CHAPTER 9

The next day as Sam was on her way back to the compartment to fix lunch for her team she ran headlong into Dra'coe.

"Yellow hair!" Dra'coe exclaimed as he saw her in the passageway.

"Please let me pass!" Sam said to him as he blocked her way.

"You are a fiery one Yellow Hair! How about giving me a sample now?"

"No, I don't think so." She said evenly, trying to maintain her composure.

"You do not understand. I get whatever I want and I am not used to waiting." He started to reach for her when she heard Jack's voice behind her.

"Not gonna happen Drae, old buddy!" he said as he walked up behind Sam, his chest brushing her back. Jack put his left arm completely across her chest and closed his fingers around her right shoulder. He purposely kept his right hand free, just in case.

Dra'coe scowled and pushed past Sam and rest of SG1. Once he was gone Sam let out a breath and her back visibly sagged into Jack's chest. "Thank you, Sir."

"Don't mention it Carter." He said as he instantly let her go. "What's for lunch?" He asked casually as if nothing had happened.

Later that afternoon, just after Sam had taken her shower in the laundry room and put on the underwear that she had washed that morning, one of the guards came to escort her to see Claudio, the Supreme Ruler of the mining complex.

When she arrived in the great hall Jack was already there standing in front of the dias staring up at a malicious looking Claudio. Standing next to Claudio, looking very smug, was Dra'coe.

Once Sam was standing beside Jack, Claudio came down off the stage holding the cylindrical medical device they had seen him use on the man who had been punished for stealing. Claudio made a big show of sweeping the device back and forth in close proximity to Sam. He moved it up and down as if scanning her body and the tiny machine made whirring noises. Jack thought it looked like the medical scanner Dr. McCoy used on Star Trek.

"My suspicions have been confirmed, Major Carter. Your marriage to Colonel O'Neill has not been consummated. In fact, it has been a very long time since anyone has mated with you."

Sam felt her cheeks flush and she knew Colonel O'Neill was looking at her, but she could not look at him.

Claudio continued to speak while Dra'coe stood on the stage and stared down at Sam with an evil, lustful look in his eyes. "The Protectorate was quite clear. You have just 61 days left to get pregnant, but if you are not even trying then I have no choice but to give you to Dra'coe now. I am no fool, I realize that in all likelihood you will have to mate several times before you become pregnant." Claudio looked directly at Sam and continued "but if O'Neill is unwilling or unable to get you pregnant, Dra'coe will."

"I would rather die than..." Sam began but Claudio put up his hand to silence her.

"You and O'Neill have 3 hours to mate. When you are brought back here I will use the medical scanner again and if you have not consummated your marriage, you will be given to Dra'coe at that time." Claudio turned on his heel and walked away.

"I told you I'm not used to waiting." Dra'coe said and then indicated to one of his guards that he should take Sam and Jack to their quarters.

When they arrived at their quarters the guard said "You may close your privacy curtain, but I will remain out here until your 3 hours are up."

"Did I mention how much I hate this place?" Sam yelled at Jack as he closed the privacy curtain.

"I have a question." Jack tried to change the subject "how is it that Claudio could detect that you haven't had sex in..."

"Awhile." Sam supplied through clenched teeth.

"But it didn't register the birth control?"

"Birth control works on hormones that are already present in the body. Unless he was specifically looking for hormone levels he wouldn't notice. Which also means that Claudio is no doctor and that device is probably capable of a whole lot more than Claudio realizes."

"Ah." Jack said, unsure how that information would help them.

Jack stood awkwardly in the middle of the room as Sam paced around like a caged animal. Finally she picked up one of the empty wooden buckets and slammed it against the wall repeatedly until it splintered and broke into several pieces.

"Feel better?" Jack asked.

"NO! Damn it! How am I suppose just let them end my career! Without my career my life is meaningless! I've never felt so useless in my life!" She yelled at him. She felt tears of anger welling up in her eyes but she would not release them.

"Sam, this isn't about your career at all! It's about your life!" anger was evident in his voice.

"Oh, yeah, like we can just go back to the SGC and say, 'Oh, by the way General Hammond, Jack and I became lovers on P3X-071."

"Sam, its not like that and you know it! General Hammond would authorize whatever it takes to keep you alive!"

"But how are we suppose to go back to being CO and 2IC after this?"

"I don't know!" he yelled at her. "But talk about performance anxiety, if I can't...get it up you're dead anyway! How would you like to have that pressure on you?"

She stood and looked at him, her mouth hanging open. "I never thought of that." she said.

"Yeah, well think about it now!"

Suddenly they heard muffled voices in the hall. Sam and Jack looked at each other as if to say 'what the hell is going on out there?' They did not have to wait long for Brenita to appear, peeking through the privacy curtain.

"May I come in?" she said as she entered the compartment, not waiting for a reply. "I heard the shouting and surmised what was happening here. You haven't consummated your marriage yet have you?"

"Well, um its not that simple, Brenita."

"Oh, I know how hard it can be to be romantic here in the complex , what with so little privacy and all. I gave the guard a chair and asked him to move away from your door." She stated in a matter of fact manner.

Then Brenita began pulling items out of her wicker basket. "Here are some candles, and this wine I made myself. I thought it might help you feel more at home."

Jack sat down on the edge of the bed and buried his head in his hands.

"Thank you, Brenita." Sam said mechanically.

"Oh, it's nothing." Brenita said as she busied herself lighting candles. Then she poured the wine into two of the ceramic mugs. "Just drink this and you'll feel better." She smiled knowingly at Sam, but refused to leave until she had seen both of them drink. She went over to the wall and put out the torches that were above Teal'c and Daniel's beds. "It is always so much more romantic with the candle light." she said.

"Well, I'll be on my way now."and Brenita slipped out of the room.

As soon as Brenita disappeared Jack said sarcastically "What is she, our guardian angel or something?"

"She has an ulterior motive." Sam said as she took a sip of the wine.

"What's that?"

"Khatana." Sam replied, her voice flat.

"Huh?"

"I'd say the girl is about 17. On her next birthday, if she doesn't have a husband, she'll be sent to work with those women we encountered when we first arrived here. She'll sell herself everyday for a handful of tokens just to survive."

"So," Jack took a drink of his wine, "it isn't really us she's interested in, but Daniel."

"Yes, but because you and I are...ah,...married, apparently we are the most important people in our group. If Daniel gets married, we lose part of our income, so she has to convince us to let Daniel go."

Jack nodded and took another sip of the intoxicating beverage. Neither of them spoke as Sam took her mug, picked up the bottle of wine, walked over to the bed and sat down beside Jack. She poured some more of the sweet liquid into each of their cups and took another sip.

Jack turned his head to look at her. "Sam..." he said softly. She turned her head to look at him and found herself looking deep into his dark eyes. "Look, this isn't how I wanted this to happen. I always thought that someday we would kick the Goa'uld's asses and you and I could...finally be together. But not like this, ..." his voice trailed off.

"I know, Jack." she said softly.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "What was in that wine she gave us, my head feels...fuzzy."

"I don't know. I feel...funny. Kind of uninhibited I guess."

"Listen, Sam, I will make this up to you. Someday we'll..."

"It's ok, Sir."

"No, it's not. Do you remember the virus we got on P3X-797?"

"I try not to think about it."

"Well, when you tried to, ah...seduce me, you asked me if I wanted you. Do you remember what I said?"

Sam paused for a moment and looked away before she said "I do." She looked into his eyes, "You said 'Not like this."

"Sam, I want you, more than you can possibly know, but not like this." They sat on the bed, side by side, in silence. After a time, Sam leaned her head against Jack's shoulder and he put his arm around her.

Sam held her mug with both hands and looked into it, studying the liquid it held, before she drained the contents. She handed Jack the empty cup, leaned over, untied her boots and took them off. Then Sam took the cups from Jack's hands and set them both on Teal'c rack while Jack took off his boots.

After he had taken off his boots, Jack sat on the edge of the bed watching her, thinking how sexy she was and how badly he wanted her. Normally he tried to repress those thoughts and when the automatic repression kicked in he had to work hard at turning it off.

She stood there looking down at him for a time before taking off her BDU shirt and pulling her t-shirt over her head.

Jack's mouth went dry. She was wearing a black bra and the contrast between it and her skin was sexy. 'God, she's sexy!' he thought.

Sam walked over and took both of his hands in hers and pulled him to his feet. She helped him out of his BDU shirt and then pulled his t-shirt over his head. She knew that, even though her life depended on Jack making love to her, he wouldn't do it unless she told him it was alright. She figured that actions spoke louder than words.

Jack pulled her into an embrace, the skin to skin contact more intoxicating than the wine. As Jack placed light kisses on Sam's neck she said "We are SO going to get court martialed for this."

"Shh." He whispered in her ear. He just held her, rocking her gently, holding her tightly. Sam allowed a few tears to roll down her face as Jack put his hand on the back of her head.

After a time he pulled back, looked her in the eyes, put his hands on either side of her face and kissed her. It began softly but soon deepened as their tongues began to gently explore the other. All the pent up emotions from the past 7 years were poured into that one kiss. Sam clearly understood, without a word being spoken, that Jack was in love with her and she did her best to express that same feeling to him through her kiss.

Finally, they broke apart and Jack took her by the hand. "C'mere." he said as he led her toward the bed.

As they lay on the hard board that served as the bed, Jack looked into her eyes and said "What if Jonah and Thera could have made love? They were in a place like this and they were happy." He brushed a lock of hair our of her face. "Forget the circumstances Sam, and just love me." he whispered.