• Few mentions of scenes from the movie.
• Follows Daniel’s discovery of the ‘Map Room’. I was always a little curious as to why, in Children of the Gods, Apophis visited Earth and Abydos in the first place. This is my attempt to answer that question.
• PG-15 [A] [Hc] [D] Though not graphic, essentially a rape takes place.

The day Daniel Jackson stumbled into the dark sliver between the rocky, red cliffs rising out of the desert to the west of Nagada, he thought he had merely found a convenient nook in which to shelter from the sandstorm. It had whipped up out of nowhere, as sandstorms customarily do, sabotaging his plans to further explore and plot the area surrounding the town and pyramid.

All he could think about was how worried… and mad… Sha'uri would be, knowing he was out in the desert alone, having dismissed entirely her qualms about what he intended to do. He was a grown man, after all. He had spent most of the first eight years of his life and odd periods in adulthood under the sweltering sun in Egypt, getting his tanned skin grimy amongst the golden sand and evading its occasionally treacherous shifts. There wasn’t anything he couldn't handle there.

Although Sha'uri had reminded him, quite emphatically, that he and O'Neill had needed to be rescued by the boys during one such Abydonian desert squall, Daniel had dismissed the circumstances of that. There had been too many factors beyond his control. And he really hadn’t been able to think all that well at the time. The overwhelming adrenaline and euphoria from his defiance of Ra and his apparent resurrection raced through his mind and body, seeming to burn his very nerve endings.

Unfortunately, his excuses hadn’t convinced his wife and she continued to be skeptical of his survival skills. So, he wasn't at all sure going home just now would be a pleasant experience and decided that even if the raging wind dropped soon, he would stay out a while longer… until the dust settled… in more ways than one.

Pushing further into the opening to escape the chokingly gritty clouds, Daniel realized he was actually in a narrow passage of a manmade… or perhaps *alien*-made structure. The thin shaft of muted light penetrating the gloom picked out a brickwork pattern on the rocks. Letting the cloth of his robe fall away from where he had been holding it over his mouth and nose, he traced the indented lines with his fingers to be sure of the tunnel’s unnatural construction.

Curiosity snowballing, the archaeologist followed the seams, resorting to feeling his way as the light petered out behind him. The walls on either side abruptly stopped and while he guessed there might be steps, his tentative survey with one foot over the edge of the discernable precipice on which he was standing drew a blank. He had reached the end of the claustrophobic conduit and he could see nothing but inky blackness beyond, but the dank atmosphere of what was ahead told him the place was vast.

"Whoa," Daniel whispered, amazed, and he almost jumped as a thousand echoes voiced his sentiment back to him.

Craving the positive luxury of a flashlight, hell, even a match would do… Daniel searched for anything on his person with which he could possibly illuminate the tantalizing, cavernous mystery. It was a puzzle he surely couldn't ignore and he sensed he'd walked into something as incredible as the adventure he'd embarked upon only weeks ago.

He could still scarcely believe only one step… albeit through the Stargate… separated him from Earth and although the miraculous journey had taken him and O’Neill’s team across the galaxy, in many ways it had been more like stepping back in time. No wonder then, when he should have gone home, he found he wanted to stay… amongst the very people he had spent most of his life studying. And it wasn’t as if he had anything, or anyone to go back to…

Daniel had left a world that held nothing for him… with no family to speak of and too few true friends. His career was in tatters and his theories too wild for anyone to listen to, let alone try to comprehend. In the space of a few days he had gained a home, a wife, respect and a meaning to what he believed, and with all that, a new purpose for his being. It was an existence so far detached from the stifling confines of academia he could almost have believed he’d died and gone to Heaven.

However, the journey to his personal paradise had not been easy. And while having seriously pissed troop of soldiers on his case, being dragged over the dunes by an excitable mastage and then scrubbed clean by a bunch of overzealous attendants; not to mention being killed, brought back to life and having his brain fried by a wrathful alien definitely amounted to more than what one archaeologist really wanted to encounter in a lifetime… or two, he had to admit it had been worth every second.

Leaning against the cool tunnel wall, the young man wondered how Jack was faring back on Earth. The colonel seemed to have found a new lease on life on the planet Abydos, too. The place and its people had inexplicably bonded the two men. The Abydonians’ zest for living every minute to the full was completely infectious. And of course there had been the small matter of Daniel jumping in front of the staff weapon blast meant for Jack... Maybe having someone else, whom he hardly even knew, value his survival had shown him there was more to being alive than just a beating heart.

The revelation about Jack's son had provided Daniel with understanding of where the man's pain came from. It also explained his bonding with Skaara and his willingness to plunge into a battle that was not really his to fight.

But, Jack O'Neill wasn't the only one with more than his share of ghosts…

"Dan-yel!"

Hearing his name called from outside forced Daniel to retrace his steps. He emerged, squinting against the bright sun and caught the stern young face of his brother-in-law, sporting an expression so like the one he knew Sha'uri would have waiting for him when he got home.

Skaara had obviously been sent to follow and make sure he didn't get into trouble. Part of him rebelled against his recently acquired family's need to protect him, but he was flattered there were people who now cared what happened to him. One small step for mankind, had indeed been a giant leap for Daniel Jackson, he mused.

Though it warred with his fierce streak of self-reliance, Skaara's appearance was oddly fortuitous, for the boy always carried with him a handy source of illumination... Jack O'Neill's cigarette lighter.

"Skaara, quickly, I need some light in here, come on," Daniel beckoned the boy.

"What are you doing, Dan-yel?" It is forbidden to enter this place." Skaara shuffled his feet nervously and glanced worriedly at the opening.

"Do you know what’s in here?" The archaeologist asked incredulously, raising his eyebrows.

"No." Skaara was adamant. "You should come home now, Sha’uri is expecting us for dinner."

But Daniel was not going to let mention of his wife’s name intimidate him into submission. "Not yet. I have to look inside."

"You must not." The boy regarded him fearfully.

"Why?" Daniel crossed his arms and waited for an explanation.

Dramatically, Skaara took a deep breath, fixed his brother-in-law with a wide-eyed glare, and announced, "It is cursed."

Daniel couldn’t help but laugh and the boy, clearly offended, adopted a defensive stance.

"You are laughing at me?"

Hastily trying to regain his composure, Daniel chastised himself for showing his amusement at Skaara’s expense. Such thoughtlessness threatened their usually friendly companionship. He had to remember it was not so long ago the Abydonians lived in fear of their gods and however willing the people were to learn they could be the masters of their own fates, millennia of oppression would be hard to overcome.

"No, Skaara, no. Not at *you*… exactly… It’s just that I don’t believe in curses, as such. Look, if you don’t want to come in, that’s okay, but can I borrow the lighter? I want to get some idea of what this place is before we go."

Skaara sulkily shrugged his arms folded so defiantly around him, averting his eyes from the young man’s gaze.

"Please?"

The boy sighed. With overt reluctance, he rummaged under his robes for the implement and held it up, the silver glinting in the sunshine.

Daniel plucked it from his fingers before he could change his mind and immediately scampered excitedly back into the passage.

"Be careful, Dan-yel! For this, Sha’uri will have me scouring her pots from now until…"

But whatever the length of punishment his wife would bestow on her little brother for letting him investigate the cavern *and* giving him the means to do it was lost on the archaeologist as he probed deeper. He flicked the flame into life only when the natural radiance was too dim to see by, conserving what little must remain of its fuel after the month or more it had been with his brother-in-law.

He was still a little surprised that Skaara had not ventured inside with him, but the moment Daniel's eyes fell on the symbols etched above the end of the tunnel, he realized perhaps why his normally most curious of companions had been so emphatic in his refusal of the invitation to explore.

//Cursed//

It was written large and small a hundred times and more, reminiscent of the echoes that had bounced back to him from within. Whoever had decided to protect this place against any speculative souls made their message quite unmistakable. Daniel, though, was not given to superstition. He had studied the roots of similar folklore from many different cultures, and while he respected the reasons behind such tales, he would not be beholden to them.

He leaned out into the cavern, the weak glow of the lighter hardly caressing the nearest walls, but it was enough for Daniel to see the glyphs. Cartouches were carved into the stones for as far as the feeble incandescence spread, and from the way they were set out, he guessed they went on well beyond that.

Awestruck, Daniel felt his heart skip a beat. The heady exhilaration flooding his senses was the same he'd experienced when his parents had allowed him to enter the temple of Seti I, and the irony of the exact location of that most vivid of memories from his early childhood was not lost on him now… the cemetery of Abydos.

A cool draft ominously burst down the passage from behind him and the lighter went out. For several minutes, he tried to ignite it again, but without success. For the briefest instant, a niggling voice reminded Daniel of the curse and he scoffed at the idea. Shaking the lighter near his ear, he determined it had run out of fuel. Cussing his luck, he went back out to Skaara and readied himself for the disappointment that news of the treasured possession's demise would bring.

The sandstorm had passed on but despite the now clear sky above them a cloud hung over Daniel and Skaara as they strode back to the pyramid in comparative silence; each lost in their own thoughts. Skaara sorrowfully gazed at the spent lighter, giving the flint an experimental flick every now and then in the vain hope of it sparking back into life.

The archaeologist could feel the occasional glower of vexation thrown at his back as he stretched his long legs out in his haste to get home. His brother-in-law was already mad at him and Sha’uri would also be vexed… a probably ruined dinner and worry over where he had been exploring when, no doubt, Skaara told her… but the apprehension of being castigated over his desert adventure was gone. There was something much more thrilling on his mind.

The cartouches… there were so many of them in just the small area that had been lit. What did they mean? He hadn't had chance to have a good look at them, but the symbols weren't like the hieroglyphs he'd been teaching the children to write for their names. They were the symbols from the Stargate. He scoured his memory for the image… seven symbols… every cartouche had seven symbols… Oh my God, he reeled and became lost in his thoughts. He had found addresses… planet destinations. Lots of them… hundreds, maybe thousands. Could the Stargate be a link between many worlds, not solely to travel between Earth and Abydos? If that were the case…

Sha'uri ran down the steps of the pyramid to greet them as they neared the towering obelisks denoting the start of the walkway to the ancient monument's entrance. She threw her arms around Daniel. "You are safe."

"Yes," Daniel confirmed, somewhat indignantly. "And I would have been fine even if you hadn't sent Skaara to get me."

"I was worried," Sha'uri defended.

"I know." Daniel hugged his wife back. "Thank you," he added, the warmth spreading through his heart from her concern was hard to ignore. An aroma of roasting mastage and the onion-like bulbs soaking up the fatty juices while cooking wafted from Sha'uri's clothes and Daniel reveled in the thought of what they would be sharing for dinner later. This was another reminder of how good it was to have a real home, even if it was a pyramid.

He couldn’t remember exactly how it had come about, but it made life a lot easier to stay there. It was not unheard of for scribes, architects and so forth to live in the sacred buildings in which they worked. But though Kasuf no longer regarded the pyramid as a holy shrine to Ra, he still felt a reverence for the place and had no wish to see it desecrated. Neither, of course, did Daniel and he had been rather hurt that his father-in-law could suggest he might damage the monument with his studies. In the end, he was sure Sha’uri was the one who had made the decision for her father. So despite Kasuf’s initial objections the young couple had been residing in the ancient construction for the past few weeks.

It didn't take long for the enthusiasm over his discovery to return. "I found a passage in the cliffs, leading into a cavern. It was vast, Sha'uri. I couldn't get inside properly because there wasn't enough light, so I need to go back and study it."

He went to move past her, his mind already racing as to what he would need to take back with him, but his wife caught his arm.

"Where?" she asked, but before he could say anymore Sha’uri anxiously looked to her brother. "Skaara?"

The boy's face crinkled as he nodded and something hidden was passed between the siblings. Anticipating a scolding, he quickly shuffled backward and said, "I did not enter… only Dan-yel."

Sha'uri was plainly distressed by the revelation. "Please, Dan-yel. You must not go there again. It is very dangerous."

"Why?" Daniel sniggered lightly.

"It is cursed. People who enter will get sick... they die," she replied in all seriousness.

"I've been in there already, Sha'uri. I'm not sick," he refuted, vowing silently to himself never to mention the warning he had found.

"But you said yourself you did not enter the cavern fully. Please, Dan-yel, don't go back," she pleaded, pummeling the archaeologist’s chest.

"It's just a superstition... a... a story," he stammered as he tried to find the words to explain. "Ra probably started the rumors so his secrets would not be uncovered. It happened all the time on Earth to keep thieves away from graves and other sacred places. That place could be very important, Sha'uri. I have to go back there."

"O'Neill's lighter no longer works since Dan-yel used it in the cavern," Skaara chipped in, making Daniel feel guilty.

Daniel glared at the boy. Comments like that really weren't going to help his cause and he'd already told Skaara that once their alcohol was distilled the lighter could be refilled and used time and time again.

Sha'uri latched onto Skaara's claim, immediately determining it as a portent of doom. Fearfully, she slapped a hand against Daniel's chest again. "You see? It is an omen. The gods do not want you to see what they have written."

"That's exactly my point, Sha'uri. It was a tale to scare people away, that's all." Daniel held her hands and looked deep into her rich mahogany eyes. "Do you still believe Ra was a god, even though we killed him and after all that I've shown you?"

"No," she said firmly.

"Good. And do you think your people should not read or write because Ra forbade them to?"

"No." She sounded certain but broke eye contact with him, almost a conceding of defeat.

Undeterred by the loss of her attention, Daniel asked, "Do you trust me?" The response didn't come quickly enough and he leant down to seek out her gaze, giving her a wrinkle-nosed grin to press for an answer.

"Yes," she confirmed, the iciness of her expression melting under his crystalline stare.

"Then believe me when I say that place is not cursed. Nothing bad is going to happen. I promise…"

The next morning, Daniel was almost forced to eat his words. The skyline in the direction of the cliffs was dark with plumes of sand. The season had swiftly changed and Sha'uri convinced Daniel that for the next few months the desert would be too hazardous to negotiate. Even the relatively short distance between the pyramid and Nagada could become unnavigable in minutes. Consequently, the young couple was forced to move in with Kasuf within the safety of the walled town for the duration of the stormy season, where there was easy access to food and water.

Daniel was frustrated with having his plans scuppered, but he had to admit the storms pounding the walls of Nagada on virtually a daily basis were about as fearsome as he'd ever come across. The archaeologist used the time to do more research in the town and extending his teaching to more of the citizens.

Sha'uri buzzed happily about her father's comfortable home, enjoying preparing meals for the whole family and many of her other relations. Daniel knew she was at peace because of what he more or less saw as his forced imprisonment. When the storms began to get less intense and less frequent he felt her mood changing and it got markedly worse when the weather was good enough for them to move back into the pyramid.

After a week of placating her by helping to sweep the intrusive sand from their home and doing many of the chores he had been promising to attend to for some time, Daniel was preparing to return to the cavern, fully equipped for a decent exploration.

Sha'uri was sulking. As he'd expected, his decision had not gone down well, and she muttered under her breath as she reluctantly helped him gather things to take, being unusually brutal with objects as she stomped between the makeshift rooms.

Daniel smiled secretly to himself with the knowledge that although she didn’t want him to go she would make sure he was well provided for when he inevitably went.

~

Sha'uri was seething; though her anger came more from fear than provocation. She had known the moment Daniel had mentioned finding the forbidden cavern there would be no stopping his return to it. All she could do was make sure he took plenty of food and water, so that his no doubt lengthy expedition would be sufficiently catered. That, and to let him know in no uncertain terms just how displeased she was with his plans.

She flapped noisily through the heavy curtains dividing the compartments of their living space within the pyramid.

It made sense for them to stay there. Sha'uri had soon learned her new husband could not quench his thirst for knowledge and she would scour Nagada searching for him, only to find him in the pyramid… again… and again. So one day she had shown up with a cartload of cloth, cushions, pots and pans and had set about organizing a domicile. She had erected the curtain walls separating a side alcove from the aisle to make their own private quarters, with further partitions for a bedroom and what Daniel referred to as a bathroom, although it had no bath to speak of… no dwelling in Nagada did. So she had busied herself around their home, making it comfortable and filling it with delicious cooking smells, while Daniel continuously studied and explored the huge structure with its network of tunnels and subterranean chambers.

The Stargate, still covered by the huge stones put in place after O'Neill's team had gone back to Earth stood inactive, silently guarding over them as they worked.

Sha'uri stamped around Daniel, collecting provisions for him. Was that a smile on his face? Fury billowed inside her with his seeming ignorance of… or amusement at… her mood. He was busying himself rolling parchments and seeing which of his precious p-e-n-s still worked. She could barely contain the scream building inside, but there was no point in trying to dissuade Daniel from his chosen task. He was as stubborn as a mastage. Kasuf had told her many times they were well matched in that respect. She snorted loudly at the thought.

"Sha'uri?"

She did not bother to reply or look at him as she continued to swathe a large, flat bread in thin muslin-like material.

"Sha'uri, I'm sorry. I know you’re upset, but I have to go." Daniel's hand found her face and turned her to look at him.

"You do not," she responded harshly, deliberately averting her eyes lest she be undone by the love she knew resided in his gaze. She didn't want to let him go without a fight.

"It's just a silly superstition…" he sighed.

Her husband sounded exasperated, tired of her persistent reticence. Perhaps he was aware of her anger after all. But how could he know of its falseness? Sha'uri damned her irrational behavior. How she wished she could reconcile her trepidation and find the bravery she'd had when Daniel and his friends had fought against Ra.

What was it about this situation that filled her with dread? What was different?

Love… She was in love. *They* were in love.

It hadn't been immediate, not some heavenly arrow piercing its way to her heart, but the seed had sprouted when Daniel hadn't returned to his own planet with O'Neill and had since thrived, developed and flourished over the short time of their marriage. Love was blossoming on the still growing branches of their life together. She knew what it was she risked losing if he was lost to her and it frightened her.

"If you love me, you won't go."

"Don't, Sha'uri." Daniel snapped back at her, his turn for anger, where only patience and understanding had been before. "That place could hold so much knowledge about Ra, what he really was, where he came from, why he did what he did… I can't ignore it… I won't."

She could see the excitement of discovery burning in his eyes. It was a desire she realized she could never contain, or compete with. And suddenly she knew she shouldn't try. It would be like attempting to remove his spirit and she couldn't do that to him.

Sha'uri could not let her fear be the frost that caused their love to wither. She turned to her husband and swallowed back all the bitter, irate words held in readiness to rebuke him. Instead, she kissed him deeply while trying to ignore the roiling of her stomach at the thought of letting him out of her sight.

"I love you, my Dan-yel. I do not want you to go to that place, but I must trust you. You have never lied to me or to my people. If you say the curse is nothing more than a story from the false gods, then I believe you," she proclaimed adamantly, while trying to convince herself of the truth in her own words.

"Thank you," Daniel replied, planting a grateful kiss on her full lips and hugging her tightly.

"I am still worried, though," Sha'uri confessed. "Take Skaara with you today."

"I will," he answered softly into the hair at her neck. "He can stay outside as my lookout. We do that sometimes."

Sha'uri nodded. It sounded a good idea. However, she couldn't stop a last line of attack slipping from her mouth, "Father will not be pleased."

"Kasuf will understand," Daniel assured her with a soft voice.

Unsure whether *she* ever would, Sha'uri slipped from his arms. She helped him don the containers of his rations and handed him two freshly made torches. Wishing him a safe journey, she sent him on his way before her resolve melted. Out of the corner of her eye she spied the small clay cup they had both drunk from at their wedding celebrations. Picking it up, she ran her hands lovingly over its rough surface. She could almost smell the wine Kasuf had blessed for them, promising them a long and wonderful life together with many children to fill their home.

Carefully, Sha’uri set the cup back down and ran to the pillared entrance. "Dan-yel!" she shouted at her husband trudging away across the sand. He turned and she waved, smiling. He blew her a kiss and then resumed his walk.

The young woman watched the robed figure disappearing into the hazy distance, giving a final wave before he vanished amid the illusory ripples on the horizon. She shivered. The image was too much like seeing O’Neill and his remaining men enter the watery surface of the Stargate. Too much like saying goodbye…

~

The words stung every time they replayed in his head.

It was an argument he'd had with someone before and had no wish to repeat. It seemed like an eternity ago… he had moved on… a long, long way.

How would his life have turned out if he'd done as Sarah had wanted? How long could he have gone on denying what he felt… no, *knew* was right, before he became frustrated and broken and left anyway?

A glimpse of the first of Abydos' three moons rising in the sky as he approached Nagada told Daniel how much of the morning had passed, bringing to a halt his musings of what might have been. He had to hurry if he was going to collect Skaara, as he had promised Sha'uri, and still have plenty of time in the cavern.

Picking up his pace, he entered the walled town and trailed through the narrow walkways to reach Kasuf's home. Daniel returned the nods and greetings directed at him as he marched by traders of all manner of goods, parents of the children he taught to read and write, various members of Sha'uri's large extended family, friends and friends of friends.

He had tried keeping his head down to avoid some of the attention, but people always seemed to recognize him. Was he so obviously not one of their own?

"Good morning, Dan-yel."

The strong voice startled him from his thoughts. It was from someone who would not normally go out of his way to pass the time of day with him. Tem'ut was an aging man with status enough to be one of the Nagadan town elders if Kasuf had regarded him with more esteem. He kept a large mastage herd, hiring the animals out for a wide variety of tasks and he also practiced medicine, of sorts, for those who could afford it.

Sha'uri's great aunt, Serun, was also a healer; and with uncharacteristic cynicism, Daniel did wonder if perhaps some of Kasuf's distrust of Tem'ut was due to that particular competition. The medicinal remedies of the two differed vastly. Serun’s were all long-used, handed-down recipes, using local herbs, seeds and roots. Tem’ut kept his formulas to himself and he often combined the treatments with spiritual sessions, with his patients sworn to secrecy. It left his powers shrouded in mystery, the implied magic made him feared by many, but revered by just enough faithful followers to keep him in business.

Stopping to take a breath, Daniel hadn't realized quite how fast he had been walking. Hesitantly, he replied, "Tem'ut… ah, good morning."

"Are you exploring again?" Tem'ut's wrinkled face peered at him amiably, as he added, "If I were more youthful I would join you."

Daniel had no idea why, but he couldn't help a feeling of repulsion drive through him at the thought.

Waving his hand at the assortment of baggage strung over Daniel's back, the old man commented, "I see you are well prepared."

"Yes, Sha'uri…"

Tem'ut interrupted, his hand slapping onto Daniel's shoulder. "Say no more, I understand. She looks after you well, Dan-yel, you must be very pleased with her."

Daniel could feel a frown forming on his face, but didn't want to offend the old man. He doubted the words had come out as they were intended. "Yes," he said simply and started to move on, shaking himself free of the arthritic grip. His second footfall however, met with some resistance and he tripped, landing on his stomach, the torches, water skins, food parcels, his satchel and assorted parchments spilling around him in disarray.

"Oh, Dan-yel. I am so very sorry. Oh, I am a clumsy old man," the elder mumbled in a flustered tone. "You must let me help you." Tem'ut stooped awkwardly and began fumbling to pick up Daniel's things with his gnarled hands.

"No, it's okay. It was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going. I can manage." Daniel was quick to allay the blame for his tumble and snatched up what he could before Tem'ut ruined them with his inflexible grasp. He sighed when he caught sight of one of the water-skins. The stopper had sprung out upon impact and it now lay deflated in a large patch of damp sand.

He winced as he retrieved the hide bag, shaking free the last few drops of liquid that remained inside.

"Here," Tem'ut reached for the empty vessel, offering, "I shall refill it for you. Medafu has just been to the well. She can go later for more."

Daniel felt a little guilty at Tem'ut's wife having to make a second trip for water, but he really didn't have the time to spare. Reluctantly, he handed over the bag.

Once his supplies were replenished, the archaeologist bade the old man goodbye and dashed to Kasuf's.

Outside the dwelling, Skaara was sitting under the awning, practicing his writing. The notepad Daniel had given his brother-in-law was nearly full of rapidly improving script, both of his native language and English. Proudly showing his teacher his latest work, the boy beamed all over his face at the ensuing praise.

Expecting to begin another lesson, Skaara shuffled across the bench, making space for Daniel to sit beside him, but the archaeologist shook his head. "No lessons today, Skaara. I have something else I’d like you to help me with."

"The cavern?" Skaara asked, eyeing Daniel’s supplies.

Daniel nodded.

Surprised, the boy leapt up. "Sha’uri has given her blessing?"

"Um, not exactly…" the archaeologist drawled. "She knows where I’m going, but she still doesn’t like the idea."

"And she wants me to go with you…" Skaara surmised, his face becoming tight with enforced responsibility.

Daniel considered his brother-in-law’s position. He didn’t doubt the boy would accompany him to fulfil his sister’s wish, but he would rather the decision was his own and he knew just how to win the boy over. "You don’t have to, Skaara, but I would be grateful for the company and I think there is much we could learn there."

Ever the keen pupil, Skaara confirmed his eagerness to go adventuring by pulling the lighter from under his robes and showed how brightly it glowed now that it had been refilled. He took a deep breath, pulled himself up an inch or two and announced, "I am ready."

~

"Sha'uri!"

"Skaara?" Sha'uri flew from behind the drapes at the sound of racing footfalls, her heart frozen by the panicked shout. Wiping her hands on her voluminous linen skirt, she asked worriedly, "What is wrong?"

The boy virtually screeched to a halt and started rattling off his explanation, barely pausing for breath. "Dan-yel went into the cavern. I called to him often as he has told me to do when he is out of sight. At first he answered my calls, but now he does not."

"Did you enter the cavern?" Afraid, Sha'uri gripped her brother’s arms and shook him a little. A multitude of calamities that could have befallen Daniel began tripping through her mind and her stomach felt like the bottom had dropped out of it.

"No," Skaara assured her. "I promised Dan-yel I would not."

Relieved for that small mercy at least, Sha'uri gave her orders as she gathered a shawl and threw it around her shoulders. "Fetch Father. I will go to the cavern. Meet us there."

"You won't go in, will you?" Skaara looked fearfully at the torch she snatched up and lit in the fire under her cooking pot before extinguishing its flames.

"I will do what I must, Skaara. Now go, quickly," she insisted, pushing the boy outside.

They traveled together until the town was in sight. Skaara then made straight for the gates, while Sha'uri skirted round the wall on a shorter route to the cavern.

She strode purposefully across the blazing sand, allowing the rage already simmering inside boil up to counter the growing terror. Why couldn’t Dan-yel have listened to her? Why did the words of her forefathers mean nothing to him? She knew something like this would happen. She should have gone with him herself. For all the difference that would have made…

Foolish girl she was to have married such a man, one who would let his insatiable desire for knowledge drive him to destruction.

No. No. NO. She rebuked herself. Dan-yel was fine… simply out of earshot of Skaara’s calls.

Besides, she couldn’t have given her soul to another. Her aunts, cousins… all the women of Nagada for that matter let their husbands rule over their roosts, tell them what to do and what to think. Dan-yel wasn’t like that. He didn’t feel the need to prove himself in front of his peers. Their marriage was a partnership of equals. Only their respective stubbornness came between them.

The cliffs soon loomed above Sha’uri and fear reclaimed her heart. There was no sign of Daniel. She had been half expecting to see him pacing irritatedly outside, waiting for Skaara to return. As the young woman came up to the opening the smell of death seemed to hang in the air, but she berated herself for such thinking. Dan-yel was merely engrossed in the mystery of the cavern… it was not going to be his tomb.

"Dan-yel!" she called hopefully into the tunnel and strained her ears for any returning sound. She sighed with disappointment when only her own voice made its way faintly back to her.

~

"Skaara…" Daniel hoarsely whispered, instantly regretting having made the feeble sound when it caught in his throat and made him cough again. His gullet felt like it had been burned raw by the acidic expulsions from his fever-ravaged body. He could only hope the boy had gone for help at not being able to hear the ineffective attempts Daniel was making to reply to his calls.

They'd used the system before when Daniel was exploring. Skaara would remain outside, above or below whatever was the discovery of the day, periodically keeping verbal contact with the archaeologist as he studied the various ruins Abydos had to offer his inquisitive mind.

Daniel got up, staggering drunkenly. He reached for the water skin though no amount of liquid seemed to quench his thirst. His stomach rebelled at the sudden influx of fluid and he lurched to the side expelling most of what he had just ingested. When the violent cramps eased, Daniel dropped to the dusty floor again, relieved at the respite, however brief it might be.

He couldn't understand why he felt so ill. He'd been fine when he entered the cavern little more than four hours ago. He was sure he had taken water regularly and looking at the remains of his supplies confirmed that he had indeed drunk sufficiently throughout the day. Maybe some of the food had gone bad… but he hadn't actually eaten anything other than the bread and it had been well wrapped, Sha'uri always made sure of that.

Daniel didn't think he'd been bitten by anything either, nowhere did he itch or sting. Actually, there was surprisingly little in the way of 'life' inside the enormous hall.

But a short while ago, something had definitely overrun his system, making him sick. He'd hated fouling the ancient chamber but there hadn't been time to get outside, so he had scrambled to the nearest corner, hoping to keep his defilement to a minimum. Enervated by the wretchedness of his nauseated stomach, he had sat heavily on the floor, the bitter cold of an empty belly making him shiver uncontrollably. Waiting… hoping… to feel a little better before making a move.

Now though, he was getting hotter, despite the coolness of the cavern. His head ached mercilessly, the pain stabbing through his eyes. He swiped the back of his hand at his forehead, clearing the perspiration, but as soon as he had dried his hand on his robes the moisture was back, tickling his temples as it trickled down the sides of his face.

Pulling his glasses off, the archaeologist closed the stems as carefully as he could with his palsied fingers. Mindful of the binding securing the right one in place, a souvenir of one of his earlier exploits on the planet, he put them inside the satchel still slung over his shoulder, hoping to save them for another day. It was a wonder the fragile accoutrements had lasted as long as they had.

Daniel tugged at his clothes, desperate to cool his baking body, but his hands were stiff and shaking so hard he had no command over their actions. He had to try to get out of the cavern.

Slowly, he knelt, pulled the strap of one of the water skins over his head, and tried to get up. His limbs willfully opposed his wishes and even resorting to crawling got him no nearer the passageway. His arms were trembling with the effort of merely levering himself up. Unable to support the almost dead-weight of his body anymore, his elbows buckled and he slumped to the cool floor, every muscle throbbing.

Was the hall cursed after all? No. He would not… could never… accept such paranoia.

He felt hot… so hot… burning. Coughing brought on another searing bout of retching, so severe that when he spied the meager output of his already evacuated stomach he was not surprised to see bright flecks of blood amongst the bile.

~

"Dan-yel?" Sha'uri held the torch in front of her just inside the opening, watching its flickerings dance against the ruddy walls, and called once more but to no avail. Summoning her courage, she tentatively stepped into the entrance of the tunnel.

"Dan-yel!" she called again as she walked, hoping not to have to go too far before finally hearing a reply. As the young woman traversed the narrow passage leading to the huge cavern, the sandstone tunnel glowed warmly around her, but she shivered. Her feet pounded along, sending up the dust laid down over the centuries that no one had dared to walk between these walls. No one… except Daniel.

"Dan-yel!" she shrieked, almost hysterically. Then she stopped. A noise from the huge chamber ahead of her filled her with dread.

Entering the vast cavern, her eyes ignored the wonder of what surrounded her. It held no fascination. She could barely find it in herself to focus on the hunched convulsing figure, hardly picked out from the shadows. Daniel was coughing harshly, unmindful of her arrival, in the center of the floor. Quickly, she found a receptacle to place her light and saw that Daniel's one in the next holder in the row had long since burned itself out.

Sha'uri ran and laid a hand on her husband's shuddering shoulder. "My Dan-yel, come, we must leave this place. You will get sick."

"Sha'uri ?" Daniel's weakened voice drifted up to her, thick and raspy. His throat sounded raw as if from prolonged spells of rough hacking.

As their eyes met, Sha'uri's fear deepened. She was too late… her husband was already dreadfully ill. Daniel coughed again, holding his chest as he averted his face. She had seen him overcome with his allergies when the dust storms came, or when the mastage herd passed by too close. This sickness was different… deadly.

Looking around, Sha'uri saw the used water skins. Thankful that Daniel had heeded her warnings to drink plenty, she reached for the half empty one and held it to his mouth. She did barely more than moisten his parched lips with the liquid when he doubled over, writhing painfully. A pitiful whimper escaped him as he clawed at his stomach while the violent cramps continued.

Eventually, Daniel quieted. Breathing roughly, he sprawled over the sandy floor. Sha'uri gazed with horror at the crimson splatters that had landed beside him. She swallowed hard against the bitter juices rising in her own throat. She would have to be strong… strong enough for them both to see him through this. After he had rested a minute, she spoke. "Come, Dan-yel, we must go."

Her long, curly hair tumbled over her face as she bent to help Daniel onto his feet. Even through his robes, she could feel the unnatural heat of his body. She gripped him tighter as they started to walk. He shuffled wearily, trying to match her steps, his ailing frame sagging heavily against her.

It was a slow and awkward journey back to daylight. Neither one of them could carry a torch, and with every one of the frequent stops while Daniel was consumed with torturous coughing or retching, Sha'uri became increasingly concerned whether her husband would even make the journey home.

Emerging into the strong sunlight at last, she saw Skaara and Kasuf approaching on a mastage. They jumped down from hirsute beast and ran toward the couple. Sha'uri and Daniel staggered from the opening in the cliff and sank onto the scorching sand in a heap together.

Looking the prostrate form of his fevered son-in-law over, Kasuf's expression darkened. "He will die," he said bluntly, and turned to scold Sha'uri as she began to rouse herself, "and likely he has killed you too, my daughter. You should not have gone after him."

Defiantly, Sha'uri disagreed. "He is my husband, Father. You chose him as such. Would you not wish me to honor him with my devotion?"

"Of course," Kasuf announced firmly.

"Then I had no choice." Sha'uri's hands lightly stroked Daniel's glistening forehead, smoothing the pained creases away, as he panted shallowly. "I love my husband, I would not desert him for fear that I might become ill too."

Skaara coaxed the mastage closer. Then he and Kasuf readied the travois to transport Daniel home, while Sha'uri shaded the debilitated archaeologist from the setting, but still fiery, sun.

"He needs water, rest and medicine," Sha'uri told them as they worked. "Skaara, go to Nagada. Find Serun…" When she had finished reeling off a list of things to collect from the healer, Skaara sped off across the dunes leaving father and daughter to steer the huge hairy animal and its precious cargo.

~

Kasuf was proud of his daughter. She had always been headstrong… too much so, according to the fathers he had approached with the idea of their sons being wed to her, and though there was one who would have had her, he had promised the girl's mother never to resort to that possibility. He had thought that he might never be able to marry her off to his satisfaction, but then the strangers had come and he was awarded an opportunity he couldn't overlook. Presenting a gift to the visitors had taken an ominously heavy weight off his mind…

It was dark by the time Kasuf lifted Daniel from the travois to carry him into the pyramid and the bed he shared with Sha'uri. The archaeologist was barely conscious and he moaned feverishly as Kasuf laid him on the thin mattress. The old man placed a hand on Daniel's forehead and hissed, the boy was burning from inside. "Fight, Good Son," he whispered. "Sha'uri has risked her life, believing she can make you well again. You must not let her down."

If Daniel heard him, he gave no sign.

Kasuf reached down to the archaeologist's feet and began to remove the heavy boots his son-in-law persisted in wearing. They seemed cumbersome, but Daniel with his propensity for adventuring found their support and tread invaluable, where sandals would slip and slide.

Sha'uri slipped under the curtain that served as the door to their sleeping quarters, carrying a bowl of water and some pieces of cloth. She urged Kasuf to move aside and knelt by the bed.

"The fever rages within him," Kasuf told her, the tone of his voice warning of what was the likely outcome of Daniel's illness. Together, father and daughter removed the archaeologist's robes, in an attempt to cool the pyretic body. Daniel emitted a low groan as his limbs were manipulated from his clothes.

When they had divested him of all but the strange underwear he favored, though the shorts had been washed until almost colorless, they laid the near-naked young man back down. He bucked suddenly and coughed, his lungs rattling with the reflexive spasms. Severely weakened by the ravages of the fever on his body, Daniel collapsed back onto the mattress and falteringly restarted his regimen of rapid, open-mouthed breathing.

Sha'uri wetted one of the rags and placed it over Daniel's forehead. The first touch of the dampened material on his brow caused him to flinch, its relative coolness a shock to his overheating systems, but she continued to dab at his face and neck, gently speaking soothing words in her native tongue. Her hands lingered on his face, a thumb tracing along the flesh of his closed eyelids, stroking away the tears that had settled in their corners.

Kasuf could see the fear on his daughter's face, matching droplets beading on her full lashes. How she longed for those clear sparkles of blue to peer back at her, shining with love and admiration.

More apparent, though, was the determination that she would get her husband well again, no matter how unlikely Kasuf supposed that might be. Daniel seemed to be worsening by the minute, the sweating phase having been replaced by another round of chills. The Nagadan elder brought across another thick coarse-haired blanket and draped over the shivering body of his son-in-law. He had seen fevers like this before… had buried most of those who had suffered them. Power nor wealth, it seemed, gave no protection from its terrifying effects. Shaking his head at the harshness of his thoughts, Kasuf doubted the boy would make it through the night.

How would he then console his daughter on her loss? She doted on the young scholar. Kasuf remembered how he could have chosen the leader of the men who had dared to emerge from the Chaapa'ai, but O'Neill was a hardened soldier… not much removed from the gods who disciplined the Abydonians. He hadn't wanted that kind of life for Sha'uri. The boy who had offered him the scrumptious morsel however, bore the symbol of Ra. That is what had first swayed Kasuf to believe Daniel was the one, but then the Earthmen had destroyed Ra, had undermined their belief system… had freed them.

When O'Neill's team left, Kasuf had expected Daniel to go with them, but he hadn't. He had stayed… for Sha'uri… for his new family… for a way of life so alien and yet so alluring to him. Kasuf had known then that he had made the right choice. And every day since had proven how well suited his desert flower and his mysterious son in law were for each other. Passion just like he had shared with Sha’uri and Skaara’s mother flowed from them even when doing the simplest of tasks.

Oddly, during such serious worry, the elder’s mind was overtaken by the comical scene of Sha’uri showing Daniel how to grind Yafeta flour for the first time. The image of the boy trying not to sneeze the measly output of his efforts from the bowl would never cease to make him smile… except, perhaps, now.

"Father!" Sha'uri called him away from his memories. "We will need more water soon. I do not want to leave him…"

Kasuf nodded in answer to his daughter's unanswered question. He emptied the last of the water in the pitchers into the mugs and bowls ready for use, then left to renew their supply.

~

Sha'uri picked up one of the mugs, lifted her husband's head and bade him to drink. Daniel managed the slightest of sips as she tilted the vessel to his parched lips, but the cool water trickling down his throat irritated and he began to cough. Holding him tightly as the paroxysm of hawking racked his debilitated frame, Sha'uri wept unashamedly. "Fight, Dan-yel, you must fight."

When the attack subsided, Daniel's body became deadweight in his wife's arms and he groaned deep within his chafed throat. Teasing her fingers through his long hair, she swept the unruly, dampened locks away from his face and kissed his flushed, salty, searing-hot cheek.

She dipped the cloth in water again and laid it over Daniel's forehead. He groaned as a harsh shiver rippled through his body.

The fever rampaged unchecked. Daniel became restless and he called for her, unaware she was already there. Other names, people she did not know were uttered incoherently and he fought invisible demons, but his struggles got progressively weaker and more tremulous, and it was harder for Sha'uri to believe she would not lose him.

"Please, gods," the distraught young woman pleaded, gazing skyward. She knew it would upset Daniel if he were to hear her praying in such a way, but she was beyond caring, "I would do anything to make him well again… anything…"

"Sha'uri! Sha'uri!" Skaara came careening in to their living quarters, panting heavily. "I have medicine." He held a pouch of powder in his hand. "I ran all the way," he informed her proudly.

"Quickly, Skaara, help me." Grabbing a bowl to mix the potion, Sha'uri neglected to comment on her brother's athleticism. Her thoughts had turned to another problem. "Where did you get this?" she asked, eyeing the brown, roughly ground mixture she tipped from the bag. She sniffed at it suspiciously. It was not what she had been expecting from the healer.

"Tem'ut, the medicine man. I collided with him in my haste to get to Serun's home. I told him Dan-yel was sick. He said this was the best medicine to cure his fever… much better than Serun's elixir," the boy explained, seeming pleased with his acquisition.

"Then it must have been expensive. How did you pay him?" Sha'uri queried skeptically.

Resting his hands on his knees, Skaara hauled in another breath. "He said it did not matter for now… only that Dan-yel got better."

It was not in Sha'uri's nature to be indebted to anyone and she did not like the sound of the apparent bargain Skaara had struck with the strange old man. She wished her brother hadn't been interrupted on his way to Serun. Sha'uri trusted her great aunt implicitly, but it was true her remedies had been known to fail in severe cases. Fear for her husband won out and Sha'uri put aside her qualms. She prayed Tem'ut's claim that his medicine would work was well founded, and started to mix the powder into water.

~

Slowly, Daniel climbed his way to wakefulness. His belly ached with starvation, now the convulsive retching had finally ceased. It seemed his only lucid moments had been when folded over the bowl held in front of him to catch the blood streaked bile heaved up from his famished stomach.

"Dan-yel?" the voice sounded surprised that he was awake. How long had he been sick?

He moved his eyes in the direction of where the words came from, the only parts of him so far that seemed to be able to cooperate with his brain.

"Oh, Dan-yel." Without warning, he was engulfed, overwhelming his senses, until he thought he would be obliterated by it. He tried to say something, anything to emancipate himself from the oppressive hold. Whatever had leeched from his partially controllable mouth appeared to work. The young woman pulled back and reached a hand to his forehead. "The fever has gone," she announced, relieved.

"What happened?" Daniel surveyed his surroundings warily. "It wasn't all a dream?" he asked himself sleepily.

Sha'uri stared at Daniel quizzically.

"Sha'uri?" he questioned, unsure of what was real and what was imagined in his delirium.

"You have been very ill, my husband."

Husband? Then he really was married to this beautiful woman. That much at least was not fantasy. "Where?"

He didn't have to say more. Sha'uri helped him to sit up, propping him with a number of cushions, then encouraged him to drink from the cup she held for him, while answering his query. "You became sick in the cavern. We brought you back to the pyramid. It has been days."

Daniel's stomach growled loudly attesting to that fact.

"You were so hot and then so cold, and the sickness would not let you go. I was afraid. Without the medicine…" Her eyes filled with tears.

Grimacing as he struggled to move stiffened limbs, Daniel brought his arms up. Biting his lip with the effort, he held Sha'uri close. "It's okay. I'm alright," he soothed. He rested his head on her shoulder, still half in a daze, letting the truth of his situation seep into his consciousness.

How weird was it that what had become the routine of his daily life was actually more fanciful than his fevered hallucinations had been? Sarah, Stephen, Professor Jordan, Nick all relegated to a world beyond his reach had visited his fitful slumbers, telling him again the error of his ways.

Well, they'd been wrong… about a lot of things.

"You are still weak. Rest while I fetch you something to eat," Sha'uri told him as she eased Daniel back onto the cushions and smoothed out his covers.

Daniel found he didn't have much choice but to comply with her request. He had no strength left. His eyelids, feeling like lead weights, were closed before she'd slipped from the bed. Happy and content, despite his frailty, Daniel quickly fell asleep. And this time when he dreamed, the past did not dare to intrude.

~

Sha'uri couldn't help a little shiver creeping down her spine as she started up the shadowy alley to Tem'ut's home.

The old man stepped from behind a canvas flap as she approached, almost as if he had been waiting for her. "Sha'uri, my child. How are you? How is Dan-yel?"

"I am well, thank you, Tem'ut, and Dan-yel is much better. Your potion has worked well," she answered flatteringly, but stopped short of revealing just how miraculous she really thought the mixture to have been, in case he raised its price accordingly. Kasuf had always praised her haggling skills, but Sha'uri had a suspicion her negotiations with the medicine man would be a lot more difficult than getting a good price for their groceries.

"I knew that it would," Tem'ut answered, unabashed by his confidence.

Sha'uri knew she must stand her ground and not let him intimidate her into a quick agreement. "You must tell me what we owe you for such a powerful medicine."

Stroking his stubbly chin with rigid fingers, he inquired, "Do you have time to discuss my terms?"

"Yes…" Sha'uri drawled, the fine hairs on her arms prickling as they came to attention.

Tem'ut drew the heavy curtain to his den to one side and ushered her inside. He crossed to a cluttered table and rummaged quickly through the jars, pots, and baskets of dried leaves and seeds. When he had found a small vial amongst the other items, pouring a measure of the liquid it contained into a beaker and added some water.

Tem'ut delightedly turned to face Sha'uri. "I have always admired you, Sha'uri. You are a beautiful, strong, intelligent girl." Tem'ut swallowed his drink and licked his lips, savoring every drop, but his gaze never wavered from the young woman's form.

"I thought we were going to talk about how I can pay you." Sha'uri tried not to look at the leering eyes focussed so intently on her being. "I have this," she said, falteringly, shakily pulling the amulet from the drawstring bag hung round her waist. "I know it is not worth all that much, but it is very old and many have admired it…"

"Yes, yes, it is a nice piece, but not nearly valuable enough. I'm afraid, my dear, the price for Daniel's medicine is very high indeed. I hope for his sake, you are willing to pay."

Suddenly, she knew what the lascivious expression meant and she backed away, her free hand waving in search of the exit, but the medicine man advanced quickly on Sha'uri, grabbing her wrist before she could reach for the curtain.

"No!" she screamed as Tem'ut pressed against her, wrapping one arm easily around her slender waist and holding her fast.

"Did you not pray to the gods that you would do anything to see him well again?" he asked perceptively.

Sha'uri stopped her struggle momentarily as she wondered how he could possibly have known that.

"I fulfilled your wish, did I not?" he continued, thrusting his face closer to hers.

She nodded, hesitantly. The odious situation was as suffocating as Tem'ut's spice-laden, heated breath washing over her, rapaciously.

"Then it is me whom you should honor. Dan-yel's treatment is not yet complete. He must continue to take my potions. If you do not accept my proposal, the fever will return, perhaps even more ferociously than before, and he will most certainly die." Tem'ut brushed Sha'uri's long curly tresses from her face and planted his lips over hers.

Frightened, more for Daniel than for herself, Sha'uri trembled within Tem'ut's cruel embrace.

The amulet dropped from her hand as Tem'ut drew her closer, breathing hotly against her neck as, one-handed, he grappled lustfully with her clothing. She heard a gasp as he revealed her flesh and then eager panting as he wrenched free of his own robes.

Was it a trick of her terrified mind? Sha'uri wondered, as she thought she witnessed his puckered, liver-spotted skin rejuvenate just prior to touching her own. His hands uncurled, the joints becoming flexible and the skin supple. His face unshriveled, his body became primed… full of vitality.

Eyes filled with tears at her betrayal of her husband's love, the young woman cut her mind off from what was happening as her anatomy endured the Tem'ut's roving, groping fingers, the unwanted harsh, greedy kisses and the inevitable intrusion into her body. When she thought he could have no more of her, she looked deep inside herself and found he had stolen her soul…

Later, as she furtively made her way home, her mind shrouded in shame, Sha'uri wrapped her cloak around her sullied body, but no matter how tightly she swaddled herself, she could not seem to get warm.

In her purse she carried another sachet of Tem'ut's powder, Daniel's continuing medication, which he had blended while she dressed. The medicine man assured her it was already paid for, such had been his satisfaction, but that gave her no peace of mind.

The lamp had dwindled to a tiny flicker by the time she entered their living space, and Daniel was already asleep in bed. Automatically, she went over and checked his forehead for returning heat.

Satisfied that the fever was still in remission, she tucked the blanket up to his chin and shakily kissed his cheek without waking him.

There wasn't much water left, and she felt a sudden irrational surge of anger against Daniel's continuing weakness. Couldn't he have filled the pitchers while she wasn't home? But remembering why she hadn't been home to carry out the task made her doubly ashamed of her outrage. How could she blame her husband?

Leaving just enough for a drink in case Daniel was thirsty in the night, she took the rest and washed herself as best she could. It wasn't enough. Sha'uri doubted if all the water in all the wells of Nagada would ever be sufficient to cleanse her of the feeling of Tem'ut's not so wizened flesh against hers.

When she had finished, she went back to their sleeping quarters, gathered up a blanket from the bottom of the bed and settled herself on some cushions in the corner of the room.

Watching the slumbering form of her beloved husband, Sha'uri cried silently, her throat aching with the effort of keeping the sounds of her despair at bay, and though she wanted to succumb to the weariness of her spirit, her sore eyes refused to close.

~

When Daniel awoke it was almost dark, a faint glow seeped through the layers of cloth partitions from the Stargate chamber's main aisle, but the oil lamp was spent. He knew he often slept very deeply and might not have heard or felt his wife climb into bed beside him, but as his hands searched the mattress to either side and found no other body, he was suddenly alarmed. Where could she be?

"Sha'uri?" he croaked, wincing that it hardly sounded like a name given the hoarseness of his voice. He cleared his throat and fumbled for the beaker he had left near the bedside earlier. Water lapped his cracked lips and he gratefully took a sip. She must have been home then, because he remembered he had drunk the cup virtually dry before falling asleep.

"Sha'uri," he called again, articulate once more after having quenched his thirst. There was a shadowy bundle across the room and he tried to focus his uncorrected vision on it. Gradually, the form became familiar. What was Sha'uri doing over there? Even in the height of his fever she had laid beside him, blatantly ignoring the possibility that he could pass the illness on.

He wrestled with whether he should wake her, when he realized she already was. Two faintly shining orbs were directed at him. "Why haven't you come to bed?" he asked.

"You were asleep, Dan-yel. I did not want to disturb you," she carefully explained.

Even drowsy, Daniel could hear the affliction in her speech, the words thick and rough, like she had been crying, again. He thought she'd gotten over her spells of relieved tearfulness at his recovery. "Are you okay?"

"I'm tired," Sha'uri sighed.

"You must have been late home," Daniel surmised. He had feebly waved to her as she'd set off for Nagada early that afternoon, leaving him sitting with his journal. He'd barely found the strength to scratch some notes about the cavern onto the paper, before he'd drifted off to sleep. Later, he'd crawled to the low table and the covered platter of meat, bread and fruit she had left for him there. Guilt weighed heavy on his heart that he had not returned the gesture for when she got back.

Chewing on his bottom lip, Daniel apologized for his thoughtlessness. "I'm sorry. I should have made you some supper, but I couldn't seem to stay awake. I waited as long as I could..." That was true. Despite his afternoon nap, the few mouthfuls he'd managed of his meal hadn't given him much energy and not long after he'd dragged himself, literally, to bed.

"It is alright. You need to rest," she absolved his oversight without a second thought.

"And so do you, Sha'uri. I don't want you to get sick too." Daniel watched her as closely as he could, given his myopic gaze. She hadn't moved at all. Her eyes were looking in his direction, but seemed to be lacking focus more than his own.

"I will be fine," the young woman assured him softly. "Please go back to sleep."

"I don't sleep well when you're not near," Daniel confessed and held the covers up, invitingly. "Come to bed."

Sha'uri nodded apathetically, as if the mere idea of moving required more energy than she could possibly muster. Then, slowly she extricated herself from her self-made nest and assumed her place in their bed, turning immediately to lie on her side facing away from him.

Daniel spooned up behind her, grateful for the warmth of her body and the comfort her closeness brought. "Your hair's wet," he commented, surprised.

"I had to wash when I came in. Pran'cha's home was filthy," she answered flatly.

He could easily imagine that. While he felt a certain amount of responsibility toward Sha'uri's aunt, he didn’t much like the woman. Every one of her brood of children was rude and usually unwashed. Worst of all was their hair, matted and full of lice… so unlike Sha'uri and Skaara who kept theirs immaculately glossy with a vinegar rinse. It made Daniel's head feel itchy just to pass them on the street. The fact that her husband had died when Ra had attacked Nagada didn't excuse Pran'cha's abysmal housekeeping and failure in maternal duties.

Daniel tolerated the woman for Sha'uri's sake and he tried not to be resentful of the time his wife spent helping the woman, though he didn't see much evidence of favors being returned or even a word of appreciation. It had become expected that Sha'uri would be there for her and with Sha'uri having spent so much time looking after Daniel in the past couple of weeks, Pran'cha was pleading neglect.

"I didn't want the dust to upset your allergies," Sha'uri continued. "Hush now, I am so very tired…"

Incensed by her admission of exhaustion, Daniel wasn't going to be quiet just yet. "It's about time Pran'cha got some of her children to help her with the chores. It's too much for you to help her and Kasuf as well," he grumbled.

As he expected, worn out as she was, Sha'uri defended the woman, "It is not her fault. She is lonely since Ensotu died."

"I'm not surprised," he retorted, bluntly, but instantly regretted his words sounding so spiteful.

Sha'uri immediately snapped back at him, "Do not be so unkind. She is family. I do what I must."

"She has *other* family, Sha'uri…" Daniel insisted. Weariness was creeping up on him again and he struggled to express what he had really meant before. "All I'm saying is, if she made a bit more of an effort herself, maybe some of her other nieces would help too."

"They all have husbands, fathers *and children* to take care of," she declared, accusingly.

Daniel noted the emphasis and felt a twinge of fear. He had committed himself fully to his relationship and his new life, but the idea of becoming a father was terrifying, and he wasn't sure if he would ever be ready for it. It certainly wasn't an area of conversation he wanted to get into at the moment. For one thing, it had to be said; he wasn't exactly up to the proposition of making babies, right now. The fever had left his libido at an all time low, and never was he more grateful when Sha'uri yawned and said, "Please, Dan-yel, do not talk anymore. I just want to sleep..."

"Sorry," he apologized for lots of things with the one word, and rested his head against Sha'uri's shoulder. "Maybe tomorrow I will feel stronger and will be able to help you more."

Sha'uri didn't answer. Daniel could hear a light snoring from his wife and he smiled. "I love you," he whispered, and silently promised just as sleep pulled him into its dark clutches, that as soon as he was well, he'd try to make up for his period of invalidism.

~

Although his illness had abated, Daniel felt far from fit. His muscles were wasted and it seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to build up his stamina. He wandered with a graceless gait through the market place, his legs aching with the exertion, though he pushed the discomfort to the back of his mind. He had been recovering his strength gradually, but yesterday he'd walked with Sha'uri to Nagada and had only just made it to Kasuf's home before collapsing in heap of wretchedness.

They had stayed the night, and when Sha'uri had left in the morning to visit Pran'cha she had advised him not to do too much. But Daniel was becoming increasingly frustrated with his prolonged infirmity. It was bad enough being waited on by Sha'uri, but to have both Kasuf and Skaara fussing over him was more than he could bear. In a fit of independence, he had fended off their concerns and had come out in search of something. He wasn't entirely sure what, yet, but he'd make that up as he went along.

The main thing was, he'd escaped the suffocating confines of their anxiety over his health.

He was browsing at a fruit stall, trying to decide on whether to buy the local versions of dates or apricots for an afternoon treat for the family, to make amends for his surliness. Unsteadily, he swayed, determined not to reach out for support, when a voice behind him caused his legs to spasm, and Daniel was forced to catch hold of the pole holding up the shade over the succulent offerings, so as not to fall down. The flimsy stall shook, threatening to deposit him and its contents on the ground anyway, and he caught the irate glare from the vendor.

"Dan-yel, it is good to see you in Nagada again. You are well?"

Still clinging to the prop, Daniel turned to face the medicine man. Composing himself, he managed a small bow at him and Medafu, his wife. "Yes, thank you, Tem'ut. I'm very grateful for your medicine."

Tem'ut smirked sickeningly at the young man. "The pleasure was all mine, Dan-yel, I assure you. Sha'uri pays most handsomely."

Daniel scrutinized the odd man with curiosity, but didn't quiz him about what he had said. Instead, his eyes fell to the amulet Medafu wore pinned to her cloak; it looked familiar. He guessed it was what Sha'uri had paid Tem'ut with, and was indeed a high price, for the piece had belonged to Sha'uri's mother and her grandmother before that. Such an heirloom was a treasure not to be given up lightly.

"What would you take if I asked you to return what Sha'uri gave you?" Daniel asked.

It was Tem'ut's turn to look bemused.

"The amulet Medafu is wearing." Daniel indicated with a wave of his hand, seeing Tem'ut's bewilderment. "It was Sha'uri's mother's. I couldn't let her give that up on my account. What is it worth to you?"

Tem'ut seemed to consider Daniel's question, but his eyes narrowed unsympathetically. "Medafu has taken quite a liking to it," he announced, haughtily. "I do not think we will part with it. Good day to you." And with his dismissive words, Tem'ut began to steer his wife away.

"Please," Daniel implored, leaping forward to catch the older man's arm.

Tem'ut regarded the hand placed on his person with distaste, shook the offensive limb free and carried on walking, unmoved by Daniel's plea.

"I could work for you," the young man called to the retreating figures. "There must be something I can do… chores you need help with…"

Daniel could not see the sly smile that swept across the medicine man's face, moments before the blank expression that turned slightly toward him. "Six weeks."

"Six weeks?" Daniel shakily repeated, stunned by the length of time demanded. "How can you ask that for what amounts to a handful of spices? Serun…"

"How dare you mention that old hag's name in my presence, boy. There is no comparison between the elixirs I brew and whatever concoctions she dispenses. Do you think she could have cured your ailment? Six weeks work, or the amulet belongs to Medafu," Tem'ut insisted. "You can start today."

"Very well," Daniel reluctantly agreed, biting his bottom lip, as he contemplated his still unsound robustness. However, he was determined Sha'uri should not have to surrender something she held so dear to pay for his medicine. "But don't say anything to Sha'uri about our arrangement," he insisted, knowing his wife would be annoyed with him for agreeing to the harsh deal. He hoped her anger would not last too long if she were already in possession of the precious trinket. "I'd like it to be a surprise."

"You have my word, Dan-yel." Gleefully, Tem'ut led Daniel to his mastage pen, handed him a broom and began to recite his orders for the day's work.

~

It was good luck Tem'ut's property was away from the main streets of the town, Daniel sighed in relief as he emerged from the stable. He had ducked into the mud-walled building quickly when two of Sha'uri's cousins had passed by, chatting animatedly. He would be hiding every few minutes if the homestead was more central, but even with the relatively remote location, Daniel still found it hard to believe that he'd managed three weeks of work for the medicine man without his wife finding out about it.

Then again, Sha'uri seemed so distracted these days he wondered if she would be bothered by such a revelation. Whereas she had always been interested in how he spent his days if he was away from her, lately he had not had to do much in the way of making creative excuses for what he did with his time.

At first, he had put this newfound indifferent attitude to his pursuits down to almost losing him through his own foolishness, but as time went on Daniel began to wonder if there was something more fundamentally wrong with their relationship.

Perhaps the novelty had worn off. Maybe the adrenaline rush of their adventure-ridden betrothal had petered out. Perhaps he just didn't measure up as a husband… the differences between him and the Abydonian men too much. Was she ridiculed for the way he behaved? Was she just fed up with the liability he appeared to be?

Daniel grimaced as the stench from the pile of mastage-wetted straw and manure he'd raked to the front of the stable assaulted his nose. It was a smell he supposed he should be used to by now, but no matter how many linguistic alternatives he tried to find to describe the particular odor, one sprang to mind more readily every day… it stank.

Still, as unpleasant as it was, at least this part of his daily chore didn't play havoc with his allergies. Sufficiently dampened, the straw dust didn't fly about and irritate his nose. He lofted the forkfuls of ordure onto a cart ready to take down to the fields later, then set about unloading some straw bales from the open store behind the stable.

With so many questions about his marriage that only Sha'uri could answer playing on his mind, Daniel had to quiz himself too. Had he been wrong to stay behind? No. He was sure about that. What was there to go back for anyway? Even… he swallowed hard… even if Sha'uri decided… and it would be her decision… that there was no future for them together, Abydos held so much of who he wanted to be. He'd never wanted to be revered as their savior, never expected to go into battle… he wasn't and could never be a soldier, but he'd fight to save these people again if he had to. *His* people.

If there was such a thing as destiny, then he could be pretty certain he'd found his. As soon as he'd boarded the plane with the tickets Catherine Langford had given him in that car, that rainy day, it seemed his fate had been sealed.

Daniel was certain Jack had felt like it was the right thing to do too. He didn't drag him back to Earth, didn't even try to persuade him to go home. For, in Daniel's eyes, he *was* home and that was so plain to him, he knew Jack had believed it as well.

For an instant, Daniel had wondered whether Jack had considered staying on Abydos. The colonel had discovered something about himself while he was there… he wasn't so keen to die as he'd thought he was… there was still a reason to exist, even with a gaping hole in his heart where his child used to be… maybe more so *because* of it.

Had Jack found another cause to fight for… to live for… now he was home? Daniel hoped that wherever the man was he was still as at peace with himself as he'd seemed when he'd said goodbye. Although, he hadn’t said goodbye… he’d said ‘See ya around,’ as if he lived next door.

Daniel sneezed, the fresh bedding he'd spread about inside the stable sending up wafts of dust that tickled his nostrils. He lifted each shoulder in turn to wipe his teary eyes on his clothes and sniffed loudly. This job was always the most miserable of the day and he tried to do it as early as possible so that his stuffed up nose and puffy eyes would have subsided by the time he went home.

The archaeologist leant on the handle of the pitchfork and groaned, feeling thickheaded. He jumped when something nudged his back. Whirling around he found it was the oldest of the mastage herd gently bumping him with its snout. The animal should have been out in the pen with the others. Generally, the mastages kept their distance from him, but the last few days, Daniel had seen this one getting closer as he worked, almost as if it was interested in what he was doing.

"Hey, stop that." Daniel batted the curious muzzle away, but the creature persisted in nosing into his robes. The archaeologist grimaced as he his fingers found a trail of slimy saliva deposited on his clothes, while trying to flap them to dislodge the mastage.

The old animal mewled in its throat, making Daniel feel quite sorry for it. Bringing up his sticky hand, he patted the top of the mastage's fuzzy head, and he laughed when it purred in return.

Dropping its snout to nuzzle against Daniel's side, it suddenly dawned on the young man what the creature was trying to get at.

"I know what you're after..." He hitched up the folds of material, and rifled the deep pocket of the cut down fatigues pants he wore underneath when his boxers were being washed. He unwrapped the honeyed cereal bar Sha'uri had made for him, took a small bite and then held out the rest on his flattened palm.

The mastage sniffed at the offered morsel and greedily snaffled it. Daniel began to chuckle, but he nearly gagged when the creature gave him a slobbery lick on the side of his face. Well, at least someone loved him, he thought in a fit of self-pity.

Sha'uri did still love him, didn't she?

Would things have been any different if he hadn't discovered that cavern? While he still couldn't bring himself to blame the illness he had suffered from on a curse, should he have listened to Sha'uri's warning more closely? Perhaps it had been a test of loyalty too far.

Daniel continued to be curious about the chamber. He wanted to go back, despite what had happened last time, but he could well imagine the seven kinds of hell Sha'uri would make his life if he even so much as suggested that. From the little work he'd managed before collapsing, he knew the place was certainly linked to the Stargate. And if his assumptions were correct, it was a kind of map, showing other possible destinations. Had the scientists back on Earth tried any other combinations of symbols, he wondered. After all, what would be the point of putting thirty-nine glyphs on the device if only seven worked?

Thinking of the possibilities of having a whole network of planets to visit made Daniel both excited and apprehensive. They would have to unbury the 'gate to test the theory. How would the Abydonians receive that idea? How would Sha'uri? In her eyes, would it be just another indicator of how his need for answers outweighed his love for her?

Examining the depths to which his disconsolation had sunk, made Daniel all the more determined to get the next few weeks out of the way as quickly as possible. When he had regained possession of the amulet, he could set about making amends. He'd ask Sha'uri not to work for Pran'cha quite so often and… maybe… there was that persistent niggling at the back of his mind over Sha'uri's not so subtle hint about having children…

Of course for something like that to happen, they would actually have to start… sleeping… together again. Simply sharing a bed like they had been doing for the best part of two months now, since the sickness had taken hold, was not going to produce offspring.

Both he and Sha'uri were so tired at the end of the day's work, they barely had time to eat their evening meal before retiring, exhausted. Then it was just a question of whose eyes closed first. Also, two of her aunt's children had been unwell and Sha'uri had spent several nights sleeping over there rather than risk Daniel catching something else while he was still recuperating.

Daniel didn't think he'd ever seen Sha'uri with so little energy. She had always helped both Kasuf and Pran'cha with their housework, but it seemed more demanding on her recently. He was fairly sure he'd heard her retching before she'd gone out this morning. If she was working herself into the ground like that, then it was definitely time to stop.

~

Shattered from almost a full day's work at Pran'cha's home, Sha'uri hesitated as she passed Serun's dwelling on her way back to the pyramid. Why had she walked this way, several streets off her normal route?

Maybe her subconscious was trying to tell her something. She had not found time to visit the healer since before Daniel had become sick. Unlike Pran'cha's imperious nature, this older relative never demanded her attention and always welcomed her warmly. Feeling hot and rather thirsty, Sha'uri decided she should take advantage of her open invitation to drop in.

Serun more or less pulled her inside as she stuck her head around the open doorway. "Sha'uri, come in, come in. I see that good-for-nothing neice of mine has been working you hard again today. Or did you have to look after the children?"

"Both," Sha'uri said with a deep sigh, running a hand through her long ebony tresses.

"Here." Serun nodded understandingly. She offered Sha'uri a brimming beaker of water and bade the young woman to sit beside her. "Now, you must tell me all your news," she urged, adding mischievously, "How is that handsome husband of yours?"

Sha’uri couldn’t help a smile. Daniel’s charm was overwhelmingly infectious. "He is nearly always tired. I am beginning to think he will never completely recover from his illness," she replied sadly.

"Yes, Kasuf told me he had not been well. I am surprised you did not come to me for the fever-cup."

"I sent Skaara for medicine. He was given a potion by Tem'ut. It worked well and Dan-yel is better, but…"

"But still not back to his old self?"

"No." Sha’uri averted her eyes from her great aunt and peered thoughtfully into the water she had placed on the low table next to her seat.

"And what of you, my child?" the old woman asked, an uncannily knowing tone to her voice.

"I am well, Serun." She did not lie, exactly. Her body was functioning as it should, but her dreams and her spirit were wounded. Sometimes she could forget the terrible things Tem'ut had done to her. Sometimes… Immersing herself in many more tasks than either Pran'cha or Kasuf would ever ask of her helped to keep unbidden memories at bay. The incessant work also brought fatigue to the point of collapse, which meant when she slumped into bed each night sleep would claim her rapidly and keep the nightmares away, for a while.

Sha'uri hated the mornings most of all. There would be a sleepy few seconds of bliss as the solid form of her husband against her brought unimaginable joy, only for it to be stolen away moments later by a dark shadow, heart-stoppingly real in its malevolence. She could recall its lust for her body, its need for her essence, and knew its desire was insatiable. The revulsion Sha'uri suffered at its presence, reminding her of what she had willingly let happen to herself, grew stronger every day and was beginning to take physical form. She left the pyramid earlier each morning hoping the trek across the desert would absorb the nausea, but this morning she'd barely made it from her bed before her stomach roiled and emptied itself.

Suddenly, Sha'uri felt the need to get away before Serun discovered her dark secret. The wily old woman had a knack of wheedling more information from people than they really wanted to impart. In a way, she perceived she had already revealed everything… and more. "Thank you for the drink, Serun. I am sorry I cannot stay, but I must be going home now." She took her hands from her belly, where they had been unconsciously holding herself and pushed up from the seat.

Serun eyed her with concern bordering on suspicion and though she did not pry, her words conveyed knowing. "And thank you for your visit. I know how busy you have been. If there is anything you ever need to talk to me about, you know I'm here for you."

"Yes, I will." Sha'uri stepped from the small house, sure that she had made the right decision to leave.

"And you'll tell me, won't you? When you have news…" Serun called cryptically from the door.

What could her great aunt mean? Sha'uri, puzzled, made her journey home, putting the odd flutterings in her stomach down to the healer's strange request.

~

Exhausted, but happy in the knowledge he was doing something worthwhile, Daniel flopped into bed. Sha'uri barely stirred from where she had tumbled onto the mattress half an hour before. She murmured something that sounded like an Abydonian 'good night', but her eyes remained closed.

Drinking in the sweet, spicy scent of her hair, Daniel reached across his wife, to caress the smooth skin of her upper arm. Deftly loosening the lacing at the top of her nightdress, he ran the backs of his fingers teasingly down over her breast and expected her to giggle in sleepy delight as she usually did. Instead the young woman gasped and rolled away.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to startle you," Daniel whispered softly. "It's just… it's been so long… since we… I thought…" he couldn't finish any of the sentences he started, embarrassment warring with confusion for his emotions.

Sha'uri buried her head in the rough calico of their bolster, her body quivering. At first, Daniel thought she was laughing, but as her shoulders began to heave more animatedly, he realized she was crying.

"Sha'uri?" he called, shuffling up behind her. "What's wrong?" Daniel asked, worry notching his voice up a pitch. "Sha'uri, look at me," he said firmly, concern quickly bordering on irritation. He tried to turn her to face him, but she resisted, twitching out of his touch until, still sobbing, Sha'uri pushed up from the bed, pulled her nightclothes roughly around herself and fled their sleeping quarters, without looking back.

Bewildered, Daniel leapt from the mattress, gasping as the hasty movement jarred his overworked frame, and chased after her.

In the moonlight, a dark figure stood out against the whitened sparkles of the dunes.

"Sha'uri?" he whispered, catching the young woman around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." He leaned into her as he carried on, "You only have to say if you don't want to. I would never force you to…"

"Hush, Dan-yel, please… you don't know…" Sha'uri's words were clipped with hitched breaths and tears streaked her cheeks, as her misery continued to pour out.

"Then tell me. How can I put right what I've done wrong if I don't know what it is?"

"You have done nothing."

"What? I've forgotten something? I don't know… Sha'uri, you know how sick I've been…" Bewildered, Daniel was at a loss to make sense of Sha'uri's actions, and even less of her words.

"Yes, husband, I know," she replied, gentleness and frustration evident in her tone, but most worrying of all was the utter desolation she conveyed. "It is nothing you have done… nothing you haven't done. It is me."

"What's happened?" Unable to prevent his panic from taking physical form, Daniel's fingers tightened around his wife's arms. "Sha'uri…"

"I have brought shame on you… dishonored you." She sank to her knees, her head drooping submissively.

Daniel wasn't about to let her grovel at his feet, so he knelt too, getting to the ground in front of her. He winced as his weary muscles protested the cramped position. "What do you mean? What have you done?"

She ignored his questions. Shaking her head, distraught, she cried, "How can you ever forgive me?"

"I don't understand, Sha'uri. How *can* I forgive you if I don't know what it is you're supposed to have done? Tell me."

"I cannot," she whimpered. "You will hate me."

"I won't. Please believe me, Sha'uri. You have to tell me what's wrong."

She took a deep breath, quelling her weeping. "When you were sick, you needed medicine."

"Which you got from Tem'ut,"

"Yes…"

"Go on…" Daniel urged.

"When I went to pay him. He said, the price… the price was…"

Daniel almost admitted to knowing the amulet was in Tem'ut's possession, but there had to be more to what was causing Sha'uri such awful distress. She was fond of the trinket, but its loss couldn't be as upsetting as her current demeanor implied. No. Whatever was coming, the archaeologist guessed it was going to be bad. Not really sure if he wanted to, he had to hear what it was. "What… Sha'uri?"

"Me."

Light dawned with unreal sluggishness. Disbelief tainting his voice, he had to be sure of Sha'uri's accusation. "Tem'ut made you sleep with him?"

"Yes, Dan-yel," she cried venomously, as if she hated him for having to make her define the depth of her shame.

Astounded by her revelation, Daniel gaped, unable to think of anything further to say. Tears sprang so quickly in his eyes that he had no time to blink them away and they spilled in scalding lines down his shocked face.

He got up and began to pace, feeling the rushing of blood in his ears and kneaded his temples in an attempt to release the pressure.

"I told you, you would hate me!" Sha'uri screamed, throwing herself, outstretched, to the desert floor.

Daniel thought for a moment. Everything was wrong… so wrong…

"No," he heard himself say and hoped it was the truth. "I don't hate you. I… I don't know *what* I feel at the moment."

Sha'uri reached out for his robe as he passed, halting his footsteps. Hesitantly she dragged herself upright. "I did not want to be with him, but he said he would no longer provide you with the medicine you needed if I did not, and you would become ill again."

"Don't," Daniel ordered. Excuses couldn't take it away. However, it seemed he too had been just as taken in by the old man as she had. He struggled to comprehend the situation. Tem'ut had used Sha'uri for his own pleasure and now he was using Daniel too. The man had no fear of being found out, for Sha'uri would be the one blamed, as she had willingly allowed it. Being coerced by Tem'ut's provision of medicine, or withdrawal of it, would be no defense.

Damning the evil old man, Daniel at once realized Kasuf's feelings toward Tem'ut were well justified. Control… it was a question of control.

It was a softly spoken voice in his head that finally brought reason, overpowering his incensed misery before he could be consumed by it. The same gentle tones had once wished him to forgive Nick… because his grandfather had only done what was best for him, or so he thought… just like Sha'uri. She had sacrificed her self-respect to save his life. Logic won the day and he was grateful to the voice for making him see. How could he blame Sha'uri for the wrong done to her? He had to make her understand that he did not.

Daniel grabbed his wife's hands and pulled her up to stand in front of him. "You did what you did because you love me, not because you love him, right?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, emphatically.

"Then how can I be angry at you for that?" Daniel's hands caressed Sha'uri's face, his eyes penetrating hers to the depth of her soul. "It is Tem'ut who has dishonored me… *us*. The whole of Nagada should know what he has done."

"No! Dan-yel, you cannot do that, please."

"Sha'uri, he took advantage of you. You shouldn't be made to take the blame. If we explain…"

"Dan-yel," Sha'uri pleaded, "my father… Kasuf, he will have me whipped for bringing such shame upon you… and upon him."

"Surely not," Daniel began to protest, but slowly his mind stopped looking for ways to show Sha'uri she had nothing to be ashamed of, that payment of the kind Tem'ut had demanded of his wife should be outlawed, that Sha'uri should not fear the consequences of her actions. This culture into which he had immersed himself so deeply would likely not be changed because of a wrong done to him. Even if he reasoned with Kasuf, the elder would take his daughter to task for blackening the family's name, no matter how unjustified the situation was.

"Please do not tell him what I had to do. Please, Dan-yel…" Sha'uri was crying again, shaking within Daniel's embrace.

"Alright." Daniel squeezed her tight. "It's okay," he whispered. "No one will ever hear about this… I promise." Kissing her gently, he hugged her close and said it again, "I promise…"

"Thank you."

"Now, I'm tired and cold." Daniel was in fact chilled to the core and not because he was out in the freezing night of the desert with nothing but his boxers on. His wife had been raped… there was no other word for it in his mind. And she'd let it happen to save his life. How could anyone deal with that? Well, he would have to… for her sake. "Come back to bed, Sha'uri."

"You... you still want me?" she asked, hesitantly.

"Of course, Sha'uri. How could you think otherwise?" Daniel exclaimed, his voice on the verge of indignity. "You're my wife and I love you. Nothing, *nothing* will ever change that," he continued adamantly. "Unless *you* want it to."

She looked at him with so much grief in her eyes, that he knew the answer long before she gave him one.

"My place is with you and will always be so. I love you, my husband, only you."

Daniel held his hand out toward Sha'uri. "Then come to bed... please."

She sniffed her tears away and tentatively reached for the offered hand.

Once he had hold, he didn't ever want to let her go again. "I'm sorry," he said. "I knew there was something wrong… I was too busy to ask what… I should have been there for you."

"It is not your fault."

"I've been so worried and thinking all kinds of things. I thought maybe you didn't want to be with me anymore… If only I'd taken the time to…"

"Dan-yel, please," she implored.

"Okay, I won't say another word. We'll get through this. I promise." He pulled her to him, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Huddled together, they walked beneath the stars to their home.

Daniel couldn't help but think of how he was going to face Tem'ut in the morning. How could he work for the man knowing what he'd done to Sha'uri? But he still wanted to get the amulet back for her. He doubted, given the audacity Tem'ut had already shown, that saying anything to the old man would have any effect whatsoever.

One alternative was completely unacceptable, even to someone who had wronged them so terribly. While his thoughts leaned toward tearing the old man limb from limb, he knew he could never set out to harm him. The other was to do nothing… let Tem'ut believe he knew nothing of the truth. Tomorrow was going to be one of the hardest days of his life.

But, he'd gotten through tomorrows before…

~

Sha'uri could not work out why Pran'cha seemed in such an unusually high spirits. It was as if the woman was itching to tell her something but could not find a way how. As Sha'uri tidied the house, changed the youngest two children and started to prepare a mid-day meal, her aunt hovered around her, veritably buzzing with excitement and perhaps a touch of mischief.

Eventually, the young woman could stand the poorly veiled mystery no longer and as she sat at the low bench cutting vegetables, she asked Pran'cha what was going on. "Has something happened, Pran'cha? You seem very anxious today."

"Oh no, my dear. Nothing has happened… exactly… but, well, I don't know quite how to tell you…" Pran'cha replied, heaping devilment into her tone.

"Tell me what?"

"Leti saw Dan-yel this morning," her aunt exclaimed as if it was the news of the decade.

Why Pran'cha thought her eldest daughter seeing Daniel was such a peculiar incidence, Sha'uri couldn't figure. He was often in town, teaching and exploring, though lately she knew she hadn't paid as much interest to his precise movements as she used to. Her bewildered expression prompted elucidation.

"He was in Tem'ut's yard and when he saw Leti he hid in the stable…"

Sha'uri dropped the knife she was holding and it clattered onto the chopping board.

Daniel had promised her he wouldn't say anything to Tem'ut. Why had he gone to the man's home? What was he going to do? Tem'ut was powerful in ways Daniel couldn't possibly know about. The suppressed image of the old man becoming lithe and youthful before her eyes sickened her. Whatever Daniel's intentions, the medicine man was more dangerous.

Pran'cha squealed as Sha'uri leapt up, knocking the bowl of vegetables flying. It smashed, but afraid for her husband, Sha'uri paid no attention. She fled her aunt's home, leaving broken pottery and ruined food in her wake. Clutching her stomach as it twinged with exertion, she ran through the streets to Tem'ut's homestead, terrified of what she might find when she got there.

Tem'ut's yard was empty. Sha'uri fearfully opened the gate and stepped inside. She could hear the mastages baying and padding about in the large stable. It was past their time to be let out, she thought while wandering over to the canopy-fronted building where Leti had apparently seen Daniel last.

She peered over the low door, immediately spotting the single lamp hung from a hook on the wall. It would not have been left burning unattended for too long, which could only mean that someone would be coming back to start work soon.

There was no sign of Daniel. Perhaps her niece had been mistaken… not that it wouldn’t be surprised if the girl had just been making mischief. Uncertain if she dared look any further, Sha’uri turned… and bumped straight into the stable’s owner.

"Sha'uri. How nice of you to come visit," Tem'ut crooned, taking hold of her shoulders.

"T-Tem'ut." Startled, the young woman’s voice wavered. She tried to dodge around him, desperately trying to quell the trembling of her legs, but Tem'ut reached past her, effectively blocking her escape and undid the catch on the door. Using his body he pushed her inside the mastages' shelter through the opening.

"What are you doing?" she asked, shaking with fright, watching as the old man closed the stable door and approached her, menacingly. Her eyes darted around, looking everywhere except at Tem'ut's hypnotic gaze. "Where is Dan-yel?"

"Dan-yel? Why do you think of him? I can give you so much more…" Tem'ut cornered the young woman against one of the stalls, his arms capturing her on either side.

It was cool inside the thick-walled building, but the temperature was not responsible for the shivers racking Sha’uri’s body in the presence of this man. His carnal proximity was as alarming as the salaciousness of his voice and the lecherous gleam in his eyes, but aware as she was of the peril she was in, Sha'uri was hypnotized. Her body unresponsive to her mind's need to move, fight, scream…

"This is not right," she protested at last, though she remained locked in his mesmerizing glare. "What about Medafu?"

Striking a mock grimace of misery, Tem'ut replied, "Medafu has become very sick. She will not live much longer."

Shocked by his undeniable lack of concern, Sha'uri quizzed him, "Your medicines are powerful, can you not cure her as you did for Dan-yel?"

"You have so much to learn, my child." The medicine man laughed callously. "I *could* cure her, but I have no desire to," he said, offhand, and then lowered his voice, "In fact, it was me who gave her the sickness." And his tone became loaded with malevolence as he softly added, "I fear Dan-yel's illness may soon return too, unless you do as I say."

Sha'uri's face contorted with comprehension and horror. "You… made… Dan-yel… sick?" Tem'ut's silence was a damning confirmation Sha'uri couldn't understand. "But why? And why then did you cure him? It makes no sense…"

"He interferes with our ways. Teaches our children to question, to have wills of their own. He makes magic liquids that ease pain, help wounds to heal… People go to him instead of me for his *wisdom*. He is not the first I have dealt with in such a manner, I doubt he will be the last." When Tem'ut had concluded his rant, he explained his plan more fully. "I cured him to gain possession of the one thing he holds dear… You. Your love for each other will be you undoing. If you want him to live, you will give yourself to me."

"No. I will not let you take me again!" she cried, trying to wriggle free, but once again the old man’s strength defied his frail façade.

He was scornful of her struggle. "What choice do you have? When Dan-yel dies, I will have you soon enough."

"My father will never allow it." Sha'uri lifted her head defiantly.

Tem'ut leaned in closely and placed one of his large hands over the slight swell of her belly. "He will when I tell him the child inside you is mine."

"No," she gasped, shaking her head in disbelief.

His hand covetously stroked her stomach, then moved to cup her breast. Hot breath puffed over her face as he relentlessly pressed nearer.

The stable door opened and they both turned to look as Daniel walked in, talking to himself and oblivious to his wife's predicament.

~

It was a late start for the task of mucking out the mastage shelter, but after Leti had started snooping around the pen, Daniel had quickly squeezed out through the small window at the back of the building and busied himself with one of the chores he usually did after. Water collected, he breezed into the building with a rake and a pitchfork ready to work on clearing the stables. He was muttering the rest of his orders for the day, lest not he forget with the interruption to his routine.

When Daniel spotted the two figures in the corner, it took a moment to register what he was seeing. He froze, breathing her name in shock as he saw her flattened against the stable wall, clearly stunned with terror and Tem'ut's figure obscuring most of her body. "Sha'uri..."

Collecting himself, he realized with dread the situation he had, by chance, and thank God, disturbed. Nevertheless, his mouth still asked what his mind had already determined. "What's going on?" he growled.

Snapping out of her stupor at the sound of his voice, Sha'uri shrieked, "Dan-yel!" She began fighting to remove herself from the medicine man's hold, but Tem'ut restrained her easily and didn't seem to be bothered by Daniel’s presence.

"Get away from her," Daniel cautioned the older man. His body preparing itself for physical confrontation, he could feel his muscles twitching in anticipation, and he tossed the tools aside.

Brazenly, Tem'ut ignored the warning. He shook Sha'uri once, jarring the remaining resistance from the young woman and then pushed his lips against hers, forcing his tongue into her mouth. But his pleasure was short lived. A swift knee to the old man's groin broke his contact with her. Sha'uri managed to shove him aside as he doubled over from her attack, but he tripped her as she ran past him and she went crashing to the stable floor with a sharp cry.

Daniel crossed the space in a few long strides, his fist sharply colliding with Tem'ut's jaw as he rose from his stoop. The punch sent the medicine man spinning, his flailing arm knocked the lamp from its hook and it tumbled into the soiled, damp straw. He landed hard, half-slumped against the wall, senseless. Smoke soon began to billow around him as the nearby pile smoldered.

Scooping up his dazed wife, Daniel carried her outside. He set her down gently outside the confines of the pen where she would be safe when he let the mastages out of their stable. He could hear the pitiful cries of the animals, frightened by the smoke.

"Sha'uri, are you alright?" Daniel asked. She was pale and trembling, her eyes terrified, but she nodded as he propped her up against one of the fence posts. "Stay here," he told her, and started to get up.

"Where are you going?" she wailed, catching hold of his arm.

"I have to get the mastages out," he explained, but when he moved to get up, Sha'uri clung onto him desperately, and cried against his shoulder. "Sha'uri, the animals… they'll suffocate in that smoke…"

There was a sudden whoosh from inside the stable as the straw finally ignited and an acrid plume rolled from the opening above the short door.

Daniel extricated himself from his wife's hold and ran toward the building.

"No!" she squealed.

He looked back to see her reaching out to him with one hand, while the other was wrapped around her stomach. The archaeologist almost went back to her, but the mastages' ululation escalated; their noise human-like in their fear and he knew he could not leave them to suffer… and, he realized, sickened, there was still a man inside too. No matter how wronged they had been by Tem'ut, there was no way Daniel could see the man burned to death.

Snatching up a piece of heavy sacking from the yard, he quickly dunked it in the water trough and flung it over his head. He ran into the smoke-filled stable and started to make his way to the large double doors to let the animals out, but he spied the medicine man sheltering in a far corner, covering his face with his robe. Around Tem’ut, the mastages were becoming more and more agitated by the encroaching flames as the yellow tendrils began to lick their way up the struts of the thatched roof.

Daniel, fearing the old man would be trampled, changed direction and pulled at Tem'ut, but he cowered away. "You would rescue me, after all I have done to you?" the medicine man asked, sounding truly puzzled.

But Daniel ignored the question. This was neither the time, nor the place to discuss the issues between them. "Come on…" Daniel urged, trying to heft Tem'ut to his feet.

Unsteadily, the old man rose. He sneered at Daniel, catching the younger man off-guard. "I wonder what these people see in you. You're a fool… just like that love-sick girl you married. She could have had anything she wanted if she had been mine!" he roared, dementedly.

Daniel glimpsed the wooden post in Tem'ut's grasp only seconds before it smacked across his skull. He saw nothing else as he fell, unconscious, into the straw.

~

With a snort of derision, Tem'ut threw the makeshift club into the raging fire and bent over the unmoving figure of his victim. He unhooked the cloth from Daniel's slack fingers, covered himself with it and dashed to the doorway.

The sound of shouting and urgent voices outside made him stop dead in his tracks. He peered over the low door and saw a gathering of townspeople flinging bucket after bucket of water up onto the roof. The fire would soon be quenched… too soon… for his plans.

Only a moment's thought was needed and he snatched hold of the rake Daniel had brought in earlier. He quickly pitched up a heap of burning straw and lofted it at the mastages. Terrified, the animals bucked and reared. Tem'ut skirted hastily round the alarmed herd, then leapt at the back window and hauled himself through.

He sneaked a look back inside. A satisfied smirk crawled across his withered features as he saw the agitated mastages trampling frantically toward the stricken archaeologist with their frenzied retreat from the new blaze Tem'ut had started.

~

Something tickled his face wetly and Daniel twitched. He coughed. The roaring and crackling of the flames, along with the distressed cries of the animals grew in intensity until the sounds were deafening. A drool-laden tongue swept roughly up the side of Daniel's face again and across his one exposed eyelid. Spluttering and swiping at the trail of slimy saliva upon his cheek, he woke.

Pain flared above his left ear and he tentatively probed the sore area, yelping when he discovered a large, tender bump.

Above him, the oldest mastage was sniffing at his clothes. It stood astride him, protecting his prone body from the other panicked stamping hooves.

"Thanks, old fella," he said, scratching the underneath of the animal's chin. "I'm sorry, I haven't got a treat with me, but for this I'll get Sha'uri to make a whole batch of cereal bars just for you."

The old mastage seemed to understand and nodded its shaggy head gleefully.

Shakily, Daniel got to his feet. He drove the mastages toward the barred double doors in the opposite wall and they crashed through, he followed and looked back just in time to see the well dowsed structure collapse behind him in a huge pall of smoke.

Kasuf and Skaara were running toward him as his legs gave way. Daniel barely had time to register their concerned faces hovering over him, before his lungs determinedly began to expel the smoke he had inhaled.

"Sha'uri?" he asked when the coughing fit had subsided, his first thought for his wife.

"Serun is with her," Kasuf answered, his voice clipped.

"I want to see her," Daniel said, holding up his arms for his father-in-law to help him stand.

"I do not think that would be wise, good son," the Abydonian leader replied. His hands wrapped around Daniel's biceps, but he made no attempt to lift him.

"Why not?" the archaeologist shrugged off the grip, worry seizing his heart. He lurched to his feet, wavering when his head swam at the sudden movement. He was grateful when Skaara stepped over to support his weary frame.

Kasuf turned Daniel round to face him and with an overwhelmingly solemn expression masking his familiarly amiable countenance, made the stark announcement. "She is losing the baby."

Daniel gaped at the elder, a black hole having opened in his gut. Incomprehension heaped upon misunderstanding until the young man lost the ability to stand. He slid from Skaara’s hold, landing heavily on his backside. Thumping his fist into the ground he moaned, "Oh, God. No."

The news hit him harder than he could have anticipated. If he thought he would have been afraid of fatherhood had Sha’uri told him she was pregnant, he was doubly surprised to find that fear of losing the child he’d never even known about was excruciating and made him aware of just how much he truly wanted it.

He felt hands on his shoulders, kneading gently, and knew Kasuf was there behind him, probably asking the very same question, just as afraid for his daughter as Daniel was for his wife.

The unfairness of life was simply too much to bear at that moment in time and Daniel found himself unusually embroiled in self-pity. He drew his knees up to his chest, folded his arms on top and buried his head in the hollow, crying. "What am I going to do?" he whispered morosely to no one in particular. "What am I going to do?"

~

"Sha'uri… Sha'uri, can you hear me?" Daniel scrabbled to all fours and bent over the low bed, sure that he'd seen a flickering of eyelids… it was about time.

"Dan-yel…" Sha'uri peeked up at him, her features pinched and pale.

Daniel threw his arms around her, eliciting a gasp of surprise. "Thank goodness," he whispered tearfully into her neck as he held her tightly.

Sha'uri's forehead creased as she strove to remember the events leading to her prostration. "You went back into the stable… I thought I would lose you… Tem'ut…"

"It's okay, Tem'ut's gone. You're safe."

"No," she vehemently disagreed.

"No?" Daniel was confused.

"The baby..." she said, her hands reaching down to her stomach as if it explained everything. "He'll come for it. He'll come for me. Tem'ut said it was his."

"Our baby, Sha'uri. It was our baby..." Daniel corrected, his eyes screwed up with the pain of the truth he had to impart. "Serun told me how old she would have been. She must have been conceived before any of this happened… even before I was sick. With everything you've been through, you just didn't register the possibility."

"But how would she know…?" Shock claimed Sha'uri's face as she grasped what his words could mean and she clutched at her belly with fright.

Daniel pulled her hands away and held them between his. "She's gone, Sha'uri. I'm so sorry." Tears rolled down his cheeks as Sha'uri crumbled.

"It is my fault," she cried, tormented.

"No, my love, you mustn't blame yourself." Daniel sat close and embraced her shuddering body. "We will put all this behind us and it will make us stronger."

He carefully reached over to the oil lamp and extinguished the flame. The darkness concealed the sadness still upon their faces, but it couldn’t disguise the despair emanating from deep within.

"It may take a while for the pain to ease, but it will," he said, hoping he could believe his words like he wanted her to. Settling back against the cushions in the soft glimmer permeating the drapes from the torches alight in the pyramid's aisle, he hugged Sha'uri again and kissed her tenderly. He rocked her gently in his arms until her tears slowed and her trembling calmed.

The warmth of her body smothered him and pulled him toward sleep, but before he closed his eyes he whispered, "We have all the time in the world to make more babies..."

~

"Hey…" Daniel gently shook his wife’s shoulder to wake her. He had been away nearly all day and wasn’t surprised to find her resting on the bed when he returned, but he was bothered that Sha’uri’s niece was not there keeping an eye on her as she was supposed to be. Although a week had passed since her ordeal, he considered Sha’uri was still too fragile and understandably emotional to be by herself. He instantly regretted having been gone so long.

"Where’s Leti?" he asked.

"I told her to go home when I came to lay down. She had done everything you asked, but her incessant chatter was becoming tiresome," Sha’uri answered somewhat sleepily.

But Daniel was still angry. "She shouldn’t have left you alone. I shouldn’t have trusted her. I’m sorry."

"I am alright, Dan-yel," she declared.

He looked at her, concerned. Finally accepting she did appear much better in health if not in spirits, he sat beside her and dropped an object onto the blanket covering her lap.

"What is this?" Sha'uri eyed the small package with a tiny sparkle of excitement.

Despite all Daniel's reassurances that things could be the same again, it was the nearest the young woman had been to being herself in the days since her miscarriage, and he reveled in it. The archaeologist watched with trepidation however, as she fingered the hard lump within the cloth wrapping, realizing suddenly, that the gift he had worked so hard for might not be as easy to give as he had first thought.

Sha'uri held her breath as she finally began to open the mysterious present, but grief instantly replaced the initial delight when she revealed the amulet and Daniel was horrified that he'd brought her further distress.

"I thought you'd like to have it back," he said with hopefulness.

"How?" Sha'uri' quietly asked, swallowing a sob. "I took it to pay Tem’ut. I must have dropped it when he…"

Daniel interrupted, sparing his wife a tormented explanation by offering his own instead, "I saw Medafu with it and assumed you'd given it in payment for my medicine. I agreed to work for Tem'ut in order to return it to you. I didn't know then what he'd done. Medafu caught me in town today and gave it to me."

He ducked his head self-consciously. "Before, I couldn’t wait to earn it back for you, but I guess I’m thinking now it might bring back some memories you’d rather not remember. I'm sorry."

Her eyes shone, something of the love he cherished burning behind the almost constant pool of tears that had over-brimmed numerous times in the last few days. "I am sorry too, Dan-yel. I know you meant well, but… I do not think I want this anymore. It reminds me too much of…"

He understood, but there was a reason he had wanted to reclaim it for her and he was certain it was as important now as it would have been before all that she had been through.

"But it was your mother's, Sha'uri. This means more to you than what Tem'ut has done. I know it. When my mom died, I couldn't keep her things. I always wished I'd had something…" Daniel almost lost himself in his own sadness of long ago, but he reined his sorrow over what he could never change. Sha'uri needed his support and strength and any rationality he could provide for what had happened.

The young man closed his hand around the one of hers still clutching the trinket. "This has a beauty of its own, but it is all the more special because of the love your mother gave to you with it, and…" he gulped, his mouth dry, his eyes wet, "the love which made me want to get it back for you. When you look at it now, try to see that love."

He pried open her fingers and held the amulet up for her to see. "Think of it as a symbol of your strength. *You* can get through this. *We* can get through this. I promised, didn't I?"

Sha'uri nodded pensively, leaving her head downcast.

He hoped she could believe his conviction. One hand still on hers, his other spread over her cheek, encouraging her to look at him. "Tem'ut was jealous of everything we have, of what we are together. If you give up now, he'll have succeeded in destroying us. Do you want that?"

"No," she replied, reassuringly firmly, but a frown sullied her features as she appeared to decide whether to say more.

Daniel waited, his heart fluttering in anticipation.

Decision apparently made, Sha'uri fixed him with an intent gaze. "Who is Sarah?"

The question was like a bolt of lightning splitting a tree. Completely thrown off kilter, Daniel stammered, "W-what?"

"When you were sick, you were delirious. You called for many people. Some names I recognized, but I had never heard you mention that one… Sarah," she said the name with deliberate slowness. Daniel assumed this was to be sure she had the pronunciation correct, just in case he hadn't heard properly before.

Bullet duly bitten, the archaeologist answered, "Sarah was an old girlfriend of mine." He wondered just how much information he should give his wife. He hadn't consciously thought about Sarah in a long while, just what was it he had said about her while in the throes of his illness?

"You were in love?"

"Um, yes… for a while… we thought we were."

"What happened? In your sleep you said…" she thought, remembering his words, "I have to go."

"I had things I had to do… things I believed in. She didn't." For the first time, Daniel understood how selfish that must sound, but there was more to his desertion than whether Sarah agreed with his ideas or not. "I was going to ruin my career with my theories, I couldn't harm her reputation too, so I left."

Fear, instantaneous and in some strange way welcome, flashed across Sha'uri's face. "And will you leave me too?"

"No, Sha'uri! How can you think that?" Daniel wanted the desolation to go away. How could he make everything right again for them? Tem'ut's destruction of Sha'uri's self-assuredness, the unmerited shame she felt for being used, the loss of the baby, all conspired against their happiness.

When he thought he'd covered the possible suspects of their troubles, she spat another in his direction. "You still have things you need to do… your discoveries…"

That one stung the most. Something he was responsible for. Something he knew he could never give up, but that could be so much more rewarding, if only… "Yes, Sha'uri, I do want to continue exploring, but I'd like us to do it together. When I stayed behind, I did so because I found something here. Something I'd been searching for… for as long as I can remember."

"But would you have stayed if we had not been married?"

"I can't answer that, Sha'uri, it did kinda force the issue. Maybe I wouldn't have stayed straight away, but I would definitely have wanted to come back."

"Why do you want to open the Chaapa'ai? You said we should keep it buried forever."

"That was before we found the map room. And I don't think I ever said 'forever'. I doubt if anyone on Earth will try to come through again. Jack said they would probably send a probe. You remember that noise we heard soon after we put the rocks in place?"

Sha'uri nodded.

"Well, I guess that's what that was. There hasn't been anything else since. Not when we've been around anyway. When I found what was in that cavern… understood what it could mean. I… we have to find out, Sha'uri. There's so much we could learn."

"Will it be dangerous?"

"Who's to say?" Daniel said wistfully, his mind already running through a myriad scenarios for where the Stargate could possibly lead.

"I do not understand…"

"I mean, there's really not an answer to that, Sha'uri. Sometimes you have to take risks in order to make discoveries."

"I do not like the sound of these risks," Sha'uri admitted.

"Well, I don't either, but I would never knowingly put myself in danger."

"You went to the cavern… the curse…" she countered.

"But it wasn't a curse, was it? Tem'ut poisoned the water he gave me that morning. That's why I became ill."

Daniel swallowed hard before confessing, "I've been back there since, several times… nothing else has happened. Except I'm fairly confident of what the place shows."

But Sha'uri still wasn't satisfied and she lambasted him with another example of his perceived recklessness, "You went back in the stable to try to save Tem'ut."

"That's different. If someone's life is in danger, I'll do my best to help them. Other than that, we'll deal with what comes along when it does. Like we did with Ra."

"I'm still afraid."

"I know. But just walking the streets of Nagada can be hazardous too… look at that time I sneezed and brought down all Amun'ati's pots on my head."

Sha'uri laughed freely at the memory and it was such a wondrous sound Daniel joined in. Life could be good again and he was beginning to be convinced of it.

When they had both calmed, the archaeologist resumed. "I won't guarantee that opening the Stargate will be safe, because I can't, but we can take precautions. We still have the weapons Jack's team left. We'll guard it… all the time."

Daniel took a breath and fixed his wife’s gaze with the most assured stare he could muster. "But, if you don't want me to do it, I won't. You mean more to me than any discovery ever could."

Hesitantly, Sha’uri stroked her hand across his cheek. It was the first time in so long that she had reached out to touch him with anything but fear and he let his head tip to relish the caress. She returned his resolved expression. "I know you believe that is true, but I don't want you to give up something that want to do because of me. Do it."

"You're sure?" he asked, knowing it probably sounded as if he hadn't meant what he'd said before, even though he’d tried.

"Yes, Dan-yel." She smiled warmly.

"Thank you. We'll start tomorrow, but for now… we have a feast waiting at Kasuf's." He leant across to help her from the bed.

"But I have not prepared anything," Sha'uri pushed away from him anxiously.

"No… you weren't supposed to." Embarrassed and shyly, Daniel admitted, "I did most of it. Though Serun and Pran'cha helped… when they weren't too busy laughing at me, and Skaara made the bread."

"That is where you have been all day?"

"Pretty much… I thought we should celebrate. A new beginning for us. It's rather appropriate, it's almost an Earth year since I came here. It can be an early…" Daniel's speech stumbled when he failed to find an appropriate translation into Abydonian for the word he wanted to use, so he resorted to English, "anniversary."

"Ann-i-ver-sa-ry?" Sha'uri asked, testing the pronunciation as much as the meaning of the word.

Easily, his tongue slipped back into using the other language. "Yes. Where I come from, every year, married couples commemorate the day they got married," he explained enthusiastically. He thought he'd made it sound rather more obligatory than the event was for a lot of people, but it was as good an excuse as any for the way he felt at the moment.

She stretched up and kissed him, her arms reaching around his body to draw him in closer. He lost himself in the heat of her passion, submitting willingly to the depth of intensity that had been missing for so long. His reverie was broken abruptly though when she pulled her lips away. He looked at her questioningly, was she still too traumatized to give in to desire?

The answer came soon enough. She whispered, "Later…" seductively into his ear. "I'm hungry," she said, teasingly, rising to her feet with an ease that had been lacking for days.

Daniel chuckled, overjoyed that his wife was finding her way back to him. "That makes two of us," he replied cheekily, gratefully catching the flush it brought to Sha'uri's face as she absorbed the double meaning.

She grabbed his hands and hauled him up, the renewed brightness to her eyes, beautiful and as he allowed himself to be led from the pyramid, he could finally believe that their troubles were coming to an end.

~

Daniel sighed exasperatedly as he slumped to sit on the steps of the dais where the recently exposed Stargate stood and rubbed a hand over his face. He gazed up at Sha'uri as she approached, "Well, it looks like you didn't need to be worried after all," he told her. "I can't get it to work with any of the combinations of glyphs I've tried."

"Maybe it is damaged?" she responded.

"It's possible." Daniel knew there could be lots of reasons why the portal wouldn't work. Given enough time he might be able to figure out what he was doing wrong, but maybe the simple fact of the matter was that the cavern wasn't a map room at all and there was only one destination that would work. He was so sure, though. The glyphs must have been carved centuries… millennia even, ago; perhaps something had happened to the other Stargates… destroyed, or buried, or decommissioned, or something. Would the dialing sequence remain the same over all that time? He wished he'd taken an astrology course along with all the others he'd done, if only he'd known where his research would lead him.

There was one way to rule out Sha'uri's damage theory though, but he couldn't help being daunted at the prospect. "I wish I could use the one set of symbols I know worked before, but I can't, because it would alert Earth that we're still here."

"Would that be so bad?"

"I don't know," he said ponderously. Should he take the risk? The Stargate in Cheyenne Mountain might well have been deactivated, but if it was open and the same ruthless military minds… the ones who had denied Jack the chance to disarm the bomb… were still at work there, what would the reaction be if they found out Jack had told them a lie? Would they try to finish what they had started? How would he be able to convince them there was no threat here?

There were always so many questions… He'd thought when he came to Abydos he had found the answer to everything he'd ever imagined. Instead, he'd merely uncovered yet another can of worms.

"You can try again tomorrow," Sha'uri said, encouragingly. "But come now, Father is waiting for us."

"Yes, you're right. As usual." Daniel got up and crossed to two boys sitting in the aisle. He told them to continue with their lessons until he and Sha'uri returned, but to keep the guns close by, just in case. They nodded at him respectfully and returned to their writing.

He didn't think anything would happen, but he had promised Sha'uri to be careful. So he had the boys take turns guarding the gate, while doing their studies.

"Okay?" Daniel asked as he wrapped an arm around Sha'uri's waist. She smiled. Relaxed and happy, they started on their journey.

~

Tem'ut watched the young couple leave the pyramid on their way to Nagada.

He sneaked into the ancient monument, spying the position of the two boys near the Chaapa'ai. Drawing a small vessel from the pouch slung around his waist, he threw it into the aisle. A plume of blue-gray smoke enveloped the hapless sentries and they slumped to the floor, unconscious.

As he entered his required destination into the DHD, Tem'ut laughed disdainfully at the thought of Daniel entering countless co-ordinates into the device only for none of them to work. The map room was old… as good as useless now… to anyone that is who didn’t know the secrets of the Gods. Not like him.

A tiny gasp of excitement burst from Tem'ut's mouth when the wormhole billowed into the chamber, then settled back into the gentle, welcoming silver-blue ripples. It had been a long time since he last visited his home world. It was true he should not have let his insatiable desire for Sha’uri get in the way of his duty to his lord, but he had been here long enough and had gathered precious information. He was sure he would be forgiven the transgression when he recited the news. There was much to tell. Ra, the enemy, was dead; and the Tau'ri had opened their gateway. Both Earth and Abydos would be his master’s for the taking.

The old man climbed up to the Stargate and let that satisfied thought linger in his mind as he took the final step before his molecules were torn apart for the journey to Chulak.

And when Lord Apophis ruled over those worlds, Tem'ut envisaged his revenge upon Daniel Jackson would be very sweet indeed.

Thanks to Carrie for beta-ing and to Rob for a husband’s/man’s perspective on a few of the issues. Also thanks to Scribe for providing some ideas which turned one scene of illness into a full-blown story.

© January 2003.The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.