Unexpected Effect by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. The ripple effect brought a few more consequences than first thought.
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.

Unexpected Effect

Chapter 5

On Saturday morning, for the first time in a long time, Daniel didn't feel like getting up. For years and years there had always been a compelling reason to get over his sadness and work to achieve a goal. To get up, after his parents death, to go to school and get good grades in order to get a scholarship to study Archeology and make them proud. To get up, after his grandfather refused to take care of him, to be a good kid and stay in a foster home instead of being sent to an orphanage. To get up to finish his studies. To get up to find a job. To get up to find proof of his theories and stop being laughed at by his peers.

Then it had become even harder. To get up to find Sha're. To fight the Goa'uld. To fight the Ori. To save Earth. To save the Universe.

When had his life become this endless battle? When had he signed at the bottom of a page abdicating his happiness in favor of a greater cause? If he had caught a break in Abydos, it hadn't been for long. Now he was utterly tired and outright hopeless.

He stayed in bed most of the day, trying in vain to sleep. When the sun went down, he finally got up in search of an aspirin and something to eat. He took a long shower, long mostly because once he got under the water he couldn't find the will to step out. He tried watching TV, but he couldn't focus enough on a program to be worth keeping trying. A book didn't help either. He ended up sitting in his den, in the dark, drinking a soda and eating chocolate covered pecans, simply because he didn't have to cook them. He thought of his past again, as he had all day, and kept carefully avoiding thinking of Sam. That was too raw a pain, too new to get near. Every time his thoughts drifted to her, the fear that he had ruined the only link he had to her, their friendship, paralyzed him. Even if she still agreed to work with him, if she was not his friend, the most important relationship of his life would be broken.

Near 10:00 at night, his doorbell rang insistently. His first thought went to Jack. He had always had an uncanny ability to sense when Daniel was not doing well. But Jack was in D.C. He thought that it probably would be Mitchell. He had purposely turned his cell phone off and his telephone was off the hook. If there was an emergency at the SGC, Cam would be furious. He tied the knot on his robe and on his way to the door he managed to put on the pair of white cotton socks he had found in his pockets.

He opened the door and to his surprise he found Sam standing in front of him. She was wearing an old pair of jeans and a sweater and, logically if he considered that it was snowing outside, she was shivering slightly. She was not even wearing her ever present lipstick and her eyes looked swollen. He was so stunned that he remained there, holding the door open, looking at her.

"Can I come in, Daniel? It's cold out here," she said trying to smile.

He immediately moved out of the way and let her in. He guided her to the den and, as she sat on the sofa, he lighted the fireplace. She was still shivering and he managed to say his first words to her, "I'll get you something warm." He came back a few minutes later with a cup of hot chocolate and a couple of throws. He put the chocolate in her hands and carefully lifted her feet onto the sofa and covered her with the throws as she reclined against the pillows.

He sat in an armchair and waited while she drank her chocolate. He had done things like this for Sam so many times in the last ten years, that they came automatically to him, but today they included the fear of crossing some invisible boundary or stepping over some line that would end up making Sam uncomfortable.

This was new to him. For some reason beyond his comprehension, women had always reached out to him. He had never had the need to actively try and charm a woman; they had usually come to him willingly, even when he was not attracted to them. His hardest times had been trying to make some of them understand his lack of interest without hurting their feelings. Now Sam was going to explain to him why she didn't feel the same way as he did, why she couldn't love him. He knew and understood most of her reasons and he frankly didn't need her putting them into words. Perhaps she needed to do it and that was enough motivation for him to endure it.

"You have made me think a lot, Daniel," she suddenly said in a surprisingly jovial tone and with a small smile, as she put the empty cup on the table, "about things I didn't want to get into, to tell you the truth."

Daniel looked at his bare legs sticking from under his robe and felt very awkward. He just said, "I'm very sorry, Sam."

Sam noticed his look and picked up one of the throws he had used to cover her and threw it playfully at him. "Let's share." Then she got serious and added. "Don't be sorry. I should have done it a long time ago, but I'm not good with feelings. I've never been. I suppose that after I lost my mom I had to learn to deal my dad's way," she smiled, "and you knew him." Daniel nodded and tried a small smile. "Anyway, I discovered many things, some painful," she fidgeted with the edge of the throw, "some very surprising, and some completely unexpected. I don't know. I was not ready for some of them, but there's nothing I can do now, eh?" She forced a smile and Daniel felt deeply sorry for what he had caused.

"You don't need to tell me, Sam."

"Well, you're my best friend. If I don't tell you," she smiled again and made a gesture to express her dilemma.

"All right. I'm listening, Sam."