FOUR DAYS OF CELESTINO – II. Day Two by Betty Bokor
Sam/Daniel. Daniel and Sam share a Saint Patrick's weekend.
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.

Day Two

Chapter 4

By the time Daniel came back, Sam had dozed off with the TV on. She was startled when the door opened and slowly sat up in bed as he walked in. He was soaked, not only his hair, but also his whole body was completely wet. His T-shirt and his training shorts hung from him as if painted on his skin. Sam was still not fully alert when the deep wave of arousal ran through her. She sat up straight and held her face in her hands. She was thunderstruck. She had felt desire for her best friend?

Daniel noticed the gesture from the corner of his eye and interpreted that she was feeling ill. He rushed to her side and kneeled on the floor by the bed.

"Are you all right? Are you feeling sick?"

Sam uncovered her face and looked at him to tell him she was okay. The image of Daniel so close to her, dripping water in a state of semi-undress, hit her again and another wave of desire coursed through her. "Oh, my god!" was all she could say.

"What? Are you in pain?" Daniel asked with even more concern.

"No, no, it's not that. What- what happened to you?"

"Oh, I just went swimming with my clothes on," he answered without hesitation. "Tell me, Sam. What's going on?"

"Nothing. It's just that… I think I was sleeping when you opened the door. I just felt confused. I don't know what I was really thinking," she tried to explain. She felt guilty about not telling the truth to Daniel, but there were some things that could not be told. Besides, she had probably been dreaming and she had not really been fully awake when she felt that.

"Well, I'll take another shower and get dressed to go to bed. Do you want to watch something or are you ready to go to sleep?" he started getting up and then he leaned closer to her and kissed her forehead as he held her hand. "You can tell me when I come back."

It felt more intense than before and this time she was completely awake. There were no excuses or possible rationalizations. She might not have considered it earlier, but now she had to face it. She had shivered from head to toe even before Daniel's lips touched her forehead.

"I'm sorry. I must be very cold to the touch. I'll be back soon," her friend said and entered the bathroom with a pile of clothes.

The image of Daniel getting into the shower grabbed her by surprise. If she had rejected the notion until a second before, now it was incontrovertible. She was fully aroused by him. Over the years she had never, never, felt the most minimal inclination toward him. Now his image felt erotic to her even with all his clothes on and her imagination was working overtime to divest him from those constraints.

She held her face in her hands again. What was she going to do?

A little while later, Daniel came back dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt just as he had the night before. She had not thought anything of it then. Now, it rekindled the feelings she had been having since he came back from the gym.

He got in bed and looked at her. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yes, Daniel, I'm fine. I just hadn't noticed how tired I was."

"So, you want to go directly to sleep?"

"No," she replied suddenly scared of getting closer to him during the night. "Let's watch a movie."

She did not pay much attention to the movie. Later on she would not even remember what it was.

She spent the whole time analyzing her feelings for Daniel. She knew how much she loved him, but she could not find an explanation for her sudden physical attraction for him. If she thought about it, there was a connection between that and how bothered she had been because of his flirting. In all honesty, he had not really flirted. The women around him had been flirting with him and he had let it happen as cluelessly as always.

By the time the movie ended she felt better. She had found a more rational explanation for her feelings. First, she had come on this trip to see Jack. She actually wanted to know if she could find a clue as to why all those years of secret longing and furtive looks had suddenly ended as he left for Washington. Right then, when everything could have finally become reality and nobody could have objected, the whole relationship had turned almost icy.

She had been deeply disappointed when he did not show up and she had unconsciously turned to Daniel for comfort. If she could not have Jack, at least she had Daniel's friendship and his undivided attention, as always. Exactly then is when she had seen the daily Daniel, the one she did not get to see often, the one who played some sort of mating game with every woman who was interested. Never going too far, just there where it was not dangerous. One of these days he was going to willingly cross the limit and Sam would be left with nothing. No Jack's love. No Daniel's friendship. Oh, come on; Daniel would always be her friend. He just would not be exclusively hers as he had been all these years. After Sha're, no other woman had gotten that close to him. She was the only one now, but when they finally got rid of the threats to the universe –she saw it that way lately– he would set out to find himself a woman to have the family she knew he wanted.