CHAPTER 2:
THE DAY BEFORE:
Loud ring of the telephone ripped through the soft music playing in the background, and Daniel lifted his head from the research he was so engrossed in. He contemplated about answering it but decided against it, burying his head back in the research. The answering machine picked up after the fourth ring.
"Hey Daniel, this is Sam. I, ah, I guess you're not home…"
Daniel quickly reached for the phone. "Sam?"
"Daniel?"
"Yeah, I'm here. I was, ah...working. Is there something wrong?"
"No! Nothing's wrong. I was just, ah… "
"Sam, are you ok? Is everything ok?"
"Eh, never mind. This is a stupid idea. I'm sorry for dragging you from your work."
"No! Sam, wait! Where are you?"
**click**
"Sam? Damn it." He lowered the handset and furrowed his brow. Sam was definitely not OK. He thought a little, then dialed a number. After a few seconds he hung up and grabbing his jacket he left his apartment.
*** *** ***
**ring… ring… ring… ring…**
"Yeh. That's hello in Egyptian. You've reached Daniel Jackson. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Seneb'ti, that's goodbye in Egyptian."
**beep**
"Hi Daniel, it's me again. I am on my way to your place, and I'm a little drunk. **giggle** Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for anything I might say or do tonight. Please forgive me. **sigh** "
**click**
*** *** ***
He saw her sitting at the bar, a nearly empty drink in her hand, several other empty glasses in front of her. He silently prayed they were from others and not just from her. She was looking down into her glass, squinting her eyes a little and scrunching her nose. She lifted her hand with the glass she was holding and shook it at the bartender. The bartender sighed but when she gave him her death glare he cleared his throat, filled her glass and disappeared to the other corner of the bar.
Daniel walked up to her and sat on the empty barstool next to her. He motioned to the bartender and then to Sam and a glass of scotch on the rocks appeared in front of him.
"What is a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" He started innocently.
Sam lifted her head and was about to come back with a nasty remark when she noticed Daniel smirking at her, a glass of scotch in his hand.
"Daniel," she sighed heavily. "What are you doing here?" She said a bit irritated.
He raised his eyebrow a little.
"It's good to see you too, Sam," he said and took a sip from his glass. He tried not to make a face as the burning liquid made its way down his throat. Beer he could handle. Scotch was another thing. A thing he definitely didn't do.
She looked at him and noticed him grimace a little although he was trying very hard not to show it. She chuckled to herself.
"This is so not you, Daniel."
"What isn't?"
"That." She pointed to the glass on the bar in front of him.
"Well this isn't like you either," he said calmly.
"I'm allowed to drink a little scotch now and them aren't I?" Her speech was starting to slur.
"Sure you are. You just have to know your limits," Daniel said quietly.
"Don't patronize me Danny Boy. I get enough Patronization from the General and the Colonel," she spat out angrily.
Daniel winced visibly. Luckily, Sam didn't notice. "Ok, wrong way of dealing with this."
"How did you find me?" She asked before he had a chance to come up with something else to say.
"I star-sixty-nined you." He shrugged and took another sip, this time succeeding in not flinching.
She laughed. "You are so smart." She tried to poke him in the chest but she nearly fell off her barstool.
"And you are quite drunk." He finished for her. "Come on, let me take you home."
She sighed and lowered her head. It started to hurt a while ago, but she didn't pay any attention to it. She knew she would have a hell of a hangover tomorrow, but she didn't care at this moment. All she wanted to do now is forget. Forget about today and scotch would help her do that. She turned her head to him and squinted her eyes. She knew he was worried. She could tell even in her inebriated state. She saw that he was watching her closely, probably thinking about what has gotten her to come in here in the first place. He was smart. He would figure it out soon. She was sure of it. What she wasn't sure of was the fact that he might not like it.
"Yeah." She agreed, slapping him on the back a little too hard. "Let's go home, Danny."
He helped her off the barstool and turned to the bartender to pay. She swayed a little when he let go of her, but his quick reflexes caught her in time. Her stomach rebelled against her and she visibly paled.
"Oh God… I have to… I, ah…"
He looked at her pained expression and nodded his head.
"OK, let me just pay this…"
"No." She interrupted him quickly. "I have to go NOW."
Daniel looked from the bartender to Sam worriedly.
"It's OK, I can walk by myself."
"Wait for me outside. I'll be out in a second." He said, but she was already half way to the door. He watched as she stumbled out of the bar and turned to the bartender. "OK, how much?"
It took a lot more time for him to pay the bill then he intended to. Apparently, Sam has had more than he thought. After about ten minutes of convincing the bartender to take his credit card, what kind of place doesn't accept credit cards? He thought. He finally paid the bill and practically ran outside.
"Damn it!" He cursed loudly. It was pouring and Sam was nowhere to be found.
*** ***
Sam took a long sip of her coffee. She let the hot, almost too hot liquid go down her throat. She stared into her mug, watching the cream and the darker coffee swirl together almost wrestling, or maybe dancing. She couldn't believe she did what she did. Just how much did she have to drink last night? The pounding in her head was a good indication that she had at least 5 too many. It's one thing to drag herself into this situation, it was another to drag her best friend Daniel into it. She was snapped out of her pity party when she felt a breeze on her back and legs.
"Uh, Daniel?"
He lifted his head to look at her.
"I, ah, I can't find my clothes." She mumbled quietly looking down on the floor, obviously embarrassed.
"Oh, I took them."
"Oh. You took them."
"They were all soaked wet. I put them in the dryer."
"Soaked wet?" She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. She was repeating everything after him like a damned monkey. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Why were they wet?"
"Oh, you decided to take a little walk before I had a chance to get you home." He answered quickly. "And it had just started raining. Pouring actually." Flashing her a wicked grin, he finished matter-of-factly. "And, I learned something new about you."
She looked at him sharply then, panicked expression on her face. 'Oh God.'
*** ***
He saw her walking down the street; her hair plastered to her forehead, hands in the pockets of her knee high length leather jacket. She was completely soaked. Not a single hair or thread was left dry on her. He stopped his car and walked out into the rain.
"Sam," he gently touched her shoulder and she spun around startled. He quickly raised his hands in defense.
"Daniel," she put her hand to her heart. "You scared me."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," he smiled. "Why didn't you wait for me?"
She shrugged in response. When she did this her jacket flapped open, revealing the oh-so-thanks-to-the-rain-transparent-might-as-well-not-be-there white blouse underneath. Daniel coughed slightly to get her attention but she didn't notice. He tried to stay focused on her face. He knew however since the rain never ceased that was now as soaked as she was.
"Come on, let's go before you catch pneumonia," he prompted but she never moved from her spot.
"I love rain," she said instead. She tilted her head upwards and closed her eyes as the rain completely enveloped her. "I always wanted to make love in the rain."
This sudden turn of conversation surprised him and he stood frozen to his spot.
"Ah, pardon me?" He stuttered.
She either didn't hear him or chose to ignore his last comment. "But it had to be pouring hard. Not just a little drizzle..." she continued.
He tried to ignore her blatant remarks. He grabbed the lapels of her jacket and started to button it. She was still rambling, but he was still tuning her out slightly until she directly addressed him.
"How about you Daniel?" She said stepping closer to him, pressing her body into his.
"What about me, Sam?"
"Did you ever want to make love in the rain?" Sam suggested trying to grab onto a lapel of his jacket but it slipped through her fingers.
She must have been still drunk, he thought. But she looked surprisingly sober to him now. He took a tiny step away from her. It was just a small move, but it was enough for Sam to pick up on the fact that her advances weren't going to work.
"Do you know why I was in the bar tonight?" She asked, slight hurt heard in her voice.
A slight shake of his head answered her question.
"I wanted to bring someone home with me."
His eyebrows raised to his hairline and she laughed.
"Do you know why I wanted to bring someone home?" Again, all she got was a head shake.
" I was tired of being lonely, Daniel."
"This is not a way to…"
"I know it isn't. I might be drunk, but I'm not stupid." She sighed loudly. "I wanted someone in my life. I was tired of waking up alone in that huge house. I was tired of coming back from work to an empty place. I wanted something more… someone…" She choked on her words.
He couldn't say if she was crying because the rain was washing her face from any sign of… She took a deep breath.
"The plan was… " A loud gulp. "The plan was to fill that emptiness for at least this one night. And if I got something more out of it later, then that would be even better."
"Something more?" He asked a bit confused.
She looked at him guilty and lowered her head. He furrowed his brows as he tried to understand and suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks. She was trying to… She wanted… Oh God!
"Oh, Sam."
"I'm sorry." She choked back on her tears.
"But there are other ways to…"
"I can't wait forever, Daniel!" She bit back angrily. "You know, I'm not getting any younger. And I don't want to be alone anymore!" She tried to explain her actions. "I thought, ah, I thought that this way I will have what I always wanted. And I'm ready. I really am." She pleaded with him to understand.
"Yes, I understand. But Sam…"
"But what? I didn't do it, did I?" She laughed bitterly. "You know what the funny thing is? DO YOU?!"
He shook his head again.
"The FUNNY thing is that no one even wanted to come over and talk to me. They were scared! OF ME!"
She was hurting. And it tore him apart to see her hurting like that.
"Tell me, Daniel. Please explain it to me because I can't seem to understand." She was invading his personal space, daring him to stare her straight in her tears filled eyes. He didn't back down from the challenge. "Tell me what is it that I do that keeps pushing men away from me." She stabbed a finger into his soaked wet jacket. "Tell me why every man runs away as soon as he lays eyes on me." Another stab. "Tell me…" A sob. "Tell me, why no one wants to love me. I have so much to give. I have so much…" She couldn't finish her sentence before she completely lost it. He quickly pulled her into him and she buried her face in his jacket.
She cried softly into his jacket, the tears mixing in with the rain that already soaked his clothes. She wiped the tears off of her cheeks and looked at Daniel with awe. He came all that way to find her and what does she do to thank him? She yells, cries and acts like a five year old. She was surprised she didn't kick and scream as well. She knew what she had to do. She took a deep breath then began to tell the truth.
"You know that I was actually on my way to your place when you came?"
"You were?"
"Yeah. Last line of hope and all that...." She noticed him blushing. She was almost tempted to run her hands under that wet t-shirt he was wearing. She licked her lips, then bit her bottom lip in indecision.
"You know what Cassie told me today?" Daniel asked changing the topic quickly.
She looked up at him almost as if coming out of a deep sleep. Cassie. She forgot about the little girl who was in Dr. Janet Frazier's custody. She was almost like a daughter to her. She smiled almost wistfully about Cassie.
"What did she say?"
"She was telling me all about how the two of you went kayaking last Friday. You should have seen her eyes light up when she described how you went down the rapids as if you were a duck. She told me she couldn't wait to go and do it again," Daniel said smiling that killer smile of his. He took her hand into his and they slowly walked to his car.
"That was a lot of fun," Sam said lucidly and sat in the car seat and allowed him to tuck her legs in so that he could close the car door.
*** ***
Daniel stopped the car at the red light, and then he felt Sam's hand on his thigh.
"I don't want to go home," she told him quietly looking him in the eyes. Please don't take me to that big and empty place, she added silently.
He nodded in understanding and covered her hand with his. Squeezing lightly, he sent her a small smile and when the light turned green, he turned his car in the other direction. Not letting go of her hand, he drove to his place.
END OF CHAPTER 2.
THE DAY BEFORE:
Loud ring of the telephone ripped through the soft music playing in the background, and Daniel lifted his head from the research he was so engrossed in. He contemplated about answering it but decided against it, burying his head back in the research. The answering machine picked up after the fourth ring.
"Hey Daniel, this is Sam. I, ah, I guess you're not home…"
Daniel quickly reached for the phone. "Sam?"
"Daniel?"
"Yeah, I'm here. I was, ah...working. Is there something wrong?"
"No! Nothing's wrong. I was just, ah… "
"Sam, are you ok? Is everything ok?"
"Eh, never mind. This is a stupid idea. I'm sorry for dragging you from your work."
"No! Sam, wait! Where are you?"
**click**
"Sam? Damn it." He lowered the handset and furrowed his brow. Sam was definitely not OK. He thought a little, then dialed a number. After a few seconds he hung up and grabbing his jacket he left his apartment.
*** *** ***
**ring… ring… ring… ring…**
"Yeh. That's hello in Egyptian. You've reached Daniel Jackson. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Seneb'ti, that's goodbye in Egyptian."
**beep**
"Hi Daniel, it's me again. I am on my way to your place, and I'm a little drunk. **giggle** Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for anything I might say or do tonight. Please forgive me. **sigh** "
**click**
*** *** ***
He saw her sitting at the bar, a nearly empty drink in her hand, several other empty glasses in front of her. He silently prayed they were from others and not just from her. She was looking down into her glass, squinting her eyes a little and scrunching her nose. She lifted her hand with the glass she was holding and shook it at the bartender. The bartender sighed but when she gave him her death glare he cleared his throat, filled her glass and disappeared to the other corner of the bar.
Daniel walked up to her and sat on the empty barstool next to her. He motioned to the bartender and then to Sam and a glass of scotch on the rocks appeared in front of him.
"What is a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" He started innocently.
Sam lifted her head and was about to come back with a nasty remark when she noticed Daniel smirking at her, a glass of scotch in his hand.
"Daniel," she sighed heavily. "What are you doing here?" She said a bit irritated.
He raised his eyebrow a little.
"It's good to see you too, Sam," he said and took a sip from his glass. He tried not to make a face as the burning liquid made its way down his throat. Beer he could handle. Scotch was another thing. A thing he definitely didn't do.
She looked at him and noticed him grimace a little although he was trying very hard not to show it. She chuckled to herself.
"This is so not you, Daniel."
"What isn't?"
"That." She pointed to the glass on the bar in front of him.
"Well this isn't like you either," he said calmly.
"I'm allowed to drink a little scotch now and them aren't I?" Her speech was starting to slur.
"Sure you are. You just have to know your limits," Daniel said quietly.
"Don't patronize me Danny Boy. I get enough Patronization from the General and the Colonel," she spat out angrily.
Daniel winced visibly. Luckily, Sam didn't notice. "Ok, wrong way of dealing with this."
"How did you find me?" She asked before he had a chance to come up with something else to say.
"I star-sixty-nined you." He shrugged and took another sip, this time succeeding in not flinching.
She laughed. "You are so smart." She tried to poke him in the chest but she nearly fell off her barstool.
"And you are quite drunk." He finished for her. "Come on, let me take you home."
She sighed and lowered her head. It started to hurt a while ago, but she didn't pay any attention to it. She knew she would have a hell of a hangover tomorrow, but she didn't care at this moment. All she wanted to do now is forget. Forget about today and scotch would help her do that. She turned her head to him and squinted her eyes. She knew he was worried. She could tell even in her inebriated state. She saw that he was watching her closely, probably thinking about what has gotten her to come in here in the first place. He was smart. He would figure it out soon. She was sure of it. What she wasn't sure of was the fact that he might not like it.
"Yeah." She agreed, slapping him on the back a little too hard. "Let's go home, Danny."
He helped her off the barstool and turned to the bartender to pay. She swayed a little when he let go of her, but his quick reflexes caught her in time. Her stomach rebelled against her and she visibly paled.
"Oh God… I have to… I, ah…"
He looked at her pained expression and nodded his head.
"OK, let me just pay this…"
"No." She interrupted him quickly. "I have to go NOW."
Daniel looked from the bartender to Sam worriedly.
"It's OK, I can walk by myself."
"Wait for me outside. I'll be out in a second." He said, but she was already half way to the door. He watched as she stumbled out of the bar and turned to the bartender. "OK, how much?"
It took a lot more time for him to pay the bill then he intended to. Apparently, Sam has had more than he thought. After about ten minutes of convincing the bartender to take his credit card, what kind of place doesn't accept credit cards? He thought. He finally paid the bill and practically ran outside.
"Damn it!" He cursed loudly. It was pouring and Sam was nowhere to be found.
*** ***
Sam took a long sip of her coffee. She let the hot, almost too hot liquid go down her throat. She stared into her mug, watching the cream and the darker coffee swirl together almost wrestling, or maybe dancing. She couldn't believe she did what she did. Just how much did she have to drink last night? The pounding in her head was a good indication that she had at least 5 too many. It's one thing to drag herself into this situation, it was another to drag her best friend Daniel into it. She was snapped out of her pity party when she felt a breeze on her back and legs.
"Uh, Daniel?"
He lifted his head to look at her.
"I, ah, I can't find my clothes." She mumbled quietly looking down on the floor, obviously embarrassed.
"Oh, I took them."
"Oh. You took them."
"They were all soaked wet. I put them in the dryer."
"Soaked wet?" She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. She was repeating everything after him like a damned monkey. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Why were they wet?"
"Oh, you decided to take a little walk before I had a chance to get you home." He answered quickly. "And it had just started raining. Pouring actually." Flashing her a wicked grin, he finished matter-of-factly. "And, I learned something new about you."
She looked at him sharply then, panicked expression on her face. 'Oh God.'
*** ***
He saw her walking down the street; her hair plastered to her forehead, hands in the pockets of her knee high length leather jacket. She was completely soaked. Not a single hair or thread was left dry on her. He stopped his car and walked out into the rain.
"Sam," he gently touched her shoulder and she spun around startled. He quickly raised his hands in defense.
"Daniel," she put her hand to her heart. "You scared me."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," he smiled. "Why didn't you wait for me?"
She shrugged in response. When she did this her jacket flapped open, revealing the oh-so-thanks-to-the-rain-transparent-might-as-well-not-be-there white blouse underneath. Daniel coughed slightly to get her attention but she didn't notice. He tried to stay focused on her face. He knew however since the rain never ceased that was now as soaked as she was.
"Come on, let's go before you catch pneumonia," he prompted but she never moved from her spot.
"I love rain," she said instead. She tilted her head upwards and closed her eyes as the rain completely enveloped her. "I always wanted to make love in the rain."
This sudden turn of conversation surprised him and he stood frozen to his spot.
"Ah, pardon me?" He stuttered.
She either didn't hear him or chose to ignore his last comment. "But it had to be pouring hard. Not just a little drizzle..." she continued.
He tried to ignore her blatant remarks. He grabbed the lapels of her jacket and started to button it. She was still rambling, but he was still tuning her out slightly until she directly addressed him.
"How about you Daniel?" She said stepping closer to him, pressing her body into his.
"What about me, Sam?"
"Did you ever want to make love in the rain?" Sam suggested trying to grab onto a lapel of his jacket but it slipped through her fingers.
She must have been still drunk, he thought. But she looked surprisingly sober to him now. He took a tiny step away from her. It was just a small move, but it was enough for Sam to pick up on the fact that her advances weren't going to work.
"Do you know why I was in the bar tonight?" She asked, slight hurt heard in her voice.
A slight shake of his head answered her question.
"I wanted to bring someone home with me."
His eyebrows raised to his hairline and she laughed.
"Do you know why I wanted to bring someone home?" Again, all she got was a head shake.
" I was tired of being lonely, Daniel."
"This is not a way to…"
"I know it isn't. I might be drunk, but I'm not stupid." She sighed loudly. "I wanted someone in my life. I was tired of waking up alone in that huge house. I was tired of coming back from work to an empty place. I wanted something more… someone…" She choked on her words.
He couldn't say if she was crying because the rain was washing her face from any sign of… She took a deep breath.
"The plan was… " A loud gulp. "The plan was to fill that emptiness for at least this one night. And if I got something more out of it later, then that would be even better."
"Something more?" He asked a bit confused.
She looked at him guilty and lowered her head. He furrowed his brows as he tried to understand and suddenly it hit him like a ton of bricks. She was trying to… She wanted… Oh God!
"Oh, Sam."
"I'm sorry." She choked back on her tears.
"But there are other ways to…"
"I can't wait forever, Daniel!" She bit back angrily. "You know, I'm not getting any younger. And I don't want to be alone anymore!" She tried to explain her actions. "I thought, ah, I thought that this way I will have what I always wanted. And I'm ready. I really am." She pleaded with him to understand.
"Yes, I understand. But Sam…"
"But what? I didn't do it, did I?" She laughed bitterly. "You know what the funny thing is? DO YOU?!"
He shook his head again.
"The FUNNY thing is that no one even wanted to come over and talk to me. They were scared! OF ME!"
She was hurting. And it tore him apart to see her hurting like that.
"Tell me, Daniel. Please explain it to me because I can't seem to understand." She was invading his personal space, daring him to stare her straight in her tears filled eyes. He didn't back down from the challenge. "Tell me what is it that I do that keeps pushing men away from me." She stabbed a finger into his soaked wet jacket. "Tell me why every man runs away as soon as he lays eyes on me." Another stab. "Tell me…" A sob. "Tell me, why no one wants to love me. I have so much to give. I have so much…" She couldn't finish her sentence before she completely lost it. He quickly pulled her into him and she buried her face in his jacket.
She cried softly into his jacket, the tears mixing in with the rain that already soaked his clothes. She wiped the tears off of her cheeks and looked at Daniel with awe. He came all that way to find her and what does she do to thank him? She yells, cries and acts like a five year old. She was surprised she didn't kick and scream as well. She knew what she had to do. She took a deep breath then began to tell the truth.
"You know that I was actually on my way to your place when you came?"
"You were?"
"Yeah. Last line of hope and all that...." She noticed him blushing. She was almost tempted to run her hands under that wet t-shirt he was wearing. She licked her lips, then bit her bottom lip in indecision.
"You know what Cassie told me today?" Daniel asked changing the topic quickly.
She looked up at him almost as if coming out of a deep sleep. Cassie. She forgot about the little girl who was in Dr. Janet Frazier's custody. She was almost like a daughter to her. She smiled almost wistfully about Cassie.
"What did she say?"
"She was telling me all about how the two of you went kayaking last Friday. You should have seen her eyes light up when she described how you went down the rapids as if you were a duck. She told me she couldn't wait to go and do it again," Daniel said smiling that killer smile of his. He took her hand into his and they slowly walked to his car.
"That was a lot of fun," Sam said lucidly and sat in the car seat and allowed him to tuck her legs in so that he could close the car door.
*** ***
Daniel stopped the car at the red light, and then he felt Sam's hand on his thigh.
"I don't want to go home," she told him quietly looking him in the eyes. Please don't take me to that big and empty place, she added silently.
He nodded in understanding and covered her hand with his. Squeezing lightly, he sent her a small smile and when the light turned green, he turned his car in the other direction. Not letting go of her hand, he drove to his place.
END OF CHAPTER 2.