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CHAPTER TEN

Wishing Teal'c a good night, Cam entered his cottage.  All had been quiet on their walk around the town's perimeter.  Not that he'd expected otherwise.  From what he had learned, the raiders never struck at night.

The truth was that the real reason for the walk had been to clear his head.  Throughout the evening meal, Cam had been unable to keep himself from glancing at Vala, the thought never far from his mind that she would be sleeping in the cottage right next to his tonight.  Such thoughts were extremely unprofessional, and he had no business thinking them while on a mission, but he couldn't help himself, just like he'd been unable to stop himself from recalling every detail of their lovemaking . . . over and over again.

He'd had his share of lovers throughout his life, but he couldn't recall ever having one that made him feel so alive and so damn good.  Of course, there was no way that he was falling in love with her.  Not a chance.  No, this thing between them was purely physical, and he was going to enjoy it however long it lasted, which probably wouldn't be for long.  Vala was not exactly a long-term relationship kind of girl.  Sooner or later, she'd lose interest.  So, what about afterwards?  As long as it didn't make things awkward between them at work, he figured that they should be all right.

Setting down his P-90, Cam froze as he heard a noise.  It had sounded like water splashing in the bathroom.  Cautiously, he approached the door and opened it.  His eyes widened at the sight of Vala in his bathtub, running a bar of soap down her arm.  He couldn't stop himself from ogling her body.  Apparently, the Hedavi didn't have bath bubbles, so the only thing obscuring his vision was the soap in the water, and it wasn't doing a very good job of hiding anything.

Vala gazed at him with a come-hither smile.  "Hello, Cameron.  Coming to join me?" she purred.

A little voice in Cam's head pipped up with an enthusiastic "Yes!"  He ignored it, as well as the tightening in the crotch of his pants.

"Vala, what are you doing here?"

"What does it look like, silly?  I'm taking a bath."

"Yes, but why are you taking it in my bathtub?"

Vala gave him a very convincing look of surprise.  "Your bathtub?  Oh, am I in the wrong cottage?  I'm terribly sorry.  They all look alike."

Cam didn't believe for a second that she was here by mistake.  "Vala, you have to leave.  We're on a mission."

Vala let out a sigh.  "Very well.  Could you get me one of those towels?"

Cam reached for a towel and turned back to Vala – just in time to see her rise from the tub in all her naked glory.  The pilot's crotch instantly got even tighter.

Cam thrust the towel at Vala, then strode out of the bathroom.  Dammit!  Why was she torturing him like this?  He wasn't going to get a wink of sleep now!

Vala came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, and Cam breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that she was fully clothed.  She sashayed up to him, then very deliberately ran a fingertip from his chest all the way down to his crotch and its undeniable bulge.

"Hmm.  That looks quite uncomfortable," she said.  "I could take care of that for you."

"No!" Cam shouted at the same time as the irritating little voice again cried, "Yes!"  He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away.  "Vala, we need to get one thing straight.  You are not to do things like this when we are on a mission nor any other time when we are on duty.  I'm serious.  I could get into a lot of trouble over stuff like this.  Do you understand?"

Though Vala very much wanted to get him in bed for some hot sex, she really would hate to get him into trouble.

"All right, Cameron.  I'm sorry.  I will just have to curb my desire for your body until you are off duty."

"Thank you."

Deciding that she at least had to get a kiss out of him, Vala took hold of the collar of his BDU jacket and pulled his lips down to hers.  He grabbed onto her and returned the kiss, which got way hotter than he really should have let it.  As their mouths separated, Vala sensuously ran her tongue over his lower lip.

"Mmm.  That should help keep me going for a couple of days," she told him.  Then she released him, and, with a single backwards glance, left the cottage.

Cam fell back onto the bed.  The woman really was going to drive him insane.  On the other hand, there were definitely worst ways to go crazy.


It was another morning, and, yet again, certain members of SG-1 were having a hard time looking at certain other members, and Teal'c was watching them.  What he had suspected was the reason for the attitude between two of his teammates had been confirmed, and, at the proper time, he would have to discuss the situation.  This, of course, was not that time.

"Did you get clear directions to where the raiders' camp is?" Sam asked Cameron.

"Yes.  We pretty much head straight for that lone hill."  He pointed toward the hill.  "The camp is in a small clearing.  We'll probably hear them long before we see them."

"Are you sure you don't want us to come with you?"

"Positive.  We'll be fine, Sam."

Just then, the gate began to dial, and everyone turned to it.  After the wormhole connected, the voice of General Landry came through.

"We're here, General," Cam said in response.  "Everything's good.  You can send them on through."

A moment later, SG-5 and 20 appeared.

"Welcome to Hedavin, boys," Cam greeted.  "I hope you're ready for a long walk."  He turned to Daniel and Sam.  "We'll do a radio check every six hours.  If you don't hear from us in eight, call in the calvary."

Wishing the teams good luck, Sam and Daniel watched them leave.  Their eyes then went to each other.

"Hey," the archeologist said, which was the first word he'd directed toward Sam that morning.

"Hey," she said back.  "How did you sleep?"

"The truth?  Not so good."

"Me neither," Sam admitted, knowing exactly why Daniel had not slept soundly.  She gave him a little smile of embarrassment.  "I think the last time I was so preoccupied with these kinds of thoughts was the night before the senior prom, when I was trying to decide if I was going to let my boyfriend get to third base."

That made Daniel laugh.  "I think the last time I was this preoccupied with these kinds of thoughts was during puberty."

It was Sam's turn to laugh.  The laughter faded as they both grew serious.

Daniel caught Sam's gaze.  "I really want to kiss you right now."

"Me too."

With an effort, they turned their thoughts toward their job and began discussing their plan of 'attack', exchanging ideas on what they thought the best way to proceed with the trade talks would be.

"I think that one of Nitiren's biggest concerns is how his people are going to react to the news that they allowed visitors from another planet take some of the Wani," Daniel said.  "He's worried that they'll be upset."

Sam nodded.  "I agree.  I definitely got that impression."

"We need to stress how much better the lives of their people will be with the things we're going to give them.  I think the key is focusing on increasing their crop yield.  Their problem with the raiders could factor into this.  If they're producing more crops than they need for themselves, then, if the raids do continue, it won't mean that the people will go hungry." Daniel suddenly had a thought.  "In fact, this might just give us a peaceful solution to the whole situation."

He told Sam his idea, and she agreed that it could work.  They went in search of Nitiren.  When they found him, he gave them a rather odd look.  Choosing not to question him about it, Daniel asked what a good time would be to resume the trade talks.  The Chief Councilor said that a bit later in the morning would be good.

Having a little time to kill, Daniel and Sam decided to go for a walk.  They headed into the woods, aiming toward the river that was the town's main source of water.  On the way, Daniel told her about the aqueduct system that the people had built to carry water to the town.

Once they got to the river, the couple stood on the bank and silently gazed at it.  Then, as if a silent message had passed between them, they turned to each other.  Two seconds after that, they were kissing like they were starving for each other.  Then the caressing began, their touches growing progressively bolder.  When Daniel's hand cupped Sam's breast, a thumb brushing across the hardening nipple, she let out a breathy moan, her head falling back.  The exposed length of her neck was too much for Daniel to resist, and his mouth fell upon it.  His tongue came out and slid across the rapidly beating pulse point, throwing Sam's sanity more than a little off-kilter.  One of her hands went down to his butt, the other finding its way under his T-shirt.  Her touch on his bare skin made Daniel want the same thing.  He pulled her T-shirt out from her pants, and ran his hand over her side, inching up toward her breast.

The sound of laughing children made the couple break apart.  They looked upriver and saw a small group of kids emerge from the trees.  The children, who were dressed in what must be the Hedavi's version of bathing suits, began playing and swimming in a shallow, slow-moving area of the river.

"Let's get back to town," Sam said.

They walked in silence for a solid minute before Sam spoke again.

"That shouldn't have happened."

"I know.  I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Daniel.  I'm as much to blame as you are.  But we can't let it happen again, not while we're here.  We're on a mission and should be acting accordingly."

Daniel nodded.  He smiled slightly.  "I'm starting to wish that we'd gone with the others.  Then this would not be a problem."

"Yeah.  We'll just have to avoid being alone in each other's company for any length of time."

Not long after they got back into town, they were told that the council was ready to resume the negotiations.  Daniel waited for the right time to bring up the idea that had come to him.  The council members definitely showed an interest in it, which brought the group a step closer to reaching a trade agreement.

At lunchtime, a halt was called to the talks, and Sam and Daniel left the meeting hall.  The astrophysicist went to her cottage to use the bathroom.  She came right back out after only a few seconds.  There was a frown on her face.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asked.

"All my stuff is gone."

Shocked, Daniel stared.  "What?"

"My clothes, my extra gear, everything."

"I can't believe that somebody would steal them."

"Have you been in your cottage yet?"

"No."

"Maybe you'd better make sure your stuff is there."

Daniel went inside his cottage.  He hadn't been in there for long when she heard him call her name.  She joined him inside.

"Well, at least we know that your stuff wasn't stolen," Daniel remarked, pointing at the bed.

There, sitting in a neat pile, were all of Sam's things.

"Why in the world did they bring my stuff in here?" she asked.

Daniel suddenly recalled something.  "Uh oh."

Sam looked at him.  "What?"

"After we kissed last night, I thought I saw someone on my way to my cottage, but I didn't look to see who it was.  I think that, whoever it was, they saw what happened between us, or at least part of it.  It may even have been Nitiren himself who saw us.  I recall him mentioning that he sometimes takes walks in the evening."

Sam almost blushed over the possibility that the Chief Councillor had witnessed their kisses.  "Okay, but why would my stuff be moved over here?"

"Sam, the Hedavi have very strict beliefs on sex.  Both men and women are expected to be virgins when they get married, and sex outside the marriage arrangement is considered sacrilegious.  In fact, anything beyond hand holding before marriage is taboo because doing more than that could lead to passions getting out of control.  Now, for obvious reasons, our viewpoints on sex and marriage have not come up in any conversations, so they might believe that our customs are similar to theirs.  I didn't think about it at the time, but when Nitiren asked if it was correct for each of us to have a separate cottage, he was probably really asking if any of us were a married couple.  When I told him separate cottages were fine, he assumed that we were all single."

Sam now understood where he was going.  "But if Nitiren witnessed us kissing. . . ."

"He might think that he'd made a mistake, but we chose not to point out his error."

"Oh my God.  He thinks we're married?"

"That would be my guess.  This explains that weird look he gave us this morning."

"But why didn't he ask us instead of taking the liberty of moving my stuff here without my permission?"

"It's a matter of respect.  Do you know what the term 'saving face' means?"

"Um, doesn't it mean to do something so that people will continue to respect you?"

"In a nutshell, although, sometimes, it has more to do with a person's self-image than what others think of them.  Among the Hedavi, if a person makes a mistake or gets something wrong, they are allowed to save face by correcting the error without anyone saying anything about the mistake or its resolution.  In other words, a mistake is made, then fixed, and none of the parties involved say a word about it, as if the mistake never happened at all."

"Can't we just tell him that he was right to begin with?"

"I'm afraid that might cause a problem.  I honestly don't know how it would affect the negotiations if they learned that we're not married, yet we were doing a hell of a lot more than just holding hands."

Sam groaned and sat on the bed.  "So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm afraid that you're, uh, going to have to stay here tonight.  I can sleep on the floor.  Hopefully, everything will be wrapped up tomorrow, and the others will get back early enough that we can go home."

The thought going through both of their minds was that, even if Daniel did sleep on the floor, tonight was going to be one hell of a workout for their self-control.

"You have no idea how glad I am that Cam and Vala aren't here," Sam muttered.  "We'd never hear the end of this."


The eleven SG team members crouched within the early evening shadows at the edge of the forest.  A hundred feet away was a small encampment of twenty-eight men.  Off to the left were at least twice that many horses.  The townspeople had no horses, which was probably one of the reasons why they'd never considered going after the raiders.  Some of the horses were clearly draft animals intended to pull the carts that the raiders probably planned on filling with stolen crops.

That would not be happening this time.

Cam gestured at the others, and the group silently pulled back.  They withdrew around two hundred yards.

"All right," Cam said.  "There's not enough daylight left to move in on them now, so we'll go in at first light.  Hopefully, we'll catch most of them while they're still sleeping."  He turned to the leader of SG-5.  "Harper, I want your team to keep an eye on them.  If they give any indication that they're going to break camp in the morning, we need to know immediately."

"Yes, sir."

"We'll camp here.  I'm afraid that we'll have to do without a fire tonight.  We can't take the chance that any of the raiders will see it."

Everyone got busy setting up camp.  As darkness descended, the only illumination in the camp was from a single low light lantern, which cast no more light than a candle.  They gathered around the lantern and discussed their strategy.

"Do you think that Daniel's idea will work?" Vala asked SG-1's leader.

Cameron thought about what the archeologist told him during the first radio check.  "I guess it all depends on whether or not those guys actually enjoy what they do.  All the food they steal must be intended to feed somebody.  My guess is that they have families somewhere."

"I believe that you are correct, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said.

"So, why don't they grow their own crops instead of stealing from other people?" a member of SG-20 asked.

"Probably the same reason that people did similar things on Earth," Cam replied.  "They either don't want to or don't have the ability."

"The highland people of Cendira were like that," Vala said.  "They considered it to be beneath them to grow their own food, so they stole it all from everyone else.  Eventually, the people they were stealing from wiped them out."

"Well, let's just hope that these raiders are willing to be reasonable.  It'll be a lot easier than trying to scare them away, especially if they have families to feed."

Cam took first watch, having too many things on his mind to sleep.  Because there were so many of them to share the duty, each watch would be only one hour long.

Vala started walking toward her tent, then changed her mind.  She returned to where Cameron sat and settled beside him.

"You did not assign a watch to me, so I'll just share yours," she explained.

"That isn't necessary, Vala."

"I know.  But two sets of eyes and ears are better than one, right?"

Cam stared at her for a long moment, then nodded.  "All right."  He lowered his voice to a whisper.  "But no funny stuff."

Vala crossed a finger over her chest.  "Cross my heart."  She then gave him a smile.

As soon as everyone else was settled in their tents, Cam turned off the light, plunging them into darkness.  Slowly, their eyes became adjusted to the dark.

"Cameron, look," Vala said in a whisper.

The pilot looked in the direction she was pointing and saw tiny pinpoints of light dancing in the air.

"Fireflies," he murmured.  "Or at least the alien equivalent."

They sat in silence and watched the little glowing insects fly about.  After a while, Cam felt Vala's arm wrap around his.  He thought about withdrawing his arm, but decided that it would be okay for a little while.  He did look at her, though.

"No funny stuff.  I swear," she whispered.

He smiled and let out a soft chuckle, turning his gaze back to the forest.  After a while, he decided that the simple contact felt kind of nice, and when she entwined her fingers with his, it felt even better.  He was a little startled when Vala began to speak.

"When I was nineteen, there was a young man named Jinlan whom I loved.  I would sneak out of the house at night for clandestine meetings with him."

"Did he end up becoming one of your husbands?"

"No.  Not long after my twentieth birthday, Qetesh took me as her host.  After I was freed, I went back home, but no one would have anything to do with me, including Jinlan.  I tried to tell him that it wasn't really me who did all those terrible things, but he refused to listen.  He . . . spat on me."

Cameron tightened his grip on her hand.  "I'm sorry."

"Eventually, I gave up on anyone ever truly caring about me as a person.  Most of my marriages were ones of convenience."

"None of them were about love?"

Vala paused before replying.  "Tomin loved me."

"But you didn't love him.  You married him only because you were pregnant with Adria."

"Yes, but I did care about him very much.  He was a good person before the Ori brainwashed him."

"So, except for that first guy, you've never loved anyone?"

"No," Vala lied.  She had never told Daniel that she'd loved him, and she wasn't about to admit it to Cameron.  She looked at him.  "What about you?  Did you love Amy?"

"As much as any sixteen-year-old could."

"Anyone since then?"

"Not really, at least not enough to consider marriage."

They both fell silent.  Again, it was Vala who broke it.

"I believe that Samantha is falling in love with Daniel," she announced in a whisper.

"Ah, so you saw it too, huh?"

"I doubt it will be long before they start having sex."

If it wasn't for the fact that it was Vala sitting there beside him, Cam would have been shocked by the blunt statement.  "How about if we agree not to talk about Jackson and Sam having sex?" he whispered fiercely.

"Sorry.  We could talk about the next time we're going to have sex."

"No, we couldn't.  And this definitely qualifies as 'funny stuff'."

"It does?  I thought that 'funny stuff' referred to inappropriate touching."

"Funny stuff refers to anything and everything pertaining to this thing between us."

"Oh.  My mistake."

Cam withdrew his arm from Vala's.  "You should go to your tent.  The next person on watch will be replacing me in twenty minutes."

Choosing not to object, Vala got to her feet.  Unable to resist, she ran her fingers through Cam's hair and across the nape of his neck before leaving.

Alone inside her sleeping bag a while later, Vala thought about love . . . and the lack thereof.  Twice, she had learned that loving someone could lead to heartache.  She had loved Jinlan, and he shattered her heart by rejecting her in the most painful of ways.  She had loved Daniel, and her heart was wounded yet again when she learned that he loved someone else.  Thankfully, that wouldn't be a problem with Cameron.  What they had was just physical, so if, one of these days, he decided to break things off with her, it would be all right, as long as they could remain friends.  Yes, this thing with him did feel fantastic, and the sex was extremely satisfying, but she'd had satisfying sexual relationships with other men and was able to move on from them without any trouble.  This would be the same.

Until it did end, though, she intended to enjoy this relationship with Cameron as much as possible.


For both Daniel and Sam, night had come far too quickly.  They took turns in the bathroom, Daniel going first.  When Sam came out, she saw that he'd spread a couple of blankets on the floor.

"Now, I'm wishing that I'd brought a sleeping bag," he said.  "At least it would give me some padding."

Sam stared at the wood flooring, thinking that it was going to be terribly uncomfortable for him to sleep on.  "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah.  We sleep on the ground on most overnight missions.  This shouldn't be all that much worse."

Sam's eyes went to the bed.  She really should tell Daniel that he could share the bed with her.  The problem was that she would very likely not get one wink of sleep, and she suspected that Daniel wouldn't either.  Still, she should at least offer.

"Um . . . we could . . . share the bed."

Daniel looked at her sharply, hearing the nervousness in her voice.  "I don't think that would be a good idea, Sam."

She sighed.  "Probably not."  She handed him one of the pillows.  Then she crawled into the bed as Daniel tried to make himself as comfortable as possible on the floor.  They wished each other good night, then Sam blew out the lantern, the room now illuminated only by the dim moonlight coming in through the curtains.

The minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness, both Daniel and Sam wide awake, extremely aware of each other's presence.  This was not the first time that they had slept alone in the same room, but everything was so very different now.  They each found themselves listening to the other's respiration, the little sounds they made as they shifted position.

Around fifteen minutes had passed when Sam heard a noise that was not that of Daniel breathing or moving; it was a grunt of pain.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Um, well, let's just say that I was wrong about sleeping on this floor not being much worse than sleeping on the ground."

Sam bit her lip.  She could imagine how terribly uncomfortable he was down there.

Making a sudden decision, she said, "Get in the bed, Daniel."

There was a sound that she realized was choked laughter.

"Oh, God, Sam," Daniel said amidst the laughter.  "You have no idea how many fantasies I've had of you saying something similar to that, but under way different circumstances."

Sam snorted out a laugh of her own.

Daniel got to his feet with a groan and the popping of a few joints.  Yeah, he was way too old to be sleeping on a hard floor.  At the same time, he wasn't anywhere near old enough to lie on that bed with Sam and actually get any sleep.  If he was around seventy, there wouldn't be a problem.  Daniel thought about that and changed his mind.  Even at seventy, he'd still want her.  He might not have the ability to do anything about it, but the desire would still be there.

"Actually, I think I'll just sneak over to the cabin next door," he said.  "As long as I get up before dawn, I should avoid being seen."

"And what if you are seen?  Daniel, we can't risk screwing up the negotiations because of this thing between us."

After a moment, Daniel sighed.  "Yeah, you're right."

Feeling very nervous, he approached the bed.  Sam moved over as far as she could, leaving him plenty of room.

Once Daniel was settled in the bed, silence returned.  Though there was a pretty sizable gap between them, to the couple it felt like it might as well have been just a few millimeters.  Though she knew it was impossible, Sam could swear that she felt the heat of Daniel's body.  Her thoughts began drifting in the direction of that heat wrapped around her, inside her.

'No!  Stop, stop, stop!' she screamed at herself as her temperature started to climb.

Out of desperation, she began running simple equations through her brain, something she sometimes did to help her fall asleep, her own version of counting sheep.

Daniel, on the other hand, knew that he could count sheep until he was approaching the number of stars in the galaxy, and he still wouldn't be able to get to sleep.  Therefore, he didn't even try.  He'd just have to drink a whole pot of coffee in the morning.

Since he'd given up on getting any sleep, he let himself think about his relationship with Sam.  It was now confirmed that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.  His hope was that her desire was a big step toward falling in love with him, although he knew that some people never got past the physical desire stage.

Daniel really had to wonder if they would make it to the fourth date before consummating their relationship.  The way things were going, he had his doubts.

Suddenly, a memory came to him, and he couldn't stop the little laugh that escaped his lips.

Hearing the sound, Sam looked over at him.  In the darkness, she could see a little smile on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking about something I said to Jack.  It was when he told me that he was going to invite you to go fishing with him.  I told him that I thought he was making a mistake, that he should wait until after you'd been dating for a while before doing something like inviting you to go on a vacation alone with him.  Part of the reason why I said that were my own feelings for you, but I really did believe that he was moving too fast.  Now, here I am, after dating you for less than two weeks, and I'm wondering whether or not I'll be able to make it to the fourth date before making love to you.  Talk about a hypocrite."

Sam smiled.  "I see your point.  It really is crazy, isn't it.  I was thinking that last night."

Daniel turned his head and looked at her.  "Are we moving too fast, Sam?  Are we making a mistake?  I don't want to make a mistake, especially not with you."

A few seconds passed before Sam answered.  "The sensible thing for me to say would be yes."  She turned on her side and looked straight into Daniel's eyes.  "But, for one of the few times in my life, I don't want to do the sensible thing."

Daniel stared intently into her eyes for a breathless moment.  In the next instant, she was in his arms, her lips being consumed in a kiss of fiery passion.  Sam moaned into his mouth and pulled him tight against her.  They were both breathing heavily by the time the kiss ended.

Daniel's hand ran down Sam's body, making her shudder with desire.  "I want you so badly, Sam," he told her raggedly.  "If we weren't on a mission. . . ."

"I know.  I want that, too."

Daniel smiled.  "We're going to have to schedule that fourth date for the earliest possible moment."

Sam laughed.  "Boy, will we ever."

Daniel grew serious, his eyes gazing deeply into those of the woman in his arms.  "Sam, I know that we can't do what we both really want to tonight, but, for me, the next best thing would be to sleep with you in my arms."

Sam felt her heart swell at his words and the tone of love in which they had been spoken.  "I would like that very much."

Daniel pressed another kiss to her lips, this one soft and sweet.  Then he pulled her head down to nestle beneath his chin.  He let out a deep, happy sigh and let his body relax.  Sam wrapped an arm around him, nuzzling into his chest, the smell of his skin filling her nostrils.  Gradually, the physical desires faded away and were replaced by the simple pleasure of being in each other's arms.

Fifteen minutes later, they were both asleep.

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