Where There's a Will
Where There's a Will
by Kay Vegas
Summary: When Catherine Langford's relatives start circling like sharks, Daniel starts to believe she was murdered. Oh, and Catherine's niece, Sabrina, is along for the ride.
Category: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Episode Related: Stargate - The Movie, 101 Children of the Gods, 110 The Torment of Tantalus, 220 1969, 818 Threads, 819 Moebius, 901 Avalon
Season: Season 8
Pairing: Daniel/other, Jack/Sam
Rating: 13+
Warnings: sexual situations
Author's Notes: This story takes place after the team gets back from Jack's cabin at the end of Season 8.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story was created for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author(s).
Archived on: 02/15/07
Where There's a Will
"Daniel? You busy?" Sam Carter was standing at the door to Daniel Jackson's office, a stack of photos in her hand.
"For you? Never." Actually, he was extremely busy; but still, Daniel welcomed the break. "Come on in." He stopped typing his report on their last mission and stretched his shoulders, hoping Sam would take the hint and give him an impromptu massage. No such luck. Evidently she was on a mission of her own.
"I just printed up the pictures from our trip to Minnesota. Wanna see them?"
Daniel looked up at his friend, a big grin on his face. "Only if you printed the picture of me with the fish I caught. A hundred bucks is riding on this." Ferretti had bet Daniel that no one would catch anything and that the four members of SG-1 would have a miserable time on their vacation to Jack's cabin in the wilds of Minnesota.
Actually, he had been wrong on both counts. The four of them had a wonderful time. They hadn't done a lot, mostly just slept and talked and fished. The pond there was actually pretty well stocked, in spite of what Jack had said all those years, and the four of them had gone fishing just about every day.
This trip had been just what Sam had needed. She was still reeling from the death of her father, not to mention her broken engagement to Pete. Daniel still hadn't gotten the whole story about that failed romance, but he had a feeling that Jack had played a part in the break-up.
This brief time away with her closest friends had been a much-needed respite. The truth was they had all needed the down-time.
The big surprise of the trip had come when Jack had made his big announcement: he had been transferred to Washington and was leaving the SGC, effective immediately. Well, as soon as he could get packed up and get his house on the market, anyway.
In retrospect, Daniel realized that Jack had wanted to break it to them gently, and he had wanted to do that as far away from Cheyenne Mountain as possible.
It was hard to think of the SGC without Jack O'Neill; the two names had become almost synonymous. So that had made this time together for the four friends even more precious.
Daniel took the pictures from Sam and started thumbing through them. Soon he found himself laughing out loud, a sound which, unfortunately, was not heard very often. "I can't believe you took a picture of this! `Charades' is supposed to be private!" He looked at Sam in mock indignation.
"I'm sorry, but the sight of you acting out `A Streetcar Named Desire' was just too good to pass up. I couldn't help myself!" She reached to take the picture back, but Daniel jerked it away and wouldn't let her have it.
"I think I'll just keep this one safe and sound, thank you," he said as he slipped it into his pocket.
"Help yourself, `Stanley'. I can print plenty more any time I want to. Look through the rest of these and see if there're any more you'd like copies of."
Daniel started looking through the stack of pictures but was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. "Daniel Jackson." He balanced the phone between his cheek and his shoulder as he continued to look through the pictures.
`Daniel? This is Sabrina Gosling, Catherine's niece. Do you have a minute?'
"Uh, sure, Sabrina. What's up?"
Daniel had met Sabrina at Catherine Langford's funeral two weeks earlier. His elderly friend's death from a heart attack had been totally unexpected, and he was still mourning her loss.
Catherine had sought him out when he had been at the lowest point of his professional life and had offered him a way out. It was Catherine who had persuaded him to come and work on what later would be called the "Stargate Project" and he truly did owe her more that he could ever repay.
Those weren't just empty platitudes in his remarks at her funeral. He truly felt that she'd saved his life one rainy night outside an empty lecture hall. He'd lost his grant, he'd lost his apartment and he only had fifty dollars in his checking account when she had appeared to him like an angel from the back of that black limousine.
His thoughts were brought back to the present as Sabrina continued: `I just wanted to thank you again for the beautiful things you said about Aunt Catherine at the funeral. She really did think of you as a son, you know.'
"Well, she was certainly like a mother to me," he replied, "and she was one of the few people I knew who loved studying the past as much as I do."
`She told me about the hours you two spent discussing archeology. That's one reason she left you her antiquities collection. She knew you, of all people, would know what to do with it.' When he didn't answer, she went on.
`You know I inherited the bulk of Aunt Catherine's estate... I've come up against a problem and I was wondering if you would do me a favor?'
"Of course," Daniel replied. "What can I do?"
`Would you mind driving to Denver and having dinner with me tomorrow night? I really could use your expertise.'
"Sure, I'd be glad to. I'm not scheduled to go off...anywhere... for the next `couple of days, so I'm all yours."
Sam raised her eyebrows at that and grinned at Daniel. He glared at her and then turned his back, continuing the conversation.
"Do you want me to come to Catherine's house, or just meet you at a restaurant somewhere?"
`Come to Catherine's. I'll even cook dinner for you. Can you be here by seven?'
"No problem, and I'll bring the wine."
Daniel said goodbye to Sabrina, hung up the phone, and then turned to gaze at his friend. "Well...out with it."
"What do you mean? I wasn't going to say a word," Sam replied innocently, but her face gave her away. Kidding Daniel about his love life was just too easy. "Was that the woman you picked up at Catherine's funeral?" she teased.
"I did not pick her up. I have never picked up anyone at a funeral." As expected, he blushed furiously. "We just went out for coffee, that's all." Daniel shuffled Sam's pictures as he talked, not really looking at them. His gaze was fixed on a point somewhere over her right shoulder.
"So now she's inviting you for dinner...in DENVER, no less! I tell you what, Daniel; you could bottle that Jackson charm and make a fortune. You know that, right?"
Daniel just grinned and handed the stack of pictures back to her. "She was kinda cute," he admitted. "But this really isn't a date. She just needs some help sorting through Catherine's estate."
"Well, at least wear something nice, but not too nice... You don't want to appear desperate."
"Like I said, this isn't a date, Sam. And I can pick out my own clothes!" He had to yell the last part, as she was already out the door and half-way down the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next evening Daniel found himself standing on the front steps of the Langford house, mansion really. Catherine had inherited a lot of money when she was a young woman and evidently had invested it very well.
The main house was an imposing structure, two stories of tan stucco trimmed in white, with additional one-story wings jutting out on either side. Daniel wasn't sure how many fireplaces it had, but he had personally seen four of them in use over the years.
In addition to the house, there were separate servants' quarters in the back, along with a four-car garage and a gardener's `shed' about the size of his first apartment. As always, the grounds were beautifully maintained.
Daniel wondered as he stood on the front porch what would become of this grand old Denver landmark. He hoped Sabrina would be able to keep it in the Langford family. Evidently she was staying here while the will was going through probate. Then it would officially become hers.
Sabrina answered the door wearing old blue jeans and a soft, cream-colored sweater. It looked soft, anyway. Daniel thought about reaching out to touch it to see for himself, but thought better of it. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail as she welcomed him into the dark paneled entrance hall. "Come on in, Daniel. Glad you could make it."
"Thanks. It's good to be back here."
As she half turned to lead him into the living room, Daniel could see that she was bare-footed. He was starting to feel just a little over-dressed in his sports coat and dress slacks, but she soon put him at ease.
"Come on and have a seat in here next to the fire." She motioned him into a room that he remembered well. He had spent many hours sitting in front of this same fireplace, visiting with Catherine.
It was a very formal room, also paneled in dark wood, with a lot of silk and damask; and it reminded him so much of his missing friend that his eyes started to well up. He hoped Sabrina wouldn't notice.
"It's okay; I miss her, too..." Sabrina looked at him sympathetically. "Would you like something to drink?"
Catherine's drink of choice had been hot tea, Earl Grey. If he closed his eyes he could almost smell it. She always had a pot of coffee brought in for him, though; and they would sit on this sofa and talk for hours--sometimes about archeology and sometimes about personal stuff, stuff he'd never talked about before, not even with Jack, things about his childhood. Sometimes Ernest had joined them. Sometimes it was just the two of them.
"I uh, brought some wine." Daniel held the bottle out like an offering.
"Ummm, that looks great. Dinner won't be ready for another twenty minutes or so. Would you like a glass now or do you want something stronger?"
"No, the wine will be fine, thanks." Daniel knew he was going to have to drive back to Colorado Springs later that night and he really didn't want to get plastered. He took the glass of wine she offered and settled back into the sofa he knew so well. Sabrina remained standing, facing him in front of the crackling fire.
"I guess you're wondering why I asked you to drive all this way." Her fingers played nervously with the rim of the wine glass as she spoke.
"I have to admit I was curious." Daniel couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her fingers as they moved in ever slowing circles around the rim of the glass.
"Well, actually there were three reasons." Sabrina set the glass on the mantle before turning around again to look at him. "I'd like to hire you." She smiled as she dug her toes into the deep pile of the Oriental carpet.
Now Daniel realized that he couldn't stop looking at her toes. They were painted a soft peachy, pinkish color, and his mind was starting to wander just a little bit. With some degree of effort, he dragged his eyes away from them, took a sip of wine, and then leaned back into the sofa before replying.
"Whatever for?"
"Well, believe it or not, besides what she left you, Aunt Catherine left a lot of antiquities to me, too. I need someone I can trust to go through them with me and help me decide what to keep and what to donate. I also need someone who can place a value on everything, and I'm completely over my head here."
Daniel thought briefly about the storeroom full of items he had inherited from Catherine's estate still waiting to be catalogued. It was hard to believe she had anything left to bequeath.
"I'll be glad to help in any way I can, Sabrina, and you don't have to pay me anything. As far as I'm concerned, Catherine was family."
Sabrina relaxed visibly and reached back for her wine glass once more. "Okay, that's one reason I invited you. Here's the second one: I'd like to invite you to go with me to Boston." He looked at her curiously. "A science building is being named for Catherine and Ernest on the campus of Boston College, and I wondered if you'd like to go with me to the dedication."
"Wow, that seems kind of sudden, doesn't it? She's only been gone, what, about two weeks?"
"Actually, it's just a coincidence. Catherine and Ernest gave the money to the college sometime last year. The dedication service was already scheduled before Aunt Catherine died. I guess they figured they had all the time in the world to have her there for the ceremony."
Daniel nodded in understanding. "I still can't believe that she and Ernest are both gone." Ernest Littlefield had been the long-lost love of Catherine's youth, with whom she had been reunited late in life. They had never gotten married, but had quietly lived out their lives together in this spacious home until Ernest's death eight months ago.
Catherine and Ernest had been separated because of the stargate and the stargate had brought them back together, but Daniel couldn't tell Sabrina any of that. The thought that he could participate in a ceremony honoring their memories touched him more than he could say.
"I'd love to go to Boston with you," he said, and he realized he really meant that. Jack was always accusing him of being stodgy and predictable. Well, he could be spontaneous. Just watch. "When do we leave?"
"That's just it. I know this is short notice, but I just found out about it myself yesterday morning. The dedication is going to be this weekend." She looked down hopefully at Daniel.
"Count me in. I'm due a few days off, anyway, and I've never been to Boston." Sabrina grinned from her position next to the fireplace.
"Ok, that's two things." Daniel smiled as he took another sip of wine. "What was the third reason you invited me here?"
Sabrina smirked just a little as she crossed the short distance to the sofa and sat down next to Daniel. "Why, I wanted to have dinner with Colorado's answer to Indiana Jones, of course!" She lifted her glass up to his and he grinned as the two made a resounding `clink'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dinner had been wonderful - Sabrina was a surprisingly good cook. She had fixed chicken cacciatore and they had eaten in the big, old fashioned kitchen instead of the formal dining room. Daniel had helped her put the finishing touches on the meal as they sipped wine and talked.
He realized he knew very little about Sabrina Gosling, apart from her relationship to Catherine. During dinner he learned that she had been an art major and that she had worked for a while in a museum in New York City. Nothing to do with antiquities really, but it did give her an appreciation for old things. Until Catherine died, she had been living in Rome, working in a museum there.
She actually had a lot of things in common with Daniel. She was also an only child, and her parents had died in a car accident when she was a teenager. That was where the similarities ended.
Whereas Daniel had no one, unless you counted his absent grandfather, Nick; Sabrina had Catherine, who had put her through college and had allowed her to study abroad in her chosen field. Daniel felt another rush of emotion at the generosity of his good friend.
After dinner, dessert and more wine, Daniel looked around for his jacket. It was time to head back to Colorado Springs. To tell the truth, he had a slight buzz, but he figured a large fast food coffee on the way out of town would sober him up. Evidently Jack was right--he was a cheap date.
"Daniel, it's really late." Sabrina was holding his jacket, but she made no move to offer it to him. "And we've been through two bottles of wine. I'd feel much better if you stayed in your old room tonight and drove back tomorrow."
Daniel had known Catherine less than a month when she had declared the first guest room on the right at the top of the stairs to be his. From that moment on, he had an open invitation any time he was in Denver to come by and spend the night.
Of course, there was that year when he had been on Abydos, followed by another six months of just trying to fit in with the SGC, when he had honestly been too busy to visit. It wasn't until after Ernest came back into her life that Daniel had begun to take her up on her offer.
He had thought that he would never spend another night in that comfortable room, so the prospect pleased him. "Okay, if it's not too much trouble."
"Not at all. The bed's already made up."
Daniel helped Sabrina clear the table and load the dishwasher, and then he wished her goodnight and went on upstairs to bed.
When he got to his old bedroom, he wasn't a bit surprised to find out that some of his clothes were still in the big, antique dresser. He ran his fingers lightly over its polished surface and thought of happier times. This room had always felt like home. He looked into the adjoining bathroom, and there was his toothbrush, right where he had left it.
He stripped down to his boxers, climbed into the beautiful old four-poster bed, and soon fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The combined aromas of bacon frying and coffee brewing awakened Daniel the next morning. It was a heady combination, and he lay there for a moment, just letting it wash over him.
Catherine had loved cooking breakfast for him on those mornings after he had spent the night, and he could almost picture her downstairs, puttering around in that big kitchen.
She'd had a large staff, of course, including a cook; but this was something she had liked to do for Daniel herself. He wasn't one to eat big breakfasts, but he never had the heart (or the nerve) to tell her that. And now the sounds and smells coming from downstairs made him wistful.
He rolled over on his side, picked up his watch from the bedside table and squinted at it nearsightedly. `Ten `o clock? That can't be right.' He took a quick shower and then changed into fresh clothes.
When he got downstairs he found Sabrina sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee. Strangely enough, their choice of attire was reversed from the night before.
While Daniel was now dressed in jeans and a sweater he had left in the dresser upstairs; Sabrina looked as though she were heading for a business meeting, wearing a cobalt-blue suit with a white silk blouse. He couldn't help notice how the suit brought out the blue in her eyes.
"Well, good morning, `Sleepyhead'," she laughed, "I thought you'd never wake up."
"You know, I've always slept well in that room, but I really didn't mean to sleep this late." Daniel walked over to the counter, picked up the old-fashioned percolator and poured himself a cup of coffee before joining her at the kitchen table. "I hope I'm not keeping you from anything."
"I've got a meeting in about an hour with my lawyer. We're just wrapping things up from Aunt Catherine's estate. Would you like some breakfast, Daniel? The bacon's already cooked and it'll only take a minute to whip up an omelet."
"No, thanks. I really need to get back to Colorado Springs," he replied. "You've been a gracious hostess, Sabrina." The bacon did look good, so he helped himself to a slice. "Just give me a call when you get the flight arrangements for our flight to Boston. I'm really looking forward to it."
He realized, as he finished his coffee, that that was the truth. He had enjoyed their evening together more than he thought he would, and the idea of spending a couple of days with her was becoming very appealing. He finished his coffee, picked up his things and headed for the front door.
Sabrina followed him to the entrance hall and as he turned around to tell her goodbye, he realized that she was in her stocking feet. Didn't the woman own any shoes? Daniel wondered if he was starting to develop a foot fetish.
Seeing him smile, Sabrina asked, "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing. I was just going to thank you again for a wonderful dinner and a lovely evening."
"I'm glad you could come." Impulsively Sabrina leaned forward and kissed Daniel softly on the mouth.
To his credit, Daniel didn't act surprised, although you could've knocked him over with a feather. One might say that he even responded, because her lips were very soft; and frankly, it had been a while since an attractive woman had kissed him. She pulled back slightly, and then wiped her lipstick off his mouth with her thumb. He ran his tongue lightly over his bottom lip and then swallowed self-consciously, an old habit.
"I'll call you...NO, you call me...with the, uhh..."
"Flight arrangements?"
"Yeah, those..."
"Right, with the flight arrangements." She smiled as she watched Daniel walk to the street, get into his car, and drive away.
It occurred to Daniel about ten minutes later that all of their business could've been handled over the phone...interesting.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So Daniel, how was your date?" Jack was in the process of packing up his office, in preparation for his transfer to Washington. There really wasn't much to pack, mostly pictures and personal items. Most of the files and papers sitting on the desk were classified--they would never see the light of day, and he had never even found the key to the desk drawers.
So when Daniel had dropped by to see if he wanted to go to lunch, he was more than ready to take a break.
"I keep telling everybody it wasn't a date, we just had dinner." Daniel was sprawled in Jack's desk chair, his long legs stretched out under Jack's desk, wondering for the umpteenth time why he couldn't have a nice chair like this. Wondering if anyone would notice or care if he just moved this chair to his office...
"Well, let's see..." Jack stopped wrapping pictures in newspaper and looked up at his friend. "You drive all the way to Denver to have dinner with a beautiful woman..."
"Who said she was beautiful? Maybe she's homely...Hey! This is one of my CD's. I've been looking for this everywhere." When Daniel realized that one of his possessions was actually in a box that Jack had already finished packing, he sat up and began to rifle through it in earnest. "What else of mine's in here?"
"Hey, you never listen to it. And don't change the subject."
"That's because it's been in your office for the past year!" Daniel tried to keep up the pretense of being angry, but if truth be told, he had at least four of Jack's CD's himself, one in his office and three in his Jeep.
"Carter told me."
"Sam told you? What?"
"That she was pretty."
"That Sam was pretty?"
"Oh, for cryin' out loud. No, you moron, that Catherine's niece was pretty. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, dinner in Denver..." Jack began counting on his fingers. "You left here looking like you stepped out of the pages of GQ..."
"How do you know that?"
"Security cameras, Daniel. The resolution on those bad boys is incredible." Daniel lowered his head in frustration. "You asked Carter to recommend some good wines..." Daniel raised his head a fraction and peered at Jack over the top of his glasses. "And last, but certainly not least, you didn't come home last night."
"Now, how could you possibly know that?"
"I have my ways..." Jack loved teasing Daniel. He was really going to miss this when he moved to Washington. Somehow it just wouldn't be the same over the phone. The truth was, that last statement had just been a guess. A good guess, evidently, because Daniel didn't even try to deny it. He just shrugged.
Jack grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and headed for the door leading into the hallway. "Come on, Daniel," he said. "Let's go grab a late lunch."
Daniel joined his friend and they headed down the hall toward the elevators.
"Jack," he asked casually, "Are you taking that chair with you to Washington?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two days later Daniel found himself on a plane bound for Boston with Ms. Sabrina Gosling sitting in the seat next to him. He had picked her up at Catherine's early that morning and then left his car in the long-term parking lot at Denver International.
The good people at Boston College had sprung for first class, so he was really quite comfortable. It was a good thing, too, because it was going to be a long flight. He always hated flying coach. Because of his long legs, he would invariably arrive with cramps in his hamstrings and a killer backache. But this was great. He took a sip of his complementary cocktail, thank you very much, and regarded his sleeping companion.
Sabrina really was an attractive woman. With her strawberry blond curls, vivid blue eyes, and just a smattering of freckles across her nose, she was the picture of fresh faced innocence. And what was it about women with curly hair anyway? Sarah, Sha're, Kira, and now Sabrina.
Daniel chided himself for categorizing her as a potential girlfriend. This was a professional trip, nothing more. Just two people with one thing in common: their love for Catherine Langford. That's all.
But Daniel couldn't help but think about their dinner earlier that week. Surely he hadn't imagined that spark between them, not to mention that surprising goodbye kiss the next morning. Daniel couldn't help but think that this was going to be a very interesting trip indeed. He stretched his legs and then pulled out the novel he had brought to read on the long trip.
Sabrina woke up just as the in-flight meal was being served, so she and Daniel were able to have a lengthy conversation over their poached salmon. They talked about a lot of things: their memories of Catherine and Ernest, her schooling in Paris and later in Rome. She practiced her French and Italian on Daniel, but soon found that she was out of her league.
When the conversation eventually got around to Daniel and his work, he had to be deliberately vague. This was nothing new to him, but he felt a little dismayed when he saw her eyes starting to glaze over as he laid out his standard cover story; that he was basically a translator with a love of antiquities.
What he couldn't tell her was the other part of his job, the part where he got to step through a shimmering event horizon and travel to other planets, sometimes two or three a week. It was the best job in the world, but he had to keep that to himself. Too bad. What a great pickup line that would be.
Nevertheless, the time passed quickly, and before long they were making their final descent onto the runway at Logan. When they finally got to their downtown hotel and checked into their rooms, it was close to six o'clock, EST. Daniel suggested that they take time to unpack, freshen up and then meet for dinner at eight. Since neither one of them knew the city very well, they opted to eat dinner in one of the restaurants at the hotel.
Daniel let himself into his room, closed the curtains, kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed. He loosened his collar, took his cell phone out of his pocket to set an alarm for dinner, and noticed that he had two missed calls; one from Jack and one from Sam. Big surprise there.
Sam's message had been left that morning and was wishing him a good flight. Jack's message was a little longer. He was trying to track down some missing CD's before he left for Washington and was wondering if Daniel might have them. Daniel smiled and then grimaced at Jack's parting shot: "Oh, and Daniel, have a nice date!" He set his alarm for seven-thirty and then fell asleep almost immediately.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his door. Lying in the darkness, he was momentarily disoriented. Was he late for a briefing, or God forbid, a mission? Then he remembered: Boston...hotel...Sabrina....Then who was at the door? Oh, Sabrina! He stumbled out of bed and made his way through the darkened room to the hall door.
"Weren't we supposed to have dinner, Dr. Jackson?"
"Oh, God. What time is it?" Daniel squinted against the harsh glare of the hall as he turned to let Sabrina into his room.
"It's eight-fifteen." Sabrina turned on the closest lamp and was glad that she had. Two more steps and she would've been sprawled, face-first onto Daniel's luggage.
"I'm sorry. I must've slept through my alarm." Daniel ran a hand through his hair apologetically. He already had a good case of `bed-head'. This just made it stick up even more. Sabrina found the look irresistible, and she smiled at his discomfort.
"Why don't we just order room service? We can sit back and relax and we won't have to get dressed...up...dressed up..." Sabrina blushed nicely. It was only then that Daniel looked down and noticed that his shirt was completely unbuttoned. When had that happened?
"Why don't I take a quick shower and you can surprise me...with dinner... surprise me with dinner?" There must be something in the water here causing these double entendres, because Daniel had never felt less like a linguist and more like a teenager on his first date....not a date...definitely not a date.
By the time Daniel had showered, shaved and put on fresh clothes, their dinner had arrived. "That was quick," he commented as he stepped out of the steamy bathroom. His glasses were all fogged up, so he took that opportunity to wipe them clean on the hem of his shirt.
"Well, I have a confession to make," Sabrina replied as she got up from the foot of Daniel's bed. "I actually ordered this before I left my room."
"Had the evening all planned out, did `ya?" Daniel smiled as he walked over to the small table and lifted the cover from the plate closest to him.
To Sabrina's credit, she had managed to surprise him. How could she possibly have known he'd been craving a cheeseburger?
***
Daniel couldn't remember when he had enjoyed a meal more. Maybe it was the fact that the cheeseburger was cooked to perfection. Maybe it was because he was so relaxed after his shower. And maybe it was because of his dinner companion.
He and Sabrina had developed a nice relationship in the short time they had known each other. And as the evening progressed they moved from the table to the small sitting room at the far end of Daniel's suite. There they sat and talked until the wee hours of the morning, well on Boston time, anyway. They were both a little jet-lagged.
Finally Sabrina stood to leave, and Daniel followed her to the hall. "Let me grab my key and I'll walk you back to your room."
Sabrina laughed. "Shouldn't you put on some shoes, first?"
Daniel looked down and curled his toes up at the same time. Had he really been entertaining a woman in his hotel room for the last four hours, bare-footed and not even realized it? He grinned, grabbed his shoes and walked her down the hall to her room.
"You know, you really didn't have to do this." Sabrina turned around to face Daniel after unlocking her door.
"I know, but I wanted to." He hesitated just a moment, then took her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "I didn't have to do that either." He smiled as he released her. "But I wanted to."
He glanced up over her shoulder at the hotel security camera, its red light showing it was operating. "And look, we even got it on tape." She looked at him curiously as he kissed her once again, wished her good night and walked down the hall to his room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ten o'clock the next morning found Daniel and Sabrina on the campus of Boston College. Officials from the college had sent a car around to their hotel to pick them up, and thirty minutes later they had arrived in style, right at the sight of the soon-to-be-dedicated Langford-Littlefield Building.
The building was an impressive one from the outside. Built in the colonial style, it blended well with the other buildings they had passed while driving through the campus. Daniel was surprised, however, to find out that it didn't appear to be brand new. Established landscaping around the building seemed to indicate that it was at least two years old.
He commented on this to the official who had been showing them around. She told them that the building had actually been completed some years earlier, but it had remained unnamed, waiting for a wealthy contributor to give his name to the structure. Catherine and Ernest had certainly filled the bill, and now their legacy stood here before them, an imposing edifice of brick, concrete and steel that would always be a testimony to their love of knowledge and education.
As the time for the dedication approached, Daniel and Sabrina were led to the front row of a group of about one hundred chairs set up on the front lawn of this new classroom building dedicated to the study of the sciences, archeology in particular. A woman and two men were already seated there.
The woman appeared to be in her mid-fifties, and with her strawberry blond hair and blue eyes, she could've been Sabrina's mother. She gave Sabrina a somewhat nervous smile. The two men looked to be in their forties, and while neither one of them had blond hair, they both had Sabrina's blue eyes. While the woman had smiled, these two gave Sabrina looks that were both cool and appraising.
As they sat down next to this happy group, Daniel leaned forward to whisper in Sabrina's ear. "Relatives, I presume?"
"Unfortunately. I'll introduce you after the ceremony."
The dedication ceremony itself was long and tedious, just as Daniel had known it would be. He had been to enough of these during his academic career to know what to expect. There was the welcoming speech, the mandatory song by the college glee club, short biographies of both Catherine and Ernest, followed by numerous speeches by the heads of the departments that would be housed in the building.
Daniel recognized one of his former colleagues on the dais from his days at the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Hopefully the jackass wouldn't recognize him. Actually that was probable: Twelve years ago he had shoulder length hair and horn rimmed glasses. Oh, and he was attached at the hip to Sarah Gardner, can't forget that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the ceremony drew to a close, Sabrina and her as-yet-unnamed relatives were called to the podium to receive a plaque in memory of Catherine and Ernest. Daniel joined in the applause as he remembered his two absent friends. How Catherine would've loved this.
After the ceremony there was a reception in the lobby of the newly named Langford-Littlefield Building. Sabrina and her relatives had been escorted to the head of a makeshift receiving line on the other side of the room, so Daniel contented himself with fixing a plate of hors d'oeuvres and trying to avoid Dr. Jackass, who kept glancing curiously in his direction.
He had just ducked behind a column to eat his crackers and cheese when he heard loud voices coming from Sabrina's general direction. Oh, well, he guessed it was time to meet the folks.
"And just what is that man doing here, Sabrina? It's an insult to Catherine's memory and it's an insult to us." Male relative number one was turning an alarming shade of red. Daniel wondered if strokes ran in his family and if any doctors were in the building, medical doctors, that is. Female Sabrina look-alike relative looked extremely embarrassed while male relative number two just looked constipated.
The four of them had given up all pretenses of shaking hands and making nice with the local dignitaries. Daniel walked up to the group and took Sabrina's arm. "Is there a problem, Sabrina?"
Sabrina was so angry she was shaking, and she seemed glad to have Daniel's steadying touch and support. "Daniel, these are my cousins." She practically spat the words, never taking her eyes off of them as she spoke. "Barbara McIntyre, Phillip Langford, Geoff Langford. They seem to know who you are..."
You could've cut the tension coming from that trio with a knife, so Daniel didn't even bother extending his hand, the one that wasn't now resting lightly around Sabrina's waist. Instead, he gave them what he hoped was his most engaging smile, and only his closest friends could've noticed the hint of sarcasm lurking there.
"So...you're all cousins..." Silence.
"This truly is a beautiful building, don't you think?" Again, silence. Daniel's smile was starting to slip but he tried once again.
"What a wonderful way to honor the memory of Catherine and Ernest." Just when he thought he wasn't going to get a response at all, male relative number one, make that `Phillip', spoke up.
"Mr. Jackson, we were having a family discussion, if you don't mind."
"You know...'Phil'," Daniel could feel himself channeling Jack, "It's Doctor Jackson, but my friends call me `Daniel'...You can call me `Doctor Jackson'. And frankly I do mind. Catherine and Ernest were friends of mine, and I believe they'd want me to look out for Sabrina's best interests in this matter." Daniel had dropped his pleasant demeanor, and could, in fact, feel a muscle in his jaw twitching as it broadcast his irritation.
Sabrina looked on helplessly as she waited for her relatives to begin what she knew would be a verbal assault on her new friend. When she felt Daniel's fingers tighten almost imperceptibly around her waist, she relaxed somewhat. She had a feeling Daniel could hold his own against these three.
"You strike me as a man who...looks after his own interests, Dr. Jackson." Daniel didn't like the direction this conversation was taking, but he felt like he had to respond.
"What are you implying, `Phil'?"
"He's not implying anything, Jackson." This statement came from Geoff. "But you inherited a sizable chunk of Catherine's estate. Why do you think that is?"
Daniel was trying to control his anger by breathing deeply and evenly. It wasn't working.
"Why do I think that is? I think it's because she saw a kindred spirit in me, someone who would appreciate the effort and the love that went into collecting those antiquities. Why do you think that is?" He knew he was leaving himself wide open, but he was ready for them to lay all their cards out on the table, metaphorically speaking.
Geoff and Phillip exchanged glances. Ah, they were tag-teaming him. "It wouldn't be the first time a younger man wormed his way into the affections of an older, wealthy woman." This observation came from Phillip.
There. They'd said it. Daniel could feel himself blushing, partly from embarrassment at this very public confrontation and partly from anger. He'd been accused of being many things in his lifetime: crackpot and lunatic were the first two things that came to mind; but he had never been accused of being a gigolo...until now.
His grip around Sabrina's waist became almost painful and she realized belatedly that he was drawing his hand into a fist. She covered his hand with her own to hold it there. "Phillip, you have no idea what you're talking about," she said.
"And you have no idea what his intentions are toward you, Sabrina." Phillip Langford looked at her mockingly. "For all you know, he might be planning on...romancing you right out of your inheritance."
Sabrina was glad she had decided to trap Daniel's hand in her own, because he was trying to pull away from her. To Daniel's credit, he appeared outwardly calm to the people that were milling around the room; but when she turned to look at him, she saw a steely glint in his eyes that she had never seen before. She had a hard time reconciling him with the easy-going man she had eaten a cheeseburger with the night before.
Daniel closed his eyes for a few seconds and breathed deeply. Then he opened them wide and looked at Geoff and Phillip as though coming to a conclusion for the first time.
"You didn't inherit anything, did you?" He glanced at them, then at Barbara, who had yet to say anything, and then back at them again. "That's what this is all about. You got zilch from Catherine's estate. Am I right?" No one said anything. "No...wait...You each got something...small...like a book...or a necklace. Am I right?" He could tell he had come disturbingly close to the truth when they didn't answer him immediately.
"So when Catherine chose to leave her things to someone else, someone who gave a rat's ass about her, you assume there was something inappropriate going on!" Despite his good intentions, Daniel's voice had grown louder.
"I hear you used to stay over whenever you were in Denver. Are you denying that?" asked Geoff. Daniel wanted to wipe that smirk off of his face, but he held his temper.
"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer." He turned to walk away, and then turned back around to face Geoff once more. "Look, if you want to challenge Catherine's will, go ahead," he said." What she gave me in the ten years I knew her can't be measured, counted or taken away."
Geoff's reply was cut off by the appearance of the college president, who was trying desperately to restore a sense of decorum to the situation. He led Sabrina's cousins back to the head of the receiving line, but as Sabrina turned to follow them, Daniel stopped her.
"Can we just leave now?" was all he said.
Barbara caught up with them just before they got to their car. "Sabrina, Dr. Jackson, wait. Please."
"What is it, Ms. McIntyre? Want to get in one more jab?" Daniel knew he sounded like a jerk, but he just couldn't help himself.
"No, actually I wanted to apologize for Phillip and Geoffrey. They're mad because Catherine cut them...us...out of the will; but they shouldn't have taken it out on you and Sabrina." She smiled at the young woman with the strong family resemblance, placed a slip of paper in her hand and held it there. "If either of you need anything, anything at all, please call me."
Daniel couldn't think of a thing Barbara McIntyre could do for him, but he nodded at her before she turned to make her way back to the reception.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel and Sabrina sat in silence as their driver drove them back to the hotel. Neither one of them wanted to discuss something so personal in front of a total stranger. Daniel didn't trust himself to speak until they were alone in the hotel's elevator.
"You know...you know what they were implying isn't true." He felt a lump in his throat as he risked a sideways glance at Sabrina. The anger he had felt earlier had faded and he was left with a deep sense of sadness.
"I know that," answered Sabrina. "They're idiots and they're jealous...and they're greedy." The elevator doors opened onto their floor, but she didn't want to leave Daniel alone in his present state of mind. "Look, we've got several hours before our flight," she said. "Why don't we have some lunch here in the hotel and we can talk about this, okay?"
Daniel captured his lower lip in his teeth and nodded. He looked not at her but straight ahead as the elevator doors closed and they made their way back down to the lobby.
Daniel learned more about Sabrina's cousins than he really wanted to during lunch in the hotel's coffee shop. The three were evidently Catherine's only other living relatives and were descendants of Max Langford, Catherine's father's younger brother. To think they had a claim on Catherine's fortune was ludicrous. They were second cousins, at best; and according to Sabrina, had only met Catherine a couple of times.
Nevertheless, at one time she had planned on dividing her estate equally among the four of them. Why she had changed her mind, Sabrina had no idea. The reading of Catherine's will had come as much of a surprise to her as it had to Barbara, Geoff and Phillip. Evidently it had gotten quite ugly at the lawyer's office.
Daniel didn't know the full extent of Catherine's wealth, but he had a feeling that inheriting just one fourth of it would've meant never having to work again. Max's grandchildren had to have been bitterly disappointed. An idea was starting to take root, and it sickened him.
"Do you know if Catherine told anyone she was going to change her will?" Daniel took a sip of his iced tea as he waited for Sabrina to ponder the significance of his question. He watched her eyes as they went from a look of consternation through several levels of disbelief to finally settle on something akin to horror.
"What are you suggesting?" she whispered. "You can't think....you can't possibly believe..." She couldn't even finish the thought. So Daniel finished it for her.
"That Catherine may not have died of natural causes?" Sabrina looked like she was going to be ill, her face several shades paler than it was when they had started their meal. Daniel wished he could take it back, that seed of doubt he had planted in her head; but he knew he had to follow through on this, if not for Sabrina and himself, then surely for Catherine.
"I'm not sure what I'm suggesting, but I do think I'm going to shake the other branch of the Langford family tree when we get back to Colorado and see what falls out."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The flight back to Denver that afternoon was uneventful. The easy sense of familiarity they had fallen into on the way to Boston had eluded them on the way back, however; and they each had sat, lost in their own thoughts and memories on the return flight.
It was close to eight o'clock when they finally pulled into the driveway of the Langford mansion. Daniel had tried several times to broach the subject of Catherine's death on the long drive from the airport, but Sabrina wasn't willing to talk about it.
He pulled her bag from the back of the Jeep as she went to unlock the front door and disarm the security alarm. He was almost to the front door when he heard her yell out his name. Dropping the bag, he ran into the entrance hall and almost plowed right into Sabrina, who was rooted to a spot just inside the living room.
"What... Oh, my God!" Catherine's beautiful living room was in a shambles. The cushions on the sofa and chairs had been slit, their stuffing strewn everywhere. Drawers were pulled open, their contents rifled through. And Catherine's beautiful first editions had been pulled out of the bookcase. Pages had been torn, spines had been slashed.
Whoever had done this hadn't known or cared that they were destroying valuables. Daniel was speechless. Sabrina was visibly shaken. They both were angry.
"Who could've done this?" Sabrina's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you unlocked the door?" Daniel knew he shouldn't touch anything in what was obviously a crime scene, but he couldn't stop himself as he kneeled to pick up a first edition of Huckleberry Finn.
"I had a little bit of trouble punching in the security code, but I thought maybe I'd just forgotten it. What should I do?" Sabrina was looking around the room helplessly, as though looking for clues. Daniel stood up slowly and placed the damaged book on the coffee table. There would be time enough for anger later.
"First we need to call the police," he sighed, "then we really need to look through the rest of the house."
***
By the time the police had arrived, Daniel and Sabrina had been through the rest of the downstairs and had just started on the second floor. So far, not a room had been left untouched.
"Doctor....Jackson?" Daniel nodded, his hands folded between his knees as he sat on the steps of the main staircase. "Do you have any idea what the thief or thieves might've been after?"
Detective Lewis was an earnest young man, somewhere in his late twenties, with red hair and freckles. He looked like he should still be in high school, not conducting a burglary investigation. Suddenly Daniel felt very old.
As it had turned out though, the detective had known Catherine. He explained that he had grown up in this neighborhood and had in fact been Catherine's paperboy at one time.
Daniel shook his head as he contemplated the boy detective. "Catherine's house was filled with valuables," he offered. "There's really no way of telling what, if anything, is missing."
Sabrina walked in from the study just in time to hear his last remark. "I was in the process of making an inventory for insurance purposes," she said. "Would that be helpful? Unfortunately I've only been through three rooms."
Detective Lewis was busily writing into a notebook. He paused momentarily, looked at Sabrina and then wrote some more. "Which three?" he asked.
"Uh, living room, study and Aunt Catherine's bedroom."
The detective wrote some more and then stopped, looked up at Daniel and Sabrina, and smiled. "Well, that will do for a start. Miss Gosling, is there anywhere else you can stay until we catch the people who did this?" he asked. "Do you have any friends or relatives here in town you could call?" She just shook her head slowly, while Daniel, on the other hand, was nodding in affirmation.
"She could come back to Colorado Springs with me. Would that be acceptable?" Sabrina looked at Daniel in surprise, an unspoken question on her face.
"Do I really have to leave?" She was addressing both men. "I mean it's not like there's been a murder..." Her voice dropped away as she exchanged glances with Daniel. Detective Lewis noticed their brief interaction, but didn't say anything. After all, he had been trained to observe.
"They'll be going over this place with a fine toothed comb. You'll just be in the way." Daniel looked pointedly at Sabrina. "And besides, I don't like the idea of your staying here by yourself."
Sabrina nodded her head in resignation. "Ok, I'll just go pack some clothes. Will that be alright, Detective?"
"Oh, sure," he said. "I'm going to send an officer upstairs to help you. We'll need to dust for fingerprints in your room,too, you know."
As Sabrina and the officer made their way upstairs, Daniel stood up and then motioned Detective Lewis to follow him into the entrance hall. "Who handles your homicide investigations?" he asked the detective.
"Well, we have a homicide division. The head guy's name is Mike Renegar." He looked more closely at Daniel. "Is there something you're not telling me, Doctor Jackson?"
"I'm starting to have some questions about Catherine Langford's death." Daniel stood with both hands in his pockets and regarded the younger man intently.
"Miss Langford died of a heart attack, what, two--three weeks ago? You can't be thinking this is related."
"Right now I don't know what I'm thinking," Daniel countered, "but I would like to talk to Renegar and also to the coroner."
"Look, Doctor Jackson, no disrespect here, but you're a doctor of what, archeology? If the coroner says she died of a heart attack, then she died of a heart attack."
"That may be," argued Daniel, "but you and I both know there can be extenuating circumstances in any death."
"Well, I'll give you Renegar's number," said the detective, "but you're on your own after this. And I warn you, he's going to be a hard sell." He gazed around the entrance hall and sighed before continuing. "Look, I took a personal interest in this case because I knew Miss Langford, and I promise you: the facts were pretty cut and dried. There wasn't any indication of foul play whatsoever." He tore a page out of his notebook, wrote down a number and handed it to Daniel.
"Believe me, Lieutenant; I want to believe that with all my heart."
***
It was about a half an hour later before they were able to leave for Colorado Springs. Sabrina had re-packed her suitcase and then had presented Lieutenant Lewis with her partially completed inventory of Catherine's belongings, along with keys to the main house and the out-buildings, and the codes for the security system.
Finally they both had been fingerprinted so that their fingerprints could be eliminated from the ones found at the mansion. Daniel started to tell the lieutenant that his were already on file, with the FBI and God knows who else, but he realized that would cause more questions and just hold them up.
Sabrina had fallen asleep before they had even left the Denver city limits. With her head resting on his folded up jacket, her face turned toward him, bathed in the light from the dashboard, she seemed very young and vulnerable; and Daniel's heart ached for her.
As he headed south on I-25, driving through the dark mountains of Colorado, he thought over the events of the last two days. He couldn't bear to think that his beautiful, funny, generous friend might actually have been murdered, but every instinct he had told him it might be true. How much worse it must be for Sabrina. No wonder she didn't want to talk about it, but talk about it she must, and soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was just after midnight when they finally reached the outskirts of Colorado Springs, and not long after that they pulled up in front of Daniel's modest house. Gently he shook Sabrina's shoulder and she opened sleepy, blue eyes before gazing around her in mild surprise.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sleep the whole way."
"That's ok. You've got to be tired--it's been a long day." He smiled as he brushed a stray lock of hair off of her face.
"For both of us," she yawned. Sabrina stretched like a cat, got out of the Jeep, and followed Daniel up the short walk to his front door.
As Daniel inserted his key in the lock, he did a quick mental survey of his house. Just how clean had he left it? He pictured the mild clutter of the morning before as he had prepared to leave for Denver and decided it was probably acceptable. Nonetheless, it would have to do. If he could just slip into the bathroom first and pick up some towels and clothes he could almost guarantee were lying on the floor, everything would be ok.
These were the thoughts that were going through his mind as he entered the darkened living room, Sabrina behind him. Perhaps that's why he didn't immediately notice the broken glass under the window on the far side of the room. Nor did he sense the dark form crouched on the floor behind the sofa.
He was fumbling with the light switch in the hall and was just about to ask Sabrina to pardon the mess when he felt something slam into his chest, knocking him backwards onto the floor. Normally Daniel could've held his own in hand-to-hand combat, thanks to Jack's careful training over the years; but at that moment his attacker had surprise, the dark, and momentum all on his side.
A fist came out of the darkness, crashing into his jaw before he was able to throw up his arms in defense. He managed to grab his intruder by the upper arms and flip the two of them so that he now had the advantage.
"Sabrina! Turn on the lights!" he cried. But before she could comply, something hit him on the back of his head. Lights exploded behind his eyes and he dropped like a stone.
***
When Daniel finally came to, a few minutes...a few hours later, he wasn't sure; he was still lying on the floor in his front hall, Sabrina kneeling next to him.
She had managed to turn him onto his side and was cleaning what had to be a sizable lump and cut on the back of his head with a towel. She looked upset. He groaned and then reached back to feel for himself.
"Are you ok?" he asked. When his fingers came in contact with the lump, he gasped. God, it felt like his skull was going to explode. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"I'm fine," she said. But she wasn't. Daniel could see that she had been crying and her hands were shaking. Sabrina stopped dabbing at his head wound and watched him carefully. "After you got knocked out, someone pushed me into the sofa, then ran out the front door. I think there were two of them."
"At least," agreed Daniel, "and one of them must've been driving a truck." He tried to push himself up onto one elbow, but Sabrina stopped him by putting her hand on his other shoulder.
"You need to lay still, Daniel. You might have a concussion," she said. "You've got a nasty lump back here, and the way it's bleeding, you might even need stitches." She folded up the towel to cushion his head and then helped him roll over on his back.
"Unnn.... How long was I out?" Daniel groaned at even that small amount of movement.
"About ten minutes...I was just getting ready to call 911."
"Oh....there's no need to do that. I've got a pretty hard head." Daniel closed his eyes and waited hopefully for the throbbing to stop.
"But Daniel, you don't understand."
Daniel opened his eyes and looked myopically around the room. Somehow his glasses had gotten knocked off in the struggle. Seeming to read his mind, Sabrina looked around her on the floor then crawled half-way down the hall to retrieve them. She handed them back to Daniel and he gingerly put them on. It was a little hard to tell from his position on the floor, but it looked as though his house had received the same treatment as had Catherine's.
"Well....crap." He levered himself up on his elbows so he could get a better look. "This day just keeps getting better and better."
Evidently they had interrupted the intruders before they could do too much damage. That was the good news. Still, Daniel was getting a strong sense of dj vu as he looked around his small living room.
Drawers had been pulled out, their contents scattered everywhere. Several books had been pulled from his bookcase and were lying haphazardly in a pile on the floor. He couldn't tell from this angle if they had been damaged or not.
What few artifacts he had in the house seemed to be lying on the sofa next to him. In front of the sofa sat a large cardboard box. On closer inspection, he realized that some of his possessions were already in the box--some vases, a couple of pieces of pottery; all of them from Earth's past, thank God, and not from another planet.
The few artifacts he kept at home, merely for decoration, had been gathered from the many digs he had been on in his youth. None of them were very valuable. That's why this robbery didn't make any sense. He struggled to sit up completely, and this time Sabrina helped him.
"Call Jack," he said, as he leaned forward and rested his head on his knees. He picked up the towel and pressed it lightly against the back of his head, wincing as it made contact.
"Jack?" Sabrina asked. She helped Daniel scoot back so that he could lean against the front of the sofa.
"O'Neill," Daniel replied. "I work with him at Cheyenne Mountain. You'll find his number on my cell phone." He reached into the pocket of his jacket and handed the phone to Sabrina.
"Why not the police? This has to be connected with what happened in Denver."
"Oh, definitely. But there may be more going on here than we thought." Daniel pulled the towel away and was relieved to see that the bleeding had stopped. He hated to drag his friend out of bed so late at night, but he knew that he was in way over his head, and he really needed Jack's experience and insight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How many fingers do you see, Danny?" Jack was kneeling on the floor in front of his friend, assessing his condition.
"Three fingers, Jack," Daniel replied with a sigh. "But then, it's always three fingers."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, whenever you ask me how many fingers, it's always three."
Jack looked at his friend, then at his fingers, and then back at Daniel again. "Ok, smart guy, how many fingers this time?"
"One, Jack. And don't you think that's kinda crude, with a lady in the next room?"
Jack smiled and then gave Daniel a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You're fine," he said. He had already checked Daniel's pupils and had found them to be equal and responsive.
Jack was no doctor, but he had seen enough head wounds over the years to know what was serious and what wasn't. He also knew what a concussed Daniel was like, and this was no concussion.
"You go on the most interesting dates, you know that?" He got up slowly, using the armrest of the sofa as a support. "And Carter was right. She's pretty."
Daniel considered giving Jack his best glare, but he knew from experience just what that facial expression would cost him; so he just grimaced and put his head back down on his knees.
Just then Sabrina walked in from the kitchen. "I couldn't find an ice bag, but I did find some frozen peas in the back of your freezer." She handed the bag of peas to Daniel, who gratefully placed it on the back of his head.
"Come on, big guy; let's get you up off the floor." Jack put his hand under Daniel's elbow and helped him up onto the sofa. "So...this isn't your first break-in of the evening." Jack settled into an easy chair on the other side of the room while Sabrina took a seat next to Daniel. She had cleared the sofa of artifacts while they were waiting for Jack's arrival.
"No, it's not...And let me say right now; this is turning into the day that wouldn't end..."
"I can imagine," replied Jack. He glanced at the broken glass that was still on the floor. "Any idea what they were after?"
"Which time?" Daniel's eyes were closed and his exhaustion was evident. He leaned his head against the back of the sofa, one hand still holding the frozen peas in place. "This can't be a coincidence." He and Sabrina had already filled Jack in on their, or his suspicions anyway, regarding her cousins.
"Do you think we should've called the police, General?" asked Sabrina.
"No, I think you did the right thing. I've got the manpower to look into this myself, and I can also look into the break-in at Catherine's. Oh, and it's `Jack'." He smiled reassuringly at Catherine's niece. "Why don't we sleep on this and get a fresh start tomorrow?"
"Amen to that." Daniel picked up a pillow from the end of the sofa and prepared to stretch out there for the night.
"Oh, Daniel?..."
"Yes, Jack?"
"That's where I was going to sleep." He raised his eyebrows and looked innocently at Sabrina, who was getting up and making room for Daniel's feet. She froze, and then looked to Daniel for guidance.
"Sabrina's taking my room. And you really don't need to stay here. I doubt they'll be coming back tonight."
"You don't know that for sure. And if something did happen, you wouldn't be much help right now. And Generals don't sleep on the floor..." The answer was so obvious. Sometimes Jack just wanted to smack his friend.
"Daniel, why don't you just come and share a bed with me? I promise I'll stay on my side..." Sabrina was grinning good-naturedly.
Daniel smiled tiredly in spite of his headache. "Okay, Jack. That sounds like a plan." He pushed off slowly from the couch and then motioned for Sabrina to follow him down the hall.
"Hey, I tried to warn you not to buy a house with just one bedroom..."
After Daniel and Sabrina left the room, Jack pulled out his cell phone and started making calls. Before long, he had started the ball rolling. While they slept, his men would be monitoring the Denver site and checking into the backgrounds of Sabrina's cousins.
This could've ended here very badly tonight. He wondered if Daniel knew just how lucky he had been. Well, now he had the power of the US Air Force behind him, whether he wanted it or not.
He thought he remembered seeing some pieces of plywood in the basement when he had helped Daniel move in. He brought one back upstairs and used it to cover the broken window. Then he checked the locks on the doors and lay down on Daniel's couch. Now, if he could just get some sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Daniel woke up the next morning he was aware of two things almost immediately: First of all, his head still hurt, but not as much as it had when he had gone to bed. Secondly, something was tickling his nose.
It took him a few moments to identify that something as Sabrina's hair. While they had started out on opposite sides of the bed, Sabrina hadn't been able to keep her promise.
During the night she had migrated over to his side and was now snuggled in close to him, her head on his shoulder and her right arm draped over his abdomen. Their feet were tangled together and there was no way he was going to get out of bed without waking her up; so he just lay there a few moments, enjoying the closeness and the memories that it evoked.
How many mornings had he awakened just like this; with Sha're in his arms, using his chest as her personal pillow? What usually had followed was both playful and passionate, and Daniel smiled at the memory. Sometimes he felt as though Sha're's husband had been a different person altogether, someone he could never hope to be again.
As his mind started to wander, so did his concentration...Yep, it was definitely time to get up. He slipped his arm out from underneath Sabrina's head. She stirred slightly and then settled. He slipped quietly out of the bed.
***
"Good morning, Daniel. How's the head?" Jack greeted his friend from his spot at the kitchen table, the morning paper spread out before him.
"Better," Daniel replied as he squinted against the harsh morning light. "Do I have any Tylenol?"
"Yeah, there's a bottle over here next to the sink." Jack had given his friend three pills before he went to bed. No doubt they had long since worn off.
"Great...Do I have any coffee?"
"Yeah, look behind you. Is there anything else I can do for you, my liege?"
"Yeah. You can make this whole nightmare go away."
"That's why I'm here, my boy. While you and the lovely Sabrina were blissfully unaware," Daniel rolled his eyes. "I've been busy." Jack was looking extremely pleased with himself. "I brewed coffee...I made breakfast..." He indicated a platter of bacon and eggs sitting on the counter behind him.
"You went shopping," Daniel ventured. He certainly didn't keep bacon and eggs on hand.
"I did that, too," agreed Jack, "and I still found time to get some information on the relatives."
"Oh yeah?" Daniel poured himself a cup of coffee, used it to wash down some more Tylenol and joined Jack at the table. "What did you find out?"
"Well, first of all, Catherine was loaded. I guess you probably knew that, but you might not have known just how loaded." He could tell he had Daniel's attention, so he kept going. "Her estate is worth about one hundred and twenty million, and with very few exceptions, it's all going to Sabrina."
"Yeah, well, I knew that part. What about her cousins?"
"Well, I still have some contacts with the FBI, and I got them to do background checks on the Langford `boys'."
"Sounds like an outlaw gang from the Old West."
"Actually, you're not far off." Jack pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. "Geoffrey Langford has started five different businesses in the last fifteen years, all of which he's run into the ground."
"Evidently not much business sense there."
"Exactly. Evidently not much gambling sense either."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, he's lost a bundle over the last eighteen months, in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. And by bundle I mean close to half a million."
"Ouch!"
"Ouch, indeed. He lost his house and his wife left him."
"Well, it sounds like he could certainly use an infusion of cash." Daniel walked over to the stove and served himself some bacon and eggs. "How about his brother?"
"Ah, yeah. Phillip Langford, age forty-seven; been in and out of trouble over the last twenty years. Spent at least five of those years as a guest of the Illinois Department of Corrections."
"Oh, really? These eggs are good, by the way. What did you put in them?"
"They're `rumbled' with tarragon."
"I don't have any tarragon." `Rumbled?'
"You do now, and quit changing the subject. Don't you want to know why he was in prison?"
"Okay, shoot."
"Exactly."
"Come again?"
"Armed robbery, Danny. Evidently Geoff is `the good child'. Phil held up a jewelry store in broad daylight and apparently wasn't bright enough to wear a mask. The security cameras had him dead to rights. He served five years of a ten-year sentence."
"Charming, charming family. What about Cousin Barbara?"
"Barbara's the only one who doesn't seem to have any skeletons in her closet. Evidently she's just what she appears to be: a middle-aged widow." Jack looked thoughtful. "But she does have a lot of debt...all of them do."
"So they all needed Catherine's money."
"Oh yeah."
"Any of the three have any children?"
"Let's see...Geoff has two children, Geoff, Jr. and...Cathy. Subtle, huh?" Daniel smiled to think that Geoff had thought Catherine would fall for something so transparent. Jack continued. "They live with their mother. Phillip doesn't have children. Five years in the pen will put a crimp in that."
Daniel looked askance at his friend, trying to decide if he meant that as a joke. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "What about Barbara?"
"She has one daughter...Gretchen... and a son," he scanned his notes for a name, "James. They're both in their late twenties."
"I wonder why they weren't at the dedication."
"She lives in Europe...Stockholm. James lives just outside of Denver. My guess is they couldn't afford to come."
"Why didn't somebody wake me up? It's almost eleven." Sabrina was wearing the same clothes she had slept in the night before and didn't look any more awake than Daniel had.
"I figured you needed the sleep. You want some breakfast?" Daniel got up and went to the living room to get an extra chair.
"Yes, I'm starving. Did we eat dinner last night?"
"You know, I don't believe we did." He joined Jack at the table while Sabrina fixed a plate and poured some coffee. "Jack was just giving me the background on your relatives; an unsavory group, if you don't mind my saying so."
"Well, let's just say we don't exchange Christmas cards, okay? I've been thinking about this, though. There's no way they could've made it back to Colorado before we did."
"Yeah", said Jack, "but with the amount of money involved, they easily could've hired someone, both in Denver and here."
"Have you heard anything from the Denver police?" asked Daniel.
"Yeah, some kid--sounded like he was about sixteen--called about an hour ago. They haven't found anything missing yet, and so far the fingerprints are all accounted for. Oh, and you got a call from a Captain Renegar in homicide."
"Oh, good. Detective Lewis must've mentioned my concerns to him."
"Your concerns?" asked Jack.
"Daniel thinks Aunt Catherine might've been murdered." Sabrina had put her coffee cup down and was looking at her folded hands.
"And I take it you don't."
"No...I don't." she answered. "I think she was just...I think it was just her time, that's all."
Sabrina seemed upset, so Jack directed his next comment to Daniel: "Renegar feels the same way. He says they took her death very seriously, considering her stature in the community; and it was a clear case of heart failure, brought on by a massive heart attack. He said the autopsy was conclusive."
Daniel looked perturbed. "I know I'm not making any sense, but I just have a gut feeling that all this is connected somehow." He sat for a few seconds, seemingly staring into space, thinking...always thinking. "Sabrina, do you have Catherine's lawyer's number with you?"
"Yeah, it's in my purse. Hold on and I'll go get it." They both watched as she headed in the direction of the bedroom.
"What are you thinking, Daniel?"
"I'm thinking I want to find out exactly when Catherine made her last will, and who, if anybody, knew about it."
Sabrina came back in the room and handed him a business card. "Morgan Peterson. He says he's been her lawyer for fifty years. I'm going to take a shower, see if I can't wake up."
Daniel smiled. "I know the feeling. The towels are in the hall closet."
While Sabrina was in the shower, Daniel called Morgan Peterson's office. The elderly lawyer was unavailable, and his secretary told Daniel that she couldn't give that kind of information over the phone. He'd have to come to Denver and bring Sabrina with him. Evidently she also needed to sign some more papers, so it wouldn't be a wasted trip.
"Fair enough," said Daniel, to no one in particular.
"What's fair enough?" asked Jack as he dried his hands on a kitchen towel.
"We're going to have to go back to Denver, it seems. The lawyer needs to talk with us in person."
"Great! I love Denver."
"Who said you were invited?"
"Oh, come on. Who could pass up the opportunity to stay in a spooky old Denver mansion, and maybe solve a mystery or two?" Jack could be such a kid sometimes.
"I thought you were in the middle of packing."
"Oh, that's mostly done, and I don't leave for Washington for another week. Come on, Daniel. It'll be like old times. You know Carter's thinking about taking a job in R and D over at Area 51. This might be our last chance to hang with her."
"Well, ultimately it's up to Sabrina--it's her house; but as far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier."
"I'm out of the bathroom, if anybody wants their turn in the shower." Sabrina stuck her head in the living room. She was wearing the robe Daniel kept hanging on the back of his bathroom door, her head wrapped in a towel.
"Do you think she's trying to tell me something, Jack?"
"Hey, I wasn't going to say a word; although I did warn you not to buy a house with just one bathroom."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a quick shower and another dose of Tylenol, Daniel felt like a new man--a new man with a headache, anyway. He walked into his living room to find Jack and Sabrina, along with two airmen from Cheyenne Mountain. Daniel had met them before but couldn't remember their names. "Hi...guys..." was the best he could do.
"Roberts and Crenshaw are here to dust for fingerprints. Get back to work, kids."
"Yes, General," replied Crenshaw. "Hi, Dr. Jackson. Sorry about your break-in." Daniel didn't know how to reply to that, so he just smiled ruefully.
As the two airmen resumed their work, Daniel noticed that Sabrina was wiping ink from her fingers. This was the second time she had been fingerprinted in as many days. He gave her a sympathetic smile and then sat down on the couch next to Jack.
"Did you talk to Sam?"
"Yeah, she wants to come. Remember, she's known Catherine longer than we have--well, longer than you and me anyway." Jack smiled at Sabrina.
Sometimes Daniel tended to forget that Sam had worked on the Stargate Program long before he had. Of course it hadn't been called that then. But he knew that they had worked together, and he knew that she had loved and admired Catherine as much as he had. Of course she would want to be a part of this.
"Was she still on base when you talked to her?"
"Yeah, she's working on some sort of top secret research project with Dr. Lee. She didn't say what."
"Jack, you're her boss. I thought you knew everything." Daniel couldn't suppress his smile. Jack wasn't exactly the hands-on commander that Hammond had been.
"Well, apparently not that."
"I'm going to call her and see if she'll bring my laptop with her when she comes." That made more sense than leaving Sabrina alone while he went to the base to retrieve it himself.
"You're not going to try to work in Denver, are you?" asked Jack.
"No, actually it has to do with Catherine. After my part of her collection was delivered, I took pictures of every item and stored them in my laptop. I thought they might come in handy."
"That's funny. I did the same thing," said Sabrina. "I've got them stored on a flash drive."
"Do you have it with you?"
"It's in my purse."
"Okay, maybe we can compare notes and see if we can figure out what these guys are after. The only thing we have in common is that Catherine left both of us part of her collection."
***
Sam came over about 5:30 that afternoon; with Daniel's laptop, an impressive amount of electronic gadgets, an overnight bag and Thai food, her take-out of choice. After brief introductions they settled down in Daniel's living room to eat their dinner, his kitchen table being way too small to accommodate four. The plan was to leave for Denver sometime after they ate and then to coordinate both investigations from Catherine's house.
While they ate, Daniel filled Sam in on what had been happening the last few days. She was dismayed to hear Daniel's theories about Catherine's death, but surprisingly took Sabrina's side as she absorbed the rest of the story. Catherine did have a bad heart, after all.
"Did Catherine die at home or in a hospital?" she asked.
"She died at home," Sabrina answered. "Her gardener found her lying on the couch in her living room after he kept getting a busy signal on the phone and she didn't answer the door."
"So she died sometime the night before," observed Daniel. "I know Catherine had a security system, complete with cameras. Did they show anything unusual?"
"Not according to the kid I talked to this morning," said Jack, gesturing with his fork as he talked. "He said that was one of the first things they checked after the break-in. The cameras had been disabled."
"They had been disabled last night. What about the night Catherine died?"
Sabrina turned pale. She looked at Daniel with a pained look on her face before answering. "It never occurred to anybody to check them then. We thought Aunt Catherine had died of natural causes."
"Carter, that's your assignment when we get to Denver. Check those security tapes for..."
"March 15th," Daniel supplied.
"As in `beware the ides of March'?" asked Sam.
Jack looked thoughtful for a moment. "As a good friend of mine would say...indeed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The four of them left for Denver around seven. They took two cars for the approximately one-hour trip; Daniel and Sabrina in his car, with Jack and Sam in Jack's truck.
When they arrived back at Catherine's they found no sign of the police. Only a yellow crime tape across the front door showed they had ever been there; that and the fine sheen of dust that seemed to be everywhere, left over from the dusting for fingerprints.
The first thing they did was to claim bedrooms. Since none of them were involved in relationships with each other, not officially anyway; they each chose their own room. Luckily Catherine's house had six, or was it seven bedrooms? Daniel wasn't sure.
He took his accustomed room at the top of the stairs, while Sabrina went across the hall to Catherine's suite, the one she had been using since she moved in. That left Sam and Jack with two guest rooms overlooking the back gardens and grounds.
And if the rumor mills were true, and if Daniel had been reading his two friends the way he thought he had been reading them, and they ended up sharing a room; well, good for them.
Catherine's elegant formal dining room ended up being their base of operations. They carefully moved the silver pieces from the antique mahogany table and then spread some towels out to protect its surface. Soon it was covered with laptops and other electronic equipment that Sam had brought with her. She had anticipated some of the things they might run into, and had packed with amazing accuracy.
As Sam spread out her electronic `thingys', as Jack called them, Daniel volunteered to make a pot of coffee. Sabrina was commandeered to help Jack find the control center for the security system.
***
"Coffee, Sam?"
"Mmm, yes. Thanks."
Daniel set a mug in front of his friend before sitting down next to her himself. "You know, I'm sure there's a VCR connected to the TV in the study. You really don't have to be doing all that." Somehow Sam had MacGyvered a connection between a VCR and her laptop so that she would be able to watch the video footage on her computer screen.
"I know, but what would be the challenge in that?" She stopped what she was doing to take a sip of the coffee and smiled at him. "So...what's the deal between you and Sabrina?" she asked.
"To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know. This has been a wild week, but when all of this is over...I don't know. Who can say?"
"She seems very nice." Sam put her coffee down and started connecting cables. "Maybe you shouldn't worry about next week. Live in the moment, Daniel! You always have to analyze everything to death." She gave him her best big sister grin, the one that always melted his heart.
He smiled back at her. "Maybe you're right."
"Right about what?" Jack and Sabrina walked into the dining room, Jack carrying a cardboard box filled with video tapes.
"I was just telling Daniel we ought to call it a night," said Sam, looking over her shoulder to give her friend a conspiratorial smile.
"I see you found the control center," Daniel added, hastily changing the subject.
"Yeah, that security system is pretty outdated. Today everything's digital. This system must be twenty years old, at least. I thought Catherine would've had the latest technology." Jack put the box on the table next to Sam's laptop.
"No," Daniel said, taking a sip of his coffee and thinking of the thirty-year-old percolator that had made it. "She was an avid believer in the `don't fix it if it ain't broke' theory."
Jack had to smile at that. It wasn't often that he heard Daniel use bad grammar, even as a joke. It made him seem more human somehow. "Well, these will still give us what we need. There'll just be more work involved, that's all." He began taking tapes out of the box and arranging them in some sort of order.
"How far back do these tapes go, Jack?"
Daniel was surprised to hear Sam address Jack by his first name, but somehow managed to keep from doing a double-take. Perhaps that fourth room wasn't going to be needed after all...
"They go back about six months," Jack replied.
"It doesn't seem like that's enough tapes," Daniel said, to no one in particular.
"No, actually it doesn't take much tape for one of these systems," said Sam. "The cameras are motion-sensitive, so they only come on when someone's approaching one of the doors from the outside; or if the perimeter has been compromised, they'll activate inside as well."
"I see." Daniel started shuffling through the tapes, looking for dates. "Where do we start?"
"I'd say with this one." Sam picked up a tape labeled `December, 2004'. "This seems to be the oldest." She placed the tape in the machine, made some adjustments with her mouse, and before long, to everyone's surprise; a grainy image began to appear on her screen.
Jack pulled up a chair next to Sam and watched over her shoulder as she began to fast-forward through the tape. Most of the footage appeared to be delivery men, interspersed with an occasional dog and even one raccoon. Catherine didn't seem to have much company.
Sabrina stood watching them from the other side of the dining room, her arms crossed around her waist. She sighed and then excused herself to walk into the living room. Daniel followed her a few moments later.
He found her standing in front of the fireplace. No fire was blazing tonight, but she seemed drawn to it anyway.
"Starting to get to you?" Daniel walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"She must've been so lonely, living here by herself after Ernest died."
"Don't let those tapes fool you. Catherine had a lot of friends...Hey, she had me!"
Sabrina turned around at that, hoping to catch one of those elusive Daniel Jackson grins. She wasn't disappointed. "Yes, she did have you. She was very lucky."
"She was lucky to have you too, Sabrina. Don't forget that."
"Was she? Sometimes I wonder."
Daniel looked puzzled but Sabrina continued, changing the subject. "I had thought I'd come in here and start cleaning up this mess." She indicated the damage around them. "But I just don't have the heart to do it tonight."
"Well, it's late. We can work on that tomorrow. And don't forget Catherine's staff. Is there anyone still on retainer?"
"There's a cleaning woman who's been coming in about every three days. I guess I can call her to come in tomorrow."
"Yeah, let's do that. You don't need to do all this yourself. You'll feel better after a good night's sleep in your own bed." They both were thinking it was actually Catherine's bed but neither one of them said anything. "Tomorrow we can start going through the pictures we scanned of Catherine's artifacts, too."
Sabrina looked downcast, refusing to meet Daniel's eyes. "Hey, we're going to figure this out. Trust me." He tilted her face up to his and kissed her. It felt good. It felt right. He kissed her once again, more thoroughly this time. "You go on upstairs to bed. We'll get the lights and lock up."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel ended up leaving Sam and Jack to lock up and turn off the lights. They were still looking at footage when he climbed the stairs and entered his room. He moved his duffle bag onto the floor, thought briefly about a shower--vetoed it, and then got ready for bed.
He lay there in the dark, watching the shadows on the walls; caused by the play of moonlight through the trees outside his room. If he listened carefully, he could hear the sounds of his friends' laughter echoing from somewhere downstairs.
Tired as he was, sleep eluded him as he thought over the events of the last few days. He had just turned the light on next to the bed and was reaching for his `airplane novel' when he heard a soft knock at his door.
"Daniel?" The knock came again, softer still.
"Sabrina?" Daniel dropped the novel back in his bag and propped himself up on one elbow. "Come in."
"I saw your light was on and wondered if you'd like some company." She was wearing an oversized men's tee-shirt and probably not much else. On her it looked good, great even. "Actually... I was wondering...if I could sleep in here with you tonight." She caught his gaze and held it steadily.
"Uh, sure...I mean, okay..." Daniel looked at her in confusion. He knew she had been upset earlier, and he didn't want to take advantage of her. Perhaps she only wanted some company. "Oh--kaay. Do you mean sleep in here?...Or do you mean `sleep' in here? Because I'm...okay...with either..." When she started to smile, he smiled in return.
"Hey, does a girl need an engraved invitation to this party, or what?" She closed the bedroom door and leaned back against it, a mischievous look on her face.
Daniel hesitated only a moment. "Absolutely not." He slid over to the middle of the bed, plumped up the pillows and patted the bedspread. "I even warmed up your side." It occurred to him that she still hadn't answered his question.
All questions were answered rather quickly, however; as she slipped beneath the covers, pulled her tee-shirt over her head, and dropped it on top of his novel. She turned to look at him, a mock-serious expression on her face. "Are you a `lights on' or a `lights off' kinda guy, Dr. Jackson?"
He rolled over to face her and grinned. "Oh, `lights on'...definitely...`lights on'."
***
Later, much later, as they lay together in the moonlight and shadows, they talked about the craftsmanship of these old antique beds--how they don't creak and groan the way modern beds do.
While down the hall, Sam lay in Jack's arms, laughing softly. He traced her initials on her bare shoulder and nuzzled her neck. "What's so funny?" he asked.
"I was just thinking it was about time Daniel got laid." She smiled in the darkness.
"Amen to that. Maybe now we can get some sleep." He pulled her closer and they both drifted off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Jack made his way downstairs the next morning, he found Daniel in the kitchen making breakfast, or trying to, anyway. A pan of bacon was perilously close to burning, and Daniel seemed oblivious. Jack managed to rescue it just in time.
Whistling...Daniel was whistling, evidently making up a tune as he cracked eggs into a ceramic bowl. Now, there was a clich for you.
"Morning, Daniel. Anything I can do to help?"
"No, thanks. I've got everything under control."
"Is Sabrina up yet?" Jack searched through several cabinets before finding plates.
"Uh, I don't know. She might be taking a shower. We're supposed to go to the lawyer's office later this morning." He scowled as he picked a piece of shell out of the eggs.
Since Daniel didn't mention his `sleepover', Jack didn't say anything about it, either. But he wanted to. He wanted to say, `Hey, we're all adults here, Daniel. Knock yourself out,' but instead he said, "Is there toast?"
"Only if you make it. Bread's on the counter. Butter's in the fridge. Is Sam up?"
"Uh, I don't know..." Two could play that game.
***
They were joined fifteen minutes later by Sam, and five minutes after that by Sabrina. Everyone ate with gusto, and both of the girls complimented Daniel and Jack on their cooking skills.
"So Daniel, what time did you two get to sleep?" Sam reached for another piece of toast. "It had to have been at least...ow!" She glared across the table at Jack and rubbed her sore shin.
"Sorry, Sam. My foot slipped. Why don't we clean up here and let these two head on out?" Jack gathered the dirty plates and stacked them in the sink.
"Oh...oh, sure... You two go on. We're going to get back to work on the tapes while you're gone." Sam looked apologetically at Daniel and shrugged her shoulders.
"Thanks, guys. We should be back in two or three hours." If Daniel was embarrassed by Sam's question, he didn't show it. He glanced at Sabrina, who just seemed amused. "Ready to go?"
"Ready. Oh, Jack?" Sabrina turned before leaving the kitchen. "Catherine's cleaning woman is coming in this morning. I told her to concentrate on the living room, first. Could one of you give her an idea of what needs to be done?"
"No problem," said Jack. "We'll take care of it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Good morning, Sabrina. It's good to see you again." Sabrina had just finished signing multiple copies of legal documents and had passed them back to the secretary. She turned around slightly in her chair to greet Catherine's lawyer.
"Good morning, Morgan."
Morgan Peterson was a pleasant looking man in his late seventies. With his snow white hair and bushy eyebrows, he reminded Daniel of his grandfather. He wondered if the distinguished looking lawyer was still working full time or if he just kept a few choice clients.
"And you must be Daniel." He shook Daniel's hand warmly. "I would've known you anywhere--Catherine spoke of you very fondly. Come in. Come in." He led them into his inner office and indicated two leather chairs in front of his desk. "What can I do for you?"
Daniel decided to take the lead. "We have some questions about Catherine's will," he said. "More specifically, we'd like to know when the last one was drawn up." He leaned back in the leather chair and waited for a reply.
"Well, let's see. It was about...six months ago?" He consulted his computer screen before continuing. "Yes, that's right. It was in December of 2004."
"Did she give a reason for changing it?" asked Sabrina. Her chair seemed too big for her, and it accentuated her vulnerability, it seemed to Daniel. She didn't look comfortable, somehow.
"Yes, she did..." Peterson regarded two of the beneficiaries of that will and wondered how much he should say. He considered himself to be a pretty good judge of character, and something told him he could trust these two. "She learned some...disturbing facts...about some of the potential heirs."
"I think we know the facts you're talking about." Daniel exchanged glances with Sabrina. "How did Catherine find out?"
"Quite by accident. Phillip was looking for work, and listed Catherine as a relative. Somehow a registered letter from his parole officer was sent to her by mistake. Naturally she was concerned." He steepled his fingers together and leaned forward over the desk. "She asked me if I would do a background check on everyone, including you, my dear." He smiled at Sabrina apologetically. "When the results came back, she asked me to draw up a new will."
"Leaving most of her estate to Sabrina?" asked Daniel.
"Leaving most everything to Sabrina. That's right."
"Do you have any idea if she told anyone else she was changing her will?"
"If she did, she didn't tell me. I got the impression she wanted the would-be heirs to be unpleasantly surprised, though." Morgan looked at Daniel curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"We're just trying to tie up some loose ends, that's all." Daniel didn't feel like alarming the old gentleman.
"Is there any way my cousins can challenge this?" asked Sabrina.
"Well..." Morgan chuckled softly. "They can challenge it `till the cows come home, but they'll never win."
"Can we have a hard copy of the will?" This request came from Daniel.
"Of course. There should be one in this folder." The elderly lawyer shifted through some papers on his desk before coming up with the correct document. He handed the copy of the will to Sabrina.
Sensing the interview was at an end, Daniel stood up, Sabrina joining him. "Thank you for meeting with us, Mr. Peterson."
"Glad to be of help." He came from behind his desk and walked with them to the door. "Sabrina, it's good to see you looking so well." He gave her a careful hug. "If you need anything, anything at all, please let me know."
"I will, Morgan. Thank you."
***
"Sabrina, what was he talking about when he said it was good to see you looking so well?" They were almost back to Daniel's car. She turned around to face him as he pulled out his keys.
"Oh, that..." She bit her lower lip as she considered her answer. "I was in an automobile accident almost a year ago." Daniel frowned at this revelation. "Nothing serious...really." She smiled at him reassuringly. "Morgan must've found out about it when he did my background check."
"Tell me about it." Daniel leaned against the hood of the Jeep and drew her close, his arms resting on her shoulders.
"Nothing much to tell. I was on holiday in the southern part of Italy. I was driving a sports car on a road I was unfamiliar with. It was a one car accident." She put her arms around his waist and pulled herself closer. "I'd really rather not talk about it."
"Did Catherine know about the accident?"
"Of course. But she also knew my injuries were superficial. She wanted to come to Naples anyway, but my doctor talked her out of it."
"I'll bet that wasn't easy." Daniel recalled several times when he had been in the infirmary and Catherine had been there for him.
"Probably not, but I would've been out of the hospital by the time she could've gotten there." She leaned her head against his chest and sighed rather dramatically. "Can we drop this now?"
He kissed the top of her head and smiled. "Consider it dropped."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Daniel and Sabrina got back to Catherine's, they found Jack and Sam taking a break on the verandah. It was still a little cool to be sitting outside, but they didn't seem to mind. They had removed the covers from two of the wicker chaise lounges and were sipping iced teas while they enjoyed some early spring sunshine.
"You're back!" Sam got up and removed the covers from two of the chairs sitting close by. "Did you have lunch?"
"We weren't hungry," answered Daniel, "but we did get some information about the will." He pulled a chair closer and turned it so that it faced his friends.
"I'm going upstairs to change," said Sabrina. She left the three friends to talk on the verandah.
"Well...what did you find out?" asked Jack.
"Basically, we found out that Catherine did a background check on her heirs, and apparently changed her will soon after."
"Which was..."
"About six months ago. The lawyer told us they didn't have a clue about the change. Caused a big stink at the reading of the will."
"I can imagine. I guess that clears the cousins, though; if they didn't even know they'd been cut out of the will." Jack took a sip of his iced tea.
"I guess," agreed Daniel, but he didn't seem convinced.
"Did they inherit anything?" asked Jack.
"Not to speak of. Geoff got the family Bible. Barbara got some earrings that had belonged to her great-grandmother. Phillip got an old violin--not a Stradivarius, by the way." He poured a glass of tea for himself before continuing. "Have you finished looking at the tapes?"
"Yes, we have," replied Sam, "and we've got some bad news."
"What?"
"The tape for March 15th ? It's definitely missing."
"Crap..." Daniel sat down heavily in the wicker chair. He had been counting on those tapes to give him the evidence he was looking for.
"Well, you can't really be surprised," said Jack, "'cause I'm starting to think that was the whole point of this break-in." Daniel stared blankly at his tea while he processed this information.
"Daniel, you said yourself that nothing was missing." Sam was on a roll. "What if the vandalism was just that--something to cover up the theft of the tape?" It was obvious to Daniel that they had worked all of this out while he and Sabrina were at the lawyer's office. Sam's face had that gleam of righteousness and discovery that he had learned to trust as gospel.
"That explains the break-in here; but what about my place?" asked Daniel. "I've been wracking my brain, and I can't think of a single reason for anyone to rob me." He glanced up at his friends. "Do you think that was a cover-up, too?"
"I'll have to admit, we were a little stumped by that," admitted Jack.
"Maybe they were looking for something at your house that they couldn't find in this house..." Sam looked thoughtful.
"Yeah, maybe. But what?"
"That, my friend, is the `sixty-four-thousand-dollar question'," intoned Jack, who had adopted a look of mystery and intrigue. Daniel just looked baffled.
"The sixty-four what?" asked Sam.
"Nevermind. Just another lost cultural reference." Sometimes Jack felt very old around these two.
***
Daniel and Sabrina spent most of that afternoon going through the pictures of artifacts and antiquities that Catherine had collected and then so generously had given away.
Because the day was so nice, they decided to set up Daniel's laptop on a small table in the sunroom, which was just off the living room. Its three outside walls were made of glass and it looked out on a small Oriental garden, complete with a koi pond.
It was a little distracting, but they still managed to view every picture Daniel had saved to his computer. Nothing looked unusual or out of place.
Next, they inserted Sabrina's flash drive. If anything, her collection was more mainstream than Daniel's had been. Nothing looked suspicious. Nothing looked worth killing for. They were both at a loss for ideas.
Jack continued to get calls off and on during the day. Some were SGC business related and some were from the personnel he had asked to help with the investigation. So far, nothing helpful had turned up.
About 5:00 Jack and Sam left to go buy groceries. Jack had offered to grill steaks on the condition that the four of them take the night off and relax. It didn't take much to convince everyone. They were all exhausted.
While they were gone, Daniel and Sabrina went for a walk through the grounds behind the Langford mansion. The sun was just starting to set and they wanted to take advantage of its last rays.
"Jack says he and Sam are going back to Colorado Springs tomorrow," commented Sabrina. "I'm going to miss them...and their help."
"Yeah, I'm surprised they were able to stay this long." Daniel walked beneath a tree covered with early spring blossoms; plucked one off and placed it behind Sabrina's ear. "A military base doesn't just run itself."
"He tells me he's being transferred to Washington." She pulled the flower from behind her ear and breathed in its faint fragrance.
"Any day now; as soon as he can get his house on the market. Sam's leaving, too. She's taking a job in research and development at... in New Mexico. There's another member of my team who's already left. His name's `Murray'." He leaned in close so he could smell the blossom, too.
"You're going to miss them." This wasn't a question. It was just an observation. And she was right on the money. They walked along a gravel path that led to the koi pond. There was a small bridge over the pond, and they stopped in the middle, leaning over its rails to look at the fish.
"They're family. We look out for each other. We don't always get along, but what family does?" Daniel turned around so that he was leaning against the railing. "Sam's my big sister, my confidante. At the base they call us the `science twins'." Sabrina smiled at that.
"`Murray' is my brother and my protector," he added, "although our relationship got off to a rocky start." He suddenly looked reflective.
"Jack is..." Daniel looked at the sunset and chuckled. "It's complicated..." He looked at her in the dimming light and smiled. "He's the big brother I never had." He chewed his lip thoughtfully. "If I'm being perfectly honest here, he's the father I lost when I was eight...And he's the best friend I've ever had...or ever will have...He's saved my life more times than I can count."
"Oh, come on! That's being a little dramatic, don't you think?" She poked him playfully in the stomach. "How much trouble can an archeologist get into?"
Daniel realized he had crossed a line and began damage control. He grinned. "Yeah, you're right. I do have a tendency to exaggerate. Let's go inside and see what we can do to help with dinner."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dinner, as it turned out, was excellent. Unfortunately, Catherine's old-fashioned charcoal grill was rusted through and unusable; but Jack proved he was an expert at broiling steaks, too.
They chose to eat their dinner in the sunroom, Daniel having moved his laptop out of the way. As they ate, they stayed away from the subject of Catherine's death, focusing instead on small talk and news from the base.
Jack talked about his replacement, a man named Hank Landry. Turns out, he and Jack had been roommates at the Academy, and Jack had hand-picked him to take his place at Cheyenne Mountain.
"You won't have any trouble training him, Daniel. You'll have him eating out of your hand in no time." They had moved the party into the living room and Jack was in the process of refilling everyone's wine glasses as he spoke.
Daniel smiled. He remembered all too well a similar conversation between Jack and himself a few years back; something along the line of `breaking in a new colonel'.
"Training?" Sabrina looked puzzled. "I thought you were a civilian."
"Well, let's just say Daniel has a way of bringing people around to his way of thinking."
"And aren't I usually right?" Daniel was looking a little smug, the two glasses of wine starting to mellow him just a bit.
"Usually you are," Jack admitted reluctantly. "Granted; but you always think you're right!" This brought a snort of laughter from Sam and a look of annoyance from Daniel.
Sabrina smiled at this good-natured ribbing between friends and wished, not for the first time, that she had such friends. As she thought about the direction her life had taken, Jack walked over to the wet bar to put the wine bottle down.
The cleaning lady had spent all morning and a good part of the afternoon putting the living room back together. With Jack and Sam's help, the ruined furniture had been taken to the garage; and replacements, though not matching, had been brought in from other rooms on the ground floor.
Books and knick-knacks had been restored to their shelves, and those pictures which hadn't been broken had been placed back in their proper places. It was one of these pictures that Jack picked up from its spot on the mantle.
"This is a great picture." He held up a small framed photograph of Catherine and Ernest. "I'll always remember her this way..." he said. "To Catherine." He held up his wine glass to toast his old friend.
"To Catherine," they replied in unison.
"Can I see that?" asked Daniel. Jack held the picture out and Daniel took it reverently in his hand. "This must've been taken not long after Ernest came back..." He looked up and caught Jack's warning look. "Back...into Catherine's life."
The cover story Catherine had agreed to after he had been found alive half-way across the galaxy had been simple: Ernest had been living and working in Tibet for the past fifty years.
He looked at the picture and immediately was filled with a feeling of warmth. The couple looking back at him was so obviously in love. Catherine's eyes were shining with laughter, as if she had just heard the most wonderful joke. Ernest's arm was around her thin shoulders, pulling her close to his side, their cheeks touching.
"Sabrina, could you have a copy of this made for me?" he asked.
"Oh, how about making three copies, while you're at it," added Jack.
Daniel looked closer at the picture, trying to capture the details of that happy moment, frozen in time. It was taken outside, probably on the grounds where he and Sabrina had walked before dinner. He could see the reflection of the sun on her necklace...her necklace.
"Oh, my God."
"What is it, Daniel?" Sabrina looked concerned when Daniel suddenly turned pale.
"Her necklace, the Eye of Ra, I forgot all about it."
"That's the pendant I gave you at her funeral, isn't it?" Sabrina's voice was sad, but with a touch of something else; Daniel wasn't sure what. Weariness, maybe. It had been a long day.
"I'll be right back." Daniel fairly flew out of the living room into the central hall and up the stairs to his room. The necklace in question was in a jeweler's pouch in the side pocket of his duffle bag. He pulled the pouch out and poured the necklace into his hand.
He felt the familiar weight of the Eye of Ra and closed his hand around it, the metal warming as it came in contact with his skin.
The Eye of Ra was a circular golden pendant, with the symbol for the sun god etched on either side. It had belonged to Catherine since her childhood, but she had loaned it to Daniel for good luck--the first time he traveled through the stargate to Abydos.
There had been a stipulation to the loan. He was to give it back to her upon his safe return to Earth.
It had indeed brought him good luck. The Abydonians, upon seeing it around his neck, had thought him to be a god also. He eventually was able to correct the misunderstanding, but not before meeting (and marrying) Sha're .
In truth, the Eye of Ra was the catalyst which had caused the downfall of Ra and had allowed the rest of his team to return safely to Earth.
He remembered placing the necklace in Jack's hands and telling him to give it back to Catherine. Daniel would be staying with his beautiful wife and the good people of Abydos for the rest of his life, or so he believed.
`Ripples', he thought. If he hadn't stayed on Abydos, Earth wouldn't have learned about the stargate's ability to travel to multiple worlds. They wouldn't have sent team after team to other planets, looking for allies and ways to defend themselves. Earth could very well have been a smoldering rock floating in space by now, or at least a Goauld controlled planet.
He sat on the bed, clutching the necklace in his hand. It felt warm now, almost alive, almost as if it were trying to tell him....something.
"Did you find it?" asked Sabrina. She was standing in the doorway, watching him warily. When she saw that he had, she came into the room and sat beside him on the bed. "Can I hold it?"
"Uh, sure." Daniel was pulled out of his reverie and handed the pendant to Sabrina. She took it in her hand and turned it over slowly, first one way and then the other. "What are you looking for?" he asked.
"I don't know. I guess I'm wondering if you think this is what everyone's been after. It doesn't look valuable to me."
"Oh, it's not. It's actually costume jewelry. Catherine told me her father bought it for her from a vendor on the streets of Cairo. I think they're still sold there today."
He studied the necklace as it lay in her hand, its chain dripping down between her fingers. "And yes, I think this is what everyone's been looking for." He held out his hand. "And no, I can't explain why I think that."
"Well, it's a nice necklace, and I know it has great sentimental value, but I really think you're barking up the wrong tree here." Sabrina smiled as she put the necklace back in his hand and closed his fingers around it. She kissed him softly on the cheek. "I'm going back downstairs," she said.
"I'll be down in a minute." Daniel studied the necklace for a few more moments and thought about the reason he had it with him.
It was not the kind of thing he carried around with him normally, but his duffle bag was the one he had brought with him on the plane to Boston.
The sentimental side of him had wanted this small part of Catherine to be at the building dedication. He had carried it with him in his pocket that day at Boston College. He realized with a wry smile that his sentimentality had probably saved the necklace from being stolen while he was out of town.
But why was someone after it in the first place? He needed another point of view. He needed people who could think with a clear mind, unencumbered with emotion. He needed Jack and Sam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are you out of you mind?" Okay, that wasn't exactly the point of view he was looking for. Jack was sprawled on the living room sofa; Sam curled up next to him. Daniel had the feeling he had interrupted something. Maybe that was why Jack had dismissed his idea so abruptly. And where was Sabrina?
"So I've been told, on more than one occasion, thank you!" Daniel got up from the chair across from them and started pacing the area in front of the fireplace. Finally he stopped and leaned against the mantle, his hands in his pockets, his right foot crossed over his left. "I guess I was expecting a more open mind, that's all I'm saying here."
"Yeah. Well, all I'm saying is that you're taking a mighty big leap in logic here." He pushed slightly away from Sam, sitting up straighter on the sofa. Sam looked at Jack and smiled. Yes, he had definitely interrupted something. Awkward, much?
"I mean, you spend all day looking at pictures of antiques,"
"Antiquities."
"Whatever. And you find absolutely nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary. So what's left? Catherine's necklace. So that has to be it. Am I right so far?"
"Well, when you put it that way..." Daniel looked emploringly at his friends. "What do you think, Sam?"
"I think I'm staying out of it!" she laughed. When she saw that Daniel wasn't laughing and that he was waiting for her answer, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, this is the way I see it." She pulled her legs up so that she was sitting Indian-style on the sofa. Then she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.
"Someone breaks into this house and steals a security tape for the night Catherine died. Later that night, someone breaks into your house, looking for object X, possibly Catherine's necklace." She paused to gather her thoughts. "What if..."
"What if something on that tape pointed to me?" interrupted Daniel. "Or more specifically, the necklace that now belongs to me?"
"What if there was a sense of urgency involved here?" added Sam. The three friends sat mulling that over for a few seconds.
"Now see, that's where your theory falls apart," pronounced Jack. "On that thought, I'm going to bed. You coming?"
"Yeah, in a minute," answered Daniel.
His two friends stared at him. "I was talking to Sam..." Jack looked amused. Daniel looked embarrassed. Sam uncurled her long legs and stood up cautiously.
"Well, I think we're onto something, Daniel." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."
As Sam headed upstairs, Jack started to follow, but then came back to the fireplace to join his friend.
"Look, I didn't mean to rain on your parade. You might be right, for all I know. Let's figure this out tomorrow, okay?"
"Right, Jack." Daniel picked up the necklace from its spot on the mantle and dropped it back in its protective pouch.
"Oh, Daniel? I forgot to tell you something. Crenshaw called right before dinner, and he's finished his background check on Sabrina."
"He did a background check on Sabrina? Why?"
"It's just good procedure, Daniel. Nothing personal."
"And?"
"Did you know she was in a car accident about eleven months ago?"
"Yeah, we were talking about it at the lawyer's office this morning. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. I just wondered if you knew. That's all." Daniel looked like he was waiting for the other shoe to fall, so Jack dropped it. "Did you know someone died in that accident?"
"That's... always sad when there's a fatality involved..." Daniel blinked slowly. "What are you trying to tell me, Jack?"
"It was her cousin, Gretchen. Sabrina was the one driving the car."
"Gretchen, as in Gretchen McIntyre? Barbara's daughter?" That explained a lot. It also explained why Gretchen wasn't at the dedication ceremony. Daniel sighed.
"Thanks for telling me. Now I understand why she doesn't want to talk about it." He started turning off lights as they made their way across the large room.
Jack looked at his friend and started to say something else. Then he changed his mind. "Good night, Daniel."
"Good night, Jack."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Daniel got to the top of the stairs, he turned toward Sabrina's door, just across the hall from his. But when he saw that her lights were off, he decided their conversation could wait until tomorrow morning.
He opened his door and turned on the overhead light. He was surprised to see a very formal-looking note propped up on his nightstand. He picked it up and smiled as he read:
The Pleasure of Your Company is Requested Directly Across the Hall
His `engraved invitation'? Well, on short notice, anyway. Leave it to an art major to know calligraphy. You couldn't turn down an engraved invitation. That would be rude.
He shook his head, picked up the invitation and started out the door. Then he turned back around, went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He picked up a few items from the bottom of his shaving kit, just in case, and headed across the hall.
"Come in," Sabrina called in response to his soft knock.
Daniel stuck his head just inside the door. "I brought my invitation..." He waved it at her, and then stopped in amazement. Every surface of the room held a lighted candle, and they were all flickering in the draft from the open door.
Sabrina was sitting in front of an antique dressing table, brushing her hair as she watched him in its mirror. She was wearing something filmy, something wonderful.
Daniel felt underdressed, or was that overdressed? He wasn't sure at this point. He also felt like he was living out a scene from the Hitchcock classic, Rebecca. Only she wasn't Rebecca, and he certainly wasn't the creepy housekeeper...Mrs. Danvers... no, not by a long shot...
She watched him watching her and said nothing. She just kept brushing her hair. Daniel licked his lips and attempted casual conversation. "I feel like I ought to be wearing a smoking jacket or something," he joked.
"No, believe me, you look just fine the way you are." She smiled at him in the mirror as he crossed the room to stand at her back. "But I wouldn't be surprised to find one of Ernest's somewhere in the back of that closet, if you want to look."
"Noooo, I don't think so. There's a little bit of an `ick' factor there." If the truth were to be told, having any kind of romantic encounter in Catherine's bedroom was a little creepy. It would almost be like making love on your parents' bed. But who was he kidding? He could deal.
"Here, let me do that." Daniel took the brush and began brushing her hair; long, slow, even strokes. About every fourth brush stroke he would stop, lift up her hair and kiss the nape of her neck.
"That feels...ummm....unbelievable. I think you've done this before, Dr. Jackson."
"You could say that. I used to do this for my wife every night, but her brush wasn't as nice as yours." Sabrina's was silver. Sha're's had been carved from mastage bone.
"Wife?" Sabrina turned halfway around and looked up at him in dismay, causing him to lose his rhythm. "You're married?"
"My wife died....um....five years ago now." It was probably a good sign that he actually had to stop and think to remember how long ago it had been. For the first couple of years he could have told people how many days it had been.
Sabrina turned around completely so that she was facing him. Looking up, she said, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright. It happened a long time ago." She looked beautiful in the soft glow of the candles. Most women did. Sha're had... Reluctantly he pulled his mind back to the present.
"I'm glad you accepted my invitation." She ran her finger lightly over his jaw, which was just starting to show some five-o-clock shadow. Well, make that eleven-o-clock shadow.
"How could I not? I've always been a sucker for...calligraphy." Somehow he had managed to make it sound wicked, and Sabrina grinned wickedly in return.
But before she could think of a clever reply, he took her hand, pulled her up into his arms and kissed her; gently at first, then more insistently. The silver handled brush dropped to the floor, forgotten.
His hands were roaming over her back, through her hair. He breathed in its fragrance and he thought again of his history with curly-haired women. Were they just naturally attracted to him or was he drawn to them? It was his last logical thought of the evening.
***
Down the hall, Jack was returning the favor and giving Sam a backrub. "Do you think they'll remember to blow out all those candles?" he asked as he dripped massage oil onto the small of her back and rubbed it in.
"Ohhhhh...I'm sure they will, Jack. They're both responsible adults." She felt utterly boneless, totally relaxed. "Well, she is, anyway."
"I guess I could stop by there and check after a while..."
With effort, Sam managed to turn over onto her back. "I don't think that would be a very good idea, Jack," she whispered huskily.
He paused, considered her statement (and his options) and then replied, "You know, I think you're right."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel woke up gradually, his senses kicking in one by one. First came the scent of candles, many different fragrances all blending together in a pleasant potpourri: vanilla, cinnamon, beeswax maybe.
Then came the feeling of the sun on his face, warm and caressing. He opened his eyes and saw sunlight streaming through the front windows. He stretched languorously and reached for something, someone...Sha're? No, Sabrina.
Last night came back in a rush. Since Daniel had lost Sha're, his sexual encounters had been few and far between. He didn't quite live the life of a monk, but it was pretty close.
His first night with Sabrina had been great, but it had also been impulsive and hurried, as though each of them was afraid of lowering barriers and revealing too much about themselves. But last night was...well, amazing; `think about it in your old age' amazing. He smiled and stretched again.
Rolling over onto his side, he saw Sabrina, curled into a wing backed chair next to the fireplace, a blanket draped loosely around her.
She was staring into space and she looked sad, although it was hard to be sure without his glasses. Idly, he wondered where they were--he had no memory of taking them off. He didn't remember extinguishing the candles either. It was a wonder they hadn't burned down the house.
"Come back to bed," he said, lazily. Startled, she looked up. It was then he noticed she was holding the necklace, gently rubbing the symbol of Ra with her thumb. She stopped rubbing it and smiled at him.
"I didn't know you were awake," she said, as she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders more closely.
"Come back to bed," he said again, "You look cold...How long have you been sitting there?"
"About an hour." She smiled shyly. "I've been watching you sleep."
"Well, that's embarrassing," he laughed. "I hope I wasn't drooling." He sat up, pulled the covers up closer around his waist, and slid back so he could lean against the headboard. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I don't know. I guess you just looked so comfortable. I didn't want to disturb you."
"You're kidding, right?" laughed Daniel. He patted the bed next to him. "Come back to bed, Sabrina. I think we need to talk."
She walked over to the bed, the blanket still wrapped around her and crawled up next to him, so that she could lean against the headboard, too.
She was still holding the necklace, almost like she didn't want to let it go. Daniel wondered if she regretted giving it to him at the funeral.
"Why didn't you tell me someone was with you in the car?" he asked.
"What?"
"Your accident. Why didn't you tell me someone was with you?" Daniel put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close so that her head was resting on his chest.
"Who told you that? Morgan?"
"It doesn't matter who told me." He pulled her tighter. "Your cousin, Gretchen: were you two close?"
For a few moments she didn't answer. "No, not really. We had only known each other for a few days." She continued to play with the necklace as she talked. "I know that sounds strange, but you know how my family is...We're not....close."
Daniel nodded in sympathy. "How did you come to be together in that car?"
"She was on a vacation in Italy. You know; `See the Italian Riviera in Five Days'?...She looked me up, gave me a call, and asked me if I'd like to join her." She looked at Catherine's necklace and started rubbing its surface again. "We were cousins, and we'd never even met...Catherine had told her how to find me. I had some vacation time coming myself, so I said, `Why not?'."
"Tell me about the accident," prompted Daniel.
"There's not much to tell. I was driving a rental car. It had been raining. The road was slick. I lost control." Sabrina's voice seemed oddly unemotional, as though she had already put this far behind her. "We went over an embankment," she said. "I was just banged up some, but...Gretchen..." She swallowed. "Gretchen was thrown from the car. Gretchen died on the side of the road that day, all alone..."
Daniel was starting to regret his insistence that she talk about this. Her comments and reactions were odd, to say the least. "It wasn't your fault, Sabrina." He stroked her hair softly, and then kissed the top of her head.
"You don't know that. How could you know that?" She turned so that she was facing him.
"Because I know you."
"You don't know me, not really." She handed him the necklace and pulled the blanket tighter.
"Oh, I'd say I know you pretty well after last night..." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, finally eliciting a smile from her. He decided to let the subject go. "As much as I'd like to stay here the rest of the day...I guess we should get up. You want to share a shower?"
"Sure, I'm all about water conservation," she teased. "I'll go get it started. It takes a while for the water to heat up. Then you can come... `surprise me'."
"Ah ha...very funny."
Sabrina loosened her grip on the blanket and gave him a kiss. "Thanks."
"What for?"
"For caring enough to ask me what happened, what happened to Gretchen." She smiled and tried to blink back a tear.
He dried her tears with his thumb. "You're welcome, Sabrina."
Daniel watched her as she left the room. She had left the blanket on the bed, and he was enjoying the view. When he could no longer see her, he looked down at the necklace and then reached over to put it on the bedside table.
It slipped off the edge and then he heard it bounce as it hit the floor. "Damn." He felt around on the floor and finally located it just under the bed. When he pulled it back up into view, he was surprised to see that something had sprung open when it hit the floor. "Damn," he said again, "It's a locket."
"Daniel? You coming? I saved your place!" He could barely hear her over the water.
"I'll be there in a minute," he called out. "Don't wash anything until I get there!" He couldn't really hear her response. He concentrated instead on the necklace, no, the locket in his hand. Inside Catherine's signature piece of jewelry were two small pictures. He assumed that they were of Catherine and Ernest, taken when they had first met, back in the forties. It was hard to be sure without his glasses.
The two of them looked so full of life, so ready to take on the world. What were they trying to tell him? Sighing, he put it back carefully on the table. Then he made his way into the steamy bathroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did you have to take all the hot water, Daniel?" Jack looked a little pissed when he saw Daniel and Sabrina enter the kitchen; both of them looking freshly scrubbed and slightly flushed, their hair still damp.
"What makes you think I took all the hot water, Jack?" He maintained a look of innocence even as he winked at Sabrina, who picked up a cup and poured herself some coffee. She tried, unsuccessfully, to keep a straight face.
"I saw that!" exclaimed Jack.
"Come on, Jack. This is an old house. The hot water heater is probably on its last leg. Right, Sabrina?" He was determined he was going to protect her honor. The shower marathon had been his idea, after all.
"Absolutely. It's always breaking down." She looked at Daniel and then burst out laughing. He felt his lips twitch and realized the jig was up.
"I told you we should've showered together," said Sam. "I had plenty of hot water."
"D'oh!" Jack picked up the paper and started looking through the sports section, a disgusted look on his face. Sabrina raised her eyebrows questioningly at Daniel.
"`Simpsons' fan," explained Daniel. "He's got all the DVD's."
"Ahh."
By mutual agreement, they had decided to have cereal for breakfast this morning. Daniel poured himself some cornflakes and milk and joined Sam and Jack at the table. Sabrina brought her coffee over and sat down next to Daniel.
"When are you guys leaving?" asked Daniel. Obviously he had been hoping they could stay until this was resolved, but evidently that wasn't to be.
"I've got two meetings scheduled for early afternoon, and a briefing with SG-3 at fifteen hundred hours." Jack could almost hear the unspoken `oops' coming from his former teammates.
"SG-3?" asked Sabrina.
"Girl Scout troop...They need to tour a military base to get a badge--`Defending Your Country...from Aliens.'" Jack was smooth. Sam almost choked on her coffee, but covered well. "So we need to leave no later than eleven hundred hours." He went back to checking the hockey scores.
"How about you, Daniel?" Sabrina looked at him apprehensively.
Daniel looked at Jack for confirmation, who nodded at him in response. "I have some vacation time built up, so I can stay a little longer...if you want me to, that is."
"Oh, that would be great." She looked relieved.
"Hey, at least the two of you should have plenty of hot water with us gone."
"Jack? Bite me."
"Well, on that happy note, I think I'll go get my gear. Carter, you want some help packing up your equipment?" Daniel noticed that Jack had already slipped back into military mode.
"No, sir. I think I can handle it." And just like that, `Samandjack' were packed carefully away, to be taken out the next time they had a few days off.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Guess what I found out." Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace.
"That you like extremely long showers?"
"Well, besides that." Daniel grinned at Sabrina.
"Aha! I knew it!"
"No, seriously." He held the necklace out for Jack and Sam to see. "It's a locket."
"Sweet. What's inside?" Jack looked on as Sam took it from Daniel and tried to open it.
"You have to press on the edge opposite the chain." Daniel took it from her and popped it open.
"Are these pictures of Catherine and Ernest?" she asked as she held the locket up to catch the sunlight.
"I thought so at first, but now I don't think it's her. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's Ernest, but Catherine had dark hair when she was young. This girl looks a little like Catherine, but her hair's blonde."
Sam took a closer look, and soon she was agreeing with her friend. She and Daniel had both met Catherine while they were on a time-traveling jaunt back to 1969; and they both remembered her well from that time period.
"You're right. This isn't Catherine. And look; the picture quality, the hair style...this picture is much newer."
"But who is it?" asked Jack.
"I have no idea," Daniel answered. "Sabrina, do you have any idea...?" But when he turned around to look for her, she was gone.
"Maybe it says who it is on the back," Sam suggested. Daniel used the end of his spoon to pry the picture out of the locket. He turned it over and read one word. He stared at it for several long seconds while his thoughts started to spin and his stomach clinched. Oh, no.
"What does it say, Daniel?" she asked.
"Nothing. It says...there's nothing there." He snapped it closed and put it back in his pocket, a grim look on his face. "I uh, I need..." He walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jack and Sam to exchange worried glances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He finally found her sitting on the verandah. Her back was to him and she was shivering in the early spring morning. He pulled what he guessed was an old jacket of Catherine's from its peg next to the door and then went outside to join her.
She must've heard him open the door, but she didn't turn around. She sat on the end of a whicker chaise lounge, her arms wrapped around herself to ward off the chill.
He draped the jacket over her shoulders, and then swung one leg over the lounge so that he could sit behind her.
"I didn't know it was a locket," she said. He could tell she had been crying. "Was anything on the back of the picture?"
"Yes, the name of the girl...`Sabrina'..." He rubbed his hands over her arms as she dropped her head to her chest.
"You're Gretchen, aren't you?" When she didn't answer, he pulled her back so that she was leaning against him. He could feel her silent sobbing in his arms and chest.
"Tell me about the accident, Gretchen," he sighed. The name felt strange and foreign to him.
"Sabrina..." Gretchen's voice was shaking. "Sabrina rented the car in her name. But she asked me to drive that afternoon. She said she had a headache." She leaned her head back against his shoulder. "When I woke up in the hospital, they thought I was her, because I was the one...you know...driving."
"But you didn't correct them." Daniel wondered if she could feel the disapproval in his voice.
"What do you want me to say, that I wanted her life?" She sounded almost hysterical. "That I wanted her inheritance? That I wanted to remake myself in her image?" She was sobbing out loud now, and Daniel wasn't sure he could offer her any comfort. He wasn't sure he wanted to.
"What was on the security tape, Gretchen?"
Gretchen took several deep breaths, trying to stop crying. Finally, the combination of her arms wrapped around herself, the presence of Daniel's arms over hers and the feel of his heartbeat against her back served to calm her down somewhat.
She sighed. "I was on the security tape, my mother and me." She sounded spent, resigned, almost relieved to have this over with. Daniel kept silent, letting her tell the story at her own pace.
"Mother wanted me to stay in Europe. She didn't want me to risk running into Catherine and having her find out her `beloved Sabrina' was dead."
"So Barbara knew about the switch?"
"It was her idea." Gretchen was sniffling, but Daniel didn't have a handkerchief to offer her. He waited for her to continue. "I called her to let her know I was alright and to tell her about the mix-up. She told me to keep my mouth shut and she'd take care of everything."
"It was her idea to swindle Catherine?" The idea was so repugnant to him, that Daniel considered releasing his hold on her and getting up, just to clear his head; but he also wanted to hear the rest of the story.
"Mother was already in the will, for a fourth of Catherine's estate. If I got Sabrina's share...well, you can see...you can see how..." She hung her head in shame.
"Yeah, I can see." She hadn't even mentioned the generous allowance that Catherine was probably giving Sabrina on a regular basis. Daniel heard movement behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Jack and Sam next to the door. He sent them away with a shake of his head. "Why did you come to Denver? Why were you on that tape?"
"Curiosity. Greed. I had been exchanging e-mails with Catherine since Sabrina died, so she wouldn't suspect anything; and I knew, or thought I knew, that she was going on a month-long cruise."
"She'd been having some chest pains," said Daniel. "She had to cancel the cruise."
"Well, I didn't know that!" Gretchen cried. "I thought the house would be empty. She said she was giving her staff the month off. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see Catherine's home."
Daniel thought that was the saddest thing he had heard her say. "So you and Barbara broke in?"
"No, no, I had a key. I had Sabrina's key. But I didn't know about the security camera." She relaxed in his arms once again. "I didn't even think about it until you mentioned the camera at the hotel in Boston." He must've telegraphed his confusion, because she continued. "When you kissed me, you said something about our kiss being caught on tape." Daniel remembered now, all too well.
"What happened when you got to Catherine's?"
"We let ourselves in and looked around. We were afraid to turn on lights, so we just used our flashlights. It was amazing. Everything was so beautiful, so refined." She seemed lost in thought. "Suddenly the lights came on, and Catherine was standing there in the middle of the living room. I would've known her anywhere."
Daniel could picture his friend facing down intruders in her home. Catherine had always been fearless. "Then what happened?" he prodded.
Gretchen looked up at the sky. Daniel could see tears streaming down her face. "At first she thought I was Sabrina. We looked a lot alike." Her smile was twisted, forced. "Then she recognized Mother, and it was like something clicked. She knew who I was, and she knew Sabrina was dead."
"What do you mean?"
"I had e-mailed her, telling her about the accident and about the death of her cousin, `Gretchen'. I guess when she realized who I really was; she also...realized that Sabrina was the one who was dead." Gretchen turned sideways on the lounge so she could look at Daniel. "I wish it had been me who died."
Daniel pulled her into a loose hug. "What happened next?"
"We tried to explain what happened," Gretchen whispered, "but she wouldn't listen. She kicked us out. She was so angry, so upset. I've never felt so humiliated, well...until now." She looked at him, saw only condemnation in his eyes, and then glanced away. "She told us she was changing her will; that everything was going to charity. Then we left." She looked imploringly at Daniel. "She was alive when we left; you've got to believe me. If I had known she had a heart condition..."
"I believe you." And in spite of everything, he did. He knew now that Catherine's death hadn't been murder at all--just terribly, terribly sad. "Why the break-ins?" he asked.
"I called Mother from the hotel after you kissed me goodnight, and I told her we needed to find out if Catherine had a security camera. I had no idea she'd take care of it that night."
"Who did she get to break in?" Gretchen said nothing, obviously not wanting to incriminate anyone else. "Was it your brother?" When she didn't answer immediately, he knew he had guessed correctly. "James lives about an hour from here. He broke in while we were in Boston and found the tape for the night Catherine died."
"Did he break into my house, too?" Daniel asked. She nodded. "Why? What was on that tape?" She pulled away from him, sitting up straighter on the chaise lounge.
"James looked at the tape before he left the mansion. It showed Catherine sitting on the couch." Gretchen looked down and closed her eyes, trying to compose herself. "She was trying to make a phone call after we left, probably to her lawyer. Then suddenly she dropped the phone and clutched her chest."
Daniel could feel tears running down his cheeks. He hated that his friend's final moments had been so sad.
"Then, she...she undid the clasp of her necklace, held it in her hand, and looked at it...like it was the answer to all her problems. Then she...she kissed it, held it to her chest...and died..."
"James told you this?"
"Yes. Mother handed me a note after the dedication ceremony, telling me to call him. He told me he thought the necklace was important. He said he'd looked for it before he left, and he wanted to know where it was; if it could incriminate us...I guess that's how the house got trashed." She shook her head in bewilderment.
Daniel decided James must be a moron. He could've taken his time looking for the Eye of Ra after Sabrina...Gretchen got back from Boston. And vandalizing the house had only brought in the police...and him.
"So when you told him I had the necklace..."
"He had to look for it at your house. I'm sorry, Daniel." The implication of what she had just said was starting to kick in.
"Who knocked me out?" he asked, but he already knew the answer. It was written on her face.
"Oh, Sab..." He caught himself just in time, and sighed.
"I know." She looked miserable. "What are you going to do with me? Are you going to turn me in?"
Daniel took a deep breath and released it slowly before answering. "I'm not going to do anything, Gretchen," he said wearily; "but I'll go with you when you turn yourself in." She just looked at him and nodded.
***
When they walked back into the house, they found Jack and Sam waiting for them in the living room.
"What's going on, Daniel?" asked Jack. He could tell from his friend's demeanor that something pretty heavy-duty had happened on the verandah.
Daniel shifted his arm from around Gretchen's shoulder to her waist, like he was ready to support her, should she need his help. "We're going to the police station, Jack. Could you call Morgan Peterson and ask him to meet us there? Tell him it's the main station, the one downtown."
"Sure." Jack and Sam exchanged glances. "I'm assuming you're going to explain everything eventually?" he asked.
"Yeah, just not right now, okay?"
Jack looked at his friend and then pulled out his cell phone. "Look's like I'm going to have to cancel some meetings," he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epilogue:
"So, this is it--your last day as base commander." Daniel had come to Jack's office, ready to take him out for a celebratory lunch. He hadn't actually felt much like celebrating, but he felt like it was his obligation. Jack was his best friend, after all.
"Yep, this is it. All she wrote. The fat lady has sung. The..." Jack couldn't think of any more clichs.
"Elvis has left the building?" offered Daniel. He raised his eyebrows expectantly.
"Exactly."
Daniel smiled. He was going to miss Jack. "I'm sorry it's just us going out for lunch," he said. Sam had left two days earlier, and no one had heard from Teal'c in weeks.
"Hey, that's okay," answered Jack. "That was a pretty nifty send-off the base threw for me last night. And besides, you and me are a party, right?"
"Absolutely, Jack." He gathered up the last box from what would soon be General Landry's desk. "Ready to go?" he asked.
"No, not really." Jack turned to look at Daniel with an unusually somber look on his face. "But I think it's time." He picked up the box sitting on his chair.
Daniel didn't have an answer for that, so he followed his friend down the hall to the elevator that would take them to the entrance for NORAD. "Jack?" Jack heard a tone in Daniel's voice that caused him to stop and turn around.
"Jack, the Daedalus is on its way back from Atlantis. When it leaves, I'm going to be on it."
Jack smiled, but it was a sad smile. "I'm not surprised, ya know. You've been wanting to visit there for years."
"It's not a visit, Jack. I've asked to be assigned there permanently." Daniel had trouble meeting his friend's eyes, so he focused instead on the box he was carrying.
"Are you that lonely here, Daniel?" asked Jack. "I know I'm leaving for Washington...Sam and Teal'c have left you high and dry, but we'll be back to visit you..." He gave Daniel an appraising look. "Is it because of what happened with Sabrina?"
"Gretchen", Daniel corrected. "Sabrina died about a year ago."
"Sorry. Is it because of Gretchen?"
"Maybe, I don't know." It had been four days since they had left her at the police station in Denver.
Daniel hadn't talked much about his relationship with the woman who was at least partly responsible for Catherine's death, and he could tell Jack was trying to give him space. He appreciated that. The truth was that Daniel's feelings were still very mixed, and so very raw.
"Have they had the arraignment yet?"
"Yeah, it was yesterday afternoon."
"Why didn't you tell me? I would've gone with you."
"I didn't want you there," said Daniel. It would've been too painful to have Jack with him in the courtroom, and he didn't want or need his sympathy. "I posted her bail..." He waited for Jack's response. Hell, he probably could've written it for him.
"You what?" Jack couldn't believe his ears. "Daniel, she cheated, she lied, she stole, she...cheated. And you're defending her?"
"She doesn't have anyone else, Jack. Her mother and brother are both in custody. I think she just got in over her head."
"I think..." Jack tapped his foot in frustration. He started to say he thought Daniel was thinking with something other than his brain, but he knew his friend was better than that, better than he would've been. "I think Gretchen's lucky to have you for a friend," he amended. "She is just a friend, right?"
"Yeah, just a friend. We had a long talk, and we both decided we were looking for something...that just wasn't there." Daniel looked older since his experience with Gretchen...and wiser. "I'll be sticking around long enough for the trial. I'm going to testify in her behalf, Jack." He looked at his friend as though he was expecting to be challenged.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Daniel," smiled Jack. "Come on, that box must be getting heavy." They stepped into the elevator. "You know, I've been thinking about that whole Gretchen thing."
"Yeah?"
"If she hadn't called you and invited you to Denver, she probably could've gotten away with impersonating Sabrina for the rest of her life."
"I've thought the same thing."
"You just can't seem to help it, can you, Danny?" he teased affectionately. "You're just a `babe magnet'."
"Please don't start, Jack."
When Jack saw Daniel's face and realized his joke had fallen flat, he apologized. "I'm sorry. That was out of line."
"Yes, it was."
"What do you think's going to happen with Catherine's estate?"
"I don't know," replied Daniel. "It'll probably be held up in the legal system for years. If I have my way, it's all going to charity."
"Including what she left you?" asked Jack.
"As long as I get to keep the Eye of Ra, I'll be happy."
It was time to change elevators for the second half of their trip. They crossed the short hall and stepped into a second car that would take them to the entrance of Cheyenne Mountain. They made the trip in silence.
"Oh, by the way," said Jack, as he checked out of the base for the last time as its commander, "I left you a present."
"Yeah?"
"Yep, it's being delivered to your office as we speak." He shifted the box to his hip so he could unlock the door to his truck. He shoved the box into the back seat and then got in behind the wheel.
"It's not maroon leather, is it?" Daniel swung the other box into the back next to Jack's and then climbed into the passenger seat.
"Could be."
"Your chair!"
"Could be." Jack smiled at his younger friend. "Of course, you know they won't let you take that with you to Atlantis," he joked, as he backed out of his reserved parking place for the last time.
"And why not?" asked Daniel, entering into the spirit of the discussion.
"Doesn't match their `dcor'", answered Jack. "If you want the chair, you're going to have to stay right here."
"We'll see, Jack. We'll see."
The End
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Where There's a Will
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