Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the delay between chapters. It's been hard for me to get these characters into my head lately (or any characters, really- one of the worst things about depression is the way it saps my desire and ability to do the things I love to do. It comes and goes like the tide. Right now the tide is going out again, I've got my head above the water, and I can imagine again.)
IV. Pressure
A strong, gusty wind had picked up sometime during the feasting and singing and dancing- not strong enough to do any damage, but enough to make a drunken archaeologist stagger a bit as he walked home with his companions. Teal'c caught Daniel's arm and steadied him, face impassive as always.
"Whew!" Daniel said happily. "Hey, Sam, here comes the cyclone to blow us back to Kansas!"
"Steady there, Lollipop Guild," Jack drawled, coming up on his other side just in time to grab his arm as he lurched away from Teal'c.
"I, I, Jack, I think I had too much mead." Daniel's eyebrows drew up worriedly. His glasses were halfway down his nose, his shirt was halfway unbuttoned, and he was more than halfway plastered. Llew had kept the mead and ale flowing for hours. Daniel was not a big drinker, but he was big on courtesy and local customs. Teal'c, in contrast, seemed unaffected by the tremendous amount of alcohol he'd put away.
"No, Danny, you passed the point of too much about three hours ago, when you started reciting bawdy poetry to Llew's mastiff."
"He laughed," Daniel said, lurching back Teal'c's way.
"My point exactly." Jack met Teal'c's eye over Daniel's head. "What about you, big T? Jaffa don't get drunk?"
"My symbiote processes the alcohol faster than the human body does," Teal'c said.
"So Junior is pretty sloshed right now?"
"I do not believe so, O'Neill."
"Guys? I think I'm gonna lie down now," Daniel said, circling like a dog in the roadway. "My head feels like it's full of bees."
"Daniel Jackson, it is not much further to our camp," Teal'c said, grabbing his arm again.
"Just pick him up," O'Neill advised. "He's too far gone to reason with."
"Indeed."
Sam, walking behind, was barely paying attention to Daniel's plight. She had her head down and was plowing into the wind, fists clenched in her pockets, jaw set. She hated turbulent weather. The scientific part of her brain whispered that she was reacting to was a drop in atmospheric pressure or perhaps the activation of a primitive flight response. The emotional part of her brain shouted out its loathing of the gusting, broody, secretive wind, the masses of clouds like clotted blood hanging overhead, and whatever it was about a storm that made her feel as though her chest cavity was too small to contain her soul. She wanted to scream, to run until she was exhausted, to beat her fists against the trunks of the trees as they passed by.
"Why won't the storm just break?" she muttered savagely.
"We will make camp before the rain comes," Teal'c said, misunderstanding her turmoil for concern.
"In the Amazon," Daniel said, his head lolling against Teal'c's chest, "they get over 100 inches of rain per year."
"Well, this isn't the Amazon, is it? We're never going to see the Amazon again!" Sam snapped. The whole group went quiet. Sam never spoke to Daniel that way. Never.
"I thought you weren't ready to give up," Jack said mildly. Thunder crashed overhead.
"I don't see many other options, sir." She pracically sneered the "sir," determined to get a rise out of him. She needed an outlet and was hoping her CO's temper would provide her with a sparring partner.
"We'll sleep on it. Sleep off Llew's hospitality, get a fresh start tomorrow. Don't beat yourself up, Carter. That's an order."
Carter. As though she'd never kissed him. As though he hadn't held her hand. Sam let out a noise that was somewhere between a growl and a sigh. Stuck on a distant planet- not only trapped, but trapped in terrible proximity to her greatest moral dilemma- and the object of that moral dilemma carrying on as though nothing were wrong, drinking and singing and teasing his companions! It was all too much.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Go ahead, Carter."
"I quit, sir."
Jack whirled to face her. "Come again?"
"I quit. It's too much pressure." Thunder again, a long, rolling roar they could feel in their chests. Sam felt the first few drops of rain land on her forehead and her cheek. Jack took another step toward her, his face carefully devoid of emotion.
"Is this about what happened earlier?" He spoke softly, but evidently not softly enough.
"Did you guys hook up?" Daniel yelled, struggling against Teal'c's hold on him. Teal'c set him down. He promptly fell to his knees and vomited.
"Dammit, Daniel, don't be such a lightweight!" Sam snapped. Jack reached out to touch her arm, but she yanked away. "And you, don't touch me. Fight back, damn you. Give me a reaction."
"You want me to yell at you? Fine! I don't accept your resignation, Major! You're gonna stay in my chain of command and you're gonna do your job, do you hear me?"
"Sir!" Carter yelled back automatically. "Having me in your chain of command obviously isn't working for either one of us."
"So this is about earlier."
"Maybe." Sam glared at him. "You acted perfectly fine all night. Normal. You had fun. You let Llew's cousin flirt with you."
"If being involved with you means I have to sit by myself and glower at everyone during social functions, maybe I'm not interested!"
"Well, I'm not interested in a man with the emotional maturity of a cucumber!" The words came out fast, loud, and shrill. Carter stood, rigid with defiance, staring into Jack's face. Lightning flashed and thunder exploded directly overhead, followed immediately by a pelting onslaught of raindrops. The storm had broken, relieving the atmospheric pressure in more ways than one. O'Neill's face twitched as he struggled not to smirk.
"A cucumber, Carter?"
"That's what I said, sir." Despite herself, Sam felt her heart growing lighter. Jack took another step toward her.
"Men compartmentalize," he said simply. "I was focused on diplomatic relations."
"Women sulk," Sam said. "I'm sorry I screamed at you."
"It's been a rough week," Jack said, shrugging. He reached out and took her hand. "Look, Carter, I still don't know how to deal with the honor and the rules and all that junk. So I put it out of my head for a few hours."
"I understand."
"This is really touching," Daniel said from his seat on the ground. "I'm glad we're having this talk."
"Oh, Daniel, I'm sorry," Sam said, helping him up. "Teal'c, I'm so sorry. Let's get back to camp and get dry."
"Are we sure it's safe to light a fire, with Daniel's alcohol content so high?" Jack asked.
Daniel aimed a weak punch at O'Neill. "Very funny. Like you've never been drunk."
"It's funnier when nerds do it."
Sam stepped between them, calm and weary now after her long day and her emotional outburst. "Come on, boys. Home."
"Home," Daniel repeated, leading the way.