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Chapter 2
Daniel was awake and pacing for hours before the imperious knock came on the double doors. By contrast, Sam had barely stirred. Daniel had been running in mental circles, trying to figure out how to return his relationship with Sam to where it had been before this debacle. He wanted nothing more than for them to go back to Earth, sign whatever required to get an annulment, and then pretend like this had never happened. When he heard the knock, Daniel checked to see that Sam was decently covered. That confirmed, he called out, "Come in."
He heard the lock being turned and then the heavy doors were flung back to reveal Kil Min Bei and a small army of servants. The pleasant expression on her face immediately transformed into a scowl as she took in the room and, in particular, the comforter thrown on the divan. Daniel sucked in his breath. It hadn't occurred to him that there was any need to conceal the fact that they had not slept together. Kil Min Bei emulated her husband by getting right in his face and yelling at him, "You would reject the daughter of this house?"
Once again, blessed with a mist of spittle from one of Sam's angry adoptive parents, Daniel resisted the urge to immediately mop his face. "The daughter of the house is an extraordinarily lovely woman," Daniel murmured. "No sane man would reject her, but she was not well last night. The custom of drinking with well-wishers at the reception required her to drink far more than is normal for her. She was not at all well after we came to the bed chamber."
Kil Min Bei narrowed her eyes. "You are very smooth, are you not sirrah?" she asked. "You looked most unhappy if I recall last night. It might be understandable that our daughter would not be thrilled to be forced to wed a commoner, such as yourself, but you," she stabbed at his chest with her forefinger, apparently another habit shared with her husband, "you should have been altogether thrilled at the chance that brought you such a wife."
The volume of the exchange on Kil Min Bei's side was such that there was no way for Sam to sleep through it. Instead, she had stirred and was sitting up, listening wide-eyed to the conversation. She tried to help the situation, saying, "He has been everything that is courteous, truly."
Kil Min Bei raised her eyebrows, taking in the fact that as Sam sat up and the covers fell away from her, it was clear that she had slept in her clothes. She moderated her tone of voice only slightly in responding to Sam, still quite huffy. "Our honor is not restored by a sham of a marriage and the refusal of this one to give you true proper place as an accepted wife. I suspect you are not totally blameless in this and would request you to think about proper behavior." She turned on her heel and departed from the room, saying "Bel Min waits to discuss the future with you both. Please be quick." As the doors closed, servants moved toward them with their BDUs and breakfast.
Sam and Daniel wanted nothing more than to get dressed and out of there, back to Earth. They dressed hurriedly, their backs to each other, but still blessed with an audience. They were unable to get rid of their helpful entourage who wanted to button their buttons and tie their shoelaces for them. Daniel said to Sam in English, fending off an insistent young woman who didn't think he could buckle his own belt, "This planet needs some public works projects or something to put their excess servant population to work." It was a thin joke but Sam made a half hearted chuckle and Daniel felt slightly encouraged.
When they were ushered into the reception room, they found a tense scene featuring Bel Min and Kil Min Bei glowering at Cam in person and no less than the planet's highest ranking official and Bel Min's first cousin, glowering at him from a hologram. Cam was doing his best to conceal his exasperation but was clearly relieved to see Sam and Daniel. They made respectful greetings to their hosts and the great man himself. Cam then said, carefully and courteously, "Would you grant me leave to speak with my team before we all talk together."
Kil Min Bei looked about to object but Bel Min shook his head and said to his ruler, "Do you give leave, my lord?"
The response was a curt nod and Cam pulled the others to one side. "Can someone give me a clue as to what is going on here? First thing I know, I'm yanked out of bed by a whole crew that looks like it doesn't consume anything but steroids and invited to your wedding. I didn't even know you were looking at silver patterns together. This morning, it's all good except we don't have our weapons and are confined to our rooms. Suddenly the guards troop in, drag everybody else off in one direction and me down here where I have been subjected to withering glares and a tongue lashing about the lack of Tauri honor." He looked at the two of them, his hands on his hips. "Okay, don't be shy. Let's hear it because it had better be good."
Daniel looked at Sam and Sam looked at Daniel. Daniel sighed. "Okay, Mitchell, Sam had a little too much of that punch last night and was smashed. I basically carried her back to the room where she had changed for the ceremony and she pulled me down on her, being goofy. At that point her new parents showed up and decided she had been compromised and either must marry me or watch me die."
"You aren't kidding, I can tell," Cam said, letting loose a whistle. "This is going to make one hell of a story. Landry will NEVER forget this debriefing. But why is everybody so pissy this morning?" He smirked. "You made an honest woman out of her."
"You aren't really taking this seriously, are you?" Daniel said irritated. "Evidently, honor isn't served unless we, ur, act married. When they showed up at our room this morning, it was clear that we hadn't shared a bed."
Cam opened his mouth a couple of times but gave up. He beckoned them to follow him back to the negotiations. Bel Min said, "We will not be satisfied until we know that Daniel Jackson has properly accepted our daughter as his wife."
Cam said, carefully, "Our customs are different than yours. A couple needs to get comfortable with each other first before they can truly be husband and wife." He told this bold faced lie with an untroubled face. Daniel decided he wasn't ever playing poker with the guy.
"Then they can remain here until the getting acquainted period is over," Kil Min Bei said triumphantly, "And," she added spitefully, "your other soldiers will remain here as well as hostages, guaranteeing that nothing foolish is done to try to retrieve them untimely soon."
"It is kind for you to offer your hospitality," Daniel said, "but Colonel Carter is vital to work that is ongoing back on Earth. She is critical to development of the most promising weapon we've found so far against the Ori we've told you of. She's also heavily involved in working on the very technology that you have expressed interest in with respect to our trade negotiations." He winced inside. The last statement was a huge stretch. He rushed ahead, hoping he could lie convincingly, just once. "She must return immediately." Sam, who had been coming up dry for a response, looked at him gratefully.
"And," Cam threw in, "Dr. Jackson is much too modest. He is also critical to important ongoing work." He paused. "I am actually concerned that if they are held here against their will, my government may refuse to sign the trade agreement we have been discussing."
The hologram shrugged. "The trade agreement isn't that important to us and we aren't at all sure we believe in these Ori of yours. I strongly suspect that you want our naquada a lot more than we want what you have to offer. Our honor must be served but I also appreciate the hardship that the absence of key personnel might cause to all of us." He pursed his lips. "I have a proposition. Dr. Carter and Dr. Jackson and yourself may return to Earth but you must take an observer with you and the rest of your party stays here as hostages."
Cam, Daniel, and Sam tag teamed, trying every persuasive skill at their disposal but they got nowhere and, truthfully, the other side had all the cards. It was definitely true that Earth wanted the naquada more than they wanted what Earth had to offer. Poopoo had a population of millions and a technology close to that of Earth. If they chose to hide Teal'c and SG-10, even a full military assault wouldn't locate them. It fact, it was rather amazing that they were even willing to allow any of them to return to Earth rather than just locking Sam and Daniel in a room together indefinitely. Cam later said that he thought they might have thought that getting an observer on Earth would make it worth while. In the end, they had to agree to the proposal. The planetary leader bid a haughty and unfriendly farewell and SG-1 stood around awkwardly with Bel Min and Kil Min Bei until a stunningly beautiful young woman came rushing breathlessly into the reception room and skidded to a halt just inside the door. She then advanced with all proper decorum and made her bow to their hosts. Bel Min turned to Cam with the air of one bestowing a great privilege and said, "Let me introduce Hanna Pel Bei, my wife's cousin. Hanna, this is Colonel Mitchell, Dr. Jackson, and Colonel Jackson."
Daniel was taken aback by the assignment of his last name to Sam. He was surprised that Sam didn't correct Bel Min but realized she was probably past caring at this point and just wanted to leave. Daniel was mystified at why they were meeting this lovely young woman, but joined the others in saying something polite. Bel Min continued, "Hanna will be going back to Earth with you as the observer."
The way in which the observer was going to determine that Daniel had "fully accepted Sam as his wife" had not been discussed. Daniel hadn't really given it any thought yet. Now, looking at this gorgeous girl, all sorts of inappropriate images came to mind. He gave himself a mental shake. There was time for that discussion later. They just needed to get out of here, go back to Earth, and regroup.
The debriefing held with Landry a few hours later definitely lived up to Cam's prediction. Landry stopped Cam three separate times with variations of, "You wouldn't be messing with me here, would you Colonel?" When at last he finished, Landry sat stunned and said, "Let me try to restate this. If Daniel and Sam can't convince their observer that they have a real marriage, Teal'c and SG-10 stay hostages indefinitely on... I can hardly say this ... Poopoo. This young woman who had every male soldier in the gateroom with his tongue down to his socks and is undoubtedly sitting in the cafeteria with far more than the detachment that is supposed to be escorting her, is somehow going to make the determination that Daniel has - what's the term here - truly accepted Sam as his wife." He looked at them all challengingly. "Are you absolutely sure you know what`truly accepted' means? It might be less than the, uh, whole enchilada."
"I think that's actually the case, General, at least in terms of what the observer is going to report. I talked with her for a bit. She blushed several shades of red and said something to the effect that she wanted me to know that she wasn't expecting to see anything," at this point Daniel himself blushed more deeply than he had for years, "well, anything really... personal. They just want to be reassured that we have a real marriage."
"Well ohkeydokey then," Landry said, channeling Jack without realizing it. "I am not content to leave things this way but until we have a better idea, Dr. Jackson and Colonel Carter, you are going to have to put up the pretense of really being married. I think the sham nature of this should be confined to the people in this room and a few other key personnel on a strict need-to-know basis. You never know who this observer might talk to and what might slip. You won't be able to go on missions together."
"Wait a minute, sir," Cam interrupted. "Jackson's a civilian. The regulations aren't absolute. Couldn't we say that this was an experiment or something? Think about the... the Leakey's, hell, Daniel's parents. There have been a lot of very effective husband and wife teams."
"The Leakey's?" Landry asked. "You don't think I know who they are, do you, Mitchell?" he shook his head in some sort of private comment. "Okay, we can say it's an experiment." He muttered to himself, "I must be crazy."
He ran his hands over his head, reflectively. "Colonel Mitchell, I want you to babysit the observer, pretty much 24 X 7, at least the part when she isn't in bed."
Cam looked completely nonplused. "Sir," he was uncharacteristically floundering, "sir, I'm, well, the woman I'm seeing might not understand..."
"That's a personal problem, Colonel," Landry said. Daniel thought he seemed strangely amused.
Cam tried again. "What about when I'm off world?"
Landry laughed to himself. "Perhaps we can get Dr. Lam to take over then."
Cam got a huge smile on his face at that suggestion and quickly made an effort to damp it down. "That would be very, VERY helpful, sir."
"I kind of thought it would," Landry said. Daniel was really intrigued. Why was Cam so delighted by that idea? It was as if he and Landry were speaking in code.
They filed out of the conference room. Landry went his way and Cam said, "I need to go confer with Dr. Lam," and took off.
Sam and Daniel stood awkwardly in the corridor. Daniel got his act together first and said, "Let's go to my office. We need to make some decisions."
He ushered her in ahead of him, closed the door, and leaned on it. She looked at him and said, "I suppose you were referring to where we would live for the moment, your place or mine."
Daniel nodded. "That's certainly the first decision. What do you think?"
Sam suddenly waved two fists in the air and made an argh sound. She then calmed and took a deep breath, smoothing her jacket down. She said, "Sorry. I just want my life back." She looked at him repentantly. "Look, Daniel, I was awfully rude when this all happened. You're a wonderful guy and very attractive. It's just that this isn't how I had my life planned. I was reacting to the situation, not to the thought of you, really."
"Yeah, well, whatever," Daniel said dismissively. "Where do you want to live?"
The upshot was that Daniel went home, threw a few things in a suitcase, and had presented himself at Sam's within an hour after she got home. When he carried the suitcase in, he followed her up the stairs and then stood uncertainly in the hall. "Where do you want me to put this?" he asked.
"Do you think we dare have separate rooms?" Sam asked, tiredly.
He smacked his forehead. "I didn't think about that. I suppose not. But we slept next to each other on missions. It doesn't mean anything."
"Right," she said. "Right."
That night, when the ersatz Dr. and Dr.Colonel Jackson crawled into bed, Daniel found it impossible to drift off. He preferred to sleep in the nude and that sure wasn't going to work. The room was stuffy, by his standards, and he thought about getting up and throwing all the windows open as he normally did, but just knew that would not be a success. Each of them was as far on their side of the bed as they could get and he, who preferred to sleep smack in the middle of the bed, felt like he was about to fall out. He was miserable but then Sam said, "Good night, Daniel. Sleep well."
"Okay," he thought, "this could be worse." Suddenly, he realized something. He'd been here and done this before. His marriage to Sha're had NOT started out as a marriage of choice. They'd been putting up a faade at first too and look how that had turned out. Was it possible that being thrown together like this, that pretending something, could lead to something real? Perhaps a plan was in order.
 Selene Shepard · Tue Aug 24, 2010 @ 05:28am · 0 Comments |
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