She'll lead you down a path
There'll be tenderness in the air
She'll let you come just far enough
So you know she's really there
She'll look at you and smile
And her eyes will say
She's got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay a million miles away

Secret Garden
Bruce Springsteen

Calla left the doll on the floor behind her. They walked for what seemed a very long time through brightly lit hallways that had large pipes running about the sides. Different parts of the walls had been marked with paint, while the words and symbols were what she recognized as English they were in some abbreviated form that she did not understand. Some of the pipes were painted a dull dark gray while other were bright red or yellow, the latter two were all marked with what she imaged was their contents. A soldier in uniform with a sidearm at his waist walked by, in his hand he held a familiar red and white tin can. “Do they still make that?” She asked in a quiet voice as he passed by them.

“Make what?” Daniel had been to intent on walking the path he was leading her on to notice the soldier who had passed them never mind the contents of his hands. She did not answer him, instead Calla glanced back over her shoulder and, with a slender finger, pointed at the man with the hard hat bearing the letters MP on his head. He was raising the white and red can to his lips. Daniel followed her gaze. “Coke?” Her eyes lit up and she smiled without realizing she was doing so. He thought it was probably the most genuine smile he had ever seen in his life. “Yes.” He stopped their pace and glanced down at the woman by his side. “Do you want one?” The smile, that only a moment ago, he thought could not be any brighter suddenly lit up like a thousand suns. “I guess you do. There’s a machine just around the corner.”

As always, Daniel was true to his word. After they rounded the next bend, in the corner across from her stood a large machine with several large buttons. The image of a bottle of the precious caramel colored liquid was bright on the front, beads of water glistened upon the sides of the container as they gracefully made their way to a generous amount of ice at the bottom of the bottle. Calla watched as Daniel removed a leather object from his back pocket that was a wallet. She remembered that, men carried them in their pants while the women carried them in leather pouches called handbags. From the wallet he took a green piece of paper that Calla understood was money, he put it into a slot in the machine and the machine made a whirring noise not unlike the thing called an MRI had. Daniel hit one of the buttons and out popped a cold bottle just like the one on the cover of the machine. He held it out to her. “You know what this is, don’t you? You’ve had it before.”

Calla nodded excitedly as her shaking hand took the bottle from his grasp and unscrewed the top. Whhoosh. Air escaped from the bottle, little brown bubbles rose inside the liquid. She raised it to her lips and took half the contents down in three long slow gulps. “Ares can keep his nectar.” She told him with eyes that were not only wide but also seemed to glow with an inner fire. “I’ll take this any day.” She raised the bottle once again and emptied it down her slender throat. “That is so good.” The words on the bottle told her that she should look under the cap to see if she had won. Turning the round red top over in her hands the words ‘play again soon’ greeted her eyes. Calla turned the phrase over in her mind and shrugged her shoulders.

“Didn’t win, huh?”

“I guess not.” She agreed. “Daniel, do they still make chocolate?”

“Yes, they do. I think I can find a candy bar around here somewhere, would you like one?” Calla nodded. Daniel smiled gently, “One more time; would you like one?”

“Yes, please.” She held up the empty bottle and rolled her eyes toward it. Daniel didn’t say anything. She was sure that he knew what she was trying to convey but he was going to insist that she ask for it anyway. “May I have another?”

Daniel’s gentle smile grew wide and he kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, you may.” With Cokes and candy bars in hand, Daniel led them out of the installation and through the main gates of the base. Day had turned to night, he realized that he had lost all track of the time. There was a clean woolen blanket sitting in the back seat of a jeep, Daniel plucked from there without stopping and lead them further away from the base.

Taking a slow and deliberate pace, he led her up the nearest hillside. It was a short and gentle slope but still he worried whether or not she would make the climb with the wounds on her feet. Calla said nothing as they went up the hill to a place that was far enough away from the base to allow a little peace and quiet. He came up here often when he needed to think or just be away from it all. Daniel sat her down by a small circle of stones that he had assembled some years back and which now served him as a fire pit. Daniel gathered some dry grass and small sticks placed them in the circle and soon a campfire burned happily against the backdrop of the night sky.

“It’s nice here.” She said as she warmed her hands by the fire he had made.

Daniel stretched out by the fire and tried to decide if he should follow where she led him or if he should lead her where he wanted her to go. For now, he decided, he would do the following. “Yes, it is.” He tossed another branch into the flames. “I’m glad you like it. How do your feet feel, was the climb too much?” Calla did not answer his question, she just stared into the flames, Daniel understood that it was more than merely possible that she would not tell him if she were in pain. As the Cha’Dech, it was not her place to complain about such things. "I saw you heal Sam and Kanan, can't you heal yourself, Calla?"

Staring up at the stars she said; “Master must heal.”

Daniel had already taken note of the signs that she was going to pull away from him, short choppy phrases were a perfect example. If she said no more than what was absolutely necessary she felt scared, as though just one single wrong word, one solitary syllable out of place, would bring down a violent retribution. “And Kanan?” Daniel encouraged as he held her hand in his own.

A small shiver went down her spine. “Never healed wounds he laid on me.” Naganti Kanan would heal the wounds she had sustained during the normal course of her life, well if they were so deep as to require such special attention. Never did he heal the ones he laid with his own hands.

“Why?”

Calla sighed and gathered a bit of strength. “He wanted me to remember.”

“Remember what you had done and what the consequence was?” Across the growing flames, Callas’ head nodded. “I bet he did.” The image of the women laying her in Kanan’s bed after she had healed came to Daniel’s mind. The look on the drained man’s face as the women tucked her in next to him, how he had almost turned her away. The wound Sam had sustained was not life threatening but the gaping hole in Kanan’s chest certainly was. What would have been the outcome if Kanan had not allowed her to be laid next to him? “I am Master now, Calla. Can I heal you?”

“Would you?”

“Yes. Will you show me how?”

"Touch me."

Daniel rose to his knees and crawled to where she was, he took her foot in his hand and undid the laces on the black boots. Her bandaged foot slipped from inside its hold. It had swollen and blood was weeping through the gauze. With a light touch, Daniel unwrapped the bandage and let it fall to the ground. Familiar pale blue eyes stared down at her as his soft palm closed around her tender flesh. There was a tingling, which began in his head and made its way down his neck and shoulder to his arm and finally the palm that was touching her skin. As it traveled down the length of Daniel's arm it grew in intensity, his vision blurred and his ears began to ring. At about his elbow the tingling sensation evolved as blue energy began to radiate through the pores of his own skin, it meandered its way down to his fingers and finally engulfed Calla's wounded foot. The sound of her sucking in a harsh breath rose his eyes from the light to look at her, she had fallen back against the Earth, her eyes slowly closed before him. When Daniel looked back, the flesh of her foot was pink and perfect once again. Calla lay motionless on the ground as he unlaced the other boot and placed his palm over the wounds, the blue energy did its work and when he took his hand away from her flesh, it dissipated completely. She slept on the ground before him for six or seven minutes before she woke. As she rested Daniel sat under the stars, watching over her. Gradually his head began to cease its spinning and the tingling sensation became nothing more than a memory. In utter amazement, Daniel looked at his own hands and saw no sign a wound, his feet felt fine.. Healing her was not the same as when she healed another, he did not take on her wound as she did but merely made its close in it on itself. Unlike Calla who seemed to need a bit of rest now, Daniel felt energized, invigorated, by the experience

Soon her eyes were rolling open and Calla struggling a bit to raise herself onto one elbow and off the ground. As she did, a faint and hesitant smile crossed her lips. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Everything.” Her head swayed on her shoulders as the remains of his energy continued to flit around inside of her. “You took me from Naganti Kanan and brought me here. You heal me.”

“Doesn’t exactly make me a hero, Calla.” He reminded her. “I think any man would have done the same thing.”

Calla shook her head. There was one other man among them who might have done what Daniel had but it was not Colonel O’Neill. “O’Neill would have left me there.”

“No,” Daniel corrected her, “Jack probably would have thrown you over his shoulder and booked back to the Gate with you. But he would have brought you here, just as I did.” Looking into her eyes, he saw that she did not believe him. "You don't trust him at all, do you?"

Calla did not answer his question. “I will do everything I can to aid in your happiness.” She told him from across the flames. “I will not be a chain around your neck, Master Daniel. I promise. I am skilled in all of the womanly arts. I can cook, sew, keep house, if song should interest you I can play for you. There many other things in which I am skilled, Master Daniel.” Her voice dropped low. “Things that will bring you great satisfaction. What can I do for you, Master Daniel?” Callas’ tongue flicked out and licked her lips as she stared at him. After her rest, Calla too, felt very invigorated.

“To thank me?” He coaxed.

“To please you.” She invited.

Careful now, easy boy. Maybe it was time he took the lead. “You don’t have to do any of those things for me, Calla. I can take care of myself.” There was a look of great disappointment that crossed her eyes; he caught it briefly, just before she dropped her gaze from his own. “Come here and sit with me.” He held his arm out to his side and watched as she came to his call; he wrapped it around her when she settled in next to him. “You want to please me?” Callas’ head nodded against his chest as she brought her hand up to the waist of his fatigues. “Yeah,” Daniel caught her hand in his own before she could begin working the belt buckle that held his pants together. “No. New rule.” Keeping his voice light and trying to find the right words he said; “when I want you, like that, I’ll let you know, ok?” Calla did not answer him. “Other than that, don’t. Don’t go wandering around in my head either.” Still she did not answer him. Walking that Razor’s Edge, he wondered if he had not just caused her to back away from him altogether. Surely, Kanan had not rejected her in such a manner. Ever. No, Kanan had insisted on indulging himself in all of those skills and ‘womanly arts’ at every chance he got. To her mind, Calla had but one purpose, if he was not going to allow her to fulfill that purpose, what good was she to him? Daniel offered an alternative to sex. “If you want to please me, then talk to me.”

“What shall I say?”

Those eyes of hers, one look into them and he wanted to experience everything that she was and everything she had to offer him. Try as he did in his day to day life to make a difference in this world and others, at the end of the day, he still had penis swinging between his legs just like any other human male. However, like any other human male, Daniel had his own dark fantasies that he kept hidden even from himself on occasion. Something in those deep green eyes called to that side of him like a siren‘s song. It brought the threatening thoughts to the forefront of his mind, offering the chance to make them reality. All he had to do was tell her what he wanted and she would do it. No matter what it was. Her eyes were shining at him. “Tell me about you. Where were you born?”

Calla had no idea why he would be interested in such a thing especially not when she offered him so much more than mere talk. Master Daniel was new to her and her to him, in the interests of satisfying him she was willing enough to go along with whatever he desired and besides this line of talk was infinitely more pleasant than her life with Kanan. “On the Isle of Skye near the Castle Dunvegan.” Calla paused for a moment. “That’s in Scotland.”

“I know.” Daniel commented as he wrapped his other arm around her as well. Calla let out a small sigh and nestled closer to him. “When?” There was the million-dollar question.

Lying next to him now, she began to relax as she breathed in his natural scent. Her voice became light and her mind drifted away, just for a few moments, to a place in time that had been calm and serene. “On the fourth day of October in the year nineteen-hundred and sixty-six the only daughter of the Lady Aphrodite and the Lord Ares.”

1966? Had she really said 1966? If that were true then the Greek Gods could still be here on Earth somewhere. If they had no love for the Goa’uld then they could be very helpful indeed. “Is that AD?”

Calla seemed a bit surprised. “Yes, by the Gregorian Calendar. You still use that, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he agreed. 1966. That meant she was only two years older than he was.

“What year is it now?”

“It’s two thousand and four.” Daniel waited for her to say something more but she did not. “Calla, when did you leave Earth?”

Calla let out a deeper sigh and huddled as close as she could to her new Master. The memory was not pleasant but if it would be pleasing to him then she would say. “I was taken from my Mother’s house in the small hours of the morning on the thirteenth day of July in the year nineteen-hundred and seventy-nine.”

“What? “ Daniel asked in disbelief. July 12, 1979 the day his parents died. She was spirited away just a day later. Just a coincidence, said a voice from somewhere deep inside him. “Never mind.” Twenty-five years, dear God, she had spent twenty-five years of her life locked away with him. “Who took you? How did you get there?” Calla twitched beside him and Daniel smoothed his hand across her hair. “You’re safe now. Tell me.”

“Father.” The word was flat but not completely without emotion, Daniel could not tell if it was love or hate for Ares that she was trying to hide from him. “He took me to a place that was covered with snow.” Calla raised herself up on her elbow to look at him. “It was so cold, Daniel." Her body shivered and then settled again. "Father opened the Eye and took me to Naganti Kanan.”

Unable to find the Gate buried in the Egyptian sands, Daniel knew that Ares had taken his daughter to Antarctica and used the Gate they had found there some years back. Ares had willingly taken his only daughter to Tiberia and left her with Kanan. Daniel wanted to ask her why her Father had done such a thing but something in her eyes told him to hold his tongue for once and he refrained form asking his question just yet, she wasn’t ready to answer it.

"Why do you want to know all of this?" She asked him. "What is so important about my family?"

Daniel thought for a moment and then attempted to explain, "You know that blue shield that you put up over Oz? “

“Hei. “

“Can you do that whenever you want to? “

Calla took a moment to think about it before she answered, her brow creased slightly as she chose her words. “I have only done it when there was a need.“ She explained finally. “You will ask the same about my healing? “ She watched as Daniel pursed his lips and nodded. “That, also, I have only done when there was a need. Why? “

It was Daniel’s turn to choose his words carefully before speaking. “There is a race of beings called Goa’uld, “he began but was interrupted.

"Is that what you think?” Calla hissed in shock, she sat up quickly and stared at him with widened eyes. “That I've a serpent in my head? You think my Father and Mother were Goa'uld?"

“No, I don’t think that. “ Again, Daniel stopped to choose his words. Calla knew what a Goa’uld was, just has she had known that Teal’c was Jaffa. His unintended innuendo insulted her and he did not think it wise to tell her that Dr. Frazer had already checked to see whether she had had a serpent in her head. In a soft voice, he attempted once again to explain, “Well, Cronos was the father of Zeus, right? “

“No! Cronos is a pig! “Calla spat with disgust.

“Well, from mythology we know..."

"Nothing," she hissed as her eyes narrowed upon him. "My Grandfather…”

“Zeus?”

Calla shot him a look as if to say ‘who else’? and then continued on “banished Cronos to the Pits and away from the Mortals He loved so much. Long ago, Grandfather helped to save your race. My family is not of their kind."

“Calla,” he waited while she turned to look at him, “the Goa’uld threatens Earth now, and we need allies. If Zeus helped to save my race, do you think...your family...would help us to defeat the Goa’uld? “

"They had no love of the serpent Gods. If the Goa’uld ever come here again, you will not have to ask for my family’s assistance." What did any of this have to do with why she was here with him? Silently she stopped to remind herself that he was completely unaware of their prior meeting. While her mind told her that this was a good thing, sitting there with him under the light of the full moon, her heart ached for him to remember. He did not and she moved further away from him.

There was something in her eyes that Daniel thought even she was unaware of, something sadly shimmering back there in the emerald depths. Both his heart and mind told him that he should not ask his next question but it was so very important. “Where can I find them, your family?” That sad shimmering something seemed to cringe away from both of them, he watched it flee from her eyes back into the darkness of her mind.

So, maybe there was a method to Master Daniel’s madness after all, Calla thought as she turned away from him yet again and stared up at the stars above. Orion was still drawing back his bow, Ares’ ram still raced across the night sky and the Scales of Libra still hung in the balance overhead. The idea of seeing Father again filled her with hope and panic. He would not be pleased to see her, no, not at all. Lord Ares was not a man that one angered lightly. “If I took you there, would it please you?” Still her eyes focused on the stars and not on Daniel.

“It would.”

Calla smiled a hauntingly sad smile as her eyes drew upon him. “Then I will take you. When shall we go?”

“I don’t know. Soon.” For a brief moment, he thought that she would be better off with the Boys in the Lab. “It’s cold, come and sit by the fire with me.” Still she sat where she was just staring at him, unsure of what to do next. Walking along the knife blade, mindful of where he stepped, “It would please me if you would come and sit by the fire with me, Calla.” Daniel kept his voice firm but soothing and his eyes non-threatening.

Calla rose to her feet and submitted to his wish that she sit with him. The fire he had made was warm and inviting she watched as he tossed another bit of wood into the flames and held his arm out so that she could rest by his side. Daniel watched as she reached to hike up a gown that she was not wearing and looked down at herself and the military clothes that overwhelmed her small frame. She nestled in beside him.

“Not too much makes a lot of sense right now, does it?” He asked her.

“Not too much, Master Daniel.”

“Hmm. What did I say about that?” He asked in gentle voice as he ran an open palm down the length of her hair, he had let her get away with that too many times this evening already. It was starting to put ideas into his head, dark ideas.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right, you’ll get used to it. Just Daniel.” He reached out for her hand and took her fingertips inside of his palm. Daniel had asked a question of her earlier today and to his mind had not received a satisfactory answer he thought he would ask again. Not just yet, though, he wanted to work up to it first. “What does Sa’Tan mean?”

A grimace crossed her brow as she gazed on his face. “Guardian?” Calla shook her head. “Protector?” Again, she shook her fiery locks. The lines in her brow eased as the answer came to her. “Avatar.” She proclaimed. “Sa’Tan is Avatar. Yes, that’s it.”

Her answer turned itself over in his mind as he replayed that part of last nights’ ritual.

I am Sa’Tan. I give you all that you need. Mine is the only hand. Mine is the only voice. I will defend you with my life. I am Daniel, I am Sa’Tan

“Was Kanan Sa’Tan?”

“Co.”

“Am I Sa’Tan?”

“Sa’Tan Daniel.”

“Sa’Tai Callestah.” Daniel returned without thinking and watched her smile. Something inside his mind let out an audible clicking sound. Not Kelly. Not Calla.

Callestah was her full name; he knew that just as surely as he knew that he was Dr. Daniel Jackson. Why had it taken him so long to bring that thought to the fore?

“Calla, do I know you? “

Wishing to say that he did but feeling it better to fib a bit she answered him. “Co.“ It was still the truth, at least partially. Daniel did not know her, who she was, what she was, although he was coming to find out about it. Whatever it was that he might be remembering, it was too long ago and too far away. “Why ask this? “

Depending on his answer to her question, perhaps she would change her mind about the answer she had given him.

“I don’t know. “ Daniel admitted softly. “There’s just something familiar about you, I guess. “ It wasn’t anything about her or the way she had told him no, but Daniel had the distinct feeling that she was lying to him, though he hadn’t the faintest idea of why. “Who was your master before Kanan?”

Calla looked away from him and those lines returned to her brow. “There was no Master before Kanan.”

“Who will be your master after me?”

The lines creased further. “There will be no Master after you.”

Nin aswanz, gin aswanz.

“Why not? If something happens to me....” Daniel’s voice trailed off as his thoughts turned to the Gate and how many times he put his life in danger just for the sake of going off on an adventure. Would he have to stop going to other worlds now? Putting his own life on the line was one thing, putting hers on it was quite another. “Can’t I give you someone like Kanan did?” His eyes did not meet hers as he asked the question, he was afraid of what he would see there. Her breath drew in quickly and she tried to pull her hand away from his. Stay with me. Daniel had no idea why that was the message he kept sending her but it seemed right, more than that, it seemed to work. Each time he thought it; she stopped in her tracks and moved no further away from him. Sometimes she even moved a little closer.

Confusion set into her mind once again, didn’t he want her? Now that he had claimed her, would he turn her aside? Everything was so different now and she found herself second-guessing her own judgment, maybe she should not have pushed Naganti Kanan into letting her go. Maybe she should have stayed with him in his Keep and his bed. “Co. I can not drink from the cup again.” Master Daniel was rejecting her. He had taken her from Kanan, had even submitted to the ritual of bonding and he had brought here to Earth. Brought her home. Now he wanted to hand her off to some other Master? This she did not desire. Above everything, she wanted to stay with Daniel, even if he never remembered her. Calla turned to him and stared deeply into those hauntingly familiar eyes, they pulled at her heart and offered to fill her soul. But in this moment she would have preferred to be back on Tiberia with Naganti Kanan, at least there she always knew what to do or what to say. She always knew where she stood or lay. Why would his mind bid her stay while his words told her that she was unwanted? What kind of game was Master Daniel playing with her head? Her heart? She didn't know, but she knew that she would rather face the anger in Naganti Kanan‘s eyes than the emptiness in Master Daniel‘s. “You don’t want me.”

“I didn’t say that.” Daniel said in a tone that he hoped was reassuring.

“You did.” Calla countered. “Twice now you have said this.” Calla reached out, put her slender fingertips beneath his chin, and turned his face to look at her. “Why? What have I done? Tell me and I will make amends.”

That siren song echoed in his head once again. Yes, she would make amends all right. “You’ve done nothing wrong.” The hardness between his legs that had gone to sleep when she had begun to cry now returned to him vigorously. Staring into those eyes, he realized just how easy it would be to tell her that she had done something wrong, that she had displeased him in some way.

Then Daniel could just bend her over the log that his back now rested upon, put her ass up in the air... and....

“What? Tell me. I see it in your eyes.” Callas’ free hand moved to touch the hard part of him. “I will please you, if you let me. I am very skilled, I can do many things that you will find satisfying.”

Although he should have, he did not stop her from gently massaging the part of him that ached to be inside of her again. Cha'Dech, King’s Whore. Daniel did not doubt that he would find her most satisfying. He already had, hadn’t he? She had hardly been awake for the event. While one of her hands held his eyes firmly a fixed to her own, the one working his lower half now deftly undid the buckle of his belt and began to work on the button and zipper. The dark fantasies swirled around his mind. Maybe just for a moment, it wouldn’t be so bad... would it?... just for a moment,...if he let her, if he let her.

Calla had reached her goal and her head now descended toward it.

Her breath was hot upon his stiffness. He could feel the heat of her lips, the moistness inside her mouth that waited for him.

Daniel found his hands were in her hair, slowly pushing her toward where she wanted to go. “Calla, don’t.” His voice was weak but his protest was heartfelt. She stopped where she was, her head at his waist and his hard cock in her hand, her emerald eyes peeked out at him from behind a mass of auburn hair. “What did I tell you about that?“ Strength began to return to him, Daniel raised himself off the ground, zipped up his pants and tossed a few handfuls of dirt onto the burning fire. “It’s late, it’s time to go back.” His voice was gruff as he tried to hold the thoughts in his head at bay. Daniel took her by the hand and led her back down the hillside.

Once back inside the base, Daniel led her through the maze of hallways to his quarters and was quite surprised upon opening the door. There in the middle of his room was a queen-sized bed complete with pillows, sheets and blankets. It had a metal frame and wooden head and footboards.

“Like it?” The voice asked from behind him. Jack. It had to have been Jack. Daniel turned to look at him. “After you got the Gate goin’ again the other day, I had it expedited for you.” He looked past Daniel to Calla. “I didn’t know you’d be sharing it so soon, glad I got the big one.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Yeah, well, I was gonna stick you with a twin but...well....”

“Thanks.” Daniel motioned for Calla to enter the room. He wondered if Jack would never stop surprising him. “Going home?”

“Yeah, see ya in the morning.” Once again, Jack looked past Daniel to the woman who was now accompanying him. “Night Calla.” She turned her head to look at him and give him a slight smile. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Jack said cheerily to Daniel.

“Kind of leaves the field a little open, doesn’t it?”

“That’s my boy.” Jack tussled the hair on Daniel’s head, waved at Calla once more and then made his way down the corridor toward home.

Daniel walked inside and shut the door. “I know it’s not much and it’s a mess.” He began to pick up paperwork that strewn across the room. “But it’s home.”

“You live here?”

“Yes. We live here.” He corrected and watched as she looked around the small room. It was very different from Kanan’s palace but she would get used to it.

Calla's eyes scanned the small room where she was to spend her days. Two things caught her attention, the first was the black and white photograph of Master Daniel's wife, Sha're on the nightstand by the bed. The other was the fact that there was something missing from this room. “Where is the fire?” The woman in the photograph was very beautiful and Calla understood how and why he had loved her, why he continued to keep her in his heart.

“No fire.” Always will you sleep by my fire. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the words he had spoken during the ceremony. He turned around to see her looking at the photograph and noticed that she was back to using short choppy phrases to speak to him in. It made a little more sense to him, those short phrases and the child-like voice and appearance she sometimes had. Part of her would always be a frightened 12 year-old girl who was being taken to a far away land as punishment by the one man who was supposed to love and care for her above all others; her Father. Though she tried to hide that little girl from him and probably even from herself it simply was not possible to do all the time.

Callas’ brow furrowed and she let out a small sigh. “Daniel?”

“Yes?” He waited for her to say something about the picture.

“Dirty.” She shook her head and held her hands out to him.

“Hmmm.” He took her hands in his, “I see that. Come with me.” Daniel led her into the small bathroom and to the shower there. “Here, you can wash up, ok?” Calla stared at the contraption until Daniel showed her how to work it.

“Hot!” She cried and pulled her hands away from the running water.

“Sorry, I’ll fix it.” He turned up the cold water to balance it out. “Better?”

“Hei, kumatae.”

“You’re welcome. You shower, here’s a towel and you can use my robe.” He pointed to the large dark blue terry-cloth robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door. “I’ve got some work to do, I’ll be right there.” He pointed to the larger room on the other side of the bathroom door as he left her to her shower.

Daniel let out a large breath and shook his head while he tossed his glasses onto his desk. Daniel ran his hand across his eyes then down his face wondering what kind of mess he had gotten himself into this time. Jack was right, he had no fucking clue what he was going to with Calla only that she was here and it didn’t look like she was going anywhere for the foreseeable future. The faint sounds of music came from the bathroom, Daniel realized she had learned how to work the radio that he kept there. It did not pick up many radio stations, not this far under ground, mostly he used to play audio books or CDs while he showered or shaved. However, it didn’t seem to be having any problem picking up good stations now, he put his ear to the door and heard the sound of running water and Pink Floyd crooning about how he had become Comfortably Numb.

The water and the music shut off and she emerged from the doorway, her hair wet and tangled her skin freshly pink from the heat of the water. Her body encased in his robe. He smiled and shook his head; he really was going to have to get her some clothes. Then again, maybe it would better if he didn’t. “Come here.” Daniel straightened the collar, re-tied the knot at her slim waist, and retrieved his hairbrush from the bathroom. The bristles on the brush were for a military haircut like his own, they were too soft to tame the tangled mass of hair on her head. There was something else he would have to get for her.

“Sleep now?” She asked for the second time, her eyes were heavy.

Daniel looked at it watch, it was almost 11pm. “Yes, you can sleep now.” He agreed and led her toward the bed. With great effort, Calla began to lay herself down on the floor between his bed and nightstand. “What are you doing?”

“You said, sleep now.” Her brow furrowed once again.

“Not there.” He picked her up off the floor. “You sleep here.” Daniel turned back the blankets on the bed. Calla made no move to get into the bed she only stared at him. Daniel bit back the urge to be angry, it wasn’t her he was angry with it was Kanan and the situation he was currently in. “Kanan isn’t here anymore, remember?”

“Yes.”

“You do what I say now, right?” He coached.

“Yes.”

“I say, you sleep in the bed and not on the floor.” She opened her mouth to protest and he raised a hand to silence her. “In the bed.” He repeated. Daniel tucked her in under the covers. “Tomorrow, if you want, I’ll see about getting you your own quarters, would you like that?”

Calla’s sleepy eyes stared up at him while her hand searched for his; she shook her head against the pillow without saying a word.

“How about your own bed? You don’t have to sleep with me if you don’t want to, but I don’t want you on the floor.”

Her hand held tighter to his and she shook her head again. With her sleepy eyes staring up at him, Daniel asked the question which had been on his mind earlier in the evening. “And the ritual? You remember it all, don’t you, Calla?”

“Hei, I remember.” She admitted softly. “I remember everything.” As with just about everything she said, her words held a deeper meaning than the seven syllables she had spoken. Daniel kissed her forehead and withdrew from her.

“Why did you lie to me? “

“I saw it in your mind. The memory does not please you. You fear that you…” Calla cut her own words off as she searched for an alternative word.

Daniel interrupted her before she could find the word she was looking for. “That I did what? That I…” he led.

Her ears did not miss the anger in his voice. “That you….took…” she stammered.

“Took? No, I don’t think that’s the word we’re looking for.” Daniel found that his open palms had clenched into fists and he and the hardness between his legs had returned. “Tell me, did I....”

It was Calla‘s turn to cut him off before he could say the word. “Co, I will not such a wicked word to express what you did,” Calla shook her head and plodded forward. “You feared that you... took...” she emphasized the word as she paused on it, “something which was not yours for the taking, but it was.” Gathering more courage than she ever would have with Naganti Kanan, Calla reached out and grabbed his upper arm. “It is. Daniel is Master now and it is not possible for you to be guilty of that which you fear. Master can never be guilty of such a deed, no matter what." She looked up at him, her eyes heavy with tears and the wants of sleep she look up at him.

"Not even in my heart?" Daniel wondered aloud. If the master can never be guilty of such a deed, how could she possibly tell him ’yes’?

"You sang to me." Calla whispered in a tone which was both demur and strong.

"I did." Daniel agreed and brought the blankets tighter around her.

"To your mind, Master Daniel, does a man who..." she stopped and looked away from him, "...rapes..." Calla flinched as the words escaped her lips but she continued, "often lull his victim with song?"

"No."

"There is the answer to your question. Your mind was lost and confused, you were displeased with what you had done….I did not want to add to that. If you thought I did not remember then maybe your mind would ease and you would not be so displeased with me.”

“I'm not displeased with you." Daniel brushed the hair away from her face. "But, listen to me, I get to decide what pleases me and what doesn’t, not you.” Though his words were stern, his voice was light. “You just tell me the truth and let me decide from there.” Calla nodded her agreement to him. “OK, I’m going to stay up for a while, I have work to do. I’ll be quite so you can sleep.”

"Master Daniel?" Her voice, like her eyes, was heavy with sleep.

"What?"

"Are we far from New York?" Calla turned on her side so that she could look at him.

Daniel thought about it for a moment. "Yes, we are. Why?"

"I should like to see the Statue of Liberty." Her eyelids opened and closed, each time they closed further and stayed longer. "I hear she is very beautiful."

He kissed the top of her forehead and brought the covers around her chin. "She is." Daniel assured her. "Maybe one day I'll take you there. Tell me one thing before you go to sleep?"

“Yes.”

“Why did Ares take you to Kanan?”

Calla turned on her side, away from him, wrapped her own arms protectively around herself she whispered, “I did a bad bad thing.” Tears filled her quaking voice as a shiver went through her.

Daniel reached out for her she pulled away from him. “You weren’t even thirteen yet. What could you possibly have done that was so bad?” If she would not come to him, he would go to her. Daniel sat on the edge of the bed and reached out slowly for her once more, watching, waiting for her to dart away from him but she did not. “Tell me.”

“I ...” breath hitched in her chest as she started to cry. “I ...I did...” Still, after all these years, she could not say the words. Calla could not admit to her bloody deed. A violent shake racked her body and her weeping quickly became a harsh sound that seemed to arise from the depths of the Earth. She turned back towards him and wrapped her slight arms around Daniel’s neck. Calla held on in a death grip as she continued to try to speak the words. “I did...I did not.” Calla wrenched away from him once again and stared into the eyes that she thought so kind. “I swear, Master Daniel, I swear.” Calla held her hands out to him. “Please believe me, Master Daniel, I did not.”

In that moment, he would have given her anything. “I believe you.” She willingly allowed him to sweep her up in his arms and hold her close. “I believe you. Shhh, it’s all right, Calla.” He whispered and rocked her back and forth in his arms, smoothing her hair as he offered her comfort. Daniel had no idea what horrible crime, what bad bad thing, she had done or been accused of. Only that whatever it was, she was not guilty. Ares had sent her to Kanan as a punishment for something. Whatever it was, whether she had done the deed or not, she had paid for it a hundred times over at the hands of her old Master. She would not keep paying for it at his hands.

“He said he would come back for me. Father promised.”

Daniel could feel her trying to get her own emotions under control and command her tears to stop falling. “And he never did. That’s who you thought I was, isn’t it? A messenger of Ares sent to collect you and bring you back to him.”

“Yes,” she admitted as she began to pull away from him again. “I thought he had forgiven me, but he never will.”

“I don’t know what you did or didn’t do, you don’t have to tell me right now, that’s ok. He never should have left you there, never should have taken you there.”

“He is Father. He does what he wishes.” Calla wiped the last of her tears from her cheeks and tossed her matted hair back over her shoulder. She closed her mind to her past and shoved the thoughts away. “It doesn’t matter, Master Daniel.”

“Of course it does.” He held up a hand to stop her from speaking again. “I’m sorry I upset you. We don’t have to talk about this any more right now. I want you to sleep now, ok? Everything’s all right.” He stroked her cheek and brushed the hair away from her face. “No one’s going to hurt you here.”

End Chapter Twelve
Daughter of the Gods: Every New Beginning
By Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Thirteen

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