Events on the Horizon: A Stargate Sequel

Chapter 21

Daniel

She was feverishly switching around between sections of the pocket notebook she kept in her coat, writing away unaware of the world around her. Since she had come back from the jump she kept a notebook in her pocket always jotting things down. It was a habit that she had teased me for before and now she adapted it as her own. Her curls half pinned back, gnawing on her bottom lip, fern green sweater slouching across her shoulders and making freckles peer just past them. How I lavished in counting every one of them over and over again in the early mornings as she was asleep beside me. The waiter brought over our warm mugs of my Irish coffee and her spiked cider with a basket of cheddar scones, placing them on the worn and nicked wooden table we sat at. I gave him a small gesture of appreciation and he walked off.

"What are you working on?" I asked quietly, taking a sip of my coffee and reaching for a sugar packet.

"Um, Hammond and Jonas asked me to compile a few things for a meeting next month and I can't seem to figure out the pattern link between these four planets. I know I had it back before the, well before," she paused and went back to writing. I tapped the journal and she looked back up at me as I playfully put on a stern face. 

"Now darling, you chose this pub because we could walk home after a drink, unwind, take in the scenery, and you are doing the opposite. Worry about work on the SGC's time, not ours."

Her face flushed that adorable rosey pink across her cheeks and nose and she closed the notebooks slipping them into her bag. "Fair point, ironically coming from you. But the sooner I can finish this project, the sooner..."

"You will delve into another one." I stirred the sugar packet into my mug and she scrunched her nose back.

"I'm not a master puzzle solver like you," she grumbled and it took great resolve for me to keep from laughing.

"It takes me a while to figure it out, and I don't want to give anyone questions about hiring me."

"You've already well done your initial quarter projections in the first two months you've been working. You have time to unwind." I reached out taking her hand and squeezed it gently. "This is our time to just be together." Her face softened and she squeezed mine in return. The waiter came back asking for our order and she stared blankly at the menu forgetting to look at it earlier.

"Do you need another minute?" He glanced over at the neighboring booth and tapped his foot before turning back to us. 

"She'll have the shepherd's pie half plate and I'll have the fish and chips please." I collected the menus and handed it over to the waiter. "An order of the Dutch apple cobbler and Guinness chocolate cake after, to go." He turned on his heels before heading to his next collection of customers crowding by the front doors of the small pub. "I assume you want some of mine, I'll have some of yours?"

"Always, yes. Thank you." She gave a weak smile and took a long chug of her warmed cider. "I was going to work on wedding plans earlier but then Jonas asked about this project last Thursday and I haven't had a chance to really hunker down and sort it out. It's been eating at me and I got carried away."

"Wedding plans?" A smile perked around my lips and I took another slow drink, maintaining eye contact with her as I saw the flush creep over her cheeks once more. Before there was an established us, she'd bring me coffee in the mornings and I'd enjoy listening to her as she would talk about whatever she saw on her drive or any problems that morning she was facing. Something about my eye contact when slowly drinking a mug of coffee always made her breath hitch and that little flush of her skin that made my own blood rush in response. I'd do anything to get those small unaware responses from her. That her body unknowingly craved me as much as I did her.