Right Time and Place by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Jack and SG-1 share a celebration off-world.
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.

Right Time and Place

Chapter 4

Daniel finished his last touches on the appetizers and went back to getting dressed. He had avoided wearing his formal clothes until the last minute for fear of staining them while cooking. Now, he had to hurry up. Sam was going to be there soon and he needed to be perfect by then. He was not sure if the date would work out; there were too many unknowns. Before this week he had never seriously contemplated taking his relationship with Sam down this path. Stray thoughts? Definitely. Interest? Yes, he was sure now. Planning for it? Not at all. He had started setting up a series of scenarios and strategies in his mind to handle the date, when the bell rang. He swiftly left the bathroom and approached the door. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that this was Sam, his best friend, the same one who had been at his house hundreds of times and shared dinner with him even more often. Deep inside he knew this was different, anyway.

He opened the door and smiled at Sam. She looked breathtaking, but he knew she would. She could be awe-inspiring even in the middle of a battle, covered in mud and yelling commands. It was the beauty he could see coming from inside, the passion, the strength, the caring. He invited her in with a broad smile and helped her with her coat.

"Yep, I was right."

"What?" Sam asked with a little fear in her tone.

"That dress. It's the dress. You even look beautiful in it. I wouldn't have recognized you-" he said with mocked seriousness. She tapped his arm with her purse and he faked pain. "Ouch! All right. You always look beautiful; I concede it. I just didn't want to give you an advantage from the very beginning."

"I don't think it's an advantage. You look beautiful, too, and the tuxedo is just an enhancement." Sam said smiling.

"Beautiful?" Daniel said with a teasing offended tone. "What about handsome, good-looking, striking, gorgeous maybe? Why beautiful?"

"You have to face it, Daniel. You're the beautiful type." She moved slightly to be face to face with him. She reached his face and moved his glasses on top of his hair. She looked appreciatively at him and said with an approving tone, "Just beautiful."

Daniel knew he was blushing, but he also knew that the moment was so intense that he couldn't break it with a silly joke to stop his embarrassment. Nevertheless, he had to break it; it was way too early in the night to be there. He kept his eyes firmly on Sam's and said very softly, "Well, there's a striking piece of filet-mignon waiting for us. We shouldn't make it wait any longer."

The atmosphere changed immediately and Sam relaxed. Daniel put his glasses back down and grabbed her hand. "Now, ma'am, you sit here," he said as he directed her to a chair in the formal dining room, "and wait for a second. The meal is almost ready."

While Daniel was gone to the kitchen, Sam contemplated the room. She was surprised at how much work Daniel had done in the short time he had had since coming from the base. There was a delicate hand-embroidered tablecloth on the table that Sam assumed Daniel had inherited from his parents. She still wondered how he managed to keep some of those things after having been declared dead so many times. She was certain General O'Neill had had a hand in it.

Then she noticed that there were fresh flowers in a short vase in the center of the table. The colors of the flowers played beautifully with the colors of the tablecloth and the china. They were so used to eating on paper or plastic plates, that she had failed to notice that Daniel could pay attention to that kind of little detail.

There were also two candelabra on the table, but their candles were not lighted. Instead the bright lights of the chandelier above the table cheered the room.

Daniel came back pushing a small serving table. He deftly took the plates off it and served the table. Sam looked at him with surprise.

"Had to work at something during college," Daniel said with a little smile. Then he sat down on his seat and looked at Sam who was waiting for him. "Mm… I didn't know if we should light the candles. I didn't want to overdo it and scare you."

"Candlelight would be perfect," Sam said smiling, too. While Daniel lighted the candles and walked to turn off the chandelier, Sam took a second to reflect on Daniel's thoughtfulness.

During dinner, which followed to the letter the menu that Daniel had imagined on Saída, he made a conscious effort to keep the conversation light and avoid talking about work and the SGC in general. He noticed that Sam was doing the same and he interpreted it as a sign that she shared his point of view and also wanted a SG-free dinner. The problem was that he was not enjoying it. He missed the spark that shone in Sam's eyes when she talked about her latest projects and he missed the depths they reached when they discussed what they knew about the universe that they couldn't share with anyone else. He got up to get the deserts, which had been kept in the kitchen to be fresh when served, and thought about what was failing on their 'date' tonight. He knew something was failing. He had somehow lost his connection with Sam. He felt as he had felt on so many other dates, sitting in front of an intelligent, mature, beautiful woman and not finding a link between the two of them. He suddenly felt afraid that the whole thing could ruin his friendship with Sam and decided that he had to do something before it got to that point. Perhaps Sam and he were only meant to be friends and the idea of trying something different had been a mistake. He had seen sparks flying between Sam and Jack many times and he had thought that he could do the same, but it was not working. Their first minutes in the foyer had lifted his spirits a good deal, but the rest of the dinner had been a failure. Of course, it had been an agreeable dinner and he was satisfied with the way the food had turned out, but there was nothing else.

He went back to the dining room and served the desert. After he sat down, he gave a deep sigh and looked at Sam eye to eye. "I'm sorry, Sam, I can't do this anymore."