With a sinking feeling in his heart, Daniel drew back the door to the basement steps. "Calla?" He called out and noticed the light was on down there. Daniel crept down the stairs and thought that she couldn't be in there, she just couldn't be in there. Opening the door to the small room he found the naked body of his wife asleep on the bed that she kept him prisoner on. "What are you doing down here?" He asked more to himself than his sleeping wife and then noticed her bound wrists. How could she have bound both of them? The key was sitting on the small table next to the bed. Calla purchased the good locks, the ones that opened and locked with the key. How did she get the key there afterwards? Where did the goddamn chains come from to begin with? He threw them away months ago, tossed them out in the garbage can and dragged it to the street. Daniel even watched while the garbage man took them away. "Hey, Calla." Daniel whispered. "Wake up, honey."

Sad frightened eyes rolled open to look at him. "Daniel?"

"What are you doing down here? How . . . "

She turned her head toward him, a purple yellow bruise was clear on her jaw as she held her bound wrists and the chains out to him, wanting him to come to her and hold her. Daniel wrapped his arm around her while he fumbled for the key to free her. Once free, her arms slipped around him and she buried her head against his shoulder. "Is it you?"

"Of course it's me, who else would I be?" Daniel asked and felt her arms tighten around his waist. "What's going on?" He tried to move her away from him so that he could look her in the eyes but she wouldn't let go of him, the more he tried the tighter she squeezed. "It's ok, whatever it is, it's all right now. I'm here." He soothed and began to rock her. "Shhh, it's all right."

It wasn't all right, now was it? No. She was shaking in his arms from both cold and fear. His head felt as though he were waking from a night of heavy drinking, as it so often did these days. Daniel reached down for the musty blanket and drew it around her shoulders, he tucked it in at her sides. "Who did this to you?" Subconsciously he waited for the sneeze which would come from moving the musty dusty blanket. No sneeze came, and to his nose rose the soft scent of the fabric softener she used. At some point in time she had washed this blanket but she hadn't done a very good job. There was a large brown stain near the edge. Where that came from or how it got there, he didn't know.

Still holding on to his body, she looked up into those soft blue eyes. "David." Calla didn't want to tell him what had been happening over the last four months, but he was here now and she was sure of that. How long it would last she didn't know. While Daniel was Daniel he had to know what was going on when he wasn't Daniel. With wide wondering eyes she looked up at him and uttered; “Hello, beautiful. So good to see you again.“

“David?” Daniel looked around the room while he tried to absorb the news and saw his shoes and shirt laying on the floor. “Tell me.”

While he did have a right to know, Calla did her very best to spare her husband the goriest of details, skipping over them to hit only the major highlights. Mainly the fact that David was back and that she and Jack (probably Sam and Teal'c by now as well) knew of his continuing affair with Rowan MacNeal. Again she tried to spare and left out the detail of catching them in the act.

"You brought me back." He said finally while the news sunk in. More than anything he wanted to apologize for his actions but I'm sorry really didn't seem to cut it this time. Sitting here with her he remembered so clearly going into work the Monday after their weekend in the cabin and telling Rowan that he confessed everything to his wife that Calla had forgiven him and his encounters with her were over. Never did he intend to start it up again.

"It's not permanent." Calla muttered. "I didn't have another choice. I swear it, Master Daniel."

"Whatever you did, do it again." His teeth gnashed against each other as the words 'Master Daniel' rang in his head. She said it as though she'd been saying it all along and, in private, Daniel imaged David had her say it a lot.

"I can't" She admitted. "If you're not careful, David will sneak back and take you over again."

"Then will you do it again?"

She looked away from him. "Hurting you . . . " Calla shook her head as another shiver went through her. "It takes from me, weakens me. I feel what you feel threefold. I passed out when you did and probably would not have awakened until much later today."

"You really can't defend yourself against me, can you?" He looked down at her with a stern but puzzled eye.

"No."

"You have to come with me today to P3X776."

"I can't through the Stargate, Daniel."

"Can't or won't? I know you were afraid before because you were pregnant but you're not now and you see me do it all the time." He held her hands tight in his own and brushed his lips against them. "I am going to need you, Calla. Ares gave me forty-eight hours and Zeus said he would show you where he hid the Crown and Scepter."

"Then what?" His words surprised her and gave her hope. Daniel did know of the conversation with Ares. Blind to the fact that he'd been carrying on an affair and living the life of a Porno Super Star he was, but not blind to the words in the book, the planet, or his promise to bring back Ares' symbols of Lordship. Not daring to ask, she wondered what else he remembered about his last encounter with her Father.

"Maybe Ares can come up with something once his powers are fully restored to him." Daniel suggested. "Please, Calla, you have to come." He begged. "Honey, by now we've only got a little over 36 hours and I don't have a friggin' clue where on that planet Zeus hid the Crown and Scepter."

"Who will tend the children?"

"Jack."

"They do love their Uncle Jack." She admitted but still did not want to go through the Stargate.

That connection lit up bright inside Daniel's mind. A crystal clear image of a young Calla standing by the Stargate on Tiberia came to him, she was watching her Father leave her behind. Naganti Kanan stood towering over the little girl, both of his thick dark hands laid heavily upon her tiny shoulders. Sorrow and fear filled the little girl as Ares disappeared from her sight. "I won't leave you there." Daniel whispered. "No matter what, I promise, I won't leave you."

Grandfather came to her last night in her dreams and told her this would happen. Told her when she woke her husband would come to her side once more and that if she wanted to keep him she would have to travel with him through the Stargate. Other than the thought of being left behind, Calla had another reason for not wanting her particles scattered all across the Universe and back. About that Grandfather told her that she had no chance to begin with. Looking into those clear blue eyes and really seeing her husband gazing back at her for the first time in months, Calla gave in. "All right."

"I want you to do something else for me." Daniel kissed the top of her head while he held onto the warm weight of her body.

Calla knew she was not going to like what was coming next. "What?"

"When Ares comes back, I want you and the children to go with him."

"No!" Calla sat up and looked him in the eyes. "I won't abandon you, Daniel. I won't leave you to suffer through this by yourself."

"Yes, you can and you will." Daniel returned in a quiet voice and smoothed the hair away from her face. "If can't control him or better yet, find a way to get rid of him, you have to do this for me." Calla turned her face away from him. "You have to do it for our children and for yourself." Daniel said softly as he turned her face back to look at him. "I love you, more than I thought I could ever love anyone. If I do this to you again," his warm palm caressed the bruise on her jaw, " it will kill me. So, please Calla, promise me."

"No." Calla whimpered. "I will find a way to help you."

"You will be helping me." He laid his lips against her forehead. "Helping me to not hurt you again."

"David has not hurt the children." She protested, if he had she might readily agree with her husband.

Daniel took what he knew was a cheap shot. "If he's still in my head when Colleen turns 12 or 13 . . . " purposefully he let his voice trail off.

"You'd never let him . . . "

"I let him do it to you, didn't I? Whose to say he won't ra . . . "

"Stop it!" Calla clapped her hands over her ears. "I won't listen to this! I won't let him tear us apart."

Looking down into those stern and determined eyes Daniel knew this was a fight he would not win. If he hurt the children, she might take them away, but only then. She would still stay with him, her children safe from harm, Calla would walk directly back into the fire for him.

"Daniel?"

"What?"

"Kiss me." She pled. "While I know it's you," she tilted her upward to him, "kiss me."

"Cal, I don't think we should . . . " Daniel shook his head while gazing down into her love filled eyes.

"Please?"

"Just one kiss." He told her. "Then we have to get ready to go. Just one." God, please don't let David come out. Daniel's lips descended over hers, Calla parted them with her moist tongue. Cupping her face in both of his palms the blue energy appeared again, it gently wound its way from him to the wound on her face, he could feel it tingle around inside his mouth as he kissed her deeper.

End of Chapter Five
Daughter of the Gods: Blood Ties
Continue to
Chapter Six