DISCLAIMER: Characters belong to their creators, not me. No profit is made from me putting words in their mouths.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Time Waits for No One
By raginhoops
Part 2
Interlude
Sam switched off the com with force. The notebook at the end of the table raddled moving precipitously near the edge. She was unable to move up the simulation tests. Fucking bureaucracy. So what if it was Christmas and New Years coming up. There wasn't much more she could do from this end. The more time they spent here in the future, the more time Janet would spend with Susan. They were meeting for lunch now. Susan was probably telling her the same stories that she told me, she thought ironically. All that flirting would definitely work on a bona fide lesbian because she had to admit that Susan had caused some curious sensations during their many evenings together. Ivanova was the type of lesbian that could turn the straightest woman on to the down low.
Jack stuck his head through the door. "Step away from the computer. We are getting the hell out of here. Time for fishing. Come on down to the lake. It's Christmas and you are hereby ordered to bait hooks and take in some sun with me. We are camping out at the lake tonight- we are all going. Teal'c, Janet too."
"Not Susan?"
"She's making her last minute arrangements for the R&R in Xtapa. By the way, we have reservations for two weeks. She'll meet us at the lake tomorrow with the shuttle. Two days later and we'll be in the lap of luxury."
"I can't wait."
"Do I hear a hint of sarcasm, Carter? I thought you liked the idea of sleeping under the stars then retreating to three hundred count duvets?"
"You are confusing me with someone who cares."
"There is absolutely nothing else to be done here for two weeks. You may as well relax and accept it."
"I'll be ready by 1600."
Jack pointed his finger at her, "Be there…"
"I know…or be square." She thought, he's such a dink. But then so am I.
Roughing It
Sunlight glinted off the ranger's pike as Ivanova demonstrated with expert skill -a beginner's kata. Janet wanted to learn so Teal'c and Susan happily suspended their sparring to oblige. Truth be told, both warriors' egos wouldn't let either quit and Janet was keen enough to intervene.
Sam watched with heightened interest as Janet moved in concert with Susan, her pulse quickened when the captain stepped behind her and adjusted her stance and grip on the pike. Sweat glistened off the exposed skin making the women's muscle definition more distinct. Sam could see the results of these last weeks of gym work on Janet's small, compact frame outlined by a flattering sleeveless shell and incredibly short shorts. She was buff and much more coordinated than Sam thought. Who knew the quiet doctor was a closet athlete? Or in the closet? Apparently everyone but me she thought. She looks great. I would love to see her smile and laugh like that with me. In a moment of clarity, she remembered times when Janet did give her those looks. Jack was right. Janet had given her signals. Watching Janet interact with Susan brought all those sly glances and tentative touches back. Sam flinched internally at the pain that this brought. Could it be that she was jealous that Susan had taken her place? Was Jack right? With a sudden jolt, Sam sprang into action. "Wait up, I think that angle is way off."
Susan looked up in amusement at the amateur telling the master what was correct. "So you think that you are better at this than I?"
"I'm not bad with a staff."
"Care to back that up?"
Sam picked up a staff and balanced it comfortably.
Susan smiled and, with a flourish, gave an opening salute. "Let's rock."
Red flags waved and alarms rang. Janet certainly didn't want Sam to get hurt and there was something in her eye that belied that this was a friendly challenge.
"Shouldn't we be getting ready for supper?" Janet asked.
Sam answered quickly, "Jack has everything under control."
Susan arched her eyebrow as Sam sent a combination of strikes with surprising speed and skill. Not bad for a scientist she thought, one bent on impressing her woman. She answered with an attack of her own, easily countered by the blonde with the hard look of a gunslinger. Susan would have to be careful to modulate the match; emotion could take safety out of this bout. She may have to resort to her gift to keep them out of harm's way.
In an instant, Sam launched a frenzied assault forcing Susan to retreat to the cliff wall at her back. She ducked, feinted, and pivoted – sweeping her pike through the lower half of Sam's legs, effectively landing Sam on her back in the very spot that Susan had just been. Instead of giving up, Sam sprang back like a ninja jack- in-the-box and kept coming like a rabid pit bull. Susan couldn't help it; she read the feelings and thoughts loud and clear. Janet is mine. Ivanova sent a thought back. Then take her, numb nut.
Sam's confused look was shattered by a blow that propelled her into the cliff wall, a force that effectively disarmed her, mainly because the wall gave way. Susan leaped through the cloud of dust into the cave that was uncovered by Sam's fall. Janet reached her soon after and was fussing over her fallen knight.
"I'm not hurt. I just lost my footing." Sam pushed off the help and dusted herself off.
Susan was already walking ahead, alert and listening intently. "We need to get out of here, quickly."
Janet and Sam readied their staffs and started to back away from the glowing eyes that lined the edge of darkness. Bezerkers, a lot of them judging from the growls and panting that came from the dark, were ready to pounce. Sam sent a mayday out on her com to Jack and Teal'c and prayed that they hadn't turned the damn thing off.
All three were near the entrance when the attack started. Ivanova whipped her pike and snapped it back taking the two lead animals out in mid leap. With the sharp yelps from the alpha, the rest of the pack hesitated enough for Susan to step up and rap two more of the closest back to the edge of darkness. The growling increased and Susan growled back telepathically with a sneer that had the pack slinking back a few more feet. "Get the fuck out of here, I said."
"We aren't leaving you," Janet said.
"I don't intend to stick around. I just need you two out of this place and in the open. They won't like coming out of their lair."
As soon as they exited the entrance, Susan popped out and shoved her pike at a loose bit of rock at the top of the entrance; a small avalanche covered the opening for a foot or so. It wouldn't stop them from coming but it would slow them down.
"I thought you said that they'd wouldn't come out?" Sam asked as the raging creatures crowded at the entrance, tentatively pawing at the rubble.
"How else was I going to get you out from up my butt in there?"
Sam stepped up and swung at a bezerker climbing over the rubble. It pulled back and avoided the blow issuing a cross between a growl and a bark before it shrank back into the unearthed cave just as a blast above rained earth and rock effectively occluding the rest of the hole. Behind them, Teal'c stood with his staff glowing from the recent firing. Jack caught up, weapon in hand, panting, "You guys alright?"
Janet answered relieved that the whole fight was finished, including the clash of her titans, "Yes, thank God. Those things are vicious."
"And they smell bad too." Susan lowered her staff, her biceps and delts thankful for the rest. She was going to be sore tomorrow.
"We could have taken them," Sam piped up.
"I'm glad you are so sure because I'll be glad to get the hell out of Dodge." Janet turned to Jack, "What did you fix us. I'm starved. All this pissing on turf has made me famished." She stalked off toward the camp.
It was unusually quiet after the meal of the bass-like fish that Jack coaxed out of the water that afternoon. Teal'c made certain that the faux entrance to the den was secured and that the other openings were not in the immediate area. For good measure, a ring of brush was placed around their small compound affording a barrier that could be easily flamed if the bastards decided to come in the night. Susan was sure that they were not coming. She could sense the defeat in their minds back there. But then it didn't hurt to be cautious. And she couldn't explain why she knew to her new friends.
Janet was busy cleaning off a few scrapes and scratches off Sam's back and shoulders. Always at work, Susan thought. I hope that she succeeds with Sam. By her calculations, there wasn't much time left before a staff blast would take her life. A bit of sadness filled Susan with a familiar flood of grief. She liked the spunky doctor. She wished for fates to change her destiny but she knew the futility of trying to control the universe. It never worked for her. Everyone ends up leaving. It was meant to be but not for those two. They were supposed to be together.
They arrived at the spa midday and checked into adjoining suites. Within the hour, Teal'c and Jack were sipping on umbrella drinks and lounging in slippered feet, bodies buried in plush terry robes.
"I believe that I've died and gone to heaven. Wake us at the end of the week, will ya?" Jack took a long drag off his straw.
"I've got an appointment with a masseuse, girls." Susan made it a point of looking at the men as she said this before turning to the women. "I'll see you two later at the pool." Sam and Janet had an afternoon planned that included facials and manipedi's. Janet figured that she'd steer Sam away from competitive things involving Susan after the incident at red rock.
While waiting in the reading room, the doctor perused the computer pad left to entertain the waiting patrons. She searched for a few safe subjects then decided to look for Samantha Carter speeches. She liked it when her girl was forced to put her thoughts down and she figured it was not cheating to read this past information. She picked a site and scanned the page. Her face changed like the sun being covered by a fast moving cloud. She clicked again and read more intently.
"What are you looking at?" Sam walked up behind her with a goofy grin.
Janet closed the window and replied, "Oh nothing. Just a bit of browsing."
"Well, you look like you've seen a ghost."
"Look they are ready for us." Janet hurriedly moved toward the waiting technician.
Janet was grateful to have her face covered. She should never have picked up the computer to read her eulogy given by Samantha Carter. Later, at the pool, sunglasses gave her a screen and she kept the Jovian sunspots coming. Sam got into a diving mode, trying out more and more degrees of difficulty in competition with Jack. Teal'c was laid out like a Boca Ratonian retiree: Bermudas, Hawaiian shirt, Panama hat, and Mexican sandals with white socks. He didn't like getting a tan on his feet. It was a Jaffa thing.
The diving competition ended when Sam did a half pike successfully and Teal'c started to jeer at Jack, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to follow that lead. With an evil grin, Jack took a running start, made a huge leap off the board, and tucked into the tightest cannonball ever seen this side of Pegasus. Teal'c didn't have a chance to vacate his primo spot at poolside. He was soaked from stem to stern. Susan thought it strange that the only person not laughing was Janet. She moved onto the lounger next to her.
"Boys will be boys and so will Sam."
"We can always count on Jack to keep Sam from hurting herself." The answer had a distant, thoughtful tone, as if the statement held more import than what was at the surface.
"She's like a fifteen year old out there flexing for you. I believe that you've won her now."
"Maybe I don't want her anymore."
"Excuse me? This is Janet Frazier that I am talking too, right? 'I've been chasing this woman for years but she won't get caught?' Well, she's ready to get caged."
"I've been thinking about not going back."
Susan sensed a deep foreboding coming from her companion. It was past superficial sorrow. It was familiar feeling to Susan. It was death. Janet knew. How she found out was unimportant. "So what about your daughter?"
"She's Sam's daughter too. All grown up. Won't need me anymore. And I guess you know that she wouldn't have me for that much longer anyway."
"And Sam?"
"She'll forget."
"I can tell you from experience that she won't."
"It will be worse if we get closer."
"Let me tell you something. I died once. Someone brought me back and I was angry about it because I didn't want anyone to sacrifice anything for me. It was so peaceful in that place. My life flashed by just like they say it does when you go." She pulled closer as she looked sincerely into Janet's eyes shaded by the darkened lens. "I had a chance once to love someone and I pushed her away. She ended up dying before I did. It was my one regret in that peace and there is not a day that I don't think of her."
"Susan, take me out of here. I can't see her right now."
"You're sure you want to do this?"
"I'm not sure these are my legs. I'm so anesthetized from these drinks. Susan, just be here for me now; I need someone to take me out on the town. I need a bit of living and I don't want to think."
"I have been said to be Ms. Rightnow more than a few times." Susan lent her humor and comfort, as much as she was able, being acutely aware of Sam's presence across the pool.
Janet smiled through her pain but, if she stayed one moment more, the dam would burst and making scenes in public were not her cup of tea.
Sam watched from a distance as her Janet was being courted with light, careful touches on her arms, shoulders, and thighs. Susan was close and moving closer, stroking her hair now and giving her a tender kiss at her temple. She threw a wet towel she was holding at Jack's face when he playfully sidled up to her.
"What the fuck is wrong, Carter? You look like you want to murder someone."
He turned to Teal'c who calmly surveyed the pool area before pointing out Sam's rapidly disappearing back.
"It appears that she's had enough sun for one day."
"This is not good, Teal'c."
"In my world, there is a saying: when the ponce fruit is ripe, the maca will kill its mate for it."
"We say, if you snooze - you lose. I think Carter has awakened too late."
The Shaft
The bar that Susan took Janet to was not the cocktail dress type on the resort. There were different bars for different sized wallets. This was the service workers' haunt - the miners' and the generally badassed bruts'. Janet wanted to go there. It was full of raw energy and it reminded her of a cowboy bar in her hometown. Susan thought it not such a great idea but Janet was determined and Susan had no desire to carry her out kicking and biting.
"I always wanted to be a rancher, you know, like my grandfather. Ride horses all day; mend fences; be out with the sky stretched out for miles to see. Responsible for that 200 acres and what was within and nothing else."
"Sounds idyllic."
"When the blizzards and the tornados come, not so much. But you rebuild with your own two hands - your wife and family. It made them close. At the end, you couldn't tell where one left off and the other began. They had decades together."
"You've had years of the same thing, Janet. It's just a bigger farm."
"She'll never know what she meant to me."
"Janet, you're wrong. I think she does. She certainly knows what you are to her. What is time anyway? All relative in the face of God."
"I didn't know you were religious?"
"Well, I don't go to temple but it doesn't mean that I don't talk to God and occasionally curse Him for His sick sense of humor. Yet, He always seems to get me through the darkest of shadows."
"I used to pray. Then I just got too busy, I guess."
"Hey, Baby. I'd like to buy you a drink." A very large man placed a hairy arm between them and started to move the rest of his bulk in its place.
"Excuse me, we were talking and you are interrupting." Susan used a warning tone, level yellow, to address him.
"I think the little lady wants to chat with me."
"I think that you need to remove yourself from here, Good Sir, as I do not wish to have you anywhere near my time zone," Janet answered in a commanding way.
"There's no need to be nasty. Once you get to know me, you'll change your mind."
His buddy walked up and attempted to pull him away. "Come on, Chet. Leave the ladies alone. You're drunk and unwelcome."
"You're unwelcome. But this one wants me. I can see it." He pushed off his friend and moved closer prompting Susan to pick up a bottle by the neck.
"You must be fucking blind and deaf," Janet answered with annoyance.
"Maybe you need a little warmth in your bed tonight?"
"OK, Romeo, back off. I'm warning you." Susan raised her tenor to level red.
"Yeah, Chet. Let's leave the ladies to their evening."
"Ladies, I don't see ladies. I see one. The other's a fucking dyke."
"A dyke that's going to fuck you up if you don't move on."
"You better listen to her or I'll end up spitting on your grave," Janet growled.
He gave an incredulous look to Janet that seemed to sway in and out of focus.
"On second thought, I'll take care of this myself." Janet reached down and grabbed a strong hold of his crotch and squeezed like she was going to burst a peach to its pit. As his face turned shades of darker red and he began to react, she put gravity and her own weight into action. Susan stifled a grin and relaxed her grip on the bottle. There would be no bar fight tonight. She motioned to his friend to step up to support the wavering tower of a man now reduced to a belle succumbing to the vapors.
"Why I believe Chet needs to lie down. Perhaps he has a few more friends here that can assist him to his quarters?" Two more men stepped up to move him away from the bar and the hand that had made putty out of stone. He gasped like a fish out of water, blue gray from a few minutes of apnea. "Take him home, boys he'll be alright, now that he's breathing. I recommend an ice pack and aspirin and don't call me in the morning."
"Yes, madam. He won't bother you again."
"I should say not. I don't think he'll be using his equipment for a while. Tell him to listen when a lady says no. This dyke would like another drink." Janet turned back to the bartender. "Hit me again."
Susan grinned and raised her tumbler to Janet. "Next round's on me boys. Set everyone up, 'Keep." She had a lot of experience in this situation. The noise of the smoky club returned to normal and the attention returned to the drink. "Remind me never to piss you off, Doc."
Hours later, they stumbled back to the suite, arms over and under, and singing songs that they appeared to have learned from the miners' local 33. It was the most fun Janet ever had with hard living, hard drinking men, and a tough chick from another place and time.
All that crashed to a halt as they entered the suite and found an angry blonde awaiting them, arms crossed and fuming like an irate parent. "Where the hell have you been?"
Janet patted Susan on the shoulder and missed completely, sliding down and needing a supporting hand from the captain, tipsy but not soused like her companion. "Susan was just showing me the more colorful joints on this planet."
"I bet she was." The stare was just this side of homicide. "If you hurt her, I won't be responsible for what I do to you. She's not your plaything."
"And you are?" Janet pushed off on the advancing obviously jealous blonde. "Please I can't break up another fight over me tonight."
"Fight? There was a fight?"
Susan grinned widely and Janet dissolved in laughter at their private joke. Sam just smoldered all the more at the camaraderie that she was no part of. Susan warned Sam, "Don't come any closer. She's an animal. Jaws of a bezerker right there," indicating Janet's right hand.
"Sam, lighten up. We had fun. Those guys were such pussycats, especially after they carried that cretin out on his ass."
"You were magnificent; they were eating out of your hand. I would too if I felt their pain."
Sam was confused. They refused to acknowledge her fury, standing there cackling like drunken frat boys.
"Right now, I need some shut eye," Susan started to steer a protesting Janet to her bedroom. "She needs an Oxy and about four quarts of water. Can you get that for me?"
Sam hesitated, wanting to take Janet from the clutches of her rival, but turned straight away, more a reflex at receiving an order from a superior. They moved Janet together to the bed and set her there, giving her the pill and water to take. She continued to sing the song that they entered with while Susan pulled off her boots and Sam struggled to take her jacket off.
"Hey, wait a minute while I finish this sip. I wait years for you to undress me and you won't let me have one little sip."
"Janet, you're smashed. You need rest."
"That's the last thing I need. Ain't got time for rest. Susan, knows what I mean, don't ya? You're a mensch, you are. And don't speak a word of it, or I'll punch ya." With that, Janet flopped back on the bed, passed out, snoring within the minute. They both worked wordlessly to arrange her comfortably in bed then walked out and turned off the light.
"What did she mean?"
"Maybe you should ask her when she sobers up. I need to get some rest myself. I'm not as young as I used to be and she's a handful to keep up with."
"You know I love her."
"Yes, I do. You should tell her. I'm too busted to keep this up." Susan walked off to her room leaving Sam alone in the kitchen.
The next morning found Janet head in hands at the table with a large glass of water beside her. She threw up her hand to stop the greeting about to come from Sam's lips. "Don't speak," she croaked. "Anything over 10 decibels kills."
"Serves you right. Drinking so much, starting fights, carousing all night with rough trade."
"Yeah, but it was exciting, invigorating, even a bit erotic."
"You could have been hurt."
"I could be killed on any of our missions, so could you, but we go anyway."
"It's our job. This is extracurricular."
"Look, Sam. I have something important to ask of you. You'll take care of Cassie, won't you, like she's your own daughter? If something should happen to me?"
"Nothing's going to happen to you. You're healthy as a horse."
"Yeah, but if things come up. If I decide to stay here."
A fright ran through Sam's body with the force of ten thousand volts, effectively stopping her heart for a few beats. "You can't stay. She isn't worth it. I know that she seems awe inspiring but you just met."
"Maybe it won't work out - but then again, I have to try."
"There's no guarantee that you could return if it doesn't."
"There's no guarantees in life anyway."
"This is not like you. In fact, you haven't been yourself since yesterday. I think you are being controlled. I felt it, you know. It's like she's in your mind. I think that she has stolen your thoughts and using them to make you stay with her."
"That's not it. She's done nothing of the kind. She's been attentive and respectful. And I am going to make this decision despite what may or may not happen with her… be happy for me."
"I can't do that; she's taking you away. What will I do without you? Goddamnit, I'm in love with you, Janet."
Janet sighed. The admission was too late and a dollar short. How could she encourage this when she'd be dead and buried, leaving Sam to grieve her? She wanted nothing more than to throw herself into Sam's arms and make love to her for the rest of the short time that they had together. It would be selfish and cruel. She did without love before; she could keep on living as she was, just without seeing her loved ones' faces again or risking the pain that would come to them by her passing.
"I think that you are mistaking something else for love or you would have been sleeping in my bed for the last several years. I don't have the patience for curiosity. I want a lesbian. You aren't that. You are just a woman who thinks that she could fall for a person not a gender." Janet left Sam and holed up in her bedroom, locking it behind her. She did not trust herself out there any longer. Sam was hers in that moment. And she wanted to keep the memory of her longing with her, safely shut in for the rest of her days. Besides, her head still felt like a patch of asphalt under a jackhammer. She wasn't thinking clearly.
Sam felt a thousand arrows piecing her heart. Janet was serious about staying. She was lost to her. Susan had won her in a simple game of chance. She considered breaking the door down and showing Janet just how sure she was about wanting her in the most carnal way. This wasn't a phase. She had just buried these emotions for so long that they never had the occasion to come to the surface, to crawl out on fins onto the mud, and take breaths of air instead of water from the depths of the sea. She was going to find that fox and kick her the hell out of her coop. The goa'uld, the replicators, the wraith, not even the goddamned Ori were going to beat her. She couldn't let some butch bitch from the future steal Janet's mind and heart.
The pounding on his door was deafening and, as he opened it, Sam virtually shot into his room. "Where's that motherfucking cunt? I've searched this complex and there's no hide or hair of that cur."
Jack cocked his head in amazement. He had no idea that Carter could swear like a longshoreman. She was royally pissed. And he thought she liked Ivanova; in fact, the thought of a threesome had crossed his mind after seeing the triangle forming yesterday. Who needs bad porn when what's in front of you is more accessible and infinitely more believable? "I saw her just a half hour ago chatting up a woman at the gym."
"Come on we're going. Someone has to stop her."
"From what? You are not making sense."
"Get Teal'c. We may need muscle. She's got some kind of telepathy, Jack. Janet is staying here, not coming back with us."
"Hell, I'd stay here too. The place is bitchin'."
"No, not here, here." She waved her arms like a pelican starting flight. "She's placed a thought into Janet's mind to make her think that she's in love with her."
"In case you haven't noticed, Susan doesn't need mind manipulation to get chicks. She's smokin' and I suppose that you are not so straight that you can't fathom that."
"It's more than that. Ivanova has something else. I have felt her in my mind more than once. It's creepy and it's not fair. She wants Janet and she's manipulated her thoughts to get her to abandon her family, her life, and her career."
"And don't forget you."
Sam stopped short. "You bastard. You are always right. How do you do that? You base things on thin air – no data, no logic. Just gut. And you're right." She slumped down in a heap on the sofa. "I've been an idiot. She was there all along and I paid no attention to what was happening. Now it's too late."
"It's never too late, damnit. Round up the horses and lets find that varmint. Come on, Carter. Susan's got nothing on you. I don't believe she has any super powers, you are just afraid." He rousted her from her funk and they set off to find the culprit that was threatening to breakup their family.
The House of the Rising Sun
"This is where you last saw her? Not a gym. This is a brothel." They stepped into a storefront tastefully indicative of lascivious goings on inside.
"Well I couldn't come out and say that I was here, could I?"
"She's not around down here."
"Actually, she's upstairs. We can wait till she comes down. Oh, that didn't sound too good."
"I'd say you were right on. But I'm not waiting for that." She started up the stairs. "You coming or am I going to break into every door up there?"
"Gesh, don't do that. Third door on the left. I'm staying put."
The floor manager started after the pretty blonde bounding up the stairs, no doubt, an angry spouse after a philandering husband…or wife. He remembered the auburn-haired goddess that took his best girl up earlier. She took one look at his icy blonde cyborg stacked like a brick house and she couldn't put the credits down fast enough. It must be her. She likes shorthaired blondes with hot bodies and tempers to match. His suspicions were confirmed as she picked the correct door to smash through. That was going to cost a bit.
Sam burst into a rather compromising situation. She ran right into a very nude captain, ramming full steam ahead. "What the f…" The cyborg shifted her body to take a peek. "I'll do you too---for free."
"There won't be anything left after I'm through," Susan pulled on a robe and led Sam out of the room. She was still staring at the flawlessly built humanoid sex worker spread eagle on the bed, coaxing her to come on in and join with an open mouth invitation.
"What do you think that you're doing?"
"Stopping your cheating ass from breaking Janet's heart. You leave her. You stop this mind thing that you are doing."
"What mind thing? I'm not having sex with your girlfriend."
"Not yet. But you want her."
"Repeat after me, I want her so much that I'm punching walls around me instead of just telling her. Sam I'm not after Janet."
"She says she's staying with you. She's brainwashed."
"No, Sam. She's scared. I can't go into it but she's terrified. You need to make her believe that she is doing the right thing by letting you in. And all you need to do is convince her thoroughly, without measure, that you need her like oxygen. Or she may not leave here. Not for me, but herself. She's loved you so long that she's lost sight of actually having you and what it would mean. Believe me, having something powerful, for even a short time, changes a person forever. She'll regret each moment thereafter, if she lets it go."
"You aren't encouraging her?"
"Wouldn't I be with her now?"
"Like I should be…I'm confused. It's making no sense."
"It doesn't have to. Just get back there, lock yourselves in that suite, and don't leave till she can't imagine another minute without you."
"What if I'm not, you know, skilled… ? I've never done…"
"Oy vey, don't worry so much. She's a doctor; she knows what to do. And you are, I'm guessing, a quick study."
"I'll give you a few lessons, Honey." The cyborg was listening intently, draped seductively against the doorjamb.
Sam glanced nervously at the wanton would-be woman beckoning her on, passing her tongue through slightly parted teeth. The scientist's whole body shook with fear and uncertainty. How could she inspire that sort of lust? She wasn't sex on a stick like this creation. Janet would laugh if she tried this sort of approach.
"Come on. Just be yourself." Susan added telepathically, "You are her fearless knight. Save her from herself. She wants you like a fat boy wants cake. Go get her."
"Sorry about…that…I didn't mean to…"
"I know, you wanted to kick my ass. It has been on your mind all week. Now skedaddle. I don't want to see your sorry butt for the rest of the week."
"You were in my head, just now. Don't tell me I'm hallucinating."
"Forget about what I can or can't do. I'm not born yet. I can tell you that you are all she wants in this life. Everything will fall into place as soon as you don't take no for an answer."
Sam slinked off from the bordello and headed back to her suite with new purpose. She was going to attack this problem like any other, with relentless fervor and dogged persistence. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. She wasn't leaving without her.
To Be Continued