A MATTER OF POWER – III. The Power of Denial by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Sam deserves a promotion and Daniel is willing to help her. Sam has her own plans.
Spoilers: All seasons, including 9 and 10.
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.

The Power of Denial

Chapter 1

Daniel woke up when the telephone started ringing loudly by his side. He was not sure where he was; he did not have his glasses on yet. He vaguely remembered that that day was a holiday and that he had planned sleeping very late. He caught his glasses on the nightstand and looked at the clock as he picked up the phone. 11:38.

His name yelled on the other end of the line startled him and he quickly sat up with his legs hanging by the side of the bed.

"Daniel! I'm talking to you! What the heck does this mean? Can you tell me? What the hell is this, Daniel?"

Jack's voice sounded furious. He did not know what to answer. He felt more awake now, but not everything was clear yet. He suddenly felt a hand on his back and Sam whispered, "Daniel?"

Every second of the night before came rushing to his mind. That was what Jack was talking about. He had found out about Sam and him. But, how? Nobody knew. They had not even been out of their room. Did Jack have someone spying on them? He felt upset about it, but the guilt of having betrayed his friend was stronger.

"Jack," he started softly.

"Have you seen the newspapers, Daniel? Have you seen yourself there? This is how you repay me for my trust?"

The newspapers? Daniel was more confused than before. He got out of bed and walked toward the door of the room. He opened it slightly while hiding behind it and stretched out his hand. There, on the floor in front of the door, was a newspaper. He swiftly picked it up and got it inside the room. One look at the cover was enough to understand Jack's fury. He gathered his courage and said to Jack, "I have it in my hand, Jack. I need to talk to Davis. I'll call you later."

Jack had not stopped yelling questions at him, but Daniel hung up anyway. He had to figure out the state of things before talking to him again. He called the hotel operator and requested her to hold any other calls to their room. Then he caught a bathrobe from the bathroom and walked back to the bed where Sam was laying with questions in her eyes.

He turned the newspaper so that she could get a full view of the cover. There, in Technicolor, was a picture of the two of them in the hotel elevator. Sam was against the wall with her head thrown backwards and her eyes closed as Daniel kissed her near the throat and kept her trapped between his body and the wall. Because of the sheer size and clarity of the picture, it could even be seen that Sam's feet were not touching the floor. She had both her hands entangled in Daniel's hair and his hands disappeared behind her back. For Daniel, it was arousing just to look at it. He did not want to imagine what Jack had thought when he saw it.

"Oh, my God!" was all Sam said.

The picture was not really that bad. They were both fully dressed and just kissing. All the comments below the picture were positive ones. After all, they were a married couple with enormous power in the world. It was good to see that they had a healthy sexual life and that they found time for themselves among their many responsibilities. That was the commentator's opinion. Sam found it funny and Daniel was mortified.

"Daniel, don't take it so seriously. We're a married couple. We're not hurting anyone," she said after she managed to erase the smile from her lips.

"Jack," Daniel replied. "We're hurting Jack. He has, well, he probably had hopes that he could start a new life after retirement. This must have virtually annihilated his expectations. We have to talk to him and tell him that this is not what he thinks."

"What do you mean this is not what he thinks? He must be thinking exactly what it is. We're married and we have the right to have a little fun. What happened between you and me last night wasn't wrong, Daniel; don't tell me that." She was hurt and it showed in her tone.

"We both know how Jack feels. This was a betrayal to those feelings. I had no right."

"I can't believe you're saying that, Daniel!" Sam objected with pain. "I was there and I know what your feelings were. Aren't they as important as Jack's?"

"It was a mistake. I promised him, I promised him that I would not-"

"That you wouldn't what, Daniel?" Sam interrupted. "This is between you and me. You married me, not him. Jack has nothing to do with it. If you want to lie to yourself and say that you don't feel anything for me, so be it. I'm not going to sit here and listen to you." She wrapped herself in a bed sheet and walked to the bathroom. Once inside she slammed the door shut.

Daniel needed to think and he also needed to find out how that picture had ended up in the newspaper, more than one newspaper, if Jack had already seen it in Washington. He got dressed and walked out in search of Paul Davis. He was in charge of Public Relations for SGC. Everything that was published about it crossed his desk. What he found was a very satisfied Colonel. Davis smiled the whole time as he explained how the picture had raised Sam and Daniel's popularity in one morning. It had meant hard work to get it everywhere before all the newspaper deadlines, but it had been worth it. He had already received calls from popular TV shows asking for the couple to be guests and talk about their happy marriage.

Daniel was feeling miserable, but he had no excuse to show it to Davis. After all, he was supposed to have a happy marriage with Sam. He went back to his room and noticed that as soon as he had opened the door, Sam had gone back into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. He patiently packed all his belongings and left the room. He wanted Sam to cool off. They would have time to talk later.

Instead of going back to their house, he went directly to the SGC. He was scheduled for an early mission and he could distract himself getting ready for it. The first thing he did after going into his office was to call Jack. He avoided telling him exactly what had happened; he thought it would be easier if Sam discussed it personally with him. He did not want to put the burden of telling the truth on her, but he was not sure of how much she was ready to share. He explained Colonel Davis' plan to improve the public image of the SGC, but he carefully circumvented the fact that they had not been playing a charade for Davis' benefit. He apologized repeatedly for having upset him and he promised to call later on in the week.

Sam did not call him during the day and she did not answer the phone when he tried calling her at night. She was not there at the control room when he left on his mission the next morning. She had always been there, but Harriman gave them the signal to go, explaining that she was tied up in an official matter in her office.

Sam was extremely upset. She did not want to talk to Daniel or Jack. She could not understand them. It was hard to stop thinking of Daniel and her memories of the Fourth of July. Every time she closed her eyes, images, sounds, and sensations rushed to her mind. There were three mental pictures that haunted her more than all others. First there were Daniel's shoulder and upper arm muscles, clearly drawn under his skin, as he strained them to hold himself above her. Then, there were the sculpted plains of his abdomen as she slid her hand downward on them. Finally it was the perfection of his jaw as she kissed it before giving in to his lips one more time.

Her recollection of the sensations he had provoked in her was another matter altogether. She found herself sighing or breathing deeply in the middle of serious meetings, just because she remembered one touch, one stroke from his hand. She even caught herself closing her eyes briefly to enhance the memory. She knew she wanted to repeat the experience… What the heck! She wanted it to become part of her normal life, a daily occurrence, one more way of deepening her connection to Daniel. He would have no way to deny what he had felt and expressed that night. She had proof that he was attracted to her and that it was a deep, bonding attraction, not just a fling. If she added that to all the other signs she saw everyday as they lived together, she could almost be certain that he loved her. The problem was that it was just almost, not completely certain.

She suddenly came up with a new idea. It had to be Jack's feelings that were holding up Daniel so powerfully. If Daniel knew Jack loved him, he would never allow himself to hurt him, even if his feelings for her were stronger. She needed to better assess Jack's position. She desperately needed more intel on her enemy.

Finally, she decided to get Sara in the middle of the battlefield. She had met Sara O'Neill roughly six months before, when, as part of the process of making the Stargate Program public, they had reached out to schools and universities around the country to select teachers to be taught and trained about the program in order to pass their knowledge to their students. When Sam saw Sara's name, she immediately made sure that she was part of the list of approved candidates. She was convinced that Mrs. O'Neill had suffered much due to the secret nature of her former husband's job, and she wanted her to understand firsthand why all the secrecy had been necessary. She had first tried to meet her personally out of curiosity; she remembered seeing her at the hospital where the alien O'Neill had been taken many years ago, but she had never talked with her. Very quickly she discovered that Sara was a very interesting woman and they started a timid friendship. When she invited her for dinner to her house, Sara met Daniel and their friendship deepened. They both understood what Jack had seen in the sharp Sara and they both felt sad about the loneliness that seemed to dominate her life. Sam had noticed that Sara always managed to get Jack in their conversations and that she tried very hard to find out how he was doing in Washington.

Now, Sam decided, it was time that Sara found out for herself. She had the theory that Jack's attraction for her over the years had been just a reflection of his attraction for his wife. In a way, she almost looked like Sara probably had looked twenty or more years ago. If that was true, there was a chance that he still had feeling for his ex-wife and that those feelings were stronger and more deep-rooted than his feelings for Daniel.

She felt bad about using Sara for her fight, because her ultimate goal was to weaken Jack's position. If he still cared about his wife and he had a chance to talk to her now that he was allowed to be frank about so many of his past secrets, perhaps those feelings would be re-awakened. In any case, it would at least confuse the issue for him and Sara would get a chance to explore her own feelings. There was a risk that all of them would get hurt in the process, but all wars have their casualties and if her plan did not work as she thought, she would be the first one to fall.

She planned the incursion into Jack's camp very carefully. She found a reasonable excuse. Sara had excelled in her role as Program liaison and Sam arranged for her and three more of her colleagues, who had also shown their talent for the job, to visit the Pentagon headquarters of the SGC. She planned it as a two-fold operation; first she needed to ascertain Jack feelings. Was he in love with Daniel and waiting to retire to start a new life with him? Did he still love his wife? Why had he flirted with Sam all those years? Which feeling was stronger and was going to prevail when the right time came?

She knew that Sara had become close enough to Daniel and herself to trust them with her findings. She secretly wanted Jack to choose Sara, because that would make everyone happy, except for Daniel, but she was willing to do anything to get him there, too.

The second part of her operation was to force Daniel to confront his feelings. If Jack chose Sara, Daniel would not be betraying him by allowing himself to fall in love with Sam. If Jack chose Daniel, Daniel would have to choose who would really make him happy, Jack or Sam. That would be the end of the war, a simple peace treaty. Daniel's nation had sovereignty and he had the right to choose.

On Monday, Sara and the other teachers left for Washington and Sam sat in her office to wait. To wait for news from Sara and to wait for Daniel to come back.

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Many, many thanks to Monica and Chas for their help with this story.

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