Title: A Strange and Unpredicted Event
Author: Pepper
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1060
Featured Character(s): Daniel, Sam, Sam's sense of humour.
Summary: About a quarter of Daniel's on-base time was spent in the labs with Sam...
A/N: Happy birthday aurora_novarum! Further notes at the end...

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About a quarter of Daniel's on-base time was spent in the labs with Sam. There was always something – a piece of technology with writing that needed the 'on' switch translated, a seemingly-innocuous book that started to glow when Daniel ran his hands over it, the time when the blue crystals grew a face and started to talk... And sometimes he was just there because Sam was doing something interesting, and she loved to talk to someone about it as she worked. Daniel was always willing to acquire new knowledge, even in a discipline so different to his own. You never knew when it would come in handy.

So naturally he'd assisted in a few experiments. He'd been electrocuted, mildly irradiated, and stood around whilst people with white coats and clipboards pressed buttons and asked him, "Can you feel it now? How about now? Or now? Now? What about now...?" This latest experiment sounded kind of exciting, though.

"It turns you invisible?"

"It's an invisible suit," said Sam, excitedly. "I've finally had a chance to experiment with some of the things the Reetou left behind, and I think I've come up with something that might have some incredible implications for stealth missions through the Stargate."

"Things the Reetou left behind? What, like their guns?"

Sam looked shifty. "Guns and... other things." Daniel looked suspiciously at the suit. "The experiments are at a DNA level," hurriedly explained Sam. "It's not woven out of Reetou skin or anything like that." And that hadn't been what Daniel was thinking, but now he was. "We've created an artificial material that mimics the phase-shifting properties of the Reetou DNA, and... well, you don't have to help, Daniel. I just thought you might enjoy being the one to try it out." Sam looked appealingly at him. "I could always ask the Colonel to help."

Daniel thought for .0000000000001 seconds about Jack in an invisibility suit. "Okay, I'll try it."

Sam handed him the suit – a jumpsuit woven out of thin material in an oily green shade, shot with purple. It looked disturbingly like it might actually be made from the skin of a giant insect. "It's kind of small, isn't it?" he asked, holding it up.

Sam shrugged. "Well, creating the material is fairly intensive – that's as much as we've been able to manufacture so far. You should probably take off your BDUs, but you can keep your underwear on." Daniel stared pointedly at her, until she caught on. "Oh!" she said, and turned around.

Daniel obediently stripped to boxers and socks, and donned the jumpsuit. "I look like a refugee from Saturday Night Fever," he complained, as he sealed the velcro.

Sam turned around and laughed. "It's quite the fashion statement," she agreed.

Daniel wore a lab coat on the brief walk to the observation labs, grateful when they got there without running into either of their other teammates. The lab was humming with quiet activity, as half a dozen scientists prepared various machines that were presumably going to record and analyze the experiment in various ways. He nodded to a couple of familiar faces, and – self-consciousness evaporating with their professional demeanours – shucked the lab coat. "So, what do I do?"

Sam, pulling together an android spaghetti of wires and mysterious circuitry, waved an absent-minded hand to the middle of the room, where Doctors Sophie Haahr and Sean SomethingDanielcouldn'tremember were fiddling with a tall machine on wheels with lots of lights (probably not its technical name). Daniel went to stand on the white sheeting laid out on the floor, and stayed patiently still as Sam attached wires to the suit with crocodile clips, giving him dials to hold whilst she attached them, and then roping in Doctor Haahr's help to attach monitoring pads to his forehead and chest. Doctor Haahr smiled apologetically at him as Daniel winced at the feeling of the glue attaching the pads to his chest. "Sorry, it's probably a bit cold."

Daniel gave her a smile. "No problem," he said. "I'm used to it." Realising that might sound a bit odd, he added, "With, you know... all the things that happen around here. Being in the infirmary a lot, and..." Doctor Haahr's smile was growing exponentially. "I'll just shut up?" he suggested.

"You might wanna," she agreed.

Sam cleared her throat, and both women stepped back. "Okay, I think we're ready to go," announced Sam. "Doctor Lee, you want to do the honours?"

"Oh, with pleasure!" said Bill Lee, over the observation gallery intercom. With a dramatic flair, he reached forward and stabbed a button.

From their expressions, Daniel could guess what had happened. Nothing very much. Sam looked up to the observation gallery. "Bill?"

"I pressed it," said Bill, sounding confused.

"Hrm." Sam fiddled with the dial in her hands that connected to wires on the collar of his suit. "Daniel," she said, not looking up, "I'm not sure this is transmitting... could you raise your right arm?" Daniel obediently raised his arm. "Bill?" asked Sam. There was some more movement from the observation gallery – and more disappointed faces. "Okay, try raising your left arm." Daniel dropped his right and raised his left. "No? Damn. Okay, how about both arms?" Daniel raised both arms in the air. "And kind of... lean sideways?" Daniel leaned. "Oh! I think we might be – Daniel, lean a little more," said Sam, excitedly fiddling with buttons. Daniel leaned until he was on one leg, balancing himself by sticking the other leg out behind him. "I think we're almost there... just one more moment, Daniel..." said Sam. "Okay Bill, try it now."

Bill hit a button.

Simultaneously, Sam flicked a switch.

There was a loud BANG, and a flash, and Daniel found himself standing in the middle of the room, in a pirouette stance, whilst glitter rained down from the ceiling, and his suit of invisibility... turned invisible.

Leaving him, to all intents and purposes, standing there in only his socks and boxers.

He stared down at himself, and then up at Sam, who was hugging the astonished Doctor Haahr, up to the observation gallery where Bill Lee gave him a thumbs up sign, and then further up to where a banner had unfurled. He read, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!', in large, round pink letters, and sighed, hoping there would be cake.

He really should have seen this coming.



THE END!

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A/N: I think I puzzled A this morning by waking up and asking, "If you had a suit that made you invisible by reflecting its surroundings, what would happen if you stood in front of a mirror?" But these are the problems that vex my dreams. Still, it was well timed, as I'd been trying to think up a birthday fic, with no success.