The Ties That Bind
Chapter 4

Jack woke up to semi-darkness, wondering for a moment what had happened. A vision of Carter standing with balled up fists waiting to take on the bad guys brought back a feeling of terror that had him sitting straight up in bed. At least he tried to sit up. An intense throbbing in his head had him lying back down and closing his eyes tightly to try to control the pain. He brought his hands up to press against his temples, but something else had caught his attention - a rattling sound, almost like chains, and a heavy weight around his left wrist.

No, he thought, as tried to control the panic that was racing through him. The bastards chained him up and he had no idea what had happened to Carter. He rose up to find out exactly what his situation was and to hopefully figure a way out of it. Grateful that his vision was adjusting to the gloom, he used his right hand to grab the chain attached to his left wrist and he twisted his body in order to follow the chain up to the wall at the head of the bed. The chain was imbedded in the wall, and looked like it was attached to another that led down to enclose a slender wrist.

Holy crap, he thought, as anger moved in to replace the panic. He and Carter were both chained to a bed, and now that he was lucid, noticed that they were both naked from the waist up. Further exploration proved that his initial fears were realized in that he was completely naked. He looked down at Carter, prudently deciding not to pursue his interests in finding out if she was in the same situation. He eased down on his back and stared up into the darkness, wondering at the cruelty of some people. Jack just knew he was not going to survive this torture.

He lay there for a long time, checking out the manacle around his wrist and trying to figure out where he and Carter were, as well as the best possible way to escape from this crap. From what he could tell, they were in the same room they had been married in. The lamp on the wall by the door was turned down low, but he could see glowing embers in the fireplace, which painted the table in front of it and the walls with an amber sheen. And if he pushed up on his elbows, he could barely see daylight shining in under the door. He lay back down, wondering how he could not have noticed the chains the whole time he was imprisoned in that place.

Carter mumbled something, and he turned to see if she was awake. She wasn't but he continued to stare at her, enjoying the view. She was even more gorgeous in the shadows painted by the lamplight, he realized. He shifted until he was on his side and watched her as she slept. She was peacefully unaware that she was about to wake up to find herself naked and in bed with her commanding officer.

That thought brought a grin to his face. He resisted the urge to reach over and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, watching her instead, as her chest rose and fell with her breathing. The blanket was placed modestly over her breasts, which now that he thought about it, was detrimental to his thinking clearly. He shook his head to clear it, then pulled himself together and decided to try and dislodge the chain from the wall.

Yanking and pulling on it didn't do anything, which really didn't surprise him at all. Thoughts of getting up on his knees to get better leverage were interrupted by Carter, as she sighed deeply and stretched. The chain around her right wrist rattled ominously, causing her to turn to look at it. This move brought her gaze to land on Jack, who couldn't help but grin when her look of concern turned into surprise.

"Morning Carter."

"Sir?" she said, struggling to sit up, stopping only to suddenly clutch at her head, and lay back down. "Ow," she moaned softly.

"Mine's quieted down to a dull throb," he said, smirking at her when she grimaced.

"Nice to know," she muttered grumpily. She brought her hands down and turned her head to look at him. "What's going on? What happened?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me."

She raised her arm to rattle the chain, then dropped it on the bed, as she turned to look back up at the ceiling. "The last thing I remember, I was trying to fight off those goons." She brought her left hand up to rub at her temple. "They must have hit me in the head with something."

"Hurt much?"

She nodded, before gingerly raising up to survey the situation. Jack watched her as she mimicked his earlier movements. They were chained together in a bed, the manacles wrapped around his left wrist and her right, and Jack tried hard not to look as the blanket slipped a little. She grabbed at the blanket, glaring at him as if it were his fault, then laid back down and brought her wrist up to look for a way to open the manacles.

"Good luck with that," he said, pointing to the metal wrapped around her wrist. "I couldn't even find a keyhole in mine."

She ignored him, but he could see that her frustrations were growing. She searched every inch of the manacle, before finally giving up and saying, "Damn this alien technology crap!"

This was so unlike her, that Jack worried she may still have some of that stuff she drank the day before in her system. He looked over at her, surprised and suspicious, wondering if he was going to have to deal with a drugged up female.

"I'm fine," she said, obviously aware of his thoughts. "I just wish technology like this would have become easier to figure out by now."

"You'll have this figured out in no time." It never hurt to encourage her, even when he had his doubts. "I'm sure you'll have it all squared away soon enough."

"Yes sir." It was clear that she had her own doubts. But silence followed her statement, and as usual, Jack had no idea what to say to her. They were in bed, naked and chained together, and the only things that came to mind would be grounds for a sexual harassment suit if they were any other situation.

"You know what this is, don't you?" he finally asked.

"Yeah. For some reason they are determined that we consummate the marriage."

More silence, which was soothing to Jack's unease. He didn't like to talk any more than he had to. Trying to come up with words to cover the silence was never an easy task for him. Instead he turned to thoughts of escape. Maybe if they both pulled on the chain, they could break the connection to the wall. It was certainly worth a try.

He sat up, arranging the blankets so that his lower half was decently covered, then twisted his left hand around the chain to give him some leverage. "Help me out here, Carter. If we both pull, we may be able to break out of this joint." Using his right hand, he grabbed the chain so that he would be using both arms and all of his weight to pull. He glanced over at his companion, to see that she was still trying to arrange the blanket to hide as much from him as she could. She finally settled on sitting with her knees pulled up to hold the blanket in place, while she grabbed the chains with both hands and pulled.

Their efforts were in vain. No matter how hard they pulled, the chain didn't budge. They didn't even make a dent in the wall. Carter finally gave up with a huff, sitting back as she rubbed the skin under the manacle. Jack gave the chain one more try, then gave up himself, aggravated beyond belief that the elders had thought of everything.

"I can't believe those people did this to us," Carter said angrily.

Jack agreed with her, but he still had to say, "At least you're still alive." He turned so that his back was to the wall and facing her, while Carter muttered something under her breath.

"Hey," he said, trying to keep things light. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she snapped, then tacking on "Sir," as an afterthought.

"Well excuse me for worrying," he said sarcastically. Carter didn't respond or look at him. She wrapped her arms around her knees and stared moodily at the wall. Jack shook his head as he leaned back, wondering what her problem was. He was in the same situation she was in. A thought came to him, and he immediately shook it off. Surely she didn't blame him for this.

"This isn't my fault," he said anyway. She turned to look at him, but a noise outside the door had them both scrambling to make sure they were decently covered. Carter had switched places and was now sitting next to him with her back to the wall, and both were covered by the time the door actually opened. Two people entered, and although he couldn't make out the faces due to the light shining in behind them, he could tell by the profile that one of them was the old woman, Tairen.

"You have no right to do this," he snarled at her, ready and willing to strangle her on the spot. She didn't respond, but did go over and turn up the lamp, which brightened the room considerably, then went over to tend to the fire. Jack saw that a young woman had followed Tairen in, and was now placing a tray of food on the small table next to the bed on Carter's side.

"You might as well kill me now," Carter said, surprising Jack. "He won't give in you know, no matter what happens."

"He must," Tairen told her. "There is no other way." Jack had a different opinion on that score, and apparently so did Carter.

"Yes there is," she said. "You let us go home and you all will never have to deal with us again." Tairen shook her head sadly, but Carter was insistent. "The General and I got married, as per your laws, now you are obligated to let us go."

"It is not up to me," Tairen said with a sad smile. "I do not have the authority, nor am I able to go against the elders."

"Talk to them, Tairen. Please! Can't you see that this is wrong?" But Tairen shook her head again at Carter's pleas, then turned to look at them with determination.

"You both must become one in order to find your peace. Only then can we let you go."

Jack was enraged by the woman's stubborn attitude toward his predicament. He just wanted out of this whole mess. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he demanded, relying on years of training in order to stay calm during this madness. "I won't find peace until I am well away from this place." She smiled at him, then turned to go, pulling the young woman along with her. It was apparent that his words had no meaning to her.

Carter sat up straight at that point, her free arm stretching toward Tairen as she said, "No. Please Tairen. Don't do this." But her pleas fell on deaf ears as the door closed softly behind the old woman. Jack closed his eyes in frustration when he heard the key turn in the lock.

"Well, at least we have light," he said to the room at large.

"Ever the optimist." Carter was still pissed, he realized. He wished he knew what she was mad about, but his experience with women had taught him to tread carefully when dealing with an angry one, especially when in bed.

"You want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing's wrong. Well, besides being chained to a bed with my boss." She pulled on the chain to emphasize her point, and Jack shrugged helplessly. She definitely had a point. Still, they were going to be chained together for awhile. He figured it would be best if they spent the remaining hours in a halfway decent mood.

"I see they brought us some food," he said, hoping to take her mind off of her funk. "Do you think they spiked it?"

"I wouldn't put it past them." She didn't elaborate, and Jack was all for giving up.

"Okay then." This was going great, he thought sarcastically. They sat in silence, something that Jack was getting very used to. He leaned his head back, and tried to come up with some solutions to their problem. If nothing else, he needed to relieve himself. He rose up at that point, intent on looking to see if those idiots out there had thought of that particular problem too.

They had, judging by the little pot set up next to the bed on his side.

"What are you doing?" Carter asked, causing Jack to pull himself up from his position of nearly hanging upside down as he leaned down to the floor to see if there was anything else he could use. A nice P-90 would come in very handy right about now.

"Looking for weapons," he said in a voice that was deliberately lowered to produce a menacing tone. He narrowed his eyes at her, before glancing over at the door and back again. "There may be a mouse trap or something down there." She grinned reluctantly, which pleased Jack to no end. A happy Sam Carter was much better than a grumpy one.

"What?" he said innocently when she shook her head and turned slightly away to hide her smile.

The smile didn't last long. She sobered up and looked over at him. "We're stuck here, aren't we?'

Jack wanted to deny it, to lighten the mood again, but try as he might, he couldn't come up with anything. "Looks like it."

She sighed heavily and turned to stare off into space. She looked so lost, her blank expression making it hard to see her thoughts. He wished he could tell what she was thinking.

"Penny for your thoughts."

She looked over at him, but shook her head with a sad smile. "I'm sorry that I got you into this mess. I honestly didn't think it would go this far."

"Forget about it, Carter. It's not like this is the first time this stuff happened to us."

She turned to look at him full in the face, clearly astonished. "This has definitely never happened to us before." She was so amazed that he would say something so off-the-wall, that it was Jack's turn to try to keep his expression serious.

"Well, you know how it is," he told her. She shook her head in amazement, before turning back to face the room again.

"So what do we do now?" she asked in all seriousness.

"We wait it out, I guess." He thought about it for a moment, then said, "And maybe work out the best way to kill Shorty and his goons."

"Shorty?"

"The short guy. The elder with the bulging eyes."

"Oh yeah." She looked down at her hands, then began inspecting the manacle around her wrist. "There isn't anywhere for a key to fit in this thing." She tilted her head as she lifted her wrist higher so that she could see beneath it, then said, "I wonder how these things work?"

The answer seemed pretty obvious to Jack. "Magnets," he said with confidence.

Carter laughed at that, her manner relaxed. "Maybe," she said as she rubbed her finger across the metal. He could see that she was engrossed in figuring out how the manacles worked, and he took the opportunity to think of a way to take care of business.

"Ah Carter?"

"Hmmm?" She was now running a fingernail along the edge of the manacle, totally lost in thought. This was good. He liked it when she was thinking about whatever predicament they found themselves in. She was good at what she did and Jack usually left her to her thoughts.

"I gotta take a leak." She nodded, her fingers now picking at the chain where it was attached to the manacle. He shook his head, then said, "Unless you want an eyeful, I suggest that you don't look."

She looked at him anyway, a confused expression on her face. He pointed to the side of the bed, then reaching down to pick up the pot that was on the floor to show her. "I have to pee."

"Oh," she said. "I had been wondering about that. Can I… um…" She pointed at the pot. "When you are done with it, of course."

He gave her a meaningful look and she blushed, before turning her attention back to the manacles. "Magnets may be the answer, sir," she said, apparently deciding to talk her way past her embarrassment. "But I can't be sure. I can't even find the opening. She twisted her wrist so that she could look at the underside. "It's almost like a solid ring, but how they got it on is a mystery to me."

The manacle around Jack's wrist bit into his skin as he stood up to take aim. He glanced over at Carter, but she was still involved in her study of the technology that was wrapped around her wrist. The air was chilly as he took care of business, and it was nice to slip back under the covers when he was done.

"Your turn," he said when he got comfortable. She glanced at him, looked toward the empty space next to his side of the bed, then up to the point where the chain was embedded in the wall. Her expression was guarded when she looked back at him. She was going to have to climb over him in order to get to that pot. Jack tried to hide the smirk that showed up, while he held up both hands and said, "I won't touch you, I swear."

The guarded look turned into a glare, and she turned her back on him to look over the edge of the bed on her side. He heard her let out a breath of relief, and he cursed his bad luck. He had been looking forward to seeing how she was going to get past him without touching him.

"I'm taking the blanket with me," she warned, just before she tugged on it, hard enough to leave him in the cold. Ah well, he thought, as he put both hands behind his head and leaned back against the wall. It was better this way.

TBC