Complete
Drama, Romance
Set in Season 7
Spoilers for Chimera
Disclaimers:
Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, The SciFi Channel, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written purely for my own entertainment, and that of anyone else who may happen to read it. No infringement of copyright is intended. It is not intended and should never be used for commercial purposes.
The original characters, situations and ideas contained within this work are the property of the author.
Author's notes:
The whole bicep thing is my beta reader's fault.
Acknowledgements:
All thanks to Sho (biceps or no).
Amy Kawalsky stumbled through the back door of the Café Gerard and hurried into the shelter of an alleyway. The cold air hit her like a caffeine jolt and stilled the nausea that threatened to grip her. She gulped down great draughts of oxygen, and felt her head clear and her nerves settle.
Stupid, she chided herself. Stupid, stupid.
Since his return to the corporeal realm, she had been meeting Daniel at the Gerard every available Friday. This week he had not shown up and however much she might understand that – temporarily at least – his first priority was helping Sarah settle herself back on Earth, Amy did feel it would have been nice of him to call.
Not that this made her feel any better about what she had done. Perhaps she had been upset, but that was a bad reason to accept a cup of coffee from another man; let alone to kiss one. Amy had not always had the greatest self-image in the world, but she prided herself that even at her worst she had never been easy. The fact that she had let a total stranger kiss her after one coffee stung even more than the sense that she had – in some obscure, masochistic way – betrayed Daniel.
She could never come back to the Gerard now, she realised. Not only had the staff all seen her act like a total floozy, they would also have seen her spaz out, stagger breathlessly to her feet, gasping: 'I'm sorry, I can't do this'. They would have seen her turn the wrong way and flee in confusion, first towards the bathrooms and then out through the kitchen exits. They would probably be talking about it for weeks.
"How could I be so stupid?" she demanded of herself. In a moment, however, her rage had turned outward once more. "How could he just stand me up like that? Would it have killed him to call? To text? Well?" she demanded of the alley cat who sat watching her.
The golden eyes blinked, lazily, as though to say: "I've seen dozens of crazy chicks screaming in alleys. I never gave any of them advice and I'm not about to start with you."
"What could be so important he can't send a message?" she wondered. "Was he called off on a mission? Or have he and Sarah got together again? Is he kissing her right now? Touching her? Is she running her hands over those well-toned biceps and...Oh God, stop me!"
The cat yawned, as though to assure her this was not his business.
"Why couldn't..." All the bitterness in Amy's heart welled up, suddenly, as though a dam had burst. Before she could even think it, she had cried out: "Why couldn't you just die you freakishly tall bitch!"
Her voice echoed around the alley, reverberating over and again into her horrified ears.
The cat's eyes widened in shock. "Well that was a nasty thing to say," he seemed to accuse. "And you look like such a nice girl."
"I didn't mean it," Amy gasped, feeling sick to her stomach. How could she have said that? Had anyone but the cat heard her? Would they tell people? Would the cat tell people? If Daniel ever found out...
No; that did not matter, she realised. She knew what she had said and she would never be able to look Daniel in the eyes again. Amy felt certain that she was going to vomit now. Only when the cat arched his back and hissed in anger did she realise that the nausea was not all due to self-loathing. She turned around.
"And if she had died?" the Jaffa asked. "Would you have been better off?"
"No," Amy replied, eyes searching for a weapon. She came up blank, short of throwing the cat.
"I am Resh'ek, First Prime of Osiris," the Jaffa said. He gestured towards a woman who stood in the shadows behind him. "This is Orisha."
"Do not be afraid, Captain Kawalsky," the woman said. "We have come only to bring you a message...and a gift."
"Really?" Amy asked, doubtfully.
"I was Osiris' most trusted servant," Orisha explained. "Her lo'taur."
Amy twitched, nervously. Neither Orisha nor Resh'ek seemed to be armed, but their presence alone was cause for concern. Clearly Osiris' ship was still in orbit; its Asgard cloak and transporters still functioned. Amy knew that she needed to warn someone, but she still felt too shaky to feel like trying to outrun a Jaffa.
"My lady knew that she was risking herself by coming here," Orisha went on. "She would not have come, but her need was desperate."
"Anubis running out of patience?" Amy asked. Her own was flagging; the threat implied by Orisha's presence made her too nervous for chit-chat.
"Yes," Resh'ek replied. His voice betrayed real fear.
"I was asked to make certain arrangements in the event of my lady's..." Orisha stopped, clearly still too shocked by the death of her god to speak of it. "Among those arrangements is the disposal of a thing most precious to my lady; a thing which she wished you to have."
"Her ship?" Amy asked, hopefully.
"Her dog."
"Huh?"
*
Daniel's heart was in his mouth as he knocked on Amy's door. The barista in the Gerard had seemed pretty clear that she was mad at him for being so late.
Amy's voice approached the door from the far side, speaking in quick, businesslike tones.
"Look," she was saying as she opened the door and beckoned him in. "Just tell Major Carter that she'll need to set the field variance to zero-point-seven-one percent with a range of nine-hundred to one-one-seventy megahertz."
She waved for him to sit down. He tried the chair but found it occupied by a large cat, so he went to the couch instead. Claws scrabbled on the floor and a dog ran out of the kitchen, panting happily. He was a sleek, handsome hound with white fur and red ears. "Hello, boy," Daniel said, patting the dog's head.
Amy started talking again. "Yes; I'll be in to debrief on this soon. Look; Daniel – Dr Jackson – just got here; he can escort me in. For now it's just imperative that Major Carter gets that message." She paused, listening. "Thank you."
"Is there a problem?" Daniel asked as Amy hung up.
"Osiris' ship might still be in orbit," Amy admitted. "I had a couple of visitors."
"Are you alright?" he demanded, concerned.
"I'm fine. A couple of her servants just stopped off to give me my inheritance."
"Your in..." Daniel broke off.
"Yes. That's my inheritance, licking your face."
"It...It's very nice," Daniel assured her, wrestling manfully with the muscular hound.
Amy made a soft, clicking sound and the dog padded back to her side. The cat was still hogging the chair, so Amy came and sat on the sofa next to Daniel.
"She called him Daniel," Amy said. "Apparently because of his slavish devotion."
"Charming."
"It's a little bunny-boiler for my taste, so I think I'm going to call him Paris."
"Why Paris?"
"After the prince of Troy who brought ruin upon his city," Amy explained.
"I say again: Why Paris?"
"Because horse is a stupid name for a dog."
"You're saying he's a Trojan Horse?"
"Well, duh," Amy replied. "With staggering lack of imagination, Osiris legacy was vengeance. She made arrangements for me to be given her wish hound if she died. Before that, she pre-conditioned him to recognise my scent as that of a friend..."
"That's nice."
"...and to attack and kill either you or Sarah on sight."
"That's...not so nice." Daniel looked nervously at the hound.
"Relax," Amy said, patting the dog's head. "He's fine now. Incredible creatures, these wish hounds. Very smart, loyal, long-lived. Oh; and they have impressive, natural telepathic abilities which were enhanced by millennia of selective breeding. A skilled and strong-willed trainer can directly implant commands into the dog's mind. Watch. Mozart!"
The hound barked the first few bars of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
"Osiris used that ability to implant an overwhelming compulsion to tear your throat out. It was rather a graphic command," she added.
"So...Why didn't he attack me?"
"Oh; well the Goa'uld who bred them to their current level of telepathic ability was Thoth. The original Thoth; not Anubis' engineer." She looked at Daniel's confused expression. "The Goa'uld who blended with me."
"You were blended?"
"Then he Ascended out of my brain."
"He Ascended?"
Amy sighed. "I'll talk about that later. Anyway; the point is that I know how to condition a wish hound, and how to deprogram one. He's harmless now."
"Well, that's good to know."
"I say that pending a physical of course; there could be some time bomb in there, I guess. Still; he was able to show me some of the things he saw on Osiris' ship. He might not know what a cloaking field modulation is, but he's got a good memory."
"And what about the cat?"
"Ah; Wolsey just knew a sucker when he saw one."
Daniel laughed. "You're extraordinary, Amy," he said.
"Not the most extraordinary, though," she murmured. Unless you find me suddenly irresistible now you know I was blended with a Goa'uld, she thought, but just managed to keep herself from saying out loud.
"I don't know about that," he replied.
"So...where were you this evening."
Now it was Daniel's turn to blush. "I was running very late," he admitted. "I had to go with Sarah..."
"Uh-huh."
"...to the airport. She's gone home to see her family in England. I got caught in traffic on the way back."
"Oh," Amy said, feeling even more stupid than she had done before. Still, at least he did not know about...
"The barista told me you met a friend," Daniel commented.
"He wasn't a friend."
"Really? Because the barista seemed to think you were pretty friendly..."
"Ah!" Amy exclaimed. "I'm sorry, okay! I was feeling vulnerable and he was nice. It was a moment of weakness."
"Actually, I wasn't looking for an apology," he assured her. "I don't want you to spend your life pining for me."
Amy gave a melancholy smile. "You know, there's an easier fix than me making out with strangers."
Daniel sighed. "I'm sorry, Amy. But..."
"I know," she interrupted. "Never mind. I guess I'll settle for pets. I hope they let me keep him. I wouldn't want them to dissect him or anything." She patted Paris' head and the dog whined, happily. "You'll stick with me, won't you? Then when I die a lonely spinster they'll find you gorging on my corpse."
"Amy!" Daniel protested, horrified.
"Sorry," she replied. "Too much Bridget Jones."
Daniel blushed. "No. I'm sorry for overreacting. It's just..."
Amy cocked her head curiously on one side. Already attuned to his mistress' psychic state, Paris did the same.
"I'm sorry," Daniel said again. "I shouldn't have said..."
"...that in your scared and lonely moments you think about dating me just for the human contact?" Amy guessed.
Daniel looked horrified.
"You told me," she explained. "Shortly after Thoth..." Amy sighed. "We really need to talk about all that stuff. I guess you never remembered it since you were Ascended at the time."
"What else did I tell you?"
"A bunch of stuff. It was all very sweet."
"I'm sorry if it wasn't what you wanted to hear."
"That's alright," she said. "I live in hope, forlorn or other..." She paused imperceptibly, then shot off at a tangent. "I wanted Sarah to die earlier this evening."
Daniel paused to process this sudden change of direction. "No you didn't," he said at last.
"I did," she insisted. "I was there. So was Wolsey." She looked at the cat, who made no attempt to back her up.
"No. You didn't," Daniel assured her. "I know you, Amy Kawalsky. If you wanted her dead, you would have done something about it."
Tears welled up in Amy's eyes and Paris whined, pitiably.
"I love you, Daniel," she said. "And don't tell me I don't."
"I wouldn't," he promised, sincerely. "And I am sorry."
"It isn't your fault. And it's not like I'll be alone." She smiled, wistfully. "After all; I'll always have Paris."