Archaeology (14b/30)
Title: Archaeology ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5 Chapter6 Chapter7a-- 7b Chapter8 Chapter9a-- 9b Chapter10 Chapter11 Chapter12a-- 12b Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a
19 December 2000; Infirmary, SGC; 1700 hrs
Daniel left the other three to be checked over by Janet while he was led into a side room, where Dr. Warner made him lie down. He fell asleep again, but by the time he woke up, over an hour had passed, his entire body had faded to a mass of muted aches, and his hand had been wrapped snugly.
Janet bought him back out to the main infirmary, explaining that there were stitches under the bandage holding together his hand and the things inside his hand. The others had apparently taken Dr. Jordan into a closed conference room to figure out what to do with the man, but Sam must have taken his glasses earlier, because she'd left them in the infirmary for him.
"Are you having any trouble breathing?" she said as she finished giving him a tetanus shot and pushing water at him.
Daniel frowned, fighting against the familiar feeling of pain medication making him fuzzy. "Breathing? Why?"
Her fingers touched his neck, tilting his head up gently. "Were you strangled at some point?"
Oh. That. "Maybe a little," he said.
"A litt..." She sighed and get go of his chin. "Let someone know right away if you start having trouble breathing or if it starts hurting. At all."
At this point, he didn't think his neck was what he'd worry about hurting. "What about...?" He held up his thankfully numb hand.
Janet pulled it back down. "I don't want you using it at all for a day or two. That means no use until I say so, and then just a little at a time. If it doesn't heal properly--if the wound opens, if there's too much scarring--you could lose some mobility. That's no little scratch." Daniel felt his eyebrows shoot up in alarm. She held up a finger. "We think you'll be okay, but that means following my directions exactly and no overdoing things if you want full strength back."
"Yes, ma'am," he said. He twitched the fingers of his hand--one of his fingers felt reluctant to move when he told it to, but he couldn't tell if that was because of the wrapping or whatever they'd sewn up. He stopped when it started to feel vaguely, disconnectedly uncomfortable.
"Now, Teal'c uses very strenuous physical therapy regimes," she went on. "I know you still train with him, but your body isn't like his. You have to trust me in this over his advice." Daniel nodded. Teal'c hadn't even let him train before; it would be days, at least, before he returned to the gym. "How's the pain, in general?"
"Fine," Daniel said, because for the moment, it was.
"One to ten?"
"Two. Three."
"Three," she repeated, sounding skeptical.
He rubbed his eyes. "I don't know. I can't feel my hand." He wasn't sure he could count to ten now, either. Besides, the last time he'd graphed something between one and ten, it had turned out to be on a logarithmic scale and Robert had sighed at him when he'd done it wrong, so how was he supposed to know where one step ended and the other began without some relative measures?
Janet tilted her head and made a notation on his chart. "Under the circumstances, that's probably a blessing. You'll want to come back here before you go to bed, though. And I want you to take your meds this time when it gets bad."
Daniel nodded and let her run her fingers over him for a final check. It took a while to notice that she was still holding his hand, even after she'd finished with it. "I'm okay," he said.
"Are you?" she said. "It's been a...a nasty few days."
"How many days has it been since SG-11 died?" he said. "Three--four? It feels like it's been just...one long..."
"I know," she said. "SG-1 has been so busy lately, and with this Osiris business so soon after P3X-888...it's hard. But--"
"It'll get better," Daniel said, looking at his hands in his lap. "I know. We see people die a lot. I know what it's like by now."
"Doesn't make it easier," she said gently. "I'm a doctor. I see plenty of people die, and that doesn't make it any easier to lose someone--a friend, a colleague, someone you respect."
Daniel took a deep breath, and then another. "At first," he said, "I thought..." He stopped. "I'm not really sure why I'm here anymore."
"Here...where?" she said carefully. "At the SGC?"
"I wanted to learn and...and study, and I was always insisting to Robert that I was, but..." He shook his head. "I don't do that, either, most of the time. Mythology, language, and guns--that's what I know. Robert hated that."
"Robert Rothman was very proud of you," Janet said.
Daniel didn't say anything about the dream he'd had just a few days ago, wherein he'd seen his parents and they hadn't recognized him. His parents didn't haunt his dreams all the time anymore, but when they did, it was almost worse. "He wanted me to go to school or...or something. And I go around hunting and stabbing his old friends instead."
There was a long silence. Finally, Janet said, "You've done what you've had to, better than I ever thought you could when I first met you. Anyone would be proud of who you've become."
He wanted to tell Janet that he had met a mother two years ago--Oma Desala, Mother Nature herself--and she'd told him that his hatred would bring death. He wanted to tell her that he hated the Goa'uld even more now than before, and that he couldn't even bring himself to want to stop hating them, and what did that say about him?
"Did you hear anything about what happened to the Enkarans?" he said instead.
"Yes," she said. "I'm a little short on details, but SG-4 was able to stop the attacking ship."
"The naquadah reactor worked?"
"Well...no. The ship beamed the reactor away before it could go off, but Lieutenant Marchenko found a way to get himself beamed onto the ship. He detonated some explosives there, enough to destroy it from the inside. There's a lot of cleanup and rebuilding to do, but the Enkarans are safe."
Daniel had never even met Lieutenant Marchenko. Now, he supposed he never would. "Oh," he said.
...x...
He found his way into the conference room near the surface where Jack and Teal'c were talking with the general. General Hammond saw him approach, looked him over, and nodded, so he walked in. Jack looked worried and Teal'c's eyes lingered on the bandaged hand, but since Jack had been knocked out twice and Teal'c had had his symbiote pulled out, Daniel thought they didn't have any room to criticize.
"Mr. Jackson," General Hammond said, "are you all right?"
"How's the..." Jack waved his own hand.
"I'm okay," Daniel said, finding his way carefully to a seat with some help from the wall. "I'm off active, uh...field duty for a while longer, though."
"Y'think?" Jack said. Daniel supposed he'd probably agree once the anesthesia wore off.
"It's good to know you're okay," the general said. "Dr. Jordan's agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so Major Carter is helping him finish that before we tell him anything else."
"Yes, sir," Daniel said, wondering what story could possibly explain all of this.
"First, I hate to put this on SG-1, but we need to know what happened on P5S-381 with the Enkarans," the general said. "Not only did we lose a member of SG-4, but we have to be sure something like that won't happen again, and that the wreckage left by the ship that attacked the Enkarans will not pose a danger to the inhabitants."
"That just happened a few hours ago, didn't it?" Daniel said. It was incredible to think how much had happened in the past few hours--few days.
"Yes, and SG-4 is still there. They'll stay and guard the Enkarans until SG-1 takes over from them tomorrow to run some analysis. Once we know more, I'll assign another team to finish it up, but you're the team most likely to figure out quickly what went wrong."
"Not you," Jack added to Daniel. "You're in no condition; you'll stay on base while the three of us go to P5S-381, and then the whole team'll be on stand-down after that. We don't have a mission for a couple of weeks."
"You were both hurt," Daniel said. "Sam, too."
"Teal'c's practically fine already," Jack said. "And Carter and I will be okay for a quick trip to take a look around. Even Dr. Fraiser said so."
Daniel doubted Janet had been happy about it, but for once he wasn't going to complain about being left behind or coddled. He wanted nothing more than to go to sleep right now, which was an uncomfortable feeling for a meeting, but he was a little grateful that he couldn't think about much at once. "What about Dr. Jordan?"
"Given the exposure he's already had," the general said, "nothing in his experience would make for a sufficient story. There will be no mentions of the Stargate itself, but we can acknowledge that there is a method--containable within one of those canopic jars--of drastically changing someone's personality the way he saw with Dr. Gardner."
"Perhaps a chemical or a disease," Teal'c said.
"Do the Tau'ri know of a chemical or disease that can do that?" Daniel said doubtfully. "Maybe a...strange hallucinatory drug of some sort, like the story we gave for the nish'ta programming..."
"Sounds like programming in her brain more than a disease to me, for something that exact," Jack said. "Not that we have the technology to do that, either."
"We don't care what conclusions he draws," the general said bluntly. "All he needs to know to reconcile what he saw yesterday and today is that there is science beyond what he believes to exist, and that he needs to stay quiet about it."
"General," Sam said. Daniel turned to see her at the entrance with a file. "Dr. Jordan's finished with the non-disclosure agreement."
The general nodded, taking the papers from her. "Give us ten minutes, Major, and then bring him over."
"Yes, sir."
As she walked away, he said, "We need to figure out what it is we're trying to hide from him at this point. Obviously, the existence of the Stargate and the exact nature of the Goa'uld must remain a secret, but beyond that, I'm starting to think he's seen it all."
"There's nothing that screams 'aliens,' is there?" Jack said.
"Osiris?" Daniel said. "The ship?"
"A centuries-old mothership such as the one we saw is still far beyond the capabilities of any aircraft I have seen on this planet," Teal'c said.
"Did it enter hyperspace?" Daniel asked.
"And did he see Osiris ring up to the ship?" Jack added.
"I believe he may have seen that," Teal'c said.
"So we can say that it was..." Jack started. "Dammit. Do we know exactly how much he saw of her, as Osiris?"
"Enough," Daniel said. "I heard him say her name just after Osiris...said something. The thing about blood."
"Jordan was already standing at the temple entrance by the time I woke up again," Jack said.
"The same is true of me," Teal'c said.
"And I...didn't see much after Jack was knocked out," Daniel admitted. "He knows there's something significant about Goa'uld script, too, and is already starting to suspect that whatever we're doing has something to do with what Robert was studying, about the age of the pyramids."
"And he might've seen her eyes, definitely heard her voice..." Jack said.
General Hammond sighed. "This is a mess."
"Yes, sir," Jack said, sounding chastised.
Hearing his tone, Daniel said, "Sir, this isn't Jack's fault. I was the one who suggested we--"
"I made the call," Jack interrupted. "It was a mistake, General."
"It was not, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "Osiris may have been moments from leaving the temple when we arrived. Without Dr. Jordan's help, we would not have found the temple in time, and she might have been among the general population of this planet already."
"I don't care whose fault it is," General Hammond snapped. "Dr. Jordan knows there are things we can't divulge and there are lives at stake. Each of you knows a number of stories that could cover some or most of what we need to say. Luckily for us, the truth sounds more unbelievable than any story we could spin. Step carefully, and we should be able to hold it together."
"Uh...there's more, sir," Daniel said. "The artifacts?"
Jack made a face, but Teal'c said, "Major Carter retrieved the Goa'uld amulet that Osiris used as a key to activate the devices in the temple."
"Well, we've got that in our possession now, too," the general said. "We'll make sure it stays in our archives and any of their data on it is erased."
Daniel looked down at the table but couldn't stay quiet. "It's not ours, sir."
"For cryin' out loud," Jack snapped, "you know what it is, Daniel! If someone got curious and took it to the temple, we'd have a Goa'uld control panel sticking out of the wall or worse."
"I know! But...there's a...an ethical..." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It doesn't belong to anyone in this country," he said more calmly. "I'm just saying that Dr. Jordan said it belonged to the Egyptian government, and I don't know what you told them about why we went there today, sir--or yesterday--but...I assume there's a diplomatic issue, too."
"He has a point, Colonel," the general said. "And rest assured, Mr. Jackson, I'll make sure it's--"
The door opened. Daniel turned to see Sam and Dr. Jordan in the entrance.
"--handled through the proper channels," the general finished. "Dr. Jordan, I'm Major General George Hammond. Please have a seat--I know you're confused and I hope you understand we won't be able to answer all of your questions, but we'll do what we can."
"All right," Dr. Jordan said cautiously. "I don't know where to start, except to ask...who exactly you are"--he gestured around at SG-1--"and how that relates to my work."
Daniel looked down toward his hands. No one else answered, either.
"I suppose that's part of what you can't tell me," Dr. Jordan said, sounding almost resigned. Daniel knew the feeling of knowing one wasn't in control anymore.
"Yes and no," General Hammond said. "These four make up one of several specialized units who are based here. I believe you've been introduced to them already."
"Specialized," Jordan repeated.
"For example," Jack said, "Major Carter is a physicist and a computer whiz. Mr. Murray is a foreign liaison and strategic expert, and Mr. Jackson is a foreign liaison and language analyst."
"And what are you, Colonel?"
"I have the surprisingly rare talent of making all three of them listen to me at the same time," Jack said. "Most of the time. Well, some of the time. Honestly, it's a crapshoot, but--"
"Jack," Daniel hissed.
"See?" Jack said, but despite the levity in his voice, he was sitting still and stiff; if he was joking, it was on purpose and to divert and distract Dr. Jordan from digging deeper into the question or into the team.
It worked, but only somewhat. "Speaking of language analysis..." Dr. Jordan started.
"We can't explain that writing, Doctor," Sam said. "But you've seen for yourself that it's connected to a lot of violent events. I know you're not going to want people disturbing your hard work, but we have to send someone to examine the other artifacts from the Steward expedition."
Fortunately, Dr. Jordan didn't argue. Unfortunately, he said, "You mean like the Isis jar."
Daniel froze.
"The what?" Jack said.
("Speak!" Osiris demanded. "Tell me what you know of Isis and the chaapa'ai!")
"Ay," Daniel breathed.
"Mr. Jackson?" the general said.
"Isis," Daniel said, turning to Dr. Jordan. "You mean Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris?" He glanced at the general, knowing they would hear that and understand 'Goa'uld.' "His queen?"
"Yes," Dr. Jordan said. "There was another canopic jar shipped over to us depicting her."
"Dammit," Jack muttered. "There's another one?"
"Are those same symbols written on that jar, Dr. Jordan?" Teal'c said.
Looking intent, perhaps because he'd now seen what had happened with the Osiris jar, Dr. Jordan shook his head. "I don't know. We've looked but haven't found it yet--like I said, quite a few things were mislabeled from the start. There simply hasn't been the time to find it."
"General," Daniel said.
"I know," the general said. "Doctor, will anyone study that jar before you return to Chicago?"
"No; even if they'd found it, they'd wait for either me or...well," Dr. Jordan said, looking down. "Just me, now. Why--is it dangerous?"
"If no one opens it, it shouldn't be. Airman," the general called. The door opened. "Excuse us, Doctor; could you wait outside for just a minute? This won't take long."
Dr. Jordan sighed, but stood and followed the SF out the door and into the hall.
"General," Daniel said once they were alone, "Osiris was very insistent on looking for her--his--its queen. She even mentioned Isis by name. The chances that this canopic jar contains a..." He glanced at the door, knowing it wasn't soundproof if an airman could hear from the other side. "...a snake are too high to ignore."
"Unit 1 has a joint project with Unit 4 to finish," General Hammond said. Daniel narrowed his eyes to think, then realized he was talking about the Enkarans. "That remains an extremely high priority until we can determine how dangerous that situation is."
Daniel glanced at Jack, then said, "I wasn't going to go to '381 anyway, right? I could--"
"You weren't going to go, Mr. Jackson," the general interrupted, "for the same reason you will stay firmly in Colorado. You're not to participate in any mission that requires you to get out of your chair until further notice from Dr. Fraiser."
"Which, given history, isn't going to do much good," Jack muttered, but without heat or blame. This last time, they'd gone to pay their respects to the dead and ended up concussed and bleeding in an Egyptian temple.
"Still," Sam said, "this Isis jar might not be dangerous now, but all it would take is for someone to drop it or crack it by accident. We have no idea how Osiris was released; it could be triggered by radiation of some kind for all we know. It was in a scanner at the time, after all. If it's not us, sir, someone needs to find the jar and bring it back before it happens again."
"Is Unit 3 available?" Daniel said.
Jack stopped knuckling his temple long enough to raise his eyebrows. "Marines? Really?"
"Major Wade speaks and reads some of the relevant language," the general said. Daniel nodded. "But they're away on a mission. What about Unit 5?"
Daniel squinted at the table as he thought of the people on SG-5. "Captain Jameson knows his mythology, and Captain Lithell does artifact analysis regularly," he said. "As for the language...well, I can give them a dictionary, but..."
"I'll send them tonight with a few others from your department," the general said, "and hopefully we'll have the jar here by tomorrow so we can deal with it."
"We've got a problem here, General," Jack said. "First Hathor, then Britki's tablet, now this. We have no idea whether there are other things out there that archaeologists are stumbling on."
"We look for these things in journals and people hear from their former academic colleagues," Daniel said, "but often there's just no way to tell until something's been publicized."
"Which is a problem," Jack repeated.
"Well, sir, unless we start planting operatives everywhere like the rogue NID..." Sam said.
"Maybe we can find some middle ground," the general said. "Teal'c, please call Dr. Jordan in."
Daniel dropped his head into his uninjured hand, tired and wishing this day were over.
"Dr. Jordan," the general said once the man was back, "the agreement you signed means you cannot speak of this to anyone. Knowingly publishing or disclosing anything we tell you will result in criminal charges. If traces of this are found in your future work in any way, you will be prosecuted. Do you understand?"
"I understood when I signed the agreement," Dr. Jordan said, folding his hands on the table.
"The purpose of this command is to combat an organization whose existence is not common knowledge to the general public," General Hammond said. "The danger is in how subtle their influence is--as you saw with Dr. Gardner, they have been known to abduct ordinary citizens and use them to carry out horrific deeds."
Dr. Jordan made a short exhale that might have been a laugh if anything about this had been funny. "How is that possible? What I saw wasn't--"
"That's not something we can tell you," Sam said. "But you were there in Egypt. Ask yourself whether the people who designed the things you saw just might be able to create a method of using innocent people for their own ends."
He looked around at each of the people at the table. "You're serious?"
"Count the bodies, Professor," Jack said bluntly. "How serious do you think we are?"
Daniel scowled at the table but didn't speak. This wasn't the time to argue about politeness.
"The part that makes me think this is a joke," Dr. Jordan said, "is that you're looking for clues about...about terrorists among ancient artifacts that have been submerged for decades."
"If you were tracking a person or a group of people, Doctor," the general said, "you wouldn't think to look somewhere like that for clues, would you?"
"It's why we were suspicious of you at first," Jack said. "We didn't know who'd had contact with the jar between the ocean floor and your lab. Anyone could have planted something."
"It was by starting to look in those unlikely places that we've begun to make headway," Sam said. "In fact, that's what the archaeologists and linguists here do--like Dr. Rothman did."
"We aren't sure whether these...people are using actual relics of ancient cultures or are planting things in their midst," Daniel picked up, "but there are ways to tell what's genuine and what's been tampered with. That script, for example; unexplainable data on the age of an artifact; the presence of certain materials that have no cause to be on the artifacts..."
"...the end result of which," Jack took over smoothly, "is that we deal with supposedly ancient cultures and very modern criminals with advanced methods, all at once. Don't underestimate how serious this is."
Dr. Jordan looked like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out when he opened his mouth to speak.
General Hammond cleared his throat. "That's why we're going to give you a list of things to look for if you find such anomalies in your research, and someone to contact if you do find anything. It'll help us, but it's for the protection of people you work with, too."
"What's going to happen to Sarah Gardner?" Dr. Jordan finally said. "Is she still alive?"
"Sarah Gardner is assumed dead," the general said.
"But she's not!"
"You need to understand: people in her position have contributed to massive tragedies. In our experience, it's nearly impossible to capture them alive, and we will try but cannot make any promises. If we manage to capture her, there is a slight chance that she can be cured."
"Then it's possible?" Dr. Jordan pressed. "Or are you just saying that?"
"We've seen people infected and cured," Daniel said. "It's possible. But Robert Rothman was also infected and couldn't be saved in time, and we would have done anything to--" He stopped.
"The chances are not good," Jack finished.
"So that's it?" Dr. Jordan said. "What now?"
"Now, I'll assemble a team who will escort you back to Illinois and make sure you get home safely," the general said. "They'll look around the museum for anything that could be dangerous and they'll try not to disturb more than they have to. In the meantime...Mr. Jackson?"
Daniel patted his pockets and realized he didn't have any paper on him, much less a pen. Sam reached across the table and tapped his hand, reminding him he'd have a hard time writing anyway, and held up a pen as if to say she'd write.
"All right," Daniel said, defaulting to the things they told researchers tapped for recruitment, "If you see the following in your work or in a colleague's, you should contact us. Sam's writing down how to do that. You can contact Dr. Roth--you can contact me with questions as well, but keep in mind that I might not be able to answer, and that the communications won't be secure and must not violate the terms of the agreement you signed. Things to report include: symbols like the ones you saw on the Osiris jar..."
He let his mouth continue talking, familiar enough with characteristic marks of Goa'uld artifacts that he didn't need his brain fully awake to list them. He didn't realize he was done until Sam nodded firmly, clicked her pen shut, and pushed a sheet of notebook paper toward Dr. Jordan.
"Thank you for your time, Doctor," General Hammond said. He stood up. "I'm sorry about your losses. Major Pendleton is waiting outside with his team and will escort you home."
...x...
Dr. Jordan left and returned to Chicago, escorted by SG-5 and accompanied by Nyan--who would see an airplane for the first time--and one of the other translators who spoke Goa'uld, in order to cover ground more quickly as they searched the museum archives for the Isis jar and any other Goa'uld artifacts. By then, Daniel found that he was ready to fall asleep right where he was sitting.
"Infirmary or your room?" Jack said.
It took a moment to realize the question was aimed at Daniel. "Are those my only choices?"
"You got ribboned pretty bad," Jack said. "Remember the last time that happened to you?"
"Pretty sure I'm not going to die this time," Daniel said. Sam ducked her head slightly as he said it. Daniel thought she was laughing at first, but then, he blinked his eyes clearer and saw she was a little more upset than that. A lot of people had been dying lately. "Sorry," he sighed.
"Did you mean what you said on the plane?" Sam said.
Daniel blinked at her. "What?" Jack said, speaking for them both.
"You suggested that Dr. Jordan should be hired into your department," Teal'c said.
Oh. "Did I say that aloud?" Daniel said, remembering that in a hazy way.
"Yeah," Sam said. "There's the issue of public scrutiny if someone as high-profile as he is in the academic community is suddenly hired into a classified project after the other members of his lab died unexpectedly--in fact, their deaths have probably sparked a few conspiracy theories and completely incorrect rumors on campus already."
The general was watching him, as if for a reaction. "If you're asking about hiring people," Daniel said, feeling silly, "I don't have the authority to do that. Where--what time is it? You should ask Dr. Reeve if--"
"Dr. Reeve has been the head of your department for all of three days," the general said. "He's already pointed out the necessity of more personnel, given the way we've been expanding as well as Dr. Rothman's recent loss. You've said that yourself, in fact."
"Well, he was in academia in this world for longer than I've been alive," Daniel said, feeling oddly defensive, though of what he didn't know, "so my advice is to take his advice about new research personnel over whatever I said when I was semi-conscious in a plane."
Then again, now that a large chunk of Dr. Jordan's lab was dead or Goa'ulded, and another two funerals were on the horizon for him, and everyone including the university must know that military investigators were and would be searching through his research even if they would be instructed not to ask... Daniel didn't envy what the man was going to face once he went back to work. How could they expect someone to go back after getting a glimpse of this?
"Did you have a reason for mentioning it before?" the general said.
"Excuse me," Jack interrupted, "Daniel's on medical leave, and isn't some other guy in charge?"
Daniel rubbed his eyes. "Well, I guess it's only fair to help as much as possible for now, since everyone's gotten so much dumped onto their plates--"
"It's time to lay off, sir," Jack said sharply, still looking at the general.
"Jack!" Daniel said, shocked.
"No, it's all right," General Hammond said, holding up a hand. "You're right, Colonel. I'll speak with the people in charge, and we'll ask you if we need anything, Mr. Jackson."
"Actually, sir," Daniel amended, "maybe...if he passes background check and everything, whether or not he's physically here, if we take Dr. Jordan on as a consultant from the outside, it would help in terms of...academic connections and things like that. He'd be another set of eyes watching the journals for Goa'uld activity. And then we'd have him to consult for advice and be able to tell him the truth about the Goa'uld, and about Robert and Dr. Rayner and Gardner..."
"I'll take that into consideration, Mr. Jackson," the general said gravely. "We'll look into it and, if everything checks out, we'll approach him again. Now, Colonel O'Neill, I believe you're to stay on base tonight; in fact, I'm told all of you got battered by Osiris. Get some rest. Tomorrow, we'll deal with the Enkarans and whatever's left of this."
From the next chapter ("Aftermaths"):
"I was going to go home," Daniel said to the floor. "Just for a few days. Already asked the general. So I can check on Skaara and Sha'uri. You know. "
"Sure," Jack said easily. "Sounds like a good idea."
"Do you want to come?" He glanced up. "I mean, I know it's near Christmas, so maybe you have plans. But I thought I'd ask."