Early Mornings (Daniel&Elizabeth, PG), by Yvi [SG1/SGA]

[yvi]

(I am re-posting my older fics here. This is from 2007.)

Title: Early Mornings
Author: Yvi
Rating: PG
Pairing/Friendship: Daniel Jackson / Elizabeth Weir friendship/pre-ship
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Elizabeth Weir
Genre: friendshp, crossover
Prompt: Early morning coffee and chitchat by featherjean in the sg1sga_ficathon
Summary: Elizabeth is in need of coffee. And where do you find the best coffee in the SGC?
Word Count: ~1600
Author Notes: Beta credit and eternal gratitude go to: triciabyrne1978

Early Mornings
by Yvi

It was very early when Elizabeth Weir left her quarters that morning. Very early according to her watch at least, but seeing as she was more than 20 levels beneath ground level, she had lost her feeling for time quite a bit. Elizabeth did go outside sometimes, but mostly she was stuck on this base, away from sunlight and condemned to what seemed to be an eternity of meetings with military people who weren't good at concealing their disapproval of the way she had handled quite a few situations.

Elizabeth didn't care as much as they would like her to. She knew there were some incidents that she could have handled better, but that was in hindsight, with all the information and a lot of time to think about possible courses of action. In the midst of a situation, these weren't available to her. Defending what she did was not that hard; still it made her visit to Earth a lot less pleasant than she would have wanted it to be.

Coffee, of course, was an integral part of mornings, whether early or not. Actually, it was an integral part of living, no matter the time of day. But especially for early mornings.

The mess hall, of course, had a coffee machine - several, in fact since many scientists worked at the SGC. As Elizabeth had very quickly found out, though, the coffee wasn't to her liking and so she went in search of another option. The scientists probably had machines in their labs for when they couldn't find the time to go to the mess hall. But Elizabeth was in need of quality coffee and she had a good idea where she would find that.

Surprisingly, the door to Daniel Jackson's office was not locked, even though the archeologist was not in there. The coffee machine was standing on his desk and Elizabeth wasted no time making her coffee - the end result smelled heavenly and for a moment, she just closed her eyes and breathed in the very familiar scent.

"Well, this is new."

Elizabeth flinched at the sound of the male voice and spilled a bit of coffee over her hands. "Ouch, damn," she exclaimed and quickly sat the coffee on a corner of the desk in front of her that wasn't covered in books and what might be valuable artifacts. She wiped the hot coffee that was still on her hands on her jeans and hoped she didn't already have burns.

"I’m sorry; I didn't mean to startle you." Daniel Jackson was standing in the door, looking a bit embarrassed.

"No, I am sorry, I didn't mean to break into your office, I was just..."

"In search of some good coffee. Don't worry. I remember what kind of coffee they have in the mess hall."

Elizabeth had to smile at that. "Still, I shouldn't just have entered when you weren't here, Doctor Jackson." She did feel rather embarrassed. Her coffee-less brain had made her enter someone else's office without even asking beforehand.

"It's Daniel." He closed the door behind him.

"Excuse me?"

"If you’re going to be trespassing in my office at 4:30 in the morning, stealing my good coffee, you might as well call me Daniel."

It really was too early for her, especially too early and without caffeine - Elizabeth could feel herself blushing a bit at that.

"You might also sit down," Daniel added, putting files from his second chair to the floor to make room for her.

Elizabeth grabbed her cup and sat down. "Thank you." She sipped on it, taking in the aroma that was so much different from the ones she had had the day before - Doctor Jack... Daniel really knew quality.

"So," Daniel said while he was preparing a cup of coffee for himself, "why the early morning? I thought the meetings took place at civilized times now."

Elizabeth took another sip before she answered. "Oh, the next meeting isn't scheduled until 8, lucky me. I just couldn't go to sleep again. What about you?"

Daniel looked at her a bit confused for a moment, as though he hadn't expected a question. "I suppose I am still a bit... gate-lagged from the last mission. Brought back a lot of interesting texts to translate."

"If you want to work, please just say so, I really did not mean to interrupt."

Daniel's coffee was finished by now and he sat down opposite her, the desk between them. He smiled. "It's fine, really. It's not like I can function properly before my first two cups of coffee anyway."

"I know the feeling."

Daniel took his first sip and cleared out another few books from the desk to put his cup down. Elizabeth hadn't really looked around the office before, but she could now see that it was relatively crowded.

"Do they let you out at all?" Daniel asked.

"Out as in off-base?" Elizabeth assumed and Daniel nodded. "Not so much - you know how these things drag on..."

"There are definitely reasons why I have no intention to ever lead any operation like this - besides the fact that I would probably completely screw up their budget, of course." He laughed.

"Yes, it can be quite... tedious," Elizabeth said.

Daniel looked at her. If Elizabeth hadn't known better, she would have thought something about piercing gazes and reading one's mind. "But you love your job," Daniel said.

It wasn't a question, yet Elizabeth answered. "Yes, I do. Wouldn't trade that opportunity for the world." She genuinely wouldn't. Even after all the questioning, with all the responsibility, losing Simon, leading the Atlantis expedition was still worth it all.

"Sounds like my job, then. Even though I would love to come to Atlantis again one day."

Elizabeth remembered the one time Daniel had come to Atlantis, which had been a far too short a visit to even begin to see the wonders Atlantis held. It really had been a shame that the one person in the SGC who would give so much to see Atlantis hadn't been able to explore the city, or meet with the Athosians, or been on a mission in the Pegasus galaxy. "I am sure that can be arranged. You are very welcome there."

"Thank you," the archaeologist said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'll have a few free weeks again for quite some time. The downsides of having a job that involves saving the world on a semi-regular basis."

"Well, thank God that the upsides make up for it. Interesting alien cultures, the joy of saving the world yet again, hours and hours of meetings..."

"I think we are trading into downside territory again there."

Elizabeth sighed. "I'm sorry, these meeting are just so very... taxing."

"The military giving you a hard time?"

"Yes. I mean, I understand why they are doing this, but this need to question every one of my orders? It gets irritating very fast." Elizabeth took the last sip of her coffee, almost a bit disappointed. She was enjoying this conversation, even if the current subject wasn't that nice. But talking to Daniel was like talking to an old friend - someone who just understood you. It wasn't at all awkward.

He nodded. "I can imagine."

They sat in silence for a bit, Daniel still drinking his coffee and Elizabeth just letting her eyes and her mind wander a bit. She didn't so much pay attention to all the books and artifacts, but a few smaller things caught her eye. A picture on one of Daniel's shelves caught her eye. Elizabeth didn't need to ask Daniel to know who the beautiful dark-haired woman in the picture was. "How did you do it?" she said more to herself than to him.

Daniel looked up from the desk. "How did I do what?"

Elizabeth took a deep breath. She knew this was venturing into much more personal space than anything the two of them had ever talked about. Not that they had talked about anything that wasn't work before. "Adjust to working here. Living here. After coming back from Abydos."

He, just like her, took a deep breath, pausing for a moment. Just when she wanted to take the question back, he answered. "It was hard. But Jack helped me a lot. And I had a goal back then. Something to focus on - I didn't notice that much around me back then. When... When that goal was gone, I suppose I had already adjusted."

There was no need to ask for what he was referring to - Elizabeth had read the mission report. Of course, none of them could convey how it must have been. She couldn't imagine Daniel ten years ago, just after his wife had been taken by the Goa'uld, or even seven years ago, when she had died. She didn't know this Daniel Jackson - from what she had read in his mission reports, he had changed quite a bit since then.

"I see." And she really could. Having something to work for, even if that something was not going to be easy to get, it helped. "Do you think we can ever do it? Defeat them?"

"I have to."

Elizabeth only nodded. Daniel had seen them being defeated, helped to defeat the Goa'uld. There was hope, there had to be.

"Thanks for everything," she said, as she got up. Daniel did likewise. "And again, you are very welcome on Atlantis."

They were standing at the door now. Daniel reached out and placed his hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. "Thank you. And if you ever feel in need of coffee again, you know where to find me."

Daniel leaned in and softly kissed her cheek. Elizabeth closed her eyes for a second, and then smiled at him. "I do," she said before opening the door and leaving his office.