Recruitment

Daniel knocked on the door and was surprised when it was yanked open almost immediately. He opened his mouth to say something, but Adam was faster than he was.

"Daniel!" the man exclaimed too loudly. "I forgot you asked if I wanted to go to lunch. I'll just grab my coat."

"Actually, I-" Daniel started, but Adam clamped a hand over his mouth and motioned for Daniel to be silent.

"I'll see you later, Alex!" Adam called back through the door moments before he slammed it behind him and dragged Daniel back to his car. His voice slightly hushed, he spoke to Daniel again. "I don't care why you're here, but thank you so much for saving me."

"Saving you?" Daniel asked in confusion, his vivid imagination enhanced by his time at the SGC conjuring scenarios Adam might have needed to be saved from.

"Nothing too major," Adam reassured him, "just the houseguest from Hell."

"Relative?" Daniel asked, unable to imagine another reason he'd let somebody stay when he didn't like them.

"No," Adam said, "but he's the closest thing I have to one. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to him – I don't think I would have lived this long without him – but the man is completely insane."

"Oh?" Daniel asked. "Oh, any preference for food, since I'm apparently taking you out?" he asked as an aside.

"There, actually," Adam said, pointing. "Parking's up ahead, though."

He pointed out where the parking was, and as they were walking to the restaurant Daniel asked, "So, how is your – friend? You never said a name – how is he insane? Literally, or figuratively?"

"Alex Thomas," Adam told him. "And hell if I know. He's functional, even if I get the urge to kill him, so it doesn't really matter which. I doubt even a psychiatrist could tell even if he didn't snow them."

They paused to get their names on the list and a beeper to call them, and then Daniel launched into another question. "So if you call him insane and he hasn't been diagnosed you've got to have a reason, right?"

Adam smirked at him. "Oh, the stories I could tell you about Alex. You wouldn't even believe what he gets into."

"Oh? Like what?" Daniel asked, all innocent curiosity.

"Hmmm," Adam said, selecting a story to tell. "I guess the most relevant is the one that made me start avoiding him."

"You avoid him but you let him stay in your house?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, Alex is like a hurricane. You can't stop him when he wants to do something, the only thing you can do is minimize damage." Their beeper went off and they were led to their table, and Adam took up the story where he had left off. "One time, Alex decided that it would be a good idea to circumnavigate the world."

"I assume you don't mean in a plane or anything," Daniel said.

Adam snorted. "I wish. No, we were in an accurate recreation of a ship from sometime before Christ."

Daniel pushed up his glasses and stared at Adam. "You what?"

Adam nodded. "If you ever get the urge, don't. Although that actually wasn't the experience that made me hate boats. But we were doing the whole thing very authentically, so when we landed in South America we stocked up on chocolate as well as everything else, and until it ran out I was stuck on a boat which was nowhere near large enough. Alex on chocolate is a scary thing to behold."

Daniel laughed. "I'll bet," he said. "So, did you make it? Where did you start from?"

"We started from Northern Africa – I don't remember the country, but somewhere in there. And we did make it, although the boat only made it to India before we had to make our way back by land, so I'm not sure if you'd count that as making it."

"Wow," Daniel said. "That far in a ship that wasn't even made for it? I'm amazed. How much of a crew did you have?"

"Just me and him," Adam said, "which only made it worse."

Daniel chuckled. "I can imagine. I can see why you're so exasperated with him."

"And you don't know the half of it," Adam told him. Just then, their food arrived. "Fast service today." He waited for the waiters to clear away, and then asked, "so, what brings you here, since I assume it wasn't Alex stories?"

"A job offer, actually," Daniel told him.

"You got a job offer?" Adam asked him. "After your talk I wasn't sure you'd be able to."

"Well, yes," Daniel said. "Actually, I got one right after I gave the talk. Literally, I was walking out after the talk and got it."

"Really?" Adam asked. "You never told me."

"I guess we haven't really been keeping in contact," Daniel said. "My job's been keeping me busy. But that wasn't what I meant, actually. I have a job offer for you."

"You're hiring?" Adam asked.

"Well, not me personally," Daniel said. "I'm head of the language department, but the whole thing is under the Air Force."

"I don't deal with the military," Adam said with finality. "And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not precisely an American citizen."

"Hey, it's not entirely American anymore," Daniel defended. "And it's not like you'd have to go on missions. You haven't even listened to my pitch!"

"What's there to listen to?" Adam asked. "My specialty's dead languages. I don't know modern languages like you do, and I like working with dead languages."

"It is dead languages, dialects of them I'd never seen before, and it's nothing like anything else you'll ever do," Daniel said.

"I still don't work with the military," Adam said. "If you want somebody, take Alex. Get him out of my hair for a few years."

"Can he do the work?" Daniel asked. "Can he pass a background check for Top Secret clearance?"

"He's fluent in more languages than I've even heard of, much less speak," Adam told him. "As for security clearance, no clue. Like I said, I've been avoiding him. For all I know he might already have one." He let Daniel get the check and call one of the people from his job on his cell phone on their way back to the car. Daniel wasn't off the phone by the time they got to the car, so Adam took the keys and drove them back.

"They'll call me back with a preliminary yes or no in a few minutes," Daniel said. "Where are we going?"

"My place," Adam said. "If you're going to have to work with him, you might as well find out if you can stand him before you hire him."