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Barters N Garters Library
Thy Brother's Wife
Parts 1 & 2 Combined
by
Moon Mistress
a/k/a
Lisa Beth Darling

Now every one of us is made to suffer
Every one of us is made to weep
But we've been hurting one another
And now the pain has cut too deep . . .
So take me from the wreckage
Save me from the blast
Lift me up and take me back
Don't let me keep on walking . . . don't let me keep on walking
I can't keep on walking on, keep on walking on, keep on
Walking on broken glass
Walking On Broken Glass
Annie Lennox

Chapter Four

The storm was picking up and the drive, while not far, would take a long time with the roads icing over. Daniel decided to follow his hunch while traveling the astral to UCSP. She’d gone some place where she felt safe and comfortable. Not the old house, not to Ares who had betrayed her just as much as the rest of them, probably even more so in her eyes. No, she didn’t go to Duncan MacLeod—whom she probably thought was in on this whole mess but wasn’t. She’d come here to her classroom, Daniel was sure of it. That was why she told the kids to be here bright and early in the morning….so they could see her and know that she was all right. Calla felt comfortable here in her classroom, it had her tools and her paintings and well, it was just full of things which were familiar and thereby comforting to her.

At first it was very dark and he couldn’t see much of anything. Night fell quickly in the winter but there was some light coming in through the windows and once his eyes adjusted to the dim surroundings Daniel saw a shadow sitting at the desk. There was a strange smell in the air, not pot. A chemical smell. Paint thinner maybe.

Maybe not.

“Calla?”

“Go home, Daniel.”

“That’s what I want you to do, why don’t you come home with me?” He asked as he neared her. The strange chemical smell grew stronger and beneath the smell of smoke as if someone just extinguished a candle. “I know things are a real mess right now….I know and I’m sorry. You have to understand I never meant to do this but…”

“Brigid is your daughter and you want to be her father and you have every right to do that.” Her voice was faded and distant she didn’t look up at him in the darkness. “I know it’s a perfectly logical argument and one that you’ve made already.”

“It doesn’t stop you from hurting though does it?” Daniel wanted to touch her, he wanted to hold and soothe her. Most of all he just wanted to make sure she knew that he never intended for any of this to happen. Calla was so far away, not physically, no, physically he could reach out and grab her if he wanted but right now that would only cause her to pull further away from him. That was the last thing he wanted.

For the last few hours Calla sat here alone in the dark drinking Jack Daniels and having an old fashioned crying-jag. Everyone lied to her, and it wasn’t just today, it was always. It was as though no one trusted her to run her own life, least of all her Husband and her Father. Sitting here in her empty classroom she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so alone, unwanted and untrustworthy.

Then again, perhaps it served her right. After all, she’d kept her own dark secrets from her children, her Father and her Husband for years. Maybe this was Karma’s way of paying her back for trying in vain to protect them. If so, then Karma had one hell of a sense of humor!

In the face of all that, what else was there to do but to drink and make whatever attempts necessary to ease her aching heart? The sawed off tin-can and spoon inside told the story but Daniel had yet to see it. “I just want to know how many more you’re going to bring home, my Husband. Just so I can be prepared, you know. Just so I know.”

“How many….what? I don’t understand.”

“How many more children do you have? I mean you spent all that time in Bacchus’ Kingdom fucking his women don’t you suppose that at least one of them gave birth to a child of yours? Perhaps Rowan, oh excuse me, perhaps Psyche also gave birth to a child of yours. I suppose you’ll be wanting to find out and then bring….however many you find….back home for me to rear?” She raised a paper cup to her lips and took a long drink of the lukewarm coffee she bought at the donut shop. “Isn’t that right? Oh no, wait, perhaps it’s not right after all. There is something you should know.”

“What’s that?” He asked and sat down in a chair in near her desk.

“Callestah will not go for it. Although she believes as both you and I do, that a man should have many lovers and many children, that only applies to Olympians as far as Callestah is concerned. She will not tolerate your little bastards around her, though if she favors you strongly enough I suppose she’ll allow you to keep some of them, she’ll use them as lovers and attendants when they’re old enough. You don’t mind, do you? After all, your sons will have the distinction of being Consorts to Goddess. Not bad for mere mortals, wouldn’t you say?” In the darkness she winked at him. Daniel heard it in her voice more than he saw it but he knew she’d done it.

“What are you talking about?” Daniel asked and outside the clouds parted and the full moon shone down upon fields of white snow. The glare turned night almost as bright as dawn. On the desk in front of her was a spoon, half a tin can, an extinguished candle and syringe within.

In the new light she watched him frown at the sight of the tools on her desk. “Sorry but I just needed a little something.” She offered weakly. “Soon you won’t have to put up with this so, chin up, Daniel. It’s almost over.”

“What’s almost over, Kitty? Our marriage? That’s been on the rocks for a while now, hasn’t it?” The last thing Daniel wanted or needed was to go through this mess again. Taking off his glasses he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to ward off the oncoming headache and stay focused.

“Go home, Daniel, take care of your new daughter, she needs you.”

“And you don’t?”

“Nope, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” He cracked nastily. “You’re going a bang-up job of that!” She sounded like she was off in the stratosphere somewhere. “Where did you find the smack, Calla? Who sold it to you?”

“I know, UCSP is a very small school with a very small campus and, indeed,” she sniffed back a load of snot and scratched at her upper arms, “I’m a woman with a very small job, fancy title though….”

“I never said anything like that. You have a very prestigious job, Kitty, you earned it and I’m very proud of you.”

Kitty just waved her hand dismissively in the air and forged ahead. “UCSP is a microcosm really. War is good business, Father always said that.” She let out a little titter. “Seems he was right. People everywhere are wanting to numb it down a little bit and the drug business is skyrocketing! This campus isn’t any different from any other, you can get whatever you want whenever you want it if you know where to look. Do I disappoint you, my Husband?”

Before he could bite it back; “Yes very much.”

“Good and in that case we’re even.”

“Look, I don’t want you to stay here by yourself.” Obviously that was not the best idea in the world. “Come home and I’ll leave, all right? I’ll find a place for Brigid and me, you don’t have to leave your home, ok? I will.” She didn’t answer him she just sat there staring at him blankly. “If what you want is some space, listen, Nick and Annie are moving out this week. Colleen will take the basement with Lilly, there’s a separate entrance down there, a bathroom and a kitchen. You won’t even know they’re there. I’ll leave the house but I want you to stay in our home and you’ll still have space and time to think and I won’t be in the way.” Mostly Daniel simply didn’t want her left alone for an extended period of time and since she didn’t want him around then this way she’d have Colleen and Calla wouldn’t have to be strained with the added burden of caring for a new infant.

Sitting there with the fresh moonlight shining through the window Calla let the idea seep into her brain and then sink in her the rest of her. Daniel had come up with a truly new and interesting idea, certainly it was one she’d never thought of. She was always the one doing the leaving. Well, no, not really, it wasn’t like she normally willingly left more like she was the one who was always sent away to somewhere else when there was no further use for her. As was about to happen again in the very near future. “Where will you go?”

“Why do you care?” Daniel snapped then pulled himself back. The idea that she might still give a shit was a good thing and he shouldn’t chide her for it. “I’ll get a hotel room and then I’ll find an apartment for Brigid and me.” Daniel reasoned in a calm voice. “I know this is a lot for you to take,” yeah well there was an understatement. It wasn’t just A LOT it was FAR TOO FUCKING MUCH for her to take as evidenced by the accoutrements on the table. What the hell was I even thinking to begin with? Calla just lost our son! Bringing the baby home was totally insensitive and completely stupid on his part. He should have known better. It was clear that she was angry about so many things and her anger was justified. What he couldn’t stand was being the cause of that anger and the self-destructive way she chose to deal with it. “I’m not going back to Bacchus’ Kingdom to search for…” up until this very moment the thought never crossed his mind but clearly Calla had been thinking about it at length. “To find offspring I don’t even know that I have.” Should I go? I dunno. No. Forget about it. “I’m not going to bring any of those women here. If Psyche did get….” Oh God of Gods please, if you’ve any kindness at all, forbid this! “Pregnant by me she would have rubbed it in your face….”

“Oh, yes, you know something? You’re quite right. She would have thrown it in my face just as she did your affair.” Calla raised the bottle in a toast and took a long swallow. As though she hadn’t said anything and neither had Daniel, she continued. “That’s good because Callestah won’t allow that either. Though she may have many lovers—in deed dozens, hundreds possibly more—she must be your only lover, Daniel, she will be very strict about that. One little unapproved slip and,” she raised her hand, held her thumb and index finger out and made a cutting motion. “Snip snip, I’m afraid. Very unforgiving. She will not be as patient with you as I have been.” Calla warned. “That is of course provided she wants you around, which I’m fairly certain she does. Father, he’s another matter and one which will have to be dealt with.”

That didn’t sound like a lot of fun to him. Daniel couldn’t take it anymore, it was wrong, it was selfish but he couldn’t help it. “It’s not my fault!” He yelled as he rose to his feet. “Bacchus, his women, Enya, Brigid, none of it! It’s not my fault!”

Calla seemed completely unphased by his little demonstration, she didn’t so much as blink. “Oh, no,” she cooed. “Of course it isn’t, Daniel. Nothing is ever your fault. I know…you’re perfect, I’m the fuck up.” As though she were offering him proof of her statement Calla motioned toward the illicit items on the desk.

There was that razor sharp tongue of hers and the biting sarcasm it offered him. The damndest thing about junkies was they always appeared so normal, indeed even brazen and ballsy when they were strung out. If you didn’t catch them just when or just after they booted up or when they were crashing you’d think them perfectly normal just slightly off. Daniel kept his cool and reminded himself that she was high as kite right now. “I didn’t say that.”

“Of course you did.” Her tone was growing more distant, more casual and worst of all more dismissive. “Go home now Doctor Jackson, your daughter needs you.”

That was the second time she’d said that and it was the second time he was going to say this. “And you don’t need me? I think you do and I’m not leaving here without you, Kitty. If I have to throw you over my shoulder and drag you home, you’re coming with me.”

“Why?” She asked and took her feet down from the desk top. “I think it’s time I lived on my own, Daniel, don’t you? I did all right for many months when we all thought you were dead. The children are older now, they don’t need their Mother around all the time. I have money, I can support myself now, you don’t have to do it any longer. Doesn’t that make you happy and fill you with joy to know that you’re free and that you don’t have to keep guard over the crazy woman any more?”

“You’re not crazy and no it doesn’t fill me with joy.” He moved from the student’s desk to hers and sat on the edge. “I love you, Kitty, Calla, Callestah, whoever you are and I love all of you. If I lost you, it would be greatest tragedy of my life, don’t you know that?” She sat there silently defiant but now they were getting somewhere. Maybe Davy was onto something when he plied her with the booze and pot, God knew Daniel had done that enough times over the years. “You blame me for Brigid, for Enya and all those women in Bacchus’ kingdom? Not to mention leaving you while you were pregnant with my children?”

“No, of course not, we’ve already said those things weren’t your fault.”

She was just playing with him, Deep down she did blame him for those things and even he didn’t purposefully set out to do them they still happened and she was still caught in the crossfire. “So, what was my fault, Kitty? What did I do that was so horrible you want to leave me? If it wasn’t any of those things then what is it? The dream?” Once again he wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault, that a man could not be held accountable for the images his sleeping mind came up with but maybe that wasn’t true. He had been livid with her last night, he could have choked her with his own bare hands when he found out she’d gone to David. It wasn’t the fact that she’d turn to another man for solace it was WHO she turned to. My God! What was she thinking? She just walked right into the spider’s trap and didn’t think twice. After plying her with the booze and pot Davy could have done anything to her. That was what Daniel was most angry about, the fact that she didn’t give a damn enough about herself that she’d risk walking into harm’s way for no good reason.

“It’s your head, Daniel, if you are not responsible for the images in it, who is?” She said and opened the bottom drawer to remove a small glass. “Want some?” Calla poured herself a drink of Jack & Danny and knocked it down. It was more lady-like to use the glass than sucking it out of the bottle.

Sounded good to him. “Why not?” Daniel asked. “As long as you’re breaking your promises to me I might as well join you.”

“Yes, quite right.” Calla poured a full shot and handed it to him. “Skol.”

“Skol.” Daniel returned and downed the shot. It burned all the way down to his toes. “Good stuff.” He wiped the remainder of the booze away from his lips with the back of his hand.

“Your brother is partial to Jim Beam, that’s not my favorite brand.” She complained. “You really do believe that I owe you more for Andy and Ares, don’t you? But you don’t owe me anything for Rowan.”

Rowan, there she was again. So many years that bitch had been in between them.

David talked about Rowan…Psyche….oh God, who the hell ever she was!.... briefly this afternoon and how Calla wanted Davy to take the hit for Daniel’s affair with her and how he, David, refused. Maybe Davy was right. “OK, Rowan was my fault. That was all me, Calla. It was years ago, honey, years.” Calla was refilling the shot glass. Maybe if he let her keep drinking she’d pass out like she did last night and he could just take her home, let her sleep it off and they’d deal with it in the morning. Sitting on her desk with her in the chair, Daniel watched her drop the shot and put the glass back on the desktop. She didn’t even make a face as it went down. “It was an incredibly stupid mistake. If I had known who she was Calla I never would have gone near her, I swear. I never wanted to hurt you. Please, you can’t still be angry with me after all this time.”

“Just trying to decide what is and isn’t your fault, my Husband.” She said in an aloof voice and pushed a fresh shot in his direction just looking at it made his stomach turn.

Fine, one more. Daniel picked it up and downed it as he saw her do. He wanted to jump off the desk and yell at how awful the alcohol was! How much it burned his throat! Instead it was him who made a funny face and once more wiped the excess away with the back of his hand. “That is where it all started, isn’t it?” Daniel put the glass down on the table and looked around for something to clear his throat of the harsh burning taste.

“Where what started?”

“All our troubles.”

She sighed while absently running her fingers along the half empty bottle of Jack & Danny.

Daniel figured the night before with Davy must have helped raise her resistance. He’d never want to go up against her in a drinking contest but….and it was only for a second the thought went through his head…..there could be a lot of money to be made there! No one would ever suspect she could hold so much liquor. He smiled if only to himself.

“Maybe it was before that.” She remarked to no one. “Maybe our troubles began…..”

Kitty’s drunken voice trailed off there and he had to prod her. “Where Kitty? Where do you think they began?” Daniel didn’t need to hear an answer to that question because he already knew the answer. Everything about the first night they spent snowed-in in that log cabin at Christmas was burned into his memory and he would never forget it no matter how hard he tried or how much he wished it away. They’d gone over this on that fateful night and on another night some years later but now the problem was back. Well, he reminded himself, it never went away it just got buried and pushed aside as things are apt to do when there jobs to be done, children to raise and worlds to explore. With dread in his heart and a clear image of the basement room at 1313 Mockingbird Lane dancing beneath his eye lids, Daniel waited for it and sure enough it came.

“I really did think you were David.” She said in a rushed whisper. “I never would have done that to you.”

“Is that it, Kitty? Is that what you think is my fault? You think I was trying to trick you into thinking that I was Davy?”

“Were you?” She mumbled. “Everyone does it, I am feeble and my mind is weak.”

“No you’re not and no I would never try and trick you, you’re my Wife, I love you.” He whispered in a strong voice and realized some part of her was actually hoping he said yes. Then he’d be just like everyone else; David, tricked her, Eros tricked her several times, while he couldn’t say Ares had done the same, what her Father had done was just as bad. “We’ve been over this, none of that was your doing.”

“Of course it was!” She said a defiant tone but did not raise her voice. “I should have known it was you…my own husband! I should have seen through the illusion but I didn’t because I am stupid and weak and you suffered for it.”

“It wasn’t exactly horrible, ya know?” Daniel reached out for her free hand and to his delight she let him take it. “You fed me three very good meals a day. You bathed me. You kept me company, gave me music and a little TV, huh?” He asked and brushed the hair away from her furrowed brow with his other hand and looked down into those hazy stoned eyes. “It’s not like you beat me, Cal or starved me or anything like that.”

“Let’s not forget that I fucked you and sucked you off several times. How nice of me.” She said sarcastically. “I tried to give you the chance to get even.”

“You did and I took it and that was my fault.” He reminded her and felt ill. “Honey, it’s all over, it’s been over for years. I forgave you and you forgave me, remember?” Maybe she didn’t remember or maybe there was something about Recent Events which forced her to look at that old scar and that was what was pushing her closer to the edge. Maybe what Enya did was just too damn close to what Calla had done and now she was feeling guilty all over again. “I love you.” Daniel said again. “I never wanted Enya, not for a single second and you know that. I told you a hundred times how much she freaked me out because she looked so much like you, didn’t I? How much it disgusted me that Ares would purposefully go out and find a woman who looked like you.” Calla thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “I always wanted you even when we both thought that I was David. What you did and what Enya did…they aren’t the same.”

“They’re not?” She asked no one and from the look on her face Daniel knew she was trying very hard to comprehend that fact and maybe she was falling a little short but she stopped caressing the bottle of Jack & Danny and laid that hand over his. “Why?”

“Because, you needed me and she didn’t. Because I love you then, now and always. No matter how much I love Brigid I will never love her mother and I will always hate what Enya did.”

In the dim light of the moon Calla looked up at him with wet eyes. “You swear you didn’t wake.”

Now they were getting down to it, soon this little episode would be over but not before hitting a few more bumps and valleys. “I swear on our children’s lives; I did not wake up for her. I didn’t know what she was doing. If I did I would have stopped her, I would have come to you and stopped Ares. I didn’t set out to seduce Enya or get her pregnant. I’d do anything to have our son back, I know this is incredibly cruel to you and I’d do anything to take it all back but I can’t, honey, I just can’t.” He held his breath waiting for her tell him that she believed him or not.

“It would break my heart, Daniel. I don’t know how I would forgive you.”

“I know.”

“I begged you to wake,” she stammered and gripped his hand tightly. “I begged you.” She whispered again. “If you woke for her…for her pleasures and not for me….”

“When you needed me to.” It was Daniel’s turn to mumble as the light dawned in his head. Calla wasn’t pissed off at him for having sex with Enya, not really. She was angry at the fact that she needed him, really needed him to stand up in his role as Sa’Tan and Husband to protect her, to…..

That’s what she whispered in the dream to him and to David. It was exactly what she whispered in his ear when she was so cruelly sandwiched between her Husband and her Father. At the end of the dream, she whispered those words to Davy in search of his help because her Husband had become as brutal as her Father and that was why he saw Ares’ eyes at the end staring back at him. Daniel’s sleeping mind wasn’t actually trying to tell him that he wanted to put his Wife between him and Davy, no Davy was just a figment. He was a representation of Daniel and the undying anger he felt over certain issues like Andrew F. Hartley and Lord Ares. For that little problem maybe it would behoove him to make a few follow-up appointments with Dr. Willie.

Daniel realized that wasn’t all the dream was, it was a reminder that he fucked up a lot when it came the magickal side of his life with her. He was a terrible Sa’Tan! Oh, he was aces when it came to going after her and making things right but he really sucked at taking preventative measures.

Daniel failed to keep her safe from David. If he’d told her about David from the get-go Calla would have had a clue when he started sniffing around.

Daniel failed to keep her safe from Eros...twice. The first time he was too young to do anything to help the pretty red haired girl he met in an Athens mall. The one with the deep green eyes. The one who infused him with something as the Impossibly Big Man—Ares—came and took her away. Daniel doubted that Calla ever talked to anyone about what Eros did to her on the beach below his Tower. When they came back from the island she made no mention of it and indeed it wasn’t until years later, during another dream in which he almost lost her, that she first made any mention at all of it to him.

The second time Eros got her. If Daniel just stayed home—the way he wanted and indeed intended to after that mission!—he wouldn’t have been captured by Eros and worst of all he never would have been used against her. Until tonight he didn’t understand how deeply she’d been scarred by her second encounter with her beloved Brother. How much she couldn’t let it go, not the fact that Eros tricked her and took her away, that he made her believe she was his Wife and not his Sister. Not the fact that as his Wife, he of course took Husbandly Liberties with her. No. None of that stuck with her. The fact that she tied Daniel to a bed for one lousy week out of twenty years together! THAT stuck with her. Because she knew exactly how it felt to be tied to a bed and she couldn’t get past the fact that she’d turned on herself and become the Warden. Couldn’t get past it and couldn’t forgive herself for it.

Hell! He was failing her decades before either of those events! Daniel even failed to retrieve her from Kanan earlier than he did. Then he failed to keep her away from him. If he’d listened to her harder she never would have willingly been captured by Naganti Kanan.

All these things she doesn’t want the kids to know about. For years he imagined that was because she was ashamed and that she was afraid they would think less of her if they knew the kind of life their Mother had really lead. Maybe that wasn’t it. Perhaps Calla kept these things secret from the kids so she didn’t have to expose their Father’s shortcomings to them. That would be just fucking awful, if she kept all of that inside because she was trying to save face for him.

But Andrew Fucking Hartley there was no hiding or denying him, he was Front Page News all over the world. While she hadn’t explained the events to the kids, she didn’t have to this time they lived it with her, Daniel knew the twins blamed him for the meltdown. Once again if he’d just stayed closer to home! Or maybe if he’d just stopped fucking those beautiful dark-haired dark-eyed women which was driving their Mother to a slow insanity day by day.

Then there was Ares and another Event she couldn’t hide from their children. All these years Ares had been hanging around, playing the role of doting dutiful Father and Grandfather. All this time Ares was bluffing, he was just biding his time waiting for his own chance to strike at her. In a way, Daniel was responsible for Ares getting that chance, after all if he hadn’t gone to that planet, if Medea hadn’t fired her magick at him, if Calla didn’t love him so much, she never would have been stuck in that position. If he let Ares have her sooner maybe he wouldn’t have been so goddamn cruel to her.

Yeah he was really good at setting things right again but Daniel Jackson really stunk at cutting bad things off at the pass and ensuring they didn’t touch her to begin with, as he promised he would. Daniel Jackson really did a piss-poor job as Sa’tan and as Lord. While Daniel hated to admit it, Calla really did need a strong guiding hand some times, even Duncan MacLeod tried to tell him that much in Scotland a few months back. Daniel thought he did a good job as Husband and Father. Still, if he just tried a little harder or maybe if his brain just worked a little differently he could have saved Calla a lot of grief over the years.

Maybe David Jackson, he who was worldly wise with Junkies and threesomes, jail cells and murder, maybe he would serve better in this role than Daniel did? Was it possible that David Jackson would see pitfalls that he missed? Maybe, why not? Was it also possible that David would not just see them but avoid them? Do whatever it was that needed doing in order to make sure no harm befell her?

So many ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’ to deal with not to mention the idea was simply ludicrous! David proved he couldn’t be trusted with her and Sa’Tan did get to invoke certain sexual privileges.

“I’m being a bitch. I apologize.” She said in a distant voice that sounded as though it were trying to find its way back to Reality through the drug induced haze in her mind. “I know it’s not your fault the Ambrosia took so long to work.” Calla smiled a hazy stoned grin and sniffed back the tears she kept from falling. “I’m just feeling sorry for myself, that’s all.”

“No, you’re not.” Maybe she was a little even so she had a right to it. Daniel was still thinking about Ares and David. All these months Calla defended Ares. Was it possible that she did it not because she wasn’t angry with him? Not because she believed Ares hadn’t done anything wrong but because if she admitted that Ares hurt her she’d also have to admit that Daniel didn’t defend her? Even though she begged him to? Calla Logic, ya had to love it.

Sitting there he tried think of how many times she’d said that exact phrase to him…I begged you to wake up. I begged you. She’d been trying to tell him how important that fact was to her and he’d been blowing it off. Idiot. Not only that but after the fact Daniel was so disgusted by what she’d done, blamed her so much, that he let her walk out with good ol’ Andy F. Hartley. Daniel didn’t even ask her to stay with him. Not once did he say they could work it out or he loved her or….anything!

“Kitty, Davy said you’re going away. Where are you going?” He already knew that she thought Callestah was going to take over but he wanted her to talk about it, to tell him about it the way she’d told David.

“Oblivion.”

That was what Davy said. “Why?”

“Because she wants her life back.”

“Who?”

“You know who.” Calla huffed. “You saw her, you thought her Beautiful and she thought you very intriguing but she won’t keep herself only for you. Ultimately, she’s Ares’ prize.” Calla wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t deaf. She heard Achilles back in Avalon and she heard Daniel the other night both said that she was Ares’ only Daughter. If that was true, which she didn’t doubt, then there had to be a reason for it. Whatever that reason was, the fact that she was his sole Daughter was the reason Callestah was so attracted to Ares and the same reason Calla always wanted to be near him though no necessarily in a sexual manner.

“Callestah.” Daniel mumbled. This was the second time she came up tonight. “She’s never going to take you away from me. No one will.”

Calla wasn’t listening to him. “David…David says that if you have the tablet I might be able to communicate with you still.” There was a pitiful hope in her voice as though she wanted what she was saying to be true and at the same time wanted it not to be. “But you don’t have to stay with her,” still holding on to his hand she looked way from his face. “I’m sure, in time, you will find her most disagreeable.”

From the tone in her voice and the distance in her eyes he finally saw how important all of it was to her. “I might.” Daniel agreed. “I imagine she’ll want to go to Ares right away. Callestah won’t want anything to do with me.”

Calla’s eyes darted around the room a good long while and she even sat up and stretched her neck as she looked around to be sure they were alone. “She likes the way you looked at her. She thinks it means you will fall at her feet and that she can control you and that you will be a Second to Ares.”

“Not fucking likely.” Daniel insisted and raised her chilly hands to his lips. No one turned the heat past fifty at night in the old building. “She’s growing stronger now, isn’t she Calla?”

“Yes, I am afraid I can’t keep her down much longer. I’m sorry, Daniel, I really wanted to spend Forever with you but I’m just so tired now, most of the time I don’t even know what I’m doing or saying. But if you keep the stone….”

“Stop that, you’re not going anywhere. We’re not going to communicate through any stupid rock. Didn’t you hear me? I won’t let anyone take you away from me, do you understand? Only if you want to leave me will I let you go other than that...no way.” Kitty was tired all the time lately, she was always complaining of being weary. They spent two Mortal Days in Avalon and she didn’t sleep. Before that, well, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d slept side by side through the whole night. When they returned to the Manor House from Avalon, after their cheesecake exploration, Daniel woke up in the middle of the night to find the bed empty and her sitting across the room alone in the dark. She didn’t hear him when he called her name, didn’t answer or show any signs that she was aware of him at all. Daniel got up and brought her back to bed.

After that he spent the last two days away from her, which doubtlessly meant she again did not sleep—well, except for a brief time in Davy’s arms. After everything they’d been through Daniel told himself that her lack of being able to sleep was normal and that they could use a good long vacation but now he understood they needed more than a little get-away. Maybe the Lady Callestah wouldn’t shut up inside Calla’s head and that was why she couldn’t sleep.

Calla took his hand in her own cold one and gave him a wane smile. “It’s her life, this is her body, I’m just….a figment. You can’t stop her.”

“I can.” Daniel countered. “I know how. You’re not a figment, Kitty, you’re not a side effect of Callestah’s life, you are your own person and you have every right to the life you have.”

“How can you stop this?”

Not here, not now, he couldn’t explain it to her under these conditions and risk her finding the idea totally disgusting. It was bad enough that he already felt like some type of kiddie pimp but what about her? Ultimately she was going to be asked to give up something else she desired and held dear to her heart—no matter how much she wouldn’t admit to it. Worst of all, Daniel realized that if going to the Underworld and bringing that girl out meant he could keep his Wife, his life, his family and his marriage, then damnit! He was all set to go in after her. He’d use a 12 year-old girl, hand her over to Lord Ares with a smile and a here-ya-go just so long as Ares promised to keep his big ugly mitts off Calla. Other than coming out of the erotic daze in Bacchus’ Kingdom, Daniel Jackson had never felt more ashamed of himself in his entire life. How could he even consider this? “Come home with me and I’ll do my best to explain it to you.” Daniel waited for an answer but didn’t get one, however, she didn’t pull her hands away from him either. “You can get out of these clothes and put on that soft white nightgown you like so much. I’ll make us some hot chocolate, ok?”

“You will stoke the fire?”

“Very high, it will be very warm in our bed.” He said with a nod of his head and squeeze of his hands. Up until that exact second Daniel wasn’t sure that he really was going to go off on this wild goose chase, in fact until he talked to David he wasn’t even sure that the younger Calla did, indeed, exist in the Underworld. Daniel didn’t want to push his luck but the way she was looking at him with so much hope and love in her eyes. “We’ll crawl into bed where it’s warm and you can rest in my arms.”

“And you will tell me?”

“Everything. Come home with me, Kitty.”

“You won’t move away? You won’t leave me? You will stay in our home?”

Those words lit up his heart. “If it’s what you want, I’ll be very happy to stay in our home with you and our family.” Calla stood up on wobbly legs she tried to take a step and tripped. His arms kept her up right. “I gotcha.” He soothed. “It’s ok.”

Looking down at the desk she frowned. “I’m sorry.”

Daniel looked down at the needle and spoon inside the sawed off tin can. “We’ll deal with it. Together.” Maybe Davy and Annie can help. He kissed the side of her head. “We’ll get through it.”

“I won’t hurt her, you know that don’t you?”

“Won’t hurt who? Brigid?” He asked and she nodded. “I know that, Kitty.” In the moonlight he watched her give a sad smile. “Let’s go home.” Before that there was a little clean-up to take care of. Daniel picked up the bottle and the paraphernalia to take with them. They couldn’t leave it here out in the open, not with classes beginning tomorrow.

End Chapter Four Of
Thy Brother's Wife
Continue to
Chapter Five

This story and all stories in the Barters N Garters Library are copyrighted to Lisa Beth Darling these stories may not be transferred outside of this URL in any fashion.