniel’s in love," Jack sang childishly.

Daniel scowled. "I hope they have to amputate," he muttered.

"Hey, I heard that! And my leg’s fine."

"I wasn’t talking about your leg. I meant your tongue."

"Oh very funny Mr 'I trip over everything because of a girl'."

"I wasn’t that bad."

"Na…what’s a dozen prat falls in an hour between friends?"

Unable to think up a quick comeback Daniel scowled again and lay back down on the bed pretending to ignore Jack.

Janet watched the banter with a grin, knowing there was no malice between the two friends. "Well, you’re all fixed up, but I’m relieving both of you from duty for the rest of the week."

Daniel and Jack left for the locker room together.

"So you going fishing?" Daniel asked, wincing as he pulled on his t-shirt.

"That’s the plan. Wanna come with?"

"I’ve things to do around the house. Boxes of artifacts to catalogue." Daniel wouldn’t meet his friend's eyes.

"Yeah, right," Jack laughed and Daniel couldn’t help but grin back.

"What’s a guy to do?"

"Go get her out of your system. Use those puppy dog eyes, show her your wound, the sympathy thing always works. The way you’ve been acting you’d think Hathor was dousing you up with her pheromone drug thingy."

Instantly the smile faded. "You don’t think that, do you?" He frowned, he had been kind of acting like he’d been under a spell.

"Daniel, I was joking."

"I know…but…" he paused. "I have been out of it for days. No one has ever affected me this way naturally. Maybe I’ll get Janet to check me out."

"All she’s going to find are raging hormones." Jack thumped him on the back. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

Daniel didn’t really hear him. Maybe he should do a background check on her just to be safe. Jeez, what kind of life do I lead that I think of doing a background check on a woman I find attractive? When did I become so cynical? But he had learned the hard way that anyone could be an NID agent. If people he’d worked with had been identified as NID, was it so far fetched that they’d try to get a woman to seduce him to find out SGC secrets? He shook his head. Nope, it wasn’t far fetched at all.

Making his way to the office he found himself desperately hoping that he would find nothing to link her to the rogue agency.

Sam was already at her computer.

"Ah, Sam, can we run a background check?"

She grinned. "Anyone in particular?"

"Oh, shut up. You know who." It seemed his face was constantly heating up these days.

"It’s already been done you know," she said typing in Annika’s name.

"It has?"

"The Air Force checks out all the neighbors of SGC personnel, just in case." She began scrolling down the screen. "What do you want to know?"

Daniel hesitated. This wasn’t right. He felt like a spy. "I just want to make sure she’s who she says she is. Anything else I’ll find out from her."

"Okay. Well, she checked out with flying colors. They can account for almost her entire life and her parents. Confirmed by non-related sources."

Daniel felt a weight lift from his chest. "So she’s just a normal everyday woman."

"Yup."

Daniel was suddenly overcome with a bout of nerves. "It’s been so long since I’ve been with someone not related to the SGC in some way…to not be able to talk to her about what I do…Sam, how did you overcome that with Pete?"

"Pete was a little different. He was a cop, he knew about procedure and working undercover. He understood why I couldn’t talk specifics. Annika’s pure civilian. I don’t know how she would react." Sam gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "You’ll work something out."

"Do you think I’m jinxed?" His voice was barely audible. "I mean, first Sha’re, then Sarah. Maybe I’m doomed to ruin the lives of the women I love."

He looked so haunted by the thought that Sam pulled him into a tight hug. "No, I don’t. You’ve just had a run of bad luck. Maybe what you need is someone who isn’t linked to the Stargate."

Daniel pulled away. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you wouldn’t have met Sha’re if you didn’t go through the Stargate. For all you know Ra might have taken her if you and Jack hadn’t come along and killed him, or Apophis might have defeated Ra and still have taken her."

"Let’s not play what ifs, Sam," Daniel interrupted her.

"I’m not, I do have a point. Now take Sarah," Sam sat in front of her friend to make sure he was paying attention. "She was already infected by Osiris by the time you went to the funeral. You had nothing to do with it."

"Okay," he nodded, "I’ll concede that one. Sarah would have still been Osiris regardless of whether or not I was there, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the two women I had serious relationships with both became Goa’uld."

"But that’s my point," Sam exclaimed. "Annika has no link to the Stargate. She doesn’t live off-world, she’s not an Egyptologist or archaeologist. She has no connection to anything that we do."

Daniel was silent as he considered Sam’s reasoning. Maybe she was right. "Thanks, Sam."

She smiled. "Anytime. Your problem is that you over analyze everything. Just enjoy it."

"Jack said the same thing."

"He did?" Her eyebrows rose and she laughed. "I knew there was a smart man under that false stupidity."

Daniel chuckled. "Yeah, but let’s not tell him that." He rose ready to leave when another question that only Sam could answer came to him. "Sam, despite how it turned out with Pete, was it worth it?"

The major bit her lip as she thought about her failed relationship. Eventually she nodded. "Yes, it was." An impish smile lit her eyes. "Especially the sex. I wouldn’t change that for the world."

Laughing Daniel left.

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