Cliché #2: St Daniel of Enthusiasm, Forgetfulness, and Precipitation

Season: 9

Pairing: Sam/Daniel

Rating: T

A/N: in reading this, you may surmise that I have been watching Walk the Line recently

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Sam idly fiddled with the lace of her negligée as she sat in the semi-darkness of the lounge. He was late. She glanced at the clock again just to make sure, and then at her mobile phone. Yes, he was definitely late. Very late.

With a wistful sigh, she got up and blew out the candles that were on the table near to her. Once again, something else had taken priority over her. She put her robe back on and sat back down again, her arms folded across her chest huffily. Her expression softened and tears began to fall as she looked at the gold band on the ring finger of her left hand.

Tonight of all nights for him to be late.

Spurred on by a sudden burst of anger, she reached for her phone again, ready to give him what for when said phone rang. Surprised, she almost dropped it before eventually answering it. "Hello?" Perhaps hostile aliens had taken him hostage and were ringing her in order to bait her into doing something completely reckless in order to get him back.

Or perhaps not. "Hey, honey."

She asked, trying not to sound suspicious but not being entirely successful, "Where are you?" She looked down at her left hand as another silent tear fell from her eyes. "I thought you were coming home early tonight." She hoped that he would remember on his own why she had been expecting him home early. The possibility that he wouldn't, made her chest hurt.

He sounded guilty. "I'm sorry, Sam... I truly am. I was all set to go home, but SG-3 brought back something amazing." She rolled her eyes as she imagined him drooling over a clay tablet or some such archaeological artefact. He seemed to shake himself out of it much sooner than usual though. He cleared his throat. "And, uh, the Infirmary exploded."

She almost dropped the phone in shock. When she had got over most of the shock, she was about to get up to get ready to go to the base. "What?! How? What happened? Is Carolyn alright? Was anyone hurt?"

He hesitated before replying, sounding sheepish at first, "Uh... no, sorry... I just meant the X-Ray scanner. Doctor Smith on my staff – you remember her? We went to her Halloween party a couple of months back..."

Sam clenched her jaw in suppressed annoyance at mention of the pretty Field Archaeologist who had spent an entire evening very obviously flirting with a completely oblivious Daniel. At least Sam liked to think that Daniel had been oblivious... until she had noticed Daniel's eyes flicker downwards towards the woman's cleavage during a conversation.

But he had been tipsy... and Doctor Smith was wearing noticeably a lot less clothing than the other guests.

She replied to Daniel's question, her teeth clenched furiously nonetheless, "Yes. I remember."

He continued brightly, seemingly oblivious to her discomfort, "Well, she suggested X-Raying the stela that we found on P1X-187 due to the abrupt ending of the text on it. There was the possibility that there could have been a secret compartment, or even..." She couldn't help but smile nostalgically as his speech speeded up with excitement. "... another smaller stela inside like a Russian doll."

He trailed off, obviously distracted by the ideas in his head, and she asked, impatient to know more, "Well? What happened?"

He cleared his throat again. "Well, Bill said something about the weight of the stela combined with the X-Rays bouncing off super magnetised particles of iron, nickel and cobalt, which were in constant flux... Anyway, all that combined overloaded the scanner. Landry ordered a new one, and he's banned my team from using it unless we put our reasons for wanting to use it in writing, and then run it through him and either you or Bill." He exhaled.

She said, even more curious yet baffled by the events he had described, "I wonder... perhaps the X-Rays and the electron spin of the metals combined may have resulted in an explosion. Interesting. We're going to have to test it out under controlled conditions." She paused, her sense of duty taking hold. "Wait... the situation must be under control if General Landry hasn't called me."

"Oh, no... it got cleared up quite quickly. There was some radiation but the Infirmary has been scrubbed down and decontaminated. No-one was injured, luckily." He paused for breath. "Everyone was rather uneasy about calling you for some reason. I can't think why."

She sighed, crashing back to Earth as she closed her eyes. He had forgotten. She asked, her voice sounding hollow, "What else is keeping you?"

"Oh well... I realised that some of my to-do translations had been left in my out-tray for some reason, and then, of course, there was that absolutely amazing thing from 187. Had to unplug my phone because it kept ringing, and I wasn't expecting anyone. Seemed to be a lot of people knocking on my door too... didn't they know how to read a 'do not disturb' sign? Had to lock it."

She sighed once again, now examining her reasons in keeping the phone line open. "Where are you now?"

"Just leaving Doctor Smith's house."

She blinked in surprise, her voice dangerously low. "What?"

"She had my copy of Champollion... and I'd forgotten I'd lent it to her." Sam rolled her eyes, working out the real version of the scenario – chiefly, the pretty young Field Archaeologist attempting to ensnare her husband by stealing his possessions. "I also had to tow her car because her gas tank had somehow been punctured, and she ran out of gas near Garden of the Gods. She called me while I was on base." He sighed wearily. "So... what have you been up to, honey?"

She clenched her fist and then smiled sweetly, an evil glint in her eyes. "Oh. Nothing much. Nothing at all. Just been preparing for tonight, what with it being our anniversary and all... Obviously, it's escaped your mind." Her face fell, and her voice quietened as she could swear that Daniel's breathing had stopped. "I'm going to Cam's. He's visiting his parents but I've got his keys." As he, shocked and baffled, attempted to apologise, she said before disconnecting, "Goodbye, Daniel."

In a daze, she dropped the phone beside her on the couch and stared at it. She got up, but instead of running upstairs to pack, like she had envisaged, she walked slowly, pain filling her entire body as the tears once again returned. However, she speeded up once she had reached the first floor, the Colonel quickly dressing, and throwing some of her things into a bag. She left the room, not caring enough to wipe away her tears as she descended the stairs.

When she was halfway down the stairs, the front door burst open suddenly, and there he stood. Despite the darkness of the hallway, with only the landing light illuminating it, she could see the desperation in his eyes, and that his hair was a mess. She was about to drop the bag but she strengthened her resolve and tightened her grip on it.

"Uh... what are you doing?" Typical. Make her look like the bad guy.

"What I should have done the last thousand times you've forgotten things like this." She calmly descended the stairs as he stared at her, now scared. She slowly put her bag down, not giving anything away about her emotions or state of mind.

Within seconds, she had thrown various vases and other hard items at him, screaming abuse at him as he shielded himself with his arms. "Sam!"

"You remember everyone else! You remember everything else! But do you remember to save your own marriage?!" The last question was punctuated by the telephone cradle, which whizzed past his head, skimming his ear, before it landed on the path leading to the front door with a cracking sound. "Go back to that Doctor Smith! She obviously makes for a better evening than I do."

She angrily grabbed her bag and was about to push past him when he grabbed her wrists, stopping her from leaving. Her bag dropped to the floor as she screamed hysterically, the Colonel pushing against his chest. "Let me go!"

He tenderly cupped her jaw with his hand, the Archaeologist genuinely bemused. "What did I do?" His eyes silently urged her to tell him. "Sam. Tell me."

She slapped him across the face and as he turned his face away during the bitter sting that followed, she rebuked him, "How dare you?! How dare you pretend everything is right and I'm the fruitcake here? You promised! You promised that you would come home early!"

He wouldn't meet her gaze, his eyes on the hands that he held. "But there were those... things..."

"And a pretty Archaeologist who can't keep herself from you."

He suddenly stared at her, looking at her as her as though she had gone completely in insane. "What? Marie? Oh God, Sam... no... why would you even think that?"

She sniffed, her voice quietening even though her body trembled with pent-up frustration and grief. "Because I'm not blind." She looked at him for a moment, a panoply of emotions on her face as she stroked his cheek. "Bye, Daniel."

She stepped off the front step, forgetting her bag as she walked down the path leading away from the house as it began to rain. He stared at her helplessly, wondering how things had flared up so fast. Knowing that he would live to regret it his whole life long if he didn't pursue her, he sprinted after her as the rain fell heavier. Now totally drenched by the ever heavier rainfall, he shouted as she neared the road, the Archaeologist ripping his glasses off as water droplets obscured his view,

"Sam!"

He eventually caught up with her and grabbed her by a wrist, spinning her around to face him. He smoothed her cheek tenderly. "Sam... you can't leave... not like this. Please, tell me what I've done."

The fight gone from her, she vainly fought against him, whispering in the downpour, her tears lost in the rain as she refused to look at him, "You know what you did. Do I have to draw a picture? You forgot our Anniversary, and a lot of other things. You think of everyone else but the people who should really matter to you... the one person right now who should. I guess I was hoping for too much when we got married. You're not ready to be a husband."

She was about to turn away from him again when he grabbed her by her elbows and kissed her. She was about to knee him when he lifted his own knee to block it. She eventually relented, surrendering herself to the embrace as the rain continued to pour on and around the couple. When the kiss ended, he held her face in his hands as he gazed at her intently.

"I'm sorry. Time slipped away from me and..." He paused. "I'm sorry for forgetting. I honestly thought it was the 16th today." He held her tightly, his chin resting on her head as he protected her from the oncoming storm. "I'm sorry."

She held onto him, her eyes closed as she managed a little smile as she began to shiver. "Oh Daniel... I could never stay mad at you... I love you."

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Next... Sam...