Her thirst more manageable, Sam rolled over to look at Daniel. He looked so still, so vulnerable in the gloom. She shook him gently and then more forcefully. "Daniel, Daniel, oh please Daniel, wake up." Daniel stirred but his eyes remained closed. Their uniforms were gone and they wore long robes. She moistened part of her wide sleeve and used it to drip water on his face. "Come on, Daniel, come on."
At last his eyes opened and he croaked, "Sam? What? Where?"
She slide her arm under his back and helped him to sip the water. He lay back and closed his eyes again. "You do understand why I had to go along with that, that.. " He gestured vaguely, feebly. " I couldn't think of any other way to keep you with me." He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. "It's okay, huh Sam?"
"Oh Daniel, it's okay. We'll be okay." And then she sat up and said, trying to lighten the mood, "A wedding planner would starve to death with these people. Talk about minimalist. I am not even sure you get to pick the color cord you want to use." Sam suddenly felt light headed and collapsed back on her side facing away from Daniel. He put an arm around her comfortingly and they both slid into sleep.
When Sam awoke again, Daniel was walking around the room, examining everything carefully. Full sunlight flooded in. She stirred and he came over and knelt beside her. "How do you feel?" he asked.
She smiled looking warmly up into his handsome face, so glad that she wasn't in this alone. She thought about that perennial stupid question, "Who would you most want to be marooned on a desert island with?" Who knows about desert islands but Daniel is the best to be locked up with. She instantly felt really guilty that Pete, her fiancé, hadn't come to mind before Daniel.
Daniel gently touched brushed her hair out of her face, drawing her attention back to him. "Our hut's built out of sod blocks and I think most of the room is below ground level. There is a strange pottery crock on the floor in that curtained corner that is a sort of field toilet. Next to it there is a basin, a pitcher, and something like soap." He pointed, "See on that ledge." Daniel patted the bed beside her and continued, "This is also a ledge. Our only table is over there and it's just a block of dirt that was left sticking up. There is no loose furniture of any kind in fact. There is some sort of gruel on the table and a flat bread. We each have another robe hanging on the back of the door. " He rocked back on his heels and smiled at her cheerfully. "So we aren't going to starve to death, lack the latest local fashions, or have embarrassing bathroom issues."
His cheerfulness was gone a few days later as they sat side by side on the bed. They had fallen silent after discussing everything they could think of over the past three days, some of them things that in retrospect Sam wished they hadn't. She couldn't believe she had actually shared accidentally dumping a milkshake into the lap of the cutest boy in her 8th grade class. On the other hand, she was glad that they had not discussed her relationship with Pete at all. She wasn't ready to share the nagging doubts she had been having for weeks, her fear that maybe she just wanted a normal romance so much that she had found a really good guy and talked herself into it. Daniel had talked about Sha're sorrowfully but as you would discuss something far in the past.She wondered how she could never have known until now that technically, by the laws and customs of Abydos, his wife's abduction by the Goa'uld had immediately released Daniel from the marriage. From the day she had met him, he had only been married to Sha're as long as he choose to be. Now he was her husband, at least here in this place.
They had gone over the room and its contents minutely looking for some means of escape. Nothing seemed workable. They also learned that escape would be harder because of the way they were watched. At random intervals they saw a face looking down at them through the windows. Once a day, the blow guns used to deliver the sedative darts were poked through those windows on all four sides of the hut and a gong was struck close by outside. The first time this happened, someone instructed them that when they heard the gong they were to go to the wall opposite the door, face the wall, and lean against it arms spread wide and feet apart. They should remain in this position looking forward until the gong was sounded again. If they didn't cooperate, they were threatened with sedation. Behind them they heard people enter, footsteps from all parts of the room, clinking of things being carried or in, and other more difficult to identify noises. When the gong sounded and they turned, they were alone but the toilet had been exchanged and there was fresh water and a supply of food. Everything had been moved slightly. Sam summarized what they were both thinking when she said, "If we had been working on anything to do with an escape, they would have found it unless it was under our robes."
Now Sam looked over at Daniel. He had leaned back against the wall, his eyes were closed, and he was picking at the scab on his lip. She slapped his knee, stood up, and said briskly, "We need to exercise. Let's workout."
He opened his eyes, turned his head slightly in her direction, and said tiredly, "Oh please," without making the slightest effort to comply.
"You know we need it. We'll do a couple of hours of targeted exercise a day. We'll be each others' trainers. Come on, on your feet."
"You're serious." It was a statement not a question. He started to get up but then stopped and looked up at her. "Here's another suggestion. After exercise let's spend the rest of the day in class."
"In class?"
"Yeah, yeah," Now he actually started to show enthusiasm about his idea, working it out as he spoke. "You teach me whatever I can handle about astrophysics and I'll teach you about linguistics or archeology."
And so the days, weeks, and months that followed were shaped. They got up at daylight and ate a light breakfast. They worked out, including some martial arts practice the sun was high and then took turns washing in the curtained toilet corner. Then they ate lunch, seated on the floor at their mound table. After lunch, Daniel usually taught first until the daily gong sounded. After the gong ritual, they switched teachers until they felt like dinner.
The difference between breakfast, lunch, and dinner was arbitrary since it was the same gruel and flat bread at every meal but Daniel started making a game of it. He would name a restaurant and go through the meal as if that's where they were dining. Gruel at MacDonald's or gruel at a five-star restaurant was very different experiences with Daniel as a dinner companion. The gruel, a wholegrain mix predominantly composed of something like oatmeal with small bits of fruits and nuts that changed seasonally, actually tasted fairly good, as gruel goes, but they were both sure they would never ever voluntarily touch oatmeal again. They also became convinced after 8 weeks went by that there was something in the food that stopped Sam's cycle, the purpose they deduced being contraceptive. Sam worried that it was might also be doing something to Daniel that they just were not aware of. When she brought it up, he looked at her ruefully and said, "I'm not a eunuch yet Sam. I'm quite sure of it." And then he changed the subject. Sam couldn't figure out his response but since they had no choice but to eat the food, she let it slide.
They went to bed when it got dark. The last activity of the day, usually while they were lying in the dark, was to assess their situation, to look for any new information or new ideas that could help them escape. They were never hungry or thirsty, had no physical contact with their captors, abusive or otherwise, but were never any closer to escape.
The weather became stifling and the days were long. They were given very lightweight clothing but it was still too much. The exercise routine got very sweaty but neither ever suggested that they let up. She didn't know Daniel's reasons but, whatever lies she told herself, deep down she knew that glimpses of his rock hard calves and biceps and contact with his chest and abs, now definitely honed to a 6-pack, were really very, very nice. At night the heat kept them sleeping with the maximum distance between them the bed allowed, all of an inch. During the day though, hand to hand combat practice brought contact she welcomed. Sam knew she liked his weight pressing down on her far too much.
The reciprocal teaching was a wonderful idea. Sam loved to watch his face alive with enthusiasm for his work, to listen to his voice as he explained the subject matter. It was surprisingly interesting and normally she caught on quickly but sometimes he had to almost completely repeat himself. Sam didn't tell Daniel but that was when she got so caught up in watching him, in letting his voice flow over her, that she stopped paying attention to what he was saying. When Sam taught, she was impressed with Daniel's brilliance, how quickly he caught on. They scratched equations in the dirt wall with the handles of their wooden spoons and she set him problems that he usually had no trouble working out. Their only arguments occurred during these sessions. Each was good at asking questions that pinpointed theoretical weaknesses, places that astrophysics or linguistics or archeology were still seeking answers. These sometimes led to spirited discussions ranging far from the original topics.
Then the temperatures started to drop. It got very cold in their hut and there were now thick blankets and heavy clothes. Sometimes there was ice on the top of the water in the pitcher in the morning. The days got much shorter. They started splitting the exercise routine between morning and evening since it required less light than their studies. The exercise lent warmth to the cooler parts of the day. There was no inch distance in the bed now. They huddled together for warmth, pulling the blankets up over their heads to create a cozy tent.
One night Sam had a romantic dream. At first the man was Pete but then she wasn't sure who it was. Whoever he was, he was hard and muscular and a very good kisser. It felt so good, one strong hand cupped around her bottom, pressing him to her, the other in her hair. As her excitement mounted, she slowly began to realize that she wasn't asleep any more. She was kissing Daniel! She touched his face. His eyes were closed. He's dreaming too. Sam wasn't sure if she was sorry that he wasn't consciously making love to her but it had to stop. She disengaged herself and got out of the bed, shivering in the frigid room. That woke him up.
"Sam what are you doing," he asked groggily. "Is something wrong?"
"I just have to, you know," she waved vaguely toward the far corner as if it wasn't so dark that there was little chance he could see the gesture.
In order to give substance to her lie she had to follow through with it. She took her time feeling very embarrassed and uncertain. When she crawled back into the bed, Daniel was still awake. "Something happened, didn't it?" he asked.
"Jeez Daniel?" she said playing dumb.
"I was having a pretty, well, " he paused, "X-rated dream. Did I make a move on you?" She didn't answer. "I'm really sorry Sam. I didn't know what I was doing."
Sam felt deflated. So he would never kiss her if he knew who she was? That of course was the way the rules went for a commanding office and a member of her command but suddenly she preferred he want her even if nothing could happen. "No harm, no foul, Daniel. Go back to sleep." It was hours before she could.
Daniel never said anything further about what had happened but sometimes during the day she caught him watching her with a new expression on his face. There was a tense undercurrent subtly present between them but it remained unspoken and unacknowledged.
Every night after that Sam went to bed afraid that it would happen again and hoping that it would. She tried to think about Pete, to use him as a talisman to ward off the repercussions of her teammate and best friend turning into something else, truly becoming her husband, but she was having trouble remembering what Pete looked like. The weather started to warm slowly returning to the season in which they had been captured. Sam told herself this was good, that it would cut down on the physical contact and so decrease the likelihood that there would be a repeat episode but she didn't believe it for a minute. Finally, one night as she was lying full awake, wrestling with herself, his arm tightened around her and he pulled her closer. His warm mouth came down on hers and her kissed her like she had never been kissed. He caressed her gently and then more urgently and she let it go on for a long time. Just a little while longer and then I'll say something. "Daniel, Daniel," she pushed hard on his chest at last. "Wake up."
"I am awake Sam," he said softly.
"What!"
"I've been awake since before I started kissing you." He ran his finger down her cheek. "I wish you could see my face, see what is in my eyes. I know that you are the commanding office on this mission and fraternization is against the rules but we may never get out of here. For all intents and purposes, we are the only two people on a tiny planet. I've always loved you Sam as a dear friend but my feelings have changed. I want more and I think you do too." He paused and said, a little desperately, "We are married, I mean technically."
There was a long silence, too long for Daniel. "Sam, please say something. I don't know. Yell at me if you have to."
She still didn't answer him. She was too busy engaged in a heated discussion inside her own head. This is wrong. I don't care. If we're ever rescued or escape, this will cause so many problems. I don't care.
"Sam, please talk to me." He was up on one elbow, leaning over her.
She pulled him down on top of her, found his mouth, and gave him her answer.
