After Tonane submitted to his medical exam, General Hammond and Captain Carter left the room, and Daniel walked in and stood near the bed Jack was sitting on. “Hey, how’re you feeling?”

“Like I got a hole in my arm,” Jack quipped lightly. Truth was, the arrow wound still hurt like hell, but why talk about that? “Sounds like your field trip went well.”

“Yeah, well,” Daniel said. Then he lowered his voice and leaned in a bit closer so only Jack could hear him. “Could’ve gone better.”

Jack looked at his face for clues, but it was perfectly inscrutable. “Yeah?”

The corner of Daniel’s mouth twitched ever so slightly, and he held up two fingers in pinching mode. “I was this close, Jack. This close. To gold.”

“It’s trinium, Daniel.”

He ignored that and breezed right along. “And it would have made such a nice ‘get well’ present for you."

Oh, so this was Devious Daniel he was dealing with. Could get interesting. Looking around to make sure no one was listening, he asked, “What did you do?”

Daniel was really struggling not to grin now, but he covered it with a big wince. “Nothing – unfortunately.”

Just drag it out and milk it for all it’s worth, eh? “What did you try to do?”

Daniel glanced around one last time for listeners. “Tonane said he was going to take us to the spirits. Now, this should have entailed singing, possibly dancing, chanting - it’s what they do. So I told Sam she’d have to go along with it, no matter how ridiculous it sounded. And she bought it. I had her all prepped, and then – nothin’.”

“Why?” Jack whispered, thinking on a side note whether that last sentence would have sounded dirty to anybody else, or if his mind was just in the gutter. Only Daniel could say a thing like that and sound innocent about it.

“He just called the spirits’ names,” Daniel shrugged, sounding irritated. “I even asked him, shouldn’t he do a dance or something - but he wasn’t having it. Said they don’t do it that way anymore.”

Jack forced himself to keep a straight face. “I can see how this might have brought you great laughter and a lifetime of blackmail material, but how was this supposed to make me feel better?”

Daniel looked hurt. “Jack, I take a camera on every mission.”

Jack grinned, and then Daniel did too, looking all pleased with himself. “How is it you have people thinking you’re all nice and naïve?”

“People think I’m naïve?” Daniel asked, looking sandbagged.

“Well, you have a certain…” Jack stopped, realizing he’d been had. “Oh, you’re good.”

Daniel grinned again. “Some people are just more gullible than others.”