Chapter 3
"Okay, we'll get the prisoners," Sam said, taking command. "You hold this position and make contact with the Colonel." Janet's eyes widened. She lifted her hands, showing them empty. "Hold it with what?"
Sam blinked. "You and Teal'c go, then. I'll stay."
Teal'c inclined his head, and he and Janet headed toward the dungeons.
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Teal'c led Janet down a twisting stairwell. He held a lantern aloft, its flickering firelight barely revealing the walls that closed in on their shoulders. Janet felt the dampness seep into her, making her flimsy robes sticky. She shivered with cold she'd already forgotten in the few hours she'd been away from the cell. "This is hell," she said.
Teal'c looked over his shoulder at her, and then went on.
Janet exhaled.
Teal'c's weapon went off, shooting electricity that brightened the dungeon into daylight for an instant. The movement was so sudden Janet thought the staff had accidentally discharged until she saw the shadow of a guard lying in front of them. Teal'c fired again, and then twirled, swinging his staff into the waist of a third guard. When the darkness returned, filled by the screams of women behind a wooden door, Janet dared to breathe.
"They're dead." She stared at Teal'c.
"Many have already died," he responded calmly.
Janet looked down at the dirt floor. A guard's blood pooled near her right foot.
"Come." Teal'c stepped toward the door. "We must free them."
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When Janet emerged from the hall, hand in hand with D'rn's wife, she saw an Air Force truck in the middle of the grand foyer. The sight of a truck made her nauseous. Sam popped her head out of the front passenger window. "Need a lift?"
Teal'c helped the women into the back of the truck, and Janet, settled behind the cab, peered at the back of O'Neill's head in the driver's seat. "This is your big plan, Colonel?" The one I stayed in bed for?
"Superior technology and firepower. Works every time." O'Neill grinned.
Sam chuckled, reaching through the cab window to touch Janet's shoulder. "Well, hopefully just this once."
"Cynic." O'Neill snorted. "Everyone ready?" He drove the truck in a curve until it faced the outer doors. Janet saw no sign of the Nkin noblemen. "200 guards?" O'Neill quipped. "Start counting." He floored the truck. "Pyramids have nicely-sloped stairs."
The vehicle shot through the open doors and down the stairs, scattering the main contingent of guards that lined the walkway--the advantage of superior technology that made Sam feel somewhat like a bully. Once off the palace grounds and into the city, the truck encountered no opposition.
"The streets are clear," Sam commented to O'Neill.
He nodded. "Festival's on the other side of town."
"Good planning."
Instead of traveling west toward the Stargate, O'Neill drove north and then doubled back, off-roading for a solid hour before reaching a temporary camp.
Chen was there with supplies in case the rescued people needed medical assistance.
"We're going to stay, possibly overnight, just to make sure Rdek can't find D'rn's men. We also didn't want them anywhere near the Stargate."
"So we've taken sides?" Sam had asked.
"It merits further study." O'Neill explained. "The SGC's archeologists, sans Daniel, have managed to translate D'rn's language." He tapped an earpiece. "Gibberish in, English out. A bit slower on what I have to say back, though, and the folks keep giving me odd looks."
Carter smirked.
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The camp was dark that night. No bonfire party to celebrate the rescue, no funeral pyre to mourn D'rn. Sentries, including Teal'c, O'Neill, and Carter, kept watch a mile in all directions.
Well past midnight, Carter slipped into the tent where she'd been assigned. Janet was there, writing by candlelight. "Hey," Sam murmured, looking over her shoulder. "Working on your report?"
"Yeah. Couldn't sleep." Janet reached behind her, blindly. Sam grabbed her wrist. "Off world, in the forest... feeling a little unsafe, I guess." Janet murmured.
Sam released Janet's hand and knelt behind her, wrapping her arms around Janet's shoulders. "Do you still feel unsafe?"
Janet rolled her head back, resting her temple against Sam's cheek. "I feel better."
"Me too," Sam confessed. She pressed a kiss to Janet's head. "It's lonely out there."
"And cold," Janet commented. "Your lips are freezing."
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry." Janet turned her head. "Let me warm them." She offered herself to Sam.
Accepting, Sam kissed Janet gently. The heat of Janet's lips melted her own, and she delved deeper as sensation returned, finding the hot wetness of Janet's tongue, stroking her back to life. Sam moaned softly, letting Janet choreograph the kiss, and surrendered to her, as Janet found her tongue and suckled.
Sam's hands began to travel, chastely across Janet's upper chest, then to her stomach. She was debating whether to tug the hem of Janet's shirt from her belt or dare to touch a breast when Janet tugged Sam's lower lip between her teeth and bit. Sam moaned, paralyzed except for the sounds desperate to escape her, and she was still as Janet's lips traced her jaw, before finding her earlobe and nibbling.
"Sam," Janet breathed into her ear.
The word was a declaration. Sam arched into Janet's touch. Her hand slid over Janet's chest, finding the curve of a breast. "You're beautiful," Sam whispered into the throat under her lips.
Janet squeezed her eyes shut. "Sam." She repeated, clasping Sam's hand on her chest. "It's been a long time, since..."
Sam kissed the back of Janet's neck.
"...I've been touched." Janet whispered.
"Why?"
"I'm a woman," Janet sighed, as if that settled everything. She arched back into Sam. "It could end my career. They could take my daughter. It's immoral. It's indecent. God." She seized Sam's lips in a passionate kiss.
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"What now?" Janet asked.
"Sleep."
Janet opened her eyes to see Sam grinning at her. "Sleep?"
"Sleep."
"But... What about...?" Janet faltered, looking away, at the incongruous form of an animal head hanging over the entrance flap.
Sam stood, and placed her hand on Janet's shoulder. "We'll talk when--"
"Carter." Her radio crackled.
Janet felt anger at the intrusion and covered Sam's hand with her own, responding to an urge for possession that surprised her.
Sam unclipped the radio with her free hand. "Go ahead, sir."
"Dawn in two hours. We'll leave then. Start packing."
"Aye, sir."
Sam re-clipped the radio and smiled at Janet. "Earth is waiting. The first thing I am going to do after debriefing is to find you."
"Okay." Janet drew Sam's hand to her lips.
Sam leaned down, pulling her hand away and replacing it with her own mouth, kissing Janet softly before stepping to the tent flap. "Rest."
Janet lolled her head on the back of the chair.
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SG1 had made it through the Stargate without running into Rdek's men, and were debriefing Hammond in the conference room. "We don't think Rdek's men have any idea what the Stargate is," O'Neill reported. "We're 100 sure--" At a glare from Carter he cleared his throat. "99 sure they didn't see us go through, and will assume we returned to wherever Sam and Teal'c came from."
Teal'c raised his eyebrow.
"Entare," Sam clarified.
Daniel leaned forward. "I suggest we revisit next year to catch the next festival, and see how the political situation has progressed."
"Put a note in the dialing computer," Hammond said, frowning. "Why would they poison the people who were their slave pool?"
"Short-sightedness?" Daniel speculated. "Or perhaps they were just culling the herd."
Carter cringed.
"I can't believe it's snowing," Jack grumbled.
Hammond glanced over at him. "Colonel, it's winter in Colorado Springs."
"It's unfair." Jack folded his arms across his chest.
Hammond rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Janet. "So the fungus has been eradicated?"
"We gave D'rn's tribe a year's worth of supply, and showed him how to hide it. So even if Rdek tries again, they'll be ready. Hopefully, he'll assume it hasn't worked, and give up."
"And move on to another plan," Sam muttered.
Hammond looked thoughtful. "It's too bad we weren't able to find the source of the disease and neutralize it more effectively."
Janet looked down, but O'Neill answered firmly. "When the killing started, sir, the mission parameters changed."
Hammond nodded. "All right. You're dismissed, until 1200 tomorrow. SG3 is returning with Tok'ra intelligence."
The men pushed their chairs back and stood up. Janet lingered in hers, taking time closing her notebook and trying to catch Sam's eye.
Sam glanced up. Her gaze met Janet's and she looked directly at the doctor. Her lips parted to speak, but Hammond's voice interrupted, startling them both.
"Doctor Fraiser, can you go over the fungus and the cure with me in your office? I want to make sure we're on the same page for the report to Area 51."
Janet looked away from Sam and at the General. He smiled down at her. "Unless you'd rather rest."
"Now is good, sir. I'd rather get through it first, rather than having it hang over my head," she murmured. Sam stood up and edged toward the door.
Hammond nodded. "I thought you'd say that."
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Despite Sam's promise, Janet was the one to seek her out as soon as the medical debriefing with Hammond ended, finally finding her in her lab. "You found me," Janet said softly. "Janet, I--" Sam cleared her throat and looked down at her report. She'd been faking absorption in her work for over an hour, waiting for Janet's meeting to be over, wondering if Janet was delaying things in the hopes that she would give up and stop waiting.
Janet leaned her hip against a table. "What happens off-world, stays off-world?" Her tone was wistful.
"I didn't--" Sam looked up sharply. "Come home with me, Janet."
"Come home with you?" The doctor raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in attitude.
"Yes."
"Tonight?"
"Yes." Sam nervously watched Janet.
"Okay."
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"Do you spend a lot of time here?" Janet asked Sam, as the entered the foyer of Sam's house.
"Yeah." Sam rubbed the back of her neck. "I like coming home at the end of the day. Having a house. Having heirlooms. It makes me feel... normal."
Janet looked around, at the pictures on the walls. "So what am I doing here?"
Sam blinked, and turned to look at Janet. "You make me feel normal." She winced. "In a complimentary way, I mean. You--"
"Sam." Janet put a hand on her forearm to save her from rambling. "It's just... I've been trying all my life to be normal. To hide that part of myself that doesn't... quite fit in. So I've made a career for myself that lets me help people. I can let little parts of my heart through. But my home life is a blinding reminder of how I'm different."
"Huh." Sam mulled the information over. "I've always been 'exceptional'," she raised her free hand and made a quotation gesture. "I guess what I always really wanted was what my parents had, briefly." She rested her hand on Janet's shoulder. "What you and Cassandra give me."
Janet leaned in, resting her cheek on Sam's wrist. "I guess it is complimentary, then."
"I hope so." Sam grinned.
"You rogue."
Sam stepped forward, curling her arm around Janet's neck. She breathlessly looked down at the smaller woman.
Janet lifted herself on her toes and pressed her mouth to Sam's. Sam's lips were soft, and Sam's kisses, so bold on the mission, were timid now that they were together in Sam's home, now that each kiss was a declaration that this was more than an affair.
Sam slid her arms around Janet's waist and tugged her close, hugging her more than kissing her. She let Janet take the lead and clung to her as Janet's tongue slipped between her lips. Sam whimpered, leaning into the possession of Janet's kiss.
"I want to see you," Janet whispered.
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Janet turned around, grinning at Sam's glazed expression. The woman's eyes were heavy-lidded, and she wore an exhausted smile. Janet kissed her.
Sam took a breath. "Want to stay over?"
Janet answered with a throaty chuckle. "Yes."
"Okay." Sam closed her eyes. "We should probably change the sheets."
"Yeah." Janet rolled off onto her back.
"Janet?"
"Mm."
"I love you, too."
Janet smiled to herself. "That makes things easier."
"Occam's razor. It's inevitable."
"Sam?"
"Mm?" Sam kept her eyes closed.
"If you ever talk math after sex again, I'm leaving you."
"What if I didn't talk, just traced the variables on your skin?" Sam rolled over, placing her hand on Janet's hips.
"That's okay."
"Good."
"Sam?"
"Mm?"
"Goodnight." Janet felt lips against her shoulder, and then a whispered, "Say it again."
Janet shifted, facing Sam. "I love you."
"Because I saved you?"
"Because you're decent in bed."
Sam grinned, and ducked to kiss her lover, and the night was theirs.
THE END