When Daniel came back from his run Saturday morning, Sam appeared to be asleep. Still he did the little strip tease that he was sure she had seen more than once and that appeared to be putting a few ideas in her head that advanced his cause. When he finished showering and dressing, she had the covers over her head. He hated to wake her but they were facing a very daunting to do list for the weekend. There was the typical end of the week lick and a promise cleaning and the laundry to be done, several errands, starting with buying wedding rings, and, finally, lugging most of Daniel's clothes and many of his personal effects over to Sam's. It looked like their fake marriage would have to last at least long enough to celebrate a one month anniversary. They had to move on and take care of the things that people living together, let alone married people, had to have in place.

It intrigued him that they had both come to the conclusion that this marriage might be continuing for awhile based on opposite interpretations of the same evidence from the day before. On Friday, Sam and Daniel sat down with Hanna and asked for their report card. "You Tauri like to do this status thing a great deal," she observed, leaning back in the visitor chair in Daniel's office and looking at Daniel seated behind the desk and Sam perched on its edge. "With us, it is more 'is it done and as it should be?' If not, it is nothing."

Daniel responded, "That is why it is most kind of you to try to give us an indication of how we are doing so that we know that we are not miscommunicating and that you are seeing everything you need to see."

She laughed. "Acting as if I had agreed to something I have not is a well worn diplomatic ploy, Dr. Jackson." She then leaned forward and looked at both of them very directly. "Know this. I do not believe you have a true marriage yet but I sense love. I sense lust. I even sense commitment. I am getting sufficient contact and opportunities to monitor what is happening."

Sam asked, "May I know what sorts of things you would have to see? We are living together. We are known as husband and wife. You did say that you didn't expect to actually see… anything… you know, anything conjugal in person."

Daniel added on, "You're not waiting for Sam to be pregnant are you?" Sam went white and gasped.

Hanna looked concerned and reached out to touch her arm. "I know you are frightened of being a mother. This is not expected. Do not worry." She considered them for a moment and unexpectedly said, "I shall ask that one of the hostages be released to show appreciation for your efforts so far." Teal'c was back on Earth less than two hours later, after only 4 days of captivity.

As soon as they were alone, Sam said, "She's a real fruitcake. We could be at this forever. She thinks she can read minds but she is way off. Commitment and..and..and love? I'm afraid, get that AFRAID, of being a mother? How can we possibly convince her of anything when she's depending on pulling stuff out of the ether. This could go on indefinitely or end tomorrow. There's no predicting it." Daniel made no comment, just grimaced and sighed although he was very intrigued that she had left lust off the list when she repeated Hanna's characterization. It could have just been because she was groping for words, but he really believed he had been making some progress in the area of stirring up some desire in Sam.

Later Daniel was riding a bicycle in the gym as if he was Lance Armstrong and couldn't stand to disappoint his fans. Cam discovered him there and said, "This work better for you than cold showers?" Daniel looked around nervously and Cam said, "Just you and me." Daniel put his head back down and kept pedaling furiously. "Do you mind pulling that puppy over to the side a minute and giving me your attention?" Cam asked.

Daniel straightened up and took his feet off the pedals. "What can I do for you Mitchell?" he asked, sounding a little remote.

"I annoyed you with the cold shower comment, eh? It's just you're not dating anyone right now and you are living with a very attractive woman. There's got to be some … shall we say pressure … involved." Daniel made a dismissive gesture. "I just wanted to get your read on something. Carolyn, ur, Dr. Lam, thinks that Hanna may be some sort of empath." There was just the briefest flash of something in his eyes when he said Carolyn's name.

Daniel was a little surprised. "Your Dr. Lam believes in that sort of thing?" he asked watching Cam carefully. He had a pet theory brewing. He decided to act like it was true and see if it startled an admission out of Cam. He crowed and jabbed Cam in the ribs. "Damn, I was right. I'm the empath." He chortled to himself.

Cam said, looking at him dubiously. "You want to share?"

"That whole weird thing with Landry in our debrief. Your face when you say her name. Your reaction to my saying 'your Dr. Lam.' You're pretty good, but you couldn't hide it all. It was subtle, but it was there. You and Carolyn have been playing doctor." He nodded, projecting strong self-satisfaction. "Yup, definitely."

Cam crossed his arms and looked at him in disbelief. "You are off the wall basing anything on evidence that flimsy." Suddenly, he grinned widely, "And you are so right."

"You're a lucky man," Daniel said, sincerely. "To get back to your question, Hanna has been making my hair stand on end on occasion. She is extremely insightful and has even called one thing about Sam that I hadn't realized until I started thinking about it after she said it." He had no intention of being more specific. Sam's fear of motherhood was a private matter. "It's something that Sam hasn't even admitted to herself so it appears that Hanna's picking up something more than surface thoughts." He knew when Hanna said, "Love, lust, and commitment," she was getting his emotions and probably not Sam's. If she had been getting all three emotions from both of them, she'd be on her way back through the gate, wouldn't she? He did have some hope he had been starting to stir up a little of the lust. He was struck by another thought. "What makes Carolyn think she's an empath?" he asked curiously.

Cam said, "First time she met Caro, Hanna said, 'I'm not interested in your man and he's not interested in me.' I was still translating for her at that point. I translated it into 'Don't worry about me. I'm not planning on making trouble.' She was sniggering and when I realized she actually spoke English, it was obvious why."

"You thought Carolyn would go nonlinear if she suspected you had been talking about her with Hanna," Daniel observed. "You must have eventually told her."

"It's just a damn good thing she has a high clearance, Daniel," Cam said, shaking his head. "Caro eventually gets everything she wants from me." He looked seriously at Daniel and added, "Keep our relationship to yourself, okay. She's skittish about dealing with people's reactions to us and still holding back on where we're going." He sighed mightily. "Damn it, Jackson, I'm anxious to quit sneaking around. I'm really into the lady." The two men parted, each thinking private thoughts about secrets and how to convince the women they loved to commit to them all the way.

Now, Daniel went downstairs and whipped up a tasty breakfast to get this Saturday morning started off right. He had stopped at the grocery store the preceding evening, unable to bear living in a virtually food-free house, or at least food as he defined it, any longer. Nothing looked like a tray so he struggled up the stairs, feeling like a waiter, with a plate of scrambled eggs with cheese and chives, fried apples, and two steaming hot popovers balanced on his arm, a mug of coffee in one hand and a glass of juice in the other. He managed to get into the bedroom without spilling anything and arranged it all on the bedside table.

"Sam, wake up," he said, pulling the covers back so he could see her face and speaking directly into her ear. He massaged more than shook her shoulder and she stirred and rolled over to open her eyes slowly and smile into his face. "I've got some breakfast here for you." She slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position and he put a couple of pillows behind her back. "We don't seem to have any kind of a tray…" he gestured rather helplessly.

She reached over and took a big swig of the orange juice. "I'll manage." Then she did something that convinced him she had been awake earlier. "This was so sweet of you," she said a little breathlessly and leaned over to where he sat next to her on the bed and gave him a kiss. He was pretty sure that her intent had been just a quick brush on the lips but he saw it coming and reached up and put his hand on the back of her head so she couldn't pull away too fast. She started to kiss him more enthusiastically. They had been doing enough fake kissing to establish their marital status for audiences that it had become automatic to kiss him back, he thought. As soon as she started to respond, he broke away. He stood up quickly and said, "Enjoy your breakfast. We need to get up and get to work."

A couple of hours later, they were still stuck in the very first item on their list, the clean up. Daniel was trudging downstairs, carrying a can of cleanser and a sponge and had paused on the landing, just where he could see Sam in the living room below but she really couldn't see him. It had occurred to him that maybe he should go back and get the toilet brush. He couldn't remember if her downstairs half bath had its own or not. As he was pondering, he noticed that Sam was holding some of his dirty socks in one hand and a pair of briefs in the other, her arms extended full length and her head turned slightly away as if they were dead rodents. She looked ready to do battle. He heard a light rap on the front door and then the door swinging open. She didn't appear to notice, intent as she was on his sins of sloppiness. He assumed it was Cam, mercifully sans Hanna, who had said something about stopping by briefly before he went out to the Mountain to pick Hanna up. Sam evidently made the same assumption because she didn't postpone his scolding even though she had an audience. "Daniel," she called out to him loudly, her tone of voice very parent to child, "would you mind telling me WHY your underwear was in the middle of the coffee table?"

He was shocked to see that the man who came in from the vestibule wasn't Cam; it was Jack. Sam had her back to him and continued on. "Daniel Jackson, this leaving everything where you take if off or quit using it has got to stop. I find myself wondering if I'm married to an archeologist or one of the Three Little Piggies, maybe all three of them." He still didn't answer and she looked disgusted. She lowered her voice, talking more to herself even than the teammate she mistakenly thought to be behind her. "Midden heaps everywhere. Next to his side of the bed, on the sink in the bathroom, next to where he drinks his coffee. I won't even ask him how his briefs got down here. I bet HE doesn't know."

Daniel bit his lip. It was his firm belief that to win Sam he had to drive the man standing in the living room out of her head. He hated to see her suffer though and he was afraid she was about to feel some real pain when she had to confront the man she wished she had married while living with the man she actually had.

He craned to try to see Jack's expression in reaction to the revelation dropped from Sam's lips. Jack had been incommunicado all week, off fishing, and couldn't possibly know either the official line or the real story about Sam and him. They had been receiving daily video showing that SG-10 was doing quite well and, actually, having a rather luxurious vacation. With Teal'c released, SG-10 kicking back and not minding captivity that much, it seemed like it would be making too much of the inconvenience to Sam and Daniel to consider this a full blown crisis. Landry hadn't thought it was worth having Jack hunted down in the wilds of Minnesota to inform him.

Daniel was hoping to see happiness mingled with shock on Jack's face in response to the thought that his two close friends had gotten together and maybe found some joy. Instead, hurt was quite plain. Damn, he had really been hoping that Jack had gotten over whatever he felt for Sam. Jack schooled his face to neutrality, cleared his throat, and said, very dryly, "I guess my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail."

Sam whirled to look at him, dropped the underwear, and put her hand to her throat. "My God, Jack! What are you doing here?"

Daniel went softly back upstairs, feeling like a jerk and deciding Sam deserved the courtesy of a little time alone with Jack. He put the cleaning supplies under the bathroom sink and stood looking at himself in the mirror. The man he saw was not that unattractive and, damn it, a lot younger. Surely that counted for something. He heard Sam calling him. He stuffed his shirt in more tidily and met her on the stairs coming up. "Jack's here," she said without preamble. "Please come downstairs and provide reinforcements."

"I don't get it," Daniel said, feeling rather stupid.

"Daniel, from the moment he walked in, it's been sarcastic put downs and wise ass comments. I haven't been able to get a word in edgewise to explain to him that we aren't really married in the truest sense of the word. I'd like your support giving him the message."

He grabbed her hand and said, calmly, "Come on. Let's get it over with." Inside he was ecstatic. She wanted his support with Jack. He wanted nothing more than for Sam to need him, to depend on him when things weren't going well.

Jack was lounging on the sofa, leaning back, looking remote and disengaged. When they entered the living room, Jack looked up with a sardonic expression twisting his mouth and no real warmth at home in his eyes. "Well, if it isn't the happy bridegroom. I'd say, 'Let me be the first to congratulate you,' but obviously the ship left port on that opportunity days ago."

Daniel thought, hopefully, "Maybe he's just offended that we didn't tell him."

He sat down with Sam beside him and said without sarcasm, "It's good to see you too, Jack. How was the fishing?"

"My pole probably hasn't been getting as much use as yours," Jack said crudely. Sam was still holding Daniel's hand and gripped it so tightly it hurt.

"Jack, I wish you would let us explain some things to you. I would also request that you lay off the innuendo around Sam." Daniel was perfectly calm but his eyes were very cold.

There was knock on the door and a cheery voice called out, "Hello. Sam? Daniel? Can we come in?"

Sam closed her eyes for just a second and shuddered ever so slightly. Daniel gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and got up to go to the door. "Carolyn, Hanna, come on in," he greeted the two women, ushering them into the living room. After he made introductions, he asked, "I thought Mitchell was going to pick you guys up at the Mountain?"

"Change of plans," Carolyn said. "I hope you don't mind but he suggested that we meet him here. His car is having problems. His neighbor was coming this way and is going to drop him off here."

Daniel noticed that Hanna seemed upset. She was looking back and forth between Jack and Sam in a concerned manner. Jack stood abruptly and announced, "As much as I would love to stay around and say hi to Mitchell, I need to be on my way."

Sam caught at his sleeve. "Jack, we need to talk to you."

Jack shook her off. "Really. Well I'll give you a call when I have time to chat." Sam watched him leave, making a sort of helpless gesture with her hands as if she could pull him back.

Hanna said gently, "Dr. Carter, I imagine he is a good man, but he is not feeling things that are helpful for you right now." Sam clearly didn't know what to say to that and neither did Daniel.

After Cam arrived and they all took off on whatever errand they had in mind, Sam collapsed against Daniel. "Give me a hug," she said in a muffled voice. "I can't believe how much we apparently hurt him. I feel really beaten up. Do you suppose he'll contact us this weekend? I can't stand that I've made him so unhappy."

"I know, Sam," Daniel said soothingly, wrapping his arms around her and resting his cheek on her hair. "I know."

The jewelry store didn't really restore their spirits. The jeweler kept trying to push engagement rings on them that cost thousands of dollars. He was clearly implying that Daniel was a cad who was depriving the woman he loved of her rightful due. He was disgusted with Sam because, instead of appropriately acquisitive behavior, she was shoulder to shoulder with Daniel the whole way in his firm but polite insistence that they were not interested in purchasing an engagement ring.

As they walked out, Daniel said, "I need to go by the bank next."

Sam was confused. "You're not thinking we need joint checking accounts are you? Because…"

"There's just something that I realized I really need to do. Trust me, huh?" he requested, reaching out and grazing her cheek with his knuckles.

"If you put it that way," she said. "Lead on."

When they arrived at the bank, Daniel asked to be admitted to his safety deposit box. Sam fiddled around with the pens at the little marble table outside the teller's windows and read the various posted literature. At last he was back, looking happier than he had up to now in this difficult morning. "What's going on?" Sam demanded.

"Let's go by my apartment next," he said instead of giving her a straight answer. "I know we planned to do all the shopping first, but we're just a mile or so away from it now."

When they got inside Daniel's apartment, Daniel could see Sam looking at the overall theme of complete messiness with new eyes. He just knew he would remain a project for her in this area, however long they were together. He quickly gathered everything on the sofa and dropped it behind that piece of furniture and then pulled her down to the newly cleared seat. "Sam, there's something I want to ask you to do and I don't want you to take it the wrong way," he started out.

"Yeah," she said warily.

"It's crazy to buy an engagement ring in our circumstances," he said slowly, "but I think you should have something to wear. I don't want anyone to think that I'm anything but proud of you." He pulled something out of his pocket and said, "Give me your hand." He slid a magnificent rose gold ring with a large sapphire on her hand above her new wedding ring.

"Daniel!" she exclaimed. "This is absolutely gorgeous. This was what was in your safety deposit box?"

He nodded and fingered the stone. "It was my mother's. Fortunately, considering that a lot of my stuff was lost to me when Jack came back and told them I died on Abydos and then later when I ascended, I had this in a safety deposit box that no one knew about. Sam, for as long as this lasts, I would really be honored if you would wear it."

She held her hand out for a moment admiring the ring, but then pulled it back hastily and removed the ring. "Daniel, it just wouldn't be right. You need to save this for the woman you fall in love with and marry."

"I wouldn't fall for any woman who thought the ring was somehow devalued by your wearing it under these circumstances," he said quietly and put the ring back on her finger.

She looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes. "You are so terrific. You've been an absolute brick through this whole thing. I just…"

Suddenly she was kissing him. It was a sweet kiss of gratitude and appreciation, tender rather than passionate. He accepted it and returned it in kind, but broke away quickly. In the few opening salvos of his campaign, he had figured out that hard to get was the only way to go and that a dare or a challenge worked much better than aggressive behavior on his part if he could just do something to get her mind running along the right lines first. He wasn't all that comfortable with his attempt to play her but he kept telling himself that he would make her so happy if she was just his.

Mentally crossing his fingers, he said, awkwardly. "It's just that you said it would be incestuous. A nightmare."

Sam snorted. "You're not still mad at me about that? I apologized."

Daniel gave her a small, sad smile. "It's not that. It's just that I'm afraid that if we kiss for very long, that it'll start seeming perverse to you. That you'll get disgusted."

"Really," she stated, starting to sound aggravated, "I'm not going to freak out."

"You think that," Daniel said, hoping he wasn't overplaying his hand, "but how can you be sure?"

"Trust me, okay?" she said and without waiting for a response, she moved to his lap and pulled him into another kiss. This one was something else altogether. It wasn't tender or respectful. Her mouth was hot and active on his. After a minute, he answered the invitation of her tongue and slid into her mouth with his own. She sucked at it avidly. One hand was twined around his neck and running through his hair. The other slipped under his t-shirt and ran over his chest. He held back a little, but then groaned and began to touch her. She didn't object to anything, not to kneading her backside, not to caressing her breasts. Daniel couldn't remember ever being this turned on in his entire life.

She pulled back a little although her hands, continued to roam, and asked, "Are there clean sheets, reasonably clean anyway, on your bed?"

He shut his eyes and summoned every ounce of self-discipline he possessed. "That's going a lot farther than making out. Are you sure you really want to do that? That you won't really, really regret it later?" She stilled for a moment and looked at him, her face flushed and her eyes hot. Daniel wanted nothing more than to pick up her and carry her to his bed, a bed with reasonably clean sheets, thank you very much. However, although he had a plan, he couldn't achieve his final goal, as much as he believed it would make her happy in the long run, by making her actively miserable in the meantime. Daniel held his breath and waited for her answer.