Ex Tempore

The 'dinner' turned out to be a banquet, apparently held in their honour. The room Jack and Daniel had been led to was already filled with people, seated at the long tables which were covered with an array of delicious-looking dishes.

But the guests of honour were not hungry.

Priest Rumlna took them straight to the Queen, the kneeling procedure being repeated once more.

"Slipped into something more comfortable, now did ya?" Jack asked, unable to refrain himself from making a remark on her extravagant appearance.

Completely ignoring the other man, Queen Larthia addressed her words exclusively to Daniel.

"So, have you reconsidered my offer? I guarantee I would make it worthwhile for you."

"Um... I... I'm honoured, naturally, but... um..."

"I believe I made myself clear the first time," Jack stepped in, regardless of being dismissed so efficiently, "He's off limits. No deal."

"I understand. He is not something you would give away that easily," she answered still not even looking at Jack, "Too bad for the Jaffa."

Her hand made one last trip across Daniel's cheek and then she was gone. Rumlna escorted the slightly shivering and the seriously pissed-off man to their seats.

Jack could have killed her, right there and then. That simple.

Daniel had been meaning to tell the Queen about the threat of a large scale Goa'uld attack, but she had given him no chance. Deciding to wait for another opportunity, he concentrated on pretending not to notice the long, royal glances he was receiving from the end of the table. Her insinuating smile was enough to send cold shivers once again down his spine. Since merely ignoring her was not the ultimate solution, Daniel was sure to return the smile occasionally, but always accompanied by an implicit apology. He didn't want to give the Queen encouragement, but impoliteness wouldn't help their cause either.

Fortunately priest Rumlna took the seat between Daniel and the Queen, giving the anthropologist the opportunity to engage himself in a conversation with the priest and to prevent his gaze from wandering off in undesirable directions. But, though fully absorbed in his discussion with Rumlna, he did see the caution with which Jack lowered himself on the seat across from him, obviously still tender from...

"Colonel! Daniel!"

"Sam!" Daniel was woken up from his thoughts as the woman came half-running to them.

"Carter... Always a pleasure," Jack greeted her with a warm smile, "You okay?"

"Yes, sir, I'm fine, I've been treated like royalty," she said and seeing they appeared to be fine as well, she continued in a lower tone of voice, "You do know what they're planning to do to Teal'c? And that the Goa'uld have been here recently? And is it true, what I hear... about you two... um... about the sacrifice...?"

Receiving nothing but a nod from both men as answers to her questions, she sat quietly down next to the colonel. This was obviously not the time nor the place to pursue that last matter, and it was none of her business, anyway. A lot would be left out of the mission report, that's for sure.

"So, what are we going to do about it? Sir, we have to get Teal'c, as well as the rest of these people, out of here before the invasion."

Sam was surprised by the indifference she could read in both men's eyes.

"Sir? We are going to do something, aren't we?"

"Well, we haven't exactly had the time to work out a plan, but I'm sure we'll think of something," Jack whispered back at her.

Jack knew he should have been more concerned about the mission, about freeing Teal'c, about the upcoming Goa'uld invasion, but his mind refused to take in more than one matter at a time. Daniel. There he was, sitting opposite to him, draining Rumlna of some cultural stuff, his blue eyes practically glowing from all the fascinating crumbs of information, looking so beautiful. And just thinking about what he had put this man through... Jack hated himself.

"I must apologise to you for your friend's unfortunate situation," priest Rumlna whispered to Daniel, "I have consulted the Gods on this issue and the liver tells me that the Jaffa poses no threat to us. But I'm afraid that She is determined to go through with the sacrifice, no matter what the signs say. However, I have seen to it that he will not be harmed in any way... before tomorrow, that is."

Extensive practice of divination. The encyclopaedic phrase concerning the Etruscan religious customs was all Daniel could think about while nodding to the priest to relieve the man's guilt. He wasn't to blame and Daniel knew what it felt like to carry that weight on your shoulders. But the priest didn't deserve it. He did.

Daniel had already learned that the economic structure had remained roughly the same as it had been back on earth millennia ago, i.e. consisting mainly of agriculture and trade. The Etruscans had set out to sea quite early on and now there were a dozen small city-states along the coastline. The priest was unable to determine the size of the entire population, the number of slaves being only an estimation, but Daniel feared it would amount to as much as tens of thousands. Total evacuation would be almost impossible.

Daniel gave a deep sigh. How could he tell them they were all going to die? And more importantly, why didn't he even seem to care? As much as he wanted to find out everything he could about this culture, to learn more about their social structure, religious beliefs, political organisation, he found it exhausting to try to keep his attention focused on any topic. His questions kept bouncing around aimlessly from one subject to another, driving the poor priest into despair. But he couldn't help it. As fascinating as all this was, there was still something standing in the way, this persistent image in his mind, an image of a man... in pain... caused by him... and enjoyed by him.

"I don't think these people were brought here by the Goa'uld," Sam said cutting into Daniel's train of thought, "and they don't seem to have any knowledge of the Stargate, it's just a monument to them without any known purpose."

"I agree. The Etruscan gods tend to be mostly ambiguous, although there are a number of anthropomorphic deities, but their pantheistic trait of worshipping the natural phenomena doesn't fit in the same picture with the Goa'uld..." Daniel replied and turning back to the priest, he continued, "What do the legends say about the old land, about the journey here?"

"I'm afraid that information has not survived. So much was lost in the great fire. Such a loss, such a pity."

Rumlna shook his head melancholically and then excused himself as he saw the Queen signalling for him.

"I heard about that, too," Sam said, "A whole library of parchments went up in smoke. Of course that could mean any possible information of the Goa'uld was lost with it."

Seeing the questioning look on her friends' faces, she felt she owed them an explanation for her vast knowledge.

"Hey, I haven't been just sitting around doing nothing these past hours! I've done my research and since the women here seem to be holding the strings behind the scene - nothing goes on in this place without their knowing it - I was filled in quite thoroughly on the subject."

Deciding to ignore the subtext of Sam's words, and careful not to glance but briefly at the man across the table, Daniel threw himself into the speculation to keep his mind preoccupied.

"Women were pretty much equal to men in the Etruscan culture, a trait the Romans picked up from them, and here this emphasis on motherhood has obviously taken it one step further," the scholar babbled, not even sure if anyone was actually listening, "Since folklore is most commonly women's territory, any stories they may have would be our best chance to fill in the gaps in their written history."

"Well, up till now, I haven't heard much about the early times," Sam said disappointedly, "Maybe it has just been forgotten, or blocked out for some reason."

"This shift towards matriarchy is really intriguing..."

Daniel was mumbling to himself, evidently not completely in touch with the outside world.

"Their myths revolve around this one goddess, the female principle of life. What was she called...? She was Hera to the Greeks and Juno to the Romans, but the Etruscans...?"

"For cryin' out loud... Daniel, just pick a subject and stick with it, o-kay?"

Daniel's attempt to dredge the name up from his memory was interrupted by Jack, who had taken on the role of an outside observer. This wasn't Jack's field of expertise and by staying out of the conversation, he'd found a 'warranted' opportunity to just sit back and let his gaze wonder openly on the young man's body, remembering what it had felt like to touch him. What the hell had come over him? Jack didn't even know himself anymore. Maybe there'd been something in that wine earlier, or those fumes in the spa... something - anything! - to give reason for his acting in such an uninhibited way. The only thing he remembered thinking about was 'how bad could it be' before thrusting his tongue down the poor man's throat. Oh, God... He could only hope Daniel had associated his moaning with the woman, that he hadn't heard the selfish need in Jack's voice, hadn't seen him explode from the mixture of pain and pleasure. And he was getting aroused just by thinking of it. Those beautiful lips on his skin, those long fingers sliding between his as Jack had entered the woman for the first and only time in order to come inside her. It had been enough for him to feel Daniel blend in his flesh to reach the climax. And Jack had forced him to do it.

"Well, anyhow," Daniel carried on, passing Jack's remark with the usual nonchalance, ignorant of the real motives behind his frustration. "I understand they consider this goddess to be symbolically the first of all mothers, the one who brought these people here on her 'ship'. But if she wasn't a Goa'uld, who then?"

"The Asgard?" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Well, there's no indication of Thor here, the Etruscan gods appear to be mostly of female character. And besides, wouldn't he have left his hammer to protect them against the Goa'uld? But from what I gather, they beat the Goa'uld all on their own, with their 'magic', as priest Rumlna put it. Then again, the Goa'uld mostly use the Stargate for transportation, whereas this 'ship' sounds more like the Asgard. But why would they do that? Why take these people from their homes and just drop them off here? Maybe they did come through the Gate and the memory has simply been lost..."

"Or maybe they just clicked the heels of their sandals together three times..." Jack broke in on Daniel's monologue, clearly annoyed by the direction the whole discussion was heading to, "Who cares how they got here! Had it escaped your notice, we have some bigger issues here."

Or at least he did

"Sir, if you're talking about Teal'c, we need to know as much as we can if we are to find a diplomatic solution to all this."

"I'm well aware of that, captain, and wanna get Teal'c out as much as the next guy - well maybe more than that guy," Jack added as he glanced at the Etruscan man seated next to him, "But am I the only one seeing the possibilities of diplomacy shrinking right before our eyes?"

Jack gave himself a pause to cool down before continuing.

"Though as sceptic about it as I still am, I think this 'weapon' they used on the Goa'uld would be our primary interest."

Daniel nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we need to know more about it, but it's sacred to them, there's no way the priest will give anything away," he replied.

"I'll do my best with the women," Sam said, "but I doubt they know much about it."

"No, I don't think they do. The Etruscans were noted for their sorcery and unlike the Greeks, for example, they had a priesthood, to which the performance of the higher ceremonies was reserved, so the information is probably solely in their hands and these appear to be mostly male."

Daniel paused for a while, a thought entering his mind.

"But how close are you with Her?"

"Well, we're not exactly exchanging recipes, if that's what you mean," Sam replied wryly, "but I did have a little chat with Her earlier."

"A chat?" Jack asked, tilting his head, "Let me get this straight - no sacrifice, just a little chat?"

"Yes, sir. Um... She seems to consider me to be the leader of our team," Sam answered uneasily, watching the colonel roll his eyes, "Anyway, this magic thing was implied to be pretty much off limits. For starters, we need to built their trust and I don't think we have the time to do that before the invasion."

"Noted for their sorcery..." Daniel repeated his own words absentmindedly, "I wonder which came first, the skills or their coming here..."

"You mean that this magic is their 'hammer'?" Sam asked, suddenly realising what Daniel was after, and watched the man nod.

But the theorising had come to an end. Queen Larthia had just risen up from her seat and the whole room waited for her to speak.

"We are here to celebrate the rescue of these three people from the hands of the false gods."

She paused for a moment to let the wave of cheers pass by.

"The servant of the Goa'uld has been captured, and tomorrow he will make amends to the true Gods. Let us now raise a toast to Uni, our Goddess and the Mother of the First Mothers, for presenting us with the means to fight the Goa'uld and let her protecting power guide the lives of these three."

"Uni! That's the name!" Daniel cried out but was shushed by his team mates.

Solemnly Queen Larthia drank the red wine from her silver cup and was followed by all but three in the room. Taking her seat again, she turned to face the centre of the room, where musicians were already tuning their instruments and the dancers took their places.

It was time for the entertainment.
*******************

"There's only one bed."

"I can see that."

"Good. Then you can also see me taking the floor."

"No, Jack, if anyone's sleeping on the floor it's me."

"Sorry, I called it first. Enjoy the bed."

"I'm not sleeping in that bed!"

"Daniel!"

"Jack!"

"Look, you're taking the bed even if it kills me!"

"This has got to be the stupidest argument ever."

"Yes it is and now get in that bed. That's an order."

The words resulted in an unwanted flashback for both.

They'd been shown back to their room after the banquet had finally come to an end, and the two guards had again taken their places outside the doorway to keep watch over the visitors. Jack had asked for permission to visit Teal'c, but no such liberties could have been granted. They would see their friend tomorrow, for the last time. Sam hadn't protested against returning to the women's quarters; she'd decided to at least try to dig up more information about these people, especially concerning their magic and its origins. So, it was down to the two men, standing on either side of the bed, stubbornly fighting over the floor.

The argument was interrupted by priest Rumlna's appearance in the doorway.

"I am sorry to disturb you, but there is something I forgot earlier," he said smilingly as he walked quickly to Jack and handed him a small jar, "I thought you might find this useful, to take your mind off the... um... Good night!"

And as suddenly as he'd come, the priest was gone again.

"My! People come and go so quickly here!" Jack said cheerfully as he slipped the jar into his pocket and walked back to the bed.

But his Wizard of Oz reference was lost on Daniel, who had been busy taking advantage of the distraction, and before Jack could put his disapproval into words, he had already taken a pillow and a blanket and thrown them in the corner of the room.

"I am taking the floor," he said confidently as he sat down and started to take his boots off.

Jack made a sigh and like Daniel, he removed only his boots before taking the remaining pillow and blanket and casting them in the opposite corner.

"Jack."

"What?"

"They'll think we've never seen a bed before and don't know what to do with it."

"And they wouldn't if only one of us was sleeping on the floor?"

"Fine. Let them think we're imbeciles."

"Actually, I was aiming at 'eccentric'."

"I think we're past that already."

"Good night, Daniel."

"Good night."

Silence.

"Jack..."

"Yeah?"

"What was it that priest Rumlna gave you?"

"Oh, nothing, just forget about it. Go to sleep."

Silence.

"Jack?"

Deep sigh.

"Daniel."

"I... um... I just wanted to say that... I... it'll be all right, I mean, we'll get Teal'c out, I'm sure of that."

"Now, don't you even think of doing anything stupid, you hear? Of course we'll get him out and this will all be just a bad dream. Now, sleep."

"But Jack..."

"Whatever it is, just forget it. Good night."

"Good night."

*******************

Jack opened his eyes. Something had woken him up. A funny noise. Sobbing? He sat up and in the dim moonlight coming from the holes up on the walls he found Daniel's 'bed' empty.

"Daniel?" he whispered.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," came the quiet answer from the other side of the room, "I couldn't sleep."

Jack felt his way in the dark towards the corner Daniel's voice had come from and ended up sitting in a chair by the wall. Though the light was scarce, he could still make out his friend's figure curled up on the floor.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I guess.. no, not really."

Daniel was blinking his eyes so as not to let the man notice he'd been crying.

"Worried about Teal'c?" Jack asked knowing the answer, but stalling before asking the more painful question..

"No... or yes, that too, but..."

"Look, if this is about that sacrifice thing..."

"Of course it is! And don't even try telling me to just forget! I know you can't either."

He could see Daniel trembling, his hands clinging tighter around his knees. Of course Jack couldn't forget any of it, didn't want to. What was there to be said, how to apologise for all that pain? There weren't any words for this.

"I've been going through this over and over in my mind, trying to find an explanation to all that happened," Daniel said with new strength in his voice, "and then I remembered reading somewhere once that life is just an extreme example of a rite of passage."

Jack swallowed hard.

"Come again?"

"Anthropologists call it a rite of passage when a member of one group is moved to another one, and usually it's a case of age groups, like from boy to man, or a social passage from one status to another, like getting married."

Daniel shot the words out in one breath hurrying to get to the point.

"Anyway, rites of passage are thought to have three phases: the separation from the old group; the liminal or marginal stage; and finally the stage of joining to the nrouproup. Each stage has its own set of rules and each shift is celebrated in its own way."

"I hate to tell you this, Danny-boy, but you're not making any sense. Maybe you shouldn't bother your pretty head with this..."

Jack bit his tongue too late to stop the words. That's not how it was meant to sound! The head was pretty, very much so, but that's not what he wanted Daniel to hear. Fortunately the man seemed to be too excited to even notice his slip.

"No, Jack, I'm making perfect sense! Just hear me out. Please."

Seeing Jack nod reluctantly, Daniel carried on.

"Now, if you think life is just a rite of passage, birth being the change from non-existence into existence and death the reverse in the other end, then what is left in between would be the liminal phase, right? And that is by definition the stage, when the person is completely shut outside the norms and conventions regulating the community - basically anything goes! So, our lives should be in a constant state of absolute chaos where no rules apply and nothing human is alien to us! And yet we're bound by all these restrictions: you're supposed to do this and not that, men are supposed to be attracted to women and not other men... You're told to be yourself, but then again, isn't that 'yourself' also given from the outside through the roles you're cast in? And..."

"Whooa! Just hold on a sec... what was that about men?"

Daniel, who had just been in the middle of a verbal avalanche, was struck speechless.

"Daniel..." Jack started, but had no idea how to finish.

"I guess I'm just trying to make sense of what happened, you know, with the offering..."

Daniel's voice was shaky, he was desperately in search of the words needed to get the stone of guilt lifted from his chest. He'd have to find a justification for his behaviour, rationalise it, explain it away.

"If you think about it, we're all bisexual, deep down. We fall in love with persons, not men or women. Some biologists even regard us as only vessels for our genes, a means of transportation and reproduction. All animals, including us, are attracted to the opposite sex simply to guarantee the continuance of the species, but the human population is nowhere near extinction and our higher emotional capacity has given us the opportunity to disregard the obligation to form only reproductive units. You see what I'm getting at? We now have the choice..."

"Stop it, Daniel,! You're way overanalysing this! It happened, and there's not a damn thing you or I can do to change that."

Jack was trying desperately to keep his voice down, aware of the guards outside.

"Look, I know 'sorry' really won't cut it this time, but..."

"What then?! I've been trying so hard to find a reason for what I did, hoping like crazy it would somehow help me to apologise to you, to make you see why I did it..."

"Excuse me?! Hey, I'm the one doing the apologising here! What on earth could you have to be sorry about?"

"How about everything?! And I want to make it up to you, make it go away... I thought that if I accepted Queen Larthia's offer, if I could just get Teal'c free, it would be enough, but I couldn't, I'm so sorry, I just couldn't..."

"No, no, Daniel, you're way off here!" Jack almost screamed in his frustration, "You have nothing to make up for! How could you even think that? We'll get Teal'c out, somehow, but I'm not letting that bitch lay her hands on you ever again!"

"What makes you think she will just wait patiently for a clearance from me? She will take what she wants and if I could give it to her before that happens..."

"No! Nothing will happen, 'cos I'm not gonna let it happen!"

"But Jack..."

"No buts! I hurt you once already and I'm damn well gonna make sure you will never have to go through it again. I know it's not something you can forgive that easily, but..." "Are you serious? You're asking me to forgive you the fact that I raped you?!"

"Raped?! God, Daniel! Have you finally lost it?! You didn't rape me - just listen to me - you didn't! I wanted it, I ordered you to do it. I specifically remember using the word 'order'!"

"And since when have I been taking orders from you?!"

"Well, I gave it and you followed it. I wanted you to follow it."

Jack was down on the floor as well, kneeling beside the equally confused man.

"Look, I saw you couldn't do it with the woman, so I kinda mixed work with pleasure."

"You... wanted it?" Daniel asked looking straight into Jack's eyes.

"Yes! And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"You liked it? I didn't hurt you?"

"No! I mean, yes! Uh, you know, what I mean. Forgive me?"

"No, Jack."

"No?"

"No. I could never forgive you that."

Daniel shook his head as the true nature of things was beginning to hit his consciousness.

"Jack, it was the most amazing thing ever."

"Really?"

"Naw, just saying that..." Daniel managed to find his smile again. "So, how...?"

"Amazing."

Jack's hand had already located Daniel's and as he stood up, the other man was pulled up with him.

"But I heard you scream from the pain..."

"Yeah, it did hurt like hell... but having been there, I now now say that I'm going to a pretty nice place."

Jack wrapped his arms around Daniel, pressing his own forehead against his. The air coming from Jack's lungs burned Daniel's lips as he spoke.

"You know, I only entered her once, just so I'd get my 'offering' inside her."

"You mean, you weren't...?"

"Nope. You were more than enough for me."

Daniel smiled, but the smile was quickly swallowed by Jack's mouth, gently tasting his bottom lip.

"Now, go grab your pillow - we are taking the bed. And, before you roll those eyes of yours out of their sockets, I only meant 'to sleep' in it."

Daniel followed Jack into the bed and under the blanket. Both still a bit confused by this unexpected turn of events, they moved somewhat hesitatingly closer to each other. After a long and awkward search the bodies found their places, Daniel curled up under Jack's arm and resting his head on the man's chest.

"What was the other thing you wanted me to forget?" Daniel asked sleepily.

"Huh? Oh, you mean the thing that Rumlna guy dropped off."

Jack waited a while, weighing the truth and a little white lie and then deciding for the first.

"Lubricant. I think. He said he had heard that I needed it."

"I really did hurt you, didn't I?"

"I'm military, I love pain."

"Well, maybe I can pay you back some day."

"Yeah. Wouldn't want Rumlna's little present to g was waste, now would we?"

"It was actually quite thoughtful of him."

"Seriously cracked but thoughtful. My kinda guy."

"'Your kind'? Should I get jealous here?"

"Nah. From what I hear, this year's learn-to-fly course for pigs didn't turn out to be a huge success."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. The final exam was a pretty sad sight."

Daniel couldn't help smiling at the bad joke, and still grinning he snuggled up closer to his friend and... 'lover'? Well, whatever Jack now was to him was left to be resolved later. The world could wait. It would have to wait.

Since there had already been more than enough rushing, Jack resigned himself to just lean over and place one light kiss on Daniel's forehead.

"Sleep."

*******************