Chapter Text
SG1 as a five man team didn’t go on missions all together very often. Most times four people would do just fine, which worked out well since Daniel and Jonas filled very similar roles. They would often tag team, switching back and forth on what missions either man would go on. Missions where they were both needed were few and far between. Which made this situation even more embarrassing.
“They left without us.” Daniel said in disbelief.
“They did.” Jonas agreed, just as surprised.
“How did they leave without us?”
“I have no idea.”
That was just the first of three things to go wrong. The second was that they lost their GDOs in a freak squirrel attack. The third thing? It started raining. Hard. So now, they were holed up in a cave, unable to dial the ‘gate back to Earth. And even if they could, the rain prevented them from leaving the cave.
“How could this day get any worse?” Daniel asked, leaning his head against the cave wall dramatically. Lightning flashed outside, and Jonas gave him a look.
“Don’t jinx us. Please.” Jonas sighed, already done with the whole situation. His head hurt due to the weather, and he was pretty sure that one of the alien squirrels bit him earlier.
“Sorry.”
They sat in silence for a few hours, watching the rain, and stewing in their own annoyance.
“When we get back, I’m gonna eat a whole pint of ice cream.” Daniel said, looking over at Jonas. “I’m gonna go to the nearest store, buy a pint of mint chocolate chip, and then I’m gonna curl up under some thick warm blankets to eat it.”
“Mint chocolate chip?” Jonas asked bemusedly. “That’s your go to ice cream flavor?” Jonas laughed, and Daniel shrugged.
“Why not. What’s your favorite ice cream?” Daniel asked with a chuckle of his own. Jonas paused for a moment before responding,
“Cookie dough.”
“Figures.” Daniel scoffed. “I bet you also put a whole bunch of chocolate syrup on yours too, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah.” Jonas laughed. “That’s the best way to eat any ice cream.”
They sat discussing ice cream for a while until a particularly loud thunderclap shook the entire cave. Both of them jumped and looked out the cave entrance, and watched as the rain came down even heavier. Jonas groaned and leaned his head against the cave wall. Now his head was pounding.
“You okay?” Daniel asked, leaning forward a bit.
“Fine. Just the weather. Something about atmospheric pressure, or something.” Jonas replied with a wave. “Not the worst headache I’ve ever had. I’m okay.” Daniel nodded, remembering how bad Jonas’ head had hurt after Anubis used the mind probe on him.
“Alright.” Daniel looked back out at the rain, and hoped it would end soon. “Well, at least we got plenty of pictures of the ruins.” He patted his backpack pocket, to double check that the camera was still there.
“True.” Jonas said, perking up a bit. “I can’t wait till we can finish translating the carvings.” He had a point, the most interesting part of the ruins had been the carvings that trailed along all across the ancient temple. (Not big ‘A’ Ancient though. Little ‘a’ ancient.) the words carved spiraled around each other, never overlapping, they seemed very intentional in the way they were placed. Jonas and Daniel had been just finishing up cataloging and photographing all the carvings when the rest of SG1 had left without them.
They moved farther into the cave after a few minutes, because the wind picked up and started blowing the rain right at them. They were both wet now. And the mood in the cave had dropped when they realized that Daniel’s camera had gotten soaked in the process.
“There goes the pictures. We’ll have to go back to the ruins and take more later.” Daniel groused. He held out the camera and let some water drain out of it.
“It’s a good thing we copied some of the carvings down.” Jonas sighed with a shrug. There wasn’t really anything they could do about the camera now. Jonas hoped that Sam might be able to save some of them, but didn’t bank on it happening.
“That’s true.” Daniel agreed, leaning against the cave wall in defeat. “I hate the rain.”
“Me too.” Jonas concurred, closing his eyes against his headache. Daniel pointed a flashlight beam at him, causing Jonas to squint at him. “What?”
“Sorry. I was trying to look up above you, without blinding you.” Daniel explained sheepishly, moving the flashlight beam up a bit higher. “I think I just found something to keep us entertained for a while.” Daniel grinned wildly at Jonas, who had to turn around to see what he was talking about.
Daniel was right. The wall behind where Jonas had been sitting, was covered in the same swirling curving carvings as the temple ruins had been. Words in a language that neither of them had ever seen before, that spiraled and twisted across the cave wall in a way that was nothing short of beautiful. Both archeologists sat in open-mouthed shock as Daniel moved the flashlight beam up the cave wall, following the flow of the carvings until they stopped, right in the middle of the roof of the cave.
“Whoa.” Jonas said, staring wide-eyed at the writing. “Where do you think it starts from?”
“I have no idea.” Daniel answered, standing and tracing his finger along the delicate script. “But I can’t wait to find out.”
That was how the rest of SG1 found them the next day, when the rain stopped. Deep in a cave, copying and logging carvings from the walls. “I told you they’d be fine.” Col. O’Neill said, grinning at Maj. Carter. “Figures they’d find more old rocks to look at.”