After we came back from our honeymoon, Dan'yel went on another mission. He doesn't get me a babysitter this time. But Sara, Anna, and Ca'fin check in on me enough that I know it is no accident. I can cook now without causing danger. But I still can't bake. You have to use recipes to bake. But Anna is very good at baking. I babysit her son when she and her husband go on weekly dates, and she pays me in baked goods which I appreciate more than money.
Whenever I sit for Tyler I talk in Abydonian. And Anna never fails to throw in a bit of an American lesson when I'm there. This week she showed me a digital clock (which I can read) and an analog clock (which I can't read) and told me to compare the two in order to learn to tell time.
Without Dan'yel, I spend almost every waking hour with the computer learning English. Or reading English or writing English. I stay busy, but I miss my husband.
He comes back after two days, sunburnt and tired. Dr. Fraiser** calls me from the infirmary (I have learned to answer the talking machine even though I can't make it call other people yet) to let me know that Dan'yel is fine but in the infirmary.
He doesn't even greet me as I go to see him a few minutes later (I like having a house that is very close to work), "Sha'uri, could you check on Sam for me?" he asks.
"What happened to her?" I ask, concerned by his concern.
"Nothing, she's not hurt. It was just a tough mission for her." I raise my eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to continue. He sighs, "We saw her ex-fiancé."
I start to interrupt him.
"On Earth people don't usually get married right after they meet like we did. They usually date for a while and then they get engaged – they promise they'll get married someday. Then after a while they actually get married. When they are engaged they are called fiancés. Sam was engaged to someone, but she decided that she couldn't marry him, so she called off the wedding."
"All of this happened in two days?" I ask.
"No… this happened years ago. Over the course of months or years, probably; I don't know the details. But certainly it took more than two days for it all to happen. But anyway, the man she almost married, he… he hurt a lot of people. He called himself…" he looks at me, worried, "a god." And that would be why. He knows how I feel about people who declare themselves gods. "And we had to… see, Jack killed him. And she had the chance to, and she couldn't do it. And she's just had a rough mission, because she didn't kill him. Because she almost did. Because this was someone she loved, and he went so horribly wrong. I just think…"
"You're really ok? Not in any danger?" I ask.
He nods his head.
Sam is in one of the private rooms in the infirmary. She's sitting on the bed with her feet planted on the bed, and her head between her knees.
I knock on the open door.
"Sha'uri," she greets me with a smile, "I think Dan'yel is…"
"I already saw him," I cut her off, "I wanted to check in and see how you were doing."
"It's kind of him to send you in to check on me, but I really am fine," she tells me with a weary smile.
"What was his name?" I ask sitting down on a chair.
"Jonas," she says.
"Was he a good man once?"
"Never," she says with a shake of her head. "I never do fall for good men."
"Why not?" I ask.
She tilts her head at me. "Why not?" she says with a laugh, "I don't know. Partly because there aren't that many good men laying around. You lucked out with Daniel. But mostly because I as Jonas said, 'am the healer of the emotionally wounded'."
"Well, that sounds like a pretty important title," I tell her.
"Except it never works out. They don't heal, and I just end up getting hurt. But I can't help it. Every time I fall for the same type of guy: a control freak, emotionally unavailable, and just enough male chauvinism that you can never call him on it," she mutters.
"Maybe I should have Dan'yel find you a man?" I suggest, "Or perhaps your father could do it."
She laughs, "I appreciate the effort. But my father is definitely not picking my boyfriends out for me. And I'm really not ready for anyone yet anyway."
"Someday if you change your mind I can help you find someone."
"Maybe," she nods.
"Sam," Dan'yel says, knocking lightly on the door. "The General wants us at a briefing. Do you want me to stall?"
"No, I'm ready," she says, standing up and looking like a soldier.
"I'll see you at home," I say to Dan'yel. The sun is setting by the time that I get above ground. I show my ID to the man at the outside gate. As I put that back in my pocket, I finger the weapon that Oneel gave me a long time ago – the pepper spray. I haven't thought of it very often since that night. There are so many guards around, and my husband is always in far more danger than I am. But I was originally given it because it isn't safe for a woman to walk alone when it is dark out. Right now I am a woman walking alone in the dark. Best to be ready.
I reach my door and start to fumble for the keys. Suddenly, a hand goes over my mouth. "Mrs. Jackson, I presume?" the man pressed against my back hisses in my ear.
I bite the hand and stomp on a foot. Then I turn and spray his eyes with the pepper spray which was already in my hand. He shouts in agony and anger. "Damn alien!" I knee him in groin, and then run.
He is chasing me blindly. It's only two blocks to the base entrance, and he can't run in a straight line while blinded. I might just have a chance of getting away. But I'm not talking any chances. I jump over a knee high fence and rush across a yard. He must have been following the sound of my footsteps, because he losses me as soon as I hit the grass. I'm terrified that when I come out on the other side of the yard there will be more men waiting for me. But the man behind me seems to be all there is.
I'm lucky they don't think much of women. Or aliens. I flash my ID frantically at the guard. "Help!" I plead.
The guard leaves his post to come near me. He asks a question with a lot of compassion, but there are too many words in it for me to understand.
"Help!" I say, looking over my shoulder desperately.
"Who?" he asks.
Who could help me? Well, my husband could at least understand me. "Dan'yel Jackson," I plead.
His gives me a look of surprise, but ushers me into his station. He then talks on the talking machine for a little bit. Before long another man comes and leads me a few floors down. They ask me more questions which I can't understand. Security people ask a lot of long questions.
Soon there are more security people, and these are wearing different clothes than the other. ***
Dan'yel comes over. "Dan'yel!" I explain running toward him. The people on either side of him pull him away. His hands are chained beside him.
"What happened?" I ask in alarm. Maybe this thing is bigger than I thought. Maybe these people have captured Dan'yel and me as well.
"They think I beat you," he says.
"Tell them you didn't!" I exclaim, trying to remove the chains. But they are very secure.
"They don't believe me," he says.
"Tell them I said you didn't beat me," I say.
"Sha'uri," he says.
"Ca'fin!" I exclaim turning to the people around us. "Ca'fin!"
"Langford," he says, with some other English words. "Sha'uri, what happened?" Dan'yel asks looking almost as worried as I looked when I saw the chains.
"Men tried to… take me," I explain.
His eyes go dark in anger, "What did they do exactly? You have to tell me what they did to you."
I shake my head, "He just grabbed at me, and I got away."
"Sha'uri, you have to tell me if something happened to you. I'm going to love you no matter what happened."
I look at my husband trying to figure out what he thinks happened. "Dan'yel, he put a hand over my mouth. He tried to grab me. I bit his hand, and stomped on him, and sprayed him with the weapon Jack gave me."
"Where did he touch you?" Dan'yel asks.
"My mouth and my waist," I say, touching them.
"And he didn't hurt you?" he asks.
"No, but my knee hurts a little."
He raises an eyebrow.
"I kneed him," I say, mimicking the action.
He grins, "That's my girl. Do you know what he wanted?"
"He was trying to hold onto me. He… called me an alien."
"I hope they don't want to make you a… lab rat." I want him to explain, but I hear Ca'fin's voice entering the room.
"Daniel? You people!" She sees me, "Are you ok?"
I nod, "Someone tried to… take me away," I say, trying to reword the explanation in order to avoid whatever confused Dan'yel.
"Who?" she demands.
"I don't know. I've never see him before," I confess.
"Did Dan'yel hurt you? And if he did rest assured that he will be punished, and you will be safe."
"Dan'yel would never hurt me," I say. Ca'fin yells at them in English. They unchain him. He comes over to stand next to me putting an arm around him. My muscles relax for the first time since it happened. I didn't even know they were tight.
I tell the story to Ca'fin and she translates. Suddenly, I hear Oneel's voice coming down the hallway. He is yelling something. He stops in front of Dan'yel, screaming words. I don't recognize any of them but my name.
Dan'yel says something to him. Jack turns and looks at me asking a question.
"He's asking if Daniel hurt you," Catherine says softly.
"Dan'yel is good," I assure him his native tongue.
Oneel asks Dan'yel a question looking at me with concern.
"I am fine," I assure him, guessing that is what he is asking. Then Oneel talks to Dan'yel. I can tell by Dan'yel's answer that he is telling the story of my capture. Some of the security people write down the story as Dan'yel tells it. Oneel slaps me in the back at one point, which I guess is the part where I fought back against the attacker. Once in a while Dan'yel or Ca'fin pauses to ask me a question.
"Why did they want to take me? Because I was a woman walking in the dark? Oneel told me not to do that."
"No, I think… it was because… because you're from another planet. I think some bad people probably wanted to run tests on you."
"Dan'yel… I am thirsty, can you get me some water?" I ask.
He looks suspicious. He probably knows that I'm just trying to get rid of him. But he leaves the room anyway.
"Caf'in… Can you ask Oneel if he will teach me to fight?"
"Fight?" she queries.
"Yes, fight with my hands," I say, nodding.
"Well, dear, I think you're already pretty good at fighting, but I'll ask."
Jack nods his head, "Yes," he says in my own language.
The next day, I tell Dan'yel that I am going to spend some time with friends. It is vague enough that it's not a lie. Dan'yel doesn't ask any questions. I was sure, when I left that I knew my way to the gym. But before I was halfway there, I find myself well and truly lost. I know the word for "gym" though, and by repeating it to passersby and following their pointing fingers, I find my way before too long. Jack is already waiting for me.
He starts me off easy, with moves that are almost like the moves that I already used on my attacker. Then he tries to show me a move that would end with my attacker flipped onto the ground. Unfortunately I can't actually flip Jack.
I hear Sam's voice behind me.
I turn. She looks very different when she is out of the dark uniform she wears when she's working around the base. Today she is wearing the kind of clothes that Dan'yel puts on when he has a day off and isn't planning on going anywhere. When she's dressed like that I find I am unable to hate her, and am in fact viewing her as a potential of friend.
"Let me," she says to me.
I try the same move on her, but I can't flip her either the first time. My flaw was that I misjudged her strength. She may be smaller than Jack, but she isn't weaker. The second time though, she goes easier on me, and I work harder, and I get her on the ground. The two of them work together training me. I usually start the moves with Sam going easy, and end them with Oneel using a small portion of his strength. I'm surprised at how easy it is to flip a person larger and stronger than me.
After I finish training, I shower and head back to Dan'yel's lab. He looks worried when I came back in.
"Where were you?" he asks with concern.
"Sorry… I was…" I mutter.
"I'm sorry, you can go wherever you want. I knew you didn't want me to know where you were. But then you were gone a long time. And I started to worry about you. I just… someone tried to capture you yesterday!" he explains, pulling me into a hug.
"I'm sorry, husband," I say. I tried to keep the training from him, because I thought he would worry. But I can tell that he is worrying a lot more by my not telling him. "Oneel and Sam were teaching me to fight."
He pulls away and looks at me carefully for a long minute, "You're that scared?"
I shake my head. It's not really about fear. "I just think it is something I should know. I am the wife of an intergalactic traveler, and I am alien. I just think it would be better if I could defend myself."
"You think they'd take another student?" he asks.
I look at him, surprised.
"It's ok, we do just about everything together. I'd totally understand if you want this just for yourself."
"No, I want to do this with you. Just… I'm not sure why…"
"I want to be able to defend you. And my job does involve fighting a lot of aliens. For that reason alone, I should do this. But if you want to have separate training times …"
"I want to fight with you, husband," I say.
"Well, that does sound fun," he says.
*I'm going with DVD order of Stargate episodes because that's how I saw them. I'm not mentioning "Emancipation" because I could hardly imagine Sha'uri getting much information about that mission. I doubt Dan'yel would count anything in this mission as "life or planet altering". The mission described in "Broca Divide" would certainly count as "life or planet altering". However, it just wouldn't happen in this reality. At the beginning of the episode we are told that they are going to this planet, because the refugees from Chulak identified three of the gyphs from it. There are no refuges from Chulak right now in this AU. So the land of the light is just not happening at this point.
**I don't know if she was at the SGC a year before the series started. But I also don't know for sure that she wasn't. So I am going say Janet Fraiser is here. Because let's be honest, we could all wish for another year of Janet!
***They are the police but she doesn't know that.