He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
I had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
Just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said,"grab your things I've
come to take you home."
Solsbury Hill
Peter Gabriel

For the first time in more months than he wanted to remember, Daniel awoke in a soft bed with sunlight streaming through the window and a woman lying softly in his arms. Looking down at her in the first rays of the new days’ light, he wondered who she really was, where she had come from and why she seemed to have chosen him. For now, he told himself, none of that mattered. She was here. She was with him. Soon he would take her home, back to Earth. Calla began to stir next to him and he held her a little tighter, not wanting her to wake from her slumber just yet. The softness of her cheek nuzzled against the warmth of his chest and her breathing became deep once more.

His eyes turned the door as it slowly opened and the same elderly woman who had come to him yesterday now entered the room where Calla slept peacefully in his arms. With her, she had a silver tray, upon which was a pitcher of what he assumed was water, a silver cup, and something that looked suspiciously like a joint.

“I have not seen her sleep like that in a very long time.” Able commented as she cross the room to the other side of the bed and laid the tray on the table next to Daniel. “For whatever it is worth, you did very well.” There was little mistaking the affection in the older woman’s eyes as she peered down at the younger one who lay quietly in his arms. “She will thirst when she wakes and she will want that.” Able pointed to the hand rolled cigarette. Without another word, the elderly woman left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Daniel would have liked to take comfort in the words the elder woman offered him and could not. He lay awake most of the night pondering the decision he had made while Calla slept at his side. To regret or not to regret, that was the question, the answer was unknown. For now, holding her and breathing in her sweet scent, everything was more than all right. For now, for this moment, everything was just about perfect. How long had it been since he could say anything near words like that? Daniel held her a little closer. One word echoed through his mind;

Yes, that was exactly what she felt like; home. That in itself was a minor miracle. Daniel’s parents were killed in a freak accident on July 12, 1979. It was a date that he would never forget no matter how hard he tried. Daniel had been ten years-old and he and his brother, David, had been raised in a series of foster homes after the death of their parents. At first, the state had tried to keep them together but David was a difficult child, he never wanted to get along or to fit in. Even when their family was still in tact, David never seemed to want to have to anything to do with them.

The first foster home the brothers had been in was with a very a nice older woman who had taken very good care of them, Mrs. Kent. She was a very grandmotherly woman who liked to bake cookies and her own bread, David always complained that she smelled funny and Daniel supposed she did, old people just have a certain air about them. Mrs. Kent had passed away not nine months after taking the boys into her home. Daniel and David waited in an orphanage for a short while before moving onto their second foster home. Jen and John Kovach were an ok couple, they liked to smoke pot and have people 'sleep over' sometimes, and they considered themselves to be 'artistes'. In real life (during the daytime that was) John was a carpenter and Jen was a bookkeeper. A year and half into living with the couple, they split up and the boys were onto another home. This last foster home had been a more stable married couple, Mary and Bill Cabral. Very nice people, the brothers Jackson had lived from them from the age of 13 until Daniel turned 19 and went off to college. They still kept in touch with him from time to time. Daniel always promised himself he would call them or drop them a line but he never did. The State had split the boys up when they were both 14 and living in their third foster home and Daniel's last.

David, however, proved too much for them to handle. They caught him stealing money more than once and dipping into the liquor cabinet. Soon the problems at home and school became so bad that they felt they had no choice but to turn David back over to the State for care. Daniel could still remember Mary sitting on the side of his bed and holding his hand while she told him how sorry she was that David had to go away but that she had tried, she had really really tried with him and she just could not do it anymore. Daniel still remembered the pain in her eyes as she told him over and over that she was sorry that his brother had to leave. It was not her fault, it was David's even then Daniel knew that. That wasn’t all he knew, no not by a long shot. Daniel was privy to information even Mary’s husband didn’t know and that was this; Mary had come early from grocery shopping and caught David jacking off into a pair of her panties. In short, the plain and simple truth was, the nice woman who had taken them in had become terrified of David.

Even though he frightened her, Mary insisted that Daniel spend time with his brother and to that end she had tried to get David to the house for one weekend each month. That worked for a while but in the end it wasn't to be and foster home after foster home soon gave up on David, turning him over to the state for care. For the past twenty years or more, Daniel had no idea where his brother was or if he was even still kicking around back on planet Earth. It wouldn’t surprise Daniel if David had given up the ghost years ago due to hard living and heavy drinking.

Daniel had spent most of his adult life hidden away in one college or university behind a book or computer, keeping the real world at bay and burying himself in the past. How was he possibly supposed to feel like he belonged anywhere when everything around him kept changing? He supposed that David had felt the same way but instead of introverting, he had acted out on his emotions causing great grief to everyone around him.

Then, on his very first trip through the Stargate, Daniel had gotten extremely lucky. Sha're had come into his life and made him feel like he belonged somewhere, with someone, that there was a reason for the fact that he was breathing. Sha're was gone now and she was never coming back. Daniel looked down at the sleeping woman lying in his arms. Sha’re made him feel this way. Since she died, Daniel had gone back to wandering around mostly empty, on the verge of being emotionally dead, inside. Home had become nothing more than a concept again. Not having been able to find a home here on Earth, he had turned to the Stars, to fill his own empty spaces and ease his mind. Free and untethered that‘s what he told himself. He told himself he didn’t want anything like a home, not when it was so easily taken away, it was for other people. What did he need with such a concept as a home when he had the Stars?

Now he was here, and she was cuddled next to him. She was warm and soft like a sleepy kitten.

What a fool he had been.

“Daniel?” Calla asked a small voice as her eyes looked upon him. “Naganti Kanan.” She sat up quickly and gathered the sheet around her small breasts.

“No, no. Stay with me.” He urged gently and brought her body back down upon the mattress to lie next to him. “He isn’t here. He isn’t coming.”

“Daniel is Lord now?”

Never in his wildest or darkest dreams did he ever think he would agree with such a question. “Yes.”

“Daniel is Master now?”

“Yes.” He agreed as he ran his hand across her cheek. “I am. “

Calla’s mind began to spin and then to slow slightly as she pulled herself away from him and noticed a large scar on her new Master’s shoulder. Without thinking, she began to rub her hands together, building that same amber energy she had used on Sam and Kanan, she would use it on him now. Master Daniel took her hands in his and stopped her.

“You don’t have to heal it, Calla. It is healed. It’s all right.”

“What happened? “ She asked in a small voice as stared at the rounded scar that had made a home on his skin.

“Oh, nothing. Just an old injury, it doesn’t bother me any more.” Some years ago, Daniel was shot in the line of duty but there was no need to worry her with that right now. “Do you remember last night?” Calla stared at him with wide eyes and shook her head. “Anything at all?” Once again, he watched as she shook her head. Something flashed quickly behind her eyes and told him that there was a possibility she was lying to him. Daniel wasn’t going to push the subject just now. “It’s all right.” Maybe it was just as well.

Calla was beginning to notice the pounding behind her eyes and the dryness of her throat. She reached for the pitcher of water that sat on the table on the other side of her new Lord and Master.

“I’ll get it.” Daniel told her as he sat up and poured water into the cup. He turned to look to at her as he handed it over it and found himself captured by those eyes. Calla stared at him and the cup, not knowing if she should take it from his hand. “Go on.” Daniel directed. “Take it.” Timidly her small hands wrapped around the cup and took it from his grasp. Instantly he knew just how rare the small gesture of getting her a glass of water was in her life. No, the Master did not give her water she sought it for him. Things were about to change in her life, Daniel told himself they had to change slowly for fear that she would not keep up and she would retreat into her own world rather than join him in his. For the next little while, both of them would be walking the Razor‘s Edge. Either of them could fall off at any moment. He must be patient. He must not fall. “Do you want this too?” He took the small hand rolled cigarette between his fingers, it did not feel nor smell as if it was full of tobacco. Calla cautiously nodded her head. From looking at her and the way she was looking at the joint, he wasn’t sure how to tell her that she was not going to get this back in the United States of America, well not legally anyway. Daniel held out the joint and the wooden match that lay next to it on the tray.

“It will help my head and my stomach, Master Daniel.” Her voice was small almost apologetic as she attempted read the thoughts of her new Master. Clearly, this was not something that he approved of.

Yeah, that much the joint would do for her, he thought as his open palm still held the joint with accompanying match out to her, he knew that he should not encourage this, he should tell her that she could not have it. Instead, “Go on, take it if you want it.” His voice held an edge that he had not intended.

Master Daniel.

With a heavy heart he was suddenly aware that he was either going to grow to detest those two words or to like them far too much. Either way, it wouldn’t take long. It was the way she said it. On others worlds, even his own, such designations were commonly used by many people. Calla did not use the words ‘Master’ and ‘Lord’ to refer to someone who just had a bit more power than she did or to show respect. No, when she uttered those words they sounded as though they came from a woman long past her time for ending her term of indenture.

Calla did want it, her stomach churned with acid and her head cried out as though someone were thrusting a rusted axe through the center of her forehead. She only sat there looking at him and waiting. Her new Master only returned her stare as he waited for her to do something. “You.” Calla directed in a quiet tone.

“Me? No, I don’t want it.” As he spoke, his words became fainter and fainter until they were nothing more than a whisper. An image so old that he thought he had forgotten it came dancing through his mind. Without hesitating further, Daniel put the wrapped herb between his lips, struck the match against the headboard, and lit the joint. Warm piney smoke filled his lungs and he held back the urge to cough it out. He stuck the lit joint into his mouth, holding it between his teeth and grasped Calla’s jaw firmly, her lips parted in a small ‘o’ shape as he blew the smoke into them. Back on good old planet Earth, friends and neighbors, in a place called the University of Chicago, many many years ago, Daniel had learned that was what was called a ‘shotgun’. Calla held the hit he had given her for longer than he had expected, finally nothing but the smallest puff of gray smoke exited from her mouth. “More?” Daniel watched as she nodded. “Say it.” He encouraged. “Say, ‘yes’.”

So many new rules to learn. So many new things to learn in order to please her new Master. “Yes, Master Daniel, please.”

“Good. Let’s try this one. ” There it was again; Master Daniel. Before he spoke again, he filled his lungs with marijuana smoke, covered her lips with his own and exhaled the smoke into her lungs. The stuff he was smoking was either extremely potent or he had become a severe lightweight in his years away from college life. The skunk-like odor of the weed was potent even before he had lit it, so much so that he wondered if it was possible to get stoned off of it just by inhaling the aroma of it in its natural state; unlit. The pungent smoke hanging heavy in the air around them now filtered sunlight coming through the window across from the bed. Daniel’s eyes felt like they were swimming inside of their sockets, his vision faded, blurred, and came into focus once more. When she had blown the smoke from her own lungs, Daniel spoke again. “Calla, I want you to call me Daniel. Just Daniel, ok? Not Master Daniel. Not Lord Daniel. Do you understand?”

No, she did not understand. “If that is what you wish.” She agreed. The sharp pain in her head was beginning to subside and her stomach to quiet.

“Say it.”

“Daniel.”

That was a little better, enough to ease his mind for the moment anyway. Now, let’s try this one, he thought. “Do you want more?”

“Hei,” Calla stumbled over the next word, the one she was not supposed to say, omitted it, and continued on, “Daniel, please.”

“Better. Wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Yes, was what she wanted to say, “Co.”

“You shouldn’t smoke. It’s bad for you. Last one, ok?”

“Ok?”

“It means ‘do you agree‘?”

Calla thought about it for a moment. What did her agreement with his wishes matter? He would tell her what to do and she would do it. Maybe Daniel was the one who did not understand the rules. His question remained and looking into his eyes, she saw that he was still waiting for an answer from her. She would like very much to finish smoking the mansis with him, she should not go against his wishes and clearly, he wished for her not to have any more of the sacred herb. “Hei, M...Daniel.” The lips of her new Master descended onto her own, they were soft and warm as they filled her lungs with the sacred smoke for the last time. Well, for the last time that day anyway. “Ha’Nok re?”

He moved his lips to tell her that it was all right for him to touch her now, surely she could see that.

Ka’Nok re! Don’t touch me. However that was not what she had said.

Ha’Nok re?

It was not a statement but a question. “Ha’Nok?” He asked and did wait for an answer. “Touch you?”

“Hei M...” Calla dropped her eyes away from his. This was going to be harder than she had thought. Not to mention much more difficult than Daniel ever imagined.

He brought his hand up under her chin and tilted her face to look at him. “Dan..” He waited for her to finish it. “C’mon, Dan...”

“Daniel.” Tears welled up in her emerald eyes as she drew a deep breath. “Ha’Nok re, Naganti Daniel.”

Somewhere deep inside of him he became aware of her pulling away from him, that was why she was reverting to her use of the Shankuk language. It was comforting in its own strange way because it was familiar to her. Certainly more familiar to her than he was at this moment. He shook his head. “Nice try but no.” Daniel smiled to show that he was not angry with her. “No, Naganti either.” She turned her head to look away from him but his hand held her firm. “Say it, in English, Calla. It’s all right, say it.” He coaxed gently and watched as the first of those welling tears spilled forth.

Calla closed her eyes, causing the dry one to usher forth its contents and two round tears slowly made their way down her flushing cheeks. “Daniel, touch me.” Two bright shining emeralds emerged from behind her closed lids and beckoned to him. “Please? Master Kanan no longer touches me.”

Placing one hand on each side of her face, one covering the remains of the bruise Kanan had lain on just two nights before; he brushed away her tears with his thumbs and stared into those wide green depths. Deep inside there, something called and swayed as it danced to music only it could hear. It summoned him to come and dance with it. Come and see the secrets she hid and to lay her as bare as she had been last night. “Don’t cry.” He raised himself up to kiss the top of her head and held her close. Daniel brought her head to rest on his chest. “Everything will be all right, I promise.” Calla wrapped her body around him. “I know you’re scared. It’s all right.” Slowly, his open palm worked its way up and down her naked back in a long leisurely rhythm. Calla snuggled against him, her body lost some of it’s rigidity as she began to relax in his arms. Up and down the length of her spine his hand ran, each pass it made she fell deeper against him until he could actually feel her taking some measure of comfort in the warmth his body had to offer her. “I’ll take care of you.” Daniel drew another deep toke off the joint into his lungs and shared it with her as he had before.

“Daniel!” Came Jack’s sharp voice from the other side of the door, his warning shout was followed quickly by his knuckles rapping on the door. “We’re getting off this rock. You got fifteen minutes, finish up whatever you’re doing in there and let’s go.” There was a slight pause. “Oh, and, ah there’s something out here for Calla, I think she’s gonna want it before you leave that room.”

Tossing his free hand over his eyes, Daniel gave out a small laugh. “That’s Jack, you’re gonna love him.” The last thing in heaven or hell he wanted to do right now was move...at all. It was unbeknownst to him whether it was his own heart or the weed he had smoked, but everything seemed perfect in this moment. The colors around him were crystal clear as they mingled with the warm scent of the herb and the feel of her wrapped around him. For the first time in his life, Daniel thought he would do just about anything to freeze this one moment, to capture it, live in it forever. “He has great timing.” Daniel laughed again. “He’s right, you know. We do have to go soon. Is there anything you want to bring with you?” Kissing the top of her head, he withdrew from her and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The Real World called and it was time to go.

“No.”

Daniel reached for his clothing which lay in the chair next to the bed. Looking around the room, he noticed there was no clothing for her. Daniel crossed to the door, opened it and found a long gown hanging upon the other side. “I think this is yours.” He handed over the dress as he sat down on the bed next to her. Still sitting on the bed with the blanket pulled around her breasts, she took it from his hand and slipped it over her head before tossing the blanket aside. Looking at it for the first time, really looking at what she wore, he saw the necessity and design in it. The other women of Kanan‘s court dressed in clothes so thin you could see through them. Members of the royal court touched them all the time, no one seemed to care. Calla on the other hand, wore gowns that buttoned at the top of her neck and hung past her toes. The large bat-wing sleeves covered her hands as they hung at her side. The only possible way a touch could inflict harm on her was if someone intentionally touched her face and even then there was a mass of auburn hair with which to contend.

With the dress pulled neatly tight and properly buttoned up, she turned to look at him. “Where are we going?”

Well, there was a question. Daniel was taken aback by how little she knew of him and where he had come from. Not to mention how little he knew of her. Yet there they were bound to each other anyway. “Earth. It’s very far,” not for the last time that day he trailed off in mid-sentence as he caught the look in her eye.

“Home.” All at once, it sounded like a most sacredly held desire and an admission of guilt. “We go home now? You will take me to Father now?”

“You know Earth? You know where it is?”

“Home.” She repeated. “You are American. “ She charged.

“How did you know that? “ Daniel asked in a suspect tone.

“Father sent you! He did!” She exclaimed and then cast her eyes away from him. “Why did you lie to me?” Calla’s hand lay upon the charm he had placed around her neck the night before.

“Look at me,” he waited while she gathered her strength and turned her eyes upon him. “Who is your father, Calla? “ Although she did not answer him, Daniel already knew the solution. He took the medallion that was now hanging around her neck in his hand. It would be so easy to tell her that Ares had sent him, the lie would just fall out of his mouth and it wound ring as true as any bell ever did. More than that, she would believe him. Of that he was certain. There were more...

...better...

...darker...

things that such a lie would lead to. The emerald eyes staring back at him were wide with wonder, they were ready to believe anything he wished to tell her, be it the truth or a straight-up lie. Daniel found that he had to struggle with himself to say the right words. “This is a symbol of my birth. Of the...the star I was born under.” That wasn’t exactly right but it was close enough. “It is Ares symbol, I know that, but it doesn’t make me him or a messenger of his. We came here to get our friend back and nothing more.” A bright flash of pain crossed through her eyes as Daniel bit back the next part of the thought going through his head; he hoped that she could not read it.

To say such a thing to her would be beyond cruel, he shook his head to clear it of the lingering thought. Where had such a nasty thought even come from? “How do you know about Earth and America? Did Ares bring you here?” Daniel’s hand snatched out with a mind of its own and sharply turned her head to the left and his eyes beheld nothing. “Where is it?” He turned her head to the right looking for the mark of Aphrodite that had been there last night. It too was gone. His hands reached for the buttons on her dress and for the first time he watched her flinch away from him. “Show me.” She just stood there dumbly staring at him. “Open it!” Daniel demanded.

Callas’ hands shook as she undid the buttons on her dress and exposed her breasts to her new Master. Maybe he understood the rules after all. The mark of Zeus;

“It’s gone.” Last night, even by the light of nothing stronger than the full moon and the fire which burned around the altar, those marks had been small and more importantly, they had been there. He had seen them; there had been three small tattoos, the ink of which was embedded deeply into her skin. Even if he was wrong and they had been some type of temporary marking for the ritual, something of them would remain. If nothing else, the stained outline of those marks should remain on her alabaster skin. He did not see so much as a needle mark anywhere. The hand that earlier had been soft and gentle reached out in a clawed gesture toward her bare skin.

“Master?” It was nothing more than a plea whispered to the wind. It was enough to bring him around.

There she stood with her dress pulled open for his inspection. Those wide eyes, they wanted to trust him, oh so much they wanted to trust him, almost as much as they were afraid of him. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled and turned his back on her. “Go ahead, button it up.” His ears head the soft rustle of the material, he became aware of just how quiet it had become in this room. The air was heavy between them. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.” Even to his ears, it sounded like a lie. Daniel turned around to face her. “There were marks on you last night. Ares.” He reached a gentler hand to the left side of her neck. “Aphrodite.” Now to the right side. “Zeus.” He laid an open palm between her breasts. “I’m not dreaming. I saw them.”

“Hei,” she stuttered and corrected herself, “yes. You can only see them at certain times.” She explained in a shaking voice. “Do they bother you?”

“Yes.” Now it was his turn to stammer. “I mean, no. Not like you mean it. Only at certain times. Like the ritual?”

“Yes. Only when the Gods are called or when They are near. You cannot see them any other time.”

“Who are you?”

“Calla.”

“No, who are you?”

“Daniel! Let’s go!” Jack’s thunderous voice was moving in the other direction past the door. “Damn kids!”

Yeah, Jack and his perfect timing. “Come on.” Daniel put his jacket on and opened the bedroom door. Five of the most dreaded words in her vocabulary ushered forth from his mouth. “We’ll talk about this later.”

“If it is what you wish.” She agreed without looking at him.

End Chapter Nine
Daughter of the Gods: Every New Beginning
By Lisa Beth Darling
Continue to
Chapter Ten

This story and all stories in the Daughter of the Gods series are copyrighted to Lisa Beth Darling these stories may not be transferred outside of this URL in any fashion.