Chapter 15

When Tab'ba realized he could not have the beautiful stranger he disparaged her. He said ugly things, carefully not within Jack's hearing. He called her pale like a grub in the dirt. He said the god Ra would burn her. Called her old, too old to bear children, barren and useless as a woman.

Then Tab'ba had a brainstorm, he took his oldest daughter, a mere 16 summers and gave her to Daniel. This would be an alliance with the elect of Pharaoh.

"I have made a vow at the temple. I will remain celibate until the temple is completed." There were times when Daniel was quick on his feet.

Tab'ba, angry and embarrassed, then dragged the poor girl off to O'Neill. He had a wife so he could not reject the gift and again it would ingratiate himself with those recently from Pharaoh's court.

"Your woman is old and this one is young. She can teach your woman to know her place. And as my daughter she will increase your status. A woman has no account except for her father's rank and the status of her husband."

He pushed the girl toward O'Neill and walked away before Jack could object.

Jack, when he recovered his wits, shouted at Tab'ba's back "I don't want another wife." Sam was caught off guard by this statement - 'another wife'. Did he consider her his wife? She'd think about this later. Or never.

The girl was incensed. Her response was loud and haughty. "I will not be your concubine. Do you know who my father is?"

"Of course I know, he was just here. And that's not what I meant." Jack looked to Sam for help but she was biting her lip trying not to laugh.

Both Jack and Sam tried everything to get the girl to move back to her home. Nothing worked. Then they noticed the bruises on her and agreed to let her stay. Jack could no longer sleep on the floor, that's where D'jat had laid her sleeping mat. And now that Jack got to sleep in the same bed as Sam they had a chaperone.


Walking past the half filled retention pond Jack saw happy children splashing in the murky water. "We don't have to drink that do we?"

"No. There's a well and if we're in luck the water level may have risen. It had gotten a bit sandy."

Jack had gotten bored swanning around the village with Sam on his arm. And so he took to improving the village and the lives of its inhabitants by deepening the well and digging a new latrine. This time locating both a bit further apart. He hoped they had invented the shovel. He hoped Sam wasn't monumentally bored and tried to involve her in his projects. He enlisted Daniel to help digging while Sam designed the project.

Jack was hip deep digging a new well while the local boys were bringing stones to line and enforce the walls and carting away baskets of dirt. Daniel was supervising.

"You know, do you think off world weddings are valid? Tab'ba just dumped D'jat in our hut and she brought her sleeping mat."

"You know he brought her to me first." Daniel said smugly.

"Yeah, you told me he offered you a wife. How did you weasel out of it?"

"I told him I made a vow of celibacy until the temple was finished. That will take years. I nearly said 'until it rains'."

"Well thanks a lot Daniel." Then O'Neill said with an evil grin "I told her she could stay with us until your vow was fulfilled and then she could happily join you."

"You didn't."

"Do you remember PX3-124?" Jack asked.

Daniel was straining his memory at the weird transition in the conversation and Sam narrowed her eyes.

Daniel realized it was the same topic - marriage and he for one was certainly aware of the range of different customs regarding marriage. "If there is coercion the marriage isn't valid." Daniel said.

Meanwhile all Sam could comment was "Ahh…" She was nonplussed. Were they? Those wasted years, lonely nights. Then she remembered to her distress. "What about Kinthia? That was their form of marriage."

Jack's head popped out of the hole. "Oh no, no, no. She drugged me. No consent."

"Well you did consummate the marriage." Daniel said.

"I didn't know it was a marriage, no consent and not my fault. She drugged me." O'Neill's voice rose with every word.

"Got a wicked STD." Daniel said under his breath and had to duck when a clump of mud came flying in his direction.

Sam motioned Daniel to walk out of the range of Jack's hearing. "It's about the wedding on PX5-246. We were there to sign a treaty and they were peculiar about unwed women and the colonel agreed to…"

"I remember." Daniel said.

"If the treaty is valid wouldn't any other...mmm…agreements be valid?" Sam didn't wait for an answer, she knew.

Daniel thought What is wrong with these people? They're both bright. How many off world negotiations and treaties have they been involved with? They must have known any treaty we signed off world was valid on Earth. And a marriage is valid if gone into willingly and if consummate. And if he remembers the Ice Planet, consummation was not the impediment. The real question is whether it is valid to them.


Inspired by The Hidden Folder by RoczaDeb, Off-World Weddings by LenaLake and In All Duty and Service by starrybouquet. All can be found on an Archive of Our Own.