"You know, Egyptian architecture predates Roman architecture and it's still more impressive than a lot of the Roman stuff. Makes you wonder why the Goa'uld didn't all have the same level of...coolness? Yeah, coolness in laying the foundation for human civilization."

Daniel's pen froze mid-stroke, and in the light provided only by the small lamp on his desk, he peered through the shadowy office. His hallucination from the locker room stepped forward and leaned against the desk, leaning forward, chin on her hand, batting her eyelashes at him. "Didn't I tell you I don't have time for this?" he asked. He returned his attention to his report, therefore missing the brief flash of discomfort that appeared on the girl's face.

"Yyyeah," she said, pushing papers aside to make room for herself on the edge of the desk, which she eased herself into a sitting position on. "But time really isn't an issue--well it is, sort of, but we'll be done far before then. I hope."

Daniel didn't look up from his hunched position. 'If I don't see it, it's not there.' "'Done'. Done what?"

The image of the girl rolled her head around on her shoulders as if stretching her neck. "Oh you know. What I'm here for."

Now Daniel did look up. "What; you actually have a purpose? A hallucination with ambition?"

The girl narrowed her eyes at him. "I already told you, I'm not a hallucination."

"That's what hallucinations always say." Nick had told him that many times over the years. Daniel had always been curious about just what it was like for Nick to have seen what he claimed he'd seen in Belize, and the subsequent 'sightings' after his triumphant return with his treasured crystal skull. Now he knew...and it wasn't something he was happy about.

"Nick is a totally different case, and you know it," 'Danielle' said softly. Daniel looked at her sharply and in the dim light, had the strangest sensation of looking into the eyes of the himself--sort of--of nearly two decades ago. "Nick went a little...haywire when no one would believe what he'd seen. He was sick there, for a while. He just wanted someone to believe him."

"And you do," Daniel assumed.

Danielle offered him a mysterious little smile and tilted her head slightly in a shrug. "Maybe a little."

Daniel gave her a condescending smile in return and abruptly rose. "Then you two should have some wonderful conversations. Why don't you go track him down and get started? I have to hand this in." With that, he snatched up his finished report and left his office, locking it behind him.

He reached the elevator before he felt the presence at his side again. "I do know how to pick a lock, you know."

Daniel groaned and hit the 'down' button on the elevator more times than was really necessary. "You paid attention to Sam's catburglar lessons. It really isn't that hard," Danielle continued at his side.

"Will you please leave me alo--" Daniel cut off as the elevator slid open, revealing a very confused-looking Siler, his eyes darting back and forth as if searching for whomever it was crazy old Daniel Jackson was looking for.

"Are...you okay, Doctor Jackson?" he asked warily.

"Oh, uh--yeah. Yeah. New, um--beeper. Won't leave me alone." Daniel offered a weak smile and slipped past the sergeant and into the back of the elevator. "Thanks." He held his smile until the elevator slid closed, and turned on Danielle, who was stifling her mirth--rather poorly. "Yeah, laugh it up, Shadow," he muttered. "This is all I need; all these people thinking I'm even nuttier than usual."

"Relax," Danielle said. "Use your head--you know they don't think that." Daniel took a deep breath and focused on the harried panic that was steadily gaining momentum, effectively crushing it...and was shocked when it simply floated away. Danielle cut off in mid-sentence, her expression pained. "Jesus," she groaned softly.

Daniel glanced at her. "What?"

She waved him off. "Do you realize how easy it would be to just talk to these people? To discuss what you're feeling and clear the air? It would do you a world of good--me, too," she added, making a face.

"Yeah, it would also do me a world of good if you would mind your own business. Oh, wait!" Daniel said, feigning inspiration as the elevator slid open on Jack's level. "I forgot; it is your business, right?"

He didn't even notice she wasn't following until he heard the smug call of "Yup!", originating from the elevator, follow him into Jack's office.

----

Jack stared at the report on his desk as if it had three heads. "You finished it already?"

Daniel gave the office a cursory inspection, found it hallucination-free, and sank gratefully into one of the chairs opposite his friend's desk. "Yep. Thought you might enjoy a little midnight reading."

Jack scoffed. "Yeah, if I understand a word of it." He picked it up between his thumb and forefinger, giving it a little shake of only half-pretend disgust. Daniel grinned. He knew better than that; Jack was far from the single-minded grunt he sometimes pretended to be.

"You're right," that dreaded voice announced next to his left ear. "He has a Masters."

Daniel tried to keep his expression unchanged, and, with even more difficulty, to keep another groan--or a scream of frustration--from escaping. Right about now, he'd probably kill for one of Machello's bug-induced hallucinations. At least those didn't talk. "Do you want to skip out early?" he asked, bordering on desperation, watching Danielle visually grazing around the office, her eyes wide as she watched Jack absently pop a piece of Bubbilicious from a pack on his desk and toss Daniel one. "It's almost four."

"Yeah, right," Jack said wistfully. "I'm not off 'til five-thirty. You're not off 'til six, aren't you?" he asked suspiciously.

Daniel settled himself, ignored Danielle's suppressed sigh, and quirked a self-depracating smile at Jack. "Yeah...but I have to admit, I'd like to get the hell out of here for today."

Jack's expression turned to one of concern immediately. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah; I'm fine, it's just that I've been feeling a little...blah since we got back, and I'm not in the mood to sit around my office staring at translations tonight."

"Yeah, he'll buy that," Danielle said absently, sidling up to Jack's desk and, with a quick glance at the colonel to make sure he wasn't looking, snatched the pack of gum off his desk. "Daniel, what's this?"

Daniel ignored her--but a smile lit her features anyway and she studied the packet with fascination. "Bubble gum," she said, slowly rolling the words around her mouth. She tore the pack open with gusto, unwrapped one of the little pink squares, popped it in her mouth and began chewing. "This is delicious!" she enthused. Daniel allowed his gaze to slide her way, giving her a nearly imperceptible stink-eye of disbelief. "Hm. 'Blah' as in I-need-to-pass-out-in-spectacular-fashion blah? Or 'blah' as in..."

"I-wouldn't-object-to-a-huge-piece-of-pizza-and-a-mind-numbing-movie 'blah'," Daniel said with an affirmative nod.

Jack smiled. "Well, no can do--yet. It's only a couple more hours; if you had known better, you could have played Fraiser for an early day."

"And played myself right into a bed for the night," Daniel added. "I don't think so."

"Right. Never mind. Anyway, you'll find something to do in your playland up there."

"Playland."

"Comparable to McDonalds'," Jack added brightly, as if that made it better.

Daniel stood and shook his head. "See ya."

He left the office then, and missed Jack's double-take when he looked down and found his pack of gum mysteriously vanished.

=====

"You shouldn't have done that; he's gonna know something's up."

"He'll find out eventually anyway. These things have a habit of coming out whether you want them to or not."

Daniel let himself back into his office after inspecting his lock and finding it none the worse for wear after Danielle's little escapade escape. "Right; well, we're going to do our damndest to make sure this doesn't come out. And on that note, you said you can make yourself visible? I look like a nutcase talking to myself!" Daniel hissed.

Danielle hopped up onto the edge of Daniel's desk, chewing on the piece of gum she'd swiped from Jack's desk. "I dunno," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe I can. I kinda...exaggerated in the knowing-what-I-can-do department. But we'd probably have to go back to the forum to find out...and me making myself visible wouldn't help your fantasy of nothing going on, would it?"

Daniel grunted. "I highly doubt General Hammond will let us go back. I don't even want to go back," he lied without thought.

"Bullshit," Danielle said absently. "I want to go back, and if I want to, then you do, too." She leaned over to look over Daniel's shoulder. "Find anything yet?"

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose as his video of the outside of the tempietto looped again. "No. I guess whatever's written in there tells us what we need to know."

"Hmm. Why don't we ask Jack?"

"Are you out of your...my...mind? Jack's more of a mother hen than General Hammond will ever be. Besides...I really would rather stay out of the padded white room for more than two months."

"Jack trusts us."

"I know, but--"

"--I don't want to put him in a position that would make him question my sanity."

Daniel stared at Danielle, who forced a smile, though her eyes were suspiciously bright and the smile wavered all over the place. She shrugged. "That's what you were going to say."

"I...you..." Daniel sputtered.

"But I love Jack, and Sam and Teal'c," she continued, "and they love me. If I explain to them what happened, they'll help me figure it out."

Daniel shook himself, that niggling, uncertain feeling back in his stomach.

"Daniel, how did I--you feel; what's the strongest memory you have of the sarcophagus addiction?" Danielle asked, sounding a bit pissed.

That was easy. "I almost killed Jack."

"No, no--that's not what I mean. Emotion-wise. What did you feel most strongly?" She waited a moment as Daniel thought, then held up a hand. "Confidence, right?" The hand became just an index finger pressed briefly against her lips. "You felt confident, strong--useful. Am I right? Come on," she said exasperatedly when Daniel just glared at her. "If you can't be honest with me--yourself--who can you be honest with? Am. I. Right?"

"I...guess so."

"And why did you feel like that?"

"Because the sarcophagus is like a narcotic and it screwed around with my head!" Daniel said condescendingly. "For a genius, 'I' sure am dense."

Danielle shook her head, eyes sad. "No," she disagreed softly. "I mean, yes--you're right--but think. That sarcophagus magnified--and created, but magnified--existing emotions. It magnified me, Daniel. It got rid of your inhibitions, your uncertainty, and I was left. Now tell me, why don't you let that out more often?" She studied him closely for a moment before continuing. "We were counted on for something other than translating for once. Jack, Sam and Teal'c's lives depended on you alone for the first time. I liked that," she admitted. "We liked that."

"Yeah," Daniel agreed at length, "but I blew it."

"So you should just sublimate me?" Danielle asked incredulously. "Please--you know better than anyone you shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes!"

"'Mistake'?" Daniel snapped. "That's what you call that; a mistake? A 'mistake' is mistaking one passage on a translation for another. A 'mistake' is putting 'true' instead of 'false' on a test. Saving some suicidal alien, getting you and your friends thrown into an underground mine as forced labour, nearly getting yourself killed in a cave-in and ruining the chance to escape, letting yourself be coerced into an alien--a Goa'uld, no less--device, keeping your friends trapped in said mine, verbally and physically abusing nearly everyone you know, pulling a gun on your best friend--that isn't a 'mistake'; that is a fiasco, and I'm sure learning not to be afraid of making 'mistakes' didn't cover the possibility that I'd become some kind of intergalactic defender!"

"Galactic defender or not, mom and dad taught me better."

Daniel felt his blood change course and narrowed his eyes dangerously at his hallucination, who was quickly reaching the point of jumping on his last nerve. "Leave them out of this."

"Why?" she challenged. "You never talk about them, even though you think about them all the time--even more, now that Sha're's been enslaved by the Goa'uld. You're worried you're going to lose her the same way you lost them."

"Shut. Up," Daniel warned.

"But no--you're more worried you've lost her already, aren't you? You're afraid that seeing her on Abydos was the last chance you had to save her...you couldn't save her then, nor could you save the boy. Kasuf is no match for Apophis or Heru-ur; if they suspect the boy is still on Abydos--"

"Shut up!" Daniel swung without thinking, his fist meeting only slight resistance before it passed halfway through 'Danielle''s abdomen--and then shot back toward him the way it had come, guided on a sharp jolt of what felt like electricity. "What do you want from me?" he snapped, as much out of embarrassment and pain as he cradled his tingling hand against his chest as anger at the nerve of the 'girl'. "Is that your purpose? To--to try and make me come to terms with every single thing that's gone wrong in my life? Well here's a newsflash for you, Casper--you're going to need a hell of a lot longer than a few days to accomplish that, considering my entire existence has got to be one of the most fucked-up in the entire multiverse! So I'll give you a little free advice--cut your losses and fuck off!"

Danielle nodded calmly, which just pissed Daniel off all the more. His hand was beginning to throb, which made him want to hit her all the more. "I'll leave you to your thoughts," she said gently. Daniel rolled his eyes and prepared to launch another rant her way, but was cut off when she abruptly vanished, leaving a disembodied "And acting like Jack really doesn't become you" for him to chew on.

"Hey; you read--"

"Yes." Daniel was up and out the door before Jack even finished his question, leaving the older man standing there like a living anchor for the doorjamb. Daniel waited a few paces down the corridor, quickly shouldering into his jacket. "Are you coming?"

"Uhh...yeah. Aren't--aren't you gonna lock up?"

"Won't keep her in, anyway," Daniel mumbled, and realized he'd been heard, as Jack's brow furrowed and a look of pure 'What the hell?' was etched onto the other man's face. Daniel shook his head quickly, retracing his steps and haphazardly locking his office. "Forget it."

"Ya know," Jack said conversationally, falling into step beside Daniel and, Daniel knew, trying his best not to follow Daniel's glances back toward his office door, "you really freak me out sometimes. And what," he said loudly, leaping off topic, "the hell happened to your hand?"

Daniel waited for Jack to swipe his ID card into the reader outside the elevator and preceded his friend inside, checking for any...unwelcome stragglers as the doors rolled closed, automatically shoving his reddened, blistered hand into his pocket. At least it wasn't throbbing anymore. "Nothing," he muttered. "And yeah? I freak you out? Welcome to the club. You've got beer?" he asked, turning the conversation tables yet again. It worked; Jack floundered only for a moment before bouncing back.

"Yeah; since when do you anticipate beer? Thought I'd have to buy you some Cristal or something."

"Or 'Indonesian Spirit Wine'?" Daniel quipped. Jack gave him a mock glare.

"Cut me some slack; it was a trying day."

"You didn't do anything!"

"I had to follow your ass to that temple to make sure you didn't get yourself killed, didn't I?"

"Oh, like there was ever any danger of that."

"Daniel, it wouldn't surprise me if sometime in the near future you're laid up with a lethal papercut."

Daniel whirled on Jack, gaping at him. "Come on," he scoffed. "You make me sound so accident-prone I'm suicidal, for Christ's sake."

Jack grinned. "You do tend to get the extreme of things, Daniel," he pointed out. "Remember Hadante? You nearly died in what was an innocent scuffle."

"I had an arm the diameter of a redwood around my neck!" Daniel protested. "Besides, I seem to recall you with a wire bruise around your neck."

"An injury received while coming heroically to your rescue."

The tension Daniel had been feeling all day melted away and he laughed. "My knight in shining armour," he taunted.

Jack, somehow, managed to keep a straight face. "What about the run-in with the Salish? You managed to get yourself darted."

"So did Sam and Teal'c."

"Yeah, but it probably took about ten to take out Teal'c. He's an animal."

"And you were stuck like an animal--remember the arrow through the Stargate?"

"Hey, don't make fun. That fucking hurt." The elevator doors opened near the sign-in desk, and Daniel trailed Jack out to sign out.

"Yeah, as evidenced by the way you passed out on me."

"Wasn't my fault you decided to play La-Z Boy to my kebabbed arm." Jack handed over the pen after signing his name and ID number with a flourish, and the airman on duty grinned as he recognized yet some more banter between the two men. "I could say the same about you--P3R-233?"

"I was shot with a staff weapon! I see your P3R-233 and raise you the 'time capsule'."

"Okay, ow. Airman."

The on-duty young man chuckled. "Good night, Colonel. Doctor Jackson."

"'Night, Ethan."

"Okay," Jack said as they bundled themselves into the next elevator, "all in with...drumroll please...P3R-636." He grinned triumphantly, but Daniel noticed that it faded when Daniel couldn't muster up a smile of his own. He couldn't explain it; it had been nearly a year since his sarcophagus addiction, and in true Jack O'Neill fashion, after helping Daniel through the rough withdrawal and helping him get back on track, Jack had managed to get Daniel past the morbid thoughts of what could have been on the planet; the pair of them had, as a coping mechanism, started being able to joke about some aspects of the doomed mission--like Daniel's 'Casanova Complex', Jack dubbed his botched rescue of Shyla--as well as their first run-in with Hathor. "You almost had my children," Daniel had told Jack with a grin as the two of them were getting sloshed that evening. They were both giddy with laughter, each of them thanking the liquor gods for good drink and bad senses of humour. But now, that old feeling of guilt swam up from the furthest expanse of Daniel's soul, and he felt the heat rising in his cheeks. Jack saw the change immediately. "Jesus Daniel; I'm sorry."

"No. No," Daniel said quickly. "Don't be. It's not--I don't know what's up with me today; I'm just not on the ball right now. It's fine, Jack; really." To make up for killing the light moment, Daniel thought carefully for a long moment and brightened with, "Straight flush--take a look at Argos."

Jack winced, then a reluctant grin spread across his face. "Okay, yeah...I think that's a winner, huh?"

"Yeah; I think for a while there you qualified as Earth's oldest man."

"Oh, come off it. The oldest man was something like a hundred and ten, wasn't he?"

"Fine, fine--Argos' oldest man. Geez, I think one hundred sort of outweighs thirty-one days, huh?" Jack groaned, but Daniel didn't relent. "Did you make your intentions clear to Kynthia's parents? They must have been at least fifty days--pity we didn't meet them."

"All right; enough!" Jack howled. "Lay off, will ya? That wasn't fair; she seduced me with cake."

Daniel snorted. "Hope the System Lords don't get their hands on that information," he said. "Stick Betty Crocker in front of you and you...fall like an overdone cake."

"Bad, Daniel," Jack chuckled helplessly. "Bad, bad analogy. You suck."

======

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