"How long has it been?"

General Landry was standing in the control room overlooking what he now thought of as his Stargate and looking from one wide eyed late night technician to the other. Both looked nervous as hell and like they'd personally been responsible for what had occurred.

He enjoyed the 'gate technicians probably more than the rest of his current staff. They were so easy to terrify. Just the right kind of stern look and they scampered.

"Um…ah, I mean," Peters looked through the paperwork spread across his workstation, probably looking for any kind of evidence of the last transmission they had received from the Pegasus Galaxy. His searching grew more frantic with each passing second and Hammond decided to be gracious and let the boy off the hook.

After all, the report he was desperately searching for was on Landry's desk.

"About twelve hours overdue." Landry looked up and spotted Walter bustling into the control room, the offending report in hand and with a reproachful look on his face. Landry inwardly groaned. Walter would be finding subtle and almost indefinable ways to torture him about the mistreatment of his techs for days.

With the figure said aloud though, Landry forgot his gentle teasing and focused on the problem at hand.

"Twelve hours?" he repeated, raising eyebrows.

"Twelve hours what?" Samantha Carter appeared at his elbow as if by magic. He wondered if maybe she had felt a subtle disturbance in the 'force'. He also decided that Teal'c's passion for the Star Wars movies was getting out of hand if even he started thinking in Star Wars metaphors because he'd had the movies inflicted on him so many times.

"Apparently Doctor Weir is twelve hours overdue for filing her report. She's been late before, but never by this much." Landry explained, turning slightly to include Sam in the discussion. A frown was already creasing her brow and he held up a placatory hand. "It doesn't mean anything yet. They could have a malfunction on their end or someone is late filing a necessary report that they need before they send everything through. Remember, they're limited to how many times they can send through a communication and they're not going to dial us to tell us they're running late."

Sam crossed her arms and cocked her head at Landry and he sighed mightily, scrubbing a hand over his face.

"I know, something's wrong isn't it?" he conceded and Sam's mouth firmed as she nodded.

xxxxxxx

After nine years, Daniel Jackson barely resembled the shuffling and lanky geek he had once been. He was as comfortable with firearms as any trained marine and could handle himself easily in hand to hand. He cut off long hair, toned his muscles and would meet people's eyes when he walked the hallways of the SGC rather than looking at his shoes.

Despite all this, Jack O'Neill could still sneak up on him.

Jack stalked behind Daniel silently and raised a hand, grinning. He waggled his fingers just out of Daniel's peripheral vision and then curled his thumb and middle finger until they met. He positioned his hand carefully and then let go, flicking Daniel in the ear.

Daniel yelped in surprise, his hand darting out across his desk and snagging the first thing it came into contact with. He spun, holding a fertility statuette from P3S-989 with a rather prominent member, above his head.

Jack was already doubled over, laughing his ass off.

It took a few seconds for Daniel to release his grip on the statuette and lower it, letting his breathing also get under control. "Jack, for chrissakes!" he snapped, jabbing Jack in the chest with the statuette. "You almost gave me a heart attack." Jack relieved Daniel of his 'weapon' and looked at it, turning it over in his hands.

"You touching me with this thing doesn't mean we're married does it?" he asked, his brow arching. Daniel snatched the statuette back and stretched over to his bookshelf, placing it out of harms way.

"No, but you might now be pregnant," he snarked, but his scowl dissolved into a grin only seconds later when Jack used the sleeve of his dress blues to wipe his streaming eyes and nose. "That's disgusting Jack," he remarked, but yelped and danced out of the way when Jack shrugged and made a grab for Daniel's own sleeve.

"I've gotta get it dry-cleaned anyway."

They both stood, looking warily at each other for a few moments, breathing heavily, Daniel recovering from his fright and Jack from his giggles. They both grinned and Jack punched Daniel in the shoulder affectionately. "Should we start again, this time like normal people?" he asked and Daniel snorted.

"You've never been normal."

"Quiet you," Jack waggled a finger. "I'm being serious. Now, hello Daniel, how have you been?"

Daniel reached for his coffee cup on the desk behind himself and grimaced when he found the contents cold. "Not too bad. What brings you here?"

"Apparently we've lost contact with Atlantis. The big wigs are worried," Jack said and Daniel, who'd been contemplating taking a sip of the stone cold coffee anyway because it was caffeine and nearby, lowered the cup.

"We have?"

"My God, Daniel. Do you ever leave your office short of going off world or to the bathroom?" Jack demanded, relieving Daniel of the offending mug that Daniel had been staring into again. He took it over to the small sink in the corner of Daniel's office and dumped out the contents, rinsing it quickly and setting it aside.

"Ye-es." Daniel grimaced, knowing his affirmation sounded false ever to his own ears. He always assumed when something exciting happened Sam or Teal'c would come and let him know, unless they were involved with fixing the problem.

He always found out, but usually got the cliff notes version after the excitement if he wasn't actively needed.

"Doesn't anyone come and chase you out of this office?" Jack grumped and Cameron Mitchell appeared in the doorway as if on cue, dressed in a t-shirt and track bottoms and with a basketball under his arm.

"Dannyboy! Time for natu-" He started when he noticed Jack and came to attention, the ball falling from under his arm and rolling away down the hallway. "Sorry, Sir," he said, snapping a salute.

Jack sighed and waved a dismissive hand at him. "At ease," he said.

"Did you know we'd lost contact with Atlantis?" Daniel asked, rounding his desk.

"Yeah. The techies are working on it. I'm sure they'll let us know if they need us," Cameron supplied and Daniel raised his eyebrows at Jack.

Jack scowled. "When something happened, I was always in the control room," he said.

"Doing what?" Jack wasn't sure if Cameron was teasing and had the best deadpan face in the business, or if he was genuinely curious.

"Important…stuff." Jack said, waving a hand.

Daniel's phone shrilled and Jack thought saved by the bell was the appropriate response. Daniel leaned over his desk and snagged the receiver out of its cradle, his expression growing serious. "Yes, sir," he said, raising eyebrows at Jack again, but this time Jack had the feeling he was being included in something. "I don't have to ask him," Daniel added and Jack's interest was well and truly perked. He leaned sideways, trying to catch the other side of the conversation, but Daniel leaned away on the other side as far, almost comically overbalancing. "No, I don't think it's his call." Daniel's brows had drawn down and he was looking at Jack sternly.

Jack knew the look. Daniel was angry with Jack for something he hadn't even had a chance to do yet.

"No, I don't think that's-" Daniel sighed theatrically and then handed the receiver over to Jack, his scowl firmly in place.

Jack placed the receiver to his ear and then looked at Daniel, his eyebrows climbing his forehead in a quest for his hairline. Cameron watched both men, fascinated by the interplay between them.

"Absolutely not." Jack snapped, and Cameron had to admit that now he was fascinated, just as Daniel snapped out a plaintive "Ja-ack!"

Jack listened to the person on the other end, nodding every now and then, a habit that Daniel teased him mercilessly about. He finally looked up at Daniel and exhaled. "I do understand that. Everybody keeps telling me that…. No, of course not but… alright, yes, I do get that, however… alright fine, but if he goes, I go… oh, right." Jack pulled the receiver away from his ear, looked at it for a few beats, and then dropped it into Daniel's outstretched hand.

Both Daniel and Cameron were watching him.

"Okay, now both of you know what's going on and I'm in the dark." Cameron grinned.

"They want Daniel to go to Atlantis," Jack supplied, looking a little bewildered.

"I guess that makes sense if something's happened. He is the foremost-"

"Don't say it," Jack growled and Daniel tried to hide his grin behind his hand but only managed to make it more obvious.

"It's my call Jack," Daniel protested. "I want to go. I want to help."

"You want to see what all the fuss is about," Jack corrected and Daniel shrugged, not denying it.

"Anyhow, apparently this is over my head," Jack held up his hand when Daniel's face broke into a grin that spread from ear to ear. "I thought saying that you couldn't go without me would be a deal breaker."

Cameron looked from Jack to Daniel and back again.

"And?" he prompted.

"They said they'd assumed I'd be going. Something about how Hammond had taken the Prometheus out and they figured it would only be a matter of time before I wanted to do the same with the Daedelus."

"So, we're-"

"Going. Pack a bag."