General Hammond took one look at his assistant’s face and heaved a deep sigh. "He’s escaped again, hasn’t he?"

The lieutenant nodded.

"Organize the search." He rubbed a hand over his temple trying in vain to ease the tension headache that was pounding his skull. "Same drill." As the last time, he silently added, and the two times before that. It was days like these that had the general seriously thinking that retirement was looking pretty darn good. No more sneak attacks from the Goa’uld or whatever alien species decided that Earth was easy pickings. No more budget meetings with the Senate Appropriations Committee where he had to fight for every penny to keep the SGC running. No more unexpected ‘visits’ from Senator Kinsey, a man who was the only being in the galaxy that Hammond would gladly play target practice with as long as Kinsey played the target. The slimy bastard was currently on base doing an inspection of the science labs. But most importantly, no more odd packages arriving courtesy of the base’s resident psychic!

He had raised a curious eyebrow when the box had been delivered addressed to Annika. Had thought the extensive use of locks and packing tape carefully arranged around the air holes of the animal crate was taking things a bit far. He had even laughed at the note attached to the outside. It had thanked Miss Murdoch for her generous donation to the Colorado Zoo and said that they were quite happy to lend out ‘Houdini’ to the military. He’d found the name of the critter funny, thinking that whoever had named him had been a fan of the magician.

Well, I’m not friggin’ laughing now! It soon became abundantly clear why the weasel had been named after the escape artist. It had taken less than half an hour for Houdini to stage his first escape. That one hadn’t been so bad. The pungent odor of the animal had made it easy enough to find. The second escape was a little more tricky. Wherever the animal had been, the stench lingered, despite the powerful ventilation system that ‘supposedly’ filtered the air within the base. Houdini had been found one level down, quick reflexes catching him before he got into the armory. Of course now that it had roamed both level twenty-seven and twenty-eight, it had made finding him after the third escape more difficult. By then every room on both floors smelt of the heavy musky scent. Two marines had finally managed to corner the animal in the ’gate room. For their efforts Houdini had rewarded them by turning its back to them, lifted its tail and sprayed his captors with large dose of malodorous musk from its anal glands. Now, Hammond had thought he would never smell anything as putrid as a skunk. Boy, was I wrong! The two marines had undergone decontamination showers usually reserved for radiation exposure, not once but twice, and still the other personnel were giving them a wide berth. The little bastard was quick too. The security cameras had only been able to catch a few blurry shots of Houdini bounding down the halls before disappearing into a vent or up a pipe.

The general was thankful that the weasel hadn’t decided that he wanted to explore any other part of the facility, so the reek was limited to only two levels. It was a pity that they happened to be the busiest floors on the base and that his office was on one of them. The only highlight of the day so far had been the look on Kinsey’s face when he took his first breath from exiting the elevator. It had been priceless! He must remember to freeze frame a copy of that moment from the security tapes.

Giving up on trying to get any serious work done, he made his way to Doctor Jackson’s main office, one floor up and took a deep lungful of clean air. They had arranged a desk for Annika in one corner. It was covered with a variety of objects. There were small off-world items that the science teams had been unable to identify, waiting for the psychic to ‘read’ and hopefully get an inkling of what their intended use may be. There was a mix of everyday bits and pieces, like a box of bubblegum sticks with a scribbled note addressed to SG-6 saying, ‘take these, not chocolate, natives allergic to cocoa’. Another container held an assortment of hand creams and cosmetics with a note for SG-8, ‘matriarchal, vane, willing to trade for beauty products rather than medical supplies’. It was for unusual items such as these that the general had created a petty cash fund for Annika to use. The two ‘explanatory’ notes he was looking at, contained more information than the psychic could normally give regarding her premonitions. Since the military inventory department didn’t consider ‘because’ a suitable explanation for the non-regulation purchases, it allowed Annika to buy the necessary items without the general having to fill out the paperwork until after the reason came to light. And so far the redhead hadn’t been wrong.

Hammond was once again searching the desk, his third such search since the evil rodent had arrived. He was looking for any sort of explanation for its possible use besides driving him and his security staff crazy. He scanned the joining walls. Two white boards had been set up. The one on the right was divided into columns, each one numbered to identify all the SG teams. Some were empty, others had post-it notes stuck to them. Sometimes it was just a single word; ambush, dark, snow. There were a few with specific but cryptic instructions; use middle staircase, shake with left hand. The other board was for the base in general or for premonitions that she couldn’t pinpoint to a particular team. Stopping by these two boards had become common practice for the teams going off-world to check if any words of advice had been left for them.

As he reread every scribble looking for any mention of the weasel, Hammond absently decided that the boards should be moved outside the office to stop any interruptions to Doctor Jackson’s work when he was there. Not that the archaeologist had complained. In fact he was pretty sure that the man hadn’t even noticed the steady stream of traffic in and out. When he was involved in his translations the only person he was even remotely aware of was Annika, and even then the little psychic sometimes had to actually move into his line of vision or touch him to gain his attention.

He stifled a sigh. Besides a post-it on the general board that simply said ‘need weasel’, there was nothing to indicate why the animal was needed. Hammond returned to his office defeated. He prayed that the reason would be identified soon. He wasn’t sure how much more of the smell he could take. Just as he was going to sit down, the klaxons started wailing indicating an unscheduled off-world activation and the general hurried to the control room.

Sergeant Harriman looked up from his post. "It’s Major Carter’s IDC. No verbal communication."

"Open the iris and let them through." He tried not to let his concern show. They had made no radio contact and were early. Not a good sign. "Stay alert people." It was an unnecessary order, the soldiers in the ’gate room were always ready for action.

The first to step through was Teal’c, quickly followed by Doctor Jackson and Annika, who was holding what looked to be a massive diamond, a total stranger and then Major Carter and Colonel O’Neill. Because he did a double take of the clothing the two civilians were wearing and the blank looks on their faces, he missed another ripple of the wormhole before it shut down.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion.

Doctor Jackson and Annika dropped to their knees, clutching their heads. Their teammates started to move towards them in concern, but before they could take two steps an ear piercing screeching filled the ’gate room. The rest of SG-1 and the stranger went into immediate convulsions. From behind the Stargate there was a brown streak that started galloping down the ramp. Hammond watched open mouth as Houdini gave an outraged squeal of his own, ran up the kneeling body of Annika and launched himself across the room.

The weasel never hit the ground. Instead it seemed to land on an invisible pole, wrapped his body and tail around it and after another squeal viciously bit into whatever it was holding. Blood squirted from its mouth and then the air around began shimmering to reveal Houdini encircling the neck of the most bizarre looking creature the general had ever seen. The screeching cut off as razor sharp little claws sliced across the creature’s voice box. The creature tried in vain to rip the weasel from him but the animal simply dug in all its claws and continued to gnaw at the base of its neck. After a few more futile attempts it collapsed to the floor, its eyes dulling as the life drained out of it. Houdini took one more savage bite, then for good measure aimed a spray of that noxious scent onto the now dead body. Then with a very pleased expression on its furry face he curled up on the creature’s chest emitting a soft purring sound.

The colonel, major, Teal’c and the stranger were wobbly as they cautiously approached the dead body. Jack hesitantly nudged it with his foot making sure it wasn’t faking. Houdini started chattering at him as though affronted by the very idea he had left it alive.

Doctor Jackson and Annika on the other hand had staggered to their feet and were currently in the middle of a kiss that was radiating such desperate desire that the general felt himself blush in response.

He quickly made his way down the stairs as the blast doors were opening.

"Hiya’, General," Jack gave a single wave of his hand before wrapping his arm around Major Carter. Hammond wasn’t sure who was supporting who. "Sorry for the unexpected visitor. But we got what we went for." He pointed to the diamond that had fallen to the ramp when Annika’s legs had given way.

"What is it?" He was curiously studying the lizard body with a rooster-like head.

"Evolved basilisk." The muffled answer came from Doctor Jackson, who half came up for air.

"I take it you have your memories back?" Jack smirked.

"Praise the Lord, yes!" Annika took a deep breath, then resumed the kiss that had been interrupted. The blinding headache that assaulted Daniel and her when they stepped through the Stargate had lasted only a few seconds and then miraculously when their vision cleared, so had the fog that had blocked their minds. It seemed that Teal’c’s theory of Annika’s subconscious knowing when it was safe to remember, had been right.

"And who is this?" Hammond eyed at the large stranger.

"General, this is Foltan of the Tok’ra," Sam made the introductions. "He was being held prisoner by the…" she cut off at the sound of a raised voice from outside the ’gate room.

"I demand to be allowed in there! I witnessed the whole thing from the security room and I assure you that this gross mishandling of the situation will be reported to the Senate Appropriations Committee and the International Oversight Advisory!"

Reluctantly Annika released her lip lock on Daniel. She caught his eye roll as he recognized the voice. She peeked over his shoulder to see a tall middle-aged man with an outraged expression on his face, stalk into the room. In a loud whisper so that everyone could hear she asked, "Jack, why does Devil’s Spawn come to mind when I look at whoever that is?"

Hammond was glad that he had his back to the doorway so the senator didn’t see the grin that tweaked his lips.

The colonel didn’t even try to hide his amusement at the redhead’s comment. "Kinsey, I knew there was an explanation for the bad smell in the air."

Kinsey pointed at the basilisk. "Once again the slack security measures that control this base nearly resulted in a foothold situation."

"One intruder does not constitute a foothold situation, Senator." General Hammond’s voice was hard.

"That one intruder incapacitated your whole flagship team…"

"No, it didn’t," Daniel spoke up. "Our headaches were unrelated."

"And you expect me to believe that?" Kinsey spluttered. "I assure you that I will be writing up a very detailed report regarding this incident."

"Ah, Kinsey," Jack flapped his hand dismissively. "Why don’t you take that report and shove it up your…"

"Senator Kinsey," Annika quickly interrupted. "I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure, my name is Annika Murdoch." Her voice was sickly sweet as she held out her hand.

The senator missed the sudden glint of anticipation that touched the faces of everyone else in the room. "Oh, yes, the so called psychic." He reluctantly reached out to shake her hand.

Annika clasped the man’s hand giving it a few short pumps. "I’d really consider it a personal favor if you would make that report a favorable reflection of SG-1."

"I will do no such thing."

"That’s a pity." She gave a dramatic sigh. "Three, six, eight, three, one, seven, two, three."

"What gibberish are you speaking?" Kinsey demanded. He looked to the others for an explanation but they were also wearing perplexed expressions.

"Perhaps you’d prefer this set of numbers," Annika continued. "Seven, three, four, four, five, nine, six, one."

"Um, Annika?" Sam hesitantly asked. "What do the numbers mean?"

Kinsey’s face had drained of color. He had just realized the significance of the sequences.

Annika shot the senator a bright smile. "I knew you’d catch on eventually." She gave him a hearty slap on the back. "I didn’t think you were as dumb as you look." She turned to the others. "Those were the account numbers to the Senator’s offshore accounts. The first account is holding all the kickback money he has acquired from pushing certain bills through the Senate. The other is his…salary…I suppose you could call it, from the Committee."

"How did you…?" Kinsey’s voice was barely a whisper.

Annika tilted her head pretending to study him. "Maybe you are as dumb as you look. Okay, I’ll explain it slowly. I. Am. A. Psychic."

Daniel couldn’t help furthering the definition with a grin. "Annika’s gift tends to latch on to any dark and dirty secrets that people try to hide. A touch is all it takes."

The senator looked down at the hand that Annika had shaken with horror.

"Believe me when I say that it was just as unpleasant for me. I have the immediate urge to disinfect my hand." She wiped her palm against her clothes trying to rid the residue of the man’s touch from herself. "And I assure you, Senator, that wasn’t all that I picked up." her voice lost any trace of amusement. "I will be writing down everything that I saw and giving copies to a number of people, so don’t even think about trying to take me out of the picture…"

Kinsey’s eyes widened.

"…No, that wasn’t a premonition. I just know how people like you operate. So why don’t you toddle off and write that glowing report? I can’t wait to read it."

For a moment Kinsey could only stare at the redhead, then his eyes scanned the other members of the room with undisguised hatred. "You haven’t heard the last of this," he threatened.

The smirking faces that looked back at him knew it was an empty threat.

Suddenly there was a soft spraying sound and a fine mist shot up from the floor. Kinsey’s face turned green as the revolting stench soaked into his skin and clothes. As one everyone looked down to see Houdini pointing his tail end at the Senator.

The little critter had been forgotten about when Kinsey had entered the ’gate room ranting and raving. The weasel apparently didn’t take kindly to the senator’s tone and had shown his displeasure as he saw fit.

Kinsey bolted out of the room with the laughter of SG-1 and General Hammond echoing in his ears.

"General," Jack gasped when he could finally control himself. "Can we give this wonderful animal a medal?"

"I will certainly look in to it." Hammond wiped a tear of mirth from his eye. "Now, I suggest you all report down to the infirmary. Debrief will be in one hour. Foltan, we’ll contact the Tok’ra to let them know you’re alright."

The Tok’ra bowed his head. "Thank you, General. I am most eager to return home."

Janet appeared with a medic team. She took one look at the blood stained bandages wrapped around Daniel and Annika’s feet and immediately ordered that they be transported on a gurney.

The civilians protested, pointing out that they had traveled much further off-world and they were quite capable of walking the few meters to the infirmary. Their reasoning fell on deaf ears and the base doctor bullied them until they conceded defeat. Sitting side by side with their legs dangling down they allowed themselves to be wheeled off down the corridor. With no obvious injuries, the other members of SG-1 were suddenly pulling their backs straight and dropping supporting arms from each other, successfully convincing Janet that they could make it to the infirmary under their own steam.

"Annika Murdoch," Teal’c fell into step by the gurney. "I am curious to know what else you saw about Senator Kinsey."

She gave a sly grin. "Oh, I didn’t see anything else."

"You mean you were bluffing?" Jack asked incredulously, stopping in mid stride. Teal’c and Sam also ground to a halt in shock.

"Yep."

"But you were so…so…" Sam was at a loss for words.

"Confident?" Daniel supplied, his own voice slightly awed at the stunt Annika had pulled.

The three nodded dumbly.

"Anyone up for a game of poker?" she called over her shoulder, as they were pushed through the infirmary doors, leaving the stunned members of her team behind.

Daniel gave a delighted chuckle, wrapping an arm around her in a tight hug. "That moment is going to be stamped in my memory forever."

"Which one? Senator Kinsey being conned or Jack lost for words?" Annika snuggled into the warmth of his embrace.

"Both." He gave a tender caress of their bond. "But my favorite memory of the day is remembering you, and everything that you mean to me." His blue eyes sparkled with emotion. "Love you, My Angel."

"I love you too, My Love." Annika tilted her head upwards seeking the wonderful taste of his lips.

Janet patiently waited for the couple to separate before attending to their injuries. A small wistful smile tugged at her mouth. She had seen the couple kiss many times over the last few months, but never before had she heard them express their love for each other. The depth and purity of their words touched the doctor to the bottom of her heart. She tucked the memory to the back of her mind, hoping that one day she would experience a love like the one she was bearing witness to. "Right, let’s get you two patched up."

THE END