CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When Sam awoke Sunday morning, it was to find the other side of the bed empty. She was surprised by how lonely it felt not to have Daniel's warm body lying there beside her. She was just about to get up and go find him when he came into the room with a tray of food.
"I thought it was about time that I fixed you breakfast in bed," he told her. "I know Jack would say it's cliche, but. . . ."
"Who cares what he thinks?" Sam said with a warm smile. "You can bring me breakfast in bed any time you want to."
Grinning, Daniel waited for her to sit up against the headboard, then he placed the tray over her lap. He took his place on the other side of the bed. Sam saw that there was food for two people on the tray.
Daniel kissed her. "How are you doing?" he asked, looking at her closely.
"Better. I still feel bad about Pete, but he was right when he said it was a good thing that I figured out the truth before we made any kind of commitment. This would have been a whole lot worse if I'd realized I loved you after Pete and I had been dating for several months."
Daniel and Sam ate their breakfast, then got dressed. At a little before eleven o'clock, Cassandra called.
"Hey, Sam. Is Daniel there? I tried calling him at his place yesterday afternoon and this morning, but he's not home. I know that he was staying with you for a while."
"Um, yeah, he's here. Hold on a sec." Sam put her hand over the mouth piece and looked at Daniel. "It's Cassie. She's been trying to get hold of you."
Daniel took the phone. "Hi, Cass. What's up?"
"Hey. Are you still staying with Sam? I thought her boyfriend was going to be there."
'Uh oh,' Daniel thought. "Uh . . . yeah, I'm still here. There was a change of plans. So, what do you need?"
"Oh, I need your help. You know that I'm going to be starting college next fall, and I've been trying to decide where I want to go. Mom wants me to attend the University of Colorado in Denver because it's close, but my best friend is going to UCLA, and I really want to go there, too."
"That's one of the universities I attended."
"Yeah, I know, and that's why I need your help. I want you to help me talk Mom into letting me go there. I figured that, since that's where you went, you could tell her what the campus is like, give her some inside info."
"Cassie, that was a very long time ago. A whole lot will have changed. I doubt that any of my old professors are still there. Besides, what's the big rush? You've still got time before you have to make a decision."
"I know, but I really need to start working on Mom now. Please, Daniel? Mom's not here right now, but she'll be back in a little over an hour. I was hoping you could be here when she comes back."
As usual, Daniel melted the moment Cassie said the word "please." He could never say no to her when she really wanted something. "All right. I'll be over in a little while."
"Oh, thank you, thank you! You're the best, Daniel! See you soon."
Daniel hung up and turned to Sam, who was smirking at him.
"So, what did she talk you into this time?" she asked.
"To gang up on Janet and convince her to let Cassie go to my alma mater next fall. She wants me to come over now."
Sam's smirk turned into a grin. "You just can't say no to her, can you."
Daniel cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, and you can?"
That got the amused smile off of Sam's face. She knew that, like Daniel, she had a hard time denying Cassandra anything.
"We've got a problem, though," Daniel announced. "Cassie knows that I'm still staying with you. If she tells Janet. . . ."
"Then Janet's going to know that something is up."
"Yeah. I didn't tell you this before, but Janet already knows how I feel about you."
"She does? Since when?"
"Since last Monday. I didn't tell you where I bumped into her that day. It was at that park we went to on Friday. I was upset and stopped there to think. Janet saw me, and, well, it was pretty easy for her to see that I was upset. She got me to confess."
Sam looked at him in amusement. "So, did you spill your guts to anyone else?"
"Um, well, as a matter of fact, I did, though he'd already figured it out for himself."
"Who?"
"Your father."
Sam's eyes widened. "Dad? You told Dad you were in love with me?"
"No, actually, I just answered yes when he asked if I was in love with you. Like I said, he'd already guessed as much."
"So, um . . . what did he say?" Sam asked nervously.
"In a nutshell, he told me to ignore the fact that you had a boyfriend and go after you."
Sam covered her face in embarrassment. "Oh my God. My father was trying to fix me up with you?"
Daniel chuckled. "I guess he likes me. And he was impressed by the fact that you never entertain thoughts of strangling me."
Sam punched him in the arm. "You jerk. You're enjoying this, aren't you."
Daniel grinned hugely. "I am now, though I wasn't at the time. I was convinced that I didn't stand a chance with you. But I guess your dad was right about what he said."
"What? What did he say?"
"Uh . . . he sort of said that he had reason to believe that you weren't in love with Pete."
Sam's eyes narrowed. "Daniel."
The archeologist held up his hands. "Uh uh. I'm not saying another word. I don't want you targeting me with your familial wrath. You can ask your dad when you see him next."
For a brief moment, Sam felt a spark of anger toward Daniel. She knew he was hiding something that her father said, probably something embarrassing. But, as usual, the anger died a very quick death. She simply could not stay mad at him.
Sam gave a sigh. "All right. I won't torture you for the information."
The archeologist heaved a loud sigh of relief. "Thank you. Rafael couldn't get me to talk, but I bet I'd crumble in no time if you started torturing me." Daniel instantly regretted his flippant remark about the torture he'd endured at the hands of the Honduran revolutionary when he saw Sam's face cloud over. He pulled her into his arms. "But then, you wouldn't need torture to get me to talk. Just a few kisses and those hands of yours would probably do the trick." He followed the statement up with a long, slow, deep kiss. Sam returned the kiss eagerly. She slid her hand between them to a certain very tender portion of Daniel's anatomy. He groaned inside her mouth and bucked up against her. He pulled his lips from hers with a gasp.
"God, Sam. You better stop doing that or I'm never going to get over to Janet's," he said roughly.
Sam grinned wickedly. "Too bad. I was looking forward to making you talk."
"You can use your interrogation methods on me after I get back." He released Sam and stepped back a little. "As I was saying, given what Janet already knows about my feelings for you, it wouldn't take much for her to figure out what's going on. So, unless we want her to know we're together before we get a chance to talk to Jack, I need to swear Cassie to secrecy, which means that I'm probably going to have to tell her about us."
Sam sighed. "Yeah, you're right."
"You want to come with me?"
"No, I'd better not. If you and I both go over there, Janet will get suspicious."
"Well, she's not there right now, but if she came back before you left, then, yes, that could cause a problem. I also need to make sure Janet doesn't get me alone. She'll probably ask questions that I can't answer without lying."
Daniel left a few minutes later. Cassie gave him a big hug when he arrived at Janet's. She always gave him a hug when she saw him, but this one was a bit more enthusiastic than normal.
"So, what happened with Sam's boyfriend?" the teenager asked as soon as they were seated. "And how come you're still there with Sam? Is she having more trouble with her leg?"
"No, Sam's fine. Her leg is healing well." Daniel paused. "Cassie, I'm going to have to ask you to keep a secret, and I mean from your mom, too. You only have to keep it a little while, just a day, but it's a very big secret. Can you swear that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you?"
"Sure, Daniel. You know me. I'm an expert at keeping secrets."
Daniel smiled. "Yes, you are, aren't you. Your whole life before you came to Earth is a secret." He took a deep breath. "Okay, here's another one for you. You can't tell Janet that I'm still staying with Sam."
"Why?"
"Because Sam and I are . . . a couple now."
Cassie's eyes grew huge. "You mean that you and Sam are, like . . . together together?"
"Uh huh."
"Oh, wow! That is just so cool!"
Cassie gave a little shriek of delight and pounced on Daniel, giving him a big hug. The archeologist laughed at the teenager's reaction.
Cassie started talking a mile a minute. "So, when did this happen? Can you both still be on SG-1? Are you guys going to live together? Are you going to get married?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Daniel exclaimed, holding his hands up in a calming gesture. "Okay, to answer your questions, it happened last Thursday, yes, I'm pretty sure that we'll both be able to stay on SG-1, I don't know what Sam and I are going to do about living arrangements, and we only just got together, so isn't it a little early to be talking about marriage?"
Cassie bounced up and down on the couch a couple of times. "This is so great! You and Sam are so good together. I think it's awesome that you're a couple now. Oh, I can't wait to talk with Mom about this!"
"Cassie," Daniel said warningly.
"Oh, don't worry. I'll keep the secret. You said a day, right? So, you're going to tell her tomorrow? When? At work?"
"We haven't decided exactly how or when yet, but, yes, we're going to tell everyone tomorrow."
"Jack, too?"
"Yep. He's actually the first one we have to tell since he's our C.O. We need to tell General Hammond as well. And Teal'c, of course."
"I wish I could see Jack's face when you tell him."
Daniel grinned. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to that."
"Can you tape it?"
"Uh, I don't see how, but, if there's any way that I can, I will. If not, Sam and I will tell you all about it." He looked at his watch. "Your mom's probably going to be back soon. Before she gets here, would you like to hear a little about UCLA?"
Cassie nodded eagerly and settled back to hear Daniel reminisce about his college days.
Finding herself unexpectedly alone, Sam did a bit of housework after lunch. Then she checked her email and sent off a few replies. After that, she decided to do a little Web surfing. In the end, she found herself logging onto the chatroom that she'd visited several days ago. She was happy to see that three of the four women she met before were there. There were also two other people in the chatroom.
NOSY PARKER: Hey, Gate Gal! Welcome back! We were hoping to see you again.
MERRY MARY: Yes, a big welcome back.
REDHEAD ANNIE: That goes for me, too.
DANDI-LYNN: Hi, we haven't met yet, but the others told me about you.
TEENA_T: It's nice to meet you, Gate Gal. I heard about you, too.
GATE GAL: Thanks. Should I be worried that I was a topic of discussion?
NOSY PARKER: No, not at all. We said nothing but nice things about you.
MERRY MARY: So, what brings you back here? Just want to chat some more about Pete . . . or perhaps Daniel? *hint hint*
DANDI-LYNN: I vote for Daniel. I definitely want to hear more about him. Parker, Mary and Annie told us all about him, too.
GATE GAL: LOL. Actually, I'm here to talk about both of them. A lot has happened over the last few days.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Oh? What?
GATE GAL: Well, it all started on Thursday. Um, actually, that's not exactly true, but I'll just tell you about the stuff that went on since Thursday. It was an interesting day right from the start, but it got even more so when, for some reason I still don't understand, I suggested that Daniel and I play Truth or Dare.
MERRY MARY: Hoo hoo! Truth or Dare, huh. *wink wink* *nudge nudge*
DANDI-LYNN: LOL
REDHEAD ANNIE: *bg*
TEENA_T: LOL
GATE GAL: Well, it wasn't that kind of Truth or Dare. None of the questions were about sex, and none of the dares involved the removal of clothing.
MERRY MARY: Are you nuts? You play Truth or Dare with a god like Daniel, and you didn't ask him to strip? Oh, Girl, we have got to do something about you!
NOSY PARKER: LOL
TEENA_T: :-D
REDHEAD ANNIE: LOL
DANDI-LYNN: I agree. From what the others told me, Daniel sounds like a man most women would kill to be with.
NOSY PARKER: Okay, so, go on. You were playing Truth or Dare, and. . . .
GATE GAL: And, to make a long story short, Daniel kissed me.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Oh my God!
MERRY MARY: Yes! Was it with tongue? Tell me it was with tongue.
GATE GAL: No, no tongue. It was a very sweet, gentle kiss. The thing is that it took me so totally by surprise that I just sat there like an idiot.
TEENA_T: Uh oh. That's not good.
GATE GAL: No. Daniel was horrified by what he'd done. He kept apologizing. He told me to forget what happened.
NOSY PARKER: Well, obviously, you couldn't.
GATE GAL: No, of course not. My best friend had just kissed me. How could I forget that?
DANDI-LYNN: What did you do?
GATE GAL: I asked him to tell me what was going on.
TEENA_T: And?
GATE GAL: He told me that he was in love with me.
DANDI-LYNN: Wow!
REDHEAD ANNIE: Oh. My. God!
MERRY MARY: Awesome!
TEENA_T: Wow!
NOSY PARKER: And what did you say?
GATE GAL: Nothing. I didn't say a thing. I was so shocked that my brain froze.
TEENA_T: Oh, that is *really* not good.
GATE GAL: Daniel was devastated. He thought he'd ruined our friendship. He left, ran out of the house.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Oh, no! Oh, please tell me you went after him!
DANDI-LYNN: My God. Poor Daniel!
MERRY MARY: Yes, please, please say you did the right thing and got him back.
GATE GAL: Yes, I finally got him to come back. I pretty much had to beg him over the phone.
NOSY PARKER: So, what happened then?
GATE GAL: Daniel was positive that it could never be the same now that I knew he was in love with me.
NOSY PARKER: And was he right?
GATE GAL: Yes, he was right about that part. Knowing that your best friend is in love with you isn’t something that you could ever really put out of your mind.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Oh, please don't tell us this has a horrible ending. You didn't break off your friendship with him, did you?
MERRY MARY: If you did that, Gate Gal, I swear I'm going to find you and beat you senseless.
GATE GAL: No, I didn't. Just the opposite, in fact.
NOSY PARKER: What do you mean?
GATE GAL: Daniel was so upset. He was nearly crying. It hurt so much to see him in pain like that and know that I was the reason for it. And that's when it suddenly hit me that I was in love with him, too.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Whoopee!
TEENA_T: Fantastic!
DANDI-LYNN: Oh, wow!
MERRY MARY: Yes! Yes! Yes! Hallelujah!
NOSY PARKER: That's fantastic news, Gate Gal. I'm delighted.
MERRY MARY: Okay, now tell us the juicy stuff. Did you sleep together? You must have. You'd have to be brain dead not to have.
GATE GAL: Yes, we did. In fact, I've lost count of how many times.
DANDI-LYNN: Oh my! *fans face frantically*
MERRY MARY: So, how is he in bed? We want details!
GATE GAL: Nope, sorry. No details.
MERRY MARY: Oh, come on. You have to tell us something!
REDHEAD ANNIE: Yeah, you can't just leave us hanging like that!
NOSY PARKER: I agree. You have to give us something, Gate Gal. Otherwise, none of us are going to sleep tonight.
TEENA_T: Please?
DANDI-LYNN: Pretty please?
GATE GAL: All right, but no details. To answer your question, Mary, he is absolutely amazing. In my whole life I've never had a sexual experience like this. Daniel makes me feel so incredible, so loved and beautiful. Every time we make love, it's like the first time, and it is so perfect.
DANDI-LYNN: *big, dreamy sigh*
REDHEAD ANNIE: Wow, you are so lucky, Gate Gal.
TEENA_T: Yeah, I'm turning green here.
NOSY PARKER: I am, too, and I'm married! You really sound like you have a winner, Gate Gal. Congratulations.
GATE GAL: Thank you. I totally agree. I've never been happier than I have been these days I've spent with Daniel like this.
NOSY PARKER: Okay, now the tricky part. What about your boyfriend?
GATE GAL: I had to tell him yesterday.
MERRY MARY: Oh, I bet that wasn't pretty.
GATE GAL: No, it wasn't. He almost got into a fight with Daniel, but, not surprisingly, Daniel talked him out of it.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Daniel actually talked him out of it?
NOSY PARKER: Why do you say 'not surprisingly'?
GATE GAL: Because Daniel has a gift with words and with making people see reason. He's a natural born peacemaker and diplomat. I can't tell you how many times he's resolved serious situations just by saying the right things.
MERRY MARY: Ah, so he's good with his tongue, eh? *wicked grin*
GATE GAL: Yes, actually, he is . . . in a variety of ways.
REDHEAD ANNIE: Whoa. Is it getting warm in here?
TEENA_T: LOL
DANDI-LYNN: LOL
NOSY PARKER: LOL. So how did it all work out with Pete?
GATE GAL: It was hard. He's a really nice guy, and I hated to hurt him like that.
NOSY PARKER: But you had no choice.
GATE GAL: No. But I think he'll be okay.
REDHEAD ANNIE: I'm sure he will be. He'll find someone else.
DANDI-LYNN: Yes, he will.
Sam was so focused on the chat that when a pair of hands was laid on her shoulders she jumped an inch out of the chair. Her head jerked upward to see Daniel standing behind her.
"Oh! I didn't hear you get back," she stammered.
"That's what I figured. So, what are you doing?"
"Oh, nothing important," Sam replied hastily. She reached for the mouse. "I'll just log off. . . ."
Daniel laid his hand upon hers, halting her attempt to exit out of the chatroom. His eyes scanned the screen, and his eyebrows began to rise. The higher they went, the more embarrassed Sam became.
"Um . . . Sam?"
"I . . . uhhh. . . . It's a chatroom that I stumbled onto a few days ago. They, uh, talk about relationships and stuff."
"You talked to them about us?"
"I'm sorry, Daniel. Please don't be mad," Sam pleaded. "I just wanted to share my feelings about you with someone."
Daniel gazed at her. Then he touched her cheek. "I'm not mad, Sam. Maybe a little embarrassed, but not mad." His eyes dropped away for a moment. "You, um, really feel that way, that making love with me is perfect?"
Sam grabbed his hand and looked earnestly into his eyes. "Yes! I meant every word I said, Daniel."
The archeologist bent down and took Sam's mouth in a deep kiss, demonstrating yet again how very talented his tongue was. He then turned back to the monitor. All the other women in the chatroom had been asking what happened to Sam, wondering why she wasn't typing anything. Smiling faintly, Daniel reached his arms around her and laid his fingers on the keyboard.
GATE GAL: Hello. Sorry, but Gate Gal can't chat anymore.
NOSY PARKER: What? Who is this?
GATE GAL: Daniel.
REDHEAD ANNIE: *gasp*
DANDI-LYNN: Oh my gosh!
MERRY MARY: Oh my lord! The god is here! I think I'm gonna faint.
GATE GAL: God? No, there's no god here. Just me.
NOSY PARKER: Welcome, Daniel. We're all very happy to meet you. We've heard a lot about you.
GATE GAL: Yes, I gathered that.
Daniel glanced down at Sam, who was blushing furiously.
REDHEAD ANNIE: So, why can't Gate Gal chat anymore?
GATE GAL: Because, in about two minutes, I am going to be making wild, passionate love to her, so she's going to be rather busy for the next hour or so.
GATE GAL: Bye now.
Daniel logged off. Then he spun Sam's chair around, pulled her up out of it, and swung her up into his arms. Sam let out a little squeal of surprise and then laughed as her lover carried her into the bedroom to do just as he had promised.
By the time Daniel and Sam emerged from the bedroom, it was pretty late in the afternoon. Daniel told Sam about the conversation with Cassie and how he and the teenager tried to talk Janet into letting the teen go to UCLA.
"So, you think she'll agree?" Sam asked.
"I think so. It's a very good college, and I think it'll be good for Cassie to be on her own for a while. She's been under ours and Janet's protection since coming to Earth. She's a young woman now and needs to have some independence."
Sam nodded in agreement. "Still, I know that it would be hard for Janet to let her go."
"Yeah."
That evening, Daniel and Sam prepared dinner together. The entree was in the oven, and they were working on the salad when Daniel decided that they should discuss their plan for tomorrow.
"So, how are we going to break the news to everyone tomorrow?" he asked. He grinned mischievously. "I vote for walking around the SGC, holding hand and making goo goo eyes at each other."
Sam laughed. "Goo goo eyes? Gee, Daniel, you are soooo romantic." She sobered. "Seriously, though, I'd say we should play it by ear. The colonel is the first one who needs to know, of course, then General Hammond."
"Actually, Janet should be the second one we tell."
Sam nodded. "You're right. Okay, the colonel, then Janet, and then General Hammond."
"Then Teal'c."
"Of course. As for everyone else, it won't take long for word to get around."
Daniel had a thought. "How do you think Hammond will react? Do you think he'll have a problem with this?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I guess it would all depend on whether or not we could do our jobs without letting our relationship get in the way. He might put us on a probationary period, see what happens."
"Then we'll just have to stay on our best behavior."
"Uh huh, and that means no sex on missions or while on base."
Daniel pouted adorably. "But that means that one of my biggest fantasies will never come true."
"Oh? And what fantasy would that be, Doctor Jackson?"
"Making love to you on the desk in my office, of course, which is only slightly higher on the list than making love to you on the table in your lab."
"Hmm." Sam stepped a lot closer to Daniel, pressing her body against his. "Well, then I guess I'll just have to make all your other fantasies come true . . . and maybe think up some new ones along the way." She pulled Daniel's head down to hers and captured his mouth in a hungry kiss.
As they ate, they decided that they'd wait until after work to tell Jack and Janet. Daniel would ask them both to come over to his house, being sure not to tell either one of them that the other was coming. He and Sam would then spring the news on both of them at the same time.
That having been decided, the couple spent a good part of the rest of the evening watching TV and cuddling. That night, they lay in each other's arms, sharing the joy of being together.
