1. Default Chapter

Notes:

This is the first fan fiction, in fact, the first story I ever wrote outside of an English class. It remains my favorite and I'm glad you're giving it a read.

I would also be remiss if I didn't thank Nerowill, my first beta, who explained the fan fiction universe to me and gave me a lot of help with this story.

This story was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt has been made to copyright any characters which may not have been originally created by the author, and no profit is made from this work of fiction. Any original characters and the stories themselves are the property of the author.

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Sam regained consciousness propped uncomfortably against a post at the center of a high round tent. Daniel and Teal'c were seated back to back nearby, hands bound behind them. Teal'c was staring impassively into the coals glowing in a large stone brazier. Daniel's head was craned back and he seemed to be intently studying the construction of the tent roof. Beyond Daniel and Teal'c were dozens of anonymous men in identical loose black robes,each with a black cloth wound around his head and across the lower half of his face. Only their eyes showed, all trained unreadably on SG-1, boring right through her. Twisting stiffly to look behind her, Sam confirmed that more men encircled them on all sides, filling the tent. Not a one of them was moving or talking. In fact, although there were faint, indistinct noises in the distance, inside the felttent walls there wasn't a sound except the wind flapping the tent sides.

Daniel and Teal'c heard her stirring and looked toward her. Now that he was no longer in profile, Sam winced to see a welt across the other side of Daniel's face and a cut on his lip. She opened her mouth but before she said anything, Daniel shook his head slightly, soundlessly mouthing a "sssh." Had Daniel gotten battered trying to say something? Given the heavy silence all around them, Sam heeded his warning.

Taking inventory she noted that her head was pounding and she ached all over but she was unbound. Maybe they were underestimating her because she was a woman. She wished she had some idea who their captors were and that she knew enough about them to interpret their actions, to begin to form a plan of action. Damn. The last thing she remembered they had exited the gate on P4K58L9 into a flat grassland with a rim of distant blue mountains. There had been a sort of earthen bulwark rising in a ring around the gate. Had their captors kept sentries stationed there?

If she got closer to the others, maybe they could whisper. She began to inch toward Daniel and Teal'c across the rough hemp mats that covered the floor. A man squatting close to her suddenly came alive. He rose swiftly, pulled a scimitar from the folds of his robe and struck her on the head with the hilt. She scooted back against the post and didn't try to hide how much he had hurt her, playing to the advantage their underestimation of her might provide. See I'm weak. No threat.

The air was acrid with odors Sam didn't want to diagnose. Smoke from the fire stung her eyes. A small insect crawled slowly from one side of the open space to the other. More time went by. Daniel kept focused on Sam trying to look at her reassuring with those expressive blue eyes. His battered condition belayed the message but just knowing he was here, that Teal'c was here, made her feel stronger. The insect crawled back. Still no one moved and no one spoke. Sam occupied herself coming up with a name for their unfriendly hosts and decided on the Black Plague. It made them sound like a bad rock band and less spooky.

It seemed like hours later when suddenly the crowd moved aside for a tall man to make his way toward them. He wore the same black headpiece and robe as the others but carried a polished wooden staff and had a large silver medallion swinging against his chest. He stood looking down at them and then gestured to men squatting nearby. Two grabbed Daniel and hauled him to his feet while a third moved behind him, pulled his head back, and laid a knife against his throat. Other men forced Sam to a kneeling position. The largest group took on Teal'c. For a moment, he seemed disposed to fight them but the odds were so patently against SG-1 that Teal'c contented himself with baring his teeth and glaring fiercely as he knelt before the newcomer. And still there had not been a sound.

The Black Plague's leader considered the team with apparent disdain for several moments and then to Sam's complete surprise broke the silence in a mild tone using a familiar Jaffa dialect. Unlike his tone, his words were harsh and addressed only to Daniel. "You are not welcome here with your dog and your whore."

Daniel almost stuttered the first few words of his response, clearly in the throes of 'where do I start' in the face of this preposterous statement. "With, uh, with all respect, I believe you misunderstand us. We come in peace. I am Daniel Jackson. Colonel Carter is a respected military officer and a fine woman. Teal'c is our ally and, unlike other Jaffa you may have met, not in the service of the Goa'uld."

"A Jaffa is a Jaffa and all are dogs. Only a whore would move about so boldly with her face uncovered and her body on display." When, Daniel began to respond, the leader raised his hand dismissively and the pressure increased on the knife, effectively silencing him. "Your dog will go back through the Circle to the evil place from whence you came and warn them that if any more come they will all die. If possible, very slowly, and you will die the slowest of all."

Several more men approached Teal'c. Now he fought savagely but his hands were tied behind his back and it was ultimately more than 200 against one. Sam wanted to win free to help but the knife at her throat was hard to argue with. As Sam was forced to watch Teal'c subdued, she thought about how in the movies the villains all courteously come at the hero one at a time. The Black Plague behaved more like an entire backfield dealing with a lone quarterback. The final outcome was inevitable. Once Teal'c was down and sedated with a dart delivered through a sort of blowgun, two men tried unsuccessfully to pick him up and carry him out. In the end it took four of them to lug Teal'c out of view.

The leader now nodded at a man who stood at his right hand. This second man moved to Carter and dragged her to her feet by her hair. Her personal goon squad let go of her and left her to this new tormentor to manage as he began to lead her away. Sam took advantage of the lessened odds, turned abruptly, kneed him, and knocked him back several feet with an uppercut. She crouched in a defensive position waiting for the next attack. Everything froze and only the dust motes moved in the heavy air.

Then the leader laughed and spoke again in his incongruously gentle fashion, "A whore yes but you do speak the truth when you call her a soldier." He signaled, perhaps for a dart.

Daniel said desperately, "Please, where are you taking her?"

The leader, clearly feeling that he was being magnanimous in deigning to reply said, "This woman will find virtue joining my brother's wives."

Sam sputtered and started to respond but Daniel spoke first, taking a chance that he was guessing correctly as to their culture, "It would be wrong for her to be with another man while I live for she is my wife."

The leader arched an eyebrow in patent disbelief. "She is your wife and you said nothing earlier when defending her?" He snorted. "You lie. I am sure of it. If I leave her with you and you are not wed, it would be a great sin." He started to turn away but then chucked briefly. "But you could be telling the truth so we will make sure that God is honored no matter what." He looked at Daniel a moment and then at one of his henchmen. A scimitar cut through Daniels bonds in one slice without marking Daniel's skin.

Sam had a moment to wonder how they always seemed to anticipate their leader's needs without anything being said before he said to Daniel, "Stand with her."

Daniel reached out, captured Sam's hand, and pulled her to his side. She didn't really cooperate but she didn't fight him. "What are you doing?" she hissed at him but he kept his eyes on the leader and didn't respond to her. Daniel still had a knife at his throat and now one was once again pressing on Sam's. A bright red cord was handed to the leader and he tied Sam's hands together and handed the end of the cord to Daniel. The leader raised the medallion over their heads and intoned something very long in a singsong cadence. Sam thought irritably Daniel is probably getting through this by trying to identify the linguistic roots of the incantation . For her part, she was so angry she could hardly breathe but she was also completely out of ideas. So she stood, apparently passively accepting this outrageous ceremony.

Abruptly the speech ended and the leader said to Daniel in Jaffa, "Do you accept responsibility for the conduct of this woman and the children she bears you?" Sam glared at the leader but transferred her affronted stare to Daniel when he said, very calmly, "I so swear."

That was apparently the end of the ceremony because the leader turned and began to walk away. "Hey, don't I have anything to say in all this?" Sam called out indignantly. She could imagine generations of feminists turning over in their graves and in another, wildly, inappropriate thought, she mourned the lack of veil, caterer, and a little bride and groom on top of a cake.

The leader turned and ignoring Sam came very close to Daniel to say in a low but menacing voice, "You accepted responsibility for her sins. Now keep her quiet or pay the price." The knife at Daniel's throat pressed hard enough to nick him and blood tricked down his throat. It wasn't much worse than a shaving cut but Sam pressed her lips together tightly and swallowed all the things she wanted to say. It was only a few moments in any case she felt a dart and lost consciousness before local version of the trip back down the aisle.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam actually felt more dead than alive when she once again regained full consciousness. This is not a habit I want to be developing she thought. The throbbing headache was there again and this time her mouth was sub-Saharan dry. Beyond dry really. She could barely swallow. She vaguely remembered at least three different semi-conscious moments. She was always in motion, and they always ended with another prick of the sedative. It was all fuzzy and confused. She didn't remember every being given any water in the entire time. Suddenly that thought was all consuming. She had to have water. Sam opened her eyes and saw that she was lying on a pallet just wide enough for herself and Daniel who lay beside her breathing shallowly. She leveraged herself to her elbows and looked around for water. The room was very dim, lit by small slits of windows under the low roof. It seemed to be dawn or dusk. She could see the outlines of an earthenware pitcher on the mat covering the dirt floor close to the bed. Sam forced herself to test with her finger first to make sure this was really water. She felt unreasonably reassured that she still had that level of self-control. She drank in small sips, knowing that too much too fast could make her throw up. 

Her thirst more manageable, Sam rolled over to look at Daniel. He looked so still, so vulnerable in the gloom. She shook him gently and then more forcefully. "Daniel, Daniel, oh please Daniel, wake up." Daniel stirred but his eyes remained closed. Their uniforms were gone and they wore long robes. She moistened part of her wide sleeve and used it to drip water on his face. "Come on, Daniel, come on."

At last his eyes opened and he croaked, "Sam? What? Where?"

She slide her arm under his back and helped him to sip the water. He lay back and closed his eyes again. "You do understand why I had to go along with that, that.. " He gestured vaguely, feebly. " I couldn't think of any other way to keep you with me." He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. "It's okay, huh Sam?"

"Oh Daniel, it's okay. We'll be okay." And then she sat up and said, trying to lighten the mood, "A wedding planner would starve to death with these people. Talk about minimalist. I am not even sure you get to pick the color cord you want to use." Sam suddenly felt light headed and collapsed back on her side facing away from Daniel. He put an arm around her comfortingly and they both slid into sleep.

When Sam awoke again, Daniel was walking around the room, examining everything carefully. Full sunlight flooded in. She stirred and he came over and knelt beside her. "How do you feel?" he asked.

She smiled looking warmly up into his handsome face, so glad that she wasn't in this alone. She thought about that perennial stupid question, "Who would you most want to be marooned on a desert island with?" Who knows about desert islands but Daniel is the best to be locked up with. She instantly felt really guilty that Pete, her fiancé, hadn't come to mind before Daniel.

Daniel gently touched brushed her hair out of her face, drawing her attention back to him. "Our hut's built out of sod blocks and I think most of the room is below ground level. There is a strange pottery crock on the floor in that curtained corner that is a sort of field toilet. Next to it there is a basin, a pitcher, and something like soap." He pointed, "See on that ledge." Daniel patted the bed beside her and continued, "This is also a ledge. Our only table is over there and it's just a block of dirt that was left sticking up. There is no loose furniture of any kind in fact. There is some sort of gruel on the table and a flat bread. We each have another robe hanging on the back of the door. " He rocked back on his heels and smiled at her cheerfully. "So we aren't going to starve to death, lack the latest local fashions, or have embarrassing bathroom issues."

His cheerfulness was gone a few days later as they sat side by side on the bed. They had fallen silent after discussing everything they could think of over the past three days, some of them things that in retrospect Sam wished they hadn't. She couldn't believe she had actually shared accidentally dumping a milkshake into the lap of the cutest boy in her 8th grade class. On the other hand, she was glad that they had not discussed her relationship with Pete at all. She wasn't ready to share the nagging doubts she had been having for weeks, her fear that maybe she just wanted a normal romance so much that she had found a really good guy and talked herself into it. Daniel had talked about Sha're sorrowfully but as you would discuss something far in the past.She wondered how she could never have known until now that technically, by the laws and customs of Abydos, his wife's abduction by the Goa'uld had immediately released Daniel from the marriage. From the day she had met him, he had only been married to Sha're as long as he choose to be. Now he was her husband, at least here in this place.

They had gone over the room and its contents minutely looking for some means of escape. Nothing seemed workable. They also learned that escape would be harder because of the way they were watched. At random intervals they saw a face looking down at them through the windows. Once a day, the blow guns used to deliver the sedative darts were poked through those windows on all four sides of the hut and a gong was struck close by outside. The first time this happened, someone instructed them that when they heard the gong they were to go to the wall opposite the door, face the wall, and lean against it arms spread wide and feet apart. They should remain in this position looking forward until the gong was sounded again. If they didn't cooperate, they were threatened with sedation. Behind them they heard people enter, footsteps from all parts of the room, clinking of things being carried or in, and other more difficult to identify noises. When the gong sounded and they turned, they were alone but the toilet had been exchanged and there was fresh water and a supply of food. Everything had been moved slightly. Sam summarized what they were both thinking when she said, "If we had been working on anything to do with an escape, they would have found it unless it was under our robes."

Now Sam looked over at Daniel. He had leaned back against the wall, his eyes were closed, and he was picking at the scab on his lip. She slapped his knee, stood up, and said briskly, "We need to exercise. Let's workout."

He opened his eyes, turned his head slightly in her direction, and said tiredly, "Oh please," without making the slightest effort to comply.

"You know we need it. We'll do a couple of hours of targeted exercise a day. We'll be each others' trainers. Come on, on your feet."

"You're serious." It was a statement not a question. He started to get up but then stopped and looked up at her. "Here's another suggestion. After exercise let's spend the rest of the day in class."

"In class?"

"Yeah, yeah," Now he actually started to show enthusiasm about his idea, working it out as he spoke. "You teach me whatever I can handle about astrophysics and I'll teach you about linguistics or archeology."

And so the days, weeks, and months that followed were shaped. They got up at daylight and ate a light breakfast. They worked out, including some martial arts practice the sun was high and then took turns washing in the curtained toilet corner. Then they ate lunch, seated on the floor at their mound table. After lunch, Daniel usually taught first until the daily gong sounded. After the gong ritual, they switched teachers until they felt like dinner.

The difference between breakfast, lunch, and dinner was arbitrary since it was the same gruel and flat bread at every meal but Daniel started making a game of it. He would name a restaurant and go through the meal as if that's where they were dining. Gruel at MacDonald's or gruel at a five-star restaurant was very different experiences with Daniel as a dinner companion. The gruel, a wholegrain mix predominantly composed of something like oatmeal with small bits of fruits and nuts that changed seasonally, actually tasted fairly good, as gruel goes, but they were both sure they would never ever voluntarily touch oatmeal again. They also became convinced after 8 weeks went by that there was something in the food that stopped Sam's cycle, the purpose they deduced being contraceptive. Sam worried that it was might also be doing something to Daniel that they just were not aware of. When she brought it up, he looked at her ruefully and said, "I'm not a eunuch yet Sam. I'm quite sure of it." And then he changed the subject. Sam couldn't figure out his response but since they had no choice but to eat the food, she let it slide.

They went to bed when it got dark. The last activity of the day, usually while they were lying in the dark, was to assess their situation, to look for any new information or new ideas that could help them escape. They were never hungry or thirsty, had no physical contact with their captors, abusive or otherwise, but were never any closer to escape.

The weather became stifling and the days were long. They were given very lightweight clothing but it was still too much. The exercise routine got very sweaty but neither ever suggested that they let up. She didn't know Daniel's reasons but, whatever lies she told herself, deep down she knew that glimpses of his rock hard calves and biceps and contact with his chest and abs, now definitely honed to a 6-pack, were really very, very nice. At night the heat kept them sleeping with the maximum distance between them the bed allowed, all of an inch. During the day though, hand to hand combat practice brought contact she welcomed. Sam knew she liked his weight pressing down on her far too much.

The reciprocal teaching was a wonderful idea. Sam loved to watch his face alive with enthusiasm for his work, to listen to his voice as he explained the subject matter. It was surprisingly interesting and normally she caught on quickly but sometimes he had to almost completely repeat himself. Sam didn't tell Daniel but that was when she got so caught up in watching him, in letting his voice flow over her, that she stopped paying attention to what he was saying. When Sam taught, she was impressed with Daniel's brilliance, how quickly he caught on. They scratched equations in the dirt wall with the handles of their wooden spoons and she set him problems that he usually had no trouble working out. Their only arguments occurred during these sessions. Each was good at asking questions that pinpointed theoretical weaknesses, places that astrophysics or linguistics or archeology were still seeking answers. These sometimes led to spirited discussions ranging far from the original topics.

Then the temperatures started to drop. It got very cold in their hut and there were now thick blankets and heavy clothes. Sometimes there was ice on the top of the water in the pitcher in the morning. The days got much shorter. They started splitting the exercise routine between morning and evening since it required less light than their studies. The exercise lent warmth to the cooler parts of the day. There was no inch distance in the bed now. They huddled together for warmth, pulling the blankets up over their heads to create a cozy tent.

One night Sam had a romantic dream. At first the man was Pete but then she wasn't sure who it was. Whoever he was, he was hard and muscular and a very good kisser. It felt so good, one strong hand cupped around her bottom, pressing him to her, the other in her hair. As her excitement mounted, she slowly began to realize that she wasn't asleep any more. She was kissing Daniel! She touched his face. His eyes were closed. He's dreaming too. Sam wasn't sure if she was sorry that he wasn't consciously making love to her but it had to stop. She disengaged herself and got out of the bed, shivering in the frigid room. That woke him up.

"Sam what are you doing," he asked groggily. "Is something wrong?"

"I just have to, you know," she waved vaguely toward the far corner as if it wasn't so dark that there was little chance he could see the gesture.

In order to give substance to her lie she had to follow through with it. She took her time feeling very embarrassed and uncertain. When she crawled back into the bed, Daniel was still awake. "Something happened, didn't it?" he asked.

"Jeez Daniel?" she said playing dumb.

"I was having a pretty, well, " he paused, "X-rated dream. Did I make a move on you?" She didn't answer. "I'm really sorry Sam. I didn't know what I was doing."

Sam felt deflated. So he would never kiss her if he knew who she was? That of course was the way the rules went for a commanding office and a member of her command but suddenly she preferred he want her even if nothing could happen. "No harm, no foul, Daniel. Go back to sleep." It was hours before she could.

Daniel never said anything further about what had happened but sometimes during the day she caught him watching her with a new expression on his face. There was a tense undercurrent subtly present between them but it remained unspoken and unacknowledged.

Every night after that Sam went to bed afraid that it would happen again and hoping that it would. She tried to think about Pete, to use him as a talisman to ward off the repercussions of her teammate and best friend turning into something else, truly becoming her husband, but she was having trouble remembering what Pete looked like. The weather started to warm slowly returning to the season in which they had been captured. Sam told herself this was good, that it would cut down on the physical contact and so decrease the likelihood that there would be a repeat episode but she didn't believe it for a minute. Finally, one night as she was lying full awake, wrestling with herself, his arm tightened around her and he pulled her closer. His warm mouth came down on hers and her kissed her like she had never been kissed. He caressed her gently and then more urgently and she let it go on for a long time. Just a little while longer and then I'll say something. "Daniel, Daniel," she pushed hard on his chest at last. "Wake up."

"I am awake Sam," he said softly.

"What!"

"I've been awake since before I started kissing you." He ran his finger down her cheek. "I wish you could see my face, see what is in my eyes. I know that you are the commanding office on this mission and fraternization is against the rules but we may never get out of here. For all intents and purposes, we are the only two people on a tiny planet. I've always loved you Sam as a dear friend but my feelings have changed. I want more and I think you do too." He paused and said, a little desperately, "We are married, I mean technically."

There was a long silence, too long for Daniel. "Sam, please say something. I don't know. Yell at me if you have to."

She still didn't answer him. She was too busy engaged in a heated discussion inside her own head. This is wrong. I don't care. If we're ever rescued or escape, this will cause so many problems. I don't care.

"Sam, please talk to me." He was up on one elbow, leaning over her.

She pulled him down on top of her, found his mouth, and gave him her answer.


	3. Chapter 3

Daniel stood in the direct path of a sunbeam, tying his hair back with a cord she had braided from strings unraveled from their unhemmed towels. Sam looked at his robe, full beard, pale skin, and long hair and thought how different he looked from Dr. Daniel Jackson, SG-1. Then she was struck by the thought that she must look really different too. Not just look different. She felt like someone else. The citizen of a planet of with a population of two as Daniel had put it. "Danny, could you describe me as if you didn't know me?"

"You want me to describe you as if I didn't know you," he repeatedly slowly, coming toward her and mock seriously feeling her forehead. "You don't feel feverish." He put his arms around her and slid a hand down her back. "I could maybe, oh, make you hotter though."

She looked up at him, a little exasperated knowing life in a sod hut fishbowl prevented any such thing during the day, and said, "Quit it. Come on, tell me what you would see as a stranger."

He held her at arms' length then, rotated her slightly to one side and the other and finally said, "A beautiful, pale woman, with lovely blue eyes and a glorious mane of blonde hair, very feminine but very strong looking."

"Do I look like Colonel Samantha Carter? Dr. Samantha Carter?"

Daniel stopped grinning at her and answered softly, "Sama, those are just roles you've played." He gestured at the equations on the walls and at the area where they had just finished exercising. "You still have what it takes to play them. You've added another as my lover and my wife. That just shows another side of you. You aren't different because your roles have changed."

"It's crazy Danny but I can be really happy here for hours at a time. I forget where I am, forget my responsibility as an officer to try to escape, and I'm just here in our little world with you. I'm not sure who I am any more."

Daniel had no answer but to hold her and murmur against her hair, "I love everything you are now and always."

One night they woke to find one of the Black Horde standing in the center of the room. He had his arms spread wide and his hands held out palms up to show that he was no threat. Daniel and Sam sat up and he approached them slowly, still making it very clear that he intended no harm. He stopped a few feet away and whispered, "Come with me. I can get you out of here."

"Who are you?" Sam demanded. "Why should we trust you?"

"I am Kloterian. I infiltrated the Ghei shortly before your capture. We have learned in the last week that their shaman is arriving in tomorrow morning and we believe he was planning some sort of unpleasant spectacle involving you. The Lord of Kloteru does not think it wise to leave you in the hands of the Ghei any longer."

"What does the Lord of Kloteru have in mind for us if we go with you?"

"My Lord Choko does not believe that only evil comes through the Circle and he wants to learn more about your people. To consider whether we can treat with one another. The Ghei are so superstitious that they will not even speak where you can hear them for fear you will send evil spirits to follow their voices back into their souls." He looked nervously back up the stairs and pleaded urgently, " Please, you must come with me. We have just minutes before the sentries I silenced are discovered." Sam thought for a moment. She would like to have known more but this called for an immediate decision. She whispered very softly to Daniel, "I don't think we have any choice but to go with him." Daniel started to say something but this wasn't time for a committee decision. She whispered more loudly to their would be savior, "We'll do it."

The man drew out two black robes and two head clothes from under his robe. "Put these on quickly."

The little group slipped through the camp, threading between sod huts like their own and a few tents, and then out of the camp where they discovered that the two supposed sentries were really confederates of their savior who had somehow silenced and replaced the original sentries. As they followed the three men into a moonless night, Sam couldn't help but wonder if this was the end of the nightmare or the beginning of a new one. Had it really been a nightmare at all?

They moved swiftly toward the east until close to dawn. Suddenly men and horses rose out of the ground in an outcropping of low boulders. Sam admired the tactic of teaching the horses to lie down so they would be less noticeable here where there little or no cover. Sam and Daniel mounted up and rode for three days with the small band. Their escort was deadly serious about speed and stopped only when the horses needed rest. It was obvious they were still in a lot of danger. The men treated them courteously but the secret agent who had helped them escape was the only one who could communicate with them in Jaffa.

At the end of the third day, they met a large band of mounted men with an enclosed wagon and spare horses. Sam and Daniel were bundled into the wagon and driven away, their original escort riding off in a different direction on fresh horses. There was a soldier next to the driver and a soldier at the back and the large mounted escort formed up flanking them. The atmosphere was now much more relaxed. None of them appeared to speak Jaffa but they were very interested in teaching their flowing language to Sam and Daniel.

The wagon interior was fitted with sumptuous rugs in vivid colors and bright silky cushions. There was a beautifully carved box with unfamiliar but delicious food inside and bottles of water and other beverages. The rear guard was a young man who appeared to be in his late teens. He pointed at himself to indicate that his name was Chako. Chako was very eager to please and to make them understand. Although dark eyed ,he had fair skin and long reddish blonde hair hanging in a braid down his back. He wore leather pants and a tunic with the chest and back protected by padding and many layers of leather in small plates over his legs and arms. After pantomiming and pointing and introducing words for everything in the wagon, he showed them curtains they could draw across the front and between themselves and his perch for privacy.

Sam was really uncomfortable at just how private a mere curtain made things and that night she stopped Daniel at kisses. He got noticeably grumpy and she got annoyed with him for it. He starting leaving the curtain in the back open, or what hurt more, leaving it in place and going behind it, focusing on learning the language from Chako as quickly as possible. She accused him of being passive aggressive to which he merely said, "I guess the honeymoon is over."

When they did talk, they ended up discussing the repercussions of being rescued. Sam suggested that it might be well to keep their relationship secret for the time after they got back. "Let's assume that I don't get in trouble for what's happened so far. I mean you could argue extenuating circumstances but Danny, we would never be able to be on a team together again. I couldn't bear your being out there and my not knowing how you were doing, not being there to watch your back." This wasn't going down well and then she really drove the wedge in the rest of the way when she said, "I mean, now I understand what Pete meant when he talked about the problems he had dealing with my job." The P word was definitely not a good thing to bring up.

"Yeah, right, whatever," he said, closing the discussion and turning away but she didn't let it go.

"Unless we are ready to give up other worlds, we have to think about this." He looked back at her reproachfully over his shoulder and went to talk with Chako.

They rode in their curtained little world for 4 weeks. The wagon only stopped to change horses and replenish supplies. At the first few stops there were armed camps, established perhaps to act as depots in hostile territory. The mountains grew on the horizon. They spent three days threading through a mountain pass. Then they began to descend, the temperature rising and fragrant, balmy breezes blowing through the wagon. There were scattered trees.Daniel confirmed with Chako that there were coming down from a plateau. They started to encounter small villages next to rushing streams. At the first of these, Chako took them into a bath house. A couple came forward beaming. Sam wasn't sure whether it was out of respect for Chako or Daniel and her but the greetings were effusive.

The proprietors wore loose trousers of an unbleached linen and sandals. The man had an open, sleeveless vest with a border of intricate, swirling embroidery. The woman's sleeveless tunic was tight fitting and low cut and she wore a long red sash wound several times around her waist. Like their military escort the man had long hair worn in a single braid and was clean shaven. The woman had an corona of intricately woven braids wreathing her head. From the covert looks she was giving Sam's general appearance, Sam could see that she qualified as a "project."

Chako grabbed Daniel's beard and said something laughingly to him. Sam couldn't understand it as well as Daniel but it clearly was along the lines of "You don't have this because you want it do you?" Daniel vigorously agreed and suddenly he was seated with a towel around his neck and their hostess was shaving his beard off. Sam could look at Daniel all day under any circumstances but she was stunned by how delicious he was without the beard. All her annoyance with him since their journey had begun vanished.

They were taken into a room with a small heated pool sunken in the floor. The walls and pool were tiled with bright mosaics. The woman gave detailed and mostly understandable explanations of the bewildering array of items laid out on shelves. A large, less luxurious version of the rugs in the wagon lay on the floor at one end of the pool. After the orientation was over, the couple left. Before he followed them, Chako gestured at the rug and said something to Daniel that Sam didn't get at all. Daniel looked slightly embarrassed and Sam suddenly did understand what was intended.

Without any discussion with Sam, Daniel selected his idea of the appropriate soap and dropped a towel next to pool. With his back to her, he then shucked off the bedraggled Ghei robe, took the tie out of his hair, walked down the shallow steps into the water, and floated, resting his arms on a ledge immediately below the water that ran all around the pool. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Sam was left standing rooted in the same spot with her mouth open. She had never seen him naked before. It made her stomach turn over and her heart beat faster. He was so muscular in her preferred lean swimmer's mode. (Had she ever gotten over that embarrassing girlhood crush on Mark Spitz?) And then she realized he had never seen her naked either. Suddenly she felt very awkward and unsure of herself. What if he wasn't as dazzled with her as she was by him? Daniel continued to relax, looking almost asleep in the warm water. Sam thought He knows how I'm feeling. He's trying to make this easy for me. Feelings of love rushed over her and appreciation for how open he was when she had a hard time not being closed. Okay Sam, just do it. And she took of her clothes and went into the pool. He opened his clear blue eyes and looked up at her and the awe on his face made all her doubts disappear. He showed her how much he appreciated her there in the water and again on the rug. They made liberal, laughing use of the various lotions and that had its inevitable conclusion. By the time they got ready to get dressed their hair was almost dry. Sam was slightly embarrassed by how long they had taken but doubted that Chako was surprised. She did not regret a minute of it.

It was interesting to discover that the clothes provided for them were far more expensive than those worn by the bathhouse couple. Daniel's vest was covered with embroidery in gold thread and his trousers were of a very soft closely woven fabric. Sam's pants and shirtwaist was a silky fabric shot through with silver and her waist scarf was a beautiful paisley weave with tiny silver bells on the fringes at the ends. They were to be treated as very important people.

When they emerged, the woman came forward and managed to be both respectful and no-nonsense take charge at the same time when she offered to braid Sam's hair appropriately. They went into a little alcove and when Sam emerged quite a while later, she not only had braided hair, she also was perfumed and wore a heavy necklace, bracelets, and an anklet. Her scarf had been rewound and tied so it enhanced her cleavage. The woman was a regular steamroller that Sam was only able to derail when it came to trying to pierce her ears. When she finished braiding Sam's hair, she had gotten the point across that Sam should never let anyone but her husband and perhaps her children, when they were very little, see her hair unbraided again. She had been scandalizing everyone with it hanging freely. When Daniel saw her, he visibly gulped and the primping was all right. She was now some exotic creature, not Colonel Samantha Carter, and she felt free to move in this fantasy for awhile.

Things were much more pleasant in the wagon after that even though Sam didn't relent on the rules she had imposed. They talked no further about rescue. Sam, instead, joined Daniel in the language lessons and by the time they arrived at the end of their journey she was almost fluent.

As they looked over the driver's shoulder down on a beautiful gleaming seaside city with winding streets shaded by tall trees and alabaster houses with red tile roofs, Sam couldn't put off thoughts of the future any more. Nestled close to Daniel, Sam prayed fervently that somehow she wouldn't lose everything that mattered when – if – they went home. 


	4. Chapter 4

Their mounted escort and the front guard remained outside the city gates. With only the driver and Chako, they wended their way through cobbled streets filled with what appeared to be a happy citizenry. Most weren't dressed as magnificently as the wardrobe provided Sam and Daniel but they looked well-fed and greeted the world with a smile. Children were obviously loved and pedestrians looked on indulgently as they ran after each other, laughing and playing their games. Sam and Daniel were not a matter of great curiosity as they sat behind the driver although their party was definitely noticed. After awhile, Sam realized it was Chako who was really drawing the attention.

The wagon stopped before a magnificent iron gate that opened into a long passageway back into a large building. They alighted and Chako led them to an impressive carved wooden door, inlaid with mosaics, at the end of the passage. A small wood panel opened beside them and someone peered out briefly. Immediately they heard great excitement and clamor from within the house. The door was quickly flung open. A lovely tall woman with a corona of grey braids threw arms covered with a multitude of bracelets around Chako and hugged him fiercely. Several young children flung themselves at him and they pulled him into a large interior courtyard filled with trees and flowers around a splashing fountain. Sam and Daniel trailed behind, bemused.

Chako disengaged himself eventually and taking them arm in arm led them to the older woman. "Mother, may I present, Dr. Daniel Jackson and his wife, the lady Samantha." Samantha noted the slant to the introduction and sighed. These people were less benighted than the Ghei but she was still in a man's world. "This is my lady mother, Lady Elena, wife of the Lord Choko of Kloteru." Sam looked, not really surprised she realized, at Chako and wondered if they had rated the heir apparent or a younger son. Given his sunny confidence, she was thinking heir.

Sam was the mission commander but there was no help for it but for Daniel to take the lead here. "We are greatly honored to meet you, my lady. Your son has been a great help and friend to us. We look forward to meeting with your husband and talking with him of our world, of how our peoples can assist each other."

The Lady Elena returned the pleasantries graciously but made no commitment about their interview with her husband. Instead she asked Chako to show them to their rooms so that they could rest and refresh themselves. He conducted them to a lovely little suite in a wing of the sprawling villa. He explained with his usual glibness, "We must ask that you stay in hour rooms until sent for. The Ghei have sympathizers in the city and you may not be safe."

Sam thought A golden cage is still a cage.

They explored their accommodations and found that the wing had two floors that encircled their own interior courtyard with a lovely pool in the middle. The rooms on the top floor all opened on a balcony that looked down on the courtyard and all the rooms on the first floor also opened to the courtyard. Sliding doors with translucent panes (Daniel pointed out a Japanese reference), separated rooms and were available if needed to close rooms from the outside but now everything stood wide open. On the top floor, there was a sleeping room with a very large carved bed loaded with cushions and soft comforters. There was a beautifully appointed bathroom next to the bedroom and a dressing room on the other side. They decided that it was intended for a lady given the many combs and brushes laid out and the selection of stoppered vials. On the other side of the bedroom was a much more Spartan dressing room. The bedroom had a curtained alcove with an infant bed. Beyond Sam's was another bedroom with a small bed for an older child. The first floor was all rooms with low tables and cushions, places perhaps to meet with others, eat, and study.

The sun started to go down and they heard Chako call out, politely requesting admission. He entered with three young woman, two carrying clothes and the other a large inlaid box. He introduced them as Kona, Marti, and Lucia and explained that they would see to Sam and Daniel's needs while they were visiting in his father's house. He proffered an invitation to dine with his mother, himself and other guests as if Sam and Daniel were not, to some extent, prisoners. When they accepted, he requested that they allow the servants to dress them appropriately for the meal.

Daniel was a little afraid that the women intended to actually dress him and relieved to find out they only wanted to indicate appropriate selections from the wardrobe they had brought. Sam got the majority of the attention. The women were so politely insistent that it was impossible to be left to her own devices without creating a major scene. The bathhouse makeover paled before what this diligent troupe achieved. Daniel really didn't want to go anywhere with Sam except their new bedroom when he saw the results. She would have preferred it. However, they dutifully left with Chako when he returned and found themselves at a long table in a second floor gallery overlooking the sea on one side and the main courtyard on the other. In addition to Lady Elena, Chako, and his sister Kafven, the oldest of his siblings, there were five well-dressed middle aged couples seated around the table. All the men were introduced as scholars attached to the Kloterian version of a university. Local notions of politeness clearly warred with their eagerness to ask questions of Sam and Daniel. At the end of the evening one of the men requested, "With your permission, my colleagues and I would very much like to visit you tomorrow and talk with you further." They had no choice but to extend the sought after invitation.

So went the agenda for weeks. Eight days out of nine, one or more of the scholars appeared at their door, sometimes with colleagues in tow. The servants brought refreshments without being asked and the guests stayed for hours. Daniel and Sam practically never ate the mid-day meal alone. At first, the scholars were clearly uncomfortable with having an intellectual discourse on this level with a woman. They tended to ask all questions through Daniel and tried to get him to facilitate all answers. Daniel completely refused to cooperate and forced them to treat directly with Sam. After awhile they treated her as if she had always been their equal and Sam was even more in love with the husband who was so careful of her feelings.

It was a difficult situation. The men wanted to drain every bit of scientific knowledge in every field of science in which Sam and Daniel knew anything at all. Sam and Daniel, on the other hand, were reluctant to indirectly put weapons in the hands of a people who seemed pleasant enough but about whom they knew nothing. Sam decided they should start with mathematics, insisting to the scholars that this was the language in which all their science was written. The Kloterians didn't even have the concept of the zero. They could go very slowly and it would be a long time before they were telling them anything directly usable for aggressive purposes.

Every few nights they dined with the Lady Elena. She continued to adroitly avoid any discussions about when they would meet her husband or return to Earth but she was a delightful hostess with a ken wit and a very acute mind. It was too easy to spend an entire leisurely meal really enjoying her company and that of the other guests and have the evening practically at an end before some chance comment reminded them that this wasn't really where they belonged. Daniel said they were coming down with the Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with those who were in some sense their wardens.

Sam felt she had put Colonel Samantha Carter in a box in her mind and as long as she was playing Daniel's Sama, the Lady Samantha Jackson, she was moving in a dream and that made it all okay. One day flowed into the next, they were safe, living in luxury in many ways, waited on by dear serving girls she had become quite fond of, and free to love each other. Someday it would have to end but as long as it wasn't her fault that it hadn't, she could drift and be happy in many ways she had never known happiness before.

Chako joined them in their quarters for the evening meal rather frequently. He also was evasive when it came to his father or how long they would remain house guests but it was impossible not to like the irrepressible young man who always had a joke or an outrageous story to tell. With the possibility of no help getting home from the Kloterians, they began to look very seriously for a means to take matters into their own hands. The problem was that while they could probably get out of the house and the city easily, they were hundreds of miles away from a stargate that was somewhere on a huge upland plateau, exact coordinates unknown, surrounded by rabid tribesman who had to be looking forward to getting their hands on the two of them for fun and torture. They needed an ally and had begun to hope that they could persuade Chako that it was in everyone's interest for him to help them.

One evening, the serving girls had just left Sam sitting on a low bench in her dressing room after divesting her of her jewelry, her formal attire, and unpinning her braids. Daniel had leaned against the doorway watching them. His interest must have been unusual for a Kloterian man for they seemed faintly scandalized but also thrilled by the naughtiness of it all. They were smothering giggles as they left. Daniel waited until he heard their footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs – there were limits as to how far one should shock the help – before he knelt behind her and began to unbraid her hair. There should have been nothing particularly erotic about this but the local fetish about women's hair had somehow affected him. He loved pulling the blonde waves apart, running his fingers through tresses that, by now, were down her back and massaging her scalp.

Sam was leaning back against him, really enjoying the sensation, her eyes idly running over the dozen or so bottles of scent, lotion, and oil on her dressing table. "You know," she said, "I bet McGyver could make something out of all this to use as weapon and get us out of here." When Daniel didn't laugh, she captured a hand and looked back at him over her shoulder, "You know like on the 80's or maybe 90's TV show?"

Daniel didn't answer but kissed her gently. Framing her face with his hands, he said "Sama, I don't think we can get to the gate right now."

"Danny what are you talking about?" He looked so, so serious.

"You're putting on weight and your breasts are getting heavier."

"We can't try to get home because I need to go on a diet?" Sometimes his sense of humor could be a little hard to follow but this just seemed odd.

"Sam, you threw up this morning. I asked Chako. We've been doing our own version of the rhythm method thinking that your cycle would start up at any point once the effects of the Ghei drug wore off. But…" He paused.

"But?"

"But that stuff that the Ghei used is actually intended as a fertility drug. Women take it for awhile because as soon as they come off it, they get pregnant."

Suddenly it all fell into place. "You think I'm, I'm," her voice rose, "pregnant?"

"Yes I do."

She jumped up and started pacing. She wheeled around on him. "That's just crazy. It's my body. Wouldn't I know?"

He looked more than a little sad. "Sometimes I think the only way you think you can be with me is to be in an acute state of denial. It's as if you are afraid someone will wake you up and I'll go away. It will all just have to vanish for you to keep your, I don't know, your self-respect. So you can be Colonel Samantha Carter." He paused. "Look if you are pregnant, we still don't whether gate travel has any affect on a fetus. We have hundreds of miles to travel to even reach the gate and I would guess you are already three or four months along. It could get difficult. And what about when we get back?"

"What about it?" she said with a dangerous tone in her voice.  
"You said once we'd have to keep our marriage a secret. That you weren't ready to give up your command or face the consequences of what we've come to be to each other." He stood and tried to take her in his arms. "There'd be a baby."

She pushed him away. "Daniel Jackson," she said furiously. It was the first time she had called him Daniel since they had become lovers, "are you ever going to get over that stupid conversation? Haven't I shown how much I love you over and over again? Do you really think I would deny that you were the father of my child?"

"No, Sama, I just think that it would be hard for you to give up the whole Colonel Samantha Carter thing. I just think that," and suddenly he was interrupted by her shoving him against the wall and running out of the room.

He slid down the wall and sat with his head in his hands. He was over the tree tops that she was going to have his child but he had handled this really badly. He was so miserable he didn't hear her return quietly several minutes later. He didn't notice her sit down next to him until she lifted his head to look at her and gently caressed his cheek. To his amazement, she was smiling through tears. "Danny I love you. Despite our circumstances, the thought of your child, our child, growing inside of me makes me very happy. I hope you are right. Let's have the baby and then take it from there."

He pulled her across his lap and she realized he was crying into her hair. "It will work out Danny. I don't know how. I just know it will." 


	5. Chapter 5

Lady Elena, Chako and his siblings, Kona, Marti, and Lucia, and all their scholarly colleagues were absolutely delighted when each realized in their own way that Sam was pregnant. Sam and Daniel never formally announced it to anyone but as Sam became more and more apple shaped, each of them confirmed their conclusions in their own ways. Lady Elena sent new clothes cut for maternity. Chako made a sly remark about the rug at the bathhouse. Their serving maids bustled about being so solicitous of Sam's diet and rest and snatching anything out of her hands that weighed more than a pound that sometimes she wanted to scream. As frustrating as it was, it was too sweet to be pushy about making them stop. The scholars started asking questions about Terran culture with respect to pregnant women and new mothers. Their hidden agenda was clearly a desire to reassure themselves that Sam would be unavailable to them for the shortest possible time.

Daniel nearly made himself crazy worrying about childbirth without modern medicine. He demanded that Chako find him experts to interview. He recalled a horror story from his time on Abydos when he had been unable to help a young cousin of Sha're's who died in childbirth. He annoyed Sam by trying to get her to dredge her memory for any piece of information she had ever heard on the topic. Sam responded tartly that he really ought to spend his energy worrying about dealing with a baby without disposable diapers. There was a problem with a much higher probability of happening.

One evening when they joined Lady Elena for dinner, there was a large man with the arrogance that comes only from absolute power who entered after they were seated and sat at the head of the table. When he entered the room, everyone stood. Daniel quickly followed suit but as Sam was getting to her feet, he said, "Please don't get up my dear. Mothers deserve more respect than rulers." Finally the elusive Lord Choko, Lord of Kloteru, had appeared. He maintained a pleasant but superficial conversation with them during the meal. He was very well informed, presumably through Elena and Chako, as to Sam's pregnancy and extremely interested in the baby. What sex did they think it would be? Did they have a name in mind?

The next day none of the scholars came despite the fact that it wasn't a ninth day. At mid-morning, Lord Choko himself appeared. He swept into their courtyard and took a seat in the sun. "Please seat yourselves, especially you my lady." He leaned over and put a hand on her stomach. Sam didn't appreciate this but didn't know how to stop it. Daniel immediately picked up on her reaction though and started to speak. The ruler saw the reaction out of the corner of his eye and removed his hand. He seemed pleased to have Daniel's care of his wife confirmed rather than offended that Daniel had been about to deny his prerogatives.

Without preamble, he stated, "The Ghei are an ugly bunch who fight to the death because their shaman tells them it guarantees them immortality. The Circle, you call it a 'stargate' I believe, is an integral part of their religion and they will extract a very bloody price if we try to take it from them. I need to know three things from you. Since there was a Jaffa with you, how can I be sure you are not an agent of the cursed Goa'uld who praise be to the true God, have left us alone for more than 50 years? If I help you, will I not draw the attention of the Goa'uld to us again? We never knew why they have not returned and so cannot say what would change that circumstance. And finally, what would it benefit me to treat with your world? What can I expect for my people in return?"

They tried to answer these questions to his satisfaction over and over again in the weeks as they awaited the coming of their baby. Eventually they agreed that he wasn't ready to have the questions answered. Politically, no matter what they said, the time was not right for an all out attack on the Ghei. Months earlier this would have been very upsetting. Now, wrapped up as they were in the impending birth, it all seemed, well, theoretical.

Finally the baby came. Sam had experienced some Braxton-Hicks contractions in the previous month and didn't take the labor pangs seriously at first when they began after breakfast. The serving maids did. One immediately fetched a mid-wife she and Daniel had interviewed two months before. They had chosen her because seemed to be the most pragmatic of a rather superstitious lot. Then her water broke and Sam knew it was for real.

Daniel never left her side. He suffered it seemed as much or more than she did. He held her hand even when she clutched his so hard it must have hurt. He wiped her forehead and he kept whispering soft words of encouragement. The labor was mercifully relatively short and without complications and by dusk, a beautiful little girl lay between Sam and Daniel. So tiny and so perfect. The mid-wife and the serving maids had cleaned her up and wound her in an exquisite lace edged swaddling cloth. The bed was fresh and Sam had been bathed and dressed in a lovely new nightgown. In her entire life, not a single accomplishment, not her doctorate, not her publications, not her promotion to colonel, had made her feel so proud as this little child nestled between her and the man she loved totally.

They named the baby Janet after their dear lost friend. Every day of Janet's life was a miracle to her parents. Fortunately nursing was the norm for the Kloterians because Sam would have done so no matter how much opposition she encountered. Janet was a sunny baby who seldom cried unless she was wet or dirty. She seemed unusually bright to them and everyone agreed that she turned over early, crawled early, clapped her hands early, and made every other significant accomplishment early. Chako's younger siblings were in and out throughout the day to play with her. Lady Elena would swoop her up and carry her around with her. Kafven was a talented artist and spent one long day in the sunlit courtyard sketching the baby at play. The serving maids all doted on Janet. And then there was her father who would rather spend time with his little daughter than do anything else. In fact, Sam's biggest problem was getting people to stop holding Janet long enough that she had ample time to crawl and pull herself to her feet and develop her motor skills.

When Janet was four months old, there was a minor fire on the roof. It was a very small fire and quickly extinguished. Sam and Daniel were not that worried about it and were surprised by how upset everyone else became. It was then they learned that there had been an increasing number of civic disturbances throughout the city for which Ghei sympathizers took credit. The Ghei and the Kloterians had faiths that had diverged from a original shared religion. The Ghei had added many elements of their own harsh culture and created a strict, rule based black and white faith that reinforced their shaman's iron grip on the tribesmen. The Kloterians worshipped the same god but their view of him was life affirming. Their rituals celebrated all the beauty God had put in the world and in people and focused on ways for people to reunite with that beauty and goodness when they failed to serve it. Lord Choko spoke then with Sam and Daniel about what was for him an utterly bewildering choice for any of his people. "We have a happy land. There are problems of course but we are prosperous and our people live in safety. I can't understand why anyone living here would yearn for what the Ghei have. " Sam and Daniel saw a completely uncharacteristic look of confusion on the face of this powerful man. "You've seen them. They are the personification of hate. And when I think about any of my daughters ever being treated the way they treat women…" He looked at Daniel, "How could any father allow that for his own child?" It was a rhetorical question and one beyond the capacity of men who loved their daughters as he and Daniel did to answer.

Now that Sam and Daniel were no longer being protected from information about the Ghei, Chako updated them every time he saw them on events. Lord Choko typically talked with them about once a week. The Ghei became a staple of those conversations along with what any discussion of Earth and their return to it. There was still no progress with respect to the latter topic. It was clear that the ruler saw too many political pitfalls and military obstacles to actually do anything about their return home.

Unfortunately, none of Lord Choko's actions to address the Ghei issue were particularly successful. By the time Janet took her first steps, there was a destructive, and often bloody, terrorist event at least once a week. Key government officials were being assassinated. Lord Choko's home and family were major targets and now under heavy guard. Sam was concerned about their safety but Daniel became utterly consumed with worry about his wife and daughter.

Chako told them, "You must realize that, like my family, you are special targets. The Ghei believed you to be embodiments of an other worldly evil. "

Daniel asked, "Why were we relatively well treated while Ghei captives given that belief?"

Chako explained, "The Ghei thought they were containing the evil influence by treating you strictly according to the rules for hostages. If they broke their own rules, then their God would allow their evil to influence the camp as a punishment. In order to torture and kill you, the shaman would have to twist something that happened into an infraction of the rules. Your people sending anything through the gate after your friend had delivered the Ghei warning would be such an excuse. In fact, a machine did come through the gate. This was the reason for the timing of your rescue. Our agent believed that the shaman was going to use the appearance of the machine as the basis for a slow, public death by torture for at least one of you."

They began to talk about stealing away, not to go home but rather to put distance between themselves and the bloodshed. Perhaps they could go farther along the coast to sparsely settled regions that were unaffected by the controversy. As if he could read their minds, and sometimes it honestly seemed like he could, their host brought up moving them for safety as he sat in their courtyard, their little girl curled asleep in "Uncle Cho"'s arms. "I can't keep everyone together here any more. I could loose everyone, everything at once. I am sending Elena to Chudrun to the north of here with the two youngest children. Kafven and her betrothed will be married sooner than planned, within the month, and she will take the other two boys to live with her. Chako is going to go to our strongest fortress in the mountains. It is time for the boy to assume a command in any case. I want you to go with him."

And so a month later, disguised as servants and accompanied by Marti, they left the villa and walked out the city gate. Lord Choko's men were in the crowds around them watching over them the entire time but it was important that they not be marked as important and followed. Outside the gate, they clambered onto the back of a waiting farm wagon. A few miles later it pulled off the road into a more secluded spot where Chako and a small group of soldiers waited with a man, two women, and a little girl. The strangers took their clothes and their place in the farm wagon and rolled off. Daniel fretted about what could happen to their replacements, especially to the little girl, but Chako said they would immediately meet a military escort and plan was in place to also make them disappear.

A few hours later they were in the same spot from which they had first seen the city. Then they had thought it meant they were much closer to home. Now it almost felt like they were leaving home behind below. Sam looked down at Janet in her arms and up at Daniel. She reached up and kissed him. He put his arms around both his girls and hugged them. Janet giggled as they kissed the top of her downy head. Sam thought, They are my home. As long as we are together, it will be all right. 


	6. Chapter 6

The fortress was very simple compared to the villa but their three rooms were clean and had the bare amenities. They missed their courtyard the most. Sam and Daniel had a room. Marti shared the second bedroom with Janet and the third room was a common area. Sam was very grateful that she and Daniel had enough privacy to be together. She needed his kisses and his touch like she needed oxygen.

It was a real challenge keeping Janet entertained in the small space. If she napped, they all had to tiptoe around to keep from waking her. Daniel was still morbidly preoccupied with what might happen to them and would frequently just sit and watch her sleep but Sam chaffed under the inactivity and would leave their rooms and walk around the fortress.

Sam began to watch the soldiers drill and train. Colonel Samantha Carter, long shoved to the back of her brain, began to signal for attention. Her family's survival was now an issue and that pushed any concerns about sharing information out of her mind. She got Daniel to come with her and watch. As an archeologist, he was familiar with low technology weapons like those being used. As she hoped, he saw applicable improvements from other cultures he had studied. They went to Chako with the weaponry suggestions and ideas for hand to hand fighting techniques. Chako was enthusiastic about what they had to offer but initially didn't want anyone to know the ideas had come from them. Sam thought that without the ability to train the men directly it would be impossible to transmit the martial arts skills. Chako signed and leaned back wearily for a moment. Command had aged their carefree friend. Finally he looked at them and said, "Remember everyone believes that Daniel is my cousin from Compre to the south. That this is where he married you with your delightfully, shall we say unique, accent. No one associates you with these demonic figures that the Ghei describe as loose among us."

"Surely your people don't believe in what the Ghei say?" Sam asked.

"Normally no but if there are any Ghei sympathizers, any agents of theirs planted among us, this would tip them off to your presence." He reached out and took one of each of their hands in his. "My dear friends do you want to exposure yourself, your little daughter, in that way?"

"Isn't it just a matter of time before they locate us anyway?" Sam asked.

Chako nodded. "Probably."

"Well then, I say we do it." Daniel looked at her with narrowed eyes but said nothing.

Chako then brought up a new problem. "Daniel will have to do the training. The men will not accept this from a woman."

Despite the fact that Daniel was clearly irritated with her, he came through for her now. "You told me about Kyla, the heroine of the Battle of Chudrun. She was a woman and yet she led men to perhaps the greatest victory your legends celebrate. Her origins and her fate are both unknown and she is described as looking very much like my wife. If Sam immediately demonstrates her ability to best the biggest of your men and we use the Kyla association…" He trailed off to let Chako chew on the idea while Sam worried at his use of Sam. How long had it been since he had referred to her by that name?

Chako finally laughed. "Why not. We haven't had a single success in this war on terror. Maybe we need something quasi-supernatural to hearten the men."

Daniel left Chako's office and stalked off ahead of her. Abruptly he turned, grabbed her arm and dragged as much led her down passageways and out onto a parapet walk where the wind would snatch their words and give them some privacy. When he turned toward her it was clear that he had been getting angrier with each step since they left Chako. "Shouldn't you at least talk to me before you commit us to something so huge, so dangerous?" He looked her in the eyes. "Isn't that what husbands and wives do? Discuss big decisions?"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"It wouldn't help me in Chako's eyes to fight with you over this. They haven't had Kloterian woman's liberation yet."

"I think you are starting to think like a Kloterian. "

"Come off it Sama." He still looked angry but at least he hadn't reverted to Sam again. "When have I ever asked you to be submissive to me? The only decision I ever made for you was our marriage and you've conceded I didn't have any choice."

"Look. Our mission never ended, right? I am still the commanding office and this wasn't a marital decision but a military one. "

"It doesn't matter to you that our daughter could be killed. You could be killed!"

"Danny, we could all die if the Ghei get any stronger. I have to do something. I can't just sit here and not take steps to defend us when they are available." She put her arms around his neck while he stood rigid not giving anything back. "Please Danny don't stop believing in me now." She kissed him with all the love she felt and kept on kissing until at last his arms crept around her and he began kissing her back.

They began to work with the Kloterian military. As Chako predicted, the men did resist her at first but as Daniel had suggested they came around. Sam did the majority of the training so that Daniel could work with their armorers and other artisans. Two of the scientific scholars they had worked with at the villa were brought to the fortress and Daniel began to collaborate with them. Sam made sure that she was publicly as deferential as she could manage to Daniel to avoid undermining him. In fact, his capital rose because the other men admired him for his ability to win such an unusual woman and keep her happy. Chako told Daniel who then told Sam that there were rumors that her fighting prowess must indicate a voracious sexual appetite. Sam had a feeling the rumors were even more specific but Daniel wouldn't tell her anything more.

Ironically, their love life started to suffer for the first time in their marriage since the trip across the plateau. Daniel was still consumed with concern about her safety and Janet's. For Sam it was hard to turn off the mental switch that had been flipped and when really tired, she had a tendency to treat him less like her husband and more like someone under her command. This led to several arguments held in hissed tones so as not to wake Janet or to share the discord with Marti. When they had an argument, it could take days to resolve given how busy they were and how little privacy they had to resolve it. At least, they began to make a real difference to the military preparedness of the garrison. After three months, the most talented of their trainees went to other commands to begin training them. Armorers and other technicians came and worked with their collaborators and went away to make better weapons.

Then word came of a real Ghei atrocity. An entire village had been wiped out. The evidence indicated that the deaths had been slow and the bodies were mutilated, including those of the children. War could no longer be avoided. The garrison was tense but exhilarated. As is often the case with recruits who have never seen real fighting, they longed for the glory, the chance to prove themselves. The few veterans among this peaceful people were the only ones with sad faces. And now, if they could win the gate, it made political and military sense to Lord Choko for Sam and Daniel to return to their world, to sue for help to keep the gate in friendly hands. Ironically it was pharmacological accomplishments that had initially come from the Ghei that probably gave them something to trade and to argue made it worth ensuring an open gate. They were reluctant to leave Janet behind or to take her into a combat area. They decided that Daniel would stay at the fortress with Janet and Sam would go to the gate when the time came.

The non-military personnel in the fort didn't eat with the soldiers but took food from the garrison kitchens to their rooms. Marti had brought up their meal and put it on the small table in the common room. They had long treated her more as a friend than a servant and she joined them at the table holding Janet on her lap. Daniel and Sam had been fighting again and it affected their appetite. Plump little Marti never let anything affect her love affair with food and Janet clapped her hands at the sight of her favorite dessert. Both Sam and Daniel were lost in their thoughts, picking at their food. It was Daniel who absent mindedly gave his permission when Marti asked if Janet could have some of the dessert even though she really hadn't eaten her meal.

Moments later Marti screamed "The baby, the baby," and the horrified parents looked up to see Janet gagging and gasping for breadth.

Daniel snatched her out of Marti's arms and tried to determine what was wrong. Then Marti began to gag and gasp and Sam said, "The dessert, it must be poisoned." Within second the baby was still and had stopped breathing. Daniel tried to do CPR on Janet while Sam tried to help the thrashing Marti. Marti died before Sam could get help and all Daniel's efforts and both of their prayers could not save their daughter.

They could not pry the body from her father's arms for hours. Sam knelt beside them holding on to her little hand and crying huge gulping sobs. As was Kloterian custom, Janet and Marti were buried immediately, a matter of hours after their deaths. There were no other deaths and it was clear that the poisoning had been an assassination attempt.

After the burial, Sam did not cry again. She sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, holding Janet's stuffed toy and rocking back and forth. She was completely unresponsive to Daniel, not talking to him, not looking at him, merely suffering his presence. When they went to bed, he tried to take her in his arms, to find some comfort for them both. She pushed him away and said, "There won't be any more children. I am never going through this again." And she rose and went to sleep in Marti's cold bed.

Daniel tried to talk to her in the days that followed but it was a conversation she wouldn't have. Only one time did she respond at all. He asked, "Do you blame me because I said she could eat it?"

Sam just looked at him, into his anguished eyes just that once, and said, "You did say it, didn't you?" And walked away. Deep inside she knew that what she really feared was that he would blame her as she deserved to be blamed. She was the one who had decided to let their identity be known. She had lost the baby. She didn't deserve to be with Daniel or anyone else. And she could never, never, never be responsible for the life of another small, trusting child.

Chako tried to talk to Sam for Daniel, to plead his case. She was cold and remote with him as well. Chako went back to Daniel and begged for his forgiveness for not just the loss of his child but maybe his wife as well because he had not been able to prevent a Ghei agent from infiltrating the garrison. Daniel embraced his friend and held tight for a long time. "I've saved all my hate for the Ghei."

Chako said, "Something came from Kafven for each of you." He presented Daniel with a small round silver medallion. Chako surprised Daniel by showing him a small cleverly hidden latch. The medallion opened it into a locket. Inside were perfectly rendered miniatures of Sam and of Janet. Daniel blinked away a tear and he took it gratefully from Chako.

"She made one of these for both of us you said?"

Chako nodded, "Your wife's has a miniature of you and Janet." He paused, searching for words.

Daniel guessed, "She refused to take it?"

Chako nodded sadly. Daniel held out his hand. "I'll take it. Someday she'll want it. Someday she has to."

It took four months of fighting for the Ghei to be beaten back from the gate. Sam and Daniel somehow avoided being wounded but Chako was so gravely injured that Lord Choko came to the front, to his son. Chako's recovery was viewed as a sign. Perhaps it was because a week later, Daniel was able to stand at the dial home device and set in the coordinates for Earth.

General Jack O'Neill ran into the gate room to see the rest of SG-1 come home. Military protocol didn't much matter as he joyfully embraced each of them but when he looked at their faces, into their eyes, he didn't really see Daniel Jackson or Samantha Carter. Their gaze was dull and distant and they were both still somewhere very far away inside. Jack wondered if they really had come home after all. 


	7. Chapter 7

After they had helped resolve things for the Kloterians, both Daniel and Sam requested planet side jobs. Daniel occasionally went through the gate to consult on archeological sites secured by other teams but neither he nor Sam wanted to be on an SG team again and Sam didn't want to work directly with Daniel. It wasn't difficult to create positions and shift responsibilities around to fully make use of what they both had to offer. After Jack had seen them both situated, he retired. Again.

Sam had dreaded seeing Pete. She couldn't tell him the truth - no one knew anything about her marriage to Daniel or their baby and she wanted to keep it that way -- but she couldn't be with Pete either. It wasn't right to put it off no matter how she felt and they met in a small restaurant two weeks after her return and the day after the government had informed him of it. Pete hadn't seemed surprised at her choice of such a public meeting place. It became immediately apparent that he realized that they were not going to pick up where they left off when she saw him walking toward her table. He didn't greet her like a lover but rather as an old friend.

As they sat sipping wine, he searched her face kindly and with concern. "It's been really hard hasn't it Sam?" She could only nod. "If you want to talk about it," he laughed a little, "that is, if you can talk about it, I'm here."

"That's okay Pete. I just have to live long enough for the memories to have a chance to fade." Then she looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since he had sat down. "It's just, well, I'm different. It all changed me. I …"

But he stopped her and said, "Sam I missed you so much but like you said, time goes on, we change. " He wrinkled his forehead. "You'd think I hadn't practiced how to say this 100 times." He laughed ruefully. "The thing is, I couldn't deal with constantly waiting for news and after awhile, I guess I mourned for you as if you were dead. And, well, a few months ago, I started seeing someone else." He looked at her with so much caring. "You're magnificent Sam and I am so terribly glad you are alive and home safe." And so they parted as friends, mutually relieved.

She couldn't terminate things so cleanly though with Daniel. By the time they had come through the gate, he had pretty much given up trying to talk with her about their relationship but she could tell he hadn't given up in his heart of hearts. They still had to occasionally interact for the job. When they did, he never said anything or did anything specific except for once or twice calling her Sama but there was the hurt and the hope in his eyes when he looked at her. There was how handsome he was and all the little mannerisms and habits that made her remember their time together. There were all the qualities about him that had made her love him in the first place. And there was the damn silver medallion. Every time she saw it through an open collar she could see the little face it held in her mind. There were one or two weak moments when she almost asked him to let her see it. When she allowed herself to regret refusing the locket that had been made for her but she managed to fight down the urge.

Everybody could tell that something was wrong with her but no one figured it out. They just made her crazy trying and eventually she drove them all away.Teal'c had resigned from Stargate Command a year before to be with the Jaffa band to which his son belonged. He returned as soon as he found out Daniel and Sam were back. It was very clear to him that Sam was not herself but he also misdiagnosed the problem. When she rebuffed him, he spent a lot of time with Daniel before returning home. She trusted Daniel absolutely to keep their secret as far as not directly revealing anything. When Teal'c came to say farewell to her before he left, she realized that Daniel must have left an awful lot for him to read between the lines.

"DanielJackson is very sad, Colonel Carter. He would not tell me what his sorrow was but it seemed to me like what I felt when I thought I would never see my wife and son again." Sam didn't respond to that but studied the hands folded in her lap. He looked at her for a very long time and then said softly, "I did not want to leave you in that cursed place but I was given no choice. However you feel he failed you, I must believe he also had no choice. Please, as my friend, stand a friend to him because I cannot stay here any longer at this time."

Sam said, "I'll do the best I can." What else could she say? And it wasn't a lie because try as she might the best she could do was avoid Daniel.

Worst of all her would be psychotherapists was Jack. He could tell that not only was there something really wrong with each of them, there was something terribly wrong between them. In fact, he seemed to be of the opinion that this was what was wrong with them individually. He kept trying to get them together, to put them in situations where they would have to talk. Daniel would cooperate but Sam successfully avoided his traps. Jack wasn't really clever about this sort of thing but damn he was persistent. After all he was retired now and seemed to have decided that his hobby would be meddling in his friends' lives.

Perhaps encouraged somehow by Jack's efforts, Daniel started a more active campaign. He sent her flowers. Not once but so often she began to wonder how he could afford it and she had a really hard time explaining them away. He started finding ways to run into her more often at work. She started to feel like he was almost stalking her.

So she came up with what seemed like brilliant plan at the time to derail Jack and discourage Daniel permanently. She started dating Jack. At first Jack didn't realize that was what they were doing. He thought he was just bucking her up. She talked all sorts of dribble to make him think that he was functioning as a shoulder to cry on. In fact what she was doing was making sure they went to restaurants and other places where they would be likely to run into people from the base and then putting her arm in his when she knew they were looking or making some other affectionate gesture. She managed to drop the fact that they were dating into conversation with a couple of the more notorious Stargate Command gossips.

Sam wasn't sleeping well at all. Her dreams were all about P4K58L9. She dreamed variations of Janet's death where she was trying desperately to save her. She woke up from these in tears. She also had really happy dreams sometimes. She and Daniel making love. She and Daniel talking about astrophysics in the sod hut. She and Daniel with their new baby. She woke up smiling but then plummeted to an even deeper sorrow to have everything snatched away from her yet again. She was also not liking herself at all for the way she was using Jack and hurting Daniel but she couldn't seem to change it.

Sam tried to convince herself that she really did love Jack. After all, she had spent years with a secret crush on him that had been perfect for where she had been in her head at the time. Regulations prevented anything from happening and he was quite frankly emotionally unavailable anyway. Perfect. Now he met the most important current qualification. At his age and with the loss of his son followed by the lost of Ska'ra, he wouldn't want or expect children. She could not – would not – ever be a mother again.

One night, when Jack took her home, she kissed him with every bit of skill that she had perfected in her years with Daniel. Jack was completely taken aback at first.

"Whoa, Carter, where's this coming from?" he asked holding her off at arms length.

"Don't you like it, Jack? Because I really did and I'd like to do it again."

"Of course. I mean you're a beautiful woman and I'm not THAT old. But we're like old combat buddies or something aren't we? It feels sort of wrong."

"That's just a conditioned response from all your years before you retired. I can help you get over it, " she offered, moving back against him.

"What are you after here, Sam? Are you thinking recreation? A Relationship? I need to see a guidebook before I get on the bus."

"I don't know Jack how things will turn out but I really care about you. I always have and now that you are retired we are free to see if there might be more to it." She was doing a sales job on herself at the same time she was trying to convince him.

"Okay, so we get a little romantic but I think we should take it slow. You've really been hurt by this Pete thing and I'm, well, still a work in progress."

Even with their dating now being completely real, Sam was afraid that all of this might be only accomplishing her first objective, confusing Jack. Daniel seemed to operate in another world sometimes when work was really occupying his mind and she had always thought he was oblivious to gossip. Circumstances took care of the problem completely by accident. She and Jack had fallen into a kiss leaning up against his car in the parking lot of a favorite restaurant. And suddenly there was Daniel. The look on his face was a knife in her gut. He stood staring at them poleaxed. Jack noticed him and broke the kiss.

"Hey Daniel. I bet you never expected to see this." Jack was completely misreading Daniel's reaction. "It surprised us too. Say her brother's miles from here so can I get your blessing as a sort of unofficial brother? My intentions are really good."

Daniel laughed, completely without any humor. "My blessing. Wow," he said flatly. He looked at Sam with absolutely loathing and disgust. "Yeah sure." He said softly in Kloterian, "Few people have the opportunity to connect the way we did, to love the way we did. I've tried to save you from yourself Sama but I can't keep fighting. I don't know who you must hate more – me or yourself -- to commit adultery with a man who is so close to me. I honestly wish you happiness because I don't think Jack deserves to be as miserable as you'll make him otherwise." In English, he told Jack, "That was just a little something we learned back on P4K58L9. Let me know when you get the silver pattern picked out." He walked away.

Jack looked at Sam. "Here's just an educated guess," he said sarcastically. " I don't think he's really happy about this. In fact, I think he's jealous."

Sam tried to laugh it off. "That's completely ridiculous Jack. You saw us together for years. There was never anything going on." When she saw that Jack wasn't buying what she was selling she said, " Look we were isolated together for a long time. Daniel started to think he felt something romantic for me but it was just the situation. I had to discourage him really strongly."

"And that's what's been wrong between the two of you?" Jack asked not sounding like he completely believed his own hypothesis.

"Yeah, that's what's been wrong."

Most of the time Sam really enjoyed Jack's company. When they kissed though, she kept remembering Daniel's words. Had she ever thought she would be a cheating wife? Did that really apply?Were they really married? No matter what her reservations, she seemed to be standing outside herself letting the train run ahead. One night they stayed in at Jack's place to watch some of the tapes he had been compiling for her of her favorite shows over the years she was gone. He was drinking beer and she had a lovely Chardonnay, maybe a little too much of it. She drifted to sleep in his arms as they lay on the sofa together, the screen flickering in the background. Jack muted the sound and watched her sleep, drowsy himself.

Sam was dreaming. She and Daniel were standing on the parapet of the fortress. There were men in black impossibly climbing up the walls, like flies, getting closer and closer with knives in their teeth. Daniel was holding Janet's limp body and about to jump over the edge. Sam began to cry. Her tears were soaking Jack's shirt and making him completely awake. And then she began to mumble. It was indistinct but he could definitely make out the name Danny. He was about to wake her out what was obviously a nightmare when she said very distinctly, "No Danny no. Don't leave me. I love you so."

Then he did wake her up. "Sam tell me the truth. You need to tell someone the truth. What happened on your last mission?"

She stared at him her eyes wide, feeling the tears on her checks, and realized that she must have talked in her sleep. Suddenly she couldn't hold it in anymore. Ever since the day they buried Janet she had only been able to cry in her dreams. Now she sobbed, huge racking sobs. The anguished cry, "I killed my baby," was all Jack could get from her.

Finally she lay back exhausted and it all came out, the first time she had talked to anyone about what had happened. She told Jack everything. He listened and somehow not really surprised as she talked a bout her love for Daniel. When she finished, she looked at him, ashamed. "Jack, I haven't been fair to you at all. I can't really love anyone except Danny. I can't be with him but I'm still his wife in my heart. I should have known that."

"Why can't you be with him? I haven't heard anything that makes sense with that statement. Sure you may have screwed up in exposing your identities – that's debatable given everything else -- but it was a reasonable command decision. I would have made the same one." He stumbled around in an aside, "That is if I was married to Daniel which I guess would have made Daniel a girl. Whatever."

"Really. You think it was a reasonable thing to do?"

"Sure and he obviously does. He kept trying to get you back. Would he have been doing that if he blamed you? " He stood up and took her hands to pull her to her feet. "I'm going to drive you home now and I want to you sleep on this. I am ordering you to forgive yourself – consider me temporarily recalled to active duty. Tomorrow I want you to figure out how you're going to get back with Daniel."

Amazingly Sam felt like it was possible. Finally talking it out with someone, hearing that someone who had lost a child himself thought she could be forgiven, did make a difference. It didn't happen overnight though. She spent days going up and down an emotional roller coaster. She talked it through with Jack several more times. Jack was wonderful considering how she had treated him. Perhaps, like Pete, he was deep down relieved that they still had, and always would have, such a deep, caring friendship.

Finally Sam made the decision to try to get Daniel back. That raised the question of how. Or if, in fact, she still could. She had really disillusioned him. Sam's first plan was to go to him at home. She found out he had moved and she didn't have his new address. She also didn't have his home phone number. Since they were not working together directly, she had no good reason to request it at the base. Jack didn't know where to find Daniel either. Daniel had completely avoided Jack since the kiss episode 2 months before and Jack didn't have his new phone number. She thought about asking Pete to find out the information she needed but that was just too weird. Even though they had parted friends and had talked a few times since their dinner, it was just too weird.

Before she had figured anything out, Daniel went off world to consult on some Ancient ruins for two weeks. Sam was really frustrated and crying at the drop of a hat over anything and everything. Chick flick heroines did not run into these sorts of stupid prosaic problems when the music swelled for the romantic reunion. It appeared that logistics dictated that she approach Daniel at the base.

Sam waited one day after he had returned and then she went to his office. The door was part way open and so she didn't knock. She just stepped quickly inside, closed it and, leaning against it, reached behind her and locked it. Daniel looked up, identified his visitor, and looked back down at the papers he was working on. "May I help you, Colonel," he asked with exaggerated politeness and an emphasis on the Colonel.

She had rehearsed the whole thing several times but now she was a total blank. The first thing she thought of came out of her mouth without any editing. "I'm not seeing Jack any more, not romantically. It never really got much beyond friendship while it lasted."

"I'm not sure what your personal affairs have to do with my role here at Stargate Command, Colonel. He is quite a bit older than you but doesn't really qualify as an archeological subject."

She sighed and then moved decisively around the desk and sat on it directly in front of him.

"Colonel you are rumbling some relatively important papers here."

Sam didn't answer but reached into his shirt and pulled out the chain. "How do you open this thing?"

"Why would you want to?" For the first time there was a little uncertainty in his tone along with the hostility.

"I loved her so much Danny. I want to look at her. I want us to look at her together." He looked very confused and wary but he didn't ask for any more explanation. He opened it to the two tiny pictures and cradled it in his palm. She stroked the smiling face with its precious rosebud mouth, round cheeks, and blue, blue eyes. Tears began to slip down her cheeks. Reluctantly but unable to help himself, or so it seemed to her, he brushed the tears away with his other hand. She caught it, raised it to her cheek, turned her mouth into it, and kissed it. Without letting go, she asked, "Can you forgive me for her death? For letting them find us? If you can forgive me, maybe I can forgive myself."

He replied softly, "I never blamed you for anything. I thought you blamed me. If you want forgiveness you have it but there is nothing to forgive."

She started crying now in earnest. Daniel pulled her down into his lap and held her. Someone knocked on the door, was ignored, and went away. At last she had the courage to continue. "Can you forgive me for pushing you away?"

His hand stilled from stroking her hair. He asked almost inaudibly, "What do you want? What is this all about?" The wariness was back in his tone.

It was time to look him in the eyes, to quit hiding. She pulled back and took his beloved face in her hands. "I want a whole hell of a lot. I want you. I want everyone to know that we're married. I want to live together. I want to, I don't know, change my last name to Carter-Jackson or maybe we both do." He was utterly frozen listening to her. "I don't know if I'll be willing to have another child. I'm getting old for that anyway. But if you give me time to heal, maybe..."

He interrupted then, "You're for real? You really mean this?"

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him and he kissed her back. After awhile, he drew her silver medallion from his pocket where he always kept it and put it around her neck. He ruffled her cropped hair and asked, "Will you grow it out long enough to braid?"

"It will be my long delayed wedding present to you."

As she told their twins at the end of bedtime stories a few years later, they all lived happily ever after. 


End file.
