jedibuttercup

PG-13, A:tS/SG-1. Other chapters here.

A certain package meant for Angel ends up on Daniel Jackson's desk instead.

Title: An Unexpected Gift, 2/?
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A certain package meant for Angel ends up on Daniel Jackson's desk instead.
Spoilers:AU of Angel 5.1 "Conviction", Stargate SG-1 to 7.12 "Evolution Part II".
Notes: This chapter references SG-1 3.04 "Legacy" and 2.20 "Show and Tell".

Sam listened to Daniel's brief explanation of his "guest" with raised eyebrows, but an open mind. Daniel had come up with some truly bizarre stories in his time, but more often than not he'd turned out to be right; she couldn't just dismiss it out of hand. Especially after what had happened the last time he'd "heard voices" – the hallucinations he'd experienced had turned out to have a real, technological basis, courtesy of Machello's Goa'uld-killing devices, but the SGC had initially had him drugged and locked up in a padded cell instead of believing him. Besides, Daniel was right; they'd believed Nick when he'd said he could see and hear Daniel after the incident with the crystal skull, and of course there'd been the Reetou. The only truly unusual thing this time was the origin of the intruder, not the fact of his presence.

Still, she hoped she could nail down some kind of physical evidence for his existence. The last thing they needed was some bureaucrat like Kinsey deciding that the recent torture Daniel had suffered, on top of his amnesiac return earlier that year from life as an energy being, had left him unhinged. If this had something to do with Daniel's time among the Ascended, though, that could be difficult; other than the visual recordings of his body's disappearance, the various sensors scattered around the base hadn't picked up any trace of his transformation a year and a half ago, so they might not pick up Daniel's uninvited guest, either.

"Okay," Sam said, when Daniel finished explaining. "Just for the sake of argument, let's say you're right. Ask your new friend how many fingers I'm holding up behind my back." She clasped her hands behind her, then watched in mild discomfort as Daniel made a "well, go on" sort of gesture to the air in front of the desk. Why did the truly weird stuff always happen to her civilian teammate?

She thought she felt a faint brush of air a moment later, and glanced over her shoulder to see if maybe the apparition's visibility had something to do with proximity. The room still appeared empty except for she and Daniel, however, and when she glanced back at her friend he was busy rolling his eyes as if at someone standing right behind her.

"Of course she's trying to trick me," Daniel said, "that's the whole point." Then his gaze shifted to Sam and he gave her a rueful half-smile. "You aren't holding up any fingers."

"Good enough for me," Sam replied with a nod. "Could you ask him if..."

Daniel winced and help up a hand to interrupt her. "He says, 'I'm standing right here, ask me yourself.'"

From his expression, she guessed there'd been more to that that sentence before he'd passed it on to her. She glanced uncertainly over her shoulder again, then gestured at the empty space. "Is he still..."

"Yup." Daniel nodded.

"Okay." She turned around. "I have some equipment in my lab that might be able to pick up traces of your, um, manifestation, so we can figure out what's going on. Would you mind...?"

She waited patiently for a second, blinking at the open doorway, then winced in embarrassment when she realized that the airmen who'd accompanied her to Daniel's office were still standing there, staring at her.

"He says, 'All right, fine,'" Daniel spoke up behind her. "'The quicker I can get out of here and find Buffy, the better. Can't bloody do that if she can't see or hear me, now can I?'"

"Who's Buffy?" she asked, turning back to face him.

Daniel shrugged. "He hasn't-- oh." His gaze snapped away from her again, back to a point somewhere over her shoulder. "Uh, ex-girlfriend, it sounds like-- okay, okay, 'love of his un-life.'" He blinked. "Un-life?"

Sam shook her head. "Do you want to go ahead and get started?"

"Oh, right." Daniel grimaced at her and gestured toward the doorway. "After you."

They made their way to the lab, trailed by the airmen. Sam didn't dismiss them, as she still wasn't certain whatever was going on wouldn't pose a threat, though she did send one with a brief message to inform the Colonel what was going on and requisition a TER from the armory. Once at the lab, she asked the empty air if 'he' would 'stand' near various instruments, feeling very self-conscious the entire time, and tried to pick up various types of readings from the incorporeal intruder's presence.

Daniel carried on an apparently one-sided conversation with the invisible man the entire time, assuring him the SGC hadn't had anything to do with whatever process had made him intangible and see-through, and talking obliquely around his apparent inquiries into the nature of the base. More than once, Daniel asserted vehemently that they weren't connected to any project called the Initiative or its sponsor group, the NID; he also tried to ask several questions in return, ranging from the man's name to where he'd been before somehow becoming attached to the amulet, but he didn't seem to be getting many answers, either.

By the time she had finished running her preliminary tests, she was feeling a little bit better about talking to someone she couldn't see or hear. She was actually picking up some kind of faint electromagnetic readings and a very slight increase in room temperature centered on the location where Daniel said their visitor was standing. She'd have to have Janet check him out in the infirmary, too, to see if there was anything else her instruments could pick up, maybe brainwaves or something similar. What she had already was enough to brief the General on, however, as preliminary proof to head off the rumors no doubt already circling the base.

She had begun to explain her findings to Daniel when Colonel O'Neill arrived, TER in hand. "So," he said, glancing first at Sam, then at Daniel. "I hear you've picked up a new imaginary friend."

-~-

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