Chapter Three

21 August 2008 — Earth, SGC — 16:50 hours

 

Two weeks later Daniel was removed from the striker frame and put in a real bed.  He took stock of all his injuries.  His right arm was broken the right side of his face was still under bandages.  He had six broken ribs, all of them in the back, and a few cracked ones in the front.  His back was healing surprisingly fast and that made everyone happy.  His legs were in a cast that went from his toes to mid-thigh.

 

Daniel was grumpy and depressed at his lack of movement.  He begged Jack and Sam to bring him his laptop and some work to do, but General Landry agreed with Dr. Lam that he needed to rest and recuperate.

 

Then there was Vala.  She didn’t want to be far from his side, so she moved into his ISO room.  That wouldn’t have been too bad, but she also started to decorate it with balloons, lamps with a cloth draped over them, scented candles, and other girly stuff.  She added flowers, ones that would not stir up his allergies and scared the crap out of him when he awoke to find a green-faced woman with curlers in her hair staring down at him.  He grumped about feeling like he was in a sorority dorm room.  It was almost unbearable when he woke up one night to find she had painted flowers and smiley faces on his casts with nail polish.  He prayed that she didn’t do his toes too, but he couldn’t see to check.

 

Daniel assured Vala that he would be okay on his own, but she would have none of it.  Still feeling responsible, she wasn’t going to let anything else happen to him.  She also noticed how dull his eyes were as if he had given up.  That bothered her more than anything else did.  Most of the time he would just lie there and gaze off into nothing, answer questions with one or two words.  He never smiled.

 

“Vala,” Daniel grumbled at her two days after she moved in, “what could happen to me here?  I’m in an ISO room for God’s sake, hooked up to every kind of monitor there is!”

 

“Yes, dear, but you never know.  I mean, this is the SGC.  I’ve read all of the reports about alien insurgents and insurrections!  And there have been quite a few, you know,” she explained happily.

 

Rolling his eye at her, he tried to come up with other reasons she should go back to her quarters.  Unfortunately, none of them worked.

 

Late one night, Daniel woke up screaming from a nightmare.  Vala was by his side instantly, rubbing his head and whispering softly to him.

 

“Shhh, sweetheart.  It’s okay.  You’re safe.  Everything is okay.”

 

Taking as deep a breath as his broken ribs would let him, he calmed down under her soothing touch.  He looked into her eyes and saw the concern she had for him.  That made him wonder if she really did have feelings for him, more than just the flirting and teasing, or even worse, a misguided sense of guilt.  Lifting his left hand, he cupped her face and smiled.

 

“Thanks,” he softly said.

 

His warm hand sent shivers down her spine and she leaned into his touch.  Closing her eyes for a moment, she savored the contact.  It was so tender and freely offered that she couldn’t stop the sting of tears.

 

“Hey,” he said in a low voice.  “Hey, it’s okay.  I’m okay now.  Just a bad dream.”

 

“I know.  I just—” she sniffed and pulled away from him, not wanting to be too needy.  “You just scared me, that’s all.”

 

Nodding his head, he said, “Thanks for staying with me, Vala.  I know I’ve been kind of a bastard lately… I’m sorry.”

 

She smiled at him and took hold of his hand, “You’re entitled.”

 

They were quiet for a long time, just holding hands and lost in their own thoughts.  Vala was trying to think of where she could get her hands on another healing device.  With the Tok’ra off doing their own thing and with Carter’s dad gone now, it was practically impossible to get a hold of them.  And the Jaffa nation was quick to destroy any Goa’uld reminders regardless of their use.  She thought about a place where she remembered there being a sarcophagus, but she wasn’t sure if it was still there and working.  Plus, she knew how much Daniel hated those things.

 

As for Daniel, he was deep into a pity party.  He had been severely wounded before, but this was different.  He knew he wasn’t going to die now, but he probably wasn’t going to walk again either.  That really bothered him.  Closing his uninjured eye, he thought of all the missions he would miss and the sights he would no longer be one of the first people to see in hundreds of years.

 

As he contemplated his role at the SGC, another thought kept creeping in.  What was he really feeling for the woman that had saved his life and now held his hand?  He thought back to the cave and his story he let her read.  Hearing his words with her voice made his stomach do a flip-flop.  Rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of Vala’s hand, he felt a comfort at having her here with him.  He thought about how she had changed in the last few years and how proud of her he was for that change.

 

But had he changed?  The part of his mind that he tended to stuff down was encroaching on his defenses.  She really was a beautiful woman.  And he really hadn’t let himself entertain those kinds of thoughts in a very, VERY long time.  But was she the one?  Did he have the courage to take a chance with this spirited woman?  Was he ready for the heartache— was she ready for something real?  Would she want him, now that he felt like a shadow of his former self?  Would she want to be tied down to an invalid?

 

Letting out a deep sigh, he opened his eye to look at Vala.  She was almost asleep again, her head resting on the side of his bed.  Sliding his hand out from under hers, he began to run his fingers gently through her hair, hooking it behind her ear so that he could gaze at her face.  God, she was so beautiful.  He'd be an absolute idiot if he didn’t try a relationship with her.  Give and take.  That was all he needed to do.  One step at a time, but could he take that first step?  Could he open up enough, bare his soul and take the chance of having her rip out his heart?

 

He rolled his eyes and asked himself, what kind of man are you, Daniel Jackson?  He knew what Jack would call him… a hopeless ass.  Then again, he pretty sure Jack had never gotten over Sara in all these years.  He figured that’s why O’Neill and Sam had never actually taken a chance.

 

Vala stirred slightly and let out a soft moan.  Daniel smiled and continued to comb her hair with his fingers.  It felt… nice, right even, having her lying there, with him.  Well, sort of, with all the wires and tubes and the casts on three-quarters of his body, she wasn’t really in the bed.  Still, he was taking great joy in the feeling.

 

“Daniel…” Vala whispered, “are you awake?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“When can I finish reading your story?  The one in your journal?”

 

Her eyes fluttered open and she fixed a smoky grey-blue gaze onto him.  The corners of her mouth inched upwards in a typical Vala grin.  A shiver raced through him and came to a thundering stop in his groin.  Slowly blinking his unbandaged eye, he decided that now was not the time.  Not yet.

 

“I, I don’t know, Vala.  I think maybe it’s… not something that should be, you know, out in the open.”

 

She saw the sheepish look on his face and relented, “Maybe later, darling.  Why don’t you go back to sleep?  You look drained.”

 

He smiled at her and nodded.  He was getting sleepy again.  Closing his eye, he was shocked when he felt her lips on his.  The kiss was soft and chaste, but boy did it pierce his heart.  Vala pulled away reluctantly.  She smiled at him as he opened his good eye, a look of shock and pleasure on his face.  She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

 

“It’s time for you to get some sleep, Daniel,” she murmured sweetly and pressed the morphine drip to help him.

 

He nodded and slid into the void as the pain meds began to course through him.

 

“Good night, darling.  Sleep well,” Vala whispered and went back to her bed.

 

***

 

05 September 2008 — Earth, SGC — 05:30 hours

 

It was 05:30 hours and the halls of the SGC were still quiet.  Sam walked with determination towards the briefing room.  She had gotten a phone message that there was a meeting at 06:00 for SG-1.  Nothing else was said and she spent a restless night wondering what was going on.

 

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing going through her mind.  She hadn’t had the time to corner Teal’c to find out about Daniel and Vala, but she hadn’t forgotten either.  Sam had a feeling that this had something to do with their 50 years aboard the Odyssey.  Even though Teal’c swore never to tell them what happened during that time, she planned to weasel some information out of him about those two.

 

When she entered the briefing room, Teal’c was already sitting in his usual place.  Sam knew he would be the first one there.  Sitting down in her spot, across from him, she fixed an icy glare at the Jaffa.

 

Lifting an eyebrow, the big man asked, “Is there something on your mind, ColonelCarter?”

 

Continuing to stare at him, Sam said nothing for a long moment.

 

“You wish to know of the relationship between DanielJackson and ValaMalDoran,” the corner of his mouth twitched with amusement.

 

Cocking her head to the side and smiling back at him, she couldn’t help the twinkle in her eye.

 

“Ya think, T?” she asked in a passable imitation of O'Neill.

 

Teal’c closed his eyes and recalled their time aboard the Odyssey.  He would catch the two in question wrapped around each other in a passionate kiss, totally oblivious to anything or anyone around them.  At times, he would hear strange noises coming from what was thought to be empty rooms, only to find them in varying degrees of undress.  They never noticed him, so he kept the encounters to himself.

 

Opening his eyes, he tilted his head and grinned at Sam, “I would be betraying my orders of not revealing what occurred aboard the Odyssey during our time of entrapment in the time dilation field.”

 

Sam was about to protest when he raised a finger halting her, “An order that was given to me by one Colonel. Samantha. Carter.”

 

She opened her mouth to let him know what he could do with that order when Cam and Jack walked into the room.  Standing up to come to attention for her superior officer, O’Neill glared at her.

 

“Would you stop doing that!” he snarled.

 

“Sorry, sir,” she said as she stifled a giggle.

 

They all took their seats and waited for General Landry to come in.  Cam saw the look Sam was giving the Jaffa and knew they had walked in on something.

 

“Tried to get information from Teal’c about a certain archeologist and pirate princess, huh?” Cam asked Sam with a grin.

 

She looked down at the table, growing red in the face.

 

“Won’t work, Carter.  I’ve already tried.  Rock of Gibraltar, this one is.”

 

Amidst laughter, General Landry walked into the room.  Carter and Mitchell both jumped to their feet as he approached the conference table.

 

“As you were,” he said as he took his seat at the head of the table.

 

Looking around for a moment, Landry let out a long sigh.  “I’ve been on the phone with the President, the IOA, and several others.  I have received permission to let SG-1 have one week to locate and procure a healing device or a sarcophagus to heal Dr. Jackson.  However, this was done with great trepidation.  It only goes to show us how highly regarded Dr. Jackson is.”

 

He looked at Mitchell, Carter, and Teal’c, “For this mission, you three have a new team member.”

 

The two humans began to protest when Landry held up his hand to silence them.  With a smile he asked, “Jack?  You think you can wangle these young’ens?”

 

With a wry smile, he answered his colleague, “Well… I think with Teal'c backing me up I can keep these kids focused and on task.”

 

“Should we let Daniel in on this?” Carter asked.

 

Jack thought about it for a moment, “Let’s not… just in case we don’t find anything.  We should keep Vala out of the loop too.  She’s already on the knife’s edge where Danny is concerned.”

 

Sam nodded, but she didn’t look happy about leaving them in the dark.

 

“You leave tomorrow morning,” Landry said.  “Colonel Carter, I want you to work out a list of known planets that may still have a healing device or sarc on them.  We will go over it at 18:00 hours.  That will give you a solid plan of attack for your travels.”  Standing up, General Landry gave the others a curt nod and left for his office.

 

Mitchell turned to Carter and gave her a wink, “You think you know of anywhere we could start?”

 

“I’ve got a few places we could look.  My only problem is, I’m not sure how many of them may have been decimated by the Ori.  Quite literally, we’ll be looking for a needle in a galactic haystack,” she said.

 

“Oh, come on, Carter,” Jack said as he stood to leave, “you blew up a sun once.  This should be easy as… cake.”

 

“I believe the phrase is easy as pie, O’Neill,” corrected Teal’c with a grin.

 

“Pie, cake, whatever.  I’m hungry now.” Jack answered with a mock scowl.  “And who’s the alien around here anyway?”

 

The four-team members left together, eager to get started on helping Daniel walk again.