Love, Honor and Obey - Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.
Chapter warnings: None


Daniel was on him before he even got to the cabin's front door.

'Well? What happened? How's Sam?'

'She's ok.' Jack said, pushing Daniel out of the way so he could enter.

'Just 'She's ok'? Jack …'

'What? She's ok. She's alright. Coping, surviving, whatever …'

'What did this evening's rite entail?' Teal'c asked.

'It was the virtual reality simulator again, only this time we were just observers and we knew it was a simulation the whole time.'

'What did you see?' Daniel asked.

'It was called 'Sharing pain', so we each had a particularly bad memory to share.'

'That sounds awful.' Daniel said, appalled.

'It was and it … wasn't. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. I guess these people aren't completely heartless.'

'Which memory did it use then?' Daniel asked.

Jack stared at him in incredulity. 'Daniel, I'm not telling you that. And I'm not telling you what Carter's was either. It's private.'

To his credit, Daniel looked contrite. 'Sorry, you're right.'

'At least we know tomorrow's rite should be fine. It's the mirror of this one, called 'Sharing pleasure'. Leyna said we'll just be seeing a happy memory each.'

'And then you'll only have two left.'

'Yup. And then we're out of here. Do you think you can wrap up the trade deal by then?'

'I think so. We're almost done now, Sam was a lot of help when I went to talk to her about the technology. We're just haggling over the wording for the process of future amendments to the treaty now.'

'Is there a problem?'

'No, it's fine. I'll be done by your wedding day, don't worry.' Daniel teased.

Jack just glared at him.


Late that night, while it was still pitch black outside, Sam was shaken awake. She reached for her weapon on reflex, although it had been confiscated when she entered the temple. Lilia was leaning over her.

'Lilia, what's wrong?'

'I need to talk to you.' She whispered.

'Ok.' Sam frowned, and looked around at the sleeping occupants of the room around them. 'Outside?'

Lilia nodded, and tiptoed from the room. Sam followed her out to the main living area, which was dark, empty and silent at this hour.

They settled onto a padded bench, and Sam tucked one leg underneath her as she sat sideways to face Lilia.

'What is it?' She asked.

'You're going home to your world after your wedding, aren't you?' Lilia asked.

'Yes, I am.'

'Could you take me with you?'

Sam's heart broke. 'Oh Lilia. Are you that afraid of getting married?'

The young girl looked close to tears. She nodded.

'Why? Please tell me what's really going on.'

'The boy I have to marry is … well, he doesn't like me. He used to bully me when I was a child. And I love another, his name is Mikah, but he already married last year. His mother made him marry the adjutant's daughter. I haven't seen him in months.'

She started to cry, and Sam pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair and making soothing noises.

'I'm afraid that Ninar, the boy have to marry, will be cruel. He's always hated me. His mother is powerful though and she chose me because she wants to make a business deal with my father, and because I left it too late to pick someone on my own, I had no choice.' She explained in a rush.

'I'm so sorry, that's awful.' Sam said. 'But honey, I don't think they're going to let you go. They won't even let me go at the moment, and you're more valuable to them because you could have children and add to the population in your lifetime.'

'I know.' Lilia sobbed.

'What if I talk to Leyna? I could try and get you out of the marriage, and get them to give you more time to find someone better.'

'It's no use. Leyna only wants me married, she's not going to care if I don't like my betrothed.'

Sam thought for a minute. 'Lilia, my people are in the middle of making a very important trade deal with your government. That means we have some power, some leverage, at the moment. If I use that to help you, what would you want me to ask for? What's the best outcome for you?'

Lilia thought about it. 'I want to marry Mikah. I want to be his second wife.'

'Really? You'd be happy sharing him with another woman?'

'I know his wife, Lola. She was my friend, and she felt really guilty when she had to marry him, she knew how Mikah and I loved each other. It would be fine, I wouldn't mind sharing him with her, if it meant he and I could be together.'

Sam nodded, and took a deep breath. 'Ok, if that's what you want, I'll talk to my people in the morning and we'll see what we can do. But Lilia, I can't make any promises. All I can do is try.'

'I know, thank you, I'm really grateful. Thank you for helping me.'

Sam squeezed Lilia's hands. 'You're welcome.'


At first light in the morning, Sam spoke to Leyna and asked to see her teammates urgently. Leyna reluctantly agreed, and Sam was taken to the same room she had met Daniel and Teal'c in two days previously.

Her three teammates eventually arrived, and she took a deep fortifying breath. 'Hi. Thanks for coming.'

'No problem. What's up?' Jack asked.

'I need to ask a favour. It's about Lilia, the girl I told you about who doesn't want to get married.' She said to Jack.

'Oh, the one you think is gay?' Daniel said, nudging Jack's arm.

'She's not gay.' Sam said patiently. 'She's just in love with a different boy and she's scared of the one she's being forced to marry.'

'Why is she afraid of him?' Teal'c asked.

'He used to bully her when they were kids, and apparently he still hates her now. They're only getting married because his mother wants to use the marriage as leverage for a business deal with Lilia's father.'

'I distinctly remember telling you not to get too involved with this because we can't help her.' Jack said.

Sam held up a finger. 'You did, but I think we can help her. And she came to me last night and asked me specifically for help. She's so scared of this boy that she asked me to take her back to Earth with us.'

'We can't do that, they have reproductive problems here, they'll never just let a girl Lilia's age go.' Daniel protested.

'I know, and I told her that, but I think we can help her another way.'

'How?'

Sam took a deep breath. 'By asking Vaya directly to allow Lilia to marry the boy she loves instead, as part of our side of the trade deal.'

Jack closed his eyes and groaned. 'Carter, you know I can't authorise that.'

'She's an innocent kid! We are uniquely positioned to petition Vaya directly on Lilia's behalf, and they want the trade deal badly enough that they'll probably agree. It won't even cost them anything, Lilia will still have kids, she'll just be having them with the boy she loves rather than a boy she's frightened will mistreat her.'

'Sam, I sympathise with Lilia's position, really I do, but the trade deal is all but done. I don't think I can come to them at the eleventh hour with a new demand.' Daniel said.

Sam turned to Jack. 'Please, sir. You wouldn't let it happen last night when it was just a computer generated memory of me, why would you let it happen repeatedly to a real innocent girl?'

Jack's eyes flashed dangerously. 'Daniel, Teal'c, wait outside please.'

The two men reluctantly filed out.

'That's not fair, Sam. That was you. We can't help every single girl in the whole goddamn galaxy.'

'I'm not asking you to help every girl in the galaxy. Just this one. And how can we not help her when we have the power to do it? She's just a kid! What if it was Hannah?'

Sam held his gaze imploringly, a thousand emotions flashing between them at the mention of their fictional future daughter.

Jack bowed his head and sighed. 'What specifically would we be asking for?'

'Lilia wants to marry Mikah and be his second wife, rather than marrying Ninar.'

'His second wife? Mikah's already married?'

'Yes, that's one of the reasons why she couldn't marry him in the first place.'

'And Mikah and his current wife would be ok with this?'

'Lilia says they would. She said Mikah loves her just as much as she does him, and Lola, his wife, was her best friend. They would all be fine.'

Jack paused as he thought about it.

'The people on this planet do sometimes have multiple spouses.' Sam reminded him. 'They have to in order to make up for the times when the number of each gender doesn't exactly match up.'

'Ok, ok. We'll raise it with Vaya.'

Sam grinned.

'But!' Jack warned. 'I'm not sacrificing the whole trade deal over this. If Vaya says no, I'm not going to force the issue.'

'I understand. Thank you.' Sam said seriously.

Jack looked down at her with a mixture of aggravation and fondness on his face. 'What am I supposed to tell Daniel when he asks me what you meant by that comment about last night?'

'Tell him to mind his own business.'

Jack smirked. 'I'll see you later.'

'See you later.'