A/N – Sam/Janet mostly, though there is some Jack/Sam thrown in. I wanted to do something that deals with human relationships and sexuality. So yeah, this is kinda weird, and it's got two timelines, if you can't tell.
Chapter 1: Goodnight, Dr. Jackson
Daniel tugged lightly at his restraints, but his captors had used those plastic handcuffs that were impossible to get out of. Looking up, Daniel's eyes met those of a man in a dark grey suit, sitting across the table from him, a laptop closed under his hands.
"Doctor Daniel Jackson," the man recited, looking unblinkingly back at Daniel. "So pleased you could join us."
"What do you want?"
"Nothing you can't give up without much trouble." The man opened the laptop and turned it on. "How well do you know Major Samantha Carter?"
What a ridiculous question. Daniel rolled his eyes. "Pretty well, considering I've worked with her for almost seven years now. She's like a sister to me."
"How about intimately? Did you ever have any romantic entanglements with her?"
Daniel frowned at him. What did I just say?! "No…It may have crossed my mind once or twice…and I'm sure Jack and Teal'c would say the same thing. But she's our co-worker and we respect her."
"Hmm." The man glanced at the computer screen and Daniel wondered if this was being recorded. Knowing the NID it probably was. "How about her private life? You know many details of that?"
"Sure." They must have drugged Daniel earlier. His tongue felt loosened and his mind wasn't quite comprehending everything the man was saying. "She spends most of her free time with Cassandra, fixing her motorcycle, reading 'Scientific American'…nothing interesting."
"And her love life?"
"Uhhh…No…if she was ever involved with someone who wasn't an alien, she didn't mention it."
The man snorted, and began typing quickly on the computer.
"How did this happen?" Janet frowned down at Sam's shoulder. The cut was clean, and not very deep, slicing neatly through the pale skin. As Janet applied antiseptic and then a bandage, she had no doubt it would heal without a scar.
"I slipped." Sam grinned embarrassedly. "There was a sharp piece of rock sticking out and it cut me."
Janet winced in sympathy before carefully sliding the bunched up sleeve of Sam's t-shirt back down over the cut. "It should heal up fine. You might want to avoid using that arm for a while, it'll probably be sore."
Sam nodded. Janet's hand was still lightly resting on her shoulder. As she lowered it, Janet let her fingers run down Sam's arm. Sam shivered slightly, deliberately avoiding the doctor's eyes.
"Cassie's been asking about you," Janet said, trying to cover up the uncomfortable silence as she scribbled something on her clipboard. "She wants to have another girl's night."
"Sure," Sam nodded. "I'll have to see when I'm free, I've got a lot of projects lined up…What?"
Janet was giving her a stern, almost sad look. "Sam, you can't find just a couple hours to come watch a movie with us? You know it's not good for you to be working all the time. And Cassie misses you."
"Ok ok," Sam grinned. "This weekend. Saturday. I promise."
Janet returned the smile, waving her pen at Sam. "I'm holding you to that, Major Carter."
"Yes, Ma'am."
That was Monday. Tuesday, SG-1 and Janet had a mission to go on, delivering much needed medicine to a small village on P3Y-946. It was a lot of work, and the people on Janet's medical team were all running around like mad. Finally as the alien sun began setting, Janet wandered over to where Sam sat in the shade of two trees and sat down herself, facing the blonde major.
"Tired?" Sam raised her eyebrows.
"Sweaty too." Janet tossed her hat aside and ran the back of her hand over her forehead. "God, what I wouldn't give for a shower right now…"
Sam chuckled. "Now you understand why we always smell like hell when we get back from our missions."
Janet wrinkled her nose and laughed quietly. She pulled her shoes off her aching feet and stretched her legs out next to Sam's. Feeling a little daring, Janet pushed the side of her foot against Sam's thigh. She looked up; Sam was watching her lazily through half lidded eyes. She gently lifted Janet's foot, rubbing her fingers along the arch, easing the kinks out of the sore muscles.
Janet's head rested back against the wide trunk of the tree behind her as she tried not to read too much into the sensation of Sam's fingers running along her foot. This was all so perfect, such a fragile moment off world without the worry of security cameras or Cassie walking in an the wrong moment…Sam set Janet's foot down between her own legs and lifted the other, beginning the same gentle massage. A faint sigh escaped Janet's lips. She flexed her foot, almost unconsciously, pushing it forward, pressing lightly against Sam's center. The legs on either side of her own tensed, and Janet heard a soft intake of breath, even above the light wind that had sprung up.
She smiled to herself, letting her foot relax. The wind blew a little harder, ruffling Janet's hair.
"Janet…" Sam whispered her name, just as light as her fingers skimming Janet's foot. Suddenly she released Janet's foot. "Sir!"
Janet drew her knees up to her chest, looking up at Jack.
"Ready to go, ladies?" Jack said, offering hands to help them to their feet once Janet had put her shoes back on. "The locals say there's a storm brewing."
Janet craned her head back to look at the sky. The wind was blowing harder now, bringing with it the scent of rain and tendrils of clouds to the sky. She sighed heavily, and the three headed back towards the stargate.
"We've got eyes everywhere," the man told Daniel. "We probably know more about your teammates than you do. Probably more than you'd be comfortable knowing. Like how Colonel O'Neill moans Samantha Carter's name in his sleep."
"I knew that, actually," Daniel said, recalling one particular night off world. "Sam might too. I doubt that anyone cares. I doubt Jack realizes he's doing it."
"How about that he does it consciously when he's jerking off?"
Daniel narrowed his eyes and swallowed thickly. "That doesn't surprise me."
The man smirked, as if amused by the fact that he wasn't getting to Daniel. "You, however, call for Shau'ree. Nothing surprising or even interesting about that…Pining for your dead wife…" he shot Daniel a look, then went back to typing at the computer. "How about Dr. Fraiser, what do you know about her?"
"She's an impressive person. I admire her."
"How well do you know her?"
Daniel shrugged. "A little. I've never had a relationship with her, if that's what you mean. She's a little wary of guys from what I've heard. But she cares about her daughter."
"So you don't know any details of her private life?"
"Not me. Sam's good friends with her…she would probably know something."
"Just good friends?"
"Excuse me?"
As though in explanation, the man turned the computer around so Daniel could see the screen. It showed a photo of Sam and Janet, sitting on a park bench with their arms around each other, looking at something to the left and laughing. This didn't prove anything; they were friends. Friends did that occasionally.
"So you've been stalking my co-workers..." Daniel said slowly. "What are you trying to achieve here?"
The man smirked again, taking the computer back and clicking around for a moment. He chuckled, muttered something about excellent timing, then asked Daniel, "Have you ever seen two women having sex, Dr. Jackson?"
"I would like to return to the planet tomorrow, sir," Janet said at the debriefing. "Just to make sure everything's going along ok."
Hammond nodded. "Very well, Doctor, assuming the MALP shows that this storm is fully blown over." He turned to look at the rest of them. "Dismissed."
Jack caught up with Sam and Janet in the hall. "Danny, T, and I were gonna run out and grab some pizza, you girls want to come along?"
"Sure." Janet said after a moment's thought. "Only if we bring it back to my place, though, Cassie's expecting me."
"That's doable." Jack nodded, then looked at Sam. "Carter, if you say that you have a project you're working on…" the rest of his sentence hung in mid-air as two pairs of brown eyes turned entreatingly at Sam.
She laughed. "Doesn't look like I have much choice, does it? Just let me go get cleaned up."
Roughly three hours later they were all sprawled in the Fraiser's living room, contentedly stuffed, Teal'c still plowing away at the food the others had been unable to finish. Cassie yawned.
"Cass, you should go to bed," Janet said, looking at her watch. "You've got school in the morning."
"I know!" Cassie whined. "But everyone's here."
"It's not that late," Sam pointed out, earning a glare from Janet and a look of utter respect from Cassie.
"DoctorFraiser," Teal'c said, looking at Janet. "Do you not have to rise early tomorrow as well for the mission?"
Janet smiled sleepily. "I do, and that's why I'm afraid I'll have to kick you all out. Feel free to take the pizza."
"Mom!"
"Ok," Janet corrected. "Some of the pizza. Leave the pepperoni for Cassie."
She stood up and showed the three men out, then she and Sam set about cleaning up the mess.
Cassie watched them sleepily from her spot curled in the armchair in the corner of the living room. Though Janet was the one she called 'Mom', Sam was one of her parents as well. Sam was the one who had stayed with her in the bowels of the earth when she had a bomb in her chest, Sam was the one who let her eat as much junk food as she wanted and took her to see the rated R movies that Janet turned her nose up to. And Sam was the one out there almost every day, protecting Cassie and the rest of the world from the goa'uld.
Sam came back into the room to grab the last few paper plates and she grinned at Cassie. "Getting sleepy, squirt?"
"Mmmhmm." Cassie nodded, smiling to herself. Sam was also the only person in the whole universe who could call her 'squirt' and not get yelled at. Finally Cassie stood up and went to bed, comforted by the fact that this tall, fearless, blonde scientist stood between her and unimaginable evil.
Sam threw away the last of the paper plates then grabbed her jacket from where it was draped over the back of a chair. "I'm heading home, Janet."
Janet hurried over to give her friend a quick peck on the cheek, which was returned as Sam pulled her jacket on. Neither of them admitted how much they liked doing that, or how they wished it was more acceptable to go for the lips.
Daniel wasn't the type of man who spent his late nights on the Internet, looking at cheap porno sites with videos of girls explicitly screwing each other. He'd seen a bit in his college days, but never found it a turn-on. The last time he'd seen anything remotely close to that was a strange alien ritual SG-1 had witnessed that had left Sam blushing furiously. So Daniel answered the man's question with the one thought that popped into his head.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Yet again, the man answered by showing him the computer screen. The image Daniel was looking at was obviously footage from a hidden camera.
Sam and Janet, sitting on the end of a bed; Sam and Janet kissing passionately, tugging desperately at clothing…
"Turn it off!" Daniel snapped, turning his head away. He didn't even care about what he was seeing; all he knew was that it was a horrible invasion of the privacy of two women he held in great respect. The agent got to his feet, walking behind Daniel, taking his head in his hands and forcing him to watch as things got more intense.
"Does this bother you, Dr. Jackson?" he sneered. "Does it bother you to see your 'sister' fucking another woman and you feeling so…aroused…by it?" His eyes flickered down to Daniel's lap and the archaeologist felt his cheeks turn red with embarrassment. "Did I mention this is a live feed? Yes…they're doing this right now."
"Turn it off!" Daniel snarled again, now unable to look away, watching with a mixture of sick pleasure and disgust as Janet pushed Sam back on the bed, then straddled the taller woman's hips, leaning down to kiss the exposed curves of her breasts. Heat rose inside Daniel and he closed his eyes, tight, blocking out the images.
"I could turn on the sound if you like." The man said, half amused, half threatening.
"Why are you doing this?" Daniel took a chance and opened his eyes, trying to look up at his captor's face.
"Because you have something we want." The man jerked Daniel's head sharply, forcing him to keep looking at the screen. "Actually Major Carter has it. You just know about it."
"So you're showing me proof that Sam's a lesbian in hopes that it'll get me to turn this…thing over to you?" Daniel's voice was full of skepticism.
"Something like that." The man chuckled wickedly. "Actually, we're merely letting you know that if you don't hand the device over, we'll ruin her career. How do you think certain officials at the pentagon would react if they saw this tape?"
Daniel sighed, closing his eyes again.
The storm had left its mark on the planet and the village, but the people had been prepared. They were used to the heavy storms of the rainy season; it had happened like this for as long as they could remember. The medicine that Janet had administered seemed to have done the trick to eliminate the plague that had been spreading among the people, and they were all immensely grateful. In return, they showed SG-1 and Janet to a large cave they simply called "The Hall".
The Hall had obviously started out as a natural formation, but somewhere along the course of its development a race of advanced creatures, ancients, probably, had come along and turned it into what was apparently a lab. Daniel and Sam were nearly hysterical with excitement as they found some devices that had ancient writing on them and looked quite interesting.
The natives stolidly told them they could take one device.
Sam selected something that looked like a laptop computer. When they left The Hall, however, they found themselves in the middle of another storm. Rain was pouring down in torrents and lightning slashed open the sky.
"Come with us!" The villagers beckoned for them to follow.
Sam ran next to Janet, the ancient device safe in her waterproof bag. Suddenly there was an impossibly bright flash of light, Sam stumbled into Janet, knocking the smaller woman to the ground. They were trying to pull each other to their feet when there was a loud crack and a crash, followed by Jack bellowing something at the top of his lungs.
Sam spun around, her arm still around Janet. The lightning had split the trunk of a tree and the thing had come crashing down, right on Daniel.
"Danny!" The colonel was trying to push the tree trunk off Daniel, but he wasn't very successful.
Together in the pounding rain they threw their shoulders against the tree trunk, pushing it off Daniel's limp form. After Janet spent a full five minutes checking his injuries, Teal'c and Jack carried Daniel back to the village.
"Colonel," Janet said quietly. "We need to get him back to the base. I don't have the proper equipment to even diagnose what's wrong with him, let alone treat it here."
Jack was standing with his fists balled up in his hair, looking ready to explode. "Mudslides, Doc, they say people have died from mudslides cus they got too far away from the safe zone the village is in. I'd be risking everyone's lives if we went out there."
"We're risking Daniel's life staying here!"
Jack sighed heavily, looking around at them all. Anxious eyes looked back. He nodded then moved to help get Daniel up on a makeshift backboard the villagers had brought in.
They moved quickly through the darkened and rain drenched forest, their boots slipping in the mud. Jack and Teal'c were carrying Daniel, and moving as quickly and carefully as they could down the muddy path, their native guides listening for the tell-tale rumbling of an impending mudslide.
Sam was jogging along when she suddenly heard a squelch and a thud, then Janet calling her name.
"Sam, help me up!"
Sam turned to see Janet struggling to lever herself up out of the sticky, slick mud. With a roll of her blue eyes, Sam rushed back and, far from giving Janet a hand, lifted her right out of the mud and into her arms.
Janet blinked rain out of her eyes. "Sam, you can put me down," she murmured, her arms looped around Sam's neck as the major ran to catch up with the rest of the team.
"We're almost there…"
Once back safely in the gate room Janet ran off with the medical team to look after Daniel, leaving Jack, Sam and Teal'c to go shower. Sam took a little longer than necessary, letting her thoughts simmer in the warm jet of water.
Coming out of the women's locker room, she nearly walked headlong into Jack.
"Oh, sir, sorry, I didn't see you."
Jack waved his hand. "It's fine, Carter." They started walking towards the elevator. Jack shot her a sideways look. "You ok?"
"I'm fine, sir." Sam smiled reassuringly. "You?"
"Just worried about Danny-boy." Jack muttered. "I was just down there…things aren't looking too good."
They'd entered the elevator and Sam let out a quiet groan, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes.
"Yeah, that's just about how I feel." Jack murmured.
Sam sensed his presence close to her and opened her eyes, looking up at Jack. Without saying anything they came together in a comforting hug. After a moment, Jack moved so their foreheads were resting against each other.
"He'll get better, colonel," Sam whispered, hoping the use of his rank would help cut through the awkward tension filling the elevator.
"I hope so."
Jack brought one hand up to touch her cheek. Sam felt cold. She put her hands on his chest, lightly pushing him away from her.
"Sir." Her eyes delivered another silent reprimand as they connected with his momentarily before she retreated to the other corner of the elevator.
"Tell me, Dr. Jackson, where is the device being held? I know it's not in Area 51."
The sudden change in topic almost caught Daniel's drugged mind off guard, almost, but not quite. "I'm not telling you…because I don't know."
"I don't believe you. We'll have to work a little harder."
"What, by showing me more hidden camera footage of Sam? Or maybe you'll switch to Jack and show me what he gets up to." Daniel spat, trying to hide his disgust in pure rage. "You've shown me so much you've desensitized me. It doesn't even bother me anymore." He prayed silently to the gods of reverse psychology.
"Oh, if I wanted to I could really screw with your mind, Dr. Jackson," the agent said with a chuckle. "But I won't…not in the way you think anyway." He picked up a syringe off the table. "By the way, do you still have back problems from that accident with the tree?"
"What?" Daniel frowned. "Occasionally. Why?"
"Just wondering. Seeing as that's when it all started." He walked around and stuck the needle into the side of Daniel's neck. "Good-night, Dr. Jackson."