Sam sat at her desk, staring at the computer screen. The words on the screen had stopped making any sense to her about an hour ago. She sighed and leaned back, stretching her arms above her head. "This is pointless." She mumbled to herself.

"What's pointless?" Came a familiar voice from the doorway to her office.

Sam turned around and attempted to smile at the newcomer, failing miserably. "Everything, at this point. I just can't concentrate."

"I know the feeling," Kitt said, "Lack of caffeine maybe?"

"Nope, just lack of brain power." Sam sighed again, "So what are you doing up? I thought you would be sleeping, it's only eleven hundred."

"No rest for the overworked. Lieutenant Atwater wanted a report from me that I promised her weeks ago, and General Hammond wanted my opinion on... something." Kitt finished hesitantly.

Sam's interest was peaked. "Oh? What would that be?"

"Not to be nosy or anything right?" Kitt said.

Sam blushed, "Sorry, I..."

Kitt waved her hand at the Major. "No, no my fault, I didn't mean to be rude." The young civilian sighed and took a seat in Sam's office.

The two of them had become friends over the last several months. Stealing a cup of coffee from the other when they needed some company at odd hours. Kitt had been there to celebrate with Sam's friends when she had gotten her promotion, and Sam had made sure to give Kitt a small party when she had finally been given clearance to work on the Stargate Project directly. Clearance meant job security. Kitt had been overjoyed of coarse. She loved the Stargate Project. It was everything she had ever dreamed of in a job, and to have the opportunity to work on it, being a civilian, was more then she could have hoped for.

"General Hammond thinks that now that it's official that I'm staying, that maybe I should go do a little field work."

Sam nodded and frowned. "You don't want to do field work? I thought you wanted to go through the Stargate more then anything."

"Oh, I do, I do! It's just... Well, I don't know what to think about all of this. I mean, its all fine and dandy working on reports, cataloguing, numbering, referencing, translating and all those other 'ings' that I get to do. But, I mean, actually go through the gate, I don't know that I'm qualified for that yet, I don't know if I ever will be." Kitt sighed and smiled sadly at Sam. "I dunno Sammy, I think I'm just feeling insecure about all of this."

Sam winced at Kitt's nickname for her and nodded again, "Did General Hammond tell you which team you would be going through with?"

Kitt wiggled uncomfortably in her chair.

"Kiiiiiiiiitt? Don't you hold out on me girl." Sam poked at her young friend.

"Um, well," Kitt grimaced, "I'm gonna be on SG-1 for my first mission."

"What? That's great!" Sam smiled happily.

"Yeah, great." Kitt said, sounding rather unconvinced.

"What's wrong with that? You'll be with Daniel and I for your first mission. Daniel thinks you are the kid sister he never had, and come to that, so do I. Why on earth would working with us make you so upset?" Sam said.

Kitt mumbled something. Sam raised an eyebrow and Kitt sighed, "I don't think Colonel O'neil or Teal'c like me much." She said quietly. "And I know they aren't going to like having a civilian tag along, even for some boring survey of some dead planet."

Sam smiled and put her hand on Kitt's shoulder, "Teal'c and the Colonel aren't so bad. You'll get used to them. And I promise, Daniel and I won't let them act like bully's to you."

Kitt smiled at her friend, "Easier said then done dude."

Sam laughed outright. The kid was a genius, no doubts there, but most of the time she talked like the twenty-two year old kid she was. And pretended not to have a clue about much of anything. But Sam and Daniel both knew that Kitt just did it for the favor it won her with her elders. She was just a kid to them, and if she acted a bit ditsy, well then maybe that was to be expected, she was only in her twenties after all. Sam also knew that Kitt wasn't nearly as innocent as she pretended to be. Though she had never been able to figure out just what had happened to Kitt, she knew it must have been bad. She was very pessimistic and cynical. Sometimes Sam caught her staring off into space, frowning at some memory. Memories that neither Sam nor Daniel had ever been able to get the kid to confess to.

As Sam watched her now, Kitt stared off into space, a small frown replacing her easy smile. Her eyes shrouded over with grief and anger. Sam watched her with worry.

Two weeks later Kitt sat at the briefing table adjacent to the Gate room. Her brain turning over one phrase constantly //I don't believe this is happening, I don't believe this is happening//.

She had been a bit early for the briefing and no one else had arrived. She looked around the empty room nervously. //Oh this is just ridiculous//. She ran her fingers through her short red hair and spun her chair around a couple of times. //That's it, time to relax// she thought with a grin. She picked up the pencil from the table in front of her and started trying to balance it on her finger, humming "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles and forcing herself to relax.

Colonel Jack O'neil walked into the room and watched her for a minute before clearing his throat. He had expected her to be startled and drop the pencil, perhaps even scream. Things any untrained civilian would do when surprised by someone.

Instead Kitt flicked the pencil up in the air, caught it with one quick swoop of her hand and turned toward the Colonel with a smile.

"Colonel O'neil." She acknowledged him with a slight nod. Before Jack could say anything the door opened again and Daniel Jackson walked in.

"Hey there kiddo," Daniel smiled at her, "Hey Jack. Your not getting on her case about something already are you?" Daniel walked over and took the seat next to Kitt.

Jack smiled at Daniel in an innocently and took a seat across from the two of them. Sam, Teal'c, and the General all walked into the room together and took their seats at the table.

General Hammond handed out reports to the four team members plus and looked over to Jack, as if expecting some comment or criticism before he even had the chance to officially start the briefing.

Jack kept his mouth shut for once and opened his folder to look at the first sheet. It was a basic bio on their new little tagalong. Jack had already read it but he looked it over again anyway. Cody "Kitt" Weaver, Special Service Status, was an all around kind of girl. She had degrees in several fields, though none were doctorates, for which Jack was eternally thankful. Another scientist on his team, even just for one mission, was NOT what he needed. Her main forte was translation however. She had been pulling in minimum wage in some thankless job before Daniel had asked that she be brought in on the Stargate Project. He gave her high praise for her translation skills and said that she could easily pick up on translating some of the newer forms of hieroglyphs that they had discovered recently. Somehow he had managed to convince the General to bring her into the fold and Kitt had been studying with him and Rothman since day one. Jack had to admit, the kid picked stuff up fast. She had proven an asset to the translation team, who had the basic reaction of a kid who has found a lost puppy, "Oh please dad, can we keep her? We promise to feed her and take her for walks and teach her tricks." It had taken several months before it was finalized, and Kitt was given full access. And now General Hammond wanted her to go out with a team for one round of fun. Jack had the distinct feeling that this had once again been Danny's idea, and he had tried to talk to him about it, but Daniel had just blown him off, "She's good at what she does Jack. We'll just take her along to some abandoned world, let her have a moment of glory, see what its really all about, then send her back to translation." Jack had not been happy, but he had complied with Daniel's wishes, certain that the General would never approve it.

Unfortunately he had, and Jack had no choice but to go along with this little game. The world that they were going to was some abandoned, boring little place with a lot of really old rocks. Daniel was particularly interested in those, and had insisted that SG-1 get this mission. General Hammond seemed to agree that this was a good mission for Kitt to tagalong, and had assigned her to SG-1 for the duration of it.

The briefing went swiftly, and SG-1 was ready to get the show on the road. The five of them hurried off to get geared up and headed back to the Gateroom, where General Hammond was waiting.

He pulled Jack aside, "Pull this one off smoothly Colonel. No broken bones or infectious diseases this time please."

Jack smiled at the General, "No problem sir." He moved up the ramp next to his team, "Well kids, time to see the wizard!"

Kitt and Sam both rolled their eyes and grinned as the five of them stepped through the gate.

The whirling rush of motion was startling. Kitt tried to describe what it was like to go through the gate later, but had never quite been able to put it into words. The best she could do was stumble for words for a minute before shrugging and saying "It's a bit cold." Which of coarse was an understatement, but the Stargate was something to experience, not to be explained away with simple descriptions. And after that she stopped trying to tell people what it was like and just said, "Try it some time." And left it at that.

When she emerged on the other side of the gate she stumbled to her knees and just sat there for a moment breathing deeply. "Well, that was rather invigorating." She said, trying not to puke and ruin what little image she might have.

Sam and Daniel smiled sympathetically and each took an arm, pulling her up.

Jack looked at her, she had taken it better then he had thought she would, "All right campers, lets have a looksee before we set up for the night."

Kitt pulled away from her two friends and looked around herself in awe. She craned her neck back to look up at the sky, a beautiful sky, a perfect sky, she thought to herself and then said out loud, "A rather purple sky. That's just weird."

Daniel smiled at her and whispered to Sam, "First worlds are always the most amazing. She's lucky though, we got sand, LOTS of sand. She gets a purple sky."

"And trees." Sam said looking around, "She gets trees."

Daniel looked out at the surrounding forest and frowned, "Really weird looking trees..." He said slowly.

~TBC~

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