New Chapter: Vulnerability, Chapter 3 (Sam/Daniel)
Title: Vulnerability
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Pairing: Sam/Daniel
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: General for Season 10, but nothing specific
Genre: A little bit of everything, but mostly H/C and Angst
Summary: Lonely and in pain, Sam and Daniel cross a line in their relationship.
Author's Notes: This story has been swirling around in my head for a while. Takes place sometime during or after Season 10.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making any money.
NOTE: We're on hiatus, kids, because some really trollish Sam/Jack shippers have made me want to withdraw from writing fic for the fandom. Maybe someday.
You can find Chapter 1 here.
You can find Chapter 2 here.
Chapter 3
Only minutes ago, Sam had been munching on Cheetos and teasing Daniel about his taste in movies. How she had gone from that innocuous little scene to her current and arguably treacherous liplock with the aforementioned Daniel she couldn’t remember.
Sam pressed herself into Daniel’s arms and deepened the kiss. She could taste beer and barbeque sauce on his breath, and she could smell a faint trace of his fading cologne. Part of her screamed that she should pull away, but being this close to Daniel felt too right and too amazing to end.
As she scooted closer to Daniel, Sam realized that most of her body was hanging precariously off the couch. The intelligent part of her brain suggested that she steady herself, but the part of her brain that was hopped on the sensation of sucking face with Daniel saw no need to break such blissful contact.
When Daniel’s lips moved from her lips to her neck, Sam responded by shoving both hands up Daniel’s shirt and caressing his smooth skin. As she tried to tug Daniel’s shirt upward, Sam felt her tenuous hold on balance begin to slip away and soon, she fell sideways and cracked her elbow on the edge of the coffee table. Muttering an obscenity, she grasped her arm.
Daniel pulled back, still flushed and breathless from kissing. “You okay?”
Massaging the sore spot, Sam nodded. “Not graceful by a longshot, but yeah, I’m fine.”
“Let me see,” Daniel said, and he placed warm hands on her arm. “You’ll probably have a bruise,” he said.
Sam nodded, internally chiding herself for being such a klutz. She gazed at Daniel for several moments, and suddenly, the reality of what she’d just been doing and who she’d been doing it with hit her. It seemed to hit Daniel at the same time, because all at once, they both collapsed into a fit of choking and giggles. For her part, Sam was sure her own laughter was brought on by a combination of giddiness from the intimacy she’d shared with Daniel, embarrassment at her own behavior, and relief that Daniel hadn’t immediately bolted from her living room when he realized what they’d done.
Daniel grinned and asked, “What was that?”
Sam curved her lips into a smile and shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said. “But we may have to lay off the ‘80s movies in the future. They seem go to our head.”
Daniel motioned at the coffee table full of empty bottles. “I guess Jack was right when he said I couldn’t hold my liquor. Clearly, I’ve had way too much to drink.”
Sam grinned. “See, Daniel, that was my plan all along-get you drunk and take advantage of you.”
“I knew it!” Daniel said. He placed his hand on his chest. “My honor is wounded.”
Sam retreated to the end of the couch, suddenly desperate to put some distance between her and Daniel. “I’ll behave myself for the rest of the night,” she said.
Daniel flashed what Sam suspected was a forced grin. “So I don’t have to call Teal’c over here to defend my delicate honor?”
“I’ll control myself,” she said, plastering a smile on her face.
They gazed at each other for several moments, and a shroud of awkwardness settled around them. Sam wondered if she should say something to chip away at the silence, but before she had a chance, Daniel stood unsteadily to his feet and started fishing through his pockets.
“Need something?” Sam asked.
Daniel made a motion with his hands like he was turning the key to his ignition. “Those things.”
“Keys?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “Keys. I’d better get home.”
“I took them from you so you wouldn’t drink and drive,” Sam reminded him. That had been the team’s standard practice for several years. “Besides, you’re exhausted. Maybe you should crash on my couch.”
Daniel opened his mouth to say something, but instead, he nodded his assent and dropped into his seat, settling his head against the back of the couch.
Sam rose and went to the closet for a pillow and blanket. When she returned, she found Daniel stretched out on the couch, and he was muttering to himself about the Ori and hopeless causes.
For a moment, Sam considered trying to console Daniel, but he didn’t seem particularly lucid. Besides, the rational part of Sam’s brain had reasserted its dominance, and she knew that words of comfort would more than likely turn into something they’d both regret the next morning. Instead, she draped the blanket over Daniel’s prone body and wedged the pillow under his head.
After one last glance at Daniel, Sam climbed the stairs to her bedroom and slipped beneath the covers. What had she been thinking? She knew Daniel was vulnerable right now, and yet she had allowed herself to act on her base instincts. If she hadn’t fallen so ungracefully, she and Daniel probably would have… Would have what? Given each other some needed comfort? Enjoyed themselves?
Sam closed her eyes
***
Leaning forward in his chair, Cam asked, “Why can’t we just gate to this place?”
“Well,” Sam said, trying to disguise the hint of longsuffering she knew often crept into her voice when she was speaking to Cam. “As I mentioned at the beginning of the briefing, there’s no ‘Gate on the planet.”
Cam made a face. “Oh, that sucks.” After a few moments, he sat up straight. “So we just jump on board the Odyssey, go get the thing, and that’s it?” Cam slapped his mission report closed. “Sounds like a cakewalk.”
Daniel peered at Cam over his glasses. “We believe that ‘the thing’ holds a map of Ori strongholds. It’ll probably be heavily guarded.”
Cam winked. “Then we’ll send Teal’c in first.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow but said nothing in response.
Landry glanced between Cam and Teal’c; then he smiled and said, “Okay, you have a go.”
Sam leapt to her feet and propelled herself toward the stairs that lead to the elevator. She was sure Cam and Teal’c both noticed her quick departure, but if they asked, she’d pull out the bathroom excuse. No man she knew had ever pushed her for further information when she muttered the words, “Bathroom. You know. Girl thing.”
Sam didn’t figure they’d ask anyway. This was the team’s first full day on duty since the incident in the Kereben village, and despite Cam’s requisite enthusiasm, none of them were fully acclimated to being back on the job. Landry had ordered them to take a few days’ downtime to get their heads together, and on top of that, they’d all had to attend the memorial service for the two fallen members of SG-3. The service had cast a pall over the whole facility but in particular over those who had known the deceased men well.
Sam didn’t envy Reynolds, who would now have to select replacements for half his team.
As she let SG-3’s loss sink in, Sam internally scolded herself. She’d suffered through that kind of pain when Daniel had apparently died of radiation sickness, yet here she was, avoiding him like he was an Ori Prior.
A few nights ago, she and Daniel had been sprawled on Sam’s couch, kissing and groping. Thankfully, it hadn’t gone farther than that, and she had left Daniel sleeping in the living room. When she had awakened the next morning, she had found him fishing his keys off the top of her fridge. They hadn’t said much to each other. Just some random small talk, offers of breakfast, quick refusals. And then Daniel had muttered a perfectly reasonable excuse about dry cleaning and had torn from Sam’s living room.
Since then, they had only seen each other in passing and each time, it had been uncomfortable in a way that Sam had never experienced with Daniel.
Sam let out a breath and rounded the corner that led toward her lab. As she heard Cam hurrying behind her to catch up, she closed her eyes and cussed internally.
“Sam,” Cam said. “Hold up!”
Sam licked her lips and turned to face the out of breath colonel. “I’m in hurry here. I need a bathroom. Girl thing.”
“Oh, you liar,” Cam said. He jerked his head in the direction they’d just been. “You passed two bathrooms since you left the briefing room.”
Defeated, Sam leaned against the wall. “Okay, what’s up?”
“You tell me. All day you’ve been quieter than a room full of Jaffa at a staring contest.”
“I’m fine, Cam,” she said. “I’m just not quite back in the swing of things.”
“Oh, now you see. Answering ‘I’m fine’ pretty much guarantees you’re not.” He crossed his arms. “You okay to go on this mission? ‘Cause I can tell the General to give it to another team.”
She held up her hands to protest. “No, I’m good. Really. I-” Sam opened her mouth to continue, but the sight of Daniel standing a few feet away seemed to rob the sound from her throat.
Apparently sensing another presence, Cam glanced over his shoulder. “Hey, Jackson.”
“Hey, Mitchell,” Daniel said. He walked toward his teammates. “I need to talk to Sam for a little bit.”
Cam nodded, and then turned to Sam. “You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. See you in the Gate Room.”
After a few seconds, Cam ambled off, murmuring something about heading to the infirmary to check on Vala. Sam watched him go, determined to delay her heart to heart with Daniel for as long as she could.
Finally, Daniel poked her shoulder more playfully than Sam expected. “I’m still standing here,” he said. “We should probably talk before the mission.
Nodding, Sam swallowed hard and motioned Daniel into an empty bunk room. “You probably think I’ve been avoiding you.”
“You have been,” he said matter-of-factly. He jutted out his bottom lip the way he did when he was deep in thought. “Not that I’ve exactly been knocking at your door, I guess.”
Neither of them said anything for almost a minute. Finally, Sam said, “So. All I can say is I’m sorry.”
“For what, Sam? I was there, too, and I don’t recall being forced to do anything.”
She shook her head. “No. No, I knew you were hurting, but I still didn’t have the presence of mind to put on the brakes.”
Daniel leaned against the doorframe. “I’m not sure who even kissed who first. I don’t think we should assign blame.”
Letting out a long breath, Sam said, “So, are we okay?”
“Yeah, I think we are,” Daniel said. “It was just a thing. A nice thing, by the way.”
Smiling for the first time in three days, Sam said, “Yeah. Dumb but nice.”
Daniel grinned. “Well, it wouldn’t have been all bad.” He paused, and his face turned serious. “I want you to know that I didn’t come over for . . . that reason.”
“I know. Believe me, I never thought that. I’m just glad we stopped before we crossed a line.”
For a moment, Daniel’s eyes seemed to glaze over. Cocking his head, he said, “Would it have been such terrible thing to do? I think we could have been okay.”
Sam caught her breath. This conversation was threatening to go in a direction she wasn’t sure she could handle. “Daniel,” she said. “Your friendship means so much to me, and if I lost that…”
He held up his hands. “I’m just saying the earth wouldn’t have crashed into the sun.” With one thumb, Daniel reached up and caressed Sam’s bottom lip. “See you in the Gate Room.”
TBC
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Pairing: Sam/Daniel
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: General for Season 10, but nothing specific
Genre: A little bit of everything, but mostly H/C and Angst
Summary: Lonely and in pain, Sam and Daniel cross a line in their relationship.
Author's Notes: This story has been swirling around in my head for a while. Takes place sometime during or after Season 10.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making any money.
NOTE: We're on hiatus, kids, because some really trollish Sam/Jack shippers have made me want to withdraw from writing fic for the fandom. Maybe someday.
You can find Chapter 1 here.
You can find Chapter 2 here.
Chapter 3
Only minutes ago, Sam had been munching on Cheetos and teasing Daniel about his taste in movies. How she had gone from that innocuous little scene to her current and arguably treacherous liplock with the aforementioned Daniel she couldn’t remember.
Sam pressed herself into Daniel’s arms and deepened the kiss. She could taste beer and barbeque sauce on his breath, and she could smell a faint trace of his fading cologne. Part of her screamed that she should pull away, but being this close to Daniel felt too right and too amazing to end.
As she scooted closer to Daniel, Sam realized that most of her body was hanging precariously off the couch. The intelligent part of her brain suggested that she steady herself, but the part of her brain that was hopped on the sensation of sucking face with Daniel saw no need to break such blissful contact.
When Daniel’s lips moved from her lips to her neck, Sam responded by shoving both hands up Daniel’s shirt and caressing his smooth skin. As she tried to tug Daniel’s shirt upward, Sam felt her tenuous hold on balance begin to slip away and soon, she fell sideways and cracked her elbow on the edge of the coffee table. Muttering an obscenity, she grasped her arm.
Daniel pulled back, still flushed and breathless from kissing. “You okay?”
Massaging the sore spot, Sam nodded. “Not graceful by a longshot, but yeah, I’m fine.”
“Let me see,” Daniel said, and he placed warm hands on her arm. “You’ll probably have a bruise,” he said.
Sam nodded, internally chiding herself for being such a klutz. She gazed at Daniel for several moments, and suddenly, the reality of what she’d just been doing and who she’d been doing it with hit her. It seemed to hit Daniel at the same time, because all at once, they both collapsed into a fit of choking and giggles. For her part, Sam was sure her own laughter was brought on by a combination of giddiness from the intimacy she’d shared with Daniel, embarrassment at her own behavior, and relief that Daniel hadn’t immediately bolted from her living room when he realized what they’d done.
Daniel grinned and asked, “What was that?”
Sam curved her lips into a smile and shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said. “But we may have to lay off the ‘80s movies in the future. They seem go to our head.”
Daniel motioned at the coffee table full of empty bottles. “I guess Jack was right when he said I couldn’t hold my liquor. Clearly, I’ve had way too much to drink.”
Sam grinned. “See, Daniel, that was my plan all along-get you drunk and take advantage of you.”
“I knew it!” Daniel said. He placed his hand on his chest. “My honor is wounded.”
Sam retreated to the end of the couch, suddenly desperate to put some distance between her and Daniel. “I’ll behave myself for the rest of the night,” she said.
Daniel flashed what Sam suspected was a forced grin. “So I don’t have to call Teal’c over here to defend my delicate honor?”
“I’ll control myself,” she said, plastering a smile on her face.
They gazed at each other for several moments, and a shroud of awkwardness settled around them. Sam wondered if she should say something to chip away at the silence, but before she had a chance, Daniel stood unsteadily to his feet and started fishing through his pockets.
“Need something?” Sam asked.
Daniel made a motion with his hands like he was turning the key to his ignition. “Those things.”
“Keys?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “Keys. I’d better get home.”
“I took them from you so you wouldn’t drink and drive,” Sam reminded him. That had been the team’s standard practice for several years. “Besides, you’re exhausted. Maybe you should crash on my couch.”
Daniel opened his mouth to say something, but instead, he nodded his assent and dropped into his seat, settling his head against the back of the couch.
Sam rose and went to the closet for a pillow and blanket. When she returned, she found Daniel stretched out on the couch, and he was muttering to himself about the Ori and hopeless causes.
For a moment, Sam considered trying to console Daniel, but he didn’t seem particularly lucid. Besides, the rational part of Sam’s brain had reasserted its dominance, and she knew that words of comfort would more than likely turn into something they’d both regret the next morning. Instead, she draped the blanket over Daniel’s prone body and wedged the pillow under his head.
After one last glance at Daniel, Sam climbed the stairs to her bedroom and slipped beneath the covers. What had she been thinking? She knew Daniel was vulnerable right now, and yet she had allowed herself to act on her base instincts. If she hadn’t fallen so ungracefully, she and Daniel probably would have… Would have what? Given each other some needed comfort? Enjoyed themselves?
Sam closed her eyes
***
Leaning forward in his chair, Cam asked, “Why can’t we just gate to this place?”
“Well,” Sam said, trying to disguise the hint of longsuffering she knew often crept into her voice when she was speaking to Cam. “As I mentioned at the beginning of the briefing, there’s no ‘Gate on the planet.”
Cam made a face. “Oh, that sucks.” After a few moments, he sat up straight. “So we just jump on board the Odyssey, go get the thing, and that’s it?” Cam slapped his mission report closed. “Sounds like a cakewalk.”
Daniel peered at Cam over his glasses. “We believe that ‘the thing’ holds a map of Ori strongholds. It’ll probably be heavily guarded.”
Cam winked. “Then we’ll send Teal’c in first.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow but said nothing in response.
Landry glanced between Cam and Teal’c; then he smiled and said, “Okay, you have a go.”
Sam leapt to her feet and propelled herself toward the stairs that lead to the elevator. She was sure Cam and Teal’c both noticed her quick departure, but if they asked, she’d pull out the bathroom excuse. No man she knew had ever pushed her for further information when she muttered the words, “Bathroom. You know. Girl thing.”
Sam didn’t figure they’d ask anyway. This was the team’s first full day on duty since the incident in the Kereben village, and despite Cam’s requisite enthusiasm, none of them were fully acclimated to being back on the job. Landry had ordered them to take a few days’ downtime to get their heads together, and on top of that, they’d all had to attend the memorial service for the two fallen members of SG-3. The service had cast a pall over the whole facility but in particular over those who had known the deceased men well.
Sam didn’t envy Reynolds, who would now have to select replacements for half his team.
As she let SG-3’s loss sink in, Sam internally scolded herself. She’d suffered through that kind of pain when Daniel had apparently died of radiation sickness, yet here she was, avoiding him like he was an Ori Prior.
A few nights ago, she and Daniel had been sprawled on Sam’s couch, kissing and groping. Thankfully, it hadn’t gone farther than that, and she had left Daniel sleeping in the living room. When she had awakened the next morning, she had found him fishing his keys off the top of her fridge. They hadn’t said much to each other. Just some random small talk, offers of breakfast, quick refusals. And then Daniel had muttered a perfectly reasonable excuse about dry cleaning and had torn from Sam’s living room.
Since then, they had only seen each other in passing and each time, it had been uncomfortable in a way that Sam had never experienced with Daniel.
Sam let out a breath and rounded the corner that led toward her lab. As she heard Cam hurrying behind her to catch up, she closed her eyes and cussed internally.
“Sam,” Cam said. “Hold up!”
Sam licked her lips and turned to face the out of breath colonel. “I’m in hurry here. I need a bathroom. Girl thing.”
“Oh, you liar,” Cam said. He jerked his head in the direction they’d just been. “You passed two bathrooms since you left the briefing room.”
Defeated, Sam leaned against the wall. “Okay, what’s up?”
“You tell me. All day you’ve been quieter than a room full of Jaffa at a staring contest.”
“I’m fine, Cam,” she said. “I’m just not quite back in the swing of things.”
“Oh, now you see. Answering ‘I’m fine’ pretty much guarantees you’re not.” He crossed his arms. “You okay to go on this mission? ‘Cause I can tell the General to give it to another team.”
She held up her hands to protest. “No, I’m good. Really. I-” Sam opened her mouth to continue, but the sight of Daniel standing a few feet away seemed to rob the sound from her throat.
Apparently sensing another presence, Cam glanced over his shoulder. “Hey, Jackson.”
“Hey, Mitchell,” Daniel said. He walked toward his teammates. “I need to talk to Sam for a little bit.”
Cam nodded, and then turned to Sam. “You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. See you in the Gate Room.”
After a few seconds, Cam ambled off, murmuring something about heading to the infirmary to check on Vala. Sam watched him go, determined to delay her heart to heart with Daniel for as long as she could.
Finally, Daniel poked her shoulder more playfully than Sam expected. “I’m still standing here,” he said. “We should probably talk before the mission.
Nodding, Sam swallowed hard and motioned Daniel into an empty bunk room. “You probably think I’ve been avoiding you.”
“You have been,” he said matter-of-factly. He jutted out his bottom lip the way he did when he was deep in thought. “Not that I’ve exactly been knocking at your door, I guess.”
Neither of them said anything for almost a minute. Finally, Sam said, “So. All I can say is I’m sorry.”
“For what, Sam? I was there, too, and I don’t recall being forced to do anything.”
She shook her head. “No. No, I knew you were hurting, but I still didn’t have the presence of mind to put on the brakes.”
Daniel leaned against the doorframe. “I’m not sure who even kissed who first. I don’t think we should assign blame.”
Letting out a long breath, Sam said, “So, are we okay?”
“Yeah, I think we are,” Daniel said. “It was just a thing. A nice thing, by the way.”
Smiling for the first time in three days, Sam said, “Yeah. Dumb but nice.”
Daniel grinned. “Well, it wouldn’t have been all bad.” He paused, and his face turned serious. “I want you to know that I didn’t come over for . . . that reason.”
“I know. Believe me, I never thought that. I’m just glad we stopped before we crossed a line.”
For a moment, Daniel’s eyes seemed to glaze over. Cocking his head, he said, “Would it have been such terrible thing to do? I think we could have been okay.”
Sam caught her breath. This conversation was threatening to go in a direction she wasn’t sure she could handle. “Daniel,” she said. “Your friendship means so much to me, and if I lost that…”
He held up his hands. “I’m just saying the earth wouldn’t have crashed into the sun.” With one thumb, Daniel reached up and caressed Sam’s bottom lip. “See you in the Gate Room.”
TBC