Title: The Price
Author: Hah
Genre: Romance/Angst
Warnings: None
Season/Spoilers: None. Only for my own little twisted reality.
Summary: Melia left everything for the young Tok'ra. The cost may have been higher than she expected.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.
AN: Thanks to Em & Missy for betaing!

Chapter 2

The first few days were difficult beyond her wildest dreams. In addition to readjusting to a corporeal form that required food, water, sleep & shelter, she had a desperately hurting patient. Worse than the physical wounds left by the torture, which the sarcophagus had more or less healed, was the physiological trauma caused by the repeated use of the sarcophagus. He would thrash uncontrollably, his eyes flashing and phlanged voice demanding to be sent back for "proper treatment." Melia quickly found a native plant that had sedative qualities and made a thin paste to keep him sedated most of the time. Even in sleep the tortured soul of the symbiote would cry out, recounting horrors of centuries gone past. She knew that the sedative was only a stop-gap measure. Eventually, human and symbiote would need to heal themselves.

---

When Pedroche finally woke up, a young woman was gazing intently at him in the firelight. He watched as relief spread over her lovely features and warmed her brown eyes. She looked somewhat familiar, but his memories of the past few days were vague at best.

"It is good to see you awake and coherent," the mystery woman said.

"Wh-where am I?" he replied, still dazed. "Who are you? How did I get here?"

"Shh. You're safe now. Don't worry."

The young man's eyes lit up as his symbiote took over. "Where are the others? We must rejoin them!" Clearly agitated, he began to push the makeshift covering back and tried to get up.

"You're in no condition to travel now. You've been severely injured." To prove her point, she lightly pushed back on his shoulder and he fell back easily on to the pallet. As his head hit the leaf-filled pillow, the host regained control.

"My symbiote will heal me. I have to get back to them!" He struggled against her, but in his weakened state, she easily pinned him down, slipped some of the sedative into his mouth and waited for him to calm.

"Get some rest," she whispered as she smoothed his hair back and kissed his forehead, as had become her custom when he fell asleep.

As she turned to go, his hand reached out and touched her arm. "Wait, my name is Pedroche. What is yours?"

"Melia," she answered, smiling gently, but he was already fast asleep.

---

When he woke late that evening, Pedroche was famished. With the dark haired beauty out of sight, he once again attempted to get up from his palette. From a seated position, he looked around him for the first time since he arrived on this strange planet. They were in a cave with only two mats and a fire. This didn't seem to be the work of a civilized people. As host and symbiote sat contemplating what to do and how to go about finding the stargate on this planet - if there was one - the thought of a certain young woman kept invading Pedroche's mind. His memories of the past few days were starting to come back in bits and pieces, and he knew that he owed her his life. Memories of how she had rescued him were still very fuzzy, but he knew that she must be a very special woman to have rescued him from the Goa'uld. The scent of food wafted in through the cave's opening. With his stomach growling even louder now that its goal was in range, Pedroche struggled to his feet and paused for a moment to steady himself.

Outside, Melia was doing some contemplating of her own. Pedroche was almost physically ready to rejoin his kind, but she wasn't ready to deal with the possibility of separation from him. Of course, if they didn't find a stargate, it wouldn't be an issue, but even the thought of parting with him caused her to shudder inwardly. Despite her charge's proximity to death, or maybe because of it, she felt more alive than she ever had before. While observation had a sort of fascination for her, it was nothing compared to the satisfaction of physical contact and actually being a part of someone's life. That, along with the fact that she finally admitted to herself that she had unwittingly fallen head over heels in love with her patient, caused a serious dilemma. She was torn between wanting to stay here for the rest of her natural life alone with him and wanting to somehow take him to Kheb so that Oma Desala could help him ascend so that they could be together forever. One way or the other, she needed to tell him who she really was. She stood, squared her shoulders, raised her chin, took a deep breath, and headed towards the cave to tell him.

Slowly she became aware that something was wrong, but couldn't put her finger on it. Suddenly she jumped up and ran over to the fire where she had been cooking and cried out in frustration and then in pain as she saw the large animal skull which she had been using as a pot boiling over and attempted to remove it without using any type of guard against the heat. In her pensive mood she had completely forgotten about dinner.

As she surveyed the damage, she heard a crash from inside the cave, dropped the pot and ran to see what happened. She found Pedroche crumpled on the ground and knelt to see what had happened.

"I heard you scream. I thought they had found us." Fear flashed in his eyes, mixed with the regret of all those who he had not been able to save from the wrath of the system lords. He had a long memory, but he couldn't remember caring about someone so completely, especially so quickly

Relieved that he was okay, Melia put her left hand on the side of his face and ran the fingers of her right hand through his hair. "No, we're safe here. No one can find us. It's just the two of us," she said in a near whisper, her eyes burning into his. Seeing her own passion mirrored in his eyes, Melia placed a gentle kiss on his cheek before moving to his lips.

"Stay with me tonight?" he said against her lips.

She answered by wrapping her arms around him and kissing him again.