I'll let you know approximately what episode the chapters take place in. This chapter takes place just after 'Double Jeopardy', as will the next chapter (the one with the new SG-1). There usually won't be a time difference between the chapter with Sam and Daniel, and the following chapter with the new SG-1, so I'll let you know if there is a difference.

Hats off to everyone who's reviewed so far. I'm looking forward to more!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things were awkaward between Sam and Daniel for the next couple weeks. Sam mostly because she was still startled by her body's reaction to "the incident" and she was nervous about how she felt about it. It reminded her of her days with Jonas. Well...not quite. Jonas had turned abusive after their engagement. Mark had been suspicious but never said anything to her, mostly because Jonas was around. Finally though, one night after Jonas slipped out for groceries, Mark cornered her and made her show him her back. She remembered hearing an audible gasp at the bruises and welts that colored her it. If she hadn't begged him to silence and not to act or do anything, she knew he would have went straight to the store and beat the living crap out of his future brother-in-law, be it in public or not. About a month after that, Sam and Jonas got into a fight. She never did figure out what it was about, but whatever it was, he was pissed off. He began to savagely beat her, and unluckily for him, General Jacob Carter was coming for a surprise visit to congatulate his daughter on her engagement and happened to have a key. Sam had tried to suffer in silence (which made Jonas even angrier) so Jacob hadn't even noticed anything wrong upon entering. He heard noises from the bedroom and would have left to return earlier except, just as he reached for the doorknob, he heard a strangled, cry of pain and went to investigate. The door was closed and as he got closer he had heard dull thuds. He had quickly opened the door and saw Jonas standing over Sam, who was now huddled on the floor. Without even thinking, he strode over behind the oblivious man and hurled him off of his daughter and began to beat him back for hurting his little girl. He wouldn't have stopped, except for Sam had managed to stand up and layed a hand gently on his shoulder.

Sam shivered at the memory. She had had no power in that relationship and never wanted to be in that position ever again. Suddenly she noticed that her hut had become more active. "What is going on?" she asked one of the other girls--Tayan.

Tayan looked up happily at Sam. "Our Lord Camaxtli is coming!"

"W-what?!" stuttered Sam. After their pervious departure, she wasn't sure if Camaxtli would bother to come to see them again so soon, for cryin' out loud! 'Great,' she thought, 'I'm beginning to think like Jack now!' She hated to think that they had lost hope of ever going home again, which she had, but since that revelation She had started to think of her former coworkers by their first names instead of ranks and last names.

"We were just as elated as you. He comes in seven sunrises." Tayan unsurprisingly misinterpreted Sam's lapse in words. Sam knew that women here didn't understand the consept of sarcasm so that meant that Tayan was actually ecstatic that Camaxtli was coming and thought Sam was, too. She didn't know what he had done to get this reaction from his people and she had never bothered to ask if he was even considered good or evil.

"Uh, you know I'm new to this world?" She waited for the girl's nod before continuing. "I'm unfamiliar with Camaxtli's rule, other than the fact that women are treated with no respect."

Tayan's eyes narrowed slightly at Sam's not-quite-insult. Then her eyes resumed their wide innocence, probably because she decided that Sam must have been unfamiliar with her dear god to have even subtly suggested that women be equal if not superiour to men. "Camaxtli is a kind and benevolent god. He has never done us wrong. His coming is something to be excited about, for it means that he rewards the hombres y las mujeres he deems worthy of his blessing."

"Blessing?" asked Sam sharply.

Tayan looked shocked at Sam's abrupt change in behavior. "Y-yes," she stammered. "When he himself comes to join two in matrimony."

Sam instantly relaxed. For a second she thought "blessing" translated to "take people to be turned into Goa'uld hosts."

"That's all he's coming to do?" she asked. "In seven da-sunrises. He isn't going to--never mind."

Tayan nodded, already over Sam's miniature outburst. Then she smirked and giggled girlishly. Sam wondered what the girl's exact age was. "Many of us here wish to be joined with your friend, Dahnyel."

Really?" Sam didn't bother to hide the jealousy in her voice.

"Come," said Tayan, pulling Sam toward Sam's clothes chest, which near her mat. Once there she whispered mischiveously, "You wish to be joined with him as well." It was a statement.

Sam flushed, but didn't defend herself. This time, Tayan interpreted Sam's reaction correctly. She, too, said nothing and started digging through Sam's clothes. With a small "ha!" of success, she pulled out two pieces of clothing. One was a cream-colored "shirt" that barely covered much more than a bra would. Its partner was a very short plum skirt that would make even Brittany Spears or Jessica Simpson blush.

"Why do you not court him then? Or at least make him take notice of you?" asked Tayan, holding the articles of clothing up.

Sam's skin flushed a little darker. "Because where I come from, it's usually men who court the women, and Daniel's probably afraid I'd kill him it he tried to court me." 'If he even wants to...'

"Then you must court him," coaxed Tayan.

This little woman was beginning to remind Sam of a nosy little doctor she knew, but Sam had no excuse not to change into the clothes seeing as she hadn't let her hut this morning, nor had she "damaged" the more modest clothes she was wearing now, so she reluctantly took the clothes.

She quickly dressed and looked at Tayan for approval. Tayan smiled at her handiwork. "Now go after him," she said, pushing Sam out of the hut. Sam protested but to no avail.

She flushed even darker when Tayan's "getting noticed" plan worked perfectly. On the wrong people! Daniel was no where in sight, but all of the other guys within range were staring at her shamelessly. Quickly, she hurried to Daniel's hut.

The path to his hut acted as a kind of sidewalk for the people who lived in the vicinity. It didn't take her long to get to his hut.

Once at the door, she alternated between raising her hand to knock and putting it back down to her side. She couldn't do it. Why had she let Tayan talk her into this?

Because she wanted--no, had to know. Did Daniel feel the same way she did for him?

She just couldn't do it. Her legs had a mind of their own as she turned and began to walk away. She heard a door creaking.

"Sam?"

She stopped and turned. Daniel stood in the doorway looking very tired, his fairly long hair disheveled. "What are you doing here, and this ea-ear-early?" he asked over a huge yawn.

Sam swallowed and managed to say, "We need to talk."

Daniel seemed to wake up slightly. "Come on in, little lady," he adopted an avertiser voice and gestured at the inside of his home. "We apologise; we seem to have run out of coffee, can we tempt you with a cup of the splendid Offworld Amazon Brew?"

Sam giggled slightly. Walking in, she saw that Daniel had a pretty cozy place. There were two rooms: the main room and the bedroom, which were separated by a large split curtain. Each room had one window, also with curtains, but they were open to welcome the summer sun. The bedroom had the obvious necessities, though Sam enviously noted that he had a bed instead of a mat; it also had a finely made nightstand and probably a dresser on the near wall. The main room had a table, four chairs, and two cubbards, one with a primitive kind of refrigeration, the other for dried foods; and on the other end, it had a sort of couch that seated three and another chair. The hut wasn't large, but it accomidated all of the furnature nicely.

"You've done well with yourself," she commented.

"Well, I haven't lived here for a year and done nothing. I made some of the things myself, like the table, the chairs that go to it, and the icebox. The icebox isn't too much different than what I had in Egypt so it was relatively easy to figure out how to make," he said modestly, albeit with a small bit of pride.

"It's beautiful," said Sam.

"I take it your place is...different?"

"Hell, yeah."

"So...can I get you anything?"

Sam wasn't really in the mood to eat or drink anything at the moment. "N-no thanks," she said quietly.

"Okay," said Daniel, now serious. "Please, sit down and tell me what you wanted to talk about."

Sam aquiested and chose one of the chairs. Daniel sat across from her and waited for her to begin.

"Uh, w-well...I guess first I wanted to apologize for just running off after..." she drifted off. Daniel's cheeks took on a pinkish tint, but Sam continued. "I..." What could she say? 'Uh, Daniel, the incident made me rethink how I felt about you and I realized I really care about you. I just came by to see if you felt the same way'? Why not? She cleared her throat. "Uh, I've been doing a lot of thinking since...and I realized that I care about you. I mean, really care about you in ways the military would really dislike. I guess I...I just wanted to know if you felt the same."

Daniel put his face in his hands and began muttering something. "Daniel?" asked Sam hesitantly.

He gave a half-chuckle. "You don't know how worried I was that I was going to be killed for 'the incident'." He stood up and walked over to her. She looked up at him in curiosity, wondering what he was going to say.

Instead he knelt down and kissed her. Her eyes widened in shock. This was the last thing she had expected. After a second, she relaxed and began to return the kiss, intensifying it.

Somehow, Sam was too busy to pay attention, they wandered into the bedroom. Daniel started to slide the straps of her shirt down, but Sam stopped him, suddenly coy.

"Daniel, don't," she whispered.

"Why?" he murmured back.

Because," she said, "Camaxtli's coming in seven days."

"Mm hmm." Daniel began kissing her neck.

Sam shuddered. This felt good. "Daniel, do you like me, love me? Or is this a way for you to feed your lust?"

Daniel stopped. "How can you think that? Yo amo usted," he murmured. He tried to kiss her again but she put her hand to his lips. "Every so often 'He' comes to the plant to marry off single people. If you want, he might let us be 'joined' as Tayan called it"

"There's nothing I'd rather do," replied Daniel.

"But what about Sha're?" asked Sam. She didn't want Daniel doing something perminant that he'd regret later.

Daniel became serious. "I've given this a lot of thought, Sam. I love Sha're, I always will, and I not giving up on her being freed from Ammonet. But she's also not you."

Sam smiled and snuggled into Daniel's chest and he wrapped his arms around her. "I love you," she murmured.

"I love you, too," rumbled Daniel, kissing the top of her head.

--------------------------------------------------

As predicted, Camaxtli arrived in seven days' time. He was quite pleased that his two newest additions were settled in and wanted to become active in the plant's customs, at least the marrige part. To his digust though, the Tau'ri woman, Samantha, still refused to let her spirit be broken. But he had to admit, he had been quite close to making her host to his queen, Chantico.

On the other hand, Sam and Daniel we as okay as they could be with a Goa'uld being near them, but didn't mind is as much because he was about as official as could be with laws, customs, and most importantly, marrige. Sam refused to make love to Daniel yet, because one, she would be breaking some pretty large laws on the planet; and two, she wanted to wait until they were joined so that she could be Daniel's without restraint or secrecy.

When Camaxtli gave his permission, the five couples he selected went to bprepare for the ceremony at dusk.

Tayan, though not among those selected, was more than happy to help Sam with her preparations.

By dusk, all five couples were ready. Sam was wearing a dusky lavender, full-length dress, complete with frills. Her slightly longer than shoulder-length hair had been brushed to sleekness, and she was surprised to find that her hair naturally corkscrewed. Tayan finished it off by weaving tiny purple flowers into Sam's hair to look like a crown.

Daniel and the other four men were wearing tunics that Daniel guessed were of Greek or Roman origin. Daniel, probably not by coincidence, also wore a dusky lavender color.

Camaxtli had the men spread out in a line before him, then called the women to walk over to their soon-to-be joined one. Then he instructed each couple to join hands. Sam's were shaking and Daniel held them in tight reassurance.

Five people, each carrying a scarf, walked forward and bound the couples' hands together before backing away. Camaxtli had the men say something in a n ancient tongue and the women followed suit with a similar phrase. His finished this part by saying another part in the same language. An eerie chanting began as the five people stepped forward once more to remove the scarves. Camaxtli turned around. Neither Sam nor Daniel knew what he did until he turned around with a cerimonial copa in his hands. "Drink," he said and passed it to the first couple. They each took one sip and passed it to the next. They too took one sip as did Sam and Daniel when it was passed to them. The final couple handed it back to him. Camaxtli said one more phrase in that ancient tongue. The chanting continued.

The sun was almost below the horizon when the joining ceremony finished.

Unlike the other joining ceremonies, where Camaxtli hadn't preached, there was no wild celebration as the couples spread out and went back to their huts. The chant still continued and Sam and Daniel walked slowly back to their hut to begin their new life as a joined couple.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was this chapter and the next one that gave me the most trouble. I was about ready to stomp away but Thalia helped come up with new ideas. I have a pretty firm idea where the storm is going now but school is going to prevent me from submitting very often. Maybe about one or two chapters a week. I'll also start having translations for those of you who aren't very familiar with the castillan Spanish language (not to say I'm an expert or anything cause I'm definitely not):

copa- goblet

(the) hombres y las mujeres- the men and women

yo amo usted- I love you