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�Elizabeth,� Daniel said, looking up from the artefact he was cataloguing. �I heard you were back. How does it feel to be home again?�
�I�ll let you know when I get back to Atlantis,� Elizabeth said with a small smile.
Daniel returned her smile. �I remember that feeling. It�s disorienting, the feeling that the planet you were born on isn�t truly home anymore. When I first came back from Abydos� it was Earth that was alien to me. It�s amazing how quickly things like that can shift.�
�It really is,� Elizabeth agreed. She let her eyes wander around the room that was, for the first time she could remember, startlingly brightly lit. �You going somewhere?� she asked, pointing to the boxes that were taped up and labelled carefully, then to the boxes that were half packed or completely empty and waiting to be filled.
For a second Daniel frowned, confused, then comprehension struck and he smiled and nodded. �To Atlantis,� he said in answer to her question. Then, a beat later, he added, �That is, of course, assuming that you want me there.�
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at Daniel. �General O�Neill is letting you go?�
�Hardly,� Daniel chuckled. �General Hammond made it one of his last orders of business before he officially retired. Jack�s just given up trying to fight it�probably because no one else on SG-1 is staying here so keeping me here is pretty pointless.� He shrugged. �The Goa�uld are more or less gone, and those that are still out there don�t have any power to speak of. I joined the SGC to find Sha�re, then to find her son, and then� well, then I lost focus for a while, but after I came back from my time in what Jack likes to call �Oma-Land�, I stayed to defeat the Goa�uld.�
�Well, job well done,� Elizabeth said honestly. �So, nothing keeping you here?�
Daniel shrugged again. �It�s kinda the end of an era around here right now. Sam�s about to head off to Area 51 to head up R-and-D, and Teal�c is mostly living on Dakara right now with the Free Jaffa Nation, and Jack is only in town right now to deal with you guys.�
�And you�re coming to Atlantis,� Elizabeth said.
�Only if the leader of the expedition wants me there. She has yet to say anything to the positive or the negative about that one, which, I�ve gotta say, is kinda annoying,� Daniel said, mostly teasing.
She had wanted Daniel to join the original expedition but Jack had been very firm in his denial of that request, and Elizabeth had to admit that she could see why. Daniel and Jack, though not as close as they once had been, were still best friends, brothers, and Jack had already left Daniel on one alien planet knowing there was no way home. Sending him to Atlantis with the first expedition would have been tantamount to the same thing, only worse because at least on Abydos Daniel had had a family, albeit new and slightly awkward. He had people to take care of him. And, while Elizabeth knew that Jack had known that Daniel would have been taken care of on Atlantis, too, Elizabeth also knew the desire to protect the ones you loved, to protect the people who were your family, not by blood, but by something that was, in a way, almost stronger.
Now, of course, Atlantis had a ZPM, making �Gate travel from Atlantis to Earth possible, if limited. There was also the Daedalus> that would be making regular trips between galaxies. The prospect of allowing loved ones to go to a galaxy far-far away was less daunting once there was the possibility of that loved one coming back.
Elizabeth suddenly found herself unable to keep the smile off her face. �I can�t wait to show you around Atlantis, Daniel. You�re going to love it.� She smiled brightly. �It�s absolutely amazing. There are times when I can actually feel the city vibrating.� She blushed. �Of course, the massive whale-like creatures that live in the ocean under Atlantis probably have something to do with that, but I like to think that the city is alive.�