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A Vision From Next Door

CHAPTER SEVEN

Annika awoke to the blissful touch of Daniel happily exploring her body. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked as his fingers danced across her belly.

Daniel grinned lazily. "Just recapping last night." He lay beside her with one hand propping up his head. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmmm." She nodded starting her own investigation of his bare chest, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "What little I got. I really have to talk to my neighbor. He kept me awake most of the night, he was quite noisy you know."

"You don’t say? It seems my neighbor was quite vocal herself."

"We should really give them a stern talking to." She rolled on top of him nibbling his ear. "This was a nice quiet street before they moved in."

"I’ll start a petition," Daniel murmured absently, running his hands down her back to cup her smooth backside. He guided her to his arousal and all thought of talking evaporated.

They spent the morning in bed, alternating between making slow sensual love and dozing in each other’s arms. That was, until Annika glanced at the clock.

11:35.

She bolted upright.

"What’s the matter?" Daniel asked sleepily, watching her run naked around the room.

"I’ve got a client coming at noon. I totally forgot. I can’t let them see me like this." She was madly searching her drawers for something to wear. "And I’ve got to get rid of the trail of clothes we left downstairs."

"Ah, My Angel?" Daniel interrupted amused as clothes went flying. "Don’t you think you’d better have a shower first? Or else they’ll know exactly what we were up to."

She glared at him. "Are you saying I stink?"

"Yep, it’s quite a delicious smell, of you, me and our love making." He grabbed her wrist and made a show of sniffing all the way up her arm and neck. "And as much as it turns me on, I don’t really want to share it with anyone else." He kissed her deeply and for a moment she forgot what she was panicking about. He broke away, gently pushing her towards the bathroom. "You jump into the shower and I’ll tidy up downstairs."

"You’re a life saver!" She gave him a quick kiss and ran to wash up.

Daniel walked out still naked and started pulling on his clothes as he found them. Very clichéd, he grinned removing his shirt from a lamp and straightening the shade. He gathered up her discarded clothing…jeans and bikinis over the banister…shirt on the steps…Now where was her bra? He looked in all the obvious places but the intimate apparel eluded him. Where could it be? He couldn’t help but chuckle when he spotted it hanging from the corner of a framed print on the stairway wall. Yes, very clichéd, but he loved it!

After hiding the incriminating evidence in Annika’s room he wandered down to the kitchen in search of coffee. The rich brew was just perking when Annika emerged buttoning up a pale blue sundress, her hair still damp.

"You read my mind," she sighed as he poured her a cup. "I’ve got a gorgeous man making me coffee, my life is perfect."

Daniel grinned taking a sip from his own cup. "I aim to please."

They sat in companionable silence enjoying just being together. She leaned into him and his arms automatically wrapped around her. After a moment she sniffed the air. Beneath the aroma of roasted coffee beans she could detect a slightly musky scent. Her body tingled with desire when she realized what it was.

"Um…Daniel? Maybe you should have a shower too? I can’t sit here talking shop with you reminding me with every breath I take of last night."

He laughed. "It’s pretty potent stuff, huh?"

She nodded feeling her nipples harden beneath the soft cotton of her dress. "Go now before I undo all the good work my shower did."

Daniel lent over to give her a parting kiss, but she backed away. "Nuh uh. No more of that until after my clients have gone."

"Spoil sport," he pouted heading for the bathroom.

To Annika’s surprise he returned within five minutes. The only indication he’d actually showered was his wet hair.

"What did you do? Just dip your head in a bucket?"

"Working in the military, you kind of learn to do everything double time." He resumed his place at the breakfast bar.

"Everything? If what we did last night constitutes double time I can’t wait until you go slow."

Daniel felt a flush creeping up his cheeks. "Did I say everything? Maybe I should rephrase that."

A car pulled up outside.

"Looks like my clients are here."

She peeked out the window and a shiver ran down her spine.

"Annika, what’s wrong?" Instantly Daniel was by her side.

For a moment she couldn’t speak. The couple emerging from the car were covered with a dark red and black cloud. Their auras were full of negative energy, without one spark of goodness that she could see.

"They’re not here for a cake," she said when she found her voice.

"They’re not your clients?"

"Oh, I’m sure they’ve set up this appointment, but they’re not interested in me as a cake decorator."

"How can you tell by only watching them for a few seconds?" Daniel let his confusion show.

"Let’s call it intuition," Annika hedged.

"This has something to do with what you haven’t told me yet, right?"

She nodded pleading with her eyes for him not to ask any more questions. "You’ll just have to trust me on this." She could see that he was dying to ask more but held himself in check.

"Okay." He turned his attention from her secret to the couple walking hand in hand up the path. "If you feel uneasy about them, don’t let them in. Say you aren’t taking anymore orders at this time."

Annika shook her head. "Then I won’t know why they’re really here."

"Is that so important?"

Instinctively Annika knew that it was. "Yes."

"Do you want me to stay?"

"Yes. If you could stay in the kitchen, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable about letting them in if you’re only a few feet away."

Although still confused Daniel was touched by her words. He gave her a light kiss on the lips. "Call if you need me." He moved towards the kitchen as the doorbell rang.

Annika waited until Daniel was out of sight before opening the door, pasting a smile on her face. "Hi. You must be Debra and Mark." She gestured for them to enter.

The couple smiled stepping in. "That’s us," the man answered, "and you must be Annika."

"We’ve heard wonderful things about your work," the woman gushed. "What a lovely home you have."

"Thank you. Why don’t we all take a seat and I can show you some examples of my work."

Annika said a silent thank you that she had a throw rug covering the couch, otherwise she would have to get rid of the furniture on which the couple now sat. No way was she going to let anything they touched remain under her roof.

Annika began her spiel as the couple flicked through her album of cakes. While they asked all the right questions and made all the right comments, to Annika’s ears they sounded ridiculously false.

After a few minutes the woman began to squirm in her seat.

"Anything wrong?"

"Ah…well…do you mind if I use your bathroom?"

It was a reasonable request but Annika guessed that she only wanted to wander her house unobserved.

"Sure."

Debra rose and headed for the stairs.

"Not that way, Debra, there’s a bathroom through the kitchen, first door on the right." Annika caught a flash of irritation before Debra was all smiles again.

Daniel who was hiding just inside the door quickly searched the open plan kitchen for a hiding spot. It took him all of a second to determine there was nowhere to hide. Scrap Plan A, he thought, then spied a discarded newspaper on the bench. He grabbed his coffee with one hand and opened the paper with the other. Plan B, hide in plain sight. He casually leant against the counter, pretending to read the paper as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He took a sip of his coffee as the woman entered.

"Hello." He glanced up from his ‘reading’.

"Uh, hello." She was startled to see him, but Daniel saw a dart of recognition in her eyes. "I’m looking for the bathroom."

He pointed absently to the correct door and turned back to the newspaper. Out of the corner of his eye he saw frustration mar her face before she reluctantly entered the little room. Maybe Annika was on to something. He’d never seen the woman before in his life, but she knew who he was.

He heard the toilet flush and the woman reappeared, returning to the lounge without another word. Daniel waited a few moments then resumed his post at the doorway.

Annika had heard the exchange in the kitchen but kept up idle chatter with Mark. When Debra returned she noticed the annoyed look on her face. "Feeling better?" she asked with a straight face.

"Yes, thank you." She sat back down giving her partner a slight shrug.

They chatted a few more minutes and then the man began clearing his throat.

"Are you alright?" Annika really tried to make her voice sound concerned. "Would you like a drink of water?"

"If you don’t mind?" he coughed.

"Not at all." She started to get up. When she saw the glint of anticipation on both their faces she sat back down. "Babe?" she called out to Daniel. "Can you fetch us a jug of water?"

"Yeah, sure." She heard him rummaging around her cupboards. "Won’t be a minute."

He appeared a few seconds later with a jug and glasses. "Here you go. Sorry it’s only tap water. The fridge is on the fritz."

Annika shot him a sideways glance. The fridge was on the fritz?

He gave a barely perceptible shake of his head. I’ll explain later.

Daniel poured the water and held out the glasses so the couple was forced to take them. He gave Annika a reassuring smile and returned to the kitchen.

The couple seemed very uneasy and hurriedly chose a three tier cake at random.

Annika purposefully named a price triple the normal rate, testing their reaction.

They barely batted an eyebrow. In fact the woman mentioned how cheap Annika’s prices were.

Still testing Annika added, "I’ll need a deposit of half the total amount. It’s non-refundable if you change your mind."

The man immediately reached for his wallet and counted out the money. He held it out to her and reluctantly Annika took it. She tried to avoid any contact, but his finger brushed against hers. Instantly a wave of nausea assaulted her. She managed to hold it back while quickly ushering them to the door.

As soon as she shut the door Annika dropped the money on the couch and bolted past a startled Daniel. She barely made it to the toilet before throwing up.

Confusion and anxiety battled within him while he knelt beside her, holding her hair away from her face. "Is there anything I can do?"

Not caring if she sounded like a lunatic she gasped, "Please get the bottle with…(heave)…the yellow lid from…(heave)…my bathroom."

Daniel ran upstairs and grabbed the small bottle she described without question. When he returned Annika was manically scrubbing at her fingers with disinfectant. She rubbed so hard he worried she would take her skin off.

"Here." He unscrewed the cap and held it out to her, expecting her to take a swig to settle her stomach. To his surprise she tipped a generous amount on her hands and began massaging it in. Only then did he read the label on the bottle. He needn’t have bothered as the sweet smell of vanilla filled his nostrils. She was throwing her guts up, looking pale as a ghost and she asks for vanilla oil? Would His Angel ever make sense to him?

Annika concentrated on her newly cleansed hands. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, but she answered his unasked question. "It helps to calm me." Not precisely true, she thought. But close enough. "I’m a great believer in natural remedies. The traditional calming herbs like lavender and rosemary don’t work with me. Vanilla oil is like…my life tonic I suppose you could call it." She was babbling but couldn’t help it. "A lot of things don’t react with me the way they should, story of my life. Take coffee for example. It’s a stimulant, it’s supposed to keep you alert and awake. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t function in the morning without at least two cups to get me started, but I also drink it at night and it relaxes me, actually helps me sleep…"

Daniel gently closed his hands around her fingers that were still madly rubbing the oil in. He did it to both stop her rambling and to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. He’d seen this kind of reaction from soldiers who were suffering from shock. What he couldn’t work out was what had shocked her so badly that she was suffering signs of posttraumatic stress. He tried to remember how Janet initially treated the soldiers but came up blank. Instead he concentrated on what she was saying, trying to find a clue on how to snap her out of it.

"…Just put it down to one of the many genetic flaws I’ve discovered about myself. Sometimes I think I’m just a freak of nature put on this earth to be the crazy woman down the street. You must think I’m totally nuts and I’ll understand if you want to call it a day…"

"Annika, My Angel, I don’t think you’re a freak of nature or crazy." He kept his voice calm and steady. "I may find you a little bizarre, but who wants a boring girlfriend?"

She gave a brittle laugh. "Bizarre? What kind of person throws up when they touch someone? Who has to consider whatever they sit on before sitting on it? Who has a meltdown over the stupidest of reasons? That’s what you’re thinking, I know because everyone I’ve ever met has thought that. It’s why any relationship I have doesn’t last. So don’t feel guilty about ending what we have. You’ve put up with more than some of my ex’s…"

"Annika, stop this!" Daniel demanded giving her a firm shake. "Listen to me. I may not know what’s going on with you, but I do know myself. A few little quirks are not going to send me running for the door."

He could see the conviction of his words was getting through. Her eyes were not as wild as they had been and her hands were blessedly still.

"But everyone I’ve known…"

"I’m not like everyone else." He gently cupped her face. "I admit that it’s frustrating that you don’t trust me with your secret. But I told you before that I’m willing to wait. I’ll just accept your cryptic comments and odd behavior because I want to be with you. No scrap that, ever since I saw you watching me mow the lawn I have a need to be with you. So whatever you say, whatever you do, I will still be here by your side."

Annika felt tears well in her eyes. "You really mean that, don’t you?"

He nodded.

"I don’t deserve someone like you," she sniffed. "You should run while you have the chance."

"Not going to happen. Now that I’ve found you, I’m not going anywhere." The tension left her body and he felt safe in adding a teasing remark. "Besides, Jack would never forgive me if I let you slip away. He wants a regular supply of cake."

Annika gave a wobbly grin. "So that’s your real reason for staying. I knew the truth would come out eventually."

Daniel pulled her into his arms, relieved to have her back to normal, and tenderly kissed her.

When they reluctantly came up for air Annika sighed, "How did I get to be so lucky?"

Daniel lightly brushed his lips against her forehead. "I was just thinking the same thing."

Annika’s stomach growled, reminding them that they had yet to have breakfast. They walked hand in hand to the kitchen in search of coffee and food.

Through the doorway she caught sight of the couch. "Ah…Daniel?"

"Yes?" He was stirring sugar into their cups.

"About those bizarre quirks you mentioned," she said hesitantly.

He lifted an eyebrow. "What about them?"

"Can you take a garbage bag and put the couch throw rug and money in it without touching them with your hands?"

He took a sip of his coffee considering the logistics of what she asked. "I think that’s doable."

Annika fetched the bag for him and watched as he used the bag like an oversized glove to pick up the blanket and notes, then turned it inside out, capturing them inside. "What would you like me to do with it?"

"Throw it away. I don’t want it in my house anymore."

"Would you like me to put it in my bin?"

Despite his promise, Annika was amazed at how Daniel treated her request like it was an ordinary, everyday task. "If you don’t mind?"

"Not at all." He strode from the house bag in hand, and returned a few seconds later while Annika was spreading a different throw rug on the couch.

"Mission accomplished. Anything else?"

She eyed the two glasses sitting on the coffee table. "Can you do the same with them?"

He hesitated. "Actually, do you mind if I hold on to them?"

"Why?" she asked curious.

He hesitated again and Annika saw he was conflicted.

What can I tell her without revealing my work, thus breaking the confidentiality agreement with the SGC? "I don’t know if your reaction to those two made me paranoid, but when she saw me it looked like she recognized me. The work I do for the military is classified, way above top secret. There’s one particular rogue agency that has tried numerous times to gain access to the people involved in our work. My involvement is not well known outside a very select few. For her to know me made me think that you were right not to trust them. Listening to your conversation they seemed…" He struggled for the right word.

"False?" she supplied, remembering she felt the same way.

"Exactly. Also they were trying to get you to leave the room and her asking to use the bathroom is a classic ruse…"

"That’s why I sent her to the downstairs bathroom," Annika said eagerly. Happiness was beginning to bubble up inside her. Maybe Daniel really didn’t think she was a nut case.

"Anyway, when you asked me to bring in some water, I figured it opened up the opportunity to get their fingerprints."

"So that’s why you brought in tap water!" she said, finally catching on to his strategy. "Cold water would have created condensation and possibly wrecked the prints on the glasses."

He nodded. "I’d like to take these to work. We should know in a couple of hours if your…intuition…was correct."

"You did all this based on my hunch?" Annika was trying to come to terms with the trusting man before her. He took everything she’d said and done at face value and asked for no explanation. His blue aura glowed brightly around him, reminding her of what she already knew. Daniel Jackson had a very good soul.

"Well, it started out as your hunch but later I felt it too." His life had been saved too many times by his gut instinct to ignore someone else’s. He was suddenly embarrassed by the amazed look on her face, like he was too good to be true. "It’s no big deal. We do this sort of thing all the time." He carefully picked up the glasses, touching them as little as possible, then poured the contents down the sink. "Do you have any snap lock bags?"

Annika hunted around her drawers and produced two clear bags. She held them open while Daniel carefully slipped them in. He was just sealing them up when a thought occurred to her. "You say this rogue organization has tried to get to you before?"

Daniel nodded. "Yes, many times."

"So how do you know that I’m not one of these spies?"

Daniel suddenly became very interested in studying his coffee mug.

"Daniel?" She took in his shamed expression and realization hit. "You’ve already had me checked out, haven’t you?"

Time for true confessions. "I admit that I was going to." He reluctantly met her gaze. "You had me tied up in so many knots I didn’t know what to think. We had an incident a while back that affected all the men on the base. We were drugged and we all became infatuated with a particular woman, couldn’t think straight, did things I shudder to remember. When I couldn’t get you out of my mind I panicked, thinking it was happening all over again."

"You said you were going to?" she asked softly.

Daniel couldn’t read the expression on her face. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound…"It turns out I didn’t need to. The Air Force had already run a background check on you before the purchasing agreement on your house was finalized."

She turned pale. "What did it say?"

"I don’t know. I didn’t read it." He saw the disbelief in her eyes and grabbed her hands willing her to feel the truth. "Please, you’ve got to believe me. Once I knew you’d checked out I didn’t look any further. I didn’t even see the report. You can ask Sam, she read the results but I told her I wanted to get the details directly from you."

He watched the wariness flicker away to be replaced by a flash of comprehension. What had just dawned on her?

"So Sam read the report?"

"Yes." He nodded slowly. Would she ever react the way I expect? He’d thought she’d be angry, yet here she was acting like he’d solved a puzzle that had been bugging her. "So you’re okay with this?"

She pulled him to her kissing him deeply. "You’ve been so understanding with me. How could I not return the favor?"

Daniel eagerly kissed her back.

They made a quick meal of toasted sandwiches satisfying at least their hunger for food. As much as they wanted to make love again, the plastic wrapped glasses were a barrier that stopped them from totally relaxing.

Giving her a lingering kiss goodbye, Daniel jumped in his jeep and headed for the SGC.

Before he’d even disappeared around the corner Annika felt terribly alone. Over the past couple of days she had forged a bond with Daniel that surpassed anything she’d experienced before. She didn’t quite understand how it had happened. Only once had she ‘bonded’ with another person, and though that had happened accidentally she understood how. But this was totally different. Even now she could sense the direction that Daniel had taken and had to force herself to remain at the house, rather than go chasing after him. Gods, how will I cope when he goes back to work? From her visions she knew he traveled further than she could imagine. Will I still feel this connection then?

Trying to focus on anything except the longing to feel Daniel’s arms around her, she pulled out a sketchbook and set about designing a cake for Jack. She wanted to make her first cake for him special. Now what would he like? Something fun, nothing formal…She settled on a party theme, perhaps set by a lake. Humming to herself she started to sketch and was soon absorbed in her work.

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