nvc425@h...
Rating: M
Category: Angst, AU, Drama
Pairing: Daniel/Janet
Spoilers: Absolute Power
Summary: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts…everything.
Disclaimer: not mine
Notes: thanks to the guys at SGC workshop who helped me with this
story. Much happiness also go towards Shaure, Hoodat and Shane for
looking through the entire fic for me and screaming loudly when they
fell into plotholes and couldn't get out.
Warning: Daniel is a crazy psycho man holding people against their
will in this fic. If you don't think you'd like to read something
like that, then this isn't the fic for you. Definitely no hearts and
flowers in here.
I lie back contentedly in the comfort of satin sheets and downy
pillows. At the foot of the bed Janet sits, fastening the buttons of
her cream colored blouse. She turns her head and gives me a slow,
shy smile. Succulent lips part to reveal teeth set like perfect
pearls. Wow. What a load of poetical bullshit. My high-school
English teacher would be proud of me.
No matter, I grin back at her and beckon for her to return to my
side. "You're so sexy in the morning." I complement. And I do mean
it, it's just the waxing poetical that peeves me with its silliness.
Various parts…well okay, one part, of my anatomy springs to attention
as she crawls across the satin bedcovers and then straddles her legs
across my hips. Smooth expanses of soft, tanned skin tease my
fingertips as I lazily stroke them over her legs. She's beautiful,
she's talented in oh-so-many ways, and best of all, she's completely,
utterly, and totally mine.
"What are we going to do today?" she questions, her eyes shining
matching pools of rich chocolate in the morning sunlight.
Leaning forward from where my back is rested against the headboard, I
kiss her. "Oh, I don't know…maybe we can just stay in bed and play…"
Her laugh is rich and rewarding as she rolls us over so that I now
lie on top of her. The room is silent again save for the occasional
scrape of leaves across sunlit window panes and the rhythmical
thumping of the headboard against the wall. Shifu was wrong when he
said nothing good could come with the knowledge of how to destroy the
Goa'uld. This life is luxurious. I have everything I ever wanted
and will ever need. I am doing something good for the world - I will
save Earth. I will defeat the bad guys. It's not about absolute
power. This is about saving lives.
*
The high-pitched bleat of the telephone rudely interrupts our
impromptu bout of morning sex. I glower at the hated object and
consider having the caller killed for disturbing us at this hour. Or
maybe I'll just fire my receptionist for letting people call me on a
Saturday. She knows how much I hate that. Stupid woman…she should
know better.
Janet sighs unhappily as I roll off her and reach for the phone. I
give her a small smile in apology, laying on my stomach with one arm
supporting me as I snap a greeting down the line.
It's the President calling. He informs me that he's going to cut
down the funding to the Earth Net project so that he can sell the
budget to the hill for re-election next month. Smug bastard. He
automatically assumes that he can do whatever he wants just because
he has the title `President' before his name. Can't he see I am
trying to protect this country? This Earth?
"If you want to jeopardize the future of this planet be my guest!" I
tell him, moving into a sitting position at the edge of the bed.
Janet slinks up and sits behind me, wrapping her arms around my
stomach and gently resting her head on my shoulder. Her sweet-
smelling presence calms me, and I take a breath. "Look Robert," I
start over, "I know you want to win another term in office this
year, but cutting back funding for the Earth Net project is not going
to help you."
The kid-glove approach seems to be working; the President is
listening to me now. Then again, he never had very much resolve.
Dealing with him is like stealing candy from a baby. Mention the
word `election' and the man is putty in your hands.
After a short but truly inspirational speech about saving the Earth
and protecting our proud nations from the evil grasp of terrorists
and blah, blah, blah on my part, the President finally decides that
perhaps the EN project does need extra funding after all. He can cut
the extra spending from the budget from education and forestry -
now *there* are two areas where money consistently gurgles down the
drain.
Janet moves from behind me as I return the handset to its cradle.
She stands barefoot upon the plush carpet in front of me and waits
for me to join her. "The things you have to do to save the world."
She teases lovingly as I take her outstretched hand and kiss her
smiling lips.
"At least I have you to believe in me." I return, smoothing my hands
over her tiny waist to rest them gently upon her hips. My stomach
growls. She laughs sweetly at my embarrassment.
"You hungry?" she asks, stroking her thumbs along the sides of my
neck.
I crush her to me for another kiss before my stomach rumbles its
protest once again. I press call button for the maid as soon as we
break apart. "Is that really necessary?" Janet asks me, for the
umpteenth time in our already three-month long relationship. She's
never been used to servants; even with her army of nurses at the SGC,
cleaning up after surgery and all the other menial jobs that they do
for her around the infirmary. I guess she sees those nurses as part
of her team, all working together with her to keep things running
smooth and efficiently.
A discreet knock on the door signals the arrival of the
maid. "Enter." I command.
It's the blonde one today. She greets us with a smile and a `good
afternoon Sir, Ma'am' and fetches our dressing gowns from the
closet.
"Thankyou Helena." Janet says as she takes her dressing gown from
the maid's hands. She's far too polite to them. They're only
servants, after all.
Dressing gowns donned, I gently guide Janet from the room with my
hand on the small of her back . My assistant Jennifer waits for me
with the afternoon paper and a freshly brewed coffee for both of us
at the foot of the stairs. Janet smiles and greets each one of my
staff good afternoon in her usual way. She stops to talk with
Jennifer about her kids and her family…or whatever it is that she
does when she isn't on duty here.
When we finally make it to the dining table, the blonde maid…I think
her name was Helena…takes down our orders for breakfast. Janet is,
as always, amused and overwhelmed by it all. "Sweetheart, you must
stop treating the help as equals." I gently chide her as she once
again prevents Helena from laying out a napkin for her.
"They're people, Daniel." She answers, trying once again to soften
my spirit with her deep and pleading eyes. I'll have to check with
the chef to make sure he's remembering to add the sedatives to
Janet's food. She's been a little hard to handle lately.
I smile calmingly and place my hand over hers where it rests upon the
table. "You're just suffering from anxiety again sweetheart." I
tell her. Poor sweet thing, ever since Cassandra went off to
university in Canada, things have been hard for her. She's lucky
that she has me in her life. I am her constant and her touchstone.
I am the man who keeps her strong.
Janet has gone out to visit with Sam today. SG1 is on downtime for a
couple of weeks while Jack recovers from some nasty virus he
contracted after they gated to a planet which was, now that I go
over the translations again, an Asgard biological testing zone.
Pity I didn't catch that part the first time. Not that they can
blame me for that, however. I have much more important things to do
than go traipsing across the stars on a daily basis. I am busy
saving the world.
I pad into the den and find myself being walked into by my defense
advisor. The sheaf of carefully ordered reports that I am holding
flutters in a snowstorm to the floor. "You careless ape!" I scold
him. "Look at this mess that you have caused! Look at it!"
I point at the mess of papers on the floor for emphasis. "I should
have the right mind to fire you for this incompetence! I did not
hire a monkey for a defense advisor. Pick these papers up at once
and give them to Jennifer for re-organizing!" I throw my hands up in
annoyance as I turn on my heel and storm my way up the stairs. "A
man cannot get any work done in this household!" I shout angrily,
pushing one of the maids out of my way as she carefully dusts the
landing. "Nothing at all!"
*
Janet returns just before dinner. She is a sight for sore eyes after
being surrounded in a house full of incompetence and stupidity. Even
Jessica has been uncharacteristically incapable this afternoon, not
even having a pen ready for use on my command. Idiots!
I greet my sweetheart at the door as she reluctantly hands her jacket
to the waiting maid. "Baby, where have you been all day?" I ask
her, pressing a kiss to each of her beautifully rounded cheeks.
"With Sam." Is her curt reply. She's upset. She pushes me away and
hurries to the downstairs bathroom, shutting and locking the door
behind her. I follow her hastily to the now closed doorway.
"Janet, sweetheart, what's wrong?" I ask. Getting no reply, I knock
upon the door and twist the handle. Helena, the blonde maid comes
cautiously to stand behind me to see if she can be of any help. I
dismiss her with the wave of my hand. But then call her back at the
noise of heavy retching coming from behind the locked door.
"Janet?" coughing, more retching. "Jan?! Baby are you okay?"
Silence again, punctuated by the occasional choked cough. "Helena
call the doctor." I order. The maid curtsies and then runs for the
phone. I hear the toilet flushing and the noise of taps running in
the bathroom. The tumblers of the locks click and then the bathroom
door slowly creaks open.
Janet stands there, ashen-faced, with one hand held lightly over her
stomach. "I don't feel well." She says uncertainly. Her eyes flit
feverishly back and forth, as if she's looking for an avenue of
escape. Why is she suddenly so afraid of me?
I gently drape my arm around her shoulders and lead her up the
stairs. "Sweetheart, perhaps you had better lay down. The maid has
called the doctor for you. Everything's going to be just fine."
She nods slowly, flopping down upon the mattress like a rag doll and
remains pliant and unnoticing as I undress her and slip a nightshirt
over her head. The sound of footsteps trooping up the stairs signal
the arrival of the doctor, who is escorted into the room by an
anxious looking Helena.
The doctor `hum's and `harrrrm's over the sleeping form of my
beautiful Janet. She takes her pulse, records her blood pressure
and then takes a recording of her temperature. The doctor scribbles
down some notes onto a page and then whips out her stethoscope. The
cold press of the metal circle wakes the patient up a little bit, and
Janet mumbles incoherently before falling back to sleep.
The doctor chews her pen and taps it thoughtfully upon her
notepaper. "Throwing up was she?" she questions professionally,
pacing in a circle beside the bed. I nod in confirmation, too
worried about my Janet to speak in a coherent sentence.
"Was she in any pain at all, or has she taken any pain meds?" I
shake my head. Sure, I ordered extra sedatives to be placed in
Janet's drink this morning, but surely that couldn't have affected
her condition like this…could it?
The doctor flips her folder shut and pockets her pen
decisively. "Well," she starts, "As far as I can tell, she's simply
fallen into a deep sleep. Maybe she was sick from something she ate,
which would be cleared from her system now that she's thrown it all
up." She catches my worried expression. "But if you would like,
Doctor Jackson, I can run some blood tests just to be sure. It's
probably nothing, just a little bad milk or something. Should be out
of her system now…"
She takes my panicked silence for a yes and pulls out a syringe and
two vials, taking samples of Janet's blood before I even have time to
object. She puts the samples away in her briefcase and then holds
out her hand for me to shake. "It's been a pleasure to serve you
this evening Doctor Jackson," she intones smoothly, "I will have
the blood tests ready for Miss Fraiser tomorrow morning, if I may."
I nod dumbly and gesture for Helena to show her out the door. Oh
shit. What a major screw up. The sedatives won't show up on the
blood tests, will they? The couldn't. I tell myself, the guys at
the manufacturing company said the drugs were state of the art. They
*must* be undetectable…that's how they were designed to work…right?
She's suspicious. She's become resistant to the sedatives. And
she's also pregnant. Seven weeks.
This is bad. It's worse than bad. This is catastrophic. What's
more, I have found out that Sam has started having doubts about the
direction of my Earth Net Program.
It's been five days since the doctor delivered the bad news of
Janet's pregnancy to me on Thursday. Janet was elated, I acted
elated. But I guess the `joy' didn't quite reach my eyes. What am I
going to do with a son? Or even with a daughter? I am a busy man.
I haven't got any time for children…not that I enjoy them much
anyway. A prefect waste of time, space and money better spent on
other things.
What if the sedatives start to affect the baby…? She'd have to stop
taking them…that would be bad.
No. I can't let her do that, I need my Janet safe and sound.
Pregnant women need their rest. Yes. That's right. She needs the
sedatives to help the baby.
The good news, however was that the tests showed no definite signs of
the sedatives I've been using to keep Janet drugged. It's for her
own good anyway. The less resistance that I get for the EN project,
the better. Which reminds me, I'm going to need to have a little
talk with Sam today.
Janet is sitting on the sofa reading as Jessica prepares me for a
meeting with the head of defense today. I place my hand on her
shoulder and lean down to kiss her cheek, noticing that she flinches
and tries slightly to move away. Women! I think to myself as
Jessica hands me my briefcase and my bodyguards escort me to my car.
They're so unpredictable!
Monday morning I wake up alone. The unpleasant sounds of Janet
retching in the bathroom. I groan in annoyance and cover my head
with my pillow. Our relationship has been going downhill. She
doesn't want to touch me, she won't speak to me unless she has to.
At night there's a chasm of space between us on the sheets so wide
that a truck could drive across it.
I don't think the drugs are working any more…or at least not as
effectively. I caught her sneaking through the files on my computer
on Saturday morning. She claimed that she was sleepwalking. Yeah.
Right. And I am trying to take over the world.
Sam must be placing seeds of doubt into my Janet's mind. My
sweetheart doesn't trust me anymore. She's wary of me, she
suspects. I swear she's sending samples of the medications in the
bathroom cabinet away for analysation when nobody's watching. I'll
have to post a guard on her. She's becoming unstable, what with the
pregnancy and all. She needs to be watched carefully and get plenty
of rest. That's what the doctor said.
More sedatives, more sleep. Sleep is good for my Janet.
Oh dear, Sam is crazy. Just as I suspected. I comfort Janet as she
watches the security guards drag Sam away in a straight jacket as she
struggles and tries to fight her way out of their hands. "That woman
is dangerous!" I yell after them, as my once- brilliant friend's
accusations and curses slice through the sunlight on this sunny
afternoon.
Janet watches dazedly through eyes circled with purple bags. I've
had to drug her to the gills to bring her under control. Yesterday
evening she started screaming and ranting that I was trying to kill
her, to kill her baby. That isn't true. I wouldn't do that. It's
for her own good, I insisted; she needed to calm down and take
another rest. Pregnant women shouldn't be standing up like that.
Even if they're only seven weeks along.
Samantha's curses bite at me as I guide Janet and the rest of my
staff back inside the door.
"You won't get away with this Daniel! I know what you're doing!
Janet! Don't let him fool you Jan! He's evil! He'll kill everyone
who gets in his way! Don't let it happen to you! JANET!!"
I turn once more before entering my house to see the security guards
push Sam's head back into the car. I shake my head sadly, and rub my
hand up and down Janet's back to comfort her. "She's crazy
sweetheart. Don't listen to her."
We step in through the doorway. "Come on baby, let's get you inside."
The thing about power is, it's wonderful. It gives me such a rush to
know that I have the ability to destroy the Goa'uld and rid the Earth
of the threat that those horrible snakeheads present.
I am powerful.
I have power.
I could rule the universe…
-------------------------------
Saturday
-------------------------------
First it was Sam, and now it is Jack. He came in today asking after
Janet, saying that he hasn't heard from her in a while. I told him
that she was sleeping and that no, he couldn't see her.
He asked if I was keeping her prisoner. He said that he knew I
wanted to take over the world.
I laughed and told him to drink another beer.
*
Jack and I are watching the game together, just like back in the old
days when Janet walks with difficulty into the room. "Daniel…" She
slurs, falling to her knees in the doorway. Her eyes are filled with
pain and fatigue. Her face is pale, her hair, limp and lifeless.
I look around quickly for her guard detail. How did she manage to
get past them so easily? There'll be hell for them to pay later. My
sweet Janet should not be on her feet, look at her! She can barely
stand alone!
Jack turns his head and catches sight of Janet's sagging form. "Holy
crap, Daniel!" He exclaims, jumping up from the couch and spilling
his beer all over the floor. Damn. I should have guessed his
drunkenness was all an act. "What have you done to her!?"
He rushes over to my Janet and pulls her to her feet again. His
expression is one of absolute fury. Janet is crying softly, her
tears rolling shiny rivulets down her cheeks.
"Jack, leave her alone." I command evenly. I can't have him
upsetting my precious Janet. She's far too fragile to be put
through this stress. She needs more sedatives. What is she doing
out of bed anyway? She is supposed to be sleeping in her room.
Jack gives me a defiant look of anger and makes for the front
door. "I don't know what the hell you're doing here Daniel," he
says harshly, "but you're going to kill her if you keep her like
this."
He now has my Janet cradled in his arms like a sleeping child. "I
thought Sam was kidding when she said you were treating people like
this, Daniel. I gave you the benefit of my doubt. Sam isn't the
crazy one Daniel, it's you."
I got my Janet back from Jack yesterday. I saved her from the crazy
man. She cried when she saw me, she even screamed for joy. I was so
happy to have her back with me again. My beautiful Janet. I had to
sedate her again, however. Pregnant women need their sleep. She's
beautiful when she's sleeping.