Ok, so last chapter wouldn't have been considered 'rude' by a lot of you – to be honest, I lost my bottle (directions to said bottle on a postcard). lol. Anyway, only gave the warning just in case some people wanted to skip that part seeing as most of the story hadn't involved any other misnomered rude scenes before now (except a few implied thingies)…
The situation with the Jaffa, as discussed during a quiet period in this chapter, is gone into greater depth in the sixth story, Commanders, which will hopefully be posted when I've finished rewriting this. As always, reviews are welcome and will be replied to.
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Daniel was the first to wake the next morning, a naked Sam draped over his equally naked body and he smiled. For the first time in… well, for the first time that he could remember, he felt unbelievably happy, content and satisfied, his spirit feeling as though it was ever soaring as he thought back to what had happened the previous night.
After sharing and enjoying the pleasures of love, they had turned to the pleasures of talk, definitely a second favourite for them now, and they had bared their souls to each other. For the first time in the past twelve years, he felt closer to her than he had ever been, even back in the early days of the programme when they had been like two peas in a pod.
And then memories of Sha're resurfaced, and he gazed wistfully into the distance. All of Abydos was gone, but he still carried the last remnant of that lost people. Tightening his hold on a still slumbering Sam, he sighed quietly, sad at how things had turned out with regard to his wife. Sha're had changed him, not as much as being on SG-1, and then an Ascended being had, but still, she had changed him in her own way.
He whispered silently, talking to her like he did from time to time, 'I'm happy again, my love. You never had a chance to get to know Sam, but she is the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. I love you and I will always love you, Sha're. You'll always be a part of me, and I am grateful for the short time we had together.'
As a tear ran down his cheek, he finally let go of the ghost of his late wife.
Gazing down at his best friend, he kissed her shoulder and watched as she shifted in his hold, smiling into his chest as she murmured sleepily, "Hmm… 'morning Daniel…"
He smiled and proceeded to trail kisses down her neck and shoulder, a hand stroking her back as he whispered, "Samantha."
Still somewhat asleep, she kissed his chest and rested her head on his chest again, and he chuckled softly. His hand wandered down her body, eliciting an immediate response from her. She made a humming noise of pleasure, and her eyes flickered open.
He smiled as they kissed, and she remarked, "I like that wake-up call… not good if we have to go to work this morning because I'd really rather not get up."
They became mired in a hot kiss and his fingers ran down her body, sending delightful tingles down her spine. He whispered as his mouth worked her throat again,
"It's a shame we have to go to work tomorrow… we just have to check on the Jaffa, give them a little help… nothing major, hopefully… because you know what I'd rather do after work…"
She kissed his neck, amused as she remarked, "A translation?"
He stared at her, eyebrows raised as she grinned, and he kissed her, retorting sarcastically, "Yes, a translation."
Smiling, she whispered in his ear, "Well, in that case Doc, I guess I'll have to use your shower by myself."
He groaned, remarking with an expression of mock-pain, "You really can be a mischief-maker sometimes, you do realise that don't you?"
She stroked a certain part of his anatomy, making his breathing hitch, and she retorted, feigning innocence, "Basic training never covered mischief-making, so I'll take that as a compliment."
They made love fast and furiously, the already loosely made bed going eight ways from centre; laughter, shrieks and groans filling the room.
A little later, propped up over her on his elbows, he said, a touch wistful, "I hope we can behave ourselves off-world… I don't want to be separated from you."
She gazed up at him, running her fingers along his lips as she replied, frowning briefly, "I hope so too… If there are problems, I'll put in for planetside duties. After all, I only came back from Nellis to deploy the Mark IX… you managed fine without me before then."
Horrified, he said, "No, Sam, you're the foremost expert on the 'gate – I don't care about Rodney – and you practically invented the dialling computer… you created that early computer model to calculate drift rates of planets in the 'gate network… and I missed you."
"The team was nothing without you, Daniel during that year… we need your diplomatic and linguistic expertise. How many times have you saved our skins, or the skins of an entire planet just by being you?"
His gaze dropped as he said, "I screwed up on Bedrosia."
Forcing him to meet her gaze, she replied, fire in her eyes, "You didn't. There was nothing anyone could have done. They picked on you because they thought that you were the weak link in the chain… they got the surprise of their lifetime though. You didn't give them anything about Teal'c and that was what was most important… If we ever come over that rat again, I'll shove a few P-90 bullets up his ass and see how he likes it."
He smiled slightly, remarking, "God, I love you, you crazy woman."
"I love you too, fruitcake."
They exchanged tender kisses, and he asked, mirth in his eyes, "How does a shower sound to you?"
Smiling up at him, she asked as she ran her hands over his chest, "Would that be a collaborative project or an individual one?"
"Your choice."
"In that case, I'll go for the collaborative project then… it'll give me more chance to play with you."
He blushed, smiling nonetheless as he retorted, "Likewise."
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After a shower that didn't involve a lot of washing, but did involve a lot of other things… other things which were resumed on his bed twice, and then once downstairs after breakfast. They lay together on the couch, feeling utterly at peace, he in boxers and a t-shirt, and she in one of his larger t-shirts.
As she rested her head on his chest, he tenderly kissed the back of her neck, and whispered, "I can get us out of work tomorrow, if you want… One of us could be sick and to avoid suspicion, one of us could be suddenly needed planetside."
"Like that's going to avoid us being suspected! General Landry's going to pull us on unprofessional conduct. We might as well get Dakara over and done with, and then let the scientific and engineering teams do their thing. There's still the Lucian Alliance to deal with but I suspect that it won't take too much, especially if the Jaffa get their collective act together."
He nodded, replying, "The Jaffa could be a very powerful body if one: they were unified, two: they used their collective power for the greater good. It's going to be a while before it's all ironed out, especially with Illac Renin playing up. They want to be recognised as an official political party within the rebuilt nation."
"Oh my."
He said with a sigh as he slowly ran his hand up and down her back, "Yep. The President's hoping to get the Jaffa unified for obvious reasons, but I'm not too sure about having the negotiations on Earth. Ok, it's the best place what with us being the Fifth race, but it's going to be very tedious. They'll be plenty of boasting, taunting and creative insults traded before the year's out. I'm not sure how they're going to reconcile, if they reconcile."
She gazed down at him, smiling gently as she said, stroking his jaw, "If anyone can sort it, it's you… It'll take some work especially if word gets out that it wasn't actually us that opened the Ark, but what they don't know won't hurt them. It's bad to have secrets like that from our allies but I suppose it works out when you consider that those allies only keep in touch for their own interests. The Tok'ra are harder and harder to reach, especially after Dad went, the Nox are pacifists, the Asgard and the Tollan are gone… To be honest, it's not much fun being the Fifth Race."
As they both grew thoughtful and admittedly, sad about humanity's place in the Milky Way, he held her close, his hand continuing to rub her back in smooth motions as he replied, "It isn't always going to be doom and gloom. We're like the torchbearers of a new age, hopefully one of peace what with the Goa'uld being heavily fragmented and disorganised especially since the Jaffa initially realised on a large scale what they could accomplish by themselves."
She sighed against his shoulder and kissed his neck, whispering, "I just hope these past twelve years haven't been a waste."
"Solely on the basis of the technology we acquired, the programme has been well worth it. We're gradually integrating Asgard technology into our technological development although I suppose it'll be a while before it can be used for mainstream use."
"And one day the programme will be public… I can't see it happening soon though because the galaxy's not safe. Not only that, but would we really want to commercialise relatively simple planets such as Edora, Enkara, Simarka, or the one where the inhabitants have a symbiosis with their environment? We're well aware of the effects of messing with a planet's cultural or technological development."
He nodded and replied, "That's a good point… or several points. I'm sure the top brass are aware of that, or rather, they should be. We have no right to mess up other planets like that. I suppose there could be limited travel to trusted worlds, worlds of an appropriate technological development. We are so far away from that but we could use the 'gate for scientific purposes, the results of which could be gradually integrated into Earth's technology."
She raised her head to look at him, and she remarked with a wistful smile, "I really couldn't imagine having such an in depth conversation with Jack."
Not having an answer to that, he gently kissed her and she smiled as she rested her head on his shoulder, watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, trailing his fingers down her neck as she sighed softly, her hand running across his chest and then down his stomach, and lower, the poor man's pelvis rising a good few inches off the couch briefly as a reflex to her touch.
He remarked, mirth in his eyes, "You Air Force officers are all nymphomaniacs."
She grinned, retorting, "And you love me for it."
"Ah, I don't love you for the sex, Sam… I love you for who you are."
She kissed him, replying, "I can say the same for you… and the sex is one hell of a bonus."
"Oh yes. You do realise that you're going kill me, don't you?"
She replied as she gazed down at him wistfully, "You'll find someway to come home again – you always do… but I am scared that one day, it'll be your last time."
He tenderly dried her tears, and whispered, "Hey, hey."
"I'm sorry Daniel… I don't want to lose you again."
"I don't want to lose you either."
They held onto each other, both aware of the precarious nature of their jobs, and she asked, "How come it was easier for our alternate counterparts to get together? They looked so happy… and those pictures…"
"Maybe something happened. We all know that those twins were born on St Valentine's Day in '07, which means that they were conceived roughly nine months before that… Oh."
They stared at each other, coming to roughly the same hypothesis, and she said, scared, "That Amazon mission was in June of '06."
"That could have been the fork in the road, the reason why our realities are different. Maybe something happened and we finally got our acts together… but if either of us were injured, how would I have been in a position to father children on you, or how would you have conceived?"
"Maybe there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. What if that Daniel had managed to convince their Cam to surrender their weapons? I wouldn't have been shot in the back like I was in this Universe."
"Speaking of which…"
He gently smoothed her arms and when she looked at him oddly, he said sheepishly, "I haven't had a chance to get a look at your back, considering what we've been doing…"
She smiled and they both sat up, she in between his legs, and he lifted the back of the t-shirt she wore. She said as she felt his fingers trace patterns on her back,
"It's been nearly three years… there's still a little scarring but nothing that hurts any more – Carolyn did a good job with the stitching."
With a concerned look in his eyes, he traced the faint pattern of what had once been vicious scarring, and he lowered his head to kiss the skin. She closed her eyes as she savoured his caresses, and then she turned her head to kiss him. They gazed at each other, worried about what might have been until they kissed again.
She turned over in his embrace so that she was straddling his lap, and he remarked, "Five bucks says that we have sex again within five minutes."
She raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief as he smiled, feigning innocence, and then she said, rolling her eyes, "Fine, you're on."
They settled down on the couch again, their arms around each other, when he kissed her… only, it didn't stop there. He nibbled her earlobe, trailing kisses down her throat, and then going for her collarbone as her head rolled back. She remarked, groaning,
"Daniel, you cheat…"
"Hey, just because you're a nymphomaniac doesn't mean that the bet's invalid."
Growling in frustration as she lifted her hips in an attempt to get closer to him, she remarked heatedly, "You're getting your money!"
He laughed in amusement before proceeding to make love to her for the seventh time that morning, his boxers and t-shirt being ripped off with a ferocity that half-scared and half-intrigued the Archaeologist. Her t-shirt being thrown who-knows-where, they quickly came to a release, groaning each other's names loudly.
She remarked, drained yet ecstatic, "How do you want your money?"
He buried his nose in her hair as he said with a grin, "Chocolate and Walnut cookies…"
"Ah… I'll get you some… next week. I'll join you as well – it's been a while."
He kissed her shoulder and drew an Afghan over them as they began to doze off, their endeavours of that morning catching up with them.