The elderly Jaffa man who had been their original instructor had been replaced by a Jaffa woman about Sam's age after Daniel and Cam went to court. Jack had made the original instructor half crazy but Julia was so intrinsically sad that he just didn't have the heart to give her the same sort of hard time. She further reached him in a way none of the other staff had because she reminded him physically rather strongly of his wife, Sara. Sam knew Jack had never really stopped loving Sam but had given up on ever being able to live with her. Jack actually began to start cooperating with the lessons in a low key fashion.
"What do you suppose Julia's story is?" Jack asked Sam. It was a complete 180 degree subject change from the conversation she had been trying to have with him as they sat on the balcony on a cool evening, Sam cuddled against him in a large chair. Just like that, they suddenly weren't talking about what mattered to her anymore.
"We COULD just ask her," Sam said, stating the obvious, slightly impatiently.
"It really annoys you for some reason that I'm curious about this," Jack observed, looking at her quizzically.
Sam pleated her robe with her right hand. Was there any point at all, trying to make him understand how it made her feel when he was dismissive about the things she tried to talk about? Jack wouldn't get it, would he? Instead he'd either get mad and sulk or he'd shut her up with sex. She tried to remember a single conversation longer than four sentences about feelings or their relationship and failed. If there was any kind of chance behaviors could change than bringing up an unpleasant topic made sense but if you knew that it would be an exercise in futility, why roil the waters?
"It doesn't bother me, really," she said at last. "Do you think it would go better if I tried to talk to her, as another woman? I mean I can think of any number of things that most human women would be very uncomfortable discussing with a man."
Jack caught her hand in his and brought it to his mouth. He kissed her palm and said, "Sooner rather than later, okay?"
Jack created an opportunity for her a couple of days later by pretending to feel unwell toward the end of the lessons for the day. He went back to his rooms and Sam suggested to Julia that they discuss the remaining topic while sitting out on the sunlight balcony.
"Am I correct in understanding," Sam began, "that it isn't considered rude to ask another about their family and their home?"
Julia smiled gently and said, "Colonel Carter, you don't need to ask. It is obvious to me that you understand everything perfectly. You simply don't want to go against the man you love and show that you do."
Sam's jaw dropped. She thought about denying it but it seemed pointless. "I've loved him for close to 8 years and, until we came here, I didn't think I had any hope of ever being with him," she confessed. "When you've waited for something so long, you have to make it work."
Julia looked off into the distance and said softly, "I understand what you mean, Colonel Carter, truly I do."
"You say that as if you had gone through something similar," Sam commented, trying to tread softly.
Julia turned toward Sam and said, "Perhaps it is well that you hear my story. Prince Daniel has a heart for our people. We have all seen it. Despite the fact that he was brought here against his will, he has come to care. Colonel Mitchell also has tried to understand why it was important enough to take such measures to keep the peace intact but I do not see such an open mindedness in Colonel O'Neill. The royal family are not monsters. The alternative to Prince Daniel is Prince Caius which isn't really an alternative at all."
Sam bridled a bit. "Jack, Cam, and I are not part of the royal family. What has been done to us can't be justified by Daniel's destiny."
Julia said, "I understand your bitterness. Let me tell you my story." She leaned against the balustrade. "How to begin?" She laughed a little. "I first met Seth when we were children. We were five and he helped me retrieve my kite from a tree. He was such an intrepid little boy. This was on Laurus where you will remember there are the least Jaffa of any of the Beatus worlds." The smile had vanished and she added bitterly, "And even less now. There were always isolated incidents of persecution but they were very uncommon and deplored by almost all. In recent years, few humans have the courage to speak out against the outrages that have grown in number and severity."
She shook herself a little. "We were children. We didn't know that it mattered that he was human and I was Jaffa. His parents were not bigots nor were mine and they did not interfere with our friendship until we began to mature. Then they discussed it and were concerned that we would be harassed because the humanocentric movement was growing. They tried to keep us apart but they waited too long. We were in love and too young and foolish to know that this is not always enough. We were married. This is not against the law but there have never been very many such marriages, particularly on Laurus. We moved into a little cottage on the back of his parents' property. Not two weeks later, we were awakened by a pounding on the door. Seth opened the door and was immediately attacked."
Sam covered her mouth with her hand. She wanted to stop Julia because of the deep sense of foreboding that told her how much worse this was going to get but knew she had to hear her out. Julia's soft voice continued relentlessly. "There were five of them. They kept hitting him and hitting him and then they made him watch while they took turns with me. Then they set fire to the cottage. I managed to drag him out in time but the blows to the head blinded him. That was 15 years ago and there was sufficient outrage still possible among the general population that sufficient money was raised for us to relocate to Consensio where I could go to university and he could receive training to live as a blind man. We have each given up everything to be together, our world, our families, his sight. For this price, we must make it work. We must be a legendary romance."
Sam said gently, "I am so sorry. So terribly sorry." Reading between the lines, she thought that part of Julia's sadness was that it wasn't a legendary romance, but, after everything that had been sacrificed, problems could not be acknowledged.
Julia smiled a small, sad smile at Sam. "Now you see how important it is that we have the right ruler. Prince Daniel is more than his mother dared hope. God has smiled on us."
Sam replayed her conversation with Julia to Jack. "I was never a big Jaffa fan," Jack said. "Teal'c is the exception that proved the rule for me but this kind of hate is alive, like some sort of a hideous, poisonous reptile, one that reproduces exponentially."
Sam slipped her arm around his waist and looked up at him, "You sound like you've thought about it a lot."
"When I was black ops I was in so many places in the world that were devouring themselves over differences that were often insignificant compared to the similarities that people chose to ignore." Jack's voice was serious and emotionally engaged on a level that Sam had seldom heard.
Jack's heartfelt concern reminded Sam of Daniel. She felt a wave of desire sweep over her, stronger than she had felt for awhile. It was curious but after six months, the passion that had been so white hot had moderated to something more comfortable, almost like two married people. She kissed him as seductively as she knew how and moaned into his mouth, "Make love to me Jack."
A few days later when they went to meet their instructor, they found an unfamiliar man, a teddy bear of a human with a head of graying tight curls. "Where's Julia?" Jack asked without preamble.
Instead of taking offense, the man said, gravely, "My apologies. It appears no one thought to tell you. Or perhaps each assumed that another had done it."
"Tell us what?" Jack demanded, still behaving exceptionally rudely by Beatus standards. Even on Earth where protocol was less important, his tone of voice would have been more than a little in your face.
"Julia has gone to be with God," he replied.
"She wasn't that old," Sam blurted out. "How?"
He bit his lip and looked ashamed. "Our people sometimes behave as children. Some of those who wish to see the Jaffa separated out from the rest of us, they are often labeled the humanocentic party, appear to be responsible, directly or indirectly, for some terrible acts of intolerance. Julia was married to a human. People broke into their home and tortured them to death. They say it must have gone on for hours. Nothing was stolen. Words were painted on the walls in their blood. The police think it was a hate crime."
Sam began to cry, silent tears slipping down her cheeks and took refuge against Jack. Jack made a strangled sound and stood gripping Sam hard with one arm. "Will there be some sort of ceremony?" he asked. "Some way in which we can show our respect?"
"I'm sorry, Colonel O'Neill, but it is against our orders to permit you to leave the palace."
Jack balled his free hand into a fist. Later, Sam was to realize that Jack made a silent pledge then to do something, something to avenge Julia, to change things.
Several days later, Sam and Jack halted at the top of the waterfall in the middle of their daily run and looked toward their white stone palace, shimmering on the other side of the lake, now Jack's personal fishing pond. Jack sat down on the edge of the rapids, took off his shoes and socks, and put his feet in the cool water. He reached up and tugged on Sam's hand. "Have a sit."
"Why are we doing this?" Sam asked confused. Jack liked his routines and his daily rituals and this wasn't one of them.
He held up a hand, "You know the guard that looks a little like Kinsey?"
"It's sad, isn't it?" she said. "It's like he followed us here. Why couldn't he look like Brad Pitt?"
"So you've got a thing for Brad Pitt?" Jack asked, not really laughing her chance comment off.
"Holy Hannah, Jack, of course not. I've obviously never met the guy," she said resisting the temptation to roll her eyes.
"Anyway, he's been striking up little conversations with me. Making comments about Daniel. Feeling me out. I decided to try answering like I was really down on Daniel. I sensed that was what he wanted to hear and I wanted to see where it would go. Yesterday, he said something about Julia, something that implied she brought her death on herself."
"You agreed with that?" Sam asked, horrified.
"Like I said, I wanted to see where this guy was coming from. I think we tell Daniel about it. I think maybe he's trying to approach me from the humanocentric faction, get me to betray Daniel, in exchange for helping us escape. Maybe there's some way to work this as a sort of double agent.
"But you wouldn't betray Daniel even to get us out of here," Sam said, confirming her faith in Jack.