A MATTER OF POWER – IV. The Power of Pain 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 Pain

Chapter 1

After they gated to the SGC, Daniel and Teal'c were taken to the Infirmary. When Teal'c was finally released with a cast on his arm, Sam and Cam were still waiting outside for news about Daniel's condition. Dr. Lam finally came out and explained that Daniel had suffered severe blunt trauma to his back, but that the damage, especially to his lung, had been repaired.

His friends felt very relieved. Sam stayed with him for a while, thinking about the fight they had had the week before. She could not wait to talk to him and tell him how sorry she was. She had missed him terribly, more than she usually did when he was gone with SG-1. She just wanted to apologize and to allow him to take his time to think about what he really wanted. If Jack was what he wanted, she had no right to push him away from him. She would also talk to the General and try to mend his relationship with Daniel. She had not heard back from Sara and, at the time, all her plans felt meaningless.

Jack's call the morning after the party had seemed to her like a formal declaration of war. She had felt there would come a final confrontation where she would win or lose. She was not willing to retreat, so she had used all her firepower against her former CO. Now, as she saw the aging General come through the Infirmary doors with worry in his eyes, she did not see him as the enemy anymore. There was no conflict any longer; she had been disarmed. They both wanted the same, for Daniel to be all right again. She was about to talk to him, when an alarm went off on Daniel's monitors and they were rudely pushed out of the way by medical personnel.

They walked back to the observation room on top, the same one from where she had witnessed her father slither away following Selmak. Jack was back at her side, just as he had been that terrible day.

"Carter," he softly said as he stood by her side.

"Sir," she replied. Then she shook her head and spoke, more to herself than to him. "He was doing fine. I don't know what's going on."

They saw the doctors below them carry Daniel's bed toward the exit of the room, probably to perform new tests, and they felt slightly relieved. If there were new tests to be done, then at least he was alive.

"Carter," Jack said again as he sat slightly behind her, "we need to talk."

Sam sat by his side and nodded. "Yes, we do. I want to apologize for what happened at the hotel last week. It was entirely my fault; I pushed him. He didn't want to be unfaithful to you, but I pushed him."

Jack found her words confusing, but thought that he was misinterpreting them. "Carter- Sam," he said. I'm not sure I get what you're saying, but I think I understood that you wanted something to happen between Daniel and you. Was that it?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. I know you've been waiting to retire to start a new life, but I just… I've just been in love with him for too long to let him go that easily," she finished with a sight. "I felt I was at war with you, sir, for him… but when he was injured I realized that I only want him to be happy and if he wants to be with you, I'm putting my weapons down. You win."

By then Jack was utterly confused. He had not thought of Sam as his contender; he had seen Daniel and himself as the warring parties. Sam was the prize, the territory to be conquered. He stopped his reasoning right there. Since when had Sam become a trophy? And wasn't she already in love with him? He was about to reply to Sam when Dr. Lam entered the room and sat by their side.

"We just completed an MRI on Dr. Jackson. There's blood from a small hemorrhage accumulating around his spinal cord and it has already caused serious side effects. It's called spinal hematoma. It brought on severe pain and, in a matter of minutes, complete paralysis. He's not breathing on his own and he's lapsed into a coma. He could recover spontaneously, but we don't want the blood to flow upward to the brain, because it could be fatal, so we want to relieve the pressure by removing the blood before the damage is permanent. It's dangerous and I need your consent."

Sam looked at Jack and softly nodded. As soon as the doctor left the room, she covered her face with her hands and sobbed softly. Jack was dumbfounded; he had seen her keep her composure even when her father had died. He moved closer to her and wrapped his arm around her back.

"Sam, he's going to be all right. He has more lives than his damn cat. He always pulls through."

Sam recovered a bit and cleaned the tears on her face. "You're right, I know."

"Sam," Jack added as he moved slightly away from her. "I don't know what Daniel has told you, but I think somewhere in there the wires got crossed, because all those things that you said right before Dr. Lam came in, made no sense to me at all, and I know that most of what you say goes right over my head, but you were not technobabbling, so I should have gotten it right."

"What? What did I say?"

"You said that Daniel wanted to be with me," he whispered.

"Oh!" she said with consternation. "I thought you knew. I thought that you both… that that was why you were so upset when you saw the picture."

"Carter, now I'm more lost than before. Has Daniel ever told you anything like that?"

"I don't know if I should tell you because if he hasn't told you himself, maybe I shouldn't-"

"Just freaking tell me, Carter. What did he say?"

"When he proposed to me he said that we could only be married until you retired, sir," Sam replied in a very low tone.

"And you thought that he meant that he was waiting for me?"

"Well, yes, sir. What else could it have been?"

Jack sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought. "Carter, Daniel thought you were waiting for me to retire."

"Me?" Suddenly everything started making sense in her mind. Yes, she had had some kind of frail relationship with the General. They had both been flirting with each other for the longest time. Daniel could have easily thought that she had hopes of transforming it into a real relationship when Jack retired. He did not know that by the time she had gone to work in Nevada, she had completely lost any hope of making that work. Jack was in Washington and he had not offered any indication of still being interested in her. "Oh!" she said again. "Oh, I understand… I don't know why I…"

"It's okay, Carter, just forget it."

"I'm so sorry, sir. You left and you never said anything-" she looked down and continued, "I didn't know."

"It's okay, I already told you. It's my fault because I never made it clear and, besides, you just said that you've been in love with the Spacemonkey for a very long time."

"That's different, sir. All these years I've been trying to let it go. I don't know why it hasn't worked."

"Because you really love him, Sam," he said, softening his tone. "I have to tell you that you're an extraordinary woman, Sam, and I would have been glad if we had gotten somewhere, but, here, today, looking down from this window, I'm glad that you love him. He really needs someone to love him. Much more than I do. I'm used to being alone. I'm the only one to blame for my loneliness. God knows Sara has tried to reach out, but I've had these tall walls around me since Charlie died." He held her hands between his and continued. "Daniel is different. He's alone because his life is just a damn nightmare; he never catches a break. I won't allow anything to get in the way of him getting some happiness, especially not myself. If he loves you, you should keep fighting for him. If that picture of the two of you is not a wake up call for him, I'll stay here until he gets better and Teal'c and I will knock some sense into him," he finished with a small smile.

Sam had to smile, too. She reached out and hugged him. "Thank you, sir."

"Besides," Jack added softly, "I've been thinking that I should give Sara another chance. We were good together, we were really good."

Sam felt comforted that her plan had not backfired. She was sure that Sara and Jack would finally work out their problems. Now, she only had to help Daniel.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Any comments? Please, take a minute and give your opinion. It is very important for me to know what the readers think in order to decide how to continue a story or write the next one, or, if there is no interest, stop posting it here.