Dan was just in the process of placing a sample in an agarose gel when there was a knock at the door of her small laboratory. Not bothering to hide her annoyance, she swore out loud and gently put the sample back into it's tube before laying down the micropipette and answering the door.

"What do you wa-" she demanded, before changing the question to: "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I've come to talk to you," Colonel O'Neill said, stepping past her and into the lab.

"Aren't you supposed to be off gallavanting around the galaxy?" she asked, slapping his hand when he tried to touch some of her equipment.

"It got cut short by the fact that nothing was there," O'Neill replied, perching his backside on the edge of her computer desk.

Assured that he couldn't kill too much there, Dan went back over to her gel. "What do you want?" she repeated her first question.

"Oh, just to get to know you better," the colonel said. She could tell from the distracted tone that he was looking around the cramped room. "You work here?"

"From eight 'til six every day except Sundays," she replied drawing a sample up into a new pippette tip. "But I suspect you aren't here to interview me about my working conditions."

"No, I just want to know what you have in mind with regard to Daniel."

"Who says it's any of your business?" Dan asked mildly, crouching down so that she could see what she was doing as she carefully placed the sample in the applicable well.

"I do. Daniel's my friend and he's been hurt one too many times. Besides, I want to know what he sees in you," O'Neill said.

"Because I'm a freak?"

"I didn't say that," the colonel backpeddled. He'd obviously just remembered her temper.

With her back to him, Dan grinned to herself - she could have a little fun with this guy. Actually, make that a lot of fun.

"You didn't have to," she said, putting on a slightly defensive tone and preparing for the full-blown guilt trip. "Obviously you think that I'm not good enough for Daniel."

"I didn't say that." O'Neill's voice took on a slight wheedling quality as he denied her statement.

"No, you made that obvious by the look of disbelief you gave me when I walked into his office yesterday. Oh, I'm definitely not good enough for your little friend." She let her voice become more miserable with every word until it seemed she was about to cry. Letting some obligatory tears well up in her eyes, she laid down her pippette and swung around to face him. "Well I've got news for you. Daniel accepts me for who I am and doesn't care that I'm not some straight-laced, big-mouthed yank, or that I have a short temper," she all but yelled, jabbing the colonel in the chest with a gloved finger. "At least he's tolerant of my little quirks which is more than I can say for you!"

O'Neill's mouth opened and closed like a stunned mullet as he tried to search for something to say. "I, uh, I-" Dan quickly learnt a lot about the colonel - marauding aliens were a cakewalk compared to an over-emotional woman.

"Oh, I know what you're going to say 'I didn't say that'," she said, crossed her arms over her chest and touched her fingers to her mouth as if she was trying to physically hold back all of the emotion. This was definitely one of the best guilt trips she'd ever given - maybe even better than the one she'd laid on for her dad when he'd refused to buy her a computer when she was eighteen and in her first year of university. Eventually, the look of shocked surprise on O'Neill's face was too much for her and she started to snigger into her hand.

"What?!" O'Neill cried.

Turning her back on him she completely lost control and began to howl with laughter, eventually doubling over and putting her hands on her knees in order to remain upright.

"What the hell?! Were you- You were bullshitting me!" he eventually yelled.

"You got it sweetheart," she replied, straightening up and turning around. "As if your opinions mean anything to me. Hah!"

"You- You!" O'Neill's show of impotent anger was definitely a sight to behold, and only fueled the hilarity of the situation in her view.

"'You- You' what?" Dan asked, her mouth curved into a grin. "What were you going to call me? C'mon, show me some American insults."

"Argh!" the colonel finally roared and stormed past her out of the lab. Dan looked after him for a moment before chuckling quietly again.

"Sucker."

The End

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