Eleanor
My body was still tender, but the next Monday morning I had been spiritually rejuvenated. I made a point to wake earlier because I wanted to enjoy a walk into the coffee shop on my way to the office rather than just driving through. I had ordered an iced latte, one americano, and four boxes full of pastries.
Knowing that the mess hall had fresh danishes at the start of every week, there was still something about an individually wrapped maple oat muffin from a bakery that felt singularly special.
By seven I had already placed a box on Dr. Fraiser's desk, as well as Bill and Sam's lab tables with a short thank you note. Daniel was in his office when I got back to mine and I knocked on his door walking in on the final rap.
I shimmied the box of muffins across the desk to him and he looked up from his computer. He grabbed the americano and gave it a swirl before taking a sip. "It's a very small thank you. You didn't have to stay by my bedside, or drive me home, you were out off-world for three days prior and I'm sure exhausted. Plus," I tapped on the box, "you've got to take advantage of a good apple fritter when you can."
"That's what good coworkers do." He forced a bleak smile and I felt a knife twist in me.
"Right," I swallowed back. "I got them for Dr. Fraiser and Sam as well." He turned his face back to the computer and I walked away when I heard, "I'll be in Argentina for the next two weeks. I'm going to leave you my office key if you need it."
"Sounds good," I walked out and back to my own office feeling a wash of confusion. Had I said something in my drug induced delirium when he took me home? Why was he so distant? I tried not to let it cloud my mind the rest of the morning. There were files that I needed to record and planet entries to compile.
A few hours later Lonnie knocked on my door and poked his head inside. "Hey friend," he gave me an uneasy smile. "Feeling better?"
"Physically yes, mentally I'm still grappling with the idea of new potential entrapment tools that may land on my work table but I am more appreciative of life, so that's fun." I took a pile of folders and set them on top of my filing cabinet.
"You caused quite the ruckus," he wiggled his brows at me and sat down in the chair across the desk stretching out.
"Oh yes, well you know me. I love attention." I replied flatly and pushed his feet off my desk.
"Have you gotten to your mission reports yet today?" He leaned forward and grinned at me.
"No, I had requests backed up that I needed to tend to. Including your request for," I shuffled through my done pile and pulled it out, "oh yes, to get fucked. Yeah. I can't do anything about that, sorry."
"I actually feel bad about that one now, I thought it was funny at the time but knowing you uh, were in some weird prison toy it feels off color."
I went back to my computer to check my emails as he leaned back again and sighed loudly.
"Well, Major Loren and his team went off-world and ended up in a situation where the people there tried to drug him and marry another local. He was pretty pissed about it."
"Rightly so," I turned back to him slack jawed.
"Do you think in a parallel universe situation I'm married?"
"What?!" I choked out a laugh and he repeated himself.
"In a parallel universe, am I married?"
"No."
"With kids and a dog?"
"No."
"A golden retriever or something that would be good with kids."
"Get your own dog." I started moving onto more request forms.
"I'd need a wife to watch the dog when I was gone."
"Well, that's not happening."
"Why not?" He pouted
I turned around in my seat to face him. "You have attempted to sleep with every woman in this facility. You dated Janeine four floors up in public relations, who is an absolute angel among us, and was Miss Teen Oregon 1990, and you broke up with her because?"
"She was boring." He sighed, spinning around in the chair and tossing my rubber band ball up before catching it again.
"Yeah, that's why I think you're not married. In any universe. If you are it was a very quick impromptu elopement in Vegas that ended in divorce within the year."
"What about you?"
I looked over his shoulder, seeing Daniel in the hall talking with two members of SG-8. "I'd like to think so."
"With some smoke show right, that's always what I imagine for myself."
"You fantasize about firefighters too?" I smiled innocently.
"Okay, clocking out of this conversation. Dinner at the Cantina tonight? It is two for one margarita Monday and they hired a new waitress so I may not need a ride home, if you catch my drift."
"No, I have plans." I stood up and shuffled through a box of color coded papers pulling out what felt lien every fourth file.
"Oh?" His eyes widened and leaned forward like I was offering him a feast of information.
"My neighbor's son is in town, and she wants me to meet him." Lonnie's mouth made a big o in surprise and motioned for me to continue, but there wasn't much there. I had no real interest in meeting the man to be frank. "His name is Matt and he's an accountant from Vancouver. I'm just meeting with him, in her house, to get her off my back about it. We meet monthly for curry and knitting lessons while watching Turner Classic Movies, and every meeting she goes on and on about how I would love her son. I'm sure he's delightful," I paused, "but I'm not really in the market right now for a relationship."
"Elly and Matt sounds good on a wedding invitation. Better than," he paused and snapped his mouth shut. My eyes narrowed in on him and he shook his head pretending he had no further comment.
"He is going on a trip to Jordan to see Petra in three months." I tapped my pencil on the desk to distract myself. "That's fun, he seems nice, and Judith is a treat to see since I have no family here. Like a surrogate grandmother, so I'm just going in as a favor."
"Petra?" He gagged, "you really do have a type don't you." He rolled his eyes and unwrapped a peppermint. "Well maybe you'll have a very fun evening, and you live next door so don't sell yourself short." The emphasis on the wording wasn't lost on me, but I was looking back at Daniel who ended his conversation with the other two men and turned back into his office.
"Doubtful," I mumbled and went back to my computer.
Later that day Dr. Fraiser had asked me to come in for a check up. She wanted to make sure my sleeping pattern went back to normal, well whatever was normal before, and that I wasn't hallucinating.
"Thank you doctor," I said politely, sliding down not so gracefully from the examination table once cleared.
"Just Janet between you and me," she smiled, "some of the women here are going out for dinner Friday to decompress, I'd love it if you came with us. We don't really run into one another here that often." I agreed and she gave me the address and time looking forward to something that would keep my mind busy and getting to know other women around me. We were in such a male dominated space, that I liked the idea of being able to talk uninhibitedly among hopeful girlfriends.
Sam
I pulled into the restaurant, a local establishment that had one of the best club sandwiches I personally have ever enjoyed. House made pickles and all. The sun was just starting to set on the parking lot as I walked past Eleanor's Mini Cooper. She was curled in the front seat nose buried deeply into a book. I tapped on her window and she looked up startled back at me. She quickly snapped it shut and got out of the car grinning sheepishly back at me.
"What are you doing?" I laughed looking her over, sundress and sandals. Her hair was neatly half up in a silk ribbon and she shoved her car keys in the pocket of her canvas bag.
"I didn't want to be the first one here." I grabbed her arm in mine and walked towards the bistro with her.
"So you just read in the car instead of the restaurant waiting?" She shrugged a response back at me and we made our way in seeing Janet already sitting down chatting with the women. We both found seats and ordered drinks before looking over the menu.
"So yeah, I think he's a keeper. Only downside is he thinks I'm a field medic and that's why I'm gone for longer than expected on certain missions." Abigail Hershel shrugged. She worked alongside Janet frequently and was a first responder to go off-world if an emergency arose.
"Well, I mean you kind of are." Angela Rineman shrugged. Janet and I had covertly made this little dinner to get to know Rineman better. She had a way of crawling under my skin, and none of us liked how often she seemed to be lurking in the shadows. I felt badly about roping the other women into this, but a part of me also felt like this could evolve into something good in the end. Sure it was a test for one, but it was also a comradery for others and that made me feel less icky about it.
"That must be hard dating, let alone living with a guy who isn't allowed to know what you do." Eleanor responded sympathetically, taking her elderflower cocktail from the waitress and whispering her thanks.
"You've been here for half a year now right Eleanor?" Rineman turned to her, "we were hired about the same time."
"Yeah, wow, it has gone by pretty quickly." She nodded and gave the waitress her order before turning back to Rineman.
"Have you found dating to be difficult since moving here?"
"You know, I'm kind of a homebody. I don't really think I've tried looking." She chuckled nervously. "What about you?"
"Oh, I have a long distance partner." Rineman said quickly. "Sam, you've been here longer than any of us and haven't settled down yet." A wicked gleam in her eyes made me squirm inside, like she had already caught me in a trap.
"I'm married to the job," I shrugged back and took a drink.
"I used to fly with a guy, Mitchell. He's stationed over at Nellis." Yvonne Gardner from SG-4 piped up and nudged Eleanor in the ribs. "He's single, I think he's single. Anyway, he's cute," she paused and scrunched her face, "I could give you his number."
"Nevada is kind of far to strike up a relationship. Back at my old post I just casually dated, but as you can imagine the pool is small there." She continued, "I'm not too worried right now."
"Oh I know Cam Mitchell!" Abigail clapped her hands together and laughed, "he looks like Dr. Jackson, they could practically be brothers, and Jackson's cute," she turned to me and covered her face in embarrassment, "sorry Sam." She snickered and Eleanor's hand stilled over her drink and she quickly overcorrected and took a long drink.
Janet gave me a quick knowing glance and I felt my conscience squeeze around my gut. This isn't what I wanted to focus on tonight, especially not after our last mission.
"Then again, if you have his number Nevada isn't that far away," Eleanor bat away once her drink was back down, "the only real contact I have outside of work with men is the science department's monthly RPG get together."
"Yeah, who knows. Maybe Felger has a hot cousin." Janet laughed out.
It wasn't exactly fair. No one knew about my and Jack's relationship. It was hinted at sometimes, but we publicly ignored and downplayed any sort of conduct between us. He had mentioned retiring, but I couldn't make him do that. Not when he had such a vested interest here. I had even brought up going into a different position somewhere else, but we both agreed for now we would keep things quiet between us. Especially when we could both lose our current positions. Our last mission Saturday as we were walking back to the gate, Jack had taken Daniel and told him he needed to cool it with Eleanor, that as a team we couldn't risk an office romance. It had surprised me, normally Jack didn't care about anyone else's life outside of work. Recently though, a picture of what looked like one of our confiscated Goa'uld ship test flights in the desert taken by a hobbyist's telescope was broadcasted on cable news channels. No one would have been able to know about the location unless they had insider information. The president's public relations secretary had cleared it up as a doctored photo, but it made Jack uneasy.
We had no idea where these leaks were coming from, and because of that he was growing more frustrated. It didn't matter if Teal'c and I both disagreed with him, Jack's brazen words rang in my ears as I looked at Eleanor across the table from me, clearly unaware of the obvious affection Daniel had for her.
"This school boy's crush on the pretty girl across the hall needs to stop. She seems very nice, but you should put an end to whatever is going on now, for the best interest of everyone here." The look of jealous bitterness that radiated back from Daniel was burned into my mind. I could understand his disdain. Who was Jack to tell him not to peruse a coworker when we were secretly sharing a bed most weekends, and he knew. Daniel knew and kept the secret with his life because he was a good friend, a brother to us really, and there was nothing I could do.
Daniel, being Daniel, played it off though like it was of no worry. "There is nothing to talk about. I don't exactly have the best track record with past relationships, and I'm more concerned about Anubis right now than anything else." Teal'c and I had shared a look behind their backs as we were walking, knowing this job wasn't exactly conducive for a romantic relationship with anyone. When she was trapped in that box, he looked as if he would rip apart the world to bring her back. Jack saw it, we all saw it, and when he stayed behind to help her I said nothing. I didn't even mention it to Jack that night as he held me in his arms and I sobbed over the body that had fallen out first, over the momentary shock that it could have been her. To see the look in Daniel's eyes, that for a moment he thought she was gone. Who were we to stand between them? In this position I had seen so much death, so much agony and pain that telling someone they couldn't find any amount of joy seemed wrong. I honestly had hoped Daniel stayed with her that night, had finally told her out loud what I saw in his face every time she entered the room. But I knew he wouldn't, knew that he would put himself below anyone else's needs and I knew he hoped she would move on to someone else because for the longest time, that's how I felt about Jack. I knew he was distancing himself now, and it made guilt claw at the back of my neck.
"Enough about me," she winced, "what have you all been up to recently?" The night continued with laughs and stories connecting us as people rather than just coworkers. I did my best however, keeping a specific eye on Rineman. She was quiet the rest of the night. Any input was just a nod, a casual forced laugh, but something seemed ingenuous. Something felt off.