The Pentangular Gate

1. Daniel was always the sweetest of them all. He never showed up without some small token of his affection, some stickers, maybe, or a chocolate bar. And he always listened so intently. If she told him about a bad day she was having, his brow would get that little pucker of concern, and those blue, blue eyes would stare into hers with an expression of deep concern. Good news made his whole face light up in a smile, and he got the cutest little eye-crinkles. And he'd do that over anything. Cassie could tell him about the really sick dress she saw at the mall or the nasty way Donna was treating her boyfriend Tyson, and he would feel it along with her. He really CARED. But he could also be the most oblivious. So many times he made arrangements to do something with her, and showed up late - days late sometimes - because he got caught up in his work, and lost track of everything else. Even when he got there on time...well, five minutes late, this was Uncle Daniel after all, he was never exactly on time...he could suddenly be Not There without warning. Oh, physically he'd be there, but his brain was off dealing with early Akkadian verbs of motion or something. She could never stay mad at him, though. There was probably no force in the universe that could withstand the awesome power of Daniel's most abjectly apologetic puppy-eyes peering myopically from behind a teddy bear peace offering.

2. Sam was her hero for the longest time. Sam saved her and stayed with her. She was tall, slim, and classically beautiful in a way that Cassie could only aspire to, but was also tough enough to go out there and kick goa'uld ass for a living. And she was so, so smart. Yet none of this made her stuck-up or stand-offish. She would sit in the food court in the mall and giggle about the cute guys like any of the girls at school, and if the guys she picked out as hot were all kinda old for Cassie's taste, well that was only natural. And even though Sam always made a point of backing up Janet's rules and proclamations, she also always understood how Cassie felt too, and sympathized. Sometimes she'd guilt her by saying "I would have done anything to have a mom around to nag me, when I was your age." But only rarely. And she had a motorcycle, and could fix cars even better than Uncle Jack, and who cares if she couldn't sew or knit or stuff. She could fly planes. Sam was just cool. It took growing up - and losing a second Mom will do that to a girl - for Cassie to see that Sam was only human. To see that when it came to sharing her deeper feelings, to telling the people around her how she felt about them, Sam was almost as inept as Uncle Jack. She could listen to Cassie telling about her cares and qualms, her sorrows and her regrets, but never said much about her own inner life. And some of the things she did say made it probable that this was because Sam had battened down her inner hatches so tight that even Sam herself was out of touch with what was really going on in there. So different from Mom. Janet had told her time and again, "Honey, you have to listen to what you feel inside. When you know that, you'll feel what's right, and you'll know what to do." Sam let her devotion to her career make her lonely, and cut her off from her brother. It made Cass so mad sometimes to see Sam who HAD family left distance herself from them. It seemed that being a hero Sam's way had a price, a cost that took a toll from her very soul. Cassie was pretty sure that price was something she would never want to pay.