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Daniel bulled his way through those between himself and Sam, earning himself a couple of half hearted punches that he easily parried, and knelt at her side. He rolled her over and made sure that she was breathing. He checked her carefully, tenderly, for broken bones. Daniel smoothed her hair from her forehead and saw a huge bruise starting to form. Someone had gotten in a lucky punch. It happened to everyone sooner or later. Invincibility was for the cartoons, not real life.
She stirred and moaned and he pulled back quickly just as Teal'c knelt on her other side. By the time she opened her eyes, he was back a few paces and Cam had taken his place. "What happened, Sam?" Cam asked, concern in his eyes.
"Three guys thought I might want to party with them. They reeked like a distillery. I declined. They jumped me and I fought back. All these people came out of nowhere along with the party guys' friends and it just went to World War III in a heartbeat. I knocked some guy down and turned around right into this huge punch. I guess it knocked me out."
"It happens," Cam said.
As the defeated thugs started to disperse, one of them, a wiry weasel with dreads, noticed the new arrivals for the first time. "Lodi, you whore's son, fancy meeting you here," he said, his voice ugly with hatred.
Daniel ignored him and said to Cam, "Let's get her out of here."
Being ignored just didn't work for the man. "I owe you Lodi and now that I know you're on this part of the river, you better watch your back. I have a long memory and a powerful hate. Watch out for your lady friend's back too because I may just have to show her what a real man's got to offer."
One of Daniel's fellow boatmen approached the man and grabbed a handful of his shirt. "You mess with one of our brothers, you mess with us."
Daniel was immediately there and pulled the knife from his back. He put it to the thug's throat and cut a thin line. "You touch a hair on her head, Valentino, or cause anyone else to do it, I'll remove the possibility of you disgusting any other woman ever again and shove it down your throat," he snarled in a voice of pure menace. "You say you have a long memory? Then remember how it was between us before, and what you've seen me do to men like you, and stay away." He gut punched him hard and Valentino fell to his knees. Daniel leaned over, grabbed him by his hair, and hauled him back to his feet. "Understood?"
Valentino spat to one side, not quite brave enough to spit in Daniel's face. He gave a small nod, his face alive with hate. Daniel released him, shoving him back, and the man scurried away. Daniel gave the other boatman the bow that was the mark of respect. "I am Lodi of Enphata. I thank you, brother," he said. The other returned the courtesy. "And I am Draco of Jolesca. I know you by reputation, as do all boatmen, and I am pleased to meet you in person." He made a sort of salute to Daniel's companions and walked away. Daniel wiped his knife on his pants and returned it to the scabbard hanging down his back.
Daniel turned back to see Sam, hefted in Teal'c arms, her eyes now open in slits. Cam had retrieved her gear from where she had tossed it to free her arms to fight. All three were staring at him as if he was an unfamiliar zoo animal. "What?" he barked.
"You've gone a little Bronson/Dirty Harry on us, that's all. Together with the long hair, the deep tan, the knives, that long thin scar down one side of your face we've been dying of curiosity about but too polite to ask about, you know, all that. We're just getting used to it," Cam said.
Daniel expelled a breath. "This is the package. Maybe delivering it back to SGC isn't the best idea, eh?"
He turned to lead them back to his boat and he heard Sam ask Cam, "Did he even care I was down?"
"You'll never hear it from me," Daniel vowed to himself. "You'll never know."
Sam was settled in the cabin. Daniel rummaged around and produced a cloth and some dried mossy stuff which he thrust at Cam who looked confused. Daniel said, "Make her a compress for her head. Get the hervine – the mossy looking stuff -- wet and put it in the cloth." Cam looked dubious. "It works. Carlos taught me."
Teal'c stayed below with Sam, but Daniel was disappointed when Cam reappeared, just a few minutes later. "Please don't let him be his usual Tiggerish self," Daniel prayed. "I'm not up for all that energy right now."
He turned back to the helm and took another pull on his bottle of breakfast. Cam came to stand behind him and survey the river ahead. There was little traffic out yet this morning and the fish were jumping above the waves, playing as they did when they weren't scared off the by the boats. Daniel took another drink and Cam said, "What is that stuff anyway?"
"You want to know? Here, try it." Daniel wiped the mouth of the bottle off on the tail of this shirt and held it out to the other man.
Cam took a chug and sputtered, sprinting to the railing and spitting. "My God, Jackson. That tastes like panther piss combined with rubbing alcohol. I can't believe you would drink it voluntarily."
"You don't like it huh? Maybe it's an acquired taste and maybe you should keep your nose out of my affairs."
Cam leaned back on the railing. "I just can't get my mind around the new you. What's been happening to you in this place?"
"It's not what's happened to me here," Daniel returned shortly.
"Look we need to talk about that whole reprimand thing and the decision to permanently bench you in some dead end planetside."
"Why? It's not my favorite topic. Until you all inserted yourself in my peaceful little life, I never really thought about it any more," Daniel lied.
"You need to know that it was all reversed. Jack saw to that. There was some very questionable stuff going on behind the scenes to railroad that decision and he exposed it all to the light. When you come back, you're reinstated, like nothing happened." Cam saw Daniel's sardonic expression of total disbelief. "Really. I've stretched the truth on occasion, but have I ever lied to you?"
"Probably not yet you'll understand that it amazes me that they don't care that I went AWOL when they had to let me go through the gate one last time because the Jinse wouldn't negotiate with anyone else. Did Jack also bring the 250,000 odd people that died back to life? I know Sam thinks he can walk on water so I figure that would also be within his abilities."
Cam just grimaced. He clearly was not finding this a fun experience. Daniel sighed. He really didn't like himself being quite this rude but, even more, he didn't like the fact that he still cared at all whether he was being rude. He had thought he'd dealt with all that. "Look, Cam, I know I'm being hard to get along with but I've got a reasonable thing going here. I've found just exactly the right balance of alcohol that will keep me numb, but allow me to sail without running my boat into something. I've built up a rep where the bad people leave me alone and the good people are really glad to see me coming. What more could a man want?"
Cam blew out a breath, looked at Daniel, and said, "For the moment, I've got to respect your choices as to, quite literally, what floats your boat, but when we get done with our little cruise, you've got to give some serious thought to all the people who need you." He pushed away from the railing and approached Daniel. He clapped him on the back, and said, "How about you let me have a turn. I used to do this when I was in high school."
"Oh, really?" Daniel said. He didn't move away from the helm.
"Really. Look it's not like I think you need a designated driver. I'd just like to try my hand."
Daniel stepped back, bowed slightly, and gestured to the helm with a flourish. He was, quite frankly, exhausted. Maybe if he napped a couple of hours, it would be better. The wind was steady so there wasn't much to be done with the sails. It would be longer than that before they reached the confluence with the Little Drake. He didn't want a wannabee piloting his ship through the tricky cross currents. "I'm going to lie down a little bit. You promise you'll wake me if anything, I mean ANYTHING, changes. I promised Carlos, I'd take care of his girl for him."
He pillowed his head on a square of sailcloth and lay down in the shade of the dinghy and was immediately asleep. He dreamed about Sam. At first, it was like he remembered it, the night she finally turned to him.
"It isn't working with Jack," she said awkwardly, staring into her glass of white wine as if it was a crystal ball.
"I'm sorry, Sam. The two of you waited an awfully long time to be in positions where it wasn't against regulations for you to be together. Maybe if you're patient, whatever it is will work itself out."
"It's not that there's an argument or anything. It's just that… well… he'll always be him and I'll always be me," Sam said, leaving Daniel uncertain what she meant.
"I'm not tracking Sam."
"He'll always like hockey and fishing and watching sports on television and glaze over when I try to talk about almost anything that matters to me like my work. He'll never be interested in going to an art museum or a ballet performance. He's had a kid and feels like he's too old to do the father thing again. If it was just a few things we didn't share, adjustments could be made, but it turns out that there really isn't anything but lust and the SGC."
"Oh," Daniel said. He was very uncomfortable with hearing about private matters between Jack and Sam. He knew Jack would cringe if he had any idea she was talking about this with him.
He said as much. Her response was astounding. "He wouldn't be surprised because… there's no easy way to say this except say it," she said. She took a deep breath, "I told him that all things I was missing, I realized I had always had with you, except the kids that is."
Then the dream went surreal. Just as Daniel was starting to kiss her for the first time after at least 4 years of fantasizing about it, Jack walked in. He looked at Sam and said, "Forget him. You want me." Sam turned from Daniel and walked to Jack. His dream self had no pride. He was begging her to come back and she just kept walking.
Daniel woke with a start. The boat was surfing over the water, very fast, too fast to control in the swift cross current. He realized the wind had risen and the sails hadn't been trimmed. They were already at the confluence with the Little Drake. They were running ahead of the wind faster than was a good idea, given the cross currents in these waters.
He got up rapidly and took in sail. Sam had come up on deck and was leaning over the railing, watching the boat's wake. She stretched out as if she wanted to touch the leaping fish swimming in a school to starboard. The boat bucked and listed to starboard in the cross current and, perhaps still dizzy from her minor concussion, she fell overboard. "Bring the boat around," Daniel yelled at Cam, standing stunned at the helm. He ran to the starboard side of the boat ready to throw her a line. He looked up river for just a moment and saw a sleek head swimming with the current, heading straight for Sam. For just a second, a wave of icy cold fear rode him, but almost as quickly he focused on what he had do and do fast. He ripped his shirt off while telling Teal'c, "I've got to keep that riverlion away from her. When the boat comes around, get a line to her."
Teal'c said, "We've got a zat in our packs below. I'll get it."
Daniel didn't stop. If Teal'c didn't have the zat in his hand now, he couldn't wait. He had lost Carlos to a riverlion because he hadn't been fast enough. He pulled the knife from the scabbard at his back, stepped up to the railing, and dove in the direction of the riverlion.
Daniel plunged into the waves upstream just 10 feet from the animal that, as he had hoped, immediately lost interest in Sam and rushed at him. He observed from some distant part of his brain that this was the biggest of its kind he had ever seen. The webbed feet had razor sharp claws on them and the animal was slashing at him as they closed. The trick, Daniel knew, was for him to get on its back but it was coming right at him. There was shouting from the boat and the riverlion was temporarily distracted and turned a fraction toward the sound. That was all Daniel needed. He grabbed the left front paw in his left hand and pulled it across his body. The riverlion was biting and swatting at his hand and arm but he kept it at bay with the knife. Then he was on its back and plunging the knife repeatedly into its belly. At last it convulsed and was still.
Daniel immediately released it and began swimming across the river so he wasn't where the blood would be flowing. This failed to put him significantly closer to the boat as it had reversed course to go back for Sam. It was now several feet down river from him and turned to the wind.
There was so much blood in the water. Most of it from the riverlion, but some, Daniel saw, was his. There was pink in the water around gashes on his left arm and the back of his left hand and more gashes on his side he hadn't noticed receiving. The riverlions were solitary hunters, but there were other nasty things, smaller, fortunately, but hunting in packs, unfortunately, that would be drawn by the blood. He had perhaps two minutes at the most. He was very tired and he could feel himself getting weaker. Part of him was fighting to survive, but, mostly, he was tired and sad. Fatalistically, he thought, "What will be, will be."