I was supposed to arrive on Abydos and make a great first impression: be calm, confident, perfect officer, super scientist and above all a supremely 'in charge' woman. I'd already blown my image with Colonel O'Neill. Determined to be way more than competent and highly desirable as an officer, I reacted to what I figured was sexist crap with a vehemence that still makes me cringe with embarrassment. Abydos was my second chance to impress him with my cool, and the first opportunity to impress the heck out of the man who'd figured out how to open the stargate.
Instead, I ended up clutching my stomach after the most nauseating roller coaster ride in the universe, with the pasta I had for lunch threatening to make a comeback.
The crack about my 'big lunch' was almost enough to make me try for projectile vomiting all over Colonel Jerk's boots. I can't believe I was so eager to meet the man! Still, it did make me determined not to humiliate myself and helped me get myself - and my stomach - under control.
The appearance of the kids threw us all for a loop. They were armed and looked like they know what they were doing. You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife.
Then Doctor Daniel Jackson made his entrance.
Oh my.
I'd read the reports he'd filed prior to the first Abydos mission and he'd impressed the heck out of me. Incredibly intelligent, intuitive, ready to think along several different lines and way outside the box - Mother Nature doesn't hand out too many men like that, probably because she keeps them for herself. And when she does make them she doesn't usually give them bright blue eyes, a perfect mouth and a face that was...was...
Holy Hannah, the man was beautiful. The fact he was around six feet tall and lean was icing on the cake.
And, boy, did I want a piece.
I couldn't believe I was having that reaction. My heart had started pounding like I was a fifteen year old kid on her first date but the physical responses were all grown up. I swear he looked at me and my nipples tightened.
Sha're was like a bucket of cold water.
Off limits. Gotcha. If I hadn't already gotten the message, the kiss she planted on him was signal enough.
The stargate addresses he led us to were a welcome distraction. I was so busy speculating and arguing with him over the possibility that the stargate might go to other worlds, I didn't even notice at the time how right it felt to be doing that, how satisfying it was to have someone who could keep up with me, who was so smart he could speculate on possibilities in a field he knew little about.
Have I said how incredible Daniel is? If I hadn't already formed a crush on the man then that moment when we just...connected...would have done it.
After that events played out so fast that we barely had time to draw breath. The upshot of it all was that we were going to be on the same team.
His wife is still out there going through hell and Daniel is going crazy worrying about her.
And I'm clearly pretty crazy myself because logic isn't getting through to my emotions this time. I'm falling for him with each passing day: not like some teenager with a crush; not some hormonal reaction to an attractive male. On Abydos I wanted him and then there was a connection, a sense of finding someone who complemented me, completed me, and something so special and rare that if I never have anything more than his friendship I'll still be blessed.
But I still want a piece of that cake...