CHAPTER FOUR
Over breakfast, Cameron studied the two members of SG-1's brain trust. Daniel and Sam appeared relaxed and happy. They were both chatting up a storm. Daniel was even being friendly to Vala. He hadn't shown irritation toward her at all.
Being a man himself, Cam recognized the signs of a guy who'd had a night with lots of great sex. It was the only thing he could think of that could have made the man this . . . chipper. A chipper Daniel was something the pilot had never seen before. In fact, just a happy Daniel was not a familiar sight. The last time he'd seen a happy Daniel was clear back at the beginning, when the archeologist cheerfully informed Cam that he'd transferred to Atlantis and would be heading out on the Prometheus. But that happy had been a drop in the bucket compared to this happy.
So, what had happened? Just day before yesterday, Sam was in the gym, very definitely not a happy woman, and Jackson had been in the same condition a week before then, and neither one of them had looked especially happy during the days in between. Obviously, something had changed in a big way. The pilot was really curious about what that something was.
Vala, who had never seen a happy Daniel, had rarely even seen him smile, couldn't stop staring at him. His face seemed to have gotten younger overnight, dropping at least five years, if not more. His bright blue eyes were sparkling. Her heart skipped a beat as he flashed that killer smile again, the one that could probably melt the hearts of every woman onboard this ship and at the SGC. Wow. From the first moment she saw him, Vala had been attracted to his handsomeness, but, now, he was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
Back during the time that she and Daniel were bonded by those bracelets, she'd spent a lot of time thinking about getting him into bed. She'd turned her feminine wiles on him more than once without success. After her unplanned journey to the Ori galaxy and her marriage of necessary to Tomin, such thoughts weren't quite so prominent. Oh, she definitely still wanted Daniel. That had never gone away. But the fact that she was, technically, still a married woman put a rein on her efforts to get him into the sack. Of course, if he'd ever hinted that he wanted the same thing, she'd have been on him in a flash.
Now, though, as she watched him smile and laugh, she suddenly wanted him more than ever. Perhaps this good mood of his would make him more amenable to some hot, wild sex with her. He was being quite nice to her, smiling at her more than once.
Vala looked at the woman sitting across from Daniel. Sam appeared to be equally as happy, her features softer, more relaxed than Vala had ever seen them. She really looked quite pretty, beautiful even. Had she done something different with her hair this morning? She was definitely wearing more make-up.
Wait a minute. Vala looked back and forth between Daniel and Sam, who were presently sharing a conversation with a young lieutenant who'd asked if she could join them. Vala noticed a brief glance pass between the two scientists, a warm little smile. No way. It couldn't be. Their mutual good moods had to be a coincidence. Or maybe they'd gotten together in the rec room after dinner last night and finally let themselves have some fun and relax for a while. Short of the occasional basketball game, Daniel never seemed to have any fun, which frustrated Vala to no end, and Samantha's idea of fun appeared to be working on some incomprehensible piece of technology that no one but she understood.
Yes, that had to be it. It couldn't be that other thing, despite appearances to the contrary.
After breakfast, everyone else went off to do things, leaving Vala, as usual, with nothing to do. She wandered around the ship for a while, having a few conversations with people. As was most often the case, however, regardless of whether it was on this ship or at the SGC, she ended up in Daniel's office. Despite the fact that he usually acted like he wished she'd go away and let him work in peace, she never let that stop her from hanging around. Being in such a good mood today, maybe he'd welcome her presence. Perhaps if she came onto him, he'd finally do what she'd fantasized about more than once, which was locking the door and taking her on his desk. She liked the desk in his office at the SGC better, but she wasn't picky. And his present office had one big advantage over the other one: it wasn't under regular camera surveillance. Vala smiled. Yes, they could have all kinds of fun in there.
Daniel was on his computer when Vala came in, a pile of books sitting on the desk.
"Hi," he greeted cordially.
"Hello." Vala walked up to the desk. "So, what are you working on?"
"I've been trying to get a better idea of what Merlin's weapon might be exactly and how we could use it against the Ori."
"Really? That's interesting."
Vala leaned down toward the monitor, bracing one hand on the desk and the other on the back of Daniel's chair. This brought her quite close to the archeologist, close enough that, if he moved to the left just a few inches, he'd touch her.
"So, show me what you have so far," Vala requested.
"Um . . . excuse me," Daniel said, gently pushing her a bit farther away so that he could get to his mouse. Disappointed but undaunted, Vala straightened.
Daniel proceeded to explain to her what he'd been doing. She really wasn't all that interested, but she pretended to be. Men liked it when you appeared to be fascinated by whatever it was they were saying. She settled her hip on the desk, dividing her time between looking at him and at the images on the computer screen.
"I'm sure you'll have it figured out soon," she said as he finished. She got to her feet and walked around behind the chair, running her fingertips over the top of the backrest. "So, I've been thinking that perhaps we can get together in your quarters this evening and have a little fun, perhaps play some games. I believe they have some board games in the rec room that we could borrow, or you could teach me how to play chess. You don't have nearly enough fun, Daniel. You need to learn to live a little." She gave him her most winning smile.
Daniel stared at her. Only a fool wouldn't see what she was trying to do. Once again, she was coming onto him. That hadn't happened since her return from the Ori galaxy. Why all of a sudden had she decided to resume her efforts to get him into bed with her?
All the other times had irritated and aggravated him. This time, he decided to be nice about it. It was time he told her once and for all that there could be nothing between them.
When Daniel got up and shut the office door, an excited thrill traveled through Vala's body. But then he turned to her, and the look on his face told her that there would be no wild lovemaking on his desk.
"Um . . . look, Vala," he said. "You are a very attractive woman, but I'm sorry. I'm just not interested in you like that. You're . . . not my type."
Not ready to concede defeat yet, Vala walked up to him with a smile. "Don't your people have a saying? Opposites attract?"
Daniel sighed. "Vala, I don't know how to make this any clearer to you. I'm not interested."
Feeling her hopes dying, Vala decided to try one last thing. She turned and walked away a few feet. "How long has it been since you've made love, Daniel? Rumors on base say that you haven't had a girlfriend since your wife died. That's a very long time for a man to go without sexual gratification." She turned around to face him. "I'm not asking for a commitment or a relationship. It can just be sex, if that's all you want." She gave him a sultry smile. "I've had many lovers, Daniel. I know a lot of techniques for pleasuring a man. I could bring you more pleasure than any woman you've ever been with. And I know you'd bring me pleasure. I don't have to be your type for us to do that."
Daniel stared at her. This definitely proved that Vala really didn't understand the kind of man he was. Casual sex was something he did not do, something he'd never had an interest in. What he had with Sam now wasn't "just sex". When he made love with her, it wasn't just with his body, not just for sexual gratification. It wasn't anywhere near being that shallow and meaningless, and it satisfied him in ways that Vala never could, no matter how many "techniques" she might know.
"I don't need you to give me sexual gratification, Vala," he said at last. "I'm doing just fine."
As Vala stared at him, she realized that he was telling the absolute truth. Since no man short of a priest or a saint really would be fine after so many years without sex, there could be only one explanation: Daniel was having sex with someone else.
"Oh my God. You are having sex with Samantha!" Vala blurted out. The look on Daniel's face confirmed it. He very quickly turned away, walking across the room.
"So, how long has it been going on?" she asked, trying to ignore the twinge of pain and jealousy she was feeling.
"Vala, I'm not talking about this," Daniel replied, figuring that he'd be wasting his breath by trying to deny his affair with Sam. It had probably been written all over his face a moment ago.
"Well, this I certainly did not expect."
Hearing a touch of anger and disapproval in the woman's voice, Daniel turned to her. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, let's face it, Daniel. Samantha isn't exactly the passionate sort, at least not with anything besides her science. You are a very passionate man. I'd expect you to go for someone who has more fire, more . . . ardor."
A spark of anger kindled within Daniel and rapidly grew. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about," he said. "And you obviously don't know Sam. She may not show it all the time, but she has a lot of passion inside her." He glared at her. "Being passionate and being oversexed are not synonymous," he shot out, the deliberate barb piercing Vala. "Sam is an incredible woman in every way." His expression darkened. "I would like you to leave, Vala. Now."
Suddenly, Vala realized that she'd stepped over the line. She'd let her jealousy get the better of her and said something she shouldn't have. If she didn't do something to correct this, not only will she have lost her hope of being with Daniel, she'd lose his friendship as well.
"Daniel, I'm sorry," she said earnestly. "I shouldn't have said that. It was wrong of me, and I didn't really mean it. I have great admiration and respect for Samantha. I'm just jealous of her because she has you, and I don't. I've made no secret of the fact that I've wanted you right from the start. Samantha is a very lucky woman to have gotten you."
Daniel's anger began to cool. He was still ticked off by Vala's comments about Sam, but he did understand how jealousy could make a person say things they didn't mean.
Vala took a step forward, her eyes pleading. "Please, Daniel. I don't want to lose your friendship over this. It means a lot to me." She looked into his eyes. "We can still be friends . . . can't we? Please?"
Daniel sighed. "Yes, we're still friends, Vala."
The woman relaxed. Then she smiled a bit teasingly. "So . . . it's been good, has it? Judging by the way you and Samantha were acting this morning, I'd say it's very good."
Daniel frowned. "Vala, I am not discussing my love life with you."
The dark-haired woman pouted. "Oh, come on, Daniel. I'm not asking for details, just a little hint."
"Sorry. No hints from me." He walked toward his computer. "Now, I have a lot of work to do, so if you will excuse me. . . ."
Vala gave an exaggerated sigh. "Very well." She headed for the door.
"Vala, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this," Daniel said. "Sam and I don't want it broadcast all over the place."
Vala frowned. "Is it against your military's regulations?"
"Um, no, not really since I'm a civilian, but Landry and a lot of other people might not like the idea of two teammates being involved. Neither Sam nor I want to leave SG-1. I don't know what we're going to do in the long-run. We can't keep it a secret forever. But, for right now, we don't want anyone to know."
Vala nodded. "Don't worry, Daniel. No one will hear about it from me. I swear."
"Thank you."
With her hand on the doorknob, Vala paused and looked at him. "So, Daniel. Have you ever considered a threesome?"
Daniel almost laughed, even though the suggestion embarrassed him. It was so like Vala to say something like that.
"No, Vala. I'm definitely the one woman at a time kind of guy."
"Ah. Pity. It certainly has its advantages, especially for the man."
"I'm sure it does."
As Vala left the office and walked away down the hall, she let out a soft, wistful sigh. All her fantasies about being with Daniel were never going to come true. She needed to accept that now. And she could. She was Vala Mal Doran, after all, former host of the Goa'uld Quetesh. She was tough. And no man was worth pining over. She'd be just fine.
Lifting her head high, Vala strode away down the corridor with confidence.
When Daniel came to Sam's lab just before noon, it wasn't easy keeping himself from kissing her. He hustled her off to lunch before his willpower could fail him. When, a few hours later, Sam showed up in his office, his willpower took a vacation. Shutting the door, he grabbed hold of her and immediately started kissing the life out of her. She moaned into his mouth and kissed him right back.
"I've been wanting to do that all day," he said as they parted.
"Me too."
"I'd love to do more than just kiss you."
"So would I," Sam admitted.
Daniel smiled. "You know, I'm usually not like this."
Sam gave him a smile. "I sort of figured that out, Daniel. You'd never have gone so long without sex, if you were."
"Yes, well, I wasn't like this even when I was married. Sha're and I did have a healthy sex life, but I didn't crave her all the time."
Feeling quite pleased and flattered, Sam smiled again. "You crave me all the time?"
"Well, not every minute of the day, but it is on my mind quite a lot." He stared at her intently. "I can't wait for tonight."
Sam felt heat flash through her. "Me neither."
"Speaking of that, have you come up with any ideas on how to get moved to that other room?"
"Not yet, but I have a few ideas."
Daniel leaned on his desk. "So, what brings you here?"
"Um . . . something happened a little while ago that has me worried. I didn't want to bring it up tonight and ruin the evening. I bumped into Vala, and she said something that makes me believe that she knows about us."
Daniel sighed. "Yeah, she knows. I was going to tell you tonight."
"How did she find out?"
"She hit on me."
Sam blinked. "She . . . she did?"
"Yeah. It's not the first time."
"Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Sam, it would have been more than a little embarrassing for me to admit that Vala had tried to get me into bed with her. It happened during that incident with those bracelets. She hasn't tried again since she came back, though she hasn't made it a secret that she wants me."
Sam felt the green-eyed monster sink its teeth into her. Seeing the look in her eyes, Daniel quickly said, "I never considered for one moment to take her up on the offer, Sam, not even back then. Vala is about as far from being the kind of woman I go for as it's possible to get. She also drives me stark, raving mad half the time. Anyway, she hit on me, and, again, I turned her down. I finally told her in no uncertain terms that I wasn't interested in her and never would be. She tried a different tactic, and I ended up saying something that made her realize that you and I were involved. The thing is, though, that what I said couldn't have told her that it was you I was involved with, so she must have suspected it before then. I've been thinking about it, and, based on something else she said, I believe I've figured it out. You and I were pretty, um . . . cheerful this morning."
Sam grimaced. "Yeah, that was a mistake. We should have made an effort to act normally. We're going to have to be more careful in the future." She frowned. "Daniel, do you think that Cam knows, too?"
"I'm not sure, but I think it's possible. I've noticed him looking at me strangely several times."
Sam sighed. "That one might be my fault."
"How so?"
She told Daniel about the incident in the gym. To her surprise, he laughed.
"Oh, he definitely knows, then." He told her about the similar situation with him in the gym and the conversation afterwards.
"So, what do you think we should do?" Sam asked.
"Nothing. If Mitchell wants to talk to us about it, he'll come to us. As for Vala, she promised that she wouldn't tell anyone, and I trust that she won't."
When Daniel arrived at his quarters that night, he noticed that the door to Sam's room was open, and he could hear someone talking inside. Curious if this had anything to do with Sam's plan to get moved to the other room, he went to investigate.
"I'm afraid that, even with a blow-dryer, it would take quite a while to get that dry, ma'am," a female crew person was saying to Sam.
Daniel came into the room. "What's up?" he asked, putting on an innocent air.
"Oh, I spilled a glass of water all over my bed," Sam said, acting like she was pretty perturbed by the whole thing.
Daniel came up to the bed and saw that there was a huge wet spot on the mattress and sheet, several damp bath towels scattered about.
The archeologist frowned. "That's going to take a long time to dry," he said.
Sam sighed. "Yeah. I guess I'll be sleeping on a cot tonight."
"Why don't you just move to another room?" Daniel helpfully suggested. "The one next door is empty."
Sam smiled. "That would definitely be better than a cot."
"You wouldn't mind moving, ma'am?" the captain asked, looking relieved.
"No. It's just next door, so it wouldn't be a big problem moving my stuff over there."
With the help of Daniel and the captain, all of Sam's things were transferred to the other room in just a few minutes.
Sam couldn't help but glance over at the connecting door between this room and Daniel's. Unfortunately, the captain noticed.
"Oh, don't worry about that, ma'am," she said with a smile. "It's securely locked, so no one can come through that way."
'Uh oh,' Daniel thought. 'I hope Sam can pick the lock.' Aloud, he said, "Um, actually, that's my room next door, so it's not a problem anyway."
The captain nodded. "Well, if you will excuse me, sir, ma'am, I'll return to my duties."
"Thanks for your help, Captain," Sam said to her.
The woman left, leaving the door open. The archeologist and the astrophysicist turned to the other door, the securely locked one.
"So, do you think you can pick it?" Daniel asked in a low voice.
"Sure, that shouldn't be a problem," Sam replied confidently.
Daniel gave her a meaningful smile. "I'll be waiting." He then left and went to his own room.
After moving the bureau that was partially blocking the connecting door on his side, Daniel got down to the business of waiting. He tried to read, but that didn't work, so he just ended up pacing. It seemed like forever had passed before the knob turned, and the door opened, a triumphantly smiling Sam on the other side. He came toward her.
"Took you long enough," he said teasingly.
"It was a tougher lock than I thought. If I had my lock picks, I'd have been through in no time. Bobby pins don't work quite so well. Besides, we really should wait until after midnight before we—"
Daniel's lips on hers silenced the rest of her sentence. He walked her backwards into her new room. Her BDU shirt was on the floor before they'd traveled five feet. Daniel's hands were now under Sam's T-shirt, one of them slipping beneath her bra.
"We should . . . we should wait," she gasped. Her respiration increased as Daniel started undoing the fastenings of her pants. "I-i-it's too early," she protested weakly. "Someone walking by the door might hear."
"We'll be really quiet," Daniel said against her lips as he inserted his hand inside her panties. He captured her loud moan with his mouth.
It wasn't easy keeping the noise level down during their lovemaking, and they often had to resort to kissing each other into silence. In the aftermath, they lay tangled together, weak, breathless, but utterly content.
They'd been lying there in contented silence, lightly dozing on and off, for around forty-five minutes or so when Daniel shifted his position on the mattress slightly. "Hmm. Another wet spot to deal with," he remarked, his eyes twinkling.
Sam grinned. "Yes, but this one I don't mind at all."
Daniel grinned as well. "So, a spilled glass of water, huh?"
"Hey, it worked, didn't it? I could have done something more radical, but I didn't want to damage government property. Besides, sometimes, simple solutions work best."
Daniel kissed her. "Yes, they do." He began caressing her body, placing kisses on her neck and face. "All night," he murmured.
Sam smiled at the pleasurable thought. "Yeah, although we should get at least a little sleep."
"Uh huh," Daniel said distractedly as he dropped his kisses lower, his tongue coming out to bathe the skin of her breasts.
Sometime later, Sam had her second orgasm of the night, Daniel once again having demonstrated the talents of his mouth and hands, only, this time, on her entire body. He'd taken his time – a blissfully long time – seeking out and finding every single place that brought Sam pleasure. He'd brought her close to completion several times, only to back down, so when he finally let her go over the edge, she was in such a frenzied state that she had to muffle her outcries with her pillow.
Daniel held her as she slowly recovered, extremely surprised to feel the first stirring of arousal in a certain part of his body. Sam felt it, too, and smiled.
"Wow. I am very impressed, Doctor Jackson," she purred, rubbing herself against him.
"Well, I'm just plain shocked." Daniel smiled at her. "It must be the company I'm keeping."
Sam pushed him onto his back and levered herself over him. "Well, in that case . . ." she lowered her lips to his ear, "it's my turn."
Sam took full advantage of it being "her turn" and used it to explore every inch of Daniel's body. A pillow was once again employed to muffle cries of ecstasy as she eventually brought him to climax, using her mouth and hands in ways that he'd never experienced before.
Afterwards, he lay flat on his back, panting and boneless, wondering if a man could die from an overdose of pleasure. As fast and hard as his heart was beating, a heart attack didn't seem all that farfetched.
"If you ever do that to me again, you might kill me," he gasped, wondering where she'd picked up those particular skills.
Sam snuggled up next to him, laying her head under his chin. "I'll take it easier on you next time."
He didn't reply. In fact, he was quiet for so long that Sam thought he'd fallen asleep.
"I don't want this trip to end," he finally said.
Sam knew what he was saying. On this journey home, they were temporarily divorced from the war, not actively fighting it. Once they got home, it would be different. They would be thrown fully back into the conflict, going on missions, trying to find the Sangraal. The glorious days of being able to focus mostly on each other would be over.
That thought saddened Sam. It wasn't just the frequent sex that she'd miss, it was being with Daniel like this, waking up in his arms, sharing laughter and joy, having something besides work as the driving force that got her out of bed in the morning and kept her going throughout the day.
With a feeling of stunned amazement, Sam realized that Daniel had supplanted work as the center of her existence. But then, should she really be all that surprised considering what had been going on? First, she'd been racked with unremitting desire for him that affected her ability to think about anything else, and, now that they were officially lovers, they'd made love in one way or another more times in the past twenty-four hours than she and Pete used to do in a week.
All that would change once they got back to Earth. Work would once again become the primary focus for both of them. Sam didn't want it to change. Today had been wonderful, having pleasurable thoughts of Daniel occupying her mind most of the day, counting the hours until they could be together again, daydreaming about how they'd make love. It was definitely not a bad way to spend the day. It certainly beat worrying all day about the Ori.
Daniel looked down at Sam, who had been quiet since his remark. He knew she wasn't asleep, but she was clearly deep in thought, probably thinking about the same things he was.
For years now, one of the first things that came into his mind upon awakening was work. Having no social life to speak of, other than occasional get-togethers with his teammates, there really wasn't much of anything else to think about. With no family and no friends outside the SGC, work was the main focus of his life. Back when they were fighting the Goa'uld, he usually enjoyed his work, the translations and artifacts, the occasional opportunities to explore the ruins of some ancient civilization or make contact with an existing one. He didn't like the fighting, never had, but at least back at the SGC there was always some fascinating thing to immerse himself in.
But then the Ori came into their lives, and with them came a sense of fear, horror and urgency. Daniel remembered the day Jack came to see him after he and Vala returned from their psychic journey to the Ori galaxy, how he admitted to his friend that, for the first time since becoming part of the program, he was afraid. Since then, he'd spent almost every day of his life focused on the Ori, on trying to do something, think of something to save the galaxy from the evil beings he had unleashed upon it. And with every loss, every failure, every death at the hands of the Oris' followers, his desperation to find something had grown. Translations and artifacts were no longer objects of fascination and interest, but, rather, things that might hold a clue on how to defeat the Ori. Daniel had turned over to his staff most of the translation work that had nothing to do with the Ori or the Ancients.
With each passing day, the weight Daniel had placed upon his own shoulders grew a little heavier, the future a little harder to face. Laughter was a thing of the past, and joy was an emotion only other people felt. And he was so angry, angry that beings who could do so much good in the universe had, instead, chosen a path of such utter evil, angry at the Ancients for their stupid rules and their blind adherence to them. Most of all, though, he was angry at himself for being the one who let the Ori know of humanity's existence in the Milky Way galaxy.
But then came that night he and Sam made love for the first time. Suddenly, for a few precious moments, there was something in his life that was bright, and glorious, and wonderful, and beautiful, something that dispelled the dark shadow of the Ori. Now that he and Sam were truly lovers, he had that again. As he worked yesterday, he'd done so with a feeling of hope and optimism, thoughts of Sam never far from his mind and adding a spring to his step. Making love to her, holding her in his arms, he felt light and free for the first time in so many years. And he was happy, honestly happy.
On this ship, he could let his mind focus on Sam, on making love to her, immersing himself in the smell, and taste, and feel of her, on the power and ecstasy of their lovemaking. But, on Earth, that would change. The battle with the Ori would, out of necessity, yet again take center stage, all the fear, worry and sorrow returning. He wanted to hold it off, to cling to what he had now.
Daniel didn't realize that he'd tightened his hold on Sam until she touched his face. Their gazes met, and there was no need to say anything. It was all in their eyes. They came together in a desperate, half-crazed kiss. Daniel rolled Sam underneath him, delving even deeper into her mouth. Wishing that there were no limitations on his body so that he could be inside her again that very instant, he touched her and kissed her almost frantically.
This time, Daniel did not tease Sam or play with her. There was no lingering explorations of her body. What he wanted was to make her come. When, mere minutes later, she did so, Daniel at last got to watch her face, see it alight with ecstasy, and it almost made him cry, knowing that he had given that to her, that he was the one responsible for making her feel this rapture. And that thought was enough.
As Sam slipped into sleep wrapped in Daniel's arms, he lay watching her, not wanting to surrender to sleep himself. In a few short days, this flight would end, and the Ori would again fill their lives with anger, loss and pain. But, until then, he would cling to this happiness he'd found with Sam with every ounce of strength he possessed.
