Playing to the Camera

As prisons went, Sam had to admit they'd been in worse.   The large, rectangular brick room had been divided into six cells, three to each side of a central aisle.  The guards had thrown her and Vala into the end cell on the left and Daniel, Teal'c, and Cam into the middle cell next to it.  The others were empty.  Although it meant there was absolutely no privacy, the bars, combined with the three high windows on each wall, gave the place an open, airy feel.   Not that she was standing around appreciating the architecture that kept them confined but if they had to be locked up, airy won out over dark and dank any day.

"If I had actual tools," Vala huffed, dropping down onto the bench that stretched along the outer wall.  "That lock couldn't stop me."

"Wouldn't do any good."  Cam was pacing – he'd been pacing since the door had been slammed behind them -- but he stopped at that and nodded toward the camera over the exit.  It couldn't cover all six cells at once but it kept up a constant movement between them.  "The moment you started, they'd be in here."

"You think there's someone out there watching us."  Sam couldn't believe that Vala actually preened a little toward the lens.

"I know it," Cam grunted.  "When Houdini here was messing with the lock, the camera stopped moving and focused in on her until she stopped."

"I feel so..."  Vala ran her fingers back through her hair, fluffing it as she peered coquettishly up at the camera. "...exposed."

"If it's any help," Sam offered.  "There doesn't seem to be an audio pickup.  It's video only."

"VHS or Beta?  Because beta was the better system.  Never mind."  Cam raised a hand and cut her off before she could answer.  "Can you disable it?  Without them realizing?  Maybe loop it while we're all sitting despondently on the benches so they think that's all we're up to while we dig a tunnel out of this joint?" 

She stared at him for a long moment then spread her hands.  They'd been stripped down to their uniforms – efficiently rather than brutally but the end result was the same.  "With what?" she demanded, teeth clenched around his expectations.  "A boot lace and my belt buckle?"

"Colonel Mitchell.  I believe these bars are loose."

"And that's good news!"  He flashed Sam a 'looks like you're off the hook' smile as he turned.

Teal'c had one hand wrapped around the bars between the second cell and the third, Daniel standing in such a way that he blocked the camera's line of sight.  "These were welded inadequately at some point in the past," the Jaffa announced.  "I believe that if we break the weld, we can move this one bar far enough to get between them."

"And into another cell," Cam pointed out.

"Where the door is open," Daniel reminded him.  "And given the whole candid camera thing, could you try not to look quite so much like you're planning a breakout?"

"I'll start pacing again shall I?"

"Good idea."

To Sam's critical eye, Daniel's smile looked indulgent and just a little patronizing.   It was an expression she'd seen him use on Jack back in the day.  "That comet is going to be close enough to affect the gate in just a little over an hour.  If we aren't out of here and through the gate by then, we'll be staying for months."

"Shouldn't have pissed off the locals," Vala muttered.

All eyes turned toward Daniel.

He folded his arms, brows drawn down under the edge of his glasses.  "It was an honest mistake."

"And yet if I'd done it..."  Vala smiled toothily at him through the bars.  "...I somehow doubt you'd think it was quite so honestly done."

"I just wanted a closer look at the inscription."

"And the fact it was solid gold meant nothing to you?"

"Why would it?"

She crossed her legs demurely, hands folded on her upper knee.  "That's what you say."

"Could we focus people?" Cam snapped.  "Teal'c, you really think you can get through that weld?"

Teal'c stared at him for a long moment.  "I would not have said so if I did not believe it possible," he said at last.  "But it will go much faster if all three of us direct our strength toward it."

"Then you two..."  Cam spun on one heel and waved both hands at the women in the first cell, "...will have to keep the guard's attention off us."

Sam blinked at him.  She liked Cam, always had, but sometimes he had a habit of giving the most patronizing damned orders.  "How are we supposed to do that?" she asked.

He shrugged and grinned.  "Hey, you're the one with the brain the size of a planet; you'll think of something."

"Not a problem."  Vala bounced up onto her feet, twitching her jacket down into place.  "I know just the thing."

Cam nodded and Sam wondered how, all things considered, he could accept that statement at face value.  "Get busy then; we're on the clock."

Sam wasn't entirely certain she liked the look of Vala's smile.  It seemed just a little too gleeful for the situation.  In fact, as the other woman moved in close, it seemed down right dangerous.  "Vala..."

"Don't worry."  A remarkably pink tongue spread moisture over full lips.  "This is guaranteed.  There isn't a man in the universe who wouldn't be riveted."

Two long fingers slid behind Sam's waistband kept her from stepping back.  "Vala..."

"Trust me."

It had been a long time, way too long a time, since Sam had been kissed by someone who meant it.  Someone who wrapped long fingers through her hair, someone who captured her mouth and fed on it like it was a feast and they were starving, someone who didn't take the kiss but shared it.  Vala's lips were soft and they tasted like strawberry candy – too sweet to be the fruit alone – and when she tilted her head and flicked Sam's lips with her tongue, Sam let her mouth fall open enough for a gentle exploration.

When Vala pulled back, drawing Sam's lower lip between her teeth and holding to just the edge of pain before letting go, Sam made a sound that might have been a whimper.

"So, Colonel Mitchell..."  They were still so close that Vala's breath lapped against Sam's mouth like a promise.  "...are they watching?"

"Wha..."  Cam sounded a bit like he'd had the air knocked out of him.

Long, dark lashes lifted and Vala met Sam's gaze, her eyes sparkling, wanting to share the joke. Men, her eyes were saying, they're so easy.  "The camera.  The guards.  Are they watching?"

Turning slowly, Sam saw the other three members of SG-1 staring through the bars at them.  Cam's eyes were wide, Daniel was frowning, his mouth slightly open, and Teal'c, well, Teal'c looked like he approved. 

Cheeks red, Cam cleared his throat.  "Uh yeah, camera's definitely pointing at the two of you."

Vala's smile broadened.

"Sam..."  Daniel did the guppy thing with his mouth that used to annoy Colonel O'Neill so much – and Sam could sort of see why.  "Sam," he tried again.  "You can't."

She hadn't planned on it.  Until now.  "I can't?"

He unfolded his arms long enough to wave one at her.  "You don't...!"

"Not generally, no."  She really didn't like the sound of mixed surprise and disbelief in his voice.   Surprise and disbelief that Lt. Colonel Dr. Samantha Carter would even consider making... well, making out in order to save the lives of her team.  Because Daniel's Sam would never do something so... human.  "But I don't imagine it's all that much different than with a man."

"Oh sweetheart," Vala murmured. "You have no idea."

Sam felt a shiver of anticipation run down her spine.  She was so tired of not being human.  Of being super Sam – the perfect officer, the perfect scientist, ready to save the earth again no matter what.   And she was suddenly tired of being so predictable that this logical solution was taking Daniel – one of the people who knew her best in the whole world, who'd literally been through hell with her – by surprise.  They were two women in a prison cell, for crying out loud, what were they supposed to do to attract attention?

Actually...

"You know," she murmured, moving back as far as Vala's grip on her waistband allowed, "they'd probably watch us fight."

"Please."  Vala wrinkled her nose.  "If it's a choice between pain and pleasure I know which I'd take.  And you..."  She lowered her voice as she leaned forward and nuzzled the underside of Sam's jaw like a cat.  "You need a little more pleasure in your life."

Sam couldn't argue with that.  Couldn't argue with the pleasure sparking out from every place Vala's mouth touched.   She wove her fingers through the heavy, silken fall of hair, and dragged the smaller woman's lips back to hers.  If Daniel insisted on being shocked...

"Colonel Mitchell.  DanielJackson.  Your assistance.  Now!"

Sam smiled against Vala's mouth.  It sounded as though Teal'c had things well in...

Hand!

Vala's hand had slipped up under the edge of her jacket and t-shirt her fingertips were tracing warm circles on the small of her back, one finger slipping below the edge of her BDUs with every pass to whisper across the top of her ass.  It felt amazing.  It felt...  like a promise.  All at once, the kiss that had been, admittedly, mostly to freak Daniel out became something else.  Sam's free hand slipped around the smaller woman's back and drew her close, curves fitting together the way that men's and women's bodies never did.  Sam had never been the larger of two people before.  It was an interesting feeling.  It was a powerful feeling.

A feeling quickly lost in the heat and softness of Vala's mouth and the wet slide of her tongue over Sam's lips.   The sweetness of the strawberry candy diffused, became less candy more Vala – a flavor so very much more complex but just as sweet.  She licked into Vala's mouth, over the hard line of her teeth, tasting, devouring.  Things got wetter, messier, more desperate and Vala swallowed her gasp as a fingernail scratched softly at the barrier of her t-shirt and sports bra and her nipple pushed up against the fabric to meet the touch.

"Colonel Mitchell!  Focus!"

"Ignore them," Vala murmured, teeth working the skin over the pulse point in her throat.

Ignore who? Sam wondered

"This might be easier if we were lying down."  Both hands cradling Sam's hips, Vala took a step backwards.

Moving with the warmth, Sam followed.

Vala turned them at the bench and gently pushed Sam back until the edge of the wood hit her knees and she folded.  Bending forward, she caught Sam's mouth again and pushed the jacket off her shoulders, down her arms, and tossed it behind her.

Sam managed to gain enough control to murmur, "I don't think..." but Vala lapped the rest of the words up out of her mouth. 

"Good."  Tiny heated kisses across her brow.  "You think too much."

Although she had a vague memory of Vala's grip shifting to her shoulders, Sam found herself on her back, left leg stretched out against the wall, right leg bent, boot still on the cell floor with no actual idea of how it had happened.  And then it didn't matter because Vala had one knee on the bench between her spread legs and she was smiling the smile that suggested the universe had better check its receipt.   It was a dangerous, invigorating, absolutely impossible to resist smile.

Sam found herself smiling back.

And Vala's smile changed.  Gentled.  And somehow became even more impossible to resist.   "You are so beautiful," she purred, leaning down to nip at Sam's lower lip and then lave the tiny hurt with her tongue.  "So very beautiful."

Cheeks flushed, Sam reached up and managed to get Vala out of her jacket.  She'd never realized the other woman's waist was so tiny but her hands – having slid up under the t-shirt without her conscious direction -- fit perfectly into the curve at the narrowest point.  She circled her thumbs over skin that felt like sun-warmed satin and Vala all but purred at the touch as she arched her back, tugged Sam's t-shirt free of her pants, and bent to suck open mouthed kisses along the line of exposed skin.

The line widened until Sam could feel a touch of cold air along her ribs.  Another two point five centimeters and the lower edge of her bra would be uncovered.  "Vala..."  She cupped the other woman's chin with one hand and titled it up so she could see her face.  Her lips were slightly swollen, darker than usual and glossy with spit, her pupils so dilated her eyes looked black.  Sam literally felt her breath catch in her throat at the sight and she forgot what she'd intended to say.

"DanielJackson, your attention is wandering.  Again."

Oh yeah.  Their audience.  "Vala, the camera..."

"Won't see a thing we don't want it to."  And she shook her head, spilling long dark hair forward.  Behind its shelter, she eased Sam's t-shirt up and nuzzled the white cotton over Sam's left breast.

Sam heard herself make a noise, wasn't sure what it was, and arched her back, pushing her breast up toward that teasing heat and pressure.   Then not so teasing as Vala's fingers pushed under the lower band and lifted her bra up to rest against the crumpled line of her t-shirt.  A quick lick and a breath of cooler air and she felt her nipple harden.  A touch of teeth shot a line of arousal down to the heat pooling low in her belly and her hips rose, seeking friction.

Vala shifted her knee forward, giving Sam a place to rub.

But she didn't want only to be touched – and Vala's fingernails stroked lines of sensation into her skin as mouth and tongue moved from nipple to nipple behind the silk curtain of her hair -- she wanted to touch in turn.   Bringing her right foot up onto the bench, so her calf pressed warm against Vala's hip, Sam put the line of her thigh between Vala's breasts and the camera.  The men watching might know what she was reaching for but they couldn't see the perfect way Vala's breasts hung ripe and lush from her chest and filled Sam's hand.  It wasn't exactly easy to concentrate, not with the sensations from her nipples and the throbbing ache growing between her legs, but Sam managed to hook her fingertips into the fabric of Vala's t-shirt and drag it and her bra up until those perfect breasts were resting warm and heavy against her palms. 

She rolled a nipple between thumb and forefinger, heard Vala moan, and, suddenly, what had been almost too much wasn't enough. 

Tucking both hands into the smaller woman's armpits, she all but lifted her up the length of her body until she could claim her mouth again and their breasts were rubbing skin to skin.  Warmth to warmth.  Heart to heart.  A shift of her hips took them up onto their sides, her back to the camera, their legs tangled down the length of the bench. 

Vala's breasts were slightly larger than hers, the nipples pinker against paler skin.  Eyes half closed, she watched one then the other grow harder still as she tugged them gently, rhythmically pulling and releasing. 

"We haven't," she panted against Vala's mouth, "got much time."

"Shouldn't rush this," Vala moaned as Sam tried to catch the words on her tongue.

"No choice."   

BDU's had button flies.  Practical for so many reasons.  It became a race to finish first, propelled by open mouthed kisses that grew increasingly carnal with every button.

Sam slid her fingers first behind the slip of lace Vala wore beneath her uniform then got distracted by the thrust of Vala's talented tongue into her ear.  Too distracted to feel anything else until Vala's fingers slipped under the top of her sensible cotton briefs.

"We need to talk about your choice of lingerie."  The words buzzed against her ear, making the hair lift on the back of her neck.

"Not now."

"Next time then."

Sam's hips rocked forward, pushing Vala's hand between her legs, her own fingers parting damp curls and dipping into slick heat.  Not the same as touching herself.  Hotter... wetter...  There!  Vala made a mewling sound and began to roll her hips into Sam's touch, fucking herself on Sam's fingers.  Sucking salt off Vala's neck, Sam found the rhythm, nudged Vala's fingers into the right place...

***

Both guards had been staring at the monitor with such rapt fascination that they hadn't heard their prisoners come up behind them, remaining oblivious to the danger until Teal'c reached out, wrapped a huge hand around each of their heads, and cracked their skulls together. 

It only took Cam a moment to find the keys to the cells as Teal'c dragged the unconscious men into a convenient closet and Daniel began gathering up their confiscated gear.   He hadn't intended to look at the monitor but when he turned, there it was.

"Okay, I think everything's here.  Let's go and..."  Daniel's voice trailed off.

"How... um..."  Cam cleared his throat and tried again.  "How much time do we have left to get to the gate?"

"I don't... that is... uh, not much."

They made room as Teal'c came up behind them.

"Still, I think it would only be, you know..."

"Polite to give them time to, well, finish?"

"Indeed."