Chapter 3: Inside Out
"I'm in love with a man."
The words came with a strange kind of calmness, a submission to a fact no one would be able to alter.
"Are you sure? I mean, maybe it's only a passing thing, a phase of some sort."
"No, this is past all that. I truly love him. His name is Ketor."
Tulia sat down on a bench by the wall. Her hands were shaking in her lap and she clasped them together to keep them still.
Daniel didn't know how to respond. The woman sounded certain of her feelings, as unnatural as they were to someone brought up in a culture that forbade all heterosexual relationships. Since Jarkof had excused himself and left already, Daniel's gaze turned to Sinera for help, but the woman was sitting in her chair silent like the stones behind her back.
"And does he return your feelings?" Daniel asked turning back to Tulia.
"I believe he does... I hope he does..."
Tulia buried her face in her hands.
"You haven't talked about this with him?"
"No, not in so many words. But he did kiss me once."
"Maybe he's just exploring the possibilities." Sinera entered the conversation. "I hear a lot of people do that at some point."
"No! Not Ketor! I know he has feelings for me, I know he does."
"What are you going to do about this?" Daniel asked cautiously. "Are you going to tell him how you feel?"
"I'm afraid."
Tulia was fighting back the tears. She would not resort to crying again, that solved absolutely nothing.
"You have to tell him," Daniel said, his face expressionless but his eyes burning. "Otherwise you will never get over this. Believe me, I should know."
"You have been in the same kind of situation?"
"Something like that."
The images of Jack came flashing in Daniel's mind. How long he had dwelled over those same feelings about the man, bottling them all up, denying their existence, projecting it all onto Sha're's disappearance, working side by side with Jack and letting the ever growing bottle of frustration fill him up, eat him up inside. He would never had had the courage to act on those feelings, never. It had taken the painful withdrawal from his addiction to the sarcophagus to throw him out of balance once and for all, before he could have reached the state in which no curb had been strong enough to hold him back. And how far astray had that careless move taken them.
"Are you sure you want to risk everything for this man?"
"Yes."
There was no hesitation in Tulia's voice. This was a woman in love.
"And you're okay with this?" Daniel asked, turning to Sinera, who had been unusually quiet in her seat.
"It is over between us, if that's what you mean," she answered with poorly hidden resignation in her voice. "I want what Tulia wants and if she thinks that this will make her happy, then there's nothing more to be said."
"When we met, it was like... magic," Tulia said smilingly as she thought back to those days twelve cycles before. "Sinera was bringing water to the house and I passed her in the yard. You were so beautiful, I'd never seen anything quite like you."
"And you took me into your house and into your bed." Sinera returned the smile. "We were so much in love."
"Then what happened?" Daniel couldn't resist asking.
"I really don't know. Somewhere along the lines we turned into mere friends, still sharing the same bed, still loving one another..."
"But not 'in love' anymore," Sinera completed the thought.
"Yes, I guess that was it, the passion was gone."
"And now it's back, but not for me." Sinera sighed, still smiling but her eyes betraying her.
"Sinera-darling, please tell me if this is hurting you?"
"No, Tulia," she shook her head and swallowed her tears. "I will love you always, nothing can ever change that, but I accept that we will both find our passion elsewhere."
"Excuse me, but where exactly do I come in?"
The women turned to Daniel in wonder, as if they had already forgotten his presence.
"I know nothing of men," Tulia said earnestly, knowing the time for explanations had come. "I need you to teach me."
Daniel was left gasping for air, his fingers digging deep into the sheets of the bed and clenching the linen inside his fists.
"You want me to do *what*?!" He couldn't believe he was hearing this, there must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Of course there was.
"I need you to teach me," Tulia repeated, staring him straight in the eye, not even blinking in order to keep the eye contact intact. "I want you to help me practise."
"T-t-teach?" There had to be a mistake, a language issue maybe, a problem in his translation, *had* to be.
"We are not even allowed to see men's bodies, let alone have intimate contact with them, so first of all I want to get used to looking at a man."
Tulia's glance swept over Daniel's torso and stopped at his chest, the flatness of which never ceased to amaze her.
"I... I don't think I would be comfortable with that," Daniel stuttered, equally shocked and embarrassed. There was no mistake.
"But where you come from these things are commonplace, are they not?"
"Uh, no, not exactly 'commonplace', but yes, these things are... accepted there."
"Then you know what to do," Tulia said and walked up to Daniel, sitting down next to him on the bed.
"Technically, yes... but you don't understand..." he muttered as he hurried to pull Tulia's hands off of him. "You see, I'm sort of recovering from a relationship at the moment."
"Then maybe we can help each other."
"No... look, I haven't been with a woman for a long time," Daniel blurted out in a fluster, only to regret the words the moment they passed his lips.
Tulia looked at him with wonder.
"You mean to say this last relationship you had was not with a woman?"
"Uh... yes," he replied awkwardly and jumped to his feet to get away from the woman and her hands.
"Oh, I see... He really isn't from Home, is he?" Tulia said, turning to Sinera for confirmation. "Quite extraordinary that *both* types of relationships are accepted."
Daniel was lost for words again. How was he supposed to tell the woman, that although he had no knowledge of *her* home, at *his* home there was still a dangerously growing majority of anti-gay people and as far as the military was concerned, what had happened between Jack and him would've been punished equally severely as Tulia and Ketor would be if their involvement were to come public. But his thoughts were interrupted by the somewhat offended voice.
"You do not find me attractive?"
"Of course I do, but, uh..." Daniel gave Tulia an apologetic look. "No, not in the way you mean. I'm sorry."
"But I need someone to tell me what to do, how one is to please a man!" Tulia cried out.
Sinera was there to take Tulia's hand in her own and calm the woman down. The amount of love and caring Daniel could read in Sinera's eyes was agonising to witness.
"You... you think you can win him over with sex?" Daniel asked, though knowing the answer all too well.
Tulia nodded and buried her face in Sinera's arms.
"Tulia, listen to me," Daniel said, pacing the room to gather his thoughts. "If he will only have you for the sex, he's not worth having at all."
"But it would help, wouldn't it? Maybe he'd look more kindly on me, if I was able to satisfy his needs in the same way a man can."
"No, no... That would only reduce it to sex, to lust, and lust is a temporary emotion, it blows over, it's not love."
Daniel was painfully aware of the parallels to his own life, to Sha're and Jack. The first had been to him what Sinera so obviously was to Tulia, something that had been expected of him, something commonly approved of, something he himself had thought right at the moment and regretted bitterly afterwards. But he had gotten away with it in a way he hoped no one else ever would. And Sinera seemed to be taking all this amazingly well, her love and friendship were strong enough to handle any obstacles.
But then there was Jack. Was that where the parallels ended?
As he watched Tulia sobbing in Sinera's arms, Daniel could see himself on the storage room floor, crying the same tears. He could never let anyone go through what he had already experienced, no one deserved to be hurt like that. No, Daniel's faith in love was strong again, coming back from the depths he himself had plunged it into at a moment of weakness that very same day. Idealism was not dead, it was not for him to kill. There was nothing 'mature' about sex, nothing at all to justify the sacrifices he had been willing to make only to be able to be with Jack. He refused to let this woman end up in the same corner he had found himself in.
"You must speak to Ketor about this," Daniel said and shook the thoughts connected with Jack from his mind. "You do trust him, don't you?"
"I think so. Yes. I do."
"Then tell him. Just... talk. Nothing more. If he shares your feelings he will do so regardless of whether you can please him in bed or not." There was something in Daniel's eyes, a cold blue flame, implying deep personal involvement and conviction behind his words, and freezing the tears on Tulia's face. "You can't let him take advantage of you. You have to find out if he's serious or if it's all just a game to him."
But Tulia had no time to answer since the servant girl had appeared in the doorway and was clearing her throat with obvious embarrassment.
"Master would like to see you," she said to Daniel in a barely audible voice.
"Oh... Jarkof doesn't know about what we've talked here... about your relationship, I mean... he knows about Ketor, but not..." Tulia muttered and tried to get up from the bed. "I must speak to him and he will leave you alone, he's not a bad man..."
"Dear, I think you need to rest for a while now," Sinera said and pulled her down gently next to her.
"I'll go," Daniel said, appearing to be quite eager too see Tulia's brother again. "Uh, happy to stretch my legs a bit. I'm sure I can explain to him that you've changed your mind. You *have*, haven't you?"
"Yes, I believe so... Please, he can be somewhat straight-forward when it comes to these things..."
"I think I can manage," Daniel said, smiling reassuringly, and turned to the servant girl staring at the floor. "Well, then... lead the way."
The two were gone before Tulia could stop them. There was too much going in circles in her mind to concentrate fully on any one thing.
"But..." she tried again.
"Now, now, dear," Sinera said pulling her head into her lap. "They will sort it out. It is not for you to worry."
Tulia closed her eyes and rendered herself to take shelter in Sinera's arms, letting the woman's tender strokes wipe away all the bad things and send her into unruffled sleep.
But before long the both of them were alarmed by a loud noise coming from the outside. It was like nothing neither of them had ever heard and the peculiarity of the sound was enough to build a immediate connection between it and the strangers in the town.
"Sinera..." Tulia's voice was deeply nervous. "What has happened? Have they come for us?"
"No, no, dear. That sound came from far off; you are perfectly safe here."
"But what if they come here and find him..."
"No one is coming. You sleep here, for I am sure Daniel won't be needing this bed tonight," Sinera said as she slowly stood up. "I will go and see what was the cause of that racket. I won't be long. Sleep well, my love."
Tulia gave the woman a weak nod and curled up in the bed. Sinera was gone and Tulia was left alone with only the image of Ketor to hold onto for support.
****
"We must separate ourselves if we are to search this city effectively."
"Sir, I think we should start with the houses," Sam said, nodding to Teal'c and turning to the colonel. "If Daniel was brought here, he's most likely gone through the same as we have."
"Meaning, he's now the slave of some horny old man," Jack snapped at no one in particular, not being able to avoid thinking of Ghala, who had clearly 'called' him earlier, and getting an uneasy feeling in his stomach. "Okay, two shots if you find him or need help."
The three split up, each taking a dozen houses and hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a complete waste of time.
Jack was on his own. On several levels.
Teal'c had been taking the situation with his usual calmness to an almost annoying degree. So much so, that Jack had wanted to yell at the Jaffa to get a move on with it, that Daniel's life was at stake, that didn't the man understand Daniel could be hurt as they spoke. But Jack had known Teal'c to be right. The worst could already have happened and rushing might only make them miss something of importance. And as for Sam, she had seemed a bit preoccupied after the incident at that old man's house. Jack's suspicions had been immediately aroused and he had started to think something more had taken place back there that she was quite reluctant to mention. Cursing these twisted, perverted people, Jack walked into the first house without bothering to ask for permission as he wouldn't be understood in any case.
They had heard nothing new from the Gate camp and in a way that had naturally been a relief, but then there was also the possibility of Daniel being even worse off than buried under piles of sand. Jack was trembling at the mere thought of what he would do to the bastard who would have the nerve to touch the man. And by that token, he could just as well have beaten the shit out of himself.
Entering yet another house and coldly ignoring the shouts and cries of the residents, he went through it room by room, his anger building up with every unsuccessful attempt to find his lover. The frustration and fear met with guilt and regret, forming together this enormous ball of pure hatred, which started to roll upwards from his stomach to his throat, filling his lungs with hot air and speeding up his heartbeat to spread tiny pieces of the ball into every inch of his body. He knew these people could be perfectly innocent of anything that had happened to Daniel, and yet couldn't resist the temptation of knocking over some furniture here and there to give the terrified inhabitants even more reason to fear.
Jack had convinced himself that Daniel would be in one of those houses; his shaken mind could not accept any other possible scenario. He needed Daniel back and was ready to tear down every house and hut to find him, not leaving one single stone on top of another if those were the only obstacles standing in the way of fulfilling his quest. There were so many unsolved issues which Jack had been afraid to dig out from the back of the closet and bring into bright daylight, miscellaneous but highly delicate items, which he obviously wasn't prepared to study on his own and instead needed the help of a certain scholar in order to make any sense of them, come to terms with the cruel facts that had so far been merely implied and never fully explored.
And yet on some level, Jack was perfectly aware that destroying the lives of these people, as sick as they appeared to him, wouldn't bring him any closer to the real tangle of problems lying behind his every action. His hands had gotten him to this point but it surely wasn't the road leading back, or even forward, for that matter. From the moment Daniel had left, every blow had been and would be directed at its giver.
****
Small as the house was, the walk to Jarkof's room didn't take long. The servant girl announced his arrival to her master and then disappeared into the dark hallway, leaving only the echo of her footsteps to give hint as to where.
"Ah, there you are," Jarkof called out from the other side of the room, a much larger one than Daniel's but still equally sparsely furnished. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."
Daniel gave the man a quick smile and searched frantically for cues and clues as to what was expected of him. Maybe he had read the signs all wrong earlier that day and the man only wanted to talk to him about his sister's unhappy love life.
But there were no mistakes to be made when Jarkof walked right up to him and pushed a strand of hair aside to get a better look at Daniel's eyes. This was the language you need not be a linguist to understand.
"Here," Jarkof said as he offered Daniel a cup, "have a drink. It is actually quite tolerable this year."
Daniel swallowed the colourless drink without much thought, grinning as the surprisingly strong alcohol burned its mark in his throat. Nevertheless, not wanting to think of what exactly it was he was doing there, any substance that could assist him in forgetting was warmly welcomed.
"So, what do you think?"
Though nodding, he somehow felt the approval included much more than just the taste of the drink. Reason popped its head up for a brief moment to ask what in the world he was trying to prove by doing this, but the question slid away even more hastily than it had come.
He put the empty cup down, though missing the table and dropping it to the floor, for he didn't want his eyes to part from Jarkof's, not for a second.
"Daniel... you are an extraordinary man, Daniel."
"Uh... thank you," he replied awkwardly. "But you don't have to..."
"But I must. I must praise your beauty, tell you what I see when I look at you."
"I... um... I'm flattered, naturally, and you're a very, uh, attractive man, Jarkof, but...."
"No, no." Jarkof shook his head. "No buts. No arguments. I know all this is new to you, but I'd be honoured if you would allow me to be the first one to guide you to the life in Vun'tah."
Eager to correct the misunderstanding, Daniel opened his mouth to tell him that he had already had his fair share of study in this particular field, but instead, he found himself interrupted by Jarkof's finger pressing gently on his lips as a reminder of the rules of conduct which he had just laid down.
"Nuh-huh, no buts."
Letting his mind drift along its own vague paths and allow his body to take control, Daniel couldn't help giving Jarkof a slight nod to signal his surrender and sealed the message with a soft kiss on the finger, inviting the rest of them deeper into his mouth. And Jarkof certainly did not have to be told twice. He pulled his hand reluctantly from Daniel's lips to make room for his mouth, already burning with anticipation, and granted it the freedom to taste everything in its way with a healthy appetite, whilst his hands began to tear away his own interfering clothing. Daniel's glasses were to follow the cup and end up on the floor, both being soon covered by Jarkof's tunic.
His hands buried deep in Jarkof's curls, Daniel gave the man a strong push and watched him fall onto the bed, though quickly getting up on his hands and knees, only to be pushed down again. Daniel felt such a surge of power, going through his body and blocking all reason on the outside. Here he had a man that he wanted, that had no emotional control over him and was at its purest the same he had been to Jack.
But Jack had no place in this picture; he was the past, belonged to the life before the end, whereas the new beginning, in the form of Jarkof's body, was there to be taken and it was Daniel who would be the taker.
****
Tulia wasn't quite certain why she had ended up outside her brother's door. Too agitated to sleep, she had needed a walk to clear her mind, to try to make sense of what the new man had convinced her to do.
There was no saying that she hadn't known why Jarkof had called Daniel to his room; she was well aware of the liking her brother had taken to this man. And neither was this the first time she had stood there, hiding behind the curtain, trying to catch a glimpse of what went on inside. She had seen a great deal of manly bodies taking pleasure in each other and this night made no exception.
First she heard the voices, the familiar deepness, the husky undertone, the words that were not words anymore but pure sounds, though with more meaning any word could ever carry. After carefully pulling the curtain aside, she had a perfect view of them both.
The new man, Daniel, was on his knees on the bed with his loincloth pulled aside, leaning down over Jarkof, who in turn was lying on his back, completely naked, his hands travelling across the chest of the man on top of him. Since Daniel's back was turned to the doorway, Tulia was able to widen her peek-hole, safe in the knowledge that neither of the men would be able to spot her. And as she revealed more of the sight, the new man rubbing his hardened organ against her brother's, bending lower to kiss him, biting his nipples hard enough to make Jarkof scream, Tulia felt the excitement beginning to lift its horny little head, the all too familiar grab in her stomach that she had experienced countless times when standing in that very place. She reached down and slid her hand under her clothes, allowing herself a modest relief, letting loose the burning feeling between her thighs and making a silent scream as the waves of fulfilment rushed through her body.
Afraid that the men had heard her, she took a few steps back, but her concern proved unnecessary, since the new man had reached his peak as well and nothing could've penetrated his consciousness while up there.
Tulia leaned her back against the wall and tried to catch her breath again. The men were on the move; Jarkof circling around the bed to the head of it while the new one was lying on his back with his eyes closed. The loincloth was curled up on his stomach, leaving the emptied organ open for the prying eye. The man looked beautiful, it was unquestionably the most beautiful sight she had ever had the privilege to witness.
She thought her end had come when hearing the voice of her brother.
"Tulia-dear, I know you're there. Do show yourself."
****
In a wink of an eye, Jack's gun was pointing at the owner of the hand touching his shoulder.
After the initial shock, the frightened woman started to shoot out a string of unintelligible words and Jack lowered his weapon to calm her down.
"Hey, it's okay... okay..."
Seeing the woman settle down, Jack looked around to see if Teal'c were anywhere near for him to call the Jaffa to do the translation, but he found no sign of either Teal'c or Sam. Just as he was ready to fire his gun into the air to attract the attention of his team, Jack recognised one of the words the woman kept repeating.
"Daniel?"
The woman nodded eagerly and gestured him to follow her.
Without giving it any more thought and forgetting all about the other two searchers, he gave his hand to the woman and let her guide him through maze of houses with only one name in his mind.
****
Daniel lifted his head enough to see Tulia walk hesitantly out of the shadows. His mouth felt dry and his head was still spinning from the orgasm.
"Wha--?" he managed to mutter.
"Settle down, my love," Jarkof's voice came soothing over him. "It is only my curious sister. Come here, Tulia."
The woman obeyed as if losing the last trace of her own will and walked over to the bed where the two men were waiting more or less eagerly.
"You don't mind if Tulia watches, do you?" Jarkof asked.
"W-wha--?"
Words were still unattainable to Daniel. But no one seemed to be expecting him to say anything. The question had been a mere figure of speech and the reply was considered to hold no significance. Daniel had already had his fun and now it was others' turn, as a proof of which Tulia sat down on the end of the bed, giving her brother at the other end a quick glance before fixating her gaze on Daniel's body.
Daniel was just about to stand up to defy the gross disregard of his opinion and form the words of polite refusal, as he suddenly felt his arms being pulled above his head, and before he could react to it in any way, Jarkof kneeled over him and pinned Daniel's arms down with his legs.
"Would you like to have a taste of this?"
Certain he would faint, Daniel had to take a deep breath and blink a couple of times, before letting the sight sink in. There it was, Jarkof's swollen organ, hanging only a few inches over his face, promising him the taste of life.
It brought back the numerous times he had begged Jack to let him take him in his mouth, but Jack had merely made a joke out of it, saying he wasn't ready to risk his most precious possession to Daniel's inexperienced mouth and sharp teeth. No matter how much he had tried, the man had been determined.
And here was Jarkof, as if reading Daniel's mind and offering him the one thing he wanted the most, quite openly even, and without a trace of the shame and inhibition he had sensed in Jack.
"So, do you want it? I saved it specially for you."
Jarkof's voice brought Daniel back from the memories of his life on the other side of the galaxy. Those thoughts would have to go, be buried like the Gate to ensure nothing from the past would ever interfere with the present.
"Uh, yes... yes, please..." Daniel's reply was barely audible but unnecessary as the overwhelming desire could be easily read in his eyes. And Jarkof was not one to miss the opportunity.
"Well, then... I believe we can reach an agreement here," Jarkof said and lowered his hips to sweep Daniel's lips lightly with the tip of his penis.
"W-what... uh, what kind of a deal?"
"I'll give you a taste of this and maybe Tulia here gets to do a little more than watch."
Daniel couldn't even hear the man, all his energy being concentrated on trying to reach Jarkof's flesh with his tongue. There was a tiny drop glimmering at the end of his shaft that Daniel was determined to lick away, but the pearl remained out of his reach, teasing him to the point of insanity.
"So, she can join us?"
"Yes... yes... yes..."
He would have agreed to anything in order to get the pearl. The rest of his body had become entirely insignificant to him, just as long as the purple flesh above his face would end his suffering and give him the taste he had craved for even before ever setting his eyes on this man.
"I was quite convinced that you wouldn't mind," Jarkof said smilingly. "Go ahead, Tulia, play with him."
"I... I do not know what to do..." Tulia said hesitatingly.
"Oh, I won't hear that! You've watched me with men many times, so go ahead, dear, " Jarkof urged his sister. "Touch it, it won't break!"
But Daniel's neck was about to. He was doing everything in his power to get a lick of the piece of flesh tormenting him and in spite of all his attempts, wasn't able to reach the devil's device.
"Please, let me have it... please..."
Jarkof only grinned, enjoying the lust in Daniel's voice, though knowing he wouldn't be able to hold himself back for much longer. It had been a triumph in itself to endure the earlier heat, let alone have this beautiful and most desirable man completely at his mercy and begging him to let him take the nearly bursting organ between his delicious lips. Mercilessly he continued his tease by letting his fingertips skim the man's nipples, pinching them quickly and taking pleasure when hearing him moan from the touch.
Daniel's body twitched as he felt a second pair of hands on his skin, stroking cautiously his reawakening groin. With great effort he managed to lift his head enough to catch a glimpse of what was going on at the foot of the bed, and for a second his eyes locked on Tulia's, finding such an amount of bewilderment in them to bring to his mind a vivid snapshot-image of a child on Christmas morning. Her touch was searching, trying to make out how this new toy worked, where were the right buttons to push and what it was capable of doing. And to his amazement, Daniel found the inexperience and childlike exploring disturbingly exciting.
"Just like that, Tulia," Jarkof encouraged his sister. "Play with him, he's all yours, aren't you, Daniel?"
"Please..." Daniel muttered.
Once more he tried, holding his head as high as he could, to reach the pulsing flesh and used up the last of his strengths in attempt to tear his arms free from underneath the man's legs - all to no avail.
However, the tease was proving unbearable to Jarkof, as well, and gradually he lowered himself to allow Daniel have the taste he'd been begging for. With immense pleasure he watched Daniel engulf his flesh and as his organ disappeared into the man's mouth, Jarkof heard the voice of his sister. There she was, staring down at the white substance pouring onto her hands and clothes. It took all his remaining will-power to pull away from the mouth again, to stall his own coming for a little while longer.
"Well done!" he said, grinning to his sister. "Now, taste it, Tulia-dear. Go on, you cannot pass on such an opportunity. And I believe it's time to give our guest his price."
"Please... give me... please... Jack... please..."
Letting his eyes close to pull down the curtain between the profane and the most sacred, Daniel received his hard-earned price. And yet, regardless of all his efforts, nothing could prevent him from imagining it to be Jack's flesh in his mouth and with a hunger only months of fasting could give rise to he sucked, nearly choking on the semen when Jarkof's restraint finally gave in.
****
The woman had stopped at a doorway and seemed to be whispering something significant, yet totally incomprehensible, to Jack.
"You want me to go in, is that it?" Jack asked, though knowing there was no chance of getting a reply.
She pulled the curtain aside and gestured for Jack to step in.
Gasping for air, it only took Jack a few seconds to grasp the scene in front of him. First of all there was Daniel, lying on the bed, fully exposed and with a woman kneeling over him, evidently licking the remains of sperm off of Daniel's thighs. And then there was the man, holding Daniel pinned down on the bed and thrusting his filthy dick down his throat.
"You son of a bitch..."
With glaring fury, Jack charged at the man and hit him straight in the face with the handle of his sidearm, enjoying the sadistic satisfaction of hearing his nose break. Deciding that just shooting the bastard would be too impersonal to feed his hunger for blood, Jack threw his gun on the floor and jumped on the man holding his bleeding nose to beat him senseless in the way he deserved.
"You son of a bitch! You're gonna pay for what you did! You hear me?! You're gonna pay!"
"Jack?"
It had taken Daniel some time to catch on to what was happening around him. He felt Jarkof being pushed off the bed and heard Tulia's scream for help. But it was only now that he saw who was behind it all.
"Jack, no!" Daniel shouted and hurried to the pair of men fighting on the floor. Not that 'fighting' was the correct term, since it was solely Jack that was doing the beating, whereas Jarkof was taking the punches like a bag of sand, lying on his back semiconscious.
"Let him go, Jack! Let him go!"
Jack was slow to notice Daniel's hands on his back, tearing him off of the man. The surprise surpassed the rage and his fist stopped in mid-air.
"What the hell do you mean 'let him go'?" he asked, most annoyed by the interruption. "This bastard hurt you and now he's gonna pay for it!"
"No, Jack, he didn't hurt me," Daniel cried out in despair. "Please! Let him go!"
"Didn't hurt...? I saw what he did! He forced you to..." Jack couldn't even say the words.
"No, you got it all wrong! No one forced me... Please, Jack... Leave him alone!"
All Jack could do was watch Daniel push him aside and gather the bleeding man into his arms. No one had forced Daniel, that's what he had said. No force. No. Daniel had wanted it. No.
"You have *got* to be kidding..." Jack said, shaking his head as he got up and took a few steps back to torment himself with the sight of Daniel holding his naked lover on the floor. "You... you... no... Hell, no!"
"Jarkof, can you hear me?" Daniel was drying the man's face with one of the sheets, slapping him on the cheeks to make him regain consciousness. "Please, talk to me... Jarkof... talk to me..."
Jack stood still, staring hypnotically at the two, when the room suddenly filled with people driven there by Tulia's screams, and Jack, the assumed attacker, was pushed against the wall. He didn't hear the shouts around him, didn't feel the rope being tied around his wrists, didn't see anything except Daniel and his new lover.
"You bastard!" Jack yelled, finally finding his voice again. "Didn't take you long, now did it?"
"Jack..." Daniel knew what he wanted to say, but ended up opening his mouth like a fish out of water.
"Now, now... mustn't speak with your mouth full," Jack said wryly, seeing both Daniel's attempts to speak as well as the white drops still clinging onto his skin.
"Jack, please..."
"Why couldn't you come right out and say it? That you wanted someone younger and better-looking? Well, now you've got it and obviously you're having the time of your life!"
"No, Jack..."
But Daniel was too late. Jack was already being dragged out of the room and he could hear a male voice shouting orders to take him to his house. Daniel didn't know whether to get up and follow or to stay with the injured man, but the latter made the decision easy for him by opening his eyes and letting out a stream of blood from his mouth as he tried to speak.
"I'm here, Jarkof, everything's okay, I'm right here..."
"Who is this man?" the same male voice behind Daniel commanded before Jarkof could get a word out of him. "You are the one the new ones were asking for, aren't you?"
"Uh, yes, I think..." Daniel said and turned to get a look at the man who spoke with such obvious authority. "I'm Daniel and that man they took away was my friend. I know he didn't mean any harm, he just, uh... misread the situation. W-what is going to happen to him?"
"I'll ask the questions here, if you don't mind! I am Ghala, the eldest, and it should have been brought to my attention that there was also a forth new one in Vun'tah!" the man raged. "If Jarkof weren't already in that state I would certainly put him into it myself!"
Daniel wasn't sure how to ask about Jack without upsetting him even more.
"Please, I must know... " he tried. "My friend won't be punished, will he? Please, it was all a misunderstanding..."
"Your friend will be treated the way any disobedient servant should be, I wouldn't worry about that, no, not as much as you ought to worry about Jarkof and yourself."
"But..."
"Quiet! I will administer a punishment for the new one first and deal with Jarkof later. No one is to leave this house until I return!"
A flash of white linen was all Daniel was able to register as Ghala span around and marched out of the room. His authority had been placed under question, no doubt, and the loss of prestige was no simple matter. Someone was bound to pay the price and Daniel feared it wouldn't be him.
****
Jack had neither the energy nor the will to care about what was happening to him. His feet barely touching the ground, he was dragged out of the house and into another.
Someone was talking to him and not in a particularly pleasant tone of voice, either, but as he understood nothing and cared even less, he let his mind drift away and torture itself with the image of Daniel in bed with another man, his Daniel having sex with another man. He had driven him to it - such a ludicrous cliché and yet so painfully true. There was no exit leading out of the room in which Jack found himself locked. It was a room where he felt comfortable, safe, and which not even Daniel could have been allowed to enter. The lock had clicked the moment he had refused to let Daniel do what... As clear as the image was, Jack was still unable to put it into words.
But the room had not been there always. It wasn't until he had been forced to come to terms with the existence of these ambiguous feelings he harboured towards Daniel that he had needed the protection only the locked door was able to provide him. On a level still partly unknown to him, he had thought that to be the best conceivable way to cope with the new territory their involvement had opened up for him, thinking that his restraint was bound to keep things casual and, yet again, safe. It was obvious that he had failed miserably.
Along with the key to the room, Jack had thrown away something Daniel had had to go and look for elsewhere, from another man. He knew he had been reserved and probably the most inconsiderate lover imaginable, and he had no valid excuses for it. It had been simply impossible for him to let himself go like that, lose his control and expose himself in front of Daniel in all his weakness. That would have meant giving into the notion that he was gay and Jack wasn't gay. Of course he wasn't. It was not even an issue. He didn't like men; he liked Daniel. And to Jack there was a huge difference between men in general and this one in particular.
Feeling his hands being untied, Jack woke up to reality for a brief moment, only to find himself being tied again, though this time his arms were pulled high up until he was standing on his toes. The cold stone against his body had a reassuring effect, telling him he was still alive and capable of suffering the consequences of his inexcusable behaviour.
He could have killed that bastard back there, quite easily and without a trace of remorse. And yet Jack felt he deserved every ounce of pain the world had to offer, that he was the one that should pay, the one that had messed things up. When he had thought that man to be doing it to Daniel by force, Jack had been attacking the stranger as much as himself. He needed to be punished, but not for the crime the rest of the world thought.
That same man was there again. Ghala. His voice was lower than the one before, not so much commanding as it was... vicious. The voice sunk ever lower and yet Jack could hear it better still. And when the hand touched his buttock, he knew why.
****
Having calmed down in the arms of Sinera, Tulia appeared to become aware of what had happened to her brother and she rushed to the bed.
"Oh, Jarkof! I am sorry, so sorry! I am entirely to blame for this..."
"Sinera..." Daniel didn't have to call her again, as she came half-running and wrapped her shawl around Tulia's shoulders to hide the stains of semen on her dress from the crowd of curious spectators still standing in the doorway.
"Servants," she said in a loud voice, "would one of you be so kind as to show these people to the door as they do not seem to be able to find it on their own?"
The room cleared quickly and the rabble moved into the hallway and down the stairs. Half-buried under their voices, Daniel could distinguish the sound of broken glass, crackling as the feet spread its pieces all over the floor. But the loss of his specs wasn't the main thing in Daniel's mind at that moment.
"Sinera," he said in a whisper, as the newly fallen silence seemed to require it, "he needs to see a doctor."
"What is that?"
"A doctor, uh..." Daniel rolled his eyes in frustration. "A medicine man, a wise man, a healer - anything!"
He couldn't keep his voice down any longer, but there was no need to either, as the woman shouted out an order loud and clear, and though no servant was visible to the eye, the footsteps in the stairs revealed that the matter was already attended to.
"But I thought that man, Ghala, ordered that no one was allowed to leave the house?" Daniel asked concerned.
"Oh, the servants always find their ways," Sinera answered. "You rest assured."
"Then could I get out, as well? I really need to..."
"No!" Her voice was unconditional. "You will be spotted the moment you step into the street. You must wait here."
"Oh, why can't we let him go?" Tulia cut in. "Haven't I done enough damage already..."
"Tulia-dear, you are not to blame for this," Sinera said as she leaned down to kiss the woman's hair. "I am certain none of this has anything to do with you. Quite certain."
"How could this happen? Why did that man hurt my brother? This is a punishment, isn't it? The punishment for what I did and I pulled Jarkof down with me!"
"No, Tulia, it has absolutely nothing to do with you," Daniel stepped in, seeing Sinera wasn't able to convince the hysterical woman by herself. "That man, Jack, thought Jarkof was hurting me and that is why he attacked him. Not because of anything you did."
"But why would he have thought so? You were willing, were you not?"
"Yes, I was..." Daniel said awkwardly. "He just wouldn't want to think I was being unfaithful to him out of free will."
The healer arrived and the three stepped back to give the professional some room to work in. Jarkof's wounds were cleansed and treated with some herbal bandages that Daniel knew nothing of but was all the same ready to rely on.
"Oh, this was the man you talked about earlier, I see..." Tulia said with a strange relief in her voice as they sat down on a bench on the other side of the room. "He was jealous of you, that is understandable. Not that it justifies the actions he took, but it does make it more understandable."
"No, nothing would justify this, I'm deeply sorry," Daniel said and took Tulia's hand in his own. "I have caused everyone great sorrow and I apologise."
"It was I and my stupid idea to keep you hidden from the others that is the cause of all this trouble! I should have listened to you, Sinera, and should never have pursued this fantasy of mine, never!"
"Tulia-dear, I know you did it all because of your love for Ketor, I am sure of that," Sinera said quietly.
"But experience! Lessons! What was I thinking?! And the sex wasn't even that special!" Tulia cried out, though adding: "Please, do not be offended, Daniel."
"Uh, I'm not," Daniel muttered and glanced suspiciously at the healer to see if he had reacted in any way to her words, hoping some form of confidentiality applied here as well.
"I love Ketor," Tulia went on in her sudden excitement. "Not a man or a woman, but Ketor. I care not whether he has that additional piece of flesh hanging between his legs or not, it shall make no difference to me. I would feel just the same were he a woman or..."
Daniel didn't catch the last comparison, but assumed the obscure cluster of sounds referred to those peculiar animals he had seen earlier.
"It makes no difference..." he repeated to himself, suddenly hearing something disturbingly familiar in the words, but didn't have to say it out loud. Sinera was there to do the job for him.
"But what if he uses you as only his plaything, has his fun and then deserts you?"
"Then so be it," Tulia said firmly. "I have dwelled in my insecurity long enough, now it is time to take action. You saw that man here, he was willing to fight for his love and so am I for mine!"
"Tulia, please, you're not going to go talk to Ketor, are you?"
The women's voices faded into the background as Daniel sunk deeper into his own thoughts. Jack had fought for him. But in actuality, had he fought for his lover - or for his personal property and the loss of dignity connected to it?
Daniel would have been lying if he was to claim that it hadn't felt 'good', in a seriously perverted sort of way, when he saw the rage in Jack's eyes, the drive to kill the man that he thought had done damage to his... what? There was always the seed of hope, keeping lodge somewhere deep down, that maybe, just maybe, there was more to it than Jack let him think; maybe a shred of the man he had fallen in love with over two months ago.
Something had obviously happened in between - either Jack had changed, or he had finally shown his true colours, that he was not the man Daniel had thought him to be. And it was precisely that hope mixed with the fear of disappointment that had kept him from coming clean with Jack. But insecurity had unquestionably been the stronger one and because of that, he had never had the guts to come out and say the same thing to Jack as Tulia was about to say to Ketor.
Would he be crushed if he told Jack how he felt about him and the man turned him down? Probably. What were the odds that he would return Daniel's feelings? There must have been some way of calculating that. If they could do it for racehorses, then why not for air force colonels? Perhaps, because people's lives had more turns than the track's four.
Looking at Tulia made Daniel more confident that there could only be one possible turn for him. It had been a stupid act of pride to break up with Jack without any explanations or discussions, something he had thought at the moment to be designed to protect him from any more heartache, but in the end it had caused more pain than anyone could have foreseen. And it would have been equally stupid to crawl back to the man, offering his body at his disposal and swallowing down his self-respect in one bitter gulp. No, now there was only one option left for him and this time he wouldn't let anything as trivial as sex cloud his judgement.
"Sex is simple enough to complicate things."
Tulia's remark came through into Daniel's thoughts and hit right on the spot.
****
"Teal'c!" Sam shouted as she spotted the Jaffa coming out of one of the houses and ran after him. "What's going on?!"
"I do not know. I noticed people running in the street and most of them appear to have gone to that house over there."
"I didn't hear the colonel fire his gun," Sam said, panting as she caught up with the Jaffa, "so, maybe it has nothing to do with him. Better have a look at it anyway."
The two hurried to the house Teal'c had been talking about and pushed their way in through the crowd gathering in the doorway. Finding nothing but a couple of scared servants on the ground floor, they climbed upstairs, and hit the jackpot.
"Daniel!"
"Oh, hi guys," Daniel answered casually. It had completely slipped his mind that of course Jack hadn't come alone and Sam and Teal'c were bound to be around there somewhere, but with all that hassle, Daniel had long since ceased to be able to think rationally.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked and stepped closer to give Daniel a quick hug, at the same time delighted and worried to find him there.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel assured her, giving her a weak smile. "Where's Jack?"
"We separated ourselves when attempting to find you, DanielJackson."
"He can't have gone far," Sam added, seeing the concern in Daniel's eyes.
"No, you don't understand... Jack was already here," Daniel said and walked over to the bed Jarkof was lying in, to show them the results of Jack's visit.
"O'Neill did this?"
Daniel nodded.
"Why?" Sam asked in disbelief.
"Uh... it's a long and not so pretty story," Daniel said as he stroked Jarkof's forehead gently, pushing the hair back from his face. "That's not important right now. Look, we have to find him. He's going to be punished for this."
"He was taken to Ghala's house, I am sure of that," Sinera said, getting up from the bench by the wall. "I doubt anything will be done before morning, though; Ghala is certain to want everyone to see the punishment."
"Sam, Teal'c - this is Sinera, and that's Tulia, Jarkof's sister," Daniel mumbled hurriedly, trying to get the introductions out of the way as quickly as possible.
"I'm not taking any risks," Sam said, taking the role of the leader. "We can't wait till morning."
"Then I will show you there through the back, so that you won't be seen," Sinera replied.
"We appreciate your effort."
Sinera was startled to hear Teal'c's voice and hesitated for a moment whether or not to show the servant of the Gods the respect he deserved, but as Daniel appeared to be quite at ease around the Jaffa, she decided to ignore the protocol and deal with things as they came.
"So, these are the friends you talked about," Sinera said, turning back to Daniel, "You weren't sent to Vun'tah, but instead you were brought here by the Gods."
"Uh, something like that." Daniel had no idea how to formulate the whole of it into a concise and easily absorbed explanation. "We don't belong here. We have to go. Now."
"I will help you in any way I can," she said obediently. "If the Gods did not intend for you to stay, no human can stop you from leaving."
Sam had taken the radio to tell SG-3 to stop their search, the object of which having been found safe and sound. As for the rescue of Colonel O'Neill no help from the base camp could be expected, though, since by foot the journey across the desert would take hours, as she well knew. They were on their own.
"Oh, and I believe you will find this useful as well," Sinera continued as she walked over to the bed and pulled Jack's gun from under it. "I managed to hide this. I thought it best not to let Ghala have it."
"You thought wisely." Teal'c nodded, giving rise to an uncharacteristic blush on Sinera's cheeks; she was in favour with the Gods themselves.
"Take it," Sam said and offered the gun to Daniel. "We're going to need all the firepower we can get."
"No, no... I don't want anyone to get hurt." Daniel shook his head and pushed the weapon back into Sam's hands. "There's been too much of that already."
"We should go."
"Yes, Ghala will receive the information that the new ones have been here and he will know to expect you," Sinera said already on her way to the door. "You must hurry if you are to surprise him."
But Daniel was not moving.
"Wait... just wait, please."
He needed to say goodbye first.
All this time, Daniel felt he had been balancing on the border between two very different worlds, getting lost in no-man's-land, unable to choose his side, and poor Jarkof had been the unfortunate one to get caught in the middle of it all - the casualty of a war he knew nothing of.
His eyes opening, Jarkof tried to say something, but Daniel's finger stopped him in mid-sentence.
"Please, don't talk. I must go and I wanted to... I can't explain everything right now, but I..."
Daniel felt the words clinging to his throat.
"Goodbye, Jarkof," he said, moving his finger along the still bleeding lips and taking the last look of those dark brown eyes.
"Daniel, we have to go." Sam was getting impatient. "That man, Ghala, already made the colonel an...." Her hand was swinging in the air, waiting for Teal'c's assistance to complete the sentence.
"An indecent proposition."
"Yes, thank you, Teal'c," Sam said, nodding to the Jaffa, and then continued, stammering slightly: "Daniel, you must have noticed that these people... *differ* from us to some extent, and I fear that Ghala might punish him in another way if we don't get there and soon."
"He... Jack..." Daniel couldn't think straight anymore and yet Sam's message couldn't have been more clear to him. "What are we waiting for?!" he exclaimed and hurried to the door.
"Tulia-dear?" Sinera asked as she pulled the woman up from her seat where she had been sitting quietly the whole time, rocking herself back and forth in steady rhythm. "Would you stay here with Jarkof while I go and escort these people to Ghala's house?"
Tulia was happy to be led back to the patient's bed, and as she turned to watch Sinera and Daniel go with the new strangers, she heard a faint voice coming from underneath the blankets.
"Daniel...? Where...?"
"He is gone, for good, I fear. How are you feeling, my dear brother?"
"I... I have been better, considerably better. Daniel... gone? And who was that man?"
****
The three were led by Sinera into the house by the town square, strange to Daniel, but all too familiar to the remaining two.
Forcing their way through a group of the most curious and adventurous, who were blocking the doorway, attempting to catch a glimpse of what was going on inside, they rushed in after Sinera. And what a sight was waiting for them.
On the opposite wall of the great hall, they could see Jack, standing with his back towards them and hands tied to something sticking out of the stone wall. And as they entered the room, the whip was cutting yet again deep into his skin, adding a new stream of blood to the ones already running down his bare back and buttocks.
Without giving Sam or Teal'c the chance to fire their weapons, Daniel attacked the man holding the whip and managed to stop the next lash, before being flung against the wall himself. But gathering his strength again, Daniel was back in the fight and crawling on his hands and knees he reached the man and dig his teeth all the way to the bone of his leg, causing him to fall down on the floor. Hearing a mixture of shouting and screaming around him, guns being fired as a warning, Daniel was just about to get the upper hand of the man, when he was pulled up and pushed aside.
"Teal'c, what are you doing?!"
"I believe you said that you did not want any more injuries. To anyone."
The words of the Jaffa slowly reaching the back of his mind, Daniel took a deep breath to calm down the rush of adrenaline his spontaneous attack had caused. There were more important things at hand, on the top of which getting Jack down from the wall.
"Help me!" he yelled at Teal'c and together they got Jack's limp body to the floor.
"Jack! Talk to me, please! Jack!"
"Daniel..."
"Jack!" Daniel's whole body trembled with relief, when hearing Jack's voice, coming weak but very much alive. "What did they do to you? My god, Jack..."
"You... should see the other guy..." Jack muttered from the floor. "Had a game of ball-buster with him and I think I won..."
It was only now that Daniel noticed what Sam and Sinera had already seen, Ghala lying in the corner, holding his groin with both hands and clearly in great pain.
"You kicked him... in the balls?" Daniel could almost have laughed if the circumstances had been different. "Wha--?"
"I believe this man tried to become intimate with ColonelO'Neill again," Teal'c replied from his side.
Daniel lifted Jack's head into his lap, pressing his face against his hair and whispering something into his ear, but there was no one to hear to him. Jack had already slipped into unconsciousness.
"He has lost a great deal of blood," Teal'c said, pulling down a curtain hanging in front of the doorway and covering the man's wounds with it. "He will need medical attention."
"Sinera, we have to get to the Entrance," Daniel said turning his eyes away from Jack only for the brief moment it took to locate the woman. "You have to help us."
"Of course. And I have already sent for the healer," she replied with her usual calmness, receiving Daniel's grateful smile with a nod. "But the Entrance? Will you be allowed to leave?"
"I am certain of that," Teal'c said as he walked over to Ghala, who was still lying on his side in the corner. "We are leaving."
Ghala woke back to life and fell on his face at Teal'c's feet.
"Please, you are not taking the new ones with you, are you? I promise you this kind of trouble will occur no more, you have my word for that! Please, don't take them, we need new workers desperately..."
Teal'c's foot pressed hard on Ghala's hand, stopping the flow of words most efficiently.
"I am a servant of the Gods. What you do to your servants, you do to me. Am I understood?"
"Oh, yes... yes... "
"Good."
Before Teal'c could raise his foot from the man's hand, Daniel's shout stopped him.
"Wait! I want him to promise that Jarkof won't be punished in any way."
"Do you make this promise?" Teal'c asked, increasing the pressure on Ghala's hand.
"Yes! Yes!"
"Do you trust the word of this man, DanielJackson?"
"Uh, yes... I guess." What else was there to trust? "Yes, let him go, Teal'c."
"We're going to need some means of transport to get the colonel to the Gate," Sam said, still holding her gun pointed at Ghala and his servants.
"Sinera...?" Daniel called out again.
"I will attend to it."
Careful not to touch Jack's back, Daniel and Teal'c carried the unconscious man out into the street where three huge animals were being saddled for them, with the addition of a fourth one for their guide. They placed Jack on his stomach on one of them and after Daniel's vigorous arguments, settled that Teal'c should be the one riding it.
As the animals and, after the healer had arrived, also Jack were prepared for the ride back to the Gate, Daniel took the opportunity to pull Sinera aside.
"Sinera... I don't know what to say, how to thank you."
"There is nothing for you to be thankful for. I am the cause of your lover's present condition."
Daniel looked at her questioningly.
"Yes, it was I who showed him to Jarkof's room," Sinera said, bending her head down with shame. "I did not know that you... and Tulia, too... of course I had my suspicions, but..."
"It's okay, they would've found me sooner or later," Daniel tried to comfort her. "But why?"
"I wanted you out of the house."
Her words came as a total surprise to Daniel and he failed to keep the expression from his face.
"Please, do not get me wrong here. I have nothing against you personally, but I believed your presence was only hurtful to Tulia, as well as to yourself. Nothing good could have come of it."
Daniel had to agree. The love this woman had for Tulia never ceased to amaze him.
"Hey, is that her?" Daniel asked, seeing only a dark figure without his glasses, standing in a second floor window of one of the houses.
"Yes, it is she."
Too far for voice to carry, motions had to make up for it, and the two waved their hands to the woman and saw her return the gesture.
"Please, tell her that I understand why she did, what she did."
"I will. I must return to her soon. I am afraid of leaving her alone for too long."
"Yes, you're worried she will go to Ketor and do something foolish," Daniel said, then pausing for a moment to search for the right way to phrase his thoughts on the subject once more. "Look, I still feel they should discuss it, bring it out in the open. Not *open* open, but you know what I mean..."
Sinera only smiled, not taking her eyes off of the woman in the window.
"I'm an outsider, yes, but believe me, I know what I'm talking about," Daniel finished, only to find Sinera's smile turn sadder.
"No, I don't believe you do."
"Daniel!" Sam's call came from behind. "We're ready to go!"
"Ill be right there!" Daniel shouted back and turned to Sinera again. "I really do know how she feels and I think she should trust Ketor enough to tell him."
"No, you still don't understand," Sinera said shaking her head. "You see, there is no Ketor."
Daniel was struck speechless.
"Wha--? He... You mean to tell me he's not real?"
"Oh, he's very real," Sinera answered with the same melancholy smile on her face. "Unfortunately, Ketor is only real to Tulia."
"But how... why...?"
"Jarkof and I agreed to go along with it. She has attempted to take her own life on several occasions, so we thought it best not to fight her with this. But we never should have agreed to let her hide you in our house and that plan she had..." Tulia shook her head, unable to bear the shame. "You must trust my word that we would have never forced you into anything against your will. Never."
"Oh, I know you wouldn't, I know... but Tulia..." The acceptance of the truth seemed too much for Daniel, and his widened eyes locked on Sinera's to find confirmation there.
"It was because of her that I decided to find the people who were looking for you. After I learned what had happened in Ghala's house, I really felt that it had gone far enough and as I couldn't possibly force Tulia to abandon her plan, I thought I'd let your friends do it for her."
"So, you..." Daniel had lost his ability to produce complete sentences.
"I showed that man into our house and poor Jarkof had to pay for my mistake." Her gaze rose to admire the beautiful night sky, as if attempting to find absolution in the tremendous glitter of the countless stars. "If only I had been able to find the Jaffa, but instead I bring your jealous lover. Life does know quite a few tricks, now doesn't it?"
"Uh, yeah, it does. I... I can't believe..."
But his circling thoughts were interrupted by Sam's voice.
"Daniel!" her call came more demanding this time. "We have to go!"
Taking a quick glance at his team mates, Daniel had time to register the angry and humiliated look on Ghala's face change into an overly pleasing smile as he limped out of his house to see them off and met Teal'c's fearsome look. And he could also see the light kiss Sam placed on the cheek of an unknown woman.
"I... I should... I have to..."
"I know you do." Sinera smiled. "Will you be back?"
"I... I don't know..." Daniel hated himself for not being able to get anything more meaningful past his lips. "I really don't know."
"You must go with your people, go to the Gods," Sinera said as she took Daniel's hand in her own. "I will take care of Tulia, you need not worry. I have done it for many cycles and will continue to do so for many more."
All Daniel could do was smile and squeeze her hand, hoping the touch would transfer the turmoil of thoughts in his head into something more intelligible.
"Goodbye, Sinera."
"Goodbye, Daniel."
"I'm in love with a man."
The words came with a strange kind of calmness, a submission to a fact no one would be able to alter.
"Are you sure? I mean, maybe it's only a passing thing, a phase of some sort."
"No, this is past all that. I truly love him. His name is Ketor."
Tulia sat down on a bench by the wall. Her hands were shaking in her lap and she clasped them together to keep them still.
Daniel didn't know how to respond. The woman sounded certain of her feelings, as unnatural as they were to someone brought up in a culture that forbade all heterosexual relationships. Since Jarkof had excused himself and left already, Daniel's gaze turned to Sinera for help, but the woman was sitting in her chair silent like the stones behind her back.
"And does he return your feelings?" Daniel asked turning back to Tulia.
"I believe he does... I hope he does..."
Tulia buried her face in her hands.
"You haven't talked about this with him?"
"No, not in so many words. But he did kiss me once."
"Maybe he's just exploring the possibilities." Sinera entered the conversation. "I hear a lot of people do that at some point."
"No! Not Ketor! I know he has feelings for me, I know he does."
"What are you going to do about this?" Daniel asked cautiously. "Are you going to tell him how you feel?"
"I'm afraid."
Tulia was fighting back the tears. She would not resort to crying again, that solved absolutely nothing.
"You have to tell him," Daniel said, his face expressionless but his eyes burning. "Otherwise you will never get over this. Believe me, I should know."
"You have been in the same kind of situation?"
"Something like that."
The images of Jack came flashing in Daniel's mind. How long he had dwelled over those same feelings about the man, bottling them all up, denying their existence, projecting it all onto Sha're's disappearance, working side by side with Jack and letting the ever growing bottle of frustration fill him up, eat him up inside. He would never had had the courage to act on those feelings, never. It had taken the painful withdrawal from his addiction to the sarcophagus to throw him out of balance once and for all, before he could have reached the state in which no curb had been strong enough to hold him back. And how far astray had that careless move taken them.
"Are you sure you want to risk everything for this man?"
"Yes."
There was no hesitation in Tulia's voice. This was a woman in love.
"And you're okay with this?" Daniel asked, turning to Sinera, who had been unusually quiet in her seat.
"It is over between us, if that's what you mean," she answered with poorly hidden resignation in her voice. "I want what Tulia wants and if she thinks that this will make her happy, then there's nothing more to be said."
"When we met, it was like... magic," Tulia said smilingly as she thought back to those days twelve cycles before. "Sinera was bringing water to the house and I passed her in the yard. You were so beautiful, I'd never seen anything quite like you."
"And you took me into your house and into your bed." Sinera returned the smile. "We were so much in love."
"Then what happened?" Daniel couldn't resist asking.
"I really don't know. Somewhere along the lines we turned into mere friends, still sharing the same bed, still loving one another..."
"But not 'in love' anymore," Sinera completed the thought.
"Yes, I guess that was it, the passion was gone."
"And now it's back, but not for me." Sinera sighed, still smiling but her eyes betraying her.
"Sinera-darling, please tell me if this is hurting you?"
"No, Tulia," she shook her head and swallowed her tears. "I will love you always, nothing can ever change that, but I accept that we will both find our passion elsewhere."
"Excuse me, but where exactly do I come in?"
The women turned to Daniel in wonder, as if they had already forgotten his presence.
"I know nothing of men," Tulia said earnestly, knowing the time for explanations had come. "I need you to teach me."
Daniel was left gasping for air, his fingers digging deep into the sheets of the bed and clenching the linen inside his fists.
"You want me to do *what*?!" He couldn't believe he was hearing this, there must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Of course there was.
"I need you to teach me," Tulia repeated, staring him straight in the eye, not even blinking in order to keep the eye contact intact. "I want you to help me practise."
"T-t-teach?" There had to be a mistake, a language issue maybe, a problem in his translation, *had* to be.
"We are not even allowed to see men's bodies, let alone have intimate contact with them, so first of all I want to get used to looking at a man."
Tulia's glance swept over Daniel's torso and stopped at his chest, the flatness of which never ceased to amaze her.
"I... I don't think I would be comfortable with that," Daniel stuttered, equally shocked and embarrassed. There was no mistake.
"But where you come from these things are commonplace, are they not?"
"Uh, no, not exactly 'commonplace', but yes, these things are... accepted there."
"Then you know what to do," Tulia said and walked up to Daniel, sitting down next to him on the bed.
"Technically, yes... but you don't understand..." he muttered as he hurried to pull Tulia's hands off of him. "You see, I'm sort of recovering from a relationship at the moment."
"Then maybe we can help each other."
"No... look, I haven't been with a woman for a long time," Daniel blurted out in a fluster, only to regret the words the moment they passed his lips.
Tulia looked at him with wonder.
"You mean to say this last relationship you had was not with a woman?"
"Uh... yes," he replied awkwardly and jumped to his feet to get away from the woman and her hands.
"Oh, I see... He really isn't from Home, is he?" Tulia said, turning to Sinera for confirmation. "Quite extraordinary that *both* types of relationships are accepted."
Daniel was lost for words again. How was he supposed to tell the woman, that although he had no knowledge of *her* home, at *his* home there was still a dangerously growing majority of anti-gay people and as far as the military was concerned, what had happened between Jack and him would've been punished equally severely as Tulia and Ketor would be if their involvement were to come public. But his thoughts were interrupted by the somewhat offended voice.
"You do not find me attractive?"
"Of course I do, but, uh..." Daniel gave Tulia an apologetic look. "No, not in the way you mean. I'm sorry."
"But I need someone to tell me what to do, how one is to please a man!" Tulia cried out.
Sinera was there to take Tulia's hand in her own and calm the woman down. The amount of love and caring Daniel could read in Sinera's eyes was agonising to witness.
"You... you think you can win him over with sex?" Daniel asked, though knowing the answer all too well.
Tulia nodded and buried her face in Sinera's arms.
"Tulia, listen to me," Daniel said, pacing the room to gather his thoughts. "If he will only have you for the sex, he's not worth having at all."
"But it would help, wouldn't it? Maybe he'd look more kindly on me, if I was able to satisfy his needs in the same way a man can."
"No, no... That would only reduce it to sex, to lust, and lust is a temporary emotion, it blows over, it's not love."
Daniel was painfully aware of the parallels to his own life, to Sha're and Jack. The first had been to him what Sinera so obviously was to Tulia, something that had been expected of him, something commonly approved of, something he himself had thought right at the moment and regretted bitterly afterwards. But he had gotten away with it in a way he hoped no one else ever would. And Sinera seemed to be taking all this amazingly well, her love and friendship were strong enough to handle any obstacles.
But then there was Jack. Was that where the parallels ended?
As he watched Tulia sobbing in Sinera's arms, Daniel could see himself on the storage room floor, crying the same tears. He could never let anyone go through what he had already experienced, no one deserved to be hurt like that. No, Daniel's faith in love was strong again, coming back from the depths he himself had plunged it into at a moment of weakness that very same day. Idealism was not dead, it was not for him to kill. There was nothing 'mature' about sex, nothing at all to justify the sacrifices he had been willing to make only to be able to be with Jack. He refused to let this woman end up in the same corner he had found himself in.
"You must speak to Ketor about this," Daniel said and shook the thoughts connected with Jack from his mind. "You do trust him, don't you?"
"I think so. Yes. I do."
"Then tell him. Just... talk. Nothing more. If he shares your feelings he will do so regardless of whether you can please him in bed or not." There was something in Daniel's eyes, a cold blue flame, implying deep personal involvement and conviction behind his words, and freezing the tears on Tulia's face. "You can't let him take advantage of you. You have to find out if he's serious or if it's all just a game to him."
But Tulia had no time to answer since the servant girl had appeared in the doorway and was clearing her throat with obvious embarrassment.
"Master would like to see you," she said to Daniel in a barely audible voice.
"Oh... Jarkof doesn't know about what we've talked here... about your relationship, I mean... he knows about Ketor, but not..." Tulia muttered and tried to get up from the bed. "I must speak to him and he will leave you alone, he's not a bad man..."
"Dear, I think you need to rest for a while now," Sinera said and pulled her down gently next to her.
"I'll go," Daniel said, appearing to be quite eager too see Tulia's brother again. "Uh, happy to stretch my legs a bit. I'm sure I can explain to him that you've changed your mind. You *have*, haven't you?"
"Yes, I believe so... Please, he can be somewhat straight-forward when it comes to these things..."
"I think I can manage," Daniel said, smiling reassuringly, and turned to the servant girl staring at the floor. "Well, then... lead the way."
The two were gone before Tulia could stop them. There was too much going in circles in her mind to concentrate fully on any one thing.
"But..." she tried again.
"Now, now, dear," Sinera said pulling her head into her lap. "They will sort it out. It is not for you to worry."
Tulia closed her eyes and rendered herself to take shelter in Sinera's arms, letting the woman's tender strokes wipe away all the bad things and send her into unruffled sleep.
But before long the both of them were alarmed by a loud noise coming from the outside. It was like nothing neither of them had ever heard and the peculiarity of the sound was enough to build a immediate connection between it and the strangers in the town.
"Sinera..." Tulia's voice was deeply nervous. "What has happened? Have they come for us?"
"No, no, dear. That sound came from far off; you are perfectly safe here."
"But what if they come here and find him..."
"No one is coming. You sleep here, for I am sure Daniel won't be needing this bed tonight," Sinera said as she slowly stood up. "I will go and see what was the cause of that racket. I won't be long. Sleep well, my love."
Tulia gave the woman a weak nod and curled up in the bed. Sinera was gone and Tulia was left alone with only the image of Ketor to hold onto for support.
****
"We must separate ourselves if we are to search this city effectively."
"Sir, I think we should start with the houses," Sam said, nodding to Teal'c and turning to the colonel. "If Daniel was brought here, he's most likely gone through the same as we have."
"Meaning, he's now the slave of some horny old man," Jack snapped at no one in particular, not being able to avoid thinking of Ghala, who had clearly 'called' him earlier, and getting an uneasy feeling in his stomach. "Okay, two shots if you find him or need help."
The three split up, each taking a dozen houses and hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a complete waste of time.
Jack was on his own. On several levels.
Teal'c had been taking the situation with his usual calmness to an almost annoying degree. So much so, that Jack had wanted to yell at the Jaffa to get a move on with it, that Daniel's life was at stake, that didn't the man understand Daniel could be hurt as they spoke. But Jack had known Teal'c to be right. The worst could already have happened and rushing might only make them miss something of importance. And as for Sam, she had seemed a bit preoccupied after the incident at that old man's house. Jack's suspicions had been immediately aroused and he had started to think something more had taken place back there that she was quite reluctant to mention. Cursing these twisted, perverted people, Jack walked into the first house without bothering to ask for permission as he wouldn't be understood in any case.
They had heard nothing new from the Gate camp and in a way that had naturally been a relief, but then there was also the possibility of Daniel being even worse off than buried under piles of sand. Jack was trembling at the mere thought of what he would do to the bastard who would have the nerve to touch the man. And by that token, he could just as well have beaten the shit out of himself.
Entering yet another house and coldly ignoring the shouts and cries of the residents, he went through it room by room, his anger building up with every unsuccessful attempt to find his lover. The frustration and fear met with guilt and regret, forming together this enormous ball of pure hatred, which started to roll upwards from his stomach to his throat, filling his lungs with hot air and speeding up his heartbeat to spread tiny pieces of the ball into every inch of his body. He knew these people could be perfectly innocent of anything that had happened to Daniel, and yet couldn't resist the temptation of knocking over some furniture here and there to give the terrified inhabitants even more reason to fear.
Jack had convinced himself that Daniel would be in one of those houses; his shaken mind could not accept any other possible scenario. He needed Daniel back and was ready to tear down every house and hut to find him, not leaving one single stone on top of another if those were the only obstacles standing in the way of fulfilling his quest. There were so many unsolved issues which Jack had been afraid to dig out from the back of the closet and bring into bright daylight, miscellaneous but highly delicate items, which he obviously wasn't prepared to study on his own and instead needed the help of a certain scholar in order to make any sense of them, come to terms with the cruel facts that had so far been merely implied and never fully explored.
And yet on some level, Jack was perfectly aware that destroying the lives of these people, as sick as they appeared to him, wouldn't bring him any closer to the real tangle of problems lying behind his every action. His hands had gotten him to this point but it surely wasn't the road leading back, or even forward, for that matter. From the moment Daniel had left, every blow had been and would be directed at its giver.
****
Small as the house was, the walk to Jarkof's room didn't take long. The servant girl announced his arrival to her master and then disappeared into the dark hallway, leaving only the echo of her footsteps to give hint as to where.
"Ah, there you are," Jarkof called out from the other side of the room, a much larger one than Daniel's but still equally sparsely furnished. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."
Daniel gave the man a quick smile and searched frantically for cues and clues as to what was expected of him. Maybe he had read the signs all wrong earlier that day and the man only wanted to talk to him about his sister's unhappy love life.
But there were no mistakes to be made when Jarkof walked right up to him and pushed a strand of hair aside to get a better look at Daniel's eyes. This was the language you need not be a linguist to understand.
"Here," Jarkof said as he offered Daniel a cup, "have a drink. It is actually quite tolerable this year."
Daniel swallowed the colourless drink without much thought, grinning as the surprisingly strong alcohol burned its mark in his throat. Nevertheless, not wanting to think of what exactly it was he was doing there, any substance that could assist him in forgetting was warmly welcomed.
"So, what do you think?"
Though nodding, he somehow felt the approval included much more than just the taste of the drink. Reason popped its head up for a brief moment to ask what in the world he was trying to prove by doing this, but the question slid away even more hastily than it had come.
He put the empty cup down, though missing the table and dropping it to the floor, for he didn't want his eyes to part from Jarkof's, not for a second.
"Daniel... you are an extraordinary man, Daniel."
"Uh... thank you," he replied awkwardly. "But you don't have to..."
"But I must. I must praise your beauty, tell you what I see when I look at you."
"I... um... I'm flattered, naturally, and you're a very, uh, attractive man, Jarkof, but...."
"No, no." Jarkof shook his head. "No buts. No arguments. I know all this is new to you, but I'd be honoured if you would allow me to be the first one to guide you to the life in Vun'tah."
Eager to correct the misunderstanding, Daniel opened his mouth to tell him that he had already had his fair share of study in this particular field, but instead, he found himself interrupted by Jarkof's finger pressing gently on his lips as a reminder of the rules of conduct which he had just laid down.
"Nuh-huh, no buts."
Letting his mind drift along its own vague paths and allow his body to take control, Daniel couldn't help giving Jarkof a slight nod to signal his surrender and sealed the message with a soft kiss on the finger, inviting the rest of them deeper into his mouth. And Jarkof certainly did not have to be told twice. He pulled his hand reluctantly from Daniel's lips to make room for his mouth, already burning with anticipation, and granted it the freedom to taste everything in its way with a healthy appetite, whilst his hands began to tear away his own interfering clothing. Daniel's glasses were to follow the cup and end up on the floor, both being soon covered by Jarkof's tunic.
His hands buried deep in Jarkof's curls, Daniel gave the man a strong push and watched him fall onto the bed, though quickly getting up on his hands and knees, only to be pushed down again. Daniel felt such a surge of power, going through his body and blocking all reason on the outside. Here he had a man that he wanted, that had no emotional control over him and was at its purest the same he had been to Jack.
But Jack had no place in this picture; he was the past, belonged to the life before the end, whereas the new beginning, in the form of Jarkof's body, was there to be taken and it was Daniel who would be the taker.
****
Tulia wasn't quite certain why she had ended up outside her brother's door. Too agitated to sleep, she had needed a walk to clear her mind, to try to make sense of what the new man had convinced her to do.
There was no saying that she hadn't known why Jarkof had called Daniel to his room; she was well aware of the liking her brother had taken to this man. And neither was this the first time she had stood there, hiding behind the curtain, trying to catch a glimpse of what went on inside. She had seen a great deal of manly bodies taking pleasure in each other and this night made no exception.
First she heard the voices, the familiar deepness, the husky undertone, the words that were not words anymore but pure sounds, though with more meaning any word could ever carry. After carefully pulling the curtain aside, she had a perfect view of them both.
The new man, Daniel, was on his knees on the bed with his loincloth pulled aside, leaning down over Jarkof, who in turn was lying on his back, completely naked, his hands travelling across the chest of the man on top of him. Since Daniel's back was turned to the doorway, Tulia was able to widen her peek-hole, safe in the knowledge that neither of the men would be able to spot her. And as she revealed more of the sight, the new man rubbing his hardened organ against her brother's, bending lower to kiss him, biting his nipples hard enough to make Jarkof scream, Tulia felt the excitement beginning to lift its horny little head, the all too familiar grab in her stomach that she had experienced countless times when standing in that very place. She reached down and slid her hand under her clothes, allowing herself a modest relief, letting loose the burning feeling between her thighs and making a silent scream as the waves of fulfilment rushed through her body.
Afraid that the men had heard her, she took a few steps back, but her concern proved unnecessary, since the new man had reached his peak as well and nothing could've penetrated his consciousness while up there.
Tulia leaned her back against the wall and tried to catch her breath again. The men were on the move; Jarkof circling around the bed to the head of it while the new one was lying on his back with his eyes closed. The loincloth was curled up on his stomach, leaving the emptied organ open for the prying eye. The man looked beautiful, it was unquestionably the most beautiful sight she had ever had the privilege to witness.
She thought her end had come when hearing the voice of her brother.
"Tulia-dear, I know you're there. Do show yourself."
****
In a wink of an eye, Jack's gun was pointing at the owner of the hand touching his shoulder.
After the initial shock, the frightened woman started to shoot out a string of unintelligible words and Jack lowered his weapon to calm her down.
"Hey, it's okay... okay..."
Seeing the woman settle down, Jack looked around to see if Teal'c were anywhere near for him to call the Jaffa to do the translation, but he found no sign of either Teal'c or Sam. Just as he was ready to fire his gun into the air to attract the attention of his team, Jack recognised one of the words the woman kept repeating.
"Daniel?"
The woman nodded eagerly and gestured him to follow her.
Without giving it any more thought and forgetting all about the other two searchers, he gave his hand to the woman and let her guide him through maze of houses with only one name in his mind.
****
Daniel lifted his head enough to see Tulia walk hesitantly out of the shadows. His mouth felt dry and his head was still spinning from the orgasm.
"Wha--?" he managed to mutter.
"Settle down, my love," Jarkof's voice came soothing over him. "It is only my curious sister. Come here, Tulia."
The woman obeyed as if losing the last trace of her own will and walked over to the bed where the two men were waiting more or less eagerly.
"You don't mind if Tulia watches, do you?" Jarkof asked.
"W-wha--?"
Words were still unattainable to Daniel. But no one seemed to be expecting him to say anything. The question had been a mere figure of speech and the reply was considered to hold no significance. Daniel had already had his fun and now it was others' turn, as a proof of which Tulia sat down on the end of the bed, giving her brother at the other end a quick glance before fixating her gaze on Daniel's body.
Daniel was just about to stand up to defy the gross disregard of his opinion and form the words of polite refusal, as he suddenly felt his arms being pulled above his head, and before he could react to it in any way, Jarkof kneeled over him and pinned Daniel's arms down with his legs.
"Would you like to have a taste of this?"
Certain he would faint, Daniel had to take a deep breath and blink a couple of times, before letting the sight sink in. There it was, Jarkof's swollen organ, hanging only a few inches over his face, promising him the taste of life.
It brought back the numerous times he had begged Jack to let him take him in his mouth, but Jack had merely made a joke out of it, saying he wasn't ready to risk his most precious possession to Daniel's inexperienced mouth and sharp teeth. No matter how much he had tried, the man had been determined.
And here was Jarkof, as if reading Daniel's mind and offering him the one thing he wanted the most, quite openly even, and without a trace of the shame and inhibition he had sensed in Jack.
"So, do you want it? I saved it specially for you."
Jarkof's voice brought Daniel back from the memories of his life on the other side of the galaxy. Those thoughts would have to go, be buried like the Gate to ensure nothing from the past would ever interfere with the present.
"Uh, yes... yes, please..." Daniel's reply was barely audible but unnecessary as the overwhelming desire could be easily read in his eyes. And Jarkof was not one to miss the opportunity.
"Well, then... I believe we can reach an agreement here," Jarkof said and lowered his hips to sweep Daniel's lips lightly with the tip of his penis.
"W-what... uh, what kind of a deal?"
"I'll give you a taste of this and maybe Tulia here gets to do a little more than watch."
Daniel couldn't even hear the man, all his energy being concentrated on trying to reach Jarkof's flesh with his tongue. There was a tiny drop glimmering at the end of his shaft that Daniel was determined to lick away, but the pearl remained out of his reach, teasing him to the point of insanity.
"So, she can join us?"
"Yes... yes... yes..."
He would have agreed to anything in order to get the pearl. The rest of his body had become entirely insignificant to him, just as long as the purple flesh above his face would end his suffering and give him the taste he had craved for even before ever setting his eyes on this man.
"I was quite convinced that you wouldn't mind," Jarkof said smilingly. "Go ahead, Tulia, play with him."
"I... I do not know what to do..." Tulia said hesitatingly.
"Oh, I won't hear that! You've watched me with men many times, so go ahead, dear, " Jarkof urged his sister. "Touch it, it won't break!"
But Daniel's neck was about to. He was doing everything in his power to get a lick of the piece of flesh tormenting him and in spite of all his attempts, wasn't able to reach the devil's device.
"Please, let me have it... please..."
Jarkof only grinned, enjoying the lust in Daniel's voice, though knowing he wouldn't be able to hold himself back for much longer. It had been a triumph in itself to endure the earlier heat, let alone have this beautiful and most desirable man completely at his mercy and begging him to let him take the nearly bursting organ between his delicious lips. Mercilessly he continued his tease by letting his fingertips skim the man's nipples, pinching them quickly and taking pleasure when hearing him moan from the touch.
Daniel's body twitched as he felt a second pair of hands on his skin, stroking cautiously his reawakening groin. With great effort he managed to lift his head enough to catch a glimpse of what was going on at the foot of the bed, and for a second his eyes locked on Tulia's, finding such an amount of bewilderment in them to bring to his mind a vivid snapshot-image of a child on Christmas morning. Her touch was searching, trying to make out how this new toy worked, where were the right buttons to push and what it was capable of doing. And to his amazement, Daniel found the inexperience and childlike exploring disturbingly exciting.
"Just like that, Tulia," Jarkof encouraged his sister. "Play with him, he's all yours, aren't you, Daniel?"
"Please..." Daniel muttered.
Once more he tried, holding his head as high as he could, to reach the pulsing flesh and used up the last of his strengths in attempt to tear his arms free from underneath the man's legs - all to no avail.
However, the tease was proving unbearable to Jarkof, as well, and gradually he lowered himself to allow Daniel have the taste he'd been begging for. With immense pleasure he watched Daniel engulf his flesh and as his organ disappeared into the man's mouth, Jarkof heard the voice of his sister. There she was, staring down at the white substance pouring onto her hands and clothes. It took all his remaining will-power to pull away from the mouth again, to stall his own coming for a little while longer.
"Well done!" he said, grinning to his sister. "Now, taste it, Tulia-dear. Go on, you cannot pass on such an opportunity. And I believe it's time to give our guest his price."
"Please... give me... please... Jack... please..."
Letting his eyes close to pull down the curtain between the profane and the most sacred, Daniel received his hard-earned price. And yet, regardless of all his efforts, nothing could prevent him from imagining it to be Jack's flesh in his mouth and with a hunger only months of fasting could give rise to he sucked, nearly choking on the semen when Jarkof's restraint finally gave in.
****
The woman had stopped at a doorway and seemed to be whispering something significant, yet totally incomprehensible, to Jack.
"You want me to go in, is that it?" Jack asked, though knowing there was no chance of getting a reply.
She pulled the curtain aside and gestured for Jack to step in.
Gasping for air, it only took Jack a few seconds to grasp the scene in front of him. First of all there was Daniel, lying on the bed, fully exposed and with a woman kneeling over him, evidently licking the remains of sperm off of Daniel's thighs. And then there was the man, holding Daniel pinned down on the bed and thrusting his filthy dick down his throat.
"You son of a bitch..."
With glaring fury, Jack charged at the man and hit him straight in the face with the handle of his sidearm, enjoying the sadistic satisfaction of hearing his nose break. Deciding that just shooting the bastard would be too impersonal to feed his hunger for blood, Jack threw his gun on the floor and jumped on the man holding his bleeding nose to beat him senseless in the way he deserved.
"You son of a bitch! You're gonna pay for what you did! You hear me?! You're gonna pay!"
"Jack?"
It had taken Daniel some time to catch on to what was happening around him. He felt Jarkof being pushed off the bed and heard Tulia's scream for help. But it was only now that he saw who was behind it all.
"Jack, no!" Daniel shouted and hurried to the pair of men fighting on the floor. Not that 'fighting' was the correct term, since it was solely Jack that was doing the beating, whereas Jarkof was taking the punches like a bag of sand, lying on his back semiconscious.
"Let him go, Jack! Let him go!"
Jack was slow to notice Daniel's hands on his back, tearing him off of the man. The surprise surpassed the rage and his fist stopped in mid-air.
"What the hell do you mean 'let him go'?" he asked, most annoyed by the interruption. "This bastard hurt you and now he's gonna pay for it!"
"No, Jack, he didn't hurt me," Daniel cried out in despair. "Please! Let him go!"
"Didn't hurt...? I saw what he did! He forced you to..." Jack couldn't even say the words.
"No, you got it all wrong! No one forced me... Please, Jack... Leave him alone!"
All Jack could do was watch Daniel push him aside and gather the bleeding man into his arms. No one had forced Daniel, that's what he had said. No force. No. Daniel had wanted it. No.
"You have *got* to be kidding..." Jack said, shaking his head as he got up and took a few steps back to torment himself with the sight of Daniel holding his naked lover on the floor. "You... you... no... Hell, no!"
"Jarkof, can you hear me?" Daniel was drying the man's face with one of the sheets, slapping him on the cheeks to make him regain consciousness. "Please, talk to me... Jarkof... talk to me..."
Jack stood still, staring hypnotically at the two, when the room suddenly filled with people driven there by Tulia's screams, and Jack, the assumed attacker, was pushed against the wall. He didn't hear the shouts around him, didn't feel the rope being tied around his wrists, didn't see anything except Daniel and his new lover.
"You bastard!" Jack yelled, finally finding his voice again. "Didn't take you long, now did it?"
"Jack..." Daniel knew what he wanted to say, but ended up opening his mouth like a fish out of water.
"Now, now... mustn't speak with your mouth full," Jack said wryly, seeing both Daniel's attempts to speak as well as the white drops still clinging onto his skin.
"Jack, please..."
"Why couldn't you come right out and say it? That you wanted someone younger and better-looking? Well, now you've got it and obviously you're having the time of your life!"
"No, Jack..."
But Daniel was too late. Jack was already being dragged out of the room and he could hear a male voice shouting orders to take him to his house. Daniel didn't know whether to get up and follow or to stay with the injured man, but the latter made the decision easy for him by opening his eyes and letting out a stream of blood from his mouth as he tried to speak.
"I'm here, Jarkof, everything's okay, I'm right here..."
"Who is this man?" the same male voice behind Daniel commanded before Jarkof could get a word out of him. "You are the one the new ones were asking for, aren't you?"
"Uh, yes, I think..." Daniel said and turned to get a look at the man who spoke with such obvious authority. "I'm Daniel and that man they took away was my friend. I know he didn't mean any harm, he just, uh... misread the situation. W-what is going to happen to him?"
"I'll ask the questions here, if you don't mind! I am Ghala, the eldest, and it should have been brought to my attention that there was also a forth new one in Vun'tah!" the man raged. "If Jarkof weren't already in that state I would certainly put him into it myself!"
Daniel wasn't sure how to ask about Jack without upsetting him even more.
"Please, I must know... " he tried. "My friend won't be punished, will he? Please, it was all a misunderstanding..."
"Your friend will be treated the way any disobedient servant should be, I wouldn't worry about that, no, not as much as you ought to worry about Jarkof and yourself."
"But..."
"Quiet! I will administer a punishment for the new one first and deal with Jarkof later. No one is to leave this house until I return!"
A flash of white linen was all Daniel was able to register as Ghala span around and marched out of the room. His authority had been placed under question, no doubt, and the loss of prestige was no simple matter. Someone was bound to pay the price and Daniel feared it wouldn't be him.
****
Jack had neither the energy nor the will to care about what was happening to him. His feet barely touching the ground, he was dragged out of the house and into another.
Someone was talking to him and not in a particularly pleasant tone of voice, either, but as he understood nothing and cared even less, he let his mind drift away and torture itself with the image of Daniel in bed with another man, his Daniel having sex with another man. He had driven him to it - such a ludicrous cliché and yet so painfully true. There was no exit leading out of the room in which Jack found himself locked. It was a room where he felt comfortable, safe, and which not even Daniel could have been allowed to enter. The lock had clicked the moment he had refused to let Daniel do what... As clear as the image was, Jack was still unable to put it into words.
But the room had not been there always. It wasn't until he had been forced to come to terms with the existence of these ambiguous feelings he harboured towards Daniel that he had needed the protection only the locked door was able to provide him. On a level still partly unknown to him, he had thought that to be the best conceivable way to cope with the new territory their involvement had opened up for him, thinking that his restraint was bound to keep things casual and, yet again, safe. It was obvious that he had failed miserably.
Along with the key to the room, Jack had thrown away something Daniel had had to go and look for elsewhere, from another man. He knew he had been reserved and probably the most inconsiderate lover imaginable, and he had no valid excuses for it. It had been simply impossible for him to let himself go like that, lose his control and expose himself in front of Daniel in all his weakness. That would have meant giving into the notion that he was gay and Jack wasn't gay. Of course he wasn't. It was not even an issue. He didn't like men; he liked Daniel. And to Jack there was a huge difference between men in general and this one in particular.
Feeling his hands being untied, Jack woke up to reality for a brief moment, only to find himself being tied again, though this time his arms were pulled high up until he was standing on his toes. The cold stone against his body had a reassuring effect, telling him he was still alive and capable of suffering the consequences of his inexcusable behaviour.
He could have killed that bastard back there, quite easily and without a trace of remorse. And yet Jack felt he deserved every ounce of pain the world had to offer, that he was the one that should pay, the one that had messed things up. When he had thought that man to be doing it to Daniel by force, Jack had been attacking the stranger as much as himself. He needed to be punished, but not for the crime the rest of the world thought.
That same man was there again. Ghala. His voice was lower than the one before, not so much commanding as it was... vicious. The voice sunk ever lower and yet Jack could hear it better still. And when the hand touched his buttock, he knew why.
****
Having calmed down in the arms of Sinera, Tulia appeared to become aware of what had happened to her brother and she rushed to the bed.
"Oh, Jarkof! I am sorry, so sorry! I am entirely to blame for this..."
"Sinera..." Daniel didn't have to call her again, as she came half-running and wrapped her shawl around Tulia's shoulders to hide the stains of semen on her dress from the crowd of curious spectators still standing in the doorway.
"Servants," she said in a loud voice, "would one of you be so kind as to show these people to the door as they do not seem to be able to find it on their own?"
The room cleared quickly and the rabble moved into the hallway and down the stairs. Half-buried under their voices, Daniel could distinguish the sound of broken glass, crackling as the feet spread its pieces all over the floor. But the loss of his specs wasn't the main thing in Daniel's mind at that moment.
"Sinera," he said in a whisper, as the newly fallen silence seemed to require it, "he needs to see a doctor."
"What is that?"
"A doctor, uh..." Daniel rolled his eyes in frustration. "A medicine man, a wise man, a healer - anything!"
He couldn't keep his voice down any longer, but there was no need to either, as the woman shouted out an order loud and clear, and though no servant was visible to the eye, the footsteps in the stairs revealed that the matter was already attended to.
"But I thought that man, Ghala, ordered that no one was allowed to leave the house?" Daniel asked concerned.
"Oh, the servants always find their ways," Sinera answered. "You rest assured."
"Then could I get out, as well? I really need to..."
"No!" Her voice was unconditional. "You will be spotted the moment you step into the street. You must wait here."
"Oh, why can't we let him go?" Tulia cut in. "Haven't I done enough damage already..."
"Tulia-dear, you are not to blame for this," Sinera said as she leaned down to kiss the woman's hair. "I am certain none of this has anything to do with you. Quite certain."
"How could this happen? Why did that man hurt my brother? This is a punishment, isn't it? The punishment for what I did and I pulled Jarkof down with me!"
"No, Tulia, it has absolutely nothing to do with you," Daniel stepped in, seeing Sinera wasn't able to convince the hysterical woman by herself. "That man, Jack, thought Jarkof was hurting me and that is why he attacked him. Not because of anything you did."
"But why would he have thought so? You were willing, were you not?"
"Yes, I was..." Daniel said awkwardly. "He just wouldn't want to think I was being unfaithful to him out of free will."
The healer arrived and the three stepped back to give the professional some room to work in. Jarkof's wounds were cleansed and treated with some herbal bandages that Daniel knew nothing of but was all the same ready to rely on.
"Oh, this was the man you talked about earlier, I see..." Tulia said with a strange relief in her voice as they sat down on a bench on the other side of the room. "He was jealous of you, that is understandable. Not that it justifies the actions he took, but it does make it more understandable."
"No, nothing would justify this, I'm deeply sorry," Daniel said and took Tulia's hand in his own. "I have caused everyone great sorrow and I apologise."
"It was I and my stupid idea to keep you hidden from the others that is the cause of all this trouble! I should have listened to you, Sinera, and should never have pursued this fantasy of mine, never!"
"Tulia-dear, I know you did it all because of your love for Ketor, I am sure of that," Sinera said quietly.
"But experience! Lessons! What was I thinking?! And the sex wasn't even that special!" Tulia cried out, though adding: "Please, do not be offended, Daniel."
"Uh, I'm not," Daniel muttered and glanced suspiciously at the healer to see if he had reacted in any way to her words, hoping some form of confidentiality applied here as well.
"I love Ketor," Tulia went on in her sudden excitement. "Not a man or a woman, but Ketor. I care not whether he has that additional piece of flesh hanging between his legs or not, it shall make no difference to me. I would feel just the same were he a woman or..."
Daniel didn't catch the last comparison, but assumed the obscure cluster of sounds referred to those peculiar animals he had seen earlier.
"It makes no difference..." he repeated to himself, suddenly hearing something disturbingly familiar in the words, but didn't have to say it out loud. Sinera was there to do the job for him.
"But what if he uses you as only his plaything, has his fun and then deserts you?"
"Then so be it," Tulia said firmly. "I have dwelled in my insecurity long enough, now it is time to take action. You saw that man here, he was willing to fight for his love and so am I for mine!"
"Tulia, please, you're not going to go talk to Ketor, are you?"
The women's voices faded into the background as Daniel sunk deeper into his own thoughts. Jack had fought for him. But in actuality, had he fought for his lover - or for his personal property and the loss of dignity connected to it?
Daniel would have been lying if he was to claim that it hadn't felt 'good', in a seriously perverted sort of way, when he saw the rage in Jack's eyes, the drive to kill the man that he thought had done damage to his... what? There was always the seed of hope, keeping lodge somewhere deep down, that maybe, just maybe, there was more to it than Jack let him think; maybe a shred of the man he had fallen in love with over two months ago.
Something had obviously happened in between - either Jack had changed, or he had finally shown his true colours, that he was not the man Daniel had thought him to be. And it was precisely that hope mixed with the fear of disappointment that had kept him from coming clean with Jack. But insecurity had unquestionably been the stronger one and because of that, he had never had the guts to come out and say the same thing to Jack as Tulia was about to say to Ketor.
Would he be crushed if he told Jack how he felt about him and the man turned him down? Probably. What were the odds that he would return Daniel's feelings? There must have been some way of calculating that. If they could do it for racehorses, then why not for air force colonels? Perhaps, because people's lives had more turns than the track's four.
Looking at Tulia made Daniel more confident that there could only be one possible turn for him. It had been a stupid act of pride to break up with Jack without any explanations or discussions, something he had thought at the moment to be designed to protect him from any more heartache, but in the end it had caused more pain than anyone could have foreseen. And it would have been equally stupid to crawl back to the man, offering his body at his disposal and swallowing down his self-respect in one bitter gulp. No, now there was only one option left for him and this time he wouldn't let anything as trivial as sex cloud his judgement.
"Sex is simple enough to complicate things."
Tulia's remark came through into Daniel's thoughts and hit right on the spot.
****
"Teal'c!" Sam shouted as she spotted the Jaffa coming out of one of the houses and ran after him. "What's going on?!"
"I do not know. I noticed people running in the street and most of them appear to have gone to that house over there."
"I didn't hear the colonel fire his gun," Sam said, panting as she caught up with the Jaffa, "so, maybe it has nothing to do with him. Better have a look at it anyway."
The two hurried to the house Teal'c had been talking about and pushed their way in through the crowd gathering in the doorway. Finding nothing but a couple of scared servants on the ground floor, they climbed upstairs, and hit the jackpot.
"Daniel!"
"Oh, hi guys," Daniel answered casually. It had completely slipped his mind that of course Jack hadn't come alone and Sam and Teal'c were bound to be around there somewhere, but with all that hassle, Daniel had long since ceased to be able to think rationally.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked and stepped closer to give Daniel a quick hug, at the same time delighted and worried to find him there.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel assured her, giving her a weak smile. "Where's Jack?"
"We separated ourselves when attempting to find you, DanielJackson."
"He can't have gone far," Sam added, seeing the concern in Daniel's eyes.
"No, you don't understand... Jack was already here," Daniel said and walked over to the bed Jarkof was lying in, to show them the results of Jack's visit.
"O'Neill did this?"
Daniel nodded.
"Why?" Sam asked in disbelief.
"Uh... it's a long and not so pretty story," Daniel said as he stroked Jarkof's forehead gently, pushing the hair back from his face. "That's not important right now. Look, we have to find him. He's going to be punished for this."
"He was taken to Ghala's house, I am sure of that," Sinera said, getting up from the bench by the wall. "I doubt anything will be done before morning, though; Ghala is certain to want everyone to see the punishment."
"Sam, Teal'c - this is Sinera, and that's Tulia, Jarkof's sister," Daniel mumbled hurriedly, trying to get the introductions out of the way as quickly as possible.
"I'm not taking any risks," Sam said, taking the role of the leader. "We can't wait till morning."
"Then I will show you there through the back, so that you won't be seen," Sinera replied.
"We appreciate your effort."
Sinera was startled to hear Teal'c's voice and hesitated for a moment whether or not to show the servant of the Gods the respect he deserved, but as Daniel appeared to be quite at ease around the Jaffa, she decided to ignore the protocol and deal with things as they came.
"So, these are the friends you talked about," Sinera said, turning back to Daniel, "You weren't sent to Vun'tah, but instead you were brought here by the Gods."
"Uh, something like that." Daniel had no idea how to formulate the whole of it into a concise and easily absorbed explanation. "We don't belong here. We have to go. Now."
"I will help you in any way I can," she said obediently. "If the Gods did not intend for you to stay, no human can stop you from leaving."
Sam had taken the radio to tell SG-3 to stop their search, the object of which having been found safe and sound. As for the rescue of Colonel O'Neill no help from the base camp could be expected, though, since by foot the journey across the desert would take hours, as she well knew. They were on their own.
"Oh, and I believe you will find this useful as well," Sinera continued as she walked over to the bed and pulled Jack's gun from under it. "I managed to hide this. I thought it best not to let Ghala have it."
"You thought wisely." Teal'c nodded, giving rise to an uncharacteristic blush on Sinera's cheeks; she was in favour with the Gods themselves.
"Take it," Sam said and offered the gun to Daniel. "We're going to need all the firepower we can get."
"No, no... I don't want anyone to get hurt." Daniel shook his head and pushed the weapon back into Sam's hands. "There's been too much of that already."
"We should go."
"Yes, Ghala will receive the information that the new ones have been here and he will know to expect you," Sinera said already on her way to the door. "You must hurry if you are to surprise him."
But Daniel was not moving.
"Wait... just wait, please."
He needed to say goodbye first.
All this time, Daniel felt he had been balancing on the border between two very different worlds, getting lost in no-man's-land, unable to choose his side, and poor Jarkof had been the unfortunate one to get caught in the middle of it all - the casualty of a war he knew nothing of.
His eyes opening, Jarkof tried to say something, but Daniel's finger stopped him in mid-sentence.
"Please, don't talk. I must go and I wanted to... I can't explain everything right now, but I..."
Daniel felt the words clinging to his throat.
"Goodbye, Jarkof," he said, moving his finger along the still bleeding lips and taking the last look of those dark brown eyes.
"Daniel, we have to go." Sam was getting impatient. "That man, Ghala, already made the colonel an...." Her hand was swinging in the air, waiting for Teal'c's assistance to complete the sentence.
"An indecent proposition."
"Yes, thank you, Teal'c," Sam said, nodding to the Jaffa, and then continued, stammering slightly: "Daniel, you must have noticed that these people... *differ* from us to some extent, and I fear that Ghala might punish him in another way if we don't get there and soon."
"He... Jack..." Daniel couldn't think straight anymore and yet Sam's message couldn't have been more clear to him. "What are we waiting for?!" he exclaimed and hurried to the door.
"Tulia-dear?" Sinera asked as she pulled the woman up from her seat where she had been sitting quietly the whole time, rocking herself back and forth in steady rhythm. "Would you stay here with Jarkof while I go and escort these people to Ghala's house?"
Tulia was happy to be led back to the patient's bed, and as she turned to watch Sinera and Daniel go with the new strangers, she heard a faint voice coming from underneath the blankets.
"Daniel...? Where...?"
"He is gone, for good, I fear. How are you feeling, my dear brother?"
"I... I have been better, considerably better. Daniel... gone? And who was that man?"
****
The three were led by Sinera into the house by the town square, strange to Daniel, but all too familiar to the remaining two.
Forcing their way through a group of the most curious and adventurous, who were blocking the doorway, attempting to catch a glimpse of what was going on inside, they rushed in after Sinera. And what a sight was waiting for them.
On the opposite wall of the great hall, they could see Jack, standing with his back towards them and hands tied to something sticking out of the stone wall. And as they entered the room, the whip was cutting yet again deep into his skin, adding a new stream of blood to the ones already running down his bare back and buttocks.
Without giving Sam or Teal'c the chance to fire their weapons, Daniel attacked the man holding the whip and managed to stop the next lash, before being flung against the wall himself. But gathering his strength again, Daniel was back in the fight and crawling on his hands and knees he reached the man and dig his teeth all the way to the bone of his leg, causing him to fall down on the floor. Hearing a mixture of shouting and screaming around him, guns being fired as a warning, Daniel was just about to get the upper hand of the man, when he was pulled up and pushed aside.
"Teal'c, what are you doing?!"
"I believe you said that you did not want any more injuries. To anyone."
The words of the Jaffa slowly reaching the back of his mind, Daniel took a deep breath to calm down the rush of adrenaline his spontaneous attack had caused. There were more important things at hand, on the top of which getting Jack down from the wall.
"Help me!" he yelled at Teal'c and together they got Jack's limp body to the floor.
"Jack! Talk to me, please! Jack!"
"Daniel..."
"Jack!" Daniel's whole body trembled with relief, when hearing Jack's voice, coming weak but very much alive. "What did they do to you? My god, Jack..."
"You... should see the other guy..." Jack muttered from the floor. "Had a game of ball-buster with him and I think I won..."
It was only now that Daniel noticed what Sam and Sinera had already seen, Ghala lying in the corner, holding his groin with both hands and clearly in great pain.
"You kicked him... in the balls?" Daniel could almost have laughed if the circumstances had been different. "Wha--?"
"I believe this man tried to become intimate with ColonelO'Neill again," Teal'c replied from his side.
Daniel lifted Jack's head into his lap, pressing his face against his hair and whispering something into his ear, but there was no one to hear to him. Jack had already slipped into unconsciousness.
"He has lost a great deal of blood," Teal'c said, pulling down a curtain hanging in front of the doorway and covering the man's wounds with it. "He will need medical attention."
"Sinera, we have to get to the Entrance," Daniel said turning his eyes away from Jack only for the brief moment it took to locate the woman. "You have to help us."
"Of course. And I have already sent for the healer," she replied with her usual calmness, receiving Daniel's grateful smile with a nod. "But the Entrance? Will you be allowed to leave?"
"I am certain of that," Teal'c said as he walked over to Ghala, who was still lying on his side in the corner. "We are leaving."
Ghala woke back to life and fell on his face at Teal'c's feet.
"Please, you are not taking the new ones with you, are you? I promise you this kind of trouble will occur no more, you have my word for that! Please, don't take them, we need new workers desperately..."
Teal'c's foot pressed hard on Ghala's hand, stopping the flow of words most efficiently.
"I am a servant of the Gods. What you do to your servants, you do to me. Am I understood?"
"Oh, yes... yes... "
"Good."
Before Teal'c could raise his foot from the man's hand, Daniel's shout stopped him.
"Wait! I want him to promise that Jarkof won't be punished in any way."
"Do you make this promise?" Teal'c asked, increasing the pressure on Ghala's hand.
"Yes! Yes!"
"Do you trust the word of this man, DanielJackson?"
"Uh, yes... I guess." What else was there to trust? "Yes, let him go, Teal'c."
"We're going to need some means of transport to get the colonel to the Gate," Sam said, still holding her gun pointed at Ghala and his servants.
"Sinera...?" Daniel called out again.
"I will attend to it."
Careful not to touch Jack's back, Daniel and Teal'c carried the unconscious man out into the street where three huge animals were being saddled for them, with the addition of a fourth one for their guide. They placed Jack on his stomach on one of them and after Daniel's vigorous arguments, settled that Teal'c should be the one riding it.
As the animals and, after the healer had arrived, also Jack were prepared for the ride back to the Gate, Daniel took the opportunity to pull Sinera aside.
"Sinera... I don't know what to say, how to thank you."
"There is nothing for you to be thankful for. I am the cause of your lover's present condition."
Daniel looked at her questioningly.
"Yes, it was I who showed him to Jarkof's room," Sinera said, bending her head down with shame. "I did not know that you... and Tulia, too... of course I had my suspicions, but..."
"It's okay, they would've found me sooner or later," Daniel tried to comfort her. "But why?"
"I wanted you out of the house."
Her words came as a total surprise to Daniel and he failed to keep the expression from his face.
"Please, do not get me wrong here. I have nothing against you personally, but I believed your presence was only hurtful to Tulia, as well as to yourself. Nothing good could have come of it."
Daniel had to agree. The love this woman had for Tulia never ceased to amaze him.
"Hey, is that her?" Daniel asked, seeing only a dark figure without his glasses, standing in a second floor window of one of the houses.
"Yes, it is she."
Too far for voice to carry, motions had to make up for it, and the two waved their hands to the woman and saw her return the gesture.
"Please, tell her that I understand why she did, what she did."
"I will. I must return to her soon. I am afraid of leaving her alone for too long."
"Yes, you're worried she will go to Ketor and do something foolish," Daniel said, then pausing for a moment to search for the right way to phrase his thoughts on the subject once more. "Look, I still feel they should discuss it, bring it out in the open. Not *open* open, but you know what I mean..."
Sinera only smiled, not taking her eyes off of the woman in the window.
"I'm an outsider, yes, but believe me, I know what I'm talking about," Daniel finished, only to find Sinera's smile turn sadder.
"No, I don't believe you do."
"Daniel!" Sam's call came from behind. "We're ready to go!"
"Ill be right there!" Daniel shouted back and turned to Sinera again. "I really do know how she feels and I think she should trust Ketor enough to tell him."
"No, you still don't understand," Sinera said shaking her head. "You see, there is no Ketor."
Daniel was struck speechless.
"Wha--? He... You mean to tell me he's not real?"
"Oh, he's very real," Sinera answered with the same melancholy smile on her face. "Unfortunately, Ketor is only real to Tulia."
"But how... why...?"
"Jarkof and I agreed to go along with it. She has attempted to take her own life on several occasions, so we thought it best not to fight her with this. But we never should have agreed to let her hide you in our house and that plan she had..." Tulia shook her head, unable to bear the shame. "You must trust my word that we would have never forced you into anything against your will. Never."
"Oh, I know you wouldn't, I know... but Tulia..." The acceptance of the truth seemed too much for Daniel, and his widened eyes locked on Sinera's to find confirmation there.
"It was because of her that I decided to find the people who were looking for you. After I learned what had happened in Ghala's house, I really felt that it had gone far enough and as I couldn't possibly force Tulia to abandon her plan, I thought I'd let your friends do it for her."
"So, you..." Daniel had lost his ability to produce complete sentences.
"I showed that man into our house and poor Jarkof had to pay for my mistake." Her gaze rose to admire the beautiful night sky, as if attempting to find absolution in the tremendous glitter of the countless stars. "If only I had been able to find the Jaffa, but instead I bring your jealous lover. Life does know quite a few tricks, now doesn't it?"
"Uh, yeah, it does. I... I can't believe..."
But his circling thoughts were interrupted by Sam's voice.
"Daniel!" her call came more demanding this time. "We have to go!"
Taking a quick glance at his team mates, Daniel had time to register the angry and humiliated look on Ghala's face change into an overly pleasing smile as he limped out of his house to see them off and met Teal'c's fearsome look. And he could also see the light kiss Sam placed on the cheek of an unknown woman.
"I... I should... I have to..."
"I know you do." Sinera smiled. "Will you be back?"
"I... I don't know..." Daniel hated himself for not being able to get anything more meaningful past his lips. "I really don't know."
"You must go with your people, go to the Gods," Sinera said as she took Daniel's hand in her own. "I will take care of Tulia, you need not worry. I have done it for many cycles and will continue to do so for many more."
All Daniel could do was smile and squeeze her hand, hoping the touch would transfer the turmoil of thoughts in his head into something more intelligible.
"Goodbye, Sinera."
"Goodbye, Daniel."