A public service message to vegetarian Cracker Barrel diners -- don't read this if you really don't want to know -- there is animal fat in the cornbread and cream of chicken soup in the hash brown casserole. Sigh.
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Sam and Daniel made very slow love that night. It wasn't that they weren't ravenous for each other. They had been that since the first touch. It was the unaccustomed nature of what they were experiencing that they wanted to savor. Both of them pushed any attempt to understand it off until afterwards. Instinctively, they knew that understanding would not be easy or even pleasant and that hard decisions would follow.
This WAS very pleasant though, this exploration of what they could now do together. She kissed him and ran her hand over his chest and the heat and the need rose in him. He ran his hand down to her backside and squeezed and he felt her excitement in warm waves. Each of them was resonating with not only their own pleasure but also their partner's. When the climax came, it was two crescendos for each of them, feeding back on each other and growing. It was the most intoxicating thing either had ever known.
The first thing Daniel said as they lay sprawled, completely satisfied, was, "I don't understand how empaths can avoid being complete sex addicts."
"Is that what we are?" Sam asked.
"I'll sign up for it," he said, reaching for her.
"Daniel, stop it." She swatted his hand away. "I don't mean do you think we're sex addicts. I mean, so you think we're empaths now?"
"You felt what I was feeling as well as your own reactions just now in that incredible mind-blowing sex we just had, right? And, back there in the infirmary, the waves of sorrow, guilt, and fear rolling off Carolyn were thick."
"How is this possible that I'm empathic? If it was from the bite, how could it react on me too?" Sam was sitting up, chin on her knees, in scientific mode now.
"I think we have to face the fact that it's an inhabitation. When I kissed you, I'm guessing whatever was in me split and went into you too," Daniel said.
"I don't feel like anything's taken me over. Remember I've been there, done that." Sam looked doubtful and considered her own remark. "Of course, that could be the point."
"The only time I felt any compulsion was when I kissed you. I hope to God I didn't hurt you Sam. I swear, I was convinced at the time I had to."
She laid her hand on his cheek. "You don't really have to swear anything to me, darling, not ever again. I can sense that you weren't lying."
Daniel turned his face into her hand and kissed it. "We have a lot to figure out and until we do, I think we had better not share."
She nodded, "Right. The NID would just love to get their hands on an empath."
He pulled her across his lap. "We do have a problem with Carolyn and Cam. They saw that we were linked somehow."
"What was that? It seems to me like it was more than just sensing your feelings. I felt like I was in your dream with you." She huffed. "Weird. Really weird."
"Maybe the connection between empaths as to opposed to with other people is different. We should attack this like any other scientific problem that's been put before us, Sam. Form hypotheses, run experiments, take our own observations, make our decisions from hard data, not gut feelings."
"I've got an experiment I want to try right now," she said. She got out of bed and walked to the door. "Can you feel me now?" she asked, imitating the Verizon commercial.
"Oh yes." As tired as he was, that particular feeling was hard to ignore. He started to get up, but she held up her hand.
Sam walked to the top of the stairs. "Can you feel me now?"
"Get back in here," he growled.
Daniel heard her go down the stairs. "Can you feel me now?" she called from the foot of the stairs. This time he had to stop to think about it. Since what she had been feeling was the same thing he was feeling himself, it took a little sorting. "It's very faint," he called back.
She went into the kitchen and shouted, "Can you feel me now?"
Nothing. He was pretty sure he felt nothing -- that is nothing from her. He was feeling plenty on his own. He bolted out of bed and ran down the stairs. He found her in the kitchen. "You were out of range the last time." He picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and started back upstairs. "We're going to do a different experiment now."
When they finally decided it was time to get some sleep, the sun was coming up. They slept like the dead until early afternoon when the next door neighbor's power mower assaulted Daniel's ears and demanded that he get up. He stirred and stretched, keeping one arm around his sleeping wife. She actively resisted waking up and there wasn't normally a lot of care required not to disturb her. This morning, her eyes opened instantly. He shook his head, hoping he was wrong. "What woke you up, honey?" he asked. His eyes were scrunched slightly like a man prepared for a blow.
"What are you worried about?" she asked and then immediately her eyes opened wide and she knew. "I woke up because you woke up. Something about the surge of energy and alertness woke me."
They looked at each other. "So, either we sleep apart or you're going to become a morning person," Daniel said.
"And you get to be more of a night owl," she said, following through to the conclusion. "We could end up very tired, but I'd rather be tired than not sleep with you."
"Up side, great sex. Down side, no sleep." Daniel leaned over, twined his hand in her tousled hair and kissed her neck. Even though she immediately reached out to him, he jerked back like he had been scalded. "You hate me doing that in the morning," he said. He was stunned.
"No, Daniel. Not hate. Sometimes I really like it and I always get to liking it after a little bit. I just wake up sort of grumpy and unhappy about waking up most of the time and need a little space."
"Why have you never told me this?"
"I love you. I didn't want you to feel rejected and, like I said, usually I just have to give it a little time." She looked at him anxiously. "Please don't be hurt."
"You can tell I'm not. I'm touched you were bothering to pretend. Sure illustrates down side number two though. No more white lies for the Carter-Jacksons."
They were both rather quiet after that as they got out of bed, did the bathroom rituals, and dressed. There were surprises everywhere and most of them hadn't been good so far. Reacting to Sam's tension, Daniel said, "I hate that this is preying on you. Somehow I think it'll come out okay. We just have a lot to learn. I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better."
She was standing next to the closet and reached in to pull out his black leather pants. "You could wear these."
"To clean the house with you?"
"I see your point. It's just that looking at you in these pants does something to me."
"You are really good for a man's ego," Daniel said and kissed her on the forehead. "Maybe this evening I could be persuaded to put them on if I get to pick something out for you to wear."
Daniel was very glad he had resisted the black leather pants when he opened the door to go out for the paper and found himself face to face with Cam and Carolyn. "Now this is full service medicine," he said. There was a smile on his face that made it clear he was glad to see them despite his teasing, "I thought the AMA had outlawed house calls or something."
"We were concerned about you," Carolyn said. "I wondered how your wound was doing." Daniel's hand went to his shoulder where the corner of the large dressing was visible above his open throated flannel shirt.
"And wondering if we've become Pod People or something," Daniel thought. "We've got to be careful."
Aloud, he said,in as welcoming a fashion as he could manage, "Hey, I'm sorry. I don't know where my head was. Please come in." He opened the door wide for them and called out, "Honey, Cam and Carolyn are here."
He ushered them into the living room. Sam appeared immediately and greeted them with pleasure. "Can I get you something to drink? Have you had lunch?"
"Actually," Cam said. "We were thinking you'd let us take you out to lunch if you were still feeling all right. Otherwise, we were going to get you some carryout."
Daniel was intrigued by the fact that he wasn't picking up much from either of them now, but at the door when he had been inches away from Cam and Carolyn, he'd sensed something from both of them. So distance was a factor, yet Sam was several feet away from him and he knew she was feeling positive things about the invitation. It appeared there were variations in the distance required. Still he realized that he had to ask for her opinion. Not to do so would be evidence that there was some sort of a link. "What do you think, honey? We were talking about running by Jack's but we can do that later this afternoon, right?" He caught the surprise at the suggestion they should go to Jack's, but, then, immediate acceptance.
Sam also made a point of a verbal assent. "I'd love to. Actually, we just got up and I'm ravenous. I'd love to head for food this minute if you all agree."
Thirty minutes later they were seated in a Cracker Barrel, chosen because it allowed Daniel and Sam to have breakfast while their companions had lunch and it routinely served the biscuits and cornbread that Cam loved to eat any time, day or night. "You've got to love these people," Cam said. "I can get my southern cooking fix almost anywhere now."
"We're all so happy for you," Carolyn said. There was a slight edge in her voice.
"Caro, you said you didn't mind it the last time we were here." His tone was a little defensive. Daniel was sitting between them and their hands were inches away as all of them leaned on the table, holding menus. Daniel could tell Cam was being completely honest. She'd definitely sandbagged him.
"I'm sorry. I didn't get much sleep last night myself. It's fine Cam as long as we're not here more than a couple of times a month," Carolyn said.
"You lie, you lie," Daniel told himself. He had to find a way to turn this off. He didn't want to know all the little games people played with each other.
They had already discussed how Daniel and Sam were feeling in the car as Cam drove them to the restaurant. Carolyn now introduced a rather surprising new topic. "I wanted to offer to help you organize the reception and second wedding ceremony you're planning."
"Wow. That's really generous," Sam said. "We've been having trouble getting very far with the arrangements. There's so much to think about and we've had trouble focusing."
Cam was looking at Carolyn as if she'd grown two heads. "You, Carolyn Lam, Doctor of Medicine, the woman I've been, um, seeing for months, you want to help someone plan a wedding?"
"I have no intention of ever marrying myself but that doesn't mean I'm allergic to other people's weddings," she said to him tartly. Turning back to Sam, she said, "That's why I enjoy helping with them so much. Makes up for not having one of my own." Her tone of voice was bright and cheerful and her expression matched, yet Sam and Daniel both reeled at the pain that was underneath. The unhappiness her announcement caused her boyfriend ratcheted the emotional temperature up another degree. It was a struggle for Daniel to keep it all from showing on his face. He saw Sam raise her menu and instantly knew why.
"We accept, right Daniel?" Sam said in haste. He nodded.
"Let's talk about what sort of thing you had in mind," Carolyn suggested. Cam had settled back, crossed his arms, and was watching her as if she was a floor show, an intriguing concept for a Cracker Barrel.
"You know," Daniel said, "I don't know about Sam, but my feelings about the whole thing are more along the lines of knowing what I don't want rather than any clear picture of what I do want."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Actually I think that's sort of where I am at this point too. Like I don't want the whole wedding to be a series of photo opportunities where we're posing all the time."
"I don't want any little paper umbrellas in anything," Daniel said. "They make me crazy for some reason."
"Or the hooky poky. I really don't want a DJ telling us all to do the hooky poky," Sam said.
"How do you feel about the bunny hop?" Cam asked. "If you've had a lot to drink and you're sort of queasy, it can be bad."
"I'm not planning on being queasy, but I still think it gives bunnies a bad name," Daniel said. "Do we need to start writing this down?"
Carolyn nodded, rooting around in her purse and producing a prescription pad. She scribbled for a moment. "Okay, I'm caught up."
"I don't want a wedding gown I can't run in."
"Why do you need to run, honey? We're already married so bolting won't help," Daniel asked.
"I just don't like feeling at any point in time that if something happened, I wouldn't be able to react to the fullest extent," Sam explained.
"Like an alien invasion," Cam said helpfully.
"Like that's totally impossible," Sam said.
"I don't want the ceremony performed by an Ori prior," Daniel contributed.
"This list will be impossible if we start throwing things in that wouldn't ever happen. We've got to stick with typical American wedding events that we don't like," Carolyn said, with mock seriousness. She shook her pen at them. "Ground rules, people, ground rules."
"If you'd spent the hours I've spent in prostration, you'd want to be sure you never had to endure it again," Daniel said laughing but rubbing his knees. It wasn't totally a joke.
"I don't think we should write our own vows. Neither one of us is a poet," Sam said.
"I can just imagine the vows you guys could come up with. Major source of entertainment," Cam said. The tables around them were empty, but he still lowered his voice. "Even if you go to an alternate universe, I will not forsake you. We will walk hand in hand through the event horizons of life. I will put you before all others except my P90." He nodded, more ideas coming. "And you're marrying Daniel so rather than 'until death do us part' something like 'until you're really dead for good and we're completely sure you aren't coming back' would have to be used. Daniel's vows would include a discourse on cultural differences in marriage vows and would go on for 10 minutes even though he'd be talking really fast the whole time."
They were all laughing by the time he finished. It just went downhill from there. By the time they left some time later, full and sloshing from several cups of coffee, they were all in a very good mood even if they weren't actually much closer to any wedding plans. When they let Sam and Daniel off at their place, Carolyn said quietly to Sam, "We'll do lunch and get some real decisions made next week."
Sam smiled her agreement. Daniel put his arm around her and they waved them off. "THAT was fascinating," he observed.
"Yessiree you betcha, to quote a certain someone we're evidently going to go see in a few minutes," Sam said.
"It's a good idea, don't you think? If he was at the Mountain on a Friday, he's probably spending the weekend here in that little condo he bought after he went to DC and found out he couldn't stay away."
"I do. It's sort of a low level pain for me all the time, knowing he's so unhappy."
As they started to walk into the house, she said, "Do you think they're still suspicious of us?"
"They were paying close attention at first but I don't think either one of us did anything unusual, because they were pretty relaxed by the time we parted company."
Sam observed, "What a contrast between Carolyn and Cam, huh? Cam's the kind of person an empath needs to hang out with. He just puts out happiness and optimism and energy almost all the time. If he's got any traumas lurking, I didn't pick up on them. The only time he was down was when she found some little way to remind him that he's just passing through." Daniel didn't need to state his complete agreement.
As they neared Jack's a little later, Daniel stopped the car a block off. "No need to warn him. We need to sort of sneak up."
Sam said, "I think we need to flank him. I swear I wouldn't put it past him to either bolt out the back or refuse to answer the door."
"One of us goes around back to cover the second scenario, but what if he won't answer?"
"We just hang on the bell, bang on the door, yell, make a total scene," she suggested.
"Really, you'd really do that?" He was fascinated. He pulled her over and kissed her. "Even though I can read your emotions, you can still surprise me. That's good news right? Okay, give me one more for courage and let's go."
They kissed much more thoroughly this time. Daniel said thoughtfully, "I've never made love in a car, have you?"
"No," she denied emphatically. He raised an eyebrow, able to tell she wasn't being completely honest. "Just making out pretty hot and heavy, really."
"You don't think...?" He looked at the backseat.
"Please tell me you're not seriously suggesting something like that in this neighborhood and in broad daylight," she said, scandalized and, then, realizing he was teasing her, she relaxed. Laughing, she tapped him playfully. "Okay, you made me feel better. We should think about finding a really secluded place someday just to expand our horizons."
They got out of the car and walked to Jack's house. Sam disappeared around the back and Daniel stepped up to the front porch. He waited a moment for her to be in place and then rang the doorbell. The door opened immediately and Jack said, "What the HELL do you want?"