Walk the Line, by DrGemini86 (DrGemini24)

Summary: Convalescing from an injury, Daniel is forced to watch Walk the Line, and is deeply moved by the experience. SamDaniel. Fluffy oneshot. Lyrics featured are Walk the Line by Johnny Cash.

Pairing: SamDaniel

Rating: T

Category: New Romance

Genres: Relationship-focussed, Romance-focussed, SongFic

A/N: Been wanting to write a fic around this song for a while now but it proved to be quite hard. I've worked it out now though. Lol.

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It's only my leg. I'm telling you, civilian medics these days… A piece of shrapnel from a particularly violent encounter with the Ori forces off-world on P3X-921 got lodged into my calf. It's out now and the only thing left is a rather ugly scar from the surgery… Fine, ok, I have to take morphine too and use crutches for a couple of weeks, but apart from that, I'm fine. The way everyone's acting, you'd think I'd lost the leg. Honestly.

Carolyn said that I should stay off my feet as much as possible… and she even had the audacity to tell Daddy dearest who had me pulled from active duty. Moreover, I'm not allowed on base unless it's urgent… and apparently my work isn't… urgent, that is. That's really annoying. I'm getting stir crazy sitting around the house, reciting all of my journals, word for word (I've read them enough times… here's an idea – maybe I should rewrite them… they're not bad but they're not great either. Only thing is, my rewrites, if published, would get me shot. Oh well).

The rest of the team dropped in at different times to keep me company… SG-1's been pulled from active duty too, which is a bummer, as Mitchell would say. In the old days, we'd carry on. Take Jack recovering from that stomach wound for instance… Sam, Teal'c and I went out by ourselves on that mission with Malcolm and the Goa'uld bomb and… oh, that morphine's not helping things… Sure, there's no pain, but I can't think straight.

Anyway, Mitchell dropped in twice, the second time to lumber me with Johnny Cash's entire collection. That man… I swear, if he ever makes me watch that awful episode of Columbo again, heads are going to roll. He left me Cash's biopic, Walk the Line, and a couple of albums, saying that I needed to chill out.

Maybe he didn't like me moaning about not having any work to do after all.

I don't see how watching films and listening to music is going to help. It's times like these when I wish I was still ascended so I could visit my office unseen. Did I even do that in my year away? I must have done. I would have gone to a number of other places too… like Sam's bedroom at 10 pm on a work night… but that's another story.

He's pretty insistent about watching the film for reasons I've yet to fathom. Seriously, he won't take 'no, I'd rather drink molten naquadah' for an answer. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against Country music… it's just that it's not really been my thing.

So, he's sat on the couch with me, my bad, bandaged leg propped up on the coffee table, and we're watching the film.

Wow.

Seriously. Wow.

His brother gets killed and his Dad's a bastard about it.

I miss my Dad, and my Mom. They would have been nicer than the Cashs any day.

Anyway, I can't move my eyes from the screen… it's that good. Cash's songs are sung from the heart, about things that he'd experienced… or things that he wanted people to think he'd experienced. As Sam joins us, sitting on the other side of me from Mitchell, we watch, enthralled, as Cash enters the world of rock and roll, complete with all the trappings of fame and the need to keep going regardless.

I think the most poignant aspect of the film, other than his brother dying, was his long association with June Carter. They wrote songs and performed together, both of them married to different people despite that and their growing attraction.

Cash gets messed up on drugs, loses control, and his wife walks out, taking the kids. But June is the constant in a life of rock and roll, mayhem and chaos, darkness and fear. She loses her rag, but she cares about him… she understands, and she helps him through his recovery after he hits rock bottom. Despite this, she won't agree to marry him when he's clean until he proposes to her on stage in front of hundreds if not thousands – a lot – of people.

"I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line…"

All the while that this played out on screen, Cash and June, I felt the parallels between them and myself and Sam… and not because of June's surname. To be honest, I didn't think of that. No… what I meant was that I've hit rock-bottom… I've lost my wife, been addicted to a sarcophagus, lost my memories… and Sam was always there, holding my hand. Never once, did she expect anything from me… but maybe she should have. Perhaps then things could have been different.

"I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine, I walk the line…"

Or maybe I needed to force her hand…

Mitchell leaves after getting a phone call from a friend he was supposed to be meeting up with, and I feel a weight on my shoulder as we watch the credits, and I see Sam leaning her head on my shoulder. She hasn't done that in years… I've missed it… I've missed a lot about our friendship.

"As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I've known proves that it's right
Because you're mine, I walk the line…"

We laugh at the song sung over the credits of June and Cash having a little argument, and she sighs, not moving her head as she asks, "They got it right, eventually, didn't they?"

I nod, replying as I wonder whether she's getting teary – Sam doesn't usually get teary over biopics, "Yep… she was always there for him."

She reaches for my hand as the DVD stops and it's time for another morphine injection… my leg hurts like hell… only, I know she's going to say something else, so I wait. A few moments later, she looks up and asks as I secretly – I hope – admire her beautiful eyes… Sam always had the prettiest eyes,

"Do you think there could have been anything between us?"

My chest begins to hurt as I think about the unspoken… 'it' that she and Jack do and don't have, and my leg pain gets out of control. I close my eyes, trying to block the pain out so I can answer her question but she obviously gets the wrong idea and says, sounding scared,

"I'm sorry, Daniel… I should never have brought that up… I'm sorry."

She gets up but I grab her hand, not wanting her to go, and I say, shaking my head, "No… my morphine's worn off."

She immediately kneels on the floor, retrieving my spare morphine from the table and she asks, looking worried, "How bad does it hurt?"

I reply through gritted teeth, "A lot."

"You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine, I walk the line…"

I offer to do it, but the love of my life won't let me. Instead, she administers the painkiller as I try to breathe through my pain, and I silently curse the bad timing. She asks, taking a look at my calf under the bandage as I begin to feel a little light-headed,

"How are you feeling?"

I can't help but smile… not totally because of the drug coursing through my veins, and she looks amused. I begin to feel tired and she lays me down on the couch, draping a blanket over me as she kneels at my side, smoothing my forehead. I smile up at her and say,

"I've missed you, Sam."

She looks sad. "I've missed you too, Daniel. This Ori thing really has taken a lot out of us, hasn't it?"

I nod a little too quickly, not that I can feel it anyway, and she kisses my forehead before saying, "Go to sleep, Daniel. I'll be right here."

I reach out, touching her cheek and I whisper, "I would have made you so happy, Sam." I can barely believe I said that… the poor girl must be shocked.

She holds my hand and whispers back, tears in her eyes, "You have already… just by being you."

I begin to babble about the film as she looks on in further amusement, and then I finally tell her something that I would never have told her under ordinary circumstances due to mortification,

"You've always been there for me, Sam… just like June, and I always took you for granted."

She smoothes my hair back, the caress feeling heavenly as she replies, her face now looking emotionless, "Sshh, it's the morphine talking."

I shake my head and sit up as she watches me, looking scared, and I say, "No… no… I was going to tell you this before my leg decided to rudely interrupt. You're the only one who understands me; who allows me to be, well, me… you're always there for me, as a friend, as support… as anything I could have hoped for… except a girlfriend."

She looks like she's about to cry and I hold her hand, continuing while I still have the chance before I get too scared to open my mouth, "I love you. I always have."

I smooth her cheek and she hugs me, whispering three little words that I've always wanted to hear from her as she begins to cry. I hold her in my arms and then she lies with me on the couch, my arms around her. I might not remember most of this in the morning, but I know I'm going to like tomorrow.

We kiss and then she rests her head against my chest, whispering, "I'm scared, Daniel… you're a dangerous man to love."

I smooth her hair, running my fingers through the fair softness of it, and I reply, "I'm scared too. You deserve much better than I could give you."

She laughs for some obscure reason and then says, looking down at me as she raises her head, "No, Daniel. There is no-one better than you." And she kisses me… I better remember that tomorrow – I hope I do.

"I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line…"

– Fin

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