Disclaimer: I don't own Angel or Stargate SG-1

Thanks to Starway Man, my beta, for his help.

Old Friends

By Alkeni

Chapter 6

October 11th, 2001

Angel Investigations, Los Angeles, California

"So, they transplant body parts from people-" Daniel looked away, unable to disguise the disgusted expression on his face. The Goa'uld committed all manner of atrocities, of course – torture, enslavement, genocide and just regular murder. But at least they did everything big. There was something especially...personal about this, this...limb transplant program of Wolfram and Hart's that made it almost worse. Certainly just as bad, in its own way.

"Evil Inc. doesn't stop with your standard evil stuff," Gunn confirmed. "But they don't have a monopoly on it, either."

"I can imagine." Daniel agreed. "I mean – how many times do you fight demons and vampires in a week?"

"A lot." Angel said. "Even if there's no specific case or vision we're working from, there's enough predators out there to keep anyone trying to get rid of them busy forever."

"We're not the only ones in Los Angeles doing our part, though so far as I know, no one has the help of visions."

"They'd better not." Cordelia told Wesley. "Being the Vision Girl is my thing. No one else gets it."

Daniel figured this was a good moment to bring up something he'd been wanting to ask. "On that – there's something that's been bothering me for the last few days." He started. "I mean, the government has to know about all this – some part of it, anyway. So where exactly are they? I mean, why aren't they doing something about this Wolfram and Hart? And what exactly is the government doing to combat the threat potential?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Running mad scientist experiments." She answered flatly.

"Mad scientist experiments? Right." Daniel looked at her – he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her phrasing.

"No, really. They did stuff like putting some kinda anti-violence chip into a vampire's brain, a bunch of dissecting experiments, plus they made a freaky demon-human-machine hybrid...thing." Cordelia shuddered a little as she recalled 'Adam'. Willow had emailed a picture of him to her, back when he'd still been a threat. Freaky barely covered it. "Which then turned on them, naturally enough, and killed almost everyone in the base."

"It was called the Initiative." Wesley added. "But that particular organization wasn't the only the government-sponsored program to ever investigate or deal with the supernatural There's another one that got its start during the Second World War, after the Nazis began experimenting with using vampires and demons as soldiers. They're still around, but they can't be everywhere."

"Vampire Nazis?" Gunn scoffed. "Man, sounds like something out of a bad movie!" No one noticed Angel shift around a little at Gunn's words, or the dark expression that briefly appeared on his face.

So...the N.I.D. might actually be involved. There's a pleasant thought. Though, in fairness, Daniel knew full well that for all its faint paranoia and penchant for conspiracy, most people in the National Intelligence Directorate were law-abiding agents, ethical people doing their jobs while battling against the smear on their agency's reputation by the rogue elements that constantly seemed to pop up now and then. And there really was something to be said for civilian oversight of classified projects.

But still, the N.I.D. - or especially the rogue elements of it – being involved with demons and vampires and magic...not the most comforting of ideas, in Daniel's view.

"How long until your taxi gets here?" Wesley asked his friend.

Daniel looked at his watch. "Another ten minutes or so." He moved towards his baggage. "May as well go wait out front for it." He turned back to all of them. "It's been...an education. And good to meet all of you. You're all doing incredibly good work, that much I'm certain of." He shook hands with each of them.

"Back to translating for the Air Force?" Angel asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." Daniel shrugged. "Maybe more boring than what you do-"

"Oh, believe me, some days, I'd love boring." Cordelia said with a laugh. "Beats splitting headaches and always getting demon goop out of my clothes, at the very least."

"You'd really give up the visions, if you had the chance?" Angel said skeptically.

"I didn't say that." Cordelia countered defensively. "I just meant that being normal might be underrated. A little."

"Normal is relative." Fred pointed out. "Pylea still counts as normal for me, right now."

"And given how long we've all been in the demon-fighting game, it's gotten normal for us." Wesley pointed out, smirking at Cordelia's growing exasperation.

Cordelia just face-palmed, one hand on her right temple. "You know that's not what I meant, Wes."

"Yes. Still, doesn't mean I don't get to have some fun at your expense. You do it to me all the time." Wesley laughed. Daniel checked his watch again.

"Alright." The archeologist said. "I definitely should head out front and wait. I'll stop by again if I'm ever in L.A."

"I'll wait with you." Wesley said, and the former Watcher followed his friend out of the hotel. They were both waiting at the curbside when Wesley turned to his friend. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in a change of career? We could use someone of your talents." Wesley asked the question seriously, but he still couldn't help but laugh a little at his own blunt casualness about it.

Daniel laughed as well, looking down a moment. "Oh, the irony..."

At Wesley's look of askance curiosity, Daniel explained. "When I was talking to you in your office, before those, uh, Slarn demons attacked, I was wondering if I'd be able to convince you into coming to work where I do." He shrugged, then looked back to the hotel. "But all things considered, I think you're too important here, right now."

"Well, I like to think I'm at least somewhat important around here, anyway." Wesley agreed. "You're not going to say yes, are you?" The former Watcher had to admit that he'd expected a no, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

The cab pulled up at the curb, and Daniel walked towards it, looking back to Wesley. "No." He smiled. "And if you're wondering why, old friend, let's just say that our lines of work are more similar than you might think. Sorry I can't say more." He put his things into the cab's trunk and then opened the door. He turned back to his friend. "I'll write." He said with a smile, then got into the vehicle.

The cab quickly drove off, heading for LAX as Wesley waved goodbye before walking back into the Hyperion.

October 12th, 2001

Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

"So you don't recommend that we try to recruit Mr. Wyndam-Pryce?" Hammond asked from behind his desk.

Daniel shook his head. "No, or at least not at the moment. Things might change in the future, I suppose, but not right now."

"You don't think he'd be a good fit working here, within the Stargate program?" Hammond was curious. Daniel had fairly sung the man's praises just a few days ago. Why was he against bringing his friend in now?

"No, actually, I think he'd be a great fit. He's got the mindset and the knowledge to be quite useful, and under different circumstances, I'd have begged him to join us less than half an hour after I got there." Daniel explained. He interlocked his fingers in front of him as he spoke. "I just don't think he'd say yes, and to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea taking him away from his current workplace. He's doing some pretty important work there, bottom line."

"Important work? As a private detective?"

"Uh, General, before I answer that...have you ever heard of a military program called 'The Initiative'?"

"Dr. Jackson. How the hell did you know about that? It's way beyond your clearance level!" Hammond had indeed heard about the Initiative – and about its complete and utter failure. The whole thing had struck him, from the start, as people mucking around with stuff they shouldn't get involved with. So it hadn't surprised him when he'd found out that rogue elements of the N.I.D had turned out to be neck-deep in the whole thing.

"Well, that's the thing – Wesley knew about it. Both him and his friends. He mentioned it to me, when I asked where the U.S. government was in -" Daniel didn't finish that sentence – he didn't know how much Hammond actually knew about the supernatural, and whether he knew that demons and vampires and monsters were real.

"Dealing with demons, vampires and all the other creatures of the night?" Hammond offered dryly.

"Yes." Daniel replied, looking the USAF general straight in the eye. "While I was in Los Angeles, I, ah, got involved with one of Wesley's cases. It was...very educational, in terms of the city's night life. If you know what I mean?"

"Indeed I do. Well, I suppose you're probably right then. Pity. I looked into the man's background in more detail after you left. Mr. Wyndam-Pryce would have been useful around here." With a sigh, Hammond put Wesley's file on his desk, in the 'out' box. He looked back to Daniel. "So, is there anything else we need to discuss about him?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, sir." He stood up, pushing his chair back into place. "By the way, General. Is Jack back?"

"He is." Hammond nodded. "SG-1 is scheduled for another mission in two days."

"Alright. I'll see you then for the pre-mission briefing." Daniel left Hammond office, and got back to work.

Author's Notes: And here we are, at the end of Old Friends. Many thanks to everyone who read this fic, reviewed it, favorited it, followed it, etc. While this is the end of Old Friends, it is not the end of the Old Friends-verse. I have plans for at least one, maybe two more fics in this universe, and at some point I do intend to write it and put it up. At the moment though, even with Old Friends done, I'm still working on four other fanfics, so I won't be starting the next fic any time soon. But I can give you a name and a summary to tide you over until then.

Old Friends: A New Direction: When SG-1 visits a world that has rich deposits of Trinium, and with locals more than willing to let the SGC mine it, Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c wonder when the other shoe will drop. A hostile encounter with the planet's night life prompts Daniel to think that his old friend Wesley could be of help to the SGC and to Earth.