Daniel wiped his forehead, fighting the urge to scratch as the ragged gash that ran from his hairline to his jaw. Ever since Aragorn had returned with news of the army headed their way he'd been trying to find ways to help the people prepare for the siege. While castles were hardly his specialty, he had read enough books on basic construction and fortifications of medieval forts to know something. Still, the day was passing, and they needed help.
Screw that, they needed a miracle.
"Any luck?" Jack asked.
Daniel sighed. "This keep isn't designed like European ones, Jack. Their primary defense is the thickness of their walls. European keeps have murder-holes, loops, barbicans, drawbridges." He looked up from his position kneeling outside the massive gate. " We have a fosse, but this bridge is solid stone."
"Okay, I'll pretend I know what all those are," Jack said. "But, there's gotta be somethin' you can come up with."
Daniel nodded. "A few things, actually." He looked up again, this time at the wooden slats in the Deep's wall.
Fifteen minutes later he was standing in front of Theodred, who looked more than a little dubious. "Oil?"
The archeologist nodded. "It's one of the few things I could think of to help. If we could rig large pots of boiling oil, they could be poured on the enemy in case they start breaching the gate. There's nothing but stone there, so we could even set fire to it. Even if we don't have oil, water would have pretty much the same affect."
Theodred nodded. "Hamar, take Daniel down to the store rooms and see to it that he gets all the oil he needs. Romauld, I want three men to set up the largest cook pots on the battlements. Take all the wood you can to heat them, break chairs if you have to."
The two men nodded and set off, Daniel at their heels.
"Our chances seem to be improving, Aragorn, if only slightly," Theodred said without turning. "Have all the women and children gone into the caves?"
Gamling nodded. "The last are being sent even as we speak."
Jack narrowed his eyes at that, and looked around. Uh-oh. "Did you send Samantha down too?"
Gamling frowned. "The woman who was with you? Yes. She should be there now."
The colonel's eyes widened. Sam was gonna kill him. "Where's the entrance to the caves again?"
By the time Jack managed to make his way to the caves, followed by an amused looking jaffa, ranger, elf, and dwarf, he could feel his ears burning. Sam must have been calling him every name in the book.
"Listen, I have to tell Colonel O'Neill something important! Let me pass!"
The two guards at the base of the staircase shook their heads. "Theodred ordered all women and children into the caves, no exceptions."
Samantha was livid. "You've got about ten seconds to let me pass or-"
"No threatening the natives, Major," Jack called.
Sam looked past the two guards. "Colonel, there's something you need to see."
The caves beneath Helms Deep extended into the mountain were a jumble of huge caverns and cramped tunnels that went on for miles in all directions. They barely took three steps, though, before Sam stopped them.
"Look." Sam held up a torch to a section of the wall.
Jack grinned and put his hand on a yellowish crystal outcropping.
"Would you two care to explain what's so important about stone?" Aragorn asked calmly. The women had gathered around their small company and were watching curiously.
The colonel removed his hand and hit the place where it had been with the hilt of his long knife. A section of the yellowish crystal crumbled on impact.
"You guys know what saltpeter is?"
"We use it to preserve food," a woman said.
Jack nodded and began walking around the cave. Sam watched him, a slow smile spreading on her face. "Sir?"
"Sam, you know how ta make bleach?"
"So, what's all this ye've been slavin' over?"
Gimli eyed the table with misgivings. Ever since Samantha had told the colonel about the caves, they'd been talking quietly and hurrying about the keep. Currently, Samantha was sitting in front of a group of bowls and measures, telling two women how to mix their contents, while Jack was kneading a pile of something that looked like clay, while eyeing the remains of one of their communication devices, the result of hours worth of work.
"That," the colonel said, nodding towards Sam. "Is gunpowder. This." He pointed to the pile in front of him. "Is homemade plastic. Always knew that tube of Vaseline would come in handy one day."
"Plas-tique?"
The colonel's eyes lit up. "Yeah."
"And what does it do?" Legolas asked.
Jack smiled. "Sam, demonstration."
The blonde looked up. "What?"
"Demonstration. Just a little one."
Sam picked up one of the bowls of finished product and went to an empty corner of the room. The dwarf watched as she poured a small pile of the black powder onto the floor.
"That's it?" he asked.
Sam walked to the fireplace, picked up a small cinder with a pair of tongs, and tossed it onto the pile.
The resulting blast was deafening in the small room.
"No, that's it," Jack said, fighting the urge to wiggle a finger in his ear to help with the ringing.
"They're both explosives, though Jack's is more dangerous," Sam explained. "We're filling small jars with gunpowder and metal shavings and using hay as a simple fuse. When they explode, it'll send shrapnel into the enemy."
"Not fun," Jack muttered.
"And what will your material do, Jack?" Legolas asked.
The colonel shrugged his shoulders. "Blow up, I hope.. You got the detonator ready, Sam?"
Sam handed him a small cloth bag, and the companions watched as he carefully set it inside the radio then set the whole on top of one of the blocks of explosive. That done, he pressed the remaining material on top of it.
"Whew," the colonel said, wiping the sweat from his face.
Legolas looked puzzled. "Why were you so nervous?"
Jack stretched. "Because that bag contained gunpowder. If any got on the plastic, we'd all be toast right now." He sighed at their confused expressions. "Dead, guys."
"So why'd ya do it?" Gimli asked.
"Because that's the primer. I send a current through the radio, it ignites the gunpowder, and that makes the plastic go boom."
The elf and dwarf looked to Samantha, who nodded. "Really big boom," she said.
Jack stripped off the thick gloves he'd borrowed. "Those things'er worthless now," he sighed. "Like the table. So, why're you guys here?"
The expressions on the two warriors faces became solemn. "It is time," Legolas said.
Jack backed away from the table. "You got everything ready Sam?"
She nodded and hefted one of the bags full of small jars. "This is the load."
"Good. Teal'c."
The jaffa stepped forward silently and took the bags from Sam and the two other women.
"Teal'c, what-?"
"I want you in the caves, Sam," Jack's voice was low.
"Colonel?"
The colonel folded his arms and gave her a hard stare. "I need someone I can trust down there, to keep everyone under control, and herd them out if you have to."
"But sir, they have kids manning the walls. I could-"
"Nope, not this time. I need you to do this, Major."
Samantha swallowed some of her anger. She knew his tone. She'd just been ordered to do what he said.
________________________________________________________________
This is so unfair.
Samantha watched as Aragorn stormed out of the armory. Legolas was right, they were going to die. After sending the Alma and Feya back down to the caves she headed up to the armory, wearing a pair of oversized britches and a long shirt. Hopefully, in the confusion she wouldn't be noticed.
"What'er you doin' here, Sam?"
Carter's heart sank as the cool words washed over her. Caught before she could even grab a sword. She turned and squared her shoulders. "I'm arming up."
"No, you're not," Jack answered setting down a gauntlet he'd been in the process of putting on. "We discussed this. You're going to help the women and children get out if we're overrun."
Sam ignored the sharp hint of impatience in his voice. "We need everyone who can fight fighting, not babysitting, sir."
"This is not up for negotiation, Sam. Get back to the caves ricky-tick."
"But colonel-" Sam glanced at Teal'c and Daniel, both of whom were watching her with the same expressions. Gimli wouldn't meet her eye, busying himself with checking the edge of his axe. They wanted her to hide.
"You bas-"
"Don't say something you'll regret, Sam," Jack's voice was deadly serious.
"They've got twelve year olds with no experience carrying swords and lances, but you don't want me to join in because I'm a woman," Samantha said. "What kind of bullshit is that?"
"That's a simple order, Major," Jack's voice caused a second silence in the armory.
"The hell it is!"
Before she could say anything else the colonel had latched onto her upper arm and was pulling her outside. For a moment she was so surprised that all she did was follow. The only other time he'd ever done something like that was to push her through a wormhole, usually when a buttload of jaffa were on their tails.
"Listen up, major."
The sheer seriousness with which the words were spoken stopped the complaint that was on her lips.
"I need you down there, Sam. I'm not gonna lie. This has everything to do with you bein' a woman, all right. No one, including every single man in that room, wants you on the front lines. I want you in the caves, so you can get everyone out when they break through."
Samantha was about to rip him and everyone else up one side and down the other when her mind latched onto a single word. "When" they break through, not "if", but when.
"You don't think you'll make it, do you?"
Jack smiled wryly. "You heard the elf. 300 men and a few hand grenades aren't gonna do much against 10,000. This is the Alamo, Sam. Thankfully, we have a back door. The plastic is still in that storeroom. I want you do take it, and if you so much as feel like an orc's comin' down those stairs, you blow it. If it goes off, it should give you enough time to get through the mountains. Eowyn's great Sam, but I want the person who can run two hundred and thirteen scared shitless people through a 'gate with a deathglider bearing down on her in control."
Sam flushed at the praise, even as she rebelled against the thought of hiding. "Yes, sir," she said, then. " Good-"
"Nope." Jack shook his head. "No goodbye's, you'll make my mascara run."
Sam nodded, and looked over his shoulder, where Daniel and Teal'c were standing, watching. Daniel looked sad, while Teal'c had his usual impassive expression, softened only slightly in concern.
"Don't get killed," she whispered, and turned before she did something stupid, like started crying. As she walked through the keep she thinking about what was happening. She was a soldier, she was supposed to be in situations like this, not sitting on the sidelines waiting to get killed by some smelly-
"Samantha."
The soft voice broke through her anger and she turned. Legolas was standing a short distance away.
"Yeah?"
Whoa, he looks nervous. At the moment Sam had to agree. The elf did look nervous.
"I wanted to wish you well." Legolas walked forward until he was standing in front of her.
"Thanks," Sam fought the urge to back away. He was way too close. "You too."
The elf looked confused at her answer for a moment, then continued. "Samantha, I wanted you to know-"
"NO." Sam put up a hand and winced at the harshness in her voice. "No last minute bearing of the souls. Bad luck." What the hell do you mean "no?" We've been waiting for this for nearly a month!!!!! The Bitch was screaming in the back of her head, but she ignored it. Men who got involved with her met very bad ends. She was determined not to let that happen to him.
Sadness swept over the blonde elf, then she seemed to gather himself. He reached into his shirt. "I want you to have this."
Before she could protest he had placed a small object in her hand, curling her fingers around it. Puzzled, she opened her palm.
The stone was blue, almost the exact shade of his eyes. It was carved into delicate indigo vines enclosing a single clear leaf that shined slightly in the dim light.
"It was given to me by my mother," Legolas said as she examined the pendant. "I have carried it with me always. I want you to carry it now."
Sam was speechless. She kept looking from the jewel to Legolas. Finally, she found her voice. "Thank you."
He nodded and started back down the hall.
"Wait!" Sam walked hurriedly to where he was standing, watching her. She reached into her shirt. "Here." She held out her dog tags, which he examined curiously.
"See that?" she moved the two pieces of metal to the side, revealing an oval piece of apple green jade. "My dad gave that to my mom on their wedding day, and she left it to me. It's always brought me luck." She held her hand out to him. "I want you to have it." She turned her hand upside down, waiting to drop it into his palm.
Instead, he closed his hands gently around hers. "Thank you."
Samantha was about to pull away when she found herself on the receiving end of a kiss. And not a bad kiss either. For the barest of moments the walls, the keep, everything faded into the background. She could taste spring, feel grass beneath her feet, smell the wetness of a river bank and loam.
It was over far too soon for her liking, and she found herself staring up at the elf as he backed away.
"Cormamin niuve tenna' ta elea lle au,'" he said quietly before once again walking back out of the keep.
Sam watched him until he turned around a corner, then started to the workroom. By the time she got to the caves she still only had only one thought running through her head.
Wow.
On that, she and the Bitch were in total agreement.
HOT DAMN!!!! She finished another chapter!!!! Sorry about the delay between chapters. I spent a month in a place with no MS word, or any other word programming file, and a refuse to submit a single block of text. Updates should come a little faster now that I'm back home.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for reading this!!! Special chocolate covered Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean thanks (you know what I'm talkin' about ^_~) goes out to Phoenixlady, Jane, Aria, silver1, reviewer, Keirin, Celesta Evenstar, Rolo-rooni, Kits, Linderhill, Shanna, ChristalSteele, Nina, Technomage-Ranger, Chibi Mo, Reviewer, Wishful Thinking2, kaitland, SilverCaladan, Ptath, custardpringle, Kiilee, KaliedescopeCat, organized-chaos, Krismarief, Mara Jade, Jedi, ladyshoes, Mithrill, and gloryfaith. Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews!!!
For those of you who wanted lemon, it's coming, I might put if off to somewhere else, but it will be there. When it gets written I'll tell you where to go to find it.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave reviews!!! I love them, I worship them, I need them! All reviews are placed on a shrine next to my computer for moral support. All flames will be eaten with soy sauce and rum!
And last but not least, the elvish:
Cormamin niuve tenna' ta elea lle au My heart shall weep until it sees thee again