A Lonely Lady by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Daniel is feeling lonely and tries to find a solution.
Spoilers: All seasons, including 9.
Disclaimer: The Stargate original characters belong to MGM/Showtime, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

A Lonely Lady

Chapter 5

The following morning, an hour earlier than usual, Teal'c got up to start preparing for the three teammates to move back to their own houses. After starting the coffee in the kitchen, he thought he ought to help Daniel as he had everyday since the injury. Daniel usually was awake by the time Teal'c went to his room and started him in his daily routine. Teal'c decided to try and help Daniel early so that he could then pack and participate in cleaning the house.

As he always did, he knocked softly on Daniel's door and then entered the room. In the poor early morning light he noticed that Daniel was still sleeping and soon after he saw Sam's sweater hanging from a chair. He moved backward towards the door as he tried to recognize the shapes on the bed. He quietly smiled and closed the door without a noise. When he came back, at his usual time, he knocked more forcefully and waited for Daniel to answer. Daniel was already alone.

"Ah, my friend. I'll have to start doing this on my own," Daniel said as he entered the room.

"I believe ColonelCarter will do it as well as I do."

"Ah, you heard our little discussion yesterday night," Daniel said with a shy smile.

"Indeed. I tried to avoid it, but you know my race has an extraordinarily sharp sense of hearing." Daniel nodded. "But I did not know about the results of your conversation until I came to see you early this morning, DanielJackson."

Daniel blushed deeply. He looked down and asked, "Do you mind?"

"I have been waiting for Samantha and you to get together for a long time, especially after Vis Uban. Your absence was extremely hard for her. I believed when we recovered you she would see the truth of her feelings."

Daniel was very surprised. "We're not sure it will work," he said with sadness.

"I trust it will, but you need to take your time and let all the walls that have been built during the years fall down on their own."

Daniel smiled softly. Leave it only to Teal'c to see beyond all of them.

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After Cameron and Teal'c left the house, Daniel and Sam felt weird and, for the first time in their lives, did not know how to behave around each other. Daniel felt an irresistible desire to go around the house hugging and kissing Sam, acting like a teenager with a crush, but he carefully avoided it. Sam found it easier to behave for fear of hurting Daniel, who was still healing from his injuries.

They tried different household tasks and reached some agreements. The laundry became Sam's territory –especially after Daniel insisted that all the clothes could go together into the washer– and she gave him a crash course on delicate knits, color catchers and color sorting. Daniel, who was unable to understand that Sam could not see a difference between butter and margarine or that she could call any cut of meat just "beef", quickly claimed the kitchen.

Teal'c came back for dinner, as agreed with Daniel, and surprised Sam with his comfort with their new relationship. The rest of the day passed pleasantly and they felt satisfied that it was working. The next morning, Sam woke up alone in bed, but heard music coming from the lower floor. She noticed that someone was playing the same piece on the piano, starting over or repeating a section every now and then. She went downstairs and found Daniel at the piano.

As soon as he saw her, he apologized. "I'm sorry, Sam. I didn't mean to wake you up. Unfortunately, I really need to practice."

"To practice for what?" she asked curiously.

"Sunday is one of the ladies' birthday. Mrs. Kursiewicz was born in Poland. She came here very young with her husband, who was a carpenter. All their family was born here and they still run the furniture store he started. They will celebrate her day with her on Sunday. I promised Dottie that I would play her favorite piece on the nursing home's piano today. I was afraid I wouldn't make it, but I'm fine now."

Sam smiled. Only Daniel would remember something like that. "What's her favorite piece?" she asked, unable to accurately identify what she had heard him play.

"Chopin's Polonaise No.6, most commonly known as 'Heroic'. Dottie wrote it on a paper so that she wouldn't forget."

"Well, it's beautiful and full of energy, but I can hear sadness in it, too."

"It's supposed to express the pain and longing Chopin felt for his country. He left when he was twenty years old and he was never able to go back, just like Mrs. Kursiewicz."

Sam couldn't avoid marveling at Daniel's capacity to empathize with others. She was certain that, every time he played the piece, he could feel the pain with which it had been written. When they finally made it to the nursing home, just looking at the expressive hug Mrs. Kursiewicz gave Daniel –while her eyes were full of tears– as he finished his short performance, was enough to make her understand that she was not the only one who could see Daniel's qualities.

Shortly after he played the piece on the piano, Daniel was asked to see the director of the nursing home in her office. Sam went with him. Once in there they were introduced to a polite gentleman who explained he was Dottie's lawyer. Daniel and Sam sat and patiently listened as the man talked. He explained that she had a small fortune and no heirs and that she had decided to leave her properties and valuables to the nursing home where she was so well taken care of. He also said that she had signed all the documents to do the transference of the titles and rights while she was still alive. Daniel was about to ask why this could concern him, when the attorney added that Dottie had separated a small portion of her possessions to give to him. Daniel was stunned and tried to refuse the gift, but every detail had been taken care of and they only needed his consent to send the items to his house. After they had finished with all the legal aspects, Daniel went to talk to Dottie. He found her back in her room.

"Did they explain it to you, Daniel?" she asked with a happy smile.

"You shouldn't have done that," Daniel emphasized as he sat in front of her.

"Why not? My son died long ago and, since my husband passed away two years ago, I have no one else. You've been like a son to me during these months that I've known you, and you've even spread your example-" she smiled mysteriously and Daniel, who had no clue about what she referring to, asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, that young man, your friend, the one who comes when you're not available, started coming on Wednesdays," she explained with a bigger smile.

"Walter?"

"Yes! That one. He said he had missed us the weeks you were here and asked permission to visit as often as he could." Daniel was speechless. "In any case," she continued, "I want you to have those things. I only have one more thing to give you. These were too small and I kept them to give them personally to you."

She handed him a small box and he opened it and looked at its contents. There were a few pieces of jewelry, some antique pens and other small pieces. He was about to give them back to her, when she stopped him again.

"No, you cannot give them back. They are already yours. Enjoy them, give them away, it doesn't matter, but they are yours."

Daniel expressed his gratitude to the lady and promised to take good care of all her gifts. During the following week, the rest of the presents arrived to Daniel's home. There were some paintings, a couple of small sculptures, some valuable books, and some other objects that Daniel found fascinating. It was clear that Daniel and Dottie shared a similar taste and he enjoyed finding an appropriate place in his house for the items, with the help of Sam.

On Friday morning, he planned to take Dottie for a nice dinner and then bring her to his house to see how he had arranged his gifts around the place. He suddenly found himself thinking of how Dottie had explained her relationship with her late husband and how he felt the same way about Sam. "Soul mates," Dottie had said. It was the perfect word for Sam and himself, too. The week they had spent in such proximity had taught him that they would be able to work out any problem they could have in the future. There was too much love between them not to be able to do it. He got out of his home office and went to his bedroom, where he still had some of the presents from Dottie. He searched in his nightstand drawer and found the small box that she had given him. He took a smaller box from it and went downstairs looking for Sam. He found her in the den, sitting on the sofa, covered with a soft throw, intently reading a book.

He knelt on the floor by her and she looked at him. 'What are you reading?" he asked her.

"One of your books." She showed it to him. "I didn't know you read poems. I never paid too much attention to literature in school, but this is fascinating," she said with a smile.

"It helps immensely to be in love to appreciate the feeling in some poems," Daniel said, smiling too.

Sam blushed and Daniel took one of her hands in his. "Sam, I asked you to try this relationship with me and in spite of only having a week to do this, I think it's working, working very well." He paused and she nodded in understanding. "I want to show you something." He opened the little box he had brought from upstairs and showed her a ring inside of it. " These three stones in the center, they are blue sapphires; that is the most well known color of sapphires," he added. "These others," he showed four smaller stones flanking the sapphires, "are called tanzanites, because they are only found in Tanzania. This ring belonged to Dottie; it's not extremely expensive, but as soon as I looked at it, the only thing I could think of were your eyes. These are the colors of your eyes; dark as the sapphires when you're passionate about something; clear as the tanzanites whenever you smile. I don't want to ever be far from them again. Would you, please," he said as he took the ring from the box and offered it to her, "and I will beg as much as it will make you happy, marry me, as soon as possible, anywhere, however you chose to do it-"

She interrupted him with her fingers on his lips. "Yes!" she only said. She let him put the ring on her hand and then leaned down to hug him. They were both crying, but she was happy that she didn't have to be a soldier with him.

Later that day, when they took Dottie to dinner and while Daniel was parking the car, Sam told her about the proposal. Dottie simply said, "Well, I knew he would do it one day or another. I just thought that if I gave him something to think about he would do it sooner. You won't believe it –and Daniel doesn't know about it– but that's the ring my husband gave me for our fiftieth anniversary, and he chose it because of the color of my eyes. I was certain that Daniel would see you in it as my Edward saw me. I'm glad it worked." She smiled and Sam hugged her. She thought that someday in the future she could pass her ring to another young man and hope that he saw the eyes of the woman he loved on its blue stones. In any case, until then, she would wear it every day, because, for her, those were simply the image of Daniel's eyes.