DEEP – III. Deeper by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Daniel has a serious talk with Jack. Sam gets in trouble and decides to change the odds in her life, but she does not count on Vala.
Spoilers: All seasons, including 9.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

Deeper

Chapter 2

"Is she here, too?" General Landry asked his daughter as he followed her into the Infirmary.

"No," Dr. Lam answered. "She was about to go into the locker room when she lost consciousness. They're bringing her now."

"I bet Colonel Carter won't be happy," Landry said as he approached Daniel's bed. "He looks asleep."

"It's the same thing as before. He's completely unresponsive. We believe he'll become alert as she gets near him again."

"I'd probably worry more about what he will want to do to her when he finds out."

"He won't be happy, that's for certain," Carolyn replied.

Right then Sam came running through the door. "What happened?"

"We're not a hundred per cent positive, but it seems that the effect of the KorMac bracelets has been reactivated," Dr. Lam explained.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"It looks like the planet that SG-1 visited recently used to be one of Cronus' prisons. The DHD was equipped with a device that reactivated the bracelets when the prisoners left the planet to be transported somewhere else."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, the information about the planet came from Dr. Jackson. He read the inscriptions in the ruins of what seemed to be an abandoned prison itself. Teal'c just related that to me," General Landry explained. "The rest is conjecture. There was a flash of light when Dr. Jackson crossed and then he lost consciousness after he arrived here. Teal'c had heard of such occurrence before."

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, Vala is unconscious, too. She's being brought up here as we speak. That would help them both for the time being. I believe the effect will wear off on its own, just as the last time," Dr. Lam said.

"But we're getting married tomorrow. What are we going to do with her around us?"

"I'd say either you postpone the wedding or you make arrangements to stay in close proximity to Vala during your honeymoon, if you don't want to become a widow at this early age, Carter," Jack interrupted as he entered the Infirmary.

"General!" Sam exclaimed and turned around and hugged him.

Jack hugged her back. "Don't worry, Carter, he'll be okay. He always pulls out of things like this."

Sam moved back and smiled. She knew it was not that bad. She was just upset.

Shortly after Vala was brought into the Infirmary, Daniel woke up. When the situation was explained to him, he felt extremely aggravated. Missing a chance to go to Atlantis was bad, but ruining Sam's wedding day was even worse, because it involved not only him, but also the person he cared the most about, and there was nothing he could do.

Right after Sam's proposal, they both had taken a short leave to plan the wedding. Daniel did not really care about how it was done, but he wanted to give Sam what she had always imagined her wedding would be. They soon enlisted George Hammond to give Sam away at the altar and Jack and Teal'c shared the honor of the best man. Sam had thought for years that, if she ever married, Janet would be her maid of honor, but after her death, she had completely avoided the subject in her mind. With such a sudden decision to make, she immediately thought of Cassie. She called to ask her and offered her a ticket to spend a long weekend in Colorado Springs with them. Cassie was delighted.

The rest was easy. Sam did not want an elaborate wedding, but something simple. Her brother was not going to be to able to come because his wife was pregnant and very near the due date, and he was afraid of leaving her alone with their other two children. As soon as Sam found this out, she asked permission to have a wedding at the base, in the gateroom that had been such an important part of the life they had shared for almost ten years.

For a while in the afternoon, after Vala regained consciousness, too, they experimented how far Daniel could go from her without feeling any symptoms. They had tried that the last time, but the circumstances had changed and Daniel thought that perhaps the effect of the bracelets had, too. He soon was proved wrong. The furthest away he could be from her without starting feeling dizziness was about ten to fifteen meters. He would be lucky if he could still keep her in a private quarter across the hallway from his while staying at the base. They finally decided that she would have to play the part of a bridesmaid during the wedding to be able to be near Daniel without making it more obvious.

What worried him the most was that Sam had been already showing symptoms of jealousy toward Vala. The new situation was only bound to worsen the problem.

Vala had not changed her behavior after Daniel had become an engaged man. Hugging him from behind and leaning her head on his back was her favorite morning ritual. Daniel had shown his exasperation, but Vala seemed immune. She would hug him and keep him near her body as much as possible. She would ruffle his hair and hang from his neck in every occasion possible. Daniel was used to it, but Sam was not. In a couple of occasions she had interrupted her talk with Daniel until Vala had finally left the room. Once she had left the cafeteria table as soon as Vala sat by Daniel's side.

Now that Daniel and Vala were bonded again, he decided that it was necessary to have a talk with her. He called Vala to his office and explained to her that in Earth an engagement meant a pact of exclusivity, a decision to share two lives with each other and nobody else. He also explained that, because of that, many physical displays that had already been out of place before, were now unacceptable. Vala uncharacteristically promised to behave, but as soon as Sam was in sight that evening, she went back to her old behavior. Daniel sighed and decided that Sam would have to be the one staking her territory and that if she did not take any action, he would not either.

Though he could see that Vala's behavior annoyed Sam, he did not see that Sam was reacting to it in any other manner. He started to think that perhaps Sam had changed her mind about their compatibility, but was afraid to tell him. Besides, they had the problem of intimacy. It was not actually a problem, but Daniel thought it was starting to become one. After their sudden decision to get married, Daniel and Sam had gone to her house to have dinner and start planning their life together. It had been a little awkward at the beginning and they had joked much about how blind they had been about each other to lighten the mood. They had soon fallen into their usual friendship mode and when late that night Daniel had said he was going back home, Sam had not shown any signs of disagreement.

A month had passed and nothing had changed. Besides the usual kiss when they met in the mornings and their good night kiss, they had not gone anywhere beyond. Daniel assumed Sam wanted to keep it that way until their wedding and had patiently acquiesced to her unspoken desires, but he thought that some kind of more intimate contact was necessary. It was not that he was dying to make love to her –well, he did want to do it, but he could wait– but that he was afraid that it might not work out between them. For too many years they had kept each other at a distance –not exactly physical, but within a mental boundary– and now they were not getting any closer. What would happen if the chemistry between them was not enough? The kisses had been fine, but that was not sufficient to predict a whole life together. He knew that sex was not going to be the pillar on which to sustain their marriage, but he did not think it was meaningless either.

Now, he was a few hours away from his wedding in the morning and, instead of holding Sam in his arms, he had Vala clinging to him, holding him by the waist with both hands.

"Vala, please, leave me alone. I have to finish a lot of things before the wedding."

"I know, dear, but I'm afraid the effect of the bracelets is too fresh and if I go too far away from you, we may be doomed."

He sighed deeply and unhooked her hands from his waist. "It won't kill you if you sit right in front of me while I work at my desk," he said as he directed her to a chair.

He sat back behind his desk and tried to finish his report about the fateful mission that had brought Vala back so close to him. He was still typing when Sam came into the office. It was rather late and he was surprised to see she was still there. They had not said good-bye for the night yet, but he thought she had been too busy to come see him before leaving the base.

"Hey, Sam. I thought you were already gone," he said as he stood up to get close to her.

"No. I decided I could spend the night here at the base with you," she said.

Daniel wondered if she meant really with him or simply at her base quarters. He did not want to ask in front of Vala, so he simply said, "Great!" and started fixing his papers to be able to leave the office. He then followed Sam to the right floor and guided Vala to her room across his. "Good night, Vala," he said as he opened the door to her room and directed her to go in.

Vala was about to say something, but one look at Sam told her it was not the right time. She smiled and went in. Daniel closed the door behind her. He then turned to Sam and waited for her to take the initiative.

"Would you like me to stay with you?" she finally said after what seemed eternal silence to Daniel.

"If that's what you want," he answered.

"I asked you," she said sounding upset.

Daniel noticed the slightly belligerent tone and worried. "Sam, let's go inside and talk. This hallway isn't the right place for this." He opened the door to his quarters and waited for Sam to go in. He then followed her and closed the door. He put his hands on Sam's shoulders and looked at her directly in the eyes. "Sam, we've waited all this time to get here; tomorrow is the wedding. I can wait more if you want me to do it. I don't want to rush you and ruin whatever you have imagined for tomorrow."

Sam looked down and nodded. She shyly kissed him goodnight and opened the door. As she did, she noticed that Vala's door was slightly open, too. She turned around and closed the door again. "No, I want to stay," she said and walked toward Daniel and kissed him more passionately that she had ever done it before.

Daniel had not failed to see Vala's door and immediately guessed what was driving Sam. He softly pulled apart from Sam and said, "Sam, would you mind sitting here with me for a minute?" He walked toward the bed and sat at the edge. He extended his hand to reach Sam's. She walked slowly to him and sat by his side.

"What?" she said softly.

"Sam, I've noticed how much Vala annoys you, especially lately. I don't want you to stay here tonight and have sex with me just because you're afraid that she'll get in here as soon as you leave. You have to trust me."

"You married her in my dream."

Daniel was surprised. He remembered that Sam had talked about having a dream the day she proposed, but he had understood that the dream was about the two of them. Then, he recalled her saying that she had tried to tell him she loved him, but it had been too late. "Why don't you tell me about the dream? We've never talked about it and it's what started all this," he said with a smile.

Sam briefly related to him the first part of her dream and Daniel asked, "But it was not late for us in your dream. I married you and we were happy."

"That was only the first part of the dream," Sam replied and told him about the rest.

"Ah, that's different," Daniel said.

"I woke up so sad, Daniel. I couldn't bear it. It was not as much how unhappy I had felt with Jack, it was also how jealous it had made me to know that you were with her and you were happy."

"It was just a dream."

"I know, but you're the kind of man who could make any woman happy." Daniel smirked and Sam patted his arm. "I'm serious, Daniel, you're a sensitive guy, you care about what other people feel, you can empathize… Those are rare qualities in men, I can tell you that for certain. Besides, you're bright and handsome. What else could any woman ask?"

"Thank you, Sam, but that doesn't mean that I'd be happy if I married her," he said signaling toward the hallway with his head.

"She has many good qualities in spite of it all and I'm sure you see them better than anybody else. You can see the best side of anyone, Daniel."

"I'm marrying you, not her. I'm in love with you."

"What if I'm not as good as she is?"

"As good with what? You're far brighter and-" Daniel started saying and then it dawned on him. "Sam, I've never been with her."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Not even when I was in Nevada?"

"No."

"I feel pretty silly."

"Don't. There's nothing silly about talking about what bothers you. It's better that we do it now and that we start our life together without nothing interfering."

"I'm sorry, Daniel. She just makes me so jealous! I've even thought of calling off the wedding and setting you free to be with her."

"Sam, I don't want to be with her."

Sam turned to him and hugged him. Daniel noticed that she was crying. He was stunned that a bright woman as Sam could be so insecure. He blamed himself. He had let her take all the initiatives; he had blindly followed her lead without ever asserting his own wishes. No wonder Sam thought he did not care.

"Listen to me, Sam. Come here." He untied her boots and helped her take her jacket off. He then did the same with his and lay on top of the bed. He pulled her by his side and let her lean her head on his chest. Then he pulled a cover on top of them and said, "I want you to stay with me here tonight, just like this, and to talk with me until we fall asleep. I want to share with you my expectations for the future and I want you to tell me about yours. You and I, we've talked about everything always, but this is different. This is more intimate; this is very personal. I haven't shared my life this way with anyone since I lost Sha're and I think that, if we survive this war we're fighting, we have even better chances at happiness. I think that the love between us is not one of those searing infatuations that lead many couples to marriage. We have a very solid foundation of trust and understanding that most people don't have when they get to this point in their lives. Cameron told me yesterday that we act as if we had been married for years now and it made me think that it's probably true, but we still have one more thing to discover between us and we'll get there tomorrow after we leave our friends behind."

Sam had been captivated by Daniel's words until his last sentence brought up all her hard feelings toward Vala. "We won't be able to leave her behind," she said bitterly.

Daniel had felt how she had been relaxing slowly and suddenly he felt the tension come back up. "I think the best we can do is reschedule our honeymoon trip. You're right about that." He noticed Sam was getting even more upset and tried to make her think it through. "That trip is something we deserve to do without anything interfering in our happiness. We can do it anytime we want. I'm sure Jack will help us. We just have to let the effect of the bracelets wear off and then we'll be on our own."

"She just had to ruin this, too!" Sam whispered with anger.

"She didn't do this. For sure it's a consequence of what she did before, but she didn't plan on hurting our honeymoon."

"Are you sure? Why do you always have to take her side?" Sam sat up in bed and grabbed her head.

Daniel sat up, too, and held her. "You know, if we had sex now, we'd probably solve all our differences in one night, but I'm not going to do it, not like this, just to calm your fears. I'm going to lie back down and wait for you to lie by my side and talk to me about us. I don't want to hear anything else about Vala, because this night, as every other night in the future, is for you and me and I won't let anyone meddle with that. I hope you won't either. I love you; I'm marrying you and I want to have a life with you. If that's what you want too, you have to forget about her and anyone else and come back to me. It's your decision now."

He leaned back against the pillows and closed his eyes. He was terrified that Sam could not deal with her jealousy and would get up and leave. For a few seconds he waited patiently, holding his breath. Then suddenly he felt Sam moving and soon she was by his side again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It's okay."

"I think you're right. We should reschedule the honeymoon for later. We can ask Landry permission to stay here in base for as long as it takes for the KorMac effect to wear off. That way we won't have memories of having to share our house with-" she stopped afraid of crossing the boundary Daniel had just imposed.

"I'll do it first thing in the morning. I'll also ask for a few personal days and stay in our quarters until people have forgotten about the honeymoon. We'll have to endure lots of teasing if we walk around the base after tomorrow."

"I'm sure Teal'c would help us," Sam said with a little laugh, "bring us some food, keep us informed…"

"Yep, that sounds like a plan," Daniel kissed Sam's forehead and they started planning their in-base honeymoon. He was relieved that Sam had finally understood that nobody was more important to him than her and that she was willing to build a future with him. He was definitely a lucky man.

Sam, on the other hand, could not keep herself from feeling some kind of perverse satisfaction that, while she would be enjoying her honeymoon with Daniel, Vala would be trapped in her room across the hall. That had to be some sort of poetic justice. Her final thoughts, before finally falling asleep, were that she did not need dreaming anymore, because she had everything she wanted right by her side. She could feel already how her relationship with Daniel was becoming deeper and more meaningful that any other she had had in her life. She had definitely been blessed.