Then he had had to push it last night. What had impelled him to be such a damn hypocrite, embarrassing her like that on the same balcony where he and Elspetha had kissed for the first time for a few breathless moments earlier in the same evening? He could tell himself that there were some differences in the consequences and situations and that was what he had done last night. This morning he looked like a bully in his own eyes. He knew he did to Teal'c. He didn't like himself very much at the moment.
When he had reentered the room from the balcony after talking to Sam the previous evening, Teal'c had been alone. "Was that completely necessary?" Teal'c had asked.
Cam had been mildly surprised. Teal'c understood chain of command and he rarely questioned Cam. "I'm just afraid that anything between her and Daniel is playing with fire as far as the mission and her own happiness goes. Did you know she and Jack were over before she said something this evening?"
Teal'c had arched an eyebrow, making Cam feel stupid. Teal'c wasn't demonstrative and sometimes he forgot just how close Teal'c and Sam were. This morning, he really didn't want more of Teal'c's disapproval. He chided himself. His leadership style was at the edge of the envelope as to how much latitude you could give your people and how consensual you could make things. Sometimes he had to remind himself that an officer couldn't be concerned about whether his troops liked his command decisions as long as he knew they were correct.
A huge breakfast was laid out on the table in their common area as it had been the day before. Jonas and Teal'c were already seated, having an animated conversation about something that had happened when they had been on the team together years before. Jonas greeted Cam sunnily, more or less oblivious to some of the tensions that swirled around the room. Teal'c nodded his head and said "Good morning ColonelMitchell," without a trace of disapproval.
If Sam can just come out here with the same 'let's go forward' attitude, that'll be what I need, Cam thought.
He looked up to see Sam entering the room. There was indeed a full blown love bite on her neck right above the collar of her uniform and she hadn't tried to conceal it with make up either. Her chin was up and her attitude was definitely, "Go ahead make something of it. Make my day."
Cam groaned inwardly but was careful to show nothing but his usual happy, upbeat manner. "Good morning, Sam." She confined her response to a neutral nod and exchanged good mornings with Teal'c and Jonas. Cam tried another conversational overture. "We need an opportunity for exercise if we're going to keep getting breakfasts like this."
Jonas said, "And dinners like last night! Daniel certainly does eat well when he's not dining with a crowd."
Teal'c inclined his head and asked, "Is there an agenda for the day or are we to simply wait another day while DanielJackson thinks about our offer?"
"Nothing has been mentioned so far. Elspetha showed up yesterday as we were finishing breakfast with the word for the day. Maybe that will happen again today. It might not be a bad idea to request an opportunity to do some exercising if they don't have any meetings or other activities planned that would conflict. We could probably all use a chance to work some things off." He flinched inside as soon as he said it, realizing it could be taken as a dig.
Jonas proved his usefulness once again in riding above all the things running on under the surface and happily seconded the idea.
As predicted, Elspetha showed up very soon after that. Mitchell's stomach turned over and his heartbeat sped up at the first sight of her. He'd been able to keep things in check but now that he had kissed her. With real memories instead of mere pleasant fantasies, it was a lot harder. Her own face gave absolutely nothing away nor could it be expected to. She had lived in the world of the court her entire adult life.
Her eyes flicked over them all and then returned to Sam and held for a beat. Only because he was watching her so intently did he notice the real pain that came, he was sure, when she noticed the mark on Sam's neck. "His Grace Danyal has suggested that you might like to accompany him to Bayia today. It is a large island, a paradise really, about two hours by ship. He must conduct some business there. It would be an opportunity for you to see more of our world."
Cam accepted for the team and she excused herself, promising to return in an hour to take them to the ship. When she returned, she was wearing loose pants, the first time they had seen her out of a dress, and she looked with approval at their uniforms. "Finally there is an occasion for which your clothes work well."
She motioned for them to precede her out the door and handed Sam an envelope. She didn't do it covertly, but it was offhand and Cam was sure that neither Teal'c nor Jonas even noticed. Sam frowned slightly and started to put it in a pocket. Elspetha leaned forward and whispered something to her and Sam nodded and finished putting it away.
They made the journey down the mountain side and out to the harbor in two electric cart. They seemed to Cam like glorified golf carts. The city through which they smoothly rolled, along wide immaculate boulevards, was as beautiful up close as it had promised to be when seen from the palace.The people riding past or strolling on the sidewalks were very handsome although not on the average quite as beautiful as those at court. Their clothes were richly colored and well cut but not as outrageously expensive. SG-1's Air Force uniforms, which even Jonas and Teal'c wore although devoid of insignia of rank, were a little plain in contrast but not as outlandish as they would have looked among the courtiers' dress. They looked at SG-1 with curiosity and an air of superiority.
The ship riding out in the harbor was large with impressive lines. It actually had massive rigging, but the smoke stacks told Cam that it did not have to depend on sails. They got in a yacht sized sailing ship to be ferried out to their destination. Elspetha pointed to the blue pennant bearing some marking they was too far away to read. "His Grace Danyal is already aboard. His personal flag is flying."
Sam sat at the extreme end of the boat and drew the envelope out, tapping it against her fingers. Cam wondered if he would ever see its contents and whether he should, as the CO, ask to.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sam looked with trepidation at the envelope. Elspetha had whispered that it was very important that she read it before she saw Daniel. She couldn't imagine what it would contain and had wondered at the contented smile that had played around Elspetha's lips when she had given it to her. She approved of it, clearly, and Sam wondered if she had actually read it or merely had an idea of the contents. She had seen the look of pain briefly cross the woman's face when Elspetha apparently noticed the mark on her neck. She interpreted this as jealousy and had to conclude that the contents of the note, therefore, couldn't be good if they gave the other woman satisfaction.
No putting it off any longer, she thought and sighed. She broke the seal and slid out the single folded sheet of heavy paper and a small packet of some sort of salve.
Dearest Sam,
Elspetha told me that there is a mark on your neck. I had said nothing to her about what transpired between us in the garden, but she knows me well and had guessed what might have occurred. She divined and rightly that I would be greatly pained that I done something that might well cause you real embarrassment. Please use the salve in this packet. It makes bruises disappear at an astonishing rate.
Daniel
There was no "I'm sorry" in so many words. She remembering him saying that he could not apologize in his position, but his regret was plain. She opened the packet and rubbed the salve on her neck. Then she reread the note twice. She had been surprised when she woke up that morning that she wasn't really that angry with him and even more surprised that part of her was more than a little turned on by the idea that he did want to mark her as his. Reading this note turned her insides to mush. She was sure now that her Daniel was still somewhere in the Regent and that he and Elspetha were not having the affair she had suspected. In fact, she realized that the pain at the sight of the mark on her neck had been Elspetha's realization of how unhappy this would make Daniel. She carefully replaced the note in an inner pocket and turned, looking toward the ship.
Elspetha must have been watching because as soon as Sam had put the note away, she made her way to Sam's side. She put a hand on Sam's arm and said, so softly that no one else could hear, "It pained him greatly that he had made trouble for you."
"I believe that," Sam said. Impulsively she decided to take advantage of this sympathetic moment to ask the question that had been bothering her ever since Daniel had appeared at the SGC for the treaty negotiation. "Forgive me, Elspetha, I know that Daniel's wife was your daughter and talking about her might be painful for you, but Daniel closes up when she is even mentioned. Can you tell me," Sam stopped in mid-sentence. Was she really going to ask this woman how her daughter had died.
Elspetha looked at sympathetically and intuitively realized what Sam wanted to know. "I mourned her for a long time, but enough years have past that I can talk about her. His Grace Danyal can't bear to talk about her because he feels responsible for her death." She sighed. "You see, if it had not been for the prophecy, there is no way there would not have been a bloody war of succession when the only heir was a young girl whose mother wasn't even of the aristocracy. The prophecy made them accept Monca as an heir as long as Daniel was with her for the time being, but they sneered at him. He seemed weak and foolish because he had not yet learned to act as my people expect a ruler to attack. Within days after Davi was born, there was an assassination attempt. Monca died."
Sam could just imagine how Daniel would feel. "I'm sorry to make you dredge all that up."
Elspetha took her hand and patted it. "I should have realized you would be wondering and His Grace Danyal would never tell you. She was blessed to have him the short time that she did. If he had not taken pity on her and our people, she would have been killed when her father died."
When they came aboard the ship, Sam immediately saw little Davi running exuberantly up and down the deck under Tildi's careful eye. He came running toward them, hugged Elspetha, and then turned to Sam. "Sun" he said and pointed up. She was inordinately pleased that he had retained at least one of the words from their session the night before.
"Sun" she agreed. He grabbed her hand and began to pull her toward stairs leading to the upper decks and she went with him willingly, the rest of SG-1 and his grandmother trailing along behind. The top deck was clearly the royal preserve. Davi towed her through a door into a sort of conference room. Daniel sat at a large table with several self-important looking men. There were papers strewn about the surface. Daniel was leaning back, watching one of them declaiming passionately about something indicated on a map in front of Daniel.
No one paid any attention to their entry at first. The drama they were more absorbed in became apparent when a second man stood and leaned across the table to shout something at the first man. Suddenly a knife flashed and the second man went down clutching his chest. Two huge bodyguards immediately interposed themselves between Daniel and the others in the room. A third, who had noticed them, moved to protect Davi. They saw Daniel's hand go down on some sort of communication box, perhaps something that sounded an alarm or called for help. The others in the room sat where they were unmoving. The knife wielder picked up a paper from those in front of him, wiped off his knife, and put it away. Three men pushed past them into the room and went to the injured man, evidently medics. Daniel waved the bodyguards aside and they saw that he had never even changed his position.
He spoke very coldly and with great displeasure to the man who had stabbed the other. The man turned white, seemed about to argue, and then bowed his head in acquiescence. He stammered out what may have been an apology. It didn't seem to have worked because Daniel spoke again, each word like a bullet. The man hurriedly gathered up his papers, stuffed them in a sort of briefcase, and stumbled from the room. Sam saw two guards meet him outside and escort him away. Elspetha whispered to Cam and Sam overhead her. "He's a bully and I have waited a long time to see him fall."
Daniel looked up and acknowledged their presence for the first time. The men all stood hurriedly and bowed to the little king. Daniel spoke in English. "We've been trying to conduct some important business, but some of our subjects have trouble with the rules of common courtesy that I have dictated." His eyes flicked to the man on the floor with the medics working on him. "Perhaps it is best to adjourn the meeting."
"Will he be all right?" Jonas asked. Sam knew where he was coming from. This all seemed a little casual.
"He's cut from the same cloth as the man who stabbed him. It was only a matter of who finally provoked whom first."
Cam asked, emboldened by Daniel's apparent willingness to discuss the situation. "Why would you allow people in your presence who were armed."
"Ah," Daniel said, "You may well ask. For these people, any sign of fear is blood in the water. It would be taken that way and, in the long run, wouldn't help."
He looked at the other men in the room who had been listening to this discourse with obvious curiosity, but clearly no understanding. He spoke to them dismissively. They bowed and he stood and crossed the room to SG-1, scooping up his son, and stepping out onto the deck.
Daniel told Elspetha, "It may be early, but I think it is time for a meal."
She nodded and quickly crossed the open deck ahead of them. They entered the doorway across from the conference room to find a comfortable dining room. Elspetha was speaking to a servant, who bowed and left the room. Jonas started to sit, but stopped himself at a tiny shake of the head from Elspetha. Daniel put Davi in a seat, then sat. Then they all sat. He looked at them ruefully and nodded at the large windows. "We are not alone here and we need to remember ceremony more."
"Do incidents like that happen often?" Cam asked, leaning back in his chair. Sam admired the fact that he had never lost his confidence in these strange surroundings. Cam could have carried this off as well as Daniel, she thought.
"Less often since I made the penalty for using a weapon on another in my presence banishment and loss of worldly possessions."
"But it still happens?" Jonas asked incredulously, "I mean, despite that?"
"My people are what they are. Change takes time." Daniel looked up at the entrance of two waiters with drinks and that was the end of the discussion.
Sam sat next to Daniel and had to fight the impulse to reach over and touch him, to make sure it still was Daniel. The things she loved about him were still there somewhere, she was sure, but so often there was this cold, uncaring façade. She told herself that one thing had been accomplished this day at least. She now understood little Davi's unperturbed acceptance of the knife incident in the cafeteria at Cheyenne Mountain.